12 JULY 2024 J uly 14 will mark the 143 rd anniversary of both the death and the birth of a legend. Briefly, according to historical documents, this is what happened: Henry McCarty was born in either New York, Indiana or Missouri on November 29, 1859, to Catherine McCarty and a father whose name has been lost in history. Catherine and her two sons moved to Indianapolis where she met William Antrim. They were married in Santa Fe and moved to Silver City where Catherine died of tuberculosis. Young Henry’s life of crime began shortly afterwards when he was arrested but escaped. This set the pattern for the remainder of his life. He killed a man named Windy Cahill in Fort Grant, Arizona, on August 17, 1877, and was charged with “a criminal and unjustifiable shooting.” He escaped from jail and fled to New Mexico, where, over the years, he went under the names of William Bonney, Kid Antrim, Billy the Kid and El Chivato. He fought in the Lincoln County War, shot and killed at least three more men, then was slain by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881. End of story? Nope. Billy the Kid entered the realm of immortality, sustained by myth, folklore and legend that occasionally includes some actual fact. He has been the subject of movies, novels, songs and scientific studies. He is honored in museums, has roads and stores named after him, and maintains historical prominence more than 140 years after his death. Much of his story is well-detailed, but here are a few Billy the Kid items that deserve special mention. Billy has been the subject of more than 60 movies (some say it’s 150), and has been portrayed by such stars as Johnny Mack Brown, Roy Rogers, Robert Taylor, Lash LaRue, Buster Crabbe, Rocky Lane, Bob Steele, Don “Red” Barry, Anthony Dexter, Paul Newman, Emilio Estevez, Michael J. Pollard and Kris Kristofferson. Also by a few lesser-knowns: Dean White, Tyler MacDuff, Jack Taylor, Johnny Ginger, Chuck Courtenay, Peter Lee Lawrence, Gaston Sands, Geoffrey Deuel and Jean- Pierre Leaud. His grave site, located on an isolated patch of ground adjacent to the Old Fort Sumner Museum, is surrounded by iron bars. There’s no admission fee, and Billy isn’t the only one buried there. His pals Tom O’ Follaird and Charlie Bowdre are lined up in adjacent graves. And the graves are on Billy the Kid Road. The plaque adjacent to a bronze statue of famed cattleman John Chisum in Roswell points out that Chisum was a member of the committee that hired Pat Garrett to get rid of Billy. Dowlin’s Historic Old Mill in Ruidoso was “reported to be a hangout.” Billy the Kid Springs in Chaves County northwest of Kenna “was one of Billy the Kid’s hideouts.” The schedule of events for the annual Old Lincoln Days includes a re-enactment of the last escape of Billy the Kid. The New Mexico Vacation Guide has a section entitled “Billy the Kid’s Stomping Grounds.” During a Billy the Kid exhibition in the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, guests were asked to vote on whether or not Billy should have been pardoned. The vote was more than 2-to-1 in his favor. The brochure for the exhibition noted that Billy loved to dance and his favorite tune was “Turkey in the Straw.” Billy’s image is preserved in tile and a wooden cutout at the Ruidoso Downs Visitor Center; in a life-sized wood carving at the entry and in a steel silhouette atop a machine that smashes pennies into souvenirs at the Billy the Kid Museum in Fort Sumner; and in oil paintings on the walls, in weaving on a floor mat, and in neon on the sign at the Billy the Kid Casino in Ruidoso Downs. The Lincoln County Courthouse is now a museum. On April 28, 1881, while being held in the courthouse awaiting trial for murder, Billy killed two deputies during an escape. A replica has been created inside the casino. One tourism brochure observes that “open animosity between the two (competing) factions would eventually lead to the Lincoln County War and the rise of the infamous Billy the Kid.” Another exclaims, “In 1878, the Lincoln County War catapulted into legend a young cowboy who went by the name of Billy the Kid.” Still another proclaims that Billy was 21 when he died and “legend has it that he killed 21 men.” Fort Sumner’s brochures tout it as the “International Billy the Kid Capitol.” Among the 60,000 relics on display in the Billy the Kid Museum are his rifle, chaps, spurs and a variety of newspaper articles about men who claimed they were Billy the Kid, claimed they knew him personally, claimed they helped bury him, and claimed they helped him hide out because Garrett didn’t actually kill him. Another area is filled with such historical items as a copy of the death sentence handed down after he killed a lawman, a wanted poster framed in a horse harness, poems dedicated to his memory and a book bearing the title, “Billy the Kid: The Good Side of a Bad Man.” People who don’t get to see everything in the museum in one day can stay overnight in the Billy the Kid Country Inn, conveniently located across the street. The Billy the Kid Scenic Byway starts at the Visitor Center in Ruidoso Downs, then loops through Hondo, Lincoln, Fort Stanton and Capitan before ending in Ruidoso. Just follow the signs with Billy’s image on them. The only known photograph of Billy was a tintype taken in 1880. Because tintypes produced mirror images, the photo led to the mistaken belief that Billy was left-handed. Paul Newman even portrayed him as a southpaw in the movie “The Left-Handed Gun.” The tintype was handed down through friends, was loaned to a museum and eventually sold for $2.3 million during a 2011 auction in Denver. A kid named Billy A former Valley newspaperman who now writes about his travels across Arizona, the U.S. and the globe. BY SAM LOWE Billy the Kid poster and wooden statue at Old Fort Sumner Museum. Billy the Kid, Tom O’ Follaird and Charlie Bowdre’s grave site.

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