Pat Garrett (full name Patrick Floyd Garrett)
was born June 5, 1850, on a farm in
Chambers County, Alabama. He was one of
seven children of John Lumpkin Garrett and
Elizabeth Ann Jarvis Garrett. At age 19
he left his family to become a buffalo
hunter in Texas.
In 1878, after the buffalo business had
become unprofitable, he went to
Fort Summer in New Mexico. Here
he met Apolinaria Gutierrez, whom
he married in early 1880.
In November that year Garrett is elected
sheriff of Lincoln County, and
shortly after, the New Mexico
Governor, Lew Wallace, puts
a $500 reward on Billy the Kid's
head. Only a week after, Pat and
his posse captures Billy the Kid
and some of his friends in a house
in Stinking Springs, and they
surrendered the same afternoon.
Four months later, in April, Billy
the Kid manages to escape, but
Garrett hunts him down,
and July 13, 1881, he shoots
and kills him. Some controvery
arose, and it was rumored that
Billy the Kid only had a knife
when he was killed.
After having lost the election
for sheriff in Chaves County,
he leaves New Mexico, and
heads back to Texas with
his family. In 1899
he moves to the San Andres
mountains where he buys a
ranch. He leaves his ranch
two years later, and after having spent
four years as a customs collector
in El Paso, he returns.
Following a disagreement with
Wayne Brazel who leased the
ranch while he was away,
Garrett is shot and murdered.
Brazel confessed to the murder,
was tried, but acquitted.
His grave can be visited
at the Masonic Cemetery
in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Primary source:
"Pat Garrett - Story of
a Western Lawman", by
Leon Metz
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