The Heritage Junction Dispatch A Publication of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society Volume 47, ISSUE 2 March-April 2021 President’s Message by Alan Pollack Calendar n the Wild West gunned down and killed by Bob Ford in St. Iof the 1870s, Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1882. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, lawlessness was Billy the Kid Heritage Junction is closed until rampant on the further notice. Western frontier. Billy the Kid became famous after Jesse James and participating in the Lincoln County War, a his James-Younger battle between competing merchants and Gang terrorized their cohorts in Lincoln, New Mexico, in the Midwest 1878. Billy met the same fate as Jesse James, from Missouri to when he was shot dead in the darkened Minnesota. They gained nationwide fame but bedroom of his friend Pete Maxwell by Thursday, April 1 met their match against the townspeople of Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett at Fort Deadline for the May-June Dispatch Northfield, Minnesota, in September, 1876. Sumner, New Mexico, on July 14, 1881. The citizens fought back against the outlaws, Early Years of Tiburcio Vasquez severely wounding the Younger brothers, who rode out of town with Frank and Jesse While he never gained the same degree James but were shortly after captured in of fame as James and “The Kid,” California Madelia, Minnesota, and sent to prison. Jesse had its own legendary outlaw in Tiburcio James escaped and subsequently participated Vasquez during the same period. Vasquez was born in Monterey, California, in Check www.scvhistory.org for in a few more train robberies before he was other upcoming events when Continued on Page 2 Heritage Junction reopens. Articles and inquiries regarding The Dispatch may be made to 661 254-1275 To arrange for filming at Heritage Junction, contact Cathy Martin at 661 645-0107 Page 2 THE HERITAGE JUNCTION DISPATCH VOLUME 47, ISSUE 2 President’s Message Continued from page 1 1835 and grew up during the Mexican Rancho period. minutes of fame” when he led a sensational robbery in the He watched in horror, with his fellow Californios, as the town of Tres Pinos (modern-day Paicines) just south of Americans took over California after defeating Mexico in Hollister, California, in the Monterey-San Jose area. the war ending with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in In August 1873, Vasquez led a gang of five to eight men February, 1848, which ceded California and what would into Tres Pinos, taking over the town and killing three men become the American Southwest to the United States. And in the process. On September 4, 1873, the Bakersfield he felt victimized by the rapid influx of Americans from the newspaper Southern Californian opined: “Last week a band East coast during and after the California Gold Rush. of Mexicans, numbering eight, led by one Tiburcio Vasquez, a Vasquez began his life of crime after being accused of notorious character, perpetuated one of the most appalling and shooting and murdering Monterey County Constable atrocious crimes which it has ever befallen to our lot to record... William Hardmount during a fandango on September 2, The diabolical scoundrels appeared at the place in the broad 1854. Vasquez and his friends started a drunken brawl that day, a portion of them went into the store, and, after engaging night, after which Vasquez likely shot Hardmount while he the attention of the clerk, drew their weapons and demanded was trying to arrest his friend, the outlaw Anastacio Garcia. money and other effects...While this was going on, the other Due to conflicting accounts of the murder, Vasquez was portion of the gang went to the hotel, and their demands not never arrested or charged. being complied with, they shot and killed Mr. Davisson and two other men and then ransacked the premises”. Garcia likely introduced Vasquez to his criminal ways. After the Monterey fandango incident, Vasquez fled the town, To his dying day, Vasquez denied ever killing anyone, but his never to openly return there again. In the early days of his testimony was contrary to that of eyewitnesses from Tres outlaw career, Vasquez robbed cattle and horses, freight Pinos and his gang member Abdon Leiva. wagons, and stagecoaches. He rode with Garcia until The Betrayal of Abdon Leiva February, 1857, when Garcia was forcibly taken out of a prison cell in Monterey by a vigilante mob and lynched. After Tres Pinos, Vasquez became a sensation and a most- wanted outlaw. Sheriffs’ posses were chasing him all over The San Quentin Years the state. He had fled to a ranch at Lake Elizabeth near the Later that year, Vasquez was arrested for stealing horses from Antelope