To Hell on a Fast Horse

by Mark Lee Gardner

  Despite reports that Billy was on the Pecos, Garrett did not seem to be doing much in the weeks following Billy’s bloody escape. He remained at home a good part of the time, enjoying his small family and tending to his modest ranch. This brought Garrett criticism from those who wanted Billy swiftly brought to justice, or, better yet, dead. Although Billy still had his sympathizers, they were in the minority, and the brutal courthouse murders, as well as Billy’s threats to kill his enemies, from Garrett on up to Governor Wallace, sent chills through most of the Territory’s citizens. They did not want this heinous murderer in their midst any longer. But the Lincoln County sheriff kept his own counsel. He was not one to be pushed into anything, and if he was going to go after the Kid—and no one doubted that he would at some point, hazardous though it would be—he was going to do it his way.

  Paulita Maxwell, Billy’s girl.

  Robert G. McCubbin Collection

  While Garrett was willing to believe that Billy had returned to his old haunts in the Fort Sumner vicinity, he also had serious doubts. He thought it absolutely incredible that the Kid, the most wanted man in the Southwest, would linger in the Territory when there was nothing to stop him from slipping across the border into Mexico, girl or no girl. Garrett knew the Kid was not stupid, and so he was often skeptical about each report of Billy’s whereabouts. Garrett did not dismiss the rumors, but he also knew he could wait. “If my seeming unconcern deceived the people and gave the Kid confidence in his security,” he wrote later, “my end was accomplished.”

  Billy did feel comfortable and secure in and around Fort Sumner. His friends there included Garrett’s own sister-in-law, Celsa Gutiérrez, a twenty-five-year-old married woman with whom Billy may have had an affair (some people said she bore Billito children), and her husband, Saval. And most of those who were not the Kid’s friends were too scared to cross the fugitive. Billy must have enjoyed the notoriety and deference he received at Sumner. In Mexico, he would be just another gringo on the run. The Kid also possessed enough hubris to explain why he chose to remain within Garrett’s reach. In his fast twenty-one years, Billy had rarely encountered a man he had not bested or outsmarted, and he had survived numerous tight spots and had escaped many captors. Billy, like other young men his age, probably thought he would live forever.

  SOMETIME IN LATE JUNE or early July, Garrett got a letter from a merchant at Fort Sumner (probably his old partner Beaver Smith), telling him the Kid was hanging around Pete Maxwell’s place. A very few brave individuals at Fort Sumner, it seems, were willing to secretly correspond with the Lincoln County sheriff. Garrett, now at his office in Lincoln, also got a reply to a letter he had written to Manuel Brazil, asking if he knew anything about Billy’s current whereabouts. Garrett knew he could trust Brazil, who had been a useful ally in the Stinking Spring capture. In his letter, Brazil said he knew he was on the Kid’s hate list, so he was being very careful in his movements. He had not personally encountered the outlaw. Even so, he had good reason to believe that the Kid was in the area. Brazil closed his letter by offering Garrett any help he could give in capturing the Kid.

  Around this time, John W. Poe arrived in Lincoln from White Oaks with an intriguing story for Garrett that also placed Billy at Fort Sumner. Poe, a twenty-nine-year-old from Kentucky, was working for the Canadian River Cattle Association to recover stolen Texas cattle and also to help put the clamps on the rustling of Texas herds (Frank Stewart’s old job). Like Garrett, Poe had spent time as a buffalo hunter on the Texas plains during the big killing years of the 1870s. He even later claimed that he single-handedly harvested twenty thousand bison. By helping to finish off the buffalo herds, though, he had also killed his livelihood, so Poe became a lawman, first accepting a one-year appointment as Fort Griffin’s town marshal. In 1879, he moved to Mobeetie, Wheeler County, Texas, where he served as a deputy sheriff and deputy U.S. marshal. After losing the election for county sheriff by one vote, he became a livestock detective for the Panhandle cattlemen.

