In 1948, a probate investigator from St. Louis, William V. Morrison, located an elderly man named Joe Hines, who had claimed the lands of his deceased brother.

Hines told Morrison of his experiences in the Lincoln County War, and surprised him by claiming that Billy the Kid was still alive, but refused to reveal the name he had assumed or exactly where he was living.

He told anecdotes that if true would fill in undocumented gaps in many aspects of the life of Billy the Kid, and asked for Morrison's help in acquiring the full pardon he said he had been promised by New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace in 1879, but which was subsequently withdrawn.

Roberts told Morrison that he would agree to tell the "whole truth" in exchange for the full pardon that Billy the Kid had been promised by Wallace following the Lincoln County War.

Marshall Trimble, the official historian of Arizona, cites Frederick Nolan, an authority on the life and times of Billy the Kid, who refers to a letter sent in 1987 by Mrs. Geneva Pittmon to Joe Bowlin, the founder of a history buff group called the "Billy the Kid Gang, Inc.", in which she stated that her uncle, the man known as "Brushy Bill", was named Oliver P. Roberts, and that he was born August 26, 1879, according to the family Bible.

I'm old and I just don't feel like being obligated so..." Bill Jones' grandson expressed doubts about the veracity of Roberts' claims in a letter of refusal written on his grandfather's behalf.

Brushy and his story were largely forgotten until the movie Young Guns II depicted him as the narrator of events surrounding the life and times of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War.

More books were written on the mystery, and researchers began exploring whether Brushy's claim might have actually been true, including several failed attempts to obtain permission for exhumation and DNA testing.

The Sonnichsen book received mixed reviews at the time, but did win support from former President Harry S. Truman, who wrote to Morrison indicating he believed that Brushy was Billy the Kid and lamenting that he died before being able to go in front of the next governor, where he may have gotten a more favorable result.

Jameson's work led to increased interest in and study of Roberts's story, most notably that of former Lincoln County deputy sheriff and mayor of Capitan, New Mexico, Steve Sederwall.

[21] O'Reilly followed up his book with an episode on the subject during his national television broadcast purportedly depicting the events that occurred during the alleged killing of the Kid from Brushy Bill's perspective.

In 1989, the Lincoln County Heritage Trust commissioned a computer study by Robert L. Har and Dr. Thomas G. Kyle, who used an analytical process of his own creation instead of established protocols used by law enforcement.

He spent the last days of his life trying to prove to the world what he claimed was his true identity, and to obtain the pardon promised to Billy the Kid by the governor of the territory of New Mexico (Lew Wallace).