HomeMy WebLinkAbout3/16/2021 Item Public Comment, Ashbaugh
Wilbanks, Megan
From:
35 PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Cc:Purrington, Teresa; Christian, Kevin; thomas@historycenterslo.org; Pete Kelley ;
Avakian, Greg; Johnson, Derek; Cano,
Subject:Public comment this evening
Attachments:WalkingTour-Mission Plaza Quick and the Dead.pdf; Site 2 pic of sign.jpg
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Hello Mayor and Councilmembers –
This evening I will again utilize a couple of minutes during Public Comment to follow up on your last meeting on March
2, when I invited you to participate in the History Center’s Carnegie Lecture and “Self-Guided Walking Tour” of Mission
Plaza to learn some of the history of the 1858 Committee of Vigilance.
I’m attaching a photograph of one of the temporary signs that we have installed in Mission Plaza: This one happens to
be Site 2, right in the “dogleg” of Broad Street and Monterey, in front of the City’s public restrooms. We’ve identified
this as the likely location of the gallows used to hang most of the Californios in May and June of 1858.
Each of the five signs provides a QR Code that visitors can use to link directly to a web-based narrative with text and
graphics that describes the people and events associated with the dramatic spate of mob vigilantism.
I’m also attaching a file that can be downloaded, viewed, and printed out on your own that includes the same
information on our QR Codes. This “Self-Guided Walking Tour” is available in print form as well; these copies are located
in a weather-proof box in front of the Carnegie Library/History Center.
Our March 5 Carnegie Lecture with Pete Kelley, local author and historian, is available on YouTube at this link:
https://youtu.be/MsChEKQJHPk. We were able to accommodate over 120 attendees on our Zoom-based lecture that
evening, although we had some unfortunate technical glitches that prevented even more people from attending.
Thank you, Council and thanks to the Promotional Coordinating Committee for your grant to the History Center in
support of these events – and of course, thank you to City staff for supporting the installation of the signs in Mission
Plaza.
Sincerely,
John Ashbaugh, President
History Center Board of Directors
1
Mission Plaza in 1858
and the Committee of Vigilance
A Self-Guided Walking Tour Through a Historic Neighborhood
Introduction
Following in the Footsteps of the
Vigilantes—and Their Victims
Mission Plaza has been described as “the jewel of down-
town San Luis Obispo.” Most residents and visitors link this
site to the origin story Spanish padres. They held a Mass
nearby in 1772, and began construction of the mission com-
plex at this site in 1794, the fifth in the chain of 21 California
Missions.
The Plaza has been
used for joyful community
events, and as the entrance
to Mission church ser-
vices. Obscured is a darker
history: In May and June
of 1858, in front of the
Mission, a self-appointed
Committee of Vigilance
used the Mission as a jail
and impromptu court-
house, and systematically
hunted down and hanged
seven “Californios” (people
native to California prior
to the 1850 Statehood).
Because they had been
Mexican citizens prior
to the War with Mexico,
these men were deemed
US citizens when the war
ended in 1848; they were
still American citizens
ten years later when their
necks were stretched.
The “official story” is
that the Vigilantes had rid
the County of murderous
bandits, the so-called “Powers-Linares Gang.” The truth is more
complicated.
This Self-Guided Tour tells the story of one woman and
four men at the center of the 1858 Vigilance activity in Mis-
sion Plaza: Ramona Carrillo de Pacheco ys Wilson, her son
Romualdo Pacheco, Jr. and Walter Murray (the Vigilantes),
and Jack Powers and Pio Linares (their victims).
The violence that per-
meates the story of the
Committee of Vigilance
casts a shadow over Mis-
sion Plaza. There’s a lighter
story of Ramona Car-
rillo de Pacheco y Wilson
however: Her faith and
devotion to her son, to
her extended family, and
to her community clearly
helped to pacify San Luis
Obispo and to all of Cali-
fornia during the earliest
hours of its transition to
American rule, even after
175 years.
