Pat Garrett
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Patrick "Pat" Floyd Jarvis Garrett was born in Alabama. He grew up on a prosperous Louisiana plantation near Haynesville in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. He left home in 1869 and wound up finding work as a cowboy in Dallas County, Texas. In 1875 he left to hunt American buffalo. In 1878 Garrett shot and killed a fellow hunter who'd allegedly drawn a gun on him in a disagreement over buffalo hides. He left for New Mexico and briefly found work as a cowpuncher before quitting to open his own saloon. The tall man was colorfully referred to by locals as "Juan Largo" or "Big John."
In 1879 Garrett married Juanita Gutierrez, who died within a year. In 1880 he married Gutierrez's sister, Apolonaria. The couple would have nine children over the years.
On November 7, 1880 after Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff George Kimbell resigned with two months left on his term, the county appointed Garrett, a member of the Democratic Party and gunslinger promising to restore law and order, the new sheriff. Garrett was charged with tracking down and arresting a friend from his saloonkeeping days; Henry McCarty, a jail escapee and Lincoln County War criminal., a.k.a. Henry Antrim and William Harrison Bonney, but better known as Billy the Kid. McCarty was a 19th century American frontier outlaw and murderer who had participated in the Lincoln County War. He was believed to have killed 21 men, one for every year of his life, but the actual total of men he had killed was around nine. New Mexico governor Lew Wallace had personally put a $500 reward on McCarty's capture.
On December 19, Garrett shot and killed a friend of McCarty, named Thomas O'Folliard. Just a few nights later, the sheriff's posse captured McCarty and his gang. They were transported to Mesilla, New Mexico for trial. Though he was convicted, McCarty managed to escape from jail again on April 18, 1881. Around midnight on July 14 of that year, Sheriff Garrett was in Fort Sumner, New Mexico questioning a friend of McCarty's on the outlaw's whereabouts when McCarty unexpectedly showed up. McCarty did not initially recognize the sheriff standing in the shadows and asked "Quien es? Quien es?" (Spanish for "Who is it? Who is it?). Garrett answered by shooting McCarty twice, killing him. Some historians have questioned Garrett's account of the shooting, alledging the incident never occurred and McCarty escaped into hiding under the assumed name Ollie P. Roberts.
After finishing out his term as sheriff, Garrett became a rancher and put out a book ghostwritten by his friend, Ash Upson in 1882 about his experiences with McCarty. However, he lost the next election for Lincoln County sheriff and was never paid the $500 reward for McCarty's capture. In 1884 he lost an election for state senator. Later that year, he left New Mexico and helped found and captain a company of Texas Rangers. He returned to New Mexico briefly in 1885, then moved to Uvalde, Texas where he was elected county commissioner in 1889. In October of that year Dona Ana County, New Mexico appointed him sheriff. The next year he ran for Chaves County, New Mexico sheriff and lost. On August 10, 1896, Garrett was again appointed to fill the vacant position of Dona Ana County sheriff and was duly elected on January 4, 1897. In 1897, he took up the 1896 missing case of Albert Jennings Fountain; on July 12, 1898 one of Garrett's deputies was killed while investigating this disappearance.
On December 20, 1901 Theodore Roosevelt appointed him El Paso, Texas Collector of Customs. Garrett served in this capacity for five years. However he was not reappointed (possibly because he'd embarrassed Roosevelt once, showing up at a Rough Riders reunion with a notorious gambler friend).Rough Riders was the name given to the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment by the American press during the Spanish-American War.
Garrett retired to his ranch in New Mexico, but was suffering financial difficulties; he owed a large amount in back taxes and was found liable on an unpaid loan he'd co-signed for a friend. He borrowed heavily to make these payments and started drinking and gambling excessively.
Garrett's main creditor (a rancher named W.W. Cox) worked out a deal to repay the debt by using Garrett's quarter horse ranch in the San Andres Mountains slopes as grazing land for one of his partners. Garrett agreed to the deal, not realizing Jesse Wayne Brazel would be grazing goats rather than cattle on the land. Garrett objected to the goats, feeling their presence lowered the value of his land in the eyes of buyers or other renters.
Adamson (a prisoner with Garrett) and Garrett rode together heading away from Las Cruces where Brazel showed up on horseback along the way. There had been a standing order given to all cowhands of the San Augustine Ranch that the next one to see Garrett was to shoot him on sight. Garrett and Brazel began to argue about the goats grazing on Garrett's land. At this point Pat Garrett leaned forward to pull a shotgun from the floorboard and was shot through the head by Brazel, then once more in the stomach as he fell on the ground. Brazel and Adamson left Garrett's body on the side of the road and continued to Las Cruces, alerting Sheriff Felipe Lucero of the crime scene.
Historians disagree as to who did the shooting, but Jesse Wayne Brazel confessed to the shooting and was tried for first degree murder. Cox paid his bond and retained Albert B. Fall as his defense attorney. Brazel claimed self-defense, maintaining Garrett was armed with a shotgun at the time and was threatening him. The jury took less than a half-hour to return a not guilty verdict. Cox then hosted a barbecue celebration of the case's outcome.
Garrett's body was too tall for any pre-made coffins in town, so a special one had to be shipped in from El Paso. His funeral service was held March 5 1908 and he was laid to rest next to his daughter Ida, who'd preceded him in death eight years earlier.
The site of Garrett's death is now commemmorated by a historical marker, which can be visited off of the south of U.S. Route 70, between Las Cruces and the San Augustin Pass.
Garrett has been a recurring character in movies and television shows, and has been portrayed on screen by actors Wallace Beery (1930), Thomas Mitchell (1943), John Dehner (1957), Barry Sullivan (1960), and James Coburn (1973), among many others.
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