Brushy Bill Roberts:
The Man Who Claimed To Be Billy The Kid
By Katie Serena | Checked By John Kuroski
Published December 25, 2018
Updated December 2, 2021
Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid died in 1881 — or did he escape, vanish, and live on under the name Brushy Bill Roberts in Texas all the way until 1950?
In the late 1800s, the American Wild West was home to outlaws and bandits, many fearsome enough to be known across several territories. And among the most widely-known of all those bandits was Billy the Kid.
Billy the Kid (a nickname for a man born Henry McCarty and later known as William H. Bonney) was an outlaw who lived a short but tumultuous life. As a mere teenager, Billy the Kid fought a war over control of the New Mexico Territory during which he killed three people, then fled to the Arizona Territory as a fugitive and claimed responsibility for a further five murders. Read more
