User:Asiaticus/sandbox/Three Fingered Jack (California)

Three Fingered Jack was the nickname given to a member of the Joaquin Murrieta's Five Joaquins Gang, killed by the California Rangers on the Arroyo de Cantua on July 25, 1853. His head and his three fingered hand, was cut off by the Rangers, and sent to be preseved in liquor, at Fort Miller. The identity of the man who was killed and whose body was releived of its head and hand, was variously identified at the time by the Rangers and subsequently by others.

Origin Of the Nickname
Furiously defending himself with a pistol, the Rangers had finally shot this man through the head killing him during the skirmish they had with the gang along the arroyo. The California Rangers called him by this nickname because he had only three fingers on one hand, and three fingered Jack was a popular term for a three fingered man. Also he possibly was identified as "Tres Dedos" (Three Fingers) by the more talkative of the two gang members they had also captured in the skirmish.

The detachment of California Rangers, Burns and Silvester, sent by Captain Harry Love to Fort Miller with the heads of "Joaquin" and "three fingered Jack" to be preserved there, brought the first word of the engagement on July 26th, 1853. News reports with those names soon appeared in the Placer Times and Transcript and San Francisco Evening Journal on the 29th; and on the 30th by the Ssn Joaquin Republican, Sacramento Daily Union, both now capitalizing the "Three Fingered Jack".

Also on the 30th the story of the death of Joaquin appeared with the name "Three Fingered Jack" in the Daily Alta California, but with the caveat that they knew who this man's real name and deeds were:


 * ""Three Fingered Jack" is and old offender; a consummate villain with whose early exploits in California we are quite familiar. He is a native, we believe, of the country.


 * "He was the principal actor in a terrible tragedy which occurred in the spring of 1846 not far from Sonoma. Two of Fremont's party were captured by a band of native Californians, headed by this "Three Fingered Jack," and their persons horribly mutilated before death was granted them. One was literally flayed alive! Jack (who derives his soubriquet from the mutilation of one of his hands, caused by its having been caught under a lariat against the pommel of his saddle, while lassoing a bullock,) was once a prisoner in this city, four years since. Since his escape, up to the present moment, we have not heard of him. He was the prominent actor in that terrible tragedy, which disgraced the name of humanity on the part of certain native Californians, in the spring of 1846 in this country.


 * "The mention made of him in the following account gives to the report an air of truthfulness that to us is quite convincing. We hope it may be correct."

The following day the Daily Alta California SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 31. 1853, printed an article, THREE FINGERED JACK, that went into the history of this man:


 * "THREE FINGERED JACK — The editor of the Stockton Journal does not doubt the correctness of the report of Joaquin's capture, though he has no further particulars than were furnished our readers. The robber who is reported to have been slain in company with Joaquin, is undoubtedly the same fellow to whom we alluded yesterday. The barbarities which Three-Fingered Jack, with his companions committed at the early period in the history of American affairs in California, which yesterday, were inflicted upon two Americans, a Mr. T. Cowie, and Fowler. The account of their murder was published in the local papers of this place, in 1846. It is substantially as follows:


 * "Two or three days after the town of Sonoma was taken by the Bear Flag party, and the proclamation, issued by Wm. B. Ide, the two young men above named started to go from their homes, near Sonoma, to Bodega. On their way, not far from Petaluma Creek, they encountered a party of native Californiains, all armed, by whom they were taken prisoners. They were kept guarded until the next morning, when a council was held to determine their fate. A swarthy New Mexican named Padilla, and a Californian called Three Fingered Jack, were most active in denouncing the prisoners as only deserving of death, and their counsel prevailed. The unfortunate young men ware stripped, bound to a tree with the lariats of their captors, and for a while the inhuman wretches practiced knife-throwing at their naked limbs, ia the manner that savages are said to torture their victims at the stake by experiments with their tomahawks. The men prayed to be shot. The fiends then commenced stoning their victims. One stone broke the jaw of Fowler. A miscreant advanced, thrust the end of his riata through the mouth, eat an incision in the throat, and made a tie by which the jaw was dragged out! The perpetrator of this horrible cruelty was Jack. Cowie, who had fainted, had the skin stripped from his arms and shoulders.


