Billy the Kid is one of the most famous names of the American Old West. But who was he really? Was he a fearless gunslinger, a desperate young man caught up in frontier violence, or a mixture of fact and legend? In this Billy the Kid homeschool lesson, we explore the life of Henry McCarty, better known as Billy the Kid, and discover what historians can actually tell us about the boy behind the famous name.
Billy the Kid Homeschool Lesson
Who Was Billy the Kid?
Few people from the American Old West have become as famous as Billy the Kid.
His name has appeared in books, films, television programmes, songs and countless stories about the Wild West. He is often portrayed as a fast-drawing gunslinger, riding across the American frontier with a revolver at his side.
But the real Billy the Kid was not an old cowboy.
He was a young man who died at about 21 years of age.
His short life was filled with poverty, travelling, frontier violence, horse theft, cattle rustling, imprisonment, escapes and the bitter conflict that became known as the Lincoln County War.
His real name was Henry McCarty, although he used several names during his lifetime, including Henry Antrim, Kid Antrim and, later, William H. Bonney. Even his exact date and place of birth are uncertain, although historians generally place his birth in 1859.
That uncertainty is an important part of studying Billy the Kid.
When we study history, we sometimes discover that the evidence doesn’t give us a neat, complete story.
And Billy the Kid’s story is a particularly good example.
Growing Up in America
Henry McCarty spent his early childhood far from the dusty cattle trails and gunfights for which he would eventually become famous.
His family moved around the United States before eventually settling in Silver City, New Mexico Territory.
His mother, Catherine McCarty, married William Antrim in Santa Fe in 1873. The family subsequently moved to Silver City. William Antrim worked around the mining community, while Catherine ran a boarding house for a time.
Life was not easy.
Catherine became seriously ill with tuberculosis, a disease that was often called consumption during the nineteenth century.
She died in September 1874.
Henry was therefore still a teenager when he lost his mother.
This was a crucial turning point in his life.
Although it is tempting to imagine that losing his mother automatically caused him to become an outlaw, history is rarely that simple. Many young people suffered terrible losses without becoming criminals.
What we can say is that Henry’s life became increasingly unsettled after his mother’s death.
He moved between places, worked various jobs, and eventually became involved with people involved in theft and other crimes.
Silver City in the 1870s
To understand Billy the Kid, it helps to understand the world he lived in.
Silver City was a frontier mining community in the New Mexico Territory.
This was not the Wild West of Hollywood films, where every street supposedly contained cowboys having gunfights.
It was a real community containing families, miners, merchants, labourers, ranchers, law officers and people from many different backgrounds.
But life on the frontier could be difficult.
Communication was slow.
Law enforcement was limited.
Distances were enormous.
Travelling could be dangerous and exhausting.
And communities sometimes had to deal with theft, violence and disputes without the kind of police forces and legal systems that we are familiar with today.
Henry was growing up in this environment.
He was also very young.
In fact, one of the most important things to remember when studying Billy the Kid is that he was a teenager when his criminal career began.
Billy the Kid’s First Arrest
In September 1875, Henry became involved in a theft.
According to the historical account used by PBS, Henry was arrested on 23 September 1875 for his role in a theft involving his boarding-house companion George Schaefer. The commonly told story is that clothing and other goods had been stolen from a Chinese laundry, and Henry was charged with larceny.
This was not yet the story of a notorious outlaw.
Henry was about 15 years old.
He had been arrested for a relatively minor theft.
But what happened next would become the first famous escape of his life.
Billy the Kid Escapes (25 September 1875)
The Chimney Escape
25 September 1875
Henry McCarty was being held in the county jail at Silver City, New Mexico.
He didn’t stay there long.
According to the historical record, teenage Henry escaped by climbing up through the jail’s chimney.
PBS’s historical timeline records that Henry escaped on 25 September 1875 by ‘shimmying up through the chimney.’
Imagine the scene.
One fifteen-year-old boy.
A small frontier jail.
A chimney leading upwards.
And an opportunity to get away.
Henry apparently squeezed and climbed his way up the chimney until he reached the roof.
He was free.
This wasn’t the elaborate prison-break scene we might see in a modern action film. There were no explosions, tunnels or secret maps.
