On the Trail with Sheriff Will Diaz – Conejos County – A Bad Guy of Conejos County – Jose Ortiz

History isn’t always made by the well known.

But there were countless unknowns who are regulated to fading newspapers and ancient postcards.

Such a person was Jose Ortiz. I seem to recall my father saying something about him, but not much else. It wasn’t until my first tour with the Conejos Sheriff’s Office that I found out the full story. We had a picture of his hanging in the lobby of the Sheriff’s Office, and Sheriff Toby Madrid knew the story.

I’m relating it pretty much as he related it to me, and the story seems to have come down fairly intact. it should be pointed out there’s a least two different versions of the story, but they agree in most respects. one story doesn’t give much of a motive, and the other does.

The hanging occurred in July of 1889.

I tell the story in Event Horizon. But I think I’ll let my characters tell it.

Jonesy was looking at the pictures in the lobby. One of the images was of a hanging, and it had caught his attention.

“Now, there’s something you wouldn’t see in an LAPD substation.”

“His name was Jose Ortiz,” the Sheriff said.

The picture was of a short man standing on the gallows. There was a rope around his neck. He was mere heartbeats away from leaving this world.

“It wasn’t the only hanging in Conejos County, I’m sure, but the only one that I know of that was the result of legal action. Truthfully, this might have been more a legal lynching.”

“What happened?” Jonesy asked.

“There was a guy who ran a toll road and had some mining claims between Capulin and Platoro by the last name of LeDuc.

“Anyway, the last time anyone saw LeDuc, he had been visiting with Ortiz. When he failed to make several appointments, the Sheriff and friends went looking for him. They found him dead and partially buried behind Ortiz’s cabin. His head had been busted open with an ax.

“This guy,” the Sheriff went on, tapping the picture, “was caught a couple of days later wearing LeDuc’s suit and carrying his fancy watch. When they accused him of murdering him, he claimed he was innocent, and that LuDuc had given the stuff to him.

“We’ve all heard that defense before, and just like today, they didn’t believe him. From what I’ve heard, the hanging was a circus. The whole county turned out for it, and this picture was taken by a photographer who made it into postcards.”

“Why did he kill him?”

“Apparently LuDuc had some gold nuggets, and money on him. Ortiz went through his clothes, found them, and while LuDuc was asleep, killed him for it.”

“Wow!” Jonesy studied the picture. “You said this was more a lynching. What did you mean by that?”

“A few months before the hanging, the governor passed a law that hangings happened only at the state pen in Canon City. Conejos is a long way from Canon City, and the judge and sheriff claimed to know nothing of the new law. The incident was allowed to die down.”

It was the first time I’d ever heard the whole story behind the picture.

Jonesy studied the picture for a moment. “Anyone know what his last words were?”

“They were ‘Adios, Amigos’,” the Sheriff said.

Jonesy shook his head. “Definitely won’t see that at LAPD. Might offend somebody.”

“History is a close thing here. And if we’re smart, we learn from it and don’t make the same mistake twice,” the Sheriff said.

“History is close to me, too,” Jonesy said. “One of my ancestors ended up on the wrong end of a rope. Weren’t any courts involved there.”

This last line is a hint at Jonesy’s family history and lynchings that happened in the various places against black families in US. In my filing cabinets is a rough draft for a story where Jonesy goes to research this incident. He works with a local researcher and together they discover something insane. The great grandfather of the man he’s working with had something to do with the murder. I just hope I live long enough to tell the story.

But back to the Jose Ortiz hanging.

The picture made of the hanging is shown against a building that existed until recently in Conejos. It was located right across from the courthouse.

That building was a Title Company in my days. A recent look at Google Maps seems to indicate that it’s been torn down. A private home is there now.

Any evidence of the gallows is long gone.

Here’s a link to an old article from the Colorado Springs Gazette.