Randy Guijarro is a peace-loving man who is also fond of antiques. The man while going back to his home gets attracted by an antique store. He had been contemplating buying a gift for his wife who too happens to be an antique lover. Though the shop looks above average, crammed with trashes belonging to different eras, he managed to find something. Well, what he finds tears the world in two groups. Find out here what he finds that affects the entire world.
Randy Guijarro belongs to Fremont, California. He is a telecommunications technician by profession and an antique collector by passion. The man had a great interest in learning new facts about the history. He has a penchant for collecting antiques since childhood and soon his this hobby was going to reward him with something big. The man was on his way to home from work when he spotted a junk shop.
He had enough time in his hand so he decided to go inside the shop and take a look if there is anything worth buying. Though the store comes in his way to the work, he had never been to this shop before. It had been a long time since he had bought something old for her wife and that is why when he saw the shop he could not resist but explore it.
In the world that is becoming expensive day by day, decorating one's house with antiquated items is emerging as a trend nowadays. Not only are they inexpensive but also gives one's house a new and unique look. Maybe that is why the popularity of thrift store is increasing manifold. Randy too liked embellishing his house with old items.
The man had a vast collection of sports cards, comic books, coins along with other things. Interestingly, he had been collecting all these items from a very young age. However, none of them had any significant worth. But they all were very close to his heart and soon the long list was going to have a new addition that was literally going to change their life.
Randy was a lucky chap as his wife, Linda too had an interest in antiques. No doubt their house was crammed with ancient goods. The two are immensely knowledgeable when it comes to history and they channelize it in finding and collecting goods with historical value. They frequent the thrift shops all across the country too as they believe sometimes the quirkiest thing can be found there.
The two would often set out of their home in search of junk, antique, and thrift shops. Surprisingly, despite being an explorer Randy never turned towards this junk shop. But today all of a sudden he decided to get inside it. Even he could not understand why did he make this decision. No doubt, something amazing was bound to happen.
The couple was enamored by the antiques. And believed that to be a perfect gift to present someone with. It had always worked. The recipients would love their choices and often get dumbfounded by their fondness for collecting the artifact.
The man entered the junk shop that looked untidy and full of what could be called "trash." The owner greeted him warmly and surprisingly too as his shop hardly used to have any customer. Randy greeted back by smiling at him and took a round of the shop. However, nothing could attract his attention. As mentioned earlier, the shop was overstuffed with goods and things were piled over each other. In order to inspect them, he had to lift the goods placed first.
The name of the oblivion store was Fulton’s Folly Antique Collective and was located at Fresno Tower District. As the city has very few antique lovers, the store stayed a thing of disinterest for a large fraction of public. Randy knew that very well and that is why he did not feel amazed at the loneliness of the shop after entering it. The shop had only two souls dwelling inside it, first he and second, the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper did not take much time to realize that his customer was losing interest and it was then he ushered him to another cabinet. But what captured Randy's attention was some boxes that were born by two men. The men just had stepped into the shop from an inside room. The two were carrying big boxes in their hands that looked very heavy too. Randy immediately got intrigued by the boxes. He wanted to know what was in them.
Intrigued, he asked the shopkeeper about the content in the box. He told him that the boxes were containing objects that did not get sold despite being on display for long. So, now they were throwing it out. The shopkeeper called them an “old boxes of junk.” But was it really junk? Whatever the case was he felt immediately drawn to them.
He asked the shopkeeper if he could see the items stuffed in the boxes. The owner did not stop him. He asked men to put the boxes down. No doubt, the box was heavy as it was carrying a hell of things. Men started putting the items out one by one. They all were indeed trash. However, the curious customer sifted through the things in search of some interesting object. It was then his eyes catches something peculiar in the junk box.
Along with worthless items, one of the boxes had a card box too. The card box in itself had a unique design. Unique enough to attract his attention. He picked that up second after he laid his eyes on that. The card box looked very very old. It had some of its sides torn but what made him startled even more was the thing lurking inside it. He opened up the card box!
On the other hand, the shopkeeper was all confused. This was the first time he had seen a customer checking the trash kept in boxes so keenly. The items that failed abysmally in catching the attention of the customers were now drawing an antique lover while being stuffed in the box. He tried to tell the man that he was wasting his time but the curiosity-infused soul did not listen to him.
