Deciphering the Enigma: Exploring Billy The Kid's Father's Destiny - Real Events and Adaptation Perspectives
MGM’s Billy the Kid series briefly touches on the obscure story of his father, Patrick McCarty. William H. Bonney was born Henry McCarty to Irish immigrants before becoming immortalized as one of the most dangerous outlaws in the Old American West. Billy was orphaned at age 15, but spent much of his childhood with his father Patrick, especially when they lived in New York before his family went west to Kansas after the Civil War. Throughout his short life, Billy had many father figures and mentors. As depicted in Billy the Kid season 1, Billy, Patrick, his mother Catherine, and his younger brother Joe had difficulty adjusting to life outside New York. Most of Billy the Kid season 2 portrays Billy as a reckless abandon without any family after tuberculosis or “consumption” takes the lives of his mother and brother. This is one of the ways that the MGM series takes creative liberties with the Billy the Kid legend since historical accounts indicate that Joe had actually lived longer than Billy. Patrick, however, truly died long before Billy had taken to a life of petty crimes that eventually led to his notorious murders.
Patrick McCarty Died When Billy Was Around 8 Years Old
As shown in Part 1 of Billy the Kid, Patrick McCarty may have died when Billy was about 7 or 8 years old. This is believed to have happened in the late 1860s, when Billy the Kid was born in 1859. The actual circumstances of Patrick’s death are vague as there is no recorded evidence of the date or manner exact details of his death, but it is generally believed that Patrick died after leaving New York. York with family. There is much debate among historians whether Billy’s father’s name was actually William Bonney, hence his iconic pen name. Although it is difficult to say for sure, the MGM series presents a plausible story about Patrick McCarty and his death during Billy’s childhood. Patrick’s death forced Catherine to raise Billy and Joe alone, which was a very difficult task. She finally found support when she married William Antrim of Indianapolis, Indiana in 1873 and moved with him to Kansas, becoming Antrim’s stepfather Billy and Joe. In the MGM series, young Billy is immediately suspicious of Antrim, seeing him as untrustworthy and a fraud. Billy’s instincts were eventually proven correct. After Catherine died of tuberculosis, Antrim abandoned both boys. This will greatly impact the rest of Billy’s life and may be the deciding factor that sends him into the world of crime and violence.
How The Death Of Billy The Kid’s Father Is Different From Real Life
One intriguing creative decision found in MGM’s Billy the Kid series was the implication that Patrick McCarty committed suicide while traveling across the country with his family. As depicted in Part 1 of Billy the Kid, Patrick McCarty considered himself “sick” and often remained completely silent, finding it difficult to do anything other than lie in an apparent state of despair. Patrick McCarty’s role in the MGM series suggests the possibility that Billy the Kid’s father suffered from depression or other debilitating mental health problems. Sources differ about his father’s real-life fate, and historians do not widely support that Patrick committed suicide as the series suggests.
Billy The Kid’s Father Figures & Mentors Explained
After Billy the Kid’s real-life incident with Antrim, which was handled differently in the MGM series, Billy was left without a father figure or mentor. The series introduces a character named Moss in season 1, who is hired by the McCarty family to take them by stagecoach out of New York to live in the West. Moss sees Patrick’s fragile nature and is determined to take care of Billy on their dangerous journey. Moss even taught Billy how to shoot a gun and appeared to help Billy when he needed a model and instructor. There is no historical record of Billy the Kid knowing a man named Moss, but the character was one of his main mentors in the television series. Billy’s greatest mentor was Englishman John Tunstall, who is depicted to be much older in the series than he was in reality. The actual Billy the Kid admired Tunstall for giving him a second chance at life, claiming that he was one of the few powerful and wealthy people who had ever treated him as an equal. Despite only being about 6 years older than Billy the Kid, Tunstall’s generosity and faith in Billy is what made him one of the most influential figures in his life. Tunstall’s murder sparked a violent retaliation from the Regulators that ultimately started the Lincoln County War.