Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
On March first, nineteen oh eight, local Las Crusees, New Mexico newspapers reported quote Pat F. Garrett fulfilled his own prophecy that he would die with his boots on. Garrett was killed between ten and eleven o'clock on the road to his Bear Canyon ranch at a point five miles from Las Cruses, best known as a lawman and the slayer of Billy the Kid. Let's meet Pat and talk about the events of his unexpected death. Was it self
defense or maybe a conspiracy. Pat was a high profile guy and people had thoughts about what happened, and I still do. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Marian Tremarqui and.
I'm Holly Frye. In the Chihuahuan Desert outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is the site where famous law man Pat Garrett was killed on February twenty ninth, nineteen oh eight. You'll find a plaque under a kreosote bush noting the scene of the crime. Pat had a big life on the American frontier. He was sheriff of two different counties in New Mexico and one of the first collectors of customs. He knew President Theodore Roosevelt well and had been to
the White House on multiple occasions. And as we said, he is best known for being the guy who killed Billy the Kid. We know his impressive resume, but what we don't know is who precisely killed him on the side of the road that morning in February.
Let's dive into Pat's life before we talk about his death. Born in Alabama on June fifth, eighteen fifty, Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett was raised on a cotton plantation his father had purchased in Louisiana. He left home at about the age of seventeen or eighteen, give or take on that. With his sites on Texas, Pat wanted to be a
cowboy and a buffalo hunter. Garrett's whereabouts over his first several years away from home are I mean, honestly, they're pretty vague, but historians believe he did go to Texas, where he did hunt buffalo and was probably a cattle rancher.
In eighteen seventy nine, he married Juanita Martinez, but tragedy struck when his bride collapsed at their wedding ceremony, and she died of unknown causes the next day. Pat then settled into a job as sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, at a time when the Lincoln County Wars were happening that was primarily a conflict between rival cattle ranchers in the territory, And then on January fourteenth, eighteen eighty, he remarried to a Pollinaria Gutierrez, known to friends as Pauline.
The couple had eight children together, Ada, Dudley, Elizabeth, Annie, Patrick, Paula, Oscar, and Jarvis.
July fourteenth, eighteen eighty one is the day for which Pat Garrett will always be known. It's the day he led a posse to Fort Sumner, where he had tracked the infamous outlaw William H. Bonnie, best known as Billy the Kid, and fatally shot him. Despite his successes in fame in Lincoln County, Pat didn't seek reelection as sheriff the next year and instead moved to Texas, where he
ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the state Senate. There he became a captain with the Texas Rangers, but he stayed for less than a month before heading to Roswell, New Mexico. In Roswell, Pat became more of a businessman than a lawman, having partnerships with three different irrigation companies over the next few years.
But in April of eighteen ninety six, Garrett was once again a lawman. He was sheriff of Donia Anna County, New Mexico, appointed to take over the investigation of the disappearance or possible double murder of Colonel Albert Fountain, a prominent attorney and politician, and Albert's eight year old son Henry. Within two years, Pat had gathered sufficient evidence to get warrants to arrest four men, Oliver M Lee, William mcnewe,
Bill Carr, and James Gilliland. The outlaws he implicated for those murders were tried, but they were all acquitted, similar to Pat's own story. The disappearance of the Fountains has puzzled lawmen and historians for more than a century.
On December sixteenth, nineteen oh one, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Pat to the post of El Paso Customs Agent. He was also named one of Roosevelt's so called White House gunfighters that was along with former sheriff of Dodge City and US Marshal bat Masterson and Ben Daniels, who perhaps is best known for serving as a lawman in some of the roughest towns in the wild West. He's about replaced Garrett with a new collector of customs the following term on January second, nineteen oh six.
We're going to take a break here for a word from our sponsors. No longer a customs agent, we will talk about how when Pat went back to work not as a lawman but as a rancher, he may have kicked off the first event that would ultimately lead to his death.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the death of Pat Garrett.
Following his dismissal from his position in Texas, Pat returned to New Mexico to his Bear Canyon ranch, located on the east side of the Oregon Mountains. He was broke. He owed back taxes and he was in considerable debt, and the county had auctioned off his personal possessions to satisfy judgments against him. He borrowed a few thousand dollars from rancher William bill Cox, who owned San Augustine Springs ranch.
Cox was Garrett's neighbor. Garrett also agreed to rent some of his land to ranch hand Wayne Brazil, who worked for Cox.
