Billy the Kid rides again in new book

Like many people, I know a little about Billy the Kid – he spent some of his growing-up years in Silver City, he was on trial for murder and jailed in a building that’s still standing in Mesilla, he wasn’t really left handed and his grave is in Fort Sumner, where he was killed by then Lincoln County (and later Doña Ana County) Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881.

I learned so much more about this gunslinger, desperado and icon of the Old West from a new book whose title tells its story: “Billy the Kid: The Life Behind the Legend.”

Author George R. Matthews fills in a lot of background on the Kid: who his mother, father and step-father were and where they came from, his early life and how he came to New Mexico Territory, the bullying he suffered because he was small and good natured, his early scrapes with the law, the gangs he ran with and how he evolved from a card sharp and horse thief in Arizona and New Mexico into the world’s most famous outlaw.

The book is filled with the colorful tales and deeper truths of the Lincoln County War, the Regulators, the shootout in the Lincoln County Courthouse and other daring escapes, the murder trial and the end of the short life (but not the long shadow) of Billy the Kid, who continues to ride hell for leather through the pages of American history and lore nearly 150 years after his death.

Matthews did extensive research for his book, citing hundreds of newspaper articles, depositions, letters, websites, books and other sources he consulted to flesh out the people and events that shaped Billy the Kid, the myth, as well as those who helped forge Henry McCarty/Billy Bonney/William Antrim, the real person, whose brief life was filled with tragedy, neglect and isolation. That celebrated list includes lawyer and judge Albert J. Fountain, cattleman John Chisum, Sheriff Pat Garrett and Territorial Governor and acclaimed author Lew Wallace, among many others.

I was happy to see Matthews’ acknowledgment of Dennis Daily, department head of archives and special collections, and his staff at NMSU Library Archives and Special Collections, and local author and historian David G. Thomas, for their contributions to his book. NMSU Archives has copies of hundreds of historical documents relating to Billy the Kid, and Thomas has done groundbreaking research on the Kid and is the author of “The Trial of Billy the Kid” and other books.

With his book published, Matthews said he hopes to find a filmmaker to produce an updated and accurate documentary about Billy the Kid.

Matthews is also the author of several other books, including “Zebulon Pike: Thomas Jefferson's Agent for Empire,” “When the Cubs Won It All: The 1908 Championship Season,” “America's First Olympics” and “St. Louis Olympics, 1904.”