Billy the Kid

This new, in-depth life of Henry McCarty, alias Billy Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, offers fresh perspectives, not only on the Lincoln County War and his boyhood in Silver City, New Mexico, but also on his Irish mother’s origins and immigration to Indiana, his public-school education in Indianapolis, the McCarty family’s moves to Wichita, Kansas, and Santa Fe, and his two-year outlaw adventures in Arizona.
For the first time, the whole person emerges. This biography brings together a huge amount of material, much of it made available to researchers only in recent years. The result is an original, authoritative, and provocative portrait of Billy the Kid as both outlaw and frontier fighter against the infamously corrupt Santa Fe Ring.

George R. Matthews has written on the Olympics, baseball and Zebulon Pike, and is a member of Biographers International Organization and the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. He lives in New Mexico.

George R. Matthews
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages:
Bibliographic Info: ca. 60 photos, 5 maps, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9526-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5270-2
Imprint: McFarland

• “A deeply researched, context-rich, compelling account of Billy the Kid’s remarkable life.”—David G. Thomas, author of The Trial of Billy the Kid

• “There have been many books written about Billy the Kid, but George R. Matthews makes the story fresh, vibrant and fascinating. Soundly researched and fun to read.”—Johnny D. Boggs, nine-time Spur Award winner from Western Writers of America

• “George R. Matthews has successfully unraveled and revealed Billy the Kid: The Life Behind the Legend. The author draws from new primary sources relating to Henry McCarty (alias William Bonney) to painstakingly separate fact from fiction. Through Matthews’ capable hands, Billy the Kid offers fresh insights demythologizing this American outlaw.”—Jay H. Buckley, coauthor of Zebulon Pike, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West