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Hate to say it, but Billy the Kid was glorified from the beginning by the era's mass media: dime novels, ballads, and the theatre ("Billy the Kid" by Walter Woods opened August 13, 1906 in NYC and ran for 12 seasons, not to mention the endless tours through the provinces.) This country has always glorified criminals and made heroes out of cold-blooded murderers. I would like to see us grow out of this, but it's obvious growing up is not something this population is good at.

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Well said. Not to mention Kris Kristofferson's earlier role as Billy. But, more to the point that these depictions of social misfits as any less eventually shapes the narrative. And, leads to moronic "conservative" politicians insisting on teaching history as they knew (and like) it.

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Oct 30, 2023·edited Oct 30, 2023

First...You need to read some actual history. All of the personal qualities you listed as the way BTK was portrayed on screen, is indeed how he really was. Read Billy the kid: A short and violent life. He is described as just that.

Secondly, the killings the Kid was accredited with were at a time of war. What happened during the Lincoln County situation was indeed war. His people were being killed by The Murphey / Dolan faction, starting the war. The Kid was a soldier defending his friends against an group of attackers. Not taking the actions of the other side of a war into account when condemning the actions of someone involved just shows your uneducated mentality.

And lending any credit to Pat Garret for his description of the Kid is absurd. Pat Garret was a criminal in his own right. His book was an autobiography written to boost his ego as he was taking heat for shooting an unarmed Billy. Garret was a coward and a murderer himself, but yes, lets take his account of what Billy was actually like.

Lastly, describing people who know history and admire Billy the Kid for what he was, a warrior, as incels and potential mass shooters, shows just how moronic, uneducated, and pathetic you are. Maybe you should study history before you go spewing your modernistic, liberal BS.

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As I'm sure you know James Dean was slated to play Billy the Kid in 'The Left Handed Gun' -the part went to Paul Newman after Dean's death. And as much as I love and respect Paul Newman I would have been so intrigued to see Dean's version of The Left Handed Gun.

There are the photos of Dean drawing a gun in black jeans, gun holster, and what looks like a denim shirt by friend and photographer Sandford Roth. In addition Dean also talked about wanting to make a film himself about Billy the Kid. In both Don Spoto's 'Rebel' and Ronald Martinetti's the 'James Dean Story', the authors mentioned that Dean wanted to make a film about the outlaw that didn't 'glorify' him but wanted to portray him honestly and not as a romantic hero.

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