Drunken beer drinking goat mayor of Lajitas castrated

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1538036



<i>Aug. 17, 2002, 9:28PM

No kidding
Trial nears in castration of town's beer-swilling goat mayor
By EVAN MOORE
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
LAJITAS -- Strange tales have always sprung from the Big Bend -- the Marfa lights, the discovery of an alligator in the Rio Grande -- but none stranger than the growing epic of the assault on the mayor of Lajitas.

It's a story with larger-than-life elements: a millionaire and a movie star, an irate stone mason and a stealthy act of violent revenge in a border town, the castration of a magistrate in the dark of night. Added is the singular nature of the victim: Clay Henry III, a duly elected figure who happens to be a red and white-spotted goat with a strong penchant for beer.

In brief, Jim Bob Hargrove of Del Rio is charged with cruelty to animals and stands accused of castrating the 5-year-old goat belonging to Steve R. Smith, owner of the Lajitas Resort.

There is a far more dramatic story below the surface of that charge, however, and as Hargrove's trial draws near, with jury selection beginning Monday in Alpine, it is rapidly spreading.

"We seem to get some odd cases down here, and this is one of them," said Brewster County District Attorney Frank Brown.

The roots of the event reach back to the 1970s, when Houston real estate mogul Walter Mischer bought this tiny, unincorporated town at the western tip of Big Bend National Park and built a hotel and nine-hole golf course. As a joke, Mischer and a few of his friends held an election and chose a mayor.

In response, local residents then called another election and elected a goat, Clay Henry I. Clay Henry resided in a pen beside the Lajitas Trading Post and tourists soon discovered that the mayor was fond of beer, so fond that he would down as many as 10 bottles at a sitting. He subsequently became known as cabron borracho, or "the drunken goat."

Clay Henry's eminence grew with time. He appeared in movies and had his picture taken with other celebrities and an untold number of tourists. He held office until 1992, when he died at age 23 after fighting with a rival over a nanny. He was then stuffed and mounted (with a beer bottle protruding from his mouth) and is kept by his original owner in an antique store in Alpine.

The Lajitas mayor's position became a post of lineage, and Clay Henry's son, Clay Henry II, replaced his father. Mischer eventually sold his property to Austin millionaire Steve Smith, who began a massive expansion of the resort, but retained the goat as mayor.

Clay Henry III took office in 2000 and took on a greater role than his predecessors. Not only did he drink beer, he began acting as a marketing tool as well. Smith's restaurant serves "Clay Henry Queso." His bar is called "The Thirsty Goat" and it features the "Clay Henry Margarita."

Then, last November, Clay Henry was dutifully performing his duties when Smith was showing actress Anne Archer (Clear and Present Danger) and several others around the grounds. Hargrove, who had been doing brick work near the resort, was reportedly outside the trading post at the time, drinking beer with several other men.

"It was on a Sunday before noon and you couldn't legally buy a beer," Constable Richard Hill said. "Mr. Smith asked (Hargrove) if he could have a bottle of beer. Mr. Smith gave the beer to Miss Archer, who gave it to Clay Henry and the guy apparently got angry and said something about rich people and their rich friends giving his beer to a goat."

Later that evening, witnesses said, Hargrove told several people he intended to castrate the goat. The following morning, Clay Henry was found castrated, lying in a puddle of blood with a dull paring knife nearby.

Archer declined comment through a publicist. Smith, however, said he still finds the act outrageous.

"I couldn't believe it," Smith said. "I didn't even know he was angry and, if he was angry with me, why would he do that? I can't understand why anyone would do something like that."

Hill, who discovered the goat, called a local rancher to help stop the bleeding.

"The goat damn near died," said Hill. "He did a lousy job of it. The knife was dull and he didn't tie the cords, (he) just left him there like that."

The evidence was mounting. Hargrove told maids at the condominium where he was working that he had "cut" the goat. He then left Lajitas and a pair of goat testicles was found in a plastic bag in the refrigerator of the home where he had been staying.

"Some of the local people were ready to lynch him," Hill said. "I sort of wanted to go arrest him and bring him back here and turn him loose so they could have him, but we sent a warrant to Val Verde County instead."

Hargrove, 41, posted bond in Langtry and retained Comstock attorney Martin Underwood to represent him. Neither Hargrove nor Underwood would return calls, but Brown said he has been told that Hargrove will not plead guilty.

"I expect to start picking a jury Monday," Brown said. "About the only defense I can think of would be that it's not cruelty to castrate a goat because it's common practice."

But it wasn't his goat, and it wasn't a standard job.

"It's a third-degree felony (carrying a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine), and I've alleged `torture' because of the infliction of unnecessary pain."

For his part, Clay Henry appears to have recovered from his ordeal.

He complacently spends his days in a pen by the Lajitas Trading Post, drinks beer whenever it is offered and ignores the three females that are housed with him. He recently posed for a photo shoot in the bar that was named for him.

"It doesn't seem to have traumatized him," said resort marketing director Ed Spengeman. "He drinks as much as he ever did. Or, maybe, he drinks a little more."

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I don't think someone could even make up with a story this crazy if they tried! Sometimes real life is much stranger than fiction.

B