Billy the Kid is a famous outlaw of the American Wild West. His presumed marital name is William Henry McCarty (or William Henry Bonney). His date of birth is uncertain, with some authors advancing the date as November 23, 1859 in New York, but there is no evidence of this). He died July 14, 1881 at Fort Sumner (New Mexico Territory).
Most of the elements concerning his life and death are quite controversial and obscure, because they come from fictionalized books, contradictory biographies and erroneous or unfounded testimonies. Known under several pseudonyms (William Harrison Bonney, Henry Antrim, Kid Antrim, William Antrim), he was a nineteenth-century bandit and murderer, whose feats of arms have gone down in legend. He notably participated in the Lincoln County War. As a bandit, he is reputed to have killed 21 men, one for each year of his life. But that seems to have been exaggerated and he was ultimately responsible for only the deaths of nine people (four alone and five in a gang). Juvenile (hence his nickname Kid), Billy has an endearing personality, but also an angry attitude, and according to some sources superior qualities in handling firearms. He was shot dead by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner in 1881, who later published the popular book The Authentic Life of Billy The Kid. The "Kid" then became a legend.