Cox had a criminal history and has always been considered one of the possible individuals who was either directly or indirectly involved in the murder of Pat Garrett, but his involvement is at best unclear. Of course, there are theories about Garrett and Cox. One possible motive here is that in eighteen ninety nine, Cox had become angry when he returned to his ranch one day and found that then sheriff Garrett and his deputy had entered his home and
killed an unarmed man. Another theory regarding Cox and Garrett goes like this Garrett was killed because Cox wanted his ranch.
Pat leased his cattle ranch for a five year term to Wayne Brazil and Archie Road, who was Bill Cox's brother in law. Wayne and Archie raised sheep, although we should note that there are a number of conflicting reports that suggest that it was actually goats they were raising, But regardless sheeper goats, it did not take long before the men were involved in a hot dispute over that lease.
After signing with Garrett, Brazil then entered into an agreement for ranchers JP Turner of Fort Worth, Texas and Carl Adamson of Roswell, New Mexico to sublet Garrett's property, and it was also agreed that Turner and Adamson would buy the sheep or goats. Garrett, though, had not been involved in this new agreement, and he objected and stated that he believed that Brazil had forfeited his lease in making this sublet deal and that he was going to see
him in court. Spoiler alert, they do not work this out.
According to Carl Adamson's account, as he the Rio Grand Republican a few days after Garrett's death, and we're going to paraphrase him a bit here. He's long winded. He had stayed the night at Bear Canyon Ranch and the two left in the morning of February twenty ninth, and Garrett's buggy they were headed for Las Cruses, only a few miles away, to work out a new deal with Brazil.
This is the account of the tragic ride when pat was fatally shot next to his buggy on the side of the road, as told by Adamson quote, Garrett was dressed carefully when we set out for Los Cruses. He placed his Winchester pump gun in the bottom of the buggy before we started, and then about a mile from Oregon, they overtook Brazil, who was riding alone on a horseback. Garrett and Brazil began arguing immediately upon seeing each other, and they continued to argue as they kept going for miles.
When Adamson and Garrett pulled over to answer the call of nature, Brazil stopped too, who recalled Adamson quote, while I was standing there, why I heard mister Garrett said, well, damn you. If I can't get you off my ranch that way, I will another and I will do it now, or something like that. After those words passed, I heard a racket and I just turned my head like that, and when I turned it, Garrett was on the ground. Pat's shotgun was also on the ground. Brazil had drawn
his forty four caliber Colt revolver and fired twice. The press reported that quote. Garrett was standing on the ground by the buggy when he made the grab for the shotgun, which cost him his life. His death was practically instantaneous.
According to Adamson's eyewitness account. After the shooting, Brazil turned to him and said, quote, this is hell, ain't it. I Am going to town and give myself up to the sheriff. An alternate account was published in local papers, stating, quote Brazil at once turned the six shooter on Adamson demand that he'd take him at once to Los Cruses and tell the story of the killing exactly as it happened, whether Brazil demanded it or not. The two men left
to see Sheriff Filippe Lucero in Las Cruzes. There, Brazil didn't just confess to the killing. He also told the sheriff he feared Pat Garrett was going to kill him, and stated he had acted out of self defense. So that seems like an open and shutcase, but and you know, our butts, it wasn't. The sheriff didn't really believe Brazil was capable of carrying out such a crime and didn't think the confession was true. He wanted more evidence.
A coroner's jury convened composed of B. F. Baker, Hugh Clary, Vincent May C. S. Pedrigan, at Satterley, Face Sperry, and Justice of the Peace and Coroner Manuel Lopez. They viewed Pat's body where he had been killed. They reported that one bullet had passed through the head, entering from behind and exiting over the left eye. A second bullet had entered the left breast at about the seventh rib and had exited between the shoulder blades. Pat's body was lying
on its back and his arms were outspread. His shotgun, loaded with number eight shot, was on the ground about three feet away. The report also noted that his trousers were unbuttoned. Within the results of the inquest, it's written that Pat Garrett was reported dead in Dounia, Anna County, about five miles northeast of Las Cruces, on February twenty ninth, nineteen oh eight, and that quote the deceased came to his death by gunshot wounds inflicted by one Wayne Brazil.
We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsors. When we're back, we'll talk about Wayne Brazil and why he wasn't the only suspect in this murder.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the trial that barely was.
