Teacher's Guide

Procedure

• Finding the Real Billy the Kid (one class period) - analyze different perspectives about Billy the Kid
• Introduction to American Memory (one class period) - learn strategies for searching American Memory
• Analyzing Primary Documents (one class period) - learn how to analyze interviews related to Billy the Kid
• Conducting and Using Oral Interviews (one class period) - analyze several interviews from American Memory related to Billy the Kid

Evaluation

Assign students to write a minimum 600-word analytical essay on the real Billy the Kid to include the facts and myths associated with him. A bibliography and documentation are required. Students must use a minimum of three interviews from the American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940. The primary accounts should be compared/contrasted with accounts from a printed source by one or more respected writers such as Jon Tuska, Joseph G. Rosa, Robert M. Utley, Marshall Fishwick, Stephen Tatum, etc.

Suggested sources:

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 - 1940

Do a search for Billy the Kid and read the following interviews:

• "Billy the Kid" (an interview with Francisco Trujillo)
• "Louis Bousman"
• "Mrs. Ella Davidson"

Do a search for the Lincoln County War and then read the following interview:

• "Early Days in Lincoln Country" (an interview with Mrs. A.E.Lesnett)

Flaherty, Thomas H., ed. The Wild West. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1993.

Rosa, Joseph G. The Gunfighter: Man or Myth? Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.

Rosa, Joseph G. Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons on the Frontier. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.

Trachtman, Paul. The Gunfighters. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1974.

Utley, Robert M. Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991.

Utley, Robert M. High Noon in Lincoln Violence on the Western Frontier. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.

Extension

1. Interview one or more of the following people: college history professor, museum official, officials of a state/local historical society, high school U.S. history teachers, local writers, etc. and compare/contrast their impressions of Billy the Kid with the impressions of selected people who were interviewed for American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.

2. Compare/contrast other gunfighters with Billy the Kid by using interviews from the American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940. Students can compare/contrast: geographic locations, family background, expertise with weapons, key events in the lives of the gunfighters, personality traits, occupations, cause of death, historical significance, etc. For example, students can perform a word search for Wild Bill Hickok and examine the interviews with "Ed Granthan", F.J. Elliott" and "John Freeman". These interviews can be compared/contrasted with interviews related to Billy the Kid.

3. A social studies teacher and an English/literature teacher can develop an interdisciplinary activity. The English teacher can discuss the mechanics of writing short stories, poems, etc. The social studies teacher could then have students write their own short story, dime store novel, poem, etc. about Billy the Kid. Possible resources: O. Henry's short story about Billy titled "The Caballero's Way"; dime store novels such as Frank Tousey's "The True Life of Billy the Kid", Edmund Fable Jr.'s "Billy the Kid, the New Mexican Outlaw"; Will Henry's "A Bullet for Billy the Kid", a short story contained in his collection titled Sons of the Western Frontier (1966), and Amelia Bean's novel, Time for Outrage (1967).