b'massacre the Americans, he and his men would fire acrossThe apprehended Howard and the Rangers returned to San the Rio Grande. The Rangers were allowed safe passage andElizardo. The local Mexican population, long accustomed were soon back in Texas. to Anglo mistrial and misdeeds, would have none of that, and very soon a mob of 500 led by one of the junta\'s leaders, While McNelly did not lose a single man in his "invasion"Chico Barela, descended upon Tays, his 20-man company of Mexico, he not only had been forced to retreat acrossand Howard, firing and killing several Rangers. Tays placed the Rio Grande without his main objectives obtained, hehis men in a defensive position inside the town church and had recovered just 35 stolen beeves, far from the hundredsbegan firing back, but knowing help could not arrive in he had confidently boasted he would bring back. Worse,time before he and his men were killed, chose to negotiate a U.S.-Mexican relations were strained, and McNelly\'s careersurrender to Barela through a willing intermediary, a local was briefly "on the line." In the long run, McNelly\'s "fortunemerchant named John Atkinson, a man who was trusted favors the brave" approach paid dividends as President Diazby both the white settlers and the Hispanic population. not only placed Cortina under house arrest, he also agreedThe surrender was the very first in the history of the Texas to send additional forces to prevent cross-border raiding,Rangers. In turn, Barela promised to spare Howard, Tays, and he would ultimately deliver back scores of confiscatedand his men upon receipt of an $11,000 ransom and Howard cattle and horses. In the long run, McNelly\'s fearlessrelinquishing his claim to the salt lakes, a promise that approach to dispensing justice was admired by scores ofexcept for Tays and the majority of his company was NOT Texans, most particularly in the Nueces Strip he had donekept. No sooner than the surrendered Rangers, Howard, and so much to tame. Atkinson came forward Barela and his men grabbed them, took Howard, one of his associates, a man by the name In standing up to, suppressing, and then taking the war toof McBride, and Atkinson, lined them against a nearby the foreign invader, McNelly was lauded as a Texas hero. Itwall, and executed them in one of the most gruesome was a different matter when it came to putting an end to theof firing squad executions in recorded history - Barela\'s depredations caused around the same time by a Texas-bredthugs couldn\'t shoot straight and it took numerous shots outlaw by the name of John King Fisher who had gainedto dispatch both Howard and Atkinson, both of whom met prominence in the Anglo community by his reprisal raidstheir respective fates bravely.against Mexicans - he was alleged to have plundered a Mexican traveling circus at one point, raping the owner\'sJohn King Fisher, Gunman, Outlaw, The disgraced Tays and his company, minus those men wife, killing the owner and according to legend either takingkilled in the brief gun battle, were first also threatened the circus\' prized tiger as his pet or killing it and using itsand Lawman with death, but Barela had had enough of the bloodletting. fur for chaps and by his brazenness, erecting a sign on theRipping open his shirt and inviting his death, he allegedly road leading to his ranch that stated "This is King Fisher\'sshouted, "No! No other man shall be killed, and if you road. Take the other one." It could easily have been a page out of Giant, that classicpropose to kill anybody else I will take out my people Texas screen epic, or even more so, Dallas but it took place aand fight you!" (Utley, Robert, Lone Star Justice, Berkley Having helped suppress the Sutton-Taylor feud and riddingcentury earlier - the bitter rivalry between two political hot- Books, New York, 2002, p. 200) then allowed Tays and South Texas of the bandito menace, Leander McNelly wasshots who had once been close friends, but the friendshiphis men to leave unharmed minus their weapons. The now chomping at the bit to take down King Fisher and waswas broken apart by the desire to control El Paso, nearby San"Buffalo Soldiers" of the 10th US Cavalry, who should given the authority to send in a force to seize the outlaw\'sElizardo and the salt lakes along the international border.have been deployed earlier, arrived on the scene a few days ranch and arrest him, but John King Fisher had friends inThe antagonists were Louis Cardis, more commonly knownlater, entered San Elizardo, restored order, then rode on high places, and the courts, in part sympathetic to Kingas Don Luis Cardis, an Italian-born Democratic Partyto the Rio Grande, but Barela and his associates had long Fisher and in part tired of McNelly\'s playing loose with thepolitician who had forged close ties with the predominantlyvanished into Mexico, evading justice. Tays was incredibly law acquitted the outlaw-rancher. In one of those notoriousHispanic population of the region and had been regardedallowed to retain command of his company for a few more outlaw-turned-respectable lawman stories so commonas one of their own, and Charles H. Howard, a Virginia- months, quietly resigned, and disappeared from the pages in the Old West, King Fisher supposedly went straight,born, Missouri-bred Anglo who, while also a Democrat,of history.married, became a sheriff, and