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.

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.

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

What historical places have you visited? Or would you like to visit?

Resource: THE CALAMITY PAPERS: Western Myths and Cold Cases by Dale L. Walker

Further reading:

http://www.southernnewmexico.com/Articles/Southwest/Dona_Ana/ThedeathofPatGarrett.html

http://www.angelfire.com/nm/boybanditking/pageGarrett.html

http://cjmlawyer.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/the-death-of-pat-garrett-self-defense-or-cold-blooded-murder-2/ 

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-patgarrett.html

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