Billy the Kid Slow on the Draw; Foe Fast on the Paint

It was billed as a shoot-off that would finally settle the legendary meeting between New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. But as a duel, it was a dud. First, Billy the Kid’s champion bowed out. Then, after a stand-in was found, the pistols firing the paint pellets wouldn’t work. When they did, Billy’s stand-in took a hit in the armpit but refused to die. An official finally ordered him to do so. The shooting match was triggered when the residents of Hico, Tex., fired up a New Mexico community by erecting a memorial to Ollie (Brushy Bill) Roberts. Roberts, who died in Hico in 1950 at age 90, is believed by the Texas community to be the outlaw Billy the Kid. But New Mexico residents have long held that Billy was slain by Lincoln County Sheriff Garrett in 1881. Lincoln County Commissioner James Berger challenged Hico Justice of the Peace Bobby Hefner to the duel in Las Cruces, but when Hefner bowed out, Berger had to be content with his victory, by an armpit, over the stand-in wearing a sandwich board emblazoned with the words “Typical Texan.”

--When an irate Vermont jogger refused to share the road with a friendly deer, the doe was exiled to a privately owned island in Lake Champlain, where it was hoped that, although denied the company of her two-legged friends, she would be content. But Bonkers wasn’t having any of it. The doe, who is semi-domesticated, turned tail on her island exile, making a two-mile swim to Grand Isle, where she crashed a Fourth of July volleyball game at the home of Martin and Barbara Irwin. The deer, after giving a hearty lick to the hand of the Irwins’ son Ricky, was considered for inclusion in the game, where it was believed she would exhibit a mean spike.

--Forty-five years ago he came in war. Today he comes in peace. Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Thomas Watson left Westchester County Airport in New York on Sunday to wing his way in a red, white and blue Lear jet to the Soviet Union to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the start of U.S. supply flights to the Soviet Union during World War II. Watson, then a captain in the Air Force, piloted a B-24 Liberator bomber along the Alaska-Siberian route in July, 1942. It was one of more than 8,000 U.S. supply planes sent to the Soviets. His current journey is the first private flight over Siberia sanctioned by Moscow since the war ended. The former president of IBM is due in Moscow on Tuesday after a stop in Finland.