Billy The Kid Facts

Billy The Kid Facts

Billy the Kid is believed to have been born in New York by most people, no one really knows for sure of the place or the date of his birth. Little is known about the Irish Immigrant woman that gave birth to this later to be famous outlaw, gunslinger, except that her name was Cathrine, (Maiden name unknown)McCarthy? Bonney? Antrim. The only true records of a marriage is between her and Antrim. In fact Billy could have been born an illegitimate child making him an ancestor of your family, or mine. Interesting Huh? You may be related to Billy the kid and did not know it.

Billy had a younger step- brother by the name of Joseph McCarthy. There are no records of Joe ever being married and died with no aparrent family on November 25, 1930 at the age of sixty-six. No one claimed his body, so his corpse was given to the Colorado Medical School for autopsy. Its said he died penniless.

People claim that Billy killed twenty-one men, when in fact there are no records or evidence of him ever killing this many. Records show that Billy killed Frank Cahall, Joe Grant, James Bell and Bob Olinger. Billy was involved in other gunfights that resulted in the killing of five men, William McCloskey, George Hindman, Billy Morton, Frank Baker and William Brady, but there were other people with him at the time so who knows which man fired the bullet that killed these men.
Billy was also blamed for killing James Carlyle, Buckshot Bill Roberts, Charlie Crawford, Robert Beckwith, and Morris Bernstein.
The only men we know that Billy killed were the first men listed. The second five men could have been killed by any of the gang Billy was running with. The third group of men listed, Billy could have killed only one, Charlie Crawford and that's only a possibility as a gunfight was going on at the time involving quite a few people. The other four were killed by other people while Billy was present or in the vicinity.
Total number of men Known to have been killed by Billy (4)
Said to have been killed by Billy, (6) during shoot outs while trying to escape with his gang.
Falsely accused of killing (4), Billy was only present or in the vicinity.
We only know that Billy killed between four and ten men, you can only guess as the exact numbers will never be known.

Some people say that Billy was left handed, but in fact he was right. The theory started when an old tin type photo was copied and was reversed. Speculation has it He may have been ambidextrous, but its not known for sure.

Billy was a small man many people say but in fact he was around 5' 8" or 5' 9" tall which was not small for those years. A very large man at the time was considered to be around 6' tall. It was reported that Billy was sandy or light headed, weighted around 140 pounds, blue eyed and had slight protruding teeth.

Governor Lew Wallace (also author of "Ben Hur") In December, 1880, offered a $500 reward to anyone who would capture William Bonney, alias "The Kid", and deliver him to any sheriff in New Mexico. This was the only reward ever offered for Billy, and it was not a wanted poster rather a small ad in the Las Vegas Gazette Which read:

BILLY THE KID
$500 Reward
I will pay $500 reward to any person or persons
who will capture William Bonney, alias The Kid, and
deliver him to any sheriff of New Mexico.
Satisfactory proofs of identity will be required.

In Pat Garrett's Book "The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid" (which for the most part was written by a man named Ash Upson) it is stated that the Kid was born in New York City, on 23 November 1859. Although Upson personally knew Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, this is highly suspect, as this was also Upson's own birthday, although a different year. This birthdate, however, seems to be the one most commonly included in biographies.

There are few facts about Billy the Kid's career that can be verified. It is known that women found him attractive. To a Native American woman named Deluvina, who pulled off her shawl and wrapped it around him when he was a handcuffed prisoner, Billy gave the tintype of himself that remains the only authentic likeness. Sally Chisum, chatelaine of a large ranch, reported: "In all his personal relations he was the pink of politeness and as courteous a little gentleman as I ever met."
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The Lincoln County War would have ended the same with or without Billy�s participation, yet in the end Billy was made a scapegoat by the notorious Santa Fe Ring made up of greedy and ambitious lawmakers, governors, and lawmen under their rule. Billy was the only warrior in the conflict that was brought to trial and sentenced to be hung.

It was Billy's romance with Paulita Maxwell that led to his death. Her brother, Pete Maxwell, in a message to Sheriff Pat Garrett, told of Billy�s whereabouts and Billy�s attention to his young sister.

In many books on Billy he was put down as illiterate or ignorant . The fact is he was very intelligent, could read and right well, spoke fluent Spanish, and was not awed by those who supposedly thought they had poweror control over him.

"Quien es? Quien es?" -- "Who is it? Who is it?" were the last words Billy ever uttered. Garrett pumped two shots from his revolver, one of which went straight into Billy's heart, the other missing.

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Billy had many women friends in his short lifetime, most were Mexican. Juana Montoya, Abrana Garcia, and Nasaria Yerby all had children and possibly by Billy. The most famous was Nasaria Yerby's daughter Florentina, born around 1878. People in New Mexico say Florintina did not deny her outlaw parent.