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Pat Garrett - Page 2

 

Old West Prints & Wanted Posters

 

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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.

 

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.

 

 

Peter Maxwell's house in 1882

Peter Maxwell's house in 1882. The site is located at Fort Sumner,

but the house is long gone today.

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 Adamsson on in January, 1908 to see if he might be interested in buying his ranch. However, when he neared Adam's home, Carl's wife, Amanda, ordered him from the property at gunpoint.

 

However, Adamson and Garrett met later and agreed on the sale. But, Wayne 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. Also implicated in the killing was hired assassin, Killin' Jim Miller because Carl Adamson, who was married to a cousin of Jim Miller's wife,
Sallie. However, most historians deem this unlikely.

 

 

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 January, 2011.

 

 

Pat Garrett in 1906

Pat Garrett in 1906.

 

Pat Garrett

Pat Garrett

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

 

Sheriff Pat Garett

Sheriff Pat Garrett

 

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From the Rocky Mountain General Store

 

Great American Bars and Saloons by kathy WeiserGreat 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. Hardcover, 2006, 224 Pages. Signed by the author!!

 

 

 

 

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