Stone marking the spot where Billy the Kid died.
Billy the Kid Killed Here
Fort Sumner, New Mexico
If you believe that Billy the Kid was killed by sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881 -- and not everyone does -- then this is a place you'll want to see. Back in 1881 it was a first floor bedroom in the sprawling house of Pete Maxwell, a friend of Billy's. Now it's just an empty, stony lot, marked with a small, engraved granite slab, flat on the ground.
Garrett shot Billy in the bedroom under circumstances variously described as self-defense or a cowardly ambush, depending on whom you believe. The day after the shooting, Billy's corpse was carried a couple hundred yards east and buried in Fort Sumner's old military cemetery, next to two of the Kid's former outlaw gang members, who'd been killed only a few months earlier.
The death site marker is routinely festooned with visitor offerings of pebbles and spare change, and an occasional cigarette and bullet.