W. W. Cox
W. W. Cox

W. W. Cox

W. W. Cox is one of many individuals who was either directly or indirectly involved in the murder of Pat Garrett, the man who killed Billy the Kid while acting as sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico. Cox was a New Mexico rancher who's action of paying $3,567 made it possible for Pat Garrett to remain in possession of his ranch in Dona Ana County, New Mexico. Every subsequent debt owed by Garrett for his ranch was paid for by Cox. It has been suggested that Cox may have in fact been involved in a plot to get Pat Garrett isolated and murdered, whether this is true or not was never discovered. In casting about for possible motives, neighbors remembered how angry Cox had been in the summer of 1899 when he returned to his ranch and learned that then sheriff Garrett and deputy Jose Espalin had invaded the Cox home and killed an unarmed young man named Reed in the kitchen where he was helping Mrs. Cox with the dishes. Seeing two men with drawn pistols burst into the room, Reed had turned to run when he was shot dead. Garrett later explained that it appeared the young fellow was leaving to get a gun. Today it makes no difference that the wrong man was killed. An exceptionally large reward had been offered in Greer County, Oklahoma, for an escaped murderer named Norman Newman, and the sheriff had reason to suspect that the wanted man was at the San Augustine ranch. Garrett never collected the reward. It was bad enough that the raid had been staged when Cox was away from the ranch, but the thing which angered him most was that his wife, witnessing the killing, suffered a severe shock. Another theory is that Garrett was killed because W. W. Cox wanted his ranch. This offers a quick and easy answer to the question of motive. Perhaps too quick and easy, when one considers the facts. The Cox range, extending all the way from the watershed of the Organ mountains to Cox's Well at the foot of the Jirallas, was already so vast that "he didn't know what to do with it all." Most significantly, in later years he could have acquired the ranch merely by foreclosing the delinquent mortgage he held on the property. It would not have been necessary to kill Pat Garrett in order to obtain his little ranch. If--and this is a big IF-- W. W. Cox conspired to have Pat Garrett killed, he must have had some motive which no one has even been able to discover.

Area: Out of Area / Out of Area

Source: El Paso County Historical Society

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Before they were famous2008 U19 CWC introductions

Vanilla Ice: Cool as Ice - JonTron

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

Irrigation

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to land to ...

U.S. Cavalry Traveling

This pictures captures the U.S. Cavalry traveling on the road.

Men Preparing To Fire Artillery

This picture shows men, probably revolutionaries, preparing to ...

Mexican Revolution

Brauilo Hernandez--Abraham Gonzalez-Madero--Pascual Orozco. Men ...

Cathedral de Chihuahua

The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross, Our Lady of ...

Water Plaza

Water Plaza in Chihuahua, Mexico-1912.

Harry Mitchell On A Fishing Trip

Prior to the arrival of the railroads, the main source of ...

John F. Kennedy with Richard Lopez of El Paso, TX 1961

President John F. Kennedy meets with the Boys' Clubs of ...

Mrs. Lopez Mateos and Daughter

President of Mexico's wife Mrs. Lopez Mateos and daughter.

Lopez Mateos - President of Mexico

López Mateos was born in Atizapán de Zaragoza to Mariano ...

First Lieutenant William Deane Hawkins - El Paso, Texas

Deane Hawkins was a smart boy-at El Paso's Lamar and Alta Vista ...

Sara Perez de Madero

Sara Perez de Madero (1870-1952) was the wife of revolutionary ...

Pancho Villa and his Men

The image shows Pancho Villa and his men. Villa is the fourth ...

Emmett Mills

Emmett Mills was born in 1841 in Thorntown, Indiana. His ...

Allen Mills

Allen Mills was born Edgar Allen Mills on Jan. 28, 1844 in ...

Oliver M. Lee

Oliver M. Lee, W. W. Cox's brother-in-law, received the ...

Don Santiago Kirker

James (Santiago) Kirker, merchant, Indian fighter, and ...

Train on its Way to Alamogordo

Since the railroad had been built in El Paso in 1882, the city ...

Ambulance Car

Soldiers are posing in front of a car. The sign on the side of ...

Snow in El Paso in 1910

This house was surrounded by snow in 1910.

Fitzgerald Children on Horseback

Gertrude Fitzgerald took pictures of her own children as well as ...

Two People on Horses

The image shows a man and a woman on horses. The location is ...

Cloudcroft

Cloudcroft developed as a summer resort town in the Sacromento ...

home.search_collection