For some reason I became re-interested in Billy the Kid. I guess I became aware of Billy as a kid learning about the lawmen and outlaws of the west. As the author makes clear in his book, there was little to differentiate the outlaws from the lawmen.After looking at many website, I decided to buy this book. I am glad I did. The primary focus of the book is to debunk two "pretenders" of Billy the Kid. These two individuals claimed to be Billy and lived far beyond 1881, when Pat Garrett allegedly shot Billy to death.The author does a very nice job explaining in detail why these two claimants asserted their claims (either individually or others on their behalf). He also painstaking debunks their claims utilizing hard facts.The book is well written and very interesting. Anyone interested in Billy the Kid or that genre of American History would enjoy it.I just finished reading "Billy the Kid - His Real Name Was" This a a fresh approach to the subject and is brief and to the point. The book is well written and easy to read. The author provides a lot of new information based on real research, rather than relying on what other writers assume to be the truth. The book suggests the possibilty that William H. Bonney and William McCarty may have been different people. This makes sense because there may have been many people nicknamed "Billy the Kid" in the old west. Take, for example, "Billy the Kid Claiborne" of Tombstone fame. It seemed popular in those days to name young cowboys "The Kid." The author encourages the reader to make his own decision as to who Billy the Kid really was and encourages further research.I have enjoyed reading this book, and the different perspective it offers as to the question of "who was Billy the Kid?". The only reason I could not give it a higher rating is that I did find in on occasion to be hard to follow at times. The main cause of this is that the author would some times drop off the last name of people involved at the start of a new section, making it hard to know at times which "Joe" or "John" they were reffering to. Other than that I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the legends of Billy the Kid.Thank you! Exactly as advertised. I appreciate the quick shipping.I'm a fan and the author makes a good point of Billy surviving but I don't think he did survive. I've read another story of Billy surviving, but still, I don't think it happened. It could have happened, but I've read too many other things that in reality don't make it so.One of the very few well researched books about two men who skeptics believe might be Billy the Kid. A must read if you want to know the truth about Brushy Bill Roberts and John Miller.ExcellentJim Johnson has taken a refreshingly new approach to Brushy Bill Roberts and John Miller. He's written the truth, which he backs up with documentation. To my knowledge, no other author has ever published a true and accurate account of either Brushy Bill or John Miller. Such an account was a long time coming, but Jim has done it. He has laid them both to rest. John Miller would have appreciated Jim's work since John, himself, never claimed to be Billy the Kid. A couple of other key players in the Brushy saga, who I'm sure appreciated it in life, were Maryln Bowlin and Geneva Pittmon. In 1987, Mrs. Maryln Perez Bowlin and her husband, Joe Bowlin, founded the BTKOG to combat all the Brushy Bill lore that had and was continuing to be published. In December of that same year, they recieved a letter from Mrs. Geneva Pittmon, a niece of Brushy Bill. The letter ended with, "I would also like for this to be settled as I know my uncle Oliver was not Billy the Kid." Geneva was the daughter of Brushy's closest brother, Thomas Ulysses Roberts. Geneva had lived near Brushy from the day she was born until Brushy moved to Hico five years before his death. Geneva's letter should have been the final nail in Brushy's coffin. But as we know it wasn't. Instead Geneva was portrayed by the Brushy crowd as his "spiteful" niece who was only a child when Brushy died and therefore couldn't have really known anything. Geneva was actually 32 years old when Brushy died and there is no evidence she was the least bit spiteful. If she had been spiteful, she probably would have burned down a certain red museum on the outskirts of Canton where she lived her whole adult life. Geneva's story is presented in Jim's book. However, the part of her story, that is not mentioned by Jim, is the date of her death. That's because she was still living when Jim's book was published. Geneva died in Canton, Van Zandt Co., Texas on 26 November 2008 at the age of 90. She was fondly remembered in her obit as the "Blue Willow Lady." Less than a month later, Maryln Perez Bowlin died on 21 December 2008 in Albuquerque. Maryln, with the help of Geneva, were the first to crack open the door and let a little sunlight shine into Brushy's world. Jim has kicked that door down! And he did it when Maryln and Geneva were still around to enjoy it. Jim's chapter on John Miller is probably my favorite. It is also completely factual. John Miller never claimed to be Billy the Kid. A certain author made that claim for him long after his death. Miller was a most interesting character in his own right. Unlike Brushy Bill, Miller was a real cowboy with a fascinating youth - "raised by the Indians."