Billy The Kid: The Story Behind the Legend and the Myth

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What is the number one issue for you? To the national stage. And I welcome you to the final 2020 presidential debate. When critical votes were counted. Still too close to call. And when power was held to account.

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In fact, life was so hard that 80% of the population was under 30. It was in this harsh and lawless place where legend was forged. Roger McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier, a U.S. Marine and former history professor at UCLA. Dr. McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries, and he's a regular contributor here for us at Our American Stories. Here's McGrath with the story of Billy the Kid. Billy the Kid is an American legend. He's been portrayed as everything from a gallant young man fighting for justice to a psychopathic killer.

I think the truth lies much closer to a gallant young man. Billy the Kid is born Henry McCarty in 1859 to Irish immigrant parents Patrick and Catherine in New York City. He has an older brother named Joseph. The father dies when the boys are still young, and the mother takes them west to Indiana, then to Kansas, then to New Mexico. In Santa Fe, Catherine McCarty marries William Antrim in 1873.

Shortly after the wedding, the new Antrim family moves to Silver City, a booming mining town in southwestern New Mexico. There in Silver City, Henry McCarty gets his new nickname, Kid Antrim. He is described by his schoolmate as being full of fun and mischief, but a schoolteacher says he is no more of a problem than any other boy. He's described as a handsome boy with blue eyes, sandy blonde hair, pale skin, and rosy cheeks.

He has a charming smile that is already melting girls' hearts. Early in 1874, the kid's mother dies of tuberculosis, and he's taken in by another family. He works at odd jobs, but within a year, he's in trouble for petty thefts. Deciding it's time for him and Silver City to part company, he heads west for Arizona and finds work as a cowboy.

All of 15 years old, he's on his own. While working on Arizona ranches, the kid makes trips with his cowboy buddies in New Mexico to rustle cattle. As long as his wrestling stays south of the border, Arizona lawmen pay him no mind.

However, in 1877, he starts stealing horses from Arizona ranches and selling them at mining camps. He's soon arrested, shackled, and jailed. Within a day, he makes a daring escape, as the newspaper reports, shackles and all.

Six months later, he's arrested again, but again, he breaks free. The kid is an escape artist. In August 1877, the kid rides into Bonita, a small settlement next to Camp Grant in southeastern Arizona, and runs into an old nemesis, Frank Cahill. Cahill is a brawny 32-year-old Irishman from County Galway, who pummeled the kid in a recent fistfight. A second fight erupts, this time the kid pulls a gun and puts a bullet in Cahill's belly.

A day later, Cahill dies from the wound. The kid doesn't wait around to see if his shooting of Cahill will be declared self-defense and rides hard for New Mexico. By the fall of 1877, the kid is working as a cowboy on a ranch in Lincoln County, owned by 24-year-old Englishman John Tunstall. Tunstall arrived in New Mexico in 1876 with a plan to take control of Lincoln County through land acquisitions and business operations. He's financed by his wealthy father. Working with Tunstall is a lawyer, Alexander MacSween.

MacSween is the son of Scottish immigrants to Canada. He starts his adult life as a Presbyterian minister, but after moving to the United States, he attends law school and later establishes a practice in the town of Lincoln, the county seat for Lincoln County. Business in Lincoln County focuses on supplying the Fort Stanton Army Post and the Mescalero Apache Reservation with beef, corn, and flour.

Tunstall reckons he can make a small fortune if he monopolizes the trade. However, there's already someone in Lincoln doing just that. That someone is Lawrence Murphy.

Murphy is an Irish immigrant in his middle 40s with sandy blonde hair and a red beard. He's a veteran of both the U.S. Army and the New Mexico volunteers and served in Indian wars and in the Civil War. He's stationed at Fort Stanton at the close of the Civil War and has risen to the rank of major. When he leaves the service, he develops a mercantile business, first located at Fort Stanton and then in the town of Lincoln. In Lincoln, he builds a store two stories high and 3,000 square feet that dwarfs every other building in town. Murphy's business thrives.

