|
A
SIX SHOOTER BULLET ENDS LIFE OF PAT GARRETT
Slayer of Billy the Kid Himself Slain
as Result of Quarrel With Ranchman Near Las Cruces.
VETERAN GUNFIGHTER DIES WITH BOOTS
ON
Terror of Outlaws
in Old Days in Lincoln County Killed in Trivial Dispute Over Goats;
Self Defense Alleged
.
[Special Dispatch to the Morning Journal]
Las
Cruces, N. M., Feb. 28--Pat Garrett, veteran fighter of the
frontier days in New Mexico, ex-sheriff of Lincoln county, ex-collector of customs
at El Paso, friend of President Roosevelt and famed as the slayer
of "Billy the Kid," was shot and aimed instantly killed at 11:30
this morning |
|
four miles and northeast of Las Cruces, by a
young ranchman named Wayne Brazele. The killing was the result
of a quarrel over the lease of a ranch by Garrett to Brazele,
Garrett alleging that Brazele was pasturing goats on the land, in
violation of a contract.
Brazele surrendered himself to Sheriff
Lucero here and was lodged in the county jail, after he had made a
statement declaring the killing was done entirely in
self-defense.
An inquest was held this afternoon and the coroner's
jury returned a verdict to the effect that Garrett had come to his death
as the result of wounds inflicted by a revolver in the hands of Brazele,
in self-defense.
Garrett
had been on a visit to one of his Organ mountain ranches,
and was returning toward Las Cruces, driving in a buggy with a
man named Edmondson. They were overtaken by Brazele, riding horseback. Words
passed between the two men and finally, according to the ? Edmonson,
sole eye witness, Garrett picked up his shotgun from the foot of the buckboard,
saying: "G______ d______ you, if I can't get you off my ranch one way, I
will get you off another." As he pointed the gun toward Brazele, the
latter instantly drew a 44-caliber Colt's revolver and fired twice in
quick succession. One bulled passed through Garrett's left breast,
piercing the heart, and the other passed through the head, entering
between the eyes. Garrett's death was practically
intantaneous.
Brazele at once turned the sixshooter on Edmondson,
demanding that he take him at once to Las Cruces and tell the story of the
killing exactly as it happened. The body of Garrett was left lying by the
roadside and about 4:30 in the afternoon it was brought into the city.
Immediately on reaching Las Cruces Brazele surrendered himself and aside
from the cool declaration that the shooting was in self defense, would say
little of the affair. At the coroner's inquest Edmonson exactly
corroborated Brazele's account of the fight. Garrett wsa standing on the
ground by the buggy when he made the grab for they shotgun which cost him
his life. He fell beside the vehicle with the shotgun clasped in his
hands.
Long Standing
Quarrel.
The quarrel between the two men was an old one, and
Garrett, it is said, had previously threatened to take the matter into
court. It is said both men went armed in anticipation of just such an
encounter, and Edmondson testifies that on leaving the Organs, Garret
loaded his shotgun, saying that "he might need it" before they got to Las
Cruces. Brazele, who is a stock raiser, has always borne a good reputation
and has never sought trouble, according to his friends here. He says that
he did not draw his six-shooter until Garrett had reached for his shotgun.
As Garrett was a seasoned fighter and quick on the draw, it was only by
his own marvelous quickdraw that Brazele saved his life, according to
Edmondson.
Intense Excitement.
Seldom has Las
Cruces seen such excitement as followed the news of the tragedy today. Pat
Garrett was one of the best known and most picturesque men in the
southwest and had hosts of friends. Brazele is also a popular man, and
owing to the circumstances of the shooting there is apparently little ill
feeling against him.
A Strenuous
Career.
Pat
Garrett was sheriff in Lincoln county, New Mexico, in the early days and
his campaign against cattle rustlers was replete with daring arrests,
pitched battles and bloody encounters with the cattle thieves.
The
best known of his experiences was that when an officer of the law he
killed "Billy the Kid," who after killing according to some reports, two
score of men, was lodged in the territorial penitentiary, only to
escape.
Garrett took up the hunt anew, as soon as he learned of the
escape, and located the outlaw at Maxwell's ranch, near Carrizozo. Garrett
was in the room where "The Kid" was to come to a rendezvous, and as the
outlaw stepped into the place, his gun drawn and covering Garrett, the
officer killed him.
Garrett fulfilled his own prophecy that he
would die with his boots on. Garrett came to Lincoln county in 1878 and
went into the cattle business, gaining such a reputation for nerve as a
cowboy that in 1880 he was elected sheriff of Lincoln county. It was one
year later that he killed "Billy the Kid," and broke up the notorious gang
of outlaw cattle thieves in the county. He was later sheriff of Dona Ana
county for two terms, was captain of rangers in Texas, and four years ago
was appointed by his warm friend, President Roosevelt, collector of
customs at El Paso, holding the office for two years. Since that time he
has been in the ranching and mining business in Dona Ana county. He was
entirely fearless, cool in emergencies, a dead shot and his work in
enforcing the law in teh lawless days of the rustlers in southern New
Mexico will never be forgotten. He was a quite, unassuming man and had
friends all over the territory, his enemies respecting him as much as his
friends.
"Billy the Kid," the ringleader of the Lincoln county
outlaws, had some twenty murders to his credit, and at the time he was
killed was accompanied by Tom Pickett, Tom O'Falliard, Dave Dudabaugh and
Charlie Bowda, all with long criminal records. O'Falliard was afterward
shot and killed by Garrett, as he was attempting to draw his
gun.
Garrett was sitting in a
dark corner of the Pete Maxwell ranch house talking to Maxwell, when
Billy the Kid entered. Both men shot at practically the same
instant, but Garrett was a trifle the quicker. The rest of the Kid's
coterle of bad men were captured in a stone house ten miles from
Fort Sumner, Bowda being shot by Sheriff Garrett as he sallied fort
from the door.
[Source: Albuquerque Morning Journal, March 1, 1908.
- Transcribed by C.
Anthony]
|
|
