Billy The Kid was born Henry McCarty on November 23, 1859, in New York City, New York, United States, the son of Patrick and Kathleen McCarty. In 1862 the family moved to Coffeyville, Kansas, where the father died. The mother, with her two children, moved to Colorado, where she married a man named Antrim. About 1865 the family moved to Santa Fé and in 1868 to Silver City, New Mexico.
The boy had some schooling, but by the time he was twelve had become a frequenter of saloons and gambling places and an adept at cards. It was at this age that he is said to have stabbed to death a man who had insulted his mother.
At sixteen Billy and a partner, near Fort Bowie, Arizona, killed three peaceful Indians for the furs they were transporting. After various spectacular adventures on both sides of the border, with a supposed record of twelve killings, he appeared in the Pecos Valley in the fall of 1877 and became an employee of J. H. Tunstall, a cattleman. On February 12, 1878, he witnessed from a distance the opening scene in the Lincoln County cattle war, when his employer was killed by a posse of the Murphy faction. He became the fighting leader of the McSween faction, took part in several savage combats, was one of the party of six that on April 1 killed Sheriff James A. Brady and a deputy, and in July figured conspicuously in the battle at Lincoln.
With the arrival in August of Gen. Lew Wallace, whom Hayes appointed governor under instructions to end the war, a tacit truce began. Wallace issued a provisional amnesty to those not under indictment for crime, and in a conference with the Kid urged him to surrender, promising him a pardon in case he were convicted. The Kid, declaring that he should be murdered the moment he laid down his arms, refused the terms; and later, with a band of twelve companions, started on a career of wholesale cattle stealing with incidental killings.
In 1880 a number of cattlemen, headed by John S. Chisum, a former friend of the Kid, induced Pat Garrett, also a former friend, to accept the nomination for sheriff. Garrett was elected, and at once began a campaign to break up the Kid's band. In a fight at Fort Sumner, on Christmas Eve, 1880, one of the band was killed. The others fled, but a few days later the Kid, with three companions, was compelled to surrender. At Mesilla, in March, he was convicted of killing Sheriff Brady and was sentenced to be hanged at Lincoln on May 13. Conveyed to Lincoln, he was kept in confinement until April 28, when, though shackled with handcuffs and leg irons, he contrived to kill the two deputies who guarded him and escaped. Two months and a half later Billy was trapped at the home of Pete Maxwell, in Fort Sumner, and shot and killed by Garrett.
Billy was about five feet eight in height, slender and well proportioned. His hair was light brown, and his eyes were gray. His face was long, and except for its thick coat of tan, colorless. His front teeth were large and slightly protrusive. He was left-handed. His manner was quiet and unassuming, and he had an unstudied grace of movement. On the range he dressed roughly, but he was something of a dandy in town. He danced well, was a frequenter of balls and fandangoes and was a notable favorite among women. His mood was cheerful and carefree, even in the greatest stress of danger. He had many friends, most of whom found excuses for his outlawry, and a certain glamour invests his career. He was, nevertheless, a cold-blooded killer who as a rule shot down his victims without shadow of provocation and who probably never felt a twinge of remorse.
