have a great week. >> news is the first draft of the history. it is immediate and takes place in real time. legends take longer to develop and are sometimes based on myth. this fox news series looks at the truth behind the legend.

>> don't be afraid. no one is here to hurt you. [ speaking spanish ] >> i shot billy the kid. >> i don't think that's him, pat.

[ gunshots ] ♪ my country tis of thee ♪ sweet land of liberty land where my fathers died ♪ ♪ land of the april grim's pride ♪ ♪ from every mountainside ♪ let freedom ring >> on the north american plane,

opportunity caused men with courage to chase west to a new frontier. they would shape a nation. and birth a new mythology. but with a passing of time, every myth has its reckoning. an orphaned-turned-outlaw, low-life scoundrel and escape artist. legendary gun fighter credited with multiple murders, one for each year of his short life. but behind every man stands a myth and behind every legend lies the truth. >> billy the kid, quite possibly the most legendary outlaw in the history of the american west. a symbolic figure of the untamed frontier. he's a charismatic kid, but he's a killer all the same. far from the sadistic villain he's often made out to be, william h. bonnie is just a boy,

a teenager, trying to survive in a man's world, where more of than not, it's kill or be killed. >> in the late 19th century, thousands journey west, lured by the dream of quick riches in the silver mines and gambling halls. joining the rush, 17-year-old william bonnie. >> it' getting hot in here. can you stand the heat? >> you know me. >> all i owe you is a beating.

>> you're hurting me. >> i want to hurt you. >> toughened by years of of fending for himself, billy adapts to life on the run. but not so long ago, he's just a boy named henry. >> to understand billy the kid, you've got to know about his mom, katherine mccarty, an irish immigrant who. co-s over in the wake of the potato famine and billy ends up

acquiring a lot of her charm and ability. >> little can actually be proven. >> while legend claims he's born in new york city, the truth is a birth record has never been found. but two things are certain, billy is born into one of the most violent times in american history. as the first verified record of him shows up in silver city, new mexico, in 1868, when he's 9 years old. >> new hampshire is an extremely violent place. you have a mix of ex-con fed rats, hispanics. you have a lot of corruption. law and order is few and far between. >> within a year, kat dies of u tuberculos tuberculosis.

henry and his brother bury here in a simple grave and head out into the world, abandoned by their stepdad and split between distant relatives. celebrated from his brother, billie resorts to crime, adopting the ail las, william billy bonnie. >> what have you got for me, sheriff. >> roughian, high spirited fella, he thinks he is. come on in here, youngster. >> glad to have you. all right, what have we got? . >> he was a guest over at the hotel. billy the kid's greatest weapon was his personality. he did have that aura of

innocence that i think made people trust him. >> hey, fella why don't you let me out to stretch my legs, please? >> all right, son. you've been pretty quiet. i guess you've earned it. up and down, back and forth. back and forth. very good boy.

♪ ♪ >> billy's chimney escape tells us a lot about the boy and the young man he will become. unwilling to serve his time, he would rather take his chances on the run, avoiding confinement at all costs. but ironically, the sheriff is

only planning to hold him for one day, hoping to scare him straight. and in this moment of impulse, young billy starts down the road of being a wanted man for the of being a wanted man for the rest of his life. how do i get hotel deals nobody else gets? trust me, i'm a great negotiator. price-line ne-go-ti-a-tor! 60% off! 40! 60! 40! 60! 40! 40! 60! trust me, they can't say 'no' to me. i've been doing this for 20 years... can i get an upgrade? trust me, and you'll never overpay again. seriously? i'm trusting you. exclusive hotel deals up to 60% off. priceline.com.

billy the kid has h from orphan to petty thief. now on the run in need of transportation, billy takes another step in his evolution as a criminal. >> billy's got no basis of support, no direction whatsoever. so he does what a desperate person does in petty crime. so he resorted to horse thieving. >> in the west, men count on their mounts for their very survival. the penalty is the same as it is for murder. both can get you lynched without a trial.

>> stop right there! >> billy's desperate decision to take a u.s. army horse lands him in military prison. >> get back to your cell.

>> come on, smithy, why you got to put them on so tight for? >> that ought to hold you. >> undeterred by the firm grip of authority, billy uses another tool to gain his freedom, enlisting the help of locals to break him out. >> come on. >> though my character, the majority of my friends have been helping me. >> the legend that billy is

anything more than a petty thief at this time in his life is a myth. he's clearly making errors in judgment, but he still has the opportunity to turn things around. local law enforcement has bigger things to worry about. and his as bold and cocky as he seems, billy is still far removed from the murderous outlaw that legend makes him out to be. >> billy's wit and ingenuity gives hip the confidence to try his hand at gambling. but men like cahill have a hard time losing to a fresh kid with a smart mouth.

