Outlaw hit and killed by fragments (5,3,3)

I believe the answer is:

billy the kid

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'outlaw' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'hit and killed by fragments' is the wordplay.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'fragments' indicates an anagram (the fragments are put back together differently).
'killed'+'by'='killedby'
'hit' put after 'killedby' is 'killedbyhit'.
'killedbyhit' is an anagram of 'BILLY THE KID'.

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I've seen this clue in The Times.

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