He became increasingly morose over the situation. He drank a lot and gambled too much. But he tried one more time to make a go of it. He bought some horses to try breeding and raising quarter horses. The ranch was in the San Andres slopes about a four hour ride from Las Cruces.
Some people did not like Garrett’s present there. This may have been because his persistence in the Fountain case. But the most likely reason was that he controlled water rights on his property. Water was very important to the success of a ranch. Several men had already been killed over disputes over water rights. W. W. Cox also had a grudge against him, for allegedly causing his wife’s miscarriage when a man was killed in front of her.
Cox and some others met at the St. Regis Hotel in El Paso and decided they would start putting pressure on Garrett to leave. If he wouldn’t leave they would kill him. The men met to discuss how the murder would take place so it looked like self-defense if the need arose. Notorious gunman James “Killing Jim” Miller was on hand to perform the dastardly deed if necessary.
It was relatively easy to put pressure on him because Garrett still had money troubles and Cox still held a lien on his land for the money he’d loaned him. He offered to buy him out, but Garrett refused. So Cox sent his man Wayne Brazel to propose a deal to Garrett. Brazel and his partner wanted to lease some of his land to graze cattle. It sounded like the answer to his prayers, so Garrett jumped on it.
What he didn’t know was that Brazel was going to graze goats. They were even worse than sheep as far as a rancher was concerned. The idea by Cox was to provoke Garrett into a fight. And it was working. Garrett was hopping mad.
Then along came Carl Adamson, posing as representing a wealthy rancher. He wanted lease the Bear Canyon property for his cattle. Garrett agreed, but said he would have to get Brazel would of there first. A deal was made for Garrett to buy the goats. But then Brazel tried to get more money because the goats had had offspring since he brought them there. This made Garrett very angry. But eventually they were ready to sign the papers.
