The Mysterious Mother of Billy the Kid

 October 9, 2020

   She is somehow completely lost in the mists of time, but looking back from our current bizarre, pandemic perspective, she looms like the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

What passes for the visage of

Catherine McCarty Antrim.

   This has been published countless times as being the only authentic image, but I have never quite believed this to be a real "tintype" image of Billy the Kid's mom. It seems a tad precious, or created to achieve a certain, specific look (that somehow comes across as generic!).

   Personally, I'd like to see just a pinch of pain, or, resolve in her face, like this:

Daily Whip Out Rough:

"Heaven Help Her, She Tried to Raise

Two Irish lads On The Frontier"

   Needs work, but you get my drift. I can also see her out on the prairie with her two boys clinging to her skirts, like this. . .

Daily Whip Out Rough:

"Clinging to Mama's Skirt"

   Of course I don't want to go too far out on a limb because in the end it ruins the mystery if everything's explained. I'm on the hunt for the authentic, but mysterious mother of Billy the Kid.

   Wish me luck.

"Courage waits; fear goes searching."
—Jose Bergamin