Samuel K. Dolan - The Line Riders

THE LINE RIDERS

PROHIBITION, THE BORDER PATROL, AND THE LIQUOR WAR ON THE RIO GRANDE

SAMUEL K. DOLAN

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The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2022 by Samuel K. Dolan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dolan, Samuel K., author.

Title: The line riders : prohibition, the Border Patrol, and the liquor war on the Rio Grande / Samuel K. Dolan.

Description: Guilford, Connecticut : TwoDot, [2022] | Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORKTitle page verso. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022005682 (print) | LCCN 2022005683 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493055043 (cloth) | ISBN 9781493055050 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Alcohol traffickingMexican-American Border RegionHistory. | ProhibitionMexican-American Border RegionHistory. | Border patrolsMexican-American Border RegionHistory.

Classification: LCC F786 .D655 2022 (print) | LCC F786 (ebook) | DDC 972/.1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022005682

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022005683

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

In fond memory of Lucy Eustace Dolan and Mary Eustace Murray Ipswich, Massachusetts

And for Jack and Suzie

In the old days the marauders were not smart. They were dangerous and didnt mind shooting, but the rustler, Mexican smuggler and other bad men were not clever. Now its more dangerous to be an officer, and the game is faster all around. Where their ideas used to go no farther than stealing a few cows or horses and sneaking a blanket past the inspectors, their minds are on big things now, and theyre more likely to shoot than ever before. Theyre smart and plan their smuggling campaigns instead of taking blind chances. C USTOMS I NSPECTOR J OSEPH L. D WYER E L P ASO , T EXAS, 1930

Assistant Chief Patrol Inspector G. W. Linnenkohl stands at the end of Spruce Street in El Paso, Texas, and gazes across the border toward Cordova Island. The dotted line and the white monument at right mark the international boundary between the United States and Mexico.

FROM THE SCRAPBOOK OF G. W. LINNENKOHL. COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL BORDER PATROL MUSEUM, EL PASO, TEXAS.]

C ONTENTS

Ten gallons of tequila were recovered by customs guards and soldiers last night in a house near the Courchesne viaduct. It is alleged that the liquor was brought over from Mexico by Mexican smugglers. E L P ASO M ORNING T IMES J ANUARY 18, 1919

E ARLY ON THE MORNING OF A PRIL 13, 1919 , C LARENCE M EEK C HILDRESS and his partner L. D. Straw, mounted watchmen with the United States Immigration Service, sat crouched in the brush at the end of Copia Street in El Paso, Texas. Their position placed them close to Monument 9, one of the markers that dotted the edge of Cordova Island, a cut-off of Mexican territory north of the Rio Grande. There were numerous cut-offs or bancos along the river, most of them caused by natural alterations in its course, including the San Elizario Island downstream near Fabens. But Cordova was created years earlier when the channel of the flood-prone river was intentionally redirected to give the water a freer passage to relieve the City of El Paso and the City of Juarez from overflow of the river. The result was a horse headshaped section of Mexican land surrounded on three sides by El Paso. As a member of the International Boundary Commission explained, It is not built up. It is not desirable property because it is Mexican territory, and neither the United States nor the State of Texas or the principal authorities of El Paso have any jurisdiction over it. It is a rendezvous for smugglers and all kinds of lawlessness.

An American soldier poses in front of one of the monuments that marked the international boundary on the US-Mexico border. AUTHORS COLLECTION.

Across the river, Mexico was in a state of war. Revolution had erupted there in 1910. Over the years, pivotal battles had been waged for the control of border towns like Ciudad Juarez, Ojinaga, and Agua Prieta. As stray bullets whined through the air, Americans viewed these contests from just across the boundary and witnessed many of the struggles most important moments. The defeat of Mexican troops at Juarez by rebels led by Pascual Orozco and Francisco Pancho Villa in 1911 had helped bring about the downfall of President Porfirio Diaz and enabled the ascendancy of revolutionary leader Francisco Madero. But President Madero had himself been overthrown and assassinated in 1913, and in the years that followed Mexico was ravaged by counterrevolutions and civil war.

The violence spilled across the border into Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. Bandit raids cost the lives of citizens of both nations. Several lawmen were killed during this period, which was also marked by a number of atrocities committed by Anglo peace officers. Childress had firsthand experience with the turmoil. He was working as a cowboy on the Neil Morris Ranch in Chihuahua in 1912 when it was attacked by vasquistas , loyalists of Emilio Vsquez Gmez, whod opposed Madero. Clarence has been mixed up some with the Mexican rebels lately and he hasnt a very good opinion of them, the Brownwood Daily Bulletin remarked. He was in a crowd of seven defenders when a squad of fifty greasers made a raid on the Morris ranch headquarters. Things looked ominous for a while, but plenty of guns and ammunition had been supplied to the ranch boys and they used them so effectively and rapidly that the rebels feared to enforce their demand for money, supplies and horses.

Juarez, El Pasos older sister across the river in Chihuahua, had swapped hands between the warring factions numerous times. In June 1919, General Pancho Villa would lead one final attempt to capture one of Northern Mexicos most important cities from troops loyal to the government of President Venustiano Carranza. Amid the fighting between rival villista and carrancista forces, bullets would hit bystanders and American soldiers across the river in El Paso. US troops from the 24th Infantry, a unit composed of black soldiers in tin derbies, the type of helmets worn on the Western Front, and the 5th and 7th Cavalry regiments would swarm across the Rio Grande to route Villas forces. Bodies of slain bandits dot the countryside, the El Paso Herald would proclaim, while many others strewed the shell-pitted enclosure of the Juarez Jockey club where the Yanks first landed on Pancho Villas forces Monday shortly after midnight.

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