The Socorro chieftain., 1907-08-03
MRS. PERALTA SHOOTS
Jose de Jesus Padilla, Sunday
Evening, at San Antonio, Ten
Miles South of Socorro
TO SAVE DAUGHTERS HONOR
Shot Intended for Another Young
Man. Victim Dies at O'Clock
Wednesday Morning.

Another grim tragedy was en-
acted in Socorro coanty at about
ten o'clock Sunday evening when
at San Antonio, a small town
about ten miles south OF SocOrro,
Mrs. Teofila Valenzuela de Per-
alta fired a charge of buck hot
into the body of jose de Jesus
Padilla, boy fourteen years of
age. The victim was fatally
wounded, dying at one o'clock
Wednesday morning.
The case is a pitiful one and,
as nearly as can be learned, pub
lie sentiment in the community
in which the tragedy occurred is
very largely with the woman.
At the time of the shooting,
Mrs. Peralta, who is between
sixty and seventy years of age,
was residing with her husband
and two daughters, one of whom
is married, at San Antonio.
Mrs. Peralta says that several
bows of the neighborhood had
been persistently annoying her
daughters with their attentions,
and that they finally became so
bold as to come to the house in
the evening and knock on the
window of the young women's
sleeping room and try to open
conversation with them. All
this was reported to the mother,
who finally issued a warning
that any further repetition of
the annoyances would result in
serious trouble for the intruders.
Instead of needing the warning,
one of the young men, Gonzales
by name, Mrs. Peralta says, told
her that he would ruin her
daughter If he had to tear down
the four walls of the house to do
so.
Sunday evening at about ten
o'clock Mrs. Peralta heard some
one knocking at her daughters
window. She called out several
times, asking who was there,
but received no answer. She
then seized a shotgun loaded
with buckshot, ran around the
corner from the side to the. rear
of the house, saw two or three
young men running away and
fired at the nearest, who was
only about fifteen feet distant.
Mrs. Peralta says she thought
this was Gonzales, but it proved
to be Young Padilla. The boy
was crawling under the barbwire
fence of the corral in the rear of
the house when the shot struck
him. He arose and started to
run across the corral, but had
gone only short distance when
he fell upon his face.
Mrs. Peralta was promptly ar
rested, had a preliminary hear
ing before Terrezo Lopez, JUS
tice of the peace, and was COM
mitted to the county Jail with
out bail. She took her arrest
coolly, saying that when she
fired the fatal shot she was act
ing solely in defense of the hon.
or OF her young daughter.
When informed of the death of
young Padilla, however, she
wept bitterly. According to her
statement. her family and the
Padilla family had been neigh
bors and the best of friends for
years, and the Padilla boy was
not the one she intended to hit.
1t has been suggested that
young Padilla might have called
at Mrs. Peralta's home on a
purely friendly visit. His way
of approaching the house, how
ever, does not make the sugges-
tion seem bable, for he cross
ed neighbor's yard, and an
acequia, crawled through a barb
wire fence, and approached the
window of the girls bed chamber
in the rear of the house. The
boy was not in condition to
make any coherent statement
before his death.
The incident is a remarkable
one even in the criminal annals
of Socorro county. Ii is not oft
en- the case that woman, in the
absence of her husband, is cali
ed upon to use firearms in the
defense of the honor of her
young daughter within her own
home, and il is less often that
she does so with effect.
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