The Outlaw Cowboys of New Mexico

Bowdre Cashes Out at Stinking Springs
Charlie Bowdre (inset and at far left) rode with Billy the Kid and cowboyed around the Fort Sumner, New Mexico, area. Newly-elected sheriff Pat Garrett met with Bowdre and warned him to quit the owl hoot trail, but Bowdre didn’t listen. He ended up dead at Stinking Springs when Garrett’s posse shot him. The lawmen found this photo (above), of Bowdre with his querida Manuela, in his clothing; the blood stains are Bowdre’s. The locket photo just surfaced and was bought last year by Bill Koch for a $10,000 bid. Charlie was about 32 at the time of his death in 1880.



Outlaw Hideout
W.S. Ranch cowboys on the porch of their bunkhouse in 1882— note the pet bear at right. James Cook (on next slide) was the foreman of the W.S. Ranch, headquartered near Alma. William French, who took over management after Cook left in 1887, claimed that Butch Cassidy hid out from the law by cowboying at the W.S. in 1897. The outlaw was joined by the Sundance Kid, Harvey Logan, Ben Kilpatrick and other pals who he put on the ranch’s payroll. A true multitasker, the Sundance Kid alternated between robbing trains and ranching.



James Cook was the foreman of the W.S. Ranch, headquartered near Alma. William French, who took over management after Cook left in 1887, claimed that Butch Cassidy hid out from the law by cowboying at the W.S. in 1897.


Cattle King’s Black Cloud
Oliver Lee, also known as “Dad Lee,” is probably the most controversial of all the New Mexico cowboys. The prime suspect in the killing of Albert Jennings Fountain (Lee had the motive and was in the area), Lee went on to be a large cattle ranch owner. A state park near Alamogordo is named for him.


Shoot First, and Ask Questions Later
Talk about controversial, Texas John Slaughter was the first outlaw New Mexico Gov. Lew Wallace wanted to round up (Billy the Kid was 14th on his list). Slaughter’s first killing took place while he was herding cattle on John Chisum’s ranch in New Mexico in September 1876; he shot a drunken rustler named Barney Gallagher, who ended up dying of blood loss. After being released from an 1879 arrest, Slaughter gravitated to Arizona, where he eventually established a ranch right on the Mexican border (some say so he could waltz across the border, should New Mexico officials come calling). He later became a sheriff and is seen here in a circa 1890s photo, personifying a quick-acting lawman.



Long Rider
Like so many New Mexico cowboy outlaws, James Robert Gililland was born in Texas; in Brown, specifically, on July 26, 1872. His family moved to New Mexico when he was 13. He worked on various ranches, including the Oliver Lee ranch south of Alamogordo. He ended up a suspect in the alleged murder of Albert Jennings Fountain and his son, who disappeared near the White Sands in 1896. Sheriff Pat Garrett pursued Gililland and Lee at Lee’s Wildly Well Ranch in 1898; the gunfight left one lawman dead, and Garrett fled (see Classic Gunfights on p. 66). Charges against William McNew, another Lee ranchhand, were dismissed, while Gililland and Lee got an acquittal thanks to their lawyer, Albert Fall. Gililland then ranched for roughly 40 years, traveled extensively with his wife and settled in Hot Springs (later Truth or Consequences) where he died in August 1946.


Outlaw by Proxy
Not all of New Mexico’s outlaw cowboys were men. Susan McSween became known as the “Cattle Queen of New Mexico” by diverting money intended for the estates of Dick Brewer and John Tunstall, and leveraging it into a successful cattle endeavor. A gift of cattle from John Chisum started her on the road to becoming a highly successful stock raiser. Feisty to the end, she breathed her last in the sparsely furnished bedroom of her little house at White Oaks on the evening of January 3, 1931.


Cowboy Pards
Fred Waite (above left) and Henry Brown (above right) fought many a battle alongside William Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid, in the Lincoln County War, the infamous 1878 range war fought in New Mexico Territory. Waite and the Kid had planned to farm together before the War changed their lives. Waite escaped the law’s wrath by fleeing back to Oklahoma, where he cowboyed and became a respectable civic leader in the Chickasaw Nation. He died on September 24, 1895, four days before his 42nd birthday. Brown became a respected lawman in Caldwell, Kansas, but he couldn’t resist the owl hoot trail. He attempted to rob the Medicine Lodge Bank, killing the bank president in the failed attempt. Brown tried to escape the 1884 lynching, only to be shot by someone in the mob; his fellow three robbers hanged. (Note: Some historians suspect Waite’s partner in this photo is not Brown, but fellow Regulator John Middleton.)



Head Over Heel
Also from Texas, Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum (right) and his older brother Sam cowboyed in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, while moonlighting as bank and train robbers. Kicked out of his own gang (an offshoot of the Wild Bunch), Black Jack attempted to single-handedly hold up a train at Robber’s Cut near Folsom, New Mexico; he was severely wounded by a train conductor wielding a shotgun. Sam died in a Santa Fe prison in 1899; in 1901, Black Jack was hanged in Clayton, New Mexico (he literally lost his head).


Rangeland Justice?
Hailing from Mississippi, Joel A. Fowler allegedly studied law in Fort Worth, Texas, but after killing a man there, he became a Texas highwayman. In 1879, he moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where he opened a dance hall. The next year, he opened a saloon and dance hall in Santa Fe, and became notorious for his drunken shooting displays on the streets. After a stint in White Oaks, Fowler took up ranching near Socorro, where he killed two suspected rustlers while on a spree. Tired of his suspicious killings and his shenanigans, vigilantes took him from jail and strung him up in 1884. Witnesses said Fowler began calling on “heavenly angels,” prompting a member of the mob to retort: “It’s a cold night for angels, Joel. Better call on someone nearer town.”



The Most Notorious Cowboy Outlaw of Them All



Missing Garrett
This photograph of Pat Garrett was taken sometime before the 1882 publication of his book, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. The back of the card shows the photo was taken at W. Henry Brown’s studio on the west side of the plaza in Santa Fe. Experts speculate this photo was taken while Garrett was in Santa Fe trying to collect the reward on the Kid.


The Bartender Type
Pat Garrett, a former buffalo hunter and pig farmer, was a bartender when he first met Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner, where he later killed him in 1881. Garrett, in turn, was shot, without warning, by 31-year-old cowboy Wayne Brazel (below, center). Since he’s the only one with his hat off, perhaps Brazel got his head shaved as a joke (he seems to be suppressing a smile). Or maybe he lost a bet with his two compadres. Notice the sugarloaf sombrero at Brazel’s feet. This is the kind of hat Garrett claimed the Kid usually wore.

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