William V. Morrison

William Vincent Morrison
William V. Morrison Author Photo
Born	(1906-11-26)November 26, 1906 Illinois, U.S.
Died	August 30, 1977(1977-08-30) (aged 70) El Paso, TX
Alma mater	LaSalle University
Occupation(s)	Probate Investigator, Author

William Vincent Morrison (November 26, 1906 - August 30, 1977) was a lawyer, probate investigator, and genealogical researcher best known for his efforts in seeking a pardon for William H. "Brushy Bill" Roberts in 1950, a man who appeared in the 1940s claiming to be Billy the Kid.

Early Life & Career

Morrison was born in Kaskaskia, Randolph County, Illinois and was a descendant of French-Canadian fur trader Pierre Menard (1766-1844) and (Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell (1818-1875). Maxwell was the owner of a huge amount of land in New Mexico and Colorado known as the Maxwell Land Grant. Morrison's parents were Jarrett Joseph Morrison (April 25, 1886 - August 30, 1970) and Afra Bertha Link (September 30, 1887 - May 2, 1970), who were married on November 15, 1905 in Evansville, Illinois. After graduating from high school, in 1930 Morrison became manager of a grocery store in St Louis, Missouri, and studied law via correspondence courses from LaSalle Extension University (Chicago, Illinois), from which he graduated in 1940 with a law degree. His wife was Ruth Lucille Shield (July 5, 1908 - November 20, 1994). By the mid-1940s, Morrison had become a court-appointed probate investigator, specializing in wills and bankruptcies, often working with various law firms in St. Louis and Texas.

Genealogical Studies and Research on the Maxwell Land Grant

Morrison was a member of the Missouri Historical Society, and conducted extensive primary research on the Maxwell Land Grant. Many of Morrison's papers were donated to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum (Springfield, Illinois), where they can be accessed under the title "William Vincent Morrison Papers, 1777-1975 (2 manuscript boxes - 0.84 linear feet).

Controversial Claims of Joseph L. Hines and William Henry Roberts

In 1948, Morrison was appointed to settle a court case involving a man named Joseph L. Hines (of Escambia County, Florida), whose brother had recently passed away (on April 2, 1948) in Minot, Ward County, North Dakota. During the course of proving his identity to the court, Hines claimed that he was in fact the notorious outlaw Jesse Evans who had fought in the Lincoln County War, and that Billy the Kid had not been killed by Pat Garrett in New Mexico in 1881. Morrison was intrigued, but skeptical. Hines would not reveal the name or whereabouts of Billy the Kid, but did provide some leads that Morrison was able to follow - which eventually led him to William H. "Brushy Bill" Roberts in Hico, Texas. Following a period of interviews and approximately one year of gathering evidence, Morrison became convinced that Roberts really was Billy the Kid, and he took the 90-year old Roberts in front of New Mexico Governor Thomas Mabry to obtain a pardon for Roberts. Mabry was unimpressed, and allowed numerous skeptics to attend the meeting, who peppered Roberts with questions. Roberts had a stroke on the spot, and died slightly more than a month later on December 27, 1950. Disappointed with the results, and believing that Roberts had not received a fair hearing, Morrison collaborated with renown folklorist C.L. Sonnichsen on a book titled Alias Billy the Kid (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1955), which presents all the evidence Morrison had collected in favor of Roberts' claims..

Death and Burial

Morrison died in El Paso, Texas, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.