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Henry McCarty (September 17 or November 23, 1859 – July 14, 1881), alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who is alleged to have killed 21 men before he was shot and killed at the age of 21.
- Henry McCarty, September 17 or November 23, 1859, New York City, U.S.
- Gunshot wound
Apr 17, 2024 · He escaped jail on April 28, however, killing two deputies, and remained at large until tracked down and ambushed by Garrett, who shot him dead on the evening of July 14 at the ranch home of Pete Maxwell. Billy the Kid’s grave is in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- 3 min
- He was orphaned as a teen. Little is known about Billy the Kid’s early days, but he was most likely born Henry McCarty in the Irish slums of New York City sometime in late 1859.
- The Kid’s first arrest came for stealing clothes from a laundry. Henry McCarty’s first run-in with the law came in 1875 when he assisted a local street tough known as “Sombrero Jack” in stealing clothing from a Chinese laundry.
- He played a prominent role in a frontier feud. Billy the Kid first earned his reputation as a gunslinger in 1878, when he participated in a bloody frontier war in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
- The Kid never robbed a train or a bank. Billy The Kid shooting down his foe who had taken refuge behind a saloon bar. Unlike other Old West outlaws such as Jesse James, Cole Younger or Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid didn’t make his living as a bandit.
May 14, 2020 · But over the years, some of the murky details surrounding the death of Billy—whose real name probably was Henry McCarty, though he later went by the alias William Bonney—have proven to be...
William Henry McCarty Jr., aka Billy the Kid, born in 1859, was killed in an ambush by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in 1881. Wikimedia Commons. Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett would later claim that on the night he shot down Billy the Kid, the notorious outlaw was holding a gun.
- Oisin Curran
Late 1877. The Kid assumes the alias William H. Bonney. He is arrested and jailed in Lincoln County for possessing horses belonging to cattleman John Tunstall.
Apr 9, 2015 · On this day, April 9, in 1881, the outlaw who was born Henry McCarty before adopting the alias William H. Bonney — better known as Billy the Kid — was found guilty of murdering the sheriff of...
