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VARIOUS VERSIONS OF PAT GARRETT'S DEMISE
Patrick Floyd Garrett, Sheriff of Lincoln County, New
Mexico. From the photo collection of Richard Weddle.
Don Bullis of Rio Rancho, New Mexico is author of
several fiction and non-fiction books, and a columnist for two newspapers. He also
electronically publishes the New Mexico Historical Notebook. He wrote and published the
following pieces and articles in several NM Historical Notebook issues--in March
and April 2006. They are republished here with his permission. (Because they were separately
published, Bullis begins each article with a brief introduction to the case,
giving the official version of Garrett's murder.)
These pieces pertain to the murder of Sheriff Patrick Floyd Garrett in 1908 near Las Cruces.
Bullis provides, and annotates, the different versions of that shooting
published in various sources. Sheriff Pat Garrett is best known for
shooting Billy the Kid Bonney in Fort Sumner in 1881.
All of the following pieces and articles
were written and published by Don Bullis in his New Mexico Historical Notebook.
NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL NOTEBOOK
by Don Bullis
DID YOU KNOW ...
A petty criminal named Carl Adamson (1856-1919) was present when
former Lincoln and Dona Ana County Sheriff Patrick Floyd Garrett was murdered on
February 29, 1908 near Las Cruces. Adamson had previously served prison time for
smuggling Chinese people into the United States from Mexico. There were, and
perhaps are, people who believe that he was in fact Garrett's killer. He was
related to Jim Miller, who some also suspected of killing Garrett. Jesse Wayne
Brazel confessed to the killing but was acquitted upon a plea of self-defense,
but one writer asserts that Brazel and Adamson both shot the old lawman. Adamson
was never charged, and as the only [known] eyewitness to the crime, was not even
called upon to testify at Brazel's murder trial. Adamson died at Roswell of a
fever.
^^^^^^^
Patrick Garrett, Customs Collector, courtesy photo from
the Richard Weddle collection.
WHO SHOT SHERIFF PAT GARRETT??
Part I: A Hard Life
Former Sheriff Pat Garrett was shot to death
on February 29, 1908. By then, more than a quarter century had passed since he
shot and killed William H. Bonney (Billy the Kid) at Fort Sumner, New Mexico
(July 14, 1881). The intervening years had not been particularly good to
Garrett.
In the first place, Governor Lew Wallace, who
had left New Mexico at the end of May, 1881, declined to authorize the payment
of the $500 reward offered for the capture or killing of Billy
the Kid. Garrett was obliged to attend the territorial legislative session in
February 1882 and plead his case by lobbying on his own behalf. His style seems
to have been buying drinks for territorial solons, and he succeeded in
influencing them favorably. The reward was paid, but observers generally agreed
that Garrett's lobbying effort made the $500 a break-even
proposition.
Garrett decided not to seek reelection to the
office of Lincoln County Sheriff in 1882 after serving a single two-year term.
Instead, he stood for Territorial Council, which was similar to the modern-day
State Senate. He lost in a tough race.
He also produced a book called The
Authentic Life of Billy the Kid.* Garrett didn't actually write the
book--his good friend Marshall Ashmun Upson did--but he hoped it would make him
some money. It didn't. And to make matters worse, the historical accuracy of the
book's content was seriously questioned. One critic said, "The whole book
can be picked to pieces from beginning to end."
By 1884, the former sheriff was operating a ranch
along Eagle Creek, not far from Roswell. He may have had a margin of success at
ranching, but it was a sedentary life compared to his earlier adventures, and he
was soon drawn to West Texas where he organized the so-called LS Rangers. The
ostensible purpose of the "Rangers"** was to put a stop to cattle
rustling on the LS, and other cattle ranges. It soon became clear that big
ranchers expected Garrett and his men to kill rustlers, rather than arrest them.
Garrett declined to continue under those terms and the LS Rangers were disbanded
in early 1885.
