Geronimo Parra, executed by hanging for the killing of Texas Ranger Charles Fusselman.
The El Paso, Texas, newspaper articles you see below describe the events of the hanging. The text is complete, with no omissions. They were copied word for word, exactly as they were written. The words can be graphic at times, but this was the style of writing used during that time period in our old west history.
El Paso Daily Herald
Friday January 5, 1900
FOUGHT WITH DAGGERS ON THE SCAFFOLD
Flores and Parra Attempt To Take Others With Them Into Eternity.
A THRILLING DENOUEMENT.
At The Execution Of Two Murderers This Afternoon--- The Murderous Assault Was Foiled and the MEN PAID THE PENALTY OF LAW.
They Fought Like Demons, But Were Overpowered by Deputies---Dramatic Climax When Sheriff Boone Went Into The Cell Of Parra---"If It Takes a Bullet, I'll Fire It," He Said.
The double hanging at the county jail today developed into one of the most sensational episodes in the criminal history of Texas.
As the cell was opened to conduct Antonio Flores to the scaffold, both he and Geronimo Parra suddenly drew wire daggers, previously sharpened and concealed about their persons, and made a desperate and vicious attack on the deputies surrounding them
Parra attacked Jim Hunter, who was guarding his cell door. Quickly State Ranger Saunderson drew his gun and covered the Mexican. Cowed, he shrank back into his cell and the door was quickly slammed. He was held safe for the moment but not so Flores, who was already out in the corridor.
Flores's Angry Cry
"You shall all go to hell with me," he yelled maddened with the thought of the awful fate soon to be his.
Then he sprang with his wicked dagger toward Ed Bryant and with vicious underhand strokes plunged it repeatedly into his clothing, attempting to reach a vital spot.
Instantly he was seized by powerful deputies, but the strength of a demon was his and for a full minute he fought the officers, until at last overpowered by four strong men.
Tim Lyons, Ed Bryant, Eugene Bruce and sheriff Boone seized him and bore him down to the iron floor. There he was held and the handcuffs were adjusted to his wrists.
When he was fully secured, evidently realizing the hopelessness of any further attempt, Flores became quiet, but there was in his eyes a look of demonical satisfaction of having done his best to take his keepers down to death with him.
His hands and feet were bound, and his knees also, and he was assisted to take his place above the final drop in the little enclosure in the corner of the corridor.
HIS FINAL FAREWELL
As he stood there, and as the death warrant was read to him by Deputy Comstock his eyes wandered over the crowd, eagerly seeking the face of someone he knew. As he recognized successively several acquaintances, Ike Alderete among them he murmured, slightly bowing, "Adios senores, adios."
He turned slightly and even though his hands were bound shook hands in token of mute good-bye with Alderete.
The reading of the death warrant took fully five minutes, and as Deputy Comstock read it was translated to the prisoner by Ed Bryant.
The prisoners color was ghastly, but his eyes seemed to express a sort of exultation, rather than fear.
When asked if he had anything to say, by the sheriff, he replied: "I wish to be pardoned for what I have done. I want my body to be delivered to my family. That is all I have to say."
His last words were translated by Bryant and when at their conclusion the sheriff asked if he had anything more to say, there was no reply and the black cap was adjusted.
"Keep quiet, gentleman," said sheriff Boone, when the fitting on of the black cap occasioned a stir and a movement forward among the onlookers.
"I want to talk with my son," came in muffled tones from the black cap. "Be still," said Father Pinto. "Your talk will be with God."
THE TRAP SPRUNG
There was a momentary pause, a sharp clang of the lever, the steel doors parted and that peculiar, sickening thud proclaimed that the rope had done it's work well, and the body of Antonio Flores hung, limp and inert, lazily swinging at the rope's end.
The drop was perfect. His neck was broken by the fall. There was no movement of the muscles, no contraction, nothing to show that the man had aught of feeling after the fall.
The body was allowed to hang for several moments without being disturbed.
The drop occurred at 1:31 o'clock. At 1:35 he was examined by Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Cantwell, Dr. Harleand and Dr. Sherman and pronounced dead. The body was permitted to hang until 1:49 o'clock, and then it was swung into the second tier of cells and the sheriff attempted to take the rope from around the neck.
So heavy was Flores and so great had been the force of the fall that it was found impossible to slip the rope from around the neck and four strong men drew the body up to the landing of the third tier of cells and there the rope was finally loosed from around his neck.
THAT WICKED DAGGER
Then came the most intensely dramatic incident of the day.
Parra, the desperate outlaw, about to be hung, was known to have concealed about him another of those wicked daggers with which Flores had almost done such deadly execution.
He was known to be desperate and it seemed as though he was determined to kill some one of the officers before he himself should die.
Then sheriff Boone said to those assembled in the jail. "Gentleman, we have had an unfortunate happening." This second prisoner may make an attack on the man who enters his cell. I cannot afford to have good citizens or my deputies murdered by this lawless man. I propose to do my duty. If it is necessary for me to kill this man, I must do it. I shall go in myself and take him out. If it takes a bullet to do the work, that bullet will be fired. I will give him fair warning through an interpreter that resistance means death."
PARRA HOLD UP YOUR HANDS
The precautions of the sheriff were effective. Parra held up his hands. The cell door was thrown open. He was seized, bound and conducted, stepping with a firm step to the scaffold.
It was 1:57 o'clock when Parra took his place on the scaffold. His face was ghastly but his eye was firm, and, with erect poise, head up he looked over the crowd with an unwavering gaze.
"Put your feet, together Parra," said the sheriff, and he obeyed as calmly as though posing for his picture.
As the sheriff bound his feet and knees, Father Pinto stood by his side and whispered words of hope and consolation into his ear.
The death warrant was read. Parra listened calmly and seemed unmoved. At the conclusion of the reading the sheriff asked if he had anything to say.
He answered in clear and ringing tones and his speech at times was almost impassioned.
ASKS PARDON OF ALL
"Gentleman, I tell you all good-bye. There are some whom I have offended. I trust that you will pardon me. I ask the pardon of all the world."
"There are those who have offended me and I forgive them all."
"Gentleman, I am going to die, but I am going to die an innocent man. I deliver my soul and heart to God, in whose presence I am. He is the only God."
"Gentleman, good-bye again to all. May God help you all. We have many of us made mistakes and we are all of us sinners."
Then with the priest murmuring words of comfort and faith, he repeated them in a firm voice. He kissed the rosary held out to him by the kindly hand of the priest, and calmly bent his head that the sheriff might the more easily adjust the cap of death.
"Gentleman, you will all be quiet," said sheriff Boone again. There was a stillness as of death. Again came the lever's sharp clang, the twang of the rope and the dull thud as the body reached it's end, and Parra, like Flores before him, hung lifeless.
The drop occurred at 2:04 o'clock. It was awfully, horribly effective. So far was the fall and with such swiftness did the body drop that not only was the jugular vein ruptured, but the head was almost severed from the body, and the dark red blood bubbled from beneath the black cap and ran down his clothes and fell in ghastly rings and pools on the steel floor below.
DEATH INSTANTANEOUS
The doctors think that in this instance death must have been merciful and instantaneous, but, as in the other case the body was allowed to hang until no doubt could remain. At 2:25 it was cut down.
BEFORE THE HANGING
Scenes In And About The Jail This Morning
All this morning the vicinity of the jail was thronged with a curious crowd of Mexican men and women, who for the most part, had been friends or acquaintances of one or the other of the condemned men. Curious eyes watched the coming and going of the friends of the men, of the officials, of the reporters, and of those others who had occasion to enter the jail.
Father Cordova, the priest who is accustomed to console the prisoners at the jail, came early and remained all morning with the men. Through his earnest efforts both men confessed and declared that they would die in the faith of the Catholic church. The Father read to them selections from the gospel of St. Luke, in Spanish, dwelling especially upon the fifteenth chapter.
With Parra were some eight relatives, including his brother and sister-in-law, with their children. These stood around, talked occasionally, but for the most part merely stared in apathetic and rather piteous fashion. Parra made up a bundle and gave it to one of them. In it were a few of his little possessions, which he wishes to be kept as remembrances by his family.
The men were given their dinner and Parra ate heartily, while Flores whose stomach had been troubling him during the night, also had a good appetite.
They thanked Captain Lyons for his attention and kindness to them and wished to be forgiven for all the wrong they had done.
Flores's family told him good-bye yesterday, and were not at the jail today.
Parra's family, including many relatives, staid until 11 o'clock, but their parting was singularly cool, and not marked by any display of affection.
HOW THEY GOT THE DAGGER NOT
It was ten minutes of one when the jail doors were opened and those who had been given passes were admitted by jailer Lyons. The crowd comfortably filled the ante room of the jail, and numbered perhaps one hundred in all.
Parra and Flores had just come down from the death cell, and had been conducted to the vacant cells on the third tier in the jail proper near the scaffold. They had come down one at a time, with Eugene Bruce, the death watch, in charge. Parra descended with firm step, and head erect. Flores came, with a hand on the banister, and a scuffling step.
The priests, Fathers Cordova and Pinto, attended them.
When the time came to admit the spectators into the jail enclosure, Sheriff Boone said:
The newspaper men and doctors will come in first and take their places. Then the others may follow."
As the spectators thronged into the scene of the hanging they saw the two priests on the outside of the cells talking to the prisoners through the bars.
