The Brief, Violent Life of Billy The Kid | Full Documentary

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The orphan teen who became the most wanted man in the West.

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/americanexperience/films/billy/

© 1992 WGBH Educational Foundation

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

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