Tom O'Folliard

Tom O'Folliard (1858 in Texas - 1880) was the best friend of the famous outlaw William Bonney aka Billy the Kid. Both were members of the Regulators, a gang of cattle rustlers operating in the New Mexico Territory, and the two eventually became co-leaders of the gang.

O'Folliard was a participant in the Lincoln County War and survived the famous Five-Day Battle in Lincoln during July 1878. He is said to have been wounded by a gunshot to the shoulder while escaping from the McSween residence, which had been set fire, with Billy and three others.

O'Folliard was shot in the chest by members of Pat Garrett's posse on December 19 1880, at Fort Sumner, and died approximately forty-five minutes later. He is buried at Old Fort Sumner Cemetery in a plot shared by his "pals" William Bonney and Charlie Bowdre.

Portrayal on the Big Screen

O'Folliard was portrayed in the film Young Guns II by Balthazar Getty as a 14-year-old "tenderfoot" orphan from Pennsylvania who begs his way into Billy the Kid's gang. This is very inaccurate, as O'Folliard was a Texan, never left the southwest and was in his late teens when he joined the Regulators.

The character of Tom O'Folliard was absent from the original Young Guns film, even though the real O'Folliard was present for the majority of the events depicted in the movie and had been one of Billy the Kid's best friends since the two first met.

O'Folliard also appeared in "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" (1973), played by screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer - though he was depicted as an older, middle-aged man.

References

* [http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/billythekid/tom.html Loyal Sidekick: 'Big Foot' Tom O'Folliard]