BANDITA BONITA
Romancing Billy the Kid
Bandita Bonita
Based on the Novel by Nicole. M. Dixon
Contact: James Clois Smith Jr., Sunstone Press / (505)988-4418
Log Line: A 19th century heiress longs to be liberated from oppression and is sent into the untamed west to fulfill the terms of a marriage of convenience only to fall in love with a young outlaw destined to become the most wanted man in New Mexico and fight for her own freedom riding alongside him during the bloody Lincoln County War.
ACT I
It is 1877 and sixteen year old LUCY HOWARD sits alongside her governess, COLLEEN, on a train bound from New York to New Mexico. Lucy spends the long train ride lamenting to Colleen her misfortune of being made to marry a man whom she does not love, to which Colleen attempts to console her, telling her she is lucky because of this, that she will never need to suffer heartbreak at the loss of love, and that it is the companionship marriage offers that is important. Lucy rejects this advice, preferring instead to mourn the love she will never know.
Arriving at a border town in New Mexico, Lucy is appalled by the simplistic and crude lifestyle of the west, and equally horrified when confronted by the sight of men casually walking about with pistols and shotguns. Being forewarned of the turbulence in the west, Lucy is struck terrified and disheartened by the unsophisticated, crude life she must now learn to live instead of the civilized life she left back in New York.
Lucy and Colleen make an arduous and uncomfortable trek to Lincoln County, the town where she will reside and begin her new life with her future husband, JOHN H. TUNSTALL. Staying on with ALEX and SUSAN MCSWEEN, the former being John’s lawyer and partner in business, she visits with John daily and is subject to the freedom she longs for by watching the men who work John’s land enjoy their employment, companionship with one another, and the run of the property, coming and going as they please.
After a couple of months in Lincoln County, Lucy has still not resigned herself to the harsh reality of her new life and dreads everyday that brings her closer to her wedding day. Lonely, she wishes for a friend, but finds only that the women of the town, especially those her age, are only interested in her friendship for the social-climbing status it will provide in a booming frontier town, causing Lucy to become further agitated by her situation.
ACT II
As Lucy realizes she is destined for a life of despair, she is further distraught when John brings home with him a young thief responsible for the horses that had been stolen from John earlier. Thinking that John has no concern for her welfare by carelessly subjecting her safety to a delinquent vagabond and further irritated by such lackadaisical tolerance in the west, she reluctantly allows John to introduce her to the young boy. It turns out that John is attempting to give the young man a new start in life, having been charmed by him upon their meeting, a characteristic that is not lost on Lucy as she finds herself curiously interested in him almost immediately.
The young man turns out to be BILLY BONNEY, a young brigand and former gang member of THE BOYS, a well-known and vicious gang of men feared throughout much of the territory. The Boys are in the employ of the Santa Fe Ring, a corrupt office of men of which John’s competitors in business and commercial enemies J.J. DOLAN and L.G. MURPHY belong to.
As Lucy’s friendship flourishes with Billy, it gives her a brand new, hopeful outlook on her pitiable situation, and she begins to brighten at the thought of living in Lincoln County with Billy now in her life. But as her happiness burgeons with Billy as the two begin to share feelings of affection that is more than just friendship, things become more and more heated between John’s enterprises and those of Dolan’s and Murphy’s. The climate in Lincoln County becomes extremely threatening and the intensity is not lost on Lucy as she begins to concern herself with Billy’s safety, as he has now been endorsed as a member of John’s personal guard against the menacing Dolan and Murphy men after he has learned that Billy is an excellent marksman and gunfighter.
Attempting to talk him into leaving Lincoln and running away with her, taking all of her possessions which would make them wealthy and give them an excellent chance at a new life, Billy refuses, not wanting to be with Lucy as a coward and considered a scoundrel, choosing instead to stay by the man who gave him a second chance at life and fight for him should he need to. Lucy damns him for this, calling him a fool, and resigning herself at trying harder to make him give in to her.
Eventually things become so aggressive that Lucy is sent out of the way of any fighting that is sure to break any day.
While she is staying on the land of JOHN CHISUM, another partner and friend of John’s, a message bearer arrives, one of John’s men, to give Lucy news. Judging by the look on his face and his uneasy demeanor, she realizes it is not good news and becomes anxious. Not giving a thought to John at all, she is worried that he has come to tell her something terrible has happened to Billy as the whole of John and Alex’s work hands know how close the two are and how strong their friendship is.
When finally she is told that John has been killed by a posse sent by Dolan, she demands that her horse be saddled despite being met with opposition to this, being advised to wait until morning. Irritated, Lucy shuns this advice, thinking only of Billy, and once her horse is saddled, she pushes her horse as fast as she can in order to get back to Lincoln and Billy, desperately needing to see him.
Upon arriving back at the McSweens’, she finds Billy and finally collapses in exhaustion, misery, and relief.
ACT III
After John’s funeral Lucy receives a telegraph from her father back home in New York telling her of a new suitor and that she is to come home a soon as possible. Meanwhile, John’s work hands have become deputized men, calling themselves THE REGULATORS, carrying warrants to serve to those responsible for the death of John.