Instead, the teenage prisoner found a way out of a building that was evidently not secure enough to keep him inside.
And this escape had an important consequence.
Henry McCarty became a fugitive.
The Silver City Herald reported his escape the following day, making it the first known newspaper story about him.
That is a fascinating historical detail.
The first newspaper story about the young man who would eventually become Billy the Kid was not about a gunfight or murder.
It was about a teenager escaping from jail by climbing up a chimney.
What happened afterwards?
The evidence becomes less certain.
PBS reports that Henry probably headed towards Chloride Flats, where his stepfather was mining. Later accounts say that he travelled a considerable distance and eventually made his way towards Arizona.
What we can say with confidence is that his escape marked the beginning of a much more unsettled period of his life.
He was now running from the law.
A Fugitive on the Frontier
After leaving New Mexico, Henry spent time in the Arizona Territory.
He worked different jobs, including ranching and transportation.
He also became increasingly involved with people who lived outside the law.
This is where the nickname ‘Kid’ began to stick.
The name fit well because Henry was young and relatively small.
But he wasn’t yet the legendary figure that later generations would imagine.
That transformation would come gradually.
His First Killing
In August 1877, Henry got into a confrontation with a blacksmith named Frank P. Cahill, sometimes known as ‘Windy’ Cahill.
The argument became violent.
Henry shot Cahill, who died the following day.
This was a major turning point.
Henry was now wanted for killing a man.
He fled Arizona and returned to New Mexico.
From this point on, the young man became increasingly associated with the criminal world of the Southwest.
It is important, however, not to turn this into a simple story of a teenager who suddenly became a professional killer.
The historical evidence surrounding Billy’s later killings is complicated.
Some deaths can be documented.
Others involve conflicting testimony.
And many stories about him were written or repeated years after the events.
This is why historians have to be cautious.
William H. Bonney
By the late 1870s, Henry was using another name:
William H. Bonney.
He was also known as Kid Antrim and Billy the Kid.
Aliases were not unusual among people involved in crime.
Using another name could make it more difficult for law officers or former acquaintances to identify someone.
The name ‘Billy the Kid’ eventually survived.
But during his own lifetime, different people knew him by different names.
The Lincoln County War
The most important chapter in Billy the Kid’s life began in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory.
In 1878, bitter economic and political rivalry divided the area.
Two major groups competed for control and influence.
On one side were businesspeople and cattle interests associated with Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan.
On the other were people associated with John Tunstall, Alexander McSween and cattleman John Chisum.
The conflict became violent.
This became known as the Lincoln County War.
John Tunstall
Billy the Kid became associated with John Tunstall, an English-born rancher and businessman.
Tunstall employed young men, including Billy, on his ranch.
This was significant because Billy was no longer simply drifting around the territory.
He now belonged to a group involved in a much larger economic and political struggle.
Then, in February 1878, Tunstall was murdered by men associated with the opposing faction.
Billy and other Tunstall supporters sought revenge.
They became known as the Regulators.
Although the name might suggest they were official law officers, the situation was much more complicated.
Some of them had been given temporary legal authority, but the group soon became involved in violent retaliation.
The Lincoln County War Turns Deadly
The conflict escalated.
Men were arrested, captured and killed.
Sheriff William Brady and his deputy George Hindman were killed in April 1878.
Billy the Kid was among the Regulators involved in the violence.
Later that year came one of the conflict’s most dramatic episodes: the Battle of Lincoln.
The Regulators were trapped inside Alexander McSween’s house.
For several days, fighting continued.
Eventually, the house was set on fire.
Billy escaped from the burning building, but McSween and several others were killed.
The Lincoln County War had transformed Billy from a young thief and fugitive into a much more notorious outlaw.
Was Billy the Kid a Murderer?
This is one of the most difficult questions to answer accurately.
You will often see statements claiming that Billy the Kid killed 21 people, sometimes supposedly one for every year of his life.
That number is almost certainly an exaggeration.
The historical evidence does not support the idea that Billy personally killed 21 people.
Modern historical accounts identify a much smaller number of killings that can be directly or reasonably connected to him. Some historians distinguish between killings for which responsibility is well documented and those where his exact role is uncertain.
This gives us an excellent lesson in historical myth-making.
A story can become more exciting each time it is retold.
