Deputy Sheriff Billy Breakenridge never married, and according to some sources, was never attached to any woman. He was in all likelihood gay.
However, I don't think he was as effeminate as he was portrayed in the film.
I intend to live forever.
So far, so good.
This is the only pic I've seen of him and he doesn't look like a twink:
http://i.imgur.com/KiCfJee.jpg
"Cutest dandy in the Old West!"
Indeed. It's odd (to me) that they made him physically resemble a "boulevardier" of 19th Century Paris, with the natty clothes and facial hair. He was more suited to the Moulin Rouge than to the Bird Cage Theater. I've never seen a photo of Billy B. from his Tombstone years but I have seen one of him in early middle age and he looked like the actor Charles Ruggles:
http://www.famousbirthdays.com/faces/ruggles-charles-image.jpg
As some of you know the real Billy B. was actually Wyatt's senior rather than his juniot (although only by a few years) and he had, by the early 1880s, spent about half his life on the frontier--including participation in the infamous Sand Creek Massacre, which was apparently okay with him.
The Sand Creek Massacre was a key plot point in an episode of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp TV series, with Hugh O'Brian. I can't remember if it was a Dodge City or Tombstone episode.
A newcomer to town was trying to kill one of the townsmen, for apparently no reason. In the end it was revealed that the townsman massacred the newcomer's Indian wife and family at Sand Creek. I don't think the townsman was supposed to be Billy B. Or was it?
Does that fit with any known history of Wyatt or Billy B?
BTW cathaven97, great photo find of Billy B!
According to this, he was at Sand Creek. No mention of what he did there, but I'm others here can verify better than I.
http://tomrizzo.com/man-from-helldorado/
Billy talks of his participation in the massacre in his autobiography, HELLDORADO, but it's been decades since I read it and I can't recall any of the details. I don't recall him admitting to committing any atrocities himself. Of course, that would be something one might be inclined to gloss over, except that as I recall, he's not at all apologetic about participating in the massacre.
I never saw that episode of the Wyatt Earp show that was mentioned, but I doubt very much that it involved Billy B. Although since Stuart Lake was historical advisor for the show, he might have had Billy written in just as payback for HELLDORADO.
Thanks all! I tried to find the episode I mentioned by searching IMDB history of the series. I only found one that mentioned a character by the name of "Breakenridge" but it wasn't the one I recalled. Sorry this thread went so far afield, but it's good to know the series, too, has at least a bit of historical reference.
shareThe one you're thinking of is season 2 episode 31. It's a Dodge City episode and it doesn't feature Billy B, but a friend of Wyatt named Jake, instead. Hope that helps ya.
Liberals claim to love "others ideas", until they find out people actually have other ideas.
I don't recall him admitting to committing any atrocities himself. Of course, that would be something one might be inclined to gloss over, except that as I recall, he's not at all apologetic about participating in the massacre.
Excellent points, and Gary Roberts, in the buildup to his book, talked about how the men involved were not criminals in the sense of being thugs or regularly bad people, but more like guys who did not think of themselves as bad. They generally thought of themselves as doing something good, or at least ok. I'm paraphrasing and don't want to totally trash his sentiments with bad interpretation, but he basically goes down an interesting avenue of what you mentioned, and that being the dynamic and attitudes of the time and those involved.
Liberals claim to love "others ideas", until they find out people actually have other ideas.
Gary Roberts, the author of Doc Holliday: the Life and Legend, has been working for several years on a book about the Sand Creek Massacre. It was just released in May of this year and I haven't read it, but just prior to it's release he stated how his research brought him to some interesting information regarding Tombstone. So, this may well be in reference to Billy and some context on who he was and what he was about.
Liberals claim to love "others ideas", until they find out people actually have other ideas.
Thanks, Dude! I hadn't heard of either of Roberts' books. His Holliday book is in our local library. I checked it out along with the Tefertiller book. I want to compare some specific points, like the Dodge City incident that cemented the Earp-Holliday friendship. Roberts' Sand Creek book is not yet available in our system.
BTW, the TV episode you cited is the one I remembered. Great info!
You bet, man, glad to help. Roberts is easily my favorite historian and his book on Holliday is excellent. The Tefertiller book is really good, too, so you're really in for some good reading.
Liberals claim to love "others ideas", until they find out people actually have other ideas.
"There's two things at work here: One is that most people (unless they have a mental problem) aren't going to admit that they personally committed atrocities. Two is that - at that time and even later - killing Indians wasn't considered to be much of a crime, or an atrocity."
I don't know for a fact, but by the time Billy's book was written (sometime in the 1920s), I don't think indiscrimate killing of Indians (partiocularly peaceful ones, as I believe the Sand Creek Indians were) was looked upon as benignly as it might have been back when the Indian Wars were still raging.
The only episode of the Wyatt Earp tv show featuring Billy, that I recall, was one set in the Tombstone years, where Wyatt goes to Sheriff Behan's office looking for Behan. The sheriff is away but Billy B. is on duty guarding the sheriff's office and jail. Billy is just an ordinary joe, not a dandy like Jason Prioestley. What I recall most is Billy trying to get Wyatt to hang around and have coffee with him.
"Anyone ever tell you that you have beautiful blue eyes, Wyatt?" Billy says.
Nah--I made that line up. But I wonder if the coffee scene wasn't thrown in at Stuart Lake's suggestion.
...by the time Billy's book was written (sometime in the 1920s), I don't think indiscrimate killing of Indians (partiocularly peaceful ones, as I believe the Sand Creek Indians were) was looked upon as benignly as it might have been back when the Indian Wars were still raging.
Yeah...old Billy preferred the caulk to the stink trench.
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