 * "Both men were now slowly despatched with knives. Nothing can exceed the sufferings in the slow torture to which they were subjected. Pieces of flesh were cut from their bodies and crammed into their mouths. They were eventually destroyed by cutting out their bowels.


 * "It in some degree mitigates the painful emotion with which these deeds are contemplated, to know that vengeance was sure and swift on most of the murderers — a party of bear hunters rode out of Sonoma and fell upon a company commanded by De la Torre, which the murderers had joined. Although three times their number, the hunters rushed upon them with their rifles and knives. Eight were slain and several wounded. Three fingered Jack was taken prisoner afterwards, but managed to make his escape. He has at last, we hope, paid the forfeit of his villainous deeds in California.

The man being refered to was Bernardino Garcia, a Californio decendant of Spanish soldiers who had come with Anza to colonize it. He was known through the military reports of 1846 as Four Fingered Jack. The newspaper had overlooked that inconvenient fact.

Captain Harry Love himself makes no mention of Three Fingered Jack or any three fingered person in the gang in his hand-written letter from Quartzburg, Mariposa County on August 4, 1853 to Governor John Bigler. He only referred to the second head taken as being from "one of his principal men." He omited mention of the hand altogether.

The real name of Three Fingered Jack was soon afterward disputed by the Rangers themselves. He was subsequently identified by the Rangers as Emanuel Garcia, in an extensive report of their activities that appeared in the San Joaquin Republican, in its August 11, 1853 issue:


 * "Emanuel Garcia or "Three Fingered Jack," retreated on foot and fought desperately, having only one load in his pistol when he sunk to the ground and expired, the weapon even then being cocked, and his thumb on the trigger."

Subsequently the first book about Murrieta by John Rollin Ridge, in 1854, named "Three Fingered Jack," Manuel Garcia.

Later press accounts and histories called him Manuel Garcia, and claimed he was the man that had brutally killed two captured American soldiers during the Conquest of California.

