The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-23
KILLED BY A DEAD MAN.
FATE OF A SCIENTIST WHO RE-
VVED 4 MURDERER.
From the Phlladelphia Times.

VIVED 4 MURDERER.
From the Philadelphia Times.
When the rebellion ended the troubles
Of the people of the Rio Grande began.
Every ruffian of the south seemed to have
made a bee line for Southern Texas. Some
of them united with the Mexican banditti,
and when pursued by the Rangers. cross
ed the Rio Grande with their plumber, and
easily avoided the feeble Mexican author
tiles. Sam Bass. Red Adams, the Thomp-
sons. and Buck McCauley were noted
among these men. and all died in their
calling, that is, with their boots on, Judge
Lynch disposing OF most of them.
OF all rufians on the frontier no one was
so dreaded as Dick Masters. Like the
Daltons. he was a yankee Irishman. but
had been in Texas all his life, and knew
the country along the Rio Grande as men
know the streets of a city. He was muir
derer, cattle thief and vioator Of women;
had been savagely hunted and shot a score
Of times. but escaped to kin again. lie was
five feet six inches In hight, but so enor-
mously broad that he weighed without
much flesh 2lO pounds had a chest meas
ure Of AZ inches. and was so powerful that
he could handle half dozen good men.
He kept in close league with the Mexicans,
and had a Lipau squaw. or mistress, 50
both these races gave him aid when In
trouble.
In the end the Mexlcans and Indians
had reason to wish they had never seen
him, as he brought them to grief in col
lislon with the settlers, and in one in
stance 1t resulted in fearful tragedy. Mas
ters and party of ten men had attacked
the family Of a man named Bonham, who
were travelling to Eagle Pass In wagons
The women were outraged, three men and
two children killed. The murderers were
quickly pursued By a band Of sixty men,
and IL was evident that they were making
for the ranch Of Signor Robias, on Pecos
river.
An hour later the place was surrounded
and summoned From the house came n
message that the party was gang of
ruffans and II they wanted any one to
come and take him. Then followed a
volley OF rifle shots from the stockade.
After much shooting on both sides the
Americans succeeded In firing the stock
ade, and then the house caught. Tho
| gates opened and party of some twenty
mounted men rushed out. only two sue
| ceeded In escaping, and one Of them was
.
| the river, plunged In. and was lost in
| the darkness. Among the dead were
| Signora Robias and her son, and in all
| some fifty people were shot or burned Up.
Sheriff Winters of Preside was ono
| of the principal actors in the tragedy.
\ and Masters sent him word that he woul1
| have his revenge. This was in 1877, ana
| for year the robber made 1t lively for
| the sheriff stealing his stock and killing
| his cowboys, but some Of the better class
| Of Mexican rancheros became tired of the
| scandal that associated them with this
! ruffian and set to work to capture or de-
| stroy him. Inside Of a month news was
sent to Winters that Masters capture
could be made II properly managed.
| Winters was a curious character, a doc
! tor educated in Germany, of high scien-
tific attachments. He had a laboratory in
| the jail and worked there daily-but was
/ a visionary, who believed he had found out
the "secret OF life" and expected to as
tonish the world with his discoveries
but, withal, one of the bravest and most
| powerful men in Southern Texas. When
| he heard of Masters wherea bouts he was
| delighted, and at once made arrangements
TO hunt the ruffian down. Masters had
| changed his affections from one Mexican
| woman to another, and the discarded wO-
man betrayed him. A picked force of fifty
| men, well mounted, left Preside in NoYem-
| Der, 1873 for Painted Rock creek, for IL
! was near here that the robber was con
cealed The Mexican guides had marked
! the place, a jacal, or adobe hut in a thick
/ ct Of pecans and saw Masters and two
! men enter Il about nightfall. A norther
! was blowing and the wind cold, so a fire
| glowed on the hearth enabling the posse
! to see inside the hut. Masters was asleep
| but a woman and two men were playing
| cards. A rush was made and In the me
| lee the woman and two men were shot
1 Masters killed and wounded two Of the
posse. but was beaten down by rifle butts,
| secured, placed on horse and by day
light was in the Jail at Preside. Inside Of
| three days he was tried and condemned
| TO the gallOws. It was found, curiously
| enough, that steeled against all fear in
the world, Masters had a horror Of being
dissected By the doctors, and his rough
| failers assured him that his body was des-
| tined TO no other fate sending him into a
NJ OF rage that made him clash his irons
on the floor.
He made a fight on the gibbet, but was
drawn up, and when pronounced dead cut
down and taken to the sherins room.
lad on long table and left alone.
In the room above was confined a man
named MCCOY, an Irishman, whose only
offense was getting drunk and lighting
He had passed his time IN enlarKing a
crack IN the old chimney that permitted
him 10 see all over the sherin's ROOM and
no watched the bringing IN the body ~
the dead roDber and saw the tragedy that
followed
The execution had taken place 10 the
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