ELFEGO BACA On October 29, 1884 nineteen year old Elfego Baca appointed himself a deputy sheriff, pinned a store bought badge on his shirt, and stepped out to arrest a cowboy named Charlie McCarty for disturbing the peace in Upper Francisco Plaza, NM. Charlie had been firing his six-gun in town. None of the Frisco Plazas had a jail back then so McCarty was held under guard in a little jackal in the Middle Plaza overnight. When some of Charlie’s friends demanded his release one of them, Tabe Allen, was shot in the knee. In the ruckus that followed ranch foreman, Young Parham, suffered mortal injury when his horse reared and fell on him. Word quickly spread through the nearby ranching community that Mexicans up in the Plazas were in revolt and had killed five gringos.
... read more