Inside, the condemned men, clad only in shirt, shoes and trousers, with ghastly faces wan and drawn, pacing to and fro, with that peculiar, hopeless movement that one so often sees in wild animals confined in a cage.
As the spectators shifted into position there settled over them that air of expectancy and grave anticipation, which precedes an occurrence of this sort.
Sheriff Boone made all preliminary preparations. Everything was ready. He went to the cell door. He opened it. And then Flores sprang forth like a beast from his lair and made a murderous attack, which nearly resulted in the death of Deputy Bryant.
KNOWN
It is not known how, or in what manner, the condemned men succeeded in concealing the wire daggers which they used in their murderous attack on the deputies today.
Last night Eugene Bruce, who was keeping the death watch, became suspicious of the movements of the prisoners and slipped up to their cell, unobserved. There he saw Flores facing him, while, with his back turned, Parra seemed to be engaged in filing or sharpening some instrument, and then to be wrapping a rag around one end of it, as though to make a handhold or handle. He showed this, whatever it was, to Flores, who grasped his hand violently and seemed about to wrest it from him. Then they both became aware of the presence of the deputy.
Sheriff Boone and Captain Lyons were immediately notified and the cell was searched, as well as the person of the prisoners, with the greatest care, but nothing was found.
Where they concealed the wire daggers is a mystery. These daggers are thought to have been made from bucket bails.
DISPOSITION OF THE BODIES
The body of Parra was taken charge of, after the hanging, by Lyons & Nagley and will be buried by the family of the dead man from their undertaking establishment tomorrow.
Flores' body was taken to an undertaking establishment, and it will also be buried by his family.
A PERFECT DROP
It was stated by the doctors that if the drop, which was a seven-foot one, had been six inches longer, in the case of Parra, the man's head would have been entirely severed from the body.
STORY OF THE CRIMES
For Which Parra and Antonio Flores Were Hanged
Ten years ago all this section of the country was infested, as a great part of it is still believed to be, by a band of horse thieves, extending to from the Pecos to Morenci, Arizona., and from there on to California. There were regular relay stations for the transfer of stolen stock along the way.
The leader in chief of all the bands for five years prior to that time had been Geronimo Parra, who gained a reputation for the greatest cunning, craft and reckless bravery among his associates and the officers of the law.
Depredations and thefts and even murders which occurred with increasing frequency were laid at the door of these outlaws, but they had never been well located until April of 1889, a stockman came to El Paso early one morning, and reported to the officers that a band of Mexican horse thieves was concealed in an arroyo, 15 miles out on the eastern slope of Mount Franklin, and that they had with them a big bunch of stolen stock. Barnes failed to estimate the full strength of the gang, and it was thought that there were only two or three men in the lot.
Sergeant George Fusselman (1), of the Texas state rangers, was in town at the time in attendance at court, and George Harold, now on the city police force, had just returned from Mexico, where he had seen long service as a detective scout under the Mexican government.
These two men, accompanied by Barnes, started out at 8 o'clock in the morning to capture the thieves.
They rode together to the base of the mountain, and there they captured an outlaw, who was left with Barnes for safe keeping. Fusselman and Harold rode cautiously on up the mountain, keeping a sharp eye out for the outlaws.
The rest of the story may best be told by Harold himself.
"We were riding on up the arroyo," says Harold "when suddenly, and without warning of any sort, the gang of seven opened fire on us, at distances varying from 10 to fifty yards. At the very first volley Fusselman fell from his horse, shot through his head by Parra. I jumped from my horse, throwing away my gun and sought cover. From behind a rock I opened fire with a six-shooter whenever a Mexican showed himself. They were for the most part well protected by the rocks, but one who was only a few yards from me exposed the entire upper part of his body, and I fired at short range, and hit him in the stomach.
"I made my way back to the foot of the mountain as best as I could and Barnes and I came back to town and notified the officers. A big posse immediately started for the mountain, arriving there that night, but the outlaws had vamoosed, and had left only a few fine horses."
Subsequently Parra was seen in Colemas riding the horse which Fusselman had ridden on the day of his death.
Shortly after, in New Mexico, Ben Williams, who has a wide reputation as a deputy of great bravery under Pat Garrett, of Las Cruces, captured Parra. The latter was then wanted on a charge of cattle stealing, and his identity was unknown to the officer making the arrest. He was captured only after a sharp resistance, and after several shots had been fired.
A year ago nearly, Capt. J. R. Hughes, of the Texas state rangers, discovered Parra in the New Mexico penitentiary, and he was re-indicted by the grand jury in El Paso, and was surrendered to the officials of this county by the territorial authorities.
He was convicted at a trial in this city last fall and sentenced by the judge to be hanged.
The crime of Flores was a far more cowardly one than that of his companion in death.
On the 19th day of March of the present year, Antonio Flores, on his way from mass, met the woman he loved and who did not love him in return. He pleaded with her to come with him. She would not. He became incensed, and then, with the savagery of a beast, leaped upon her and cut and stabbed her horribly and repeatedly with a long sharp knife. All this, too, in plain sight of two more not 500 yards away, who were powerless to help her, but who ran up and captured Flores, just as his fury was spent, and his victim sank in a helpless heap to the earth.
Two days later the woman died, and this last fall Flores was found guilty and was sentenced to be hanged.
*******************************
El Paso Daily Herald
Saturday, January 6, 1900
ECHOES OF YESTERDAY
Last Rights Over The Bodies Of Geronimo Parra And Antonio Flores
TALK OF THE HANGING
What Some People Have To Say Of The Dramatic Incidents At The Jail Yesterday
"The way Parra and Flores got the sharpened wire they used yesterday is clear to me now," said jailer Lyons. "Yesterday morning after the cells were searched Parra's brother came to see them. It was then that the prisoner told his brother what had happened, and evidently also he told him to bring fresh tools for weapons, for the brother left hurriedly, and shortly after two men, friends of the brother, whom I had seen with him before, came to see Parra.
They were admitted, and seemed unusually affectionate. During these affectionate embraces, I am satisfied that they contrived to slip to Parra the sharpened wire, which they had concealed, and which they could have used almost as effectively as daggers if they had had a chance."
The funerals of the two men hanged yesterday are taking place this afternoon.
Immediately after the execution, Nagley and Lyons took charge of the body of Parra. When the black cap was removed, it showed the body hanging to the head by the merest strip of muscle. A fall of a few inches further would undoubtedly have severed the head entirely. The face was composed, and wore a peaceful expression and this, so infrequent in men who have been hanged, is taken to show that death was instantaneous and painless.
Flores' face also wore a restful expression, and on the whole both executions are taken to have been successful.
A plaster of paris cast was placed around Parra's neck, holding the head in place and the body was delivered to the family. The funeral took place at three o'clock, and the body was buried in the Catholic cemetery.
Flores was buried in the Catholic cemetery, his funeral taking place at three o'clock.
"I consider my escape providential," said Captain Tim Lyons today. "The men had those wire daggers concealed about them, and probably if I had attempted to search them I would have been the victim of a murderous assault. As it was, I had searched them so frequently and had so lately searched the cell that I had no idea that anything could have been concealed on their persons."
Nothing but commendation can be given the sheriff and his deputies for their conduct yesterday. To visitors the cleanliness and absence of foul air was a pleasant surprise, while the conduct of the officers during the exciting events preceding the execution was both praiseworthy, and lacked nothing in the line of personal bravery. Parra was shoved back into his cell by Ten Eyck and Christly, and the officers who finally overwhelmed Flores showed no hesitation, though the strength and desperation of the prisoner seemed almost supernatural. When sheriff Boone in dramatic style declared that Parra should be shot, if necessary, but that none of his men should be killed, the spectators applauded.
‘Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good. The newspaper men of this city who serve outside papers had orders last night for details of the hanging running way up into the thousands. The Chicago Inter-Ocean, for instance, took 800 words, and New York, San Francisco, eastern, western and northern cities took proportionately big stories.
Local people, by the way, were inclined to be a bit skeptical about the seriousness of the outbreak, simply, perhaps, because it happened right here at home; but as a matter of fact, it is wonderful that it did not result far more seriously.
Yesterday was "Black Friday," so called for ages and ages. In every condition of life—in the church, in business, in the annals of crime—Friday seems to have a peculiar and unhappy association and in the matter of inflicting capital punishment especially. It has become a fixed custom that all criminals shall be hanged on Friday.
By three o'clock the Herald had a special edition, giving a complete account of the hanging, on the streets. It was a small bonanza for the news-boys, and though running up into the hundreds was exhausted before the regular editions appeared, / 50 minutes later.
"The reason of the almost total severance of Parra's head from his body," said a well known physician this morning, was that the rope was not tied tightly enough. The hanging of Flores had probably strained the knot and so it was impossible to adjust the rope as accurately as in the first instance. As a result the rope, with full play, swished into the neck like the cut of an axe, and was drawn into a knot as small in circumference as an apple."
Chief Lockhart, anticipating possible trouble from the crowd of 1000 Mexicans thronging the streets, the neighboring housetops, and box cars, had officer Harold on guard there. The crowd numbered many of Parra's friends, but no demonstration was made.
Jose Melendrez, the Mexican trustee who took French lead as the preparations for the hanging were going on, came back safely enough. He didn't try to escape, but he didn't want to see the hanging.
(1) True name: Charles Fusselman.
***Notes***
For additional information, see the findagrave entry for: Charles Fusselman, buried in the Lagarto cemetery, Live Oak County, Texas.
Exact burial location for Geronimo at Concordia is unknown. Catholic burials records prior to 1913 do not exist.
