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Los Alamos shack In happier times, Ines Fraser and children pose for John Fraser on the front porch of their shack at the Los Alamos mine. Circa 1911 (Photo from Fraser family records) |
Column No. 18
Bob Ring, Al Ring, Tallia Pfrimmer Cahoon
On February 27, 1920 two Mexican bandits, Manuel Garcia and Ezequiel Lara,
robbed the Ruby mercantile and brutally murdered the store’s new owners,
brothers John and Alexander Fraser. The bandits quickly fled over the border
(only five miles to the south) and escaped into Mexico.
County Ranger Oliver Parmer reported the initial results of the search for the
murderers of the Fraser brothers:
In the months that followed, the investigation went on with Santa Cruz County
Sheriff Earhart flooding the country with circulars describing the post office
killings. Many suspects were rounded up by able officers, but no charges were
made.
On March 11th, Mexican authorities stated that they wanted both Garcia and Lara
in Mexico for crimes committed there. In fact, both fugitives were renegades
from the Mexican federal army. Mexican authorities declared that they, “will
never give up the hunt until both bandits . . are captured and executed.”
In October, there was a break in the manhunt. Officers learned that Garcia had
re-crossed the international border from Mexico (perhaps driven across the
border by zealous Mexican search efforts). Lawmen tracked Garcia to the ranch of
a Mexican, named Bojorques, two miles west of Twin Buttes (about eight miles
northwest of today’s Green Valley).
Lara’s mother lived in Twin Buttes. Garcia and Lara had both worked at the Twin
Buttes mine before the Fraser brother murders, so that was one of the areas that
authorities kept an eye on. Garcia must not have realized that he had been
identified as one of the Fraser brothers killers. (Note: Garcia had long been a
fugitive from justice. He was also wanted for the murder of a customer during a
bank robbery on December 9, 1916 in Buckeye, Arizona, a few miles west of
Phoenix.)
On October 12, 1920, officials assigned Pima County Deputy Sheriffs George
McLure and George Holloway to make the arrest. The Tucson Citizen reported what
happened:
They arrived at the ranch about eight o’clock and found the man they wanted in
the corral.
Garcia submitted quietly but asked permission to go into the small adobe shack
and change his trousers.
He went in ahead of McLure who was more or less blinded by the darkness of the
house and did not see that Garcia darted for the bed and drew from the pillow a
heavy revolver until Garcia whirled and fired point blank at McLure, who was
close by his side. [McLure was wounded seriously, the bullet going in his right
side, through his intestines and almost exiting in the region of the spine.]
After he [Garcia] fired he struck McLure down with the butt of the gun.
George Holloway was in the house at the sound of the shot with his hand on his
revolver ready to draw. As he ran in, the Mexican met him with the butt of his
revolver. He struck Holloway on the shoulder as Holloway instinctively ducked.
As he struck, the revolver bounced out of the Mexican’s hand and he grasped
Holloway by both arms to prevent him from drawing. Together they wrestled over
the body of McLure, who recovering raised on his elbow. Holloway shouted to him
to shoot and then, believing he was getting the better of it told him not to
shoot. Finally Holloway got hold of the Mexican by the topknot and putting all
his strength, yanked him forward. The Mexican released Holloway’s gun arm and
backed away, his head down. He jerked loose and staggered back. As he did so,
both McLure and Holloway fired. One bullet hit him on each side the chest and he
fell dead.
For a few days there were fears that Deputy McLure would not survive the
shootout. But, McLure did indeed recover. Two weeks after the incident he
answered a letter of concern from murder victim John Fraser’s widow, Ines
Fraser:
I received your appreciated letter this morning and will say that I am very near
recovery only a little weak. . . I am very glad that Garcia has run his race and
will bother no one else. To say that he was cruel puts it mildly.
You may rest assured that if Lara is heard of in this country that the sheriff’s
office here will do all in its power to capture or kill him. . .
Ezequiel Lara never did come back to the United States, at least not long enough
to be caught. On June 11, 1921, the Nogales Herald reported that:
Ezequiel Lara, a Mexican on whose head there has been placed a bounty by the
sheriff of Santa Cruz County, for the killing of the Frazier Fraser brothers
of Ruby Arizona has at last been apprehended on June 7 and is at this time
incarcerated at Ures, Sonora, Mexico, awaiting trial for the killing of a
Chinese merchant.
On September 1, 1921, the Nogales Herald reported Lara’s final fate:
Ezequiel Lara, leader of the two bandits wanted for the killing of the Fraser
brothers at Ruby, Arizona, February 27, of last year, is in jail at Hermosillo,
Sonora about 170 miles south of the border, according to word brought here
today . . it is alleged, [Lara] killed a Chinaman at Ures, Sonora. He was
captured, escaped, and was recaptured four days ago . .
Though he was not put away for the murders of the Fraser brothers, Lara’s
imprisonment in Mexico effectively ended that crime saga.
But another, even more brutal crime, was about to take place at the same Ruby
mercantile.
(Sources: Oliver Parmer and Kathleen O’Donnell, “How We Trapped the Deadly
Border Bandits,” Startling Detective Adventures, 1936; Nogales Herald; Arizona
Republican; Tucson Citizen; Fraser family records)
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Los Alamos shack In happier times, Ines Fraser and children pose for John Fraser on the front porch of their shack at the Los Alamos mine. Circa 1911 (Photo from Fraser family records) |