July 13, 1881: Billy the Kid is shot to death
Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, William Antrim, William Bonney, Billy the Kid...take your pick. He sure as hell did.
126 years ago today, Sheriff Pat Garrett shoots Henry McCarty, popularly known as Billy the Kid, to death at the Maxwell Ranch in New Mexico. Garrett, who had been tracking the Kid for three months after the gunslinger had escaped from prison only days before his scheduled execution, got a tip that Billy was holed up with friends.
While Billy was gone, Garrett waited in the dark in his bedroom. When Billy entered, The Kid didn't recognize Garret in the poor lighting conditions and asked "Quien es? Quien es" (Spanish for "Who is it? Who is it?), to which Garret responded with two shots from his revolver (one struck McCarty's heart).
A few years earlier, back on April 1, 1878, Billy the Kid ambushed Sheriff William Brady and one deputy in Lincoln, New Mexico, after ranch owner John Tunstall had been murdered. Billy had worked at Tunstall's ranch and was outraged by his employer's slaying-vowing to hunt down every man responsible.
Rancher John Tunstall
Sheriff Brady and his men, who had been affiliated with rival ranchers, were involved with the gang that killed Tunstall on February 18. Billy's retaliatory attack left Brady and Deputy George Hindman dead. Although only 18 years old at the time, Billy had now committed as many as 17 murders.
Sheriff Brady, shot down by Billy The Kid
Following his indictment for the murder of Sheriff Brady, Billy the Kid was the most wanted man in the West. Evading posses sent to capture him, he eventually struck a deal with the new governor of New Mexico: In return for his testimony against the perpetrators of the ongoing ranch wars in the state, Billy would be set free. Although he kept his word about the testimony, he began to distrust the promise that he would be released and so he escaped.
Once a fugitive, Billy killed a few more men, including the gunslinger Joe Grant, who had challenged him to a showdown. Legend has it that Billy managed to get a hold of Grant's gun prior to the fight and made sure that an empty chamber was up first in the man's revolver. When it came time to fire, only Billy's gun went off and Grant was left dead.
Legendary Sheriff Pat Garrett finally brought Billy the Kid in to stand trial. The judge sentenced Billy the Kid to hang until "you are dead, dead, dead." Billy reportedly responded, "And you can go to hell, hell, hell." Two weeks before his scheduled execution, Billy escaped, killing two guards in the process.
That brings us to this day in 1881 after Garrett mounted yet another posse to bring in the Kid. As you read above, after tracing him to the Maxwell Ranch, Garrett shot him to death. No legal charges were brought against him since the killing was ruled a justifiable homicide.
Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1898: Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett was born on June 5, 1850, in Chambers County, Alabama. The family plantation covered 1,800 acres. Pat later said he grew up doing usual farm chores--plowing, hoeing, harvesting--and clerking in the plantation store. He had some formal education, but he didn't hold to prevaling religious views. He left for New Mexico on January 25, 1869, after his parents' deaths. In New Mexico, he was active in politics, was elected sheriff of two different counties and served as customs collector in El Paso. Garrett was slain near Organ, New Mexico, in 1908
Just how many men Billy the Kid killed is uncertain. Billy himself reportedly once claimed he had killed 21 men-"one for every year of my life." A reliable contemporary authority estimated the actual total was more like nineteen on his own and five assists with the aid of others. Other western outlaws of the day were far more deadly. John Wesley Hardin, for example, killed well over 20 men and perhaps as many as 40.
Yet, William Bonney (at various times he also used the surnames Antrim and McCarty) is better remembered today than Hardin and other killers, perhaps because he appeared to be such an unlikely killer. Henry McCarty (AKA Billy the Kid, William H. Bonney, et al.) was born out of wedlock to Catherine McCarty in New York City on November 23, 1859.
This photo was taken in New York, just prior to "Billy" and his mother's departure for Santa Fe NM in 1873. He would have been around 14 in the pic.
Beginning the slide to thug-dom
Billy moved to Santa Fe with his mother in 1873 There, Catherine McCarty married William Antrim with Catherine's son in attendance. Catherine was a "lunger" and tuberculosis killed Catherine the following fall, after which, Billy's stepfather gave him the boot. Thus, he was 15 when he headed out on his own.
His apparent youthfulness was further enhanced by his small size. Only 5' 4", he never weighed more than about 120 pounds. Blue-eyed, smooth-cheeked, and unusually friendly, Billy seems may have been a decent young man who was dragged into a life of crime by circumstances beyond his control -- or not. Historian's opinions vary. Personally, your correspondent thinks he was most likely already quite the young thug by the time he first killed.
Billy's First Killin'
Having fled from Santa Fe in New Mexico after being jailed for a theft he may not have committed involving clothes stolen from a Chinese laundry, Billy became an itinerant ranch hand and sheepherder in Arizona. In 1877, he was hired on as a teamster at the Camp Grant Army Post, where he attracted the enmity of a burly civilian blacksmith named Frank "Windy" Cahill. Cahill's nickname was alleged to have something to do with the fact he suffered from a chronic gastric illness that made him not only perpetually cranky, but very "gassy" too. Perhaps because Billy was well liked by others in the camp, Cahill enjoyed demeaning the scrawny youngster.
"The Killer Commonly Known as Billy the Kid" at the height of his violent young life.
In August of 1877, Cahill apparently went too far when he called Billy a "pimp." Billy responded by calling Cahill a "son of a bitch," and the big blacksmith jumped him and easily threw him to the ground. Pinned to the floor by the stronger man, Billy apparently panicked. He pulled his pistol and shot Cahill, who died the next day. According to one witness, "[Billy] had no choice; he had to use his equalizer*." However, the rough laws of the West might have found Billy guilty of unjustified murder because Cahill had not pulled his own gun. Indeed, "Windy" Cahill was unarmed when he jumped the wiry little Billy.
Fearing imprisonment, Billy returned to New Mexico where he soon became involved in the bloody Lincoln County War. In the next four years, he became a legendary, practiced, cold-blooded killer, increasingly infatuated with his own public image as an unstoppable outlaw.
Billy The Kid is buried at old Ft Sumner NM. His gravesite remains a popular attraction.
To this day, theories and conspiracies abound about whether or not the "real" Billy The Kid is buried in that grave. His use of so many aliases makes it very difficult to discount all the the theories with 100% certainty.
* The witness referred to Bonney's handgun as an "equalizer" which was a fairly common synonym for a Colt's revolver. It was popularly said of Sam Colt's invention, "God Made All Men. Sam Colt Made Them All Equal."
Originally Posted by TUSooner
