Robert Widenmann

Robert A. Widenmann (January 24, 1852 – April 13, 1930) was a Deputy United States Marshal and associate of Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War.

Early life

Widenmann was born January 24, 1852, to German-born parents in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Widenmann's father was the Bavarian Consul in Ann Arbor. As a teenager, Widenmann was sent back to the family's native Germany for his schooling. He lived there for several years with a grandfather.

Widenmann's name was spelled with many variations. (Widenmann is correct.)

Lincoln County War

On February 18, 1878, John Tunstall was killed, allegedly while resisting arrest, by Lincoln County Deputy Sheriffs William Morton, Frank Baker, Jesse Evans, and Tom Hill. Tunstall had been accompanied by Robert Widenmann, Dick Brewer, Billy the Kid, John Middleton, Henry Newton Brown, and Fred Waite while driving horses from his ranch on the Rio Feliz to Lincoln to conceal the herd from court ordered confiscation as collateral for Tunstall and McSween's debts.

On February 20, 1878, Sheriff William J. Brady, and his deputies arrested Billy the Kid and two other members of the Regulators riding with him. Three days later, Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Widenmann, and a detachment of soldiers disarmed Sheriff Brady's jail guards, put them behind bars, and released the Kid and Brewer.

On March 9, 1878, New Mexico territorial Governor, Samuel Beach Axtell, issued a proclamation revoking Rob's appointment as Deputy U.S. Marshall.

On March 30, 1878, The Santa Fe New Mexican announced that U.S. Marshal John E. Sherman had reinstated Widenmann to the deputyship.

On April 1, 1878, Regulators Jim French, Frank McNab, John Middleton, Fred Waite, Henry Newton Brown and Billy the Kid ambushed Sheriff William J. Brady and four of his deputies on the main street of Lincoln. They fired on the five men from behind an adobe wall on John Tunstall's property. Sheriff Brady died of at least a dozen gunshot wounds in the back. Deputy Sheriff George W. Hindman was hit twice, fatally. Widenmann was present, but whether he participated has never been ascertained: Widenmann claimed he was feeding Tunstall's dog at the time of the shooting.

Later life Robert and Albertine Widenmann’s gravestone. Mount Repose Cemetery, Haverstraw New York. Spelling of the name on the gravestone ("Widenman") is incorrect. Robert A. Widenmann's post-New Mexico career took him to Great Britain, where he visited Tunstall's family, and onto New York where in 1896 he was a National Democratic candidate for U.S. Representative from New York 17th District. He died in Haverstraw, N.Y. on April 13, 1930, at the age of 78.

According to his daughter Elsie, Widenmann lived in fear of his life for many years because of his role in the Lincoln county war and in bucking such powerful New Mexico politicians as Stephen B. Elkins.