Tales from the Morgue

1911: Little Girl Was Kidnaped

June 30, 1911

According to the Story Told the Police Officials

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CECELIA JACKSON’S STORY

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Says She Was Carried Beyond Ysleta by Lady in Auto Who Desired to Adopt Her

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What appears to be a clear case of attempted kidnapping, with a richly dressed woman in an automobile as kidnaper, has developed out of the peculiar disappearance of little fourteen-year-old Cecelia Jackson. The child returned shortly after noon yesterday to the home of her parents, Mr. And Mrs. Henry Jackson, 126 Leon street, after being missed since Wednesday morning. Her story is connected. The police are working on the case.

To begin with the story told by the parents before their only child’s return showed a peculiar condition. Little Miss Cecilia had been looking forward to a trip to New York City, where a favorite aunt was to offer a home while the child attended school. So eager was she for the journey, and the glories of the great city, that some pieces of jewelry, a bracelet and some lesser trinkets, were raffled to defray the expenses of the trip. It was while selling the raffle tickets in the neighborhood that the child disappeared.

“I don’t know just what time it was,” begins Miss Cecilia, “but it might have been in the afternoon. I asked one lady to buy a ticket, and she pointed to an automobile. ‘There’s a lady who will buy one,’ she said. I asked the lady in the automobile, and she told me to get in for a little ride, and she would take me to another lady who lived in a big, big house, and who would buy one ticket maybe more. I got in.

“But we didn’t stop at any big house. We went faster and faster, and the ride was fine. Yes she was a fine lady, rich looking. The auto was a black one, with only one seat. Well, we finally got out in the country, and then the lady said to me: ‘I haven’t got any little girls at home, won’t you come home to live with me and I will make you educated?” And I said: ‘No, because I got a papa and a mama of my own at home.’ ‘I don’t just remember, but I got to screaming, and was fighting her, but the automobile kept going faster and faster. I was awful frightened.” Here little Miss Cecelia with a parent on either side, paused and gasped, as she was waling down to the police station to tell her story over again.

“Well, sir, out in the country she let me out. I fought so hard. ‘Then go,’ she said, and I was left all alone. And I didn’t see any houses, not one. Then I saw a Mexican and asked him where some American lived. He showed me a ranch house. A kind lady took car of me, and I told her all about it. She said it was too late to go home that night, it nearly dark. So I stayed all night. They called it the Moon ranch.

“In the morning a man came along in a wagon and the lady asked him to help me along the road. I rode on the wagon but had to walk a way to Ysleta. Then some men came along in a big automobile. They said they were going to El Paso, and let me ride with them. They brought me down town, and I walked home.”

Such is the story told by little miss Cecilia Jackson, aged 14 years, and small for her age. Her little red dress and little straw hat with a red ribbon on it shows signs of travel. And she carries the tiny bracelet, and many raffle tickets. The parents have heard so many reports of their daughter, seen here, seen there, that all is confusion in solving the mystery. It is now left for the police to settle, and to find the mysterious “rich lady” in the little black electric car.

1990: Bowling alley massacre leaves 4 dead, 3 injured

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Las Cruces bowling alley massacre. The murders are still unsolved. Here is a link to a story by Diana M. Alba of the Las Cruces Sun-News about a documentary made on the event.

February 11, 1990

Seven people – four of them children – were herded into a bowling alley’s office Saturday, shot one after another and left to burn by gunmen who set the bloody room afire, police said. Four died, including a 3-year-old girl.

“What we have here is nothing but a massacre. You’re talking about the assassination of kids,” city police Capt. Fred Rubio said.

He said robbery may have been the motive behind the brutal executions and “for some reason or other, they decided to rid themselves of any witnesses.”

“The persons who committed this vicious crime … are the only ones who know why,” Rubio said. “God willing, we can apprehend whoever did it and ask them why.”

All but two of the victims were shot in the head with a handgun, Rubio said.

The carnage at Las Cruces Bowl was discovered by firefighters at about 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Shotgun-wielding police and U.S. Border Patrol officers – searching for two suspects – quickly set up roadblocks on all roads leading out of Las Cruces.

