Near Norias, A Case of Ranger Justice?
Compiled by Norman Rozeff
Harlingen Historical Preservation Society, August 2007
A recent contribution to the Archive Room of the Harlingen Public Library is a binder with several months of the The Daily Sentinel, a Brownsville newspaper. The dates covered are April, May, and June 1916. The pages are in a fragile state but constitute a very important document in that they cover a very active military period along the U.S.- Mexico border. In fact, the majority of the news items deal with military matters.
Touching a more local matter of some import, the paper, on three days, prints stories concerning the Norias Ranch Raid of August 8, 1915. The first occurs on Tuesday 5/23/16 as a front-page article and as submitted by a Special Correspondent reads:
Sheriff Atkins of Wallace (sic) County personally identified Col. Luis Morin, an alleged Villista, as being "Captain Morin" who last fall lead an attack by bandits on Norias ranch where two were killed and two wounded. Morin was arrested two weeks ago near San Antonio by federal officers, it being alleged that he was behind a plot hatched for a Mexican uprising in Southern Texas.
Another important identification was made by Doc Scarrett (sic), a brakeman on the Brownsville train wrecked last October near Brownsville, at which time Dr. McCain and two others were fatally wounded. Scarrett (sic) said that Victoriano Ponce was one of the bandits that robbed the passengers on that train. Ponce, who has been working as a baker at Kingsville, was arrested by Sheriff Scarborough. Morin and Ponce tonight were taken to the Brownsville jail.
NOTE:--Inquiry at the jail at a late hour elicited the information that no prisoners had been received during the night.
On page 4 the newspaper ran a lengthy article titled "Rangers Capture alleged Bandits On Last Sunday". It stated:
Five members of Captain Sanders' company of Texas rangers, headquartered in Alice, brought two Mexicans suspected of banditry, to Norias yesterday for identification. The suspects were captured Sunday on the King Ranch and lodged in jail at Kingsville. They were brought to Norias yesterday according to the statement of passengers arriving here yesterday at noon.
One of the suspects was identified as a member of the band that took part in the fight at Norias last summer early in the bandit disorders. The identification was made by Manuel Rincones, an aged Mexican at Norias, who was with the bandits for several days. He says he was forced to join the outlaws as a guide, and that he made his escape just as soon as possible. This statement is accepted as true by the peace officers of that section, who have known the old Mexican a long time. Rincones is positive in his identification of one of the men captured Sunday by the rangers, declaring that he was undoubtedly a member of the Mexican band at the Norias fight.
The other man captured is believed to have been a member of the gang that wrecked and robbed the St. L., B. & M. passenger train on October 18, 1915 when three Americans lost their lives. Conclusive identification has not yet been made, but the rangers believe they have made no mistake.
Following the identification of the man as a member of the Norias band, the five rangers with their passengers left on the afternoon train for the north. They declined to say just where they would take their prisoners, but it is presumed they will be jailed either at Kingsville or Sarita.
The following day had a story headline that read: Kleburg Sheriff Knows Nothing of Morin's Death—Says he last saw Morin when he turned man over to Willacy County officers. The story goes on to read:
J. S. Scarborough, Sheriff of Kleburg County, wired the Sentinel last night that he had no information of the whereabouts of Luis Morin further than that gleaned from newspaper accounts.
Following reports yesterday that Luis Morin and Victoriano Ponce had been killed while attempting to escape from Willacy County officers and Texas state rangers near Norias, the Sentinel wired Sheriff Scarborough for confirmation. Mr. Scarborough replied as follows: "Morin was delivered to authorities of Willacy County on 5/21 and was identified as a noted bandit who took part in the Norias ranch raid as well as other raids in the Valley. I have no further information other than newspaper reports. Signed J.S. Scarborough"
According to a dispatch in yesterday's Sentinel, Morin was personally identified at Kingsville by Sheriff Atkins of Willacy County as being "Captain Morin" who led the bandit attack at Norias ranch. The man was arrested on the train two weeks ago on the train near San Antonio.
Another important identification made at the same time as Morin was recognized was that of Victoriano Ponce who was identified by Doc Sterrett as one of the bandits who robbed the passenger train on 10/19/15.
Both men were carried to Norias, where Morin was identified by Manuel Rincones, the aged Mexican who was forced by bandits to accompany them for several days and who upon his release made a confession to the officers, which was printed in the Sentinel at the time.
On 5/25/07 the Sentinel ran a story headlined: Morin and Ponce Did Make Dash for Freedom—Jumped From Car Near Norias But Their Fate Yet Remains In Doubt. The story then read as follows:
It has been learned on excellent authority that Luis Morin and Victoriano Ponce did make an effort to escape from officers near Norias where they had been carried for identification, but their fate yet remains a mystery so far as can be ascertained here.
It is reliably stated that Morin and Ponce jumped from an automobile after they had been taken away from Norias to a destination that remains unknown. Neither can it be definitely ascertained whether or not they effected an escape when they made a dash for liberty. One report has it that the car was slowly pulling through a deep sand bank when the prisoners jumped and succeeded in getting into the brush thus effecting a complete escape. This report is scouted in this city.