Step into the story and
begin the tour at “Site 1,”
now the home of our SLO
County History Center,
formerly the Carnegie Free
Library (1905) at the south
end of Mission Plaza. In
1858, this was the “town
home” site of Ramona
Carillo de Pacheco y
Wilson and her husband
Captain John Wilson.Mission Plaza Guide to the Sites
Courtesy of the City of San Luis Obispo
1
23
4
5
This tour was published in March 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic was active. Please wear a mask/face covering and maintain a social distance of 6 ft from people not in your household. Visit www.emergencyslo.org for the latest in public health advice.
This building was constructed as the County’s first
library building in 1905 with a $10,000 grant from Andrew
Carnegie. Today it’s the headquarters of the History Center of
San Luis Obispo County and houses our Museum, Research
Room, Gift Shop, and staff offices.
In 1858, this property was site of the “town home” of the
family of Captain John Wilson, a Scottish immigrant whose
parlayed his wealth acquired in the Pacific shipping trade
into acquiring land in Mexican California to became one of
the largest and richest landowners in the county.
John Wilson was able to purchase Mexican property
because of his marriage to his Californio wife, Ramona. She
was the daughter in a prominent Santa Barbara family. When
she met Wilson she was a widow with two young sons. In
1845, Captain Wilson was able to purchase the Mission prop-
erty from Mexican Governor Pio Pico. Wilson paid $510.
Ramona Carillo de Pacheco y Wilson took advantage
of her home’s proximity to the Mission, the church portion
still a church, according to an account by local historian and
artist Joan Sullivan: “Mrs. Wilson, an extremely religious
person, attended Church three of four times a day and used
the walk of flagstones connecting their home with the mis-
sion, wearing ‘deep hollows in the stone by her feet, passing
into the chapel for prayer.’ ”
From her home at this site, Ramona Wilson considered
it her Christian duty to protect the children of the pueblo
in this time of violence. According to local historian Dan
Krieger, Mrs. Wilson “invited each and every child to her
home to protect the children in this time of violence.” Dan
wrote of the experience of young Anita Murray, one of the
daughters of Walter Murray, the close neighbor of Ramona
Wilson and the founder of the Committee of Vigilance (see
Site 4): “When the time came to hang the bandidos, Doña
Ramona urged the children to come out onto the balcony.
She told them to cover their eyes and pray for the souls of
the unfortunate men who were fated to slowly strangle in the
wind. The makeshift gallows was scarcely more than spitting
distance from the children. Each child dutifully covered his
or her eyes, leaving ample space between each finger permit-
ting a full view of the gory proceedings.”
Woman alleged to be Ramona Carillo
de Pacheco y Wilson and third son John.
Site 1 Monterey Street 1905-Library/1858-Wilson House
The Wilson home at this site was likely the first
wood-framed residence in San Luis Obispo.
The house burned to the ground in 1898.
For your own view of the site where these “gory
proceedings” took place, cross Monterey Street to Site 2.
This intersection is the place where most of the hang-
ings of the accused victims of the Committee of Vigilance
occurred in May and June of 1858.
And this is the place to begin the intersecting stories
of four men who played “starring roles” in these events:
Walter Murray, Romualdo Pacheco Jr., Jack Powers and
Pio Linares. These four men
squared off in 1858 from oppo-
site corners of society: Two
were Californios, and two were
Anglos. Two of these men were
‘Establishment” leaders in the
Committee that used this site
to lynch the alleged members
of the “Powers Linares Gang,”
and the other two were the
leaders of the gang.*
Neither Powers nor Linares
met their maker at this site, but
most of the men who were exe-
cuted here were reputed to be
in their gang. Six alleged ban-
didos were summarily executed
at this site without any due process. Five had been fingered
as members of the Powers-Linares “gang.” Who were these
unfortunate men? What were the charges against them? And
why did Vigilantes organize, ignore the Constitutional rights
afforded to criminal defendants, and hang them here?
Two of the men’s stories are told here. The spate of vigi-
lante violence all stemmed from a gruesome triple murder:
On May 12, 1858, Bartolome Baratie and Jose Borel, two
Basque immigrants who had recently settled as ranchers
in the North County, were brutally murdered by a gang of
assailants allegedly from the Powers-Linares gang. Baratie’s
wife Andrea, was abducted by one gang member. Others
murdered a third man, witness Jack Gilkey, whose murder
was based solely on the operating principle of the gang that
“dead men tell no tales.”