The roadblocks came down at about 2:30 p.m., but no arrests had been made.

The dead, all of Las Cruces, were identified as Amy Houser, 13; Steve Teran, in his 30s, and his two daughters, Paula, 7, and Victoria, 3.

Rubio to whom all questions were directed, refused to identify the three survivors. All were taken to Memorial General Hospital in Las Cruces, which would release no information.

Rubio said some of the survivors were in intensive care late Saturday and “they’re horrified.”

Dona Ana County District Attorney Doug Driggers said one of the victims crawled to a telephone and called police.

“It was very vicious,” Driggers said.

Among the survivors, Rubio said, are a 34-year-old woman and her 12-year-old daughter, who are related to Las Cruces Bowl owner Ron Senac.

Another survivor, age 30, was working at the bowling alley.

Police artists combined witnesses’ descriptions into drawings of the two suspects, both Hispanic men. The first is about 5-foot-6, heavyset, in his late 40s or early 50s. The second is 5-foot-11 to feet, about 30 years old with short, kinky hair.

Police believe they fled the blowing alley in a green four-wheel-drive vehicle, possibly a van.

And, Rubio said, “It appears there is cash missing.”

The cold-blooded killing sent a chill through this city of about 55,000.

“I hope this was done by outsiders,” said Ofelia Carrillo, manager of the El Sombrero Restaurant next door to the bowling alley. “People from here don’t do this to each other. If people from Las Cruces did it, we’re in trouble.”

Firefighters received a fire call at 8:33 a.m. for Las Cruces Bowl, 1201 E. Armador, a popular central Las Cruces spot with bowling, billiards and a lounge featuring a big-screen television.

Firefighters found the brown cinderblock building filled with smoke billowing from an office.

Inside the smoldering office, they found the dead, dying and wounded.

“Apparantly, they were rounded up and taken to that office,” Rubio said. “Once (firefighters) drug them out, it appeared they had been shot.”

Four of the victims, including Victoria Teran, still were alive. All were sped to the hospital. The little girl was dead on arrival.

Police roped off the bowling alley area and waited for a team from the state Department of Public Safety crime lab in Santa Fe to fly to Las Cruces.

“A lot of the crime scene was contaminated” by firefighters and emergency medical personal fighting the fire and evacuating the victims, Rubio said.

“We want to get as many experts as possible and then go in and make a clean sweep.”

Albert Garcia, 22, of Las Cruces aid he was across the street at the time of the shootings.

“I heard about six or seven shots,” he said. “It sounded like caps.”

He paid no attention until police and fire trucks poured into the bowling alley’s parking lot.

Rubio said Police Chief Ron Axtell phoned Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of the Roman Catholic diocese of Las Cruces shortly after the bodes were found and asked for his help in comforting the grieving families.

Deputy New Mexico Medical Investigator Howard Cother said, “I’m sending the four victims up (to Albuquerque) for autopsy and that’s about all I can say.”

The bowling alley massacre comes less than a month after Salvador Lozano, his hands bound, died of a single bullet fired into the back of his head. Police said $500 was stolen from the Las Cruces service station where he worked.

Lozano’s widow gave birth to a girl two days after he died. His killer has not been found.

We still haven’t solved that mystery,” Rubio said. But, he added, “We don’t seriously think that (a connection between that and Saturday’s killings) is a possibility.”

1919: One Yank Is Killed And Four Are Wounded When Forces Cross The Border

July 17, 1919

At 2 a.m. snipping through El Paso was becoming general, especially in the lower part of the city. At ninth and Stanton streets United States sharpshooters killed a sniper, captured another man and wounded a woman who was firing on Americans, especially troops patrolling the streets.

Having advanced through the town of Juarez with the armored motor trucks in the vanguard, the Twenty-fourth Infantry column halted between Juarez and the race track at 1:30 this morning to permit the federal infantry to retire into the town before charging the old federal trenches where the Villa rebels who were unable to break through the cavalry cordon of American troops were entrenched and firing at the American advancing column.

