This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the 1870s, the American West was a refuge for outcasts as the nation recovered from the Civil War.

In fact, life was so hard that 80% of the population was under 30.

It was in this harsh and lawless place where a legend was forged.

Roger McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Highlymen, and Vigilantees,

violence on the frontier,

a U.S. Marine and former history professor at UCLA.

Dr. McGrath has appeared on numerous history channel documentaries,

and he's a regular contributor here for us at Our American Stories.

Here's McGrath with the story of Billy the Kid.

Music Here's McGrath with the story of Billy the Kid. Billy the Kid is an American legend.

He's been portrayed as everything from a gallant young man

fighting for justice to a psychopathic killer.

I think the truth lies much closer to gallant young man.

Billy the Kid is born Henry McCarty in 1859

to Irish immigrant parents Patrick and Catherine in New York City.

He has an older brother named Joseph.

The father dies when the boys are still young, and the mother takes them west to Indiana, then to Kansas, then to New Mexico.

In Santa Fe, Catherine McCarty marries William Antrim in 1873.

Shortly after the wedding, the new Antrim family moves to Silver City,

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