The El Paso, Texas, newspaper articles you see below describe the events of the hanging. The text is complete, with no omissions. They were copied word for word, exactly as they were written. The words can be graphic at times, but this was the style of writing used during that time period in our old west history.
El Paso Daily Herald
Friday January 5, 1900
FOUGHT WITH DAGGERS ON THE SCAFFOLD
Flores and Parra Attempt To Take Others With Them Into Eternity.
A THRILLING DENOUEMENT.
At The Execution Of Two Murderers This Afternoon--- The Murderous Assault Was Foiled and the MEN PAID THE PENALTY OF LAW.
They Fought Like Demons, But Were Overpowered by Deputies---Dramatic Climax When Sheriff Boone Went Into The Cell Of Parra---"If It Takes a Bullet, I'll Fire It," He Said.
The double hanging at the county jail today developed into one of the most sensational episodes in the criminal history of Texas.
As the cell was opened to conduct Antonio Flores to the scaffold, both he and Geronimo Parra suddenly drew wire daggers, previously sharpened and concealed about their persons, and made a desperate and vicious attack on the deputies surrounding them
Parra attacked Jim Hunter, who was guarding his cell door. Quickly State Ranger Saunderson drew his gun and covered the Mexican. Cowed, he shrank back into his cell and the door was quickly slammed. He was held safe for the moment but not so Flores, who was already out in the corridor.
Flores's Angry Cry
"You shall all go to hell with me," he yelled maddened with the thought of the awful fate soon to be his.
Then he sprang with his wicked dagger toward Ed Bryant and with vicious underhand strokes plunged it repeatedly into his clothing, attempting to reach a vital spot.
Instantly he was seized by powerful deputies, but the strength of a demon was his and for a full minute he fought the officers, until at last overpowered by four strong men.
Tim Lyons, Ed Bryant, Eugene Bruce and sheriff Boone seized him and bore him down to the iron floor. There he was held and the handcuffs were adjusted to his wrists.
When he was fully secured, evidently realizing the hopelessness of any further attempt, Flores became quiet, but there was in his eyes a look of demonical satisfaction of having done his best to take his keepers down to death with him.
His hands and feet were bound, and his knees also, and he was assisted to take his place above the final drop in the little enclosure in the corner of the corridor.
HIS FINAL FAREWELL
As he stood there, and as the death warrant was read to him by Deputy Comstock his eyes wandered over the crowd, eagerly seeking the face of someone he knew. As he recognized successively several acquaintances, Ike Alderete among them he murmured, slightly bowing, "Adios senores, adios."
He turned slightly and even though his hands were bound shook hands in token of mute good-bye with Alderete.
The reading of the death warrant took fully five minutes, and as Deputy Comstock read it was translated to the prisoner by Ed Bryant.
The prisoners color was ghastly, but his eyes seemed to express a sort of exultation, rather than fear.
When asked if he had anything to say, by the sheriff, he replied: "I wish to be pardoned for what I have done. I want my body to be delivered to my family. That is all I have to say."
His last words were translated by Bryant and when at their conclusion the sheriff asked if he had anything more to say, there was no reply and the black cap was adjusted.
"Keep quiet, gentleman," said sheriff Boone, when the fitting on of the black cap occasioned a stir and a movement forward among the onlookers.
"I want to talk with my son," came in muffled tones from the black cap. "Be still," said Father Pinto. "Your talk will be with God."
THE TRAP SPRUNG
There was a momentary pause, a sharp clang of the lever, the steel doors parted and that peculiar, sickening thud proclaimed that the rope had done it's work well, and the body of Antonio Flores hung, limp and inert, lazily swinging at the rope's end.
The drop was perfect. His neck was broken by the fall. There was no movement of the muscles, no contraction, nothing to show that the man had aught of feeling after the fall.
The body was allowed to hang for several moments without being disturbed.
The drop occurred at 1:31 o'clock. At 1:35 he was examined by Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Cantwell, Dr. Harleand and Dr. Sherman and pronounced dead. The body was permitted to hang until 1:49 o'clock, and then it was swung into the second tier of cells and the sheriff attempted to take the rope from around the neck.
So heavy was Flores and so great had been the force of the fall that it was found impossible to slip the rope from around the neck and four strong men drew the body up to the landing of the third tier of cells and there the rope was finally loosed from around his neck.
THAT WICKED DAGGER
Then came the most intensely dramatic incident of the day.
Parra, the desperate outlaw, about to be hung, was known to have concealed about him another of those wicked daggers with which Flores had almost done such deadly execution.
He was known to be desperate and it seemed as though he was determined to kill some one of the officers before he himself should die.
Then sheriff Boone said to those assembled in the jail. "Gentleman, we have had an unfortunate happening." This second prisoner may make an attack on the man who enters his cell. I cannot afford to have good citizens or my deputies murdered by this lawless man. I propose to do my duty. If it is necessary for me to kill this man, I must do it. I shall go in myself and take him out. If it takes a bullet to do the work, that bullet will be fired. I will give him fair warning through an interpreter that resistance means death."
PARRA HOLD UP YOUR HANDS
The precautions of the sheriff were effective. Parra held up his hands. The cell door was thrown open. He was seized, bound and conducted, stepping with a firm step to the scaffold.
It was 1:57 o'clock when Parra took his place on the scaffold. His face was ghastly but his eye was firm, and, with erect poise, head up he looked over the crowd with an unwavering gaze.
"Put your feet, together Parra," said the sheriff, and he obeyed as calmly as though posing for his picture.
As the sheriff bound his feet and knees, Father Pinto stood by his side and whispered words of hope and consolation into his ear.
The death warrant was read. Parra listened calmly and seemed unmoved. At the conclusion of the reading the sheriff asked if he had anything to say.
He answered in clear and ringing tones and his speech at times was almost impassioned.
ASKS PARDON OF ALL
"Gentleman, I tell you all good-bye. There are some whom I have offended. I trust that you will pardon me. I ask the pardon of all the world."
"There are those who have offended me and I forgive them all."
"Gentleman, I am going to die, but I am going to die an innocent man. I deliver my soul and heart to God, in whose presence I am. He is the only God."
"Gentleman, good-bye again to all. May God help you all. We have many of us made mistakes and we are all of us sinners."
Then with the priest murmuring words of comfort and faith, he repeated them in a firm voice. He kissed the rosary held out to him by the kindly hand of the priest, and calmly bent his head that the sheriff might the more easily adjust the cap of death.
"Gentleman, you will all be quiet," said sheriff Boone again. There was a stillness as of death. Again came the lever's sharp clang, the twang of the rope and the dull thud as the body reached it's end, and Parra, like Flores before him, hung lifeless.
The drop occurred at 2:04 o'clock. It was awfully, horribly effective. So far was the fall and with such swiftness did the body drop that not only was the jugular vein ruptured, but the head was almost severed from the body, and the dark red blood bubbled from beneath the black cap and ran down his clothes and fell in ghastly rings and pools on the steel floor below.
DEATH INSTANTANEOUS
The doctors think that in this instance death must have been merciful and instantaneous, but, as in the other case the body was allowed to hang until no doubt could remain. At 2:25 it was cut down.
BEFORE THE HANGING
Scenes In And About The Jail This Morning
All this morning the vicinity of the jail was thronged with a curious crowd of Mexican men and women, who for the most part, had been friends or acquaintances of one or the other of the condemned men. Curious eyes watched the coming and going of the friends of the men, of the officials, of the reporters, and of those others who had occasion to enter the jail.
Father Cordova, the priest who is accustomed to console the prisoners at the jail, came early and remained all morning with the men. Through his earnest efforts both men confessed and declared that they would die in the faith of the Catholic church. The Father read to them selections from the gospel of St. Luke, in Spanish, dwelling especially upon the fifteenth chapter.
With Parra were some eight relatives, including his brother and sister-in-law, with their children. These stood around, talked occasionally, but for the most part merely stared in apathetic and rather piteous fashion. Parra made up a bundle and gave it to one of them. In it were a few of his little possessions, which he wishes to be kept as remembrances by his family.
The men were given their dinner and Parra ate heartily, while Flores whose stomach had been troubling him during the night, also had a good appetite.
They thanked Captain Lyons for his attention and kindness to them and wished to be forgiven for all the wrong they had done.
Flores's family told him good-bye yesterday, and were not at the jail today.
Parra's family, including many relatives, staid until 11 o'clock, but their parting was singularly cool, and not marked by any display of affection.
HOW THEY GOT THE DAGGER NOT
It was ten minutes of one when the jail doors were opened and those who had been given passes were admitted by jailer Lyons. The crowd comfortably filled the ante room of the jail, and numbered perhaps one hundred in all.
Parra and Flores had just come down from the death cell, and had been conducted to the vacant cells on the third tier in the jail proper near the scaffold. They had come down one at a time, with Eugene Bruce, the death watch, in charge. Parra descended with firm step, and head erect. Flores came, with a hand on the banister, and a scuffling step.
The priests, Fathers Cordova and Pinto, attended them.
When the time came to admit the spectators into the jail enclosure, Sheriff Boone said:
The newspaper men and doctors will come in first and take their places. Then the others may follow."
As the spectators thronged into the scene of the hanging they saw the two priests on the outside of the cells talking to the prisoners through the bars.
Inside, the condemned men, clad only in shirt, shoes and trousers, with ghastly faces wan and drawn, pacing to and fro, with that peculiar, hopeless movement that one so often sees in wild animals confined in a cage.
