The Wild West - Billy the Kid

This is the second in a brief new series. Henry McCarty (usually known by his alias William Bonney and/or his nickname Billy the Kid) was born in an Irish ghetto in New York City (some say Brooklyn) in 1859. His mother moved him to Indiana when he was nine, where he was introduced to the Old West through an assortment of dime novels. The family kept moving for the next five years until they ended up in New Mexico. Billy's mother died a year later, and his life of crime (he was 15 at the time) was about to begin. He was caught stealing cheese, then later caught again with stolen clothing and firearms. He escaped from the Grant County jail by climbing out the jailhouse chimney. Now a fugitive, he began calling himself William Bonney and stayed out of sight. He hooked up with other young men and began rustling a few cattle, and eventually found himself hired as a cattle guard by a Lincoln County Englishman named John Tunstall. A violent disagreement broke out between town merchants and the area ranchers, and came to a head when townsmen encountered an unarmed John Tunstall herding cattle on his own property and murdered him. They even killed his favorite bay horse. Tunstall's murder enraged Billy and other ranch hands, and they fought back in what has come to be known as "The Lincoln County War." The battle raged back and forth with brutal ambushes and killings until a kind of armistice broke out a year later, including a proposed pardon for Billy from the territorial governor, Lew Wallace (the man who wrote "Ben Hur"), but the pardon never arrived and Billy was soon on the lam again. Billy died at the age of 21 when a former friend, Pat Garrett, now the sheriff of Lincoln County, shot him dead in a friend's bedroom in nearby Fort Sumner. It's said he had killed 21 men during his brief 21-year existence, but the true number may never be known. Music is from Aaron Copland's 1938 "Billy the Kid" ballet suite.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• art
• gunfighters
• west
• frontier
• New
• Mexico
• William
• Bonney
• Billy
• the
• Kid
• Copland

[07dajones]

thats classic

^^ another good video

[bestjonbon]

Thanks, little Brit!

[historicbloke]

some great pics and figures of billy, thanks

[bestjonbon]

Not as many action pix as I would have liked, but artists have apparently been slow to paint Billy.

[MrPassdamike]

guys im still tryn to make my mind up abot billy, was he a cold blooded killer or just an un lucky guy who had to kill or be killed?

[oldgee1976]

Billy the kid was not born in Brooklyn. He was born in the area of NYC known as Bowling Green or what we call the financial district in Manhattan.

[103littlebastard]

Yeah billy the kid has alawys been one of the coolest ..But in actula fact he took credit for 21 men killings were it was more likely under half as much.The real kick ass, dont fuck with me dude in the old west was James Butler Hickock ,, Wild Bill.

[DaAlphaOmega]

some say he faked his death and vanished to live a long full life,ive even seen an interview of an old man claiming to be billy the Kid,it was on unsolved mysteries,he had enough knowledge and scars exactly where billy had been shot according to historical records,it was interesting.

[westeightyone]

They should have made a movie with a guy who actually looked like Billy the Kid.

Someone like a young Jackie Earl Hayley. Short, thin and on the homely side.

Billy the Kid looked like a guy that the tougher gunfighters wouldn't be intimidated by.

Based on the real life photographs of Billy the Kid it's easy to see how people would have made the mistake of underestimating him.

[skinnywhop87]

I think he deserves his pardon... I live in NM and they're actually debating it now. He's already a hero to the state... And was clearly a victim of the times. I believe William H Bonney was naive and arrogant as all early 20 year old men are, what the cattle barons did to him is no different then what the US government does today to 18-19 year old kids... Beef them up and then send them to kill their "Enemies"

[Joohhvis]

America was a wild place during those times. Who was a "good guy" then? No tellin'.

[erwintommy]

Billy the Kid wasn't an "outlaw"-he didn't act any different than the Marshals of the day . He just wasn't politically connected like they were though so unlike the Earps, in example, he was an "outlaw'.

[NYCity99]

The series is going to hard to top. Another great video John.

Peace to all there, Dan