Tales from the Morgue

1964: ‘Flying Saucer’ Sighting Reported By Eight Crosby School Students

04/28/1964

A flying saucer –more like a monster – has fluttered into El Paso while a rash of unidentified flying objects wee reported in New Mexico. Eight students at Crosby School at 5411 Wren avenue saw the El Paso monster.

In fact, one girl, 12, reported it to police. She said she saw it out a window of the school late yesterday. “It didn’t have any legs,” said Kathy Boose. “It seemed to be floating in the air, covered with something like a sheet. It was about 6 feet 5 inches tall, and sort of egg-shaped.”

Another girl, 11, told police she had seen it too, and said six more children had witnessed the monster.

Police had theories the apparition might actually have been a weather balloon coming to earth, or some sort of parachute, or something else caught in the wind, though nothing was found on the school grounds.

But suppose it was a monster?

Unidentified flying object sighting had New Mexico State Police, radio and television stations, newspapers, local law enforcement agencies and military installations in a dither today.

No less than six “authentic” spottings have been reported since Friday when Socorro policeman Lonnie Zamora sighted an egg-shaped object, which roared off the ground, leaving deep impressions and burned patches.

In addition telephone lines across the state hummed with activity as drunks, obvious quacks, publicity-hunters and well-meaning information-seekers got in the act.

An Albuquerque television station offered a $10,000 reward for photographs of the object or objects thought by some to be prowling New Mexico skies.

An Edgewood man told state police he fired 12 .22 caliber pistol shots at an “oblong thing,” early this morning. With certainty, he told of hitting the UFO six times and hearing the bullets bounce from it.

As he paused to reload, the man said the object moved silently northward. He was unable to determine whether shots 7 to 12 struck the thing. He described it as being a light green color, about 25 or 30 feet long, and silent. He said it hovered about 100 feet directly over his head.

Investigating sate policemen said the man was completely “sober.” Edgewood is a community about 20 miles east of Albuquerque.

A few hours earlier, a motorist in the Las Vegas area reported seeing a ball of fire which apparently landed near a radio station. Employees of the station said the man asked that his name be withheld because he was afraid of being laughed at.

Police also received similar reports Sunday from a Santa Fe man – Orland Gallegos – who told of seeing an egg-shaped metal object near La Madera, about 50 miles north of Santa Fe. He told of seeing flames spurt from numerous jets aboard the bottom of the object as it took off.

State Police Capt. Martin Vigil, who checked out the incident, said “There was definitely something there.”

Other reports came from an Albuquerque motorist who saw a “silver looking” object near Truth or Consequences, two men driving in the La Madera area and a Socorro teenager.

In both the Socorro and La Madera reports, burned land was found at the sites. Also discovered were “paw prints, like a mountain lion’s,” as well as “landing gear marks,”

The Associate Director of Interplanetary Intelligence of Undefined Flying Objects said from his Oklahoma City office that pictures of an UFO sighted in 1956 by a shipboard radio officer were being mailed to Zamora.

The photos were taken by T. Fogl, aboard the USS Ramsey off the California coast. The HUFO officer, Hayden Hews, said the object was “almost identical” in size, coloring, marking, characteristics and landing gears to the thing reported by Zamora.

“Either it was an awful good coincident or it is the same object,” Hews said.

Zamora , when contacted at this home early today, said he had not yet received the photographs.

Meanwhile, military officials at Kirtland and Holloman Air Force Bases and White Sands Missile range continued efforts to investigate the sightings … with no end in sight.

 

1984: 20 years later … Canceled game to go on after all

By Ruben Villegas
“November 22, 1963, the day of Austin’s Homecoming, dawned bright and promising … The assembly broadcast over KTSM Radio to the inhabitants of Tigerland, came to a triumphant close, as exuberant, Austinites left the gym with but one thought in mind – the Panther’s victory over the Tigers. Then … Minutes later, in Dallas, Texas, three shots rang out. The President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy … was dead. The football game and the Football Prom were never to be held.”

-Roundup Excerpt Austin Yearbook, 1964

By Ruben Villegas

Times staff writer

Never say never.

Not since the “Over-the-hill” gang (i.e. Washington redskins) has so much excitement been generated over a bunch of grownups laying football.

