Pat Garrett was buried near my childhood home. I grew up in Mesilla, New Mexico, riding my bike through the plaza, the narrow streets, and ditch roads, both aware of and oblivious to the rich history and mythology around me.
In its earliest days, Mesilla was a way stop, and after the Civil War, it became a boomtown of sorts. Like many popular destinations in the Old West, it attracted gunslingers like Billy the Kid.
Billy Gets All the Attention
Back then, the batwing doors of the touristy corner shop boasted that Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced in the same building. What I didn't know until a few years ago -- or mostly likely, what I'd forgotten -- was that Pat Garrett, the man who supposedly shot and killed Billy, is buried near Mesilla. It was right there, a short bike ride away, and I had no idea.
Hero or Villain?
Billy is revered by New Mexicans as a Robin Hood type figure, a local hero, who took on the corrupt and greedy cattle barons. And so, depending on which version you believe, the story of Billy's death at the hands of Garrett was heroic or dastardly.
It goes something like this: After Billy escaped from the Lincoln County jail in 1881, it fell to the county sheriff, Garrett to bring him to justice. Garrett had already captured Billy once and could do it again. When he'd first arrived in NM, Garrett worked on Peter Maxwell's ranch in Fort Sumner, and it is believed that Maxwell betrayed Billy because the gunslinger had gotten his sister, Paulita, pregnant. And so, when Billy entered the dark room at Maxwell's ranch, he muttered his last words, "¿Quien es?", and then Garrett shot him twice with his Colt .44 revolver, a gun that recently sold in 2021 for $6M at auction.
Death of the Unlucky Lawman
The local paper called him "hero of the hour," but that short-lived fame would be the peak of his career. From then on, he would see a bitter string of failures and bad luck until he was fatally ambushed on the road back to Las Cruces.
Theories and conspiracies surround his death. What is known:
Garrett was struggling financially and had leased part of his land to Wayne Brazel for cattle for five years.
Needing to escape a growing debt, Garrett agreed to sell the land to two cattlemen, Adamson and Turner.
Brazel had 1,800 goats on the land instead, not cattle, and they would decimate Garrett's land. Brazel refused to break the lease unless someone bought his goats.
As Garrett and Adamson traveled to see the property, they met Brazel. Angered by the goats, and that the sale was likely going to fall through, Garrett and Brazel argued.
All three men journeyed together on the way back to Las Cruces.
Adamson stopped the buckboard to relieve himself.
According to Adamson, Garrett, still angry, threatened to get Brazel off his land, one way or another. Then he heard two shots and turned to see Garrett dead on the ground.
Garrett was shot through the head and the stomach.
Brazel confessed to the killing but claimed it was self defense because Garrett had threatened him with a shotgun.
In 2017, the official coroner's report was discovered, stating that Garrett was killed by Brazel.
Prominent wealthy men came to Brazel's defense, including W.W. Cox, a rancher that Brazel worked for. And this is where the conspiracies come in:
Brazel and Adamson plotted to kill Garrett together to seize control of the land.
Cigarettes were found near Garrett's body, just off the road, implying a hired killer.
Perhaps it was Killin' Jim Miller who was loosely connected to Adamson by family ties.
Col. Albert Fountain brought indictments for cattle rustling against several powerful ranchers, including Oliver Lee and W.W. Cox. Shortly thereafter, Fountain and his young son were murdered. Garrett and the Pinkertons were tasked with solving the murder, and evidence pointed to the cattlemen, who were defended by Albert Fall, the same lawyer that helped acquit Brazel. Was Garrett's death revenge for taking on the cattle barons?
There are no answers, but where has this story been -- Garrett and the Pinkertons?
Maybe I'll write it. Hmm.
The Grave
Garrett's descanso was originally marked by his son, just off US Route 70, and a historical marker has recently been placed nearby.
Reportedly, a special coffin had to be ordered from El Paso to fit Garrett's 6'4" frame. He was originally buried in another cemetery, but it was relocated to the Masonic Cemetery in Las Cruces.
Recently, when visiting my parents one summer, I decided to find his grave. I strolled down the center road of the main entrance, where the oldest monuments reside, and I searched the weathered steles and crosses and lecterns and bevel markers until I found his family's site. I had expected a monument. Instead, his simple grass marker sits crammed with his loved ones. Its humble presence is somehow fitting.
"I ain't in this business for the fame or the glory.
I'm here to bring justice."
-- Pat Garrett
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