New Mexico: Billy the Kid – The Outlaw Legend Born in Lincoln County
50 States, 50 Stories: The Most Fascinating Tales from Every... by Savant
Episode notes
In the dead of night on July 14, 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett ended the life of twenty-one-year-old Henry McCarty—better known as Billy the Kid—inside a darkened bedroom at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. What began as the story of an orphaned Irish immigrant drifting through frontier towns quickly became one of the most enduring legends of the American West. This episode traces the real young man behind the myth, from petty theft and his first killing to the bloody Lincoln County War that sealed his outlaw fame.