River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1896-05-14
LITTLE yASQUEZ NERVE.
The Last Hours of a Dreaded
Mexican Outlaw.

The subject of the recent conviction
Of several of the notorious outlaws in
the southwest came up for discussion
in a party of ranchmen and miners at
the hotel in this place the other evening.
Every one in the party had had long and
varied experiences in California, New
Mexico and Arizona since he came across
the plains with an OK team or across
the Isthmus in the SOS or early COS,
and naturally all had interesting recol-
lectiOns TO tell of what they had seen
of wild, lawless and irresponsible
characters on the plains and among the
mountains.
Col. Dan Fillmore, who is one of the
principal cattlemen in Ventura county.
and came to California in the 40 days.
told the most interesting Renaissance
of the evening.
II reached Sacramento" said he, ain
the DAYS of the widest and most
bonanza-like days of gold washing
along the creeks and through the
canyons of central California, and in
the 46 years since then have as a min
ing prospector and later as cattle
man seen a good bit of the genuine
frontier life. and have had some deal
ings with desperadoes and outlaws.
First and last, l have been a witness to
the hanging OF % men. and the shoot
ing of several more. Think have my
self acted as an officer of the peace in
the lynching of IL or 10 of the most
cruel. deliberate and scheming bandits
that ever figured in class literature. But
gentlemen, the calmest, coolest and
most collected man / ever saw in the
presence of anappointed and inexorabl-.
death. the one who seemed most in
different to his doom. was that famous
little misunderstanding outlaw, lib
urcio Vasquez, who was hanged in San
Jose IA years ago. have seen many
men go upon a scaffold and under the
hangman's moose with an affected mere
and an apparent carelessness of their
fate. and have heard men call that
nerve, but IL was all summoned and eX-
hibited for the last few moments only.
Now Vasquez had the genuine article,
and while he appreciated fully that h.
had but day longer TO live. his constant
effort was to make those about him as
cheerful as possible.
Tiburcio Vasquez was, as you re-
member, the son of a prominent family
in Chihuahua, Mexico His grandfather
was on intimate terms with Gems
Iturbide and Santa Anna and was rich
20 years ago Young Vasquez was
given n good education until he was
10 years old. and was TO be sent to Bar
.eIona. Spain. for college education.
but he was born with too wild, desper-
ate, lswless and cruel a disposition.
When he was scarcely more than a
Touth he broke through all restraint
at home and at school and became IN
outlaw. When he was % or % years Odd
he had developed into the boldest and
most ruthless brigand we cattlemeu
and miners along the Rio Grnnde re-
Rion ever knew. In the summer of 1879
| am sure that the Vasquez gang IF
Mexican cutthroats killed from eight
to twelve men. and got by robbing min
ing camps and a United States army
paymaster something over S22. 900. As
he grew older he became holder. ard
his field of operation for ten or fifteen
years was all the way from Tucson
Ariz., up to Stockton, Cal. Tire Vas
auez gang was known all over the coast
IN 1876 and 1878. Part of the gang was
Iynched at Msricopah. Ariz., in 1877, and
two of the bandits then confessed that
they had taken the lives of over eight
men and boys on the coast and along
the Rio Grande in the course of five or
six years. They did not know how
many other men had been slaughtered
by Vasquez and his followers before
they came to know the chief bandit.
AT last Vasquez was caught and
held so securely that he could not es-
cape trial and sentence of death.
None of his friends could save him. not
withstanding the money that was spent
and the lawyers who worked day and
night in his relief. That was in 1881.
He was confined in the Jail at San Jose.
and as l knew Sheriff Adams well, l
went to see Vasquez. of whom I had
many times been in terror. and whom