November 10, 1963
Lee Myers
Vic Queen
and Martin M’rose were pals. And they had several things in common.
Both were cowboys, both longed for the respect and affluence that goes
with the ownership of a big spread; both liked the fun and excitement
of days and nights of carousal in the bars and gambling rooms of
Phoenix, singtown suburb of the more respectable frontier town of Eddy,
now Carlsbad, N.M. But there, the parallel ends.
Vic, big, bluff, and
hearty, was the second son of a family of Texas frontier folk of long
established American lineage; he was a cowboy and showed it in every
feature of dress and deportment.
M’rose, though had been born of
old country Polish parents near San Antonio, Tex. He had learned to
speak a broken version of English by contact with his homegrown Texas
neighbors surrounding the Polish settlement where he was born. And
although he had left his father’s grubby little farm at approaching
maturity and had learned the cowboy trade efficiently, it is said, he
never affected the dress or mannerisms of the class of frontier
non-conformists even to the point of wearing crude and unshapely
clod-hoppers in lieu of the latter’s universal high heeled boots.
The
Queen family had emigrated to southeastern New Mexico during the late
80’s and had first settled well up in the Guadalupe Mountains, where
Vic built a two room stone house on his mother’s homestead. Life in
such an isolated environment held little appeal to Vic and brothers
John and Hillmon. Experienced cowboys and spirited young men, they soon
found jobs away from home with larger ranchers of the area.
When
construction began in the late 80’s on a gigantic Pecos Valley
irrigation project at the eastern base of the mountains, the town of
Eddy was laid on the mesquite flats along the west bank of the river.
The town and project drew the interest of the entire Southwest. There
was work, excitement, companionship, and Vic was drawn to it.
Needed Hands
Previously,
in 1884, Charles B. Eddy, for whom the town of Eddy was named, was in
San Antonio needing hands for his Seven Rivers ranch. Also in the city,
and available, were M’rose, Tom Fennessey, M. Phillips, Frank Imlay and
a man named Bailey. All were hired by Eddy and with him entrained for
Pecos, Tex., nearest rail connection to Eddy’s VVN ranch.
Completing
the trip overland to the ranch the men joined the VVN payroll in March
1884, to drive a herd of cattle to Colorado. Fennessey, who later
became the first clerk of Eddy County, was appointed trail boss. It
seemed that the trailing of cattle to northern markets was tailored to
M’rose’s exact fit. Whether it was on that first trip or later, and
whether Fennessey was implicated or not, M’rose is said to have bragged
that when he got to the end of the trail he had more cattle, picked up
indiscriminately along the way, than in his employer’s original herd
and these cattle he had no difficulty in disposing of at a fair price.
These transactions appear to have opened M’rose’s eyes to the
possibilities in the cattle country for a young man of vision and
courage. From that time on his life was dedicated to stealing cattle.
If
some accounts of M’rose’s activities are to be believed he was not only
adept at latching on to other men’s cattle but was a regular bugger of
a bad man. Six killings have been credited to him by such stories, but
they were all later, denied by M. Phillips, who came to New Mexico in
1884 and who claimed to have known him intimately from the time he took
his first cowboying lessons in Atascosa County. Phillips said that the
young Martin never killed anyone and that his transgression of the law
consisted entirely of stealing horses, cattle, and hogs. It is hard to
reconcile the image of a reckless killer with that a hog thief.
Curiously,
Vic, whose reputation was that of a man who took no abuse from anyone
and who was reputedly feared by many, has no known record of killing
anyone. Perhaps his reputation was his armor.
Just when M’rose
and Vic became close friends is unknown but items appearing in the
early Eddy newspapers indicate that such a friendship was full blown by
the early 90’s. Their ideas regarding their cattle business seem to
have been compatible and their deeds identical.
In 1892, when the
sale of liquor was banned from Eddy by land deed restrictions, the
sporting element there laid out a small town of their own just south of
Phoenix, of the 24-hours-a-day saloons, gambling tables, and licentious
dance hall girls and the ever ready six shooter. Both Vic and Martin
were well known there.
Vic’ nephew and namesake, a well known and
respected rancher now living near Loving, N.M., tells a story handed
down through the family declaring that the senor Vic was with M’rose
when the latter established his famous Ladder brand, used to cover the
former owner’s mark. Together the two had roped a steer and with the
animal security trussed and an iron heating over an open fire were
discussing how to brand it so obliterate the one already borne by the
luckless animal.
When the iron was hot Martin said: “I show you,”
and proceeded to burn two long, sloping lines up the steer’s ribs, then
connected these with several horizontal bars. The iron was reheated,
the steer turned over and the lines repeated on the opposite side.
“Dere she is,” declared Martin, “The Golden Ladder-oop one side und
down de udder!” Martin was said to have been very proud of his
creation, for, said he, no matter what the original had been, he could
cover it by simply adding a few more crossbars to his ladder.
In
the fore part of the 90’s several events transpired, all influencing
the story of partners. M’rose acquired a ranch. An old timer in
Carlsbad, who remembers him well, says it was only a homestead,
treeless and uninviting, but it was a headquarters on from which to
operate. The two men worked together and their herds assumed sizable
proportions. Their future looked bright.
With money in their
pockets they spent more and more time in the saloons and brothels of
Phoenix. Then Martin became enamored of Beula, a prostitute operating
in that vicious little town they were married.
