Jack Powers
Power, was an Irish-born American outlaw who emigrated to New York as a child and later served as a volunteer soldier in the Mexican–American War in the garrison of Santa Barbara, California.
Soon after this race, he was accused by San Luis Obispo vigilantes of complicity in the 1857 murder of two men, and of being the head of a notorious bandit gang that plagued the southern central coastal region of California along the El Camino Real, with robberies and murders in San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County between 1853 and 1858.
[1]: 99 Escaping the vigilantes by fleeing to Sonora, Powers attempted to return to California in 1860, but was murdered and robbed by his vaqueros at Calabasas just inside the Arizona Territory.
Jack Powers was described at the time of the May 1858 long-distance race in the Daily Alta California as being "a spare built man, with full sunburnt face, heavy hair and whiskers, and a keen eye.
Power and his company remained in Santa Barbara as a garrison, in relative idleness until the disbanding of the regiment in September 1848, just a few months after the beginning of the California Gold Rush.
Power remained in the town as a gambler until late in the year, when he left for the mines with his brother-in-law in a party of other men of his regiment.
[6]: 266 One of those men, James Lynch, later wrote an account of that journey to the goldfields and of their return to San Francisco for the winter of 1848 in his 1882 book, With Stevenson to California, 1846–1848.
On Monday, July 23, 1849, the vigilantes arrested and made prisoners of 20 of the Hounds, including John Power, who were then arraigned on charges of conspiracy, riot, robbery, and assault with intent to kill; all plead not guilty.
That August he went to Stockton, the gateway to the Southern Mines, where with $10,000 to $15,000, in a spectacular run of luck, he broke the bank of several large gambling establishments.
William Redmond Ryan described meeting Jack Power returning from the Mission Dolores in 1849: Ryan went on to say that in addition to his other accomplishments, he was also an excellent performer on the banjo; "and one evening, with three or four others, gave a concert in the dining-saloon of the Parker House, which was suitably arranged for the occasion; and, although the tickets for admission were three dollars each, the attraction of our Nimrod's celebrity ensured a numerous attendance.
[11][12][13][6]: 267–268 Power and his friends including James Lynch, then visiting Santa Barbara, saw them off after they took a few shots at long distance and saw they were well-armed and ready for them.
[3]: 61–62 After a standoff for a period of time, Power was eventually persuaded to leave his ranch after he was granted a lease to harvest his crops and move his stock and possessions off the land.
That he fled seemed understandable when the news came that the posse had summarily lynched two other men accused of being members of the Flores Daniel Gang while traveling through the area of the Mission San Buenaventura on their way to arrest Power.
[2]At the end of the race Power "publicly offered to bet $5,000 that he would ride 50 miles in 2 hours; and that no other man in California could perform the feat he had just accomplished;.
"[2] In late May 1858, shortly after that long-distance race, Power was again accused of crimes, this time for his alleged role in the activities of Pio Linares and his gang by a committee of San Luis Obispo vigilantes.
Power was accused in Garcia's possibly coerced confession of participating with the gang in the killing of two Basque cattlemen in late 1857 on the Nacimiento River near San Miguel.
[22]: 294–297 The vigilantes also made out Power as secretly being the outlaw gang leader of this group of highway-robbers and murderers of the victims and witnesses, including Linares, Garcia and others, operating in southern and central California for several years since the fall of 1853.
MIGUEL BLANCO, is also of this country; of low stature, about 20 years of age, is handsome very fair, with a bold face and without beard.
NIEVES ROBLES alias FLORIAN SERVIN has a round face, somewhat dark complexion is small, and about 23 years of age.
The August 27 Daily Alta California later reported: The Elizabeth Owens sailed from San Francisco on the 3d of June, for the mouth of the Colorado, but was obliged to put into Guaymas for water.
The notorious Jack Powers went down on the schooner from San Francisco to Guaymas, and was still there when the vessel left, notwithstanding the reports that he has lately been seen in Lower California.
[24]Garcia, the one witness that placed Power at the scene of one of the gang's crimes, was hung by the vigilantes at San Luis Obispo on Tuesday, June 8, 1858.
[25]In June 1859, from Sonora, in the Guaymas correspondence of the San Francisco Herald came the following: Jack Powers, about whom so much has been said, has located himself at Hermosillo, where he has opened a fine hotel.
Jack is in high feather with the Pesqueira Government and the Mexicans generally, and in consequence is able to render great assistance to Americans traveling through the country, who are free to stop at Hermosillo.
Jack says he is no friend to filibusters, as the Mexicans have treated him kindly, but will aid his countrymen whenever and wherever he can, who are peaceably traveling through the country or pursuing a legitimate calling in it.
[26]The September 30, 1860 Daily Alta California, reported: Jack Powers left, a short time ago, for Arizona.
[27]However the truth was that after two years, gambling and running a ranch in the Mexican state of Sonora, in 1860, he drove a herd northward into New Mexico Territory to sell it in Mowry City, a new mining boom town on the Mimbres River.
We learn from Mr. R. O. Cossett, who passed here on the Overland mail stage to-day, that the notorious Jack Powers was murdered on his ranch a little south of Tubac, Arizona, by his Mexican peons.
Wishing to find better grass, he moved to the Babacomari ranch (deserted some 40 years ago on account of the Apaches, and belonging to the Spanish family Elias.)
On returning in the morning, they found several hogs at the house, and Jack Powers lying on the floor with his throat cut, and skull cracked by a blow on the head.
