Apache Kid - Last Years

Last Years

A fierce snowstorm prevented any pursuit of the escapees. For years there were unconfirmed reports of sightings, but nothing ever came of any of them. Over the next several years, the Apache Kid was accused or linked to various crimes, including rape and murder, but there were never any solid links to him being involved in these or any crimes at all. For all practical purposes, he vanished.

During an 1890 shootout between Apache renegades and Mexican soldiers, a warrior was killed and found to be in the possession of Reynolds' watch and pistol. However, the warrior was said to have been much too old to be the Apache Kid. The last reported crimes allegedly committed by the Kid were in 1894. It was in that year in the San Mateo Mountains west of Socorro, New Mexico that Charles Anderson, a rancher, and his cowboys killed an Apache who had been rustling cattle and who was identified at the time as the Apache Kid. That identification is also contested. After that, he became more of a legend than anything else. In 1899, Colonel Emilio Kosterlitzky, of the Mexican Rurales, reported that the Kid was alive and well and living among the Apache in the Sierra Madre Occidental. This was never confirmed.

In his book, "Cow Dust and Saddle Leather" by Ben Kemp (1968) {Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-24617, University of Oklahoma Press.} relates in detail his knowledge of the last days of the Apache Kid. Chapter 17 is entitled "The Apache Kid's Last Horse Wrangle". In it the author describes the scene he witnesses as a 17 year old. In that chapter he describes how Billy Keene, a member of the posse, actually had the head of the Apache Kid in Chloride, New Mexico in the year 1907.

The chapter describes how, starting September 4, 1907, the posse split up and tracked down the Apache Kid in the San Mateo Mountains. The author describes in detail events related by Billy Keene. He also relates how the watch actually belonged to a rancher names Saunders. The rancher Saunders was found dead and another man, Red Mills, was actually being held in connection with his murder. The gold-filled Elgin watch had been sent to a jeweler to be repaired. The jeweler who repaired it had written down the serial number and inscribed one of his own in the back of the case. The Apache Kid had been known to be in the area of the Saunders ranch at the time of his demise.

In addition, the book reports that an Apache woman was wounded in the shoot out. The book continues to describe the events of her search for food. She was eventually captured at the Monica Tanks cabin fifty miles south of San Marcial. When questioned she confirmed that her husband was the Apache Kid and he had been killed at the head of the San Mateo Canyon. She was returned to the Mescalero Apache tribe. The tribe was informed of the situation and her two children were taken into the tribe.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, future creator of the Tarzan tales, was a member of the 7th U.S. Cavalry while they were "chasing" the Apache Kid in 1896 Arizona.

Cattle ranchers continued to report rustling well into the 1920s, often claiming it was the Apache Kid in the lead, but those also were never confirmed, and authorities eventually simply discounted any involvement by the Kid, long thought dead by either gunshot or sickness, as those rumors had filtered down also.

Today, one mile from "Apache Kid Peak", high in the San Mateo Mountains of the Cibola National Forest, a marker stands as a grave, where the Anderson posse claimed to have killed the Kid in 1894. According to local residents the body was not buried and the bones and shreds of his clothing lay scattered about the site for some years, with people taking some as souvenirs.

The actor Kenneth Alton played the Apache Kid in a 1955 episode of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century, starring and narrated by Jim Davis.