One member of the gang failed to fulfill that command-
ment: Luciano Tapia, aka “El Mesteno” (mestizo, or mixed
indigenous and European). He secretly spared the lives of
two household servants, Ysidro Silvas and Luis Morillo.
Though Tapia had also been ordered to kill Baratie’s wife,
instead he conveyed her north to San Juan Bautista, taking
a full eight days, where she later escaped (or was released, in
Tapia’s account).
The two servants fled to the nearby ranch of Captain
David Mallagh. The following day, May 13, Mallagh escorted
Silvas to San Luis Obispo where his testimony was taken
before a judge. Mallagh and Silvas then searched the saloons
and pool halls in the pueblo, and before long, Silvas identi-
fied one of the murderers, Santos Peralta.
Site 2 Intersection of Monterey and Broad Street—Site of the Vigilante’s Gallows
Walter Murray
Journalist, Attorney
Romualdo Pacheco
Only Hispanic Governor of California
The area for the execution that Ramona Wilson
would have seen from her balcony.
(Present-Day Carnegie Library/History Center.)
The Sheriff arrested Peralta and threw him into the jail
that local authorities had created in the old Mission convento
(Site 3) – but Peralta did not survive the night: An angry
mob of townsmen broke in and seized the prisoner, hang-
ing him from the roof of the jail. No testimony was taken; no
confession was obtained. According to historian Pete Kelley,
there was no evidence against him apart from Silvas’ placing
him at the scene of the crime. He had no attorney, and the
mob didn’t even wait to construct a gallows for the alleged
murderer.
Neither Jack Powers nor Pio Linares were at the scene
of the crimes in North County. Rumors about their involve-
ment were sufficient to incite the crowd to find them, and to
look for several Californios presumed to have been part of the
murderous assault.
The second victim of the public outrage following the mur-
ders was clearly NOT a member of the gang, “Joaquin” Valen-
zuela who was a victim of mistaken identity. Some sources
indicate that this “Joaquin” was actually Jesus Valenzuela,
younger brother of the real Joaquin, but to the State of Cali-
fornia, Jesus had been identified as “Joaquin” Ochomorenio –
a childhood nickname – and both brothers had been named
as two of the “Five Joaquins,” led by the infamous bandit
Joaquin Murietta. The real Joaquin Valenzuela had been
killed in an 1853 shootout, along with Murietta (whose pick-
led head was displayed throughout California, for many
years, and for a price to thousands of curious onlookers). By
1858, however the younger brother Jesus, had long since left
the gang. He was employed as a ranch hand on Rancho San
Emidio in Cuyama.
On May 14, just two days after the triple murder, and
one day after the lynching of Santos Peralta, Sheriff Fran-
cisco Castro organized a posse to search for the men who
had committed the murders. After several days, they arrived
at Rancho San Emidio in the Cuyama Valley, and there they
found Jesus Valenzuela, aka “Joaquin Ochomorenio.” They
brought him back to the jail in the convento of the Mission
(Site 3). There they interrogated him, and held him over-
night on unrelated murders and other unspecified crimes.
The day after his arrest and incarceration, May 20, the
newly-formed “Committee of Vigilance,” led by one Walter
Murray (Site 4) held a public “trial,” built a gallows at this
site, and hanged Jesus Valenzuela (aka “Joaquin”) in broad
daylight and in full public view - including that of the chil-
dren cowering in Ramona Wilson’s home (Site 1) only a few
feet away.
Depiction of Jack Powers, “ladies’
man,” from the cover of Pete Kelley’s
book “The Quick and the Dead,”
as there is no known
photograph of him.Pio Linares
“Gang Leader”
Neither “gang”
leader”was
hanged, but
both suffered
horrible deaths
*For more
biographical
information
see the
accompanying
“Guide to the
Main
Characters.”
