El Paso - Jake Rivers

FOUR DEAD IN FIVE SECOND GUNFIGHT

On April 11, 1881, Dallas Stoudenmire became the sixth man in eight months to hold the office of El Paso marshal. The thirty-six-year-old had spent the previous years using his considerable gun fighting talents on both sides of the justice system. His time as the law in El Paso would prove to be equally checkered.

A gunfighter and lawman hailing from Alabama and six foot tall at age fifteen, Dallas Stoudenmire joined the Confederate Army. His age was discovered and he was twice kicked out before finally being allowed to stay in the army with the 45th Alabama Infantry, was wounded several times and carried two bullets with him for the rest of his life.

When the war was over he moved to Columbus, Texas around 1867, where he reputedly killed several men. Though known as a dangerous man, the 6'4" Dallas was known to have been quite a gentleman around the ladies, who found his handsome face and sharp dress quite attractive.

He had an extremely bad temper, especially when drunk. Continuing to sharpen his shooting skills, he became equally accurate with both hands and always wore two guns. During the years immediately after the war, Dallas worked as a sheep farmer, wheelwright, proprietor, merchandiser and carpenter.

He eventually became a Texas Ranger and stayed with them for three years. He had a good reputation with them that he would maintain through the years. For a while in January 1874 he was a second sergeant in J. R. Waller's Company A of the Texas Rangers.

After his time in the Rangers, he lived briefly in the Texas Panhandle, during the days of Maximillan, and served a short stint as a marshal in Socorro, New Mexico.

While he was in Socorro, his brother-in-law, "Doc" Cummings, who lived in El Paso, Texas, convinced him that he should come there and take up the marshal's position.

In 1881, four major railroads met in El Paso, bringing with them gamblers, gunslingers and prostitutes. El Paso became a safe haven for all kinds of criminals. Refugees from both Mexico and the United States hid there since the closest sheriff's office was over fifteen miles away, and the Texas Rangers were rarely around.

The city hoped to bring in someone from the "outside" that had a reputation as "tough" as the town. Dallas Stoudenmire fit the bill. In early April 1881, he traveled to El Paso and was hired almost immediately, starting his new position on April 11th.

His first task was to get the city jail keys from a deputy marshal who also just happened to be the town drunk. When Stoudenmire approached the drunken deputy, Bill Johnson, to get the keys, Johnson mumbled that he would go home and figure out which ones they were. Stoudenmire became impatient and demanded the keys immediately. When Johnson continued to delay, Dallas physically turned the man upside down, took the keys, and threw him to the ground. Stoudenmire wasted no time living up to his tough reputation, as he humiliated Bill Johnson.

Three days later he played a key role in the incredible "Four Dead in Five Seconds" gunfight in downtown El Paso. Sometimes referred to as the "Battle of Keating's Saloon," this gunfight occurred on April 14. Four men were killed during an historically short window of violence.

Witnesses were in general agreement that the incident lasted no more than five seconds. The five seconds began when a single gunshot was fired. After a few seconds, Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire ran on to the street and commenced firing without uttering a word. He fired rapidly with his twin .44 Colt revolvers, killing three men in about four seconds.

The whole affair began when the Manning Brothers had stolen a herd of about thirty head of cattle in Mexico and drove them into Texas to sell. When Texas Ranger Ed Fitch and two Mexican farmhands by the names of Sanchez and Juarique investigated, the two Mexican men where killed. This led to a Mexican posse of more than seventy-five men to cross into Texas seeking an investigation.

Ben Schucter, mayor of El Paso, made an exception for the Mexicans, and allowed them to enter the city limits with their firearms. Gus Krempkau, an El Paso County Constable, accompanied the posse to the ranch of Johnny Hale, a local ranch owner and suspected cattle rustler. Hale lived some thirteen miles northwest of El Paso in the Upper Valley. The corpses of the two missing men were located near Hale's ranch and were carried back to El Paso.

