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Quick Facts
- NAME: Billy the Kid
- OCCUPATION: Criminal
- BIRTH DATE: November 23, 1859
- DEATH DATE: July 14, 1881
- PLACE OF BIRTH: New York, New York
- PLACE OF DEATH: Fort Sumner, New Mexico
- AKA: William Henry McCarty
- Full Name: William Henry McCarty Jr.
- Nickname: "Kid Antrim"
- AKA: William H. Bonney
- AKA: Billy the Kid
- AKA: Henry Antrim
- AKA: Henry McCarty
- Nickname: "The Kid"
Best Known For
Billy the Kid is best known for his time as a thief and gunfighter, constantly on the run from law enforcement.
Videos see all videos
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Billy the Kid - Who Was He? (2:02)
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Billy the Kid - Who Was He?
Who was Billy the Kid and how did he really die? These questions are debated hotly even to this day in New Mexico and Texas as each claim to be home to the "Kid."
Billy the Kid - Teenage Outlaw
The young troublemaker of the West, Billy the Kid, was always on the run from the law.
Billy the Kid - A Controversial Death
Billy was captured and sentenced to death for the murder of a sheriff, but escaped after killing guards. The legend of Billy the Kid was created by his killer, Sheriff Garrett.
Quiz
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Play NowWilliam Henry McCarty. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 04:17, May 25, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/billy-the-kid-278971.
William Henry McCarty. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/billy-the-kid-278971 [Accessed 25 May 2013].
"William Henry McCarty." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 25 2013, 04:17 http://www.biography.com/people/billy-the-kid-278971.
"William Henry McCarty," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/billy-the-kid-278971 [accessed May 25, 2013].
"William Henry McCarty," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/billy-the-kid-278971 (accessed May 25, 2013).
William Henry McCarty [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 25] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/billy-the-kid-278971.
William Henry McCarty, http://www.biography.com/people/billy-the-kid-278971 (last visited May 25, 2013).
William Henry McCarty. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/billy-the-kid-278971. Accessed May 25, 2013.
Synopsis
Billy the Kid was born William Henry McCarty Jr. on November 23, 1859 in New York City. Little is known of his youth, but early on he entered a life of thievery, eventually heading west and joining a violent gang. Billy was captured and sentenced to death for the murder of a sheriff, but escaped after killing guards. The legend of Billy the Kid was created by his killer, Sheriff Garrett.
Contents
Early Life
Billy the Kid was born William Henry McCarty Jr. on November 23, 1859, in New York City. Little is known about the early life of William McCarty (also known as Henry Antrim and William H. Bonney, an alias), but it is believed that his father died or left the family when Billy was very young, and he was orphaned at 15 when his mother died of tuberculosis. Shortly after, he and his brother got involved in petty theft.
McCarty had a slim physique, sandy blond hair and blue eyes and wore a signature sugar-loaf sombrero hat with a wide decorative band. He could be charming and polite one moment, then outraged and violent the next, a quixotic nature he used to great effect during his heists and robberies. According to legend, he killed 21 men during his days as an outlaw, one for each year of his life, though he likely killed far fewer than that number.
Outlaw
On the run from the authorities, McCarty moved to Arizona briefly before joining up with a gang of gunfighters called The Boys to fight in the Lincoln County War. Known as "The Kid," McCarty switched to the opposition to fight with John Tunstall under the name "the Regulators."
Barely escaping with his life, McCarty became an outlaw and a fugitive. He stole horse and cattle until his arrest in 1880 for the killing of Sheriff Brady during the Lincoln County War. After being sentenced to death, he killed his two guards and escaped in 1881. He was hunted down and shot dead by Sheriff Patrick Garrett on July 14, 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Shortly after the shooting, Sheriff Garrett wrote a biography of McCarty, the hugely sensationalized The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid. The book was the first of many accounts that would turn the young outlaw into a legend of the American frontier.
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