#OTD in 1881 the Texas Rangers crossed the border into Mexico to illegally apprehend Onofrio Baca on a charge of murder. They delivered Baca to authorities in New Mexico. He was lynched shortly thereafter.
The story began with the murder of Anthony M. Conklin, edited of the Socorro Sun, in Socorro, NM in December 1880. Conklin and his wife had attended a church festival that brothers Abran and Onofrio (sometimes Enofrio or Onofre) Baca, and a cousin, Antonio, also attended.
The Bacas, all members of an elite family, allegedly caused a disturbance and Conklin, who served as usher, intervened. The Bacas left the church. Later, when Conklin and his wife left the event, the Bacas initiated a confrontation with him and Onofrio shot and killed him.
Antonio Baca was captured quickly but Adran and Onofrio fled. Barely one day later Antonio was killed in an alleged escape attempt. This may have been a ley fuga killing. Abran made it to El Paso before he was captured. Onofrio escaped to Mexico.
In early 1881, Texas Rangers James Gillett and George Lloyd, members of Company D Frontier Battalion, decided to cross the border to apprehend Onofrio. They captured him in Zaragosa near Ciudad Juarez. They returned him to Socorro. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/gillett-james-buchanan
A short time later a mob of men broke into the jail, overpowered the jailor, and removed Baca. They tossed a rope over the crossbeams of the courthouse gate and hung Baca. Local papers justified the lynching, calling Baca a “cowardly brute” and the mob a “lynch court.”
The Mexican government did intervene in this case. Envoy Manuel de Zamacona wrote to US Secretary of State James G. Blaine complaining about the violation of Mexico’s territorial sovereignty. Blaine’s formulaic response suggest the incident cause little concern in the US.
The state did bring Abran Baca to trial for Conklin’s murder. A jury acquitted him of the murder in April 1881.
This was one of the numerous lynchings in New Mexico. It was also one of a number of time when Rangers violated international law by crossing into Mexico and when they turned people over to mobs for execution, although it does not appear that they participated in the murder.
This thread is a part of the #OTD in Ranger history campaign that @Refusing2Forget is running this year. Follow this twitter handle or https://refusingtoforget.org/ranger-bicentennial-project/, and visit our website https://refusingtoforget.org to learn more.
The key source for this thread is @HistoryBrian’s Borders of Violence and Justice and @CliveWebb14 and William Carrigan’s Forgotten Dead
Refusing to Forget members are @ccarmonawriter @carmona2208 @acerift @soniahistoria@BenjaminHJohns1 @LeahLochoa @MonicaMnzMtz and @Alacranita, another co-founder is @GonzalesT956
@emmpask @sdcroll @HistoryBrian @LorienTinuviel @hangryhistorian, @ddsanchez432! , Brent Campney, and Miguel Levario are other scholars working on this project.
