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BILLY THE KID
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 Billy the Kid was an outlaw of the
American Southwest. He was born in New York City, New York on November
23, 1859. Billy the Kid used many aliases throughout his life, including
Kid Antrim, William H. Bonney, and Henry McCarty. In 1873, after the
death of his father, his mother remarried and his family moved to Silver
City, New Mexico.
Billy the Kid spent most of his youth in the rough saloons of the
American frontier. He became notorious for crimes of robbery, cattle
stealing, and murder. His first recorded murder occured on August 17,
1877, when he killed a blacksmith at Camp Grant, Arizona. Billy the Kid
claimed to have shot and killed a total of 21 men in his lifetime.
History shows that he fought in at least 16 shootouts, killed at least 4
men himself, and assisted in the murder of at least 5 others.
Billy the Kid was involved in the Lincoln County War, which lasted from
1878 to 1881. The war began after a sheriff's posse and hired gunmen of
a rival rancher and murdered John Tunstall, who had opened a competing
store and a bank. Billy the Kid was a bodyguard of Tunstall and he led a
group of Tunstall's employees seeking revenge on every man who
participated in the murder.
In 1880, Sheriff Patrick Floyd Garrett of Lincoln County captured Billy
the Kid. Sentenced to hang, Billy the Kid eventually escaped from jail,
killing two deputies, on April 28, 1881.
Shortly after his escape, Billy the Kid was fatally shot by Sheriff
Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico on July 13, 1881. New Mexico
maintains the Old Lincoln County Courthouse, from which Billy the Kid
escaped. Many legends and stories have developed around Billy the Kid's
life on the lawless American frontier.
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