Tall Tales Half Truths of Pat Garrett by John LeMay

Author:John LeMay [LeMay, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Photography, Subjects & Themes, Historical, Regional, Travel, Pictorials, History, United States, State & Local, Southwest (AZ; NM; OK; TX)
ISBN: 9781625858160
Google: -i0LDAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2016-05-09T03:00:14+00:00

ANTI-CLIMAX AT HILLSBORO

Eventually, the conniving Fall’s plan to create a whole new county to protect Lee came to fruition. Initially, Fall found himself opposed by both his nemeses Tom Catron and Governor Otero, who although he disliked Catron disliked Fall more. That all changed when Fall offered to name the new county Otero and the governor changed his mind. Otero County (though it should have been called Lee County since that’s who the county was really created for) was carved out of Dona Ana on January 30, 1899, with George Curry as its new sheriff. Lee’s “surrender” was then negotiated with the new sheriff, firmly entrenched in Fall’s pocket.

Lee and Gililland in disguise then boarded a train headed for Las Cruces under the custody of Gene Rhodes. By sheer coincidence, Garrett was also on the same train, transporting a prisoner. Though it’s debatable whether Garrett knew they were somewhere on the train, he was reported to be acting suspicious, as though on the lookout for someone. At one point, he walked into the same car in which the disguised outlaws sat, stepped right in front of Lee (sporting a heavy beard and pretending to read a book) and stared for a long while out the window. Incredibly, Garrett left, not bothering or acknowledging the men, leaving everyone, historians included, to wonder whether Garrett was playing a game with Lee, too chicken to arrest him or simply oblivious.

May D. Rhodes wrote of the incident for New Mexico Magazine in 1947. When Rhodes saw Garrett walk into his train car, he thought to himself, “Now we will have some plain and fancy shooting.”

May Rhodes wrote:

Garrett walked down the aisle and, reaching Gene’s seat, he stopped and spoke to him. Then he put his foot up on the end of seat and made some remark. Gene later said that was one time he did not want to visit with Pat Garrett. Garrett observed the men [Lee and Gililland] in the next seat closely. He evidently decided they were what they looked to be—prospectors. He made another remark to Gene. Gene recalled later that his very finger tips tingled. He turned the page of his book although he had not read the two proceeding pages. Pat Garrett moved on down the aisle and through the door that he had just entered. Gene heaved a sigh of relief, and the others must have felt the same.

The climactic—or, rather, anti-climactic—final battle took place in the courtroom of Hillsboro, capital of Sierra County (there was a change in venue that made Otero County unavailable), a good three years after the murders, in May 1899. The town became a media circus, and newspapers across the country reported on the sensational trial, which in fact was no longer about Fountain and Lee so much as it was a battle of wills between the Santa Fe Ring and Fall. The ring feared that if Fall won the trial his rise to power would continue, perhaps even taking the governor’s seat.

Conveniently,

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