William Henry Bonney (c. 1860 - 1881) better known as Billy the Kid was an infamous 19th century American frontier outlaw and murderer. He is reputed to have killed 21 men but the figure is probably closer to nine.
Little is known about Bonney's early childhood. He was probably born in New York City. The exact names of his parents, and thus Bonney's own surname, is not known for certain. Variations for his parent's names include: Catherine McCarty or Katherine McCarty for his mother and William Bonney or Patrick Henry McCarty for his father (who probably died around the end of the American Civil War). In 1873 his mother married William Antrim and the family moved to Silver City, New Mexico. His stepfather was a bartender and carpenter but soon became more interested in prospecting for fortune than in his wife and stepsons.
Faced with an indigent husband, Bonney's mother took in boarders in order to provide for her sons. She was by now afflicted with tuberculosis even though she was seen by her boarders and neighbors as "a jolly Irish lady, full of life and mischief." The following year in 1874 his mother died of her condition and at 14 Bonney was forced to find work in a hotel. The manager was impressed by the young boy boasting that Billy was the only kid who ever worked for him that didn't steel anything. His school teachers thought that the young orphan was "no more of a problem than any other boy, always quite willing to help with chores around the schoolhouse."
At the age of 15 Bonney was arrested for hiding a bundle of stolen clothes for a man playing a prank on a Chinese laundryman. Two days after Bonney was thrown in jail the scrawny teen escaped by worming his way up the jailhouse chimney. From that point onward Bonney would be a fugitive.
He eventually found work as an itinerant ranch hand and sheepherder in southeastern Arizona. In 1877 he became a civilian teamster at Camp Grant Army Post with the duty of hauling logs from a timber camp to a sawmill. The civilian blacksmith at the camp, Frank "Windy" Cahill, took pleasure in bullying young Bonney. That August Cahill attacked Bonney after a verbal exchange and threw him to the ground. Bonney retaliated by drawing his gun and shooting Cahill, who died the next day. Once again Bonney was in custody, this time in the Camp's guardhouse awaiting the arrival of the local Marshall. Before the Marshall could arrive Bonney escaped.
Again on the run, Bonney next turns-up in the house of a Heiskell Jones in Pecos valley, New Mexico. Apaches had stolen Bonney's horse which forced him to walk many miles to the nearest settlement, which was Mrs. Jones' house. She nursed the Bonney, who was near death, back to health. The Jones' family developed a strong attachment to the young man and gave him one of their horses.
He later became embroiled in the famous Lincoln County War in which his newest friend and employer, John Tunstall, was killed. Bonney would enact revenge on this killing by killing the men responsible.
This is obviously not done yet -- I will work more on this tomorrow