Well, almost football.

Saturday, the El Paso and Austin graduating classes of 1964 will converge on El Paso High’s Jones Stadium to play the much-talked-about “game that was never played.”

But there will be changes.

The players, sporting sparkling new jerseys and shorts, will be 20 years older. The game will be flag football.

And the payoff will be eternal bragging rights.

Really.

Exes from the schools still remember the events leading up to the cancellation of the ’63 game.

“As I was getting ready for the game we were told that everything had been canceled,” said James Luckett, coordinator of Austin’s reunion and football game. “We thought the shooting was a terrible thing to happen, but it was an important game.”

El Paso ex Billy Haddad said he was confused when he first heart the announcement.

“They told us right after the assembly that they had shot the President,” Haddad said. “I thought they meant Austin’s student body president. Austin had burned an ‘A’ on our field and both of us were always doing something so I thought someone had taken it too far.”

Pat Wheelan, coordinator of El Paso’s reunion, remembers the team meeting.

“We were told everything was canceled.” Wheelan said. “And we all cried like babies because we had been exited about the game. We had to wait 20 years.”

Now they have six days.

“We kidded about playing the game,” Luckett said. “Now it’s a dead serious game. Everybody’s getting into shape.

Coach Jerry Wilson has come out of retirement to coach the Panthers and “has lit a fire under us” Luckett said.

El Paso High graduates also have their own coach revisited.

Back to coach the tigers’ Class of 1964 will be the original coaching lineup – head Coach Bob Taylor, linebacker coach Hilton Lambeth, and backfield coach Jackie Meeks.

“It was the biggest rivalry in town and we were 7-1-1,” Wheelan said. “With the win we would have a three-way championship. Instead Bel Air won the district outright by half a game.”

All 14 Tiger seniors – with the exception of Joe Chagra – returned to battle for the claw. It hasn’t been decided which claw, but it isn’t the bronze statue.

1984: 20-year issue settled

1991: Morales fights his best but loses in 12

09/22/1991

By Mike Wagner
Special to the Times

Indio, Calif. – El Paso challenger Fernie Morales experienced something new Saturday in his unsuccessful bid to win the International Boxing Federation bantamweight championship.

He was knocked to the canvass. Not once, but twice.

Orlando Canizales, 29-1-1 as a pro with 23 knockouts, successfully defended his IBF title for the seventh time with a 12-round unanimous decision over Morales.

A crowd of about 2,000 Desert Expos Center fans saw Morales, now 28-5 with 12 knockouts, visit the ring floor a couple of times by the welcoming hand of the fellow Texan from Laredo. The first came in the second round and the second just before the final bell, leaving some in the crowd to wonder if referee Robert Byrd had halted the contest.

Morales bled from the head throughout much of the battle. Judge Paul Gibbs of Seattle scored it 116-111, Gwen Adair of Los Angeles, 118-109 and Houston’s Ron Ralston 119-108.

“My best fight,” Morales said in the ring as he signed autographs.

“I was down. I’d never been down in my life,” he said continuing in a crowded and emotional dressing room.

“Now I know what it feels like. And I know I can get up and keep fighting and I can fight with the best. I thought it was a lot closer than that but I feel god about myself.

“I got a fat lip and I don’t fell I can eat a steak.”

Canizales never bled from any of Morales’ punches, dodging numerous jabs throughout the contest, but the champion showed a number of bruises about the upper body as he answered reporters’ questions in the adjacent dressing room.

“I saw ‘em coming but I stood there,” Canizales said. “I’m quite disappointed that I let him. He has an awkward style and it is hard to get shots in. He came here to give it his best. I was just taking my time. I wasn’t waiting for a certain punch to knock him out with.”

The loss raised some questions about Morales’ future in boxing.

He and Frank Morales – the boxer’s father, trainer and manager – still plan on boxing in the 118-pound class. Just going the distance with Canizales may have advanced his career.

“Fernie put himself on the bantamweight map,” said Mike Marley, a boxing writer for the New York Post who was also serving as a television color announcer for the overseas broadcast.

“I’ll be starting to train in about a week or two,” said Morales, smiling despite a swollen face. “After my lip gets better. I’m staying bantam. He’s (Canizales) a good champion, so I’ll try again. I’m a pretty tough guy to give up.”

