Killing Billy the Kid in 1881

Don Crowley’s Pat Garrett: The Making of a

Legend depicts the former sheriff reflecting on
his main claim to fame. Twenty-seven years
later Wayne Brazel (opposite) shot Garrett.

3 8 WILD WEST FEBRUARY 2021

 HE SHOT
THE SHERIFF
Though some still dispute who killed Pat Garrett
on the road to Las Cruces, New Mexico Territory,
new information reveals his murder really is no mystery
By David G. Thomas
“W ell, damn you, if I can’t
get you off that way, I
will another, and I will
do it now!” Pat Garrett reportedly spoke those
words to a tenant rancher midmorning on
leap day, Feb. 29, 1908, on the road some
5 miles northeast of Las Cruces in New Mex-
ico Territory’s Doña Ana County. Accord-
ing to later court testimony, the response
to Garrett’s ominous threat was a soft-nosed
.45-caliber bullet to the back of the famed
former sheriff’s head. Thus died the man
who’d shot Billy the Kid.
One widely accepted explanation of Gar-
rett’s murder, put forward in numerous mag-
azine articles and books, fingers James Brown “Deacon Jim”
Miller as the killer. According to proponents of this theory,
Miller sneaked into the county on February 28, camped out
overnight along the road between Garrett’s home ranch
and Las Cruces, and shot him from ambush the next morning
(see “How Jim Miller Killed Pat Garrett,” by Jerry Lob-
OPPOSITE PAGE: COURTESY GREENWICH WORKSHOP; THIS PAGE: HISTORYNET ARCHIVE
dill, in the August 2018 issue of Wild West, also posted to
WildWestMag.com as “The Real Killer of the Sheriff Who
Shot Billy the Kid”).
Miller was a onetime lawman and Texas Ranger with a
reputation as a killer for hire. The prime suspect in a score
of unsolved killings and attempted murders, he’d been tried
for murder twice and acquitted. His nickname, “Deacon
Jim,” stemmed from his habit of faithfully attending church,
though apparently not out of repentance.
In its grandest form, the “Miller done it” theory proposes
that conspirators William W. Cox, Oliver Lee, Albert B. Fall,
Archie Prentice “Print” Rhode, Carl Adamson, Miller and
others met at the St. Regis Hotel in El Paso, Texas, in the
fall of 1907 to plan Garrett’s assassination. Their purported
motive was to enable the covetous Cox
to obtain neighbor Garrett’s home ranch.
Miller was paid anywhere between
$1,500 and $10,000, most proponents
of the theory settling on $5,000. Their
supporting evidence centers on a mys-
tical “Fornoff Report” and an unreliable
statement in Territorial Attorney General
James M. Hervey’s memoirs.
To get at the truth of Garrett’s killing,
let’s take a closer look at the facts, many
previously unknown.
On Dec. 10, 1897, then Doña Ana
County Sheriff Garrett bought from Cox
what he always called his “home ranch.” Two years later,
on May 24, 1899, he bought a second ranch, known as
the Rock House Ranch, from David Wood. Fortune did not
smile on the would-be rancher.
On May 25, 1906, at 6:30 a.m., Doña Ana County Sheriff
José Lucero rode up to Garrett’s home ranch with an exe-
cution order from the county court to seize all property.
The order was issued on behalf of the Albuquerque Bank of
Commerce, which had won a lawsuit against the rancher
for failure to repay a loan made to George Curry in 1890
and co-signed by Garrett. The debt owed was $1,733.18.
Following the property seizure, the court appointed inde-
pendent appraisers who valued Garrett’s home ranch at
$225 and his spring at $250. Garrett was able to reclaim his
home ranch with a court-issued writ of replevin for wrong-
ful seizure and his Rock House Ranch by asserting it was
owned by his eldest son, Poe Garrett.
On March 11, 1907, Poe, with his father’s consent, leased
the Rock House Ranch to Jesse Wayne Brazel, who went by
his middle name. The lease term was five years, the annual
FEBRUARY 2021 WILD WEST 39
 marked his first meeting with Garrett, while Miller had en-
countered the former sheriff on numerous occasions. At that
meeting Miller and Adamson resolved to buy Garrett’s two
ranches. But there was an obstacle to the sale—the men did not
want the goats Brazel was grazing on the Rock House Ranch.
On or around February 22 Garrett hopped a train with
Brazel to meet Miller and Adamson at their hotel in El Paso.
The parties reached a deal in which Miller and Adamson
agreed to buy Brazel’s goats for $3.50 a head. At the time
the partners (and presumably Brazel) believed the number
of goats on the ranch to be 1,200, a figure specified in the
contract. Once the goats were off the land, Garrett would be
free to sell his ranches, for which Miller and Adamson agreed
to pay $3,000. As part of the deal Garrett was to go to Mex-
ico for the cattle, drive them to the ranches and tend them
through November 1 for $1 a head.
The February 22 meeting in El Paso marked the first time
Brazel met Miller and Adamson. Garrett had set up the meet-
ing, showing it was he who was pushing
the deal. A Las Cruces newspaper reported
on the details.
On February 28 Adamson traveled by train
from El Paso to Las Cruces. Renting a two-
horse top buggy from the livery stable, he
drove out to Garrett’s home ranch. Adam-
PAT GARRETT son would have recalled the route from his
earlier visit. He arrived around 5 p.m., and
payment 10 calves and one mare, imply- at Garrett’s invitation he spent the night.
ing Brazel planned to run cattle and horses To ensure Brazel would be waiting for
on the ranch. He instead brought in goats. them in Las Cruces the next morning, Gar-
An infuriated Garrett swore out a com- rett had a ranch hand deliver a note to the
plaint with Justice of the Peace Charles Cox ranch, where Brazel was working. Ar-

