Billy The Kid: Incredible 67¢ junk shop photo shows America's most famous outlaw playing CROQUET with his Regulators gang... and it's now worth $5 MILLION

• Randy Guijarro found the picture in a Fresno, California junk shop in 2010, and paid $2 for the photo and two others
• Kagin's, a rare coin and collectibles dealer, spent more than a year verifying that the 4x5 inch tintype was a picture of Billy the Kid and his Regulators gang
• The croquet set in the picture may have belonged to Englishman John Tunstall, the Kid's former rancher boss  
• The only other verified picture of Billy the Kid - real name Henry McCarty - sold for $2.3million in 2011 
• It's estimated that the new picture of the Kid playing croquet could be sold for as much as $5 million

From afar, the picture below looks likes a genteel group taking part in the upper-class pastime of croquet, but upon closer examination it becomes obvious that this lot would never get an invitation to the country club.

The photo was recently authenticated as the second known picture of Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid - the gunslinger who claimed to have killed 21 men and who was the most notorious member of the Regulators gang.

It is also the only known picture of the gang altogether - gathered for what experts believe was the marriage of gang member Charlie Bowdre (on a horse, far right). 

In the recently released photo, Billy the Kid is seen fourth from left, looking the spitting image of his infamous portrait - even appearing to wear the same top hat. Except instead of leaning on a rifle, he holds a croquet mallet. 

While it may seem strange to see Billy the Kid partaking in a sport more suitable for garden parties that the frontier, it makes more sense considering the picture was taken at the ranch of his late boss John Tunstall, who was an Englishman.

The gang's all here: The picture is the only known photo of the Regulators gang altogether. It was taken at the ranch of John Tunstall, an Englishman rancher who organized the gang to protect his properties against rivals

 

How civilized! On the left, a zoomed-in view of the Kid from the newly uncovered picture. On the right, the only other verified picture of the gunslinger which sold for $2.3million

Born to upper-middle-class parents in Hackney, London, Tunstall emigrated to Victoria in Canada's British Columbia at the age of 19 and eventually made his way down into the southwestern U.S. to start a booming cattle business. 

It was Tunstall's murder by a rival's posse in 1878 that spurred the Regulators into action, prompting the Lincoln County War. From February to July of 1878, the Regulators went to war in an attempt to avenge his death.

Find of a lifetime: Randy Guijarro bought the photo, along with two other dated pictures, at a junk shop for just $2 total in 2010 

The war came to an end with the July 19 Battle of Lincoln, also called 'The Five-Day Battle'. During this fight, nearby Army forced intervened and the Regulators lost many of their men.

After this battle many of them fled town, but not before gathering one last time at Tunstall's ranch for a final adieu, when the newly authenticated picture was believed to have been taken.

The photo was discovered five years ago by Randy Guijarro, who purchased the 4x5 inch tintype picture at a Fresnco, California junk shop. He bought two other pictures on that shopping trip, with the grand total coming to just $2. 

Now that it has been authenticated, the photo is worth an estimated $5million. The only other authenticated picture of the Kid, a smug-faced portrait taken in 1880, was sold to businessman William Koch for $2.3million in 2011 - meaning Guijarro's picture could beat that photo by double when he chooses to sell. 

Representatives from Kagin's, the California collectibles company currently negotiating the picture's sale, say they were skeptical about the photo's authenticity when they first saw the 4x5 tintype. 

'We had to be certain that we could answer and verify where, when, how and why this photograph was taken,' Kagin’s senior numismatist David McCarthy said, in a press release.

'Simple resemblance is not enough in a case like this - a team of experts had to be assembled to address each and every detail in the photo to insure that nothing was out of place.

'After more than a year of methodical study including my own inspection of the site, there is now overwhelming evidence of the image’s authenticity.'

They used facial recognition technology to identify four people in the picture and were able to find other evidence to deem the picture authentic.

Perhaps most helpful was the identification of Sally Chisum, the niece of a wealthy cattle baron in New Mexico. (She is seen standing in front of a house, to the right of a man pointing at the Kid.)

Sally kept a journal that famously referenced Billy the Kid and the rest of the Regulators gang, and researchers were able to narrow down an event that would have brought all of the people recognized in the photo together. 

The final step of the authentication process was to visit the ranch where the wedding was held, where McCarthy found the schoolhouse in the background still standing - albeit with another structure built up and around the original clapboard.

'The historical importance of a photograph of Billy the Kid alongside known members of his gang and prominent Lincoln County citizens is incalculable - this is perhaps the single most compelling piece of Western Americana that we have ever seen,' Kagin's President Donald Kagin said in the press release. 

Now that the picture has been authenticated, Kagin's spokesmen say there are a few people interested in paying millions for the rare piece of the Wild West. 

WHO WAS BILLY THE KID?

Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty to Irish immigrants in New York City around 1859.

He headed west with his family as a youth and had his first brush with the law in 1975 when he was arrested for stealing clothes from a Chinese laundry in Silver City, New Mexico.

He then worked in Graham County as a farmhand, teamster, and cowboy. His age, appearance, and size won him his 'Kid' moniker.

As he descended into criminality and fled from town to town to evade the law, he regularly changed his name, eventually becoming known as Billy the Kid. 

He was celebrated for his gun skills and, according to popular legend killed 21 men - one for each year of his short life. However, the true figure is believed to be somewhere between four and nine.

He is thought to have been 17 when he killed his first man in 1877 - although some historians say he could have been as young as 15 as the true year of his birth is not known.

The Kid was known to be friendly and personable and a smart dresser, often wearing a Mexican sombrero. These qualities contributed to his image as both a notorious outlaw and a folk hero.

In the aftermath of the Lincoln County War, Lew Wallace, the new territorial governor of New Mexico, published a wanted list which included the Kid, who was implicated in the murder of Sheriff Brady in 1978, shortly after Brady arrested the Kid.

The Kid was catapulted into legend due to the $500 bounty - then a staggering amount - on his head. 

In November 1880, he and three of his gang were captured, and the Kid was tried and convicted for the murder of Brady. He was sentenced to hang and was then transferred to the courthouse and jail in Lincoln, but on April 28, 1881, he killed deputies James Bell and Robert Olinger and escaped.

Soon afterwards he was captured and shot by Lincoln County sheriff, Patrick Floyd Garrett in a sting operation. 

He was buried in the old military cemetery at Fort Sumner next to two of his gang members.

*Source: Texas State Historical Association