Cowboys are known as bad-boys, but what happens when the bad-boy is also the law in town? What is it about these contradictions that make small town sheriffs, Texas Rangers and ex-outlaws-turned-lawmen so irresistible? Whether you write or love to read about the Wild West or modern day Montana, what do you love most about lawmen who are also cowboys? And what makes them so gosh-darn sexy?
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Pat Garrett: Folk Hero and Murder Victim
On July 14, 1881 Pat Garrett shot and killed famed outlaw
Billy-the-Kid. He became an instant celebrity, but his reputation as a drunk,
gambler and debtor eventually overshadowed his claim to fame, climaxing with
Garrett’s own death by murder.
Pat Garrett
Following the killing of William Bonney, Garrett wrote a book that
helped to spread the folk-hero story many know today. However, over the three
decades after the killing, Garrett’s life was a series of failed business
ventures, gambling debts and numerous embarrassing moments.
In 1898, he somehow managed to acquire a 160 acre ranch in Doña
Ana County, New Mexico. In 1902, he mortgaged the land to Las Cruces, NM
businessman Martin Lohman. Eventually, Lohman tired of carrying the unpaid
mortgaged and he sold it to W.W. Cox, who owned a ranch adjacent to Garrett’s.
Cox neither wanted nor needed the land, so he never called in the mortgage and
did actually help Garrett several times to avoid foreclosure on the land and
seizure of his cattle. Garrett lived on the homestead, even though he had
technically given up the right by not paying the mortgage.
The events leading
to Garrett’s death started innocently enough in 1907, when Garrett’s son Dudley
leased part of the property to Jesse Wayne Brazel. In reality, Dudley didn’t
have the right to lease any property, because it was owned by Cox who held the
lien. Cox, however, didn’t protest the lease, and, in fact, helped financed
Brazel’s goat herd. The lease and goat herd, however, infuriated Garrett, who
still thought of the land as his own.
Pat Garrett and wife, Apolinaria Gutierrez Garrett
In January 1908,
Garrett was presented with a proposition that would pay off his mortgage and
get him back on his feet financially. James B. Miller, a former Texas Ranger,
now a cattleman an hired assassin (who by the way, didn’t smoke, drink or cheat
on his wife), offered Garrett $3,000 to 1) sell part of his land to Miller, who
would then fatten his newly bought cattle before driving them to Oklahoma and
2) have Garrett drive the cattle to Oklahoma.
There was,
however, one small problem to this financial windfall: Brazel and his goats.
A February 1908
meeting between Garrett, Miller and Brazel settled the problem when Miller
agreed to buy the 1,200 goats for $3.50 a head. A few weeks later, however,
Brazel informed the duo that he had miss-counted. He had 1,800 goats and Miller
would need to buy them all or the deal was off.
Miller didn’t want
any goats, let alone an extra 600, but he agreed to a second meeting to see if
things could be worked out to seal the deal.
On February 29th,
Garrett and Miller’s brother-in-law headed out from the ranch to Las Cruces and
the meeting. Somewhere along the road, Brazil met up with them and rode along
side their wagon on horseback. Words were exchanged and later testimony would
declare that Garrett was very enraged by the current situation and cussed at
Brazil, as well as threatening to get him and his goats off the land.
Shortly, Garrett pulled the wagon to the side of the road, got
out, walked to the back of the wagon and proceeded to urinate. With his back to
Brazel, a glove in his shooting hand and his fly open, Garrett was shot in the
back of the head, dead before he hit the ground. For good measure, he was then
shot in the shoulder.
Brazil rushed into town and confessed the shooting to the sheriff,
claiming he shot in ‘self-defense.’ Miller’s brother-in-law backed up Brazil’s
claim.
On April 19, 1909, Brazil was tried for murdering Garrett. After
fifteen minutes of deliberations, the jury found him not guilty. As author Dale
M. Walker puts it in THE CALAMITY PAPERS, the jury “divined that shooting a man
in the head and back, a man who was urinating with his back turned to his
assailant, was ‘self-defense.’”
There have been many speculations as to why Garrett was killed,
including one claiming Cox had him murdered for the mortgaged land. This makes
no sense, however, as Cox already owned the land due to the lien and could have
foreclosed on the property at any time during the previous decade. The most
likely scenario, however, is what actually happened. “The two men argued
bitterly, and when Garrett turned his back, Brazel took the safe way out and
shot him. It was simply a case of hate and fear erupting into murder along a
lonely New Mexico back road,” Leon Metz relayed in an interview in with Dale
Walker.
Pat Garrett was
buried in the Odd Fellow Cemetery in Las Cruces on March 5, 1908.
I found this story
on Pat Garrett’s death interesting, because I lived in Las Cruces, NM and most
likely travelled the road on which he was murdered. However, I don’t recall my
family visiting Garrett’s grave or me being aware of the story during my time
living there. ~AKL
Resource: THE
CALAMITY PAPERS: Western Myths and Cold Cases by Dale L. Walker
Further reading:
This post first appeared on Sweethearts of the West blog on 10/8/10.
Blurb:
The hot dusty town of Salvation, Texas has more than its share
of secrets in 1873 when Laura Ashton's stage rolls into town. Sheriff David
Slade has no idea what baggage his mail-order bride is bringing into his
life. Throw in the nightmares from his Civil War days and he's got more than
courting to contend with. Laura's a woman ahead of her time, a woman trained
in medicine. And she's got a will that could move mountains. Unfortunately,
the only mountains in Salvation are in Sheriff Slade's memory. Can the
determined doctor heal his pain, or will the dark secret in her past turn up
to steal his Salvation Bride?
Learn more at:
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***PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO QUALIFY***
Grand Prize: At least a $100 Gift Card for Amazon or Barnes and Noble, your choice. The winner will be chosen at random from comments containing email addresses, and will be announced on May 7. This is open to both US and international readers.
My prize: eBook copy of SALVATION BRIDE.
My prize: eBook copy of SALVATION BRIDE.
Whether you write or love to read about the Wild West or modern day Montana, what do you love most about lawmen who are also cowboys? And what makes them so gosh-darn sexy?
