The Birth of an Outlaw

Ever since 1952, when Bob Mullin and Phil Rasch found the marriage record of William Antrim and the Kid’s mother, Catherine McCarty, the truth about the origins of the man we know as Billy the Kid became a done deal—the Kid’s real name was Henry McCarty; he had a younger brother named Joseph; and the brothers had witnessed their mother’s marriage, along with a Harvey Edmonds, who possibly was a church member. Backed by the documentary nature of a marriage record, these became facts.