The other dressing room was not so sure.

“It was hard for that kid. It might have hurt him,” aid Jesse Reid, Canizales’ trainer. “He got hurt a lot but he’s got a big heart. At the (final) bell he was talking but he didn’t know where he was at.”

“He’s a tough fighter,” Canizales said. “He gets hit a lot. He’s slow but you can’t say he’ll never win a world’s title. You never know. He got some good shots in but he never hurt me.

“I think I fought a smart fight, I knew we would exchange blows at times and at times he did and at times I would catch him with uppercuts. He was tired and I was tired.”

Morales’ father, however, had a different point to make. He would like to see a rematch and felt everything was not on the up-and-up in Canizales’ making the 118-pound weight.

“If they do the (post-fight urine) tests right, he is going to be coming up with some kind of dope in his system,” Frank Morales said with the help of a niece interpreting as he sipped on a beer. “He lost a lot of weight before they weighed him.”

Said Red: “He was six pounds overweight and we ran him. At 10 (p.m.) we ran him six miles and then we ran him four miles in the morning. The next day he ran four miles and walked two. He came here as heavy as a house.

“Drugs? He’s a cleancut kid. He’d never touch anything. No way. Let ‘em claim it. They’ll try anything.”

1991: Morales’ boxing career appears over

1991: Morales talks, doesn’t recall fight

1945: El Paso Hero Released From Prison Camp

08/29/1945

Capt. William C. Porter, El Paso hero, is among prisoners released from the Japanese at Camp Hoten, Mukden, Manchuria, the War Department notified his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Asa Porter of 3201 Piedmont avenue, today.

Col. Charles G. Sage of Deming commander of the New Mexico 200th Coast Artillery which trained at Ft. Bliss, and Col. Harry M Peck of Albuquerque, commanding officer of the 515th Regiment which was in the same brigade with the 200th, are among the other prisoners freed.

Wife Notified

Mrs. Sage, who is living at Deming, said the War Department notified her yesterday. She had not heard from her husband since Aug. 5, 1944.

Mrs. Peck, wife of Colonel Peck, has been living in Albuquerque recently, friends said. Mrs. Peck made her home in El Paso for several years after the colonel went to the Philippines.

"I'm not a cry baby, but I wept for joy this morning," Mrs. Porter said.

"I had never lost hope, but sometimes I got a little shaky when news of other prisoners came in. I thought, who am I that my prayers should be answered and Bill saved. Or who is Bill that he should eventually come home when so many others should lose their lives."

Mrs. Porter said her most uneasy moments during the years of waiting were several months ago when news came of the American men killed when the Japanese prison ship was sunk Dec. 14, 1944, off the Philippines.

Mrs. Porter had heard from Lieut. Jerome Triolo and others, who had been liberated, that Captain Porter was on the ship.

Captain Porter won fame as the "Sergeant York of World War Il" in defending a bridge with a .30

caliber rifle to permit an American unit cut off by the invading Japanese In the Philippines to make an orderly withdrawal.

An American commander said the withdrawal was made possible only by the valiant stand at the bridge by Porter and a company of Filipinos.

"This 'second Sergeant York’ picked off all members of the enemy machine gun nest with a rifle" the

Commander said.

Mrs. Porter has received several cards from her son. In one card, he said he had received a radiogram from his family in April, 1942, and that he had received one package of food.

Captain Porter attended El Paso High School, the Union High School in Las Graces' and the New Mexico

State College at Mesilla. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in May, 1940, and was made a first lieutenant Oct. 20, 1940.

He went into active service at Ft. Sam Houston with the 57th Infantry and was commanding a Filipino company when captured.

Mrs. Sage, wife of Col. Charles G. Sage, said she has had six letters from her husband. "In each one, he said his health was good and that his morale was high," she said.

When Mrs. Sage last heard from her husband, he was being held on Formosa. She was later notified by the War Department that he had been transferred to the Manchurian camp.

Trained at Ft. Bliss

Colonel Sage, commander of the 200th Coast Artillery in the Philippines, trained at Ft. Bliss, He left the United States Aug. 30, 1941, for the Pacific and was captured by the Japanese on Bataan.