>> in the old west, when people were armed sometimes fights result in gunfire. but this is where billy the kid goes genuinely on the run. >> hi cahill, being convinced i'm about to die do make the following my final statement. >> damn kid shot me. >> a coroner's jury is convened and a warrant for murder is issued. at just 17, the orphan boy is now a wanted killer. >> billy flees to the familiar surroundings of fort sumner, new mexico. here he has many friends and feels at home in the hispanic community. >> billy looks for a new family

and he finds a kind of surrogate one in the black culture. he loves the music, he loves the dancing. he's popular with the latin girls. >> billy has a confident charm that's irresistible to the senoritas. but his arrogance sparks a not so friendly rivalry with the future sheriff of lincoln county, pat gareth. >> patrick floyd garret was after former buffalo hunter. and billy was a regular so they

knew each other. it's a small place. >> but even on his own turf, billy still has to watch his back. since law enforcement is so lax, a growing number of vigilante groups have risen to power. >> he needs other people around him because he is young. he doesn't have resources. he needs to have protectors. >> the kid falls in with a gang of stock wrestlers known as the boys. he's naive to their violent ways. >> these were outlaws and bad guys. for billy to ride with them, it would inform the rest of his career as a criminal, learning to be a better criminal by p paling around with people who were really good at it. >> their leader, jesse evans is

a ruthless killer. >> so i hear you're pretty good with a pistol. don't worry, boy, you're going to grow into those boots one day. that's a dangerous whooping there. careful. >> the boys are a cut throat clan, reviled throughout the region. and now billy decided to run with them.

after killing a man in self-defense, 17-year-old billy the kid is wanted for murder. >> to sur prooif life on the open range, he's taken up with a gang of wrestlers who call themselves the boys. >> billy the kid is an example

of the economics of his time and place. when you push people into desperate situations, they take desperate actions. >> you had to make a living and wrestling with cattle was about all that was left for us wanted men. >> the boys are guns for hire, working for a network of rarchlers who have taken control of new mexico's lincoln county. >> lincoln county is huge. it's the size of south carolina. it's a mace that's attractable for what we call cattle barons. billy finds himself in the midst of one of the most famous feuds in the history of the american west. the county is under the thumb of james dolan and lawrence murphy. they hold the largest beef contracts and run the leading general store. >> dolan and murphy are the kinds of men who went west when

it was still raw, who staked their claim. these men had a vested interest in maintaining their control, control of everything. >> they deeply resent englishman, an upstart cattle baron and the first to cut into their action. >> john huntsville is an english businessman who comes from wealth. he can drive the cattle cartel out of the business. but he's naive thinking he can beat them at their own dirty game. dolan and their hired gun have no thought of giving up control of their cattle business. and they will do whatever they can to hold on to it. >> determine to crush their competitor, dolan and murphy disbatch the boys to repeatedly. the violence escalates as the boys target anyone who opposes murphy and dolan.

or dares to speak out against the boys and their illegal activities. >> just take whatever you want. >> this is a man we should be thanking. >> being part of the gang means you're going to be engaged in crime, violent crime. you don't do it because that's what you are. you do it because that's what the gang requires. and this happens to billy the kid. >> i'm going to take real good care of you. >> when the boys start torturing innocents, billy makes the decision to bow out. >> when billy left the boys, he

became a cook. when you're trying not to be a hardened criminal, you have to find something to do, even if it's putting beans in a pot and warming them up. >> for a while, billy lays low on a cowboy ranch, content to trade his pistol for a stew pot. >> hey, do you want more food? you're whoofing it down over there. >> but he can't escape his past. >> hey, where did you get that horse? >> i got it from a friend. >> when billy flees the boy, he unwittingly takes a horse that's stolen from john tunstall. he is caught red handed and thrown into the lincoln county jail. a squalor hell hole. >> hey, kid. you got a visitor.

