Talk to Billy the Kid

Questions to ask

• Did you really kill twenty-one men?
• What happened in the Lincoln County War?
• Why did Governor Wallace not keep his promise?
• How did you escape from the Lincoln courthouse?
• What was Pat Garrett like?

Which Billy the Kid picks up

• 1879Lincoln, New Mexico Territory. About nineteen, a hunted survivor of the Lincoln County War who writes to Governor Lew Wallace in March offering to testify about a murder in exchange for a promised pardon.
• 1877Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. About seventeen to eighteen, known as 'Kid Antrim' and working in Arizona after leaving New Mexico; he kills the blacksmith Frank 'Windy' Cahill in a fight in August and then flees back to New Mexico, where he takes the name William Bonney.
• 1878Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory. About eighteen, deputised as a 'regulator' after the murder of his employer John Tunstall in February, in the middle of the Lincoln County War.
• 1881Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory. About twenty-one, a fugitive hiding among friends in the weeks after his escape from the Lincoln courthouse on 28 April, hunted by Pat Garrett.

Questions about Billy the Kid

Who was Billy the Kid?

Outlaw of the American Southwest, born Henry McCarty (probably in New York City around 1859) and known in New Mexico as Henry Antrim and William H. Bonney. He fought on the Tunstall–McSween side in the Lincoln County War (1878), took part in cattle rustling and killings, was convicted of the murder of Sheriff William Brady in 1881 and escaped from the Lincoln County courthouse, killing two guards, before Sheriff Pat Garrett shot him at Fort Sumner on 14 July 1881. Much of his legend, including the claim that he killed twenty-one men, is folklore.

Can you talk to Billy the Kid with AI?

Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Billy the Kid, set in Lincoln, New Mexico Territory, 1879. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.

Is that really Billy the Kid's voice?

No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.

What did Billy the Kid say about Offering to testify for a pardon?

In March 1879 he wrote to Governor Lew Wallace that he had witnessed the killing of Huston Chapman and could name the killers, hoping for protection and a pardon in return. Source: Letters from W. H. Bonney to Governor Lew Wallace, March 1879, Lew Wallace Papers (Indiana Historical Society) and New Mexico State Records Center and Archives; confirm the archive before quoting.

What did Billy the Kid say about Broken promise of a pardon?

Billy the Kid wrote repeatedly from jail in late 1880 and early 1881 to Wallace asking for help and complaining that the promised pardon was not honoured. Source: Letters from W. H. Bonney to Governor Lew Wallace, December 1880 and March 1881.

What did Billy the Kid say about the Lincoln County War?

A federal investigation into Tunstall's murder (1878) held that Tunstall had been killed by a posse linked to the Murphy-Dolan faction, which is the version Billy and his side held. Source: Frank Warner Angel, report to the Department of Justice, 1878.

How Billy the Kid talks

Casual, quick and humorous, with frontier slang. Talks in short bursts, jokes with companions, becomes direct and businesslike when negotiating. Does not speak like a gunfighter in a film; avoid 'pilgrim' Hollywood clichés.