▣ The Old West: its Myths & Realities - Billy the Kid.4 Comments added to this post When I was a young boy growing up in the 1950's and '60's, I had a huge fascination with the Old West. Most of the movies and TV shows of that era were westerns. I grew up infatuated with such shows as The Cisco Kid, Maverick, Sugarfoot, The Roy Rogers Show, The Gene Autry Show, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Tales of the Texas Rangers, Colt 45, Hopalong Cassidy, Death Valley Days, The Texan, MacKenzie's Raiders, Tate, Hotel de Paree, The Deputy, Whispering Smith and Hondo. And those were just some of the TV series; there were tons more. I knew that the TV shows and movies were extremely inaccurate, as far as what these historical figures actually did. And when I would ask my relatives a question such as, "What did Billy the Kid do in the West?," they'd respond with, "Oh, he was a gunfighter who robbed banks, stagecoaches, and killed people." I wanted to know the real scoop on these outlaws like: Where were they born? Where did they die? What banks did they rob and where? And how many men did they kill?
I found out that the only way I was really going to find out was to research the information. Thus, I began searching for who was who and who did what, trying to find out the myths versus the realities in the Old West.
In this blog, I'll just touch on one of the most famous characters in the entire West: Billy the Kid.
Billy the Kid was born, William Henry McCarty, in New York City, N.Y. on 11/23/59. A few years later, his family moved out West and by the age of sixteen, Billy was on his own (his mother had died of consumption and his father abandoned the family, earlier in Billy's life).
Billy never robbed a train, held-up a bank, a stagecoach, nor did any of those other nefarious deeds attributed to him. His reputation was mostly fabricated later, by the tabloid newspapers, and by Pat Garrett - the Sheriff who killed him; then wrote a book building up "the kid," so he (Garrett) would look like a hero in his book.
For the most part, Billy washed dishes, stole some cattle and a few horses. He did stab one man to death in a bar, who was much bigger than him (Billy was about 5'7"), and who was constantly bullying him. Later in life, he killed a drunk in a bar, but not much became of either.
He settled down in Lincoln, N.M., changed his name to William H. Bonney, and was befriended by a rancher named John Tunstall who gave him a job as a ranch hand.
It was about this time that Tunstall became involved in a range war (known as the "Lincoln County War") with another rancher named James Dolan.
When Turnstall was murdered, his ranch hands (including Billy) formed a vigilante group known as "the regulators." Several people were killed in shoot-out's, but it was hard to prove just exactly who killed whom, as everyone was firing at each other, at the same time, and Billy - just as easily as his friends - could have killed any of those men.
Billy was eventually tried for murder in Mesilla, N.M. (by Las Cruces, N.M.), and taken to the Lincoln County Courthouse and Jail to await his hanging.
On 4/18/81, he made a daring escape from the jail and killed the two deputies who were guarding him. The courthouse still looks the same today as it did in Billy's era: same wooden floors, same jail cell, and there is still a bullet hole in the wall where Billy fired at one of the deputies.
Billy fled to Fort Sumner, N.M. (which was a former military post, but was now just a small Mexican village). Billy had a girlfriend there and was staying at his friend's (Pete Maxwell) ranch.
Pat Garrett and Billy were friends, earlier in life, and Garrett knew all of "the kid's" haunts; plus, Garrett had worked for Pete Maxwell on his ranch at one time.
Pat Garrett was elected Sheriff and made a US Marshall in charge of hunting down Billy the Kid. Garrett went to Maxwell's ranch on 7/14/81 and entered the darkened bunkhouse, looking for Billy. Billy was just coming back from a late supper, went inside the bunkhouse, and Garrett shot wildly in the dark - accidentally hitting him - then ran outside to hide until Billy died.
Billy was buried the next day in the Fort Sumner Cemetery. As you can imagine, this is a small cemetery (with quite a lot of empty space; in fact, there are hardly over twenty graves in it) that is completely walled in, and has a gate. Billy is buried in a caged-in area (to keep tourists out), along with two of his friends that also died in the range war. Pete Maxwell is buried farther down on the other side of the cemetery. There is an extensive museum in front.
There were more western movies made about Billy the Kid than any other western outlaw in history. Allegedly, he killed twenty-one men for each of his twenty-one years. But, actually, there are only four to six documented killings on his part.
Also, for over one hundred and twenty years, everyone thought Billy the Kid was left-handed, based upon an infamous photo of him leaning on his rifle. Paul Newman even made a movie about him entitled: "The Left Handed Gun" in 1958.
If you examine the photo closely, you will see that his rifle has the ejector port, for the cartridge shells, on the inside left of the rifle. This is impossible. All cartridges, to this day, are ejected to the outside right of the shooter, away from their eyes. This was a reversed ferrotype photograph where the picture itself was reversed; in fact, if the photo had been properly displayed, the ejector port would have been on the outside right of the rifle; thus, making Billy the Kid right-handed. And lastly, Billy never wore a hat like the one he had on in that photo; normally, he sported a sugarloaf sombrero. This is why, and how, legends are inaccurately created.
last edited on October 3rd, 2009 at 1:46 PM CommentsFan from Miami says: Hello Mr. Berish, December 15th, 2009 at 9:10 PM Michael Berish says: To: Fan from Miami October 3rd, 2009 at 1:32 PM Fan from Miami says: I have read your book, Reflections from the Pit, and I really enjoyed it. It most definitely is NOT the type of material that one would see on TV, which makes it that much more interesting. It gets into the nitty-gritty details of police work. October 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 PM Add a comment |
Michael Berish says:
To: Fan from Miami
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to Sedona, Arizona.
I do plan to visit the West again and soon.
I'm planning on going to Santa Fe, New Mexico in January 2010. I've been to Santa Fe twice before, but it was in the summer. I want to go in the winter to see how cold it gets and to do some snow skiing.
Mike Berish
Author of "Reflections from the Pit"
www.realmiamivice.com
December 15th, 2009 at 9:53 PM