The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1883-06-07
Indian Butchery,

The Albuquerque (N. M) Reviea0 has
the following particulars of the killing
Of Judge McComas and family in South
ern New Mexico recently:
Mr.. Wells, one of the County Com
missioners of Grant, was among the first
on the ground, and he states that Nc
Comas was lying on his face, with his
right hand extended and the left drawn
back and resting partially on his back.
He had received one shot through the
right wrist, shattering the bone COM
pletely; another through the fieshy part
of the same arm below and near the ell
bow; another through both thighs, en-
tering from the right side and passing
out at the left; another entering at tho
point of the left shoulder and passing
clear through the body and out at the
point of the right shoulder blade and
passing out near the pit of the stomach;
another cutting the flesh slightly below
his right breast, and still another, cut
ting cash in his left side. He had bled
profusely, and stream of blood marked
the way back, from where the body lay,
to point in the road where he had
either jumped out of the blackboard or
had fallen out upon receiving the
first fire from the Indians. The blood
in the blackboard showed that he had
been shot before he got out, and the
quantity of blood in the road indicated
that just before, or Immediately after,
getting out, he received dangerous, if
not mortal wound. His body was found
on the roadside, stripped of all clothing
except his shirt. The horses had run
but short distance before one of thtm
was shot and killed, and its fall hal
partially turned the blackboard around
to the left before it stopped. Here WAS
presented the saddest sight of all. About
ten feet TO the left of the blackboard lay
the dead body of Mrs. McComas, her
face downward and likewise stripped of
clothing. with her skull crushed a little
above the right ear, evidently done with
a pistol or gun barrel. There were
marks Of two other blows having been
given on the back OF the head, probably
with a pistol. No other marks of vio-
lence whatever could bel etdiscovered about
the person; her face rested somewhat on
the left side, and the blood had flowed
in pool about her face and mingled
with her disheVeled hair. Her shoes and
stockings were lying off away in one 'di-
| rcction, the shoes cut from her feet; her
corsets lay i'll another direction from her
body; these were the only articles of ap-
parel TO be found. Her footsteps before
her shoes were cut off could be seen III
places on both sides of the blackboard,
and some wore deeply impressed in the
soft earth and ground around, of the
heel or toe, as though in a desperate
struggle to escape her captors, or, more
| likely, to save her boy, for the Judge al
ready lay dead, and she then, poor, weak
woman, utterly dofenseless herself, was
her child's only protector. No trace of the
boy could be discovered. No imprint
of his little feet could be found anywhere
upon the ground This, however, is
easily explained. When the blackboard
was stopped by the fall of the horse
Mrs. McComas undoubtedly seized the
little follow and held him to her bosom
with the desperation of despair, and
when finally torn from her arms he was
placed and held upon pony or at once
carried away.