On Nov. 6, 1942, he was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for exceptionally meritorious, service.

The medal was presented to Mrs. Sage in a ceremony at Santa Fe, in December, 1942, by Brig. Gen. R. C. Charlton.

During her husband's absence, Mrs. Sage has been managing the Deming Headlight, one of the three newspapers published by Colonel Sage before he was called to active service with the New Mexico National

Guard.

Mrs. Sage said she was waiting to hear from her husband before deciding If she will go to the West Coast to meet him.

20 N. M. Men Freed

With liberation reported imminent for American prisoners of war held in Japan, Southwestern relatives hopefully awaited more War Department notices today naming additional fighting men freed from the enemy in Manchuria.

Already 27 soldiers from New Mexico had been officially listed as among those rescued from a Japanese prison camp near Mukden.

One was Lieut. Le Moyne Stiles of Albuquerque, whose family had been advised by the War Department that he was presumed to have been lost in the prison ship sinking.'

Others liberated in Manchuria were said by the Bataan Relief Organization to have been transferred there months ago from the Philippines. BRO officials in Albuquerque estimated there might have been 25 to 30 New Mexico men at the Japs' Hoten camp near Mukden.

War Department telegrams listed these others as liberated In Manchuria:

ALBUQUERQUE—1st Sgt. Roy Chaffin, S/Sgt. Leslie Evans, Pfc. Elias Salas, Pvt. Abel Garcia, Cpl. Ernest Montoya, S/Sgt. William W. Phebus.

BERNALILLO—Cpl. Joe Sanchez.

CARLSBAD—Capt. James McMinn, S/Sgt. Claborn C. Buckner, Sgt. Jesse W. Crabb

CLOVIS—Capt. Cash Skarda, Sgt Dale W. Walker.

DEMING—Lieut. Dan McCartney, Sgt. Haskel Byrne, Sgt. Pat Poe, Sgt. Angel Sakalaris, Capt Gerald Greenman, Capt. Walter Donaldson, Sgt. Dick Nunn, Cpl. Alvin Garrett.

SANTA FE—Pvt. Fred Mignardot.

SILVER CITY—Capt. Al Wheeler, Sgt. Walter Upchurch Jr., Pvt. Alfonso Lucero (formerly of SilverCity).

1936: Bar Closing At Midnight Is Proposed

07/10/1936

Two Aldermen Suggest Saloons Observe State Law

TRADE LOSS FEARED

City Attorney Studies Request Of Robey for 1 A. M. Curfew Rule

Aldermen W. E. Casteel and O. J. Allen said today they believed the state law governing the closing of bars and other places where liquor is sold should be observed in El Paso.

The state law specifies that, closing hours shall be from, midnight to 7 a, m. on week days and from midnight Saturday until 7 a.m. Monday.

Police Chief L T. Robey yesterday asked the City Council to pass an ordinance requiring places where liquor is sold to close from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. daily.

At present bars and places where liquor is sold in El Paso have no closing hours on week days but close from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday through an agreement of operators.

Bar Owners Doubtful

Chief Robey's request was referred to City Atty. J. Walker Morrow for study.

Liquor dealers indicated that they have no objection to closing according

to the state law. Some expressed a belief that early closing would drive some of their trade to Juarez, especially on Saturday nights.

Alderman Casteel said he has given the subject little consideration, but that he believed police should enforce the state law.

Not a Patron

"I haven't been in one of the bars since they opened, but any regulations to keep them orderly should be observed," Mr. Casteel said.

"I don't know just how they are controlled now. I understand that they Sheriff was keeping them regulated."

Mr. Allen said complaints have been received from hotel men in the downtown, district that noise from bars and cabarets annoyed their guests.

"I believe the state law would remedy the problem If It was properly enforced,” he said. "I think police should apply it by all means.

Plenty of Time

"Any one who drinks should: be able to get enough between the hours of 7 a.m. and midnight."

Alderman Don Thompson said he would consider the matter when he returns from a vacation trip.

Chief Robey requested that an ordinance banning music in bars, cafes and dance halls between the hours of 1 a. m. and 7 a. m. be passed.

City officials pointed out that an almost forgotten ordinance bars music in public places between the hours of 9 p. m. and 8 a. m.

