Back to Columbus

The reason I began writing about my Chief of Police tenure in Columbus, NM was so that I could tell of the evil I found there, and how cleverly it was hidden. I have a gift of sorts that may be best described by the words of my wife. She says, "T" if there is a snake in the wood pile you will always find it, others may look for it for days, but you will always find it." Meaning I guess that I have a nose for trouble, and will always find it, that is still with me today after I have not been a lawman for eight years.

When I first took the job in Columbus I knew that the first people who would attempt to befriend me were the crooks. Within days of taking the job three men began to camp out at my jail the first thing every day until I was forced to tell them that I had work to do and they left. They continued from that day forward trying to assist me in one way or another until I caught each of them in a little swindle that I cited them for and was able to distance myself from them.

When I arrived at Columbus I found that my office conditions were not the best in the world. In 1913 the then Village fathers had paid the grand total of $700.00 dollars to construct a solid reinforced 20x40 foot rectangular shaped concrete jail to hold the malcreant element of that time. The north or front facing side of the building had two small 14"x18" steel bar protected windows located about eight feet from the ground and a steel door made out of 3/8" steel sheet with a hasp for a padlock to secure it. The interior of the jail was filthy and I spent several days cleaning out the packrat nests and black widows from the interior before I could begin to furnish it with office furniture.

The interior of the building also had a steel cage with two holding cells used to temporarily hold prisoners before transport to the county facility in Deming. It had been used at one time to house a mountain lion that had been captured by someone, and it had housed many a drunk cowpoke in it time. It was now my home and the troubles I witnessed there are part of it's history.