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Vasquez

Vasquez was a man of great appetites, much vanity

and a propensity to regard himself as a Robin Hood avenging
himself upon the gringo citizenry of early California
Photo: San Jose Landmarks Commission.
The carpenters were finished. Inside the jail, the condemned
prisoner stood near the barred window of his cell, looking out
at the raw lumber gallows where he would die tomorrow. Then
he turned away and stepped forward, under the watchful eyes
of Sheriff Adams and the other men in the room.
A small, sparsely built Mexican, with a raven black beard
covering his narrow face from his mustache line down, he
stood less than five feet six inches tall and weighed less than
one hundred thirty pounds. He looked quite unlike the imag-
ined image of the fiery, ruthless bandit leader who had created
a reign of terror from the mother lode country of Central Cal-
ifornia, south to the Mexican Border.
He leaned over the empty coffin that had been brought to
him for his examination, and patted the soft white satin cushion
where his head would rest after the execution the next day.
His fingers brushed down lightly over the rich cloth lining that
ran the length of the casket. Then he straightened, and speak-
ing directly to the sheriff, said calmly, "I can sleep here for-
ever very well."
The peace officer returned the bandit's steady gaze. As a
lawman with a trained sixth sense, tuned to the passions of
wild, lawless men, he was thinking of the rumors that were
running rampant through the streets and alleys of San Jose.
It was being said that this man, Tiburcio Vasquez, the bandit
king, convicted of murder and sentenced to death by an author-
ized court of the state of California, would never hang.
Sheriff Adams knew that a note had been found, conversa-
tions overheard and reported. The word was out that Cleovaro
Chavez, the trusted lieutenant of the condemned desperado,
would ride upon the jail and effect the release of his captain.
Now the sheriff asked himself whether the soft words of
Vasquez and his easy manner were those of a man ready to
accept his fate, or the equally lulling words of deception cal-
culated to get him to reduce his guard, as a prelude to an es-
cape attempt. Tiburcio Vasquez awaiting trial at San Jose.
After all, Vasquez had escaped from San Quentin while serv-
ing his first sentence sixteen years before. And with Chavez,
the fire-eating compadre of the doomed man still on the loose the posses had been unable to capture him.
and threatening to burn the countryside if they didn't let his The wily bandit had eluded all pursuit and fled to the safety
old friend go, it was a situation filled with tension. of the mountains where it was hoped he would stay.
And it had been so ever since the bandit's capture, before, The lawman, Adams, was no beginner. He had been sheriff
during and after the trial. A few days after the death verdict of Santa Clara County for enough years to know his business
had been reached a letter, signed by Chavez had been dropped well. Every available man was on guard in the jail or in the
into the Wells, Fargo & Company express box at Hollister, streets surrounding the immediate area.
San Bonito County. He stated that he had committed all of Some of the deputies, dressed as ordinary cowboys and min-
the crimes for which Tiburcio Vasquez had been convicted. ers, had been given orders to drift through the saloons and
He said he would have made this fact known before this date, business houses with their ears open and their mouths shut.
but he had been out of the area and had just returned. He furth- They would bring to him any reports that might indicate that
er wrote in his letter that if Vasquez was executed he would either a lynch mob was forming or an escape attempt was about
raid and pillage the countryside as in the days of Joaquin Muri- to be made.
etta, and to quote his exact words: "The just and the unjust Also Sheriff Adams had· taken strong assurance from the
alike will be reached by my revenge." words of the good padre, Father Serda. The Catholic priest
Shortly thereafter Chavez had started to make good his had told him that whatever heinous crimes V asque,z had com-
Threat with a raid on Scoby's Store on the south fork of the mitted in his past, he now realized the error of his ways.
Kern River. Horses, much goods and $800 in cash had been "He has made his peace with God," the old priest had told
taken. And while Chavez had been driven off before having the him. "Now he is ready to make his peace with man."
chance to make good his threat to burn the town to the ground, The sheriffs attention was now pulled back to the scene in
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