2. Henry McCarty, aka, Billy the Kid was a teenage outlaw and the most well-known gunman in the history of the wild west. Billy
the Kid’s exact date of birth and place is not known, and historians and biographers are still trying to solve the mystery.
Orphan at fifteen, Billy had been fending for himself as a horse thief and by the age of seventeen, Billy had already killed a man
in a fight, claiming it to be an act of self-defense. In just a few years Billy transformed himself from a skinny orphan boy to
the most feared man in the West and a very long-lasting western icon. According to legend, he killed 21 men during his days
as an outlaw, one for each year of his life.
3. Billy was sentenced to hang for the murder of Sheriff Brady and two weeks before his execution, on April 28, Billy
escaped after killing the guards. His murders turned him into the nation’s most wanted man. However, on July 14,
1881, a local bartender and former buffalo hunter named Pat Garrett finally tracked Billy down at a ranch near Fort
Summer, New Mexico. Billy was visiting a girlfriend and Garrett gained access to the house and surprised him in the
dark.Garrett fired a bullet through Billy’s chest.
“The Kid” was dead at age 21, but not before having caused the authorities an
unprecedented amount of trouble.
Editor's Notes
Henry McCarty, aka, Billy the Kid was a teenage outlaw and the most well-known gunman in the history of the wild west. Billy the Kid’s exact date of birth and place is not known, and historians and biographers are still trying to solve the mystery.
Orphan at fifteen, Billy had been fending for himself as a horse thief and by the age of seventeen, Billy had already killed a man in a fight, claiming it to be an act of self-defense. In just a few years Billy transformed himself from a skinny orphan boy to the most feared man in the West and a very long-lasting western icon. According to legend, he killed 21 men during his days as an outlaw, one for each year of his life.
Billy was sentenced to hang for the murder of Sheriff Brady and two weeks before his execution, on April 28, Billy escaped after killing the guards. His murders turned him into the nation’s most wanted man. However, on July 14, 1881, a local bartender and former buffalo hunter named Pat Garrett finally tracked Billy down at a ranch near Fort Summer, New Mexico. Billy was visiting a girlfriend and Garrett gained access to the house and surprised him in the dark.Garrett fired a bullet through Billy’s chest.
“The Kid” was dead at age 21, but not before having caused the authorities an unprecedented amount of trouble.