1990: Shrewd ‘49ers found a gold mine in El Paso campground

March 14, 1990

Monica Krausse

El Paso Times

To gold-hungry forty-niners who had just walked across West Texas, “El Passo” was heaven on earth – a place full of cool breezes, pretty girls, fruit trees and wine.

But the quiet citizens of El Paso del Norte were less than delighted by their thousands of unexpected visitors. The horde of travelers was about to eat the Pasenos out of house and home.

The forty-niners were part of the California Gold Rush of 1849. Many of them came from the South, sailed to Corpus Christi, Texas, and then set out west on land.

The Rio Grande was about halfway to California, so it was a natural stopping place. A few tiny U.S. settlements were on the east bank, and the city of El Paso del Norte, which later would be named Juarez, was on the west bank.

C.C. Cox, one of the forty-niners, reached El Paso in late June. “The sight of this little place is truly refreshing to the weary traveler of the plains – indeed, the cool shady avenues, fragrant breezes, delicious fruits and luxuriant appearance of every thing around, makes one almost feel that he is transported to the bowers of Eden,” he wrote in his journal.

The Mexican city, he said, had a population of about 4,000, and “several hundred Americans” were camped on the U.S. side of the river, resting their animals and replenishing their supplies. They usually stayed about four weeks. By the end of the summer, another writer would guess that 4,000 people were in the camp, making it as large as the city across the river.

What did all these people do? They weren’t particularly patriotic. Cox complained in his July 4 entry about “the indifference of all” to the holiday.

Some of the forty-niners went Indian-hunting. Apaches “make frequent descents upon El Passo and the settlement near, and the inhabitants are in constant dread of their approach. Apache scalps are worth two hundred dollars, prisoners two hundred and fifty.” Cox wrote.

“The Authorities here offer great inducement to those who are fond of fighting. A company is being made up among the Americans here for that purpose and no doubt at least a hundred will join it.”

Some of the forty-niners learned Spanish and flirted with Mexican women. Some of them, unable to find anything to buy, stole supplies from the Mexicans.

“There is but little to sell here and everything commands a high price,” Cox wrote.

Another traveler, Lewis B. Harris, wrote in a letter: “We can hardly get anything from (the Mexicans) except at exorbitant prices. Beef eight and ten centers per lb … and every thing else in proportion. There will be an abundance of fruit here in about a month or six weeks.”

Even U.S. Boundary Commissioner John Russell Bartlett had trouble buying supplies a year later. “Provisions of all kinds were exceedingly high (in 1850, when he came to El Paso): flour, thirty-two dollars a barrel; pork, sugar, and coffee, fifty cents a pound … The arrival of my party rather tended to increase prices; for the population (of the city) was so limited.”

Some of the shrewder forty-niners realized the situation was a gold mine of its own. Instead of going on to California, they stopped at El Paso and opened for business, arranging with Santa Fe traders to get stock.

“Thompson’s families have located opposite El Passo, and established a store,” Cox wrote.

“That property on this side (of) the river was recently purchased by Mr. Coon, a trader from Missouri. He also has a large store,” Benjamin Franklin Coons, one of El Paso’s founding fathers, later would give his middle name to the mountains on the U.S. side of the pass.

Merchants weren’t the only ones who did business with the campers. “Among the residents of the place is numbered “The Great Western,’ a female notorious in the late war,” Cox noted. It’s widely assumed that this remarkable prostitute set up El Paso’s first brothel.

With U.S. settlements, commerce and entertainment, “El Passo” would never be the same.

1959: Pioneers Preserve El Paso Traditions; Minutes Recall Gay 1904 Celebration

09/11/1959

By MARSHALL HAIL

Members of the El Paso Pioneers' Assn., planning their next meeting, may rest assured it will be far different, from the association's first annual get-together.

The next meeting will be held at 1 p. m. Sunday in a ballroom at Hotel Paso del Norte. There will be no spiritous liquors served, and members will not march across the Rio Grande behind a 55-piece Italian band.

Organized in 1904

For another thing, none of the pioneers now belonging to the association was present at the charter meeting. All of the 104 charter members are dead.

Otis C, Coles, Pioneers' Assn. president, has dug from his vault some old records which throw light on the association's beginnings.

