Jesse Wayne Brazel
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Jesse Wayne Brazel, or Wayne Brazel (1877-1915?) was a ranch hand in the closing years of the Old West, best known for killing former lawman Pat Garrett in 1908, who had killed Billy The Kid many years before.
Brazel had met Garrett and Carl Adamson on a road near Las Cruces, New Mexico on February 29th, 1908. The two had been involved in disputes prior, due to a disagreement over Brazel's use of land he leased from Garrett. An argument between Brazel and Garrett resulted in Brazel producing a handgun and shooting Garrett as Garrett was alleged to have reached for a shotgun under his seat on a wagon. This version of what happened was supported by Adamson. The dispute had started over Brazel having leased land from Garrett, then grazed goats on it against Garrett's wishes. Adamson and Brazel went to the authorities, where Brazel confessed to the crime. However, since that day it has came under constant scrutiny.
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[edit] Alleged conspiracy
Many have speculated that it was difficult to believe that Brazel, who was good natured and who had no prior criminal history, could commit murder. Adamson was a cousin to outlaw and killer for hire Jim Miller, which led to conspiracy theories. An alleged meeting attended by several businessmen and outlaws who disliked Garrett was held some time in 1907 at the St. Regis Hotel in El Paso, Texas. In attendance were Oliver M. Lee, Bill McNew, Carl Adamson, W.W. Cox, Brazel, and Jim Miller. It has been alleged that at that meeting, a plan to kill Garrett was set. However, the exact details of that meeting are not known beyond a doubt. [1]
Garrett had been involved in numerous verbal disputes and business disputes with other landowners over watering rights, and in his later years his disposition made him a very disliked man. He had been involved in a gunbattle with Lee and another man while working the Albert Jennings Fountain disappearance case, resulting in one of Garrett's deputies being killed, and the eventual arrest but no conviction of Lee. He was deeply indebt, had a gambling problem, and was temperamental. In the years following his killing of Billy The Kid, the events surrounding how he committed that killing came into question, and many believed that instead of being praised for the killing, he had committed cold blooded murder by ambushing the Kid. Therefore, he was no longer viewed as a dangerous man, but rather an opportunist who sought glory and benefits from that exploit.
W.W. Cox was said to have offered to fund the killing. Miller was to be the man who carried it out. Oliver Lee is alleged to have came up with the plan to have Brazel lease land from Garrett, then graze goats on it, knowing that Garrett would react violently to this. This, given Garrett's history, would ultimately lead to a confrontation where self defense could be claimed. Miller was to receive $1,500 for the killing, a rate that was usual for him, as he was known at that time with confirmation to have killed at least seven men in hired killings. [2]
Miller was alleged to have laid in wait for the wagon carrying Adamson and Garrett, with Adamson stopping in a predecided location, at which time Miller simply walked out and shot him, then returned to Fort Worth, Texas. Brazel, with no prior history whatsoever, could easily claim self defense against Garrett, who had killed at least four men in his lifetime, and Garrett was known to have always carried the sawed-off shotgun under his seat.
However, it was later pointed out by Historian Leon Metz that simply because Brazel's story as to how he killed Garrett coincides with the above account, it does not mean he was lying about killing Garrett, or how it happened. Garrett was a very hot-tempered man, plain and simple. He was angry with Brazel over the grazing of the goats, and he was prone to violent outbursts and reactions. Miller was not even known to have been in New Mexico at that time, and is believed to have been in Oklahoma.
Another theory was that Adamson was involved in the conspiracy so that he might be able to obtain Garrett's land as a staging area for his illegal smuggling operations, in which he brought Chinese men in to work in the garment and mining industries, and Chinese women in to work as prostitutes. He was arrested shortly after the killing of Garrett for human smuggling, but there is no proof that he was connected in any way with a preconceived murder plot, short of his presence at the above mentioned meeting. [3]
[edit] Later life
Brazel married and acquired a small ranch just west of Lordsburg, New Mexico a couple of years after the killing. When his wife died in 1913, he sold his property and disappeared from public record. It is unknown where he moved to following selling his property, and his exact date of death is unknown, but believed through mainly word of mouth to have been around 1915.
[edit] Known Relatives
Jesse Wayne Brazel is the Uncle of WW "Mac" Brazel of Roswell UFO fame. WW "Mac" Brazel allegedly found strange debris on his ranch some 70 mile North/West of Roswell NM. in early July, 1947 sparking the so-called "Roswell Incident" in which believers claim a flying saucer crashed on the ranch Brazel was foreman of and that the Govt. subsequently covered it up.
