difficult piece of detective work performed for the
mexican government—sensational scenes attending
the arrest of the leaders.
early in the twentieth century a movement, which had for its object the overthrow of the diaz government in mexico,[pg 138] crystalized. the revolutionists went about this work very quietly at the beginning, but later became more bold, and finally the majority of the leaders in the movement were driven from that country. headquarters were first established at laredo, across the border, but afterwards at el paso and at tombstone, arizona.
as this was a violation of the neutrality laws, at the instance of the mexican government the el paso and tombstone junta were broken up, and its officers disappeared. within a few months the mexican government learned that the revolutionists had again gotten together, and were once more flooding that country with inflammable literature. i was employed in 1907 by enrique c. creel, at that time governor of chihuahua, to locate the new headquarters of the junta, and find out what was going on. i soon went to work on the case, and found that the new headquarters of the revolutionists had been established in st. louis, in the 900 block on north channing avenue. ricardo flores magon was the president, antonio i. villerreal, vice-president, and labardo rivera, secretary, of the junta. i also learned that ricardo flores magon was editing and publishing a scurrilous and inflammatory paper in st. louis under a fictitious name. the paper was supposed to be published monthly, and was called the mexican regeneracion. magon's staff consisted of his brother, enrique flores magon, antonio i. villerreal, labrado rivera, and a number of lesser lights, among them munwell lo pez, manuel sarabia, tomaso sarabia, and a number of women, two of whom were sisters of villerreal.
villerreal's father, who was a very old man, sold newspapers on the streets of st. louis for a living. villerreal's sisters were named andrea, the elder, and teresa, the younger.
antonio de p. araujo used the following aliases, german riesco, alberto m. ricaurte, joaquin p. calvo, luis f. carlo,[pg 139] and a. g. hermandez. tomaso s. labrado was a protege, a sort of a "man friday" for antonio de p. araujo. araujo made his headquarters at austin, texas, for quite a while, but finally established his permanent abode at mcalester, oklahoma, and was a live wire.
villerreal's sisters lived in a basement with their old father for a while. their place of residence was east convent street, st. louis. it was the basement of a rickety old tenement house, and besides themselves and their father, there was a woman who represented herself to be the aunt of ricardo flores magon, and gave her name as lopaz. i never heard of her claiming any relationship with enrique flores magon, who was ricardo flores magon's brother. the old mother of juan sarabia, and the wife and two children of labrado rivera, also lived in the same place. juan sarabia was the cousin of manuel and tomaso sarabia, who were brothers. the entire furnishings of this hovel could have been moved in two good wheel barrow loads. the whole outfit was very poor and lived in what appeared to be abject poverty and filth. none of the members of the junta were in any way connected with the first families of mexico.
to write up the characteristics, ideas, habits and the practices of the members of the st. louis junta, i have material enough to cover reams of foolscap, much of which would be uninteresting to the american people. i will, therefore, confine myself to the final locating of magon, villerreal and labrado rivera, the originators and the ringleaders of the conspiracy, their arrest in los angeles and their extradition to tombstone, arizona, after they had been in jail for nearly two years, during which time they exhausted all legal resources in attempting to avoid extradition to arizona, where they stood charged with having violated the united states neutrality laws. a large sum of money was raised and contributed by[pg 140] sympathizing mexicans who resided in and about los angeles, as well as by the different labor organizations, to assist them in their defense. the laboring classes in california and throughout the united states sympathized with these so-called revolutionists, magon and his party, as much as though they had been respectable, honest working people. if the magons, or any of his followers, mentioned heretofore, ever did a noble or patriotic act in their lives, either in the united states or mexico, i have never succeeded in learning of the fact, and from the information i obtained i am satisfied that none of them ever attempted to earn a living by honest labor.
i succeeded in locating magon, villerreal and rivera in a cabin in the western part of los angeles, where they were entire strangers and their real identity was known to but two people in the city. magon had made it a rule to never trust his fellow countrymen, or any one else. many mexicans in los angeles knew magon was in or near the city, and knew him as the leader of the mexican rebellion, but did not know him personally, nor would he permit them to know him.
there was a man there by the name of modeska diaz, who knew magon and his party was in the city and visited him in his sanctum, always between midnight and daylight. magon used this man's name, modeska diaz, as the editor of his paper in los angeles. there was also a married woman, a mexican, fairly good looking, thirty-eight or forty years of age, light complexioned and an admirer of ricardo flores magon, and this admiration was reciprocated. she visited him occasionally, always at late hours. she and the man diaz were the only persons in los angeles who were aware of magon's place of abode. they were also the only people in los angeles who knew him personally.
after i had succeeded in locating the cabin where these men were living, i was fortunate in securing rooms just across[pg 141] the street and from my window was able to watch everything that went on in the retreat of the magon party. i kept them under surveillance, day and night, for a month before making the arrests. they left in the day time and did all their work at night, beginning as soon as it got dark and keeping up their work until daylight.