As the spectators shifted into position there settled over them that air of expectancy and grave anticipation, which precedes an occurrence of this sort.
Sheriff Boone made all preliminary preparations. Everything was ready. He went to the cell door. He opened it. And then Flores sprang forth like a beast from his lair and made a murderous attack, which nearly resulted in the death of Deputy Bryant.
KNOWN
It is not known how, or in what manner, the condemned men succeeded in concealing the wire daggers which they used in their murderous attack on the deputies today.
Last night Eugene Bruce, who was keeping the death watch, became suspicious of the movements of the prisoners and slipped up to their cell, unobserved. There he saw Flores facing him, while, with his back turned, Parra seemed to be engaged in filing or sharpening some instrument, and then to be wrapping a rag around one end of it, as though to make a handhold or handle. He showed this, whatever it was, to Flores, who grasped his hand violently and seemed about to wrest it from him. Then they both became aware of the presence of the deputy.
Sheriff Boone and Captain Lyons were immediately notified and the cell was searched, as well as the person of the prisoners, with the greatest care, but nothing was found.
Where they concealed the wire daggers is a mystery. These daggers are thought to have been made from bucket bails.
DISPOSITION OF THE BODIES
The body of Parra was taken charge of, after the hanging, by Lyons & Nagley and will be buried by the family of the dead man from their undertaking establishment tomorrow.
Flores' body was taken to an undertaking establishment, and it will also be buried by his family.
A PERFECT DROP
It was stated by the doctors that if the drop, which was a seven-foot one, had been six inches longer, in the case of Parra, the man's head would have been entirely severed from the body.
STORY OF THE CRIMES
For Which Parra and Antonio Flores Were Hanged
Ten years ago all this section of the country was infested, as a great part of it is still believed to be, by a band of horse thieves, extending to from the Pecos to Morenci, Arizona., and from there on to California. There were regular relay stations for the transfer of stolen stock along the way.
The leader in chief of all the bands for five years prior to that time had been Geronimo Parra, who gained a reputation for the greatest cunning, craft and reckless bravery among his associates and the officers of the law.
Depredations and thefts and even murders which occurred with increasing frequency were laid at the door of these outlaws, but they had never been well located until April of 1889, a stockman came to El Paso early one morning, and reported to the officers that a band of Mexican horse thieves was concealed in an arroyo, 15 miles out on the eastern slope of Mount Franklin, and that they had with them a big bunch of stolen stock. Barnes failed to estimate the full strength of the gang, and it was thought that there were only two or three men in the lot.
Sergeant George Fusselman (1), of the Texas state rangers, was in town at the time in attendance at court, and George Harold, now on the city police force, had just returned from Mexico, where he had seen long service as a detective scout under the Mexican government.
These two men, accompanied by Barnes, started out at 8 o'clock in the morning to capture the thieves.
They rode together to the base of the mountain, and there they captured an outlaw, who was left with Barnes for safe keeping. Fusselman and Harold rode cautiously on up the mountain, keeping a sharp eye out for the outlaws.
The rest of the story may best be told by Harold himself.
"We were riding on up the arroyo," says Harold "when suddenly, and without warning of any sort, the gang of seven opened fire on us, at distances varying from 10 to fifty yards. At the very first volley Fusselman fell from his horse, shot through his head by Parra. I jumped from my horse, throwing away my gun and sought cover. From behind a rock I opened fire with a six-shooter whenever a Mexican showed himself. They were for the most part well protected by the rocks, but one who was only a few yards from me exposed the entire upper part of his body, and I fired at short range, and hit him in the stomach.
"I made my way back to the foot of the mountain as best as I could and Barnes and I came back to town and notified the officers. A big posse immediately started for the mountain, arriving there that night, but the outlaws had vamoosed, and had left only a few fine horses."
Subsequently Parra was seen in Colemas riding the horse which Fusselman had ridden on the day of his death.
Shortly after, in New Mexico, Ben Williams, who has a wide reputation as a deputy of great bravery under Pat Garrett, of Las Cruces, captured Parra. The latter was then wanted on a charge of cattle stealing, and his identity was unknown to the officer making the arrest. He was captured only after a sharp resistance, and after several shots had been fired.
A year ago nearly, Capt. J. R. Hughes, of the Texas state rangers, discovered Parra in the New Mexico penitentiary, and he was re-indicted by the grand jury in El Paso, and was surrendered to the officials of this county by the territorial authorities.
He was convicted at a trial in this city last fall and sentenced by the judge to be hanged.
The crime of Flores was a far more cowardly one than that of his companion in death.
On the 19th day of March of the present year, Antonio Flores, on his way from mass, met the woman he loved and who did not love him in return. He pleaded with her to come with him. She would not. He became incensed, and then, with the savagery of a beast, leaped upon her and cut and stabbed her horribly and repeatedly with a long sharp knife. All this, too, in plain sight of two more not 500 yards away, who were powerless to help her, but who ran up and captured Flores, just as his fury was spent, and his victim sank in a helpless heap to the earth.
Two days later the woman died, and this last fall Flores was found guilty and was sentenced to be hanged.
*******************************
El Paso Daily Herald
Saturday, January 6, 1900
ECHOES OF YESTERDAY
Last Rights Over The Bodies Of Geronimo Parra And Antonio Flores
TALK OF THE HANGING
What Some People Have To Say Of The Dramatic Incidents At The Jail Yesterday
"The way Parra and Flores got the sharpened wire they used yesterday is clear to me now," said jailer Lyons. "Yesterday morning after the cells were searched Parra's brother came to see them. It was then that the prisoner told his brother what had happened, and evidently also he told him to bring fresh tools for weapons, for the brother left hurriedly, and shortly after two men, friends of the brother, whom I had seen with him before, came to see Parra.
They were admitted, and seemed unusually affectionate. During these affectionate embraces, I am satisfied that they contrived to slip to Parra the sharpened wire, which they had concealed, and which they could have used almost as effectively as daggers if they had had a chance."
The funerals of the two men hanged yesterday are taking place this afternoon.
Immediately after the execution, Nagley and Lyons took charge of the body of Parra. When the black cap was removed, it showed the body hanging to the head by the merest strip of muscle. A fall of a few inches further would undoubtedly have severed the head entirely. The face was composed, and wore a peaceful expression and this, so infrequent in men who have been hanged, is taken to show that death was instantaneous and painless.
Flores' face also wore a restful expression, and on the whole both executions are taken to have been successful.
A plaster of paris cast was placed around Parra's neck, holding the head in place and the body was delivered to the family. The funeral took place at three o'clock, and the body was buried in the Catholic cemetery.
Flores was buried in the Catholic cemetery, his funeral taking place at three o'clock.
"I consider my escape providential," said Captain Tim Lyons today. "The men had those wire daggers concealed about them, and probably if I had attempted to search them I would have been the victim of a murderous assault. As it was, I had searched them so frequently and had so lately searched the cell that I had no idea that anything could have been concealed on their persons."
Nothing but commendation can be given the sheriff and his deputies for their conduct yesterday. To visitors the cleanliness and absence of foul air was a pleasant surprise, while the conduct of the officers during the exciting events preceding the execution was both praiseworthy, and lacked nothing in the line of personal bravery. Parra was shoved back into his cell by Ten Eyck and Christly, and the officers who finally overwhelmed Flores showed no hesitation, though the strength and desperation of the prisoner seemed almost supernatural. When sheriff Boone in dramatic style declared that Parra should be shot, if necessary, but that none of his men should be killed, the spectators applauded.
‘Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good. The newspaper men of this city who serve outside papers had orders last night for details of the hanging running way up into the thousands. The Chicago Inter-Ocean, for instance, took 800 words, and New York, San Francisco, eastern, western and northern cities took proportionately big stories.
Local people, by the way, were inclined to be a bit skeptical about the seriousness of the outbreak, simply, perhaps, because it happened right here at home; but as a matter of fact, it is wonderful that it did not result far more seriously.
Yesterday was "Black Friday," so called for ages and ages. In every condition of life—in the church, in business, in the annals of crime—Friday seems to have a peculiar and unhappy association and in the matter of inflicting capital punishment especially. It has become a fixed custom that all criminals shall be hanged on Friday.
By three o'clock the Herald had a special edition, giving a complete account of the hanging, on the streets. It was a small bonanza for the news-boys, and though running up into the hundreds was exhausted before the regular editions appeared, / 50 minutes later.
"The reason of the almost total severance of Parra's head from his body," said a well known physician this morning, was that the rope was not tied tightly enough. The hanging of Flores had probably strained the knot and so it was impossible to adjust the rope as accurately as in the first instance. As a result the rope, with full play, swished into the neck like the cut of an axe, and was drawn into a knot as small in circumference as an apple."
Chief Lockhart, anticipating possible trouble from the crowd of 1000 Mexicans thronging the streets, the neighboring housetops, and box cars, had officer Harold on guard there. The crowd numbered many of Parra's friends, but no demonstration was made.
Jose Melendrez, the Mexican trustee who took French lead as the preparations for the hanging were going on, came back safely enough. He didn't try to escape, but he didn't want to see the hanging.
(1) True name: Charles Fusselman.
***Notes***
For additional information, see the findagrave entry for: Charles Fusselman, buried in the Lagarto cemetery, Live Oak County, Texas.
Exact burial location for Geronimo at Concordia is unknown. Catholic burials records prior to 1913 do not exist.
