Billy the Kid

For other uses, see Billy the Kid (disambiguation).

Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid posing for a ferrotype photograph
Born	Henry McCarty September 17, 1859 New York City
Died	July 14, 1881(1881-07-14) (aged 21) Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Cause of death	Gunshot wound from Sheriff Pat F. Garrett
Resting place	34°24′13″N 104°11′37″W
Other names	William H. Bonney, Henry Antrim, Kid Antrim
Occupation(s)	Horse rustler, cowboy, gambler, outlaw
Height	5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Parents	Father: Patrick McCarty Stepfather: William Antrim Mother: Catherine Devine
Relatives	Brother: Joseph McCarty

Henry McCarty (September 17, 1859 – July 14, 1881), better known under the pseudonyms of Billy the Kid and William H. Bonney, was a 19th-century gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier outlaw in the American Old West. According to legend, he killed twenty-one men, but it is now generally believed that he killed eight, with the first, Francis P. "Windy" Cahill, on August 17, 1877. McCarty was 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) tall with blue eyes, blond or dirty blond hair, and a smooth complexion. He was described as being friendly and personable at times and as lithe as a cat. Contemporaries described him as a "neat" dresser who favored an "unadorned Mexican sombrero". These qualities, along with his cunning and celebrated skill with firearms, contributed to his paradoxical image as both a notorious outlaw and a folk hero. He was relatively unknown during most of his lifetime, but was catapulted into legend in 1881 when New Mexico's governor Lew Wallace placed a price on his head. In addition, the Las Vegas Gazette (Las Vegas, New Mexico) and the New York Sun carried stories about his exploits. Other newspapers followed suit. Billy the Kid was still alive, and Pat Garrett's prisoner, when a reporter gave what Philip J. Rasch regarded as "The best contemporary description of the famous desperado." That account was printed in the Las Vegas Gazette on December 28, 1880 and stated that Billy the Kid "did look human, indeed, but there was nothing very mannish about him in appearance, for he looked to be a mere boy. He is about five feet eight or nine inches tall, slightly built and lithe, weighing about 140; a frank and open countenance, looking like a school boy, with the traditional silky fuzz on his upper lip; clear blue eyes, with a rougish snap about them; light hair and complexion. He is, in all, quite a handsome looking fellow, the only imperfection being two prominent front teeth slightly protruding like squirrel's teeth, and he has agreeable and winning ways."

Early life

Birth in New York City

The birthdate of Billy has been disputed for many years. Robert M. Utley, a leading Billy the Kid researcher, credited three historians with tracking "Billy the Kid through public records and stripped away much of the myth". Utley cited the work of Philip J. Rasch, as well as Robert N. Mullin, who later co-authored a landmark article with Rasch. Finally, Utley cited an 1980 article by Jack DeMattos that was the first to cite documentary evidence of Billy's birth, baptism, and residence in New York City.

Billy's parents, 21-year-old Patrick McCarty and 20-year-old Catherine Devine, were married on June 15, 1851 at the Church of St. Peter at 16 Barclay Street in New York City by Rev. M.A. Madden. They first had Bridget McCarty, born in 1853. Henry McCarty was born at 210 Greene Street in New York City on September 17, 1859 and he was christened on September 28, 1859 at the Church of St. Peter . His godparents were Thomas Cooney and Mary Clark.

Further New York City Documentation

The next documentation concerning the future "Billy the Kid" and his family was provided on June 26, 1860 when they were enumerated on the census for that year by Assistant Marshal Edward Hogan of New York City. Hogan misspelled their surnames as "McCarthy" rather than "McCarty," but there is no doubt that these Manhattan First Ward residents were the same McCarty family who resided at 210 Greene Street. They were listed as: Patrick McCarthy [sic], age 30, born United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; Catherine McCarthy [sic], age 29, born United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; Bridget McCarthy [sic], age 7, born New York; and Henry McCarthy [sic], age 1, born New York.

The 1860 New York City Directory did manage to get the family's surname correct. That directory only recorded the head of a household's name, and listed Patrick McCarty, "day laborer," as living at "210 Greene Street." The surname spelling was confused again in the 1863 New York City Directory, which listed "Patrick McCarthy" [sic] as living at 210 Greene Street. This was also the last listing for the father of Billy the Kid.

The Birth of Billy the Kid's Younger Brother

The final McCarty child was born at 210 Greene Street on October 14, 1863. He was born Joseph McCarty, but later took his stepfather's surname and was known for most of his life as "Joseph Antrim." He was routinely identified by historians as Billy the Kid's older brother. That theory was based on a death certificate which suggested that he was born in 1854, rather than the correct year of 1863. That theory persisted for years, until other documents were uncovered which proved that the 1863 birth date was the correct one. One of the earliest supporting documents was an 1880 U.S. Census record in which Joseph Antrim gave his age as seventeen and his birthplace as New York. On an 1885 Colorado State Census for Arapahoe County, Joseph Antrim gave his age as 21, which he still was in the summer of 1885 when the census was taken.

The Death of Billy the Kid's Father

Patrick McCarty died shortly after the birth of his third child. The cause of his death has not yet been learned. All that is known is that he was last listed in the 1863 New York City Directory. The following year marked the only appearance of his widow as being the head of a family living at 210 Greene Street. In that 1864 city directory, she was listed as "Catherine McCarty, widow of Patrick."

Alleged Indianapolis Residence

No solid documentation has been yet uncovered for the McCarty family's exact whereabouts between late 1864 (when they were last listed in New York City) and the summer of 1870 (when they turned up in Kansas). Some historians have suggested an 1868 Indianapolis residence, due to a city directory listing of "Catherine McCarty, widow of Michael" living at 199 North East Street recorded that year. However, it seems unlikely for this person to be Billy the Kid's mother, considering the New York listing for her as the "widow of Patrick".

Wichita

The first time that the McCarty family can be located again with any certainty is August 10, 1870 when they settled in Kansas. On September 12, 1870 Mrs. Catherine McCarty was given title to a vacant lot in Wichita. During February 1871, William Henry Harrison Antrim was given title to lots adjoining those of Mrs. Catherine McCarty in Wichita. Then, on March 25, 1871, Mrs. McCarty paid $200 for a quarter section of land at the going price of $1.25 per acre. To support her claim, Antrim submitted a sworn statement that read in part: "I have known Catherine McCarty for 6 years last past; that she is a single woman over the age of twenty-one years, the head of a family consisting of two children and a citizen of the United States."

New Mexico

Marriage of Catherine Devine McCarty and William H.H. Antrim

Both the McCarty family and Antrim next turn up on March 1, 1873 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. On that date, William Henry Harrison Antrim married Catherine Devine McCarty at Santa Fe's First Presbyterian Church. They were married by a minister named David F. McFarland. The witnesses were Harvey Edmonds, Mrs. A.R. McFarland, her daughter Katie, and the bride's two sons, 13 year-old Henry and 9 year-old Joseph, who was called "Josie." Shortly after the ceremony, the family moved from Santa Fe to Silver City, New Mexico.

The Death of Billy the Kid's Mother

On September 16, 1874, eighteen months after her second marriage, Catherine Devine McCarty Antrim died. The only known obituary for Billy the Kid's mother appeared three days later:

"Died in Silver City, on Wednesday the 16th inst., Catherine, wife of William Antrim, aged 45 years. Mrs. Antrim and her husband and family came to Silver City about one year and a half ago, since which time her health has not been good, having suffered from an affliction of the lungs. For the last four months she has been confined to her bed. The funeral occurred from the family residence on Main Street, at 2 o'clock on Thursday."

