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Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride, a book review

heanders | Sep 23, 2010 |

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Billy the Kid is one of the iconic gunfighters of the Wild West, with much written about him. Some of what has been written is romanticised fiction with a few facts to give it credance. There are very few facts known about Bonney and everyone who has read about him has their own opinion of the outlaw. For this reason, it is hard to write a book universally accepted about Billy the Kid. Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride by Michael Wallis is not exactly an autobiography of Billy the Kid, or William H. Bonney.

The details on Bonney's life are few and mostly tenuous at best. Wallis does not delve into all the details of Billy Bonney’s life, but gives an overview and hits the high spots of Billy’s life. He concentrates on the West that Bonney lived in.

This book covers the Lincoln County setting and the general mood of the West as much as it covers Billy the Kid. Wallis paints a very good backdrop of Lincoln County and the mood of the country that allowed Billy Bonney to become Billy the Kid.

A complaint that could be made about this book is that it doesn’t cover enough about Bonney. Wallis occasionally spends several pages discussing things not directly related to Bonney. Many books have been written to that point, some more detailed and factual than others.

Wallis does cover the Lincoln County War, and the pursuit and capture of Bill Bonney and his escape from jail and death by Sheriff Pat Garrett that immortalized him as Billy the Kid.

I recommend this book on the following conditions. It gives an entertaining overview and details the time and place William Bonney lived in. It is a good addition to a collection of books on the outlaw. If you want a more detailed biography of Billy the Kid, there are better books for that. This book is good for supplemental information to other books on the subject.