The only authenticated photograph of Billy the Kid, AKA William H. Bonney, sold at auction over the weekend for a huge amount of money. Ah, the lure of the old Wild West. It’s still intriguing 130 years on.
This video was in advance of the auction, and the anchor was astonished to hear that bidding was set to start at $400,000 and possibly go as high as $1 million.
The solitary picture of Billy the Kid ended up being bought for a whopping $2.3 million, and someone now owns an integral part of the history of the Wild West and of America as a whole.
I’m a little uncomfortable with the way we seem to venerate killers and criminals. The same is true of mob bosses and notorious gangsters. But it isn’t as though Billy the Kid himself is profiting from this sale.
