VALDOSTA — Valdosta has long had a claim on legendary Western figure “Doc” Holliday. Now, it may have a claim on another Western legend: The “ghost” of Billy the Kid.

William H. Cox II, who goes by Billy, isn’t a ghost. He’s a flesh-and-blood fellow who has recently moved to Valdosta to be closer to his wife Shaunda’s family. Yet, in the early 1990s, when he arrived in William H. Bonney’s Western stomping grounds, his resemblance to the famed outlaw led to Cox becoming “The Kid.”

His journey to New Mexico was all part of an odyssey surrounding Billy the Kid: A journey and an experience that added an unforgettable adventure to Cox’s young life.

Cox details his young life in his book, “The Adventures & Times of William H. Cox II: Billy the Kid.” This volume collects his story along with numerous New Mexico photographs of himself dressed in Western garb and newspaper articles about his resemblance to and portrayal of the Kid.

BILLY THE KID: LATE 1800s

William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid, gained notoriety in the late 1800s during the Lincoln County War. This conflict pitted the ranchers against the commercial monopoly of a general store in Lincoln County, N.M. Billy the Kid sided with the ranchers. “The Kid” moniker stemmed from his youth. Billy was only a teen. Legend claims he killed 21 men, one man for each year of his life. Many historians put Billy’s kills at a much lower number.

Still by the age when 21st century youths can legally drink, Billy the Kid was dead and his life on the way to becoming a legend. Sheriff Pat Garrett had shot him down. Garrett wrote a wild biography called “The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid.” This volume began the mythologizing of Billy the Kid, burnishing the legend that made William H. Bonney into a central figure of the American West.

Through the years, Billy acquired more legends. One old story even claimed Garrett never killed Billy and that the Kid lived to a ripe old age. From legend, Billy became the stuff of Hollywood. Kris Kristofferson, Val Kilmer, Roy Rogers are among the stars who have played Billy the Kid in movies. Emilio Estevez played Billy the Kid in the “Young Guns” movies of 1988 and 1990.

“Young Guns” attracted the attention of William H. Cox II. The movie changed his life.



BILLY THE KID: LATE 1900s

Billy Cox II grew up in Florida, one of three children. He played with his siblings, went to school, enjoyed the activities and music of most children growing up in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

Tragedy marred his childhood. His mother died when Billy was 13. Billy slowly adapted to the brutal loss by adopting the Nietchze philosophy: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

As a teen and young adult, Billy enjoyed his friend, music and the lifestyle of the times. He played competitive tennis in high school, ranking in Florida’s top 100. Then he saw “Young Guns.” The movie appealed to him. He felt pulled by the land in the movie.

“I felt connected to the land,” Cox says during an interview at The Valdosta Daily Times. He found the places on the map and decided to go to New Mexico.

The land beckoned him, he says. Not Billy the Kid. Or so he thought. To Billy Cox, Billy the Kid looked like “Young Guns” actor Emilio Estevez. He had no idea.



BEING BILLY

Traveling through New Mexico is like visiting a land unchanged for a hundred years, Billy Cox II says.

“Everything is left unchanged,” Cox says. Adobes on the side of the road. The stark beauty of the topography. Cox may have been looking at the same sites once seen by Billy the Kid. Though his first visit, Cox felt he had been to this land before.

Yet, William H. Bonney wasn’t really on Billy Cox’s mind. Though he soon would be.

In Roswell, N.M., in a local museum, a man told Cox that he looked just like Billy the Kid. The man was even more floored when he learned Cox’s name was Billy.

They went to Lincoln, N.M. There, Billy met a ranger who “looked as though he seen a ghost.” Then, Billy Cox II became the new Billy the Kid.

He dressed like William H. Bonney. He posed like him. He tried working jobs like Billy the Kid. But this Kid didn’t hurt anyone or want to cause any harm.

On the cover of his book, a photo of Cox is superimposed by the famous stance of Bonney. The two Billy the Kids reflect a color and black-and-white looking glass of one another.

As the new Billy the Kid, or Billy the Kid reincarnated, or as the ghost of Billy the Kid, Billy Cox became a part of this landscape. He felt he became a part of its history. He didn’t look for trouble, but trouble soon found Billy the Kid.

“The Lincoln County War never really ended,” Cox says. Ancestors hold grudges as old and as unchanging as the land.

“The Lincoln County War will never die,” Cox says, “and the idea of The Kid being back didn’t make some people very happy.”

Some folks tried labeling Cox as a cattle rustler, he writes in his book. Cox says these accusations weren’t true. He never bothered anyone’s cattle or other property. No formal charges were filed. But the rumors dogged him during his stay in the Lincoln area. Finally, after working a series of odd jobs in addition to his Billy the Kid appearances, Cox moved away from Lincoln in the early 1990s.



STILL BILLY

Billy the Kid died at approximately the age of 21. Billy Cox II is now twice that age. He puts little faith in the story of Billy the Kid surviving into the 1950s. He believes Billy was gunned down by Pat Garrett in 1881.

Having read his book and talking with Cox, the question must be asked: Does he think he is Billy the Kid reincarnated? A ghost of Billy the Kid returned to the material world?

The answer is no. The connection he felt came from the land, something in the spirit of that New Mexico soil and air that gave rise to the legend of Billy the Kid in the late 1800s and a different Billy the Kid in the late 1900s.