  Poe was six feet tall with a solid build. He had a thick, drooping mustache much like Garrett’s, and the two men shared a similar determination and nerve. After assuming his duties as a stock detective, Poe had traveled to White Oaks in March 1881, where he first met the new Lincoln County sheriff, and he and Garrett formed an alliance. Garrett commissioned Poe as a deputy sheriff. This gave Poe the legal authority in New Mexico to make arrests, and he began doing so, becoming quite good at locating stolen Texas cattle and even finding the hides of stolen cattle that had been processed. Poe later wrote that the Lincoln County sheriff impressed him as a “very brave and efficient officer.”

  White Oaks remained Poe’s headquarters, and in early July 1881, he was approached by George Guinn, a forty-year-old miner, who said he had information about Billy the Kid. Back in Texas, Poe had known Guinn as a decent man, but the miner had fallen on the bottle and hard times in White Oaks. Having no other place to stay, Guinn slept in a vacant room in the livery stable of Sam Dedrick and William West, both of whom were known to be associates of the Kid and his gang. Guinn emphasized that what he was about to tell Poe must be kept in the strictest confidence, because he feared his life would be in danger if word got out about what he knew. And what he knew was this: a night or two ago, he had overheard a conversation between Dedrick and West in which they said the Kid was at Fort Sumner. Guinn also picked up from this same conversation that Billy had been in the White Oaks vicinity twice since his escape, and both times, he had met with these two men. Poe had trouble believing Guinn’s story, but the man was so insistent and sincere that he decided to report it to Garrett.

  Garrett, James Brent (standing), and John W. Poe.

  Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico

  Garrett decided that the time was right to make a little jaunt to Fort Sumner. He wrote a quick note to Manuel Brazil to meet him at the mouth of Taiban Arroyo, five miles south of Sumner, one hour after dark on July 13. Garrett knew better than to travel with a big posse on such a touchy job—the more men who knew what the sheriff was doing, the greater the risk that someone would tip off the Kid. Instead, he would ride with only two deputies, Poe and Thomas C. “Kip” McKinney.

  Garrett liked the twenty-five-year-old McKinney, who had ridden with the Roswell posse when Garrett made his first raid on Fort Sumner back in November. Raised a cowpuncher in Uvalde County, Texas, McKinney was a gangly man with a dark, bronzed face, pale green eyes, and the requisite lawman mustache sprouting out beneath his distinctive Roman nose. Garrett told Poe what the plan was, but he did not inform McKinney at first, telling him only that he was about to make a business trip to Arizona and he wanted McKinney to accompany him. They would first travel to Garrett’s home in Roswell, where Garrett had some small matters to attend to, and from there they would leave for Arizona. Garrett believed it a good idea to plant a false story in Lincoln, knowing that at least one or two townspeople would not be able to stop themselves from asking McKinney what he was up to. Once they were well on their way, Garrett told McKinney the truth: they were going after the Kid.

  After a brief stop at his ranch to see Polinaria, Garrett led his men north, up the Pecos, on the night of July 11. The manhunters stayed off the main road and traveled mostly after sundown. They purposely made no stops at ranch houses along the way. They reached the meeting place at the appointed time, but Brazil was not there to greet them. He probably had not gotten Garrett’s letter. After waiting for about two hours, they rode off the road some distance, picketed their horses, and made camp for the night. Shortly after the dawn, they mounted up and rode to some low hills where they could use their binoculars to scan the countryside. They did not see anything out of the ordinary and figured it was time to come up with a plan.

  Poe had never been to Fort Sumner before, and no one there knew who he was, so they decided that he would visit Sumner alone and try to determine if the Kid was anywhere close. Poe would then ride to the nearby settlement of Sunnyside an
d look up the postmaster, Milnor Rudolph, a friend whom Garrett trusted. The three of them would meet back up that night at moonrise a few miles north of Sumner at a place known as La Punta de la Glorieta (the point of the intersection).

  Poe rode into Fort Sumner before noon that day and was immediately aware that he was being noticed and watched. Just as soon as he tied his horse to a hitching post outside a saloon and store, a small crowd of men gathered around and pleasantly asked where he was from and what his business was. The deputy said he had tried his hand at mining in White Oaks and was now on his way back to his home in the Texas Panhandle. The story seemed logical enough to the locals, who invited Poe to have a drink in the saloon. It was never really just one drink, but Poe was very careful to have only a small amount of liquor and still not offend his new friends. Not surprisingly this led to a meal in the store, the first square meal he had eaten in days.