Bernardino Garcia
User:Asiaticus/sandbox/Bernardino Garcia Four Fingered Jack

Garcia Miranda Family History - Bernardino Garcia Power Point

 * Born November 12, 1821, baptized in Mission Santa Clara
 * He had a brother Jose Miguel Garcia [grantee with Jose Antonio Mesa of Rancho Los Medanos]
 * Decended from four grandparents that had been members of the 1775 Anza Expedition
 * Jose Antonio Garcia (1733-1778) and Maria Petronilana Josefa de Acuna (1757-1783) José Antonio Garcia was born in Culiacan, Sonora, and died in Santa Clara, California, January 25, 1778, the first death recorded (gente de razon) on the books of that mission. His wife, María Josefa de Acuña, and five children: María Graciana, María Josefa, José Vicente, José Francisco, and Juan Guillermo, accompanied the expedition.
 * Ygnacio Soto (1748-1807) and Maria Barbara Espinoza (1752-1797) Ignacio de Soto, was born in the city of Sinaloa in 1749, and died in Santa Clara, California, February 23, 1807. His wife, María Barbara Espinosa de Lugo, was a sister of the soldier Francisco de Lugo, whose daughter, María Antonia, became the mother of General Vallejo. She, with two children: María Antonia, age two; and José Antonio, age one, accompanied her husband. The first white child born in San Francisco was Francisco José de los Dolores Soto, son of Ignacio and Barbara, born August 10, 1776. The child was hastily baptized ab instantem mortem, but he lived to become a great Indian fighter and died in 1835, a sargento distinguido. I have a record of fourteen children born in California to Ignacio and Barbara Lugo de Soto, and their descendants were grantees of the following ranchos: Cañada de la Segunda, El Piojo, San Matias, San Lorenzo, Cañada de la Carpintería, Cañada del Hambre, Capay, San Vicente, Los Vallecitos, and Bolsa Nueva.
 * Both grandfathers were soldiers as was his father Francisco Maria Leon Garcia (1778-1834) Soldier of Monterey Presidio. Baptized on June 29, 1778 at Mission Santa Clara (SCL Baptism 00090). Son of soldado Jose Antonio Garcia and Josefa de Acuña. Married Maria Felipa Lisalde on July 25, 1807 at Mission San Gabriel (SG Marriage 00987). After her death, he married Maria Rafaela Soto on August 16, 1818 at Mission Santa Clara (SCL Marriage 01848). Buried on December 31, 1834 (SCL Death 06990). [[Maria Rafaela Soto Garcia Children: Bernardino Garcia(1821-1853?), Jose Miquel Garcia(18?? - ?) grantee with Jose Antonio Mesa of Rancho Los Medanos.
 * Other Garcia & Miranda ancestors among the 240 members of the Anza Colonizing Expedition on Monday, October 23, 1775:
 * Presidio Soldiers:
 * Corporal Domingo Alviso, Wife: Maria Angela Trejo
 * Jose Ramon Bojorques, Wife: Francisca Romero  Pedro Antonio Bojorques, born in Sinaloa in 1754, brought his wife, María Francisca de Lara, and daughter, María Agustina, age four. The wife died January 28, 1777, the third death in San Francisco, and Pedro married the widow of Corporal Domingo Alviso, María Angela Trejo, on the 20th of July following. His son, Bartolomé, was grantee of Laguna de San Antonio, six leagues in Marin county.
 * Recruits:
 * Juan Salvio Pacheco, Wife: Maria Del Carmen Del Valle
 * Ignacio Maria Gutierrez, Wife:Ana Maria De Osuna
 * Pedro Antonio Bojorques, Wife: Maria Francisca De Lara


 * In 1841 Bernardino enlisted in the San Francisco Company at Sonoma, age 19. Sonoma was the HQ of the commandant of the Frontera del Norte after Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was instructed to move his garrison there.
 * 1841 ‐ 1843 The names of the men composing the garrison of the San Francisco Presidio (Bancroft, History of California 1841 ‐ 1845):
 * Alferez Juan Prado Mesa,
 * Sgt. Nazario Galindo,
 * soldiers
 * Jose Galindo,
 * Antonio Bernal,
 * Ramon Aguila,
 * Francisco Cibrian,
 * Blas Narvaez,
 * Santiago Hernandez,
 * Domingo Altamirano,
 * Mariano Miranda,
 * Santos Miranda,
 * Jose Salazar,
 * Geronimo Mesa, and
 * Bernardino Garcia.
 * Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo is our 2nd Cousin 5x removed through the Lugos on his maternal side.

(Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio, which encompassed what is now southern Corte Madera, Mill Valley, the Tiburon Peninsula, and Strawberry Point. It reached from Point Tiburon to Larkspur Creek, then known as Arroyo Holon.)
 * 1845 Bernardino Garcia, a barber at the time in Sonoma, married Hilaria Carlota Sánchez Read, widow of John Read, grantee of Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio, in Marin County. She had a son John Joseph Read at that time.
 * Bernardino and Hilaria had only one child in 1845, Carmelita Natividad Garcia.


 * Hilaria had her teenaged twin nephews, Ramon Valencia and Francisco de Haro (sons of the Alcalde of San Francisco) help run the ranch. The two unarmed boys and their elderly uncle, Don Juan Berryessa, were killed by Kit Carson (unprovoked, and on the orders of Capt. John Fremont).  The murders were said to be in retaliation to the deaths of Cowie and Fowler.  After this incident, Hilaria fled with her children to Mission Dolores in San Francisco.
 * Fremont tried to lie his way out of his responsibility in the incident, but some years later, when he ran for Governor of California, he got very few votes in Northern California. His thoughtless act remained a bad blight on his reputation.


