April 20, 2026
Provided Images/Fox Auctions
The photo on the right purportedly shows gunslinger Billy the Kid as a child. It possibly was taken at the Philadelphia photography studio listed on the flyer on the left. This photo and another are being auctioned off by Fox Auctions.
After what was thought to be the only confirmed photo of Western outlaw Billy the Kid was sold at auction for $2.4 million in 2011, a number of other photos claiming to show the legendary gunslinger surfaced. One, which was purchased at an antique shop for $2 in 2010, allegedly shows Billy, who's real name is Henry McCarty, playing croquet with members of his gang.
While some of the recent alleged authentications might be because historians can use the 2011 photo for reference, there are skeptics who have questioned the legitimacy of the other claims, considering the potential for profit. The croquet image, for one, has an estimated value of $5 million, although it's never been sold. Despite the rarity of these photos, a South Jersey auction house has two up for grabs this weekend, and owner Lee Fox is pretty confident in their merit.
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"What they teach you is to use due diligence and try to track something down the best you can and authenticate it the best you can," Fox said. "As far as I'm concerned, I can't picture anybody having anything more authentic than this is."
One is an oval photo of McCarty as an older child. A flyer for WM. W. Seeler's Photo-Miniature and Photograph Gallery at Eighth and Spring Garden streets in Philadelphia is included in that auction. The other photograph is a tintype of McCarty as a teenager and has 'Billy' written on the back. Both are being sold by at Fox Auctions on Saturday, although they're open for bidding now.
The photographs are from the private collection of a South Jersey couple. Though they had been possessed by a South Jersey woman's family for more than a century, she had never told her husband about them until they were watching "Jeopardy!" one night in January 2016. The outlaw was an answer (or question, in "Jeopardy!" parlance) to one of the clues.
"My wife blurted (the answer) out within a split second, 'Billy the Kid.' It kind of, I don't want to say stunned me, but it was one of those questions I wouldn't have thought she would have known, let alone that quick," said the man, who asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons. "When I asked her, 'How do you know that?' she said, 'Well, my dad always told me as a kid that we were related to Billy the Kid.'"
She then offered proof: a scrapbook containing two childhood photos of the legendary gunslinger.
After conducting some research, the man concluded that his wife did not have any lineage to Billy the Kid, but that the outlaw and his mother, Catherine McCarty, had been close friends with her family. The photos, he said, may offer new insights into Kid's life.
A 19th-century Philadelphia directory shows that Catherine McCarty lived in Philadelphia between 1863 and 1867, when Billy the Kid would have been ages 4-8. The photography studio was near her address. The type of photograph, called a Potter's Patent, only was available for a few years, the man said, but they match the timeline of the McCarty's time in Philly.
It was known that the McCarty family had spent time in New York, Indiana and Kansas, but there are several years where their whereabouts were unknown, the man said. The photos and address record may mean the McCartys spent time living in Philadelphia.
These photos are now being made available to the highest bidder. The South Jersey couple decided to sell the photos, because after a decade of research, the man said he felt he'd done as much as an average person could. He said he hopes someone will purchase the photos and take that research "to the next level." Maybe a museum will further examine them, he said, or maybe the new owner will pursue additional authentication paths.
Still, he said it's been quite the journey, especially because his wife's family hasn't always wanted to talk about the photos or be associated with Billy the Kid, given his violent life. Legend says the gunfighter killed 21 people before he turned 21 due to his role in a tumultuous battle between cattle empires out west. He was shot and killed in 1881 at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, by a sheriff.
For the South Jersey man, the spontaneity of the photos' discovery made the experience particularly special.
"It just happened to be that one episode of "Jeopardy!" ... Had we not watched, these would probably still be sitting in the closet somewhere," he said. "But after 10 years, I think I've taken it to the furthest level that I can."
A tintype photo of the famous gunslinger as a teenager (above) is currently being sold at an auction house in South Jersey. Bids start at $250,000.
The auction house has put the starting bid for each photograph at $250,000. As of Friday afternoon, no bids had been made, but Lee Fox — the auction house's owner — said most bids don't come in until closer to the final day. He said he believes the photos are real and incredibly rare.
"It's not like his wife tried to make up that story about the family," Fox said. "They give us five years, basically, missing of Billy the Kid's life, and this to me is filling it in."
As proof of its authenticity, Fox pointed to the record address for Billy's mother, which was two blocks away from the photo studio. Most of the other alleged photos are tintypes with no additional records or information to corroborate the claim, he said.
"Anything and everything he's got there, especially the fact of having Billy the Kid's mother's address proven to be in Philadelphia for that four or five years, and the whole story, just to me is about as real as you can possibly get," Fox said.
