e, as earlier stated, is thought to have been Ed.
Richardson.

Captain Joseph C. Lea, the staunch friend of Pat Garrett, and the man
who first brought him forward as a candidate for sheriff of Lincoln
county, died February 8, 1904, at Roswell, where he lived for a long
time. Lea was said to have been a Quantrell man in the Lawrence
massacre. Much of the population of that region had a history that was
never written. Lea was a good man and much respected, peaceable,
courteous and generous.

One more southwestern bad man found Texas congenial after the close of
his active fighting, and his is a striking story. Billy Wilson was a
gentlemanly and good-looking young fellow, who ran with Billy the Kid's
gang. Wilson was arrested on a United States warrant, charged with
passing counterfeit money; but he later escaped and disappeared. Several
years after all these events had happened, and after the country had
settled down into quiet, a certain ex-sheriff of Lincoln county chanced
to be near Uvalde, Texas, for several months. There came to him without
invitation, a former merchant of White Oaks, New Mexico, who told the
officer that Billy Wilson, under another name, was living below Uvalde,
towards the Mexican frontier. He stated that Wilson had been a cow hand,
a ranch foreman and cow man, was now doing well, had resigned all his
bad habits, and was a good citizen. He stated that Wilson had heard of
the officer's presence and asked whether the latter would not forego
following up a reformed man on the old charges of another and different
day. The officer replied at once that if Wilson was indeed leading a
right life, and did not intend to go bad again, he would not only leave
him alone, but would endeavor to secure for him a pardon from the
president of the United States. Less than six months from that time,
this pardon, signed by President Grover Cleveland, was in the possession
of this officer, in his office in a Rio Grande town of New Mexico. A
telegram was sent to Billy Wilson, and he was brave man enough to come
and take his chances. The officer, without much speech, went over to his
safe, took out the signed pardon from the president, and handed it to
Wilson. The latter trembled and broke into tears as he took the paper.
"If you ever need my life," said he, "count on me. And I'll never go
back on this!" as he touched the executive pardon. He went back to
Texas, and is living there to-day, a good citizen. It would be wro