Newspapers might exaggerate.
A writer might repeat an earlier writer’s claim.
Storytellers might add details.
A film might make the hero or villain even more dramatic.
Eventually, people can remember the legend rather than the historical person.
Why Did Billy Become So Famous?
Billy the Kid’s fame didn’t end with his death.
In fact, it grew.
One important reason was the enormous popularity of stories about the American frontier.
People were fascinated by cowboys, sheriffs, outlaws, gunfighters and the rapidly changing American West.
Billy’s short life seemed almost designed for storytelling.
He was young.
He escaped from prison.
And he lived under aliases became involved in a famous frontier conflict.
Law enforcement officers hunted him.
He escaped again.
And finally, he was shot and killed by the famous sheriff Pat Garrett.
It was the perfect ingredients for a legend.
Pat Garrett
In 1880, Patrick Floyd Garrett, usually known as Pat Garrett, became sheriff of Lincoln County.
One of his main goals was to capture Billy the Kid.
Garrett and his posse eventually caught Billy and several companions near Stinking Springs, New Mexico, in December 1880.
Billy was taken into custody.
This time, escape would be much harder.
He was eventually tried for the murder of Sheriff William Brady and sentenced to death.
But Billy had one more spectacular escape left.
Billy the Kid’s Most Famous Escape
On 28 April 1881, Billy was being held in the courthouse and jail at Lincoln, New Mexico.
He managed to escape.
This time, however, the escape was extremely violent.
Billy killed two deputies, James Bell and Robert Olinger, before escaping.
He was now a wanted man with a price on his head.
Pat Garrett began hunting him again.
Billy remained free for only a few months.
The Death of Billy the Kid
In July 1881, Billy was hiding around Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Pat Garrett learned that Billy was in the area.
On the night of 14 July 1881, Garrett went to the home of Pete Maxwell.
Billy unexpectedly entered the building.
In the darkness, Garrett recognised him.
Garrett fired.
Billy the Kid was killed.
He was about 21 years old.
The man who had become one of America’s most famous outlaws had lived a remarkably short life.
Did Billy the Kid Really Die?
This is where history and legend become particularly tangled.
Stories appeared claiming that Garrett had killed the wrong man.
Others claimed that Billy survived and lived under another identity.
One man, Brushy Bill Roberts, claimed decades later that he was Billy the Kid.
But historians have found no convincing evidence that Billy survived the shooting at Fort Sumner. The accepted historical conclusion remains that Pat Garrett killed Billy the Kid on 14 July 1881.
Nevertheless, the survival stories have helped keep Billy’s legend alive.
Billy the Kid: History vs Legend
When studying Billy the Kid, it is useful to separate what we know from what people later claimed.
| His name was Henry McCarty | He killed 21 men |
| He lived in New Mexico and Arizona | He was a Robin Hood figure |
| He was arrested as a teenager | He was an unbeatable gunslinger |
| He escaped from jail through a chimney in 1875 | Every escape was impossibly dramatic |
| He became involved in the Lincoln County War | He was a heroic defender of ordinary people |
| He was captured by Pat Garrett | He escaped death and lived secretly |
| Garrett shot him in 1881 | He somehow survived |
The difference between these two columns is exactly why Billy the Kid is such a fascinating person to study.
A History Lesson Hidden Inside the Legend
Billy the Kid is sometimes presented simply as an “Old West outlaw.”
But his story can teach us much more.
It can help children explore:
- What life was like in the American West
- The growth of frontier communities
- Law enforcement in the nineteenth century
- Immigration and migration
- Mining and ranching
- Cattle ownership
- Economic competition
- The role of newspapers
- How historical evidence is preserved
- How myths develop
- How photographs can become historical evidence
- How films can change our understanding of history
- The difference between a primary and secondary source
- How historians deal with uncertainty
Perhaps most importantly, Billy’s story reminds us that real people are more complicated than the legends built around them.
A Note for Parents: Billy the Kid and Younger Children
Billy the Kid’s story involves theft, gun violence, murder, imprisonment and death.
For younger children, you may want to focus on:
- the geography of the American West
- what a frontier town was like
- his famous chimney escape
- newspapers and historical evidence
- horses and transportation
- how historians distinguish fact from legend
Older children can investigate the more difficult questions surrounding the Lincoln County War and Billy’s involvement in violence.
