A flea market find may prove to be extremely valuable for a man who paid $10 for what may be a genuine photograph of the infamous Billy the Kid, according to USA Today.
Frank Abrams, a lawyer from North Carolina, purchased the tinytype back in 2012 as part of a set of photos from Smiley's Flea Market in Fletcher, N.C., according to USA Today. After seeing a National Geographic documentary, he began to believe that the image shows Billy the Kid sitting with a number of cowboys, including Pat Garrett, the sheriff who allegedly killed Billy the Kid in 1881, according to the Citizen-Times.
"After I Googled Billy the Kid, I said 'oh my gosh, he looks like Pat Garrett!" Abrams told KRQE News. "That's what got it started."
Abrams then headed to New Mexico, which is historically linked to Billy the Kid, in the hopes of tracking down experts and authenticating his find, according to USA Today.
The recent National Geographic documentary about the newly discovered picture of the outlaw that sold for $5 million led to a series of claims like Abrams', but the fact that there is only one currently undisputed genuine photograph of Billy the Kid makes those claims difficult to verify. Paul Hutton, professor of history at the University of New Mexico, said that many people have presented him with potential Billy the Kid and Jesse James photos, but that there is still only one "real Billy photo," according to the Albuquerque Journal.
"Abrams has a very interesting photograph, but only as a historic photograph of cowboys," Hutton told the Albuquerque Journal. "Provenance is the key in these situations, and that is usually difficult to establish." Abrams claims not to be "advocating a position" regarding the authenticity of the tinytype and uninterested in the money that it could bring if found and is instead just interested in the historical significance of the photograph if it turns out to be real, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
"This is obviously something that would belong in a museum," Abrams said, according to USA Today. "It is so incredible to have a picture of these cowboys.... This would be an American treasure."