 * Bernardino Garcia was called "Four Fingered Jack" by the Americans during the war in California, because he lost a finger. Various reasons are given for the loss; the war, bitten off in a fight, in an accident while handing a lariat or reata,(this last in Daily Alta California July 30, 1853).

[He probably lost his thumb, not a finger. Various reasons are given for the loss; the war, bitten off in a fight, in an accident while handing a lariat or reata. He was in later news reports referred to as Three Fingered Jack, referring to a popular play of the 1820's, by Americans coming after the war who did not realize the Four Fingered Jack reference was a deliberate reference to the same play but to amusingly indicate by "four fingered" that he had lost the thumb not a finger. The loss of his thumb may have been why he was no longer a soldier in 1845 and had become a barber. It probably meant he could not do the work of a vaquero very well, and that may have been the reason his wife had her nephews and their old uncle working the rancho when they were killed by Kit Carson. Vengance for the crime against his wife's relatives and discontent with his lot may have prompted his turn to crime. However it also may indicate he was not the man killed by the California Rangers on the Arroyo Cantua, whose hand had only three fingers but had a thumb.] gfs

H. H. Bancroft, History of California Vol. 5
--- 161
 * The man that had killed those prisoners was not Manuel Garcia but Bernardino Garcia, aka "Four Fingered Jack" son of a soldier in the region of Santa Clara.


 * "It was near Santa Rosa that the two Americans were captured, under circumstances of which nothing is known. They were killed by their captors, and they are said to have been mutilated in a most horrible manner. Some state, without details or known authority, that their remains were found later. A noted desperado named Bernardino Garcia, or 'four-fingered Jack,' afterward described the details of the murder, representing the prisoners as having been tied to trees, stoned, and cut to pieces, one of them having his broken jaw dragged out with a reata. His version, or so much of it as could decently be put in print, has been the current one ever since. That the Californians, as a body, or their leaders could have committed so horrible a deed it is impossible to conceive. In the absence of positive original evidence to the contrary, I choose to believe that Cowie and Fowler were killed in an altercation, in an attempt to escape, or by an individual desperado. Testimony, as the reader will see, is vague and contradictory. This affair, however, did much to strengthen the insurgent cause, forcing the settlers through fear to take refuge with their families at Sonoma.10

10 The version given by Garcia was printed in the |Monterey Californian, Sept. 12, 1846; was repeated in Bryant's What I Saw in Cal., 291-2; and has often been reproduced in the papers of later times. Some additional horrors, from an unknown source, were given in the S. F. Alta, July 31, 1853; and repeated in Lancey'a Cruise, 61-2.

Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., v. 121-3, followed by Alvarado, Hist, Cat., MS., v. 204-5, desirous of course to clear Carrillo, his wife's brother, from the charge, states that the leaders had no idea of putting the men to death; but while all were holding a council as to what should be done with the prisoners, who were left tied to trees outside, Garcia, a blood-thirsty villain, the terror of the whole region, fearing that they would be released, went out and killed them with his dagger, and returned to boast of his act. This version is at least more plausible than the other.

On Aug. 26, 1846, Ramon Carrillo made a sworn statement before Judge Santiago E. Arguello at S. Diego about the northern campaign. He stated that before the capture of Cowie and Fowler two other prisoners had been taken; that the Bear party had seized the horses at Padilla's rancho; and also

His. Cal. Vol. V. 11

--- 102 BEAR FLAG REVOLT— AFFAIRS AT SONOMA.

