The fictions continue.
The first man Billy killed was F. P. Cahill, at Ft. Grant (Pima Co.,AZ), 1877. According to the Tucson Citizen (copied in the Grant County Herald), Cahill (before he died the next day) said he had some trouble with Antrim (Billy) and bad words were exchanged. The coroner's jury found that the shooting was unjustifiable and that "Henry Antrin, alias Kid, is guilty thereof."
Billy went to Georgetown (near Silver City, NM) where he met John P. Kinney, later an opponent in the Lincoln County War. It was at this time that Henry Antrim adopted the alias of William H. Bonney (Keleher, Violence in Lincoln County, p. 311). In 1878, the Grant County Herald ran a squib which read "'Kid' Antrim's real name is W. H. McCarty."

The killing of Brady (see previous post) finally came to trial in 1881, at Mesilla. The case of the "Territory of New Mexico vs. John Middleton, Hendry Brown, William Bonney, alias Kid, alias William Antrim," charged the defendants with the murder of William Brady at Lincoln in 1878. The Judge, Warren H. Bristol, had been a friend of Brady's and a Dolan-Riley partisan. Two attorneys were appointed to defend Billy. These lawyers submitted their written defense to Judge Bristol, who refused to submit it to the jury, but gave them nine pages of his own handwritten instructions. Billy was found guilty of murder in the first degree.

Billy said, in an interview with the Mesilla News, April 15, "Well, I had intended at one time not to say a word in my own behalf because persons would say, "Oh, he lied." Feelings were still running high in New Mexico. ...If mob law is going to rule, better dismiss judge and sheriff and let all take chances alike.. I expect to be lynched in going to Lincoln. Advise persons never to engage in a killing."
"Considering the active part Governor Wallace took on our side and the friendly relations that existed between him and me, and the promise he made me, I think he ought to pardon me. Dont know that he will do it. When I was arrested for that murder he let me out and gave me the freedom of the town, and let me go about with my arms. When I got ready to leave Lincoln in June, 1879, I left. I think it hard that I should be the only one to suffer the extreme penalty of the law."
May 13, 1881 was set as the day for the hanging, at Lincoln. Governor Wallace had signed the death warrant April 30. But on April 28, Bonney killed his guards, Bell and Ollinger, and escaped.

Another fiction about Billy was that he was illiterate. A number of his letters survive. This is one he wrote on April 15, 1881, from jail in Mesilla, probably his last, to Edgar Caypless, an attorney in Santa Fe who had acted for him: "I would have written before this but could get no paper. My United States case was thrown out of court and I was rushed to trial on my Territorial charge. Was convicted of murder in the first degree and I am to be hanged on the 13th day of May. Mr. A. J. Fountain was appointed to defend me and has done the best he could for me. He is willing to carry the case further if I can raise the money to bear his expense. The mare (Billy's horse) is about all I can depend on at present, we hope you will settle the case right away and give him the money you get for her. If you do not settle the matter with Scott Moore and have to go to court about it, either give him the mare or sell her at auction and give him the money. I know you will do the best you can for me in this. I shall be taken to Lincoln tomorrow. Please write, and direct care of Garrett, sheriff. Excuse bad writing. I have my handcuffs on. I remain as ever, Yours respectfully, W. H. Bonney."