Death of Billy the Kid

On the night of July 14, 1881, in a darkened bedroom at the Maxwell Ranch near Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory, Sheriff Pat Garrett ended the most celebrated manhunt of the American frontier. His target was Henry McCarty — the outlaw the country knew as Billy the Kid — and after months of pursuit, Garrett shot him to death, closing one of the most sensational chapters in the history of the American West.

Garrett had been tracking the Kid for roughly three months following his escape from jail. A tip finally placed Billy among friends at the Maxwell Ranch, and the information proved accurate. When Billy the Kid entered the room expecting safety, he instead found Garrett and his men. In the encounter that followed, Garrett killed him, bringing an abrupt and violent close to a career that had transfixed the entire territory.

Even the date carries a whiff of frontier uncertainty. Some sources record the shooting as July 15, 1881, a discrepancy typical of a place and period where precise record-keeping was rarely a priority. July 14, 1881 is the commonly accepted date — the date this history remembers.