“…I once described him as a captain of all he surveyed, had he been allowed to grow up in a normal way. He was a born leader of men, and he had an incredible charm with the ladies. They liked him for his dancing and his singing.”
— Ron Hansen on Billy the Kid
Doggone it — this one slipped past me. Ron Hansen, author of Desperadoes (Dalton Gang) and The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, has written a new novel about another iconic American outlaw: The Kid. You know the one. Yeah, him.
Thus spake Library Journal:
“Born Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was a diminutive, charming, blond-haired young man who, growing up in New York, Kansas, and later New Mexico, demonstrated a precocious dexterity at firing six-shooters with either hand — a skill that both got him into and out of trouble and that turned him into an American legend of the old West. He was smart, well-spoken, attractive to both white and Mexican women, a good dancer, and a man with a nose for money, horses, and trouble. His spree of crimes and murders has been immortalized in dime westerns, novels, and movies. But the whole story of his short, epically violent life has never been told as it has been here.”
I just put a hold on it at the local library. Not that I needed another book to read, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.
Thanks to the generosity of a friend, I recently acquired several rare and expensive volumes of history of the Lincoln County War. I’ve always been fascinated by this wild and sordid tale of commercial greed, political machination, corrupt law enforcement, banditry — all forever tied up in the tale of a juvenile delinquent who wasn’t really such a bad kid, but whose circumstances led him to become a killer and a legend.
Here’s the excellent American Experience doco on Billy the Kid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isNpIHtbgzk
And a Nobel laureate (lariat?) take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOCrXCvuGg
Saddle Tramp says
Jim…
Honest to God.
I was watching The Real Billy The Kid documentary and just before the moment he gets shot, a NY Times news flash alert came on the screen saying that Leonard Cohen is no longer with us. A shot in the heart is how it felt. Wins and losses of late have been very profound!! Leonard has now danced to the end of love…
JimC says
Yeah, intense times right now — and 2016 continues to be hard on the music world.
john roberts says
In the great Western saga about cattle barons, fur companies, railroads, Army-Indian battles, the Lincoln County war was – a war between shopkeepers. The Dolans and the McSweens were in competition for local trade and lucrative government contracts to supply beef to the local Indian reservations. That was it. It seems so paltry now. It’s like a rivalry between Dollar Store and 7-11 led to epic battles between gunfighters. But that was how it was.
JimC says
Yep. That’s part of the fascination of it for me — it was such small potatoes, and it became an epic.
Matthew says
That’s not the weirdest economic war in world history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_wars_in_South_Africa
https://www.enca.com/south-africa/taxi-war-cloud-looms-large-over-mall-of-africa
http://www.enca.com/south-africa/arrested-hitman%E2%80%99-sign-coming-taxi-war
Of course, I wouldn’t be surprise if these were fought over more comparative wealth than the Lincoln County War
JimC says
This is why I love doing this…
Matthew says
There was also the Glasgow Ice Cream War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars
But in this case it was just a drug war in which the pushers used Ice Cream Trucks to sell their wares. Horrible as that is, it isn’t too unusual.
Saddle Tramp says
And chicks dug him too…
A profound loss in times such as these!
He warned us.
Long live Leonard Cohen ( and Billy The Kid ) too!! Both immortal heroes to me…
JimC says
Top of the Tower of Song.
Wayne says
Ron Hansen is the type of author I constantly search for. He produces excellent, historically accurate literature and he chooses western topics. In addition to Desperadoes, one of my all time favorite books, he wrote The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The latter book became an outstanding film starring Brad Pitt. There were once rumors of a movie version of Desperadoes, but I think the project fizzled.
I’ve been wondering when or if Hansen would write another western. Thanks for the good news!
JimC says
Happy to bear glad tidings.
deuce says
I still remember watching the Peckinpah movie on a late night TV showing when I was a teenager. A kick to the head. A couple years later, G n’ R started playing “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” in their live shows. Thus, my first band was playing that song when hardly anyone knew what the hell it was (yes, I know Clapton did an earlier version).
I’ll have to check out DESPERADOES. The Homestead is only 20mi from Coffeyville. No, none of my kin were involved in the shootout.
JimC says
You’ll dig Hansen.
Saddle Tramp says
Jim,
For those so inclined if in the neighborhood.
I am in ( no doubt ) your favorite spot in the AUTRY MUSEUM OF THE WEST, that being the Cowboy and Firearms Galleries down in the basement.
As you know Billy is here…
The Billy The Kid exhibit includes:
– The letter of transmittal for arrest warrant for Billy The Kid.
– The inscribed presentation pocket watch for Pat Garret from the grateful citizens of Lincoln County.
– Pat Garret’s inscribed X. L. Double action revolver.
– Pat Garret’s inscribed Double Action Pocket Revolver.
– Pat Garret’s inscribed cabinet card.
I know that W.S. Hart owned Billy The Kid’s revolver. The last time I visited his place in Newhall I was told that all of his gun collection was moved out after guns were stolen during a break in. Never heard anymore on it. Hart was the real deal.
I came by The Autry for the F•64
Photography exhibit:
Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Edward & Brett Weston.
While here throw in some Maynard Dixon, Fritz Scholder, Remington, Russell and all the rest and you have yourself a worthwhile visit.
The American Indian Marketplace is going on as well this weekend.
Gotta do something to keep one’s mind suitably distracted these days. Chaos before creation they say.
” Opposition is friendship […] ”
— William Blake
Heaven and Hell
JimC says
Love the Autry.
john roberts says
Has anyone seen a movie called “Dirty Little Billy”? (1972). It was a down-and-dirty vision of the era made during the “anti-western” fad. Starred Michael J Pollard (C.W. Moss in “Bonnie & Clyde.” A really different take on the subject, with the Old West depicted as mainly a bunch of lowlife drunks trying to escape the steamroller of civilization. And failing, inevitably.
JimC says
That I have not heard of.
Saddle Tramp says
Oh and Jim… I failed to mention on the list about Billy’s Whitney-Kennedy Rifle being the center-of-the-plate entree in the exhibit? I believe it may have been Joseph Campbell who said that we need our myths.
Everybody has them. Billy The Kid is high on the list.
JimC says
Yes, we need our myths. We do not function without them.
Saddle Tramp says
— and 2016 continues to be hard on the music world.
Leon Russell ( today )
mdmnm says
Just a couple of years ago Chaves County, which was part of Lincoln County during the War, put up a statue of a mounted Pat Garrett outside of the courthouse in Roswell. I thought it might be a bit of a message to those headed in to stand trial- the Kid doesn’t get a memorial (a statue of John Chisum is across Main Street.
If you are ever in that part of the world, the town of Lincoln is worth visiting, as many buildings from that era are still standing and you can go into quite a few- the old courthouse is a museum.
JimC says
I’ve heard it’s one of the better “Old West” experiences if you’re looking to get beyond the kitschy touristy stuff.