Billy the Kid

About 50 different films about the infamous criminal Billy the Kid have been produced to date. Although the themes of these movies range from emotional to sexually predatory, historical inaccuracies tend to run through most of them. No other human or animal has benefited from exaggerated fantastic stories as much as "The Kid," with the possible exception of "Bigfoot."

The future outlaw, Billy the Kid, was born Henry McCarty to Irish immigrants in New York City in 1859. He eventually went by the alias William Bonney, hence the nickname. He finally found himself in the New Mexico Territory, where he engaged in a number of minor offenses before joining a gang of cattle rustlers. Later, he participated as a "regulator" (hired gun) in the Lincoln County War of 1878, firing lead in a conflict between two opposing economic factions with strong Irish connections.

Despite popular myth, McCarty never committed a rail or bank robbery. The most widespread misconception regarding McCarty, though, is that he was a frequent gunfighter. He is known to have killed four individuals (two of whom were killed in self-defense), but information on other purported killings has been at best hazy and involved large-scale gun battles.

The Lincoln County Courthouse in southern New Mexico, where the 21-year-old escaped from jail in a bloody shootout in 1881, is still a good place to go for those who want to follow in his footsteps (the bullet holes are in the wall). Three months later, sheriff Pat Garrett shot him to death.