Henry McCarty (23 November 1859-14 July 1881), also known as William H. Bonney, and nicknamed Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunslinger of the Wild West who was famed for his activities during the Lincoln County War of 1878. Billy the Kid had killed nine people by the time he turned 21, and he was shot dead by lawman Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico in 1881.
Biography[]
Henry McCarty was born in New York City, New York in 1859 to a family of Irish descent, and, following the death of the father, the family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and then to Wichita, Kansas in 1870. In 1873, the family settled in Silver City, New Mexico. McCarty was 13 years old when his mother died, and, while living in a boarding house, he was arrested for stealing food in 1875. Ten days later, he robbed a Chinese laundry, becoming an outlaw and a federal fugitive. He failed to convince his stepfather to take him in, so he traveled to the southeastern Arizona Territory to work as a ranch hand, and he gambled his wages in nearby gaming houses. On 17 August 1877, he murdered a blacksmith during an altercation, becoming a wanted man in Arizona as well.
Lincoln County War[]
Billy went on to return to New Mexico, where he was taken in by the English rancher John Tunstall after narrowly escaping from a store robbery. Billy worked on Tunstall's ranch and became a member of the Lincoln County Regulators, impressing other Regulators with his knowledge of reading and writing. When Tunstall was murdered by Sheriff William J. Brady's posse on the orders of his business rival, Lawrence Murphy, Billy and the other Regulators were deputized and sent to hunt down and apprehend Tunstall's killers.
Contradicting Regulator leader Richard M. Brewer's instructions to follow the law, Billy killed Henry Hill and six of his partisans in a shootout when he was instead supposed to arrest Hill, and he later shot dead captured rivals Frank Baker and Buck Morton and treacherous Regulator William McCloskey in the "Blackwater massacre". His high-profile actions led to him becoming a celebrity, and he was nicknamed "Billy the Kid"; at the same time, bounty hunters were sent after the Regulators. After the bounty hunter Buckshot Roberts killed Brewer in a shootout at Blazer's Mills, Billy positioned himself as the new leader of the young Regulator gunslingers, which also consisted of Doc Scurlock, Jose Chavez y Chavez, Steve Stephens, and Charlie Bowdre. The gang later murdered Sheriff Brady for his role in Tunstall's death, leading to the Regulators becoming outlaws, and Billy having a $200 bounty set on him.
The Regulators fled to Mexico to evade the bounty hunters, but veteran bounty hunter John Kinney and his posse chased them across the Southwest. Billy met Sheriff Pat Garrett while he was staying in Juarez village in Mexico, and Garrett, a mutual friend of Billy's through Regulator lawyer Alexander McSween, warned him that McSween and his wife would be killed by Murphy's faction back in Lincoln. Billy and his posse saddled up and rode back to Lincoln to warn McSween, arriving at his house. As they debated with McSween, they found themselves surrounded in McSween's house as lawmen and bounty hunters joined forces to besiege them. The Regulators withstood several volleys of fire from the besiegers, and Colonel Nathan Dudley and US Army Buffalo Soldiers were then called in to assist the lawmen. When the Army set the house on fire, Bonney and a few other Regulators managed to escape, although McSween was killed; the flight of the Regulators from Lincoln ended the war, and began a manhunt.
On the run[]
Billy the Kid once more became a fugitive, and he later agreed to meet with Governor Lew Wallace about the possibility of a pardon. Wallace agreed to pardon Billy if he testified against the Murphy-Dolan faction, and he agreed to be arrested and testify. After his testimony, however, he was not released by the district attorney, and Billy suspected that Wallace had tricked him. He then fled from the Lincoln County jail on 17 June 1879, and, on 10 January 1880, he killed a man who had been sent to murder him at a Fort Sumner saloon. Billy and his gang were soon on the run from Sheriff Pat Garrett's posse, and the posse killed gang member Tom O'Folliard at Fort Sumner. On 13 December 1880, Governor Wallace posted a $500 bounty for The Kid's capture, and he was captured on 23 December 1880 in a shootout that left Bowdre dead. Billy was brought back to Lincoln County, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. His old friend Jane Greathouse left a pistol for Billy in an outhouse, and he went on to retrieve the pistol and kill two prison guards before escaping on 28 April 1881.
Death[]
A new $500 bounty was placed on The Kid's head, and Garrett was tipped off by a mutual friend of Billy's that he was last seen in the Fort Sumner area. Garrett and Maxwell later sat talking in Maxwell's bedroom in Fort Sumner near midnight on 14 July 1881, and Billy the Kid unexpectedly entered the poorly-lit room. Failing to recognize Garrett, he asked, "¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?" ("who is it?" in Spanish), and Garrett recognized Billy's voice and shot him twice, with the first bullet striking Billy above the heart and killing him. There are several theories about Billy's possible survival, with Brushy Bill Roberts in 1948 claiming that he was Billy the Kid and that, at Fort Sumner, Garrett staged the incident and death out of friendship so Billy could evade the law.
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