Carpio: A Mescalero Tragedy in Territorial New Mexico

Among the families living on the reservation was that of Roman Chiquito, a prominent headman whose household included a younger brother named Carpio, who was subject to spells of violent insanity, and two sisters, the younger of whom, a beautiful girl named Bonita, was described as the belle of the Mescalero tribe ^[5]. The family’s circle included a Mexican herder named Nicolas Acosta, who worked for a nearby rancher and was a warm friend of Roman and a frequent visitor to the family’s tent ^[6].

One afternoon while Roman was absent, Acosta stopped at the tent on his return from the range and was invited by the two sisters to stay for a cup of coffee ^[6][12]. He accepted, dismounted, unsaddled, stood his Winchester rifle against a tree, and lay down outside the tent with his head pillowed on his saddle ^[12]. As the girls prepared coffee inside, they were alarmed by the sound of a rifle shot ^[12]. Rushing out, they were horrified to behold their brother Carpio, his eyes blazing with insanity, holding Acosta’s rifle, with the unfortunate Mexican lying on the ground mortally wounded ^[12][6]. The girls rushed upon Carpio and wrested the rifle from him; he then seized a bow and arrows and opened fire on them, and after being disarmed a second time, he fled to the mountains ^[2][6]. The two girls carried the wounded man to the settlements at Three Rivers, where they told their story, corroborated by Acosta before he died ^[2][6].

When Roman returned to his tent and learned what had occurred, he was terribly shocked ^[11][8]. He attempted to explain that Acosta was his friend and that Carpio was insane, and he announced his intention of going into the mountains to search for his brother, promising to bring him in ^[11][8][4]. However, he was told that a party of Indian police had already started in pursuit of the murderer and would take him dead or alive ^[11][8]. Let me go after him, I will arrest him and take him to the agency” ^[10][4]. His offer was declined, and he was ordered to return home and cease interfering with the police ^[10]. Roman then begged and prayed, became frantic, and threw himself in front of the police, saying they should not kill his brother; he was overpowered, disarmed, arrested, charged with resisting the police, manacled, and sent to Fort Leavenworth to be confined for an indefinite period in the military prison ^[10][4].

In the meantime, Carpio was arrested, indicted for the murder of Acosta, and tried before Judge Bristol at Las Cruces ^[3][4]. The only witnesses against him were the two Indian girls, his sisters, who testified in the Apache language, which was interpreted into Spanish and then into English ^[3][9][13]. When Bonita was sworn and told to relate the circumstances of the shooting, Carpio spoke to her in Apache and said, “don’t tell it; if you tell it they will kill me” ^[13]. I have promised God not to tell a lie”; she then related the facts, and when she finished, she fell on her knees and in her own language appealed to Judge Bristol to have mercy on her unfortunate brother ^[13][9].

Carpio was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death ^[1][9][7]. A jury was subsequently impaneled to inquire into his sanity; they found him to be sane, but a few weeks after this he died in jail a raving maniac ^[1][9][7]. Roman Chiquito was confined in the military prison at Leavenworth nearly a year and was then removed to Fort Riley in Kansas, from which he later escaped with three other Apaches and made his way back to the Mescalero reservation, a distance of twelve hundred miles, without being seen by a white man en route ^[7].