Early Life
Fred Waite was born after Removal in the Chickasaw nation at Fort Arbuckle, in what is now Garvin County, Oklahoma.
Waite found work in New Mexico with John Tunstall, who was later to be one of the leaders of the Tunstall-McSween vs. Dolan war, better known as the Lincoln County War. Waite worked as a farmer for Tunstall.
On February 18, 1878, after Tunstall was killed, Waite became a member of the Regulators. They originally collected as a posse led by Dick Brewer to serve arrest warrants on Tunstall's killers. Through the posse, Waite met Billy, American Indian Jose Chavez y Chavez, Henry Brown, Jim French, and Charlie Bowdre. They later formed what became Billy the Kid's gang.
Fred Waite was allegedly behind a wall with the gang when they killed William J. Brady, sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico. He was also present when the gang killed Buckshot Roberts, a suspect in the murder of Tunstall.
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