The year is 1881 …
And Henry McCarty – also known by his alias William H. Boney but better known by his nickname “Billy the Kid” – is wanted for murder and robbery. In 1875, after police arrested Billy for robbing a Chinese laundry, he fled from New Mexico to the Arizona Territory, where he became a well-known federal fugitive. By 1880, his notoriety had grown significantly thanks to media coverage in Western newspapers, painting a bigger target on his back for law enforcement agents. Sheriff Pat Garrett, an equally famous figure and an Old West law man, eventually captured Billy in December of 1880. Billy was tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang for the murder of Sheriff William J. Brady in April 1881. However, he managed to escape from prison that same month, killing two sheriff’s deputies as he fled. It wasn’t until July that Garrett would find Billy hiding out in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
The accounts of Billy’s demise vary. But it is widely believed that when Garrett entered the bedroom where Billy was staying with a friend, the outlaw could not make out the sheriff because it was too dark. Billy allegedly asked the intruder in Spanish “¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?” (Who is it? Who is it?) as he drew his revolver. Garrett could not see either, but he recognized Billy’s voice. He drew his own revolver and fired twice. One bullet missed, but the other hit Bully directly in the chest.
As time went on, rumors and conspiracies began to spread about Billy’s death. Some people believed that Garrett was actually friends with Billy, and staged the shooting to allow him to escape. Others believed they had gotten the wrong man. And throughout the 20th century, several men, including Ollie P. Roberts (known as Brushy Bill Roberts) of central Texas claimed they were the real Billy.
Billy’s story is a mainstay of American culture and has inspired countless books, comics, movies, and even music. Bob Dylan famously scored the soundtrack for the 1973 Sam Peckinpah western, “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.” It was for this movie that Dylan wrote and produced one of his most famous songs, “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.”
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