Site 3 Parish Hall Mission San Luis Obispo —Site of 1858 Jail & Courthouse
In 1858, at the time of the Vigilantes, the convento wing
of the Mission was still being used by the Sheriff as a jail and
courthouse. It is here that the seven Californios were incarcer-
ated before their execution.
In 1857, this wing had also served as the jail and the
courtroom for the trial of Nieves Robles, charged with the
murder of two Basque men, cattle drovers this time, on
Peachtree Road northwest of Paso Robles. In late December,
Robles was arrested on suspicion of the crime, but on that
occasion, he was given a trial AND an attorney. It would be
another century before accused criminals would be entitled
to a Public Defender – so who would defend this miscreant,
known to have committed similar crimes in Northern Cali-
fornia but never convicted? None other than Walter Murray,
the young lawyer who had just passed the bar and was seek-
ing to build his reputation among the other white “Ameri-
cans” who were flocking to town. And who paid Murray’s
bill? Not Robles himself, but his friend and drinking com-
panion Jack Powers.
With Murray’s representation, and with no evidence nor
any reliable witnesses to place him at the scene of the crime,
Robles was acquitted and allowed to walk free on March 5,
1858.
The trial of Nieves Robles, Murray later claimed, was
tainted by the presence of Californios with Spanish/Mexi-
can ancestry on the jury. In a letter to his sister, he wrote
that “public opinion among this bastard people cannot be
trusted… Law could not help us. Law was powerless anyhow
before a jury of these people.”
Robles could not have known that when he was acquit-
ted and walked out of the courtoom on March 5, he had only
a few months to live: On June 28, he would be the last of the
seven Californioss to die on the gallows – this time facing
organized Vigilantes, however, without the benefit of a trial
or a skilled attorney like Walter Murray. In fact, Murray had
“switched sides” and by that time, he was a leader of the
Vigilantes.
Of Mission San Luis Obi Convento wing of Mission
San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.
Colonade area used as a jail
by the sheriff.
Painting by Edwin Deakin,
1899.
Courtesy of the
Santa Barbara Mission
Archives and Library.
Deakin altered
his vision of the mission,
as the extension
to the mission building
is clearly seen in a
photograph dated
between 1880-1889,
years prior to Deakin
painting it.
Site 4
Walter Murray Adobe and The Committee of Vigilance
The next two victims of the Vigilantes were, respectively, Luciano Tapia and Juan Antonio Garcia. To understand how
the Committee of Vigilance was created, and why it ultimately was disbanded, cross the walkway to Site 4, the remains of
the Murray Adobe.
The Murray adobe was clad in boards as
shown in this 1971 photograph. The boards
were meant to modernize and protect the
baked mud bricks, but the moisture trapped
inside resulted in it’s deterioration.
The image below shows the restored, and
only wing left of the building.
In 1859, a deed was recorded trans-
ferring title of this property to Walter
Murray, the leader of the Committee
of Vigilance. Murray provided details
of Committee activities in the earliest
history of San Luis Obispo County by
author Myron Angel (1883).
It is not known definitively that this
adobe, (clad in boards above) existed
in 1858, or whether Murray had it built
later. When constructed, Murray adver-
tised it as his law offices. The adobe
was also the original office of the San Luis Obispo Tribune,
founded by Walter Murray in 1869, still published as the
County’s “newspaper of record.”
May 20, 1858 was a dramatic day in the story of Murray
and the Vigilantes. This was eight days after the triple murder
and a week after the angry mob lynched Santos Peralta in the
jail at Site 3. Sheriff Francisco Castro and a 15-man posse
had been scouring the countryside for the bandidos, but
they had returned with no prisoners except for the luckless
“Joaquin” whose story is recounted in Site 1.
It began very early—3 a.m., according to Walter Murray.
Sheriff Castro, Murray and his posse, tried to arrest Pio Lin-
ares, the alleged leader of the gang. Linares was at home with
his wife in the adobe that still stands on Andrews Street.
When confronted, Linares escaped amidst a hail of bul-
lets to the Los Osos Valley, not far from the adobe where he
had been raised on his late father’s land grant. Linares and
a few of his gang members eludede the Vigilantes for three
weeks.