Valley. There he had a fling with Abdon Leiva’s wife a rancho along the Santa Clara River in Los Angeles County Rosaria. Leiva caught them together, angrily quit the gang, and was sentenced to five years in San Quentin prison, a and turned himself in to Castaic land baron William Jenkins. harsh sentence for a first-time offender. In June, 1859, he Jenkins brought him down to Lyon’s Station and turned him escaped from San Quentin during a massive prison break. The over to Los Angeles officers. Leiva would eventually testify next month he was arrested again for stealing horses and against Vasquez at his murder trial in San Jose. returned to San Quentin two months after his escape. Leiva, a 29-year-old native of Chile, later spoke about After two more unsuccessful escape attempts, Vasquez was his life with Vasquez to a reporter for the San Francisco finally released from prison in August, 1863. He immediately Daily Morning Call newspaper. In the interview published returned to his outlaw life, committing many offenses before September 30, 1873, Leiva relates that he first participated being caught again in December, 1866, after participating in with Vasquez in the attack of a store in Firebaugh’s Ferry. a crime spree in Sonoma County. The next month, he was In that raid, they came away with around $500 in cash and sentenced to two years in San Quentin prison on burglary some jewelry. and grand larceny charges. After serving his sentence, he left Leiva claimed that this robbery spooked him, and he San Quentin for the last time on June 4, 1870. refused to join Vasquez on a subsequent theft of the Vasquez at Tres Pinos Twenty-One-Mile House and an aborted train robbery near Gilroy. If successful, it would have been the first train But Vasquez was just getting started. After a multitude of robbery in California, shortly after the Jesse James gang crimes over the next few years, Vasquez earned his “fifteen infamously derailed a train near Adair, Iowa. Continued on Page 3 Page 3 THE HERITAGE JUNCTION DISPATCH VOLUME 47, ISSUE 2 President’s Message Continued from page 2 After those heists, at a picnic in New Idria on August 18, Valley and Los Angeles. He then headed south, eventually Vasquez and Leiva’s wife persuaded Leiva to participate in ending up in Soledad Canyon, where he may have hidden out the Tres Pinos raid. Planning for Tres Pinos had taken place in or at least passed by a strange appearing geologic formation the day before at Leiva’s house. They originally planned that today bears his name - Vasquez Rocks. to rob the stage at New Idria and the store at Tres Pinos Hiding Out at Greek George’s Home simultaneously, then escape to Sonora, Mexico, after a rendezvous at Elizabeth Lake. Vasquez later called off the By April, 1874, Vasquez emerged from his hideouts to take stage robbery when he learned that New Idria mines boss up residence at the Rancho La Brea home of Georgias Thomas Williams and family were passengers. He did not Caralambo, better known as Greek George, a former camel wish to rob Williams. driver for Edward Beale’s camel experiment in the 1850s. Modern historians think that the ranch stood in present- With their pursuers close at hand, Vasquez and Leiva made day West Hollywood, near the intersection of Fountain it to Elizabeth Lake after the Tres Pinos robbery. Vasquez Avenue and Kings Road. It was here that Vasquez’s penchant asked Leiva to go out for provisions and not to return until for romancing women got him into trouble and ended his the next day. But Leiva grew suspicious, came back that outlaw days. night, and caught Vasquez in bed with his wife. If not for gang member Clodoveo Chavez’s intervention, Vasquez’s life and After one final robbery at the Repetto Ranch in modern- career may have ended that night at the end of Leiva’s gun. day Monterey Park, Vasquez was chased by Sheriff Rowland’s posse up the Arroyo Seco into the San Gabriel Vasquez at Kingston Mountains. He crossed over the mountains and possibly Vasquez committed another infamous robbery, taking over camped out at Vasquez Rocks before returning through and sacking the town of Kingston in Fresno County in Lyon’s Station to Greek George’s ranch. December, 1873. As reported in the Los Angeles Evening The Capture of Vasquez Express of December 29, 1873, “Further particulars from Kingston, Fresno County, show that the robbery of that village, It was May, 1874; Vasquez made the tactical error of last evening, was perpetrated by Vasquez’ band...They tied their remaining at Greek George’s ranch to continue a liaison horses on the bank of the river opposite Kingston, crossed with a lady after his friends had urged him to flee to the bridge on foot, and took possession of the hotel and two Mexico.