Pat Garrett's friends were convinced that his murder was the result of a ruthless and cold blooded conspiracy and when Garrett's brothers arrived by train from Louisiana, they told the press they had the same theory. Though the coroner's jury found that the first bullet that struck Pat was the one that hit his head, many of Pat's friends and
supporters argued no way. They believed he fell after the shot to the chest, pointing out that that wound was found to have been made by a bullet that ranged upward from, like we said, the seventh rib, to its exit between the shoulder blades. Some believed that the bullet that entered the left chest was fired after Garrett had fallen to the ground, because if Pat had intended to shoot Brazil, he never would have turned his back to him.
There was a great deal of discussion in the newspapers about an alleged conspiracy to kill Pat Garrett. Many people believe there was and is more about the circumstances of the killing yet to be shared or yet to be discovered. Said one local resident to the press at the time, quote, I can't understand how Pat Garrett would be reaching over into a buggy for a gun, jumping out with a gun in his hand, or otherwise giving his opponent first
chance to shoot. There is something queer about it, and the story of the killing does not fit in with Garrett's lifelong methods of fighting. Furthermore, it was not like Garrett to loose his head and make a bum play like that, no matter what the dispute was about.
The case went to trial about a year after Pat's death. Brazil, the defendant, was represented by A. T. Jerney and future Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall. The single witness to the shooting, Carl Adamson, never testified. He was under arrest for allegedly illegally smuggling Chinese workers into the United States at the time. In his own defense, Brazil claimed that he did not draw his gun until he'd seen
Garrett had reached for his shotgun first. Those who knew Brazil as a ranch hand testified to his character that he'd quote always borne a good reputation and never sought trouble. Brazil's trial, which was a one day event, concluded on May fourth, nineteen oh nine, and court records show that without the star witness Carl Adamson, Brazil was acquitted.
Pat was killed in nineteen oh eight, and to this day, there are theories of conspiracy and a murderous revenge, none of which have been substantiated. Sentiment on this is divided. Some believed and believe that the killing was done by Brasil in self defense, and others just don't buy that story. Some theories consider that if Wayne Brazil wasn't actually the killer, someone still conspired to execute Garrett, a lawman with the kinds of wild West enemies that lawmen have in their line of work.
Beginning the day after Garrett's murder, newspapers began publishing conspiracy theories about the incident. Some figured it was a revenge killing for the death of Billy the Kid, but that's highly unlikely. The men's deaths were nearly thirty years apart. That's an awfully long time to hold a grudge, and frankly, it's also an awfully long time to stay alive as an outlaw in the wild West, it would seem. There
are also theories regarding cold hard cash. One suggests Garrett's death happened because of a land dispute, specifically the sale or lease of his Bear Canyon ranch. Another idea suggests that maybe he was killed after a financial dispute about sheep or goats, and yet still another theory considers nothing more than this. Pat Garrett just didn't think he could lose.
Brazil was the obvious suspect, after all, he turned himself in immediately after the incident happened. But once he was acquitted, the case went cold and it was fair game at pointing fingers at the possibilities. Four other suspects have been seriously proposed and or considered. The first three you'll recognize from their involvement in Garrett's ranch deal Carl Adamson, Bill Cox,
and Archie Road. Historian and author Leon Metz wrote of Garrett that quote, Bill Cox himself ambushed and killed Garrett, and interestingly, Metz also wrote that quote, The Garrett family believes that Carl Adamson pulled the trigger. Mark Lee Gardner, in his twenty ten book about Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett to Hell on a Fast Horse, suggests that Archie Road was the killer.
So that doesn't help us at all. But we said four suspects, and the fourth isn't a name we've mentioned at all. He's an interesting character in this though. He's James Miller, a cowboy and hired killer known as killing Jim and Killer Miller. The theory around Miller's involvement is that though Brazil confessed, Miller is believed by some to have actually committed the murder and was paid to do it. But then who paid him? That's just another rabbit hole for us to go down.
So many open ends.
So many, so many, and wow, I'm I'm not surprised to see the three names that popped up as other possibilities.
I don't know. No, would you like to step into the cooler as we consider this mess?
Yes?
Let us Okay, So this is one of those things where my brain is like, it was obviously Brasil right, like why would he confess if he didn't, you know what I mean? But apparently not at least on the official finding.
Right.
