Tuesday, July 14, 2009 marks the 128th  anniversary of Billy the Kid’s death at 21. Billy (as he shall be known in this article for the simplicity’s sake) was born Henry McCarty, though he also went by the names William H. Bonney and Henry Atrim. Predictably, the details of his life are as elusive and disputed as his identity.

The romantic, Western shoot-em’-up version goes something like this: Billy was both cold-blooded and left-handed. He was a gunslinger who killed 21 people over the course of his short life, one for every year he was alive. Some even insist that his murder by Sheriff Pat Garrett (who looks remarkably like Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York) was a hoax.

The folklore surrounding Billy’s life greatly overshadows the (often uncertain) true story. In turn, Billy has become the focus of countless storytellers, writers, musicians, and directors over the 128 years since his death. One of the most interesting takes is writer Michael Ondaatje’s (best known for The English Patient) 1996 collection of poems The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left Handed Poems, for which he won a Governor General’s award. Ondaatje illustrates the complexity of Billy’s life (and moreover, the legend), and challenges the reader to follow:

“Not a story about me through their eyes then. Find the beginning, the slight silver key to unlock it, to dig it out. Here then is a maze to begin, be in.”

Photo: The only known photograph of Billy the Kid, found at www.whiteoaksnewmexico.com.