You don’t need to glorify Billy’s criminal behaviour to find his story historically interesting.
In fact, one of the most valuable lessons is recognising that being famous does not necessarily mean being admirable.
15 Billy the Kid Homeschool Activities
Here are activities designed to work across the 5–16 age range, with suggestions for adapting each one for younger and older students.
1. Billy the Kid Timeline
Create a timeline from approximately 1859–1881.
Include:
- c. 1859 — Henry McCarty is born
- 1873 — His mother marries William Antrim
- 1874 — Catherine McCarty dies
- 23 September 1875 — Henry is arrested
- 25 September 1875 — Henry escapes through the jail chimney
- 1877 — Henry kills Frank Cahill
- 1877 — He begins using William H. Bonney
- 1878 — Lincoln County War
- 1878 — John Tunstall is murdered
- 1880 — Pat Garrett begins hunting Billy
- December 1880 — Billy is captured
- April 1881 — Billy escapes from Lincoln jail
- 14 July 1881 — Billy the Kid is killed
Younger children
Draw a picture beside each event.
Older children
Add events happening elsewhere in America at the same time.
Challenge: What else was happening in Britain in 1875?
2. Escape from the Chimney!
Draw a picture of the Silver City jail as you imagine it might have looked in 1875.
Then draw:
Step 1: Henry inside the jail
Step 2: Henry discovering the chimney
Step 3: Henry climbing upwards
Step 4: Henry reaching the roof
Step 5: Henry escaping into the night
History Challenge
Ask:
Why might a nineteenth-century jail have been easier to escape from than a modern prison?
Think about:
- building materials
- locks
- security cameras
- electricity
- alarms
- guards
- communications
3. Design a Frontier Jail
Imagine you are responsible for building a jail in Silver City in 1875.
Your jail must keep prisoners inside.
Design it using only materials that were reasonably available at the time.
Label:
- walls
- doors
- windows
- roof
- chimney
- locks
- guards’ area
Extra challenge
How would you prevent another prisoner from escaping through the chimney?
4. Primary Source Detective
Explain to children that historians don’t simply read a story and assume everything is true.
Give them a short historical account of Billy’s 1875 arrest and escape.
Ask:
Who wrote this?
When was it written?
How close to the event was the writer?
What evidence did they use?
Could the writer have made a mistake?
Could the story have changed as it was retold?
New Mexico’s State Records Centre and Archives has a research guide identifying surviving primary materials relating to Billy the Kid, including court records and the 1880 reward notices.
5. Fact or Legend?
Create cards containing statements such as:
- Billy the Kid’s real name was Henry McCarty.
- He escaped from jail through a chimney.
- He killed exactly 21 men.
- He was involved in the Lincoln County War.
- Pat Garrett killed him.
- Billy survived and lived to old age.
- He used the name William H. Bonney.
- He was only about 21 when he died.
Children place each card under:
FACT
PROBABLY TRUE
UNCERTAIN
LEGEND
This is an excellent introduction to evaluating historical evidence.
6. Write the Newspaper Report
Imagine that you are a reporter for the Silver City Herald in September 1875.
Write a newspaper article about the teenage prisoner escaping from jail.
Include:
- headline
- date
- location
- what happened
- what the authorities did
- description of the escaped prisoner
- what readers should look out for
Younger children
Draw the newspaper and dictate the report to an adult.
Older children
Try to write in the style of a nineteenth-century newspaper without using modern slang.
PBS notes that the report of Henry’s escape in the Silver City Herald was the first known newspaper story about him.
7. Map Billy the Kid’s Journey
Give children a blank map of the American Southwest.
Mark:
Silver City → Arizona Territory → Lincoln County → Lincoln → Fort Sumner
Then calculate approximate distances between locations.
Discussion
Ask:
How difficult would travelling these distances have been in 1875?
Consider:
- horses
- wagons
- deserts
- mountains
- water
- weather
- lack of roads
- lack of modern communication
8. Life in 1875 vs Life Today
Create a two-column chart.
| Horse | Car |
| Candle/oil lamp | Electric lighting |
| Letters | Email/messages |
| Newspaper | Internet |
| Horse-drawn transport | Motor vehicles |
| Frontier jail | Modern prison |
| Telegraph | Mobile phone |
Challenge
Choose one invention and explain how it would have changed Billy’s life.
