I think what gives Billy some of his enduring appeal must be his solitariness.

He had no tribe like Crazy Horse, or political allegiance like Bloody Bill Anderson to sustain him. Even the Earps, who reputedly left Dodge because 'the snap' was going out of the place with encroaching civiliastion can be seen as part of something greater. Casey Terfertiller seems to trace the schism of Republican and Democrat philosophy to the OK Corral.

Billy, I think, will always be symbolise as Kerouac put it; a time in America when all kinds of freedom was there for everybody.