Billy The Kid Endured A Very Tragic Life

Billy the Kid is one of the most notorious Wild West outlaws in history that's extra impressive when you consider that he died at just 21 years old how did he become a legend in such a short time here's the sad true story of Billy the Kid historians know very little about the outlaws early years according to the book Billy the Kid a short violent life his mother Katherine was an Irish immigrant to New York City that's where Henry McCarty better known as Billy the Kid was born in 1859 no one knows the exact month or day for sure it's also unknown if his parents were married or if his father was ever in the picture Billy probably spent the first six years of his life in the Irish slums of Manhattan or Brooklyn the conditions would have been horrific in the 1860s when Billy was growing up there almost 300,000 people lived in one square mile the Irish were only allowed to rent the worst of the worst tenements and Billy easily could have lived in a 12 by 12 room with 20 other people disease was rampant in the slums and the mortality rate for Irish children was 25% the fact that Billy made it to 21 could almost be seen as a miracle considering his origins well his later life would have been characterized by Wild West violence his childhood would have been marked by the poverty and brutality of New York's ghettos by the time the Civil War ended Billy and his mother moved to Indianapolis she was single by this point and started a relationship with a man named William Antrim in 1870 the whole group relocated to Wichita Kansas it was there that Billy's life took a positive turn his mother Catherine ran her own laundry business which must have been successful because she was able to purchase land outside of town her boyfriend William built a cabin and a storm cellar probably with the help of Billy and his younger brother Joe there was every indication that Katherine had put down roots and that Billy would grow up living a happy secure life surrounded by family wonderful but that didn't happen unfortunately Billy was soon dealt a devastating blow in 1871 Katherine was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the time many doctors thought the drier climates could cure a person of TB so the family packed up their belongings and moved to the New Mexico Territory Billy was only 14 when his mother died of TB while William officially became their step he wasn't interested in raising the two boys he found separate foster homes for the brothers then abandoned them at this point it seems Billy was still a good law-abiding kid he found honest work at a hotel where he washed dishes and waited tables despite earning a living he also managed to go to school but something soon changed in Billy history net reports that he first stole some food then a few months later he was involved in a prank with a friend who stole a bundle of clothes however someone turned Philly in for the crime the sheriff didn't want to do anything more than scare the boy straight when he put Billy in a cell for a couple of days but Billy took it very seriously he managed to climb up the chimney and escape now he had no family and in his mind at least he was a fugitive from the law Billy was now a teenager living alone in a very dangerous part of the country regardless of his age there were a million ways to die in the West outlaws angry drunk people scorned hookers hungry animals diseases major and minor injuries Indians the weather you can get killed just going to the bathroom according to legends of America two years after escaping jail Billy met a blacksmith named Frank Wendy Cahill who liked to pick on the kid one day the insults went too far on August 17 1877 history reports Cahill called Billy a pimp Billy responded by calling Cahill a son-of-a-bitch the blacksmith jumped Billy threw the teenager to the ground and pinned him panicking Billy pulled out a gun and shot Cahill he died the next day one witness said Billy had no choice but to use self-defense the kid didn't stick around to make his case now he really was a fugitive Billy joined various gangs and made most of his money through cattle rustling but one day he stole some horses and was thrown in jail the horse's owner an Englishman named John Tunstall came to see Billy in a Cell after they talked Tunstall dropped the charges and gave him a job it was like the family Billy had been missing for so long Tunstall may have been the closest thing to a father Billy ever had but Tunstall was involved in an escalating feud over territory On February 18th 1878 a posse shot and killed Tunstall in cold blood in front of Billy the story of the kids swearing vengeance over his father figures grave is a myth but Billy was now part of a blood feud known as the Lincoln County War over the next five months both sides were participe in various shootouts and revenge killings Billy is credited with a higher body count than he actually had although he definitely killed at least a few people including a sheriff by the end of the war which his side lost Billy was known as one of the best gunman in the West according to legends of America in 1879 New Mexico Territory Governor Lew Wallace heard Billy would be willing to surrender and testify against other outlaws if his charges were dropped the two eventually met to discuss the situation and governor Wallace offered Billy a seemingly straightforward deal you testify against everyone involved in this damn war and I'll pardon the kid agreed to testify according to their arrangement Billy would be arrested for show then spend time in jail until a trial dates Billy's evidence was enough to convict at least one major bad guy but the district attorney refused to follow Wallace's orders that he be released afterward so without a pardon Billy had no choice but to escape jail once again and continued living on the run Billy the Kid a short and violent life says that the pardon might have meant a chance at legitimate prosperity Billy was hardly the worst person in the West but according to the book the lost him out for special treatment Billy should have been a free man at that point instead without standing warrants he returned to what he knew