Miguel Antonio Otero served as the first Hispanic governor of the U.S. Territory of New Mexico, from 1897 to 1906. He was appointed to the office by President William McKinley. Long after his retirement from politics, Governor Otero wrote and published his memoirs in three volumes, a major contribution to New Mexico history. But he also published a biography in 1936 titled “The Real Billy the Kid.” His aim in that book, he proclaimed, was to write the Kid’s story “without embellishment, based entirely on actual fact.” Otero had known the outlaw briefly and also had known the man who killed Billy in 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett. The author recalled Garrett saying he regretted having to slay Billy. Or, as he bluntly put it, “it was simply the case of who got in the first shot. I happened to be the lucky one.” By all accounts, Billy the Kid was much adored by New Mexico’s Hispanic population. Otero asserts that the Kid was considerate of the old, the young and the poor. And he was loyal to his friends. Further, Martin Cháves of Santa Fe stated: “Billy was a perfect gentleman with a noble heart. He never killed a native citizen of New Mexico in all his career, and he had plenty of courage.” Otero was especially admiring of Billy because as a boy in Silver City, “he had loved his mother devotedly.” Such praise must be viewed in the context of the times. Other people, of course, saw Billy as an arch-villain. MIGUEL ANTONIO OTERO rightly distinguished himself as a political leader in New Mexico where he raised a family and lived out his life as a champion of the people, but he is also highly recognized for his career as an author. He published his legendary “My Life on the Frontier, 1864-1882” in 1935, followed by “The Real Billy the Kid: With New Light on the Lincoln County War” in 1936, “My Life on the Frontier, 1882-1897” in 1939, and “My Nine Years as Governor of New Mexico Territory, 1897-1906” in 1940.

Many years after the death of Billy the Kid, Deputy John William Poe, who was just outside the door when Sheriff Pat Garrett killed Billy, wrote out the whole story, which was published in a small edition. While certain statements made in the book by Poe are controversial, his account is a valuable document for anyone interested in Billy the Kid.

Everyone knows the saga of Billy the Kid. That story's been told, in an avalanche of books, songs, movies, TV programs.And yet - no one has given Billy's side. UntilMy Own Story: The Autobiography of Billy the Kid.Oh, there have been many claims that it wasn't Billy that Pat Garrett shot in Pete Maxwell's darkened bedroom on July 14, 1881. But in fact it was. Billy just didn't die then. With the help of loyal friends he played dead, was “buried” long enough for Garrett to leave, nursed back to health, made his way to Wichita, and under the name of Henry Carter became a leading rancher until cancer laid him low.And now: Billy tells his own story. What were his feelings and fears, his pleasures and regrets? What really happened, not the media and the movies' and Garrett's exaggerations. Just as Billy, as he lay dying in a care center, told it to a young Ralph Estes in 1951.

Description: How many movies would you go to see about an outlaw named Henry the kid? probably not 44, which is how many Hollywood has made so far about Henry McCarty, the boy Outlaw who use the Alias Billy Bonnie of course we know him today is Billy the Kid. If you saw the Young Gun movies or any of the numerous other portrayals of the West's most famous boy outlaw, you no doubt have many questions about the real Billy the Kid.Did he actually kill 21 Men, one for each year of his life?Did he carve notches on his gun?Were Billy and Pat Garrett good friends?Did Billy cheat death and live out his life as Brushy Bill?Here's a factual look at Billy the Kid and his world, with many never-before-published photos. This well-crafted book is profusely Illustrated with over 460 images, including over 100 paintings and illustrations by the author, plus rare maps and images that provide a vivid look into the numerous controversial episodes in the Kids short life. It is a revolutionary, new-style history book that is informative and entertaining for young and old alike.

“So richly detailed, you can almost smell the gunsmoke and the sweat of the saddles. ” —Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers No outlaw typifies America’s mythic Wild West more than Billy the Kid. To Hell on a Fast Horse by Mark Lee Gardner is the riveting true tale of Sheriff Pat Garrett’s thrilling, break-neck chase in pursuit of the notorious bandit. David Dary calls To Hell on a Fast Horse, “A masterpiece,” and Robert M. Utley calls it, “Superb narrative history.” This is spellbinding historical adventure at its very best, recalling James Swanson’s New York Times bestseller Manhunt—about the search for Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth—as it fills in with fascinating detail the story director Sam Peckinpah brought to the screen in his classic film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.