Later that morning, when Murray learned that the posse
had failed to take Linares, he met with the posse and orga-
nized them into a “Committee of Vigilance,” a popular form
of frontier justice that had already been employed in San
Francisco and Los Angeles to suppress the alleged criminal
behavior of various “non-American” criminals (i.e., Chinese,
Chileans, Californios, etc.).
The Committee dispatched a posse to San Francisco to
locate and arrest gang leader Jack Powers. But he had been
warned and escaped the dragnet. Powers sent word that he
would return voluntarily to San Luis Obispo to face his accus-
ers. The Vigilantes awaited his expected arrival on the steam-
ship Senator at Avila Bay on June 4, but Powers absconded to
Mexico on another boat.
Meanwhile, on June 3, Luciano Tapia (Site 2) returned to
the county “escorting” Andrea Baratie, the surviving widow
of the Baratie/Borel murder.. After a short search, a posse
promptly arrested Tapia and hauled him before Murray’s
Committee of Vigilance for interrogation.
Tapia was the only member of the gang who gave a com-
plete description of the murders, pointing the finger at others
and denying that he had kidnapped Mrs. Baratie. He cer-
tainly expected mercy for having convinced Froilan Servin
to spare the lives of the two servants and Andrea Baratie. No
mercy was shown: The Committee extracted a lengthy state-
ment from their prisoner, ten men signed his death sentence,
and Tapia was hanged the very same day, June 3 at Site 2.
On June 8, the Vigilantes made another “arrest” – this
one of Jose Antonia Garcia. The arresting officer was “Sher-
iff” D.D. Blackburn, who captured Garcia in Santa Barbara
and transported him to SLO where he gave testimony that
tied him to an earlier murder of two cattle drovers. Garcia
denied taking part in the actual murders—but his protesta-
tion of innocence did not help. The Vigilantes allowed him
to write a letter to his mother, and then he too was led to the
gallows at Site 2.
On June 11, the Vigilantes learned that Pio Linares had
been spotted hiding out in the dense woodland in the Los
Osos Valley. A posse of Vigilantes found him and two com-
rades, hidden in the brush. A two-day shootout ensued,
resulted in the death of one Vigilante (John Matlock), the
wounding of two others (including Walter Murray), and a
fatal shot to the head of Pio Linares.
The other two alleged bandidos, Miguel Blanco and
Desiderio Grijalva, were apprehended alive. The Committee
brought them to the jail, forced a confession from them, and
held a public trial at the Mission courtroom the next day.
The hanging was delayed until Monday, June 14, as Sunday
was the day of John Matlock’s funeral, attended by most in
the town.
Having killed Linares and put two of the gang on the gal-
lows, the Committee of Vigilance now gained significant new
membership. At its peak, the Committee’s roster included
almost 100 names—and a third were Hispanic.
The Committee dispatched one of its most prominent
members, Californios Romualdo Pacheco, to Los Ange-
les in pursuit of “El Huero,” Rafael Herrada. El Huero had
been hiding out with Pio Linares, Miguel Blanco, and Desid-
erio Grijalva, but he managed to avoid capture during the
extended shootout in the Los Osos Valley.
Pacheco was already a State Senator at the age of 26, and
destined for much bigger things*, He and his posse were hot
on the trail of El Huero for weeks, but never caught him. They
DID, however, catch up with Nieves Robles in Santa Barbara.
Pacheco transported Robles back to San Luis Obispo and
handed him over to Sheriff Castro. As with the others how-
ever, the Vigilantes forced Castro to give up Robles to them.
There’s no record of a statement by Robles, nor any writ-
ten charges by the Committee of Vigilance; it was simply
understood that he had associated with Linares, and was
named by one or more witnesses. He was hanged on June
28—the last of the seven Californioss to be lynched in this
spate of retribution set in motion by the triple murder in
North County.
One more member of the Powers Linares Gang would be
captured in September: Froilan Servin, who had participated
in the murders of Borel and Baratie. He’d been persuaded by
the late Luciano Tapia to spare the lives of the two servants.