Geronimo Parra, executed by hanging for the killing of Texas Ranger Charles Fusselman.
The El Paso, Texas, newspaper articles you see below describe the events of the hanging. The text is complete, with no omissions. They were copied word for word, exactly as they were written. The words can be graphic at times, but this was the style of writing used during that time period in our old west history.
El Paso Daily Herald
Friday January 5, 1900
FOUGHT WITH DAGGERS ON THE SCAFFOLD
Flores and Parra Attempt To Take Others With Them Into Eternity.
A THRILLING DENOUEMENT.
At The Execution Of Two Murderers This Afternoon--- The Murderous Assault Was Foiled and the MEN PAID THE PENALTY OF LAW.
They Fought Like Demons, But Were Overpowered by Deputies---Dramatic Climax When Sheriff Boone Went Into The Cell Of Parra---"If It Takes a Bullet, I'll Fire It," He Said.
The double hanging at the county jail today developed into one of the most sensational episodes in the criminal history of Texas.
As the cell was opened to conduct Antonio Flores to the scaffold, both he and Geronimo Parra suddenly drew wire daggers, previously sharpened and concealed about their persons, and made a desperate and vicious attack on the deputies surrounding them
Parra attacked Jim Hunter, who was guarding his cell door. Quickly State Ranger Saunderson drew his gun and covered the Mexican. Cowed, he shrank back into his cell and the door was quickly slammed. He was held safe for the moment but not so Flores, who was already out in the corridor.
Flores's Angry Cry
"You shall all go to hell with me," he yelled maddened with the thought of the awful fate soon to be his.
Then he sprang with his wicked dagger toward Ed Bryant and with vicious underhand strokes plunged it repeatedly into his clothing, attempting to reach a vital spot.
Instantly he was seized by powerful deputies, but the strength of a demon was his and for a full minute he fought the officers, until at last overpowered by four strong men.
Tim Lyons, Ed Bryant, Eugene Bruce and sheriff Boone seized him and bore him down to the iron floor. There he was held and the handcuffs were adjusted to his wrists.
When he was fully secured, evidently realizing the hopelessness of any further attempt, Flores became quiet, but there was in his eyes a look of demonical satisfaction of having done his best to take his keepers down to death with him.
His hands and feet were bound, and his knees also, and he was assisted to take his place above the final drop in the little enclosure in the corner of the corridor.
HIS FINAL FAREWELL
As he stood there, and as the death warrant was read to him by Deputy Comstock his eyes wandered over the crowd, eagerly seeking the face of someone he knew. As he recognized successively several acquaintances, Ike Alderete among them he murmured, slightly bowing, "Adios senores, adios."
He turned slightly and even though his hands were bound shook hands in token of mute good-bye with Alderete.
The reading of the death warrant took fully five minutes, and as Deputy Comstock read it was translated to the prisoner by Ed Bryant.
The prisoners color was ghastly, but his eyes seemed to express a sort of exultation, rather than fear.
When asked if he had anything to say, by the sheriff, he replied: "I wish to be pardoned for what I have done. I want my body to be delivered to my family. That is all I have to say."
His last words were translated by Bryant and when at their conclusion the sheriff asked if he had anything more to say, there was no reply and the black cap was adjusted.
"Keep quiet, gentleman," said sheriff Boone, when the fitting on of the black cap occasioned a stir and a movement forward among the onlookers.
"I want to talk with my son," came in muffled tones from the black cap. "Be still," said Father Pinto. "Your talk will be with God."
THE TRAP SPRUNG
There was a momentary pause, a sharp clang of the lever, the steel doors parted and that peculiar, sickening thud proclaimed that the rope had done it's work well, and the body of Antonio Flores hung, limp and inert, lazily swinging at the rope's end.
The drop was perfect. His neck was broken by the fall. There was no movement of the muscles, no contraction, nothing to show that the man had aught of feeling after the fall.
The body was allowed to hang for several moments without being disturbed.
The drop occurred at 1:31 o'clock. At 1:35 he was examined by Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Cantwell, Dr. Harleand and Dr. Sherman and pronounced dead. The body was permitted to hang until 1:49 o'clock, and then it was swung into the second tier of cells and the sheriff attempted to take the rope from around the neck.
So heavy was Flores and so great had been the force of the fall that it was found impossible to slip the rope from around the neck and four strong men drew the body up to the landing of the third tier of cells and there the rope was finally loosed from around his neck.
THAT WICKED DAGGER
Then came the most intensely dramatic incident of the day.
Parra, the desperate outlaw, about to be hung, was known to have concealed about him another of those wicked daggers with which Flores had almost done such deadly execution.
He was known to be desperate and it seemed as though he was determined to kill some one of the officers before he himself should die.
Then sheriff Boone said to those assembled in the jail. "Gentleman, we have had an unfortunate happening." This second prisoner may make an attack on the man who enters his cell. I cannot afford to have good citizens or my deputies murdered by this lawless man. I propose to do my duty. If it is necessary for me to kill this man, I must do it. I shall go in myself and take him out. If it takes a bullet to do the work, that bullet will be fired. I will give him fair warning through an interpreter that resistance means death."
PARRA HOLD UP YOUR HANDS
The precautions of the sheriff were effective. Parra held up his hands. The cell door was thrown open. He was seized, bound and conducted, stepping with a firm step to the scaffold.
It was 1:57 o'clock when Parra took his place on the scaffold. His face was ghastly but his eye was firm, and, with erect poise, head up he looked over the crowd with an unwavering gaze.
"Put your feet, together Parra," said the sheriff, and he obeyed as calmly as though posing for his picture.
As the sheriff bound his feet and knees, Father Pinto stood by his side and whispered words of hope and consolation into his ear.
The death warrant was read. Parra listened calmly and seemed unmoved. At the conclusion of the reading the sheriff asked if he had anything to say.
He answered in clear and ringing tones and his speech at times was almost impassioned.
ASKS PARDON OF ALL
"Gentleman, I tell you all good-bye. There are some whom I have offended. I trust that you will pardon me. I ask the pardon of all the world."
"There are those who have offended me and I forgive them all."
"Gentleman, I am going to die, but I am going to die an innocent man. I deliver my soul and heart to God, in whose presence I am. He is the only God."
"Gentleman, good-bye again to all. May God help you all. We have many of us made mistakes and we are all of us sinners."
Then with the priest murmuring words of comfort and faith, he repeated them in a firm voice. He kissed the rosary held out to him by the kindly hand of the priest, and calmly bent his head that the sheriff might the more easily adjust the cap of death.
"Gentleman, you will all be quiet," said sheriff Boone again. There was a stillness as of death. Again came the lever's sharp clang, the twang of the rope and the dull thud as the body reached it's end, and Parra, like Flores before him, hung lifeless.
The drop occurred at 2:04 o'clock. It was awfully, horribly effective. So far was the fall and with such swiftness did the body drop that not only was the jugular vein ruptured, but the head was almost severed from the body, and the dark red blood bubbled from beneath the black cap and ran down his clothes and fell in ghastly rings and pools on the steel floor below.
DEATH INSTANTANEOUS
The doctors think that in this instance death must have been merciful and instantaneous, but, as in the other case the body was allowed to hang until no doubt could remain. At 2:25 it was cut down.
BEFORE THE HANGING
Scenes In And About The Jail This Morning
All this morning the vicinity of the jail was thronged with a curious crowd of Mexican men and women, who for the most part, had been friends or acquaintances of one or the other of the condemned men. Curious eyes watched the coming and going of the friends of the men, of the officials, of the reporters, and of those others who had occasion to enter the jail.
Father Cordova, the priest who is accustomed to console the prisoners at the jail, came early and remained all morning with the men. Through his earnest efforts both men confessed and declared that they would die in the faith of the Catholic church. The Father read to them selections from the gospel of St. Luke, in Spanish, dwelling especially upon the fifteenth chapter.
With Parra were some eight relatives, including his brother and sister-in-law, with their children. These stood around, talked occasionally, but for the most part merely stared in apathetic and rather piteous fashion. Parra made up a bundle and gave it to one of them. In it were a few of his little possessions, which he wishes to be kept as remembrances by his family.
The men were given their dinner and Parra ate heartily, while Flores whose stomach had been troubling him during the night, also had a good appetite.
They thanked Captain Lyons for his attention and kindness to them and wished to be forgiven for all the wrong they had done.
Flores's family told him good-bye yesterday, and were not at the jail today.
Parra's family, including many relatives, staid until 11 o'clock, but their parting was singularly cool, and not marked by any display of affection.
HOW THEY GOT THE DAGGER NOT
It was ten minutes of one when the jail doors were opened and those who had been given passes were admitted by jailer Lyons. The crowd comfortably filled the ante room of the jail, and numbered perhaps one hundred in all.
Parra and Flores had just come down from the death cell, and had been conducted to the vacant cells on the third tier in the jail proper near the scaffold. They had come down one at a time, with Eugene Bruce, the death watch, in charge. Parra descended with firm step, and head erect. Flores came, with a hand on the banister, and a scuffling step.
The priests, Fathers Cordova and Pinto, attended them.
When the time came to admit the spectators into the jail enclosure, Sheriff Boone said:
The newspaper men and doctors will come in first and take their places. Then the others may follow."
As the spectators thronged into the scene of the hanging they saw the two priests on the outside of the cells talking to the prisoners through the bars.