Back at the Eagle Creek ranch, Garrett demonstrated his acuity of intellect when
he envisioned a vast irrigation system that could water the Pecos River valley
and turn the area into a lush farming district. He participated in several
companies organized to dig ditches and divert the waters of the Pecos. In the
end, though, Garrett was forced out by his partners and his entire investment of
cash and time was lost.***
In
1890, Garrett ran for sheriff of the newly created Chaves County, and was
defeated by John W. Poe, the same man who had
accompanied him when he killed The Kid, and the same man who succeeded him as
sheriff of Lincoln County. An unhappy Pat
Garrett packed up and moved to Uvalde, Texas in the spring of 1891.
Life in Uvalde didn't suit Garrett. He seems to have done fairly
well at horse breeding and racing, but he became restless and soon began looking
for greener pastures. Dona Ana County, New Mexico, provided just such a
location.
On February 24, 1896, he returned to New Mexico specifically to investigate the
disappearances of Col. Albert Jennings Fountain and his son, Henry. Both had
vanished near the White Sands on February 1, 1896. In May 1896, Garrett was
appointed Sheriff of Dona Ana County.
Still, Sheriff Garrett's luck did not improve much. The main suspects in the
Fountain case were Oliver Lee, Jim Gililland and Bill McNew, He arrested McNew
without incident. Lee and Gililland were a different story. The sheriff and his
posse trailed them to Wildy Well, a spot near the present-day Oro Grande, south
of Alamogordo, and a major gun battle erupted when he attempted to arrest them.
When the gun-smoke and dust cleared, one of the posse-men was wounded and dying
and Garrett and the remaining lawmen were forced into an ignominious retreat.
The outlaws remained free. Lee and Gililland were subsequently arrested--not by
Garrett--tried and acquitted.
Garrett remained Dona Ana County Sheriff until 1900, during which time he or one
of his deputies killed Billy Reed while effecting an arrest at the W. W. Cox
Ranch. He was nearing 50 years of age and looking for some other line of work.
The Federal Government beckoned.
In December 1901, President Teddy Roosevelt--over loud protests by some
disgruntled Republicans--appointed the former sheriff as Collector of Customs
for the Port of El Paso for a two-year term. He received a second appointment in
1903. There are many reports that during this time in his life, Garrett became
something of a curmudgeon and spent a great deal of time drinking, gambling and
philandering. His activities did not go unnoticed in El Paso, Las Cruces or
Washington DC.
In 1905, Garrett and his friend, Tom Powers, an El Paso saloonkeeper and
gambler, attended the Rough Riders reunion at San Antonio, Texas. Powers hoped
for an introduction to President Roosevelt. Garrett obliged, introducing Powers
to the President as a cattleman, and the three men were photographed together.
Garrett feared that if he introduced Powers as a gambler, it would reflect badly
on his own reputation. When the President learned the truth of the matter, he
was not even slightly amused. In spite of Garrett's best efforts at damage
control, he learned on December 13, 1905 that he would not be reappointed as
customs collector.
Over the years, Garrett had acquired two small but well-watered ranches in the
Organ Mountains, 25 miles east of Las Cruces. They were about the only assets he
had, and he didn't own them free and clear. He tried prospecting and mining on
his property, but that never accomplished more than meeting expenses. He
continued his drinking, gambling and womanizing ways, and his disposition became
even more cantankerous. He was at odds with neighboring rancher W.W. Cox over
some cattle, and Cox was not happy about the Reed killing. Garrett's debts
mounted and his debtors began dunning him and pursuing their claims in
court.
In 1907, Garrett's son, Poe, leased one of the ranches to Wayne Brazel--a Cox
cowboy--for grazing purposes. Payment was to be ten heifer calves and one mare
colt per year. Little did Poe Garrett, or his father, know that Brazel intended
to graze goats on his property.