Then their luck
began to turn. The New Mexico Live Stock Association, representing all
larger ranchers, had long had such fearless and indefatigable
inspectors as Lee Dow, of Seven Rivers, in the field attempting to halt
inroads upon their member’s herds. These investigations pointed
accusingly at Vic and M’rose.
About this time M’rose liquidated
his land and stock, and it is probable that Vic did the same. The
former divided $4,200 with Beula and the partners, with $1,000 reward
offered for M’rose and $500 for Vic, decided to seek out the healthier
climate of Mexico. Beula joined their husband in Juarez and together
they went to Magdalena, where they rejoined Vic. At the request of New
Mexico authorities the two men were jailed to await extradition papers
from Santa Fe. The partners, with the aid of Beula, launched a
desperate fight against these proceedings. Beula claimed that she spent
most of her share of community cash on Martin’s behalf while his share
remained untouched.
The services of John Wesley Hardin, Texas
desperado de luxe turned attorney, were engaged in this contest and it
was not long until the plot began to develop sinister possibilities.
Beula seems to have been quite an eyeful and John Wesley decided that
he wanted her. She did not resist his advances and in short while she
told Martin that she was going to file for divorce, then moved across
the Rio Grande to El Paso where she and her pistol packing lover could
enjoy each other’s company in privacy.
New Citizens
To say
that Martin was in a pickle would be stating the case mildly. New
Mexico authorities were tenacious in their attempts at extradition and
it looked as though they were going to succeed; his wife, with a part
of his hard earned money was across the river in his arms of his
attorney and there was little that he, Martin could do about it.
M’rose
and queen applied for and were granted, Mexican citizenship and the
Mexican authorities found discrepancies in New Mexican extradition
papers. The proceedings were quashed and the two pals were released
from jail. They were now free to walk the soil of the southern public
but there still remained to Martin the galling and dangerous affair of
Beula and John Wesley. He was desperate with rage and jealousy.
Several
of the partner’s friends including Tom Fennessey, appeared on the scene
in their support and the groundwork for trouble with Hardin was laid.
There was inadvertent meeting in Juarez between those friends and
Hardin. Hot words flew Hardin drew his pistol and would of killed
Fennessey but for the intervention of Jeff Milton, chief of police of
El Paso, who also was present. Hardin slapped Fennessey and another of
the partner’s friends and stalked off. It was not the day for a killing.
In
El Paso events of ill portent were shaping up and lured on by the
reward offered for M’rose, George Scarborough and Milton, two
cold-blooded law officers who had served their apprenticeships in Texas
riding herd on the toughest set of outlaws that the world has ever
spawned, decided to lure M’rose to the American side and either arrest
or kill him. Beula was said to have been the bait for the trap.
Meeting Held
Just
exactly what happened will never be known but a few minutes after
midnight, July 3, 1895, Scarborough met M’rose at the center of the
Mexican Central Railroad bridge across the Rio Grande and the two
headed for the American side. M’rose was suspicious said Scarborough,
had his pistol in his hand. A few feet after stepping onto American
soil two crouching figures, Milton and Frank McMahon, El Paso deputy
called out to M’rose to throw up his hands and surrender.
The
offices claimed that M’rose, instead of complying, fired upon them.
There was a fusillade of shots and M’rose fell, mortally wounded, but
struggled to his feet and attempted to renew the fight. This was a
dying effort and was wasted. He fell again and in a few minutes was
dead.
An inquest was held on the spot and the body was removed to
lie on the “cooling board” of the Star Stables undertaking rooms.
M’rose had been struck by eight .45 slugs and a shotgun charge. A blood
stained letter, with two ugly bullet holes through it, was found on the
body addressed to Beula M’rose, El Paso. The clothes were stripped from
the body and left beside it, where, “covered with a solid coating of
blood,” they were a gruesome exhibit of the end trail that began,
innocently enough, in a South Texas Polish farm community.
The
three officers were charged with murder, tried, pleaded self-defense
and acquitted. Such a decision was no surprise then, nor is it now from
the vantage of retrospection After all were officers of the law and
were armed with a warrant for M’rose’s arrest. But Vic Queen had a different story to tell.
Found Witnesses
He
had found two residents of Juarez who, so he clamed, witnessed the
whole thing. They were engaged in an attempt to smuggle goods into El
Paso, heard the three officers approaching and hid in a clump of weeds.
Although it was too dark to identify anyone, it was still possible to
distinguish action. They watched the two officers hide themselves while
Scarborough walk onto the bridge, then return, with M’rose following.
They
declared that the two crouching men had fired first then told how
Scarborough had whirled and fired also; how M’rose had fallen and
attempted to rise only to be forced back to the ground by Scarborough,
and finally, after their victim ceased to struggle, how one of them had
picked up his pistol fired one shot from it and had laid it by his hand.
No
credence was placed upon this story at the time but the Queen family
still tells it, just as elders had it from Vic, and they believe and
they believe it explicitly.
And Vic? If the residents of Eddy
village thought they had seen they had seen the last of him they were
sadly disappointed. On Jan. 29, 1896, he rode calmly into town from El
Paso and announced that he had come to clear his name of all
accusations-and to shut some wagging mouths. He did just that too, for
on April 16, 1896, The Eddy Current stated: “The grand jury failed to
indict Vic Queen. Vic, who is now free from all charges, will engage in business in the county and settle down.”
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