More Myth Than Man

Strip away the headlines and a simpler figure remains: a poor orphan who got swept into someone else's war and never lived to see twenty-two.

• Born Henry McCarty, dead by Garrett's bullet at Pete Maxwell's ranch
• Pulled into the Lincoln County War after his employer was killed
• Famous less for what he did than for who profited from telling it
• His story shows how poverty and violence trapped young men on the frontier

Garrett did not escape the legend either. He was shot dead in 1908 in New Mexico, under circumstances people still argue about today.