The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-04-02
SEVEN DIE IN MASSACRE
BY MEXICAN BANDIT GANG
IN RAID ON u. S. RANCH
Stand Family Against Wall
and Open Fire After
Terrorizing Them.
BORDER FEARS GROWING
Wealthy Pioneer Residents
Believed Slain in Effort to
Obtain Cash.
BIZ United Press

BERINO, n. NJ, April q
Military action was consid-
cred today after cold-blooded
raiders crossed the border,
swooped down on a defense
less, isolated ranch, stood the
rancher and his family
against the ranch house, then
shot them down, killing seven
and wounding one.
The victims were members of a
wealthy, pioneer, INSTRUMENTATION
family.
Three bandits, in an automobile.
drove up to the big dairy ranch of
Melquiadez Espinosa, near here.
Friday night.
The ten members of the Espinosa
family were preparing to retire.
The trio reused them, and, posing
as New Mexican officials, gained en-
trance to the ranch house.
Once inside they drew guns, ter
rorized the family, and demanded
$4,000 in cash. Espinosa recently
had sold a herd of cattle and the
bandits believed he had the money
hidden on the ranch.
Open Fire on Family
They also demanded bill of sale
for another herd of cattle. Espinosa
protested and declared the money
was not on the ranch.
Almost without another word. the
three opened fire on the ten men,
bers of the family, huddled to-
gether in the big living room of the
adobe ranch house.
A few seconds later the place was
a shambles.
Fllomena Espinosa, 48, and her
five children, Louis, 80; HipoIito. 26:
Andres, %, Juanita, II, and Felipa.
9, were killed with first barrage of
shots fired by the trio.
Vlncente EspinoSa, 10, dropped to
the floor with four bullets in
his back. He died later in an Ell Paso
hospital.
Melquiadez Espinosa, head of the
family, saved his life when he
feigned death after bullet had
grazed his head. He dropped to the
floor and lay still alongside the
bodies of his family.
Like Old Apache Raids
His mother, a blind woman, and
his wife, both aged women, dropped
to the floor and were shielded from
the killers bullets by the bodies that
lay massed about them.
The three men escaped after the
massacre that was reminiscent of
the bloody Apache raids of a gener-
alton ago in the southwest.
The raiders, in an automobile be-
lieved stolen, rode twenty-five miles
into United States territory for the
sortie.
The ESpinosa ranch, a great tract
of land near here, is only ten miles
from the largest Interstate highway
in this section. The raid apparently
had been planned carefully.
After the killing, the three men
jumped into the automobile, and
headed toward the Mexican border
and safety.
Troop Protection Asked
Scores of officers from Texas and
New Mexico cities arrived here to-
day, but found little to indicate the
identity of the three killers.
Bullets taken from the bodies of
the slain revealed they had been
fired from three different guns. and
Melquiadez EspinoSa said the three
men opened fire at once, and with
out warning.
The elder Espinosa, sobbing over
the tragedy which virtually had
wiped out his family, said the three
bandits were Mexicans.
never saw them before" he
told officers They were Mexicans
and they told me at first they were
New Mexico officials and wanted to
see about the herd I had sold, so
let them in"
The raid climaxed an outbreak of
banditry which has struck terror in
defenseless border cities in recent
weeks.
A week ago today, Mayor Louis
Ravel Of Columbus, N. M, de-
manded protection from the
marauding bands of bandits who.
apparently emboldened by lack of
concerted resistance, have made a
half dozen forrays across the border
near there in the last month.
Border Region in Terror
we have been living in terror for
month" Ravel telegraphed Gov
ernor Arthur Seligman of New Mex
leo, demanding protection of troops.
1t was at Columbus that Pancho
Villa and his bandit mob raided. in
his 1916 raids which led to the
American invasion of Mexico by the
army under command of General
John j. Pershing.
Acknowledgement Osborne Wood,
son OF late Major General Leon
ard Wood, and a former United
States army officer himself. head
Of the New Mexican militia, was re-
ported in Columbus today, studying
the situation there.
BerlnO is about fifty miles east