Inside, the condemned men, clad only in shirt, shoes and trousers, with ghastly faces wan and drawn, pacing to and fro, with that peculiar, hopeless movement that one so often sees in wild animals confined in a cage.
As the spectators shifted into position there settled over them that air of expectancy and grave anticipation, which precedes an occurrence of this sort.
Sheriff Boone made all preliminary preparations. Everything was ready. He went to the cell door. He opened it. And then Flores sprang forth like a beast from his lair and made a murderous attack, which nearly resulted in the death of Deputy Bryant.
KNOWN
It is not known how, or in what manner, the condemned men succeeded in concealing the wire daggers which they used in their murderous attack on the deputies today.
Last night Eugene Bruce, who was keeping the death watch, became suspicious of the movements of the prisoners and slipped up to their cell, unobserved. There he saw Flores facing him, while, with his back turned, Parra seemed to be engaged in filing or sharpening some instrument, and then to be wrapping a rag around one end of it, as though to make a handhold or handle. He showed this, whatever it was, to Flores, who grasped his hand violently and seemed about to wrest it from him. Then they both became aware of the presence of the deputy.
Sheriff Boone and Captain Lyons were immediately notified and the cell was searched, as well as the person of the prisoners, with the greatest care, but nothing was found.
Where they concealed the wire daggers is a mystery. These daggers are thought to have been made from bucket bails.
DISPOSITION OF THE BODIES
The body of Parra was taken charge of, after the hanging, by Lyons & Nagley and will be buried by the family of the dead man from their undertaking establishment tomorrow.
Flores' body was taken to an undertaking establishment, and it will also be buried by his family.
A PERFECT DROP
It was stated by the doctors that if the drop, which was a seven-foot one, had been six inches longer, in the case of Parra, the man's head would have been entirely severed from the body.
STORY OF THE CRIMES
For Which Parra and Antonio Flores Were Hanged
Ten years ago all this section of the country was infested, as a great part of it is still believed to be, by a band of horse thieves, extending to from the Pecos to Morenci, Arizona., and from there on to California. There were regular relay stations for the transfer of stolen stock along the way.
The leader in chief of all the bands for five years prior to that time had been Geronimo Parra, who gained a reputation for the greatest cunning, craft and reckless bravery among his associates and the officers of the law.
Depredations and thefts and even murders which occurred with increasing frequency were laid at the door of these outlaws, but they had never been well located until April of 1889, a stockman came to El Paso early one morning, and reported to the officers that a band of Mexican horse thieves was concealed in an arroyo, 15 miles out on the eastern slope of Mount Franklin, and that they had with them a big bunch of stolen stock. Barnes failed to estimate the full strength of the gang, and it was thought that there were only two or three men in the lot.
Sergeant George Fusselman (1), of the Texas state rangers, was in town at the time in attendance at court, and George Harold, now on the city police force, had just returned from Mexico, where he had seen long service as a detective scout under the Mexican government.
These two men, accompanied by Barnes, started out at 8 o'clock in the morning to capture the thieves.
They rode together to the base of the mountain, and there they captured an outlaw, who was left with Barnes for safe keeping. Fusselman and Harold rode cautiously on up the mountain, keeping a sharp eye out for the outlaws.
The rest of the story may best be told by Harold himself.
"We were riding on up the arroyo," says Harold "when suddenly, and without warning of any sort, the gang of seven opened fire on us, at distances varying from 10 to fifty yards. At the very first volley Fusselman fell from his horse, shot through his head by Parra. I jumped from my horse, throwing away my gun and sought cover. From behind a rock I opened fire with a six-shooter whenever a Mexican showed himself. They were for the most part well protected by the rocks, but one who was only a few yards from me exposed the entire upper part of his body, and I fired at short range, and hit him in the stomach.
"I made my way back to the foot of the mountain as best as I could and Barnes and I came back to town and notified the officers. A big posse immediately started for the mountain, arriving there that night, but the outlaws had vamoosed, and had left only a few fine horses."
Subsequently Parra was seen in Colemas riding the horse which Fusselman had ridden on the day of his death.
Shortly after, in New Mexico, Ben Williams, who has a wide reputation as a deputy of great bravery under Pat Garrett, of Las Cruces, captured Parra. The latter was then wanted on a charge of cattle stealing, and his identity was unknown to the officer making the arrest. He was captured only after a sharp resistance, and after several shots had been fired.
A year ago nearly, Capt. J. R. Hughes, of the Texas state rangers, discovered Parra in the New Mexico penitentiary, and he was re-indicted by the grand jury in El Paso, and was surrendered to the officials of this county by the territorial authorities.
He was convicted at a trial in this city last fall and sentenced by the judge to be hanged.
The crime of Flores was a far more cowardly one than that of his companion in death.
On the 19th day of March of the present year, Antonio Flores, on his way from mass, met the woman he loved and who did not love him in return. He pleaded with her to come with him. She would not. He became incensed, and then, with the savagery of a beast, leaped upon her and cut and stabbed her horribly and repeatedly with a long sharp knife. All this, too, in plain sight of two more not 500 yards away, who were powerless to help her, but who ran up and captured Flores, just as his fury was spent, and his victim sank in a helpless heap to the earth.
Two days later the woman died, and this last fall Flores was found guilty and was sentenced to be hanged.
*******************************
El Paso Daily Herald
Saturday, January 6, 1900
ECHOES OF YESTERDAY
Last Rights Over The Bodies Of Geronimo Parra And Antonio Flores
TALK OF THE HANGING
What Some People Have To Say Of The Dramatic Incidents At The Jail Yesterday
"The way Parra and Flores got the sharpened wire they used yesterday is clear to me now," said jailer Lyons. "Yesterday morning after the cells were searched Parra's brother came to see them. It was then that the prisoner told his brother what had happened, and evidently also he told him to bring fresh tools for weapons, for the brother left hurriedly, and shortly after two men, friends of the brother, whom I had seen with him before, came to see Parra.
They were admitted, and seemed unusually affectionate. During these affectionate embraces, I am satisfied that they contrived to slip to Parra the sharpened wire, which they had concealed, and which they could have used almost as effectively as daggers if they had had a chance."
The funerals of the two men hanged yesterday are taking place this afternoon.
Immediately after the execution, Nagley and Lyons took charge of the body of Parra. When the black cap was removed, it showed the body hanging to the head by the merest strip of muscle. A fall of a few inches further would undoubtedly have severed the head entirely. The face was composed, and wore a peaceful expression and this, so infrequent in men who have been hanged, is taken to show that death was instantaneous and painless.
Flores' face also wore a restful expression, and on the whole both executions are taken to have been successful.
A plaster of paris cast was placed around Parra's neck, holding the head in place and the body was delivered to the family. The funeral took place at three o'clock, and the body was buried in the Catholic cemetery.
Flores was buried in the Catholic cemetery, his funeral taking place at three o'clock.
"I consider my escape providential," said Captain Tim Lyons today. "The men had those wire daggers concealed about them, and probably if I had attempted to search them I would have been the victim of a murderous assault. As it was, I had searched them so frequently and had so lately searched the cell that I had no idea that anything could have been concealed on their persons."
Nothing but commendation can be given the sheriff and his deputies for their conduct yesterday. To visitors the cleanliness and absence of foul air was a pleasant surprise, while the conduct of the officers during the exciting events preceding the execution was both praiseworthy, and lacked nothing in the line of personal bravery. Parra was shoved back into his cell by Ten Eyck and Christly, and the officers who finally overwhelmed Flores showed no hesitation, though the strength and desperation of the prisoner seemed almost supernatural. When sheriff Boone in dramatic style declared that Parra should be shot, if necessary, but that none of his men should be killed, the spectators applauded.
‘Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good. The newspaper men of this city who serve outside papers had orders last night for details of the hanging running way up into the thousands. The Chicago Inter-Ocean, for instance, took 800 words, and New York, San Francisco, eastern, western and northern cities took proportionately big stories.
Local people, by the way, were inclined to be a bit skeptical about the seriousness of the outbreak, simply, perhaps, because it happened right here at home; but as a matter of fact, it is wonderful that it did not result far more seriously.
Yesterday was "Black Friday," so called for ages and ages. In every condition of life—in the church, in business, in the annals of crime—Friday seems to have a peculiar and unhappy association and in the matter of inflicting capital punishment especially. It has become a fixed custom that all criminals shall be hanged on Friday.
By three o'clock the Herald had a special edition, giving a complete account of the hanging, on the streets. It was a small bonanza for the news-boys, and though running up into the hundreds was exhausted before the regular editions appeared, / 50 minutes later.
"The reason of the almost total severance of Parra's head from his body," said a well known physician this morning, was that the rope was not tied tightly enough. The hanging of Flores had probably strained the knot and so it was impossible to adjust the rope as accurately as in the first instance. As a result the rope, with full play, swished into the neck like the cut of an axe, and was drawn into a knot as small in circumference as an apple."
Chief Lockhart, anticipating possible trouble from the crowd of 1000 Mexicans thronging the streets, the neighboring housetops, and box cars, had officer Harold on guard there. The crowd numbered many of Parra's friends, but no demonstration was made.
Jose Melendrez, the Mexican trustee who took French lead as the preparations for the hanging were going on, came back safely enough. He didn't try to escape, but he didn't want to see the hanging.
(1) True name: Charles Fusselman.
***Notes***
For additional information, see the findagrave entry for: Charles Fusselman, buried in the Lagarto cemetery, Live Oak County, Texas.