Stealing clothes from a Chinese Laundry

Henry McCarty had his first known run-in with the law exactly one year after his mother's death, and just one day before his sixteenth birthday. A Silver City newspaper gave this report of the event:

"Henry McCarty, who was arrested on Thursday [September 16, 1875] and committed to jail to await the action of the Grand Jury upon the charge of stealing clothes from Charley Sun and Sam Chung, celestials, sans cues, sans joss sticks, escaped from prison yesterday through the chimney. It's believed that Henry was simply the tool of "Sombrero Jack," who done the stealing while Henry done the hiding. Jack has skinned out."

First major crimes

According to some accounts, McCarty eventually found work as an itinerant ranch hand for Henry C. Hooker in southeastern Arizona. In 1876, McCarty settled in the vicinity of the Fort Grant Army Post in Arizona where he worked on ranches and tested his skills at local gaming houses. During this time, he became acquainted with John R. Mackie, a Scottish-born ex-cavalry private with a criminal bent. The two men supposedly became involved in the risky but profitable enterprise of horse thievery. McCarty stole from local soldiers and became known by the name of "Kid Antrim". Biographer Robert M. Utley writes that the nickname arose because of McCarty's slight build and beardless countenance, his young years, and his appealing personality.

The Killing of "Windy" Cahill

The future "Billy the Kid" managed to keep out of the news for nearly two years. His next press clipping came from Arizona, where he killed his first documented victim Francis P. "Windy" Cahill on August 17, 1877. He was exactly one month shy of his eighteenth birthday. A Tucson paper gave this account of the killing:

"Austin [sic] Antrim shot F.P. Cahill near Camp Grant on the 17th instant, and the latter died on the 18th. Cahill made a statement before his death to the effect that he had some trouble with Antrim during which the shooting was done ... The coroner's jury found that the shooting 'was criminal and unjustifiable,' and that 'Henry Antrim, alias Kid, is guilty thereof.' The inquest was held by M.L. Wood, J.P., and the jurors were M. McDowell, Geo. Teague, T. McCleary, B.E. Norton, Jas. L. Hunt and D.H. Smith."

In fear of Cahill's friends, McCarty fled the Arizona Territory and entered into New Mexico Territory. He eventually arrived at the former army post of Apache Tejo, where he joined a band of cattle rustlers who raided the sprawling herds of cattle magnate John Chisum. During this period, McCarty was spotted by a resident of Silver City, and the teenager's involvement with the notorious gang was mentioned in a local newspaper. McCarty rode for a time with the gang of rustlers known as the Jesse Evans Gang, but then turned up at Heiskell Jones's house in Pecos Valley, New Mexico. According to this account, Apaches stole McCarty's horse, forcing him to walk many miles to the nearest settlement, which happened to be Jones's home. When he arrived, the young man was supposedly near death, but Mrs. Jones nursed him back to health. The Jones family developed a strong attachment to McCarty and gave him one of their horses. At some point in 1877, McCarty began to refer to himself as "William H. Bonney".

Lincoln County War

Main article: Lincoln County War

Billy the Kid had returned to New Mexico just in time to play his role in the conflict known as the "Lincoln County War." Since the early 1870's Lincoln County, New Mexico had been under the economic and political control of three Irishmen named Lawrence G. Murphy (1830-1878), James Joseph Dolan (1848-1898) and John Henry Riley (1841-1916). Together, these three held the lucrative beef contract for nearby Fort Stanton and ran the major store in the town of Lincoln known as the "House of Murphy," or simply "The House." "The House" had the backing of a group of powerful New Mexico lawyers and businessmen known as the "Santa Fe Ring," who were led by Thomas Benton Catron (1840-1921).

Alexander A. McSween and John Henry Tunstall

A young lawyer named Alexander A. McSween (1844-1878) had once served as the lawyer for "The House." In that capacity, McSween settled a $10,000 insurance claim involving the late Emil Fritz, a one-time partner of Murphy's. The trouble began when McSween objected to the amount that "The House" planned on paying him for a fee. Joining McSween at this point was an Englishman named John Henry Tunstall (1853-1878). McSween and Tunstall had financial backing from cattle baron John Simpson Chisum (1824-1884), and formed a partnership to challenge the Former "House of Murphy," which had been renamed "James J. Dolan & Company," following the dying Murphy's retirement. Tunstall and McSween established a rival store and bank in Lincoln. Many citizens were happy to transfer their business to the new concern. It wasn't long before James J. Dolan & Company began to feel the pinch. At a particular low point, the Dolan firm was reduced to having to ask Tunstall's bank for a loan. In the meantime, John Henry Tunstall had purchased a ranch on the Rio Feliz and signed the eighteen year-old "Billy the Kid" as one of his cowboys.

Troubles for Tunstall

Tunstall immediately began having trouble with rustlers. During October 1877 his foreman, Richard M. "Dick" Brewer (1852-1878) led a group that captured four of the suspected rustlers. The four were Jessie [his spelling] Evans, Frank Baker, George Davis and Tom Hill. These men were turned over to Sheriff William Brady, but escaped from jail on November 17, 1877. After a writ of attachment was issued on McSween's property, Sheriff Brady attempted to attach Tunstall's property as well. The writ against Tunstall was issued on February 6, 1878 for $8,000. Sheriff Brady then went far beyond the amount specified in the writ, and attempted to attach nearly $40,000 of Tunstall's holdings. On February 13, 1878 deputy sheriff Jacob B. "Billy" Matthews (1847-1904) rode out to Tunstall's ranch, in an attempt to attach the Englishman's stock. Although Matthews had a large posse with him, he was faced down by Dick Brewer, who told Matthews that Tunstall's cattle would remain at the ranch until a ruling came from the court.

The Killing of John Henry Tunstall ( February 18, 1878 )

File:Tunstall wiki.JPG

John Tunstall. Taken in the mid 1870s.

When Tunstall returned to the ranch, four days later, he learned of the posse's visit and decided to take six of his prime horses to Lincoln for safekeeping. Tunstall left the following morning ( February18, 1878 ) accompanied by Dick Brewer, Robert A. Widenmann, John Middleton and Billy the Kid. Some thirty miles from Tunstall's ranch, Brewer and Widenmann spotted a large group of riders approaching. Brewer and Widenmann shouted a warning to their three companions. Billy the Kid and Middleton spurred their horses forward and joined Brewer and Widenmann. For reasons that cannot be explained, Tunstall refused to accompany Billy the Kid and Middleton and remained where he was to face the approaching posse alone. Within moments, Tunstall was surrounded by an eighteen-man posse led by Deputy Sheriff Billy Mathews. In the forefront of this group were William S. Morton, Jessie Evans and Tom Hill. A shot was fired - apparently by Morton - and Tunstall pitched from his saddle. Jessie Evans then took the dead Tunstall's pistol and fired a shot into his body. As a finishing touch, Evans also killed Tunstall's prized bay horse. "As a wry and macabre joke on Tunstall's great affection for horses, the dead bay's head was then pillowed on his hat", writes Frederick Nolan, Tunstall's biographer. Members of the House sought to portray Tunstall's death as a "justifiable homicide", but evidence at the scene suggested that Tunstall attempted to avoid a confrontation before he was shot down.

Warrants issued for Tunstall's Murderers

Brewer, Middleton, Widenmann and Billy the Kid watched the brutal murder of Tunstall, and managed to escape before they were discovered by the posse. The following day, warrants were issued for five of the posse members - Jessie Evans, Frank Baker, Tom Hill, George W. Hindman and William S. Morton. A warrant was also issued for James J. Dolan. On February 20, Constable Antanacio Martinez deputized Billy the Kid and Frederick T. Waite (1852-1895) to assist him in serving the warrants. Before they could act, Dolan's tool, Sheriff William Brady, arrested Martinez, Waite and the KId on the trumped-up charge of "disturbing the peace." They were finally released on February 22.

