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LOT 90
Historic Cased Solid Gold Lincoln County Sheriff’s Badge Presented to Sheriff Pat Garrett by Albert J. Fountain in 1881 - This historic five-pointed star badge has foliate and extremely well executed border engraving on the front along with “LINCOLN”
(top) and “COUNTY” inscribed in banners and raised white gold “SHERIFF” at the center, and the back of the badge is inscribed “To/ Pat Garrett/with the best/Regards of/A.J. Fountain/1881”. It weighs one ounce and is solid gold, of an undetermined karat. The badge comes in a black leather bound case with red and white satin lining. It was presented to famed Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett after
he shot and killed Henry McCarty (1859-1881), aka William Bonney and better known as Billy the Kid. Also featured in the auction are multiple lots containing documents signed by Garrett as the sheriff as well as related documents.
As the killer of Billy the Kid, Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett (1850-1908) became the most famous lawmen of the American West. He was born in Alabama and grew up in Louisiana. After the Civil War, his family was in dire financial straits, and he lost both of his parents within less than a year when he was still a teenager and had to move in with relatives. When he was 18 years old, he headed to the West. By 1879, he was married and living in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory. The county was still in turmoil due to the Lincoln County War during which at least 23 men were killed and another 23 wounded in a series of murders and gun battles between
competing factions led by James Dolan and his associates on one side and John Tunstall and John Chisum and their associates, including Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County Regulators.
Garrett became a deputy sheriff and was then elected sheriff in 1880. This was a dangerous position. Lawmen fought on both sides of the conflict and had been shot, including Sheriff William Brady and Deputy George W. Hindman in 1878 in a shootout with Billy
the Kid and the Regulators. Governor Lew Wallace was tasked with bringing peace to the territory and ending the conflict and issued
a warrant for Billy the Kid’s arrest. He and some of his accomplices were arrested by Garrett’s posse in December 1880 at Stinking Springs. Garrett and his men had to fend off a potential lynch mob en route to Sante Fe but got the prisoners there alive. Though
he had committed many crimes, Billy the Kid was tried only for
the murder of Sheriff Brady. During the trial, he was represented
by attorney Albert Jennings Fountain (1838-1896), the man who presented the gold badge to Garrett. Billy the Kid was convicted and sentenced to hang.
However, before he could be executed, the notorious outlaw killed deputies James Bell and Bob Olinger and escaped on the evening of April 28, 1881. Garrett was out of town at the time, and Billy the Kid reportedly killed Olinger with Garrett’s own shotgun which he had stolen from Garrett’s office after killing Bell.
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