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United States troops, totaling 3,600, crossed the border at 11 o’clock lat night to stop firing across the border in order to protect American lives, at 1:30 this morning were shelling the Villistas while cavalry and infantry were endeavoring to trap the rebels.

Francisco Villa’s rebel band was stationed in the Juarez race track 30 minutes before American artillery opened fire on the grandstand at 12:30 a.m., it was announced at military headquarters. It was not know whether Villa and Angeles were there personally.

Shrapnel shells were bursting over and around the race track grandstand at the rate of three a minute from 12:30 until 1 o’clock. After Colonel Merrill’s 82nd artillery battalion obtained the range with the first shot fired, every shot was a hit and the race track infield and paddock where the Villa troops were known to be were showered with shrapnel pellets. The cavalry brigade advanced as closely to the racetrack as Colonel Tompkins, the brigade commander, dared and still keep out of range of the shrapnel fire. The purpose of the developing movement was stated at headquarters to be to prevent the Villa forces from escaping southeast to the mountains or in crossing to the American side of the border where they might do harm to individual Americans. No reports had been received at military headquarters at 1 o’clock as to the number of Villa prisoners captured by the American cavalry but many are expected to be brought back across the river by sunrise and interned at Fort Bliss.

One wing of the American cavalry is commanded by Colonel James J. Hornbrook, commander of the Fifth cavalry. He is in command of the extreme left wing which is completing the enveloping movement and his cavalry men are executing clever piece of strategy together with Colonel Tompkins’s other cavalry troops by completely enveloping the Villa positions. The expeditionary force is being supported by the 19th battalion, the Night engineers and other detachments from Fort Bliss and the border camps.

Fire on Villistas

The first shrapnel shot was fired over Juarez at 12:30 o’clock this morning in the direction of the Juarez race track to dislodge Villistas. A second shot followed in five minutes, which struck near the race track. More shots followed at 20-minute intervals from two guns placed near the international bridge on the Mexican side.

Following a signal rocket, the American cavalry near San Lorenzo, Chihuahua, started an enveloping movement to the east and southeast of Juarez to surround and capture, if possible, the rebels, who were then in the vicinity of the race track. A second green signal rocket indicated the cavalry were advancing on the race track at a charge.

Americans Killed

Following the killing of one artilleryman of the 82nd artillery and the serious wounding of another by Mexican snipers, who fired across the border near the El Paso stock yards, General Erwin ordered 25 expert riflemen to that point to return the snipers fire. The shots which killed the artilleryman were fired before American artillery began the bombardment of the race track.

Three American soldiers on this side were struck by stray bullets during the fighting in Juarez last night before the American troops crossed the border. Another solder was run down by an army truck.

Bruchard Casey of the 82nd field artillery was struck in the chest by a spent bullet. A severe wound was inflicted but surgeons at the base hospital at Fort Bliss, who attended Casey said the wound might not prove fatal.

Alfred Friedman of the 24th infantry was hit in the right foot, and another bullet struck Sergeant R.M. Buckles of the Ninth engineers in the thigh, inflicting a painful but not serious wound.

Snipping occurred opposite the business district of El Paso at 1:26 this morning one bullet fired from the Mexican side breaking a window in the Morning Times building 12 blocks from the river front. This and other snipping incidents were reported to military headquarters and sharpshooters will be stationed along the river to kill those snipers who are believed to be Villa men hidden in adobe buildings along the south bank of the river.

Orders were issued at military headquarters here for transportation to bring the remaining battalions of the 19th infantry from Douglas, Ariz., to El Paso to reinforce the troops now on the border. Two battalions of the 19th are already here.

Troops Cross

American troops crossed the border into Mexico at 11 p.m. Sunday. Approximately 3,600 soldiers were in Mexican territory ten minutes after the order was given.

The advance of Americans on the Mexican fighters was ordered, it was said at military headquarters, to prevent further promiscuous firing across the border into El Paso.

The Fifth and Seventh cavalry regiments crossed at fords in the Rio Grande east of El Paso. The cavalry brigade is under command of Colonel Selah R.H. Tompkins, commanding officer of the Seventh cavalry.