Servin actually got a trial, and in November he was convicted
and sentenced to seventeen years of hard labor at San Quen-
tin. His defense attorney in that trial? Walter Murray. (Servin
died soon after in the harsh conditions at San Quentin).
The Committee of Vigilance disbanded after the hang-
ing of Nieves Robles, the seventh Californios presumed to be
associated with the Powers-Linares Gang, or with Joaquin
Murietta. In the 160+ years since these events, our criminal
justice system has tried to assure due process for criminal
defendants in compliance with the Constitution. This system
can always be improved, especially to assure that people of
color are treated equitably. Nonetheless, we have moved
beyond the dark days of 1858.
The Tour of 1858 Mission Plaza now moves to the front of
the Mission at Site 5. We return to the story of Ramona and
her role in bringing peace, mercy, and justice to California in
1846, as the state was shifting from the tenuous jurisdiction
of the Californios to its destiny in union with the United States
of America.
This site places the visitor in the heart of Mission Plaza,
facing the front of the building that has meant so much to
the cultural, religious, and civic identify of San Luis Obispo.
This Mission was founded in 1772 by Father Junipero Serra,
with a cross first erected near the south end of present-day
Dana Street, a few blocks away. The building that stands
today dates from 1794—with later additions. At the time,
it was the largest of the five missions; it remains today the
oldest large public building still standing in California.
All of the missions in California owe their existence to the
Franciscan order of friars, dedicated to the precepts of Saint
Francis, the patron saint of peace. Saint Francis surely would
have objected to the vigilante violence that disturbed “his”
mission in 1858—but his Franciscan brethren had no power
to do so: The San Luis Obispo Mission was not owned by the
church.
By 1859, the Vigilantes had disbanded. This Mission was still
owned by Captain John Wilson, and served as the site of one
more murder trial and hanging. This time an “official” trial
was held before an elected judge and Sheriff. This criminal
proceeding was, in fact, the first and the last time that this
grisly form of execution would be conducted legally in San
Luis Obispo.
The prisoner was Luis Cariziza, a Californio convicted of mur-
dering Francisco Alviso, another Californio. Sheriff Francisco
Castro was paid $20 on top of his monthly $25 salary to
apply the sentence to Cariziza. The hanging may have
occurred within the Mission quadrangle, although some
sources place it at Site 2, the same location as the gallows
used by the Vigilantes.
In 1861, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa would be
returned to the Catholic Church. Over the succeeding years,
the County would build a separate jail and courthouse to
house its prisoners and provide for a proper criminal trial in
conformance with the Constitution.
A Flashback:
Story of Ramona Carrillo de Pacheco y Wilson
Ramona Carrillo de Pacheco y Wilson* was introduced at
Site 1. It was here at Site 5, in the priest’s room at this Mis-
sion, that Ramona Wilson played a central role in pacifying
Alta California as it went through its last throes of the War
with Mexico.
On a stormy day in mid-December, 1846, Ramona Wilson
went to work to PREVENT an execution—twelve years
before the Committee of Vigilance was organized to suppress
a perceived spate of violent crime by carrying out the hang-
ings Site 2.
In the Fall of 1846, Lt. Col. John C. Fremont had been or-
dered to organize a well-armed force of 400+ American sol-
diers to march from Monterey, the occupied capital of Alta
California, to Los Angeles to suppress a surprisingly suc-
cessful revolt by the Californios against American forces
in that city. On November 14, a force of Californios briefly
skirmished with Fremont’s men in the Battle of Natividad.
The Californios inflicted only a handful of casualties on the
Site 5
Mission San Luis Obispo
de Tolosa
Jail at
Santa Rosa and Palm.
Americans, who were able to fend off the Californios and deliver
their horses. Fremont’s 400 men and 2000 mounts then headed
south,expecting to encounter resistance in San Luis Obispo.
