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Trish Long: Oliver Lee embroiled in 1896 NM murders
by Trish Long / El Paso Times
POSTED: 01/01/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

Every time I go to Alamogordo and see the sign for the Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, I tell myself I am going to find out who Oliver Lee is. I hadn't yet gotten around to it when I received an e-mail from Janie Bell Furman of Alamogordo a couple of weeks ago.

Janie informed me that Oliver Milton Lee was a New Mexico rancher, "famous or infamous in New Mexico, depending on who you talk to, who was tried and found not guilty of the murder of Col. Fountain."

An October 1999 article by Sharon Simonson, New Mexico reporter for the El Paso Times, describes Col. Albert Jennings Fountain's life and death.

"The life of Albert Jennings Fountain is so rich in drama and conflict that it has inspired at least two history books and two novels.


TALES FROM THE MORGUE
El Paso history.

"Fountain's life, after all, was intertwined with the development of the land that would become Southern New Mexico during a time of lawlessness and turmoil. It was the post-Civil War era in the territorial frontier, no place for the timid or weak. A country was in the making and Manifest Destiny was gathering momentum as settlers pushed westward.

"Fountain was killed at age 58 along with his 8-year-old son, Henry, as they crossed New Mexico's Tularosa Basin on what is now White Sands Missile Range.

"For years before his death, Fountain was the attorney for the Southeastern New Mexico Stock Association. Only a month before his death, he sought and secured indictments on charges of cattle rustling against 23 men.

"Rancher Oliver Lee and his cowhand Jim Gilliland were ultimately tried for Henry's murder, but neither was convicted. They were defended at trial by Fountain's political nemesis and Lee's best friend, Albert Fall. No one was ever tried for Fountain's murder. His body was never found.

"Though the circumstances of Fountain's death are obvious fodder for dramatic interpretation, his less-recognized contributions during life more directly affected the destiny not only of the El Paso-Southern New Mexico region but of Texas and New Mexico.

"So persuasive were his political and oratory skills that the governor-elect of Texas appointed Fountain majority leader of the Senate in 1870 for the 'provisional' session of the Legislature before Texas was re-admitted to the Union after the Civil War. It was Fountain's first term in the office.

"Less than 20 years later, his peers named him speaker of the House in the New Mexico Territorial Legislature.

"While leading the Texas Senate, he guided to passage constitutional amendments abolishing slavery and giving voting rights, which allowed Texas to re-enter the United States.

"As speaker of the New Mexico legislature, he helped bring the state's college of agriculture to Las Cruces.

"Fountain spent about eight years in El Paso, beginning in 1865. He served in the Texas Senate from 1868 to 1874.

"Four years after he moved back to Mesilla, the Lincoln County War began in 1878. William 'Billy the Kid' Bonney was the most famous player in the war. When Bonney was charged with killing Sheriff William Brady, Fountain defended the outlaw but lost.

"Fountain's and Bonney's story cross again with Pat Garrett. The man who reportedly killed Bonney in 1881, Garrett later was hired to investigate the Fountain murders."

As for Oliver Milton Lee, David Sheppard of the Times wrote in an August 1990 article, "The Otero County pioneer once owned a million-acre cattle and horse empire that stretched from Tularosa south to El Paso.

"Born in Buffalo Gap, Texas, Lee moved to New Mexico when he was 19 and built the Dog Canyon ranch in 1893. He lived there until he moved his headquarters to the Circle Cross ranch near Timberon, N.M., in 1907.

"A rustling dispute brought Lee, one of the most influential figures in territorial New Mexico, into the Fountain case that remains unsolved after 94 years.

"In January 1896, he (Fountain) secured grand jury indictments against 32 suspected rustlers, including Lee.

"A few days after the jury met in Lincoln, N.M., Fountain and his 8-year-old son, Henry, vanished while returning home to Mesilla by buckboard.

"Sheriff Garrett investigated the case. A $10,000 reward was offered for information.

"Lee and two other men -- Jim Gililland and Billy McNew -- were indicted on murder charges.

"After eluding Garrett for three years, Lee turned himself in and went on trial in 1899.

"He was acquitted in June of that year and later went on to serve in the New Mexico House and Senate. Gililland also was acquitted. The charges against McNew were dropped.

