Only the Moon to Shed Light on What Occurred: Charles Fahy and Frontier Justice in New Mexico

The tale had the homeliest beginning.One night of bitter cold in northern New Mexico three companions settled into a horse-drawn sleigh.The trail through the Tusas Mountains lay under deep, new snow.Under moonlit skies they made their way westward from Tres Piedras toward warm hearths in Tusas, 9 miles distant, but just two travelers arrived.At dawn on January 23, 1929, the postman on his route from Tusas to Tres Piedras came upon the frozen body of Miguel Snchez.In New Mexico and far beyond, that lonely night began a path of greater rights for men and women at the mercy of powerful systems and institutions.The postman put Snchez's body into his sleigh and carried it 6 miles to Tres Piedras.There it was unloaded and taken into a pool hall; that afternoon it was loaded and taken 9 miles back over the mountains to the Tusas post office.There a "coroner's jury" of seven local men examined the body.Its "investigation" produced a two-sentence "report" finding that eight "blows incapacitated [Snchez] and he was found frozen by reason of such blows."On January 26, the Santa Fe New Mexican (henceforth New Mexican) headlined "Body of Snchez Found Frozen: Murder Theory Is Now Advanced."Facts had not materialized -the sheriff was yet to "start an investigation" and District Attorney John Kenney was "laid up in bed"-but a "theory" had.Kenney "received word" that the travelers "got into a fight