Of all firsthand accounts of lawlessness in the old Southwest, none is more fascinating than Pat F. Garrett's "The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid." First published in 1882, a year after Sheriff Garrett killed the Kid, "the bravest and most feared' gunman of the Lincoln County, New Mexico, cattle w[...]
More than twelve decades after Billy the Kid's death in 1881, books, movies, and essays about this western outlaw are still popular. And they all go back to one source: "The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid," published in 1882 by the man who killed Billy, Sheriff Pat Garrett.Frederick Nolan, an auth[...]