The Most Feared Man In The West: Billy The Kid Documentary - World Documentary Channel

William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. c.1859-1861-- July 14, 1881), better known as Billy the Kid and also called William Antrim, was a 19th century gunman that took part in the Lincoln County War as well as came to be a frontier criminal in the American Old West. Base on legend, he killed twenty-one men, but it is generally believed he killed 8. He killed his very first victim on August 17, 1877, at around 17 years old. McCarty (or Bonney, the name he made use of at the height of his notoriety) was 5 ft 8 in (173 centimeters) high with blue eyes, blonde hair or dirty blonde hair, and also a smooth complexion. He was called being pleasant as well as personable at times, and also as supple as a feline. Contemporaries described him as a "cool" cabinet which preferred an "unadorned Mexican sombrero". These high qualities, along with his shrewd and also well known ability with guns, added to his paradoxical picture as both a well-known hooligan and an individual hero.

The Most Feared Man In The West: Billy The Kid Documentary

Billy was fairly unknown throughout many of his life time but was catapulted into tale in 1881 when New Mexico's guv, Lew Wallace, place a price on his head. Furthermore, the Las Vegas Gazette (Las Vegas, New Mexico) and the New York Sun brought tales concerning his ventures. Various other papers did the same. Many biographies created about Billy the Kid after his death portrayed him in varying lights. William Henry McCarty, Jr. was believed by Michael Wallis and also Robert M. Utley, scholars of Western History, to have been born 2 years just before the Civil War in an Irish neighborhood in New York City (at 70 Allen Street). His birth place remains in question as there are no records that show that he ever before lived there. Some researchers have theorised that his name was Patrick McCarty, Michael McCarty, William McCarty, or Edward McCarty. His mommy's name was Catherine McCarty, although there have been proceeding disputes about whether McCarty was her maiden or married name. In 1868, Catherine McCarty had moved with her two young sons, William and also Joseph, to Indianapolis, Indiana. Young William McCarty did not often use the surname "Antrim.".