Pat Garrett Killed Here

Las Cruces, New Mexico

Pat Garrett held a number of jobs in his life, but he's best known as the New Mexico sheriff who killed Billy the Kid on July 14, 1881. His fame, however, didn't last, and on February 29, 1908, Garrett was in his buckboard, bumping along outside of Las Cruces in a desert arroyo (which was used as a road), when he was shot dead.

Far from being a revenge murder for Billy's death -- or for Garrett's cover-up of the death (depending on which Billy story you believe) -- Garrett was killed over a financial dispute about goats. The former lawman's reputation had fallen so low that, after a one-day trial, a jury acquitted his confessed killer.

In 1940 Garrett's son, Jarvis Garrett, marked the spot with a blob of concrete, scratching his father's name and death date into the wet cement. It's still there, out in the desert, now surrounded by stones left by modern well-wishers.