9. Build a Chimney Escape
Using cardboard boxes, paper tubes or LEGO, build a model of a small nineteenth-century jail.
Then investigate:
What made the escape possible?
This can become an engineering activity.
Ask:
- Where are the weaknesses?
- How could the building be made safer?
- Would a chimney really be strong enough to climb?
- How would a guard have prevented the escape?
Remind children that they are investigating a historical building—not learning how to escape a real one!
10. Who Was the Real Billy the Kid?
Give children two descriptions:
Description A
“A fearless Western hero who stood up for ordinary people.”
Description B
“A teenage criminal who became involved in theft and violence.”
Ask:
Which description is more accurate?
The answer is probably:
Neither description tells the whole story.
This makes a wonderful lesson about historical bias.
11. Create a Billy the Kid Wanted Poster
Design a nineteenth-century-style wanted poster.
Include:
WANTED
William H. Bonney
Also include:
- aliases
- physical description
- last known location
- reward
- instructions for contacting authorities
Older children
Research historical wanted notices and compare them with modern police appeals.
The New Mexico State Records Centre and Archives preserves an 1880 reward notice relating to Billy the Kid.
12. The Lincoln County War Debate
Divide older students into two groups.
Group A
The Lincoln County War was mainly about money and economic power.
Group B
The Lincoln County War was mainly about personal rivalries and revenge.
Give each group evidence to support its argument.
Then ask:
Could both explanations be correct?
This teaches children that historical events often have multiple causes.
13. Design a 1870s Newspaper
Create an entire front page about events in New Mexico.
Possible stories:
MAIN STORY:
“Billy the Kid Escapes!”
Other articles could include:
- Local cattle prices
- A mining report
- A railway story
- Weather
- Local advertisements
- A wanted notice
- A community announcement
Younger children
Illustrate the newspaper.
Older children
Research what newspapers looked like in the 1870s and imitate the layout.
14. Billy the Kid: Fact, Evidence and Opinion
Create three headings:
FACT
Something supported by reliable evidence.
EVIDENCE
The document, photograph, newspaper or record that supports the fact.
OPINION
Something someone believes about Billy.
For example:
FACT: Billy was arrested in September 1875.
EVIDENCE: Contemporary newspaper and historical records.
OPINION: Billy was a misunderstood hero.
Ask:
Can we prove an opinion?
This is an excellent introduction to historical thinking.
15. The Great Question: Why Do We Remember Billy?
Finish the study by asking children:
Why do you think Billy the Kid is still famous more than 140 years after his death?
Encourage them to think about:
- his young age
- his escapes
- the Wild West
- newspapers
- photographs
- his aliases
- Pat Garrett
- the Lincoln County War
- books
- films
- legends
- the mystery surrounding his life
Final challenge
Write an answer to:
“Is Billy the Kid famous because of what he actually did, or because of the stories people told about him?”
There isn’t necessarily one correct answer.
That’s the point.
History is not simply about memorising dates.
It is about asking questions, examining evidence and working out what we can reasonably know about the past.
A Final Thought
Billy the Kid’s story is often told as a thrilling Western adventure.
But when we slow down and examine the evidence, something rather different emerges.
We find a teenage boy who lost his mother, struggled to establish a stable life, became involved in crime, escaped from jail, entered a violent frontier conflict and eventually became one of America’s most famous outlaws.
We also discover something else:
The legend is much larger than the man.
The real Henry McCarty was a complicated human being living in a complicated time.
He wasn’t a superhero.
He wasn’t necessarily the Robin Hood figure later stories sometimes created.
And he wasn’t the impossibly deadly gunslinger responsible for every crime attributed to him.
He was a young man whose choices had serious consequences and whose story became increasingly exaggerated after his death.
That makes Billy the Kid an especially useful subject for homeschool history.
Because alongside the story of the American frontier, children can learn one of the most important lessons historians ever have to learn:
Just because a story has been repeated many times doesn’t necessarily mean it is true.
And sometimes, the most fascinating part of history is discovering what really happened behind the legend.
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