i soon discovered that villerreal was absent. he had been arrested by the united states authorities the year before at el paso, texas, and placed in jail, where he remained for months, and was finally put in charge of a deputy united states marshal, who started to escort him across the line, as an undesirable citizen, but en route he obtained permission from his guard to enter a telegraph office at el paso, claiming that he wished to notify his sisters, by telegraph, that he was being deported. he left the officer standing at the front door of the telegraph office and passed through the place and escaped by the rear door, and thereby established a great reputation for himself among the lower classes of his fellow countrymen. the newspapers made a great sensation of the affair, and referred to it as a hair-breadth and miraculous escape from the united states authorities. the facts are, that his escape was from one deputy united states marshal, a half-breed mexican, who was almost immediately after villerreal's escape dismissed from the service. it was afterwards rumored around el paso that the deputy had been bribed. for this reason i decided not to arrest the others until villerreal appeared on the scene. i felt sure that it would be only a question of time when he would join his master, magon, in los angeles, as it would be necessary for him to make his report to magon on the progress in the mission that had been assigned to him in arizona.
finally, on the night of august 22nd, about midnight, villerreal was seen to enter the cabin. satisfying myself as to[pg 142] his identity, i decided to arrest them the following day, august 23rd.
we had discovered that the inmates of the cabin used large coal-oil lamps, and, as i expected magon and his companions would resist arrest, there was a chance that the lamps might be upset and explode. this would set fire to the place, and thereby destroy papers and documentary proofs, and for this reason i decided to make the arrests in daylight.
at five o'clock on the evening of the 23rd, we surrounded the cabin. i had with me two los angeles police officers and two of my own men. we found villerreal and magon asleep, and rivera sitting in a chair, also in slumberland, although he was supposed to be on guard at the back door. our appearance had been so quietly arranged that the parties were completely taken by surprise and did not have time to reach their arms. they fought hard, however, and continued to struggle all the way from the cabin to the jail, a distance of at least three miles. a wagon happened to pass the place at the time and i pressed it into service, and it kept us busy to keep the prisoners in the wagon, as they struggled and fought the entire distance, and kept up a continual squawking, which reminded one of a flock of wild geese. none of them spoke english, and the only things they could say were that they were being kidnapped and the words "help" and "liberales."
it was just the time in the evening when people were leaving their places of work and going home, and the streets were thronged with people. we had to go north on spring street, the principal street of the city. by reason of the continual uproar created by the prisoners it proved to be the most sensational arrest that had ever been made in los angeles up to that time.
we landed them safely in the city prison, and without any one sustaining serious injury, except a few teeth knocked out,[pg 143] bruised faces and black eyes. to my great surprise villerreal, who had been so much lauded for his undaunted courage, was the easiest one of the party to subdue, and seemed to possess the least courage of anyone in the party.
a remarkable feature of this affair was that this party of agitators appealed to the sympathy of the working element. the laboring classes, nearly to a man, were in sympathy with them. i know that none of them had ever been connected with the working man's interests, nor were they laboring men themselves. they were simply agitators and people who were always trying to obtain something for nothing.
guiterrez de lara posed as a mexican novel writer, and claimed to have been admitted to the bar as a lawyer in mexico, and fled from there, going to los angeles, california, where he sought refuge. he obtained a meal ticket by marrying the proprietress of a lodging house, who was an american old enough to be his mother. he was not known to be connected with the revolutionary movement in mexico, and was entirely unknown to the magon faction until he broke into the limelight after magon and his party had been arrested. de lara was tall, inclined to be slender, had long, black, wavy hair, which he kept carefully parted in the middle, had some education, spoke no english, and was a typical agitator, and opposed to all law, order or government. however, he was not suspected by the people of los angeles as having either moral or physical courage.
manuel sarabia, one of their number, was a printer by trade. he had gone to chicago during the printers' strike and took a position with m. a. donahue, hammond, ind. he was a "scab" printer for one whole winter. i had him under surveillance all the time. magon and the others all knew he was a strike breaker, as he had been in communication with them from time to time.
[pg 144]
rivera, after leaving his wife and children, started west to join magon. he worked his way from kansas city by stealing rides on freight trains, and in the same way from there to denver, colorado. here he stayed around the union depot, playing porter until the regular porters drove him away. he next made his way to leadville and worked there, also as a "scab" porter. he was continuously on the lookout for detectives, and imagined that every person who looked at him was one, when, as a matter of fact, we knew his whereabouts continuously from the time he left st. louis until he joined magon in los angeles. in fact, it was by following him that we finally located magon's place of abode.
munwell lopaz was commissioned by magon as general organizer for the so-called revolutionary army. he went from st. louis to san antonio, texas, where he commenced organizing volunteers for the "army," and had considerable success, until he received orders to go to monterey, mexico, for the same purpose. on receiving these orders he secured the services of tomaso labrada, and left him in charge of his affairs in san antonio, while he went to monterey.
one of our operatives, who was shadowing him, informed me of lopaz's movements. i was in san antonio at the time. i arrived in monterey twelve hours after lopaz reached there, and the following day i succeeded in capturing him at the postoffice in monterey. i turned him over to the authorities, and some credentials and other papers found on him caused the authorities to send him immediately to the city of mexico.
