Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty) was an orphaned boy who turned to a life of petty crime as a teenager. He fled into the New Mexico territories were he took part in various crimes, joining a gang of cattle rustlers and committing murders. He was eventually captured and sentenced to hang, but escaped, killing several more people in his escape. He was then hunted down and shot dead by Sherriff Pat Garret July 1881. Billy was 21 years old.
folk ballad by Marty Robbins.