Residents of Lincoln County refer to L.G. Murphy and Company as the House of Murphy or simply the House. Murphy has two young proteges. One is Irish-born James Dolan. The other, even younger protege, is John Riley. John Tunstall thinks he can overthrow the house and establish his own monopoly as he writes to his father back in England. Everything in New Mexico that pays at all is worked by a ring. There is the Indian ring, the army ring, the political ring, the legal ring, the Roman Catholic ring, the cattle ring, the horse thieves ring, the land ring and half a dozen other rings.

Now to make things stick, to do any good, it is necessary to either get into a ring or to make one for yourself. And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of Billy the Kid and who would think born in New York City of all places. When we come back, more of the story of Billy the Kid with Dr. Roger McGrath here on Our American Stories. Following last year's amazing turnout, the Black Effect Podcast Network and Nissan are helping HBCU scholars jumpstart their futures by throwing another Thrill of Possibility Summit. The summit is an opportunity to network with peers and professionals and gain career knowledge from leaders in the industries of science, technology, engineering, art and math, also known as STEAM. To kick it off, Nissan is giving 50 scholars who major in STEAM disciplines the opportunity for an all-expenses-paid trip to Nashville, Tennessee, this year's summit location. This is a remarkable opportunity to be mentored by some of auto, tech and podcasting's brightest minds. Current HBCU scholars majoring in STEAM disciplines can enter by submitting their answers to three simple questions as a 90-second video or in writing. Enter now for the opportunity to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Thrill of Possibility Summit, an incredible weekend of professional development, music and celebrating Black culture in Nashville, Tennessee, brought to you by Nissan. Success is a journey. You're in the driver's seat.

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See app for details. And we continue with our American stories. Billy the Kid is working as a cowboy on a ranch in Lincoln County, New Mexico in 1877. And it's owned by a 24-year-old Englishman named John Tunstall. Tunstall thinks he can overthrow the county's business monopoly and its owner, Lawrence Murphy. Tunstall plans on doing this by either becoming a part of a special interest group or making one up himself.

Let's return to Roger McGrath. Tunstall makes ones for himself, and he has the money to do it. He writes to his father. It is his goal to get the half of every dollar that is made in the county by anyone. To put this into effect, Tunstall first needs a cattle ranch.

Max Wien gets him a 4,000-acre spread some 30 miles south of Lincoln. Tunstall now thinks he'll open a store in Lincoln to compete with the house. But he needs a hook to lure farmers away from Murphy's business. Tunstall decides he'll issue what he calls grain notes to customers against the future harvest of crops. In this way, farmers can buy on credit, but they will then be attached to Tunstall's store by debt.

By the fall of 1877, Tunstall's store is up and running. The timing is propitious. Nearly 50 years old and drinking heavily, Lawrence Murphy decides to retire. He sells his company to his understudies, James Dolan and John Riley. To buy the business, Dolan and Riley have to secure financing in Santa Fe, and making payments on the loan will not be easy. This plays right into Tunstall's hands. Although Tunstall knows it will be some time before he starts turning a profit, unlike Dolan and Riley, he has his father's fortune behind him and doesn't have to worry about paying off a loan. Everybody in Lincoln County begins to take sides.

Some think Tunstall will liberate them from the monopoly of the house. Others hate Alex McSween, Tunstall's partner and attorney. In his few years in Lincoln, McSween has become involved in a number of controversial transactions and legal battles, and has made many an enemy.

Tensions mount, and each side of the house is a higher gunman. Into all this walks an 18-year-old boy who is using the alias William Bonney. However, he's already known popularly as The Kid, so now he's called not Bill Bonney, but Billy The Kid.

With a boyish face and only a little peach fuzz on his upper lip to occasionally shave, he still looks like a kid. But he can ride a horse with the best of them, and can shoot a revolver or a rifle with incredible speed and accuracy. He has nerves of steel and is cool and deliberate under fire. With tensions mounting in Lincoln County, the spark that ignites a war comes on an evening in February 1878. Armed with a writ of attachment, a posse sweeps down upon Tunstall, who is out on the trail helping to drive a herd of horses. Several of Tunstall's hired hands, including Billy The Kid, are with the herd also, but are far from Tunstall and don't see what happens between Tunstall and the posse. The posse members later say that Tunstall threw his gun first and fired before they opened up.

