The murder of Don Diego Delcasar, which occurred about three weeks later,
provided the town with an excitement which it thoroughly enjoyed. Although
there was really not a great deal to be said about the affair, since it
remained from the first a complete mystery, the local papers devoted a
great deal of space to it. The _Evening Journal_ announced the event in a
great black headline which ran all the way across the top of the first
page. The right-hand column was devoted to a detailed description of the
scene of the crime, while the rest of the page was occupied by a picture
of the Don, by a hastily written and highly inaccurate account of his
career, and by statements from prominent citizens concerning the great
loss which the state had suffered in the death of this, one of its oldest
and most valued citizens.
In the editorial columns the Don was described as a Spanish gentleman of
the old school, and one who had always lived up to its highest traditions.
The fact was especially emphasized that he had commanded the respect and
confidence of both the races which made up the population of the state,
and his long and honourable association in a business enterprise with a
leading local attorney was cited as proof of the fact that he had been
above all race antagonisms.
The morning _Herald_ took a slightly different tack. Its editorial writer
was a former New York newspaperman of unusual abilities who had been
driven to the Southwest by tuberculosis. In an editorial which was
deplored by many prominent business men, he pointed out that unpunished
murderers were all too common in the State. He cited several cases like
this of Don Delcasar in which prominent men had been assassinated, and no
arrest had followed. Thus, only a few years before, Col. Manuel Escudero
had been killed by a shot fired through the window of a saloon, and still
more recently Don Solomon Estrella had been found drowned in a vat of
sheep-dip on his own ranch. He cited statistics to show that the
percentage of convictions in murder trials in that State was exceedingly
small. Daringly, he asked how the citizens could expect to attract to the
State the capital so much needed for its development, when assassination
for personal and political purposes was there tolerated much as it had
been in Europe during the Middle Ages. He ended by a plea that the Mounted
Police should be strengthened, so that it would be capable of coping with
the situation.
This editorial started a controversy between the two papers which
ultimately quite eclipsed in interest the fact that Don Delcasar was dead.
The _Morning Journal_ declared that the _Herald_ editorial was in effect a
covert attack upon the Mexican people, pointing out that all the cases
cited were those of Mexicans, and it came gallantly and for political
reason to the defence of the race. At this point the _“__Tribuna del
Pueblo__”_ of Old Town jumped into the fight with an editorial in which it
was asserted that both the gringo papers were maligning the Mexican
people. It pointed out that the gringos controlled the political machinery
of the State, and that if murder was there tolerated the dominant race was
to blame.
Meanwhile the known facts about the murder of Don Delcasar remained few,
simple and unilluminating. About once a month the Don used to drive in his
automobile to his lands in the northern part of the State. He always took
the road across the _mesa_, which passed near the mouth of Domingo Canyon
and through the scissors pass, and he nearly always went alone.
When he was half way across the _mesa_, the front tires of the Don’s car
had been punctured by nails driven through a board and hidden in the sand
of the road. Evidently the Don had risen to alight and investigate when he
had been shot, for his body had been found hanging across the wind-shield
of the car with a bullet hole through the head.
The discovery of the body had been made by a Mexican woodcutter who was on
the way to town with a load of wood. He had of course been held by the
police and had been closely questioned, but it was easily established that
he had no connection with the crime.
It was evident that the Don had been shot from ambush with a rifle, and
probably from a considerable distance, but absolutely no trace of the
assassin had been found. Not only the chief of police and several
patrolmen, and the sheriff with a posse, but also many private citizens in
automobiles had rushed to the scene of the crime and joined in the search.
The surrounding country was dry and rocky. Not even a track had been
found.
The motive of the murder was evidently not robbery, for nothing had been
taken, although the Don carried a valuable watch and a considerable sum of
money. Indeed, there was no evidence that the murderer had even approached
the body.
The Don had been a staunch Republican, and the _Morning Herald_, also
Republican, advanced the theory that he had been killed by political
enemies. This theory was ridiculed by the _Evening Journal_, which was
Democratic.
The local police arrested as a suspect a man who was found in hiding near
a water tank at the railroad station, but no evidence against him could be
found and he had to be released. The sheriff extracted a confession of
guilt from a sheep herder who was found about ten miles from the scene of
the crime, but it was subsequently proved by this man’s relatives that he
was at home and asleep at the time the crime was committed, and that he
was well known to be of unsound mind. For some days the newspapers
continued daily to record the fact that a “diligent search” for the
murderer was being conducted, but this search gradually came to an end
along with public interest in the crime.