The Best Books About America's Most Famous Young Outlaw, Billy the Kid.

by Mark Warren
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5 books
Because I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, my supply of heroes was liberally doled out by the 130+ Western series that dominated nighttime televisions. My parents allowed me one program per week. It was a Western. I was soon interested in history, to know what really happened in the American West, and so I came to understand the great discrepancies between fact and TV. The truth, for me, is much more interesting than the myth. But that truth carries some heavy weight, which informs us of our national foibles, crimes, and embarrassments. As a Western historian, I've done my share of historical research, but I still gravitate toward historical fiction as a writer. Here is my list of non-fiction books that were part of my research on Billy the Kid. I have also included my book "A Last Serenade for Billy Bonney" which is historical fiction. In my book, I have remained true to the events of his life.
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See the source list and commentary at shepherd.com

The West of Billy the Kid

Frederick Nolan, 2015
Nolan, an Englishman who researched from his home country, has long been considered the world authority on Billy the Kid. It can still be said that all research on Billy begins with Nolan, who died in 2022. His book undertakes the massive quest to explain the Lincoln County War in detail and to reveal the endless cast of characters interwoven throughout the struggle. Nolan’s supple mind has delivered unto us provocative motives for Billy’s actions and thereby expanded our understanding of the Kid’s mind. Without Nolan, historians would be left with mere nuggets of information and not necessarily hold the larger story in perspective.

Billy the Kid

A Short and Violent Life
Robert M. Utley, 1991
Utley, a respected historian of (mostly) Indian-related research, offers the cold, hard facts of Billy’s life and remains true to objectivity, leaving the reader with the job of analyzing the right and the wrong of decisions, reactions, and events. What tantalizes me about his book is that a researcher of such stature would choose to write about a teenaged outlaw and killer, when so many other topics of greater significance await their turn in his pen.

Billy the Kid

El Bandido Simpático
James B. Mills, 2022
As it is often said, “history is written by the winners.” The Hispanic population had very little voice in the outcome of the Lincoln County War, but it is they who had the deepest insight into who Billy was, for they were his friends and he their champion. Mills has mined that forgotten voice to publish a more thorough understanding of who the Kid was. The result is a greater appreciation for Billy as a human being. This is a long overdue perspective that better defines Billy Bonney’s admirable traits.

Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride

Michael Wallis, 2008
This book does a fine job of laying out the complex plots and cross-plots of a most complicated New Mexico Territory of the 1870s. The full spectrum of politics, murders, and factions can be overwhelming to a first-time student. There are clearly too many players in the story for a reader to grasp the overarching drama. Mr. Wallis found a way to guide the reader across this challenging terrain without shortcuts.

A Last Serenade for Billy Bonney

A Novel on Billy the Kid
Mark Warren, 2024
Beneath the story of what at first glance might appear to be a nineteenth-century hoodlum and cold-blooded killer lies an irrepressible youth named “Billy.” Though orphaned at fourteen and thrown into survival mode during one the bloodiest civilian wars in American history, he maintained an undeniable charm and courtesy that won him many friends and allies. It is the old theme of law versus order during the most violent and corrupt administration of New Mexico Territory, when a cabal of greedy Irishmen ruled the economics of frontier life. Though newspapers of the time presented Billy as a heartless killer, he was, in fact, fighting for a cause that he deemed just and righteous.