23rd November: Billy the Kid

Billy the Kid (William H Bonney), born 23rd November 1859 - or was he?

1. In truth, nobody knows for sure exactly when and where Billy the Kid was born. 23 November was the date given in one book about him, but other historians say there are no records to prove it.
2. At the height of his notoriety, Billy the Kid was using the name William H Bonney, but he had other names. He was born William Henry McCarty, and was also known as William Antrim for a while, Antrim being his step-father's name. Why he adopted the name of Bonney in 1877, nobody really knows.
3. His mother died of TB when he was 14 and he was taken in by neighbours who owned a hotel and he worked for them to earn his keep. The hotel manager liked him, saying he was the only young man ever to work there and never steal anything.
4. He was, however, accused of stealing from a later employer. At 15, he was working at a cheese factory and stole some cheese, and was arrested. He was later found to be in possession of some stolen goods and put in prison - but he escaped by climbing up the chimney.
5. There is only one authentic photograph of Billy the Kid in existence. In 2011, it was sold at auction for $2.3 million, the seventh most expensive photograph ever.
6. This photograph was the reason for a long-standing myth that Billy the Kid was left-handed. In the picture, he appears to be holding his gun in his left hand and wears a holster on his left hip, so it was concluded that he was left-handed. However, scrutiny of the picture in later years show it was a picture of Kid's reflection in a mirror, so in fact, the gun and holster were on his right side.
7. There is another myth that he killed 21 men, one for each year of his life, but in actual fact, he only killed about eight.
8. He went from best employee at a hotel at 14 to fugitive and killer by 17, when he killed for the first time. Some say that he turned to crime because he enjoyed reading crime novels. If he was alive now, no doubt they would be blaming computer games! Experts say it is more likely that his first thefts were out of necessity - food, because he was hungry - and that he was basically a nice kid who fell in with the wrong crowd.
9. He was convicted of the killing of Sheriff Brady and sentenced to death - but again he escaped, killing two of his guards, hacking his leg irons off with a pickaxe and riding out of town on a horse, singing. Two days later, the story goes, the horse came back to town two days later, without him.
10. His freedom was short-lived. Three months later he was shot by Sheriff Garrett, when the sheriff recognised his voice when he asked "Who is it?" in Spanish in a dark room.