The Regulators

Following the release of the Kid and his companions, a posse calling themselves "Regulators" sprang into action. Its members included Billy the Kid, Charles Bowdre (1848-1880), Henry Newton Brown (1857-1884), Jim French, Frank MacNab, William McCloskey, John Middleton, Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock (1849-1929), Samuel Smith and Frederick T. Waite. The undisputed leader of the "Regulators" was Dick Brewer.

The Killings of Morton, Baker and McCloskey ( March 9, 1878 )

First blood came on March 9, 1878 when two of Tunstall's accused murderers, Frank Baker and William S. Morton, were captured by the "Regulators" and killed "while trying to escape." One of the "Regulators", William McCloskey was killed as well. McCloskey's death has remained the subject of a controversy that can never be resolved. Tunstall's foreman Dick Brewer had been appointed a special constable and given a warrant to arrest the murderers of Tunstall. He deputized the "Regulators," and they captured two of the wanted men, William S. Morton and Frank Baker. Upon returning to Lincoln, the Regulators reported that Morton and Baker had been shot on March 9, near Agua Negra during an alleged escape attempt. During their journey to Lincoln, the Regulators killed one of their members, William McCloskey, whom they suspected of being a traitor. According to the surviving "Regulators," either Baker or Morton managed to grab McCloskey's revolver and kill him. Not surprisingly, the Dolan faction offered an entirely different version, which said that McCloskey was supposedly killed by the "Regulators" after they had executed Barker and Morton, in order to keep him from talking. The local press accepted the Dolan version. The Santa Fe New Mexican noted that the fact that Baker and Morton had each been shot eleven times, indicated an "execution," and that McCloskey, who objected to what happened, had been eliminated to prevent him from "telling what he knew." Following the three killings, Governor Samuel Beach Axtell invalidated the appointment of Dick Brewer and all of his "Regulators." This did not deter the group, who then sought vengeance outside the law.

The Killing of Tom Hill ( March 13, 1878 )

The next of Tunstall's accused murderers, Tom Hill, was killed on March 13 - although not by any member of the "Regulators." Hill and Jessie Evans had attempted to rob the camp of a sheepherder near Tularosa. During the shoot-out that followed, Hill was killed and Evans was "so severely wounded in the wrist that he had to come to Fort Stanton for medical treatment."

The Killing of Sheriff Brady ( April 1, 1878 )

On April 1, 1878 Sheriff William Brady and his deputies George W. Hindman, Billy Mathews and George W. "Dad" Peppin were fired upon by five concealed assailants. Brady was killed outright and Hindman was mortally wounded. One of the assailants, Billy the Kid, then sprinted from his place of concealment to seize a Winchester rifle dropped by one of the lawmen. Deputy Billy Mathews then snapped off a shot that inflicted a flesh wound in the Kid's thigh. The Kid and his four companions then fled the scene.

The Gunfight at Blazer's Mill ( April 4, 1878 )

On the morning of April 4, 1878 Dick Brewer and a party of fourteen "Regulators' assembled at a place called Blazer's Mill. With Brewer were Billy the Kid, Charles Bowdre, Henry Newton Brown (1857-1884), Frank B. Coe (1851-1923), George Washington Coe (1856-1941), Jim French, Ignacio Gonzales, Frank MacNab, John Middleton, John Scroggins, Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock, Stephen Stevens and Frederick Waite. When the well-armed Andrew L. "Buckshot" Roberts rode up to Blazer's Mill, he was confronted by Frank B. Coe who told Roberts that the "Regulators" held a warrant for his arrest in connection with the Tunstall killing. Charlie Bowdre joined Coe and told Roberts to throw up his hands. Instead, Roberts lifted his rifle and both he and Bowdre fired together. Bowdre's shot hit Roberts in the chest. Bowdre suffered a minor flesh wound. Other Regulators, firing from hidden positions, now joined the fight. As Roberts fought his way toward the shelter of Dr. Joseph H. Blazer's house, he fired a shot that hit John Middleton in the lung. Roberts carbine was now empty. Billy the Kid charged Roberts. Somehow Roberts managed to jab his empty rifle into the Kid's mid-section, knocking the wind out of him. Roberts managed to make it to Dr. Blazer's office, where he found Dr. Blazer's single shot Springfield 45-60 in the office with a good supply of cartridges. Dick Brewer made the mistake of looking up from his hidden position. The dying Roberts shot Brewer squarely in the forehead and blew the top of his head off. As soon as Brewer was killed, Billy the Kid and the other "Regulators" abandoned Blazer's Mill, to seek medical help for three members of their group who had been wounded by Roberts."Buckshot" Roberts died the following day and was buried at Blazer's Mill next to Dick Brewer.

The Killing of Frank MacNab ( April 29, 1878 )

Warrants were now issued for several participants on both sides of the "Lincoln County War." Jessie Evans, and three others, were indicted as principals in the murder of Tunstall. James J. Dolan and Billy Mathews were listed as being "accesories," IN the meantime, Billy the Kid, Henry Newton Brown and John Middleton were charged with the Brady and Hindman killings. Finally, ten members of the "Regulators," including Billy the Kid, were charged with the murder of "Buckshot" Roberts. With the death of Dick Brewer, the leadership of the "Regulators" was taken over by Frank MacNab, who filled the role well -if only briefly. On April 29, 1878 MacNab, Frank Coe and Ab Sanders had a run-in with Dolan partisans from Seven Rivers, New Mexico. During the fight that followed, MacNab was killed and Sanders was wounded. Frank Coe was allowed to surrender. With Coe as their prisoner, the Seven Rivers crowd rode into Lincoln determined to wipe out the the McSween faction once and for all.

The First Battle of Lincoln ( April 30, 1878 )

Somehow the McSween forces learned of the approach of the Seven Rivers crowd, and quickly made a fortress at Isaac Ellis' store in the town of Lincoln. This so-called "First Battle of Lincoln" began on April 30 and resulted in only one man - "Dutch Charlie" Kruling of the Seven Rivers crowd - being wounded by George Coe. Utley,

The Killing of Manuel Segovia ( May 19, 1878 )

On May 19, 1878 a group of eighteen "Regulators" raided the Dolan-Riley cow camp and made off with twenty-seven horses. They also killed Manuel Segovia, known as "The Indian." Segovia had been a member of the posse that killed Tunstall on February 18, 1878.

George W. "Dad" Peppin Appointed Sheriff ( May 30, 1878 )

James J. Dolan used his "Santa Fe Ring" connections to get George W."Dad" Peppin appointed as the new sheriff of Lincoln County on May 30, 1878. The killing of Tunstall, an Englishman, had caused enough of an international flurry to cause Special Agent Frank Warner Angel to be sent from Washington to investigate the murder. Angel obtained statements from the principals of both factions, as well as the statements of those who claimed to be neutral. The skirmishes continued, over the next several weeks and culminated in the epic siege, known as the "Five-Day Battle," which, technically, occupied six days.

The Six Days of "The Five-Day Battle"

Sunday, July 14, 1878

The McSween faction gathered in Lincoln and stationed themselves in several buildings. At the McSween residence were Billy the Kid, Florencio Chavez, Jose Chavez Y Chavez(1851-1923), Jim French, Harvey Morris, Tom O'Folliard (1858-1880), Yginio Salazar (1863-1936) and five or six others. Another group led by Marin Chavez (1855-1931) and Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock had positioned themselves on the roof of Ike Stockton's saloon. In addition to these forces, Henry Newton Brown, Dick Smith and George Coe defended a nearby adobe bunkhouse.

Monday, July 15, 1878

At exactly high noon, Deputy Sheriff John Long walked to the front of the McSween residence with warrants for McSween and several others. The group inside the McSween house refused to surrender. Later that afternoon, several men from the "Seven Rivers Gang" rode into Lincoln to aid the Dolan forces. The McSween partisans stationed on the roof of Ike Stockton's saloon fired the first shots of the day, but didn't hit any targets. The remainder of the day passed without incident.

