A fascinating look at the boy behind the myth, BILLY THE KID puts a human face on the legend who in just a few short years transformed himself from a skinny orphan boy to the most feared man in the West to an enduring icon.
On April 28, 1881, twenty-one-year-old Henry McCarty, a.k.a. Billy the Kid, just days from being hanged for murder, outfoxed his jailers and electrified the nation with the latest in a long line of miraculous escapes. An outlaw with a deadly reputation, the young man was finally gunned down by the ambitious sheriff Pat Garrett just a few weeks later. The felling of one of the most notorious criminals of the age made front-page news and marked the end of Henry — but it was the beginning of one of the West’s most enduring legends.
Demonized by the lawman that killed him, the Kid was soon mythologized by a never-ending stream of dime store novels and big-screen dramas, portrayed by everyone from Paul Newman to Roy Rogers to Emilio Estevez. But in all the tellings, Billy the Kid’s real story has been obscured.
Official Website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe...
- 00:00 The Legend of Billy the Kid
- 04:21 Billy the Kid’s Origins: From New York Famine to Silver City, New Mexico
- 09:03 Henry McCarty Escapes Silver City Jail
- 12:23 Henry McCarty’s First Murder and Becoming “The Kid”
- 17:33 Inside the Origins of the Lincoln County War
- 24:33 The Regulators Vow Revenge for the Death of John Tunstall
- 27:04 Lincoln County War: Lawlessness in New Mexico Territory
- 29:50 Billy the Kid and the Hispanos of New Mexico
- 31:34 Governor Lew Wallace Breaks His Promise
- 34:17 How Billy the Kid Became an American Icon
- 36:17 Pat Garrett Traps BIlly the Kid at Stinking Spring
- 41:07 Billy the Kid’s Daring Escape from Jail
- 45:35 The Final Ambush in Fort Sumner
- 49:50 How an Outlaw Became a Legend
