 The Romance of the Ranchos Los Angeles, 1870 Bandits terrorize surrounding ranchos Los Angeles, 1873 Sheriff's posse forms to combat outlaws Los Angeles, 1874 Authorities close in on Tibercio Vasquez The Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles presents The Romance of the Ranchos An historically accurate dramatization of the colorful events Which make up the background of our Southern California of today Each week our wandering vocero Frank Graham returns to give us a picture of the exciting California of yesterday Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles presents these stories because the authentic early history of Southern California is directly related to the service the company renders to the community Its work is to examine into and verify the ownership of land to the end that when you buy real estate you know it's yours To be able to do this the company must examine the ownership of the land all the way back to the earliest grants Checking on every transfer of its title and on every recorded instrument and legal proceeding that might affect it By means of its records the company is able to do this work far more quickly than you as an individual could And at vastly less cost to you And by taking extreme care to do the work accurately and completely The company is able to ensure to you the validity of the title you acquire Now here is our wandering vocero Frank Graham to bring us the story Buenos noches señoras y señores Tonight our story is concerned with one of the most notorious of the bad men of early California A man whose name has gone down in the annals of California for the one man war he conducted against the march of progress Here then is an exciting chapter in the romance of the ranchers For several years in the early 1870s the name of Tiburcio Vasquez was synonymous with villainy in Southern California Operating from his hideout of Vasquez rocks in Mint Canyon he conducted a reign of terror over the countryside robbing and looting He was wanted for murder in the north and his special hatred was for Americans Said to have stemmed from an incident in which a gringo stole his sweetheart It was in the spring of 1874 when late one evening a group of men approached the house of an Italian Alessandro Rapetto On ramshaw Rapetto near the present site of Montabello I hope you know what you're doing Tiburcio Not necessary for you to hope Chavez Just those I tell you and all will be well See I suppose so but I don't like it These claws they smell like the sheep Tonight you are a sheep herder and you would better be convinced Or you will answer to me if Tiburcio Vasquez You know what that means I can ramble me if I did not mean anything Of course I will do what you say I just do not like the smell It better learn to like it pretty quick eh See see I feel fine already Good quiet Now near the Acienda nobody say anything just me I do the talking and everybody do as I say See see we are with you Hayfi This senoris is going to be the neatest trick of my career See very neat Alright hombre quiet What is it? Senor Rapetto is it not? See who are you? Oh but the poor sheep are the senor Antonio They call me these are my friends And we go to our sheep at the ranch of Diego Sepulveda Finding such a long way we are unable to make it in one day We should like a place to sleep for the night Perhaps in your barn if it would not trouble you Senor otherwise we should be obliged to sleep on the ground Very well go ahead But mind you don't screw hay all over the barn And be on your way in the morning Oh see see see Hayfi what is this? What are we doing? You had ears didn't you? They are going to spend the night in Senor Rapetto's barn But why? It is not for you to ask questions Hayfi You seem to forget that more and more lately I give the order you take them That is all you have to know See see of course Hayfi but I only You stupid ox Did it ever occur to you that banks are not open at night That we might need fresh horses for the skin See see that is right You have no brains that is why You will never be anything more than you are I tell you see you'll have the horses riding Behind the barn at dawn tomorrow Then you shall see the action you want There they are eating their breakfast Rapetto and his health is Quiet hombres Remember you are still sheepers for a few minutes more Come quietly See Senor we have come to thank you For letting us stay That is all right you are No strewn hay have you But no Senor we have taken good care That everything shall be orderly Very well you will be on your way What Senor You will send us away without food That is not true California hospitality You can't find a scoundrel you expect me To invite you to eat with me Get out of here you filthy sheepherd But we are not sheep herders Senor What? You get the idea whatever your hands These little pistols have spoken me for And it is so hard to keep under control I would not tempt too much All right hombres inside get the others No no no After you Senor But you can't do this you Senor I am not only kind I am doing You do not seem to realize who I am I don't know Bursio Vasquez can do anything Senor Vasquez No you have heard of me I am getting to be famous Well not half so famous As I will be Senor All California will know me well Senor And you are going to help All right line up against the wall all of you Hey keep them covered But Senor Vasquez I have no money here I can give you nothing What I say is true I never keep money here I have nothing to give you And I would gladly give you all I have But I cannot Senor your generosity overwhelms me But I do