The True Story of Notorious Arizona Outlaw Augustine Chacón by David Grassé

Author:David Grassé
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

One may wonder at the recurring use of the word believed in the foregoing caption (“Augustin Chacón, believed to be the leader of the band of four Mexicans,” “He…is believed to have committed many murders in that neighborhood,” “The other three and the leader are believed to be the men who committed the New River crime”) and think that this might well have been a stratagem on the part of the author to allow him to make outlandish accusations without actually having to take responsibility for the fact that none of them was true. But who would the author have to answer to for disseminating disinformation? It was not as though Chacón would be suing him for libel.

More likely it was a machination designed to sway public opinion. The author never stated who “believed” these statements to be true—only that they were “believed.” The “who” was implied. It could be many persons or just one. The reader was purposely left uninformed. However, by the utilization of this term, the inference was made that the person or persons who believed these statements to be true were better informed about the subject than the reader was. It also implied a certain authority on the subject—that this was the belief of law enforcement officers, public officials, investigators, journalists and/or the general public—and that the unenlightened reader should trust that these statements were concordant with facts and evidence and should also believe them.

The use of the term believed was a calculated manipulation on the part the author designed to influence the opinion of the reader and to bring the reader into agreement with the author’s assertions. Unlike the newspapers of today, which must compete with television, radio and the internet to disseminate their message, the newspapers of the late nineteenth century absolutely dominated the media and supplied the majority of news and information consumed by the public. They became quite adept in the shaping of public opinion and controlling public discourse. This overarching influence of the newspapers may clearly be seen in the continuing case of Augustine Chacón.

There was a second article in the aforementioned edition of the Republican concerning the murders, though relegated to the fifth page. It spoke to the continuing manhunt for the suspects in the New River Station murders. The posse out of Phoenix—consisting of Deputy Slankard, Deputy Nelson, W.H. Rice, Charlie Mullen and John Woolf—had struck the trail of the suspects near the mining community of Goldfield, to the east of Phoenix, at the base of the Superstition Mountain Range, and followed it more than fifty miles to the town of Globe. There, on the afternoon of June 13, they met the posse headed by Sheriff Murray.

The following morning, the posses merged, and “Deputies Slankard and [William “Billy”] Moore of Phoenix, Deputy Vores of Globe, Pete Spence, Constable George McGee, and John Woolf continued on in the pursuit, in the direction of Pinal Creek, which was the last reported place the suspects had camped.” The remainder of the two posses, including Sheriff Murray, made their way back home.

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