A court in El Paso held an inquest into the deaths, with Constable Krempkau, who was fluent in Spanish, acting as an interpreter. The verdict was that Sanchez and Juarique had been in the vicinity of Hale's ranch attempting to locate the thirty stolen cattle. The court determined that the American cattle rustlers, among them Hale, had feared that the men would discover the cattle and return with a larger force, and that two American rustlers had ambushed Sanchez and Juarique either during the night of April 13 or in the early morning of the 14th.

Meanwhile, a large crowd had gathered in El Paso, including John Hale and his friend, former town Marshal George Campbell. There was tension between some of the Americans, concerned about the Mexicans being heavily armed within the city, and the Mexicans, who wanted justice for their two murdered comrades. After the inquest, the court was adjourned and the crowd dispersed. The Mexicans rode quietly back to Mexico with the bodies.

The new marshal, Dallas Stoudenmire, a noted gunman had been present in the courtroom. After the court adjourned, he walked across the street for dinner.

Constable Krempkau went next door to Keating's Saloon, one of the worst pestholes in El Paso, Texas. There, a confrontation erupted between Krempkau and ex-City Marshal, George Campbell, who was a friend of John Hale's. Also in the saloon was Hale himself, who was unarmed, heavily intoxicated, and quite upset with Krempkau due to his role in the investigation.

Suddenly, the drunken Hale pulled one of Campbell's two pistols, shouting, "George, I've got you covered!"

Hale then shot Krempkau, who fell wounded against the saloon door. Realizing what he had done, the quickly sobering John Hale ran behind a post in front of the saloon just as Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire appeared with his pistols raised.

While running, Stoudenmire fired once, wildly, killing Ochoa, an innocent college-educated Mexican bystander, who had not fired the shot but was running for cover. When Hale peeked out from behind the post, Stoudenmire fired again, hitting Hale between his eyes and killing him instantly.

In the meantime, when Campbell saw Hale go down, he exited the saloon, waving his gun and yelling, "Gentlemen, this is not my fight!"

However, the wounded Krempkau disagreed with him, and though down, fired at Campbell, striking him in the wrist and in the toe. At the same time, Stoudenmire whirled and also fired on Campbell, pumping three bullets into his stomach.

As Campbell crashed to the dusty street, he shouted, "You son of a bitch, you have murdered me!"

When the dust cleared, both George Campbell and Constable Krempkau lay dead.

After just a few seconds of gunfire, four men lay dead or dying. Hale had mortally wounded Krempkau. Stoudenmire had killed Ochoa, while aiming at Hale, and then killed Hale with a shot to the head and mortally wounded Campbell. Three Texas Rangers were standing nearby, but did not take part, saying later that they felt Stoudenmire had the situation well in hand.

In less than five seconds in a near comic opera gun battle, four men lay dead. The killers of the two Mexican farmhands were never caught.

This gunfight was well publicized in newspapers in cities as far away as San Francisco and New York City and made Dallas Stoudenmire a legend.

LOOKING FOR FALEENA - JOHN

I finally made the time to start working on Faleena's story. I went through the material María had sent me and made notes on the parts I wanted to corroborate. I wrote a friend in Santa Fe and eventually drove up to talk with him and look through some archived letters.

This was during the Thanksgiving break. I figured I'd spend two or three days in Santa Fe and then drive down to Pecos to be with my family.

The guy I was meeting with was a retired history professor from the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts in Las Cruces. His name was Andy Sheedy and loved Santa Fe and made it his home upon his retirement.

"I have found several things for you. At that time there was no church close by so priests from Santa Fe would go out several times a year to the small villages and isolated settlements to perform weddings and baptisms along with other pastoral work. I did find Faleena's baptism record in the archives at the Mission here.

"She was baptized as Felina Esmeralda Acosto in 1860. That same year a land grant was given to Francisco Martinez for land in the Tierra Amarilla Valley. I do find records that show her father was on the land of the grant and that he, over the years, purchased the land he had been on from Martinez. This appears to be the basis for what is now the De La Puente ranch, La Baca."

"Andy, you've earned the nicest dinner I can afford. Did you find anything about her time in Santa Fe?"

"Yeah, I found several references … nothing in too much detail. I'll show you what I have."

