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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.

Peter Maxwell'shouse in 1882. The site is located at Fort Sumner, but the house is long gone today.

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.