Moments of Enchantment; 75; Vicente Silva

Moments of Enchantment brought to you by the New Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs and 770 K-O-B Radio. In the Chronicles of Southwestern Desperados, names like Billy the Kid, Blackjack Ketchum, Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch are legend. But what a Vicente Silva, perhaps the most ruthless outlaw of them all. More in a moment. The Las Vegas, New Mexico of the 1880s was a booming cosmopolitan metropolis. It also had earned a reputation as one of the routiest frontier towns in the West. It was here that Vicente Silva ruled a criminal empire, the likes of which had never been known in the Southwest. As a front for his organization, Silva operated the otherwise respectable imperial saloon, though through his illegal activities he and his circle of Desperados became a local menace. Silva and his band of cutthroats were known as the 40 Thieves and included such colorfully named characters as El Meado, the dumb one, Pedro Alumbo, the Hatrock, and El Gavilan,

the Hawk. The unruly band robbed, rustled and murdered throughout Las Vegas County. Unlike his more famous contemporaries, Silva did not meet justice at the hands of crusading lawmen. The act which hastened his death came when Silva kidnapped his adopted daughter in order to force his wife to visit him. And she indeed came to rescue her daughter, Silva murdered her. This brutal act, together with large sums of money he was known to carry, proved to be too good a reason for his fellow outlaws to gun down Silva themselves. Historians say that if Silva had been hanged by the law, he would today enjoy the notoriety he deserves. To learn more about the outlaws in New Mexico's early days, visit the Museum of New Mexico's history library in Santa Fe, Moments of Enchantment, brought to you by the New Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs. For Moments of Enchantment, I'm David Griffin.