page_title: Billy the Kid
section_title: Outlaw
hierarchical_section_title: Billy the Kid / Outlaw
caption_attribution_description: English: American politician and author Lew Wallace, 1893. From [https://books.google.com/books?id=1oXKZlOcmtwC Lew Wallace: An Autobiography', New York: Harper and Brothers, 1906.
context_page_description: Henry McCarty, better known as "Billy the Kid" and also by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at the age of 21. He also fought in New Mexico's Lincoln County War, during which he allegedly committed three murders.
  McCarty was orphaned at the age of 15. His first arrest was for stealing food, at the age of 16, in late 1875. Ten days later, he robbed a Chinese laundry and was again arrested, but escaped shortly afterwards. He fled from New Mexico Territory into neighboring Arizona Territory, making him both an outlaw and a federal fugitive. In 1877, McCarty began to refer to himself as "William H. Bonney". Two different versions of a wanted poster dated September 23, 1875, refer to him as "Wm. Wright, better known as Billy the Kid".
  After murdering a blacksmith during an altercation in August 1877, McCarty became a wanted man in Arizona and returned to New Mexico, where he joined a group of cattle rustlers. He became well-known in the region when he joined the Regulators and took part in the Lincoln County War of 1878.
context_section_description: McCarty and three other survivors of the Battle of Lincoln were near the Mescalero Indian Agency when the agency bookkeeper, Morris Bernstein, was murdered on August 5, 1878. All four were indicted for the murder, despite conflicting evidence that Bernstein had been killed by Constable Atanacio Martinez. All of the indictments, except McCarty's, were later quashed.
  On October 5, 1878, U.S. Marshal John Sherman informed newly appointed Territorial Governor and former Union Army general Lew Wallace that he held warrants for several men, including "William H. Antrim, alias Kid, alias Bonny [sic]" but was unable to execute them "owing to the disturbed condition of affairs in that county, resulting from the acts of a desperate class of men." Wallace issued an amnesty proclamation on November 13, 1878, which pardoned anyone involved in the Lincoln County War since Tunstall's murder. It specifically excluded persons who had been convicted of or indicted for a crime, and therefore excluded McCarty.
  On February 18, 1879, McCarty and friend Tom O'Folliard were in Lincoln and watched as attorney Huston Chapman was shot and his corpse set on fire. According to eyewitnesses, the pair were innocent bystanders forced at gunpoint by Jesse Evans to witness the murder. McCarty wrote to Governor Wallace on March 13, 1879, with an offer to provide information on the Chapman murder in exchange for amnesty. On March 15, Governor Wallace replied, agreeing to a secret meeting to discuss the situation. McCarty met with Wallace in Lincoln on March 17, 1879. During the meeting and in subsequent correspondence, Wallace promised McCarty protection from his enemies and clemency if he would offer his testimony to a grand jury.
  On March 20, Wallace wrote to McCarty, "to remove all suspicion of understanding, I think it better to put the arresting party in charge of Sheriff Kimbrell [sic] who shall be instructed to see that no violence is used." McCarty responded on the same day, agreeing to testify and confirming Wallace's proposal for his arrest and detention in a local jail to assure his safety. On March 21, McCarty let himself be captured by a posse led by Sheriff George Kimball of Lincoln County. As agreed, McCarty provided a statement about Chapman's murder and testified in court. However, after McCarty's testimony, the local district attorney refused to set him free. Still in custody several weeks later, McCarty began to suspect Wallace had used subterfuge and would never grant him amnesty. McCarty escaped from the Lincoln County jail on June 17, 1879.
  McCarty avoided further violence until January 10, 1880, when he shot and killed Joe Grant, a newcomer to the area, at Hargrove's Saloon in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican reported, "Billy Bonney, more extensively known as 'the Kid,' shot and killed Joe Grant. The origin of the difficulty was not learned." According to other contemporary sources, McCarty had been warned Grant intended to kill him. He walked up to Grant, told him he admired his revolver, and asked to examine it. Grant handed it over. Before returning the pistol, which he noticed contained only three cartridges, McCarty positioned the cylinder so the next hammer fall would land on an empty chamber. Grant suddenly pointed his pistol at McCarty's face and pulled the trigger. When it failed to fire, McCarty drew his own weapon and shot Grant in the head. A reporter for the Las Vegas Optic quoted McCarty as saying the encounter "was a game of two and I got there first."
  In 1880, McCarty formed a friendship with a rancher named Jim Greathouse, who later introduced him to Dave Rudabaugh. On November 29, 1880, McCarty, Rudabaugh, and Billy Wilson ran from a posse led by sheriff's deputy James Carlyle. Cornered at Greathouse's ranch, McCarty told the posse they were holding Greathouse as a hostage. Carlyle offered to exchange places with Greathouse, and McCarty accepted the offer. Carlyle later attempted to escape by jumping through a window but he was shot three times and killed. The shootout ended in a standoff; th
caption: New Mexico Territorial Governor Lew Wallace in 1893
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "281", "Image ImageLength": "376", "Image XResolution": "114", "Image YResolution": "114", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PaintShop Pro 17.00", "Image InterColorProfile": "[]", "Image ExifOffset": "110", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3434", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5983", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "281", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "376"}