Printed Arrest Warrant For "Rees Gobles" Signed By Pat Garrett. Lincoln County, New Mexico, 1881

Pat Garrett

Publication: Privately printed, 1881, NP

A terrific relic of the Old West, issued just six weeks after Lincoln County, New Mexico, Sheriff Pat Garret shot and killed Billy the Kid. This document orders Sheriff Garrett to arrest "Rees Gobles" for murder. Reason (Reese) Goble was born about 1857 in Pastoria, Bradley, Arkansas. An escaped Texas convict, he became a member of the Selman Gang, a group of very rough characters. John Selman led a band of plunderers and thieves who called themselves “Selman’s Scouts” but were widely known as “The rustlers.” This murderous brotherhood of bandits had come together when some of the hard-core ruffians who had sided with the Murphy–Dolan faction during the war teamed up with the even more despicable set of bandits riding with Selman and embarked on a spree of theft, murder and rape unlike anything seen previously in the Territory of New Mexico. Selman’s Scouts had no pretext of fighting for a cause, such as the Lincoln County War. They only wanted to take advantage of the current lawless state of the county. For two months, during September and October, the gang members terrorized the county by rustling cattle and horses, killing innocent men and boys, pillaging businesses and homes, and raping women. By the time Gobles joined the gang, he had been convicted of at least one murder as well as the rape of a 10 year-old girl. Eventually, posses of Lincoln citizens went after the Selman Gang, and Governor Lew Wallace issued a proclamation threatening martial law if the lawlessness did not stop. Because of this, most of the gang, including Goble(s), ended up fleeing back to Texas. On the reverse side of this document is the statement, "Not found / Pat F. Garrett / Sheriff / Fees / Returning / 50c. Pat Garrett's signature has been closely examined and compared to authenticated examples. We believe it to be real. Very good, old folds, toned at the extremities. A terrific association documenting a legend of the Old West on the hunt of a known outlaw.

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