b'The Untold Story of Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid,Lew Wallace and the Notorious Albert B. FallPART 2 By Alan RockmanU nfortunately for Billy andan experienced and tough lawman himself, that the his gang, the new sheriff,Kid was back in Fort Sumter.Surprisingly, or perhaps his former drinking buddynot surprisingly, given their once close friendship, Garrett had not lain low butGarrett seemed very reluctant to track down and kill was now actively seeking thethe Kid. He and Poe rode the trail into Fort Sumter gang. On a cold, blizzard-filledon the evening of July 14, 1881, made a few inquiries, December night, Garrett and his posse finally struck payand discovered where the Kid was hiding out - almost dirt, ambushing the Kid and his gang as they rode downin plain sight, holed up in the home of a close friend from the mountains on the evening of December 19th,and ironically former Garrett employer Pete Maxwell. killing Tom O\' Folliard. The Kid escaped, but Garrett andMaxwell agreed to help Garrett, for whatever reasons, his posse were hot on hissome say it was he resented the Kid\'s paying too much trail, which led to a cabinattention to his young daughter. With Maxwell\'s help, up by Stinking Springs.the two lawmen crept into the house and waited in the Garrett and the possedarkness next to Billy\'s guest bedroom. Hearing the surrounded the cabin,voices of Garrett talking with Pete Maxwell, Billy got up waiting until morning to ascertain who was out there, and then it happened. and then they struck. History is not clear whether or not the Kid had a gun on hand (he did have a knife) or was reaching for one, as Hollywood may havehe called out, at first softly, "Quien es?" (Whos there?) gotten it all wrong havingHe then repeated it once more loudly, "Quien es?" Three James Best, who hadshots rang out, and the Kid, pierced through the heart, portrayed Tom O\'Folliardfell dead.in the Left-Handed Gun, getting gunned down asThus ended his saga, but for Pat Garrett, it was onlyAlbert B. Fallhe walked out from theTom O Folliard the beginning of an almost 30-year downward slide cabin into the sunshinethrough controversy (Billy\'s killing was questioned), (O\'Folliard had been shotgambling, business failures, unwise associations, andpersonal courage in the minds of admirers - not to and killed the evening before) and there were four othersanother, perhaps much more evil nemesis by the namemention emboldening those who were out to get him. in the cabin, besides Billy. But it was Billy\'s other faithfulof Albert B. Fall. The taciturn Garrett, who never boasted of his exploits partner Bowdre, wearing a hat similar to Billy\'s whonor sought out publicity, was his own worst enemy in opened the cabin door that next morning to be shotAlbert B. Fall? other ways too. A fondness for gambling and associating down by Garrett, dying by the door. The siege continuedwith some unsavory characters, no doubt begun around throughout that day, the others finally persuading aYes, that name should be quite familiar to any studentthe time he hung around with a certain Kid from New reluctant Billy to surrender. It must have been a veryof U.S. history, particularly presidential history, as itYork began to get the best of him, with debts steadily bitter Billy, manacled by his former friend Garrett andwas Fall, named as secretary of the interior in Warrenmounting in the passing years.abused by his deputy Ollinger in the same manner as heHarding\'s administration, who was rewarded the trust had been by Windy Cahill, who was taken to a Lincolnof the incompetent, immoral Harding by bringingGarrett was also a failure as a businessman. Choosing jail to face execution, scheduled for May 13, 1881. scandal and ruin to the latter\'s administration. Fornot to run for re-election as sheriff of Lincoln County a time Garrett was hailed as a national hero, havingin the 1882 elections, he went into two businesses But as they proceeded back to the Lincoln jail, Billyterminated the existence of one of the most notoriouswith two partners on an irrigation scheme that was turned and told the abusive Bob Ollinger, "There\'s manyoutlaws of the Old West. But doubts in the way thesuccessful at first, until his two partners dumped him. a slip twixt the cup and the lip" (Horan, The AuthenticKid died, doubts if Garrett had even shot the Kid, evenHe sought out another irrigation venture, and that too Wild West: The Gunfighters, p.70). doubts about his courage began to surface. It was thefailed as did attempts to invest in real estate, a nursery, same old historical story whenever a decisive movea dairy operation, and the breeding of thoroughbred Billy\'s escape just weeks (not days) before his scheduledwas made - we saw it soon after at the OK Corral, wehorses for racing (Hurd, Owen J., After the Fact, execution is part of Old West legend and lore, and theresaw it during the Lindbergh kidnapping, the KennedyPerigree Books, New York, 2012, p. 112). Steadily in is no need to describe it in detail here. Garrett hadassassination, and even the Navy Seals\' "taking out"debt, Garrett chose to go back to the one thing he knew business elsewhere, leaving the Kid in the custody ofBin Laden. best - law enforcement. He served for a spell in the Ollinger and the well-meaning J.W. Bell. The Kid neededTexas Rangers, went back to ranching and gambling, to go to the outhouse, Bell took him back, and whetherWas the Kid armed when he died? Yes, it was proventhen chose to get back into wearing a sheriff\'s badge or not a gun had been secreted inside the outhouse orin all accounts, fair or unfair that the Kid DID have aand carrying a six-gun.Bell was simply careless, he was subdued and shot downknife and that there was a rifle nearby but whether or by Billy. Deputy Ollinger who was across the streetnot he had a revolver is still a mystery. Was it the KidIt was as sheriff of New Mexico\'s Dona Ana County having a brew at the local saloon heard the shot andwho died or some young drifter named Billy Barlow aswhere Pat Garrett got embroiled in the most sensational rushed out, only to see a grinning Kid calling out, "Helloothers have insisted? While at least two men claimedmurder mystery of the 1890s and incurred the Bob," just a second or so before the Kid blasted theto be Billy years later, their claims were regarded with aanimosity of one Albert Bacon Fall, who was then both abusive lawman into eternity. Billy then made his escape,hefty dose of skepticism - and there was NO record of aa successful attorney and a rising star in New Mexican on his own, with no compadres accompanying him this"Billy Barlow" riding through those parts at the time ofDemocratic Party politics. He was said to have been time. But he was now a marked young man. the Kid\'s demise. personally involved in that mystery, the disappearance and likely murder of the respected Judge Colonel Albert If young Billy, who had boasted of killing 21 menFinally, there were doubts about Garrett\'s courage. NoJennings Fountain and his eight-year-old son, who had before his 21st birthday had been wise, he wouldmatter that dozens of witnesses of previous encountersdisappeared in the White Sands riding back to their have hightailed for Mexico, but like a bee attracted towith the lawless proved how steady and fearless GarrettMesilla home from Lincoln. Fountain, a Civil War hero nectar, he instead headed back to Fort Sumter, maybewas. It is said that it was he who personally shot downwho had also campaigned against the Apache, was a seeking out the charms of Paulita Maxwell or anotherTom O\'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre as well as the Kidradical Republican whose views angered the then-young woman. Garrett, back on the hunt once again struck(Burns, The Saga of Billy the Kid, p. 301). The naysayersattorney Fall and his landowning associate Oliver Lee. pay dirt, being informed by his new deputy, John Poe,began to plant the seeds of doubt about Garrett\'sLee had it out for Judge Fountain, so it was a given that 44 October 2020'