Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures

The Vasquez Gang.
The World (newspaper),
San Diego, Cal.

Saturday, September 20, 1873.
The World Banner

Story


THE VASQUEZ GANG.

One of His Men Captured and In
Jail at Los Angeles—He Discloses
the Whereabouts of the Rest of
the Bandits

    We clip the subjoined account of the capture of one of the Vasquez gang from the Los Angeles Star of the 11th inst.:
    By the arrival of Billy Jenkins from the scenes of the pursuit of the fiend Vasquez, and who gives us some very interesting information of the attempts to capture the villain, we learn that the latter is at present in the Elizabeth Lake mountains, and has so far managed to make good his escape, although at one time his capture seemed certain. We have the names and whereabouts of all the men concerned in the murders and robberies up the coast, but have prom­ised not to publish the latter, as the Sheriffs of one or two of our neighbor­ing counties are in close pursuit.
    It seems that yesterday, while Jen­kins was at Charley Morris', near Rock Creek, a man named Audon [sic] Leiva, one of the robbers, a Chilean by birth, at the suggestion of Morris, went to Jen­kins and gave himself up, saying, as he did so, that the chief, Vasquez., was in camp a little ways off, and had stolen his (Leiva's) wife. H. M. Mitchell, who was with Jenkins, at once inter­viewed him, and found out that none but Vasquez now remained in the mountains—that the rest were at vari­ous places along the line of pursuit, and can be captured without any trouble by officers who have gone in pur­suit.
    Jenkins then took his man to Lyon's station, and telegraphed to Under Sheriff Johnson, who at once started for that place. He soon after arrived and the man was turned over to the Los Angeles officers. In the meantime Billy Rowland and Adams had got close enough on the heels of Vasquez, who was hid in the undersbrush of the foothills, to hear the music of a couple of bullets, and to capture all his animals—two fine mares and five horses—and nearly all his outfit. It was like hunting a needle in a haystack to attempt to follow the bandit through the chapparal, and Vasquez and the stolen wife of Leiva are together somewhere in the Elizabeth Lake mountains. There are parties hunting him, however, on all sides, as there are very large re­wards offered for his capture; and there are good chances, therefore, that the cold-blooded murderer may be gob­bled up.
    Among the many things stated by the captive is that Vasquez did most of the murdering at the Three Pines. He killed the man at the house and the man at the stable. Moreno killed the man on the outside of the door of the hotel. This last man killed was Frenchman.
    The names of the men at the Three Pines murder besides Vasquez and Moreno are Romolo, a wood chopper, Clorero Chaves, and himself, the prisoner.
    The names of the men concerned in the robbery of the Twenty-one Mile House are Vasquez, Moreno, Chaves, and Blas Picuna.
    The names of those concerned in the Fireball robbery are Vasquez, Moreno, August Bark, and the prisoner.
    The prisoner declares that he was not at the robbery of the Twenty-one Mile House himself, but saw the plunder, and heard the statements of those who were concerned in it.
    Leiva gives a great deal of informa­tion, all of which is of an interesting character. He gives the precise where­abouts of all the murderers, all of whom will be probably caught to-day except Vasquez. It is of so important a nature that we have promised only to publish the foregoing.

Newspaper images: 9600 dpi jpeg of 300 dpi jpg of original newspaper from the collection of Alan Pollack

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