If Billy the Kid didn't have reason enough to free himself, Olinger gave him another reason by continually harassing him. A woman who had seen Olinger guarding Billy was interviewed more than 50 years after the fact (see They 'Knew' Billy the Kid: Interviews with Old-time New Mexicans, edited by Robert F. Kadlec). She said of the guard: 'He was a big burly fellow, and every one that I ever heard speak of him said he was mean and overbearing, and I know that he tantalized Billy while guarding him, for he invited me to the hanging just a few days before he was killed. Even after he was killed I never heard any one say a single nice thing about him.' Garrett himself said that Olinger and Billy the Kid had a 'reciprocal hatred.' Olinger and the Kid had supported opposing factions during the Lincoln County War, and Olinger had killed Billy's friend John Jones in August 1879.