not want all you have I want only eight hundred dollars Eight hundred dollars But I tell you I haven't that much here I have nothing a few places But you have money in the Pueblo bank Very well That will do as well in fact I had expected Here is a check you will sign Go ahead Senor How can you get it from the bank Yes Senor you shall see Boy muchacho come here You mean me senor? Yes you muchacho you can write a horse pass You know the way to the bank in Los Angeles Are you going there often we see your Repeto We see your Repeto but this time You will go without Senor Repeto It is the check for the money I want You will take it to the bank and cash it You will bring the money back here muy pronto And muchacho If you do not You will not harm him Have I said anything about Harming him I like him He is a nice muchacho Muchacho come here What is your name? Pedro Senor You like Senor Repeto Pedro Yes of course You would not like to see him Dead No Senor Then you will return with the money pronto And you shall speak to no one You understand? No one in the pueblo You just tell the bank Senor want you to get the money Then no more See see I will hurry Hey Fe you cannot mean You trust the boy I have told you it is not for you To question what I do See Hey Fe but I do not like He never get away with this basket We shall see Senor I think we will It will not be well For you if we do not Senor And I should hate to have to harm you A lot you care about me You will soon kill me But that is not true Senor But you are to be big help to me You mean my 800 dollars See you should feel honored You are contributing to California Not to me Senor That is a novel excuse for your banditry The next time you use such words It shall not be a slap in the face Senor The Bursi of Vasquez is no bandit And your kind cannot understand that Then what you call yourself I am a Californiano Senor A real Californiano My weak-knit countryman may bow And scrape to you foreigners but I do not I would drive all Americanos And people like you out of California See that is what your money will do Senor So you think you are a one man revolution One day soon you shall not laugh Senor for when I come back from Mexico With my army you all of you Will find the laughs choking in your thoughts Vasquez you cannot stop progress No You can't beat the Americanos You shall see Senor You shall see Well son you are here bright and early What can I do for you? Senor Senor Apeto The man wishes me to To get this money for him The man? Oh you have a check Let's see it son Yes Senor Senor Apeto's check for Eight hundred dollars Son this is a mighty big check For a young fellow to be cashing Where did you get it? He just told me to get the money And bring it back This is kind of irregular Is Senor Apeto ill? Come come boy I can't give you all this money Without knowing a little more about this You needn't be so frightened my boy I am not going to hurt you But I must know why Senor Apeto Sent you to get this much money Why he didn't come himself Please Senor Don't ask me Please I must not tell I must not You must not Huh? Sen Call the sheriff Vasquez the boy should be back by now I must stop worrying So he will come He had better come with a little pistol He's getting nervous Senor Stop appointing that thing at me Will you please I don't like it You don't like it Well now it's not too bad So inconsiderate of me Well perhaps you will not have the look at it So long Senor Hey Isidro Isidro has seen someone coming Go to the window look See Well who is it? Caramba it is the boy He is riding up now Well it is good You will know that I'd be happy to wear that Senor Now if he has the money All right you shall not have the worry Please turn that pistol away The boys will come You got what you want Well when I do The pistol goes back All right Jose Bring the boy in And need three cases Now perhaps you will stop Worrying about the orders I give you But I still do not like it We shall get the money and go Quickly See see But there's no worries Now muchacho You are fine boy Come you got the money See Senor Here it is God she is my amigo Let me look first Boom See Go Well what are you looking so frightened for Your master is quite safe now Hey Senor He has been up to something I can tell He is pleased He is troubled The boy is brought to Sierra Worry The orders Come here you boy No Senor No Stop that Leave the boy alone There's no time for that Go Muchacho Good work You are a boy after my own art Hasta la vista Hola Diablo It is time for me Here they come But they will never catch it Oh hey Listen to that crowd He yell for his head Chef We got to produce Vasquez And quick Yeah he's got him scared With his talk of revolution Nah he's getting more Rotatious every day He's got to be stopped And don't forget He's wanted for murder Up north There's a reward of Eight thousand dollars I know all that men What can I do I have to have time But nobody realizes That at half of them people Out there in California That's right Many of them really sympathize With this Vasquez He'll know every word That was said about him Out there in an hour I can't make a move That isn't reported to him It's almost impossible To organize a defense Against him But half the populations Against me But you've got to do something I don't know it Sooner or later His own men Will betray him I can only hope That it's soon I've ordered it People you say I'm getting To be quite a drawer Of crowd I bought coffee They mean business I think they're getting Too hot Perhaps you had better Take to the hills for a while Run from them No, not Vasquez Why should I