Page 33 - 2002 DT 12 issues

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Quejo: Trouble Dead Or Alive.....................1

Departments

News & Notes............................................2
May 2002 Programs & Hikes........................................4
Desk Schedule............................................6

Bulletin Board.............................................8

QUEJO: TROUBLE ○ derment. Slumped against the wall, ○ the identification, the remains were
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Quejo’s mummy peered from vacant eyes ○ shipped to Parks funeral home. The mor-
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DEAD OR ALIVE ○ ○ and grinned at them mirthlessly. ○ ○ tuary built a special casket like a “piano
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by Jack Ryan ○ Quejo had killed his first man in 1909 ○ shipping box” to accommodate Quejo’s
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○ and his last in 1919. Then he had dropped ○ drawn up knees which were too rigid to
○ out of sight for 21 years. But not out of ○ bend. When newsmen and locals de-
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uejo had been found at last. Or ○ memory. Publications from Real West and ○ manded to see Quejo, the home outfitted
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at least his bones. For three ○ True Detective to Arizona Highways res- ○ ○ the casket top with window glass.
Q decades the renegade half-breed ○ ○ urrected his depredations and speculated ○ ○ The throngs that came to pay their
had terrorized the Las Vegas and El ○ ○ on his whereabouts. Had he fled to ○ ○ last respects—“last” proved to be an
Dorado valleys. Now the posse hunters ○ Mexico? Was he ready to strike again elastic concept fired the valley’s
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preened before the national press; tales ○ from his river hideout? Or entrepreneurial minds. Quejo
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of his 23 murders around Searchlight and ○ was he sauntering down was box office boffo.
Nelson were retold. Yes, Quejo was dead. ○ ○ Fremont Street as re- Thus, began a macabre
But not buried. Nor would he be for an- ○ ○ ported in 1930? dance that degenerated
other three decades. ○ ○ Kenyon into a Marx brothers
Indian relic hunters had found his ○ brought Las Vegas comedy and left the Las
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mummified remains on Feb.18, 1940. A ○ Police Chief Frank Vegas valley a national
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cave on a bluff over the Colorado River ○ Waite to the site on laughingstock.
had caught their attention because its en- ○ ○ the west bank of the Boulder City,
trance was partially blocked by a rock ○ ○ Colorado about 20 Mecca for dam visitors,
wall. If Indians had secreted precious ○ miles south of decided Quejo’s skel-
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artifacts in the cave, wouldn’t they have ○ Boulder Dam. eton would fit snugly in
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further protected them behind such a ○ Waite found the its museum. Nevada
wall? ○ ○ skeleton’s leg bound in State Museum officials
Charles Kenyon, a hand at the Wil- ○ ○ burlap and his hands said it deserved better
son ranch next door to Red Rock, and Art ○ clenched as if in pain. From this, he con- ○ lodgings—like their Las Vegas venue.
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Schroder, a visitor at Willow Beach, ○ cluded Quejo had suffered in death and ○ ○ Not so fast, said the Las Vegas chamber
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scrambled up the bluff. From the entrance probably had succumbed to a gunshot ○ of Commerce: Our new city hall will be
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their flashlights probed the interior. A 30- wound or a rattlesnake bite. Waite never ○ august enough for Quejo’s moldering
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30 shotgun trap-rigged to cut down an ○ doubted the remains were Quejo’s. The ○ remains. Las Vegas Mayor John Russell
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intruder greeted them. They slipped by ○ police chief had been on manhunts ○ dissented: Quejo should be deposited
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the trap, and threw a light on a dusty ○ tracking Quejo’s signature—a twisted ○ ○ in a time capsule to be buried at the new
blanket littered with pots, pans, ○ ○ footprint. The mummy had a twisted foot. ○ ○ Union Pacific Railroad terminal. You’re
steel-tipped arrows, bows and various ○ ○ The watchman’s badge was the clincher, ○ ○ all wrong, said the U.S. Park Service.
paraphernalia including a watchman’s ○ it belonged to one of Quejo long-ago vic- ○
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○ Quejo has been found on our property
badge. The searchers’ beams ran to the ○ tims. ○
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cave wall and abruptly stopped. They ○ Quejo’s next stop was a coroner’s ○ ○
caught their breath, and cursed in won- ○ ○ office in Boulder City. After he confirmed ○ Quejo, continued on page 7