Perhaps so, but probably not. Only two weeks earlier, Jimmy Dolan stomped up to Tunstall and challenged him to shoot it out on the spot. Three times, Dolan issued the challenge. Three times, Tunstall refused to go for his weapon.

Dolan finally gave up in disgust. The Lincoln County war rages for two years, and Billy The Kid is not the only one who is in the thick of the fighting, but he becomes the leader of the regulators, as the Tunstall Max Sween faction of gunmen is called. Some say The Kid kills as many as 21 men, but one-third that number is probably closer to the truth. Nonetheless, he is clearly the war's most deadly fighter.

Some of his exploits defy the imagination. The first target for Billy The Kid and the regulators are members of the posse that had shot Tunstall. In March 1878, the regulators catch up with two of them, Frank Baker and William Morton. Both of them are shot dead, likely by The Kid. The next target for The Kid is William Brady, the Lincoln County sheriff. Brady is a fine-tuned, The first target for Billy The Kid and the regulators are members of the posse that had shot Tunstall.

In March 1878, the regulators catch up with two of them, Frank Baker and William Morton. Both of them are shot dead, likely by The Kid. The next target for The Kid is William Brady, the Lincoln County sheriff. Brady is a fair and honest sheriff, and a long-time friend of Lawrence Murphy.

The two have much in common. Brady was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States in 1851. He immediately enlists in the U.S. Army and serves for 10 years before being discharged in New Mexico. He then joins the New Mexico volunteers and serves throughout the Civil War with Murphy. Like Murphy, Brady rises to the rank of major. Following the Civil War, Brady serves as a member of the territorial legislature, and then as sheriff of Lincoln County. He lives on a farm where he and his Hispanic wife rear several children.

In all ways, he's well respected. Because of his friendship with Murphy, he's aligned with the House faction. On a day in April 1878, as Sheriff Brady and four of his deputies walk down Lincoln Main Street, The Kid and several other regulators open fire from behind an adobe wall. Brady and Deputy George Hinman are killed, and Deputy Billy Matthews is wounded. As Matthews and the other two deputies run for cover, The Kid bolts into the street and rifles the pockets of Sheriff Brady.

The Kid is looking for an arrest warrant that the sheriff supposedly has for Alex McSween. From cover, the deputies now open fire, and the bullet goes clean through The Kid's thigh. He limps away to his horse and gallops out of town. Another one of the regulators, Big Jim French, is also wounded. Unable to ride, he hides in town.

That night, The Kid returns and rescues Big Jim. Over the next three months, The Kid is involved in a half-dozen gun battles. Then, in the middle of July, occurs a five-day fight in the town of Lincoln, which is known as the Five-Day Battle, or the Battle of Lincoln. Leading up to the battle, the regulators take positions in different locations in Lincoln. The Kid and ten others set up in McSween's house on Main Street, and the two officers others set up in McSween's house on Main Street in the middle of town. Another 40 regulators are spread throughout the town.

The Dolan-Riley forces, led by the new County Sheriff, George Pepin, number about 40. Most residents of the town, mostly all-time Hispanic settlers, flee in terror. Others hunker down in their homes, fearing for their lives. The shooting starts when the regulators open fire on some of Pepin's deputies. Several are wounded.

After that initial blast, there is intermittent shooting both day and night. On the fourth day of the battle, Colonel Nathan Dudley and several dozen troops from nearby Fort Stant arrive, not to stop the fighting, but to evacuate non-combatant citizens. Colonel Dudley says he has no authority to intervene on one side or the other, and that he is there to escort Lincoln residents to safety. Although Dudley says he is neutral, the sight of the troops cause half of the regulators to abandon their positions and ride for the hills. Most of the regulators reckon that should shooting erupt, the Army will naturally side with the Sheriff Pepin forces.

Not only would the regulators then be facing federal forces, but those forces have nine not only their rifles and sidearms, but also a small howitzer and a gatling gun. And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell one heck of a story. And remember the key fact that led off this storytelling.

