People remember history with more passion than precision. The story of Billy the Kid, as the outlaw William Bonney is called, has been mythologised more than most. There used to be a museum in White’s City, New Mexico, with a sign that read: “We don’t have the gun that killed Billy the Kid. Two other museums have it.” In the course of a “cattle war” in Lincoln County, New Mexico, around 1880, Bonney murdered at least nine people – 21 if you get your history from Woody Guthrie’s ballads – but in the American historical imagination he retains a romantic glow.
人们更多地是用激情、而非真相来铭记历史。比利小子(Billy the Kid)——歹徒威廉•邦尼(William Bonney)的绰号——的故事比大多数故事更具传奇色彩。在新墨西哥的白色之城(White’s City)，曾经有一个博物馆的告示牌上写着：“我们没有杀死比利小子的枪，另外两个博物馆有。”在1880年前后发生在新墨西哥林肯县的“牧牛战争”中，邦尼至少杀死了9人——如果你是从伍迪•格思里(Woody Guthrie)的民歌中了解这段历史，那就是21个人——但在美国的历史形象中，邦尼保留着浪漫主义色彩。