On July 23 or 24, 1915, the brothers Lorenzo and Gorgonio Manríquez were killed near Mercedes, Texas, by deputy sheriffs, in a chain of events that unleashed violence across south Texas in late summer and fall of 1915. The double murder and subsequent events reveal many of the dynamics that made 1915 so violent: wrenching […]
In the summer of 1888, Texas Rangers Ira Aten and Jim King went undercover to try to identify and arrest so-called “fence cutters.” They were unsuccessful. In frustration, Aten developed a plan to hide mines in the fences, blowing them up when cutters approach. To understand how military equipment, like mines, could be introduced into
#OTD in 1915, Adolfo Muñoz was tortured, riddled with bullets, and hung from a mesquite tree two miles south of San Benito after mysteriously disappearing from the custody of deputy sheriff Frank Carr and former and future Ranger Daniel Hinojosa. TSHA Handbook entry on Daniel Hinojosa. Muñoz, whose names are given as “Rudolfo” or “Muñiz”
#OTD in 1915, Desiderio Flores, and his two sons, Desiderio Flores Jr., and Antonio Flores were shot and killed by Texas Rangers at their ranch outside of Brownsville.
#OTD in 1915, three supposed participants in the “Plan de San Diego” were killed by law enforcement.
On this day in 1918 US Scout Royall Collins and Texas Ranger J.J. Edds assaulted Aurelio Farfán in Rio Grande City.
#OTD in 1906, a midnight shooting rocked Brownsville, TX ending in the wounding of police Lt. Joe Dominguez and the murder of bartender Frank Natus, eventually leading to Ranger Captain William McDonald to investigate the alleged involvement of Black soldiers from Fort Brown.
#OTD in 1915, Tomas Aguilar was executed by Rangers after an alleged escape attempt. Ranger Captain James Monroe Fox oversaw the troop that murdered him.
#OTD on August 22, 1919, a federal court indicted Francisco “Chico” Cano on several charges, the most serious was for the 1915 murder of former Texas Ranger Joe Sitter.
#OTD in 1955, Tales of the Texas Rangers originally aired on the CBS network and continued for three seasons.
