Desert Lawmen: The High Sheriffs of New Mexico and Arizona 1846-1912

429 Pages·1992·22.849 MB·English

by  Larry D. Ball

Desert Lawmen
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DESERT
LAWMEN
THE
HIGH SHERIFFS
OF
NEW MEXICO
AND ARIZONA
1846-1912
LARRY D. BALL
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS
ALBUQUERQUE
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ball, Larry D., 1940-
Desert lawmen : the high sherriffs of New Mexico and Arizona
1846-1912 / Larry D. Ball.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8263-1346-9 0-8263-1700-6 (pbk.)
1. Sheriffs—New Mexico—History.
2. Sheriffs—Arizona—History.
3. Criminal Justice, Administration of—New Mexico—History.
4. Criminal Justice, Administration of—Arizona—History.
I. Title.
HV8145.N6B33 1992
363.2'82'09789—dc20 92-7610
CIP
© 1992 by the University of New Mexico Press.
All rights reserved.
First paperbound printing, 1996
Paperbound ISBN-13: 978-0-8263-1700-1
ISBN for digital edition: 978-0-8263-2501-3
Contents
Maps and Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 / The Origins of the Sheriff's Office in
New Mexico and Arizona Territories 1
2 / Organization of the Sheriff's Office 19
3 / The Sheriff and the Law Enforcement System 38
4 / Getting in Office: Seeking Preferment to
the Shrievalty 55
5 / Servant of the Court 89
6 / Keeper of the Keys: The Sheriff as Jailer 108
7 / The Sheriff and Extralegal Justice 128
8 / Deathwatch 147
9 / Conservator Pads 179
10 / Fugitives from Justice 202
11 / Sheriffs in Times of Crisis 225
12 / Ex-Officio Collector 246
13 / Handyman 265
14 / The Shrievalty Enters the Twentieth Century 279
15 / Conclusion 301
Notes 309
Appendix A: List of Sheriffs 345
Appendix B: Legal Hangings 373
Appendix C: Lynchings 378
Bibliography 383
Index 399
Maps and Illustrations
MAPS
1 New Mexico County Boundaries, 1850 3
2 Judicial Districts of Arizona, 1864 15
3 County Boundaries of New Mexico and
Arizona, c. 1880 228
4 Counties of New Mexico and Arizona,
c. 1910 282
ILLUSTRATIONS
New Mexico Sheriffs 75, 106
Arizona Sheriffs 83
Jails and Courthouses 167
Executions 172
Death Threat 177
Sheriff's Sale 178
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Preface
On 15 July 1881, a New Mexico sheriff informed the governor that
he had shot and killed a notorious badman in Fort Sumner on the
previous evening. The confrontation had taken place in the bed-
room of rancher Pete Maxwell when the fugitive unwittingly
walked in upon the two men. The lawman explained that he had
visited Maxwell in search of information about the movements of
the outlaw:
I... had just commenced talking to him [Maxwell] about the object
of my visit at such an unusual hour, when a man entered the room in
stockinged feet, with a pistol in one hand, [and] a knife in the other.
He came and placed his hand on the bed just beside me, and [said] in
a low whisper [to Maxwell], 'who is it?. . . .
I at once recognized the man. . . . and reached behind me for my
pistol, feeling almost certain of receiving a ball from his [weapon] at
the moment of doing so, as I felt sure he had now recognized me, but
fortunately he drew back from the bed at noticing my movement,
and, although he had his pistol pointed at my breast, he delayed to
fire, and asked in Spanish, cQuien es, Quien es?' [Who is it, Who is
it?] This gave me time to bring mine [revolver] to bear on him, and
the moment I did so I pulled the trigger and he received his death
wound. . . .*
In this fleeting moment, Sheriff Patrick Floyd Garrett took the
life of outlaw Billy the Kid and created a story central to American
* Patrick F. Garrett to W. G. Ritch, Acting Governor, 15 July 1881, quoted in, William A.
Keleher, Violence in Lincoln County, 1869-1881: A New Mexico Item (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico, 1957), pp. 342-43.
ix