FROM TOP: HISTORYNET ARCHIVE; NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS; HISTORYNET ARCHIVE
M. Anthony, in nearby Organ, to nulli- WILLIAM W. COX riving at the Cox spread, Garrett’s dispatch
fy the lease, but Anthony declined rider handed the note to Brazel’s fiancée,
to intervene. Olive Boyd. She carried it out to the black-
Sometime in early February smith shed, where Brazel was helping to shoe horses.
1908 Miller and brother-in-law Message delivered
Carl Isaac Adamson traveled On Saturday, February 29, at 8:30 a.m., Garrett and
to Las Cruces from El Paso. Adamson climbed into the rented buggy for the ride
The purpose of their trip, to Las Cruces, where they’d meet Miller and Brazel
according to the El Paso Her- to “fix up the papers.” Adamson was driving, seated
ald, was to buy John Leath- on the “whip end [right] seat of the buggy.” Miller
erman’s Bear Canyon ranch, had arrived in town the day before by train and was
4 miles east of Garrett’s Rock registered at the Park Hotel, across the street from the
House Ranch. The pair told county courthouse, where the parties would file any
Leatherman they intended to papers they signed.
JIM MILLER
buy Mexican cattle for resale in In the buggy Garrett brought along an unusual 12-gauge
the United States and were looking folding shotgun manufactured by the Burgess Gun Co. of Buffa-
for land on which to graze the cattle through lo, N.Y. With a quick motion its owner could grab the butt of the
late fall. shotgun—as one would a pistol grip—and flip up the barrel, locking it in
Miller and Adamson were unable to ink a deal place, ready to fire. The gun did not require assembly, as some sources
with Leatherman, but while in Las Cruces they have alleged.
learned Garrett was interested in selling his The following description of the events that morning is from Adam-
ranches. On February 6 the pair rode out to the son’s sworn testimony at a preliminary hearing to determine whether
latter’s home ranch. Adamson later testified that there was sufficient evidence to hold Brazel for Garrett’s murder.

40 WILD WEST FEBRUARY 2021

 Land for Sale—Goats Not Optional
In 1908 Garrett contracted to sell his Rock
House Ranch (above, on which Brazel kept
goats) and his home ranch (see site at right),
both in Doña Ana County. At a February 22
meeting Miller and Adamson told Garrett they
would also purchase Brazel’s 1,200 goats.

