Merritt Horrell - Killing Spree

Killing Spree

Following the gunfight, several more state police were sent to the county. Mart Horrell and three friends were quickly arrested and taken to the Georgetown, Texas jail. However more than thirty friends soon broke into the jail and freed them. The brothers fled to Lincoln County, New Mexico, where Ben Horrell quickly befriended Lincoln County Sheriff Jack Gylam. On December 1, 1873, Sheriff Gylam and Ben Horrell rode into Lincoln, New Mexico and began drinking, visiting several brothels and saloons before discharging their firearms in the street while drunk. Constable Juan Martinez demanded they turn over their weapons, and they complied, but were not arrested. Soon afterward, they had acquired more pistols, and again were shooting, this time inside a brothel. When confronted by Constable Martinez yet again, Ben Horrell shot and killed Martinez, and he and Sheriff Gylam fled. Other lawmen caught up with them before they were able to leave town, and killed them both.

The Horrell brothers retaliated by killing two prominent Mexican ranchers, resulting in newly appointed Sheriff Alexander Hamilton Mills gathering a posse and hunting them down. After an intense standoff outside Lincoln, the posse retreated, and the brothers escaped. On December 20, 1873, the brothers stormed a Hispanic celebration in Lincoln, killing four Hispanic men and wounding one Hispanic woman. Again they were pursued, but evaded capture. Shortly afterward, Edward "Little" Hart, a friend to the Horrell brothers, shot and killed Deputy Sheriff Joseph Haskins due to the latter having married a Hispanic woman. Less than a week later, the brothers and their friends came into contact with freight wagons just outside Roswell, New Mexico, maintained by five Hispanic men, all of whom were killed by the brothers.