HISTORY of the PAT GARRETT RIFLE

                                       SUMMARY

The Pat Garrett rifle came into the Staley family possession in 1923 or 1924 when it was given to W. W. Staley, Sr. as collateral for a loan by Florentino Baca. Staley was then a student (class of 1925) at the New Mexico School of Mines in Socorro, NM. Baca was, at that time, a recent graduate of the same school (class of 1923).

The rifle was not in working condition even then, but Florentino Baca claimed that the rifle was once owned by the famous Sheriff, Patrick F. Garrett who had carved his cattle brand (PAT) into the stock. Florentino explained that the gun had come into his possession from a relative who was also a famous lawman that ‘took’ the gun from Garrett (presumably in a card game). As it has developed, the lawman was his father, Cipriano Baca, who had been active in many areas of law enforcement along the Border for several decades and was prominently known in both the New Mexico and Arizona Territories. Florentino chose to forfeit the rifle and for the next eighty years the rifle traveled from one Staley dusty attic to another until it finally ended up in 1969 with W. W. Staley, Jr.

An investigation undertaken to establish documentation for the provenance of the rifle, has added substance to Florentino Baca’s claim that the rifle was owned by Sheriff Garrett, and, has also developed a circumstantial possibility that the gun was one of the two weapons recovered from William Bonney (Billy the Kid) at the time of his death. A genealogical study has established Florentino’s relationship to Cipriano Baca as well as Cipriano’s identity.

Historical records confirm Cipriano’s credentials as a sheriff, deputy sheriff, and constable and as a Deputy US Marshal for nearly all of US Marshal Creighton Foraker’s term (1897-1912). The opportunity for Cipriano and Garrett to engage each other could have happened with some frequency between 1896 and 1906 when Garrett was Dona Ana Co. Sheriff and later, the US Customs collector in El Paso. Cipriano was involved in law enforcement activities in adjoining New Mexico Counties in that same time period. In fact, the records show the two men were involved in the same criminal case in 1898 when Cipriano captured the Steins Pass train robbers and subsequently attended their trial in Las Cruces where Garrett was the Sheriff as well as the US Deputy Marshall who selected the jury.

On October 3, 1881 Garrett wrote a note to the Lincoln County, New Mexico commissioners informing them that he had captured a gun and a six-shooter from Billy the Kid when he killed the Kid on July 14, 1881. In that same note Garrett mentions taking a saddle and two horses away from Frank Wheeler, a well known horsethief, rustler and gun fighter. It is believed that Garrett’s note to the commissioners and the events encompassing the Kid’s famous escape and his subsequent shooting of the Kid explain how the shortened Winchester rifle came into Garrett’s hands from Frank Wheeler through Billy the Kid.