On the night of July 14, 1881, Garrett went to the home of rancher Peter Maxwell to question him about the outlaws whereabouts. After the death of his father, he traveled west with his mother ending up in Silver City, New Mexico Territory in 1873. The posse led by Garrett fared well, and his men closed in quickly. [98] Next, the prisoner was transferred to Santa Fe, where he sent four separate letters over the next three months to Governor Wallace seeking clemency. One version suggests that as the Kid entered, he failed to recognize Garrett in the poor light. Billy the Kid's real name? [2][104] The Kid's escape was delayed for an hour while he worked free of his leg irons[105] with a pickax and then the young outlaw mounted a horse and rode out of town, reportedly singing. [13] There, she met William Antrim, who was 12 years her junior. The Kid from Texas (1950, Universal International) film starring Audie Murphy--location of title character's place of origin changed to appeal to Texans and capitalize on Murphy association with that state. The Kid now had to earn his own keep, so he was put to work washing dishes and waiting on tables at a restaurant. It is said that they were very much an item and even had a child together, a boy called Jose Patrocinio Garcia in 1875 which would make Billy only fifteen at the time of the birth. During this time, his notoriety with newspapers increased, and they dubbed him "Billy the Kid," and the most important outlaw of New Mexico. )[114] Indeed, the notion of a left-handed Billy became so entrenched that, in 1958, a film biography of "the Kid" (starring Paul Newman) was titled The Left Handed Gun. Please take notice of the footnote numbers in parenthesis within the summary, you will find the footnotes at the end of the paragraph in italics. [70] McNab was killed in a hail of gunfire, while Saunders was severely wounded and Frank Coe was captured. American composer Mark Nichols (American Composer/Playwright) wrote a popular score for Michael Ondaatje play,"The Collected Works of Billy the Kid" in 1990. He is arrested and jailed in Lincoln County for possessing horses belonging to cattleman John Tunstall. The tombstone has been stolen and recovered three times since it was set in place in the 1940s, and the entire gravesite is now enclosed within a steel cage. For the next year-and-a-half, McCarty survived by rustling, gambling, and taking defensive action. After a year of no parental guidance and looking out for himself, the Kid quickly fell in with the wrong crowd. [96] Mistaken for McCarty, he was shot down by the posse. Bonney. Anything for Billy is a 1988 novel by Larry McMurty. 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. But in 1950, a Texas man named "Brushy Bill" Roberts claimed that he was the real Billy the Kid and that someone else had been shot in his place. Catherine was suffering from consumption and her health began to deteriorate rapidly. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [76] Under indictment for the Brady killing, McCarty and the other Regulators spent the next several months in hiding and were trapped, along with McSween, in McSween's home in Lincoln on July 15, by members of "The House" (as the Murphy-Dolan faction was known) and some of Brady's men. Before long, he fell in with a rough crowd and turned to petty crime and thievery. Jon Bon Jovi's album Blaze of Glory, used as part of the soundtrack for Young Guns II, and featured the song "Billy Get Your Gun". A Billy the Kid Mystery Solved IHS owns most of Billy the Kid's more famous letters - including one in our collections that was previously unidentified. The bullet pierced the Kid's heart and he fell to the floor. He was familiar with the Kids habits and hideouts, which may show that Garrett may have been a rustler himself or at one time may have ridden with the Kid. [71], What is known about the morning following McNab's death is that the Regulator "iron clad" took up defensive positions in the town of Lincoln, trading shots with Dolan men as well as U.S. A tribute to the 1973 album Shotgun Willie. [51] Tunstall's men formed their own group called the Regulators. The governor agreed and promised the Kid a full pardon. But before Garrett could get his prisoners to jail, he had to defend them from a lynch mob that formed around the train on the route to Santa Fe. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Quin es?" At about age 21, Billy the Kid was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Left in the care of an absentee stepfather, the future gunslinger spent the next year living in foster homes and boardinghouses. Billy was never in any trouble at all. All we know is that his mother's name was Catherine Devine or McCarty, Katherine Beaujean or Katherine Bonney. Another hypothesis is that Billy the Kid was in fact Ollie L. (Brushy Bill) Roberts, who escaped, lived in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, rode in Wild West shows, and died in 1950 in Hico, Texas. [86] Grant, who did not realize he was playing poker with McCarty, boasted that he would kill "Billy the Kid" if he ever encountered him. He was said to be friendly and personable at times, and many recalled that he was as "lithe as a cat".] In the late 1940s, an elderly Texas man known as Brushy Bill Roberts even claimed to be Billy the Kid in the flesh, but his story was largely discredited after family records revealed his birthdate to be 1879. This perception was encouraged by the only documented photograph of McCarty (an undated ferrotype), in which he appears to be wearing a gun belt with a holster on his left side. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. After a short stint working on the ranch of Henry Hooker, McCarty began working on the Coe-Saunders ranch. [35], George Coe, a cousin to Frank who also served as a Regulator, stated: "Billy was a brave, resourceful and honest boy. The Kid decided to laid low long enough until the law would give up hunting him and he could rustle up some money and leave the territory. Updates? 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. Our family looks favorably on Billy, we have some stories of him from our Jaramillo cousins. Billy the Kids grave is in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The Kid got caught with it and was arrested. This year, in her book Billy the Kid's Writings, Words, and Wit, Billy the Kid historian Dr. Gale Cooper specifically authenticated an additional Billy the Kid letter. a 19th century American frontier outlaw and gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War. Although he claimed to have killed 21 men, the actual number is likely less than 10. [54][57][58] On the very day that McCloskey, Morton, and Baker were slain, Governor Samuel Beach Axtell arrived in Lincoln County to investigate the ongoing violence. The song spent twenty weeks on the Hot Country Songs chart in 1992, peaking at number four. [72] The only casualty was Dutch Charley Kruling, a Dolan man wounded by a rifle slug fired by George Coe at a distance of 440 paces. [32] On August 17, Cahill reportedly attacked McCarty after a verbal exchange and threw him to the ground. On March 1, 1873 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Catherine McCarty married a man named William Antrim. Updated: April 8, 2020 | Original: July 14, 2016. Now fighting for the Tunstall side and in the hopes of a better future, the Kid changed his name to William H. Bonney, but his friends called him Kid. Tensions were high and the feud between Dolan and Tunstall escalated in to bloody violence. Henry McCarty Billy the Kid (Henry Antrim) ( Henry McCarty) William H. Bonney Born 17 September 1859 - New York, NY Baptized 28 September 1859 - St. Peter's Church, Manhattan, New York, NY Deceased 14 July 1881 - Fort Sumner, DeBaca Co., NM,aged 21 years old Outlaw 2 files available Parents Patrick McCarty 1828-1869 Catherine Devine 1829-1874 McCarty was shot in the thigh while attempting to retrieve a rifle that Brady had seized from him during an earlier arrest. History first traces the Kid as a youngster in Indiana in the late 1860s and then in Wichita, Kansas in 1870. The Law vs Billy the Kid (1954, Columbia Pictures Corporation) starring Scott Brady. Here are five facts to prove it. Or, possibly,. [57] With this move, the McSween faction disillusioned many former supporters, who came to view both sides as "equally nefarious and bloodthirsty". He then armed himself with a double-barreled shotgun and gunned down a second guard who was crossing the street. A large number of residents in the surrounding country and . The war was over; the Regulators disbanded and the Kid was now a fugitive. 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. Footnote 7: Bob Olinger was a bully and an old enemy of Billy the Kid. Billy the Kid, 1941 remake of the 1930 film, starring Robert Taylor and Brian Donlevy. The tensions finally boiled over in February 1878, when Tunstall was murdered by a posse organized by Sheriff William Brady, a supporter of The House. Forced to seek new lodgings when his foster family began to experience "domestic problems", McCarty moved into a boarding house and pursued odd jobs. 