Garrett was in the process of trying to undo the arrangement his son had made
when, on February 29, 1908, he began a ride into Las Cruces from his ranch. He
rode in a buckboard with a man named Carl Adamson. They were joined along the
way by Wayne Brazel on horseback. At a point near Alameda Arroyo, four miles
east of Las Cruces, as he stood urinating, someone shot Pat Garrett. One bullet
entered the back of his head and exited through the right eyebrow and the second
bullet, fired after he was down, entered the stomach and ranged upward to the
shoulder. Carl Adamson said the old lawman moaned once, stretched out, and
died.
*
The complete title of the book was, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, The
Noted Desperado of the Southwest, Whose Deeds of Daring and Blood made his Name
a Terror in New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico, a Faithful and Interesting
Narrative. Its author was identified thus: "Pat F. Garrett, Sheriff of
Lincoln Co. NM, by Whom he was Finally Hunted Down and Captured by Killing
Him."
**
The LS Rangers should not be confused with the Texas Rangers. Garrett had no
affiliation with the Texas Rangers.
***
The entire company, The Pecos Valley Irrigation and Improvement Company, failed
by the year of Garrett's death: 1908.
NEXT WEEK: WHO DID IT?
^^^^^^^^
DID
YOU KNOW ...
In this space last week I mentioned that Carl Adamson was present when
former Sheriff Pat Garrett was murdered near Las Cruces on February 29, 1908.
Western Historian John Tanner dropped a line about him. While I had said that
Adamson had a prior arrest record for smuggling Chinese people into the United
States, John reports that he was arrested in June 1908, after the murder,
for "conspiracy to smuggle Chinese into the United States." He was
convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. This is an interesting point in
light of the fact that another historian of my acquaintance holds that the real
reason Garrett was killed was to gain possession of the old lawman's ranch for
the purpose of using it as a staging area for Chinese people smuggled into the
U.S. from Mexico. (Other suggested motives for Garrett's murder offered over the
years have included revenge, water rights, a land dispute, and just to shut him
up.) For those of you who like to see historical figures in your mind's eye,
Adamson was described in prison documents as a 40-year-old American,
5-feet-8-inches in height and weighing 185 pounds. After his release from
prison, Adamson went to work for a Chaves County sheep rancher named A.D.
Garrett. There is no indication that A.D. Garrett was in any way related to Pat,
but the name is ironic. Thanks to John for taking the time
to write. He and his wife, Karen Holliday Tanner, are the authors of Doc
Holiday: A Family Portrait, probably the most definitive biography of the
gunman/dentist; and Last of the Old-Time Outlaws: The George West Musgrave
Story, an equally engaging narrative about one of New Mexico's last Old West
shootists and train robbers.
Pat Garrett--an old man before his time because of hard living-- photo taken
in the latter years of his life. He was killed at the age of 58. Courtesy
photo from Richard Weddle collection.
WHO
KILLED SHERIFF PAT GARRETT??
Part
II: Death in the Desert
Sheriff Pat Garrett's unhappy life came to an end on February 29, 1908. He
was shot in the back and died at 58 years of age.
(Ed. Note: Bullis's paragraph wherein he reiterates the official version of
events of Garrett's death is omitted here.)
Adamson's story was that he stood with his back to Garrett and Brazel when the
shots were fired. He turned almost immediately, he said, to see Brazel holding a
smoking six-gun. He rushed to Garrett's side only to discover that the former
lawman was dead. He covered the body with a robe and left it where it fell.
Adamson and Brazel rode on into Las Cruces where Brazel surrendered himself to
Dona Ana county Deputy Sheriff Felipe Lucero. Brazel claimed self-defense from
the beginning.
The gears of the New Mexico Territorial criminal justice system began turning.
On March 3, Brazel formally entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of murder.
Dr. W. C. Fields testified that Garrett had no glove on his left hand and was
obviously urinating when he was shot in the back of the head (Garrett was
right-handed). The second shot was fired after the victim was already on the
ground. Fields described the killing as cold-blooded murder. Bond was set at
$10,000. Rancher W. W. Cox posted it later the same day and Barzel was freed.
