TEXAS: King Ranch Mystery

In Willacy County, which lies almost at the southernmost tip of Texas, Luther Blanton, 57, and his son John, 24, went duck hunting one day fortnight ago. They went only a little distance from their own land, but they crossed a fence to get to a lagoon on the great King Ranch. They should not have done that. The King Ranch comprises 1,250,000 acres, four-fifths the size of Delaware, and belongs to the Klebergs who inherited it from their Grandfather Richard King, who founded it before the Civil War. With their 125,000 head of red Santa Gertrudis cattle, with 500 Mexican vaqueros as retainers, they run their ranch practically as a state of their own, independent of Texas officialdom. No State highway has been allowed to cross the King Ranch, and further to protect their privacy, the Klebergs have had many miles of their land made into a State game preserve.

So the Blantons were trespassers if not poachers.

Mrs. Blanton heard three shots some time after her husband’s and son’s departure. No more were heard. By last week the indignation of citizens of San Perlita was at boiling point. The men did not come home that night, or the next, or the next. They sneered at their own Sheriff William Cragg, who offered a reward of $250 for the return of the Blantons “dead or alive.” Citizens gathered with arms and would have invaded the King Ranch had not Texas Rangers appeared. Captain William McMurray of the Rangers persuaded them to declare a three-day truce to give the Law a chance to find the bodies—for no one doubted that the Blantons had been shot by Kleberg fence-riders or game wardens.

Tales were told of hunters who had been beaten, of other strange disappearances among men who had trespassed on the King Ranch. The Mexican consul at Brownsville suggested that the Rangers also look for two Mexicans, Jesus Rivera and Reyes Ramirez, who were last seen months ago walking into the King Ranch to hunt. But the Blantons were white men and citizens. Rangers were kept as busy disarming posses as scouring miles & miles of the King Ranch.

Two King Ranch employes near the scene were arrested on suspicion. Caesar Kleberg, manager of the southern division of the Ranch, Cousin of Robert Kleberg, head of the Ranch, and of Richard Kleberg, U. S. Representative from Corpus Christi, announced that he hoped the disappearance of the Blantons would be cleared up even if Kleberg employes were involved. That helped no more than search by air, auto and horseback which went on for a week.

Finally Ranger Captain McMurray announced: “They were either killed and taken off the Ranch or taken off the Ranch and killed.”