sneak off As though I were afraid of them I am not afraid of them I would go And I am ready And feel like it And before I go We shall have a great fiesta She is the barn At the mother The canyon of the lorors We shall have a A fandango And dance the whole night Through What Vasquez I have warned you Those are my orders Very well, Hayfi But I do not like it I have a feeling A feeling that you should go Now You are playing with danger Once too often In the files of the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles Are 1600 large volumes Called lot books These are in effect In index of every deed Mortgage decree Or other important A proceeding Shown by public records To affect any one Of the million And a half Separate parcels Of real estate In Los Angeles County But matters affecting Land ownership Consist of more than These recordings Are relating to Particular properties For example While a deed may convey A lot The legal bankruptcy Of its owner Would be just as effectual In transferring its ownership Many other matters That relate to persons Rather than to Individual pieces Of property Also affect land ownership Among them Are judgments Powers of attorney And sanity commitments Guardianships And probate proceedings Divorce actions And property settlements And so In a different set Of books Called the general index Title insurance In Los Angeles List these personal matters They are indexed By names of people Rather than by Particular properties I will tell you why The general index Is probably the most Interesting part Of the company's title Plant later in the program But now Back to Frank Graham And the rest of our story As the sheriff And his men Continued a vain search For Tibusio Vasquez The bandit was spending his last night Before leaving for Mexico In a wild fiesta At the barn Near the mouth of Laurel Canyon All of the gang were there With their sweethearts Long into the night The merrymaking went on Hey, hey, hey, come on It is getting late It is time to go Ya ve, you all long face The party is just begun Come stop looking so sour And joining the fun Both Vasquez We must leave before dawn And we need rest We have a hard treat We will have a rest When the fiesta is over We will go to the house Of Greek George And there we shall sleep Until dawn But not until the fiesta is over But hey, hey, those are my orders You do not wish to obey them You do not have them Lately you are becoming Less useful to me anyway You frighten too easily But hey, hey, I did not mean anything All right Then stop sniffling Over leaving Come on, join the party Pick yourself a pretty girl Get a bottle Take a lesson for me, amigo Greek George You see how he dances George, where did you learn To dance like that Driving the commas What do you mean, Vasquez? You make joke about my dancing I am a good dancer, no? No, you look like Great donkey trying to dance No, senior I do not like for you To make a joke Such a hulking brute Is you do not deserve The whole such beauty in his arms Ah, senior, why Have we not met before? I do not know, senior But because you have no eyes In your head So, I like, senior Eat with sharp tongue It makes the game of Saving them much more interesting You think you can tame me, senior? You think I cannot My little dog Ah, I am impressed Where are you, Vasquez? She is my girl You keep your hands off her To imagine that such beauty Should look a second time With that hideous face Of yours, amigo You can forget such thoughts Now that she has met me Stop it You stay away from her, she is my girl Oh, wait, donkey Stop bragging The senior eat and I Are going to die, no? I have not said yes, yes But you will Because nobody says no To Vasquez Vasquez, I warn you Leave her alone Gerard, you swine Homre, stay away Why you Stop, let go of me Away with you, donkey No, I'm killing myself I'm killing myself Well, you certainly Have a way with you I get what I want Always No, seniorita Shall we dance? Well, senior You always get what you want Let go of me, Charbus Let go of me See, see There, now Just calm down, amigo You're wasting your anger on him I'll kill him, so help me I'll kill him I know you won't, George You'll be dead before you drive It would be a pleasure for to die If I could get him too There's no chance of that You'd better forget it Forget it? You don't know me Sooner or later I have a better idea Perhaps I wouldn't have to kill him What are you talking about? Nothing Never mind Senior, where are you going? I'll be right back, senior You mean you really know where Vasquez is? Sure, I told his own men To give him up sooner or later I was right Greek George told us the whole thing You're having a famed angle at oral canyon tonight He'll come down to sleep at Greek George's house We'll get him there Good And that'll last When do we start? You'll start right away I'm not going Huh? Why not? You know why not I'd give my right arm to go Every move I make is watched He'd be warned in no time So you'll take charge of the party There'll be eight of you You're to assemble one by one at the livery stable Guns and ammunition are there ready for you Take a winding route But get to Greek George's by dawn Good night Miss Mitchell, Smith, Rogers, Beers All right men This time we're going to get him Let's go That's Greek George's down there From here on we'll have to go carefully, men Yeah, we're not too early It's getting light What's that? It looks like a wagon coming down the trail Back in the shadows, men We'll stop them All right All right Just a couple of Mexicans and Marantzo down there Let them know But we'll come to the wagon It's just the