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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

B is for Billy the Kid

 My theme for A- Z is the year my book takes place: 1881. I"ll be posting about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book.






Today we have Billy the Kid, aka William H. Bonney aka Henry McCarty, who was born in 1859 but didn't turn to criminal activities until after his mother died and left him an orphan (one can't help but wonder how he might've turned out had his mother lived...). At first he lived with a foster family but when their situation changed, he was forced to move into a boarding house. Not long after, he stole food, clothing, and a rifle and was subsequently arrested. He escaped from jail and from that point on lived as a fugitive for the rest of his short life. He was killed by Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881 after escaping jail yet again and killing two guards in the process.





13 comments:

  1. Life can be cruel. Still we have to make the best of it. It would be interesting to see if his life had of turned out differently has his mother not died. Although of course if it had we may never have heard of him. :)

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  2. Wow, he was only twenty-two. That's young. He really was still a kid.
    I'm sure if his mother had lived, he would've turned out much different.

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  3. what an ebil little kid he was. Just shows how most people should never be parents ... it goes for Bieber's parents too....

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  4. We have a Billy the Kid where we live. Only he is a goat!

    Stopped by via A to Z Challenge
    -Petnet.io

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  5. I love the Young Guns movies. But I'm more of a Jesse James guy.

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  6. I saw an old movie with Paul Newman playing Billy the Kid - totally drawing a blank on the name of it now. But with Paul Newman in the part I had a total crush on Billy the Kid! Not a good idea, I know. :D

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  7. I really enjoyed Emilio Estevez's interpretation of Billy The Kid in Young Guns. He was crazy.

    So, now the question is was he always crazy? Or did losing his mother and the events that came after make him that way? I suspect he was always a little bit crazy. Lots of people are orphaned and don't go on a killing spree.

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  8. There are so many stories out there about him, I would like to read the true story sometime.

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  9. I grew up in New Mexico and so heard about Billy from the time I was little. He was such an interesting character...

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  10. I didn't know any of that, neato.

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  11. That was a sad story.

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  12. I did not know he was orphaned. It explains so much.

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  13. Do read Michael Ondaatje's (The English Patient etc...) play about Billy the Kid. It is wonderful.

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