On this day in 1884, Charles Kasz, publisher of the New Mexico newspaper, Greaser and Gringo, was assassinated during dinner with his business partner.
While the publication was one of the Old West’s strangest and a name a mile wide from politically correct by today’s standards, the paper’s news columns were less partisan than most of its contemporaries, according to journalism scholars.
Kasz, born in New York about 1849, moved west to the silver mining mecca of Georgetown, Colorado in 1875, billing himself as a real estate and mining agent. He actually did get rich in 1879 with a Fryer Hill silver strike near Leadville. He apparently lost it all, however, when his second wife disappeared, taking his fortune with her.
Kasz continued to try his luck prospecting for a time but by early 1881 he’d moved on, surfacing in Manzano, New Mexico. Setting up an assay office and general store, he also served as the town’s post master and notary public, in addition to ranching.
As if those pursuits were not enough, the entrepreneurial Kasz began publishing the semi-monthly bilingual newspaper, Gringo and Greaser. Some sources accuse Kasz of frequently slurring the Hispanic population and exhibiting prejudice against the Catholic Church. Others insist he was a reformer, often taking the side of the area’s Mexican population against the more advantaged “gringos.”
In fact, Manzano, by all accounts, would have been an unusual location for someone at odds with either Catholics or Hispanics. The town, believed to be settled as early as the 1620s, was near the Quarai Pueblo and a mission founded by the Spanish in 1629. It was abandoned by the Franciscans in 1677 but local tradition still credits them with establishing the country’s oldest apple orchards; Manzano being the Spanish word for apple. (Other evidence indicates the trees were planted on the Zalazar ranch around 1800.)
One of the reforms Kasz championed was the dismantling of a notoriously corrupt land grant system operating at the time. It was prompted by the murder of a respected and longtime Manzano resident, Manuel Otero, in a dispute over just such a grant. Otero, the original owner and resident of the property in question was killed by a man who was “sold” Ortero’s property through a land grant scheme.
In an “Extra” published in August, 1883, Kasz didn’t mince words, calling the murderer the tool of “the lowest form of society’s vampires . . . prostitut[ing] the courts, the departments, and even the Congress itself, to promote their unholy greed.”
His pen wasn’t always all poison. Blessed with a caustic sense of humor he often poked fun at organized religion, newspaper publishers including himself , as well as the community’s shortcomings. “Manzano is the centre of a grand system of paper railways, grapevine telegraphs and old woman telephones. . . famous for its weather, hardly ever being without a spell.”
Not everyone was amused, however. While having dinner at his home with his business partner, John Bradford, two men on horseback fired two shots through the dining room window, killing Kasz. Fellow publishers, meeting in Sante Fe, were outraged and New Mexico’s governor offered a $500 reward for the capture of the assassins. It didn’t help. No one was ever arrested for the murder.
With the mystery unsolved, some were quick to point fingers at members of the Mexican population, saying it was payback for the paper’s racist nameplate. Modern historians, however, believe it was more likely Kasz’s death was triggered by his interest in uncovering the identities of the cattle rustling ring in the area.
With just 17 editions of Gringo and Greaser, 16 regular issues and one “Extra,” as few as seven copies survive, scattered among a half dozen libraries.
Manzano, today is a sparsely settled census designated place 15 miles northwest of Mountainair but two extremely old apple orchards still exist nearby. Local tradition claims the trees were planted in the sixteen hundreds. Some horticulturists dispute the claim, dating the trees no earlier than the eighteen hundreds. By either standard, they are ancient. In addition, Salinas Pueblo Mission National Monument is located about 45 miles south and east. A collection of three areas, Abo, Quarai and Gran Quivara, each have historic ties to Spanish missions, Native American Pueblos and early New Mexican settlement. The main visitor center in Mountainair is open 8 to 5 daily. Park areas are open daily 9 to 6 during the summer and 9 to 5 during winter, closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. The National Park Service advises visitors to call ahead in winter months as the park may close on days of heavy snow. For more information go to www.nps.gov/sapu, call (505) 847-2585 or write Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument , PO Box 517, Mountainair, NM 87036-0517.
