The Trial of Billy the Kid

This book is about Billy the Kids trial for murder and the events leading to that trial. The result of Billys trial sealed his fate. And yet Billys trial is the least written about and until this book the least known event of Billys adult life.Prior biographies have provided extensive - and fascinating - details on Billys life but they supply only a few paragraphs on Billys trial. Just the bare facts: time place names result.Billys trial the most important event in Billys life. You may respond that his death is more important - it is in anyones life! That is true in an existential sense but the events that lead to ones death at a particular place and time the cause of ones death override the importance of ones actual death. Those events are determinative. Without those events one does not die then and there. If Billy had escaped death on July 14 1881 and went on to live out more of his life that escape and not his trial would probably be the most important event of Billys life.The information presented here has been unknown until now. This book makes it possible to answer these previously unanswerable questions: Where was Billy captured?Where was Billy tried?What were the governing Territorial laws?What were the charges against Billy?Was there a trial transcript and what happened to it?What kind of defense did Billy present?Did Billy testify in his own defense?Did Billy have witnesses standing for him?Who testified against him for the prosecution?What was the jury like?What action by the trial judge virtually guaranteed his conviction?What legal grounds did he have to appeal his verdict?Was the trial fair?Supplementing the text are 132 photos including many photos never published before.