Billy The Kid: A Born Loser?

Poor Billy the Kid. He couldn't seem to do anything right.

Born William McCarty on Sept. 17, 18 59 to a mother who was a prostitute, Billy grew up poor. His mother died when he turned 15 and a woman who owned a boarding house took him in. She provided him with room and board in exchange for work.

At age 16, Billy was arrested for stealing food. A few months later, he and a young friend were arrested again for stealing clothing and two pistols from a Chinese laundry.

He didn't like being behind bars and managed to escape. For a while he stayed with his stepfather, but that relationship turned sour. He had adopted a new name, William Bonney, and stole clothing and weapons from his stepdad before heading west into the rugged outlaw country of southern Arizona Territory.

Billy felt at home in Arizona and found work on a ranch. He would spend his monthly wages in local gambling houses where he learned to play faro and poker. He wasn't a very good gambler and generally lost.

A well known rancher named Henry Hooker took a liking to him and hired Billy as a ranch hand. While working for Hooker, Billy met a professional criminal named John Mackie. The two of them became partners and started stealing horses from soldiers stationed at Camp Grant, an Army fort.

While playing in a poker game at the camp on Aug. 17, 1877, Billy got into an argument with a blacksmith Francis 'Windy' Cahill. The two didn't like each other and during the game, Cahill called him a pimp.

Billy responded by calling Cahill a son-of-a-bitch. The two got into a wrestling match that overturned the poker table. Cahill tried to grab Billy's holstered pistol, but Billy got to the gun first and shot the blacksmith, mortally wounded him.

Cahill died the following day and Billy was arrested and placed in a detention center. He escaped a couple of days later, stole a horse, and fled to New Mexico Territory where a small band of Apaches took his horse and placed him afoot.

Billy had to walk a long way to the nearest settlement. Hungry and in poor health fro his ordeal, he was nursed back to health by a kindly rancher's wife.

For a while, Billy, then known as The Kid because of his slight stature and polite ways, became a law-abiding citizen. He found work on a ranch and became a semi-respected citizen in the community of Lincoln County, N.M.

Three ranching partners became involved in a squabble over money and land, triggering the Lincoln County War. That involved Billy and his Winchester. There were more killings, more charges, and Billy once again found himself to be a fugitive.

The long arm of the law finally ran him down and Billy was charged and convicted of murder. The judge who convicted him sentenced him to be hung until he was 'dead, dead, dead.'

Billy responded, 'Judge, you can go to hell, hell, hell,' before he was taken in handcuffs to his cell.

Once again, the elusive Kid managed to break out of jail. He took refuge in a ranch house near Ft. Sumner, N.M. A $500 bounty was placed on his head.

Sheriff Pat Garrett decided to find Billy and claim the reward. Garrett showed up at the ranch one evening. He confronted Billy, who was armed, in the darkness of the ranch house. When Billy called out in Spanish and asked him who he was, Garrett fired two shots. One struck Billy near the heart, killing him instantly.

Billy the Kid is buried in a lonely cemetery near Ft. Sumner. I had seen his grave. The born loser and fugitive finally found his eternal rest.