Editing Billy the Kid (section)

===Prelude===
[[File:John Tunstall seated pose cropped and retouched.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|[[John Henry Tunstall]], 1872|left]]
After returning to New Mexico, Bonney worked as a cowboy for English businessman and rancher [[John Henry Tunstall]] (1853–1878), near the Rio Felix, a tributary of the [[Pecos River]], in Lincoln County (now in [[Chaves County]]). Tunstall and his business partner and lawyer [[Alexander McSween]] were opponents of an alliance formed by [[Irish-American]] businessmen [[Lawrence Murphy]], [[James Dolan (Lincoln County War)|James Dolan]], and John Riley. The three men had wielded an economic and political hold over Lincoln County since the early 1870s, due in part to their ownership of a beef contract with nearby [[Fort Stanton]] and a well-patronized dry goods store in the town of [[Lincoln, New Mexico|Lincoln]].

By February 1878, McSween owed $8,000 to Dolan, who obtained a court order and asked Lincoln County Sheriff [[William J. Brady]] to [[Attachment (law)|attach]] nearly $40,000 worth of Tunstall's property and livestock. Tunstall put Bonney in charge of nine prime horses and told him to relocate them to his ranch for safekeeping. Meanwhile, Sheriff Brady assembled a large posse to seize Tunstall's cattle.{{sfn|Nolan|2009a|pp=188–190}}<ref name=tunstallfamily />

On February 18, 1878, Tunstall learned of the posse's presence on his land and rode out to intervene. During the encounter, one member of the posse shot Tunstall in the chest, knocking him off his horse. Another posse member took Tunstall's gun and killed him with a shot to the back of his head.<ref name="tunstallfamily">{{Cite magazine |last=Boardman |first=Mark |date=September 25, 2010 |title=The Tunstalls Return – John Tunstall's kin traveled from England to fathom death in Lincoln. |url=http://www.truewestmagazine.com/the-tunstalls-return/ |url-status=live |magazine=True West Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216031421/http://www.truewestmagazine.com/the-tunstalls-return/ |archive-date=February 16, 2016 |access-date=February 10, 2016 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>{{sfn|Utley|1989|p=46}} Tunstall's murder ignited the conflict between the two factions that became known as the [[Lincoln County War]].<ref name=tunstallfamily />{{sfn|Nolan|2009a|pp=23–55}}