The early years of Billy the Kid's life are somewhat a mystery. He was born Henry McCarty supposedly on November
23rd, 1859 in either New York, Indiana, or Kansas. Sometime around 1873 he was living in Wichita, KS with his mother, Catherine
McCarty. She owned a laundry business in Wichita.
Catherine married a man named William Antrim in Alburquerque, NM and they moved to Silver City, NM. It was in
1875 when Catherine passed away from Tuberculosis and was buried in the local cemetery. Soon thereafter, William Antrim moved
away and left Henry all alone in Silver City.
Henry became friends with the son of the Sheriff and as most people know, the Sheriif's kid was the biggest trouble
maker. Henry was arrested while stealing clothes from a Chinese Laundryman. The Sheriff put him in jail to scare him, but
when the Sheriff returned the next day he found that Henry shuffled up the chimney and escaped.
He left Silver City and went into Arizona. He wounded up in Fort Grant. There he met a local bully named "Windy"
Frank Cahill. One day, Cahill started calling Henry (or Kid Antrim as he was now being called) names and started rustling
him to the ground. Henry was able to grab a gun in his belt and fired a shot into Cahill's chest. Cahill died a few days later.
Thinking he was in more trouble than he really was, Henry dashed out and jumped on a horse. Lucky to him he jumped on one
of the fastest race horses in Arizona. He left Arizona and ended up in the Fort Sumner, Lincoln area of New Mexico.