Brazel was indicted for murder on April 13, but he was not tried for more than a
year, on April 19, 1909.
As one historian has said, "The case was prosecuted with appalling
indifference and incompetence." Adamson was not called upon to testify and
Brazel swore that Garrett threatened him with a shotgun and that he only fired
in self-defense. He denied that Garrett had been shot in the back. The jury
began considering the matter at about 5:30 p.m. and returned with a verdict of
not guilty about 15 minutes later.
There were, and are, nearly as many theories about what happened that day in
1908 as there are observers. Many at the time simply could not believe that a
mild-mannered young man like Brazel--he was 31 years old, same age Garrett was
when he killed Billy the Kid--would kill anyone, so they looked elsewhere. The
most popular theory was that a hired killer named Jim Miller actually fired the
fatal shots.
A meeting was allegedly held at the St. Regis Hotel in El Paso in 1907. Oliver
Lee, Bill McNew, Carl Adamson, Wayne Brazel, W. W. Cox, Jim Miller and several
others attended it. This scenario holds that each man in attendance hated Pat
Garrett for one reason or another, but W. W. Cox is said to have arranged and
chaired the gathering and to have volunteered to pay for the killing. Cox not
only despised Garrett for killing Billy Reed (aka Norman Newman)* on his ranch,
but he also wanted access to the water on Garrett's ranch. Oliver Lee, it is
said, conceived of the idea of using Wayne Brazel to lease the Garrett property
for grazing, then running in a herd of goats. He knew Garrett would react badly,
and that would force a confrontation that might lead to a shooting which could
be called self-defense. Jim Miller, who was Carl Adamson's brother-in-law, was
engaged to do the deed, for a fee of $1,500.
Miller, the story goes, hid behind a low hill in a prearranged spot, and when
Adamson stopped the buckboard, Miller simply shot Garrett and promptly returned
to Fort Worth. According to this legend, the plan worked perfectly, and famed
New Mexico lawman Fred Fornoff** did find empty Winchester cartridges on
a low hill near the scene of the killing. (Why a professional killer like Miller
would leave the rifle cartridges behind is an historical enigma.)
There were other theories. The Garrett family believed that Carl Adamson
actually pulled the trigger. some report that both Adamson and Brazel shot
Garrett. Another tale was that W. W. Cox ambushed Garrett, and Brazel took the
blame out of loyalty to the rancher.
It is axiomatic in criminal investigations that things are usually as they seem
to be, and that is probably the case in the killing of Pat Garrett.
Historian Leon Metz says this:
"That Brazel's plea of self-defense was not consistent with the facts does
not mean that he was lying about killing Garrett; it simply meant that he was
lying about how he did it. Garrett's death was clearly a case of murder,
perhaps not premeditated, but murder nonetheless. Brazel feared the old
man-hunter and possibly had a reason to worry about his [own] safety if the goat
problem could not be settled amicably. The two men had argued bitterly, and when
Garrett turned his back, Brazel took the safe way out and shot him. There were
no conspiracies, no large amounts of money changing hands, no top-guns taking up
positions in the sand hills. It was simply a case of hate and fear erupting into
murder along a lonely New Mexico back road."
Pete Ross, an Albuquerque prosecutor and historian, disputes the motives [given]
for
Garrett's murder.
*
Billy Reed was the alias of Norman Newman who was wanted for murder in Oklahoma,
and was hiding out on the W. W. Cox ranch. In October, 1899, Garrett and deputy
sheriff José Espalin went there to effect an arrest, and Espalin shot and killed
Reed when the suspect resisted. Historian Metz says that Cox was not
particularly annoyed by this affair, and in fact loaned Garrett money a couple
of years later.
**
Fred Fornoff (1859-1935) served as Albuquerque chief of police, Bernalillo
County deputy sheriff, deputy U.S. Marshal, captain of the Mounted Police, and
as a Santa Fe Railroad investigator. According to some sources, he believed that
Jim Miller did the killing, but admitted that he could not prove it. Historian
Chuck Hornung disputes this. His version of events will appear in a future
edition.
