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Outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez Unpublished Carte De Visite [182782]

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Outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez Unpublished Carte De Visite  [182782]
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Tiburcio Vasquez unpublished carte de visite taken by photographer D.S. Boydston in Volcano, California (printed on reverse), undated, circa 1869-73. 2.5 in x 4 3/8 in. Tiburcio Vasquez was born in Monterey, California in 1837 and died by hanging in San Jose in 1875. Aside from the dates he was incarcerated and his documented criminal activity, many published reference works and sources disagree on specifics, with most not even looking at his own published interviews after being caught in Los Angeles County, nor notes published by Bancroft shortly after his demise.
It appears Vasquez was the grandson of a sequence of three men with the exact same name. The elder worked in California before 1800, and his son, the bandit’s apparent father in Monterey, where the bandit was born. He did not discuss his lineage in the interviews I read for this essay, except to state that he never married, had two children, and in fact had photographs of them on his person when captured, and had a long time affair with one of his fellow bandit’s wife, (Antonio Leves), who probably was the one that turned against Vasquez and set the “law” on his tail, as Vasquez knew it had to be one of his men secretly working with the Los Angeles Sheriff, since he was taken by complete surprise the night of capture.
It is likely that his father was Jose Tiburcio Vasquez, who was a (soldier) grantee of Corral de Tierra Rancho, just a short distance from Monterey. Jose Tiburcio Vasquez was an important and powerful figure in the Mexican land grant disputes and also Mission Dolores. He was murdered in August 1863, likely due to a legal dispute resulting from a fraudulent land claim made by a Priest. Ironically, Tiburcio Vasquez the outlaw, was released from San Quentin prison on the same week and year of that murder. Vasquez’s life of crime began when he got in a fight, was arrested, got away, got in another fight with lawmen a few months later, and decided to live a life “out in the world.”
The Vasquez gangs, who numbered from about four to fifteen hoodlums, crooks and murders, terrorized California towns, ranches, roads, hotels, businesses and basically anything they could steal from. Vasquez himself claimed he never killed anyone at all, but his men did, usually not on his orders, he claimed. Vasquez was constantly pursued, caught and escaped a few times, and had two sheriffs with posses on his tail for a lengthy amount of time. Vasquez himself claimed most of his robberies were in Los Angeles and Kern County, and that he only went north a few times for a few days at a time, hence being photographed in Volcano, an out of the way gold rush mining camp in the hills miles east of Jackson.
His gang got out of control in one robbery and killed three people before Vasquez got there. That was the last straw for law enforcement, who placed an $8000 reward for his capture, and $15,000 if the entire gang could be caught.
Henry N. Morse Sheriff of Alameda County, put together a posse of a number of men and went on the hunt for Vasquez. At one point Morse and his men were gone for over 60 days. At the same time, Sheriff Rowland of Los Angeles put together another posse and went after Vasquez. But Vasquez was tricky. He paid an informant on the inside of the LA Sherriff’s department, so he knew most of Rowland’s moves. “I was shadowed by a (Vasquez) spy,” he remarked. Rowland suspected this, and sent out his Undersheriff Johnson. Rowland, Johnson and Morse all secretly communicated, with Morse coming after Vasquez from one direction, while the Johnson group came from another. The LA posse included Mitchell, the Los Angeles Mayor, who was in the arresting party about May 14, 1874.
Vasquez jumped out of an open window while shots were being fired. He was badly wounded during his capture, and survived, though at the time he thought he would be dead shortly from the wounds. He was eventually tried in San Jose, found guilty and hanged in March 1875. Despite his demise, Vasquez had a strong support network of Californios throughout the State, a long string of high society ladies, many married, competing for his attention, and achieved folk hero status near and after the date of his death. Whether or not he was a murderer is disputed and his fan base is evident simply due to the fact that he was so difficult to capture.
Vasquez soon became the go-to robber to get blamed for every holdup, from San Diego p to Shasta and over to Virginia City. The same held true for other famous robbers such as Black Bart.
The photograph here was taken by David S. Boydston of Volcano, California. Boydston came to Volcano in 1850. In 1853 he became one of the founding members of the Volcano Temperance Society. His occupation in the early years is not well documented, though it may be assumed that he tried his hand at mining (more research needed in the Amador County Recorder’s Office, beyond the scope of this essay).
Boydston may have partnered with I. S. Halsey, a dentist and photographer, as listed in the 1867 Langley Pacific Coast Directory (data from 1866.) Bu 1869 he had apparently taken over that business, and was listed as the proprietor by 1870. Over the years, his name appears in most of the various directories of Volcano, of which there were several different publishers. At some point he changed “dentist” to “druggist,” also generally retaining the photographer notation. He married Susan, and the pair had three children, two boys and a girl. Boydston served on the school Board. One son, Willis, may have taken over the Volcano drug store in his father’s later years, then moved it to Jackson, where he ran the Jackson Drug Store until his death in 1905 by typhoid. Boydston was so enthralled with photography that he invented a shutter device for a camera, patenting the device in 1883. Boydston died in the late 1890s. He never advertised his businesses.
Vasquez visited the Amador County area in about 1860-1863, though little is known of his visit.
The CDV here of Vasquez has not been previously known or published. He was one of the most celebrated outlaws in California's history, which makes this an extremely rare find. The following photograph was taken probably after his capture in 1874.


References: May 15, 1874 Alta Californian; May 15, 1874 San Francisco Chronicle, others.