'Billy the Kid: The Life Behind the Legend' takes an in-depth look at the New Mexico icon

Billy the Kid is probably the most famous — infamous? — 19th century American outlaw.

He’s been the subject of many books, both nonfiction and fiction.

And now there’s a new book out, a detailed, heavily footnoted biography on the outlaw. It’s titled “Billy the Kid: The Life Behind the Legend.”

The author is George R. Matthews of Las Cruces. He’s been laboring on it for nine years.

In the book’s acknowledgements, Matthews writes he’s indebted to Frederick Nolan, whose 1998 book “The West of Billy the Kid” was “a landmark work. … the first truly scholarly and authoritative account of Billy the Kid’s life and, for me, an inspiration.”

Since the publication of Nolan’s book, a lot of new primary material has become available on The Kid, Matthews writes.

What’s more, he adds, dozens of scholarly studies have valuable new insights into The Kid’s life.

These studies and the new primary material, Matthews writes, “justify a fresh look at a man who has become an American icon.”

Matthews’ biography is an attempt at a fresh look. “It’s the first book to give a full view of Billy from his birth through public school” in Indiana, and his journey to Santa Fe, Matthews said in a phone interview.

He writes that Billy was born in Anderson, Indiana, where his single mother, Catherine McCarty, was working in domestic service. His birth name was Henry McCarty.

Matthews cites two sources in the same footnote claiming Billy was born in April 1860.

One source is Anthony Conner, who allegedly attended school in Silver City with Billy, still known then as Henry McCarty. He said Henry was 12 years old in 1873.

The other source in the footnote was New Mexico Territorial Gov. Lew Wallace, who, Matthews writes, had told a reporter in May 1881 that Billy was 21 that year.

“If both Conner and Wallace were correct, Henry McCarty … was born in April 1860,” according to the footnote.

There is apparently no record of his birth and no mention of his father.

The book’s opening chapter states that Catherine, a single mom, gave birth to Henry, “probably in April 1860, and to another son in 1863.”

The younger son was named Joseph.

Henry later used the surname of his stepfather, William Antrim. He took other names — Kid Antrim, William Bonney, Billy Bonney before becoming known as Billy the Kid.

Curiously, the first time Matthews said that he read the moniker Billy the Kid was in a Las Vegas, New Mexico, newspaper article from December 1880, eight months before Billy was killed.

Matthews also researched the life of his strong-willed mother, Catherine.

She was from Ulster County, Ireland, and like many young Irish and Scots-Irish women and men in the 1840s immigrated to the United States for a better life.

Matthews writes that at age 17 and single, she likely took a boat from Belfast to Liverpool, England, and then, according to a passenger list, boarded the ship the Devonshire to cross the Atlantic to New York City.

She likely took a steamboat to Albany, New York. From there, she probably took a packet boat on the Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York, and traveled to Indiana.

In 1870, after having saved enough money, she moved to the frontier town of Wichita, Kansas, with her two sons and her beau William Antrim. She started her own laundry business, bought land and had a house built in Wichita. Antrim lived in his own place.

Matthews writes that in later years, Wichita residents recalled 10-year-old Henry as “a street gamin in the days of the longhorns.”

In August 1871, Catherine became concerned about her health — a persistent cough, night sweats, weight loss, chills — and decided to move to a high, dry climate, Matthews writes. She likely had tuberculosis.

The McCartys and Antrim sold their Wichita properties and her business, together the four headed for the higher and drier climate of Santa Fe.

In the City Different, Catherine’s health continued to decline. She and Antrim married in the Presbyterian Church; her sons would have a stepfather and not face an orphanage if she died, Matthews writes.

They moved again, this time to Silver City. Perhaps Antrim was drawn to the mines.

In September 1874, Catherine died. The boys continued in school but Antrim wasn’t always in their lives. For a period he worked the mines in Clifton, Arizona.

The next spring, Henry had his first run-in with the law. He stole several pounds of butter from a rancher near Silver City and sold it to a merchant in town, Matthews writes, and was promptly arrested. He promised to go straight and was released from custody.

His next encounter came when the 15-year-old Henry was living on his own in a Silver City boarding house. Henry was caught hiding stolen property — pistols, blankets, clothing — for a friend. Jailed, he escaped and fled to Clifton.

But his stepfather shunned him, the author writes. Henry was alone, homeless and running from the law in New Mexico.

In Arizona, he stole a soldier’s horse.

Those were the first steps in The Kid’s career in Arizona and New Mexico as a horse and cattle thief, and then an accused murderer known as much for his gregariousness and charisma as for his skill with a gun.

The book is the 75-year-old Matthews’ second biography. The first was about Zebulon Pike.