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. [54][55][56] During their journey to Lincoln, the Regulators also killed one of their own members, a man named McCloskey, whom they suspected of being a traitor. [44] A conflict known today as the Lincoln County War had erupted between the established town merchants, Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan, and competing business interests headed by Tunstall and McSween. History tells us that the outlaw known as Billy the Kid (aka Henry McCarty, aka William Bonney) was gunned downat the ripe old age of 21by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881, in Fort. It was also on Ry Cooder Classics Volume II. [40] At some point in 1877, McCarty began to refer to himself as "Willam H. Its believed that Henry was simply the tool of Sombrero Jack, who done the stealing whilst Henry done the hiding. [57] The incident had the effect of further alienating the public, given that many local residents "admired the way Roberts put up a gutsy fight against overwhelming odds". [34] Years later, Louis Abraham, who had known McCarty in Silver City but was not a witness, denied that anyone was killed in this altercation. Bob Dylan's album Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, soundtrack of the 1973 film by Sam Peckinpah. The Lincoln County War would have turned out exactly the way it did if Billy the Kid never took part in it. Roberts may have actually been born 20 years later than Billy. New Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett and his posse captured Billy the Kid at a place called Stinking Springs on December 23, 1880. [24] In April, 1875, McCarty was arrested by Grant County Sheriff Harvey Whitehill, after McCarty stole some cheese. Check out nine facts about the brief and bloody life of the legendary outlaw. 58 Otero's Depression-era embrace of the Kid as a "social bandit" must be understood as a twentieth-century expression of political and cultural sentiments, rather than a rigorously researched documentation of the feelings of all Hispanos during the Kid's lifetime. The manager was impressed by the youth, contending that he was the only young man who ever worked for him that did not steal anything. [36] He eventually arrived at the former army post of Apache Tejo, where he joined a band of cattle rustlers who targeted the sprawling herds of cattle magnate John Chisum. John Tunstall was brutally murder by members of Sheriff Bradys posse and the Boys. Contemporaries described him as a "neat" dresser who favored an "unadorned Mexican sombrero". Billy the Kid tries to live in peace, under a new name and in a frontier town, but is approached by a preacher who asks for his help in freeing the town from a ruthless man and his gunman. No sooner had he woken Maxwell than the Kid also approached the house, having stopped nearby to get beef for a late dinner. [1] The song was written by Dean and Paul Nelson. [49] Tunstall's murder enraged McCarty and the other ranch hands. [38] It is unclear how long McCarty rode with the gang of rustlers known as "the Boys", but reliable sources indicate that he soon turned up at the house of Heiskell Jones in the Pecos Valley,[39] New Mexico. December 1, 2015 Examined While McCarty and his gang were asleep inside, Garrett's posse surrounded the building and waited for sunrise. Wallis wrote in 2007 that McCarty was ambidextrous. [115] More recently, in response to a story from The Guardian that used an uncorrected McCarty ferrotype, Clyde Jeavons, a former curator of the National Film and Television Archive, cited their work and added: 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. They were now viewed as the bad guys and warrants were put out for their arrest. Early in life, he adopted the nickname Billy the Kid. 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. He was killed not for who he really was, but for what people thought he was. Director: Oliver Drake | Stars: Anthony Dexter, Sonny Tufts, Marie Windsor, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers Votes: 147 15. 20:30. Young Guns II, Geoff Murphy's 1990 motion picture starring Emilio Estevez as Billy and William Petersen as Pat Garrett. When Grant fired, nothing happened, and McCarty then shot him. Henry McCartys first run-in with the law came in 1875, when he assisted a local street tough known as Sombrero Jack in stealing clothing from a Chinese laundry. Lastly, they had a dramatic gunfight with Dolan gunman Buckshot Roberts, but during that shootout their leader Dick Brewer was killed. [91] At some point in the evening, Carlyle evidently decided the outlaws were stalling. These qualities, along with his cunning and celebrated skill with firearms, contributed to his paradoxical image, as both a notorious outlaw and beloved folk hero. Now an outlaw and unable to find honest work, the Kid met up with another outlaw named Jesse Evans, who was the leader of a gang of rustlers called The Boys. The Kid didn't have anywhere else to go and since it was suicide to be alone in the hostile and lawless territory, the Kid reluctantly joined the gang. At that exact moment, the Kid with a knife in hand went to Maxwells house to get some fresh beef for a late steak dinner. As Ollinger came running into view, McCarty leveled the shotgun at him, called out "Hello Bob!" Reliable accounts suggest McCarty retaliated by drawing his gun and shooting Cahill, who died the next day. Abrana Garcia. On the fifth day of the siege