Serial no. 47629 for 1880, 20 inch round barrel, folding rear sight, walnut stock. Condition: Good to Very good. No finish remaining. Some areas with plum brown patina. Small dent in magazine tube. Well worn wood the left side of stock with gouges at wrist and a carved cross.
Provenance: Billy Wilson (alias of David L. Anderson); taken by Pat Garrett when he arrested Wilson and the rest of the Regulators at Stinking Springs (notarized copy of a 1906 letter signed from Garrett); loaned to Tom Powers for exhibit at his Coney Island Saloon (appears in Tom Powers inventory and probate; letter from Ed Warren, who worked at the saloon at the time of exhibition); recovered by Garrett's widow, Apolinaria (Pauline) Garrett, from Powers estate, 1933 (signed and notarized letter from Jarvis P. Garrett, April 20, 1983); sold to Robert E. McNellis, El Paso, TX; sold to Jim and Theresa Earle, February 2, 1979.

PAT GARRETT'S WINCHESTER TAKEN FROM REGULATOR BILLY WILSON WHEN HE WAS CAPTURED AT STINKING SPRINGS WITH BILLY THE KID. After nearly a month of conflicts with Kid and his gang, in December 29, 1880, Pat Garrett and his posse tracked down Billy the Kid at Stinking Springs, capturing not only the Kid, but also Billy Wilson, Dave Rudabaugh, and Tom Pickett, and killing Charlie Bowdre, who they had mistaken for the Kid. Garrett took two guns from Billy Wilson, which being nearly brand new, he continued to use: this Winchester used through much of his later career, and a Colt Single Action serial number 55093 which he would use to kill Billy the Kid half a year later (see lot 11), the Wild West's most epic tale.

Billy Wilson was born David Anderson in 1862. Raised in Texas, he moved to White Oaks, New Mexico, in 1880 and bought a stable, which he quickly then sold. Unsuspectingly, he received $400 in counterfeit bills for the sale, which he then spent around town, at which point he was arrested as a counterfeiter. Skipping bail, he fell in with Billy the Kid and the Regulators in late 1880, setting himself up for the confrontations at White Oaks, Fort Sumner and Stinking Springs. After being arrested, Wilson served four years, primarily for his participation in those battles with the Kid, before he escaped to Texas in 1884 to live a law abiding life as David Anderson. In a fitting turn of events, Garrett himself discovered him there in 1896, but noting his apparent transformation, he managed to arrange a Presidential pardon for Anderson/Wilson, which he received. His 1897 pardon notes that he has "gained the respect and good will of his neighbors ... He was very young when convicted ... and representations now made to me cause very grave doubts in my mind as to his guilt." To complete the circle of events, Anderson would become Sheriff of Terrell County in 1905, before being killed while trying to arrest Ed Valentine in Sanderson, Texas, in 1918.