during the four years that i was employed by the mexican government to look after the magon faction, i came in contact with a number of the leading officers of that government, among them president diaz, vice-president corral, and ambassador to the united states, enrique c. creel, and his successor, senor de la barra. i found them all gentlemen,[pg 145] good business men, honest, high-minded, and, i believe, thoroughly loyal to the people of mexico. i found that the people of mexico seemed to have great confidence in and respect for president diaz. all the officials were very popular with the exception of vice-president corral. he was the most unpopular officer connected with the mexican government, and i have no doubt that the dislike the people of mexico bore for him was a great factor in creating the disfavor that finally caused the overthrow of diaz's administration.
ricardo flores magon was a man of brain, well mannered, inclined to be courteous, and educated and undoubtedly intended for a leader of men, but he was unscrupulous and irresponsible, and was an anarchist at heart.
enrique flores magon, his younger brother, was educated, with a disposition and manners similar to those of his brother, inclined to be timid, verging on cowardice.
lebrada rivera was forty years of age, small of stature, light weight, and from his appearance might have been mistaken for a japanese. he was well educated in spanish and was at one time connected with the university or school at san luis potosi. it was claimed by some of his friends that he had been a professor of this school, but, by his appearance and subsequent actions he was more like a janitor or assistant janitor.
villerreal was about the medium height, well built and rather good looking, about thirty-odd years of age, had some education, and took great care of a luxurious head of black, kinky hair, and a pretentious mustache, which were, in my opinion, his most valuable assets.
juan sarabia was between thirty and thirty-five years of age, and fairly well educated, was quite an orator, thoroughly disloyal to his country and a violent agitator, although he possessed more courage than any of his associates.
[pg 146]
munwell lopaz, manuel sarabia and tomaso sarabia, represented themselves as important factors in the revolutionary movement. they pretended to hold official positions of great importance in the junta, when, as a matter of fact, the importance of their positions in the junta would compare favorably with that of a bellboy in a first-class hotel to that of the manager, who was magon.
magon, villerreal and rivera were finally extradited to tombstone, arizona, where they were tried in the united states court, convicted and sentenced to the arizona state prison at yuma for a term of eighteen months each for having violated the united states neutrality laws, by having organized an armed body of revolutionists at douglas, ariz., from where this expedition was sent to the cannanea copper mines, in mexico, about thirty miles from the south border of arizona, with the intention of exterminating all americans and other foreigners who were employed in and about the cannanea mines.
fortunately for the foreigners around these mines, the arizona rangers, who were then an active body, pursued this mob of revolutionists, but did not overtake them, until they had reached there and began what might have been a massacre, but for the timely appearance of the arizona rangers. they put the so-called revolutionists, but who should have been called bandits, to flight, capturing a few of the participants. it should be remembered that the magons, villerreal and rivera, while not taking an active part in this raid, guided their adherents from a long, and what they considered a safe, distance.
in my judgment the penalty for the violation of the neutrality laws of the united states are not as severe as they should be.
[pg 147]
just as soon as these men had served their time out and were released (within two months) they had reorganized and started the rebellion in mexico, that finally resulted in the overthrow of president diaz's administration. however, this was not accomplished by magon or his followers. it was accomplished by parties who were enemies of the magon faction. they quietly organized and stepped in at the opportune time to reap the benefit of the turmoil, disruption and dissension that had been created by the magon faction. this faction was headed by madero, who had financial means and a somewhat better class of followers than magon.
madero's victory over the federal army was a comparatively easy one, as the government army had become completely honey-combed with disloyalty. when president diaz became aware of existing conditions there was nothing left for him to do but leave his country to save his life.
it is to be hoped that the newly formed administration of madero will bring peace and prosperity to the people of mexico. however, at the present time, the writer has some doubts as to the fulfillment of this hope.
while the arrest and capture of ricardo flores magon and his associates at los angeles, california, on the 23rd of august, 1907, may not interest the american reader very much, i want to say that by reason of the shrewdness of ricardo magon and the secrecy that he engendered into his followers, the fact that none of them spoke english, and each and every one of them had many aliases, and did all of their important corresponding in various systems of cipher, and the further fact that the magon brothers continually kept their mexican followers from getting to know them personally, and from the secret methods employed by them on all occasions, i consider the final location and capture of these parties, under[pg 148] all of the foregoing circumstances, the most difficult, as well as one of the most important, cases i have ever handled.
as a matter of course, after these people had been arrested and had had various hearings in the courts of los angeles while they were fighting extradition to arizona, the officers of this country, as well as of mexico, had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with their faces and their methods, and, therefore, before they were extradited from los angeles, many of the police officers and others in that city and all along the mexican border would tell people all about magon and his followers, and have been known to say that they knew all about them and their methods; that their capture had been a very easy proposition, and that had i not succeeded in capturing them just when i did that they were about to have made the capture themselves, when as a matter of fact these officers did not have the slightest idea as to the whereabouts of this party, nor were any of these people known to any of the officers on either side of the line, nor their methods, until after the capture and the subsequent development in the courts.
