This short book (only 61 pages) was first published in 1920.  It caught my eye because I live outside Silver City, New Mexico, where “the Kid” lived for a time and where his mother is buried.  The author Chas A. Siringo, was “personally acquainted with him, and assisted in his capture”.  His book is based on what he was told by Billy the Kid himself, and by others who knew the Kid.

Siringo’s style is Spartan.  There are many one-sentence paragraphs.  He presents facts of the Kid’s life with little explanation or description.  I learned what the Kid did, but was left with no real understanding of what drove him through his violent life.

The difference between 1920 and today is stark in many ways.  Siringo uses several racial slurs without any indication they are offensive, but carefully obscures the swear-words “h–l” and “s – of – b”.  The intolerance of the time is illustrated when Siringo writes the Kid ” had killed twenty-one men, not including Indians, which he said didn’t count as human beings.”

It seems surprising how easily the Kid and his friends communicated over the vast, empty spaces of the southwest.  For example, the Kid might “receive word… brought by a Mexican boy” that a friend was in jail in a distant town.  Outlaws were frequently moving and hiding.  Siringo doesn’t offer any explanation of how they found each other.

A significant part of the Kid’s story revolves around the Lincoln County War, where “fighting cowboys” called “warriors” fought for control of the cattle trade in New Mexico.  These warriors were mercenaries who frequently changed sides, and friends could turn to enemies and back to friends again.  They easily combined enforcing the law with breaking the law.  One sheriff robbed a bank, killing two employees, while wearing his badge.

What especially strikes me is how casually violence is discussed.  Siringo reports, “from the lips of ‘Billy the Kid'”, that the Kid killed a man at the age of twelve.  The man had cheated at cards .  The continuing string of rustling, theft, revenge, and murder seems too extensive to fit into the mere nine years before the Kid was killed on July 14th, 1881.  Other books have commented on the casual violence of the era and on how civilized behavior moved westward over time, so violence was not unique to New Mexico.

Even the Kid’s death is told in a matter-of-fact tone, and his death does not end the book.  Siringo goes on to discuss how his grave site was lost and his guns auctioned and passed around through card games.  While Siringo briefly owned one of the Kid’s guns, he says there are many fakes.  “It would be a safe gamble to bet that there are a wagon load of them scattered over the United States.”

Siringo says the Kid had “many noble traits.”  There is a story of the Kid helping a stranger get medical treatment, and even one where the Kid refrained from attacking an enemy “knowing that the shooting would disturb … the family [he was staying with].”  He had friends and defenders.  But the overall impression is one of crime and violence.  It seems odd that his name and picture are used today to draw tourists to my town.