That Certain Tragedy

Jack M. Potter, of Clayton, NM, recounts a conversation with Pete Maxwell.

Amarillo Daily News

6 Aug 1938

“I had been around Pete Maxwell for two years and I never heard him mention anything about Billy the Kid and the fights around Fort Sumner.  One day we were riding along together and I raked up enough courage to ask a few questions.

I asked, ‘Pete, how did you feel on that night of July the 14th when you were in between those two famous gunmen, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid?’

He jerked the reins in his hands and brought his horse to a standstill and dropped his head and mused for half a minute.

He said, ‘I have wanted the thoughts of that certain tragedy to go down in history as forgotten stuff.’ He finally warmed up and said, ‘Do you know that I had three chances of being killed that night in one minute? First place, I was between Garrett and the Kid while Garrett was shootin’. Second, when the bullet hit the Kid over the heart he plunged forward with his finger on the trigger and a knife in the other hand. The knife barely missed my left ribs as he plunged forward striking the floor. The third chance was when I started to run out the door. John Poe thrower a .45 Colt into my stomach and told me to stop.’”