  For the next hour or two, Poe lounged about the plaza, striking up a conversation now and then with the people he ran into. But he could tell that the folks of Fort Sumner were noticeably on edge, and no matter how gingerly he tried to get them to talk about the Kid, his inquiries were met with suspicion. Disappointed, he left for Sunnyside without having learned a thing.

  Poe reached Sunnyside late in the day and handed Rudolph a letter of introduction from Garrett, saying that he needed a place to stay for the night. The postmaster warmly invited Poe to his home, where the deputy received his second meal of the day. Poe had been careful not to mention the purpose of his visit, but after supper and some small talk he began talking about Billy’s escape from Lincoln. He then told Rudolph he had heard the Kid was hanging around Fort Sumner. Rudolph’s demeanor changed abruptly. He nervously said that he had heard about these rumors but he did not believe them; the Kid was too smart to risk his life by remaining in the Territory.

  “We talked on about other things,” Poe wrote later, “but every time I mentioned the Kid the same agitation showed in the old man’s actions and talk.”

  Finally, Poe decided to tell Rudolph that he was working with Garrett to track down the Kid, and Garrett had specifically sent him to Sunnyside because he believed that Rudolph could provide information on Billy’s whereabouts. At this, the old man became even more agitated, and it was Poe’s turn to become suspicious. In Rudolph’s defense, he did not know this man who was asking such pointed questions about the Kid, and like many others in the area, he was terrified of Billy and what he might do. Rudolph was very aware of the Kid’s bloody record—which included the murder of a sheriff and three deputies—and that no one had been able to hold him in jail for very long. So Rudolph denied that the Kid was anywhere close to Fort Sumner, and that convinced Poe that he was onto something. Poe ended the conversation by saying he had changed his mind about spending the night. His horse was now well rested and fed, and it would be more comfortable to ride during the cool hours of the night. A look of relief came over Rudolph’s face.

  AFTER POE SEPARATED FROM Garrett and McKinney that morning, the sheriff and his deputy had ridden over to the Pecos and spent the day out of sight in the brush and willows near the river. Once darkness flooded the valley, they mounted up and Garrett led McKinney in a circle around Sumner. As they approached the meeting place, they recognized Poe riding up from the opposite direction. Poe told Garrett that although he had failed to gather any positive information in Sumner, the townsfolk’s reticence to discuss the outlaw and, more especially, Rudolph’s strange behavior, led him to believe that their man must be close.

  Garrett now wanted to see Pete Maxwell. After all, he had made the long trip from Lincoln based on information, credible or otherwise, that the Kid was hanging out around Fort Sumner and a woman, a “sweetheart,” had been keeping him there. Maxwell would know if his sister had seen the Kid, and, as the town’s patriarch of sorts, he would likely have heard if the Kid had recently been in Sumner. But Garrett knew he needed to approach the Maxwell residence with extreme caution. The moon was shining brightly now, and Garrett’s six-foot-four frame would be easy to spot out in the open. If the Kid was in Sumner, there were several places he could be staying—and looking out of. Garrett was not about to offer himself up to the young killer like that fool Olinger.

  Garrett led his two deputies back south to a small peach orchard at the edge of the village; just beyond the orchard was Fort Sumner’s open plaza, formerly the fort’s parade ground. Near the orchard, they came upon a small campfire tended by a single man. Poe recognized the man from back in Texas and said his name was Jacobs. Jacobs invited his guests to some coffee, and the three got down and unsaddled their mounts. After some quiet conversation, the lawmen staked their horses and prepared to enter the orchard. Garrett pulled his Model 1873 Winchester carbine from its saddle scabbard. He had taken the carbine, as well as the hefty Colt six-shooter on his hip, from Billy Wilson at Stinking Spring. At the time, Garrett had noticed that the weapons were practically brand-new, so he confiscated both guns for himself—and had not regretted it.

