The Life of Elfego Baca
by Elfego Baca is among the most colorful and controversial figures in New Mexico’s history. A true Renaissance man of the American Southwest, during his long life he worked as a frontier gunfighter and ruffian (in his youth), a lawyer, sheriff, district attorney, school superintendent, mayor, and perennial candidate for state and national office.
Born during the last days of the Civil War and dying at the end of World War II, Baca’s action filled life is interesting enough. However, this did not stop friends, authors, journalists, and even Walt Disney from embellishing and mythologizing his life.
Myths about his life even surround Baca’s birth. According to one account, his 19-year-old mother gave birth to him while playing baseball. Unknowingly pregnant, she jumped to catch a ball and out popped little Elfego with a thud. Another story claimed that a hostile southwest Indian war party had kidnapped him as a baby. Living up to his portentous childhood, Baca matured to be a true prodigy of frontier skills, especially with firearms.
One memorable event supposedly occurred in October 1884, when Baca served as a deputy sheriff in Socorro County. Only 19 years of age, he had already earned a reputation as one of the best gunmen in New Mexico. In the small town of Frisco, about 125 miles southwest of the town of Socorro, a gang of cowboys from the Slaughter Ranch got drunk and began terrorizing the Mexican townspeople. When the deputy sheriff of Frisco sent for help, the young lawman went to the rescue.
Baca persuaded the justice of the peace to deputize him, and he immediately arrested and jailed one of the cowboys. The next day, a gang of 80 bloodthirsty men fired on the jail. Backed into a log jacal (simple hut), Elfego single-handedly held off the siege for 36 hours, killing four and wounding six of the attackers. During the barrage, the cool-headed Baca even took time to cook breakfast. Some of the cow-boys later pressed charges against Baca for the killings, but the judge acquitted him after he presented the door to the jackal as evidence. It contained more than 400 bullet holes.
The standoff against 80 cowboys followed Baca for the rest of his days and earned him a reputation for bravely upholding the law. Many accounts of his early life, however, reveal a more ruffian side. New Mexican judges tried him for murder three times; each time he was acquitted. Baca claimed to have been acquainted with Billy the Kid and Pancho Villa. The latter supposedly once put a $30,000 reward on Baca’s head for stealing one of his guns.
According to contemporaries, despite his shortcomings Baca earnestly desired to be the best lawman in the Southwest.
As sheriff of Socorro County, instead of chasing indicted criminals, he would write them a letter. He warned that if they did not turn themselves in, he would “understand that they were resisting arrest and would feel justified in shooting them on the spot.” Baca went on to study law, and the
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