About EVP

About The Sound Files

About Lincoln

About Billy

This page is intended to report on several EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) sessions that have been performed in Lincoln, New Mexico. The small town is rich in history, some of it violent, and contains a number of buildings and structures that have been standing since the 1830's.

Links are given in the table of buildings above to reports on particular research sessions. Screen captures are shown, in each report, of possible EVP, with attached sound clips. You need only move your mouse over the image to hear the sound.

This is an ongoing project: if the name of a building is a link, you can go to that page and read what sessions have been performed there, with what results. If the name of a building is not a link, come back later and see whether the team has visited the building in the meantime.

It is worth mentioning that Lincoln is situated in a rather deep, narrow valley that runs northwest to southeast, with the historic buildings mostly tucked up against the hills to the south. Cell phones don't work down here, and radio signals are difficult or impossible to get in most of town. Television can only be received via satellite. The influence of such signals can, therefore, be largely ruled out when evaluating EVP recordings. None of the buildings listed above has a satellite dish attached to it except the Wortley Hotel.

I make no claims about life after death or about the cause of the phenomena presented on this website: this material is presented with no opinion except regarding what might be said in the clips provided. Also, I make no claims concerning my own psychic or “sensitive” abilities, nor do I claim superior spirituality. I happen to be Christian and perhaps more inclined to accept the evidence presented here: I believe, however, that these phenomena occur whatever religion or absence of religion is manifested by the living participants.

Most important, I am not performing this research with a view to contacting particular dead persons. Anyone who wishes to make connection with dead relatives should please call on a medium or psychic, not me.

Brief History of Lincoln

The Bonito Valley was settled by Mexicans in the early 1800's, when the territory was still in Mexico's possession. To be sure, the land was originally Apache hunting ground, and the earliest surviving structure in Lincoln is the Torreon, a round tower constructed of river stone and faced with adobe mud, having slits all around for rifles to be used against maurading Apaches. After President Polk's little war of acquisition of territory from Mexico, the area was designated part of the Southwest Territories and non-Hispanic settlers began to arrive. Lincoln was designated the county seat of Lincoln County, which was considerably larger than it is now.

Approximately 10 miles southwest of Lincoln stands Fort Stanton, originally constructed as a post from which to subdue the Apache tribes. After the Civil War, an economic network began to thrive which became known as the Santa Fe Ring. Its expression in Lincoln was through a store and supply outfit which provided goods to the Fort and ran a monopoly for dry goods over the local population. The Store was based in a large adobe building at the west end of Lincoln, which building eventually became the courthouse when the store's fortunes declined.

The store was run by J.G. Murphy and later his partner James Dolan. Between them, the officers at Fort Stanton, the collusion of local law enforcement officers and the occulted participation of politicians in Santa Fe, the Ring throve on the backs of the Hispanic population.

In late 1877 a young ambitious Englishman named John Tunstall entered Lincoln County, started a ranch nearby, and built a store in the middle of Lincoln, with the express intention of competing with and besting the Murphy-Dolan outfit. By the end of February 1878 Tunstall was dead, murdered by the posse of Lincoln County Sheriff Brady. The immediate reasons for this murder are so complicated as to warrant a much longer narrative than this, and if you are interested to know more, I recommend you take up one or more of the books about Billy the Kid cited below.

Tunstall's ranch hands, which group included Billy, themselves formed a posse and called themselves the Regulators. Authority over the group went to Tunstall's attorney and business partner, Alexander McSween, who lived next door to the Tunstall Store. They went so far as to get themselves duly sworn in by the Lincoln town constable, which meant that the Lincoln County War was actually fought by two legally sworn in bodies of men. The Regulators grew in numbers as they were joined by sympathetic locals: Sheriff Brady, in turn, called upon Fort Stanton's commander, Col. Nathan Dudley, for assistance. This request was of course illegal, but Col. Dudley justified his response by saying that the presence of his troops was intended to protect any civilians from harm.

With troops involved, the Regulators' cause was doomed. When the shooting part of the war broke out, they were soon trapped in just one building, the McSween home. Brady's men set fire to the house. It tok two days to burn, during which time McSween, never a fighter, had a collapse of nerve. Billy stepped forward and outlined a plan by which they might escape, that night, to the river nearby. More Regulators might have gotten away had not McSween frozen at the door. He was shot, as were many others, and what followed was a barbaric celebration by the Brady posse, a bonfire and drunken dance over the dead bodies of the Regulators. The Tunstall Store was looted as soldiers stood by.

Grave markers of John Tunstall and Alexander McSween, behind the Tunstall Store

Billy the Kid

William Henry McCarty may be the most famous outlaw, ever, and I do not propose to add to the huge body of writing about him. Most websites, including Wikipedia, contain inaccuracies or statements which cannot be proved.

I will say that Billy is one of the main reasons why tourists come to Lincoln in the first place. He wasn't born here, nor died here either, but he played a role in the Lincoln County War and certain other events that took place between 1878 and 1881.Where appropriate, I will relate history about Billy when I discuss sessions in particular buildings.

The best way to learn about Billy and his historical context is from the following book (links to Amazon.com)s:

Billy the Kid: A SHort and Violent Life by Robert Utley

Such Men as Billy the Kid by Joel Jacobsen

The West of Billy the Kid by Frederick Nolan

Illustrated Life and Times of Billy the Kid by Bob Boze Bell (link to True West magazine website)

Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride by Michael Wallis (published this year)

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