How was Pat Garret Killed?

Question

How was Pat Garret Killed?

Answer 1

Pat Garrett




Pat Garrett was born in Chambers County, Alabama on June 5, 1850. He grew up on a prosperous plantation in Louisiana. He left there in 1869 and went to Dallas County, Texas. He worked there as a cowboy until 1875. From there he joined up with W. Skelton Glenn, as a buffalo hunter. He got into an altercation with a fellow hunter in a disagreement over some hides. The other man drew on him, and in a minute Garrett had shot him dead. That was the end of that job, so in 1878, he became a cowpuncher for Pete Maxwell in New Mexico. A year later he quit and opened a saloon. Soon after, he married Juanita Gutierrez, but she died before the end of the year. On January 14, 1880, he married her sister Polinaria.

On November 7, 1880, Garrett was appointed Lincoln County Sheriff. He would take the place of sheriff George Kimbell, who resigned with two months left in his term. His first goal was to take care of Billy the Kid.

On December 19, Garrett killed Tom O’Folliard, one of the Kid’s friends. A few nights later, Garrett’s posse captured Billy, Dave Rudabaugh, Billy Wilson, and Tom Pickett. The Kid was tried and convicted but he escaped from the jail on April 18, 1881. Garrett and others tracked him down and finally caught up with him July 14. Garrett was visiting his old friend Pete Maxwell, to see if he knew anything about where the outlaw might be hiding. In he strode, and Garrett shot him dead.

After his term was over, Garrett turned to ranching. He also began writing a book about Billy the Kid. But the story was so popular, eight books beat his to press, so his didn’t sell well when it came out in 1882. Two years later he formed a company of Texas Rangers in the Texas panhandle. He returned to New Mexico for a short time in 1885, then went back to Uvalde, Texas, where he became county commissioner in 1889.

In October of 1899 he was appointed sheriff of Dona Ana County, New Mexico. During his tenure, he took on a famous murder investigation for the governor of New Mexico. The dead man’s name was Fountain. He kept at it for over two years and did arrest a suspect, but he was acquitted. Then he became Customs Collection in El Paso, Texas in 1901. He served almost five years, but was not reappointed.

He went back to his ranch in New Mexico. But he soon got into money difficulties. He owed a great deal in back taxes. Then he had co-signed on a loan for a friend who was captured in the Phillippines and unable to make his payments. Garrett was held liable. He had to borrow $3,500 from W. W. Cox to pay both debts.

He became increasingly morose over the situation. He drank a lot and gambled too much. But he tried one more time to make a go of it. He bought some horses to try breeding and raising quarter horses. The ranch was in the San Andres slopes about a four hour ride from Las Cruces.

Some people did not like Garrett’s present there. This may have been because his persistence in the Fountain case. But the most likely reason was that he controlled water rights on his property. Water was very important to the success of a ranch. Several men had already been killed over disputes over water rights. W. W. Cox was one man who also had a grudge against him, for allegedly causing his wife’s miscarriage when a man was killed in front of her.

Cox and some others met at the St. Regis Hotel in El Paso and decided they would start putting pressure on Garrett to leave. If he wouldn’t leave they would kill him. The men met to discuss how the murder would take place so it looked like self-defense if the need arose. Notorious gunman James "Killing Jim" Miller was on hand to perform the dastardly deed if necessary.

It was relatively easy to put pressure on him because Garrett still had money troubles and Cox still held a lien on his land for the money he’d loaned him. He offered to buy him out, but Garrett refused. So Cox sent his man Wayne Brazel to propose a deal to Garrett. Brazel and his partner wanted to lease some of his land to graze cattle. It sounded like the answer to his prayers, so Garrett jumped on it.

What he didn’t know was that Brazel was going to graze goats. They were even worse than sheep as far as a rancher was concerned. The idea by Cox was to provoke Garrett into a fight. And it was working. Garrett was hopping mad.

Then along came Carl Adamson, posing as representing a wealthy rancher. He wanted lease the Bear Canyon property for his cattle. Garrett agreed, but said he would have to get Brazel would of there first. A deal was made for Garrett to buy the goats. But then Brazel tried to get more money because the goats had had offspring since he brought them there. This made Garrett very angry. But eventually they were ready to sign the papers.

Garrett and Adamson would meet Brazel at Las Cruces to close the deal. Adamson rode along with Garrett in a buckboard. On the way, Brazel caught up to them on horseback. There were some heated words as Adamson threatened to back out of the deal. As they neared the spot Adamson had pre-selected for the killing, he asked Garrett to stop the wagon so he could relieve himself. Garrett decided he would also. He turned his back to the wagon. Just then, Miller, who was hiding in the bushes, shot Garrett, once in the head and once in the stomach. He was dead in a matter of minutes.

As agreed, when they got into town, Brazel confessed to the shooting, claiming it was self-defense. He was locked up immediately.

There was no coffin in town long enough for Garrett’s six foot four inch body, so he lay in the undertaker’s parlor until one could be shipped from El Paso. Scores of gawkers came to see the man who had killed Billy the Kid. A service was held on March 5 in Las Cruces. He was buried next to his daughter Ida, who had died eight years earlier.

Brazel was later tried and acquitted. Miller was hanged in Ada, Oklahoma, after vigilantes got ahold of him. He was dead by the time Brazel’s trial was over. Adamson died two years later of typhoid fever. Cox got the land he wanted when he bought out Garrett’s widow. The Garrett family left the area.

Copyright 2000 by Beth Gibson

Sources: How Pat Garrett Died, by Colin Rickards
Wild and Woolly: An Encyclopedia of the Old West, by Denis McLoughlin"

Answer 2

Some time in January 1908, James P. Miller, a hired assassin now a claiming he is a Mexican cattle buyer, offers to purchase the Garrett ranch. However, Miller doesn't want the goats, and Wayne Brazel, who has leased Garrett's ranch, refuses to either move them or cancel the five-year lease.

February 29, 1908, Pat Garrett and Carl Adamson, a brother-in-law of Miller, are in a buckboard and bound from the Garrett ranch to Las Cruces for a con- ference with Miller. Wayne Brazil rides alongside on horseback. Within a few miles of town, they stop in the desert to urinate. Garrett is shot and killed. Wayne Brazel confesses to the slaying, is tried for murder and acquitted.

Answer 3

Garrett's main creditor (a man named W.W. Cox) worked out a deal to repay the debt by using Garrett's quarter horse ranch in the Sand Andres slopes as grazing land for one of his partners. Garrett agreed to the deal, not realizing they would be grazing goats rather than cattle (largely in an attempt to anger Garrett into selling the property and it's valuable water rights). Garrett objected to the goats, feeling their presence lowered the value of his land in the eyes of buyers or other renters.

Two of Cox's men (Jesse Wayne Brazel and Carl Adamson) planned a meeting with Garrett in Las Cruces, supposedly to get rid of the goats and work out a new land deal. Adamson and Garrett rode together to meet Brazel in Las Cruces, but Brazel showed up on horseback along the way. The group stopped so Garrett could relieve himself by the side of the road. While urinating, Garrett was ambushed and shot, once in the head and once in the stomach. 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.

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.

Born June 5 1850 Die Feb. 28 1908

Answer 4

Try typing Pat Garett in yahoo web search, plenty of info.

Answer 5

He was shot by Wayne Brazil.