No. 213.
Mr. Morgan
to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, June 17, 1882.
(Received July 1.)
No. 447.]
Sir: Your dispatch No. 189, November 10, 1881, was
received by me on the 2d December. In it I was instructed to call the
attention of the Mexican Government to the case of Mr. Thomas R. Gartrell,
and his wife, Nellie j. Gartrell, who were
murdered while traveling, near the
[Page 391]
city of Durango, and to request that it take the competent measures for the
arrest of the offender, his prosecution and punishment.
These instructions I complied with in a note which I addressed to Señor
Mariscal, on the 3d December, a copy whereof I inclose.
Señor Mariscal not having made any reply to this note, I, on the 10th
instant, addressed him another note upon the subject. A copy of this note I
inclose.
I have to-day received Señor Mariscal’s reply. A translation I inclose.
You will observe that Señor Mariscal, while furnishing information as to what
has been done in the case, as far as he knows, states that if the purpose of
my notes is limited to bringing to the knowledge of the Mexican Government
the commission of a crime, with the view of having the perpetrators thereof
punished, he is pleased to have attended to my request, but that if the
purpose is to lay the omen of a claim, as has been done in other cases, he
has been instructed to say, at once, that diplomatic intervention cannot
possibly be admitted, both because the case does not warrant it, and because
the matriculation record of the foreign office does not show that Mr. and
Mrs. Gartrell were citizens of the United States.
I am, sir, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 447.]
Mr. Morgan to Señor
Mariscal.
Legation of the United States,
Mexico, December 3,
1881.
Sir: Thomas N. Gartrell, and his wife, Nellie
J. Gartrell, citizens of the United States, arrived at the city of
Chihuahua from El Paso, Tex., in July last. Their purpose was to travel
in the republic of Mexico. At Chihuahua they purchased saddle-horses and
pack-mules, and employed a Mexican servant to accompany them on their
travels. They reached Hidalgo del Panal, Chihuahua, where they remained
several days. They then proceeded to the city of Durango, stopping at
various points en route, especially Tudé, State
of Durango, where they remained a week or more.
They left Durango, during the latter part of the month of September, for
Mazatlan, after which nothing was heard of them until about the 10th of
October, when their bodies were found about ten leagues from the city of
Durango, on the Mazatlan road. They had evidently been murdered for the
purpose of robbery. It would seem that the man was shot while asleep. It
is supposed that the woman must have been awakened by the discharge of
fire-arms, and had attempted to make her escape, as her body was
discovered about one hundred paces from that of her husband. Her
clothing had been torn to rags, and her body showed marks which she had
received in her struggle with her assassin. As it was known that she
wore on her person a belt containing gold, the object of the assault
upon her was doubtless to obtain this gold. They had also with them
drafts on a banking-house in San Antonio, Tex., for a considerable
amount which are said to have been taken possession of.
The servant who was with them has not been seen since they left Durango.
Suspicion naturally points to him as the murderer. His name, I regret to
say, I am not able to furnish, but as the party tarried some time at
Chihuahua, where they hired the servant, it would seem that the
authorities at that place would not have great difficulty in
ascertaining who he was.
The foregoing are the facts, as they have been reported to my government,
and I have been instructed to submit them to the consideration of your
excellency’s government, and, as the murder appears to have been a
particularly aggravated one, to request that it take the competent
measures for the arrest of the offender, his prosecution and
punishment.
I renew to your excellency, &c.,
[Page 392]
[Inclosure 2 in No. 447.]
Mr. Morgan to Señor
Mariscal.
Legation of the United States,
Mexico, June 10,
1882.
Sir: On the 3d December, 1881, under
instructions from my government, I informed your excellency of the
murder of Thomas N. Gartrell and Nelly G. Gartrell, about ten leagues
distant from the city of Durango, and I requested that your excellency’s
government would take the competent measures for the arrest of the
offender, his prosecution and punishment.
I very respectfully request from your excellency a reply to that
note.
I renew to your excellency, &c.,
[Inclosure 3 in No.
447.—Translation.]
Señor Mariscal to
Mr. Morgan.
Department for Foreign Relations,
Mexico, June 16, 1882.
Mr. Minister: As soon as your excellency’s note
of the 30th December last, which refers to the assassination of Thomas
Gartrell and his wife in the neighborhood of Durango, I transmitted its
contents to the governors of the States of Chihuahua and Durango; to the
first that he might be able to ascertain the name and obtain a
description of the servant whom Gartrell had taken in the city of
Chihuahua so that he might at once give them to the second, and they
were both requested to cause the arrest of the supposed assassin and to
have him delivered over to the competent authority.
The governor of Chihuahua replied on the 29th of the same month that he
had issued the necessary orders as requested, and that he would inform
the governor of the State of Durango of the result of his efforts. All
of which I have the honor to inform your excellency in reply to your
first cited note, and to the one which you addressed to me on the 10th
instant.
Before closing the present note, I consider it to be my duty to explain
to your excellency that if your above cited notes have no other purpose
than to recommend an investigation of the crime committed, in order that
justice may be done, the government takes pleasure in having complied
with your request; but if, as in other cases, your excellency’s official
intention in the one in question is the omen of a reclamation, the
government considers itself compelled, at once, through me, to declare
to your excellency that it is not possible to accept your intervention,
not only because there is nothing in the case to justify it, but because
it does not appear on the register of matriculation in the department
under my charge that Mr. Gartrell and his wife are citizens of the
United States.
I renew to your excellency, &c.,