It was organized at a meeting of old-timers, including some of the most prominent residents of the city and county, at City Hall on May 10, 1904. On motion of W. M. Coldwell, seconded by F. E. Hunter, Judge Joseph Magoffin was elected chairman and S. H. Newman secretary.

‘Not a Good Mixer'

W. N. Vilas, Coldwell and William Rheinheimer were named to solicit members. But Coldwell, father of the late Judge Ballard Coldwell, asked to be excused on the ground that he was "very near-sighted, not a good mixer, and knew fewer of the old-timers than any other person in El Paso." So Henry L. Capell replaced him.

The association decided to hold its first annual meeting and celebration June 3 of the same year at Hart's Mill. S. H. Newman, a hard-hitting and sometimes sardonic pioneer newspaper editor—his Lone Star was the stormy petrel of frontier journalism-kept the early records as secretary.

Substitutes New Words

“As the opinion was expressed that there was some incongruity in styling as pioneers persons who had come to the country in Pullman cars, upon motion of Dr. W. N. Vilas it-was voted to strike out the word 'pioneers' and substitute therefor the words 'old settlers,'" Newman wrote.

"A discussion arising as to how the society should be perpetuated, it was suggested that its object might not be to perpetuate' itself at all but to gradually die out."

Newman's reporting talents were exercised in recording the minutes of the annual meeting and celebration at Hart's Mill, a sprawling adobe hacienda and site of El Paso's first industry. Pioneer Juan S. Hart, son of founder Simeon Hart, turned over the hacienda to the association, and provided a kitchen, tables and other accessories.

Crowd Gathered in House

Secretary Newman recorded that the party lasted from 1 p. m. to 7 p. m., with the crowd gathered in the house or under shade trees, recounting episodes of long ago and renewing old friendships with toasts to absent friends.

He added: "Liquid refreshments galore—such as whiskey, tequila, beer, soda pop and ice cold lemonade—were to be had for the asking or the taking. Yet a soberer, more orderly, more good-natured company, withal so numerous, has rarely been gathered together in social reunion in El Paso.

"Electric street cars landed pioneers right at the Mill and by dinner time a hundred persons had gathered, besides Hilary's Italian Band of 55 members. Headed by the band, all marched across the dry Rio Grande dry shod to the 'island,' where the catering committee had provided Mexican cigars and cigarettes."

Not Enough Chairs

When dinner, consisting of Mexican food and barbecued beef, was served, there were not enough chairs to go round. The hungry Italian musicians, who spoke no English, crashed into the dining room anyway and "partook of the feast" in the midst of ensuing confusion.

After dinner a meeting was held. William Freyer turned- out to be the member having the longest continuous residence in El Paso, and therefore was elected honorary president for life. He had come to El Paso as a soldier in 1853. Samuel Schutz, who arrived in. 1858, was second in terms of residence.

There were four invited guests from Juarez: Dr. Mariano Samaniego,. Jose Maria Flores, Inocente Ochoa and Espiridion Provencio.

Mr. Flores, it developed, had arrived in El Paso from his native San Antonio in 1852, but had lived mostly in Juarez. He was made an honorary member.

Offered Relics

It was suggested that members donate relics to the association. Coldwell presented his law license, the first given an El Paso attorney, Juan Hart offered a stencil used to stamp flour sacks at the pioneer mill. Today the association site has many historical relics and records stashed away in different locations.

"Thus opened and closed a brief but memorable chapter in the history of El Paso," Secretary Newman wrote in the minutes.

"The participants were veritable pioneers, old mossbacks, who in the good old days of long ago had faith in the future, and who had survived to see a busy, modern metropolis supplant the old adobe hamlet out on the edge of the republic, a thousand miles from anywhere.

'Drop a Tear'

"The frontier has disappeared and there will be no more pioneers after those who met at Hart's Mill on June 3, 1904, shall have passed across the Great Divide.

"Let us drop a tear to the good old times when these old hearts were young, and with one longing, lingering look behind, but with high resolve, each to do the duty that lies next to his hand, gird up our loins for the tasks the future still has in store for us, while at the same time freezing with relentless grasp upon a few more town lots. Then will our children's children rise up and call us blessed."