Sag-Ashus – Rescues and Arrests
In earlier stories we have mentioned that back in the 20s and 30s, and even in the war years of the 40s, it was common practice for whoever the sheriff at any given time happened to be to deputize a member of the Neely family. As a deputy, the family member could legally handle emergency situations in what at that time was an area without communications, and was able to contact law enforcement when needed. In earlier years this usually fell to Ole Sag’s father, and after we reached what at that time was the legal age of 21, we shouldered that responsibility for a few years ourselves. Of course, this was an unpaid position and was only used on those infrequent occasions when the peace and tranquility of the countryside was disturbed.
In one of our favorite stories on this subject, we have related previously how we had been attempting to catch some poachers who had been slipping in to one of our tanks early on Sunday mornings to shoot ducks. On the particular Sunday morning that we are talking about in this story, we happened to be up early and saw headlights come down the County Road and turn up Quitman Canyon Road towards Sierra Blanca. “Ah-hah!,” we thought, “we’ve got ‘em this time!” So we jumped in the old international pickup and took off up the hill after them.
By the time we got to the hill overlooking the tank, we could see by the graying light of dawn that they were taking their shotguns out of the vehicle and heading towards the tank dump several yards away. So we doused our lights and proceeded on foot, catching up to them just as they were inching their way on their stomachs to see over the edge of the berm. When we walked up behind them and said, “Good morning, gentlemen – can I be of assistance to you?,” lo and behold, it was not the poachers I had been watching for. It was District Judge Roy Jackson and District Attorney Sam Fant, who had presided over a murder trial in Sierra Blanca the week before in which Yours Truly was one of the jurors. And our readers have already heard plenty of details regarding that trial.
On another occasion, and, by the way, it happened at that very same water tank, a young lady from Fort Hancock who for the purposes of this story will remain unnamed, and her paramour (in our opinion a worthless piece of humanity), had driven to this secluded location for a romantic interlude. Apparently as they were leaving he became distracted from his driving and slid off of the road into a gully. Imagine the surprise of Ole Sag and his spouse when they answered a knock on the door at 2 o’clock in the morning and there stood this young lady, an acquaintance of ours, bedraggled and quite unhappy. It seems that her aforesaid companion had refused to walk for help, and she had walked 4 miles to our house alone and in the dark.
Well sir, we cranked up our trusty old H Farmall tractor, threw a couple of tow chains in the pickup and took off up the road. The Missus and the by-now totally exasperated young woman following closely behind in the pickup, because the tractor had no headlights. When we arrived at the scene the object of our disdain was still there, and when he offered no thanks that we had come to his rescue and refused to help in hooking up the tow chains, we set about yanking his car back up on the road and they left. Fortunately, we never set eyes on him again, and the next day when we went back to check on cattle we discovered that in a fit of anger he had thrown out a collection of 45 rpm records and some other items. The music was not anything that we appreciated, so his junk, including the records, went in the trash.
Our next tale comes from the years when Tommy and Marie Powell had their restaurant in McNary. Driving by McNary today, it would be hard to believe that in those days it was a thriving little roadside town with two restaurants, a grocery store and post office, two garages, a liquor store and a railroad depot. The depot still had a depot agent, and she and her family lived in the upstairs apartment. Incidentally, at one time we had a more than passing interest in the cute red-haired daughter in that family.
Back to the story. Early one morning, just before daybreak, Tommy and Marie, who lived directly behind the restaurant, were awakened by the sound of someone trying to break into the restaurant. There was never any shortage of firearms around Tommy’s house, so he jumped up, grabbed a shotgun that happened to be loaded with birdshot, and when he rounded the corner of the building and saw the two men trying to break in his door he pulled the trigger and let fly a load of birdshot in their direction. The two wasted no time jumping in their car and burning rubber out of town.
Tommy yelled at his neighbor Leo Threadgill, who owned the grocery store next door and had been aroused by the gunshot, and they jumped in Leo’s car and took off after the miscreants. This of course was down old Highway 80, and when they arrived at FM 34 they decided to take to the country roads to try to escape their pursuers. From that point it was 15 miles of hot pursuit down the old County Road. When the bandits arrived at a point directly across from the Cox Schoolhouse, they ran off into a ditch. The healthy one abandoned their car and took off running through the brush – but the one who had suffered the birdshot wounds surrendered.
When we saw the two vehicles traveling down that road at a high rate of speed we knew something was amiss, so we hurried to find out what was going on. Fortunately, we had a rifle in the pickup, and we were able to chase down the one who was running and take him into custody. The wounded one was taken to Fort Hancock, were Dr. Dunne spent some time picking out birdshot before sending him on to a hospital. Ole Sag and Sag Senior transported the more belligerent prisoner to Sierra Blanca to be handed over to the sheriff.
We recall that, while on the way, our prisoner kept insisting that if he really wanted to, he could break the handcuffs that we had put on him. We invited him to go ahead and try, but he declined, insisting that it was only because he didn’t want the additional charge of attempted escape to be filed against him.
That will do for this week.
Here’s another bit of wisdom from Abe Lincoln:
“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”
SAG