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03 - Dread Apache- That Early-Day Scourge of the Southwest by Merrill Pingree Freeman · Dread Apache- That Early-Day Scourge of the Southwest

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  Speaker 1: Section three of the dread Apache That Early Day Scourge
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  Speaker 1: of the Southwest by doctor Merle Pingree Freeman. This libribox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Mexicans attack and rob
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  Speaker 1: Wheaton through Tommy Gates displays magnificent nerve. A trying experience
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  Speaker 1: in the life of Wheaton, who narrowly escaped The band
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  Speaker 1: that killed doctor Davis was when four Mexicans came to
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  Speaker 1: his ranch on the San Pedro River one evening, he
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  Speaker 1: being entirely alone at the time, and demanded his money,
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  Speaker 1: which they said they knew him to have from the
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  Speaker 1: sale of some hogs. He, however, denying that he had
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  Speaker 1: any money. They proceeded to put a rope round his
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  Speaker 1: neck and strung him up three or four times, each
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  Speaker 1: time demanding that he'd tell where the money was concealed,
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  Speaker 1: and he still denying that he had any During all
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  Speaker 1: this time they were trying to find where the money
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  Speaker 1: was hidden, and finally discovered it about sixty dollars in
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  Speaker 1: the window casing. Then the question was debated as to
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  Speaker 1: what they should do with Wheaton, whether or not they
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  Speaker 1: should kill him. This they evidently hesitated to do, but
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  Speaker 1: finally decided to take him out and throw him into
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  Speaker 1: his will, probably having in mind that this would not
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  Speaker 1: kill him, but would make him a close prisoner for
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  Speaker 1: a time. On taking him to the well, however, they
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  Speaker 1: found it to be a board one, and therefore only
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  Speaker 1: eight or ten inches in diameter. Of course, this frustrated
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  Speaker 1: that plan, and they returned him to the house, and,
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  Speaker 1: throwing him on his bed, proceeded to tie him, and,
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  Speaker 1: after threatening to kill him in case he at any
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  Speaker 1: time made them any trouble over the affair, they left him.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as they were gone. Wheaton succeeded in releasing
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  Speaker 1: himself and went to the home of J. P. Hohussen
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  Speaker 1: not far away, naturally, nearly prostrated from his fright and
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  Speaker 1: the terrible ordeal through which he had just passed. The
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  Speaker 1: next day, Wheaton, accompanied by Ira Davis, a brother of
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  Speaker 1: doctor Davis, came to Tucson and reported the case to
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  Speaker 1: Judge C. H. Meyer, an old time justice of the peace,
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  Speaker 1: Old Charlie Meyer. Law unto himself, Old Charlie Meyer, as
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  Speaker 1: he was familiarly called, was indeed a character and had
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  Speaker 1: the well earned reputation of meeting out justice with an
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  Speaker 1: iron hand and due in a large measure to his
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  Speaker 1: eccentric methods of administering justice, was quite popular with the
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  Speaker 1: well meaning, but certainly a terror to the evildoer. Judge
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  Speaker 1: Meyer's conception of justice and the language of the statutes
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  Speaker 1: frequently failed to be in full harmony, but that, of course,
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  Speaker 1: was not a matter for which he was responsible and
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  Speaker 1: should not and did not interfere in the slightest degree
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  Speaker 1: with the administration of justice in his court. Meyer recalled
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  Speaker 1: that four Mexicans had that same day come into his court, and,
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  Speaker 1: by the deposit of sixty dollars as bail, had secured
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  Speaker 1: the release of their friend, one El Zora, who was
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  Speaker 1: being held for some offense, having been unable until then
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  Speaker 1: to secure bail. Three of these four men were immediately
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  Speaker 1: found and arrested. The fourth, having started for Mexico, was
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  Speaker 1: followed by the officers and overtaken at Bully's Well, where,
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  Speaker 1: in resisting arrest, he was shot and killed by Bob Cannon,
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  Speaker 1: one of the officers. On trial of the other three,
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  Speaker 1: Hohussan was able to fully identify one of the bills
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  Speaker 1: in the sixty dollars turned in to Judge Meyer's court
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  Speaker 1: as the one that he had personally paid to Wheaten
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  Speaker 1: a few days before. In addition to this, one of
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  Speaker 1: the men, Poncho Gomez, having turned state's evidence. They were
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  Speaker 1: all three convicted and sentenced to the territorial prison. Gomez, however,
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  Speaker 1: for a shorter term than the others Tommy Gates, displays
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  Speaker 1: magnificent nerve while serving their terms. On October twenty seventh,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven, in an attempted outbreak at the prison
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  Speaker 1: in which these men participated, the prisoners succeeded in getting
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  Speaker 1: hold of the superintendent of the prison, Thomas Gates, familiarly
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  Speaker 1: known as Tommy Gates, and threatened to take his life
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  Speaker 1: if he permitted the guards to fire on them. Notwithstanding this,
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  Speaker 1: he ordered the guards to fire when one of the
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  Speaker 1: Wheaton convicts, one Pueblin, thrust a knife first into his
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  Speaker 1: shoulder and then into his back, seriously but not fatally,
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  Speaker 1: wounding him. Barney Riggs, a life termer, then succeeded in
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  Speaker 1: getting hold of a pistol, shot and killed Puebla, and
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  Speaker 1: for this was subsequently pardoned out. In response to the
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  Speaker 1: almost unanimous sentiment of the territory in the amu At,
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  Speaker 1: four of the prisoners were killed outright, and Tommy Gates's
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  Speaker 1: display of nerve on the occasion goes into history as
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  Speaker 1: a heroic example of self sacrifice in the discharge of duty.
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  Speaker 1: End of Section three.