![]() The young gunslinger stole the occasional horse, but he never once held up a bank, train or even a stagecoach. Unlike other Old West outlaws such as Jesse James, Cole Younger or Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid didn’t make his living as a bandit. The Kid never robbed a train or a bank.īilly The Kid shooting down his foe who had taken refuge behind a saloon bar. He would spend the rest of his life on the run from the authorities. The Kid left the war with a reputation as one of the West’s most skilled gunmen, but he remained wanted for the murder of Sheriff Brady. In July 1878, the feud reached its climax with a deadly, five-day firefight in the town of Lincoln, after which the Regulators disbanded and the two sides sealed a flimsy peace agreement. 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 House’s forces. The tensions finally boiled over in February 1878, when Tunstall was murdered by a posse organized by Sheriff William Brady, a supporter of The House.įollowing Tunstall’s death, the Kid and several other former employees organized themselves into a vigilante group called “The Regulators” and swore revenge. When they tried to intimidate Tunstall’s upstart operation, the Englishman enlisted the Kid and several other gunmen to protect his property. ![]() ![]() Dolan and Murphy’s outfit-known as “The House”-had long held a monopoly over the dry goods and cattle trades in Lincoln County. 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. He played a prominent role in a frontier feud.īilly the Kid first earned his reputation as a gunslinger in 1878, when he participated in a bloody frontier war in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Before long, he fell in with a rough crowd and turned to petty crime and thievery.Ī wanted poster for Billy the Kid, circa 1877. Left in the care of an absentee stepfather, the future gunslinger spent the next year living in foster homes and boarding houses. Henry quickly adapted to life in the rugged territory and became fluent in Spanish, but his sickly mother died of tuberculosis in 1874, leaving him an orphan at the age of just 14. Raised by a single mother, he moved to Wichita, Kansas, as a boy before later migrating west to New Mexico in the early 1870s. Little is known about Billy the Kid’s early days, but he was most likely born Henry McCarty in the Irish slums of New York City sometime in late 1859. Here are nine fascinating facts about this legendary Old West figure: 1. Bonney (his given name was likely Henry McCarty), he lived a short, but eventful life that included at least nine murders and a brazen jailbreak. Before his untimely death at the age of 21, Billy the Kid built an infamous reputation as a gunslinging, cattle-rustling outlaw.
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