Billy The Kid Endured A Very Tragic Life

Billy the Kid is one of the most notorious Wild West outlaws. That's extra impressive when you know that Billy the Kid died at just 21 years old. How did he become a legend in such a short time? Here's the sad, true story of Billy the Kid.

Billy the Kid is one of the most notorious Wild West outlaws in history. That's extra impressive when you consider that he died at just 21 years old. How did he become a legend in such a short time? Here's the sad, true story of Billy the Kid.

Historians know very little about the outlaw's early years. According to the book Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, his mother Catherine was an Irish immigrant to New York City. That's where Henry McCarty, later known as Billy the Kid, was born in 1859. No one knows the exact month or day for sure. It's also unknown if his parents were married or if his father was ever in the picture.

Billy probably spent the first six years of his life in the Irish slums of Manhattan or Brooklyn. The conditions would have been horrific. In the 1860s, when Billy was growing up there, almost 300,000 people lived in one square mile. The Irish were only allowed to rent the worst of the worst tenements, and Billy easily could have lived in a 12-by-12-foot room with 20 other people.

Disease was rampant in the slums, and the mortality rate for Irish children was 25 percent. The fact that Billy made it to 21 could almost be seen as a miracle considering his origins. While his later life would be characterized by Wild West violence, his childhood would have been marked by the poverty and brutality of New York's ghettos.

By the time the Civil War ended, Billy and his mother moved to Indianapolis. She was single by this point and started a relationship with a man named William Antrim.

In 1870, the whole group relocated to Wichita, Kansas. It was there that Billy's life took a positive turn. His mother, Catherine, ran her own laundry business, which must have been successful because she was able to purchase land outside of town. Keep watching the video to see how Billy the Kid endured a very tragic life.

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A New York kid | 0:18
A fresh start | 1:17
The first signs of trouble | 2:09
Billy pulls the trigger | 2:56
Caught in a blood feud | 3:46
A raw deal | 4:41
Hunting the Kid | 5:38
The gallows await | 6:59
Shot in the dark | 8:02
The legend lives on | 9:06

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