Tuesday, July 16, 1878

Sheriff Peppin sent sharpshooters to pick off the McSween defenders at Ike Stockton's saloon. When one of the snipers, Charles Crawford, was killed by Fernando Herrera, the remainder of Peppin's men retreated. Sheriff Peppin then sent a message, requesting assistance, to Colonel Nathan Augustus Monroe Dudley, the commandant of nearby Fort Stanton. Dudley wrote a reply to Peppin turning him down. That all changed when someone fired a shot at the soldier who was carrying Dudley's reply to Peppin. Who fired the shot has never been determined. The soldier was unhurt, but the shot - whoever fired it - had the result of gaining Peppin and the Dolan forces exactly what they wanted.

Wednesday, July 17, 1878

Captain Thomas Blair, leading a detachment of cavalry from Fort Stanton, rode into Lincoln to investigate the shots fired at Colonel Dudley's messenger. McSween denied that he or any of his men were responsible. Captain Blair favored the version offered by the Peppin-Dolan faction.

Thursday, July 18, 1878

Concerned that Colonel Dudley might still withhold the support of his troops, James J. Dolan rode out to Fort Stanton and asked Colonel Dudley for the "protection of the women and children" of Lincoln. Doubts have been cast upon whether this event really happened.

Friday, July 19, 1878

Shortly before noon, a column of soldiers from Fort Stanton brought a Howitzer and a Gatling gun into Lincoln. Faced with this heavy artillery, the men at Ike Stockton's saloon quickly abandoned their positions. Next, Sheriff Peppin and a large group of soldiers went to McSween's house and read him a warrant for his arrest. McSween slammed the door in the faces of Peppin and the soldiers. By now the McSween supporters who had been in other buildings, were all gathered in the McSween house. When Deputy Sheriff Jack Long and Buck Powell attempted to set fire to the McSween house, the occupants opened fire. Long and Powell had to take cover in the only shelter available - the stinking pit beneath an outhouse - and remain there for several hours. The Dolan forces finally succeeded in setting fire to the McSween house. The flames spread rapidly from room to room. Mrs. Susan McSween left her burning home and pleaded with Colonel Dudley to spare the lives of her husband and the others defending her home. Dudley ignored her. By nightfall, all but one room had been engulfed by flame, and the Kid and his companions had no choice but to make a run for it. During the confusion, Alexander McSween was shot and killed by Robert W. Beckwith, who was then shot and killed by Billy the Kid. Three more McSween defenders were killed. A fourth, Yginio Salazar, escaped death by pretending to be a corpse, while the Dolan force took a body count. Running from the burning building, with both guns blazing, Billy the Kid somehow managed to escape into the darkness.

Another Killing and a New Governor

The Murder of Morris J. Bernstein ( August 5, 1878 )

Billy the Kid and three other survivors of the "Five Day Battle," were in the vicinity of the Mescalero Indian Agency when the agency bookkeeper, Morris J. Benstein was murdered on August 5, 1878. Because of their proximity, the Kid and his three companions were named as the murderers, despite conflicting evidence that Bernstein's murder had actually been committed by Antanacio Martinez. Despite the evidence implicating Martinez, it was the Billy the Kid, Henry Newton Brown, George Washington Coe and Frederick Waite who would be indicted for the murder of Bernstein. All of these indictments were later quashed, except for the one against Billy the Kid.

Lew Wallace

Governor Samuel Beach Axtell was removed from office as a result of the reports compiled by special agent Frank Warner Angel. On September 8, 1878 Lew Wallace (1827-1905) was sworn in as the new Territorial Governor of New Mexico. Unfortunately for the Kid, Wallace was then more preoccupied with the manuscript of his novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, than he was in attending to his duties as an administrator. On October 5, 1878 U.S. Marshal John Sherman, Jr. informed Governor Wallace that he held warrants for several men including "William H. Antrim, alias Kid, alias Bonny [sic]" but was unable to execute them "owing to the disturbed condition of affairs in that county, resulting from the acts of a desperate class of men."

Amnesty Proclaimed ( November 13, 1878 )

Governor Lew Wallace issued an Amnesty Proclamation on November 13,1878. The proclamation pardoned anyone involved in the Lincoln County bloodletting, since the Tunstall murder of February 18, 1878. It specifically did not apply to any person who had been convicted of a crime, or whounder indictment for one. One of the indivuals that Wallace's amnesty did not apply to was Billy the Kid.

The Murder of Huston I. Chapman ( February 18, 1879 )

Billy the Kid and Tom O'Folliard were in Lincoln on February 18, 1879. Whether they had come for a peace conference with the Dolan forces (as most accounts claim) remains uncertain. That afternoon the Kid and O'Folliard were seen with their hated enemies James J. Dolan, Jessie Evans, Jacob B. "Billy" Mathews and William W. "Bill" Campbell. Susan McSween's lawyer, Huston I. Chapman appeared at this point and was confronted by Dolan, Evans, Mathews and Campbell as Billy the Kid and O'Folliard watched. The unarmed Chapman was shot in the breast by Bill Campbell. As he fell, he was shot two more times by Dolan. Whiskey was then poured on Chapman's clothes and the corpse was set on fire. According to eyewitnesses, the Kid and O'Folliard were innocent bystanders who were forced at gunpoint, by Jessie Evans, to witness the brurtal murder and cremation that followed.

The Meeting of the Kid and the Governor ( March 15, 1879 )

The Kid wrote Governor Lew Wallace offering to give information on the Chapman murder, in exchange for being granted amnesty. The governor and the gunfighter met in Lincoln on March 15, 1879 and talked for more than an hour. Wallace promised the Kid a complete pardon if he would offer his testimony to a grand jury, regarding what he knew of the Chapman murder. On March 20, 1879 Wallace wrote the Kid that "to remove all suspicion of understanding, I think it better to put the arresting party in charge of Sheriff Kimbrell [sic] who shall be instructed to see that no violence is used." So it was that on March 21, the KId allowed himself to be "captured" by a posse led by Sheriff George Kimball of Lincoln County. True to his word, the Kid provided a long detailed statement about the Chapman murder. As the weeks passed, the Kid began to suspect that had been used by Wallace and would never be granted his promised amnesty. When his doubts became too much, the Kid broke jail on June 17, 1879.

The Killing of Joe Grant ( January 10, 1880 )

Following his escape, the Kid managed to avoid further violence until January 10, 1880, when he shot and killed Joe Grant at Hargrove's Saloon in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican simply reported that "Billy Bonney, more extensively known as 'the Kid,' shot and killed Joe Grant. The origin of the difficulty was not learned." According to other sources, The Kid had been advised that Grant intended to kill him, so he boldly walked up to Grant, told him he admired his revolver, and asked to examine it. Grant complied. Before handing Grant's pistol back (which only contained three shells), the Kid positioned the cylinder so that the next shot would fire on an empty chamber. Within moments Grant made his move to kill the Kid, by sticking his pistol in the Kid's face and pulling the trigger. The weapon clicked harmlessly, and the Kid drew his pistol and shot Grant in the head. A reporter for the Las Vegas Optic later quoted the Kid as saying that the encounter with Grant "was a game of two and I got there first."

The Killing of James Carlyle ( November 27, 1880 )

During 1880, the Kid formed a friendship with Jim Greathouse, who, in turn, introduced him to Dave Rudabaugh.On November 29, 1880 the Kid, Rudabaugh and Billy Wilson had a running fight with a posse led by Deputy Sheriff James Carlyle. When cornered at Jim Greathouse's ranch, the Kid and his companions yelled out that they were holding Jim Greathouse as their "hostage." Deputy Carlyle offered to exchange places with Greathouse, and the switch was made. Later, Carlyle had a change of heat and attempted to escape by jumping through a window. He was shot three times and killed during the attempt. There is no way to determine who fired the shot's that killed Carlyle. They could have been fired by the Kid and his companions - or just as easily by Carlyle's own me,, who mistook for being one of the fugitives. The fight ended in a standoff, when the posse withdrew and the Kid, Rudabaugh and Wilson rode off unmolested.

