Here’s a famous photograph of the notorious “outlaw,”
William Bonney, known as “Billy the Kid.”
He carries a rifle in his right hand, and his colt revolver on his left
hip, indicating that he was left-handed.
Pretty much “everybody knows" this. It’s a cherished part of sacred wild west lore. In
1958, Paul Newman was (mis)cast to portray Bonney in the bio-pic “The
Left-Handed Gun.”
The thing is, it ain’t so.
The image is from a
tintype, one of two almost identical images taken of The Kid in 1880. The
original of one was lost. The other was discovered in 1986.
A tintype is a reverse image.
William Bonney was NOT left-handed.
Just a reminder that sometimes what "everybody knows" is dead wrong, and a cautionary word to those who religiously strive to emulate bizarre, awkward and unlikely poses found in some centuries-old fencing books.
aac
