HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
The adobe courthouse where Billy the Kid shot two deputies and rode out in 1881 — original jail cells intact, staircase where Deputy Bell died preserved, state museum open Thursday through Monday
US-380, Lincoln, NM 88338
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
$7 admission; free for New Mexico residents and children under 16 — see nmhistoricsites.org for current pricing
Access
Limited Access
Historic adobe building with original wood staircase; some uneven floors and narrow passages
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1874 · L.G. Murphy & Co. Store — Center of Lincoln County War Conflict · April 28, 1881 — Billy the Kid Killed Deputies Bell and Olinger, Escaped · Deputy James Bell Killed on Building Staircase · Deputy Bob Olinger Killed at Building Window · New Mexico State Museum Preserving Original Jail Cells
The building that houses the Lincoln Historic Site was constructed in 1873–74 as the store and headquarters of L.G. Murphy & Co., the dominant commercial power in Lincoln County. Lawrence Murphy and his partner James Dolan supplied goods to the U.S. Army and to local ranchers, and their control of county contracts and credit arrangements was the core grievance driving the Lincoln County War — the factional conflict between the Murphy-Dolan alliance and the competing interests of John Tunstall and Alexander McSween that broke into open violence in 1878.
After the war's most acute phase passed, the building was purchased by Lincoln County on December 15, 1880, for use as the courthouse and jail. By 1881, it held one of the most closely watched prisoners in the territory: William H. Bonney, known as Billy the Kid, convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. He was kept in a second-floor jail room with leg irons and handcuffs.
On April 28, 1881, the handcuffs came off. The exact sequence of events remains contested in the historical record, but the outcome is documented: Deputy James Bell was shot on the building's interior staircase while escorting the Kid to an outhouse. Deputy Bob Olinger, who had walked across the street to a hotel, heard the shot and returned. The Kid had retrieved Olinger's own double-barreled shotgun from the sheriff's office and fired it from a second-floor window as Olinger stood below. Olinger died in the street. The Kid cut through his leg irons with a file, called down to the townspeople gathered outside, and rode out of Lincoln on a horse from the livery stable. He was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner two months later, on July 14, 1881.
The building became a New Mexico state museum in the twentieth century. The original jail cells, the staircase where Bell was shot, and the window from which Olinger was killed are preserved and interpretively labeled. The site is managed by New Mexico Historic Sites and is open Thursday through Monday, with $7 admission.
Sources
The Old Lincoln County Courthouse's paranormal accounts center on two documented deaths in a single building on a single afternoon. Deputy James Bell died on the interior staircase. Deputy Bob Olinger died in the street just outside the window from which he was shot. Both deaths occurred April 28, 1881, and both are documented in contemporaneous sources.
Reported phenomena concentrate on the staircase. Visitors describe phantom footsteps ascending and descending the original wood stairs with no visible source, a sound that investigators have characterized as consistent with a dragging weight or chains. Cold spots are reported specifically on the staircase rather than throughout the building. These accounts are internally consistent across visits documented by Paranormal Traveler and other investigation sources.
In 2004, a forensic team reportedly conducted a luminol examination of the staircase area and found what they recorded as blood evidence, alongside photography that captured an unexplained orb at the stair location. The luminol finding, if accurate, would represent a rare intersection of documented forensic technique with a paranormal investigation at a historic site.
The Kid himself is a presence in several accounts — investigators describe a figure associated with the second-floor jail room and the staircase, attributed by the accounts to Bonney's ghost rather than the deputies'. Whether the reported phenomena have any connection to the specific history of April 28, 1881, cannot be established. The building's intact preservation — the original cells, the original staircase, the original window — gives investigators and visitors a direct spatial connection to the documented events that is unusual for a building of this age.
Notable Entities
State-operated museum open Thursday through Monday, 10am–4pm. Guided and self-guided options through the 1874 adobe building, including the original jail cells where Billy the Kid was held, the staircase where Deputy James Bell was shot on April 28, 1881, and exhibits on the Lincoln County War. The building preserves its original structure without major reconstruction.
Some links on this page may earn HauntBound a small commission when you book, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial picks are independent. Full disclosure
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Free Guide
8 verified stops, rated for families, mapped in order. Free.
One email to confirm, then the guide link. Unsubscribe anytime.
Joliet, IL
The Old Joliet Prison opened May 22, 1858, when fifty-three inmates arrived at a small structure to begin building the larger penitentiary around themselves. Designed by Chicago architect William W. Boyington and constructed of limestone quarried on-site, it operated until 2002 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.
Moundsville, WV
West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville opened in 1876, modeled on Joliet Prison's Gothic Revival design at half scale. Over 119 years of operation it housed more than 36 homicides within its walls, 94 executions, and was ranked among the top ten most violent correctional facilities in the United States. A 1986 West Virginia Supreme Court ruling that its 5-by-7-foot cells constituted cruel and unusual punishment contributed to its closure in 1995.
Rawlins, WY
Construction of the Wyoming Frontier Prison began in 1888 and completed in December 1901, opening with 104 cells, no electricity, no running water, and minimal heating. Over its operational history, 13,500 people were incarcerated there and 14 death sentences were carried out — nine by hanging and five in the gas chamber added in 1936. The prison closed in 1981 when a new facility opened near Rawlins.