Billy the Kid was the notorious 19th century outlaw in the Old West, about whom more legend than fact has been cultivated. Born William Henry McCarty, he also answered to Henry Antrim, and settled, finally, on William Bonney. He exited the world 21 short years later, but left behind a highly romanticized and exaggerated version of his life for generations to come. Eyewitness accounts called him “personableâ€, “litheâ€, and a “neat dresserâ€, but the only known photographic image of him tells a different story. At the risk of being unkind, let’s just say he didn’t look like someone the ladies would swoon over, but then again, the ladies are often off-track in that department. Handsome or not, he must have had a temper, because he took out about 20 men in his day (so they say), for various reasons. Starting with petty theft in his teens, William graduated to cattle rustling and local warfare of opposing gangs. He escaped from prison more than once, killing the pesky guard or two, but was finally hunted down and ambushed (his supporters say) by Sheriff Pat Garrett, who shot him to death. Perhaps the most interesting fact about his life is that the man who put a bounty on the Kid’s head was the governor of New Mexico, Lew Wallace, who wrote Ben Hur. Now that was a good movie.