The Killing of Tom O'Folliard ( December 19, 1880 )

Tom O'Folliard

On December 19, 1880 Billy the Kid, Dave Rudabaugh, Billy Wilson, Charlie Bowdre, Tom Pickett and Tom O'Folliard rode into Fort Sumner. Awaiting them was a posse led by Pat Garrett, who opened fire killing O'Folliard. The Kid and his other four companions managed to escape unharmed.

Pat Garrett Captures Billy the Kid ( December 23, 1880 )

Sheriff Pat Garrett

On December 23, 1880 Pat Garrett and his posse captured the Kid, Pickett, Rudabaugh and Wilson at Stinking Springs, following a siege in which Charlie Bowdre was killed. The Kid and his companions were taken to Santa Fe. En Route, at Las Vegas on December 27, there was a threat from a lynch mob, which was only narrowly averted. The Kid remained nonplussed during the threat on his life, later telling a reporter "if I only had my Winchester I'd lick the whole crowd." Garrett managed to get the Kid out of Las Vegas in one piece.

Sentenced to Hang ( April 13, 1881 )

Courthouse and jail, Lincoln, New Mexico

Next, the prisoner was transferred to Santa Fe, where he sent four separate letters over the next three months to Governor Wallace seeking clemency. Wallace refused to intervene, and the Kid's trial was held in April 1881 in Mesilla. The Kid was found guilty on April 9 of the murder of Sheriff Brady, after two days of testimony, the only conviction ever secured against any of the combatants in the Lincoln County War. On April 13, he was sentenced by Judge Warren Bristol to hang, with his execution scheduled for May 13.

Escape from Lincoln

The Kid was removed to Lincoln, where he was held under guard on the top floor of the town courthouse by two of Garrett's deputies, Bob Olinger and James Bell. The Kid killed both guards and escaped on April 28, while Garrett was out of town.

The Killing of James Bell

Deputy James Bell reportedly showed the Kid respect and "never, by word or action, did he betray his prejudice if it existed". Deputy Olinger reportedly treated the Kid badly. Olinger's favorite weapon and tool of choice when tormenting the Kid was his double-barreled shotgun. He had loaded it with buckshot and was overconfident in his abilities as a guard. On April 28, 1881, Olinger left the prison for lunch, leaving his shotgun in Bell's custody. The Kid got his hands on a gun somehow and shot Bell, fatally wounding him. It is not clear how the gun came into the Kid's possession, though various theories have been suggested. The Kid himself later claimed that he never wanted to kill Bell, but the other man stood in the way of his escape.

The Killing of Robert Olinger

The second guard was across the street with some other prisoners, and the Kid waited at the upstairs window for him to respond to the gunshot and come to Bell's aid. As Olinger came running into view, the Kid leveled the shotgun at him, called out "Hello Bob!", and shot him dead. The site of these killings is preserved in Lincoln County with the hole in the wall on display where Bell was shot, as well as a plaque where Olinger was gunned down. His escape was delayed for an hour while he worked himself free of his leg irons with an axe. Then he mounted a horse and rode out of town, reportedly singing. The horse returned two days later.

Death

Killed by Pat Garrett

Tombstone at Billy the Kid's grave, Fort Sumner, New Mexico

Sheriff Pat Garrett responded to rumors that McCarty was lurking in the vicinity of Fort Sumner almost three months after his escape. Garrett and two deputies set out on July 14, 1881 to question one of the town's residents, a friend of McCarty's named Pete Maxwell (son of land baron Lucien Maxwell). Close to midnight, Garrett and Maxwell sat talking in Maxwell's darkened bedroom when McCarty unexpectedly entered the room. There are at least two versions of what happened next. One version suggests that, as the Kid entered, he failed to recognize Garrett in the poor light. He drew his revolver and backed away, asking "¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?" (Spanish for "Who is it? Who is it?"). Recognizing McCarty's voice, Garrett drew his own revolver and fired twice, the first bullet striking McCarty in the chest just above his heart, although the second one missed and struck the mantel behind him. McCarty fell to the floor, gasped for a minute, and died.

In the second version, McCarty entered carrying a knife, evidently heading for a kitchen area. He noticed someone in the darkness, and uttered the words, "¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?" at which point he was shot and killed. The popularity of the first story persists and portrays Garrett in a better light, although some historians contend that the second version is probably the accurate one.

Billy the Kid's Wake and Burial

Garrett allowed the Kid's friends to take his body across the plaza to the carpenter's shop to give him a wake. The next morning, Justice of the Peace Milnor Rudulph viewed the body and made out the death certificate, but Garrett rejected the first one and demanded that another one be written more in his favor. The Kid's body was then prepared for burial, and was buried at noon at the Fort Sumner cemetery between O'Folliard and Bowdre.

Pat Garrett's Biography of Billy the Kid Published

In his book Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, Robert Utley tells the story of Pat Garrett's book effort. In the weeks following the Kid's death, Garrett felt the need to tell his side of the story. Many people had begun to talk about the unfairness of the encounter, so Garrett called upon his friend Marshall Ashmun (Ash) Upson to ghostwrite a book with him. Upson was a roving journalist who had a gift for graphic prose. Their collaboration led to a book entitled The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid, which was first published in April 1882. The book originally sold few copies, but it eventually proved to be an important reference for historians who later wrote about the Kid's life.

Rumors of Survival

Legends grew over time that Billy the Kid was not killed that night, but that Garrett may have staged it all out of friendship for the Kid so that he could escape the law. In the years after 1881, several men came forward to claim that they were the real Kid, who escaped Garrett's bullets. Most of them were easily and immediately debunked and their names lost to history, but there are two who remain topics of discussion and debate for one reason or another. The first of these claimants is Brushy Bill Roberts, a name familiar to most Billy the Kid researchers, and the claimant who has easily received the bulk of press. The second claimant, however, one John Miller, has received comparatively little notoriety, either in life or posthumously. In 2004, researchers sought to exhume the remains of Catherine Antrim, McCarty's mother, "so her DNA could be tested and compared with DNA to be taken from the body buried under the Kid's gravestone". Ultimately, the case was bogged down in the courts, "much to the delight of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who knows all too well the value of Billy as a cultural icon and a draw for tourists".

Brushy Bill Roberts

In 1948, a paralegal named William Morrison located a man in Central Texas known as Ollie Partridge Roberts (nicknamed Brushy Bill), who admitted in private to being Billy the Kid and challenged the popular account of McCarty as shot to death by Pat Garrett in 1881. Brushy Bill later claimed that "Ollie Partridge Roberts" was an assumed name, which accounted for the discrepancies in birth dates and physical appearance between Ollie Roberts and Billy the Kid. Roberts' claim has been rejected by almost all historians and even by his own niece, but there is evidence suggesting that his claim may have had some substance. Five people who had known Billy the Kid signed affidavits that they believed Roberts and the Kid were one and the same. The town of Hico, Texas (Brushy Bill's residence) has capitalized on the Kid's infamy by opening the "Billy The Kid Museum". Brushy Bill's story was further promoted by the 1990 film Young Guns II, as well as a 2011 episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded on the History Channel. Robert Stack did a segment on Brushy Bill in early 1990 on the NBC television series Unsolved Mysteries.

