Billy The Kid: New Evidence

In a California memorabilia shop back in 2010, a tintype surfaces that appears to show Billy the Kid in mid game, croquet with his gang The Regulators. The find sparks a meticulous effort by Randy Guijarro to verify the image's authenticity. The film follows his investigations through archives, experts, and collectors, weighing age, provenance, and photographic clues against the long standing legends surrounding the outlaw. As the clues accumulate, the story moves through debates about evidence and the lure of proving a famous figure still exists in the photographic record, without revealing a definite verdict. The tone blends documentary sleuthing with personal discovery, inviting viewers to question what counts as proof when history and myth intersect. A private pursuit for truth that resonates with historians and fans of forensics. A careful puzzle indeed.

Directed by Dan Bush, Billy The Kid: New Evidence arrived in 2015 as a straight documentary feature. The film relies on an original source material, built around the 2010 tintype discovery rather than adaptation, blending interviews with researchers.

Box office numbers for this documentary have not been publicly released, and therefore the film did not have a wide commercial rollout.

Critics describe the film as a measured, evidence driven look at how legends endure and what it takes to validate a famous photograph. It foregrounds the tension between myth and memory and uses Kevin Costner's narration to frame the questions, while Jor-el Vaasborg appears as Billy The Kid in reconstructions.