Addendum:
Wayne Brazel married and acquired a small ranch west of Lordsburg a few
years after the Garrett killing. In 1913, his wife died and he sold out and
disappeared. Some say he died in Bolivia, perhaps killed by members of the Butch
Cassidy Gang.
Jim Miller killed 20 to 40 men--depending on the source--during his lifetime. A
year after the Garrett affair, he shot and killed, from ambush, a man named Gus
Bobbitt near Ada, Oklahoma and was arrested for the crime. On the day that Wayne
Brazel was acquitted in Las Cruces, New Mexico, April 19, 1909, a lynch-mob took
Jim Miller and his three cohorts out of jail and into the barn in Ada and hanged
them one at a time. Legend held that Miller admitted killing Garrett just before
he was strung-up. A member of the lynch-mob denied that Miller said anything of
the sort.
Sources:
Garrett, Pat F. The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. University of
Oklahoma Press 1954
McLoughlin, Denis. Wild and Wooly: An Encyclopedia of the Old West Barnes
& Noble, 1975
Metz, Leon C. Pat Garrett: The Story of a Western Lawman University of
Oklahoma Press, 1973 (This is
the
most definitive source on the life and death of Pat Garrett)
O'Neal, Bill. Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters University of Oklahoma
Press 1979
Richards, Colin. Sheriff Pat Garrett's Last Days. Sunstone Press, Santa
Fe 1986
Smith, Robert Barr. "Killer in Deacon's Clothing," Wild West,
August 1992
Thrapp, Dan L. Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography University of Nebraska
Press 1988
Next
Week: The Pete Ross Version of the Garrett Murder Conspiracy
^^^^^^^^^
PAT
GARRETT'S MURDER: THE PETE ROSS VERSION
The late Pete Ross, a Bernalillo County, New Mexico Prosecuting Attorney
wrote an article about the murder of famed Sheriff Pat Garrett. Published in the
December 2001 issue of Wild West Magazine, the item offers another
chapter, and another prospective, to the infamous crime.
[Ed.
note: In the interest of expediency and space, the first two brief introductory paragraphs
giving the already covered official version of Garrett's murder, have been
deleted.]
Adamson said his back was turned when the shots were fired, but that he turned
almost immediately and observed Brazel holding a smoking gun. Adamson and Brazel
left the body where it fell and rode on into Las Cruces. Brazel immediately
turned himself in to deputy sheriff Felipe Lucero. He admitted to the killing
but claimed self-defense.
Ross was certainly right when he said that it is unlikely that anyone will ever
know for sure who killed Garrett. Many in 1908 did not believe that Brazel
pulled the trigger and historians--amateur and professional alike--have argued
the point in the years since. Brazel was, however, the object of prosecution for
the crime and no one else was ever arrested in the matter even though many were
rumored to have been blameworthy. Killin' Jim Miller (Carl Adamson's
brother-in-law), W. W. Cox, Oliver Lee, A. B. Fall and others.
Territorial Attorney General James Madison Hervey made a plausible case for a
murder charge at the preliminary hearing on March 3. Brazel was ordered held on
that charge and bond was set at $10,000. Rancher W. W. Cox posted it and the
suspect was freed.
Garrett was interred in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Las Cruces on March 5. His
pallbearers included Territorial Governor George Curry.
It is at this point that Ross adds a new dimension to the case. It has been long
noted that the prosecution of Wayne Brazel was done with "...appalling
indifference and incompetence," but Ross goes a step beyond that. He
endeavors to show why that was so, and who was responsible for it.
Governor Curry hurried to Las Cruces as soon as he learned of Garrett's death
from District Attorney Mark Thompson. Curry's relationship with Garrett is worthy
of note, especially in light of later events. The two men had been acquainted
since the mid-1880s, and had apparently been friends for many of those years.
