Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-08-31

l. About midnight of Wedndsday of this e week, while asleep in their house on Con e vent street, Vicente Hernandez and his Il wife IAbrads Chaves, were horribly mur-
 dered by the use of club and knife by
 three men named Laocarda Cordova, f Ciemente Lopez and Jesus SaguarlPa Y So far as the cause for the murders IS g known, to us, it was simply for the plum der of ths house for money, iewelry and other valuables. (Hernandez has alwsy s been known in Tucson by the name of Piedras Negras and kept pawnbroker's office. Ills sign bore this name and we are told his papers were so signed). An
 inquest was held on Thursday forenoon
 by Coroner Warner, The Jurors were J..
 Goldtree, J. G. Hucke, ". H. Reed, w..
 c. Dunn and c. $. Leon. Their verdict
 was that the parties came to their death
 by knife and club in the hands of parties
 unknown to the jurors. It seems both,
 had their skulls were broken with aclub
 and, to make sure of death, the jugular
 veins were served with knife. The l floor was covered with blood and bare, | foot tracks were made ia it. The bodies
 were kept till yesterday morning at eight | o'clock, when the funeral came off under
 the auspices of the Catholic church. I Father Jouvenceau officiating. The funeral was the largest we ever with messed in Tucson, and showed in what high esteem the p8rtie were held. The family was always sp' en of with great respect, and the horror which prevailed over the murder was intensified because Mrs. Hernandez was so ie month advanc ed in pregnancy.
 All day long, the people were almost | wholly absorbed in talking of the dead | and outlining acton in consequence. | During the day, SIX men were arrested | on suspicion and put in jail. Towards evening, the subject Of rewards was can. vassed and about s900 was subscribed | by citizens, and but for the later discov- cries. $500 on the part of the county and a like sum by the Territory, would have been offered yesterday morning, for the apprehension ana conviction of the otfen- ders. During the early part tf Thurs day evening, Cordovd. the principal murderer, was arrested by Constable Frank Esperanza, and about nine o'clock another of the guilty ones was taken in to custody-one of them having been captured in the day. It being quite we'll settled that the actual criminals were in jail, a number of our principal xfaNN ' sion from one or more Of them and suc- 1 ceeded-the principal one, Cordovs, making a ful and, we have no doubt, truthful statement of the shocking crime and of his associates in it. Subsequent ly one of the others confessed. No doubts were then left of who were the guilty three. Preceding the confession, blood was found upon the foot of one, and other circumstances disclosed enough to identify the savages-for such | they surely were. They stole money, firearms, iswelry and other valuables, and were compelled to point out where they had secreted them. Hernandez's silver watch was ticking away when found.
 By ten o'clock On Thursday evening, il | was we'll understood throughout town that the murdereIs were known and in custody; and the first thing we heard next morning, was an expressed purpose to hung the three (and also John Wills) immediately after the funeral of the murdered man and wife. Stores, saloons and nearly every place of business, big and little, were closed. The funeral was conducted with great solemnity end did not tend to soften the determination to prepare four more. Immediately after ward, the people to the number of seve ral hundred a5sem bled in front of the jail. Early next morning two posts fork ed at the top were planted in the ground | near the jail door, and upon them was placed stiff pole about twelve feet ID length. To this pole four ropes were fastened with nOoses to each, and two wagons were drawn beneath. A Catholic priest desiring to give such consolation as he could to the doomed men was given all the time he desired. When through with his ministrations, it was after eleven o'clock. Very soon there after, the four men above named, were brought out of jail, with small black bandsges over their eyes, put in the wagons, ropes adjust:d to their necks, and the wagons drawn out and all four hung side by side. It is thought by | some that John Willis was dead or un- conscious when placed T the wagon, as he could not stand alone and made DO struggle while hargir~.
 Here we may say lat Willis killed | Robert Swope at San ord, Novembe 29, | 1872; was indicted erefor in March. | 1873; had his trial postponed till last | May, when he was tr end found uilty I of murder in the first de gree by le jury | on May 24; on the following Tues jay, he was, by the Judge, O dered to be hung | without naming day therefor, where upon the case was appealed to the l Supreme Court; now 1t is dismissed ia manner wholly unexpected to all con- cerred, notwithstanding there has b. en much earnest talk by the foremost citi- zens, within the past year, that justice | would have to be administered with some | less regard to law. At the March ses. sion of the court, the we'll known mur- derer, Derman, was set at liberty; John | Burt, who killed man named Mari | anda, m Tucson on Christmas eve, was also given freedom and no punishment; and Willis trial was postponed until May | as stated. These results elicIted sad | remarks by the people and because of | them, we published, as we had often l similarly done before, this language on March 29:
 "The only comment we need make on l "these Cases, is to state that pretty good | linen are again talking of the necessity | ''of vigilance committee to administer ''that punishment which the law says "shall be Out is not) for the terrible "crime of murder. Murder upon mur- ''der is committed in Arizona, and yet mot one murderer has ever been pun ''ished ss the law directs.
 Since that time, one man was hung by law in Yuma and we are informed it pro- duced most excellent results. When the terrible murders of Wednesday were committed, the old talk of more justice