Volume 17 , Issue 37

Who Was Billy the Kid?

Who really was Billy the Kid? Was he a short, bucktoothed, narrow shouldered youth? Did he die of "justifiable homicide" or by ambush by Sheriff Garrett?

Found on Newspapers.com

The best guess was that he was born on November 23, 1859, and called Henry McCarty. At the age of 18, he killed for the first time. The victim was a blacksmith in a saloon near Grant, Arizona. He later killed a man named Joe Grant and was caught by Sheriff Pat Garrett. He stood trial, was found guilty and was sentenced to be hanged. He managed to get hold of a gun, killed two guards and fled again. Garrett killed Henry McCarty, alias "William Bonny" alias "Billy the Kid" on July 14, 1881, when he was 22.

The Times, out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, dated 20 Jul 1881, Wednesday, frontage headline read: "The Story Of An Outlaw." It was purported to the murderous career of Billy the Kid, who was but twenty-one years of age and one of the most noted of desperadoes, shot down at last by a sheriff.

Found on Newspapers.com

Las Vegas, N.M., July 19, 1881 -- There is no doubt about it that "Billy the Kid," the notorious bandit, was dead. He was killed on Saturday by Sheriff Pat Garrett, of Lincoln county, at Fort Sumner, 120 miles from Las Vegas, New Mexico. The coroner's jury wad returned a verdict of justifiable homicide coupled with a statement that Pat Garret deserved the thanks of the whole community for ridding the country of the desperado. The Kid was a beardless youth and was said to have been born in New York and it was said that his real name was McCarthy. His boast was that he had killed a man for every year of his age, which was probably true.

Sheriff Garrett received the reward of $500 from the Territory and $200 would be raised for him by the rejoicing people. The verdict of justifiable homicide was rather queer, as the Kid was shot down without warning. He had been in the neighborhood of Sumner for some days, disguised as a Mexican. Sheriff Garrett got upon his track and on Saturday night was waiting for him in the cabin of Pete Maxwell, a cattle man. Garrett had not been in the room over twenty minutes when the Kid entered in his stocking feet,knife in hand,and ostensibly for the purpose of buying some meat. He observed Garrett's courting form near the bed, but before he could ascertain who it was Garrett fired, the ball passing through the desperado's heart.

The Kid had shot a number of men since his escape from jail, about two moths ago. He was tried and sentenced to be hanged and taken to Lincoln, near Fort Stanton, for safe keeping. He gave warning that he would escape. One day he felled his guard with a blow from his shackled fists, snatched a revolver and sent a bullet through his heart. Then he walked across the street to the house where another guard lived, waited for him to come up the street and shot him dead. Then he armed himself with a Winchester rifle and a lot of revolvers and as the crowd attracted by the noise, gathered scattered people right and left. He ordered on of the men to get him a horse and a file. He mounted the former and with the latter filed off the shackles unopened of his legs, and, not stopping to remove the other, tied the severed manacle with its chain to his belt so that it should not impeded i=his movements. Not a man in the crowd dared draw a bead on him, and, saying that he did not intend to steal the horse and would return it, Billy started out of town on a gallop. Before he had gone far the horse bucked and threw him. He jumped up, and at the muzzle of his pistol compelled one of the men to catch his horse, which he remounted and rode away. Soon after he went to Fort Sumner, where he hand a sweetheart, and disguised himself.

Billy the Kid was a remarkable looking person, and the following is something of a description of him at the time of which this was written in 1881, July:

Billy the Kid was about twenty years of age, small of stature, smooth-faced, spare built, with several peculiarities that would distinguish him from equally wicked spirits as himself. One of his chief marks was that of extreme cruelty. His lips were thin and his upper lip very short; two sharp, fierce-looking teeth, much longer than any others in his head, grew out from under that upper lip in an extremely cruel and vicious manner. The Kid was exceedingly vain, not only of his position as leader of a band of between two and three hundred desperadoes, but of his personal appearance and his skill with the rifle. In the latter specialty he perhaps had a right to be proud, for it was known that in all the western country there was not such a quick and perfect shot as "Billy the Kid."

He took delight in showing the young man who had wo unwittingly fallen into his hands the nicety with which everything in his castle, as he called his retreat amidst the loneliness of the New Mexican plains, was arranged. And verily, from the description of it which was given, it must have been a wonderfully built place of defense. The main room was about thirty feet in diameter and about ten feet high. There were complete cooking arrangements i one of the ante-rooms, and great number of berths fixed one about another on one side of the apartment. Into other partitioned spaces there were enough stores packed away to last a hundred men thirty days. The great spring in the middle of the hard floor was of the most cooling and refreshing nature. There were specimens of nearly all kinds of pillage to be found in abundance in the place.
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