American Wild West Law Officer. He gained fame for being the lawman who shot and killed "Billy the Kid," a young man credited with allegedly nine to 21 murders, depending on the source. During the bloody "Lincoln County War," Lincoln Sheriff Bill Brady was killed with a spray of many bullets, but "Billy, the Kid" was arrested for the murder. After being sentenced to death by hanging for the first-degree murder of Lincoln Sheriff Bill Brady, "Billy, the Kid" made a daring jailbreak. Following months of manhunting, Garrett found the criminal and, with both men's guns drawn, shot him, with the killing being ruled as a justifiable homicide. Born Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett, he suffered badly from the American Civil War, losing the family's Louisianna plantation to debt, and his parents dying within a year of each other shortly after the war. He was an orphan at age seventeen with three younger siblings. After placing his younger siblings with relatives, he headed West to become a buffalo hunter, bartender, cattle ranch cowboy and sheriff's deputy. On November 2, 1880, Garrett was elected sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory. After the death of "Billy, the Kid," he was not re-elected and relocated to Texas, where he was an unsuccessful political candidate and became a Texas Ranger for a short time before returning to New Mexico. Upon his return, he became involved with water irrigation and managing his horse and cattle ranch. In 1892, he and his family returned to Texas, where he was approached by an officer from New Mexico to resume law enforcement. He was needed in the missing person case of politician Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain and his eight-year-old son. In April of 1896, Garrett was appointed sheriff of Doña Ana County, and by two years, he had gathered sufficient evidence to make arrests, yet those who were arrested were later acquitted. No further charges were ever filed for the death of Fountain and his son. He became one of the "White House Gunfighters" after President Theodore Roosevelt nominated him on December 16, 1901 to the post of collector of customs in El Paso. He and his family returned to Texas. Holding this position was stormy from the first day and finally, he was replaced on January 2, 1906. Even with President Roosevelt's support, he lacked the polished personality needed to hold the position, becoming an embarrassment to his political colleagues after his public association with his long-time saloon friends. At that point, he and his family returned to New Mexico to find that he was in financial difficulties, causing him to lease part of his cattle ranch. On February 29, 1908, he was traveling from Las Cruces, New Mexico to his ranch with Wayne Brazel and Carl Adamson, with whom he recently had a heated dispute over the lease of his ranch to Brazel, who had put a herd of thousands of goats on the cattle land. He stopped the buckboard to urinate when three gunshots were fired, with the first hitting him in the back of his head, the second hitting his abdomen, and he died instantly, hitting the ground. Wayne Brazel confessed to the killing, but was acquitted in a one-day trial without a witness claiming self-defense. Over the years, he had made enemies including those who supported the cowboy hero image of Billy, the Kid. There were other candidates for Garrett's murder, and although theories have been offered, no other solid evidence given in any case. He married twice, was a widower once, and with his second wife had eight children. He co-authored the 1882 biography, "The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid, The Noted Desperado of the Southwest," which historians and critics have found "many embellishments and inconsistencies." The book rarely sold in his lifetime but has been in six printings since. He was buried in his family plot. A historical marker is located near the site of his death, and the family made a personal memorial at the death site.