Cowboys and Gangsters by Samuel K. Dolan

Author:Samuel K. Dolan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442246706
Publisher: TwoDot

Taking Bencoma’s keys and revolver, the two young hoodlums attempted to liberate fellow prisoner Jesus Rocha, but failed to open his cell. Leaving Rocha behind, Lazano and Corral bolted from the county jail and, dashing through the darkened streets of Silver City, they headed into the mountains north of Hanover. Meanwhile, back in the jail, Mrs. Ruey Bradshaw, a female prisoner who was being held for violation of the Harrison Narcotics Act, sounded the alarm. Alerted by a cook awakened by Bradshaw’s calls for help, Grant County Sheriff John E. Casey climbed out of bed and was soon on the trail of Bencoma’s assailants. “The first trace of the boys, which was reliable, was secured on Sunday night when a man living temporarily in the neighborhood of Hanover, reported seeing two boys,” the Alamogordo News declared. Sheriff Casey and his party of deputies were soon joined by a number of citizens, several of whom were likely motivated to join the manhunt following the offer of a $250.00 reward that was posted for the two killers.

“This resulted in the finding of Lozano [sic], the older of the two boys, in an abandoned mine tunnel to which he had crawled on his hands and knees,” the Alamogordo News explained. “Lozano was unarmed. He said he had separated from Corral on Sunday night when they had gone to a house in Hanover and Corral had told him to go up a hill and he would follow soon. He had not seen him again.”

The following day, Monday, April 5, 1921, Deputy Sheriff John Parrott encountered Corral at another old mine shaft, and the two men briefly traded gunfire. Emptying Bencoma’s pistol at Parrott, Corral then slipped into an old shack before the officer could get a better shot at the fugitive with his Winchester. Sheriff Casey and other members of the posse soon arrived on the scene and quickly surrounded the building where Corral had taken cover. A few minutes later, Casey boldly stepped up toward the shack, kicked open the door, and took Corral into custody without further incident. “Both boys talked freely after their capture. Each lays the actual killing on the other as might have been expected,” the Alamogordo News reported.10

Lazano and Corral were both later sentenced to death for the murder of Ventura Bencoma, and on January 20, 1922, they were both hanged at the Grant County Jail. Implicated in the breakout and murder of Ventura Bencoma, Jesus Rocha was later pardoned. Twice deported to his native Mexico, Rocha was again arrested in the summer of 1922 for having violated federal Prohibition laws. “Unfortunately a man can’t be jailed for life for selling booze,” the Deming Headlight later reported.11

Just as in the horse and saddle days of the nineteenth century, innocent bystanders were occasional victims in the Western gun battles of the 1920s. On the evening of January 11, 1921, two men approached the Baber-Jones Mercantile located on the corner of Sixth Street and Mill Avenue in Tempe, just a few blocks from the modern campus of Arizona State University.

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