What could he find in a box full of junks? It was not only the shopkeeper who was confounded but those men too. They had checked very carefully before enlisting goods in trash and junk. They were sure that the man was wasting his time as he was not going to get anything valuable. Well, they would have never been so wrong in their entire life.
It had been a long time he had given his wife a present. So whatever Randy was going to take from this store was going to be a gift for his wife. So, he wanted that to be special if not worth a penny. Though he had no idea his new discovery that he had almost found was going to cause a ripple all across the world. Inadvertently, he was going to bring a forgotten part of history to the light. Now the question remains what was that?
Randy opened the card box only to get amazed further. He just had not expected what he saw inside the box. Astonishingly, the men who had put them in trash also had no idea about the content. They had not bothered to open it up before declaring it a piece of junk. Well, they soon were going to regret the decision. But, wait did I tell you what was inside the card box? Check the next slide to find out!
There was a couple of pictures inside the box. It seemed the pictures belonged to the 19th century as they were old and had patches of discoloration. It was then he eyed the second photograph. There was something different about it. The content was unique. What was so special about the content of the photograph?
The content of the photograph included a bunch of men playing croquet. Now you must be wondering what is so special about that? Well, Randy had felt an immediate connection with the picture and he decided to buy it. Unfortunately, the man had only $2 with him at that time. However, he did not have to negotiate with the storekeeper as the seller cheerfully traded the pictures with him in $2 believing it to be a waste. Well, the shopkeeper was going to regret his decision very soon. But first, let's find out about the unique content of the picture.
Liz Larsson of UK’s Croquet Association said, “Croquet became popular in the 1860s because it was the first sport that women could play on the same terms as men, and men and women could play each other. It had a huge boost in its popularity.” In the UK, however, it was still not a game for the masses: “Not really. You needed a lawn, and a fairly large one.”
Randy excitedly brought the photos home with him. Randy knew that the men in the picture were playing croquet but what itched him the most was their identity. He did not know who were they and he really wanted to know about that. He said, “No idea who they were. It’s almost like a shadowy haze.” No doubt the color and the composition of the photograph was extremely fascinating for him. He decided to take help of internet to find out who are they.
But what was he going to type in the search query? He looked at the photograph one more time. This time he did find something strange. There was a man standing in the middle of the group with a croquet stick donning a hat and stripy sweatshirt. Strangely, he looked very familiar to Randy. Who was he looking like? After straining all his nerve he realized that the man in picture carries a great resemblance to Billy The Kid, a notorious gunfighter and gang member of bygones.
Though he was kind of had inkling that the man in the picture was Billy the Kid, he still was not sure. In order to put an end to his doubt, he decided to ask his wife Linda for help who he thinks of as a “wonderful, pragmatic woman.” The pair did an extensive research and studied a number of photographs featuring Billy the Kid. Soon they identified the other two people in the photograph. Two of the men in the photograph were Charlie Bowdre and Tom O’Folliard. However, they were still not sure whether the suspicious man is Billy the Kid or not.
Finding out more about the 19th-century outlaw was difficult as there was only one photo featuring him was available. The photo that enjoyed the monopoly was sold in 2011 at $2.3 million. What made this photo special was it being the only evidence letting the world peek into his mysterious life. In the photo, the man is seen holding a gun. So, had Randy discovered the second one?
Born as Henry McCarty, Billy came to the world in November or September of the year 1859. However, his birth date is a subject of dispute for the historians due to the lack of evidence corroborating the day he took birth on. He was called William H. Bonney by his friends and relatives during his growing days. However, he rose to fame as Billy the Kid. This is true that Newyork was Billy's birth town but he along with his family kept shifting from city to city after his father's death. The family settled in Silver City in New Mexico. Billy got another blow when his mother said goodbye to the world when he was only 14 years old.
Now the little kid was not only an orphan but also helpless. However, he managed to get himself a space in a local boarding house. But the boy did not seem to be happy with his life, he wanted to do something big. So he indulged in his first crime in 1875, when he participated in a robbery. There was more he could do.
He did not stop there, in fact, the robbery had inflated him with the confidence and he even went on to do petty crimes too. Just after ten days of his first theft he along with his friend George Schaefer dared to steal clothes and guns kept in a Chinese laundry. However, the two could not run away further and soon got caught and jailed. The cops had not expected Billy to be so shrewd. The boy escaped the prison only after two days of his arrest.
