Billy was born in the east and moved west with his mother to Silver
City, New Mexico, southwest United States. At a young age he was jailed
for a minor offense but he escaped. In Bonito, Arizona, he killed Frank
Cahill, a blacksmith who teased the scrawny kid Billy was at the time.
Back in New Mexico, he worked for a time for the Heiskell Jones family
in Seven Rivers, but the brewing Lincoln County War drew him to Lincoln.
Billy arrived in Lincoln while the gang known as "The House" or the
"Murphy-Dolan faction" was competing with John Tunstall for beef contracts
for Fort Stanton--and also for economic and political control
of Lincoln County. Tunstall befriended Billy and other young drifters.
The conflict between the Murphy-Dolan Faction and Tunstall turned ugly.
John Tunstall was gunned down in 1878. Angered by the death of their
friend, the drifters formed a group known as "The Regulators". As a
self-appointed police force, they vowed to avenge Tunstall's death by
killing all those involved. This was part of the Lincoln County War.
Billy the Kid in Lincoln, New Mexico