Pat Garrett
1850 - 1908
Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett was born in the deep south and raised in
Louisiana. He grew up like a string bean, and because he was
conscious of his overgrown size for a kid, he quit school, picked up
his old squirrel rifle, and headed for the great western country.
He wandered down through the Panhandle of Texas and then on into New
Mexico where he took a job with a buffalo hide hunting outfit. At
Fort Sumner he met Pete Maxwell and went to work for him as a horse
wrangler. It was here that he came to know a youngster by the
name of William Bonney, or Billy the Kid, a lad with buckteeth who
could do remarkable things with a .44-40 pistol.
Pat was eight or ten years older than Billy the
Kid. This made no difference, however, as they became good
friends, playing cards together, riding out into the country together,
drinking, and attending the fandangos together, and were known as
"Little Casino" and "Juan Largo" or long John. Garrett finally got
married, his wife Polinaria Guiterrez bearing him seven children.
Garrett
was elected sheriff of Lincoln County in 1880, at an opportune time,
for certain officials who had an eye on the Kid who had gone bad in the
Lincoln County Cattle War, had put a price on his head. Governor
Wallace decided to turn Pat on the trail of his old playmate and
comrade, the Kid, feeling that Garrett would know all his habits and
hideouts.
Garrett's first try at tripping up the Kid failed. At Fort Sumner he shot and killed the Kid's
lieutenant, Tom O'Folliard. Billy skipped out. Pat kept on his trail however, and at Stinking
Spring, in September of 1880, a shoot-out resulted, Charlie Bowdre
being killed. The Kid finally walked out of the shack, Pat luring
him with the smell of food over the fire and many promises. Along
with the Kid were the notorious Dave Rudabaugh, Tom Pickett and Billy
Wilson, Pat fed them well and then took them on into the Santa Fe
lockup. After one or two more escapes, Pat again captured the Kid
and took him on to Lincoln, where he had been sentenced to hang.
During Pat's absence, the Kid killed both of his guards and escaped to
Fort Sumner, where he hid out at Pete Maxwell's place. Pat rode
out after him, and hiding in Pete's bedroom one night, shot the Kid
when he walked into the dark bedroom, not suspecting that the sheriff
sat there with a gun pointed at him.
Pat was severely criticized for what he had done. Many
thought one of the Mexicans or friends of Billy would cut him
down. They said that Billy had been unarmed with only a butcher
knife in hand as he had returned from the smokehouse where he had cut
some beef.
But
there was glory in it for Pat. Every newspaper in the land
shouted the great news of what the New Mexico sheriff had done.
There was the business of a $500 reward, too, and Garrett had to hire a
lawyer and go into Santa Fe to persuade the State Legislature to pass a
special act so he could collect.
There were no more praises now, as things settled down in New
Mexico. Pat went into the cattle business in Fort Stanton, sold
out and joined the Home Rangers, who hunted down rustlers in the
Canadian River country. He soon tired of this, too.
Restless and ill at ease, he became cattle boss for Captain Brandon
Kirby, a large British outfit operating in Lincoln County. Many
hard looks met Pat at every turn from ranchers and townsmen; he felt
their disapproval at what he had done to the Kid. He had written
a book by this time and its publicity was well received outside of New
Mexico. But hometown acclaim was nil. His heroism
boomeranged, despite Teddy Roosevelt's praise, and Pat grew sour and
crabbed, men shunned him in many places.
He quit Kirby in 1886 and went to ranching in Roswell, New
Mexico. He failed. He ran for sheriff of Chaves
County. He failed again. He went on to Uvalde Texas, where
he took up breeding horses. Here he did make a friend of "Cactus"
John N Garner who got Pat elected as the County Commissioner. A
few true friends in New Mexico prevailed up Pat to return and run for
sheriff again. This was done and he served a single term and then
resigned. He purchased a ranch in Las Cruces in the Organ
Mountains.
Pat leased out this property to a young rancher by name of Wayne
Brazil, then tried to force him off the property over an argument on
the running of sheep. Brazil, a hotheaded man, shot and killed
Pat as he went for a shotgun in the back of the buckboard.
Garrett
was buried in Las Cruces. There is no marker on the grave and
today few people know where it is. They say it is a bleak and
haunted place where only the weeds grow and an occasional coyote can be
heard as it howls a thin, wavering note into the night.
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