Billy the Kid #23

Billy the Kid finds himself framed for murder when a crooked rancher named Ansel Crane orchestrates a false testimony from his hired gunman Lupo Vasquez, resulting in a swift guilty verdict and a life sentence. Refusing to flee as a fugitive, Billy stages a dramatic return to court and forces the judge to hear the real story—one of intimidation, rustling, and a setup designed to eliminate the one man who stood against Crane's tyranny. With the truth finally exposed, Billy must face down Crane and his gang to clear his name once and for all.

Clyde Mason stops Billy the Kid on the trail with a desperate proposition: turn him in for the $300 bounty so his crippled son Danny can afford a life-changing operation in Boston. Billy agrees to help, but when a pair of ruthless rival bounty hunters learn Mason's true identity, the Kid must choose between his promise and protecting the man who trusted him. Caught between his word and his conscience, Billy faces the scorn of townsfolk who'll never know the real reason he became the thing he never wanted to be.

A marshal tracks Christopher C. Conroy across the frontier to recover $31,000 stolen from a hotel safe, only to discover the real thief may be the man who sent him on the job. When Conroy's dangerous friends make the capture anything but straightforward, the marshal must decide whether to follow the law by the book or bend the rules to expose the truth. It's a tense game of wits and fists that tests what an honest lawman will do to catch a dishonest one.

Billy the Kid rides into a canyon standoff to negotiate peace between trapped settlers and Apache warriors, but his efforts to broker a deal are tested when the Apache war chief challenges his nerve—and Billy must prove he's more than just words.