>> my name is john tunstall. >> i know who you are. >> i understand you stole some property of mine. >> i didn't know them was yours. >> i take it you're familiar with guns. and the ways of cattle rustling. work for me and i drop the charges. or you can choose prison. >> i like that fine, to work for you, mr. tunstal. >> john tunstal decides to give the kid a job. arguably his first big break in life. and he loves tunstal. >> tunstal is building his own gang to contend with the kang dangers of new mexico territory. lincoln county is home to the nation's highest murder rate. and some of the richest and most corrupt cattle ranchers.

billy is grateful for an opportunity to turn his life around. he looks up to tunstal. >> tunstal sees something he can use in billy. there's a war brewing. the kid is unafraid, even among grown men. stunstal takes him in. not so much a father figure, but a pretty savvy employer. >> murphy and dolan use a writ seizing tunstal's livestock and they use the boys to do the dirty work. >> mr. tunstal, we got to get out of here. >> billy, you get out of here, i'll take care of this. >> they're not men to talk to.

>> they know who these horses belong to, now go. >> he thinks the whole thing could have been worked out had the judge not been on the take from murphy. >> gentlemen, what can i help you with today? we can work this out just fine. these horses are exempt from confiscation. it's in the writ. i'm unarmed. listen, we can talk this through. woefully outgunned, the kid is powerless to intervene. >> just weeks after built billy walked oit of the jail legally to the greatest opportunity of his life, the only man who gives

>> weeks after billy the kid gets a start as a cattle guard is murdered before his eyes by the rival dolan murphy cartel. >> i'll get every son of a bitch who helped kill john if it's the last thing i do. >> billy wasn't the only one who was determined to avenge tunstal's murder. a former of his former employees form their own gang and call themselves the regulators. >> while billy is a regulator, deputized by a justice of the peace, he's still a kid in this fight. the rest of the regulators and all of the boys are seasoned outlaws. billy is simply a loyal follower who's willing to put his life on the line to avenge the murder of the only man who gave him a break in life. >> unable to get near dolan and

murphy, the new deputies the sheriff who organized the murder of tunstal. then all hell breaks loose. >> it turns into an insurrection. >> no one can get control of this. you've got justices who are deputizing men right and left. it's legal murder. billy and the regulators are ambushed at the home of alexander mcsweeney. tunstal's lawyer and business partner. pinned down for four days, the standoff ups the death count to nearly two dozen. >> the kid and a few others who were holed up in the house managed to escape. from that point on, the kid was on the run.

when a controlling interest for both sides are either dead or bankrupt, the war is over. governor lou wallace issues warrants for the survivors. one of the last men standing, billy, now leads the regulators and seeks a private audience with the governor. >> they made outlaws of us, so i was edgy about my meeting with the governor. but with all those fresh warrants out on us. >> i want to help you, but you need to help me, right? >> yes, sir. >> one good deed deserves another. true? you testify against everyone involved in this damn war and i'll pardon you. >> i will. i swear it.

>> the kid is fuel. dolan does get brought up on charges, but so does billy. >> billy's meeting with the governor reveals his immaturity. he's firmly entrenched in the criminal life but fails to see his role for what it really is. once again, he's looking to worm his way out of the consequences. when the shooting stops, a murder warrant is issued by the governor and billy the kid is the only one indicted for his actions in the lincoln county war. >> when billy learns of the double cross, he flees to his old haunt, fort sumner and hides out with his girlfriend an her older brother pete. >> you better look at this, billy. >> i will pay any person or persons $500 to capture william

bonnie, alias the kid. >> look there. there i am in black and white. look at this. i'm famous. >> an ambitious man familiar with billy the kid is tapped for the territory's most dangerous task. >> i won't let you down. >> lincoln county elects pat garret as sheriff, with one purpose -- bring in billy the kid dead or alive. >> pat garret was, in fact, more of a politician than he was a law man. he had dreams of the senate, perhaps even governor to capture billy the kid would be a feather in pat garret's cap. >> with a few top deputies, garret heads out, knowing where to find the kid. >> just four days later garret catches up with billy.

>> we've got your surrounded! >> go to hell, pat! when eating healthy and drinking water just isn't enough to ease my constipation i trust dulcolax tablets. i take dulcolax for dependable overnight relief and in the morning, i am back to myself dulcolax, designed for dependable relief

just because i'm away from my desk doesn't mean i'm not working. comcast business understands that. their wifi isn't just fast near the router. it's fast in the break room. fast in the conference room. fast in tom's office. fast in other tom's office. fast in the foyer [pronounced foy-yer] or is it foyer [pronounced foy-yay]? fast in the hallway. i feel like i've been here before.

