Even though it’s not
Halloween yet, I came across this legend and found it too fascinating to pass up
posting about it now. The most captivating thing about this legend is that it
is absolutely true. Yep, all true.
First of all the words, El Muerto, mean “The Dead One.” Well,
that’s hair raising enough, but wait until you hear how El Muerto came about.
It seems Texas had its own version of The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow,
the famous legendary story by Washington Irving. And the Texas legend begins in
reality. Get ready because here comes a most grisly tale of Texas justice.
Texas was a pretty wild
and lawless place in the 1800’s with countless numbers of thieves and murderers
running around playing havoc with the peaceful and law-abiding folk. Needless
to say the lawmen had grown tired of this lawless bunch of outlaws behaving in
such a way. The Texas Rangers burst on to the scene with a commitment to help
the settlers fend off the Indian raids, lawless characters from south of the
Rio Grande, and the countless other criminals who harassed and endangered the
settlers.
In
those days the Rio Grande River had been the declared border between the United
States and Mexico, but the Mexican government claimed the border to be the
Nueces River, so this land between those two rivers became a sort of “No Man’s
Land” in which outlaws felt free to do what they pleased. Of course, we all
know it would take a war between Mexico and the United States in 1846 to make
the Rio Grande the official border. It would take another thirty years for the
Texas Rangers to clean up the riff-raff in this former “No Man’s Land.”
Apparently these miscreants
didn’t hear the warning bell that the Texas Rangers were patrolling the area
and meant business because they believed they could continue their lawless
behavior without consequence. Well, we all know you do not mess with the Texas
Rangers. Texas Rangers were expert gunmen who roamed the area living out of
their saddles doling out brutal justice.
Texas Rangers
Two of these Rangers
were Creed Taylor and William Alexander Anderson “Big Foot” Wallace. “Big Foot”
Wallace, by the way, was a folk hero in his own right. With Creed’s blessing, “Big
Foot” inadvertently created the legendary El
Muerto.
A man known as
Vidal was about his lawless business of rustling cattle in 1850 down in South
Texas. He had a “dead or alive” price on his head. A Comanche raid pulled the
Rangers to the north to fight the Indians which left the settlements to the
south temporarily unprotected. Vidal and three of his men took advantage of
this temporary loss of protection and gathered up a hefty number of horses
along the San Antonio River as they headed toward Mexico.
Apparently Vidal
did not realize that among his stolen herd were several prized mustangs
belonging to Texas Rangers Creed Taylor, Big Foot Wallace, and a rancher named
Flores. Flores, Creed and Wallace didn’t have too difficult a time tracking
down Vidal and his three men. What happened next is the stuff of legends.
"Big Foot" Wallace, Texas Ranger
The Rangers found
the outlaws asleep in their camp. The thieves were killed including Vidal. But
it wasn’t enough to just dole out justice by killing the outlaws. No sir, a
warning for outlaws needed to go out and Vidal happened to be the perfect
outlaw to use as an example. Big Foot Wallace lopped off Vidal’s head and sat
the headless outlaw on a Mustang. He lashed Vidal to the horse to maintain a
position sitting up as if riding the horse and lashed his head to the saddle in
front of him. He then sent the Mustang out to wander freely with the grisly
corpse on its back.
It was reported the
following day by some cowboys that a gray horse bearing a headless rider rode
through their camp with the headless rider shouting, “It’s mine. It’s all mine!”
The sightings of the headless horseman grew in number. Cowboys and Indians were
so terrified by the sight of the rider, they shot the corpse full of bullets
and arrows. Years later, the Mustang was found and relieved if it gruesome
rider who was finally buried, and then the horse was set free.
But even after the
corpse of Vidal had been buried, reports were made of the headless horseman. A
sighting of the corpse was reported near Freer, Texas in 1969. The legend lives
on even today with sightings of a headless rider galloping through the mesquite
on clear, moonlit nights in South Texas.
Sarah
J. McNeal is a multi-published author of several
genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She
is a retired ER and Critical Care nurse who lives in North Carolina with her
four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides
her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several
instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and
short stories may be found at Prairie Rose Publications and its imprints Painted
Pony Books, and Fire Star Press. She welcomes you to her website and
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