the Dolan side was getting impatient, so they set the house on fire. This nineteen or twenty year old lived a short life but made a lasting impression. The Regulators began to panic, so the cool-headed Billy the Kid, only about seventeen years old, took over leadership of the men. The governor, accompanied by James Dolan and associate John Riley, proved hostile to the faction now headed by McSween. The feud then turned into an all out war. Then they ambushed Sheriff Brady and his deputy George Hindman in Lincoln (5). If it werent for our attraction to Billy the Kid, the history of the Lincoln County War and its participants would've been long forgotten. After taking several days to consider Wallace's offer, McCarty agreed to testify in return for amnesty.[83]. Various accounts recorded by friends and acquaintances describe him as fun-loving and jolly, articulate in both his writing and his speech, and loyal to those for whom he cared. The NBC series The Tall Man ran from 1960 to 1962, starring Clu Gulager as Billy and Barry Sullivan as Pat Garrett. Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid,[125] Gore Vidal's 1989 film starring Val Kilmer as Billy and Duncan Regehr as Pat Garrett. From that point on, McCarty was more or less a fugitive. #billythekid. Until the death of his mother in 1874, Billy led a fairly normal life . The Kid was the only one convicted and punished over the events of the war. Abrana Garcia lived in Fort Sumner at the time Billy the Kid frequented the town. As for Billy the Kid's biological father, there is absolutely nothing known about him -not even a name. He also appeared in another period. (All Winchester Model 1873 rifles were made with the loading gate on the right side of the receiver: the "left-handed" photograph is a mirror image. Some of those who witnessed the incident later claimed that McCarty acted in self-defense. In 1881, Billy the Kid was captured by Pat Garrett, the Lincoln County Sheriff, for his involvement in the Lincoln County War, and he was found guilty of killing Sheriff Brady. [117], Frank Coe, who rode as a Regulator, recalled years after the Kid's death: "I never enjoyed better company. Once in control of the courthouse, the Kid collected a small arsenal of weapons, cut his leg shackles with a pickaxe and fled town on a stolen horse. [87] While popular accounts often depict McCarty and Garrett as "bosom buddies", there is no concrete evidence that they were ever friends. Most historians reject Brushy Bill's claim, although his argument was not entirely bereft of supporting evidence. He went by many names -- Henry McCarty, William Henry Bonney (William H. Bonney), Oliver P. Roberts (Ollie), and, most notably, Billy the Kid. [27] In 1876, he settled in the vicinity of Fort Grant Army Post in Arizona, where he worked local ranches and tested his skills at local gaming houses. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. [120] 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. In July 1878, the feud reached its climax with a deadly, five-day firefight in the town of Lincoln, after which the Regulators disbanded and the two sides sealed a flimsy peace agreement. Little of substance is known about Billy's life during this period, and myth has replaced fact to shroud the early years of Billy . There's also something fishy about this whole incident and there may have been more foul play then we're led to believe. Willie Nelson's 90th birthday celebration looked like a hell of a time. There is only one known photograph of him. [108] In a second version, McCarty entered carrying a knife, evidently headed to a kitchen area. [97] As the lawmen began to cook breakfast over an open fire, Garrett and McCarty engaged in a friendly exchange, with Garrett inviting McCarty outside to eat, and McCarty inviting Garrett to "go to hell". 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. During a trip to the outhouse, the Kid slipped out of his handcuffs, ambushed a guard and shot the man to death with his own pistol. The Outlaw, Howard Hughes' 1943 motion picture featuring Jane Russell in her breakthrough role as the Kid's fictional love interest. He became handy with a Winchester rifle and a Colt revolver, and in August 1877 he killed his first man during a dispute in an Arizona saloon. Instead he was a gunfighter in a feud between two factions in which both sides stole from each other and killed. [99], One widely reported characteristic of McCarty has stood the test of research: his personal charisma and popularity. [18], Faced with a husband who was frequently absent, McCarty's mother reportedly washed clothes, baked pies, and took in boarders in order to provide for her sons. April 30, 2023. Blyth previously appeared in Benediction. There are some exc. [118] 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". The county sheriff decided to keep him locked up for a couple