#OTD on November 10, 1906 Texas Ranger Captain William McDonald and several others shot and killed at least 4 Mexican men and wounded several others. The incident shows how border tensions and inaccurate news reporting caused problems in Texas.

McDonald had been sent to the border near Rio Grande City to search for the killers of Judge Stanley Welch, who had presided over the trial of Gregorio Cortez. Unknown assailants had killed him earlier in 1906 and law enforcement suspected Mexicans.

https://x.com/Refusing2Forget/status/1668979122486353923?s=20

McDonald arrived in the region with a posse of four men, whom the press referred to as “rangers” with a lowercase “r.” According to newspaper sources, the Mexican men ambushed McDonald as he neared Rio Grande City in an attempt to halt the Welch investigation.

The actual situation was more mundane. The rangers had encountered a covered wagon with several men returning home intoxicated after a party. When McDonald announced himself as a Ranger, Juan Garcia Perez jumped out of the hack excitedly and started shooting.

The rangers returned fire and killed four, including Garcia, Candelario Garcia Farias, Gaspar Osuna, and Jose Vaneca. They wounded Manuel Osuna, who later gave testimony in the case.

According to Osuna, Garcia Perez heard “rangers” and freaked out and started shooting. The rangers returned fire. The other Mexican men may have also then returned fire, the record is unclear. What is clear is that almost all of them ended up dead. The rangers were unharmed.

This was not a “premeditated assault,” as the Brownsville Herald put it, rather it showed just how tense South Texas was at the time. That a man could hear “rangers” and be overcome with such fear or anger shows that.

A key source for this post is @historybrian’s https://uncpress.org/book/9781469670126/borders-of-violence-and-justice/