Los Gatos, California Since1881
Picture From The Past
Bandits had a place in early history of Los Gatos By John S. Baggerly Before Los Gatos was incorporated in 1887,this area had its share of crime, much of itat the hands of Tiburico "Little Tib"Vasquez, considered by some to be our state'smost notorious bandit. According to Clyde Arbuckle's HistoricNames, Persons and Places, Vasquez was"the worst bandit in California history, thelegendary Joaquin Murietta notwithstanding." Another authority estimated some 50 murdersin the Los Gatos area up to the late 1880s.Other crimes of the day included stagecoachholdups, stage station robberies, horsestealing, cattle rustling, general thieveryand robbery of gamblers. A general mode of operation was for a bandit,in his casual moments, to drop in on a farmerfor a meal, take what items he wanted andsteal a few horses to haul it away. This wasthe modus operandi that Vasquez used when hedropped in on Grandma Schulties up aroundMountain Charlie Road. The Schulties visit was shortly before LittleTib and fellow bandits shot it out with athree-county posse in the same area, sevenmiles south of Los Gatos. Several of thebandits were killed; Vasquez escaped withwounds. Early bandits had a network of friends andsweethearts who would feed, shelter and nursethem as they worked their criminal careersfrom Northern California to the Mexicanborder. A jealous husband figured in Tib's ending.Other individuals ran afoul of the law whilegalloping the length of the state. A Santa Clara Valley schoolteacher turned tocrime and reportedly held up 11 stagecoachesin a three-week period in 1881. He was caughtin the Guadalupe Mines area and served 20years. In 1876, Nicholas Boscovich was shot east ofLos Gatos. The following year, Charles M.Parr was "butchered" at the Colman House,later the El Monte Hotel on E. Main Street. Jan Wasielewski, a cattle rustler, got out ofprison in 1882, learned that his wife hadremarried against his wishes and stabbed herto death. He was hanged. Another ex-con,Louis Flores, came back to Los Gatos andstabbed his wife to death on Main Street. Getting back to the career bandits - LittleTib, grandson of a respected founder of SanJose, started his trail of crime at age 16with the killing of a lawman in Monterey. Joaquin Murietta launched a criminal careerof revenge after he killed men who jumped hisgold claim in the Sierra. He also killed hissweetheart. Vasquez was executed in San Jose for a murdersouth of the area. His grave in Santa ClaraCatholic Cemetery was in the perpetual caresection. Murietta lived beyond the grave. Ahuman head, purported to be his, wasdisplayed in San Francisco's "Museum ofHorrors" but was destroyed in the earthquakeand fire of 1906. Vasquez was found guilty of murder by judgeDavid Belden, master-at-law, and was hangedin the San Jose prison yard on March 19,1875, on a gallows borrowed from the State ofCalifornia. Four hundred passes were issuedto the hanging, and the crowd outside thejail was said to number in the thousands. John Baggerly is now semi-retired. Thiscolumn is from the Los Gatos Weekly-Timesarchives. |
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