80% of the population was under 30. No good comes of that anywhere in the world. And my goodness, what naturally happens is gangs form.

You can call them what you want. This was gang warfare. Long before there were Bloods and Crips and long before the five crime families of New York, we had the great wars of Lincoln County.

And what could the federal government do? Empty Lincoln out and let these guys go at it. When we come back, McGrath tells more of the story of Billy the Kid, orphaned at the age of 15 and in the middle of one of the great gunfights, battles, gang battles. In American history, the story continues here on Our American Stories. Following last year's amazing turnout, the Black Effect Podcast Network and Nissan are helping HBCU scholars jumpstart their futures by throwing another Thrill of Possibility Summit. The summit is an opportunity to network with peers and professionals and gain career knowledge from leaders in the industries of science, technology, engineering, art and math, and science, technology, engineering, art and math, also known as STEAM. To kick it off, Nissan is giving 50 scholars who major in STEAM disciplines the opportunity for an all-expenses-paid trip to Nashville, Tennessee, this year's summit location. This is a remarkable opportunity to be mentored by some of auto, tech, and podcasting's brightest minds. Current HBCU scholars majoring in STEAM disciplines can enter by submitting their answers to three simple questions as a 90-second video or in writing. Enter now for the opportunity to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Thrill of Possibility Summit, an incredible weekend of professional development, music, and celebrating Black culture in Nashville, Tennessee, brought to you by Nissan. Success is a journey. You're in the driver's seat.

For official rules and information, visit blackeffect.com slash Nissan. You know those people who always have the latest tech gizmo before everyone else? Now you could be one of those people without even trying. And when people ask you, is that the latest iPhone? You could just be all cool about it and say, oh, yeah, I mean, I get the latest one every year.

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See app for details. And we continue with our American stories and the story of Billy the Kid. Businessman John Sunstolt was the first to be killed in what we now know is the Lincoln County War. This battle was fought against the county's business monopoly run by Lawrence Murphy, James Dolan, and backed by Sheriff George Pepin. Sunstolt's 18-year-old employee, Billy the Kid, along with other men, vow revenge and take refuge in the home of Alexander McSween, Sunstolt's friend and business partner.

Let's return to Roger McGrath and the story of Billy the Kid. Sheriff Pepin takes advantage of the lull in fighting to try to serve warrants for the arrest of McSween. A deputy approaches McSween's house and shouts for McSween to surrender. McSween replies he will not surrender and says he has warrants for the arrest of the posse members. The deputy demands to see the warrants.

Big Jim French shouts out, our warrants are in our guns, you ******* sucking sons of... Well, this will be a fight to the finish. Sheriff Pepin decides to set the McSween house on fire, but that proves easier said than done. Gunfire drives torch-wielding deputies back several times before a small blaze is started. McSween's wife, Susan, leaves the house to plead with Colonel Dudley, but Dudley says he has come only to evacuate the women and children and that Sheriff Pepin is doing his lawful duty and trying to serve the warrants.

Susan returns to the house but leaves for a final time in the early evening. By nightfall, the fire is roaring and has consumed all of the McSween house but the kitchen where the regulators are huddled. They decide to make a break for it through the rear door, led by Billy the Kid. Out the back door they go, headed for a gate at the rear of the property. Suddenly, they're illuminated by the flames and Pepin's men open fire. Half of the fleeing regulators are cut down by flying lead, but the Kid and four others race through the gate and disappear into a dense stand of timber along a river.

The Kid has escaped once again. The next morning daylight reveals the carnage. Five bullet-riddled bodies lie in the yard behind the smoking ruins of the McSween house. Alex McSween's corpse is there along with the bodies of three of the regulators and the body of a deputy.

Chickens peck at the corpses. Altogether, the Battle of Lincoln takes eight lives and leaves that many more seriously wounded. By now, the Lincoln County War has caught the attention of officials in Washington. The territorial governor is removed from office and a new one appointed. The new governor for New Mexico Territory is Lou Wallace. A lawyer from Indiana, Wallace is very active in Republican party politics. The appointment as governor is his reward for faithful service to the party. When Wallace arrives in New Mexico, he's a 51-year-old veteran of both the Mexican War and the Civil War, having risen to the rank of Brigadier General.

