On this day in 1908; American Old West lawman, bartender, sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico as well as Doña Ana County, New Mexico, rancher and customs agent, Pat Garrett was shot and killed near Las Cruces, New Mexico, at the age of 57. His murder went unsolved. Born Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett on June 5, 1850, in Chambers County, Alabama. Perhaps best known as the man who shot and killed Billy the Kid. He coauthored a book about Billy the Kid which, for a generation after the Kid’s death, was deemed authoritative; however, historians have since found many embellishments and inconsistencies with other accounts of the outlaw’s life. Garrett also became one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s three “White House Gunfighters” (Bat Masterson and Ben Daniels were the others) when Roosevelt appointed him Collector of Customs in El Paso. 
TheFinal Footprint – Garrett’s body was too tall (he was 6′ 5″) for any finished coffins available, so a special one had to be shipped in from El Paso. His funeral service was held March 5, 1908, and he was laid to rest next to his daughter, Ida, who had died in 1896 at the age of fifteen, at the Masonic Cemetery in Las Cruces.
Memorial marking spot where Pat Garrett was killed
The site of Garrett’s death is now commemorated by a historical marker south of U.S. Route 70, between Las Cruces and the San Augustin Pass. The actual spot where Garrett was shot was marked Pat’s son Jarvis Garrett in 1938-1940 with a monument consisting of concrete laid around a stone with a cross carved in it. The cross is believed to be the work of Pat’s mother. Scratched in the concrete is “P. Garrett” and the date of his killing. Garrett has been portrayed in film many times including:
- Thomas Mitchell in The Outlaw (United Artists, 1943)
- Glenn Corbett in Chisum (Warner Bros., 1970)
- James Coburn in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (MGM, 1973)
- Patrick Wayne in Young Guns (Fox, 1988)
- William Petersen in Young Guns II (Fox, 1990)
#RIP #OTD in 1928 poet, writer, librarian, first poet laureate of California, Ina Coolbrith died in Berkeley aged 86. Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland
On this day in 2012, singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and teen idol, Davy Jones died from a heart attack after riding one of his favourite horses, at Martin Memorial South Hospital in Stuart, Florida, age 66. Born David Thomas Jones on 30 December 1945 in Openshaw, Manchester, England. Perhaps best known as a member of the band the Monkees, and for starring in the TV series of the same name. His acting credits include a Tony-nominated performance as the Artful Dodger in the original London and Broadway productions of Oliver! as well as a guest star role in a hallmark episode of The Brady Bunch television show and later reprised parody film; Love, American Style; and My Two Dads.
Jones with Maureen McCormick in the 1971 The Brady Bunch episode “Getting Davy Jones”, in which he was a guest star.
Jones was married three times. In December 1968, he married Dixie Linda Haines, with whom he had been living. Their relationship had been kept out of the public eye until after the birth of their first child in October 1968. It caused a considerable backlash for Jones from his fans when it was finally made public. Jones later stated in Tiger Beat magazine, “I kept my marriage a secret because I believe stars should be allowed a private life.” The marriage ended in 1975.
Jones married his second wife, Anita Pollinger, on 24 January 1981. They divorced in 1996 during the Monkees’ 30th-anniversary reunion tour. Jones married for a third time in 2009 to Jessica Pacheco. On 28 July 2011, Pacheco filed to divorce Jones in Miami-Dade County, Florida, but dropped the suit in October. They were still married when he died. .
The Final Footprint
Jones was cremated. On Wednesday, 7 March 2012, a private funeral service was held at Holy Cross Catholic parish in Indiantown. To avoid drawing attention to the grieving family, the three surviving Monkees did not attend. Instead, the group attended memorial services in New York City and organized their own private memorial in Los Angeles along with Jones’s family and close friends. A public memorial service was held on 10 March 2012 in Beavertown, Pennsylvania, near a church Jones had purchased for future renovation.
On Monday, 12 March, a private memorial service was held in Jones’s home town of Openshaw, Manchester at Lees Street Congregational Church, where Jones performed as a child in church plays. Jones’s wife and daughters travelled to England to join his relatives based there for the service, and placed his ashes on his parents’ graves for a time.
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