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Pat Garrett - An Unlucky Lawman
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Though the New Mexican newspaper said,
“…Sheriff
Garrett is the
hero of the hour," most people in the area saw him as a villain for having
killed a favorite son. Although he had put his life on the line for his
community, he lost the next election for sheriff of Lincoln County.
Garrett then turned to ranching
and began to write a book about
Billy the Kid. Published in 1882,
The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, the Noted Desperado of the Southwest,
didn’t sell well as eight books had already beat him to the press.
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Peter Maxwell'shouse
in 1882. The site is located at
Fort Sumner, but the house is long gone today. |
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In 1884,
Garrett
ran for
New Mexico
state senator where he again lost the election. Fed up,
Garrett
moved his family to Tascosa,
Texas
where he became captain of the LS
Texas Rangers.
However, this role would not last long, as
Garrett quit within just a few weeks and
returned to
southeastern
New Mexico,
this time to
Roswell.
In 1890 he ran for sheriff of the newly
created Chaves County. However, when he lost, he bitterly left
New Mexico
once again, living in Uvalde,
Texas,
where he raised and raced horses for several years.
In 1899,
Garrett purchased a ranch in the
San Andres Mountains of
New Mexico
and in October, he was appointed sheriff of Dona Ana County,
New Mexico.
His family stayed on the ranch while
Pat worked in Las Cruces, Mesilla
and Dona Ana.
On December 16, 1901, President Theodore
Roosevelt, infatuated by gunfighters in the West, appointed
Pat Garrett as a United States Customs
Collector at El Paso,
Texas.
However, it was a controversial appointment and when his term was over in
1905, Roosevelt refused to reappoint him.
Garrett and
his family returned to the ranch only to find
Garrett in
the midst of financial difficulties due to back taxes and liability for a
loan he had co-signed for a friend.
.
Becoming increasingly morose over the
situation, he began to drink and gamble too much. However, still trying to
make a living, he started a new horse breeding operation.
To help with his financial problems,
Garrett
leased part of his land to a man named
Wayne Brazel who was to
graze cattle upon the land. However, he soon found that
Brazel had brought in
several thousand goats, which were considered to be even worse than sheep,
as far as cattlemen were concerned.
Owing money to many people in the
Roswell
area,
Garrett
desperately approached a another rancher named Carl Adamson in January,
1908 to see if he might be interested in buying his ranch. However, when
he neared Adamson's home, Carl's wife, Amanda, ordered him from the
property at gunpoint.
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However, Adamson and
Garrett met
later and agreed on the sale. But,
Brazel refused to break his
five year lease unless
Garrett
bought his goats. Brazel
and
Garrett made
the deal, but soon Brazel
wanted even more money. Though angry,
Garrett
finally agreed to Brazel's
terms.
On February 29, 1908,
Garrett and
Adamson were in a buckboard bound for Las Cruces, where they would meet
Brazel to close the deal.
On the way, Brazel caught
up with them and as words grew heated, Adamson threatened to back out of
the purchase. Afterwards,
Brazel rode on while
Garrett and
Adamson continued in the buckboard.
Just miles outside of Las Cruces, they
stopped the wagon and while Adamson was relieving himself off the back of
the buckboard, three shots rang out. Pat
Garrett lay dead. Adamson left his body in the desert and continued on
to Las Cruces. Once there, Adamson swore he never saw who shot
Garrett and
Brazel confessed to the
shooting, claiming it was self-defense.
When the body was retrieved, numerous
cigarette butts were found off the trail, indicating that someone had been
waiting for them. This led to the belief that the shooting was an obvious
conspiracy, involving two more people. Allegedly,
Brazel took the "fall" for
the murder because he was single.
While
Garrett's
remains lay in the undertaker’s parlor, dozens of gawkers came to see the
man who had killed
Billy the Kid. On March 5, 1908,
he was buried in Las Cruces,
New Mexico.
Brazel was later tried; however, he was acquitted of the crime.
Controversy still exists over whether
Garrett's
murder was a conspiracy in order to gain his land or if it was just simply
the dispute with an irate
Brazel.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America,
updated June, 2008
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Pat
Garrett in 1906.
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Pat
Garrett
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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Sheriff Pat
Garrett
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Great American Bars and Saloons
By
Kathy Weiser
Owner/Editor of Legends of America
Kathy Weiser's first venture into the publishing world takes you into the
many watering holes of America's past, particularly the numerous
saloons
that sprouted up during our nation's
Wild West
days. This great
photographic review displays hundreds of
vintage photographs from
California
to
Arizona, the mining camps of
Colorado, all the way to New
York and its turbulent days of
Prohibition.
A coffee-table book with kick.
Hardcover, 2006, 224 pages.
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