He's tall and thin with a weather-beaten face and dark hair that is turning gray. He's a true Renaissance man. A lawyer, a lawyer, politician, soldier, scholar, writer, and musician. Wallace declares Lincoln County to be in a state of insurrection and orders all factions to disband and return to their homes by the middle of October. After that, he will allow the army to assist civilian authorities against those failing to comply. By November, everything seems to be going so smoothly that Wallace issues what is called a general pardon to all those involved in the Lincoln County War who have not yet been indicted by a grand jury. Wallace draws severe criticism for the amnesty.

Many people think it's an open invitation to those who have fled New Mexico to return and renew their outlawry. Wallace thinks he's done with the problem and he resumes work on a novel he started sometime earlier. Each night, he secludes himself in the governor's mansion and writes a few more pages of a manuscript that is eventually published as Ben-Hur. In February 1879, a peace conference is proposed to be held in Lincoln between the old war and factions. Billy the Kid endorses the proposal. He tells other regulators, tired of fighting and tired of running from Sheriff Pepin and his posses. Late in February, some two dozen of the old antagonists gather in Lincoln, exactly one year since the killing of John Tunstall.

The conference has an inauspicious beginning. One of Dolan's boys, Jesse Evans, says the kid can't be dealt with peaceably and should be killed on the spot. The kid says he has come to make peace. Temperance cool and a formal treaty is drawn up. The treaty stipulates that no one on either side will kill anyone without first withdrawing from the treaty. It also says that no soldiers will be killed for any past defense and that no one will give evidence in a civil prosecution.

Finally, it says anyone who fails to live up to the agreement will be killed. After general handshaking, the boys go out and get drunk. In their revelry, while shooting their guns on Main Street, they kill Houston Chapman, a lawyer who has worked with Max Wien. The killing doesn't seem to faze them in the least.

They continue walking down the street to the next saloon and another round of drinks. The killing prompts Governor Lou Wallace to finally make a trip to Lincoln. He's afraid the killing might signal a new round of fighting. While in Lincoln, a messenger brings Wallace a note from a participant in the peace conference. The writer of the note explains that he came to Lincoln to make friends with old enemies, so as to be able to lay aside my arms and go to work.

I was present when Mr. Chapman was murdered and know who did it, but I have indictments against me for things that happened in the past in the Lincoln County War and I'm afraid to give up because my enemies would kill me. I am called Kid Antrim, but Antrim is my stepfather's name. Governor Wallace loses no time in sending a reply and setting up a secret meeting. On the night of St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1879, the governor and the outlaw rendezvous in a small house. The kid, as instructed, knocks softly on a side door at 9 p.m. The door is open and the kid enters warily, a rifle in one hand and a revolver in the other.

A small room is illuminated only by a flickering oil lamp. The 51-year-old governor, a scholar, general, lawyer, and author, sits facing the 19-year-old kid, a cowboy, cattle wrestler, horse thief, gunfighter, and leader of the regulators. An agreement is reached. Wallace will contrive an arrest of the kid and confine him in Lincoln until the district court convenes. The kid will identify the killers of Chapman for the grand jury and in return Wallace will protect him from prosecution for the killing of Sheriff Brady and others. A few days later, the kid is arrested and confined in a private home in Lincoln. In a letter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Governor Wallace writes, a precious specimen nicknamed the kid, whom the sheriff is holding here in the plaza, is an object of tender regard. I heard singing and music the other night. Going to the door, I found minstrels of the village actually serenading the fellow in prison. The governor might also have mentioned the girls and young women of Lincoln, who baked pies and cookies for the kid and pine for him. The teenage outlaw is a babe magnet. And you've been listening to Roger McGrath do what he does best.

