Born on June 5, 1850, Pat Garrett would grow up to etch his name into Wild West lore as the sheriff who ambushed and killed Billy the Kid. Long before that fatal midnight shootout in Fort Sumner, Garrett lived a raw frontier life in Chambers County, Alabama, before drifting west to embrace the lawless grit of New Mexico.
Before he ever pinned on a sheriff’s star, Garrett worked as a buffalo hunter and a bartender, occasionally socializing with the very outlaws he would later hunt. This firsthand familiarity with the criminal underworld gave him an intimate knowledge of Billy the Kid’s personal habits and favorite hideouts. It was this deadly insider edge that ultimately allowed him to track down and eliminate the West’s most elusive fugitive.
Kind of weird Pat Garrett didn’t have a photographer to show who he shot. Or leading people to believe to have been billy the kid. It’s a nagging question because few stated pat shot the wrong person. Unfortunately we today will never truly know for sure.