Garrett even co-signed a bank loan for Curry at one point, and ended up paying
it off when Curry defaulted during the Spanish American War. But their paths
diverged by the turn of the century in 1901. Garrett was closely aligned with
Republican President Theodore Roosevelt and Curry was a rising Democrat, closely
associated with Albert Bacon Fall, W.W. Cox, Oliver Lee, Mark Thompson and
others. There was no political capital in a friendship with Garrett, and
besides, Garrett was dunning the Governor for repayment of the old bank loan.
It must be noted that Curry, Fall and others converted to Republican after the
Spanish American War and military service under Roosevelt, but Garrett had a
falling-out with the president, so there was still no political advantage in
friendship with Garrett.
Ross does not believe that Curry had anything to do with the planning that went
into the murder of Garrett. He does, however, imagine that the governor did the
bidding of some of his friends to make sure that Brazel would be acquitted and
that not enough evidence would exist to arrest or prosecute anyone else for the
crime.
Here is what Curry did.
He called off investigation of the murder by Mounted Police Captain Fred Fornoff
who early-on found evidence that implicated Jim Miller, according to Ross. Curry
claimed, "The Territory does not have funds available for such an
investigation." This would be important if, as many believed, Jim
Miller actually did the killing (for $1,500) while Brazel was paid to take the
rap because the conspirators did not think he would be convicted.
Attorney General Hervey also did not believe that Brazel was guilty. Curry says,
"[He] ... declined to appear for the Territory, which had my
approval." Ross thinks that Curry, as the highest ranking official in the
territory, had a bit more to do with it. This would be important because with
Hervey out of the picture, prosecution fell to District Attorney Mark Thompson,
and this is where the plot thickens.
Mark Thompson was the law partner of Albert B. Fall who was a close business
associate of rancher W. W. Cox who actually employed Brazel as a cowhand. Fall
had also employed the services of Oliver Lee as gun-hand. Fall, Cox and Lee were
members of the alleged cabal that plotted the murder in the first place. So,
Thompson would prosecute Brazel, and Fall, at the behest of Cox, would defend
him.
The trial took place on April 19th, 1909. Thompson produced none of the
available evidence that would have shown that Garrett was murdered, not shot in
self-defense. He did not even call Adamson, the only witness, to the stand. He
did not refute Brazel's assertion that he'd acted in self-defense. The jury
returned a verdict of not guilty in only 15 minutes. There was, according to one
historian, "a barbecue to celebrate Wayne Brazel's acquittal" that
very evening at the W. W. Cox ranch. "[As] the liquor
flowed...the...occasion turned into a celebration over the death of Pat
Garrett." Cox had already acquired Garrett's ranch.
And why did all of this happen? Ross says that the conspirators were on the way up
in their political careers (Curry would become a congressman, Fall a U.S.
Senator, Lee a state legislator), and Garrett was a nuisance. Curry owed him
money, Cox held a lien on Garrett's ranch and wanted the water rights thereupon,
and Lee was still angry that Garrett had targeted him for the Fountain murders
10 years before, and had, in fact, tried to kill him. Garrett's murder settled
all those accounts and perhaps many others.
On the other hand, why would such prominent men run the risks involved in
conspiring to do murder? Garrett, at 58, was past his prime and had virtually no
political clout left. He'd managed to alienate most of his friends and spent
much of his time drinking, gambling and philandering. He held no public office
and had no prospects of same.
Whichever position one takes, Ross provided readers with a valuable insight as
to how government, politics and business worked in Territorial New Mexico.
Sources:
Henning, H.B. ed. George Curry, 1861-1947, An Autobiography UNM
Press 1958
Metz, Leon. Pat Garrett, the Story of a Western Lawman University
of Oklahoma Press 1973
Owen, Gordon R. The Two Alberts, Fountain and Fall Yucca Tree Press 1996
Richards, Colin Sheriff Pat Garrett's Last Days Sunstone
Press, Santa Fe 1986.
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