On the Trail of Sheriff Pat Garrett
From Amarillo, Texas, to Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Categories: Renegade Roads
By: Johnny D. Boggs 01/01/2008
More information than you need to know, but be warned: Nature’s Call can be troublesome in this part of the country. After all, the man whose trail I’m following got killed near here. “Death by irrigation,” I heard historian Fred Nolan say a while back.
Yep, it was over in Alameda Arroyo a century ago, February 29, 1908, when Pat Garrett opted to empty his bladder only to get killed in the process with a bullet in his head and another in his back. The slayer of Billy the Kid met his own demise on this patch of desert near Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Wayne Brazel, who was grazing goats on Garrett’s ranch, confessed to the killing and was acquitted in the subsequent trial by claiming self-defense. That one has always stumped me. What was Pat going to do? Pee on him? Of course, many don’t believe Brazel pulled the trigger. Some point to Carl Adamson. Others claim it was Deacon Jim Miller. A few call it a conspiracy, that Garrett was getting too close to solving the mystery of the disappearance of lawyer Albert Jennings Fountain and his young son back in 1896. Others opine that Garrett merely got his due after popping Billy in Fort Sumner in 1881.
All I can say is: There has to be a restroom somewhere around here.
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