Numerous books have also been published since 1950 advancing Brushy's claim, the first of which was Alias Billy the Kid written by Morrison and renowned western historian C.L. Sonnichsen. This book received mixed reviews at the time but did win support from former President Harry S. Truman, who wrote to Morrison indicating that he believed that Brushy was Billy the Kid and lamenting that he died before being able to go in front of the next governor, where he may have gotten a more favorable result. In October 2014, new information was published in the book Billy the Kid: An Autobiography, which included military and genealogical records that supported certain aspects of Brushy Bill's story. A new photographic comparison of a young Brushy Bill with the Billy the Kid ferrotype image was included, as well as a photo of him serving with the Rough Riders just as he had claimed. In April 2015, media personality Bill O'Reilly weighed in on the topic by publishing his book Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West. O'Reilly suggests that the evidence in favor of Brushy Bill Roberts outweighs the accepted version of history, citing the original Alias Billy the Kid book by Morrison and Sonnichsen. O'Reilly followed up his book with an episode on the subject during his national television broadcast depicting the events that occurred during the alleged killing of the Kid from Brushy Bill's perspective.

John Miller

Another individual who claimed to be Billy the Kid was John Miller, whose family supported his claim in 1938, some time after Miller's death. Miller was buried at the state-owned Pioneers' Home Cemetery in Prescott, Arizona. Tom Sullivan, a former sheriff of Lincoln County, and Steve Sederwall, a former mayor of Capitan, disinterred the bones of John Miller in May 2005. Sederwall and Sullivan believed that the exhumation was allowed, but official permission had not been given. DNA samples from the remains were sent to a lab in Dallas, Texas, to be compared with traces of blood obtained from a bench that was believed to be the one upon which McCarty's body was placed after he was shot to death. The two investigators had searched for McCarty's physical remains since 2003. They started in Fort Sumner, New Mexico and eventually ended up in Arizona. To date, no DNA test results have been made public. As of 2008, a lawsuit is pending against officials in Lincoln County that would, if successful, publicize the results of those tests along with other evidence that Sullivan and Sederwall collected.

A marker indicating that the deceased was killed by Billy the Kid

Photographic images

The Only Authenticated Photo

This ferrotype photograph, the only verified photograph of Billy the Kid, is a mirror image of the outlaw. Zoom

One of the few remaining artifacts of McCarty's life is a 2x3 inch ferrotype taken by an unknown photographer sometime in late 1879 or early 1880. It is the only image of McCarty that scholars agree is authentic. The ferrotype survived because Dan Dedrick, one of Billy's rustler friends, held onto the picture after Billy's death, and passed it down in his family. The ferrotype appeared in several copied forms before the original was made public in the mid-1980s by Stephen and Art Upham, descendants of Dedrick. It was displayed for several years in the Lincoln County Heritage Trust Museum before it was withdrawn again. The ferrotype sold at auction on June 25, 2011, in a three-day Western show. It was purchased for $2.3 million by billionaire William Koch, some six times the estimate. It was the most expensive piece ever sold at Brian Lebel's Annual Old West Show & Auction, and the seventh most expensive photograph ever sold. A line engraving of this photo was also used as the frontispiece of Pat Garrett's 1882 book The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid.

Alleged Photograph of Billy the Kid and Dan Dedrick

In August 2013, a tintype photograph was released that appears to be of McCarty and his friend Dan Dedrick. Recently, the photo was forensically compared to the existing tintype and one forensic investigator deemed the figure in the photo to indeed be the infamous outlaw, with Dedrick to his right. However, that investigator never had access to the original tintype, spent only a month examining the image copy (compared to the year of study devoted to a 2015 image), and has no specialized background in Old West history or antiques and collectibles, so his conclusion must be viewed with skepticism until there is corroboration and consensus among experts.

Croquet tintype

Alleged photo of Billy the Kid (left) playing croquet in New Mexico in 1878

A tintype purchased in 2010 for $2.00 at a sale in Fresno, California appears to show McCarty and the Regulators playing croquet, and it was reviewed by several experts who attempted to authenticate it. On October 5, 2015, Kagin's, Inc. auction house declared the image authentic after experts examined it for over a year. This investigation was shown on the National Geographic Channel Oct 23, 2015. Still, many experts do not believe that the photo has been proven to be Billy the Kid. Kagin's insured the original tintype for five million dollars.

Left-handed or right-handed?

It was widely assumed throughout much of the 20th century that the Kid was left-handed, largely due to a photograph in which he appears to be wearing a gun belt with a holster on his left side. All Winchester Model 1873 rifles were made with the loading gate on the right side of the receiver, and closer examination revealed that the loading gate in the photo is on the left; the "left-handed" photograph is, in fact, a mirror image.

In 1954, western historians James D. Horan and Paul Sann announced that McCarty was actually "right-handed and carried his pistol on his right hip." More recently, Clyde Jeavons responded to a story from The Guardian which used an uncorrected McCarty ferrotype. (Jeavons is a former curator of the National Film and Television Archive.) He cited the work of Horan and Sann, and added:

You can see by the waistcoat buttons and the belt buckle. This is a common error which has continued to reinforce the myth that Billy the Kid was left-handed. He was not. He was right-handed and carried his gun on his right hip. This particular reproduction error has occurred so often in books and other publications over the years that it has led to the myth that Billy the Kid was left-handed, for which there is no evidence. On the contrary, the evidence (from viewing his photo correctly) is that he was right-handed: he wears his pistol on his right hip with the butt pointing backwards in a conventional right-handed draw position.

A second look at the ferrotype appears to confirm Jeavon's position. The prong on the belt buckle points the wrong way, and the buttons on the Kid's vest are on the left side, the side reserved for ladies' blouses. The convention for men's wear is that buttons go down the right side.

Wallis wrote in 2007 that McCarty was ambidextrous. This observation seems to be supported by contemporaneous newspaper accounts reporting that Billy the Kid could shoot handguns "with his left hand as accurately as he does with his right" and that "his aim with a revolver in each hand, shooting simultaneously, is unerring."

Posthumous pardons considered

In 2010, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson considered a posthumous pardon for the Kid, who had been convicted of killing Sheriff William Brady. The pardon was considered to be a follow-through on a purported promise made by former Governor Lew Wallace in 1879. On December 31, 2010, his last day in office, Richardson announced his decision on Good Morning America not to issue the pardon, citing "historical ambiguity" surrounding the conditions of Lew Wallace's pardon.

Grave marker theft and locations

Billy the Kid grave site.

Old Fort Sumner Cemetery.

Billy the Kid's grave footstone.

According to Garrett, the Kid was interred at the old military cemetery of Fort Sumner on July 15, 1881 (the day after he was killed), between his fallen companions Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre.

In 1932, Charles W. Foor, the unofficial tour guide of the cemetery, spearheaded the drive to raise funds for a marker. Although the edges are damaged, this large white marker has never been stolen. It serves as a memorial monument noting three individuals buried in the cemetery, O'Folliard, Bowdre, and Bonney.

Eight years later, Warner Bros. used a Billy the Kid grave marker as a prop in the movie The Outlaw. James N. Warner of Salida, Colorado, donated the marker to the cemetery when it was no longer required for the movie.

It was stolen again in February 8, 1981, but recovered days later in Huntington Beach, California. New Mexico Governor Bruce King arranged for the Sheriff of the county seat to fly to California to bring it back to Fort Sumner, where it was re-installed in May 1981. The cemetery is located 34° 24.253′ N, 104° 11.593′ W, about three and a half miles (5,5 km) south of State Highway 60 on Route 212. The stolen tombstone became the inspiration for the World's Richest Tombstone Race, held during Fort Sumner's Old Fort Days Celebration every June.

On June 16, 2012, a group of vandals entered the cage at night and tipped over the stone.

