The Espinosa Brothers - Part II of IV

Life was not much better in San Rafael. Felipe made adobe bricks while the other family members farmed the land. It wasn’t enough, driven by poverty, Felipe and his brother, Jose Vivian robbed a freight wagon belonging to a priest from Galisteo, New Mexico in early 1863. The wagon was driven by a teamster from the Conejos area named Juan Flugencio Gonzales. “The Espinosas took what they wanted and then tied the Mexican teamster in a knot and swung him to a staple on the end of the wagon tongue and started the team. After a time a traveler stopped the team and untied the teamster.”

This robbery changed the families’ lives forever. Although Felipe and Jose Vivian wore masks, the teamster recognized them and informed the authorities. The priest, upon hearing of the incident, rode to Santa Fe and informed General Carlton. The officer dispatched orders to Carson’s regiment at Fort Garland to arrest the Espinosas.

Lieutenant Hutt, Deputy U.S. Marshall George Austin and 15 soldiers went to the Espinosas’ San Rafael home.

Lieutenant Hutt asked the brothers to enlist, hoping to get them to the fort without a struggle. They declined and the lieutenant was forced to attempt to arrest them. “They sprang into the cabin, obtained their guns and broke out of the door firing into the soldiers. One soldier was killed. In the melee the brothers escaped into the mountains.” The charge of murder was added to the initial charge of robbery against the brothers.

Felipe and Jose Vivian hid out in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains during the early cold months of 1863, most likely with help from their family and community. In their absence, U.S. Marshall Hunt sent a force from Fort Garland to San Rafael. They burned the Espinosa family compound and confiscated their possessions. With their families in distress and without means of support, the brothers declared war on all ‘Anglos.’

The morning of March 16, 1863, “William Franklin Bruce kissed his bride goodbye and started from their log cabin near Canon City to his sawmill 12-miles up Hardscrabble Creek. The horses returned home alone that night with an empty wagon. Bruce’s body was found near the mill. He died without drawing his gun; shot through the heart and his head had been cleaved open with an axe. Several cross-like symbols were also carved across his chest with a knife. There was no clue as to who had slain him, nor why.”

Henry Harkins was “found hacked to death near his sawmill on the Little Fountain Creek in El Paso County. He, too, had been shot, his head split open with an ax, and mutilated in a similar manner as William Bruce. The killers left no trace.”

With no one knowing who committed these murders, the Espinosa brothers headed north undetected, staying in the mountainous areas and killing at random. “They preyed on isolated, unguarded communities—seeking out victims alone and far from help; where gunshots could not be heard for miles.”

On April 8th, two men Jacob Binkley and Abram Nelson Shoup were killed, apparently ambushed while they slept along the road between Fairplay and Denver, near a roadhouse named Kenosha House. “Binkley’s body was found at the campsite with a gunshot to the chest. Shoup’s body was found about 400 yards away from the campsite where it appears he had run away after being stabbed several times, then collapsed and died from loss of blood.” He was the brother of Colonel George L. Shoup serving at Fort Garland in command of a company of soldiers searching for the Espinosa brothers near San Rafael.

J. D. Addleman was shot to death at his small cabin on an isolated farmstead near the present-day community of Lake George. His body had reportedly been mutilated. “On May 2nd, William ‘Bill’ Carter was shot and killed three miles northwest of Fairplay at a place called Cottage Grove.”

This reign of terror prompted the dispatch of the militia to guard Fairplay, and Company I of the Second Regiment of Colorado Volunteers was ordered from Denver to patrol the area around Cañon City.

(to be continued)