Statewide County AZ Archives Obituaries.....Conteras, Bias 1904
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D. Joshua Taylor http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00006.html#0001358 and Elizabeth Burns  July 21, 2005, 2:03 pm

Arizona Republican-July 29, 1904
BIAS CONTERAS
Arizona Republican Newspaper
July 29, 1904

A telephone message to The Republican last night announced 
the finding of the body of a Mexican yesterday afternoon 
in the suburbs of the town of Wickenburg.  The man had 
evidently been dead a couple of days.  His name was unknown 
but he was recognized as a man who had been seen around the 
town.  On Monday night he was seen to enter the house of a 
woman of ill repute named Barnarda Valdez and sometime 
later emerge from the same place with a bloody wound on 
one side of his head.  So far as is now known he was not 
seen alive since then.  The Valdez woman was arrested on 
suspicion of having fatally wounded the man of having 
knowledge of what caused his death and her preliminary 
examination was set for today.

Murder Mystery
August 1, 1904

In the matter of the inquisition held on the body of the 
Mexican found dead near the Santa Fe tracks in Wickenburg, 
the Jury found that his name was Bias Contreras, a native 
of Mexico, about 62 years of age and that his death was 
caused by a fracture of the skull.  Contreras came in 
Monday from the railroad construction camp near here and 
was going to Phoenix and then to the Tonto dam to work.  
He was drinking most of the day and about 8 o'clock in 
the evening was seen going to a house of ill repute.  
When next seen about 5 o'clock his head was bleeding and 
he seemed to be in a rather bad way but people did not 
realize he was in a bad way.  The woman who was arrested 
testified that he had not been in her house at all.

More on the Murder
August 2, 1904

The Wickenburg murder mystery is still unsolved.  An 
interesting incident of the case is the tender of the 
boys suspected of the murder.  The eldest is fourteen 
years of age and the younger is only nine.  Within a 
day of two of finding the body, suspicion was directed 
toward these boys.  The boys had been seen with the old 
man on the night of his disappearance.  The old man had 
been lying drunk near the railroad water tank.  That 
night there was a noise about the house of a Mrs. Nolan, 
who lives between the town and the tank.  She heard loud 
calls and what seemed to her to be the throwing of 
stones.  She looked out and saw two boys about the size 
of the Gomez boys leading the old man away.  A lodger 
by the name of Linn heard her and looking out saw the 
boys and the old man but he could only testify that the 
boys were of about the same size as the Gomez boys.  It 
was learned that these boys had spent silver in the 
amount of $1.50 at the store of a man named Reed.  A 
day or two later Mr. .Reed bought some ice of Constable 
Ike Ford and paid him in silver.  One of the pieces, a 
half dollar had a bloodstain on it.  The storekeeper was 
unable to say that this was one of the  pieces he had 
received from the boys.  Another half dollar similarly 
marked was found near the body of the old man.

One of the articles the boys bought of the storekeeper 
was a watermelon which they took to the house of a couple 
of girls.  They were accompanied by an older boy named 
Delgado.  During the eating of the watermelon, the girls 
made fun of Delgado for being unable to treat them while 
these two boys so much younger were prosperous enough to 
buy a watermelon. The boys said that an old man had been 
killed the night before and that the man who had killed 
him gave them a dollar a piece to say nothing about it.

There is little moral doubt about Wickenburg of the boys' 
guilt and if they are not  guilty it is quite certain that 
they know who killed the old man.  One of the boys assisted 
in the burial of the victim.

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