  With Garrett in the lead, the manhunters stepped into the peach orchard and crept toward the plaza. From there, Garrett knew they would have a view of the old officers’ quarters (one of which was the Maxwell place) on the west side of the plaza, as well as the quartermaster depot across the plaza to the south. The depot was where his in-laws, Celsa and Saval Gutiérrez, lived. As he, McKinney, and Poe neared the plaza, Garrett began to hear voices; they were speaking Spanish. He silently motioned to his men to hide themselves. They listened for some time but it was impossible to determine what was being said or even to recognize who might be speaking.

  Suddenly, Garrett saw a man stand up from the ground. The man was in the orchard, but not near enough for Garrett to tell who it was, especially because the man’s broad-brimmed hat was shading his face. He was in his shirtsleeves—that, Garrett could see—and he was wearing a dark vest and pants. The man said something more to an unseen companion, then turned and hopped over a fence and into the plaza. Garrett watched as the silhouetted figure walked away toward the Maxwell residence. Garrett would learn later that this man was the very desperado they were after—Billy the Kid.

  Garrett decided it was unwise to continue to Pete Maxwell’s place from their position, so he and his deputies quietly backed out of the orchard and took a long circuitous route behind the row of officers’ quarters and eventually approached the Maxwell place from the opposite side of the plaza. Garrett stopped at the open front gate and whispered to his deputies: “This is Maxwell’s room in this corner. You fellows wait here while I go in and talk to him.” The deputies watched as Garrett walked through the gate and stepped onto the porch. The door to Maxwell’s room was open, as were the windows. During the warm New Mexico summers, residents opened the doors and windows of their adobes in the evening to let in the cool night breeze and during the day they shut them to keep out the hot air.

  Poe took a seat on the edge of the porch, just inside the open gate, while McKinney squatted on the ground outside the fence. Garrett had been inside Maxwell’s room only a few minutes when Poe saw someone rapidly come toward them along the fence. As the man got closer, Poe noticed that he was not wearing a hat and he was walking in his stocking feet. And the man seemed to be fiddling with his trousers, as if he was fastening them. Poe assumed it was either Maxwell or one of his friends. But he was wrong.

  WHO BILLY LEFT BEHIND in the peach orchard that night is a mystery. It could very well have been a woman—and it probably was. There is no doubt that a beautiful moonlit evening in July and the nearby peach orchard offered idyllic conditions for a romantic tryst. But whoever he was with kept that memory to herself for the rest of her life.

  From the orchard, Billy walked to the home of Celsa and Saval Gutiérrez. They were letting Billy sleep in their quarters, even though their brother-in-law was the man who had been elected to hunt him down. But Celsa and Saval had made their choice long ago, like Barney Mason had made his. Billy stepped into the
Gutiérrez place carrying a small piece of raw meat. Saval, Celsa, and Celsa’s seven-year-old son, Candido, watched as Billy walked past them and set the meat down in the kitchen.

  “Celsa, I brought some meat for you to make my supper,” Billy said.

  Although the hour was late, nearly midnight, Celsa walked into the kitchen to begin the Kid’s meal. Billy then made himself comfortable, taking off his hat, vest, and gun belt, and pulling off his boots. But Celsa soon interrupted him.

  “Billy, this meat that you brought is no more than a bone. It doesn’t have any meat,” she said.

  “Give me a knife to go get some good meat,” Billy replied, “and tell Don Pedro [Pete Maxwell] that I took the meat so that he doesn’t think that another stole the meat.”

  The Kid picked up the butcher knife Celsa motioned to, stuck his pistol in his pant pocket, and walked out the door for Maxwell’s house, where a freshly slaughtered beef was hanging.

  Billy did not see the men outside of Maxwell’s home, at least not initially. The gatepost partially hid Poe, but Billy must not have been really paying attention. When he walked through the gate, though, he came face-to-face with Poe on the edge of the porch. Startled, the Kid pulled his six-shooter and pointed it at him.

  “¿Quién es?” (Who is it?), Bonney asked urgently as he jumped onto the porch. “¿Quién es?”

  Poe had never seen the Kid before, and neither had McKinney, so they were not sure who this was. But Poe tried to calm the agitated stranger.