Two battalions of the Twenty-fourth infantry, under command of Colonel G. Arthur Hadsell, crossed the border and one battalion of the eighty-second field artillery entered Mexico at the stockyards.

Two armored cars, bristling with machine guns, rolled across the international bridge at 11 o’clock and moved through the streets of Juarez.

No information was given out at district military headquarters regarding the plans of the movement. Any information that may have been received from the war department at Washington is considered strictly confidential matter and would not be given out for publication.

Occupy Juarez

It is not believed, however, that a deep invasion of Mexican territory is intended, unless the attitude of the Mexicans is such as to leave no other course open.

Shortly after 11 o’clock American troops were occupying the center of Juarez, having advanced to Comercio street. The two armored cars of the 24th infantry were with the footmen in the advance.

It was these casualties in El Paso yesterday that resulted in the movement of United States troops to Juarez.

DEAD

Mrs. Ebudijes Ramirez, shot in stomach.

WOUNDED

Francisco Aguilar, wounded in right arm.

Corporal Edward C. Reilly, U.S.A., shot in right leg.

1955: Set Integration For Fall Term, First in Texas

June 22, 1955

El Paso School Board Tuesday night abolished segregation in the public schools.

The board is the first in Texas to vote unconditionally in favor of carrying out desegregation.

Board member Ted Andress made the motion. He said: “The School Board members have taken notice of the recent Supreme Court decision on compulsory segregation. I think it is time that this board makes the prompt and reasonable start toward integration that should be made. I move that we comply with all rulings of the Supreme Court and that segregation on a compulsory of involuntary basis shall not be enforced in the El Paso Public Schools.”

Since summer school is already under way, the motion will go into effect with the opening of school in September.

The only dissenting vote was cast by J.F. Hulse.

The desegregation motion came during the first five minutes of the board meeting.

A delegation from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was present. Their petition requesting desegregation had been presented to the board earlier. However, the board carried out its desegregation action before the petition came up for discussion. Board President C.M Irvin read into the minutes the fact that the petition had been received.

THANKS BOARD – Dr. Vernon Collins, president of the local NAACP, thanked the board at the end of the meeting for its “able consideration and acceptance of the decision of the United States Supreme Court.

“I feel that this is an historic event,” Dr. Collins said, “I suppose that the signing of the Declaration of Independence took place at a meeting much like this, where routine business was carried out along with the historic.

“I feel that we can have trust in a board of this nature that has the destiny of our children in its hands. In our community, we have always received the support of our school board,” Dr. Collins said.

The board did not announce any immediate plans for carrying out desegregation. Under its motion, compulsory segregation is ruled out immediately.

El Paso’s only Negro school is Douglass School, 101 Eucalyptus St., which has grades one through 12. This year’s record enrollment was 712. E.W. Mangram is the principal.

Dr. Mortimer Brown, superintendent, said Tuesday that Douglass will probably be assigned a district.

Under customary practice of the public schools, a student who moves to another district or who lives in a newly-created district can continue to attend his former school if he desires. Thus, a student who has been attending Douglass could choose to continue there, although he might live in another school district. A student living in the new Douglas district might elect to continue at his old school.

ONE RESTRICTION – The only restriction in the rule is that such a student may be rejected if his attendance means overcrowding in his former school.

The same policy is in effect with the newly-created Burges High School district. Students now attending Austin and Jefferson High schools have the option of attending either their former school or Burges when the new school opens this fall.

“We anticipate no changes in faculties as a result of this decision,” Dr. Brown said. “The faculties have already been elected for the coming year.”

Only other school board in Texas to speak out in favor of desegregation so far is in San Antonio. Its announcement last week was that segregation will probably be abolished in September, pending an opinion on integration by the school board attorney.

Mangram, Douglass School principal, said Tuesday, “I will carry out whatever policy the board decides on. We have a forward-looking school board.”

Colored students have been attending local parochial schools for several years.

