Digging Up The Dead; Collecting DNA samples from the grave can help to solve historical mysteries. But critics are calling it ghoulish and disrespectful

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 27, 2003

Byline: Timothy W. Maier, INSIGHT

Digging up the dead for forensic examination falls somewhere between morbid curiosity and setting the historical record straight. Or maybe it's a little bit of both. Some critics charge exhumations show disrespect for the dead and drain scarce resources that could be used to solve prosecutable crimes. Others argue that selectively collecting DNA from the grave can open the door to solving historical mysteries. Whatever the motive, few can rest in peace with the exhumation movement ghoulishly alive and kicking.

"Exhume, exhume," wrote the late Murray N. Rothbard in one of his satirical essays. "Let's exhume the body of every president who died in office, and let's take another more scientific look." Devilish fun? Rothbard was given to that sort of thing. But why stop with presidents? Dig in the history books and pick a body for the next archaeological dig. Historians, forensic scientists and law-enforcement officers appear to be doing just that as they increasingly turn to the graveyards for clues to mysteries in a range of cases from the true identities of notorious outlaws to presidents who dropped dead under suspicious circumstances.

Critics suggest exhumation may be occurring at an alarming rate and claim many dead historical figures are being exploited by profit-hungry vultures who would dig up their own grandmothers if it were likely to produce a headline and make a buck. Could this be happening in New Mexico, where Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson is pushing hard to dig up the truth about legendary Wild West outlaw William Bonney, alias Billy the Kid?

In supporting the dig Richardson, who was energy secretary during the Clinton administration, says he aims to put an end to the conspiracy story that claims Billy the Kid was not gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881. While historians generally agree that the Billy the Kid who robbed and murdered people was shot by Garrett and subsequently buried at Fort Sumner, a posse of historical revisionists and conspiracy theorists calls the accepted version bunk.

In fact, several others have claimed to be the real Kid, insisting Garrett killed the wrong man. One of these was the late Ollie P. "Brushy" Bill Roberts of Hico, Texas, who surfaced in 1950 to seek a pardon from New Mexico's then-governor Thomas Mabry. The governor declined the pardon, declaring Brushy's story to be flawed. Nevertheless, Texans credited Mabry's tale and built a museum in downtown Hico to honor their man with a bronze plaque proclaiming: "We believe his story."

Richardson has teamed up with Lincoln County, N.M., Sheriff Tom Sullivan to support a media-frenzy exhumation of the claimants that has attracted both national and international press and sparked a boost in tourism for the state. They plan to exhume four graves those of the man history credits as being Billy the Kid, his mother Catherine Antrim, Roberts and another man some suspect survived the gun battle with Garrett. Sullivan also hopes the investigation might clear up 122-year-old suspicions about Garrett's conduct and circumstances surrounding Billy's escape from a Lincoln County jail where he reportedly stole a pistol and killed two deputies.

Fort Sumner Mayor Raymond Lopez says Billy the Kid tourism is all he has to keep people coming to his town and opposes the exhumation. The mayor is backed by the Billy the Kid Historical Preservation Society, which recently attacked the exhumation on its Website. An article there by British historian Frederick Nolan, author of The West of Billy the Kid, says, "I hate to be a party-pooper, but this whole project is complete and utter nonsense."

The disputations among the boosters, hobbyists, historians and scientists continue to build. And noted exhumation expert James Starrs, a law professor and forensic scientist at George Washington University, tells Insight that since the woman believed to be the mother of Billy the Kid may not be his real mother DNA comparisons will mean nothing. In fact, there is evidence that the diggers may have to sort through several sets of remains to find what they are looking for because a flood years ago unearthed a few caskets and locals may have put them back under the wrong tombstones.

New Mexico resident Elbert Garcia, who claims to be the great-grandson of the outlaw, has said he is willing to provide a DNA sample for comparison. But there appears to be some question whether Garcia is any relation to outlaw Billy since there is no record of the gunman having been married or produced children.

It seem a delicious enough mystery, but opponents are in full cry against exhumation. "There is no prosecution in this Billy the Kid case," says private investigator Michael Corwin, who was involved last year in the exhumation of a New Mexico state police officer's wife who may have been murdered. "We have nothing to gain from the Billy the Kid case. Why are historical cases getting a priority when we have 140 active backlog cases of DNA that have not been processed by the state crime lab?"