Lucy and Billy know that this is where their relationship will end, but vow to love each other still. Lucy begs Billy one last time to come away with her to no avail.
On her way back to the train station, Lucy and Colleen are once again taken to the ranch of John Chisum to stay while their party rests and the horses are watered and fed. Here they cross paths with The Regulators who have two prisoners in tow, FRANK BAKER and BUCK MORTON.
Reunited with Billy, Lucy is overjoyed, but this elation is overshadowed by a sense of dread brought on by Billy and the other deputized men which falls like a pall over the household. Disturbed, Lucy begins to doubt that The Regulators have any intention of taking their prisoners in alive. Believing the prisoners will soon be dead, Lucy adopts strong feelings of pity for them. Because of this, when Baker asks for her company and her help in penning a letter home to his family, Lucy feels obliged to assist and comfort him. Billy at first refuses, not wanting to give Baker the satisfaction of a pretty woman’s company and kindness, but then relents upon Lucy’s ability to gently persuade him, though he insists that he stay in the room with her, not wanting to leave her alone with a killer.
Billy takes Lucy to an outbuilding in which the prisoners are separately kept. As she sits with Baker, she is struck by his genteel demeanor as he speaks kindly to her and expresses his gratitude for her compassion. Frank explains that, much like everyone else, he has always held her in high regard. Due to Lucy’s cultured sophistication and exceptional education as a result of her distinguished pedigree, Frank, troubled and anxious, wishes to ask her of her thoughts on God, death, and redemption, assuming Lucy will have an inspiring comprehension of these things. They share an easy rapport and soon fall into a pleasant and open conversation that ends with Lucy helping Baker to choose wise “last” words to send home to his family and loved ones. This profound moment spent with a doomed man causes to further sadden and distress Lucy.
Baker then offers his condolences to her for the death of John. Knowing full well that Frank Baker is one of the men who rode with the posse responsible for John’s death, she becomes temporarily incensed by his audacity, turning to look at Billy in disbelief and fully expecting to find him throw a fit of anger. When she sees that this does not cause him to register much emotion as it does her, finding that though Billy does raise his eyes towards Baker in an intimidating manner, he remains silent. Lucy is at first surprised, aware that his notorious temper has reached its limit, but she is ultimately impressed with his restraint. What she does not realize is that Billy knows Frank’s fate is sealed and therefore has no reason to react and cause Lucy to become upset by inadvertently revealing the bloody intentions he and the others have for these men; information which is not fit for her to know.
When Lucy’s visit with Baker ends, Billy escorts her back to the ranch and she asks him directly if it’s true that The Regulators intend to murder their prisoner’s to which Billy answers by remaining cryptically silent. Now certain that the prisoners are dead men, Lucy lays awake and ponders her own mortality, wondering what it must be like to try and sleep knowing that upon waking one will not live to see the day in its entirety.
Suddenly there is an urgent knock at Lucy’s door and Billy enters, indicating for her to remain quiet. He tells her that Frank Baker has, out of guilt and an immense appreciation for the sincere and blameless kindheartedness Lucy has shown him, revealed a plot by the Santa Fe Ring, ordered by the corrupt sheriff of Lincoln County, WILLIAM BRADY, to murder Lucy on her way to the train depot, as Lucy had embarrassed Brady on the street and in front of onlookers after learning of his part in John’s death and his subsequent jailing of Billy and two of their friends who had approached him in order to serve warrants to those responsible for John’s death, causing them to miss John’s funeral.
Now in fear for her own life, Lucy is told that she must leave in the morning with The Regulators in order to ensure her safety as it is believed that there can be no doubt that the Santa Fe Ring and Brady mean to make good on their threat.
Frightened and not thinking clearly, as riding with The Regulators means she would be able to remain with Billy, Lucy attempts to defy these orders as she is terrified of the perils of the desert and believes that she cannot ride the trails as the boys can. Billy ignores her fears, resolute in his conviction that she must go with them, refusing to leave anything to chance, especially Lucy’s life.
Lucy finally comes to understand that she has no choice as they will take her despite any refusal on her part, and so she pens a letter of goodbye to Colleen.
ACT IV
Riding with The Regulators, Lucy bears witness to the murder of Frank Baker and Buck Morton, along with another man, FRANK MCCLOSKEY, with whom The Regulators have crossed paths and whom they also believe to have been a spy for Dolan. McCloskey is killed by one of the men who worked for John and whom Lucy is very familiar with. The former two she sees brutally murdered by her beloved Billy, afterwards seeing the desecration of Morton’s corpse as the boys continue to take shots at him as he lies on the cold ground, dying. Sickened by what she has witnessed, she realizes that Billy is what he has been telling her all along and what she refused to believe of him: a killer.
With the death of these three men, a war ensues between the two factions, that of Tunstall and McSween and Dolan, Murphy, and the entire Santa Fe Ring, becoming known as The Lincoln County War.
Now desperately caught up in the whirlwind of the fight, witnessing murder after murder, including the death of her friends, Lucy has come to be at ease and happy in the midst of all the freedom she has longed for and has at last been given despite the ugliness of war and death, ironically accepting the violent western lifestyle she had once dreaded.