© 2005 TAGATE
© 2005 TAGATE
Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett (June 5, 1850 Chambers County, Alabama - February 28, 1908) was a bartender and later a sheriff, alleged to have tracked down and killed Billy the Kid. He is sometimes referred to as, "The Man Who Shot "Billy the Kid."
Early life.
Though Garrett was born in Alabama, he grew up on a prosperous Louisiana plantation in Claiborne Parish. He left home in 1869 and wound up finding work as a cowboy in Dallas County, Texas. In 1875 he left to hunt 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.
Lincoln County Sheriff.
on December 19, Garrett shot and killed one of McCarty's friends. 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 Stinking Springs, New Mexico (near Fort Sumner) 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 the man. Some historians have questioned questioned Garrett's account of the shooting, alledging the incident never occurred and McCarty escaped into hiding under the assumed name Ollie P. Roberts.
Death.
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.