© 2024 KRWG
News that Matters.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Hearse believed to have carried Old West lawman at new Las Cruces home

New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum

  LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — A historic hearse that is believed to have carried the Old West lawman known for killing Billy the Kid to his grave is now part of the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum. The hearse was the only one available in Las Cruces when Pat Garrett was fatally shot in a dispute over a southern New Mexico ranch. That has created the widespread belief that it delivered Garrett to his final resting place. The museum's curator of history says the odds are just as good that his family put him in the back of a farm wagon and drove Garrett to the cemetery. Still, the hearse likely will spark interest in Garrett. Garrett died in 1908.