Exact burial location for Geronimo at Concordia is unknown. Catholic burials records prior to 1913 do not exist.
The El Paso, Texas, newspaper articles you see below describe the events of the hanging. The text is complete, with no omissions. They were copied word for word, exactly as they were written. The words can be graphic at times, but this was the style of writing used during that time period in our old west history.
El Paso Daily Herald
Friday January 5, 1900
FOUGHT WITH DAGGERS ON THE SCAFFOLD
Flores and Parra Attempt To Take Others With Them Into Eternity.
A THRILLING DENOUEMENT.
At The Execution Of Two Murderers This Afternoon--- The Murderous Assault Was Foiled and the MEN PAID THE PENALTY OF LAW.
They Fought Like Demons, But Were Overpowered by Deputies---Dramatic Climax When Sheriff Boone Went Into The Cell Of Parra---"If It Takes a Bullet, I'll Fire It," He Said.
The double hanging at the county jail today developed into one of the most sensational episodes in the criminal history of Texas.
As the cell was opened to conduct Antonio Flores to the scaffold, both he and Geronimo Parra suddenly drew wire daggers, previously sharpened and concealed about their persons, and made a desperate and vicious attack on the deputies surrounding them
Parra attacked Jim Hunter, who was guarding his cell door. Quickly State Ranger Saunderson drew his gun and covered the Mexican. Cowed, he shrank back into his cell and the door was quickly slammed. He was held safe for the moment but not so Flores, who was already out in the corridor.
Flores's Angry Cry
"You shall all go to hell with me," he yelled maddened with the thought of the awful fate soon to be his.
Then he sprang with his wicked dagger toward Ed Bryant and with vicious underhand strokes plunged it repeatedly into his clothing, attempting to reach a vital spot.
Instantly he was seized by powerful deputies, but the strength of a demon was his and for a full minute he fought the officers, until at last overpowered by four strong men.
Tim Lyons, Ed Bryant, Eugene Bruce and sheriff Boone seized him and bore him down to the iron floor. There he was held and the handcuffs were adjusted to his wrists.
When he was fully secured, evidently realizing the hopelessness of any further attempt, Flores became quiet, but there was in his eyes a look of demonical satisfaction of having done his best to take his keepers down to death with him.
His hands and feet were bound, and his knees also, and he was assisted to take his place above the final drop in the little enclosure in the corner of the corridor.
HIS FINAL FAREWELL
As he stood there, and as the death warrant was read to him by Deputy Comstock his eyes wandered over the crowd, eagerly seeking the face of someone he knew. As he recognized successively several acquaintances, Ike Alderete among them he murmured, slightly bowing, "Adios senores, adios."
He turned slightly and even though his hands were bound shook hands in token of mute good-bye with Alderete.
The reading of the death warrant took fully five minutes, and as Deputy Comstock read it was translated to the prisoner by Ed Bryant.
The prisoners color was ghastly, but his eyes seemed to express a sort of exultation, rather than fear.
When asked if he had anything to say, by the sheriff, he replied: "I wish to be pardoned for what I have done. I want my body to be delivered to my family. That is all I have to say."
His last words were translated by Bryant and when at their conclusion the sheriff asked if he had anything more to say, there was no reply and the black cap was adjusted.
"Keep quiet, gentleman," said sheriff Boone, when the fitting on of the black cap occasioned a stir and a movement forward among the onlookers.
"I want to talk with my son," came in muffled tones from the black cap. "Be still," said Father Pinto. "Your talk will be with God."
THE TRAP SPRUNG
There was a momentary pause, a sharp clang of the lever, the steel doors parted and that peculiar, sickening thud proclaimed that the rope had done it's work well, and the body of Antonio Flores hung, limp and inert, lazily swinging at the rope's end.
The drop was perfect. His neck was broken by the fall. There was no movement of the muscles, no contraction, nothing to show that the man had aught of feeling after the fall.
The body was allowed to hang for several moments without being disturbed.
The drop occurred at 1:31 o'clock. At 1:35 he was examined by Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Cantwell, Dr. Harleand and Dr. Sherman and pronounced dead. The body was permitted to hang until 1:49 o'clock, and then it was swung into the second tier of cells and the sheriff attempted to take the rope from around the neck.
So heavy was Flores and so great had been the force of the fall that it was found impossible to slip the rope from around the neck and four strong men drew the body up to the landing of the third tier of cells and there the rope was finally loosed from around his neck.
THAT WICKED DAGGER
Then came the most intensely dramatic incident of the day.
Parra, the desperate outlaw, about to be hung, was known to have concealed about him another of those wicked daggers with which Flores had almost done such deadly execution.
He was known to be desperate and it seemed as though he was determined to kill some one of the officers before he himself should die.
Then sheriff Boone said to those assembled in the jail. "Gentleman, we have had an unfortunate happening." This second prisoner may make an attack on the man who enters his cell. I cannot afford to have good citizens or my deputies murdered by this lawless man. I propose to do my duty. If it is necessary for me to kill this man, I must do it. I shall go in myself and take him out. If it takes a bullet to do the work, that bullet will be fired. I will give him fair warning through an interpreter that resistance means death."
PARRA HOLD UP YOUR HANDS
The precautions of the sheriff were effective. Parra held up his hands. The cell door was thrown open. He was seized, bound and conducted, stepping with a firm step to the scaffold.
It was 1:57 o'clock when Parra took his place on the scaffold. His face was ghastly but his eye was firm, and, with erect poise, head up he looked over the crowd with an unwavering gaze.
"Put your feet, together Parra," said the sheriff, and he obeyed as calmly as though posing for his picture.
As the sheriff bound his feet and knees, Father Pinto stood by his side and whispered words of hope and consolation into his ear.
The death warrant was read. Parra listened calmly and seemed unmoved. At the conclusion of the reading the sheriff asked if he had anything to say.
He answered in clear and ringing tones and his speech at times was almost impassioned.
ASKS PARDON OF ALL
"Gentleman, I tell you all good-bye. There are some whom I have offended. I trust that you will pardon me. I ask the pardon of all the world."
"There are those who have offended me and I forgive them all."
"Gentleman, I am going to die, but I am going to die an innocent man. I deliver my soul and heart to God, in whose presence I am. He is the only God."
"Gentleman, good-bye again to all. May God help you all. We have many of us made mistakes and we are all of us sinners."
Then with the priest murmuring words of comfort and faith, he repeated them in a firm voice. He kissed the rosary held out to him by the kindly hand of the priest, and calmly bent his head that the sheriff might the more easily adjust the cap of death.
"Gentleman, you will all be quiet," said sheriff Boone again. There was a stillness as of death. Again came the lever's sharp clang, the twang of the rope and the dull thud as the body reached it's end, and Parra, like Flores before him, hung lifeless.
The drop occurred at 2:04 o'clock. It was awfully, horribly effective. So far was the fall and with such swiftness did the body drop that not only was the jugular vein ruptured, but the head was almost severed from the body, and the dark red blood bubbled from beneath the black cap and ran down his clothes and fell in ghastly rings and pools on the steel floor below.
DEATH INSTANTANEOUS
The doctors think that in this instance death must have been merciful and instantaneous, but, as in the other case the body was allowed to hang until no doubt could remain. At 2:25 it was cut down.
BEFORE THE HANGING
Scenes In And About The Jail This Morning
All this morning the vicinity of the jail was thronged with a curious crowd of Mexican men and women, who for the most part, had been friends or acquaintances of one or the other of the condemned men. Curious eyes watched the coming and going of the friends of the men, of the officials, of the reporters, and of those others who had occasion to enter the jail.
Father Cordova, the priest who is accustomed to console the prisoners at the jail, came early and remained all morning with the men. Through his earnest efforts both men confessed and declared that they would die in the faith of the Catholic church. The Father read to them selections from the gospel of St. Luke, in Spanish, dwelling especially upon the fifteenth chapter.
With Parra were some eight relatives, including his brother and sister-in-law, with their children. These stood around, talked occasionally, but for the most part merely stared in apathetic and rather piteous fashion. Parra made up a bundle and gave it to one of them. In it were a few of his little possessions, which he wishes to be kept as remembrances by his family.
The men were given their dinner and Parra ate heartily, while Flores whose stomach had been troubling him during the night, also had a good appetite.
They thanked Captain Lyons for his attention and kindness to them and wished to be forgiven for all the wrong they had done.
Flores's family told him good-bye yesterday, and were not at the jail today.
Parra's family, including many relatives, staid until 11 o'clock, but their parting was singularly cool, and not marked by any display of affection.
HOW THEY GOT THE DAGGER NOT
It was ten minutes of one when the jail doors were opened and those who had been given passes were admitted by jailer Lyons. The crowd comfortably filled the ante room of the jail, and numbered perhaps one hundred in all.
Parra and Flores had just come down from the death cell, and had been conducted to the vacant cells on the third tier in the jail proper near the scaffold. They had come down one at a time, with Eugene Bruce, the death watch, in charge. Parra descended with firm step, and head erect. Flores came, with a hand on the banister, and a scuffling step.
The priests, Fathers Cordova and Pinto, attended them.
When the time came to admit the spectators into the jail enclosure, Sheriff Boone said:
The newspaper men and doctors will come in first and take their places. Then the others may follow."
As the spectators thronged into the scene of the hanging they saw the two priests on the outside of the cells talking to the prisoners through the bars.
Inside, the condemned men, clad only in shirt, shoes and trousers, with ghastly faces wan and drawn, pacing to and fro, with that peculiar, hopeless movement that one so often sees in wild animals confined in a cage.
