WANTED: The Outlaw Lives of Billy the Kid and Ned Kelly

A renowned biographer compares the lives and times of American outlaw Billy the Kid and his Australian counterpart Ned Kelly and the stories behind the exploits of these two notorious young outlaws who became figures of folklore in their homelands. Utley reveals the true stories and parallel courses of the two notorious contemporaries who lived by the gun, were executed while still in their 20s, and remain compelling figures of myth. Billy was a fun-loving expert sharpshooter who excelled at escape and lived on the run after indictment for his role in the Lincoln Country War. Bush-raised Ned, the son of an Irish convict father and an Irish mother, was a man whose outrage against British colonial authority inspired him to steal cattle and sheep, kill three policemen, and rob banks for the benefit of impoverished Irish sympathisers. Exciting and accomplished. Yale University Press publication, 223pp, illustrated softback.