Corpus Christi History
By Murphy Givens

Wednesday, Mar. 31, 1999

Hanging Times -- Part 1

A trail of sugar leads to gallows

   The end of the Civil War brought a decade of violence and lawlessness to South Texas. Bandits robbed, killed and stole cattle by the tens of thousands. Ranches were attacked and burned. The roads between Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande were too dangerous to travel. These were conditions approaching anarchy.
   The bandits were a mix of outlaw vaqueros from across the border in Mexico, Confederate and Union veterans, and other hard cases and bad men on the run who liked the freedom to pillage and plunder they found in South Texas.
   The Republican newspaper of Corpus Christi, The Nueces Valley, said on Sept. 24, 1870, that "there are reasons crime is more common in Texas than in other states. Soldiers returning from four years schooling in vice are ready for a life of crime." A letter to the editor of the Valley said, "The situation is truly deplorable. There is no security for person and property in the district between the Nueces and the Rio Grande."
   The Daily State Journal in Austin reported in July, 1871, that, "The stock west of the Nueces is being driven over the Rio Grande by every available pass. At one crossing in Hidalgo County, 5,000 head of beeves have been driven since last June."
   The Galveston Daily News, on May 9, 1873, reported that the "road between Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande is too dangerous to travel... Thieves with about 70 stolen horses were seen on the San Fernandez... Twenty-seven desperadoes are operating near Piedras Pintas... A wagon train has been held up at Lake Trinidad... A man has been found hanging on a tree near Nuecestown."
   Cattle were driven across the border for sale -- for $2 to $4 in Matamoros compared to $12 to $18 in the United States. Hide-peelers skinned the cattle -- sometimes while the poor bawling animals were still alive -- and left the carcases for coyotes and buzzards. Some ranchers hired their own private armies to track the rustlers and peelers and these men were not diligent about observing suspects' legal rights.
   One tale at the time was that cattle queen Martha Rabb would pay $50 in gold for every pair of bandit ears brought to her. The rumor said she had a great string of ears hanging in her ranch house in Banquete.
   Capt. Richard King kept 24-hour lookouts atop his ranch watchtower, with two brass cannon loaded and ready to fire. He traveled with a heavy armed escort of a dozen outriders and still he was ambushed. In one ambush, in 1872, a young companion sitting next to him was shot to death.
   People in Corpus Christi did not dare to go about, night or day, without a gun close at hand. On Aug. 19, 1872, William Murdock, who lived on the Santa Gertrudis Road, was murdered, burned alive. He had been tied up, a heavy plow placed on top of him, and his house set afire.
   It was during these lawless times in South Texas when four men were killed at a store in the community of Penascal, located 60 south of Corpus Christi on Baffin Bay. On May 9, 1874, store owner John F. Morton was found lying between the office and the counter. The bodies of his brother Michael and two other victims -- F.M. Coakley and Herman Tilgner -- were found outside. Their pockets had been turned out, the store plundered. The bandits had taken off their old clothes and wore new store clothes away.
   A cook who had been to the well to get water hid by lying flat. He saw the shootings and, in Spanish, told what happened. A band of 10 or 11 men rode up to the Penascal store and began shooting. The cook saw Tilgner running for the store vomiting blood, and then saw him dispatched by the murderers. He then saw the bandits shoot Michael Morton four times in the head. Coakley was tied face down and three bullets fired into his body. The store owner, John Morton, was shot in both arms and forced to carry goods out to the bandits. Afterwards, he was shot six more times. His body was found behind the counter, beside his prayer book.
   The news spread and posses were formed. The first posse to arrive at Penascal struck a trail. In examining wagon tracks near the store, one man noticed brown powder in the dirt. It was brown sugar that apparently had leaked from one of the bags the bandits had taken. The trail of brown sugar ended a few miles from Penascal, but it left an important clue: The bandits were riding not for the border, as expected, but north towards Corpus Christi.
   (This is the first of four parts.)