The story of Billy the Kid, as told by Roger McGrath, continues here on Our American Stories. Following last year's amazing turnout, the Black Effect Podcast Network and Nissan are helping HBCU scholars jumpstart their futures by throwing another thrill of possibility summit. The summit is an opportunity to network with peers and professionals and gain career knowledge from leaders in the industries of science, technology, engineering, art and math, also known as STEAM. To kick it off, Nissan is giving 50 scholars who major in STEAM disciplines the opportunity for an all-expenses-paid trip to Nashville, Tennessee, this year's summit location. This is a remarkable opportunity to be mentored by some of auto, tech and podcasting's brightest minds. Current HBCU scholars majoring in STEAM disciplines can enter by submitting their answers to three simple questions as a 90-second video or in writing. Enter now for the opportunity to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the thrill of possibility summit, an incredible weekend of professional development, music and celebrating Black culture in Nashville, Tennessee, brought to you by Nissan. Success is a journey. You're in the driver's seat.

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See app for details. And we continue with our American stories and with the story of Billy, the kid let's pick up where we last left off. Here again is Roger McGrath. The grand jury of Lincoln County meets early in April. The kid is one of those who testify. The grand jury returns some 200 indictments against Billy, the kid is one of those who testify. The grand jury returns some 200 indictments against Billy, the jury returns some 200 indictments against 50 men. However, none of the indicted men come to trial when the district court convenes later in April and most never do. After testifying, Billy the kid simply rides out of Lincoln.

He kept his end of the bargain. Now it's up to Governor Wallace to protect the kid from any prosecution. With the war ended though, Wallace loses interest in Lincoln County and does nothing about earlier grand jury indictments of the kid. The kid writes letters to the governor, but gets no response.

Growing desperate, the kid returns to Al-Laurie. Only then does the governor respond and announces a $500 reward for capture of the kid, something like $50,000 today. In 1880, Pat Garrett is elected the new sheriff of Lincoln County. Garrett is a tall, lanky 30-year-old former cowboy and buffalo hunter.

He arrived in New Mexico a few years earlier from Texas. Prior to becoming sheriff, Garrett knew the kid as a casual friend. The two spent some time together drinking in saloons and Garrett is familiar with the kid's habits and his favorite haunts. Now Garrett sets out to capture the notorious Billy the kid and collect the $500 reward.

Late on a December night in 1880, after many weeks of tracking, Sheriff Garrett and his posse catch up with the kid and a few of his gang members in an old stone cabin at Stinking Springs, 100 miles to the northeast of Lincoln. Garrett and his deputies surround the cabin and wait for sunrise. Soon, one of the kid's men, Charlie Beaudry, walks out to feed their horses, which are tethered just outside the cabin door. Garrett calls out to Beaudry to throw up his hands. Instead, Beaudry reaches for his guns. A dozen rifles instantly bark and Beaudry is riddled with bullets. With Beaudry dead on the ground, all is suddenly quiet. From inside the cabin, the kid yells out, asking if that's Pat Garrett out there.

The following exchange occurs. Garrett, I'm here. The kid, Pat, why don't you come up like a man and give us a fair fight?

Garrett, I don't aim to. The kid, you old long-legged son of a b- The kid decides they should pull their horses inside the cabin, saddle them, and make a dash for it by bolting through the cabin door. Through a hail of gunfire, they get two of the horses inside, but a third one drops dead in the doorway. They are now stuck inside the cabin. The sultry shooting continues. During lulls in the action, the kid cracks jokes, yells back and forth with Garrett, and challenges Garrett to duel.

Finally, late in the afternoon, a stick with a white rag on it is waved from the cabin. One of the kid's men comes out with his hands up. He says the kid will surrender if Garrett will take him and the others not to Lincoln, but to Santa Fe.

If not, they will stay in the cabin and fight to the death. Garrett agrees to take them to Santa Fe. Once in jail in Santa Fe, the kid again writes to Governor Wallace for help. Says the kid, I have done everything I promised you, and you have done nothing that you promised me.

Wallace ignores the kid's plea. In April 1881, the kid is transported to Mesilla for the spring term of the district court and is tried for the murder of Sheriff Brady. The trial lasts for two days and the jury returns a verdict of guilty. The judge sentences the kid to be taken to Lincoln and hanged.

