These qualities, along with his cunning and celebrated skill with firearms, contributed to his paradoxical image, as both a notorious outlaw and beloved folk hero. Following Tunstalls death, the Kid and several other former employees organized themselves into a vigilante group called The Regulators and swore revenge. He went by many names -- Henry McCarty, William Henry Bonney (William H. Bonney), Oliver P. Roberts (Ollie), and, most notably, Billy the Kid. Aaron Copland's Billy the Kid, a ballet that premiered in 1938. The Life and Legend of Billy the Kid | American Experience | PBS Father of Jose Patrocinio Garcia, alleged son of BTK; NN; Florentina Yerby, alleged daughter of BTK and Alexander Montoya [2] The horse returned two days later.[106]. The Boys started to steal Tunstalls livestock, so arrests were made and the Kid eventually was caught and placed in jail. [35], Deluvina Maxwell, a friend of Billy the Kid, stated: "Garrett was afraid to go back in the room to make sure of whom he had shot. As he entered Maxwells darkened bedroom, he spotted the shadowy outline of Garrett and once again asked, Whos that? Upon recognizing the Kids voice, Sheriff Garrett drew his six-shooter and fired off two rounds in his direction. The thirteen films included Blazing Frontier, The Renegade, Cattle Stampede, and Western Cyclone (1943).[122]. Roberts may have actually been born 20 years later than Billy. As a child, Billy the Kid went under the name of Henry McCarty. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. He also recorded it in 1944 for Moe Asch's Asch/Folkways label (MA67).[128]. [87] While popular accounts often depict McCarty and Garrett as "bosom buddies", there is no concrete evidence that they were ever friends. On April 28, while Garrett was out of town, McCarty stunned the territory by killing both of his guards and escaping. The Kid decided to laid low long enough until the law would give up hunting him and he could rustle up some money and leave the territory. Billy the Kid Returns, 1938: Roy Rogers plays a dual role, Billy the Kid and his dead-ringer lookalike who shows up after the Kid has been shot by Pat Garrett. When Grant fired, nothing happened, and McCarty then shot him. Last of the Desperados (1955) The Kid worked his hand free to his revolver and fired it into Cahills gut. Despite lack of information on these three, here are short biographies on Catherine, Joseph, and William Antrim. [11] It is generally believed that McCarty's Mother was a survivor of the Great Irish Famine of the mid-19th century. Footnote 1: There's a mystery with the last name of McCarty; it's speculated that it may be his father's name, mother's maiden name, or the last name of his half brother's father. [57] The incident had the effect of further alienating the public, given that many local residents "admired the way Roberts put up a gutsy fight against overwhelming odds". The Kid fled to one of his foster families and they put him on a stagecoach to Clifton, Arizona where his stepfather was living, but when he found his stepfather he didnt want him and told the Kid to leave. It's estimated that he was born around 1860-61 possibly in New York. Reliable accounts suggest McCarty retaliated by drawing his gun and shooting Cahill, who died the next day. 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. In what became known as the Lincoln County War, the Regulators assassinated Sheriff Brady and spent the next several months shooting it out with The Houses forces. The Kid heard about Governor Axtell being replaced by Lew Wallace, who was now trying to bring law and order to Lincoln. He was a pawn in losing game and he was made a scapegoat for other outlaws crimes. "Ash" Upson, published a sensationalistic biography titled The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid. As the Kid dodged the law, Pat Garrett was elected sheriff and made US Marshal to hunt for Billy the Kid. It proved to be a wise move. 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. The next day Billy the Kid was buried at the Fort Sumner cemetery near his two fallen companions, Tom OFolliard and Charlie Bowdre. Dolan sent for Colonel Dudley at Fort Stanton for assistance. Since there were now two Billies in the household, the Kids mother referred to him by his middle name, he was now Henry McCarty-Antrim (2). [95] On December 23, the Kid was tracked to an abandoned stone building located in a remote location known as Stinking Springs (near present-day Taiban, New Mexico). He became handy with a Winchester rifle and a Colt revolver, and in August 1877 he killed his first man during a dispute in an Arizona saloon. On May 15, the Regulators tracked down Seven Rivers gang member Manuel Segovia, the suspected murderer of Frank McNab, and shot him to death. The war was over; the Regulators disbanded and the Kid was now a fugitive. Edit. [16] Antrim