Innocent or Guilty Nicolas Aragon

Innocent or Guilty

                                  Convicted by the Media

     I was doing some research for a project I was working on about an old horse thief and cattle rustler named Nicolas Aragon. I gathered information and compiled a short story called Murder in Chaperito ( https://sites.google.com/site/murderinchaperito/ ). While rereading the story I started to get the feeling that something was wrong with the facts. It seemed to me that the documents that I researched about this man were swayed towards either the sensationalism used to sell books, news papers or sympathetic towards law enforcement. I realized that the story I wrote was put together the same way. It was dramatic in content and written that way to please the reader and sell the story. I decided to take another look at the history and to review the facts with a more skeptical eye.

      The link above will take you to the story Murder in Chaperito.

Who was Nicolas Aragon?

     According to Vigil, Nicolas Aragon was a large man who was strong and worked as a hired cowhand at a ranch in Liberty New Mexico. It appeared that he loved his family and tried hard to provide for them. His family lived near Las Vegas, New Mexico (Possibly Chaperito 35 miles southeast of Las Vegas).

According to Harold L. Edwards, Nicolas was born in Polvadera, New Mexico in 1857. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Teodicio Aragon. His family moved from Polvadera on the Rio Grande to the Anton Chico area on the Pecos River in San Miguel County. Nicolas was married to Ruperta Salgado and established a small ranch on the Rio Galinas.

During a slow period Aragon asked the rancher (James E. Whitmore) that he was working for to give him some wages that were coming to him and for time off so he could visit his family and provide them with provisions. The Texan Rancher refused his request and left Aragon with little choice but to take whatever action that was necessary to provide his family with provisions. Aragon surely felt that his request was not unreasonable and only requested what was rightly due him. It was a slow period at the ranch and He must have felt that it was the best time to request time off. I could find nothing unreasonable about his request to provide for his family. As a result of being denied his request Aragon rustled three cows and started to return home. His intentions could be that he was taking the cows in lieu of his pay. This must have upset the rancher that this Hispano cowhand had defied his orders. The rancher soon had a posse after Aragon.

In another story related by Robert J. Torrez, a former state historian, Aragon and an accomplice known as Jose de la Cruz Tafoya were caught with horses that they had stolen from Manuel SisnerosLuciano Trujillo, and George Kimbrell. Aragon and Tafoya were charged with larceny.

Trial for Larceny:

The trial for larceny was held with Judge Warren Bristol presiding. Both Tafoyo and Aragon were convicted and the judge sentence Tafoya to four years in the Santa Fe territorial Prison. He served two years and was released by a governors’ pardon. Aragon was sentenced to five years in the territorial prison. He was held in the Lincoln county jail pending the correction of some difficulties. During his time in the Lincoln jail he was considered a low risk prisoner and given special privileges. During the night of May 28, 1884 he managed to escape by sawing through his leg irons.

Governor Lionel Sheldon made out a $200.00 warrant the arrest of Aragon and Sheriff John Poe was quick to respond. Poe heard that Aragon had taken up hiding in the Chaperito area and feeling that Aragon was not violent; he dispatched deputy Jasper Corn to arrest and return Aragon to custody. Deputy Corn and a friend went to the area to arrest him but were seen first by Aragon. A gun fight ensued and Corn was killed. Jasper Corn was buried on Hatch’s Ranch, (now the Park Springs Ranch).

A former state historian Robert Torrez wrote an article about Nicolas Aragon. It is mentioned that there were two versions of the incident with Jasper Corn. One being that Corn fired first on Aragon with no warning and was killed in self defense by Aragon before he rode off for his home. The other version is that Aragon ambushed Corn.

The news got back to Sheriff Poe and he put together a new posse made up of Deputies James Brent, Barney Mason, and John Hurley. On January 20 1885 the posse headed for Chaperito.

Meanwhile the Las Vegas Daily Optic ran articles that put Aragon in a bad light and continued to build the public hatred of him. They claimed that he held up a traveler and bound and gagged him leaving him alone on the road. The paper said that the man would have froze to death had he not been able to untie himself.

The Daily Optic also ran an article that reported that Aragon had invaded the ranch and held   a friend named William Humeke at gun point and stole three dollars and a useless rifle. The rest of the story that is that Aragon had arrived when his friend was baking some bread and they sat down and had a meal together. Humeke could have shot Aragon when he arrived on horseback but chose to set and eat with him instead. The report from the paper was again slighted against Aragon and meant to sell papers rather than reporting the accurate information. Public sentiment was against Aragon and he was running out of friends and family to assist him.

Who were the men that were in the posse that failed to arrest Aragon?

