The readings for our group are:
Owlspace:
“Miguel Antonio Otero II, Billy the Kid’s Body, and the Fight for New Mexican Manhood” by John-Michael Rivera (2000)
“History of Billy the Kid” by Charles Siringo (1920)
Las Vegas Newspaper accounts of Billy the Kid’s jailbreak and death (from 1881)
“Inventing Billy the Kid” by Stephen Tatum (1982)
As well as these two articles online:
“Was Billy the Kid a superhero–or a superscoundrel?” by Jake Paige
“Billy the Kid Country” by Robert Utley
Here are some questions to consider:
1. In the time since his death, Billy the Kid has been portrayed all over the moral spectrum. What allows us to change our perceptions of good and bad like this? What events in Billy’s life helped make him so morally ambiguous?
2. Tatum states in his book that Billy the Kid filled a need in society every time his story became popular, sometimes filling more than one at once. How does the process of filling needs change his story? What needs would he fill today? What needs do we even have today?
3. Looking at the newspaper articles from 1881 and the book from 1920, both describing the same events, can you see a shift in the way Billy the Kid is portrayed? If you do, what does this tell us about these two different time periods?
4. Tatum argues that interpreters of the past are often engaged in a fruitless and ultimately useless quest to transmit the truth of a figure to the people of the present. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?
Throughout our studies, we have discovered that legendary Americans emerge in times of strife or uncertainty in society. Billy the Kid’s legend stems from a lot of illusions and elaboration – for example, the number of deaths that can be undeniably attributed to him are much fewer than he is credit with (Paige)! His actual contribution to history and historians does not lie in the hazy facts of his life, because the true knowledge that we can glean comes from how societies over time remember him. As we learned before with Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger, the American public does have a fascination with outlaws, and their predecessor only confirms this. One of the unique parts of Billy the Kid’s legend is that there is a defined hero and villain, although whether Billy the Kid is a protagonist or an antagonist is determined by the viewer.
From 1881 to 1925, Americans were searching for a figure of authority to trust in and rely on. Garrett, credited with the takedown of the Kid, fulfilled the role admirably, and the citizens could ease their minds as this reinforced their hope that the chaos caused by the shift in American culture to be more globalized and industrialized would settle down. The Vegas newspaper accounts do not idealize the Kid at all, instead displaying great condemnation and saying that “The question of how to deal with desperadoes who commit murder has but one solution – kill them and be done with it” (Vegas 21).
Since we saw just how strong the public sentiment is against the Kid, seeing the change in attitude in 1925 to 1955 is even more dramatic as society changes and decides to embrace the romanticized figure of Billy the Kid and show their disillusionment with the government. Here the parallels with Bonnie and Clyde really come into play, as people shun the corporate mafia and prefer the independent hero. However, Tatum makes a very valid point in saying that “the outlaw and the classical tragic hero must ultimately die in order for the community to exist” (Tatum 196), because that is the only way we can excuse our own individual sympathies.
Presently, although Tatum raises the argument that in a highly technological society Westerns do not have a great appeal, I think that there is also backlash against this shift and that people might enjoy the simplicity and primal nature of the Wild West. Also, especially with the Occupy movements erupting everywhere, there is an obvious desire for change in our current society. There is definitely an opportunity for the Kid to rise again.
Response to Prompt 1:
Like many, if not all, of the Legendary Americans we have studied, the figure we refer to as “Billy the Kid” is composed of many different interpretations, both positive and negative. As Paige points out, he has been portrayed as everything from “a gentleman,” generous, “the Robin Hood of the American frontier,” a young man surrounded by corruption and greed who had to follow his own moral code, a kind of Jeffersonian egalitarian caught up in the empire-building rape of the West, a tragic hero, a romantic hero, an antihero, a juvenile delinquent, abrilliant marksman, a terrible shot, a practiced dancer, a lady’s man, a slob, a short-tempered rube, left-handed, right-handed,” etc. (Paige). And, like many of the other Legends, Billy the Kid has several features that allow him to be molded in such a way.
Like Sacagawea, Billy the Kid had somewhat mysterious origins (his paternity was unknown, and there are two possible people who identify as him in photographs), which added both the intrigue of mystery and the adaptability of ambiguity. The early death of his mother allowed those who wished to see good in him the excuse of a traumatic childhood and cited his violence as revenge for her death. (Paige) As has been proven by JFK, Bonnie and Clyde, and Davy Crockett, a violent or early death is often a boon to potential Legends, and the same is true for Billy the Kid. Most of the articles mention his questioning, vulnerable last words, and the fact that he was associated in his final moments with a female partner allows him to be played up as a romantic hero, as is amply indicated by the “Siringo Jailbreak and Death” article. The violence in his life inevitably incurred violence against him, which could be spun as “cowardly” acts of cruelty that “left a scar on Billy the Kid’s heart.” (Siringo Jailbreak and Death)
Additionally, regardless of the events in Kid’s life, I believe that there is some luck that has allowed him to be portrayed as both a hero and a villain. To some extent, I believe that he was randomly selected by the media to be reinvented by the “florid prose and imaginations of newspaper editors,” (Paige) who ran with his image in both directions.
Sorry–didn’t meant to click post! Insert in middle paragraph: There is also the intrigue of his larger than life escapades, such as his jail escape alternately through a chimney and via killing multiple guards. These stories, while easily vilifiable, can also be depicted with a sense of justice, which ties Billy the Kid back to the social bandits when he killed Ollinger, the man who bullied him for years with his “mean” disposition. (Utely)