switch now and get the fastest wifi everywhere. comcast business. built for business. >> billy the kid is finally cornered by pat garret. >> we've got you surrounded! >> go to hell, pat. >> we ain't going anywhere. we'll wait you out all night if we have to. >> all right, fellas. >> i got him. >> they bring him down for a

trial and he's sentenced to hang. they take him from there up to lincoln. >> just try me one time, billy. you'll see. >> aware of billy's prior jailbreak, the sheriff appoints deputies to guard him day and night upstairs in the lincoln county courthouse. >> james was an easy going man, but bob was a bully who kept threatening the kid much in the manner that wendy cahill did years and years earlier. >> i'm tired of being up here. i haven't had a meal in two days. >> i'm going to go down stairs and get some grub. >> you got it, bob. >> at this point, billy recognizes there's no other option. he's not going to get amnesty,

he's not going to get justice. what else but to resort back to the way of the gun. >> hey, hey jim. would you let me just please go to the prison. don't you know i've got to go? jim? just let me take one little break. i'm not going to go anywhere, i promise. i have to be back here anyway to play poker with you tomorrow. >> come on. >> hold your horses. >> in classic kid style, billy convinces bell to escort him outside. then on the way back makes his bre break. . but billy pauses just long enough to settle an old score.

>> howdy bob. >> billy has the reputation, not only as a violent outlaw but an escape artist who has the love and respect of the people around him. no one is going to raise a hand against him as he wanders out of town. >> billy's escape amazing everyone except pat garret who is publicly humiliated. the pressure is on pat garret now to get the kid once and for all. he can see future elections slipping away from him if he doesn't deliver. >> bonnie is armed and dangerous. already killed two of my men. he ain't getting away again. >> he learns that billy is back with pete and paulita maxwell, who may now be pregnant with

pilly's child. >> pete maxwell is a powerful land grant holder in dating a m killer doesn't look good.ng a m more than likely he is the one who picked up garrett to kid's whereabouts. >> don't be afraid. no one is here to hurt you. >> (speaking spanish) >> i shot billy the kid.

>> i don't think that's him,

gunfight >> six decades after billy's alleged death william morrison is covering following up on a

that billy is alive living under the alias of william roberts. >> howdy. >> mr. roberts. there's a lot of talk about you being billy the kid. >> i don't know about that. i am william roberts. i have been here a long time, son. >> morris questions the 90-year-old at length. eventually roberts reveals he is indeed the notorious kid. >> when i come up you had to kind of look out for yourself. wasn't easy you had to do things to get along. >> i certainly knew a great deal about some of the actual places where billy the kid was, some of the people that billy the kid knew and some historical facts which were pretty obscure. >> according to william henry roberts, this is what happened at maxwell's house.

roberts and his girlfriend along with a friend named billy barlow had just returned from a dance. barlow expressed an interest in having some dinner and was sent to cut a strip of meat hanging from maxwell's porch. as he approached maxwell's room, he spotted the two deputies. >> no one is here to hurt you. >> billy barlow walked into maxwell's room and said to maxwel maxwell... (speaking spanish) >> he pulled his revival and shot and killed the man known as billy barlow. will billy the kid heard the gun shots and went on the run. >> i don't think that's him, pat.

(gun fooire) a oo the next day a friend of his who brought his horse over to him helped him mount up and billy the kid road away. >> roberts tells a convincing story, but morrison needs more proof. he asks roberts to demonstrate his dexterity with shackles. >> without hesitating william henry roberts held his hands out and folded his thumbs inward making it easy to slip out of a hair of handcuffs. he was in hiding because he thought he would be hung for something he didn't do. >> he launches a campaign to get him a pardon. two years later new mexico governor thomas maybury agrees to a meeting.

>> here he is, billy the kid. >> for the governor it is just a publicity stunt. for roberts it's another bee trail. >> (indistrict talking >> days later william h. roberts dies from a massive heart attack. >> the roberts' version of events that night is p certainly intriguing. evidence to support pat garrett's claim is hard to come by. the truth is, we may never know for certain how billy the kid died. but what we do know is that he became a killer. >> howdy, bob. >> though he didn't murder the 21 men legend claims, he did kill at least five men in his lifetime. billy is a way ward youth living alomong the brutal violence of e western frontier hiding beneath

the surface of his charismatic charm, he's a desperate young man who survives long enough to become a legend of the real west.rarararararararararararara the the fox report. pó >> taking to the streets of cleveland after a judge acquitted a police officer for the shooting deaths of two black respects. protest are peaceful and police report one arrest so far. michael braelow broke down in tears saying he could not determine that the officer fired the shots that killed the two men following a car chase in 2012. it comes amid attention with the citizens and police over deaths by officers. >> we