1931: Billy the Kid’s Compadre Here

May 8, 1931

Happily Wed For 50 Years

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Billy Regretted Killing Two Men, Says One-Time Companion

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Frank Coe, 79, veteran rancher and one time compadre of Billy the Kid, who rode and lived with the famous outlaw in 1876 and ’77, arrived in El Paso with his wife and family yesterday, enroute to California.

Coe and his wife celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last month.

“I never was afraid of my husband though he was a comrade of Billy the Kid,” said Mrs. Coe. “I lived in peace and I needed it, for there were plenty of Indians around the country where we settled.

Had Confidence

“I had plenty of confidence in my husband and the natives didn’t dare molest him.”

Coe stood trial in Santa Fe following the Lincoln County war. Gen. Lew Wallace, territorial governor, had promised him that were he found guilty he would be pardoned. Billy the Kid was offered the same chance but refused it.

Coe was acquitted on the first ballot but left the country and lived in Colorado for six years because he had so many enemies in New Mexico. It was while he was in Colorado that he met and married Mrs. Coe.

“Was Good Boy”

“Billy was a good boy,” said Coe. “He was sociable, funny, and good natured.

“How come he shot so many people?

“They got in his way.

“He always told me he was living from day to day only. So was I; and I still am.

“Billy was the best shot I’ve ever seen. And I wasn’t so bad myself. But Billy could shoot snow birds with a six shooter and him on a galloping horse.

Sorry For Shooting

“He only regretted killing two men, Deputy Sheriff John Bell, whom he shot while he was escaping from the Lincoln county jail, and a blacksmith at White Oaks.”

Mrs. Coe thinks well of her husband’s outlaw friend. At her home at San Patricio she has planted, and cultivated a rose bush, giving it more care than all her other flowers. The roses are shoots from plants set out by Bill the Kid’s mother many years ago at the Brewer ranch.

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1910: To Remodel Mills Building At Once

January 17, 1910

H.B. Stevens to Serve Notice On Tenants This Week

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This week H.B. Stevens, representing Gen. Anson Mills, will serve notice on the occupants of the basement and first floor of the Mills block on the northwest corner of St. Louis and Oregon streets to get out as soon as possible as the building is to be remodeled and two more stories added to it.

The Mills block fronts east on North Oregon street and south on Pioneer Plaza. It is now two stories high with a basement. It fronts 165 feet on Oregon street and 87 feet on Pioneer Plaza.

Two yeas ago general Mills had prepared plans for an eight story block to take the place of the present building but he has decided that for the present he will only remodel the building and add two stories to it.

Mr. Stevens said yesterday that the sidewalk which is now considerably above the street will be brought down to grade and the building put down on a level with the sidewalk.

“About $65,000,” said Mr. Stevens, “will be expended remodeling and adding to more stories to the building and in making it as modern and up-to-date as possible. It will not be necessary to disturb the tenants on the second floor in order to make the improvements planned.”

The addition of two more stories and the putting in of modern glass fronts will make the Mills block a much more imposing structure than Masonic temple.

1944: Walterlo Sein Proposes Dec. 8 As Date Of Celebration

August 19, 1944

Dec. 8, anniversary of the founding of El Paso del Norte, has been suggested by the Juarez Chamber of Commerce as the date for an International Day which the El Paso Chamber of Commerce and the Juarez Chamber are contemplating sponsoring annually.

The suggestion was made in a letter from Walterlo Sein, president of the Juarez Chamber of Commerce, to George M. Matkin, president of the El Paso chamber.

“It occurred to me that we could have a parade headed by person garbed in similar dress of the seven missionaries who founded this villa,” Mr. Sein wrote. “This would give color, be completely typical. The Mariachis etc., could be used.

“Professor Jose U. Escobar, well known historian, who is now affiliated with ‘El Fronterizo,’ would be glad to co-operate in plans for the day.”

JUAREZ CHAMBER TO CONTINUE PLANS

Mr. Sein wrote that the Juarez chamber would continue discussion of the annual fiesta, which would be held in Juarez one year and in El Paso the next.

