Billy the Kid: El Bandido Simpático. By James B. Mills

Abstract

Irony is part of the established charm of Billy the Kid’s lure. It’s ironic that a scrawny teenager developed a reputation as one of the toughest outlaws in the New Mexico Territory. It’s ironic that a man who lived just twenty-one years has inspired more than a century of stories and legends. And, perhaps, it’s ironic that a partially literate gunslinger has inspired libraries of research and writing. Author James B. Mills in his book Billy the Kid: El Bandido Simpático points out that the Kid himself might find our continuous obsession with him hilarious. Running 688 pages, the book spares few details in the Kid’s short life. Included are tales of the Kid’s youth and migration west, his involvement in the Lincoln County War, and, of course, his final escape and death. Although he didn’t live long, the Kid’s life can be complicated to explain. Information on his early life is scant. Conversely, fact must be disentangled from fiction when it comes to his adulthood in New Mexico. Mills’s rendition of these events is lively and concise, mostly drawn from primary sources and previous books that will be familiar to experts on the teenage outlaw.