"Lee at first refused to turn himself in on the murder charges, saying he was convinced he couldn't get a fair trial in Mesilla.

"After he escaped from Garrett in a shootout at Wilde Wells, Lee knew Garrett would kill him if he got a chance.

"Lee got married in Abilene, Texas, about two years after he was indicted. He brought his bride home to a new master bedroom he had added onto the ranch house in Dog Canyon. ..."

The state park is 12 miles south of Alamogordo on U.S. Highway 54 and four miles east on Dog Canyon Road.

I have always felt Oliver Lee has gone to his just rewards, and it ain't a good one. Just a few too many corpses laid to his account, for a bunch of cows.

Not the least of which was that of Francois-Jean Rochas, the quietly industrious Frenchman, likely carver of the famous spiral staircase, who's crime was to have first rights to the water.

Birdwatcher

Well I'll be. I never heard about any of that, but do know of the staircase of which you speak, Birdy.

I guess when he built that ranch he still had to deal with hostiles, grizz, wolves and rustlers.

May be too bad Garrett didnt catch up with him. I wonder if he had any connection to Billy the Kid and the Lincoln Co. War.

There are those that think the Lee family are pretty good folks. I'm one of them. Oliver may have killed his share of men, but he didn't murder that boy or Fountain.

I know his descendants, and am pretty good friends with them, as they are still in the ranching business there in Otero County, NM. Bebo Lee, Oliver's great grandson was NM Cattleman of the year awhile back. His father Charlie was a NM State Senator. They have contributed a lot.

Jim Gilliland mentioned in the story has descendants still in the area as well. They are my friends too.

Fountain, on the other hand, still has followers in Las Cruces.

Perhaps Fountain, a known "carpet bagger", that pushed his political agenda to further his own personal agenda dug his own grave by falsely accusing political enemies of cow thievery, and thus may have reaped what he sowed.

To be sure, Oliver Lee was a good man with a gun. He didn't mind using it either. Can't blame him with all the murderous S.O.B.'s running around the area at the time.

Pat Garrett tried bushwacking Lee at his home, but did not know of a tunnel that Lee had from his house to the barn, and when they fired upon his house with wife and kids inside, Lee returned fire and killed one of Pat Garrett's deputies. Oliver Lee was never charged with that killing, as it was considered "justified".

Pat Garrett was a back shooting traitor that made his rep by shooting his friend William Bonney in ambush in the dark.

Funny how time doesn't heal all wounds, huh?

Still folks on both sides.

BW,

Frenchy disappeared. To be sure, there were those that thought Oliver Lee caused that for the water Frenchy claimed, but it would have been cheaper to just buy him out. Oliver had money.

After being all over that homestead, which is in some of the roughest country of the foothills between the desert floor and the mountains, I firmly believe that country was too rough for cattle to get to the water there. I have seen those foothills make cattle so sore footed, that they lay there are die before they will get up and head to food or water.

That old Circle Cross headquarters is still there between Cloudcroft and Timberon. Met the new owner of it a couple years back when trapping there.

Lots of history there for sure.

Very interesting. I have really known nothing about these things other than a little history of the ranch and its historical size, until I stumbled upon that story I posted earlier.

I have stayed in the old huge multi- story ranch house many times which is just north of Timberon as you know. I am friends of the old manager who worked there many years when owned by the Fergusons of Lovington (or was it Hobbs) who were patients of mine many years ago.

Some wonderful times were had by my brother and I years ago when we camped up Sulphur Springs or a graveyard canyon well east of the road wich is now a freaking 4 lane boondoggle highway, while we bowhunted. How any elk or deer are able to survive crossing that road cut through the steep ridges is beyond me, what with the resulting cliffs either above or below the highway.

If you can find it, there is an excellent book that gives not only both sides of the story about Lee and Fountain, but also a very interesting history of that entire area, and the "old West" days there.

"TULAROSA, Last Of The Frontier West," by C.L. Sonnichsen, University of New Mexico Press, �1960. A lot of information about the characters who settled that area, and their feuds and fights, rustling, Indians, hardships, court cases, etc.

Also interesting how Pat Garrett was murdered and why.


