Paulita Maxwell around the time she would have known Billy
Paulita Maxwell was born in Mora, New Mexico in 1864. She and her brother Pete lived in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Pete Maxwell was a wealthy rancher and Paulita would have lived a comfortable life. Rumors flew in the small town of Sumner that Paulita and Billy Bonney were romantically involved, many accounts from witnesses at the time said she was 'head over heels' for the young outlaw.
After Billy was captured at Stinking Springs he was taken back to Fort Sumner and the Maxwell's home. Billy was shackled to his fellow gang member Dave Rudabaugh. A guard and part of Garrett's posse, Jim East, would later write in a letter that a member of the household asked if Billy's chains could be removed so he and Paulita could say their goodbyes in private, but the request was denied. Obviously the worry for the lawmen was that Billy may try to escape by any means possible. In reply to the rebuttal, Paulita marched up to Billy and kissed him passionately, "One of those soul kisses the novelists tell us about" is the way Jim East described it.
Although friendly with Billy, Pete Maxwell was said to be less than happy his younger sister was consorting with a wanted man. This rumor fueled the theory that Pete helped Garrett in finding and killing Billy. Some people of the town even suspected Garrett of kidnapping Paulita and tying her up at the Maxwell house. This situation would undoubtedly have lured Billy to come to her rescue and fall straight into a planned ambush. Rumors and hearsay say that Billy was actually killed in Paulita's bedroom where she had been tied up. Pat and Pete Maxwell then moved Billy's body to Pete's bedroom to avoid scandal.
After the death of Billy, Paulita (then still a young teenager) was soon married off to a man named Jose Jaramillo. They went on to have three children: Telesfor, Adelina and Luz. Her marriage did not last and after many years of putting up with her husband's alcohol abuse, Jose left her for a younger woman.
In her later years Paulita was interviewed many times about her connections with Billy and although she always tried to discredit any romance between herself and the infamous outlaw, the subject always resurfaced thanks to some witnesses' solid belief that they had been together. Rumor has it that Paulita even threatened to sue Walter Noble Burns (the author of 'The Saga Of Billy the Kid') when it surfaced that he was going to name her as Billy's sweetheart. Paulita is said to have told him to say that Celsa Gutierrez (who had passed away by this point) had really been Billy's woman. She did however discuss Billy openly in some of her interviews:
"Fort Sumner was a gay little place. The weekly dance was an event, and pretty girls from Santa Rosa, Puerto de Luna, Anton Chico, and from towns and ranches fifty miles away, drove in to attend it. Billy the Kid cut quite a gallant figure at these affairs. He was not handsome but had a certain sort of boyish good looks. He was always smiling and good-natured and very polite and danced remarkably well, and the little Mexican beauties made eyes at him from behind their fans and used all their coquetries to capture him and were very vain of his attentions."
Paulita's son Telesfor holds as much mystery as Billy the Kid himself. The only known picture of Telesfor as a young man many think looks a lot like the known photo of Billy the Kid. Some believe Paulita was pregnant with Billy's child at the time of his death and to hide the fact, quickly found herself a husband to prevent scandal. Telesfor was kept out of the public eye and little to nothing is known about him. His birth date and the date Billy the Kid supposedly met his maker do not add up to him being the son of the great outlaw, but the census of the time are well known to be unreliable. The mystery of the matter will forever stay hidden and it's up to each person to decide for themselves what they believe happened between Miss. Maxwell and Mr. Bonney.
Paulita died aged 65 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The cause of her death was nephritis (inflammation of the kidney) and she was buried in Fort Sumner's military cemetery not too far away from Billy. Her son Telesfor went on to marry a woman called Reina Romero and they had one son, Luciano Jaramillo, who remained unmarried and childless until his death in 2004.
For more pictures of Paulita please visit the 'Old Photos' section in the Gallery.
