Gomecindo Luera: A Mysterious Murder

Poor Mary Reymunda. She hardly had time to celebrate the lifting of the shroud of murder from her husband Urbano Garcia, when a few months later she was hit with the news that her father was shot in the head and left for dead, deep in a New Almaden mine shaft.

Mary Rey's papa, Gomecindo Luera, left her three year old life one evening in 1865 and never returned. Did she remember him? Perhaps. Perhaps not.  Still, discovering his murder twenty years later could not have been good news. Again poor Mary Rey finds herself in the midst of another murder scandal. 

The San Jose Evening News reports the story June 21, 1886:

Carleton Watkins Photographed New Almaden

The street shootout between Urbano Garcia and Juan Fiero happened in 1885. Carlton Watkins shot New Almaden with his camera leaving a wonderful photographic record of the life and times of this mining town.
source:  http://www.carletonwatkins.org/m_gallery_display.php?gallery_id=2&v=&c=

The Quicksilver mines at New Almaden were the subject of great curiosity to the public. Tourists visited. Reporters wrote. Articles appeared in major magazines such as Harpers Illustrated that described the life and the landscape of this famous mining town.  Artists and photographers recorded their visits. 

Carleton Watkins was one of those early American photographers.  He made a stereo photo series of New Almaden the village and the mines. In the 1870s Carlton sold his 3-D views of San Francisco, Yosemite and scenes of the West to tourists at his Montgomery Street Gallery in San Francisco. Some say Watkin's Yosemite series was instrumental in convincing Congress to protect Yosemite as a national park. 

Packing a camera, 22 by 18 inch glass plates and supplies into the wilderness of the West was an endeavor that required planning, grit and good luck. Early photographers were adventurers and entrepreneurs who suffered market up and downs and often went broke in the process. Carlton Watkins was no exception. His bio is here: CarletonWatkins.org 

Discover a showcase of his views of the West of the later part of the 1800s at CarletonWatkins.org. The gallery of New Almaden photos depict the life and times in the mines in the 1870s. Thank you Carlton for giving us a glimpse of West. Thank you to folks who created this wonderful website that contains many of Carlton Watkins stereo views including almost 100 photos of New Almaden and San Jose.

Source: CarletonWatkins.org 

Mary Rey's San Jose: 1885

  

Mary Reymunda Luera Maltos de Garcia
tintype circa 1880 

Mary Rey was a young woman in her twenties, married only a few years when her husband Urbano got into trouble.  Mary Rey Luera grew up in the Spanish Town section of the mining village of New Almaden, living with her mama Senona and her miner stepfather Jose Maria Maltos.  

The shooting incident that landed Urbano in trouble happened in the street in New Almaden.   The courthouse of Santa Clara was a dozen miles away in what might have seemed to Mary Rey a big, booming metropolis of 9,000 people.

View of San Jose Courthouse 1868

Completed in 1868, this courthouse was the first building actually designed for the county as a courthouse. Residents could climb into the dome to reach the observation deck at the top. The G. Malatesta boarding House "Italia" is in the foreground.  Source: San Jose Public Library 

To attend the trial Mary Rey would journey 12 miles to down town San Jose, to the courthouse.  The trip would take a couple of hours.  At the time of Urbano’s trial the imposing courthouse dominated the landscape. The edifice wouldn't be complete until a year after Urbano's trial. No doubt, the noise of its construction spilled into the surrounding streets. 

Cart on the road near Brokaw  c1883

Planting trees on the Alameda between Santa Clara and the pueblo of San Jose, was a tradition that Father Maguin de Catala began with local Indians in the late 18th century.
 California Images - San Jose

Some of main avenues into New Almaden were lined with trees planted by the Catholic padres. As traffic increased, the streets were widened, and the trees were lost. 

Interior of produce store, San Jose c1890

Locally grown produce were readily available in stores throughout the valley, offering a bountiful crop of olive oil, canned goods, dried fruit and general goods. 

