Elfego Baca

Elfego Baca (* 1865 in Socorro , New Mexico , † 1945 in Albuquerque , New Mexico) was an American law enforcement officer, lawyer and politician.

Baca was born just before the end of the American Civil War . As a young boy, he moved to Topeka , Kansas with his family . When Elfego's mother died in 1880, he went back to New Mexico with his father.

Francisco Baca was made a marshal in Belen but was sentenced to a long prison term in 1882 after killing two cowboys in an exchange of fire . From then on, the seventeen-year-old Elfego was on his own. He found a job as a worker in a shop in his native Socorro . However, his goal was to emulate his father and become a first-class law enforcement officer. At the age of 19, Elfego mailed himself a sheriff's star, got himself a couple of pistols, and made himself deputy sheriff of Socorro County .

The miracle of the jacal

On November 30, 1884, in Frisco, now Reserve , Elfego Baca arrested the drunken cowboy Charles McCarthy, who had fired his pistol in the saloon. Baca urged the man's friends who stood in his way to leave the city. When that didn't happen, he opened fire, one of the cowboys being killed by a shy horse. The next morning Elfego handed his prisoner over to the local justice of the peace . When he wanted to leave his house, Tom Slaughter, ranch owner and boss McCarthys and the man killed, and 80 cowboys were already waiting for him. When the first shot was fired, Elfego Baca was hiding in a jacal (a kind of smaller hut) belonging to a Mexican . This hut was systematically targeted by his opponents.

In the almost 36 hours of the siege , almost 4,000 shots were fired in the direction of Baca, whose luck it was that the bottom of the jacal was dug half a meter so that he could protect himself from the bullets. Elfego Baca also survived the explosion of a stick of dynamite , which destroyed half of the hut. Legend has it that he even prepared a hearty breakfast on the morning of December 2nd to the cheers of the Mexican people.

At around 6 p.m., Baca, who had killed four men by then, was persuaded to leave the hut. He consented after he was assured of protection and integrity.

In May 1885 Elfego Baca was charged with two murders , but acquitted in both cases. The entrance door of the Jacal, which had 367 bullet holes, served as evidence at the time.

Life as a lawyer, law enforcement officer and politician

In 1888 Elfego Baca was appointed Marshal. However, this passage he retained only two years since he law wanted to study. After successfully completing his studies, he was accepted into a law firm based in Socorro in 1894. From 1902 to 1904 he worked as a lawyer in El Paso . Baca became one of New Mexico's most famous lawyers. But he was also the school principal and mayor of Socorro. In 1912 he ran unsuccessfully for congressman. From 1913 to 1916 he was the representative of the Mexican Huerta government , which brought him a charge of conspiracy. However, he won the following lawsuit.

In 1919 he was appointed sheriff of Socorro County. As one of his first acts, he sent letters to the outlaws living in the county . These were asked by Baca to voluntarily put themselves into arrest on a certain day. If they didn't come, he would shoot any of them as soon as he saw them. Most of the outlaws contacted followed Baca's “request” and voluntarily went into custody.

Others

Elfego Baca died of natural causes in Albuquerque in 1945 at the age of 80.

The author Leon Metz wrote in one of his books that Elfego Baca drank too much, talked too much, had an arrogant demeanor and a weakness for women. However, according to Metz, he was also the best “peace officer” Socorro has ever had.

According to Baca, he has defended thirty men accused of murder, only one of whom went to prison .

literature

• Bill O'Neal: Gunfighter - All the gunslingers of the Wild West. An encyclopedia. Oesch Verlag, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-85833-200-3

Web links

• Interview with Elfego Baco; Library of Congress (English)
• Items from the El Paso Community College (English)