“We also should work towards establishing a monument to Fray Francisco Garcia, founder of the Villa Paso del Norte,” Mr. Sein wrote.

On Dec. 8, 1659, Garcia arrived at the encampment of the Mano Indians, located on the border south of the Rio Bravo. Here they constructed an arbor one mile from the river, building an altar and celebrating the first mass. Thus began the first nucleus of the Spanish colonization on which later the Mission of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Paso del Rio del Norte was erected.

“Around the humble mission of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, the colonists established their homes and gardens, forming the Villa de Paso del Rio del Norte,” an article in a recent issue of “El Fronterizo” reads. “Years later, led by Ponce de Leon, some neighbors established themselves on the opposite bank of the river, beginning what is now known as the city of El Paso.

PARADE SUGGESTED AS MAIN FEATURE

“As the main attraction of this festival between the two cities,” the article continues, “a historical parade should be organized in which the most famous travelers who trod the earth of Paso del Norte shall be represented. A celebration of this nature, carefully worked out, closely following the true historical facts, will serve to attract widespread attention because of its artistic transcendency and its pure beauty, constituting an educational celebration which will bring to the border a wholesome affluence of selected tourists.”

The members of the board of directors of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce will discuss the date of the day at their next meeting.

1902: Electric Line A Complete Success

January 11, 1902

Promoters Gratified With Run – Operation of System Begins Today

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“It was one of the greatest success that has occurred during my connections with electric railroads.” Said Manager Edgar yesterday, referring to the initial trip Thursday night. “Everything worked perfectly and the car was whirled across the rive as if the system had been in operation for five years. Everyone connected with the road is very much elated. Yes, It was a complete success.”

This morning at 10 o’clock, in accordance with invitations sent out, the company will inaugurate its line by carrying over a large number of passengers to Juarez. The cars will start from the little plaza, make the run across the river and return. Those who have been invited to take the ride are the officials of the city, newspaper representatives and other citizens who have been connected with the success of the road.

The company has not decided how many cars they will run during the Carnival, but a sufficient number will be put on the line to accommodate all desiring to go across the river, and during the days when the bull fight occur all the cars available will probably be requires.

The success of the company in getting its line started before the opening of the Carnival was much talked of on the streets yesterday, and everyone had good words for the company which has spent such an enormous amount of money in the city, and established an enterprise here worthy of a city many times the size of El Paso.

ALL WANTED TO RIDE

There are many in El Paso who have been born and brought up on the frontier, and the electric car which sped its way to Juarez and back again from the corner of San Antonio and El Paso streets was the first ever witnessed by them. Not a few three were who jumped on the moving car and rode for a few steps, that in after years, when El Paso has assumed the proportions of a large city, they might say that they rode on the first electric car.

El Paso’s electric car system is one of the finest in the state of Texas. Its holding are estimated at nearly $1,000,000, the amount for which it was bonded in Newark, N.J., but a short time ago. The cars are splendid examples of the manufacture’s climate of the southwest. Being entirely open during the hot season, passengers will not be obliged to suffer from closeness and curtains are attached, in the event of windy days.

ASTONISHED THE NATIVES

It is the first electric line to connect El Paso and Juarez and the Mexicans, many of whom had never heard of such a thing as an electric car, looked on with amazement as Thursday night’s car rushed down the principal thoroughfares of Juarez. To the peons and Indians it was something bordering on the supernatural. The iron horse, belching out great columns of black smoke, was difficult enough of conception, but here was a case of “no pushee, no pulle.” And no smoke, yet it was hurled along! Like the examination offered by the spirit in the “ancient Mariner,” it was simply another case of "The air is cut away before and closes from behind.”

Until after the Carnival the only line that will be used will be from the little plaza, down El Paso street and across the Santa Fe street bridge, to Juarez. Before the end of the month, however, yesterday Manager Edgar stated that the line up Oregon street and down Boulevard would be completed and that cars would then accommodate residents living in the northern part of the city.

The next part of the system that will receive attention is the line to the smelter, which will probably be in operation by the time the smelter is ready to blow in.