Posted on 02/21/2015 3:59:46 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
An Arizona historian is trying to finally put an end to a dispute that’s lasted more than 130 years, over how the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid met his death.
As the legend has been told, the gun-slinging murderer Billy the Kid escaped from jail before Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett shot him on July 14,1881 in landowner Peter Maxwell’s bedroom in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The first time he killed somebody was actually in self defense.....he was on the floor of a saloon getting his head beat in when he killed the guy.
When he joined started the Regulators, he was avenging his boss who was a new land owner in the area who was brutally gunned down with the help of local authorities.
Almost everything I knew of Billy the Kid was wrong.
The line between “good” and “bad” people in the old west was pretty blurry. Some of the best lawman got their start on the other side of the law.
CC
“Almost everything I knew of Billy the Kid was wrong.”
Including his real name. For years I thought it was
William ( H. ) Bonney. Turns out that was an alias. William H. McCarty, Jr. is considered Billy the Kid’s real name.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/12/billy-the-kids-real-name-was-not-william-h-bonney/
He’s dead.
Guaranteed.
I’ve been to Lincoln NM it’s pretty interesting. I’ve got a ton of pictures of all the old buildings, courthouse and stores.
Newly unveiled photo appears to be Billy the Kid and friend
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_23884872/new-photo-appears-be-billy-kid-and-friend
70 Allen Street, where Billy the Kid was born.
I grew up in the era of cowboy movies and TV westerns, so this sort of thing always has a bit of fascination for me. Thanks for the tip.
“Almost everything I knew of Billy the Kid was wrong.”
Me too. Billy Joel’s song “The Ballad of Billy the Kid” straightened me out though. :-p
A song which is inaccurate in almost every way.
The song is Joel’s fictionalized version of the story of Billy the Kid. In an interview from 1975, Joel admitted, “Basically [the song] was an experiment with an impressionist type of lyric. It was historically totally inaccurate as a story.”[2]
Examples of these inaccuracies include when Joel sings that Billy the Kid was “from a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia” and that “he robbed his way from Utah to Oklahoma.”[3] But the real Billy the Kid never robbed a bank and although his birthplace is uncertain, no account suggests that he was from West Virginia. The song also says that Billy the Kid was captured and hanged, with many people attending the hanging while in reality, he was shot and killed by Pat Garrett.
Joel admitted, “Basically [the song] was an experiment with an impressionist type of lyric. It was historically totally inaccurate as a story.”[2]
If Obama had had a great grandpa in the old west, he would have looked like the guy beating up Billy the Kid.
Same here with me about the Earp brothers in Tombstone. Read the excellent “Wyatt Earp The Life Behind The Legend” (Casey Tefertiller) and you’d think the Earps worked for the Ferguson P.D. and that Billy Clanton and the McLaury Bros. died with their hands up trying to breathe. The town’s people wanted something done. The Earps did it and the slobs in the “media” turned the people against them by spewing lies about what occurred and what lead up to the feud. Some things NEVER change.
I know the song is completely innacurate :-). Thats why I put the :-p ...
Even the “east and west of the Rio Grande” lyric is kind of silly ... its a great song live though :).
He also was NOT left handed. Rifles were not made to be loaded from the left side as shown in the famous photo.
True. 19th Century photos give a reverse image of the subject which is why it looks like Billy is left handed.
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