William H. Bonney went from cowboy and gunslinger to pure outlawry. On the one hand, he was charming, fun-loving - often at social events like dances. On the other hand, he had no compunction to coldly kill a man, and anyone else who got in his way. He also proved hard to keep in jail even when caught. It is probably his feats of derring-do escaping from jails that made him most famous and it is the main subject of this biography which follows him until he is finally found and shot in the dead of night.