He used several aliases including William H. Bonney, but was best known as Billy The Kid, with a legacy of facts and legends as folk hero and an outlaw with skills as a cunning thief and gunfighter.

Born William Henry McCarty Jr. on November 23, 1859, his father died or left early on and he was orphaned at 15 when his mother died of tuberculosis. In Arizona, he fought in the Lincoln County War but switched sides to become one of John Tunstall’s Regulators. He used several aliases including William H. Bonney, but was best known as Billy The Kid, with a legacy of facts and legends as folk hero and an outlaw with skills as a cunning thief and gunfighter.

Arrested for stealing horses and cattle, Billy was captured and sentenced to death for the murder of a sheriff. 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 in 1881 in New Mexico.

I love the history of the west and this song from Billy Joel that in his mind, parallels their lives. Enjoy

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