Masonic & Oddfellows Cemeteries
The Branigan Cultural Center in Las Cruces recently presented another cemetery tour, this time touring the Masonic Cemetery just a bit south of the downtown area. I was shocked to see more than 3 people show up for the event. The crowd was primarily Caucasian and over age 50, and included the ubiquitous older woman in a flowered dress with her toy dog and matching shoes/leash/collar combination.
With 10,000 occupied gravesites and newly-landscaped space for 8,000 more, it’s big. And old; the first body was buried there in 1867. I set my digital camera to use a sepia-tone effect, always appropriate for cemetery shots.
Inarguably, the cemetery’s most famous grave belongs to Pat Garrett, the Old West lawman known for killing Billy the Kid in 1881. Years later, in the midst of various political and financial messes, Pat Garrett was shot in the back of the head as he took a piss on the way to his ranch in Las Cruces, near what is now Big Daddy’s Flea Market. Here’s his gravestone, which lies among many other members of the Garrett family and is frequently decorated with dimes (or a fake sheriff’s badge, as seen today).
Another story of historical interest involves the murder of Cricket Coogler, a 19-year-old whore quite popular with the local and state politicans. Her beaten body was found in a shallow grave in the desert outside of Las Cruces in 1949, and moved to the Masonic Cemetery. Sheriff Happy Apodaca completely bungled the investigation, and himself ended up in prison due to a civil rights violation stemming from a false arrest of a black man who was tortured by having his testicles squeezed with a bicycle lock (how crafty). Cricket’s true murderer(s) were never found or revealed, and there’s a couple of film documentaries made about the scandalous case. Cricket and Happy’s graves now lie within sight of one another.
Directly across the street from the Masonic Cemetery is the Oddfellow’s Cemetery, much older and completely unmaintained.
I imagine it’s being eyed by local condo developers who will swoop down on the small lot as soon as it’s safe to raze what’s left of the headstones. Like Poltergeist or something.