FAQ

According to sources, it was over money. For reasons relating to his partner McSween owing a lot of money, Sheriff Brady led a posse to seize Tunstall's cattle.

Tunstall rode out to intervene. One member of the posse shot him in the chest, knocking him off his horse. Another took his gun and shot him in the back of the head with it.

Perhaps one day we will get a Netflix series that uses acts like this to show just how cowardly the Murphy-Dolan faction were.

Not by a long shot. Although Billy The Kid's birthdate is disputed, even if we take Pat Garett's word for it, Billy was nineteen at the Battle Of Lincoln.

Charlie Bowdre was at the Battle Of Lincoln and died in the year 1880 at the age of 31 or 32 (nobody today knows the exact day he was born).

Josiah Scurlock was twenty-nine years old at the Battle Of Lincoln.

Jose Chavez y Chaves, whom Danny Trejo bears a bit of a resemblance to, was twenty-seven years old at the Battle Of Lincoln.

Thomas O'Folliard, who participated in the Battle Of Lincoln, was twenty years old around the time of the Battle Of Lincoln.

That proves how charismatic Billy The Kid was, given that he became the de facto leader of a gang where members were roughly twice his age.

There are twenty-five presently known to historians. Contemporary sources suggest at least forty, but outside of that twenty-five, they led quiet lives after the Lincoln County War and their stories were lost to history.

Several possibilities and reasons.

First, a filmmaker has to secure permits to shoot in any location outside of a studio. The real Lincoln may have refused to grant permits. (In fact, this is quite likely, see point four.)

Secondly, just because a place looks much like it did in Billy's day does not mean it will look that way to the camera. It is possible, even likely, that many things present in today's Lincoln would destroy the illusion if they made it into shots.

Thirdly, the cost of shooting in the real Lincoln might have been too much. As a saying goes, soldiers win battles, *logistics* win wars. Logistical details around shooting the film in the real Lincoln, such as having enough power for equipment or easy access to potable water, would have also influenced the choice of shooting locations.

Finally, it is very probable that the real Lincolin in New Mexico did not want the film being shot there. Lincoln attracts tourists who all want to see what remains of the places where Billy lived his life. Much effort has to be undertaken to preserve what exists of those landmarks, and not all of them survive. Billy's coffin was washed away in a flood and the exact place of his burial is no longer known. There is a marker placed for the benefit of tourists, but the location of said marker is only approximate to where Billy was buried.

Put simply, location choices are about making life as easy as possible for the people shooting the film as plausibly simulating the historical location. And locations that do not meet the first of these requirements will always lose out to those that do, regardless of how well they meet the second requirement.

Like all film versions of Billy's life, not very.

Much of his early life is lost to time, but what is known is that his birth name was William Henry McCarty, and he was of Irish descent. His mother was named Catherine McCarty, and she later changed her name from McCarty to Antrim.

Some historical documents mention a Catherine McCarty migrating from Ireland to America on a ship called the Devonshire in April 1846, but no real proof exists that this is the same woman.

So even the real name of Billy The Kid is misrepresented. The site The Real Billy The Kid offers a good deal more detail, but one of the biggest goofs in this particular film is Emilio Estevez's Billy The Kid looking upon Patrick Wayne's Pat Garrett and saying he, Billy, wants to be famous like him, Pat Garrett, some day. At the time that the few factual events of the film were taking place, Billy was famous, and Pat Garrett was a nobody.