Sheriff John Poe was the deputy to Pat Garret when Garret shot and killed Billy the Kid.  After Garret left the sheriff’s office , Poe took over the job in Lincoln county. Poe put together a posse with several deputies. James Brent had been a Confederate soldier who traveled west after the war and worked for Pat Garret and at one point served as sheriff for Lincoln County. Barney Mason was a courage man who was involved in many gun battles and had shot and killed several men in the course of his duties. Deputy John Hurley was New York born and traveled west to Lincoln County where he took part in the Lincoln County wars.  He was a deputy sheriff near Fort Stanton, where he also ran a saloon. James Abercrombie, the friend who was with Jasper Corn when he was shot, was also on the posse. Abercrombie was a local rancher and friend to Jasper Corn. He had a grudge to settle and wanted to even the score with Aragon for the killing of his friend. There was not one Hispano on the posse. Only Anglos that wanted to avenge the killing of a fellow lawman. With the public sentiment and a loaded posse against him, Aragon had little chance but to fight for his life. His doom was sealed until a Hispano Sheriff from Las Vegas arrived on the scene and arrested him and took him to Santa Fe to avoid a lynch mob in Las Vegas.  

The Battle:

Early in the morning of January 24, 1885 the posse surrounded the home where Aragon was hold up. Poe shouted to Aragon that they were there to arrest him and to surrender. Instead Aragon sent several women and children out from the house but remained in the hose and refused to surrender. The Sheriff ordered Deputy Hurley to interview the women to ascertain who was left in the building. They told him that only one man was still in the building. It was before sun up and Hurley was in a stone house at the time and stepped to the door to let Poe know what the women said. In doing this he exposed himself in the frame of the doorway and became a silhouette. Shots rang out and Hurley fell dead.

 This was in contradiction to another version that Hurley had been on the roof of the house attempting to dig a hole through the roof so he could fire the house to get Aragon out. In that version Aragon had no choice but to protect himself and shot at the man who was trying to set his house on fire. This version is used on the officer down Memorial web page for John Hurley. It is also mentioned in an article titled Nicholas Aragon, Gunman, written by Philip J. Rasch.  Wh ichever version is accurate in uncertain.

During the gun battle that followed bullets were flying from all directions as the house was surrounded and receiving bullets from all around. It was possible that Hurley could have been killed by a stray shot fired by one of the posse members. Nobody actually saw Aragon shoot Hurley.  There was no ballistics test back then that could have proved which gun the fatal shot came from.

Aragon was shot twice, once in the leg and another that struck him in the ear and exited at the base of his skull. Injured and bleeding Aragon held his position in the house. The firing came to a lull and a posse member attempted to get close enough to peek in a window to get a shoot at Aragon. He was greeted with a shot that grazed his head. The standoff had become a siege and the bitter cold was playing against the posse.

The decision was made to blast Aragon out of the house. Poe sent to Anton Chico for powder but they could not obtain any. He next sent James Brent to Las Vegas to get the powder and to bring Pat Garret back with him. Garret could not be found and instead Brent brought Sheriff Hilario Romero and two deputies, A. Garcia and E. Baca. They traveled back to Chaperito through the snow and ice.

While Brent was away, Poe attempted to get Ruperta, Aragon’s wife, to talk him into surrendering. It almost succeeded but Aragon changed his mind and held tight in his house.

After Hilario arrived he was able to persuade Aragon that he would protect him if he surrendered. Aragon trusted the Hispano Sheriff and allowed Ruperta to enter the house and remove his weapons. He followed her out of the house and surrendered to Hilario. Even here there is a discrepancy as the record indicates that he surrendered to Poe. I find it hard to believe that Aragon would surrender to the man who tried to burn him out and wanted to blast him out, when he could surrender to the Hispano Sheriff Hilario. I believe the record is an obvious attempt by Poe to save face and take credit for the capture.

Once Aragon was in custody he was taken to Santa Fe because it was feared that a lynch mob was waiting for him in Las Vegas. Again the record splits here with two versions. One version being that Sheriff Hilario delivered Aragon to Santa Fe, and the other being that Poe took Aragon to a train station and then to Santa Fe. Whichever one is correct I cannot say.

After being placed in jail, Aragon told reporters that he was fighting for his life after his escape from the Lincoln jail. He had a friend warn him that he would be hanged if caught and so he did what he had to do to survive and to keep from being hanged.

The Murder Trail

The John Hurley Murder

Aragon was charged with two counts of murder in San Miguel County. The first trail was for the John Hurley murder. A change of Venue was granted and the trail was moved to Santa Fe where Judge William Vincent presided. The case was being prosecuted by Attorney General William Breeden, and Lincoln County Attorney George T. Beal. Defending Aragon was attorney Jose D. Sena of the law firm of Victory and Read. The jurors were predominantly Hispano.

The trail began on July 14, 1885, and went to the jury on July 16 at 10:30pm and at 3:55am the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty.

The prosecution and the press were outraged. The Las Vegas Daily Optic called it “One of the most damnable outrages ever perpetrated upon New Mexico justice on civilized people took place here today. To the disgust and utter astonishment of Judge Vincent and the people a verdict of ‘Not Guilty’ was brought in. The court was paralyzed at the gall of the jury who would turn loose on the community a desperate wretch to whom a hanging would be the mildest of punishments.”

The following day the Optic came out with the reason the jury came up with the not guilty verdict. They reported that none of the witnesses could say that they saw Aragon shot Hurley and so the jury gave him the benefit of the doubt.  In today’s court rooms we would call that reasonable doubt.

The Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican reported on July 23, 1885 that ,” The letting go ‘scot free of such red-handed murders as Nicolas Aragon is more damaging to the territory than half a dozen Indian raids.”

The verdict soon became a cry of favoritism paid Aragon by fellow Hispanics. No attention was paid to the fact that Henry Becker was also on the jury and the jury verdict was unanimous.

The Second Murder Trial

The Jasper Corn Murder

The murder trial of Nicolas Aragon for the murder of Jasper Corn was moved to Colfax County because the prosecution had no faith in the chance of a fair trial in Santa Fe County. The same judge that voiced his outrage in the jury decision in Santa Fe was again presiding over the court. This narrowed any chance that Aragon had at receiving a fair trial.   Judge William Vincent appointed W.G. Pritchard, and W. H. Patterson as attorneys to represent Aragon. The jury was a mixed jury of Anglo and Hispanic members. The trail was held in Springer New Mexico on September 23, 1885. The trial was decisive and Aragon was found Guilty of second degree murder of Jasper Corn. Judge Vincent sentenced Aragon to life in Territorial Prison in Santa Fe.

The Daily Optic wrote,”If he will only be kept in the pen intil he is dies the people of New Mexico will be satisfied.”

Aragon was placed in Prison on September 26, 1885.

After one attempt at a prison break where a prisoner was shot, he became a model prisoner and remained there until his sentence was changed by Governor L. Bradford Prince. A petition filed by Teodocio Aragon argued that Nicolas Aragon had shot John Hurley and Jasper Corn in self defense and under provocation. The Judge that presided over the trial objected to the petition but was overruled by Prince .The sentence had been changed to twenty years and Aragon finished this out and was released. Little was heard of Nicolas Aragon after his release.

News Paper Reports

The Buffalo Daily Courier: From Buffalo New York

On Wednesday Jan 27, 1985, the Buffalo Courier reported that Nicolas Aragon had been captured that morning. The paper claims Aragon to be a rider for the famous outlaw gang run by Billy the Kid. The paper also claimed that Aragon had already killed a dozen men. The paper portrayed Aragon as a desperate man that taunted the posse by telling them that he had plenty of food drink and ammunition and that he would never be taken alive.  The paper also said that Deputy Hurley was digging a hole in the roof when he was shot by Aragon as Hurley tried to fire the building. The paper said that the posse sent for back up and for powder to blow up the building. The Buffalo Daily also claimed that Aragon would most likely be lynched! It was obvious that the paper was attempting to demonize Aragon and their information must have come from the wires. Most likely from Las Vegas, New Mexico, where the word was spread and rumors of a lynch mob was waiting to string up Aragon.

Albuquerque Morning Journal: January 28, 1885

On Thursday January 28, 1885, the Albuquerque Morning Journal reported that “Nicolas Aragon, the famous outlaw and murderer, formerly a member of Billy the Kid gang, was captured at his rendezvous near Chaperito.” The Journal added, “Aragon is an old time killer and numbers fully a dozen men on his dead list.”

Standoff at Chaperito: by Harold L. Edwards True West Magazine June 1995.

     In an article written by Harold L. Edwards

Reportedly the posse set up an ambush for him but he surprised them and two deputies were shot in the gunfight that followed. As the posse retreated Aragon continued on towards his home near Park Springs. The posse again tracked him and found his home and surrounded it. A gun fight ensued where another deputy was shot.

     Because the situation had come to a standoff, a messenger sent to Las Vegas for the Sheriff Hilario Romero and his deputy for backup. The Hispano Sheriff responded and was able to talk Aragon into surrendering. Sheriff Hilario entered the house and once Aragon saw who he was, he surrendered. Hilario saw a rifle and pistol in the house and allowed Aragon to holster the pistol. He left with Aragon and instead of taking him to Las Vegas to stand trial; he took him to Santa Fe. During the trip both men camped out over night with no incident. Hilario delivered Aragon to a Santa Fe prison, the next day.

Documentation:

La Herencia Vol. 34 Summer 2002 Chapter 16 Hispano Sheriffs of San Miguel County by     Maurilio E. Vigil, Professor at New Mexico  Highlands University, in Las Vegas New Mexico.

True West Magazine, 1995: Harold L. Edwards, Standoff At Chaperito.

New Mexico's law-enforcement historian, Don Bullis- Horse Thief Nicholas Aragon Kills Lincoln County Deputies J. Corn & J. Hurley 66

Las Vegas Daily Optic, December 29, 1884

Albuquerque Morning Journal: January 28, 1885

The Buffalo Daily Courier: From Buffalo New York Wednesday Jan 27, 1985

Las Vegas Daily Optic July 17, 1885

Las Vegas Daily Optic July 18, 1885

The Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican: July 23, 1885

Las Vegas Daily Optical September 1885

Officer down Memorial page http://odmp.org/officer/19212-deputy-sheriff-john-hurley

Officer down Memorial page http://odmp.org/officer/19212-deputy-sheriff-jasper-corn

Voices from the Past Robert J. Torrez Former State Historian

Nicholas Aragon, Gunman by Philip J. Rasch