Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life

Utley is a meticulous researcher and writes in an engaging and compelling style. The dusty, dirty New Mexico of 1878- 82 comes alive and itself becomes a character in this very well-written biography. This place was a thieves den and the overwhelming greed of Dolan and Murphy are seen clearly as a cause of strife. This book focuses on the "whole picture" and as a reader I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. Billy the Kid is somewhere in between Robin Hood and an unprincipled murderer and I felt at the end of the book that I got to know him. The man sure could lose a lot of horses! It's hard to feel sympathy for some of the people he rid the world of and Utley portrays all of them with great detail. Bob Olinger, for example,is the kind of mean-spirited nasty bully that the world is better off without. This book really works on all levels but perhaps the strongest point is the pace at which it moves along. Rather than feeling bogged down with too much detail I felt as if I were along for the ride as Billy The Kid rambunctiously roamed the gritty towns of New Mexico causing all kinds of trouble. A thoroughly enjoyable book. Highest recommendation.

Good read about one of America’s most infamous outlaws.

Robert M. Utley’s was a Chief Historian for The National Park Service and he wrote this biography on Billy The Kid citing a great deal of references which are listed in the back of the book. He also supplies numerous photographs of people and locations that played a role in The Kid’s life. In addition, he writes with a nice style that makes the book easy to read, which reflects his National Park Service background in interpretation. What I also really appreciated in Utley’s telling of the story is that he qualifies many statements so you have a good sense of what is known about Billy The Kid as fact, and what information is likely true, so that you come away knowing fact versus conjecture. That’s important when reading biographical on figures who can take on almost legendary proportions.Utley’s tells a great deal about The Kid’s life far beyond his exploits. From letters and recorded interviews we find out that Billy tried to go straight and put his days of crime behind him. We find he loved to dance and was popular and well liked in many communities, had several ladies he was possibly romantic with, and even may have been trying to start a new life wanting to settle down. We also see that his early exploits were not that unusual for young men on the plains, but he earned respect from others by his fearlessness and he was well known for constantly practicing his skills shooting and riding, skills which later made him a deadly criminal. Utley humanizes Billy, and you realize that part of his great success as an outlaw was not just his use of a gun, but his unflinching ability in fights, and his very likable personality, which ironically won him many friends throughout the region who would hide or feed him when he was on the run.At the end Utley also discusses some of the early books which came out on The Kid, especially the famous book by Pat Garrett, who was the Deputy Marshall that tracked Billy down and shot him. Garrett’s book has a lot of questionable “facts” about The Kid’s life, from how he first got in trouble with the law, to who was the first person Billy killed, his relationship with outlaws such as Jesse Evans, and many other things, which Utley’s sources clearly reveal the inaccuracies about. Keep in mind, Par Garrett was a Deputy Marshall, not a historian and it may well be that he was simply reporting the stories he was told by citizens and reports, but Garrett’s book is excellent when it comes to his firsthand description of how he tracked The Kid and gunned him down. The point is, Robert M. Utley’s book is a heavily researched historical account of the life of Billy The Kid. It’s well written.

This is easy to read and yet very detailed and interesting. I found it hard to put down, but I must confess I love anything about the Old West. The author gives real insight on the life and mind of The Kid. Great writing on the capture, escape and killing

This was an interesting book. Full of lots of great history of the Wild West.

Well written book that you will not want to put down until it is finished. I'm going to read it again soon.

Who was Billy the Kid? Robert Utley went to enormous pains to find out, and shares with us the amazing history of the real Billy the Kid. I suppose the best part is that in the telling of the story, Utley proves that the Kid really stands tall beside his legend.I read this book and Utley's history on the Lincoln County War, and together they give a tremendous picture of the life of Billy the Kid and the events of the frontier war that made him famous.If you are interested in finding out the truth of Billy the Kid and want him in the proper context, I highly recommend both of these histories from Utley. Beyond just being well researched and documented, the stories are also superbly told. You won't know that you're not reading a classic Western.

Was plodding with many names introduced at one time. Got to know Billy, but not others.The work was well researched, but never came alive.

The book maybe a good read but I ordered it for my son and when it eventually came after weeks of waiting the book was second hand which had scribbles on most of the pages, it never advertised as a used book otherwise I wouldn't of bought it.

repeating the same introduction again and again , uses Billy the kids other names way to often and is slow to the highlights and quick to be over , Sorry I ever bought this book on Billy the Kid . Very disappointed