Source: San Jose Public Library

Shopping looked like this, no doubt offering many more options than the company store in Almaden. Did Mary Rey have the money or time to shop? Likely at this critical moment the family funds were dedicated to lawyer's fees. 

First and Santa Clara, Downtown San Jose 1885

Looking southward through San Jose's financial district is the Bank of San Jose (with its four-way tower clock), the Commercial and Savings Bank (left), First national Bank. (far right corner), and the Knox Block, dating back to 1865, (near right corner).  Source: San Jose Public Library

Traffic in San Jose looked like this. Crossing the street in March must have been a muddy affair wreaking hell on hemlines in the wet season. Dust must have been everywhere in the dry season.  

W. G. Lorigan: Urbano's Attorney

 In personal appearance Judge Lorigan is portly and dignified, with a smooth, open face,
 the prominent characteristics of which are intelligence, firmness and benevolence." 

Genealogists recommend looking beyond your family to "Friends And Neighbors".. "FAN" out to get a sense of the place and clues about the life and times in which your people lived.

Urbano Garcia was the first husband of our great aunt Mary Remunda Luera Maltos Garcia. In truth, Mary Remunda was half great aunt to us Search Sisters. Strictly speaking, Urbano is no relation to us.

I am definitely not related to W.G. Lorigan, Urbano's trial attorney.  Urbano's trial is fascinating.   The faces, the personalities, the predicaments, the places, the customs that our ancient aunts and uncles find themselves intrigues me. All this I can relate to. 

I wonder how Urbano found W.G. Lorigan? How would a saddle maker up for murder relate to this fellow, the man hired to defend him? How much did it cost Urbano?

Urbano's  lawyer, Lorigan, was a much younger man. He had passed the bar only a few years before Urbano's murder trial. Lorigan had not yet become an esteemed Superior Court Judge and a mover and shaker in the county of San Jose. The History of the Bench and Bar of California 1900s edition contains judge Lorigan's portrait and this description:  "In personal appearance Judge Lorigan is portly and dignified, with a smooth, open face, the prominent characteristics of which are intelligence, firmness and benevolence."  The Judge is an influential member of the Young Men's Institute of American Foresters and of the Elks.

Did the Elk and the saddlemaker speak the same language?  Lorigan spoke to the jury and apparently well enough to get Urbano freed from a charge of murder.


Source: History of the Bench and Bar of California: Being Biographies of Many Remarkable Men, a Store of Humorous and Pathetic Recollections, Accounts of Important Legislation and Extraordinary Cases, Comprehending the Judicial History of the State (Google eBook)

The Misfortune of Urbano Garcia

Urbano’s unfortunate incident began over beer.  " I would be a cabrone if I did not pay you the four bits I owe."  This rebuttal is not enough for the bar keeper Juan Fiero who grabs Urbano by the collar refusing him both beer and credit.  Urbano Garcia the saddle maker is drinking before noon in a New Almaden saloon. He needs another beer, but he's out of money. A scuffle ensues. Fiero, the proprietor, orders Urbano out, or he “will pull him out by his tongue.”

Hot heads. Hot words followed. An hour later Garcia and Fiero draw pistols in the street. Fiero fires the first shot. Urbano ducks, the shot misses. Urbano returns fire. More than a dozen bullets fly in the street in front of the saloon. Urbano walks away leaving Fiero bleeding in the road.

Urbano is charged with shooting the barman on December 7, 1885, and then released on a $1,000 bond. Things get worse when Fiero's wounds turn critical.   Urbano is rearrested. His bond is raised to $10,000.   Fiero dies a few days later of his gunshot wounds. Now Urbano is really in trouble. He faces a new charge of murder.