best a life of crime he formed his own gang of Outlaws and started rustling cattle again for a year he lived around Fort Sumner there he became friends with a local bartender named Pat Garrett history net even reports that it's more than possible Garrett joined Billy and his gang on some of their cattle raids but the West was often one big gray area when it came to who was a good guy and who was a bad guy so it wasn't that shocking when Garrett was elected Lincoln County Sheriff suddenly Garrett was in charge of actively tracking down his old friend it was a complicated pursuit and numerous people were shot and killed but not Billy the sheriff set up many traps and ambushes in an attempt to apprehend Billy but the kids seemed to have an animal instinct that warned him of danger that instinct didn't last long on December 23rd just days after governor Wallace put a $500 reward on Billy's head Garrett and his posse captured the kid alive Billy took it in stride telling a reporter from his jail cell what's the use of looking on the gloomy side everything the laughs on me this time by this time Billy the Kid had become a folk hero to some and an evil outlaw to others in addition to endless newspaper articles written about him there were plenty of people on street corners and bar stools sharing tall tales about the kid she can cure people and your sheriff's maybe Billy spent months in a Santa Fe jail before his trial began in April 1881 while he committed plenty of crimes by then the charges were for killing Sheriff William Brady during the Lincoln County War the jury deliberated for exactly one day before finding Billy guilty the sentence was death by hanging and the execution date was set from May 13th he had no intention of sticking around for that Billy was in irons and under constant surveillance by two guards James Bell and Robert olinger on the second floor of the courthouse Garrett too knew the kid's reputation for successful escape attempts was taking no chances but somehow Billy got his hands on a gun historians have no solid proof but it's thought either one of his old gang members hid a pistol in a toilet or he took it off a bell himself the kid took out Bell first then grabbed a shotgun and waited at a window for Olinger who headed toward the courthouse when he heard the shots Billy called out hello Bob and blasted him Billy then stole a horse and raced out of town against all odds he escaped custody yet again but it would be his last time the next time Pat Garrett wouldn't take Billy the Kid alive Garrett later wrote that people were upset he didn't seem to be very concerned about recapturing the kid but the sheriff said he was quote quietly at work maturing his plans of action it's almost unbelievable that with his head start and ability to go almost anywhere Billy never left New Mexico Territory instead he returned to Fort Sumner and didn't bother to keep a low profile within three months Garrett was on to him on the night of July 14 1881 the sheriff and his posse went to rancher Peter Maxwell's house they asked if he knew where the kid was Maxwell absolutely did Billy was on his way over with some beef for dinner Garrett was in Maxwell's dark bedroom talking to him when Billy showed up at the door sensing someone else in the room but unable to see his old acquaintance turned adversary Billy pulled his gun and asked who's that in Spanish Garrett later wrote about that moment it was the first time during all Billy's life apparel that he ever lost this presence of mine or failed to shoot first and hesitate afterwards it would be the mistake that killed him Garrett let off two shots one of the bullets hit Billy right in the heart after years of escaping in one dangerous situation after the next Billy the kid was dead at the age of 21 Billy the Kid barely spent two decades on earth and he was only famous for a brief period of time but that didn't stop people from taking his name and image and turning it into whatever they wanted it to be according to Billy the Kid the endless ride with any year of his death dozens of novels and nonfiction accounts Barry lights on facts were published even Pat Garrett wrote a biography of Billy each subsequent generation used Billy to represent something different in the 1920s with the Wild West officially in the past books presented him as the Robin Hood of a lost pastoral world other decades cast him as a frontier superhero homicidal maniac or a martyred symbol of freedom there have been more than a dozen movies and even a ballet devoted to him plus he still makes millions for the tourism industry in New Mexico however some people truly refuse to let Billy die because they claim to actually be the outlaw vintage news says that one person brushy bill was taken somewhat seriously living in Texas in the 1940s he managed to convince the locals some of the kids contemporaries and a lawyer that he was in fact the outlaw brushy bill petitioned the governor of New Mexico for a pardon but the governor was not convinced brushy bill stuck to the story until he died in 1950 and even requested that his tombstone include the line aka Billy the Kid more than 160 years after Billy the Kid was born his legend is still going strong and it shows no signs of slowing down even if that legend is based on both fact and fiction it doesn't matter what's true it matters the story they tell when you're gone check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more grunge videos about your favorite outlaws are coming soon subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Grunge

Views: 835,131

Rating: 4.8402667 out of 5

Keywords: grunge, grunge channel, billy the kid, billy the kid bio, billy the kid life story, billy the kid real name, billy the kid childhood, billy the kid age, billy the kid family, billy the kid mother, billy the kid born, where was billy the kid born, billy the kid birth name, billy the kid pat garrett, billy the kid story, billy the kid truth, billy the kid true, billy the kid tragic, billy the kid tragic life, billy the kid legend, billy the kid facts, billy the kid fiction

Id: qSKeJnGLTsM

Length: 10min 51sec (651 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020