Quick Facts
Biography
For the boxers, see Danny Lopez (boxer) and Ernie Lopez.
Red Lopez (c.1886 – October 1921) was a little-known Mexican outlaw who was responsible for at least thirty known murders in northern Mexico and the American Southwest. He also fought in the Mexican Revolution and was eventually killed in a shootout by the legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hamer.
Biography
Early life
Rafael "Red" Lopez was born in northern Mexico about 1886. His father was Martin Lopez, who would later become a general in Pancho Villa's army, and his mother was an Indian. One of Lopez's uncles was Pablo Lopez, another Villista general, who was responsible for the Santa Isabel Massacre in 1916.
As a teenager, Lopez and his younger brother were sent to New Mexico Territory to work in the mines with some of their relatives. In New Mexico, Lopez became a skilled equestrian and marksman. He usually worked in the mines, but by 1913 he was employed by Buffalo Bill Cody in his Wild West show.
Utah
On November 21, 1913, Lopez shot and killed a fellow miner named Juan Valdez in Bingham, Utah. According to differing accounts, Lopez and Valdez had gotten into an argument over a woman, but Kerry Boren says that Lopez was actually exacting revenge for Valdez's alleged murder of the former's brother years before. Either way, Lopez had no intention of surrendering to the authorities, so he fled across snow-covered mountains on foot to a ranch located near Utah Lake and the present-day town of Saratoga Springs.
A four-man posse was soon on Lopez's trail, and they caught up with him at about 4:30 p.m. on the same day. Unfortunately for the officers, they rode their horses right into an ambush. As the possemen were approaching the ranch house, Lopez opened fire on them from a nearby ditch with a Model 1895 30-06 Winchester rifle. At a distance later determined by the Salt Lake Tribune to be 118 yards, Lopez struck the Bingham police chief, John William Grant, in the back and killed him instantly. Next Lopez hit Deputy Nephi Jensen in the pelvis and Deputy George Witbeck in the right side of his chest. Jensen died almost immediately, but Witbeck survived for about twenty minutes. Deputy Julius Sorenson was saved only by a defective bullet. He was also the only one of the four lawmen to return Lopez's fire and though the bullets did not take effect, Lopez retreated as result.
News of the shootout quickly spread. Lawmen from all over Utah assembled to participate in what would become the state's largest manhunt in history. Altogether, the new posse consisted of about 200 men, both civilians and lawmen.
Meanwhile, Lopez went to hide in the Minnie Silver Mine outside of Bingham, stopping along the way at the home of a friend, Mike Stefano, to relieve him of his Model 1894 30-30 Winchester. A few days later, the police were informed of Lopez's whereabouts and they proceeded to block off the entrances to the mine with armed guards. On November 29, the posse tried to smoke Lopez out by sending two deputies in with an ore car full of hay to start a fire, but Lopez killed them both. Deputy James Douglas Hulsey was shot in the right shoulder blade and the bullet exited through his chest. He was also hit in the heel of one of his feet while his partner, Deputy Thomas Manderich, was hit in the upper right part of his back. The remaining possemen then attempted to starve Lopez into submission, but he survived due to the efforts of sympathetic miners, who left food in the tunnels. The posse also tried pumping smoke and fumes into the place, but it did not work either. Finally, Lopez escaped the mine into Bingham Canyon and got away. The posse called off the search on January 3, 1914, the day after finding the mine empty.
Lopez was never again seen in Utah and the case remained open for the next ninety years. The tragedy on November 21, 1913, remains the deadliest shootout in the history of Utah law enforcement.
Texas
Lopez fled to Texas and became the leader of an outlaw gang. According to Kerry Boren, many of Lopez's men were former members of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. For the next several years, Lopez plundered banks and trains along the Rio Grande and between 1915 and 1916 he fought in the Mexican Revolution with his father.
The bloodiest of Lopez's raids occurred in 1914. Somewhere near the international border, Lopez and his men derailed a train, robbed it, and executed nineteen of the twenty American passengers on board. In response to the massacre, the Texas Rangers began pursuing Lopez, but they failed to catch up with him for years.
Kerry Boren says that Lopez died in 1916 during a battle between American and Villista forces, but most evidence suggests that he was killed by Frank Hamer in 1921.
In October 1921, Frank Hamer was in command of Company C, Texas Rangers, when he was told by an informant of an upcoming meeting near the Rio Grande, which Lopez was to attend. Hamer decided to ambush the meet with some of his men by taking up positions in an irrigation ditch and firing on the outlaws as they came riding across the river border. However, after moving into place, Hamer suspected that the informant had led him into a trap so he had his men hide the horses and reposition themselves on a low ridge thirty yards away, which overlooked the irrigation ditch. Sure enough, just as the sun bgean to set, the rangers spotted about twenty armed men sneaking up to the rear of the ditch on foot. Hamer later said that at this time he could see both the treacherous informant and Lopez, who was wearing his "trademark clothing;" a red bandana and overalls. Hamer then stood up from his concealed position and shouted "Halt! We're officers of the law!" in Spanish. Instantly Lopez "whirled around" and fired at Hamer with a rifle, grazing him on the cheek. Hamer then opened fire with his .35 caliber Remington Model 8. His first bullet struck Lopez in the chest between the straps of his overalls and he died instantly. Hamer then aimed for the informant, but, before he could fire, one of the other rangers shot the man down. The fighting lasted about thirty minutes and, according to Gene Shelton's Manhunter: The Life and Times of Frank Hamer, the last shot fired was from a ranger dispatching a wounded bandit. Eleven bandits were killed that day while none of the rangers were hurt, except Hamer, who was grazed at the beginning of the engagement. Hamer also took a gold watch off of Lopez's body, which was covered in blood and had been damaged by one of the former's bullets. Hamer gave the watch to his brother, Harrison, who hung it on a wall in the customs house in Laredo. The watch remained on display for several years afterward.
Although Lopez was dead and his gang defeated, the Texas Rangers never informed the people of Utah about their victory, so the case remained open until January 24, 2003. After years of investigating on his own time and money, Salt Lake County Deputy Sheriff Randy Lish confirmed that the Lopez of Utah and the Lopez of Texas were the same man.