Billy the Kid: The Story - The Trial

The Story of the Lincoln County War and the part Billy the Kid played in it. The book not only contains the story of the conflict but also copies of the original court documents pertaining to his trial in Mesilla in 1881. The author discovered these documents in 1969 stored in a small, dusty cardboard box at the Doa Ana County Court Clerk's office in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where they had been misplaced since the 1881 trial. This book isn't like any of the other Billy the Kid books. The court records record a much different story than most of the other books on the subject. It includes a index of dates which allow a person to better understand how the many dfferent stories fit into a saga that lasted for over five years. It has been voted as being the best place to start when attempting to study the life and times of Billy the Kid.

Randy Russell was raised in New Mexico and graduated from high school in Ruidoso, New Mexico, a small mountain community located in Lincoln County, approximately 20 miles southwest of the village of Lincoln. His writings on the subject of Billy the Kid have been described as authoritative, unembellished, and educational. Having lived most of his life in the area where the Kid actually roamed, his perspective is much different than most other authors on the subject.