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Yep: Billy the Kid was one of the most famous outlaws in the Wild West. When Billy was just fifteen, he went to jail for stealing some butter -- but he was so skinny, he managed to escape from the jailhouse by climbing UP the chimney! Sort of a backwards Santa Claus thing. For the next six years, Billy the Kid was the meanest outlaw in the Wild West -- until Sheriff Pat Garrett shot him dead. At the age of 21, Billy the Kid’s short and nasty life was over.
Aaron Copland was so fascinated by this Wild West story that he wrote the music for a whole ballet about “Billy the Kid.”