"As mentioned in Catherine’s biography, it’s suspected that Joseph and Billy the Kid were half brothers. Several childhood friends in Silver City said that Joe (or Josie as he was called) was larger and huskier than his older brother and evidently did not share the Kid’s outgoing and fun loving personality (many years later a Denver reporter would find Joseph to be a colorless character). Although Joseph’s death certificate in 1930 gave his age as seventy-six which meant he would have been born in 1854, a document by Joseph Antrim himself would prove otherwise. A voting registration form that Joseph filled out on October 13, 1916, gave his age as fifty-three making the year of birth around 1863. This is backed up by convincing evidence: first, in a 1885 census in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Joseph gave his age as twenty-one, again this would imply he was born in 1863. Then at his mother’s wedding his name is mentioned in the Book of Marriages as “Josie,” an acceptable nickname for a ten year old youngster, but not a nineteen year old. Lastly, the Silver City newspaper reported that Joseph Antrim “was among the children who spoke at the Christmas Tree and New Year’s Eve Festival held in the City Hall on Thursday evening, December 30, 1875.” I’ll also throw in the fact that after his mother died, wouldn’t the so-called twenty-one year old Joseph be quite old enough to fend for himself, instead of being placed in foster care by his stepfather?"
