On April 28, 1881, just days from being hanged for murder, 21-year-old Henry McCarty, alias Billy the Kid, outfoxed his jailors and electrified the nation with the last in a long line of dar... Read allOn April 28, 1881, just days from being hanged for murder, 21-year-old Henry McCarty, alias Billy the Kid, outfoxed his jailors and electrified the nation with the last in a long line of daring escapes.On April 28, 1881, just days from being hanged for murder, 21-year-old Henry McCarty, alias Billy the Kid, outfoxed his jailors and electrified the nation with the last in a long line of daring escapes.
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Scott Martin Thomas
- Billy the Kid
- (as Scott Thomas)
- Director
- John Maggio(uncredited)
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Self - Narrator: What does it mean to kill a man?
Featured review
Oh, You Kid.
Some of this material is conjectural but it presents a reasonably convincing portrait of a teen-aged orphan who actually fought against a corrupt political ring. It doesn't sound like Jesse James, a myth, but like a man who was angry.
The reason he was angry is that while in Lincoln County, New Mexico, he tried to steal some horses from a newly arrived, wealthy young Englishman named John Henry Tunstall. Billy was caught. But instead of charging him with robbery, Tunstall hired him as a hand, which impressed Billy. Tunstall was trying to set himself up as a rancher, banker, and merchant in Lincoln County.
The problem was that the invisible hand of the market had already written and moved on, and what had happened was what worried Adam Smith. Instead of a free market, Lincoln County operated under a monopoly run by two Irish immigrants, Murphy and Dolan. They had a hand in many of the economic transactions that took place within 30,000 square miles of The House (with capitals) in Lincoln.
They didn't care for competition from John Henry Tunstall so one day they ambushed the innocent Englishman, riddled him and his horse with bullets, and arranged the two dead bodies in a way that implied a joke. It didn't help that Tunstall was English.
Tunstall must not have been a particularly bad guy because Billy the Kid found himself among "The Regulators" who sought revenge for the murder of Tunstall. A lot of deaths followed until finally the furor associated with The Lincoln County War prompted President Hayes to send a new governor, Lew Wallace (author of "Ben Hur"), to New Mexico to clean things up.
Wallace gave The Regulators immunity in return for testimony that resulted in charges against several dozen of the corrupt gang from The House. Having done so, Wallace departed for the comforts of Santa Fe, leaving the situation in the hands of the corrupt local authorities. The charges against the Murphy-Dolan gang were dismissed but the amnesty for Billy was not honored.
The Regulators took off for the Texas panhandle except for Billy who stayed around and made a living rustling and otherwise behaving the way we've come to expect an outlaw to behave. He finally settled down among the Mexican population of Fort Sum The press now painted him as a ruthless, butchering gang leader. It was simple because the press belonged to the corrupt government.
Not that Billy the Kid was an angel. His first offense, at the age of fifteen, was standing as lookout while a compañero robbed a Chinese laundry, in a year when my grandmother was a three-year-old child in Durham, England. Here's the account of the crime from a local newspaper. Kind of amusing.
"Henry McCarty, who was arrested on Thursday and committed to jail to await the action of the Grand Jury upon the charge of stealing clothes from Charley Sun and Sam Chung, celestials, sans cues, sans joss sticks, escaped from prison yesterday through the chimney. It's believed that Henry was simply the tool of "Sombrero Jack," who done the stealing while Henry done the hiding. Jack has skinned out." It needs to be emphasized, maybe, that the state was truly crooked at the top. The territory's Attorney General owned three million acres, the largest land holding in the history of the United States. He had assassinated the Chief Justice and gotten away with it. The House was after him and it was now that he acquired the name "Billy the Kid", so dubbed by a newspaper editor. William Bonney's companions were the small Mexican ranchers. Now he found himself fortuitously discomfiting organized crime in a lawless land where the very rich ruled the very poor. He was the only participant in The Lincoln County War who was ever charged and convicted.