Adamson and Garrett had just passed through

the town of Organ when they spotted Brazel
riding toward town ahead of them, a Winchester
rifle in his saddle holster. Unbeknown to them,
Brazel was also carrying a .45 revolver, con-
cealed in the “waistband of his breeches.”
As the buggy came alongside the rider,
Brazel asked Adamson what time he should
meet them in Las Cruces. “I supposed that
we would get there about the same time,” d
deal with me,” he said. “The fact is I didn’t
came the answer. w
want the 1,200, but I bought them in order to
Adamson and Garrett soon pulled ahead gget possession of the ranch that Mr. Garrett
of Brazel. “When I struck a sandy place in h leased to Mr. Brazel. Well, Brazel says,
had
the road,” Adamson recalled, “I would drive ‘If I don’t sell the whole bunch, I won’t sell
slow, and he [Brazel] would catch up with n
none,’ or he says, ‘I will either not sell the
us.” The parties continued in this manner, 1,200, or I will keep the 600 and keep pos-
Brazel catching up to the buggy and then session of the ranch,’ or something like that.”
CARL ADAMSON
COLOR PHOTOS: DAVID G. THOMAS; ABOVE RIGHT: LEON METZ PAPERS, UTEP

dropping behind, for “over 5 or 6 miles—
something like that.”
About 5 miles from town Brazel had again
caught up with the buggy when the men began to discuss their pending
deal. “The conversation came up about a deal I had made with the de-
fendant for 1,200 goats,” Adamson testified, “and Mr. Brazel told me that
there were something over 1,800.” Asked how that question came up,
Adamson replied, “I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was Mr.
Garrett asked Brazel how it come that he signed a contract with me for
1,200 goats when he had 1,800 goats, and Mr. Brazel answered that he
didn’t know that he had more than 1,200 goats until he counted them.”
Adamson recalled balking at the revised number of goats. “I didn’t know
whether I wanted the 1,800 goats or not, and that this might break up the
At that point Garrett and Brazel had words.
“He and Mr. Garrett went on talking that
way,” Adamson testified, “and Mr. Garrett
said, ‘Well, I don’t care whether you give up
possession of the ranch or not.’ He says, ‘I can
get you off there anyway.’ I think Brazel said,
‘I don’t know whether you can or not.’
“About then I stopped the buggy to get out
to urinate, and when I got out of the buggy,
Mr. Garrett reached over and took the lines, and
while I was standing there, why I heard Mr. Gar-
rett said, ‘Well damn you, if I can’t get you off
that way, I will another, and I will do it now!”