Selected references in popular culture

Literature

• "The Disinterested Killer Bill Harrigan," by Jorge Luis Borges.
• Billy The Kid (1958), a serial poem by Jack Spicer.
• Billy the Kid (1962), an episode in the ongoing adventures of Lucky Luke by Goscinny and Morris.
• El bandido adolescente ("The teenage outlaw") (1965), a biography written by Spanish author Ramón J. Sender.
• The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-handed Poems, by Michael Ondaatje, 1970 Governor General's Award-winning biography in the form of experimental poetry.
• The Illegal Rebirth of Billy the Kid (1991) is a science fiction novel by Rebecca Ore.
• Anything for Billy (1988) is a fictionalized account of Billy's last year by Larry McMurtry.
• Lucky Billy: a novel about Billy the Kid (2008), is a novel by John Vernon, a professor at Binghamton University.
• The novels, Inferno and Escape from Hell, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, feature interactions between the novels' contemporary main characters traversing Dante's Inferno and Billy the Kid.
• Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel he is first introduced in the Sorceress and is there until the end of the Enchantress by Michael Scott
• Billy the Kid and the Vampyres of Vegas ebook by Michael Scott

Film

• Billy the Kid, a 1911 silent film directed by Laurence Trimble and starring Tefft Johnson. All copies are believed to be lost.
• Billy the Kid, 1930 widescreen film directed by King Vidor and starring Johnny Mack Brown as Billy and Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett
• Billy the Kid Returns, 1938: Roy Rogers plays a dual role, Billy the Kid and his dead-ringer lookalike who shows up after the Kid has been shot by Pat Garrett.
• Billy the Kid, 1941 remake of the 1930 film, starring Robert Taylor and Brian Donlevy
• Bob Steele and Buster Crabbe played Billy the Kid in a series of 42 western films from 1940 through 1946, released by Poverty Row studio Producers Distributing Corporation. Some of the titles include Blazing Frontier, The Renegade, Cattle Stampede, and Western Cyclone (1943). In a 1952 film, Allan "Rocky" Lane goes after Billy the Kid's lost treasure.
• The Outlaw, Howard Hughes' 1943 motion picture starring Jack Buetel as Billy and featuring Jane Russell in her breakthrough role as the Kid's fictional love interest.
• I Shot Billy the Kid, a 1950 film directed by William Berke and starring Don "Red" Barry as Billy.
• The Kid from Texas (1950) starring Audie Murphy as Billy the Kid
• The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954, Columbia Pictures Corporation) starring Scott Brady as the Kid, James Griffith as Pat Garrett, Betta St. John as Nita Maxwell, and Alan Hale, Jr. as Bob Ollinger
• The Left Handed Gun, Arthur Penn's 1958 motion picture based on a Gore Vidal teleplay, starring Paul Newman as Billy and John Dehner as Garrett
• The Boy from Oklahoma (1954), with Tyler MacDuff in the role of Billy the Kid
• One-Eyed Jacks (1961), is the only film directed by Marlon Brando, who also played its lead character, Rio. This story is from an adaptation by Rod Serling of a Charles Neider novelization of Billy the Kid's life, with a later revision by Sam Peckinpah among others.
• Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966), directed by William Beaudine, has Count Dracula, played by John Carradine, traveling to the Old West, where he takes a shine to Billy's fiancee and tries to turn her into a vampire. Chuck Courtney co-stars as Billy.
• I'll Kill Him and Return Alone, a 1967 "spaghetti Western" directed by Julio Buchs, starred Peter Lee Lawrence as Billy and Fausto Tozzi as Pat Garrett.
• Chisum (1970), set during the Lincoln County War, was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and stars Geoffrey Deuel as Billy and Glenn Corbett as Pat Garrett.
• Dirty Little Billy (1972), set during Billy's early years as a criminal, starred Michael J. Pollard.
• Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Sam Peckinpah's 1973 motion picture with Kris Kristofferson as Billy, James Coburn as Pat Garrett, and with a soundtrack by Bob Dylan, who also appears in the movie
• Young Guns, Christopher Cain's 1988 motion picture starring Emilio Estevez as Billy and Patrick Wayne as Pat Garrett
• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) features Billy the Kid (played by Dan Shor) as the "Historical Figure" that Bill and Ted pick up in the Old West.
• Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, Gore Vidal's 1989 film starring Val Kilmer as Billy and Duncan Regehr as Pat Garrett
• Young Guns II, Geoff Murphy's 1990 motion picture starring Emilio Estevez as Billy and William Petersen as Pat Garrett
• Purgatory, Uli Edel's 1999 made-for-TV movie starring Donnie Wahlberg as Deputy Glen/Billy The Kid
• Requiem for Billy the Kid, Anne Feinsilber's 2006 motion picture starring Kris Kristofferson.
• BloodRayne 2: Deliverance featured a vampiric Billy the Kid as the film's main antagonist, played by Zack Ward.
• Birth of a Legend, a 2011 film in two parts based on Frederick Nolan's book The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History directed by Andrew Wilkinson

Music

• "Billy Bonney's P.A.L.S.", comedy song based on Billy The Kid's story told in the film Young Guns – features Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen – written by Ankh Angel and Frank Chessar – #1 hit on Internet Radio
• "Billy the Kid", a folksong in the public domain, was published in John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax's American Ballads and Folksongs album, and also their Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads album. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
• "Billy the Kid" folksong sung by Woody Guthrie, recorded by Alan Lomax in 1940 for the Library of Congress (#3412 B₂), with a melody Guthrie later used for his song "So Long, it's Been Good to Know You". He also recorded it in 1944 for Moe Asch's Asch/Folkways label (MA67).
• Aaron Copland's "Billy the Kid", a ballet that premiered in 1938.
• On his album Piano Man (1973), Billy Joel performs a song titled "The Ballad of Billy the Kid", which was intended to be a western-themed ballad rather than an account of the life of Bonney or any other outlaw; the title refers in part to a bartender Joel was friendly with.
• Bob Dylan's album Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, soundtrack of the 1973 film by Sam Peckinpah.
• Takeoff's verse from the Migos remix to Travi$ Scott's "Quintana mentions Billy the Kid"
• Jon Bon Jovi's album, Blaze of Glory, was used as part of the soundtrack for Young Guns II, and featured the song "Billy Get Your Guns".
• Marty Robbins' song "Billy the Kid" from the album Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs Volume 3.
• Ry Cooder recorded the folk song "Billy the Kid", on the album Into The Purple Valley, with his own melody and instrumental. It was also on Ry Cooder Classics Volume II.
• Tom Petty wrote the song "Billy the Kid", released on his 1999 album Echo.
• Another "Billy The Kid", was written by Robert W. Marr in 2010 when New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson talked of pardoning the outlaw. The song has the line, "With a slap in the face to those who had died. To hell with the death and the tears that were cried."
• Dia Frampton's "Billy the Kid," on the 2011 album Red
• Charlie Daniels recorded the song "Billy the Kid" on his 1976 album High Lonesome. Chris LeDoux also covered the song on his album Haywire.
• Joe Ely recorded the song "Me and Billy the Kid" on his 1987 album Lord of the Highway.
• Planet Of Zeus recorded the song "Woke Up Dead (William H. Bonney)" on their 2008 album Eleven The Hard Way.
• Running Wild recorded the song "Billy the Kid" on their 1991 album Blazon Stone.