Two weeks later, Governor Wallace takes time away from writing Ben Hur to sign the kid's death warrant. The kid is chained and shackled and loaded into a wagon for the journey to Lincoln. Five armed guards ride alongside the wagon. Another three guards ride in the wagon with the kid, including Deputy US Marshal Bob Ollinger. Ollinger is a tall, powerfully built bully who takes pleasure in tormenting the kid. By late April, the kid is lodged in a second floor room of the county courthouse in Lincoln.

The kid is wearing leg shackles and is chained to the floor. Deputies Bob Ollinger and James Bell guard him. Ollinger draws a chalk line on the floor around the kid and says if he crosses that line he will be shot dead. Bell treats the kid decently, but Ollinger constantly taunts him about his approaching hanging and regularly invites him to try to make a break so that he, Ollinger, will have the pleasure of blasting him in half with the shotgun he carries. At noon on April 28, Ollinger escorts some other prisoners across the street to a hotel restaurant for lunch and leaves Bell with the kid.

Ollinger is armed with a revolver but has left his shotgun behind. The kid asks Bill to take him to the privy behind the courthouse. Inside the privy, the kid finds a hidden gun planted by a friend. Back in the courthouse, while ascending the stairs to the second floor, the kid whirls about gun in hand. Bill leaps for the gun, but the kid shoots him. Bill staggers down the stairs and falls dead into the arms of the courthouse janitor. The kid churns his shackled legs up the stairs and grabs Ollinger's double barreled shotgun.

At the same time, Ollinger emerges from the hotel restaurant and steps into the street. The janitor yells to him, the kid has killed Bill. The next thing the stunned Ollinger hears comes from the kid, who is leaning out of a second story window. Hello, Bob. Hello, Bob.

Look up and see what you get. Ollinger looks up and sees the kid leaning out the window with shotgun in hand. Ollinger says, yes, and he's killed me too. At that moment, the kid squeezes both triggers and a double load of buckshot, more than a quarter pound of lead, tear into Ollinger's chest.

He drops to the ground dead. The kid then walks out onto the second floor balcony of the courthouse and greets the residents of Lincoln. The kid explains he didn't want to kill Bill and is sorry about it, but Ollinger got the killing he deserved. Still with shackles on his legs, the kid then walks downstairs and into the street.

With his booted foot, he turns Ollinger's body over and says, you aren't going to round me up again. After more than two months of chasing the kid in vain, Sheriff Pat Garrett receives a tip that the kid is at Pete Maxwell's ranch. On the night of July 14th, 1881, Garrett positions himself in a room used by the kid. Garrett's deputies are hidden nearby. Where is the kid?

He's out in Maxwell's peach orchard, making love to a girlfriend. Meanwhile, Garrett waits in the dark room. After a while, the kid, unarmed and barefoot, steps onto the threshold of the doorway leading into the room. Sensing someone is in the room, the kid stops suddenly and calls out, P.N.S., thinking it might be one of Maxwell's workers. Garrett replies by shooting twice at the kid. One bullet hits the kid in the chest, penetrating his heart.

He slumps to the floor dead. He's 21 years old and already legendary. He becomes an even greater legend in death.

And what a story you just heard by none better on storytelling about the American West and so many other things. And that's Roger McGrath. A special thanks to him for all he does. He's the author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier, a U.S. Marine, a former history professor at UCLA. Dr. McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries, and we are grateful to have him as a regular contributor here on Our American Stories. And as always, all of our history stories are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, where you can go to learn all the things that are beautiful in life, all the things that matter in life. And their terrific and superbly crafted teaching series is available to all in this country for free. Go to hillsdale.edu.

I learn more from their Constitution 101 class than I did at three years at the University of Virginia School of Law. If you'd like to hear more of Dr. McGrath's storytelling on the West, Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, Bat Masterson, the story of the King's Ranch, and the story of how the West shaped Teddy Roosevelt, and so many more, go to our americanstories.com and search for the word McGrath and you will not be disappointed. The story of Billy the Kid, here on Our American Stories. Your teen can feel a sense of independence.

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