As the spectators shifted into position there settled over them that air of expectancy and grave anticipation, which precedes an occurrence of this sort.
Sheriff Boone made all preliminary preparations. Everything was ready. He went to the cell door. He opened it. And then Flores sprang forth like a beast from his lair and made a murderous attack, which nearly resulted in the death of Deputy Bryant.
KNOWN
It is not known how, or in what manner, the condemned men succeeded in concealing the wire daggers which they used in their murderous attack on the deputies today.
Last night Eugene Bruce, who was keeping the death watch, became suspicious of the movements of the prisoners and slipped up to their cell, unobserved. There he saw Flores facing him, while, with his back turned, Parra seemed to be engaged in filing or sharpening some instrument, and then to be wrapping a rag around one end of it, as though to make a handhold or handle. He showed this, whatever it was, to Flores, who grasped his hand violently and seemed about to wrest it from him. Then they both became aware of the presence of the deputy.
Sheriff Boone and Captain Lyons were immediately notified and the cell was searched, as well as the person of the prisoners, with the greatest care, but nothing was found.
Where they concealed the wire daggers is a mystery. These daggers are thought to have been made from bucket bails.
DISPOSITION OF THE BODIES
The body of Parra was taken charge of, after the hanging, by Lyons & Nagley and will be buried by the family of the dead man from their undertaking establishment tomorrow.
Flores' body was taken to an undertaking establishment, and it will also be buried by his family.
A PERFECT DROP
It was stated by the doctors that if the drop, which was a seven-foot one, had been six inches longer, in the case of Parra, the man's head would have been entirely severed from the body.
STORY OF THE CRIMES
For Which Parra and Antonio Flores Were Hanged
Ten years ago all this section of the country was infested, as a great part of it is still believed to be, by a band of horse thieves, extending to from the Pecos to Morenci, Arizona., and from there on to California. There were regular relay stations for the transfer of stolen stock along the way.
The leader in chief of all the bands for five years prior to that time had been Geronimo Parra, who gained a reputation for the greatest cunning, craft and reckless bravery among his associates and the officers of the law.
Depredations and thefts and even murders which occurred with increasing frequency were laid at the door of these outlaws, but they had never been well located until April of 1889, a stockman came to El Paso early one morning, and reported to the officers that a band of Mexican horse thieves was concealed in an arroyo, 15 miles out on the eastern slope of Mount Franklin, and that they had with them a big bunch of stolen stock. Barnes failed to estimate the full strength of the gang, and it was thought that there were only two or three men in the lot.
Sergeant George Fusselman (1), of the Texas state rangers, was in town at the time in attendance at court, and George Harold, now on the city police force, had just returned from Mexico, where he had seen long service as a detective scout under the Mexican government.
These two men, accompanied by Barnes, started out at 8 o'clock in the morning to capture the thieves.
They rode together to the base of the mountain, and there they captured an outlaw, who was left with Barnes for safe keeping. Fusselman and Harold rode cautiously on up the mountain, keeping a sharp eye out for the outlaws.
The rest of the story may best be told by Harold himself.
"We were riding on up the arroyo," says Harold "when suddenly, and without warning of any sort, the gang of seven opened fire on us, at distances varying from 10 to fifty yards. At the very first volley Fusselman fell from his horse, shot through his head by Parra. I jumped from my horse, throwing away my gun and sought cover. From behind a rock I opened fire with a six-shooter whenever a Mexican showed himself. They were for the most part well protected by the rocks, but one who was only a few yards from me exposed the entire upper part of his body, and I fired at short range, and hit him in the stomach.
"I made my way back to the foot of the mountain as best as I could and Barnes and I came back to town and notified the officers. A big posse immediately started for the mountain, arriving there that night, but the outlaws had vamoosed, and had left only a few fine horses."
Subsequently Parra was seen in Colemas riding the horse which Fusselman had ridden on the day of his death.
Shortly after, in New Mexico, Ben Williams, who has a wide reputation as a deputy of great bravery under Pat Garrett, of Las Cruces, captured Parra. The latter was then wanted on a charge of cattle stealing, and his identity was unknown to the officer making the arrest. He was captured only after a sharp resistance, and after several shots had been fired.
A year ago nearly, Capt. J. R. Hughes, of the Texas state rangers, discovered Parra in the New Mexico penitentiary, and he was re-indicted by the grand jury in El Paso, and was surrendered to the officials of this county by the territorial authorities.
He was convicted at a trial in this city last fall and sentenced by the judge to be hanged.
The crime of Flores was a far more cowardly one than that of his companion in death.
On the 19th day of March of the present year, Antonio Flores, on his way from mass, met the woman he loved and who did not love him in return. He pleaded with her to come with him. She would not. He became incensed, and then, with the savagery of a beast, leaped upon her and cut and stabbed her horribly and repeatedly with a long sharp knife. All this, too, in plain sight of two more not 500 yards away, who were powerless to help her, but who ran up and captured Flores, just as his fury was spent, and his victim sank in a helpless heap to the earth.
Two days later the woman died, and this last fall Flores was found guilty and was sentenced to be hanged.
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El Paso Daily Herald
Saturday, January 6, 1900
ECHOES OF YESTERDAY
Last Rights Over The Bodies Of Geronimo Parra And Antonio Flores
TALK OF THE HANGING
What Some People Have To Say Of The Dramatic Incidents At The Jail Yesterday
"The way Parra and Flores got the sharpened wire they used yesterday is clear to me now," said jailer Lyons. "Yesterday morning after the cells were searched Parra's brother came to see them. It was then that the prisoner told his brother what had happened, and evidently also he told him to bring fresh tools for weapons, for the brother left hurriedly, and shortly after two men, friends of the brother, whom I had seen with him before, came to see Parra.
They were admitted, and seemed unusually affectionate. During these affectionate embraces, I am satisfied that they contrived to slip to Parra the sharpened wire, which they had concealed, and which they could have used almost as effectively as daggers if they had had a chance."
The funerals of the two men hanged yesterday are taking place this afternoon.
Immediately after the execution, Nagley and Lyons took charge of the body of Parra. When the black cap was removed, it showed the body hanging to the head by the merest strip of muscle. A fall of a few inches further would undoubtedly have severed the head entirely. The face was composed, and wore a peaceful expression and this, so infrequent in men who have been hanged, is taken to show that death was instantaneous and painless.
Flores' face also wore a restful expression, and on the whole both executions are taken to have been successful.
A plaster of paris cast was placed around Parra's neck, holding the head in place and the body was delivered to the family. The funeral took place at three o'clock, and the body was buried in the Catholic cemetery.
Flores was buried in the Catholic cemetery, his funeral taking place at three o'clock.
"I consider my escape providential," said Captain Tim Lyons today. "The men had those wire daggers concealed about them, and probably if I had attempted to search them I would have been the victim of a murderous assault. As it was, I had searched them so frequently and had so lately searched the cell that I had no idea that anything could have been concealed on their persons."
Nothing but commendation can be given the sheriff and his deputies for their conduct yesterday. To visitors the cleanliness and absence of foul air was a pleasant surprise, while the conduct of the officers during the exciting events preceding the execution was both praiseworthy, and lacked nothing in the line of personal bravery. Parra was shoved back into his cell by Ten Eyck and Christly, and the officers who finally overwhelmed Flores showed no hesitation, though the strength and desperation of the prisoner seemed almost supernatural. When sheriff Boone in dramatic style declared that Parra should be shot, if necessary, but that none of his men should be killed, the spectators applauded.
‘Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good. The newspaper men of this city who serve outside papers had orders last night for details of the hanging running way up into the thousands. The Chicago Inter-Ocean, for instance, took 800 words, and New York, San Francisco, eastern, western and northern cities took proportionately big stories.
Local people, by the way, were inclined to be a bit skeptical about the seriousness of the outbreak, simply, perhaps, because it happened right here at home; but as a matter of fact, it is wonderful that it did not result far more seriously.
Yesterday was "Black Friday," so called for ages and ages. In every condition of life—in the church, in business, in the annals of crime—Friday seems to have a peculiar and unhappy association and in the matter of inflicting capital punishment especially. It has become a fixed custom that all criminals shall be hanged on Friday.
By three o'clock the Herald had a special edition, giving a complete account of the hanging, on the streets. It was a small bonanza for the news-boys, and though running up into the hundreds was exhausted before the regular editions appeared, / 50 minutes later.
"The reason of the almost total severance of Parra's head from his body," said a well known physician this morning, was that the rope was not tied tightly enough. The hanging of Flores had probably strained the knot and so it was impossible to adjust the rope as accurately as in the first instance. As a result the rope, with full play, swished into the neck like the cut of an axe, and was drawn into a knot as small in circumference as an apple."
Chief Lockhart, anticipating possible trouble from the crowd of 1000 Mexicans thronging the streets, the neighboring housetops, and box cars, had officer Harold on guard there. The crowd numbered many of Parra's friends, but no demonstration was made.
Jose Melendrez, the Mexican trustee who took French lead as the preparations for the hanging were going on, came back safely enough. He didn't try to escape, but he didn't want to see the hanging.
(1) True name: Charles Fusselman.
***Notes***
For additional information, see the findagrave entry for: Charles Fusselman, buried in the Lagarto cemetery, Live Oak County, Texas.
Exact burial location for Geronimo at Concordia is unknown. Catholic burials records prior to 1913 do not exist.
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