The next day I spent several hours in the basement of the Santa Fe New Mexican. I found several additional references to her including a brief article about her taking a stage to El Paso in July of 1880. Her name was listed in the article as "Faleena," so at some point the spelling of her name was changed. I'd guess the writer of the article was an English speaker and spelled her name as it sounded to her.

When I got back to El Paso I started pulling my data together and began a draft on what I had so far. I was going ahead even though I didn't have confirmation of her time spent in El Paso. I had a draft completed by Christmas and showed it to my dad. He made a couple of suggestions – which I liked – and was very positive in his comments.

The semester was suddenly over and I started preparing for the spring courses. I got the class list and was stunned to see María's name, still with her maiden name of De La Puente. I thought about calling Pablo to see what was going on but decided to wait until the classes started and just see what happened.

The first day of class she came in at the last minute, blushing furiously, and went to the back of the room. She avoided eye contact with me and rushed out after the class before I got a chance to talk to her. That went on for several days before I ran into her in the cafeteria. I saw her sitting there – alone by the window – and sat down without an invitation.

"Hello, María. It's nice to see you." I tried to keep the bitterness out of my voice as I said this. We certainly never had any kind of agreement but I still felt rather empty about it.

She blushed again, looked away, and then looked me straight in the eye. With a quiet, but firm voice, she told me what had happened. "When you first came to the ranch, I … well, I liked you a lot. Then you were gone and didn't come back except for that short visit when we … well, when we kissed. I had no idea how long you were going to be in Korea. When I started going with Alberto, I'd never really even dated anyone. His family has the ranch next to ours and I'd known him all my life."

"I was … really young and didn't know anything about life and love. He had kissed me a couple of times. It was sweet but it seemed the same as holding hands. Then when you kissed me that weekend," her face turned scarlet as she said this, "I understood what passion was. You made me feel something that I'd never felt before. I felt your love. I saw your … your need too. I realized … I knew my love for you and it scared me."

She took my hand in hers and continued, "That afternoon, after you left I was sitting on the bench under that big cottonwood in front of the ranch house and dad came out and caught me crying. He put his arms around me and it all came out. He told me he would take care of canceling the weekend.

He told me, "Honey, I always thought you were too young to make such a big decision. Your mom likes Alberto 'cause he's Catholic and John isn't, but hell, girl, I don't care. I just want you to be happy. I suggest you go to school and go slowly with both of them. Just take your time and find out what your heart tells you to do."

"But, Johnnie, I know what my heart says. After what happened when you came up, I was afraid to say anything to you. I … I didn't know how you felt anymore. Johnnie, please don't hate me, please?"

What could I say? The range of emotions I was feeling overwhelmed me. For now I took her hand and kissed it gently and gave her a big smile.

I asked her to change to another writing section – I couldn't date someone I was teaching and I sure wanted to date her. I invited her to dinner at a small Mexican place that an old friend of mine owned.

At dinner that night we agreed to take it slow and get to know each other better. I gave her the latest draft of "Faleena" and, after I included her thoughts, I sent it to my agent.

My life suddenly looked like it would be just as happy as Faleena's had been sad.

FALEENA – PART I

The rain fell with a fury on the small ranch perched precariously on the side of a hill. Above, a normally bone-dry barranca rapidly filled with the mad power unleashed by the heavy downpour. The rushing water, dirty with debris and rocks that slammed into each other, added to the violent sounds of an angry land.

The semi-arid country was illuminated with flashes of hell as the storm moved slowly across the ranch. The overwhelming din of the thunder drowned out the thin keening of the tiny girl as she entered the world with the same anger and violence of the storm.

José gently handed the squalling baby to his wife as he wiped his forehead off with the stained sleeve of his shirt. He stared at the blood on his hands and had a vision of this same child years later with blood staining the white radiance of her blouse now lewdly covering the shattered breast unclothed by the violent path of the bullet.

José gave a deep sigh and took the now murky water in the basin and emptied it out the door. Filling it from the pump under the porch overhang he took it in and cleaned his temporarily unlovely wife as best he could. Eighteen months later Felina's sister, Esmeralda was born.

