Billy the Kid still rides through the Old West of the American imagination: part reality, part myth; part outlaw and part instrument of justice; part hero and part homicidal maniac. John Vernon’s fictionalized account of Billy the Kid’s life starts with the only known photograph of the man, probably taken around 1880, when Henry McCarty (his birth name) would have been around 20, and a year before he was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Vernon describes the man in the picture as “draggle-tailed.” With his buck teeth and heavy-lidded eyes he looks, to me, undernourished, detached and slightly deranged, as if only dimly aware of where he is and what he’s doing.

LUCKY BILLY

By John Vernon

Ben Macintyre’s books include “Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal” and “The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief.”