American History Tellers

Billy the Kid has become one of the most iconic figures of the American West. But many details of his life remain unknown or heavily debated among scholars and historians, from his childhood prior to his arrival in New Mexico, to the circumstances surrounding his death.

On this episode, Lindsay speaks with Chris Wimmer, creator and host of Legends of the Old West, a podcast about the outlaws, gunslingers and lawmen who shaped the American frontier. Chris and Lindsay dive deep into the Billy the Kid story, both as portrayed in Hollywood and in the history books, to try to separate truth from fiction and reveal the young man behind the myth.

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With the bloody Lincoln County War finally over, Billy the Kid tried to make a truce with his arch enemy, Jimmy Dolan. But his plan backfired, and he wound up forced to go on the run, implicated in a murder Dolan committed.

Billy’s charm and quick wits kept him just outside the reach of law. But he would soon meet his match. A former bartender turned lawman, Pat Garrett, vowed to capture and kill the Kid at any cost. Garrett’s epic pursuit of Billy the Kid took him through the hills and villages of New Mexico, until their final deadly clash, which would turn the Kid into a legend.

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In 1877, Billy the Kid was saved from a life of crime by a wealthy Englishman named John Tunstall, who saw potential in the teenage outlaw. Soon, however, Billy was drawn into a vicious war between Tunstall and a rival cattle baron, one that would force him to return to his gunslinging ways.

When Tunstall himself was murdered in the escalating Lincoln County War, Billy swore he would get revenge. The violence that followed was shocking even by the standards of the Wild West. The Kid would become a major player in the bloodshed, made infamous by newspapers throughout the country. Ultimately, it would force him to once again flee from the law – and set him on a path towards a showdown with his arch enemy, the ruthless Jimmy Dolan.

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Henry McCarty was born in an Irish slum in New York City in 1859. By the time he died from a lawman’s bullet twenty-one years later in New Mexico, he was notorious throughout the world under a different name: Billy the Kid.

Born to a single, loving mother, young Henry was smart, charming and polite. But he soon faced tragic, devastating setbacks that sent him on a path from robbery to murder. Orphaned at 15, Henry was forced to survive on the western frontier, an unforgiving place where life was cheap. And he would soon become one of the most infamous outlaws in American history.

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The Philippine-American War marked the emergence of America as a global power. But what has been the legacy of the war in the country in which it was fought? How did the war set the stage for Philippine independence, and pave the way for generations of Filipino immigration to the U.S.?

In this episode, Lindsay speaks with Dr. Vicente Rafael, a historian whose work focuses on the colonial and post-colonial Philippines and the country’s relationship with the United States. They’ll discuss the history of the Philippines before, during and after the war, the roles education and language have played in U.S. imperialism, and how the war is remembered – or forgotten – in the Philippines today.

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With the war officially over, William Howard Taft took over authority as the Governor of the Philippines. Taft was a deep believer in the U.S. policy of “benevolent assimilation” and turned to schooling and political attraction to draw Filipinos to his mission. But he continued to struggle with pockets of armed resistance and challenges to American rule, including a series of “seditious” plays that hit Manila’s thriving theater scene.

Filipinos were caught in a country broken by war, and in the coming years, many migrated to the U.S. to look for jobs, education and a better life. Filipino migrants powered the factories, fields and plantations in Hawaii and the West Coast, but they also faced hardship and discrimination in pursuit of the American dream. 

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In March 1901, American forces launched a daring raid to capture the Filipino revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo. Head of U.S. Philippine forces, General Arthur MacArthur, hoped that his surrender would finally break the resistance and bring the war to an end.

But fighting soon expanded to remote areas of the country. Frustrated with the stubborn resistance, America’s military leaders turned to increasingly harsher measures to crush the enemy. But accounts of atrocities by U.S. soldiers soon filled newspapers at home, reigniting public debate about the war, prompting court martials, and sparking a Congressional hearing into the abuses.

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In 1898, America’s victory over Spanish forces in the Philippines suddenly thrust the United States onto the global stage. It also drew the country into a more complicated conflict with the very people it claimed to be liberating.

As the U.S. expanded its occupation of the Philippines, American soldiers drove Filipino rebels deeper into the countryside. Some rebels began to question the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, the face of the Philippine independence movement. In response, Aguinaldo attempted to consolidate power and shift his strategy toward guerilla warfare, setting both nations on a path towards more violence and conflict.

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On February 4th, 1899, war broke out between the United States and the Philippines. The two nations had begun as allies against Spain the previous year, during the Spanish-American War. The Spanish had occupied the Philippines for three centuries, and the U.S. arrived promising to drive out the European colonial power. But after the Spanish left, the Americans stayed, in defiance of widespread calls for Philippine independence.

America’s bloody war in the Philippines was the nation’s first major overseas conflict. It spanned the tumultuous early years of the 20th century and shaped the political destiny of Teddy Roosevelt, who began the war as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and ended it as President. And it marked the emergence of the United States as a true global power. But the war divided Americans and came at great cost to the people of the Philippines.

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Not every case of treason is open and shut. With some accused traitors, questions of their guilt or innocence can linger for generations. That’s certainly the case with Mary Surratt. Even before she was hanged in 1865 for her alleged role in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, many argued that she was an innocent widow convicted on false testimony. After her death, she became a martyr to the Confederate cause. To this day, Civil War scholars are divided on whether or not she was an active participant in the Lincoln plot.

On this episode, Lindsay speaks with author and historian Kate Clifford Larson. Her book The Assassin’s Accomplice attempts to debunk many of the myths surrounding Surratt and the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. They’ll discuss not only Surratt, but our general fascination with traitors and their stories of duplicity and betrayal.

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