b'Untold continued from page 45At about the same time one of Garrett\'s sons, Dudley Poe Garrett, had leased one of Garrett\'s remaining ranchIt was as sheriff of New Mexico\'s Dona Ana properties to Wayne Brazel, not knowing that BrazelCounty where Pat Garrett got embroiled in intended to let sheep graze on the leased land, something anathema to a cattleman like Garrett. the most sensational murder mystery of the 1890s and incurred the animosity of What finally transpired was the killing of Old Westone Albert Bacon Fall, who was then both a lawman and legend Pat Garrett. successful attorney and a rising star in New Livid, and believing he had been misused by Brazel,Mexican Democratic Party politics. Garrett began quarreling with the sheep man, threatening to take him to court. At this critical juncture, a third party named Adamson who was aa milkshake, and crony of Brazel\'s offered to buy out the land sending hismy straw reaches relative-by-marriage, the notorious gunman "Killingacross the room to Jim Miller" to iron out the details. Garrett agreed to goyour milkshake, I\'ll with Adamson and meet up with Brazel, but as theyend up drinking traveled by wagon on the way to Las Cruces sometimeyour milkshake." on February 29, 1908, Brazel suddenly appeared onBut as they say, horseback. What happened next is still unclear tokarma is a ___ and this day and no one knows for sure who murderedFall\'s arrogance Pat Garrett. Some claim Garrett began arguing withand open Brazel, who pulled out a gun and shot him in the headadmittance of bribe and stomach. Still, a more common source claims thatand corruption Garrett went to the side of the road to urinate, andinfuriated either Brazel or Adamson or even "Killing Jim Miller"Congress, which shot him in the back of the head as he stood there.fined Fall $385,000 What is known among the claims and counter-claimsand sentenced him was that Garrett\'s pants were unbuttoned and droppedto a year in prison when he was murdered. - the first member of a president\'s It was known that Brazel had motive and he initiallyto defend Brazel. The verdict was a foregonecabinet to be sent boasted to his jailer that he killed Garrett, withconclusion. Once again, Fall put on a brilliant defenseto prison. To add insult to injury, the jury acquitted Adamson looking on. As things seemed to be clear and(and maybe had a score to settle with Garrett), thatDoheny - who in turn foreclosed on Fall\'s New Mexico the culprit readied for prison and the gallows, Adamsonthere was no concrete evidence who fired the shots thathome - which was precisely the amount of the bribe Fall refused to admit that he saw Brazel gun down thekilled Garrett, just motive, and motive alone would notaccepted from the oilman. aged sheriff - and who would appear but none otherconvict Brazel, who thanks to Albert Fall went free, to than Garrett\'s old nemesis, Albert Bacon Fall, offeringdisappear and perhaps die, just a few years later (Ibid.,A shattered, emotionally and physically drained p. 115). President Harding embarked on a voyage to Alaska to escape the repercussions of the scandal. On the way The postscript to Garrett\'s sad demise was the rise andhome, Harding collapsed and was rushed to a San fall of Albert B. Fall, from his possible part in the murderFrancisco hotel where on the evening of August 2, 1923, of the Fountains to his notorious role in convincing twoHarding suddenly convulsed and suffered a fatal heart juries to acquit the alleged murderers of the Fountainsattack (though there are still some who think Florence and then the separate individual or individuals whoHarding, tired of her husband\'s numerous affairs and murdered Pat Garrett. Then on to his being a politicalthe taint of Fall\'s Teapot Dome Scandal, poisoned chameleon, first voted into office as a Democrat, thenhim). Almost losing everything, Fall retired to private sometime before New Mexico became a state hislife, became a reclusive sort, and died in El Paso on opportunistic decision to switch to the Republican Party,November 30, 1944.ironically the party both Albert Jennings Fountain and Pat Floyd Garrett were both affiliated with at the time ofPerhaps somewhere in heaven, arguably not in hell, an their respective demises. As a reward, Fall was appointedOld Western lawman who never turned outlaw though to a Senatorial seat even though incurring the wrath ofhe did involve himself in activities that did not do him his former Democratic colleagues. He quickly became aor his reputation good, smiled down when he learned national political force to be reckoned with, as an activeof Albert Fall\'s demise. Although his life had been a opponent of the policies of Woodrow Wilson. Then, ascontroversial one, and his fall from grace so sad and so mentioned at the start of this narrative, President-electunnecessary, Pat Floyd Garrett was still one of the good Harding offered the corrupted and corruptible Fall theguys who deserved better.Albert Bacon Fall arguably plum position of secretary of the interior. deserved worse - maybe even more so than that once likable Kid who was Garrett\'s friend - before he became Next came Teapot Dome, Fall\'s opportunistic decisiona cold and deadly killer.to sell the navy oil holdings at Elk Hills, just west of Bakersfield and Teapot Dome in the hill country ofP.S. There were so many twists and turns to the story of Wyoming to the private and prominent businessmenPat Garrett, and how the lives of the Kid and Albert B. Edward Doheny and Harry Sinclair. This selling ofFall intertwined with his. For example, the Kid\'s legal property that were government holdings was not onlynemesis, Johnny Catron, who was in part responsible foolish and not his to sell on his own, but it was clearlyfor Garrett\'s appointment as sheriff of Lincoln County, - especially back then - the wrong thing to do. It waswould later become a mentor to Albert B. Fall, and with discovered too, that Doheny had paid off Fall\'s houseFall be appointed to the U.S. Senate once New Mexico payments. The ensuingTeapot Dome scandal, initiatedbecame a state but it would require another new book by a Fall used to committing fraud and possibly beingto tell that story well. This writer hopes the reader involved in murder ripped the Harding administrationdiscovered much more to the story of Garrett, the Kid, to shreds and stained it beyond recovery. and the corrupted political chameleon Fall and how they were all united in history by that tall, lanky, Texan with The contemptible and contemptuous Fall uttered athe fast draw, but who may very well have died with his line at his trial that would be used in the movie Theregun in his holster and his pants down on the side of a Will Be Blood. "Sir, if I have a milkshake and you haveNew Mexican road. 46 October 2020'