and the group lasted only about three months, a period during which Chavez remained with Billy the Kid's gang. Chavez allegedly testified alongside Billy the Kid in court to try to implicate the US Army in connection to the burning of the McSween house, and the subsequent deaths that occurred during the fires. It is believed that in 1880, Chavez murdered a dangerous convict in a New Mexico jail. Chavez became adrift after Billy the Kid's death in 1881, traveling across the American Southwest, sometimes without any particular destination in mind. He did arrive at Las Vegas, New Mexico, in time to meet Bob Ford, the killer of Jesse James. According to legend the two had agreed to a shooting game between them. Ford was so impressed with Chavez's shooting abilities, that he fled immediately after he was asked to have a duel against Chavez. Chavez eventually became a deputy sheriff, but he allegedly was not able to leave his life as an outlaw. He became friends with Vicente Silva and joining Silva's two gangs, including Las Gorras Blancas ("The White Caps"), a group that was considered by many Anglos (English speaking settlers) to be a bandit group, and by most Native New Mexican Hispanos to be freedom fighters. Silvas' other group, the "Bandits Society," was accused by Anglo immigrants to New Mexico Territory as operating much like a mafia, trying to make profits by forcing people out of their properties. 1890s Vicente Silva ordered the killing of Patricio Maes, which was carried out on October 22, 1892 by José, Eugenio Alarid and Julian Trujillo. In February 1893, the group was ordered to kill Silva's brother in law, Gabriel Sandoval, out of fear that he was privy to the murder and was going to inform the police. Gabriel Sandoval's death backfired on Silva, when his wife became concerned about the whereabouts of her brother. Silva ordered Chavez, Alarid and Trujillo to murder his wife, and the three men became worried about Silva's mental state. While digging a grave for Silva's wife, the trio decided they were going to kill him as well. When Silva brought his wife to the burial site, the trio shot and killed both of them, and buried them in the same grave. The following year in 1894, a man was arrested for the Maes murder, and implicated Chavez, Alarid, and Trujillo in the murder of Gabriel