Mystery Files

Billy the Kid 1 Season 6 Episode

It’s the late 1870s. One of the most infamous outlaws of the American Wild West is Billy the Kid… a teenage killer who terrorizes New Mexico. Legend tells us that he killed 21 men, one for each year of his life. For in 1881, at the age of 21, the Kid is gunned down by his one time friend and lawman Pat Garrett. But the real person behind this legend is very different. Who is The Kid? Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, William H Bonney, The Kid. These are just some of the Kid’s names. He appears in the historical records at the age of 15, when he is caught stealing some clothes from a washing line. He had been orphaned, and found himself alone in the world. He escaped from jail and ended up in the town of Lincoln, New Mexico. It was here that he met English business man John Tunstall who gave the Kid- who had nothing- a job, a gun and a horse.