Billy the Kid: The Life Behind the Legend

by George R. Matthews

Overview

This new, in-depth life of Henry McCarty, alias Billy Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, offers fresh perspectives, not only on the Lincoln County War and his boyhood in Silver City, New Mexico, but also on his Irish mother's origins and immigration to Indiana, his public-school education in Indianapolis, the McCarty family's moves to Wichita, Kansas, and Santa Fe, and his two-year outlaw adventures in Arizona.

For the first time, the whole person emerges. This biography brings together a huge amount of material, much of it made available to researchers only in recent years. The result is an original, authoritative, and provocative portrait of Billy the Kid as both outlaw and frontier fighter against the infamously corrupt Santa Fe Ring.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476695266
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	02/20/2025
Pages:	311
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.62(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

George R. Matthews has written on the Olympics, baseball and Zebulon Pike, and is a member of Biographers International Organization and the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. He lives in New Mexico.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
 1. The Kid from Indiana
 2. “Wichita street gamin”
 3. Family Antrim
 4. “Dressed like a ‘country jake’”
 5. Bad Company
 6. An Englishman Named Tunstall
 7. “A community favorite”
 8. A Taxpayer’s Complaint
 9. “Murderers, outlaws, and desperate characters”
10. “What, John? What, John?”
11. Deputy Constable Billy Bonney
12. “Powers behind the throne”
13. “A terrible alternative”
14. “One of nature’s noblemen”
15. “The grandest victory yet won by the people”
16. “Affairs have somewhat changed here”
17. “We didn’t scare worth a damn”
18. “Such men as Billy Kid”
19. “We intend to play the same game”
20. “I Have no Wish to fight any more”
21. “It was a game of two and I got there first”
22. “Dwelling number 240”
23. “All the world loves a lover”
24. “Extreme penalty of the law”
25. A Shot in the Dark
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

A deeply researched, context-rich, compelling account of Billy the Kid's remarkable life.”—David G. Thomas, author of The Trial of Billy the Kid

From the Publisher