It is generally believed that if the men tried to escape, as is authoritatively stated, they were either recaptured or shot down.
Morin it will be remembered was identified at Norias by Manuel Rincones, as the leader of the band that attacked the Norias ranch. Rincones was forced to accompany this band and remained with it for several days before he could make his escape.
Ponce was identified by Doc Sterrett as one of the band that wrecked and robbed the passenger train Oct. 19, 1915.
The same issue carried a denial by Sheriff Atkins. This was also on page 2. He stated that he did not identify Col. Luis Morin and "I saw Col. Morin at Kingsville on or about 5/14 and am certain I never saw the man before that date." The newspaper identification of Morin with the given name Luis is likely the result of confusion in that rebel Luis De la Rosa was the probable leader of the band that attacked the Norias ranch house, and some also attribute the Brownsville train attack to him.
The following issues of the paper available at the library run through June 30, 1916 and do not again touch upon Morin and Ponce and their destiny.
In his book "Revolution in Texas", Benjamin Heber Johnson quotes from a report of Manuel Sorola, August 16, 1916, Bureau of Investigation (predecessor to the FBI). In it Sorola mentions the lynching of Ponce and Morin [referred to elsewhere in the book as Jose Morin] in Kingsville. Lynch means: "to put to death by mob action without legal sanction". [Perhaps execution or murder would been the better terminology to use if only the five rangers were involved.]
F. Arturo Rosales, an Arizona State University professor in his book "Pobre Raza: Violence, Justice and Mobilization Among Mexico Lindo Immigrants, 1900-1936" also touches on the subject and helps to clarify the background of it all. He writes in his first chapter: Rumors persisted that raids would continue. Plan de San Diego leader Luis de la Rosa planned an invasion of Texas sometimes between May 10 and 15, said U.S. officials. According to the Houston Chronicle, the uprising included New Mexico and Arizona. May 11 [1916] U.S. authorities arrested a number of Mexicans in Corpus Christi on charges of involvement in the conspiracy. The most prominent of the plotters were Colonel Morin, a former Villista; Euralio Velasquez, a newspaper editor; and Victoria (sic) Ponce, a merchant. Authorities released most of thirty or so Mexicans arrested in the plot [including the editor], but the ringleaders [apparently Morin and Ponce] turned over to the Texas Rangers disappeared.
James A. Sandos in his 1992 book, "Rebellion in the Borderlands: Anarchism and the Plan of San Diego, 1904-1923", provides more detailed information on the affair. This is gleaned from a report made by Charles Warner to L. S. Rowe, August 29, 1916 and later stored as Gray-Lane Files, Doc. #56, RG 43 in the National Archives.
Quoting from the book he writes:
" In April and May of 1916, Department of Justice agents in San Antonio learned of another plot against Texas—this one to be led by former Constitutionalist and later Villista General, Jose Morin. He had been recruited by a cousin of De la Rosa and had agreed to organize a band to cut rail and telegraph connections around San Antonio and then attack and burn the city. Morin pledged to do the same to other valley towns including Brownsville, Mission, and Kingsville.
When Morin decided to make Victoriano Ponce his chief operative in Kingsville, Ponce informed on him. Ponce, a former soldier turned baker, wanted no part of the conspiracy to promote an uprising among Mexicans and Tejanos living in South Texas. When Morin boarded a train in early May bound for Kingsville, Agent Howard P. Wright followed him and arrested him when he tried to leave the train.
Wright took Morin to Kingsville and turned him over to local authorities. Wright also requested that Ponce be placed in protective custody. On the night of May 23, however, the sheriff of Willacy County took both prisoners from the Kingsville jail. Morin was charged with murder and Ponce with train wrecking. Outside of town, the sheriff turned them over to Texas Rangers from Captain J. J. Sanders' Company "A", and they were not heard from again. They were presumed dead."
Regrettably an intimidated old (in his late 70s) Mexican, fearful of reprisal, may have become a pawn in a very dangerous game. If one reads between the lines it might be concluded that both Morin and Ponce were likely victims of vigilante justice. Sadly to relate, this was not an exceptional occurrence in this very unsettled period in South Texas history. In relating the facts of Morin and Ponce there was a considerable number of inconsistent statements on the part of both lawmen and reporters. One immediately asks, "Why weren't the two handcuffed and/or leg shackled?" If the two had escaped to live, and, even without recapture, rationale would have it they would have been indicted by a grand jury for their alleged crimes. That they weren't signifies something of their real fate. Certainly they never reached the point wherein they were offered and received the rule of law. In the end, the murky participation of Rangers and the utter transparency of the affair are disgusting. While Morin very well may have been involved in complicity to break the law, he still warranted the legality of governmental justice. The unfortunate Ponce appears to have been an innocent victim of entanglement and rush to judgment.