He was captured by Pat Garrett, an ambitious ex bartender, and brought to jail, but escaped, killing two men in the process. At this point he became an international legend, making the front page of the New York Times. Garrett and a posse tracked Billy down and shot him to death.
It's an interesting story. The "experts" don't all sound like experts, although they appear to be trying. There is some reenactment. There HAS to be since you must fill up the screen with images and there is only one photo of Billy the Kid extant. The presentation seems pretty balanced to me. Informative too. Everyone, of course, knows Billy the Kid, but who has heard of Murphy, Dolan, and "The House"?
The reason he was angry is that while in Lincoln County, New Mexico, he tried to steal some horses from a newly arrived, wealthy young Englishman named John Henry Tunstall. Billy was caught. But instead of charging him with robbery, Tunstall hired him as a hand, which impressed Billy. Tunstall was trying to set himself up as a rancher, banker, and merchant in Lincoln County.
The problem was that the invisible hand of the market had already written and moved on, and what had happened was what worried Adam Smith. Instead of a free market, Lincoln County operated under a monopoly run by two Irish immigrants, Murphy and Dolan. They had a hand in many of the economic transactions that took place within 30,000 square miles of The House (with capitals) in Lincoln.
They didn't care for competition from John Henry Tunstall so one day they ambushed the innocent Englishman, riddled him and his horse with bullets, and arranged the two dead bodies in a way that implied a joke. It didn't help that Tunstall was English.
Tunstall must not have been a particularly bad guy because Billy the Kid found himself among "The Regulators" who sought revenge for the murder of Tunstall. A lot of deaths followed until finally the furor associated with The Lincoln County War prompted President Hayes to send a new governor, Lew Wallace (author of "Ben Hur"), to New Mexico to clean things up.
Wallace gave The Regulators immunity in return for testimony that resulted in charges against several dozen of the corrupt gang from The House. Having done so, Wallace departed for the comforts of Santa Fe, leaving the situation in the hands of the corrupt local authorities. The charges against the Murphy-Dolan gang were dismissed but the amnesty for Billy was not honored.
The Regulators took off for the Texas panhandle except for Billy who stayed around and made a living rustling and otherwise behaving the way we've come to expect an outlaw to behave. He finally settled down among the Mexican population of Fort Sum The press now painted him as a ruthless, butchering gang leader. It was simple because the press belonged to the corrupt government.
Not that Billy the Kid was an angel. His first offense, at the age of fifteen, was standing as lookout while a compañero robbed a Chinese laundry, in a year when my grandmother was a three-year-old child in Durham, England. Here's the account of the crime from a local newspaper. Kind of amusing.
"Henry McCarty, who was arrested on Thursday and committed to jail to await the action of the Grand Jury upon the charge of stealing clothes from Charley Sun and Sam Chung, celestials, sans cues, sans joss sticks, escaped from prison yesterday through the chimney. It's believed that Henry was simply the tool of "Sombrero Jack," who done the stealing while Henry done the hiding. Jack has skinned out." It needs to be emphasized, maybe, that the state was truly crooked at the top. The territory's Attorney General owned three million acres, the largest land holding in the history of the United States. He had assassinated the Chief Justice and gotten away with it. The House was after him and it was now that he acquired the name "Billy the Kid", so dubbed by a newspaper editor. William Bonney's companions were the small Mexican ranchers. Now he found himself fortuitously discomfiting organized crime in a lawless land where the very rich ruled the very poor. He was the only participant in The Lincoln County War who was ever charged and convicted.
He was captured by Pat Garrett, an ambitious ex bartender, and brought to jail, but escaped, killing two men in the process. At this point he became an international legend, making the front page of the New York Times. Garrett and a posse tracked Billy down and shot him to death.
It's an interesting story. The "experts" don't all sound like experts, although they appear to be trying. There is some reenactment. There HAS to be since you must fill up the screen with images and there is only one photo of Billy the Kid extant. The presentation seems pretty balanced to me. Informative too. Everyone, of course, knows Billy the Kid, but who has heard of Murphy, Dolan, and "The House"?
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- Oct 2, 2015
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