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The coward was Bob Ford and Mr. Howard was actually Jesse James. As strange as life can be, Joe's older brother Bomar Phillips ran away to New Mexico and in 1904 became Sheriff of Otero County. In 1906 an article in

The Alamogordo News mentioned Pat Garrett as the sheriff of Chaves County sitting on the northern line of Otereo County. The terms of Sheriff Bomar Phillips and Sheriff Pat Garrett overlapped, and it is for certain the two lawmen bumped holsters.

Garrett was born just across the state line in Chambers County, Alabama, and left to make his future the year Uncle Bomar was born in 1869.

Pat Garrett lived two more years, dying from gunshot wounds in 1908. Uncle Bomar died in Mexico in 1935.

joenphillips@yahoo.com