When Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett ended Billy the Kids life on the night of July 14, 1881, with a shot in the dark, he was catapulted at once into stardom in the annals of Western history. This edition is a facsimile of the 1927 text that Garrett wrote to counteract the negative image he gained after the shooting.

This edition, complete with the original text, provides an introduction that reappraises the last fatal meeting of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. Frederick Nolan shows how the Garrett's book is responsible for misconceptions about the Kid's early life and his short, violent career.

Patrick Floyd (Pat) Garrett, the Sheriff of Lincoln County New Mexico and Billy's ultimate arbiter of justice, provides an incredible, firsthand account of the small-town kid who became a killer in "The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid." Written just eight months after killing Billy in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, during a happenstance meeting in the home of Pete Maxwell, this fascinating, sensational book takes us play-by-play through Billy s life. From his earliest days in New York and eventual move west to his adventures in Mexico and repeated arrests and escapes, this original account tells all.A great read for lovers of the wild west, Billy the Kid will make a great addition to your Outlaw Library. Have a "Look Inside".

The sentiments involved in the sermon alluded to are as antedeluvian in monotonous argument, language and sense, as the Blue Laws of Connecticut. Sabbath-breaking was the sole and inevitable cause of "The Kid's" murders, robberies and bloody death(?). Immaculate mentor of the soul. "The Kid" never knew when Sunday came here on the frontier, except by accident, and yet, he knew as much about it as some hundreds of other young men who enjoy the reputation of model youth. And, suppose "The Kid" had knowingly violated the Sabbath? He had Christ and his disciples as holy examples-confining his depredations, however, to rounding up a bunch of cattle, not his own, instead of making a raid on his neighbor's corn field and purloining roasting ears. "The Kid" had a lurking devil in him; it was a good-humored, jovial imp, or a cruel and blood-thirsty fiend, as circumstances prompted. Circumstances favored the worser angel, and "The Kid" fell. A dozen affidavits have been proffered me for publication, in verification of the truth of my work. I have refused them all with thanks. Let those doubt who will. PAT. F. GARRETT