The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-04-18

uar feature of the great annual military review al
procession.
Among the leaders of the bandits who refuse
to come to Oaxaca to meet Diaz, perhaps the mo
conspicuous and notorious was Pablo Ocamp
Ocampo, with his band of seventy eighty Gu
threats, levied toll on all travellers to and from Ac
pulco He was charged with the commission
many cold-blooded MURDERS deeds of violence an
audacity i'll his raids bordering the incredibl
He was familiar with the canyons, barrancas an
dark recesses of the southern Sierras as the coyo
and jaguar were with their proving ground
When, at the head of his company of murderous az
venturers, he entered Chilapa, public holiday We
proclaimed and right royal reception given t
himself and his men, He was on good terms wit
the citizens and after he and his men spent a da
or two in feasting and carousing, they returned
their mountain lairs leaving Chilapa richer by hun
dreds of dollars
After the Rurales we're organized and drilled, tw
companies were marched to Chapa. with orders t
stamp out brigandage in the Southern Sierra$
Arturo Padre, famous bandit of Queretaro wa
In command of the Rurales. and Immediately afte
quartering his men, he dispatched prominent cit
izen of Chilapa with message to Pablo Ocampc
Padre advised Ocampo and his men to come in ant
surrender, promising them immunity for the past
Ocampo received the messenger, whom he knew
well, with kindness, but told him to return anc
tell Arturo Padre that he preferred to live his
life in his own way.
For six months the Rurales trailed Ocampo anc
his band over the Southern Sierras, engaged then
in skirmishes and running fights, but could never
capture them. The government offered three thou
sand dollars for the head of Ocampo but he seemed
to possess charmed life.
After many murderous engagements with the
Rurales, the followers of Ocampo were considerably
reduced in numbers but the robber hcief remained
unwounded and defiant. continued his robberies and
laughed at Prado and his men.
Living with him as his wife young girl Of
twenty-three years, a native of Chihuahua who was
greatly attached to him and accompanied him in
many of his expeditions. Those who remember her
say she was a handsome brunette, of dark olive
complexion and eyes luminous and sympathetic as
those of the sierra fawn She was a crack shot with
rife and pistol, and at twenty-four a hundred
PAGES unerringly killed her quarry. Every evening
when the band made camp, Ocampo took charge Of
her rife and pistols, threw up a temporary shelter
outside the camp and with Bonita slept on the robes
of wolves and bears which he had killed for
amusement, regretting they were not Ruraes One
morning the young Chihuahuanese became moth
er. The female companion of bandit chief was
not supposed to yield to the ordinary weakness of
nature. The accident of birth detained the band
but three hours, and they feared pursuit by the
Rurales, the young girl with her babe mounted he1
horse and held the pace with the band. But the fee
bic cries of the newy-born babe irritated Ocampo.
The child will lead to our capture" he ex-
claimed. Snatching the newly-born babe from the
breast of its mother he seized it by the foot, and
dashing out its brains against rock, flung the mu
tilated remains of his child into ravne.
Bonita witnessed the awful act with apparently
calm composure; she uttered no cry, shed no tears
and when the brigand band continued its march she
followed in silence. All that day Bonita Lagarda
spoke not word to Pablo Ocampo, and when night
fell she slept by his side. answering him in mono
sylables, by yes and MOI
That night, when Pablo and his band we're burict
in deep sleep the Chihuahuanese raised herself
gently, quietly to sitting position, detached from
her girdle large hunting knife which she Away.
carried, looked down upon the lace OIL L aolo, ne
lover; one hand she fastened stealthily but frmis
in his bushy hair and with the other, quickly derce
y cut his throat from ear to Then she sep
arated the head from the neck, wrapped it in cot
ton rebosa, mounted her horse and stole away
Ocampa would never again awake in this world
Not the slightest noise betrayed the secret o
her maternal vengeance. Carrying her CHASTITY bur
den she made detour of some miles, lest she nigh
arouse the sleeping sentinels by the beaten path
All that night she rode through the woods, wadet
streams, entered miniature canyons, but never dis
mounted. She feared pursuit and hid her trail
The following morning, at about six o'clock,
company of Rurales halted in the Sierras 70
breakfast. The captain was taking his chocolate
and rolls within an improvised tent when the guar
at the opening announced the approach of mount