I must close. You may use any quotations from my letters, for they are true. Good luck to you. Mrs. East joins me in best wishes.
Sincerely yours,
JAS. H. EAST.”
The author had previously written to Jim East about “Billy the Kid’s” sweetheart, Miss Dulcinea del Toboso. Here is a quotation from his answer, of April 26th, 1920: “Your recollection of Dulcinea del Toboso, about tallies with the way I remember her. She was rather stout, built like her mother, but not so dark.
“After we captured ‘Billy the Kid’ at Arroyo Tivan, we took him, Dave Rudabaugh, Billy Wilson, and Tom Pickett—also the dead body of Charlie Bowdre—to Fort Sumner.
“After dinner Mrs. Toboso sent over an old Navajo woman to ask Pat Garrett to let ‘Billy’ come over to the house and see them before taking him to Santa Fe. So Garrett told Lee Hall and I to guard ‘Billy’ and Dave Rudebough over to Toboso’s, Dave and ‘Billy’ being shackled together. As we went over the lock on Dave’s leg came loose, and ‘Billy’ being very superstitious, said: ‘That is a bad sign. I will die, and Dave will go free,’ which, as you know, proved true.
“When we went in the house only Mrs. Toboso, Dulcinea, and the old Navajo woman were there.
“Mrs. Toboso asked Hall and I to let ‘Billy’ and Dulcinea go into another room and talk awhile, but we did not do so, for it was only a stall of ‘Billy’s’ to make a run for liberty, and the old lady and the girl were willing to further the scheme. The lovers embraced, and she gave ‘Billy’ one of those soul kisses the novelists tell us about, till it being time to hit the trail for Vegas, we had to pull them apart, much against our wishes, for you know all the world loves a lover.”
It was December 23rd, 1880, when the “Kid” and gang, Dave Rudebaugh, Tom Pickett and Billy Wilson—were captured, and Charlie Bowdre killed.
The prisoners were taken to the nearest railroad, at Las Vegas, where a mob tried to take them away from the posse, to string them up.
They were placed in the County jail at Santa Fe, the capital of the Territory of New Mexico, as the penitentiary was not yet completed.