Ide claims to have made, apparently just after the departure of Cowie and Fowler, a reconnoissance with ten men for the purpose of protecting the families of settlers, and to have discovered a party of twenty-five Califomians, who took alarm and fled, notwithstanding the efforts made to approach them unobserved. This expedition may or may not explain the pursuit mentioned by Ramon Carrillo, and the shot fired at the retreating Califomians. At any rate, Ide was convinced "that any attempt to get a fight, just for

10(cont.) that the Bear Flag men had pursued Mariano Elizalde and shot a bullet through his hat. Carrillo took the two men and delivered them to Padilla who, against his advice and that of others, insisted on having them shot. Four men under a corporal were sent to shoot and bury them. Next day Carrillo was sent to report the affair to Castro, who approved what had been done. Original document found by Benj. Hayes in 1856, in S. Diego, Archive, MS.; see S. Diego Index, MS., 93; Hayes, Notes, 268; Id., Scrap-book, Cal. Notes, iv. 124-5. But in 1864, during the excitement caused by Ramon Carrillo's death at the bands of vigilantes, Don Julio, his brother, published a card in the Sta Rosa Democrat, June 4, 1864, denying that Ramon had any thing to do with the murder of 1846, or that he knew any thing of the capture until after the men were killed. He claimed to have proofs of this. See also Sonoma Co. Hist,, 107-8. In a letter of July 16th to Montgomery, Grigsby says, 'We have found the two men who were lost on the Sta Rosa farm, horribly mangled.' He names, as concerned in the murder, Ramon Mesa, Domingo Mesa, Juan Padilla, Ramon Carrillo, and Bernardino Garcia, all now believed to be south of the bay; and, apparently. Blas Anselino, in prison; Francisco Tibian (?), Ignacio Valenzuela, Juan Peralta, Juan Soleto (?), Inaguen (?) Carrillo, Mariano Miranda, Francisco Garcia, Ignacio Stiggers (!), still in the north. By Montgomery's letters of July 18th, 20th, it appears that 'four-fingered Jack' was in prison at ''Sonoma. War With Mex., Repts, etc., Operations of U. S. Naval Forces'', 1846-7, p. 25-9.

In the Sta Rosa Democrat, Aug. 8, 1874; Sonoma Co. Hist,, 107, etc., it is stated that the remains were buried where they fell, about two miles north of Sta Rosa, on the farm belonging in 1874 to John Underhill, and later to Geo. Moore. Ide, Biog. Sketch, 167-8, says the men were sent to Dr Bale's place for the powder. 'They were discovered and captured without resistance, having trusted the promise of the enemy that if they would give up their arms they should receive no harm.' He says they started on the 19th. Ford, Bear Flag, MS., 16-17, says it was on the 18th; and that the news was brought back by Sergt Gibson, who was sent out on the 20th. Baldridge, Days of 46, MS., 57-1, heard of no definite proof that the bodies were mutilated. He says that Padilla, on returning to Sonoma after the war, was nearly killed by one of the Bear Flag men. Coronel, Cosas de Col,, MS., 155-60, gives a long account of the attack on Padilla in a saloon at Sonoma, the writer being present at the occurrence. He says that both Padilla and Carrillo assured him they were not guilty as charged. Knight, Statement, MS., 7-11, tells us that Cowie and Fowler left Sonoma against the advice of their friends in a spirit of bravado. Gomez, Lo Que Sabe, MS., 80-4, claims that Padilla confessed the mutilation of the victims. Several state that the two men were on their way to Bodega when captured. I do not deem it necessary to give a long list of references authorities which merely mention this event, It would include nearly everyone touching on the revolution.

--- CAPTURE OP TODD. 163

a sample of what could be done, so as in the main to avoid bloodshed, could not be effectual unless the enemy were allowed an advantage of five to one; and even then a retreat must be feigned." Soon it was learned that Todd also had been captured through the treachery - of a guide employed to conduct him to the coast."11 Ford tells us, being confirmed in this particular by Carrillo's testimony already cited, that two others were taken prisoners at about the same time as Cowie and Fowler. Suspecting that the four had been captured, Ford, on the night of the 20th, sent Sergeant Gibson with four men to Fitch's rancho. Obtaining the powder, but no news, Gibson started

11. Ide's latter to Wunbougb, in Id., Biog. Sheidh 164-7a In the Hist. Bear Flag, it is stated that Todd's mission was to carry to the coast a letter which had arrived from Fremont on the 10th.

