The Wild West by Frederick Nolan

Author:Frederick Nolan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9781839403897
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
Published: 2019-08-29T09:54:27+00:00

The Hunting of Tiburcio Vasquez

On 4 June 1870, Tiburcio Vasquez walked free once again from the confines of San Quentin and within a few more months had returned to his old haunts in Monterey County. In the spring of 1871 he teamed up with bandit compañeros, Juan Soto, Procopio Bustamante, Bartolo Sepulveda and others, making their headquarters in an adobe in the isolated Saucelito Valley not far from present-day Los Banos.

Unknown to them a seven-man posse led by San Jose Sheriff Nick Harris which included Alameda County Sheriff Harry Morse was on the trail of Soto, wanted for a January, 1871 robbery at Scott’s Corners in the Sunol Valley (which was on Morse’s patch) during which a store clerk had been murdered.

Henry Nicholson Morse (1835–1912) who held the office of Sheriff of Alameda County for seven consecutive terms, fourteen years, was a remarkable lawman by any standards. It was said of him that ‘no great crime was ever committed within his jurisdiction whose perpetrator escaped final detection and capture.’ As much detective as Western-style lawman, Morse was noted for his relentless pursuit and fearless confrontation of outlaws and badmen, several of whom he had killed in gunfights.

When the posse reconnoitred, they found there were three main buildings in the valley, one owned by Juan and Carmela Lopez, a second owned by the Alvarado family but presently the headquarters of the bandits two miles away, and the third, the Storm ranch, about four miles down the valley. Beside the Lopez house there were two rudimentary buildings called jacales.

A plan was devised: Morse and San Jose policeman Theodore Winchell would go down to the Lopez house and arrest everyone in it to prevent any warning being sent to the bandits. The rest of the posse would ride to the Alvarado adobe and arrest the entire band. When Morse got to the house, however, he found several men and women standing in the main room and three more sitting at a table, one of whom was Juan Soto.

‘Manos arriba!’ snapped Morse, pulling his gun. Soto just glared at him. Two more times More ordered him to put up his hands and still Soto did not move. Morse handed his handcuffs to Winchell and told him to cuff the prisoner, but although he had a shotgun, Winchell was too scared to move. ‘Then cover him while I do it!’ Morse shouted, but instead Winchell turned and ran. At the same moment a well-built woman grabbed Morse’s gun arm and one of the men grabbed the other.

‘No tire in la casa!’ they yelled, ‘Don’t shoot in the house!’

As Morse struggled to free himself Soto jumped behind one of the bystanders and began tearing at the buttons on his coat to get at his pistols. Morse got his gun hand free and fired a shot that took off Soto’s hat as the bandit brought his gun up.

Morse ran out of the house followed by Soto, who took a shot at him that missed when Morse dropped to the ground.

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