Perhaps your library can find a copy for you.

L.W.

for a man described as a back shooter, i thought this was interesting on how he met his death according to the writeup:
http://cjmlawyer.wordpress.com/2010...t-self-defense-or-cold-blooded-murder-2/

Were the Lee Brothers of lion hound fame his descendents?

No one is suggesting the sins of the father, great or small they may have been, also attached to the children. I have no reason to doubt all the various descendants are decent folk.

A tremendous and detailed explanation of all the complex events of the time can be found here....

nmsua.edu/tiopete/files/2008/12/stockmancarpenter.pdf

Its a pdf, but if the links don't work google on "The Stockman and the Carpenter"....

Two minor corrections; the shootout between Lee and Garret did not occur at Lee's home, nor was a tunnel involved, although a tunnel at Lee's house did exist. Also, Frenchy Rochas, the enigmatic hermit and skilled craftsman, was shot from ambush at his works, his body found with a single bullet to the chest.

If you'll read the pdf, you'll note that Lee did indeed buy Rochas' cattle, "buying him out" in that sense, but there is no eveidence that Rochas was willing to sell his property, especially as he was starting a vineyard. None of this of course means that Lee had him shot or even wanted Rochas gone, but Rochas was an enigma, and quite likely COULD NOT be bought out as it seems he cared little for money (IIRC whoever built that staircase refused all payment).

In any case, a single round from a Winchester rifle certainly would have been cheaper than buying the guy out.

I dunno Fountain's motives during his career, I do know he volunteered on the Union side in the Civil War and saw combat, purposefully putting himself in harm's way. He also volunteered for duty against the Apaches, taking a bullet and two arrows in the process. Also, when he was part of the despised post-war Republican government of Texas, besides openly facing opponents in duels, he was the guy most responsible for bringing back the Texas Rangers.

In his last years Fountain was also sigularly unintimidated by the by-then powerful Lee/Fall alliance.

In context of all of that, dismissing the guy as a "known carpetbagger" as you do sounds sorta petty.

The murders of Fountain and his eight year-old son have been much discussed over the years; it took no small amount of nerve on Fountain's part to travel alone through an area filled with so many enemies as he did. At least one source had it he took the boy at the insistence of his wife, who believed even thieves wouldn't kill a child.

Suffice to say they did, killing an eight year old being the act of scum, scum with reason to be afraid, rather than the act of a mere political rival.

I haven't heard of Pat Garret being a backshooter before, nor do I know what the relationship was like between him and William Bonney.

We do know that Bonney had killed several men, including a deputy. Would he have shot Garret first in that dark room if he could have? The only alternative is to believe that Bonney would have quietly surrendered to his at least sometime friend Pat Garret so as to be taken into custody and hung.

Pat Garret's several business failings later in life do seem to indicate that if he WAS a treacherous backshooter, he wasn't a very sly or devious one.

OTOH, if a man is known by the company he keeps, look at Lee's close ally Albert Fall; a cunning and completely false man,the sort of lawyer who gave lawyers a bad name and who probably should have been born Mexican, where lack of ethics would have fit right in in the political scene.

Birdwatcher

Yeah, the old lines in the sand are still drawn even today with people that know more of the history and stories of that whole era.

Bob Bose Bell wrote this account of that Garrett-Lee gunfight, based on a researcher's notes.

That researcher, Corey Recko, was very biased towards the Fountain side of the conflict. He also made money from a book he published about his opinions on the case.

http://www.truewestmagazine.com/jco...unfights/3712-a-wild-time-at-wildly-well



If Jim DID confess to the murders, WHO did he confess to? No mention is made of that.

Much like the Kennedy assassination, the only things that come to light about the disappearance of Fountain and the boy are theories, with the facts washed away by the high winds of the desert.

Another excerpt from the article:

Interestingly enough, you ought to read the comments at the bottom of the story by people descended, from them, or still alive today.

So, we have McNew released because they could not successfully prosecute Lee and Gilliland. Brazel was found not guilty, Lee was not charged in the murder of Garrett's deputy because it was self defense, Lee was not a known cattle thief, nor convicted of that despite the trumped up charges that had to be even presented in another county because of lack of evidence in Otero County....

