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Billy arrived in Lincoln, New Mexico around 1878. He changed his name to William H. Bonney, or Billy for short.
In Lincoln, he met the English cattle rancher and local shop keeper John Henry Tunstall. Billy became friends with Tunstall
and was hired by him to be one of his "Regulators," meaning to regulate Tunstall's property. Tunstall had much hope for nineteen
year old and gave him a saddle along with some clothes and a rifle. With this, Billy felt he finally had a home and in reality,
he did. To him, Tunstall was a father figure, even though Tunstall was only a few years older.
This friendship was cut to an end when on February 18th, 1878, Tunstall was shot down near Glencoe, NM by members
of Tunstall's opposing faction, Lawerence Murphy and James J. Dolan's gang. Ever since Tunstall went against Murphy and Dolan
for the Government beef contract to supply the Mescalero Apache Reservation with meat, there has been much tension between
the two sides.
Billy had now found himself in the middle of a war, known as the Lincoln County War. At Tunstall's grave shortly
after the funeral, Billy stood over the cross and vowed he will get his revenge. This started a three year long trail of revenge
which would terrorize New Mexico.
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