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.
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
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.