FEBRUARY 2021 WILD WEST 41

As Adamson testified, Garrett had
explicitly threatened Brazel. “I will
do it now!” the famed former sheriff
had growled at the goat herder.
Here’s what happened next, accord-
ing to testimony from Adamson under
examination by Territorial Attorney
General Hervey:
HERVEY: Where were these people
with respect to you—on the front or to
the side of you or behind you—at the time
you heard the remark?
ADAM SON: Mr. Garrett was in the
buggy, and Brazel was on the horse.
HERVEY: Where were they with respect
to you?
ADAMSON: They were to my back.
HERVEY: You say that Garrett was in
the buggy when he made this remark?
ADAMSON: I think he was.
HERVEY: Did you turn your face to them
at any time?
ADAMSON: After these words passed,
I heard a racket, and I just turned my head
like that, and when I turned it, Garrett
was on the ground.
The “racket” was the sound of Garrett
jumping from the buggy, and by “on the
ground,” Adamson meant Garrett was
standing beside the buggy.
HERVEY: How close to the buggy?
ADAMSON: About 2 feet.
HERVEY: To the side or the front or
the back?
ADAMSON: To the side.
HERVEY: How soon after you heard this
remark was it that you looked around?
ADAMSON: It was just three or four
seconds, a very short time.
HERVEY: What else happened?
ADAMSON: I heard a shot fired.
HERVEY: Was the shot fired before or
after you turned around?
ADAMSON: Just about when I turned
around.
42 WILD WEST FEBRUARY 2021
JAMES HERVEY
HERVEY: Who shot?
ADAMSON: I should judge Brazel.
HERVEY: What makes you think so?
ADAM SON: Well, I didn’t see him,
but I judge he was the one that done
the shooting.
H E RVEY: What was the defendant
[Brazel] doing? What was his attitude?
ADAMSON: When I first seen the de-
fendant, he was sitting on the horse with
a six-shooter in his hand.
HERVEY: Any other shot?
ADAMSON: Yes, another.
HERVEY: How soon after the first one?
ADAMSON: Well, as quick as a man
can cock a pistol.
HERVEY: Who shot it?
ADAMSON: Brazel.
HERVEY: Did you see him?
ADAMSON: Yes, sir.
HERVEY: In what direction was that
shot fired?
ADAMSON: In the direction of Garrett.
HERVEY: When you first turned around
at this first shot, what did Garrett do?
ADAMSON: After the first shot Garrett
kind of staggered, and staggered back
and fell.
HERVEY: What was the attitude of Gar-
rett, his position with respect to the de-
fendant [Brazel]?
ADAMSON: When I looked, he was
facing him.
HERVEY: Were they facing each other?
ADAMSON: Well, I rather think Brazel
was kind of sideways.
HERVEY: Had Garrett commenced to
stagger as you looked around?
ADAMSON: Yes, sir.
HERVEY: So you didn’t see him stand-
ing upright at all?
ADAMSON: No, sir. I think when I seen
Garrett, the first shot had been fired, and
he was staggering.
HERVEY: What did you do after this
second shot was fired?
ADAMSON: One of my horses started to
run, and I grabbed the lines and wrapped
them as quickly as I could around the hub
of the wheel and went back to where the
defendant and Mr. Garrett was.
HERVEY: Where was Garrett?
ADAMSON: Lying on the ground.
HERVEY: Was he dead?
ADAM SON: Well, he never spoke a
word. When I got to him, he was just
stretching out, kind of this way, and
grunted a little, that is all.
HERVEY: Did he die?
ADAMSON: Yes, sir.
Adamson provided the same details
when cross-examined by Brazel’s de-
fense attorney, Herbert B. Holt. The
critical points to understand are that
Garrett had verbally threatened Bra-
zel and then abruptly jumped from the
buggy. In the aftermath of the shooting
Brazel, with Adamson trailing in the
PALACE OF GOVERNORS PHOTO ARCHIVE
buggy, rode into Las Cruces and volun-
tarily surrendered to Doña Ana County
Sheriff Felipe Lucero.
Sheriff Lucero organized a coroner’s
jury and brought its members out to
the scene of the killing, accompanied
by Adamson and Dr. William C. Field.
 Got Garrett’s Goat
Brazel tends to horses here, but while
leasing land from Garrett in 1908, he
infuriated the former sheriff by running
goats instead of cattle and horses.
TOP: NITA STEWART HALEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY, J. EVETTTS HALEY HISTORY CENTER; RIGHT:
CENTER FOR SOUTHWEST RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
There, Adamson first related his account of what
happened. Garrett’s body lay where it fell,
so if any evidence at the scene contradicted
Adamson’s account, it would be obvious.
Lucero described the death scene as follows:
I found Pat in the spot Wayne had described, laying
flat on his back in the sand, one leg drawn up, his gun
lying near him. We could plainly see the wheel tracks of HERBERT HOLT
the buggy and the impression of the horses’ hooves in the
sand, the depressions they’d made when they’d plunged at the
sound of the shots. I trailed the tracks back for about 2 miles and saw where
the horse Wayne had been riding joined the buggy at the old chalk hill.
It was plain to see the team and the horse had been walked side by side,
the men apparently talking together as they rode.
Dr. Field conducted the autopsy. Here
are the findings as he recalled them in
a 1939 newspaper interview:
Later at the undertaking parlor I made
an autopsy on Pat. He’d been shot twice by
soft-nosed bullets from a .45, one shot hit-
ting him in the back of the head and emerg-
ing just over the right eye. The second shot was
fired when Pat was nearly on the ground, the bullet
striking in the region of the stomach and ranging
upward. I cut this bullet out behind the shoulder.
I was sure he’d been shot in the back of the head,
because when I examined the hole, I noticed it
[the hair] was driven inward toward the wound.
FEBRUARY 2021 WILD WEST 43

