June 5th: Pat Garrett! Born on this day in 1850, he was an Old West Lawman, bartender and customs agent. He is most famous for being the man who killed Billy The Kid. Here is his story. He left home in 1869 and found work as a cowboy in Dallas County, Texas. In 1875, he left to hunt buffalo. In 1878, Garrett shot and killed a fellow hunter who charged at Garrett with a hatchet following a disagreement over buffalo hides. On November 7, 1880, the sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, republican George Kimbell, resigned with two months left in his term. As Kimbells successor, the county appointed Garrett, a democrat and gunman of some reputation who had promised to restore law and order. Garrett was charged with tracking down and arresting an alleged friend from his saloon keeping days, Henry McCarty, a jail escapee who often went by the aliases Henry Antrim and William Harrison Bonney, but who is better known as Billy the Kid. Garrett and Bonney were often seen gambling together in saloons, and earned the nicknames Big Casino and Little Casino. On December 19, 1880, Garrett killed Tom OFolliard, a member of McCartys gang, in a shootout on the outskirts of Fort Sumner. On December 23, the sheriffs posse killed Charlie Bowdre, and captured the Kid and his companions at Stinking Springs. Though he was convicted, the Kid managed to escape from the Lincoln County jail on April 28, 1881, after killing his guards, J. W. Bell and Bob Olinger. On July 14, 1881, Garrett found the location of Billy The Kid and waited in the shadows of the room, and shot the unarmed man in the chest. This action ruined Garretts reputation, so Garrett left to become a rancher and wrote a book entitled, The Authentic Life Of Billy The Kid, which elevated Billy The Kid to folklore legend. On December 20, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt, who became a personal friend of Garrett, appointed him customs collector in El Paso, Texas. Garrett served for five years. He was not reappointed due to his poor reputation after the killing of Billy The Kid, and because he tended to associate with outlaws and criminals. Honorable Mention: Governor of Chihuahua and Mexican Revolutionary general, Pancho Villa 1878 Creator of the classic childrens books in Busytown, Richard Scarry 1919 Spoken Word artist, Spalding Gray 1941 Probably the most famous Saxophonist alive, Kenny G 1956 Office Space actor, Ron Livingston 1967 Multi-talented R&B singer who plays piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, trombone, tuba, trumpet and why the hell not, the flugelhorn, Brian McKnight 1969 Hip Hop artist and producer, Aesop Rock 1976
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 11:13:31 +0000