Stage

• Joseph Santley's 1906 Broadway play, co-written by Santley, in which he also starred
• Michael McClure's 1965 play The Beard recounts a fictional meeting between Billy the Kid and Jean Harlow.
• Michael Ondaatje's 1973 play, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.
• Billy the Kid - His Life in Music, 2013, presented by Livestock

Television and radio

• The Gunsmoke radio show had an episode titled "Billy the Kid", broadcast on April 2, 1952. It purports to tell of Billy the Kid's first murder as a runaway boy and credits Matt Dillon with giving him the "Billy the Kid" moniker.
• The CBS radio series Crime Classics told the story of Billy the Kid in its October 21, 1953 episode entitled "Billy Bonney - Bloodletter." The episode featured Sam Edwards as Billy the Kid and William Conrad as Pat Garrett.
• Richard Jaeckel played The Kid in a 1954 episode of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century.
• Robert Blake starred as The Kid in the 1966 episode "The Kid from Hell's Kitchen" of the syndicated western series, Death Valley Days. He sets out to avenge the death of his friend John Tunstall played by John Anderson.
• Robert Walker, Jr. starred as Billy The Kid in a 1967 episode of the Irwin Allen science fiction series Time Tunnel
• The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror 13 2002. He is depicted as the leader of a group of corpses who rise from the graves to take over Springfield after the citizens have destroyed all their guns.
• The NBC series The Tall Man ran from 1960 to 1962, starring Clu Gulager as Billy and Barry Sullivan as Pat Garrett.
• The Nickelodeon game show Nick Arcade featured a spoof of Billy The Kid in the "Slurpy Gulch" area named "Silly The Kid", a baby who would say "Let's Dance" at the team who lands on him.
• Nickelodeon's Legends Of The Hidden Temple had an episode during season 2 titled "The Snakeskin Boots Of Billy The Kid". The episode itself is notable because the episode had the first temple win for the "Purple Parrot's", one of the teams on the show.
• The 2004 Discovery Channel Quest, Billy the Kid: Unmasked, investigated the life and death of Billy the Kid through forensic science.
• American Experience, Billy the Kid, aired on PBS January 9, 2012
• The 2014 series "Gunslingers" on American Heroes Channel aired an episode devoted to Billy the Kid on July 27, 2014.
• The TV series "Maverick" features Billy the Kid in an episode in which Bret Maverick is mistaken for a man arranging a heist. Bill the Kid is one of the applicants to join his gang. He was played by Joel Grey.
• In the Japanese tokusatsu, Kamen Rider Ghost, the main character Takeru Tenkuji/Kamen Rider Ghost, uses the spirit of Billy the Kid to transform into his dual wielding Billy the Kid Damashii form.

See also

• Folklore of the United States
• Cowboy
• List of American Old West outlaws
• List of Western lawmen

Bibliography

• Adams, Ramon F. A Fitting Death for Billy the Kid. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960.
• Burns, Walter Noble. The Saga of Billy the Kid. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1926.
• Coe, George W. Frontier Fighter: The Autobiography of George W. Coe Who Fought and Rode with Billy the Kid, as Related to Nan Hillary Harrison. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934.
• DeMattos, Jack. "The Search for Billy the Kid's Roots," Real West (No. 160), November 1978.
• DeMattos, Jack. "The Search for Billy the Kid's Roots - Is Over! Real West (No. 167), January 1980.
• DeMattos, Jack. "Gunfighters of the Real West: Henry McCarty, Alias "Billy the Kid.'" Real West (No. 192). August 1983.
• Dykes, Jefferson C. Billy the Kid: The Bibliography of a Legend. Albuquerque, NM: The University of New Mexico Press,1952.
• Earle, James H., ed. The Capture of Billy the Kid. College Station, TX: Creative Publishing Co., 1988. ISBN 0-932702-44-9
• Edwards, Harold L. Goodbye Billy the Kid. College Station, TX: Creative Publishing Co., 1995. ISBN 1-57208-000-0.
• Fable, Edmund, Jr. The True Life of Billy the Kid, The Noted New Mexican Outlaw. Denver, CO: The Denver Publishing Co., 1881. A facsimile edition was published by The Creative Publishing Company of College Station, TX in 1980. ISBN 0-932702-11-2.
• Fulton, Maurice Garland. History of the Lincoln County War (Edited by Robert N. Mullin), Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1968.
• Gardner, Mark Lee. To Hell On a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West. New York, William Morrow, 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-136827-1
• Garrett, Pat F. The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid. Santa Fe, NM: New Mexican Printing and Publishing Co., 1882. A leather-bound facsimile edition was published by Time Life in 1981 as part of their 31-volume "Classics of the Old West" series of replica books. ISBN 0-8094-3581-0
• Hough, Emerson. "Billy the Kid: The True Story of a Western 'Bad Man'". Everybody's Magazine, September 1901.
• Hunt, Frazier. The Tragic Days of Billy the Kid, New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1956.
• Jacobsen, Joel. Such Men as Billy the Kid: The Lincoln County War Reconsidered. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8032-2576-8
• Keleher, William A. Violence in Lincoln County 1869–1881. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1957.
• Klasner, Lily. My Girlhood Among Outlaws. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1972. ISBN 0-8165-0354-0.
• Koop, Waldo E. "Billy the Kid: The Trail of a Kansas Legend." The Trail Guide (Vol. IX, No.3), Kansas City Posse of Westerners, September 1964.
• McCubbin, Robert G. "The Many Faces of Billy the Kid". True West, May 2007.
• Metz, Leon C. Pat Garrett: The Story of a Western Lawman, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974. ISBN 0-8061-1067-8
• Metz, Leon C. "My Search for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid". True West, August 1983.
• Nolan, Frederick. The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1965.
• Nolan, Frederick. The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8061-2377-X
• Nolan, Frederick. The West of Billy the Kid. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8061-3082-2.
• Nolan, Frederick. "The Private Life of Billy the Kid". True West, July 2000.
• Nolan, Frederick. The Billy the Kid Reader. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
• Nolan, Frederick. The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History (Revised Edition). Santa Fe, NM: Sunstone Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-86534-721-2.
• Nolan, Frederick. "The Hunting of Billy the Kid." Wild West, June 2003.
• Otero, Miguel Antonio. The Real Billy the Kid, With New Light on the Lincoln County War. New York: Rufus Rockwell Wilson, Inc., 1936.
• Poe, John William. The Death of Billy the Kid. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1933.
• Radbourne, Allan and Rasch, Philip J. "The Story of 'Windy' Cahill." Real West (No. 204), August 1885.
• Rasch, Philip J. "New Light on the Legend of Billy the Kid." New Mexico Folklore Record 7 (1952–53).
• Rasch, Philip J. and Mullin, Robert N. "Dim Trails: The Pursuit of the McCarty Family." New Mexico Folklore Record 8 (1953–54).
• Rasch, Philip J. "The Twenty-One Men He Put Bullets Through." New Mexico Folklore Record 9 (1954–55).
• Rasch, Philip J. "A Second Look at the Blazer's Mill Affair." Frontier Times, January 1969.
• Rasch, Philip J. "The Trials of Billy the Kid." Real West (No. 216), November 1987.
• Rasch, Philip J. Trailing Billy the Kid. Stillwater, OK: Western Publications, 1995. ISBN 0-935269-19-3.
• Rasch, Philip J. Gunsmoke in Lincoln County. Stillwater, OK: Western Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-935269-24-X
• Rasch, Philip J. Warriors of Lincoln County. Stillwater, OK: Western Publications, 1998. ISBN 978-0-935269-26-0
• Rickards, Colin W. The Gunfight at Blazer's Mill, Southwestern Studies Monograph No. 40. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1974.
• Tuska, Jon. Billy the Kid: A Handbook. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1983 ISBN 0-8032-9406-9.
• Utley, Robert M. High Noon in Lincoln: Violence on the Western Frontier. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8263-0981-X.
• Utley, Robert M. Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8032-9558-8.
• Wallis, Michael. Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. ISBN 0-393-06068-3

External links

• Template:Worldcat id
• Ruidoso is Billy the Kid Country Ruidoso Tourism
• Billy the Kid Territory – guide by New Mexico Tourism Department
• Peterson, Barbara Tucker and Louis Hart. "Billy the Kid: The Great Escape." Wild West magazine. August 1998.
• Leighton, David. "Tucson Street is Named After Billy the Kid." Arizona Daily Star, Oct 22, 2013
• About Billy the Kid
• Turk, David S. "Billy the Kid and the U.S. Marshals Service." Wild West Magazine. February 2007 (issued December 2006)
• "William "Billy The Kid" Bonney". Legendary Outlaw. Find a Grave. January 1, 2001. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
• Billy the Kid — An American Experience Documentary