A Wild Time at Wildly Well
Pat Garrett vs Oliver Lee & Jim Gilliland.
Categories: Classic Gunfights
By: Bob Boze Bell 05/01/2008
Aftermath: Odds & Ends
Mary Madison cared for Deputy Kent Kearney, removing the bullet from his groin. Later that afternoon, the section crew moved him
to Alamogordo for additional medical help. He died the next day.
***
Murder suspect Oliver Lee continued to be an important New Mexico rancher and later became a state legislator. Lee died in 1941. One of his ranches became a state park, bearing his name. Many historians—including researcher Corey Recko—believe that he and his cohorts killed the Fountains and got away with it.
***
Jim Gilliland bought his own ranch in 1902 and lived a quiet life until his death in 1946. In 1927, he confessed that he’d helped Lee and Bill McNew kill the Fountains and bury their bodies in the White Sands area. He even identified the burial spot—but nothing was ever found there. Lee and McNew denied their pal’s claims.
***
Pat Garrett did not seek reelection as Doña Ana County sheriff. He shuffled from job to job throughout the next several years. He was gunned down on a lonely New Mexico road in late February 1908. Albert Fall again used his wiles in defending Garrett’s suspected killer, Wayne Brazel, by claiming self-defense. The verdict: not guilty.
Some believed then—and now—that Oliver Lee was involved in
a conspiracy to kill Garrett.
***
Recommended:
Murder on the White Sands by Corey Recko, published by University of North Texas Press.
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