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. Despite the controversy, historical records show that the Kids body was positively identified by several different people the day after his shooting, leading most historians to conclude that Sheriff Garrett got the right man. Quin es?" Billy the Kid, also known as William Henry McCarty, Jr., was a 19th-century American outlaw and gunfighter. Billy the Kid is one of the most notorious Wild West outlaws, which is especially impressive because he had to fit all his outlawing into just 21 years of life. [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. "As [McCarty] was leaving the saloon, his back turned to Grant, he heard a distinct click. That is, unless he was buried in the middle of Texas. A matter of fact, Billy the Kid is known as the Old West's most favorite outlaw. On the run again and an outlaw, the Kid went back to making a living the only way he knew how rustling. He would practice shooting at anything he saw, from every conceivable angle, on and off his horse". The tighter the place the more he showed his cool nerve and quick brain. [96] Soon afterward, somebody from within the building reached for the horse's halter rope, but Garrett shot and killed the horse, whose body blocked the building's only exit. [100] On April 9, after two days of testimony, McCarty was found guilty of the murder of Sheriff Brady, the only conviction ever secured against any of the combatants in the Lincoln County Cattle War. [31] In 1877, McCarty was involved in an altercation with the civilian blacksmith at Fort Grant, a loquacious Irish immigrant named Frank "Windy" Cahill, who took pleasure in bullying young McCarty. Jack has skinned out.. [33] The coroner's inquest concluded that McCarty's shooting of Cahill was "criminal and unjustifiable." By 1873 he had moved west to New Mexico as a result of his mother remarrying after. Contemporaries described him as a "neat" dresser who favored an "unadorned Mexican sombrero". Thanks to Billy the Kid, New Mexico has a thriving business in tourism as a steady flow of tourists each year come to visit the Billy the Kid sites. All Rights Reserved. Then on September 16, 1874, the Kids mother died. This was done to prevent an accidental discharge should the hammer be struck. Geni requires JavaScript! Some of the most famous actors to play the Kid include Roy Rogers, Paul Newman, Val Kilmer and Emilio Estevez. He spun around before Grant could reach a loaded chamber. After the death of his father, he traveled west with his mother ending up in Silver City, New Mexico Territory in 1873. History first traces the Kid as a youngster in Indiana in the late 1860s and then in Wichita, Kansas in 1870. One day while at a saloon in Camp Grant, Arizona, the Kid who was about sixteen at the time, got into serious trouble. [9][10] According to some accounts, McCarty was born as William Henry McCarty, Jr., but his mother preferred to call him "Henry" because she did not wish him to be known as "Junior". Garrett may have deliberately been waiting in the dark to shoot the Kid. 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. His negotiations with Governor Lew Wallace (famed Civil War general and author of the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ) for amnesty came to nothing. Though he was serious in emergencies, his humor was often apparent even in such situations. Tunstall noticed something different about this rustler, he wasnt rough like the other men, but just a boy who got a bad start in life and was looking for place to belong. The Kid heard about Governor Axtell being replaced by Lew Wallace, who was now trying to bring law and order to Lincoln. For two nights in the Hollywood Bowl, musicians of all kinds are coming together to celebrate the country music icon. Bonney. [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. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. One-Eyed Jacks (1961) is the only film directed by actor Marlon Brando, who also played its lead character, Rio. At the time Brady arrested them, the two men were attempting to serve a warrant on Brady for his suspected role in looting Tunstall's store after the Englishman's death, as well as his posse members for the murder of Tunstall. [61], Unfazed, the Regulators planned to settle a score with Sheriff William J. Brady, who had arrested McCarty and fellow deputy Fred Waite in the aftermath of Tunstall's murder. [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". [108] Recognizing McCarty's voice, Garrett drew his own pistol and fired twice, the first bullet striking McCarty just above his heart, killing him. And also because he never committed most of the crimes we associate with most Wild West bad guys: He never robbed a bank or a train or held up a stagecoach. [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. He took pleasure in tormenting the helpless prisoner and used his shotgun to intimidate him. After his sentence was passed, the Kid was taken to Lincoln to await his hanging. The family moved to New Mexico, and, in his early teens, Billy fell into a career of thievery and lawlessness, wandering throughout the Southwest and northern Mexico, often with gangs. [91] At some point in the evening, Carlyle evidently decided the outlaws were stalling. 