Contra Costa County CA Archives History - Books .....Killing Of Jose Vaca 1882
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com November 23, 2005, 12:21 am

Book Title: History Of Contra Costa County, California

   KILLING OF JOSE VACA.—In an affray at the village of Concord on Monday, May
2, 1869, a Californian Indian named Jose Vaca was killed by another called
Fernando Feliz. The deceased had been well known in the vicinity for a long time
as a drunken, brawling, besotted fellow, the other being also well known as a
quiet inoffensive person, past the meridian of life and afflicted from an early
age with an infirmity that made him a cripple. It appears that the deceased, who
had been drinking to inebriation, approached the hut of Feliz with a bottle and
wanted him to drink, an invitation he declined, saying; that "much whisky is no
good;" but told the other he would make a fire and give him something to eat.
While making the fire Jose seized hold of him, saying: "Now, I have got you
where I want you, and mean to kill you," thereupon striking him a heavy blow
with the bottle and breaking it—Fernando struggling to defend himself, Jose in
the meanwhile slashing and punching his face with the fragments of the bottle
still held in his hand by the neck. In the scuffle that ensued they got outside
of the shanty, where Fernando found an opportunity to seize a large knife with
which he gave his antagonist two or three lunges, one of which, as was found on
the post mortem examination, passed entirely through the heart, severed the
fourth rib, and killed him instantly. A judgment of justifiable homicide was
returned.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA,
INCLUDING ITS GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION;
TOGETHER WITH A RECORD OF THE MEXICAN GRANTS; THE BEAR FLAG WAR; THE MOUNT
DIABLO COAL FIELDS; THE EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT, COMPILED FROM THE MOST
AUTHENTIC SOURCES; THE NAMES OF ORIGINAL SPANISH AND MEXICAN PIONEERS; FULL
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; SEPARATE HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP, SHOWING
THE ADVANCE IN POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE;
ALSO,
Incidents of Pioneer Life; and Biographical Sketches
OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
AMD OF ITS TOWNS, VILLAGES, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO: W. A. SLOCUM & CO., PUBLISHERS
1882.


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