found sporadic work as a bartender and carpenter but soon became more interested in prospecting and gambling for fortune than in his wife and stepsons. [40] The Jones family developed a strong attachment to McCarty and gave him one of their horses. Billy the Kid was unable to settle down, so he made his living by gambling and rustling cattle. A Billy the Kid Mystery Solved IHS owns most of Billy the Kid's more famous letters - including one in our collections that was previously unidentified. Billy the Kid was born in 1859, most likely in New York City. If indeed, his birthplace was New York, no records that can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he ever lived there have ever been uncovered". The Antrim Family - About Billy the Kid As for William McCloskey, he was a Regulator suspected for playing both ends of the table and tried to intervene in Morton and Bakers execution after the Regulators arrested them. [87], Other versions of this story exist. As a result, people interpret him in their own ways.. [82] In an effort to restore peace to Lincoln County, Wallace proclaimed an amnesty for any man involved in the Lincoln County War who was not already under indictment. The Boy from Oklahoma (1954), with Tyler MacDuff in the role of Billy the Kid[123]. (All Winchester Model 1873 rifles were made with the loading gate on the right side of the receiver: the "left-handed" photograph is a mirror image. Brushy Bill Roberts claimed he'd been born William Henry Roberts, in Buffalo Gap, Texas. The Kid now had to earn his own keep, so he was put to work washing dishes and waiting on tables at a restaurant. [111] McCarty was credited with the killing of 20 men. McCarty then fled town and embarked on a career as a roving ranch hand, gambler and gang member. To date, no results of the DNA tests have been made public. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. 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. [8] A single tombstone was later erected over the graves, giving the three outlaws' names (Billy's as "William H. Bonney") and with a one word epitaph of "Pals" also carved into it. The conflict centered on a business rivalry between British-born rancher John Tunstall and a pair of Irish tycoons named James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy. Before long, he fell in with a rough crowd and turned to petty crime and thievery. Deputy James Carlyle, member of the posse that tried to capture Billy the Kid, Dirty Dave Rudabaugh, and Billy Wilson. William H. Bonney, known as Billy the Kid, was the youngest and most famous example of a gun-fighter from the American West. As he approached, he saw Garretts two deputies on the porch and since he didn't recognizing the strangers, he backed cautiously into Maxwells room and asked Pete, who are those fellows outside? He got no answer and as he walked towards the bed, he saw Garretts silhouette and started to back away and asked in Spanish, Whose there? Garrett recognized the Kids voice and fired his gun. Son of Patrick Henry McCarty and Catherine Antrim All Rights Reserved. This wise precautionary move saved the Kid's life, because Grant then pulled his gun on him and fired. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [107] Close to midnight, as Garrett and Maxwell sat talking in Maxwell's darkened bedroom, McCarty unexpectedly entered the room. Henry McCarty; aka Billy the Kid; aka Willian H Bonney (he used his grandfather's name). HIS "REAL" NAME IS A TOPIC OF DEBATE. [112] When a reporter reminded Wallace that the Kid was depending on Wallace's intervention, the governor supposedly smiled and said, "Yes, but I can't see how a fellow like him can expect any clemency from me". [34] Years later, Louis Abraham, who had known McCarty in Silver City but was not a witness, denied that anyone was killed in this altercation. [109] A markedly different theory, in which Garrett and his posse set a trap for McCarty, has also been suggested. [30] Biographer Robert M. Utley writes that the nickname arose because of McCarty's "slight build and beardless countenance, his young years, and his appealing personality". He was killed not for who he really was, but for what people thought he was. I went in and was the first to discover that they had killed my little boy. Billy The Kid shooting down his foe who had taken refuge behind a saloon bar.  Lincoln County Courthouse, site of Billy the Kids famous 1881 escape.  