Donna Blake Birchell - Wicked Women of New Mexico

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2014 by Donna Blake Birchell

All rights reserved

First published 2014

e-book edition 2014

ISBN 978.1.62584.583.2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Birchell, Donna Blake.

Wicked women of New Mexico / Donna Blake Birchell.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-128-0

1. Women--New Mexico--Biography. 2. Murderers--New Mexico--Biography. 3. Prostitutes--New Mexico--Biography. 4. Women gamblers--New Mexico--Biography. I. Title.

F800.B57 2014

364.10925209789--dc23

2014001904

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is dedicated to all the women of the West, who had to be tough as nails to survive in an unforgiving land and were strong enough to forge a wide, new path for those who would follow them into the future.

Well-behaved women seldom make history.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Contents

Acknowledgements

As always, much gratitude and thanks go to Samantha Villa, who helped me launch this amazing journey into authorship. I cant thank you enough, my friend!

A special thank-you to Mo Palmer of Albuquerque, who has kept history alive with her amazing newspaper articles and compiled the invaluable research on Lizzie McGrath.

Words cannot express how much the work of Brea Black of the Topeka Public Library meant to the success of this project. Many thanks!

Jim, curator of the Black Range Museumyour personal tour and insight was priceless. Thank you for the fascinating glimpse into the life of Sadie Orchard.

Thank you to Glen Frye, photo archivist at the Albuquerque Museum, for going the extra mile.

To the staff, volunteers and docents of the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park who cheered me on through the dreaded deadline phasesorry for the drama!

I would be nowhere without friends like James Owens and Patricia Kiddney, who work every day to keep history alive. Thank you is not enough, my friends!

To my editors, Jerry Roberts and Will Collicott, I truly appreciate your enthusiasm and guidance during this project. You made my experience with this book an enjoyable one. Many thanks to all the staff at The History Press for your dedication in keeping history alive.

Without my familys support, this book would not be possible. So, with deep gratitude and heartfelt love, thank you very much Jerry, Michael and Justin Birchell for your encouragement. You mean the whole world to me! Jerry, thank you for navigating Highway 152 between Hillsboro and Silver City, which proved to be an extremely gut-wrenching ride!

Introduction

SURVIVAL

The environment of the West was one of pure survival. A six-gun or a rifle was likely the only protection (and/or justice) a person had in this wild land. The sheer expanses of land led to the necessity of creating ones own justice system and survival skills. Men seeking gold, asylum or a new life forged ahead through the unknown to be met, on many occasions, with death. Only the tough could survive, and this was certainly thought to be no place for a woman.

In this book, you will meet some of the strongest women ever to have lived in the West. All came from circumstances that led them to seek out the possibilities the Land of Enchantment held for them. Since New Mexico did not become a state until 1912, territorial justice was sometimes slow to respond or, in some cases, as you will see, completely heartless. This was certainly a mans world, and women, although welcome due to the rarity of their sex in the West, were treated as little more than property to be traded or to be dealt with accordingly.

It is not my intention to judge these women in any sense of the word but to give a rare insight into the lives of the subjects so that the reader will be able to experience a way of life in which survival was often minimal at best. Also, this is not to glorify the lifestyles and choices made by the subjects of the book but to illustrate the strength of the human spirit and what people will do to survive. The fine line we walk in trying to find the true essence of these ladies is the same one that they stepped over continually, many without conscience or shame.

It is also hard not to wonder at the mental condition of the most violent women featured, what drove them to commit such horrendous acts of violence and what the prosecutors of today would do with their cases. In many situations, a coy smile and a bat of a flirty lash was enough to convince a jury of their innocence. Times were definitely different then.

BACKSTORIES

Everyone has a story to tell. The backstories of the women in this book are generally tragic. Each had a traumatic event that either triggered the responses given or further exasperated their already fragile psyches. The fact that they were able to go forth under the circumstances they were dealt, in several cases, was nothing less than a miracle.

Wickedness is not a new concept, and the choices made by these ladieswhether by free will or forcedhad strong influences on the formation of towns, governments and even laws in the Old West. Women, as the objects of a mans sex drive, were powerful in a harsh region of the country. New Mexico is not for the weak; you must have a backbone, conviction and stubbornness to survive the elements, something true even today. Although a majority of the women were not originally from New Mexico, they flourished amongst the cacti, mesquite bushes, pion trees and rattlesnakes to make this beautiful land their home.

Some were convicted or suspected murderers, as was the case with Paula Angel, Dora Dwenger, Valentina Madrid, Alma Lyons and Ada Hulmes. Others, such as Sadie Orchard, Lizzie McGrath, Mildred Cusey and Beulah MRose, led the life of shady ladies. Still others, like Lottie Deno and Doa Tules, took to the gambling way of life. And then there was Bronco Sue, who was a unique combination of all of the above, with cattle rustling thrown into the mix, and Belle Siddons, who was not only an expert monte dealer but also a convicted Confederate spy.

No matter the way of life, there was at least one redeeming qualityalbeit hard to recognize in some casesin most of these ladies.

FORGING ON

Each of the women featured in this book added to the spice and flavor of the New Mexico Territory. Some may think they contributed nothing but mayhem, without any redeemable qualities, but in truth, they added realization about the enormous amount of strength needed to be a woman in the Westwhile also creating, in some cases, a great amount of havoc and wickedness for their victims. The results of their actions gave the citizens of the towns in which they lived many hours of salacious testimony and gossip. For the most part, history has not been kind to the subjects of this book. Soiled doves, parlor girls, fallen angels, cattle rustlers, murderesses, gamblers and spies were but a few of their names as told in local newspapers and dime novels. Human nature draws interest toward the macabre and unusual, giving us a glimpse into a world totally different from our own. And some of us even secretly wish that we had half the strength and nerve of any one of these unusual women.