outlived McNelly for sevenwished to gobble up El Paso and place it under Anglo more years until he and his pal, the notorious gunman Bencontrol, Mexicans be damned. The two men, the portlyRacism probably played a major role in the initial reluctance Thompson made a very unwise decision, choosing to takeCardis who had been elected the state representative, and theof United States authorities to send the 10th Cavalry to in a play at a San Antonio gambling parlor whose ownerhulking Howard who had been elected the district attorneySan Elizardo in the first place. The post-Reconstructionist Thompson had murdered a few years earlier. They werefor El Paso, clashed repeatedly over who controlled theadministrations of Coke and his successor Hubbard were waylaid by friends of the establishment\'s late proprietor whoregional salt lakes - Howard physically assaulting Cardis onfilled with unreconstructed ex-Confederates, and so were promptly shot both men to death in a hail of gunfire. several occasions and having his men arrest Mexicans whothe officer corps and rank and file of the Texas Rangers. attempted to take salt out of the lakes. John Jones himself was an ex-Confederate officer, as was By then, both McNelly and Major Jones themselves hadLeander McNelly and so many others in the rank and file of been laid to rest, mourned by their friends, family, and theHowever, an occasional beating or arrest was just not enoughthe Rangers, and given the experience of the men and the men who served under them. First it was McNelly with thefor the ambitious, out-of-control Howard, who filing a claimtemper of the times, it should not come as a surprise that dreaded consumption eating away at him until he couldfor the salt lakes, began arresting Mexicans who attemptedmany, if not most of Major Jones\'s officer appointments were no longer breathe. The valiant Ranger captain would dieto take out the salt, but was in turn arrested by Cardis andex-Confederates including Captains George Washington peacefully at his ranch on September 4, 1877. Major Johnthen subsequently released. The arrest was too much for"Cap" Arrington and Bryan Marsh.B. Jones would soldier on for four more years, becomingHoward to take. On October 10, 1877, he confronted Cardis the adjutant general of Texas, but he never fully enjoyed hisin an El Paso general store, shooting and killing his formerArrington, a former member of (John Singleton) Mosby\'s new post, dying of liver disease less than four years later,friend, and then fleeing into nearby New Mexico. An alreadyRaiders, had, in particular, a bone to pick with the Black on July 18, 1881. By then the glory days of the Rangers hadaroused Tejano majority then took matters into their ownSoldiers of the 10th Cavalry stationed at Fort Concho - 380 peaked, and they would soon fall to what may have been itshands, effectively shutting down El Paso\'s government andmiles east on a straight bee-line from San Elizardo to San deepest nadir - the dark period of racism, incompetence,commerce, and establishing rule by junta. Major Jones wasAngelo, the town nearest Fort Concho, itself straight on and disgrace. sent by the newly-elected Texas governor Richard Hubbardthe warpath of the Comanche and the Kiowa. It might be to talk to the junta, and at first, it seemed he got them toconsidered to be ironic that the inhabitants of San Angelo, SURRENDER AT THE SALT WORKS AND RACISM agree to restore order and keep the peace on condition ofwhose very lives depended on the protection rendered by IN THE RANKS bringing back Howard to face justice. It was at this pointthose Buffalo Soldiers commanded by Union Cavalry hero For every four or five Leander McNellys there was at leastwhen Jones, who later ruefully admitted that he should have(then) Colonel Benjamin Grierson, hated the Black soldiers one Jack Tays, a law enforcement neophyte who owed hissent a more experienced officer to El Paso, appointed Rangerso virulently that there was always trouble whenever the rank in the Rangers to Texas political connections (hisLieutenant Tays to recruit a company of Rangers to formallymen of the 10th went into San Angelo on leave, the soldiers brother had been the state legislative chaplain) but whenarraign Howard and bring him back to San Elizardo to standconstantly assaulted and demeaned by the very people they it came to push and shove, Tays, who was by all accountstrial, which was done on December 12th. were protecting!an honest man, was more suited to be the mining engineer he had previously been before signing up with the RangersFor every four or five Leander McNellysTwo almost back-to-back racial incidents that took place than to firmly, responsibly and competently lead a Rangerin San Angelo and the ensuing reflex action by an aroused company that consisted of men pretty much like him. In thethere was at least one Jack Tays, a lawCap Arrington would have a detrimental cause and effect case of Jack Tays, his fall from grace came in one of thoseenforcement neophyte who owed his rank inconsequence on the innocent inhabitants of the Indian typical Texas political intrigues that unfortunately quicklyTerritory almost 20 years later. disintegrated into racist discrimination and murder - thethe Rangers to Texas political connections.dispute over who owned the El Paso Salt Lakes. Next month, part 5.ArizonaRealCountry.com February 2022 19'