Urbano Garcia hires attorney W.G Lorigan as his defender. Unable to raise the bond money Urbano languishes in jail.   Here Urbano spends Christmas, New Years and Valentines Day. Not until March 11 1886 does his trial begin. The San Jose Evening News Reports about "The Almaden Shooting" in a series of articles:

 Urbano Garcia - View media - Ancestry.com

On March 12 the paper asks: "Was it Self Defense?"  The account of Urbano’s trial proceedings are published in the San Jose Evening News. It begins: 

“On Trial for Murder: The Story of the Death of Juan Fiero at Almaden The trial of Urbano Garcia, charged with murder, commenced before a jury in Judge Belden's Court to-day.”  Here is the full account:

Apparently Urbano appeared a remorseful and sympathetic young man. Perhaps it was the sympathetic testimony of Urbano’s witnesses Marcello Soto, Juan Hernandez, and Librado Hijar in testimony to his good character. The attorney Lorigan pleaded his case. Perhaps it was the skill of his lawyer that saved his neck. Mr. Lorigan was a new trial lawyer when he took Urbano’s case, but he went on to become “one of the best lawyers in the city” and eventually a judge. Or maybe the jury was hungry and wanted to go to lunch. Whatever the reason the jury retired at twelve o’clock and returned after a few minutes with the verdict of “Not Guilty.”

Urbano’s young wife Mary Reymunda Luera Maltos, must have breathed a sigh of relief. Not only had Urbano dodged Fiero's bullets, be he also dodged a murder conviction. The San Jose paper reports “Fiero’s Slayer Free.”  This headline was not exactly a celebration of his innocence, reporting Urbano Garcia free and now tainted with the label “Slayer.”

The next year records Urbano the saddle maker living in San Francisco’s North beach on the same street as his in-laws. Perhaps “Slayer” was too heavy a title to carry around in a small town like New Almaden. Whatever his reasons Urbano left Almaden and his troubles behind to try his luck in the big city.

San Jose Evening News, March 13, 1886

The Trials of Mary Rey

Mary Reymunda circa 1907

I imagine Mary Reymunda Luera - Maltos de Garcia sitting in Judge Beldon's San Jose court room watching her husband Urbano Garcia on trial for murder.  The year is 1886…. The headline in the San Jose Evening News asks, “Was It Self Defense?".    The jury will decide. Mary Reymunda must be sick with worry.

Mary Rey is no stranger to tragedy. Her father Gomecindo Luera went off into the Almaden night twenty years previously, never to return. He left three-year-old Mary Rey and her mama Senona Diaz Luna de Luera abandoned in the mining town of New Almaden to fend for themselves.  After a decent period of waiting,  Senona solved the problem of supporting herself and her daughter by marrying our Maltos great grandfather, miner Jose Maria Maltos. 

Mary Rey's mother Senona went onto have seven children with Jose Maria Maltos.  She must have grown up in this household being the big sister.  Mary Remunda married at 20 and was a bride of three years when she  stood in the San Jose court. Urbano Garcia's  trial unfolds in March 1886 in a series of articles in the San Jose Evening News telling of a shootout in the street over a bar squabble.  

A few months later Mary Rey will read in the same newspaper that the body of her disappeared papa has been found deep in a shaft in the New Almaden Quicksilver mine. Gomecindo Luera had been shot in the head. Witnesses on the night of Gomecindo's murder tell the tale of his mining partners. It appears that these unhappy miners, settled their differences with Gomecindo with a bullet. Someone getting the last word with gunfire appears to be a theme in Mary Rey's life.

The women of New Almaden lived with the men who spent their days deep in the earth digging cinnabar ore, rocks laced with mercury, a dangerous metal. Mercury mining was a brutal business demanding tough, crazy men who worked in the dark breathing dust, explosives and uncertainty.  These men drank and fought and they sometimes killed each other with their pistolas. For the women it was either live with these men, or starve without them. 

Nobody knew this better than Mary Rey.

Linda Allison

April 7, 2015

Sources: Thanks to Veronica Jordan for discovering Mary Rey's story in the San Jose Evening News and bringing it to our attention.