When Felina's lips touched her mother's breast for the first time the storm ended as quickly as it began. The glow of the full moon again lighted the world and the stars shone with a special brightness – trying, it seemed, to match the beauty of the small girl-child that heaven had sent this deserving couple to bless their days and nights.

José and his wife, Marta, raised the girls as best they could; one turned out to be a child graced by God, the other … wasn't. Esmeralda communed with God; Felina had crazy dreams.

Felina was always restless, always wandering off. Even at a young age she had a rare beauty with raven black hair and lustrous brown eyes. Her figure ripened at a young age and one morning when José came in from his chores his quiet Esmeralda told him that Felina had taken off for Santa Fe during the night.

"She ran away in the early morning hours in the moon's golden gleam. She said she was tired of the desert nights, the endless fight with poverty, the grief and strife of living as we do … and living in this shack that God gave us. She said she wanted to roam; she didn't know where she would go but she would get there. She told me she would find happiness if only she could follow her dream. She didn't say she was going to Santa Fe, but ever since that trader came by several months ago she has talked everyday about what it must be like there."

Jose and his wife looked at each other in wonder, the question in their eyes. What had made her run away; what had made her leave her home where she was loved?

It was a sad time for Jose, Marta and their remaining daughter because Felina had a vivacity that lit up their poor adobe hovel that pretended to be a ranch house, and at times made it seem a magical place.

After she ran away, she went to Santa Fe and found the bright lights of the saloons and dance halls of the city a mecca for her restless yearning and need for attention. Everyone wanted a dance with her – her eyes would sparkle when the inevitable fight caused by her flirting with one and all took place. Felina would always reward the winner with an extra dance.

In the year she stayed in Santa Fe she learned about life and men. She found that a smile would buy her pretty clothes or that she could be any man's wife. The two times Felina came home from Santa Fe were both times of joy and unabated sadness. The joy sprang from her family's love for Felina … her ever-gaudier clothes foretold a time of hurt for this restless young woman.

Rich men romanced her, they dined and they danced with Felina.

She understood men and she treated them all just the same. Felina was beautiful to look at with a figure that was lovely to behold and long, dark glossy hair

As the months went by she found that Santa Fe was not enough for her and she came to be more and more restless. She knew she had to get away to town … any town where the lights had a much brighter glow. One cowboy mentioned the town of El Paso. He told her that they never stopped dancing in the cantinas and money flowed like whiskey.

She bought a one-way, a ticket away from Santa Fe. One of her admirers worked for the Santa Fe paper and wrote an article about the bright gleam of life that was leaving Santa Fe. He was a gringo and Felina laughed when she saw her name spelled, Faleena. Yes, she decided, yes, in El Paso I shall be Faleena!

María Elena – and john

I don't know why I was surprised but María turned out to have an excellent grasp of writing and grammar and over time became a great editor. She started by reviewing my writing and notes on Faleena and then gradually started editing everything I wrote. My agent in San Antonio called me to say how much easier my stuff was to sell when it was clean. María also turned out to be a keen and aggressive researcher. I started showing her the various sources for obtaining different types of data and she took to it right away.

We both wanted to go very slow with our love – even though both of us knew it was real. I guess we figured if it was forever, then there was no need to rush. We had seen how much pain could be so easily given … how easy false assumptions and lack of communication could hurt someone. Neither of us wanted to feel that kind of anguish again.

We worked hard at our relationship – becoming quite intimate emotionally and intellectually while remaining relatively chaste physically. We weren't specifically waiting for marriage, though if it happened that way we were okay with it. It was more that we felt we would know when the time was right. It was several months before we kissed again with the intensity of that first kiss at her parents' ranch.

About once a month we would drive to my parents for the weekend or take the train to the ranch in the Tierra Amarilla Valley. It turned out that taking the train was easier and faster to get to her parents' place than driving. I kept up my friendship with Pablo and he had already asked if he could be the best man. After a few months it started getting strange since both sets of parents kept asking when we were going to set the date. I think they just wanted a party.