American serial killer Billy Kid. Unprecedented story in the spirit of the Wild West

Billy the Kid (in the literal translation "baby Billy") - American criminal William Henry McCarthy. The history of this murderer occurred in the late XIX century. His posthumous fame William owes to Pat Garrett - the sheriff, who was engaged in his business until the very end and subsequently wrote a book about the most interesting persecution in his life.

Biography of Billy the Kid

William Henry McCarthy was born on November 23, 1859 in New York. Little is known about the childhood and youth of this man. In the story, Billy Kid came in with his own criminal career. In the 1870s, so-called "cattle-breeding wars" were constantly conducted in Lincoln. It's about bloody battles of local gangs for territory and criminal authority. McCarthy was in the clan of "Regulators". According to some sources, he committed the first murder of a man at the age of 18.

In 1881, Billy Kid appeared before the court and was sentenced to the death penalty. While waiting for the execution, Billy was able to escape, having committed several more murders. The offender was tracked down, and William McCarthy was killed while detained.

How was the murderer with a childish face caught?

After the trial, the man sentenced to death William McCarthy, also known as William Harrison Bonnie, Henry Antrim and Billy the Kid, was taken to the newly constructed district sheriff's office in Lincoln. Person in charge of the custody of this criminal was Sheriff Pat Garrett.

Once, during the short absence of the chief overseer, William made a daring escape, killing two management employees. The sheriff, struck by such impudence, promised to personally catch the criminal and avenge his deceased colleagues.

Billy Kid fled from custody on April 28, but to track him down and make an attempt to detainment was possible only on July 14. The criminal somehow got to the suburb of Fort Sumner and stopped in a Mexican family. As soon as Pat Garrett was convinced that he really found Billy, he decided to detain the criminal. After waiting for the darkness, the sheriff personally entered the master's bedroom. He woke him and asked where McCarthy was hiding. Billy himself entered strange sounds into the room. The perpetrator, realizing that Garrett and his assistants was going to arrest him, tried to leave. During this attempt to escape, the sheriff shot twice, one of the bullets went right into Billy's heart. At the time of William McCarthy's death, he was only 21 years old.

The criminal was buried in a military cemetery, near the Rio Pecos. A year after the events described, Pat Garrett published the book "The True Life of Billy the Kid." It is believed that it was thanks to this literary work that William became one of the symbols of the Wild West.

Memories of Billy and the photo of the criminal

After the death of William, many people who knew him personally, will tell that Bill was pretty sympathetic and charming. He always smiled, joked and laughed pleasantly. Billy Kid, whose biography horrifies any normal person, looked just like many of his peers. A small, blue-eyed young man often became the soul of the company and enjoyed success with women.

Until recently, it was believed that there was only one photograph, which depicts the American serial killer McCarthy. However, more recently, it was possible to prove the authenticity of the second picture, in which Billy is present. It was Randi Guicharo, a collector who accidentally bought a ferrotype, which shows a group of people playing croquet. By carrying out the most up-to-date scientific examinations, it was possible to prove that this is really a gang of "Regulators" on vacation.

Mentions in the mass art

Today, Billy the Kid is one of the symbols of the Wild West. His story formed the basis for about ten feature films. What is noteworthy, interest in Billy does not die out in our time, more than a hundred years after the crimes committed and the murder of the criminal.

There are also several songs dedicated to William McCarthy. The characters drawn from Billy Kid can be found in modern computer games. A young murderer from the Wild West entered the literary history. "Disinterested Killer Bill Harrigan" by JL Borges and "The Frontier Law" by O. Divova are books written on the basis of the real history of William Henry McCarthy.