My authority is Frederick Nolan, researcher and author of The Lincoln County War
- A Documentary History (1992) and The West of Billy the Kid (1998).
Myth: Billy the Kid was a Westerner. (Implying he was born in the West.)
Fact: No one knows for certain. Three possible birth sites: New York City, Indiana, and Missouri.
Myth:His name was William H. Bonney.
Fact: His name was Henry McCarty.
Myth: He killed a man at age 12.
Fact: He was seventeen when a bully sat on him and beat him. Billy pulled a pistol out of his pocket and shot him.
Myth: Billy killed 21 men by the age of 21.
Fact: Only 4 men he shot, died. All were in self-defense. (Self-defense also implies an act to escape being wrongfully killed or hung. There is no proof he was the one to shoot Sheriff Brady.)
Myth: Billy rescued a wagon train by scaring off the indians with an axe.
Fact: A bald-faced lie.
Myth: Billy rode 81 miles in 6 hours to free a friend from jail.
Fact: A figment of a writer's imagination (it didn't happen)
Myth: The Kid escaped to Mexico, where he died an old man.
Fact: Sheriff Pat Garrett killed Billy with a single shot to the heart, in a dark room, when he recognized Billys voice saying "Who is it?"
Myth: Brushy Bill Roberts of Texas was really Billy the Kid.
Fact: He was not. Too many saw the real Billy the Kid dead in Old Fort Sumner.
Myth: Billy the Kid was a cold-blooded killer.
Fact: Billy the Kid shot only to revenge the killing of his employer who treated him as a son. Billy was educated, wrote many letters to the then Governor of New Mexico, Lew Wallace (Author of Ben Hur) asking him to keep his promise of a pardon.
We don't mean to glorify Billy the Kid. He did wrong, we won't deny that. He paid for his wrong-doings with his life at the age of 21.
Don McAlavy, past editor of The Outlaw Gazette and past president of the Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang.
1974 Painting by Past President of the BTK Outlaw Gang, Don McAlavy
after Billy's escape from Lincoln and desperate ride to Old Fort Sumner in 1881.
