Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-06-13
PRESS COMMENTS.
The Chavez Conspiracy Case.

Ihe ChaveZ conspiracy case
During the progress of the trial, one
paper said:
st would seem that T. B. Catron is Oh trial
for the murder of Frank Chavez over in
Santa Fe. He has been accused of being every
would have been. to have had anything to do
with the mnrderous gang whom he is defend
ing in court.
1t appears, however, that 7. B. Catron
did have great deal to do with that
murderous gang. He was a confessed
member of the secret society that plotted
and comprised the assassination of
Frank Chavez, and at his request that
same gang of murderous villains accom-
panied him, armed, to the capitol to
support him in a contest for a seat in
the legislature. Whenever any of the
gang committed murderand the mem
bers of the society committed several
Z. B. Catron had this to do with them:
He became their bondsman, almoner and
attorney, and gave them the support and
protection that he bound himself, by
oath in secret meeting, to give. If his
newspaper admirers choose to believe
that he was "d-n fool' rather than an
accomplish in the crimes of the gang, the
than to their heads.
II their belief that he was "d-n foop
needs any confirmation-an we do not
dispute them, for we hold it to be demon
strable that no wise man will do evil-let
them study attentively the transcript of
proceedings in both trials of the Borrego
gang, paying particular attention to the
REORGANIZATION of the territory's wit
nesses. They will find that the strongest
points against the defendants and most
of the nferential evidence against Catron
himself was ELECTED by questions that
ordinary prudence and sagacity would
have left unasked. Every effort that Cat
ron made to extricate himself from the
quicksand of his own folly only sunk him
the deeper, and tended to confirm the
suspicion that his interest in the case
was too profound and vital to be &C.
counted for by professional zeal. Sus-
picion did we say? Rather the wide
spread and deep-rooted conviction that
the reign of terror, maintained by Bor-
rego and his fellow thugs in Santa Fe,
had its origin and support in the evil in
huence of I. B. Catron and its encour-
agement in his supposed power and
rtduiHeRH W CHst tle iAdutlo VI iio pIo-
lection about malefactors who were quick
to guess his desires and prompt to serve
his ends.
1t is we'll that four of the murderers OF
Frank Chavez have been found guilty by
a jury-better than if they had, with fool
ish physical courage, resisted the officers
of the law and been killed like their as
sociate, Vigil. The mere hanging of
four takers OF human life is of minor i'm
portance com pared with the moral effect
of the fact that T. B. Catron has been un-
able to give his boosted protection to his
followers. The verdict of the jury as
sures peace and security for life in Santa
Fe. 1t has shattered and cast down the
idol of the moral heather, who call the
plotting of murder "man's business" and
deem politics game to be played with
revolver and dagger in the dark. 1t has
announced to the world that the day has
departed from New Mexico when mems
lives were at the mercy of any scheming
scoundrel who had the money and politi-
cal pull, backed by the constituencies
audacity of a moral idiot, to gather about
him band of reckless killers, human
hyenas, ready and more than willing to
sneak upon brave man in the dark or
lnre him by the most damnable treachery
to slaughter. If the verdict has not
placed in the heart of such man the fear
of God, it will infest his dreams with
shadows of the scaffold looming before
him and the hangman stalking behind
Las Cruces Independent Democrat.