thing we need What do you mean, Elmo? I'll drive her You and the others get in the back And lie down at the site We can drive right up to Greek George's Without them suspecting a thing Come on, let's go Hey, Fay Hey, Fay Buskers Yeah, there, where you want? Hey, you must hurry Already it is light We should have been gone long ago Yes, yeah, in a minute Where's almost up my breakfast? Fire breakfast I tell you we must hurry I do not like this We should never have come here Why not sell our face? Hey, where is Greek George? Why is he not here? How should I know? Ah, but he hasn't come back After he left last night And he was very angry at you He talked about killing you And then he said very funny things I couldn't make him out But he is not back And I am worried Hey, he probably got drunk Because I took his girl Oh, he can't have her I do not care much for her But, hey, Fay This might be serious He is local Ah, we should be gone After I eat my breakfast What have you Chavez After I eat my breakfast Save it See, see, I go fix the horse Anyway What is that? Hmm, sound like wagon approaching Look through the window and you can see See, maybe it is Ha, ha, ha Don't be such a fool, Chavez Anyone can see It's just a man driving an old wagon Maybe from neighborhood rancher, huh? Stop worrying and go fix the horses See, but very happy All right, Jose, ready with the horses We leave in a minute And you set the others on the head See, Chavez Winner Hey, what is that? Look, men are surrounding the house Hey, look, there is Vazquez coming out the window Hey, Fay, run, run, run, run, run They shot him Vazquez has fallen They shot him See, it is too late All right, Jose, right Hey, well, hey, well Then you are Vazquez Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho Then you are a bear Though you have come to see me See, I have come to tell you that As for our little account You can settle it with God Oh, no, no, senor I intend to repay you Now that my plans have gone astray I do not expect that But I beg of you, if you ever resume operations Never visit me again Senor, I am Caballero With the Caballeros heart One sorry, Caballero You are not, senor Here behind bars See? I am quite a fixer, you know Oh, why did you do it? Well, nobody seems to understand that Maybe I am hot-blooded No, lose my temper too much But I am a California honor, senor I love my California I see the Americanos come And take what is ours Changes to something that is not ours Well, maybe that is for the best I cannot say, but I cannot like it I cannot stand by and see it Without pulling up a fight I am sorry you have made a mistake, Vazquez If you were to work with the Americanos You could have done much for California See? Perhaps, sir, I cannot say But perhaps if people remember that I love California They will not think so badly of me Maybe not, senor For the sake of your memory I hope not And now? Oh, you must go Oh, but wait Wait, come here, senor Senor, repeto Here is gold watch See, I take it from Americano engineer You find his name on the back Please, senor You give it back to him Maybe he can make it work I cannot And besides, senor Where I will be I do not think I will need a watch, eh? Do not like to hear you say that See, senor, I will give it to you Thank you, senor No No, no, no, senor Not as de la vista Adios You know, senor I think this is one time when Vazquez Will not have his own way And to put your Vazquez was right At last his career of crime was finished He was taken to San Jose Tried for murder and hanged Thus ended a vivid stormy chapter In the story of early California A chapter rich in the romance of the ranchers Frank Graham will have a great story For you next week He'll tell you a little about it in just a moment A few minutes ago I told you how Title insurance and trust company maintains A general index in which you're listed Matters which may affect land ownership But relating to persons Rather than to individual pieces of property In that index at present are the names Of more than a million and a half persons Many of these people do not own any real estate And perhaps never will But in case they ever do Certain things that have happened to them May affect the title to land acquired by them And so the company must keep this massive information Posted in its general index Much of the personal history of people Is reflected in the entries under the names In the index Hence there is a fascination in the tracing Of land titles through the past If the examiner visualizes the human stories Behind the facts For example the life of Pio Pico Last Mexican governor of California Is reflected in 25 entries In the general index since 1850 The earlier ones show him actively conveying And mortgaging valuable lands And giving powers of attorney Later the fading of his fortunes Is seen in an action to restrain A foreclosure of sale of property He had borrowed money on The last posting in 1895 Reveals his death and the probate Of his estate Frank, what's the story for next week? Next week we'll tell you the story Of Rancho San Vicente Santa Monica And the Boca de Santa Monica And of the lifelong fight That a gallant California put up for his land You won't want to miss it And so until then This is your Wondering Barcaro Frank Graham Saying Hasta la vista, señoras y señores The romance of the Ranchos A presentation of the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles Frank Graham is the Wondering Barcaro Is dramatized by John Dunkel And produced by Ted Bliss With special arrangements by Erwin Yeo Bob Lamon speaking This is the Columbia Broadcasting System