Billy The Kid Analysis

Billy the Kid has a lot of history surrounding him. Some of it true and some left unknown. People like making his story more elaborate or more heroic than it might have been. But in reality Billy the Kid wasn’t as big of a figure as most stories make him out to be. Yes, he was a very good shot and had plenty of run ins with the law, but how people personify him range from fact to fiction leaving one to question many of the accounts made of him. Billy’s actual name growing ups wasn’t actually Billy, but Henry McCarty. His broken childhood can explain how he ended up living the way he did as he grew up in a New York City slum in 1859. It wasn’t until he was five that he ended up moving with his mother Catherine McCarty, who was widowed, to Kansas,
and then to New Mexico. Henry ended up getting educated fairly well in a camp called Silver City when his mom ended up marrying William H. Antrim. At school he proved to be very quick minded and different from the average frontier drifter. But unfortunately his mother ended up dying in 1874 leaving Henry to figure out life the hard way. A year after his mother dying Billy would end up having his first minor offense with the law. As punishment the sheriff put him in jail only to have him escape up the chimney of the jail. After his escape he ended up becoming a saddle tramp, where he learned about herding cattle and how to use a gun. After doing this for about two years he seemed to make up a reputation as being “scrappy tough” and “not to be trifled with”. Unfortunately, Windy Cahill, who was an ex-soldier, didn’t seem to understand this. On August 17, 1877 Windy ended up going to a saloon only to get into an argument with Henry, ending with Windy dead. This is where Henry got put behind bars a second time. Just like before Henry also ended up escaping and fled to New Mexico, as he was wanted from the law in Arizona. This moment in Henry’s life was just the start of his outlaw career. As an outlaw Henry made his way towards Lincoln county where he ended up in a band of thirty gunmen, who were almost all from a gang called the Evans gang.
Here he heard that Evens and a couple of other men were in jail and he was quick to help break them out of jail. After this Henry or also known as Billy by this point decided that he would sign on as a cowhand at the Tunstall ranch in Rio Feliz. This would put him on one of the sides in a conflict called the Lincoln County War. On one side was Tunstall and a lawyer called Alexander McSween, and on the other side was Lawrence G. Murphy, James J. Dolan and John H. Riley. Both of these people wanted to make a monopoly on cattle ranching and federal contracts from the government. Lawrence G Murphy and his men held good partnerships with the county sheriff, Jesse Evans and The Boys. Not only that but they put a lot of people in debt and were not afraid to use violence if
necessary. Knowing this Tunstall hired men not only good as cowhands but who were also as good with guns. Unfortunately, this did not help him save his life. In one of the first conflicts between the two opposing groups, Tunstall was hunted down by a sheriff’s posse and killed or arguably murdered him. This started the Lincoln County War. Tunstall’s men that were left ended up calling themselves the Regulators and used Justice of the Peace John B. Wilson to justify them under law. The two groups, now had the law on both sides and were ready to go at it with each other. Henry at this point was known as Billy Bonney. In this war he was very active and participated in all of the major incidents. One of the incidents was an assault on Sheriff William Brady’s life. It happened on March 31, 1878 as Billy and five others hid behind the Tunstall store in Lincoln. There they waited for the Sheriff. When eventually the Sheriff and his deputies came by, the Regulator’s took the opportunity and killed Sheriff William Brady in a gunfight. Unfortunately for Billy he got shot in the leg as he was looting Brady’s dead body. After being shot Billy and the rest of them fled town. After that, the conflict escaladed to a Five-Day Battle from July 15th to July 19th. This battle ended when soldiers from fort Stanton came in and drove out the Regulators or McSween’s men. These soldiers came because of letters of concerned citizens that were caught in this conflict. As a result, McSween ended up being killed along with most of his followers. Luckily for Billy, he was able to escape after this long fight with three other men. Billy was now considered a prominent fighter and wanted for the murder of Sheriff Brady. Billy still stayed close to Lincoln but ended up spending most of his time at Fort Sumner, an abandoned military base. Here, Billy ended up taking charge of those left of the Regulators who didn’t want to put behind what had happened at Lincoln. After a year things died down a little in Lincoln to the point where the remnants of both sides sought to find some peace in the matter. Unfortunately, during this there was an accidental gunfire leading to the killing of a man called Chapman. For Billy, he took this as an opportunity to possibly clean up his name from the law. Billy wrote a letter to the governor of New Mexico Lew Wallace in an attempt to clear his name, offering himself as a witness to the killing of Chapman. Wallace accepted this offer and took him in and offered him special privileges as a prisoner. Billy ended up testifying in court but realized that the promise that Wallace made might not come true. So after he testified in court, Billy simply rode out of town even with warrants for his arrest. Billy now formed his own gang.
He was very well liked by a lot of people but unfortunately he ended up rubbing a man named Chisum the wrong way. Chisum ended up hiring a man named Pat Garrett who ended up finding him and taking him into court once again. Billy begged Wallace to be good on his word of pardoning him, but Wallace didn’t. Billy ended up being the only one convicted for a crime in the Lincoln County war out of fifty or so men. So Billy planned his next escape. He had asked a friend to place a gun in a privy that he would later use as he was being escorted to lunch. After getting the gun he later shot the people holding him and escaping town. Pat Garrett again went looking for him back in Billy’s old stomping ground. At one of the houses Pat was investigating, it so happened that Billy ended up walking into the room. Pat took no chance to loose Billy and ended up shooting and killing Billy. As a result, the real legend of Billy the kid ended here. He was liked by many, mostly native New Mexicans, and was definitely a skilled gunman. But many of the stories told of Billy the kid is formed in fictitious events of his
life.