Movie poster for a 1925 Billy the Kid film. [65], On April 4, in what became known as the Gunfight of Blazer's Mills, the Regulators sought the arrest of an old buffalo hunter known as Buckshot Roberts, whom they suspected of involvement in the Tunstall slaying. Omissions? shed some light on who Billy the Kid's parents were, and where and what day he was born. On July 14, 1881 just before midnight, Pat Garrett waited till the town was quiet before he slipped into Pete Maxwells room to ask him about Billy the Kid. [99], One widely reported characteristic of McCarty has stood the test of research: his personal charisma and popularity. It is said that they were very much an item and even had a child together, a boy called Jose Patrocinio Garcia in 1875 which would make Billy only fifteen at the time of the birth. On December 19, McCarty barely escaped a midnight ambush in Fort Sumner, which left one member of the gang, Tom O'Folliard, dead. With his execution scheduled for May 13, McCarty was removed to Lincoln, where he was held under guard by two of Garrett's deputies, James Bell and Robert Ollinger, on the top floor of the town courthouse. [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. Quin es? Quin es?": Revisiting the Racial Context of the Billy the [118] At least two men claimed to be McCarty, and they were successful in persuading a small segment of the public. McCarty drew his pistol and backed away, asking "Quin es? Another individual who allegedly claimed to be Billy the Kid was John Miller, whose family supported his claim in 1938, some time after Miller's death. [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. Shot three times and killed on Nov. 27, 1880 , possibly by Billy the Kid, Dirty Dave and Wilson, possibly by his own posse. [118] In 2004, researchers sought to exhume the remains of Catherine Antrim, McCarty's mother, "so her DNA could be tested and compared with DNA to be taken from the body buried under the Kid's gravestone". History first traces the Kid as a youngster in Indiana in the late 1860s and then in Wichita, Kansas in 1870. a 19th century American frontier outlaw and gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War. Story Behind the Song: Billy Dean's 'Billy The Kid' - The Tennessean Video Photo of Billy the Kid and His Killer Uncovered at Flea Market Some of those who witnessed the incident later claimed that McCarty acted in self-defense. Blyth previously appeared in Benediction. Billy the Kid's Family Tree REVEALED!! - YouTube By 1871, Catherine was diagnosed with Tuberculosis and was told to move to a climate that was warmer and drier. Since the end of the Lincoln County War, the Kid spent the next two years eluding the law and living in and around Fort Sumner (a former military fort transformed into a tiny Mexican village). The NBC series The Tall Man ran from 1960 to 1962, starring Clu Gulager as Billy and Barry Sullivan as Pat Garrett. [51] On April 1, Regulators Jim French, Frank McNab, John Middleton, Fred Waite, Henry Brown and McCarty ambushed Sheriff Brady[62] and his deputy, George W. Hindman,[63] killing them both in Lincoln's main street. The Charlie Daniels Band recorded the song "Billy The Kid" (Daniels, Dean, Wilson) on their 1976 album High Lonesome (Charlie Daniels album). Frequently Asked Questions - About Billy the Kid When the men began to run out of the burning house the Dolan side opened fire and all hell broke loose. In the late 1940s, an elderly Texas man known as Brushy Bill Roberts even claimed to be Billy the Kid in the flesh, but his story was largely discredited after family records revealed his birthdate to be 1879. Now fighting for the Tunstall side and in the hopes of a better future, the Kid changed his name to William H. Bonney, but his friends called him Kid. Tensions were high and the feud between Dolan and Tunstall escalated in to bloody violence. The Green Mile, Wild Bill has a tattoo of Billy the Kid in the 1999 film. McCarty retrieved the gun, and turned it on Bell when the pair had reached the top of a flight of stairs in the courthouse. [117], Frank Coe, who rode as a Regulator, recalled years after the Kid's death: "I never enjoyed better company. [23] Early biographers sought to explain McCarty's subsequent descent into lawlessness by focusing on his habit of reading dime novels that romanticized crime. After a short stay in Kansas, his mother eventually settled in New Mexico, where Billy would earn his fame. John Tunstall was brutally murder by members of Sheriff Bradys posse and the Boys. Even in death Billy the Kid is likeable and he has a large following with people all over the word. Henry Hooker, one-time employer of Billy the Kid, at his Sierra Bonita Ranch in southeast Arizona McCarty was 15 years old when his mother died. Opinion | Don't Pardon Billy the Kid - The New York Times [64], The connection between McSween and the Regulators was ambiguous, however. Or Henry Antrim. The Exhumation Of Billy The Kid: New Evidence Confirms His Death When they tried to intimidate Tunstalls upstart operation, the Englishman enlisted the Kid and several other gunmen to protect his property. In December 1880 he was captured by Garrett and stood trial for murder in Mesilla, New Mexico, in April 1881; he was found guilty and was sentenced to hang.