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Submitted: 3/9/09 • Approved: 3/10/09 • Last Updated: 3/23/18 • R66300-G0-S3
Born October 21, 1860
Died November 14, 1882 in Tombstone, AZ
It is unknown whether he was a native Arizonan or if he moved here from New Mexico as so many other of his kind had done.
After the death of William Bonney he began to demand that he be called "Billy the Kid."
Some reports claimed that he killed three men for laughing at his demand, but newspaper reports only account for him shooting one man who is not identified.
He was arrested for shooting a man named James Hickey, but he was acquitted when it was proven that Hickey was armed and it was a case of self-defense.
Billy was possibly a cattle rustler with the Clantons and was with Ike Clanton when the "Cowboys" were confronted by the Earps and Doc Holliday at the OK Corral. When the fighting started, Billy ran toward C. S. Fly's photography studio and escaped without injury. He later stated that he was unarmed and the Earps had taken him to be so.
Western lore has Billy firing toward Virgil Earp, but it never happened.
Billy had become a friend of Johnny Ringo and when Ringo was found murdered Billy claimed he had seen "Buckskin" Frank Leslie do the shooting. In a gunfight with Leslie, Billy was shot and allegedly said to Leslie, "Don't shoot me any more, I'm killed." He was carried to the doctor and survived for six hours. Again, it was said that just before he died his last words were "Frank Leslie killed Johnny Ringo." Neither of the statements was ever proven as to a certainty.
Contributed on 3/9/09 by goldwing.traveler
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Record #: 66300