There sure were a lot of folks accused, but nobody could make ANY charges stick to ANY of them.

Was Billy the Kid's death at the hands of Pat Garrett anything more than a shot in the dark that ended up with Garrett killing is old pal, Wm. Bonney? I dunno... That whole Lincoln County War was a political tumble too.

Who really knows the facts or motives when such strong political motivations are involved?

One interesting fact about Pat Garrett was that he was kinda run out of NM after the Billy the Kid thing. He happened to know "Cactus Jack" Garner in Uvalde and Garner got him a county commissioner seat there.

Interesting article about Garrett that tells of the public distaste for him in the Lincoln County War and the Fountain case:

http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/pistoleer/garrett.html

Again, I'm not a "Historian", but have spent many, many days on the sites of these events and am pretty good friends with lots of descendants to the players in the controversial stories. Sometimes, even those descendants accounts vary from the researchers reports.

Fountain was also involved heavily in another political broil known as the Salt Wars. He and his side of greedy politicos tried to grab the income from the Salt Flats in it's heyday and lots of folks died over that THAT too.

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-elpasosaltwar.html

Like I said, I'm no historian, but I do know that Fountain was a much hated carpetbagger in the entire area, excluding Mesilla, where he lived, and his own unethical (to say the least) actions is probably what lead to his demise.

He also "hid behind his young boy" on that trip to Lincoln County and back where he accused all those folks of rustling... He concluded that if he had his 8 year old boy along with him, nobody would dare attempt to kill him. He knew his political enemies wanted him dead.

He was wrong in that reasoning.

Thanks for posting! I just passed the Circle Cross last week. We go to Timberon quite often.

Perhaps another example of the way specific facts can be jumbled up in family oral histories.

Otero County did not yet exist when rustling charges were filed again Lee and others.

Otero County did not exist until 1899, three years after Fountain's death, the borders drawn at that time including the Fountain murder site. IIRC (se the previous pdf link), the timing of the establishment of Otero County meant that when it eventually came to trial, the Fountain murder case had to be tried in relatively distant Hillsboro, a thing apparently more favorable to the defense (although without bodies, conviction was problematic in any case).

Albert Fall was the guy most influential behind the formation of this new county.

Birdwatcher

You are correct on the county boundaries at the time. What I was referring to was Fountain taking the indictments into Lincoln County because he had no support in Dona Ana County, more specifically, in the area known as Otero County now, where the alleged cattle theft took place.

I think its reasonable to assume it was on purpose.

William Bonney at that point had two choices; escape from or kill the lawmen sent to apprehend him, or allow himself to be taken into cutody and hung.

Whatever friendship that had existed, if any, Pat Garret knew what Bonney's options were.

Birdwatcher

I agree. They both knew where the lines were drawn.

Those NM range wars were hell, weren't they?

How is it that incoming American citizens filing legal claim to a salt resource was any different from said settlers claiming any other previously shared resource, such as pasture or water?

Anyhow, whatever his motives, after splitting with the Salt party, Fountain ran for office on a platform of guaranteeing access to the salt by ALL local residents....

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-elpasosaltwar.html

. Fountain, who had a falling out with Mills, later became the leader of the opposing Anti Salt Ring. He was elected to the Texas Senate with the expectation of securing title to the salt deposits for the people of the El Paso area.



Talk about bias.....

You state the man would knowingly put is own son at risk to save himself.... sheesh!

Another explanation is, people tend to think other people think like themselves do. Good people tend to assume other people act from good motives, bad people tend to asume others are similarly peverse. Seems likely Fountain didn't expect to be waylaid and murdered at all, let alone with his young son with him, else surely he would have brung as armed escort.

Birdwatcher

http://www.desertusa.com/mag06/mar/murder.html



Those old range wars, and cattle detectives, cattle raisers' associations, political affiliations, and emotional, and high passion political lines that were drawn were the demise of many a man. Ask Tom Horn.

Everyone had their opinions. Still do, Birdwatcher... I guess perhaps we both may have lived on the opposing sides. But, I still respect your opinions, although I perhaps don't agree with some of them. Guess I just have too much history with my amigos to change the way I see things.