Trying to survive like Billy the Kid
Sometimes the line between being a cruel murderer and trying to be a Robin Hood is thin and controversial. Whether it is a question of time, political and social context, way of behaving, or intentions, these criteria, among many others, generally allow everyone to form their opinion on the most discussed acts.
Billy the Kid is undoubtedly the world’s most famous outlaw of the far west. Known for his young age, gun handling, crimes, and endearing personality, Henry “Billy the Kid” McCarty is one of those legends who divide people.
To give you some context, Billy the Kid was an outlaw who lived from 1859 to 1881, spending most of his life in New Mexico and Arizona. He is said to have killed 9 men at only 21 years old before being killed by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett.
A Robin Hood for the Hispanic community
People’s opinion of Billy the Kid was different from community to community. If he was seen by the Anglo-Saxons, who came to colonize this part of the United States, as a cruel young man and a dangerous murderer, he was very appreciated by the Hispanic community. They saw in him an endearing young man who defended their territory from the Anglo-Saxon settlers.
When he arrived in Silver City with his mother in 1873, he was 14 years old and befriended this community. They even taught him Spanish during his adolescence.
During his many escapes from 1876 to 1881, he was able to find refuge in isolated farms, far from the cities, which were too dangerous for him. Spanish-speaking families often gave him shelter and free food or in exchange for a few services. He maintained good relations with this community until his death and his image is still positive in the collective subconscious today.
A desire to get back to a life of legality
Billy the Kid never wanted to be an outlaw. The first time he killed someone, he was only 17 years old. He was a regular card player in a saloon near Camp Grant, and he was bullied by a blacksmith named Frank Cahill. One night, the latter tackled him to the ground and hit him in the face. Henry grabbed the revolver from his belt and shot Cahill in the stomach. That is when his life of crime began.
As you can see, Henry was not a born criminal. During his 4 years of crime, he never stopped looking for ways to get back on the right track. He worked for John Tunstall, who gave him a chance, but Tunstall ended up being killed by John Dolan and Lawrence Murphy’s clan a few weeks later (this is the element that triggered the “Lincoln County War”).
In 1879, nearly a year later, he wrote to the New Mexico governor saying that he would give incriminating evidence against John Dolan if he could return to regular legal life without being convicted of his crimes. Lew Wallace, the governor, agreed. Unfortunately, everything fell apart when Dolan was acquitted, and Billy was convicted. He fled after the trial.
The governor left the county a few months later. Billy the Kid will never have a chance to leave his life of outlawry again.
Killer, thief, cheeky
Henry McCarty had killed 9 people at only 21 years old. He murdered Sheriff Brady and three of his men with the Regulators, a gang he formed to avenge Tunstall’s death.
With this same gang, he also killed Andrew Roberts, a member of the Dolan clan in the Lincoln County War, and murdered Joe Grant in 1880 ; a bounty hunter who had provoked him in a saloon. He also escaped from jail eight times.
During his time as a fugitive, he stole dozens of horses and robbed laundries and buildings throughout New Mexico and Arizona.
Billy the Kid was known to be angry and cheeky. On the night of December 23, 1880, as Pat Garrett and his men were surrounding the small house where Billy had taken refuge with the last living members of the Regulators, one of his friends and a horse got killed. Billy came out first with his hands up. With a touch of sarcasm, he then said : “If I had known there were so few of you, I would have taken my gun !”
At the end of the day
Few villains are as exciting as Billy the Kid. He is an endearing young man whose motives can be understood just by reading his story. In the end, it seems that he was neither a cruel and heartless outlaw nor a Robin Hood. He was probably just a simple boy who was not spared by life, and who found himself in situations where he had no good solution.
In fact, that is what we should learn from his story. We do not always have reasonable solutions. Sometimes, by necessity, we find ourselves in complicated situations where all of our choices seem hopeless. In those moments, we settle for what we think is least worst. The most important thing is to recognize mistakes when they have been made.
We can not always have control.
Anyway, many events of his life are obscure, and some sources are sometimes biased. But there is still enough information to learn a lot about Henry “Billy the Kid” McCarty, the most famous bandit of the Wild West.
Translated and corrected from french by Juliette Busson
