Henry McCarty (Billy) was born in New York, but in the beginning of the 1870‘s he moved to Santa Fé, New Mexico.
In 1875 Billy was arrested after stealing clothes from a chinese laundry-store, but he managed to escape from the jail already the same day. Two years later he escapes from prison again after shooting a man who insulted him.
After spending some time as a cattle-thief he was hired in 1878 by a ranch-owner named John. H. Tunstall in Lincoln, New Mexico. Billy and Tunstall became very good friends, so when a competing rancher had Tunstall killed, Billy was enraged. This started the "Lincoln County War", a war between two ranches that would go on for several months and where Billy the Kid played one of the more important parts.
Shortly after the war started Billy was wanted for murder, and decided to keep low. In the White House it was decided that the Lincoln war had to be stopped. A pardon was offered to everyone who was involved in the war, if they surrendered their weapons and turned themselves in to the law. This made Billy give himself up, but the pardon didn‘t apply to him. As usual he had to escape from prison, and he went back to being a cattle-thief.
In 1881 Billy was captured and sentenced to hanging, but he managed to fool the guard and escape, once again. In july the same year Billy the Kid met his destiny, at the home of a good friend. Sheriff Pat Garett was hiding in rancher Pete Maxwell´s bedroom and when Billy entered the room he was shot to death.