Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1893-05-26
THE LAS VEGAS AFFAIR.
Further Details of the Pagosa Pas
ture Double Murder-A Shock
ing Crime.

Tho bodies of Benigno Martinez and
Juan Gallegos, the two men found dead
near the Pegosa pastures, have been
brought into Las Vegas. Martinez was
shot through the head in two places, one
ball entering the right ear and coming
out at the left, the other entering below
the right cheek bone and coming out at
the top of the skull. Gallegos had been
shot but once, the ball entering the right
eye and penetrating the brain. The head
of Martinez had been beaten into jelly,
every bone of the face having been
mashed to pieces. fifteen pound stone
was found covered with blood, hair and
brains. The two blankets of the men
were found very bloody, showing that they
had been shot while sleeping.
Their feet had been tied together, and
the ropes fastened around the neck of a
burro, so that the bodies had been drag
ged to considerable distance from where
the murder had been committed.
There were no signs Of violence at the
Martinez sheep camp, though it was
evident that the camp had been selected,
supplies unloaded, and fire started the
evening before. No evidences could be
found that the men had slept there, but
about three-quarters of mile away, were
found two blankets, one slightly bloody
and one saturated with blood, while near
by was stone weighing fully fifteen
pounds, covered with blood, brains and
hair. Here is where the men we're killed,
and it 10 evident they we're asleep at the
time, wrapped in their blankets.
At the camp could easily be perceived
the tracks of three horses, while it is
known that Martinez and Gallegos had no
horses. The conclusion is that three
men participated in the murder, two of
them shooting Martinez, and one of them
shooting Gallegos. The theory is that
after the sheep had been rounded up for
tho night, and the men had goue into
camp, by some means the sheep had been
STAN eded. The herders followed them
up, and, as is the custom, when the ami
mails had Quoted down, the herders took
their blankets and went to sleep, not
themselves returning to camp or attempt
ing to drive the sheep back.
The sheep were found near by and not
badly scattered, but no effort was made to
count them. 1t can not, therefore, be
said whether sheep stealing was the mo-
tive of the crime. This idea however,
seems to be negatived by the barbarity of
the murder, which would indicate q per-
sonal malice rather than mere desire to
steal. So, too, the circumstances would
indicate that Martinez was the object of
the .nurderers' vengeance, and that Gale
COS was killed merely to prevent his
knowledge of the crime. On the other
hand, Martinez did not belong to any of
the political parties, took no part in poll
tics, was quiet man, and one who attend
ed strictly to his own business.
There is considerable excitement at
Las Vegas over the affair and hundreds
of people visited the undertaker's rooms
yesterday to view the bodies. Sheriff
Lorenzo Lopez, Tom Clay, Ira Gale,
Frank Forsythe and others went out to
the scene of the tragedy yesterday after
noon, taking with them the hounds from
the penitentiary. Later Developments
are awaited with interest.