DR. WILLIAM C. FIELD
The first bullet was never found.
On March 4 New Mexico Terri-
tory Governor George Curry ar-
rived in Las Cruces to look into the
killing. Accompanying him was ter-
ritorial Mounted Policeman John A.
Beal, whom Curry and Hervey each
later mistakenly referred to as Fred
Fornoff. The El Paso Herald reported on
their arrival:
Simultaneously with the arrival of Governor Curry,
ranger J.A. Beal also arrived from Deming. He was
in this section in January and says the dispute be-
tween Garrett and Brazel was in progress at that
time, and he made a report on it to the governor.
Following the shooting Governor Curry wired him
to come to Las Cruces at once, and his evidence
will be used. He will also cooperate with the local
authorities if needed in preserving order.
Curry ordered Adamson up to his hotel room
to recount what happened. Adamson did as
he was told, relating his account of the killing
for the second time. Later that day he testified
at Brazel’s preliminary hearing, marking the
third time he gave his account. After the hearing
Curry, Hervey, Dr. Field and Adamson visited
the site of the shooting, where Adamson shared
what he’d seen for the fourth time.
4 4 WILD WEST FEBRUARY 2021
On April 3 Adamson returned to Las
Cruces to testify before the grand jury in-
C
vestigating Garrett’s murder. That marked
v
th
the fifth time he’d given his account, the
ssecond under oath.
Those who propose Garrett’s killing
w a premeditated assassination cite
was
as
a their primary evidence the Fornoff Re-
port, a purported summary by Mounted
p
Police Captain Fred Fornoff of his in-
P
vestigation into the murder. Proponents
v
of
o the theory assert Fornoff had learned
FRED FORNOFF from
f sources in El Paso of the elabo-
rately
r planned conspiracy to kill Garrett.
They also assert he’d learned both the
conspirators and details of the plot (so much for
names of the conspirato
conspiratorial confidentiality).
But there’s a catch: One cannot examine the Fornoff Report.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: HISTORYNET ARCHIVE; NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS; CENTER OF SOUTHWEST RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
It doesn’t exist.
As the story goes, Mounted Police office clerk Page Otero
composed and typed up the report using notes sup-
plied to him by Fornoff. Decades later author Chuck
Hornung, who was researching the Mounted Police
for a book, interviewed Fred Lambert, who had
served on the force with Fornoff. On April 13,
1968, Hornung sat down with Lambert to dis-
cuss the Garrett murder. During that interview
Lambert, who would die three years later, told
Hornung that back in 1911 he’d viewed Forn-
off’s report on the murder. He then recounted
the details he could recall, the essence of which
was that Garrett had been assassinated.
This oft-cited evidence of a conspiracy to kill
GEORGE CURRY Garrett is thirdhand, not to mention dated by de-
cades. To recap, Lambert reportedly read Fornoff’s
notes in 1911, told Hornung what was in those notes 57
years later, and Hornung published those details in 1996—88 years after
the actual murder.
Curry only muddied the waters in his autobiography. “With Hervey
and Fred Fornoff, captain of the territorial Mounted Police and a highly
efficient officer, I went to Las Cruces,” the governor wrote. But it was
Beal who had traveled to Las Cruces with Curry and later submitted
a report to the governor about the conflict between Garrett and Brazel.
It was Beal who went on to testify in Brazel’s defense at trial.
In his 1953 memoirs Hervey wrote that while poring over the
murder site he found a “new Winchester rifle shell on the ground” about
30 or 40 feet from where Garrett was killed. This, of course, does not prove
Garrett had been assassinated by a rifle from a distance, although many
writers have offered it as evidence of such. But what is of evidentiary value
is that Hervey made no mention of the rifle shell in a long interview about
the killing he gave attorney and author William A. Keleher in 1938.
Originally scheduled for October 1908, Brazel’s trial was postponed
to May 3, 1909. The prosecution issued subpoenas for five men, including
Dr. Field and Adamson. Oddly enough, Adamson’s name was crossed out
 before the subpoenas were given to the sheriff
to serve.