I found myself invoking the phrase that I kind of associate with kind of you know, men of Pat Garrett's type. Yes, that this whole thing is clear as mud, and so that is the name of the drink. And then that gave me an idea where I was like, so I wanted to make a drink that looks like a thing that is obvious and easy to anticipate, and it is not that thing. And it's different than anything we've done before. I also realized rum has yet to be used this season, so it's a rum based drink.
So we're fixing that.
Yeah, we're fixing that. Leggety split, And this one is very interesting. You're gonna you may initially have a weird but come with me, I promise. So the clearest mud is very easy. You are going to start with a half ounce of the jew from a mandarin orange like snack thing, you know what I'm talking about, those little, yeah, rather canned mandarin oranges or the little like single serving packs that have the little like a plastic film on
them that you can peel off. Just a half ounce of that and then you can eat yummy mandarin oranges, hope you like them. And then a half ounce of chocolate syrup. And you're actually gonna mix these two things together to make sure you get like a smooth consistency that the chocolate syrup isn't like clumped.
Right, I'm excited so far because I really like a chocolate orange combination.
Good.
You're like, you just hang on.
Yeah, So to this, you're gonna add two dashes of Angustura bitters. If you really want to go harder with orange, use orange bitters. Both are good. And then you're gonna do an ounce and a half of rum and two barspoons of water because you really want to make sure that chocolate syrup is thinned out, which it will be all ready with the rum, but just it. It's a better consistency if you had a little bit of water.
And then you are gonna shake this in your shaker with tons of ice and pour it into like a ideally a highball glass with a big ice cube like you would use for an old fashion because we're kind of in those proportions and you don't want to water it down anymore. That's why you use the big ice cube. It's not going to melt as fast and do that.
I'm always looking for an excuse to use my big ice cubes.
Yeah, exactly. If you're an old fashioned drinker, you got this. You got all your equipment handy. This tastes like a it looks like it's gonna be a chocolate milky drink, but it's not because there's no dairy components. Because you know, most chocolate syrups that you would buy are chocolate flavor and sugar. If you have one that has some dairy in it. It's pretty minimal at that point, but it
tastes like a chocolate orange. And what's really interesting is that it, at least on my palate, does the same thing that a chocolate orange does, where it's like the first thing you taste is chocolate, and then the orange is the subtle flavor, like the secondary kick in. And it's not hyper sweet because we're not doing a ton of syrup and we're adding some water, so you get the flavor without that heaviness, which I really like.
I don't think Pat Garrett was that much of a sweet guy anyway.
No, it didn't seem right to do like a mud slide or something.
For it, right, I think you wo have been like, I don't want to.
Order that, right, right, something is more appropriate, little more grown up. So that is the clearest mud. Now for the mock tail, we're gonna do something a little bit different because this is one where normally the kinds of things that I sub out for rum are things like low sugar, white grape juice or another juice, and that's
too much sweet. So we're gonna instead make this kind of like an Italian soda so you're gonna bump up the amounts of your mandarin orange juice and your chocolate syrup, and you're gonna do an ounce of each will be a bit sweeter. But then, and it's this one's very simple. You're just gonna stir those two together, make sure they're nice and smooth, and then you are going to pour those over ice and top with two to three ounces
of club soda. That two to three is to your taste, whatever you like most, and then you kind of have an odd chocolate orange soda.
Which actually sounds just as yummy as the cocktail. Michel on this sound equally yummy. Out.
Yeah, they're different, for sure, but they do have a similar landing point in terms of flavor on your palate, which is, I'm sort of fascinated by how this one worked. So that is the clearest mud. It seems obvious, but it's not much like Pat Garrett's case, because it seems obvious, but it's apparently not. It's very shady. I feel like the directions of those bullets are really where we get very very confused in all of this.
I feel as Holly and I had a separate conversation about how the coroner's report differs from what Pats friends and family I think may have happened with those bullets, and it shows exactly what conspiracy brain can do to you.
Yeah, we're just trying to trying to figure figure it out. But in any case, hopefully this beverage will not do anything bad to your brain. Please drink responsibly always. I love to drink, but I'm actually not a big fan of getting drunk. That's that's for when I was much younger. Now, I just like to experience a yummy drink. Yes, hope
you do too. Yes, we hope you do too. We're so thankful that you've spent this time with us, and we will be right back here again next week with another cold case and a drink to go with it. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.