of days just to scare him, but the Kid escaped and ran away (3). He would have been a successful man under other circumstances. Dave Stamey's "The Skies of Lincoln County", which features the deceased Bonney as narrator, answering historical distortions by Pat Garrett. During this time, McCarty became acquainted with John R. Mackie, a Scottish-born ex-cavalry private with a criminal bent. Ostensibly neutral, the column's actions worked to the clear advantage of the Dolan faction. I went in and was the first to discover that they had killed my little boy. [9][10] Some genealogists argue, however, that the future outlaw was born William Henry Bonney, the son of William Harrison Bonney and wife Katherine Boujean, paternal grandson of Levi Bonney and wife Rhoda Pratt and great-grandson of Obadiah Pratt, who in turn were the Grandparents of Mormon leader Parley P. Pratt, making him and McCarty first cousins once removed. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, 1989 time travel time travel movie featuring Dan Shor as Billy the Kid. Dolan sent for Colonel Dudley at Fort Stanton for assistance. After his escape from death row, the Kid spent several months hiding out on the frontier and taking refuge with sympathetic locals in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. [37] 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. The arrangement called for McCarty to submit to a token arrest and a short stay in jail until the conclusion of his courtroom testimony. Billy the Kid's real name was William Henry McCarty (1), when and where he was born, or who or what happened to his father is not known. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Ms Kelly, the late Queen's confidante and stylist for more than 20 years, is leaving her grace-and-favour cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle for a new life in the Peak District - 180 miles away. As he pretended to admire it, he spun the cylinder so the hammer would fall on an empty chamber. He was born Henry . (Spanish for "Who is it? So when Olinger ran to the courthouse, the Kid didnt hesitate to shoot him with his own shotgun. Beginning of a short life On November 23, 1859, Henry McCarty was born in New York City but moved to Kansas with his family when he was very young. [14] In 1873, after several years of moving around the country, the two were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico,[15] and settled further south in Silver City. [65] According to a contemporary newspaper account, the Regulators disclaimed "all connection or sympathy with McSween and his affairs" and expressed their sole desire to track down Tunstall's murderers. [2] Meanwhile, McCarty scooped up Ollinger's[103] 10-gauge double barrel shotgun and waited at the upstairs window for Ollinger, who had been across the street with some other prisoners, to come to Bell's aid. [118] 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". The gun clicked and then the Kid had his turn but his gun went BANG. He also recorded it in 1944 for Moe Asch's Asch/Folkways label (MA67).[128]. The Kid took Tunstalls offer. Ry Cooder recorded the folk song "Billy the Kid", on the album Into The Purple Valley,[129] with his own melody and instrumental. The Kid assumes the alias William H. Bonney. [8] A single tombstone was later erected over the graves, giving the three outlaws' names (Billy's as "William H. Bonney") and with a one word epitaph of "Pals" also carved into it. [21] The following year, on September 16, 1874, Catherine McCarty died; she was buried in the Memory Lane Cemetery in Silver City. The crime only carried a minor sentence, but rather than face punishment, the wiry youth escaped the jailhouse by shimmying up a chimney. During the pursuit for Billy the Kid, Garrett ended up killing two of the Kids closest comrades, Tom OFolliard and Charlie Bowdre. Billy the Kid was quickly put on trial in Mesilla and was sentence to hang for the murder of Sheriff Brady. According to legend, he killed 21 men, but he is generally accepted to have killed between four and nine. In those days people loaded their revolvers with only five rounds, with the hammer down on an empty chamber. Cartridges were scarce, and he always used about ten times as many as everyone else. Some researchers believe that a sympathizer placed a pistol in a nearby privy that McCarty was permitted to use, under escort, each day. Billy the Kid, byname of William H. Bonney, Jr., original name Henry McCarty?, (born November 23, 1859?, New York, New York, U.S.died July 14, 1881, Fort Sumner, New Mexico), American outlaw who was one of the most notorious gunfighters of the American West. Before the local newspapers reported Pat Garrett shot and killed Billy the Kid in Pete Maxwell's bedroom on July 14, 1881, there were already rumors that Garrett killed the wrong man.
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