On the night of April 28, 1881, just two weeks before he was set to be hanged, the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid was sitting in a jail cell on the top floor of the Mesila, New Mexico courthouse, awaiting his fate.
Then he asked the deputy who was watching over him to let him use the outhouse around the back of the building. On the way back to his cell, Billy slipped out of his handcuffs, beat the deputy, grabbed his gun, and shot him in the back.
His legs still shackled, Billy then snatched the shotgun belonging to the other deputy who’d gone to the restaurant across the street earlier in the evening.
Billy ran to the window, saw the other deputy coming back to the courthouse in response to the gunshot and yelled to him, “Look up, old boy, and see what you get.” When he looked up, Billy shot him dead.
Then, he used an axe to break his shackles, stole a horse, and fled. Legend has it he was singing as he rode out of town.
Billy the Kid Escaped from Jail
April 28, 1881.
When you think of the old Wild West, what legendary outlaw comes to mind? Many people would think of Billy the Kid. On April 28, 1881, Billy the Kid escaped from the jailhouse in Lincoln, New Mexico.
He avoided capture until July 14, when he was ambushed and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett at a ranch house. Billy the Kid is buried in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, though some believe the myth that he lived on. Who was Billy the Kid?
Billy the Kid is not someone you would want to be like. Although he has become a symbol of the legendary Wild West, Billy the Kid was born on New York City’s East Side, in 1859 or 1860.
As a young teenager, he moved with his family to New Mexico, by way of Kansas and Colorado. While still a boy, Billy the Kid began roaming the Southwest and northern Mexico, frequently with gangs. The landscape in this photograph was familiar to the outlaw. And an outlaw he was.
Billy the Kid was reported to be responsible for the murder of 21 men by the time he was 21 years old (the actual was between four and ten).
He was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang before he made his dramatic escape from the Lincoln County jail. Scholars still don’t know Billy the Kid’s true identity; though some believe his given name may have been either William Bonney or Henry McCarty.
Movies and books have long romanticized the old West and characters like Billy the Kid. But what was the “Wild West” really like? Ask your friends and family what they know.
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