Fremont’s “California Battalion” swept down Cuesta Grade
at nightfall into the sleeping town and occupied the Mis-
sion without firing a shot. At Fremont’s command, they
forced a local Anglo, Henry Dally (later San Luis Obisos’s
first sheriff), to reveal that Californio commander Don
Jose Pico had taken refuge at the adobe in the Los Osos
Valley—the same adobe that Victor Linares had constructed
on his Mexican land grant decades earlier, and sold to John
Wilson.
With Henry Dally as a hostage, Fremont dispatched a guard
to apprehend Pico that night despite a drenching rain that
obscured all paths through the flooded Los Osos Valley.
After a tortuous slog through the mud, the soldiers sur-
prised Pico, hauled him back to face a furious Colonel Fre-
mont, who ordered Pico to be executed by firing squad the
following day.
Pico’s offense? He had joined the Californios who had
attacked Fremont’s California Battalion at the Battle of
Natividad, breaking an earlier promise to abandon resistance
to American occupation.
That evening, Ramona Wilson gathered a procession of
women and children that included her own six children,
several other local wives and Pico’s wife and family. Don Jose
de Jesus Pico, aka “Totoi,” was her cousin, and he and his
wife Francisca Antonia Villavicencia de Pico were leading
citizens among the Californios. Their mission: To obtain
mercy for cousin “Totoi,” even as Fremont’s American
soldiers were polishing their rifles in the shelter of the
Mission, preparing to carry out his death sentence as
ordered.
This procession somehow worked magic. On that fateful
December night, Dona Pacheco y Wilson, Dona Villavicen-
cia de Pico, and their children succeeded in turning the flinty
heart of Colonel Fremont. At the last moment he commuted
Pico’s sentence of death. The result: Fremont gained a lifelong
friend and ally in Don Jose. Within a few weeks, Don Jose
helped negotiate the peaceful surrender of Alta California
to Fremont by his cousin Andres Pico at Campo Cahuenga
in present-day in present-day Universal City, the site of an
earlier battle that killed Ramona Wilson’s first husband.
* See the “Guide to the Main Characters” published
separately.
Lt. Col. John C. Fremont
Henry Dally
Mission Plaza in 1858
and the Committee of Vigilance
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FOR THIS WALKING TOUR
SOURCES: Here are some recommended sources for further reading:
Pete Kelley. The Quick and the Dead: Resistance, Banditry, and Vigilantism Revisited on the
Central Coast. Self-published: 2020.*
Jim Gregory. San Luis Obispo County Outlaws: Desperados, Vigilantes and Bootleggers.
The History Press: 2017. *
Gary Hoving. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department. Arcadia Publishing: 2011. *
Loren Nicholson. Romualdo Pacheco’s California – The Mexican American Who Won, California
Heritage Publishing Associates. 1990.**
Joan Sullivan. Los Osos Valley: The Valley of the Bears. Articles selected from THE BAY NEWS column,
“La Canada de Los Osos 1989-1993.” September 1995, 8th printing, September 2016. **
Myron Angel. History of San Luis Obispo County, California. Originally published 1883,
reprinted by Valley Publishers, 1979.**
Joseph Hall-Patton. “Pacifying Paradise: Violence and Vigilantism in San Luis Obispo.” Masters thesis,
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 2016. **
Vigilance Committee Papers, History Center Collections, various dates and contributors. **
RESOURCES - The History Center also recommends these community organizations who work
with us to improve our understanding of our shared history and our evolving diversity, and recog-
nizing the need for improved social equity and inclusion of historically neglected minorities and
indigenous cultures:
NAACP, San Luis Obispo Chapter – http://naacpslocty.org
Latino Outreach Council - https://latinooutreachcouncil.org/
yak tityu tityu tilhini yak tityu (ytt) Northern Chumash - http://www.yttnorthernchumash.org/
Salinan Tribe of Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties - https://salinantribe.com/
R.A.C.E. Matters San Luis Obispo - https://www.racemattersslo.org/welcome
California Law Enforcement Historical Society Museum - http://calpolicehistory.com/
Diversity Coalition of San Luis Obispo - https://www.diversityslo.org/
* Available for purchase at the History Center of San Luis Obispo bookstore.
** Available for reference in the Research Room of History Center of San Luis Obispo.
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