Billy The Kid: Texas Outlaw

Some people may not like Texas outlaws and I didn’t think I did either. The most interesting Texas outlaw in my opinion is Billy the Kid. The reason I think he is so interesting is that he was such a young outlaw and committed many of his crimes at a young age.

Billy the Kid was a young outlaw that is known as one of the most iconic outlaws of the West. He is best known for robbing banks as well as other crimes involving money. Billy the Kid real name was William Henry McCarty and he was born on November 23, 1859. On September 16, 1874, Billy the Kid’s mother died. Billy the Kid’s sister’s husband then separated Billy and his brother and placed them in foster homes. From there on Billy had to earn his keep ,so he was put to work washing dishes

and waiting tables at a restaurant.

After a year of no parental guidance and looking out for himself, Billy the Kid quickly fell into the wrong crowd. One of his troublemaking friends stole some laundry from a laundry cleaner and told Billy to hide the laundry. Billy the Kid was then caught and arrested ,but the county sheriff decided to just leave him in jail for a couple of days just to scare him. Billy the Kid ended up escaping and running away. He ended up fleeing to where his stepfather was living ,but his stepfather didn’t want him and told him to leave. Billy the Kid then began searching for a job as a ranch hand. For the next two years he worked as a ranch hand and a gambler. One day as he was at a saloon in Camp Grant, Arizona he met up with a bully named Frank Cahill. They ended up getting into an argument and it ended up turning into a fight. After Frank tackled him onto the ground and began to repeatedly slap him in the face, Billy the Kid pulled out his revolver and shot him in the gut. From there on Billy the Kid wasn’t able to find work and turned

into an outlaw. He eventually joined a gang of rustlers named “The Boys”. He didn’t have any place to stay or go so he always joined the gang. After the incident with Frank Cahill and the joining of the gang Billy the Kid was always an outlaw from that point on.
Jesse James was a confederate soldier that was in Bloody Bill Anderson’s leadership for a long time. Jesse and his older brother Frank lost their father at a young age. Jesse’s mother Zerelda remarried but her second husband treated the boys poorly. The poorly and unstable family life the two boys had led them into a life of crime. Jesse ended up participating in a cold-blooded murder that resulted in the killing of 25 unarmed Union soldiers in August 1863. Jesse and his brother Frank staged their first robbery on Valentine’s Day in 1866. They ended up making 57,000 dollars off of the robbery. For the next decade Jesse James’s gang would rob more banks, stores, and steal more stagecoaches. Jesse James ended up getting shot in the back of the head by one of his fellow gang members that was just wanting to collect the reward money for Jesse James’s death.
Wyatt Earp was born on March 19, 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois. Wyatt Earp was a famous sheriff that lived in the Kansas area before moving to Tombstone, Arizona where he and his brothers all lowered the crime that outlaws created there. Wyatt Earp began his work in law enforcement in Kansas where he was the Assistant City Marshall. In 1869 he fell in love with Urilla Sutherland. His wife Urilla was about to give birth to their first child when typhoid fever took her life and the life of the expected child. Devastated at his wife’s death he sold his horse and left to go live in Kansas.
Bonnie and Clyde are probably one of my favorite outlaws couples.

They are known for killing policemen, busting out of jail, and escaping the police. Bonnie and Clyde met in Dallas, Texas on January, 1930. At the time that they met Clyde was twenty-one and the young Bonnie was only nineteen. This was Bonnie’s second married after she married a imprisoned murderer. Not long after Bonnie and Clyde met Clyde got sent to prison for a burglary. Bonnie smuggled a gun to Clyde and Clyde escaped using the gun Bonnie brought him. In 1932, Bonnie and Clyde soon began traveling with young gunman by the name of Raymond Hamilton. After several months of them traveling together Raymond Hamilton soon left them. On November 22, 1933, a trap was set to capture the two young criminals. The trap was set by the Dallas, Texas sheriffs department and their deputies in an attempt to capture the couple near Grand Prairie, Texas. The couple ended up escaping the officers gunfire and help an attorney at gunpoint and took his car. They fled to Miami, Oklahoma where the held another citizen at gunpoint and robbed him. On January 16, 1934 Bonnie and Clyde helped five prisoners escape by shooting two guards with automatic pistols. One of the prisoners that escaped was Raymond Hamilton that was supposed to be serving a lifetime in prison. The prisoners got the two automatic pistols from a ditch that Bonnie concealed them in. As the prisoners escaped Clyde held off the guards with heavy machine gun fire.

Again Bonnie and Clyde encountered two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas. Before the two young officers could even pull out their guns they were shot to death. A plan was composed by a posse of Texas and Louisiana, including Texas ranger Frank Hammer. The plan was to conceal themselves in the bushes along the highway near Sailes, Louisiana. In the early part of the day Bonnie and Clyde appeared in an automobile and when they tried to escape they were killed instantly by rapid gunfire from the policemen. This was the end too two of the most notorious outlaws that ever lived.
Texas outlaws are really interesting and fun to research on because there is just so much information on them. I hope that this information that I have provided you with will better help you understand some of the most famous outlaws that lived.