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. Footnote 5: The Regulators were particular bitter towards Bill Morton, because he led the posse that murdered Tunstall and was one of those that shot him. Henry McCarty. To this day, genealogists are still stumped. [88], In November 1880, a posse pursued and trapped McCarty's gang inside a ranch house owned by one of the Kid's friends, James Greathouse, at Anton Chico in the White Oaks area. [35], In fear of Cahill's friends and associates, McCarty fled Arizona Territory and entered New Mexico Territory. On March 1, 1873 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Catherine McCarty married a man named William Antrim. [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. Or, possibly,. But after some close calls, arrest, and escaping from custody, the Kid decided it was wiser to give up his new occupation. After a short stay in Kansas, his mother eventually settled in New Mexico, where Billy would earn his fame. In those days people loaded their revolvers with only five rounds, with the hammer down on an empty chamber. [35], George Coe, a cousin to Frank who also served as a Regulator, stated: "Billy was a brave, resourceful and honest boy. The Kid was in unfriendly territory and one of his threats was prosecutor attorney William Rynerson, who was part of the Ring and wanted to put the Kid on trial for the murder of Sheriff Brady. 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. Ry Cooder recorded the folk song "Billy the Kid", on the album Into The Purple Valley,[129] with his own melody and instrumental. She resided at 199 North East Street and it was there she met and began a long term relationship with a man named William Antrim, a twenty-three year old labor and teamster who lived a few blocks away. Bill Richardson to. It happened when a posse from White Oaks surrounded the Kid and his gang at a station house, during the standoff the posse accidentally killed their own deputy, James Carlyle. [83] Although McCarty's testimony helped to indict John Dolan, the district attorney, one of the powerful "House" faction leaders, disregarded Wallace's order to set McCarty free after his testimony. The Kid worked his hand free to his revolver and fired it into Cahills gut. [47] "As a wry and macabre joke on Tunstall's great affection for horses, the dead bay's head was then pillowed on his hat", writes Frederick Nolan, Tunstall's biographer. 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. Responding to rumors that McCarty was still lurking in the vicinity of Fort Sumner almost three months after his escape, Sheriff Garrett and two deputies set out on July 14, 1881, to question one of the town's residents, a friend of McCarty's named Pete Maxwell (son of land baron Lucien Maxwell). Billy the Kid Biography - life, family, name, death, mother, young Edit. Footnote 3: The Silver City newspaper reported: Henry McCarty, who was arrested Thursday and committed to jail to await the action of the grand jury, upon the charge of stealing clothes from Charley Sun and Sam Chung, celestials, sans cue, sans Joss sticks, escaped from prison yesterday through the chimney. Western outlaw Billy the Kid met his demise at about 12:30 a.m. on July 14, 1881, when he went to his friend Pete Maxwell's home in Fort Sumner, New Mexico in search of a slice . All we know is he had a mother named Catherine (maiden name unknown) and a younger brother named Joseph (middle and last name unknown), and absolutely nothing is known of his biological father. When Cahill fell over the Kid squirmed free, ran off, and mounted the nearest horse and fled Camp Grant. After some name-calling, Cahill rushed the Kid and slammed him down on the ground, then jumped on top of him and proceeded to slap him in the face. The Kid was a thousand times better and braver than any man hunting him, including Pat Garrett". His position was further undermined by a string of negative newspaper editorials that referred to him as "Billy the Kid". [7] "His many Hispanic friends did not view him as a ruthless killer but rather as a defender of the people who were forced to kill in self-defense," Wallis writes.

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