A question since asked by Garrett researchers
is, Why did Adamson not testify at Brazel’s trial?
The conclusion many reached is that he was
in jail at the time. This was not true. He was
out on bond and could have been compelled
to testify. The actual answer is that the prosecu-
tion simply decided not to subpoena Adamson
for the May trial.
Also subpoenaed by the prosecution were all
telegraphs sent and received by Brazel, Adam-
son, Miller and Cox. Conspiracy theorists have
asserted those telegrams revealed a murder plot.
They did not.
The defense opened its case by calling Brazel
to the stand. There is no surviving trial tran-
script, so it is impossible to know Brazel’s actual
words. He’d pleaded self-defense, so his testi-
mony would have supported that argument. He
would have claimed Garrett made an explicit
threat against him, followed by a threatening
action that made him fear for his life. Brazel
had a perfect case of self-defense.
Officer Beal’s testimony of the long-running
conflict between the deceased and the defen-
dant proved the determining corroboration of
Brazel’s defense. After just 15 minutes of delib-
eration the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
Various accounts assert Garrett had exited
the buggy to urinate, and his body had been
found with his trousers unbuttoned. If Adam-
son’s testimony and the on-site evidence re-
corded by Sheriff Lucero are true, then the uri-
nation story was a fabrication. There’s
no hint, either in period newspapers
or the recorded words of jurors and
attorneys, that Adamson’s oft-retold
account was untrue.
Following is how Albert Fall, Brazel’s
prominent trial lawyer, summed up
the facts of the case:
That the defendant was coming from his ranch into the town of Las Cruces
at the written invitation of Patrick F. Garrett and his associate, one Adamson,
for the purpose of making a trade between the defendant, Adamson and one
J.B. Miller for the purchase of defendant’s goats and the release by him of a
five-year lease upon a certain spring claimed to be owned by Mr. Garrett;
That J.B. Miller was in the town of Las Cruces in a hotel awaiting the arrival
of the deceased, Adamson and the defendant, Brazel;
That Brazel had never met Miller until introduced to the latter by the de-
ceased, Garrett;
That Miller in turn had introduced the defendant to Adamson, Garrett’s
companion;
That within about 5 miles of Las Cruces some controversy arose between
the defendant and the deceased;
That the deceased seized from his buggy a sawed-off repeating shotgun loaded
with buckshot, and the defendant fired and killed him.
The material facts of the infamous murder case—that Garrett had bought
his home ranch from Cox; that Miller and Adamson had initially wanted
to buy John Leatherman’s ranch; that they had visited Garrett at his ranch
on February 6; that Garrett had taken Brazel to El Paso to meet Miller
and Adamson; that Beal had submitted a “Beal Report” to Curry on the
Garrett-Brazel conflict; that Miller had been at a hotel in Las Cruces
when Garrett was killed; that a grand jury had investigated the matter;
that Beal had testified in Brazel’s defense at his trial; and that Adamson
had shared his account of the killing five times—were all unknown until
revealed by this author in the 2019 book Killing Pat Garrett, the Wild West’s
Most Famous Lawman—Murder or Self-Defense?
David G. Thomas is a historian, filmmaker, producer, actor, screenwriter
and travel writer and the co-founder of the Pat Garrett Western Heritage
Festival and the Friends of Pat Garrett. A review of Thomas’ Killing Pat
Garrett, the Wild West’s Most Famous Lawman—Murder or Self-
Defense? (part of the Mesilla Valley History Series) appears in the
April 2020 Wild West and online at wildwestmag.com.

The Brazel case for the killing of Mr.

Garrett occupied the court one whole
day in the selection of a jury, examining
NEWMEXICOHISTIORICALMARKERS.BLOGSPOT.COM

witnesses, etc. The plea of self-defense

and the evidence adduced showed a per-
sonal conflict between the deceased and
the defendant;

Sign of the Murder

This marker stands along Highway 70
some 2 miles east of Las Cruces. Out in
the scrub is the murder site, which the
Friends of Pat Garrett seek to preserve.

FEBRUARY 2021 WILD WEST 45

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