--- 164 BEAR FLAG REVOLT--AFFAIRS AT SONOMA.

back, and near Santa Rosa was attacked by a small party of Mexicans, one of whom was wounded, and another brought captive to Sonoma. It was from him that information was first obtained about the murder.12

It is agreed by all that from about the 19th, the insurgent force rapidly increased, amounting within a few days to about one hundred men; that many families were brought into Sonoma for protection; and that Grigsby returned about the 21st to be put in command of the rifle company. Ide also found time, as he says, to reconstruct somewhat his financial system so as to furnish rations to all; and to provide for the future by promising at least a square league of choice land to every man who had not already that quantity, resolving at the same time that the missions should be considered public property, except so much as had been properly vested in the several churches!

12. Ford's Bear Flag Revol., MS., 16-18.


 * Seventy-five Years in San Francisco; APPENDIX H. THE FIRST SAN FRANCISCO DIRECTORY


 * The following is a similar list of names in the three villages above named on the 9th day of July, 1846, when the Mexican Eagle was displaced by the Stars and Stripes, by Captain Montgomery of the United States Navy. In the preparation of the names of the early residents at the time the government was changed I have been very careful to omit none of the people that lived in the district; and I have revised the published list:


 * Living in the Mission Dolores in July 9, 1846:
 * Bernardino García, married to Mrs. Hilaria Read.
 * Hilaria Sánchez Read, widow of John Read, grantee of Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio, in Marin County.
 * John Joseph Read, son of of John Read
 * Hilarita [Carmelita] Read, daugther of Bernardino Garcia


 * Bernardino Garcia was paroled at the end of the Mexican American War during the Gold Rush he pursued a life of banditry, and was a member of Solomon Pico's gang. p13
 * Salomon Pico gang. 1849-1851
 * He had been known among Californios for his battlefield prowess. p13 [Daily Alta California article?] Natividad?) Like so many he took to stealing for a livelyhood when there was no work as a soldier. The US military only used Anglo American soldiers to garrison California forts. p13
 * For years he was the one of the most feared bandits in California history robbing stagecoaches and travelers along the wild California roads.
 * Later he became Joaquin Murrietta's "Right Hand Man" p13
 * [Joined Joaquin Murrieta after Salomon Pico went to the south 1851 - 1852? and became Murrieta's "right hand man".


 * Three Fingered Jack appearance described. p14
 * Dwg of Joaquin and Three Fingered Jack p15
 * Quotes about his character, behavior and influence. [no ref to sources] pp15-16
 * He was killed at the Cantua on July 25, 1853. pp17-18

Manuel Duarte (Tres Dedos)
Another candidate for Three Fingered Jack, is Manuel Duarte, a Sonoran, from the same village as, and a cousin of, Joaquin Murrieta and Joaquin Valenzuela. This was according to various of his relatives and descendants of his family and those relatives and descendants of those two Joaquins and those of other former gang members that Frank F. Latta questioned over many years.


 * Latta's informants said Tres Dedos was Manuel Duarte not "Emanuel Garcia" or "Manuel Garcia" or Bernardino Garcia. Early on Tres Dedos became alienated from Joaquin because he would hit targets Joaquin refused to attack and had ordered to be left alone, stagecoaches in particular. However he still worked with the other bands of the Five Joaquin Gang, those of Joaquin Valenzuela, Teodoro Valenzuela and especially that of Joaquin Juan and Martin Murrieta and their members knew him well.


 * Bernardino Garcia's fate, if Latta is correct, is unknown. Possibly died during the Salomon Pico period, possibly an unknown casualty during the commission of their crimes, which were usually ambushes of isolated individuals or small groups in lonely places. His wife later remarried.