Billy attracted disrepute when he joined hand with an ill-famed deputized group during Lincoln County War in New Mexico. The escaped prisoner journeyed straightly to Arizona Territory in order to get into that abhorred gang named The Regulators. Both the group got themselves involved in a number of fights. The thing became worst when The Regulators and Lincoln Sheriff Department battled a bloody fight that put a big number of people to death. One of them who became the victim of that horrible fight was prominent sheriff William J. Brady. Again he got thrown into the jail but he escaped the bar once more. But this time his destiny had another plan for him. The man was shot dead at the age of 21 by an officer named Garret. However many people believe that his death was faked.
Clearly, the man was running all his life. Furthermore, he spent his life out of the sight of the public. Naturally, nothing much could be gathered about this outlaw. And that is the reason why the professionals could not believe when Randy informed them about his discovery. In fact, they doubted if the photograph was authentic or not and the news of finding it in a local store was all the way more skeptical. Additionally, they had met a number of people who would come to them with a picture and would claim that to be original but after verification, they would turn out to be fake. So was this one a fake picture too.
Randy was very sure that the photo he just had found was an original one. And he was going to do whatever he could to prove that. Subsequently, Randy consulted a producer for National Geographic Jeff Aiello. The two came up with an amazing idea of documenting their mission stretching up to five years to prove their point. Would you want to know who narrated that amazing historical and forensic documentary? Well, it was acting superstar, Kevin Costner.
The man was hell-bent to make people believe that the photograph he had discovered was the original one. In those five years, he talked to experts and eventually made a documentary but still, there are some who refuses to call it the original one. Randy explains it better, “It was a bit of a lonely journey.” He named the picture “almost Twilight Zone-ish.” You may want to know why he called it that. Well, because there were some people who considered it too good to be real. But as they say, hard work pays off. The man soon got the fruit of his hard work when science stepped in and made the much-awaited revelation. That made the haters shut off.
The forensic experts finally drew a conclusion after taking help from forensic scientists, antique experts, art collectors, and historians. The team used facial recognition to examine the picture more clearly. The entire process took five years to complete but Randy was not sad about it. He knew that the result would be in his favor only.
The method of facial recognition proved the most helpful. Billy kid was one of those famous personalities from history who did not get much documented. However, his co-members were very well documented that shed light on their mission. The photograph that Randy had was featuring 18 people apart from the suspicious man. Amazingly, all the 188 members got tracked by the scientists as they had been documented in history. Not only that the experts also found out about the building in the background.
The experts learned that more than half of the people in the group belonged to "The Regulators." Well, this information asserted Randy's claim even more. The experts went ahead and decided to excavate the remnants of the schoolhouse situated in Chavez County in New Mexico. It is the same building, that was behind the men playing croquet. The experts succeeded in finding out the year in which the photo was taken. It was 1878.
David McCarthy from Kagin’s said, “We had to be certain that we could answer and verify where, when, how and why this photograph was taken. 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 ensure that nothing was out of place.” So, they took every tiny detail into consideration. The expert added “An original Billy the Kid photo is the holy grail of Western Americana.
Eventually, the experts confirmed that the unnamed man was Billy the Kid. Well, which implies that the antique dealers and collectors were ready to bid any high to get that photo. Kagin's, a numismatist firm, that helped Randy a lot in verifying the authenticity of the photo offered to insure the picture for $5 million. Randy never willed to keep the picture of such historical value with himself and eventually decided to sell it to another historian.
The photograph is still with Randy and Linda. They do not know how much are they going to earn from this picture that they bought at $2. But they have already planned what are they going to do with the money that they would get. They are going to pay off their debts and most importantly would use the money to fund their further travels that they would undertake in search of more antique goods. He said, “We could use a new vehicle. We’d really like to look for lost pieces of history be it the US or worldwide. We love to be adventurers. The hunt is a really grand thing.”
From there on their interest in antiques has only increased. He even urges to the other people to find out more about the good that they are about to throw away. Perhaps some of them have a great historical value. Randy explains, “I hope this prompts others out there to look into trunks and attics because there are so many lost treasures out there.”
Randy expresses his emotions after proving that the picture he holds was the original one. He expressed, “It was wonderful. We were very emotional watching it.” The 54-year-old man was saying, “We’ve laid it out, told the truth, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the ride.”
He reminisces that day when he bought the picture. He recalls, “I had just a couple of bucks left, and I found three photographs I liked, and of the three, the oldest tintype, I actually kind of chucked it back in the box.” Well, the life has its own way of revealing things.