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Elfego Baca (February 10, 1865 – August 27, 1945) was a gunfighter, law enforcement officer, lawyer, and politician in New Mexico, who became an American folk hero of the later years of the New Mexico Territory frontier. His goal in life was to be a peace officer, and for "the outlaws to hear his steps a block away". He is known for his involvement in an 1884 shootout in Frisco (now Reserve), New Mexico, as well as later fictionalized representations of his life in Westerns released during the mid-20th century.
A standoff with the cowboys ensued. The number of cowboys who gathered has been disputed, with villagers at the scene reporting about 40 present, while Baca himself later claimed there had been at least 80. The cowboys are said to have fired more than 4,000 shots into the house, until the adobe building was full of holes. However, none of the bullets struck Baca; the floor of the home is said to have been slightly lower than ground level, allowing him to escape injury. After about 33 hours and roughly 4,000 rounds fired, the battle ended when Francisquito Naranjo persuaded Baca to surrender. In May 1885, Baca was charged with murder for the death of John Slaughter's foreman and Bert Hearne, and was jailed awaiting trial. In August 1885, Baca was acquitted after the door of Armijo's house was entered as evidence. It had more than 400 bullet holes in it. Purportedly, Baca's defense attorney had false documentation to prove Baca's legal deputization, as Baca's biography suggests he deputized himself just before the arrest of Charlie McCarty.
In 1888, Baca became a U.S. marshal. He served for two years and then began studying law. In December 1894, he was admitted to the bar by Judge A.A. Freeman and briefly joined Freeman's Socorro law firm in February 1895.William A. Keleher, Memoirs, Episodes in New Mexico History, 1892–1969 (Sunstone Press, 2008), p. 179." Judge A.A. Freeman," Old Abe Eagle, 28 February 1895, p. 1. He practiced law on San Antonio Street in El Paso between 1902 and 1904.
From 1913 to 1916, Baca served as the official U.S. representative of Victoriano Huerta's government during the Mexican Revolution. In April 1915, Baca was charged with criminal conspiracy for allegedly masterminding the November 1914 escape of Mexican general José Inés Salazar from the Albuquerque jail.Bryan, Howard ''Incredible Elfego Baca: Good Man, Bad Man of the Old West", pp. 68–76 Successfully defended by New Mexican lawyer and politician Octaviano Larrazolo, Baca's reputation grew among Southwestern residents.
When New Mexico became a state in 1912, Baca ran for Congress as a Republican. Although he was unsuccessful, he remained a valued political figure because of his ability to turn out the vote among the Hispanic population. Working at times as a private detective, Baca also took a job as a bouncer in a casino across the border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Baca worked closely with New Mexico's longtime Senator Bronson Cutting as a political investigator and wrote a weekly column in Spanish praising Cutting's work on behalf of local Hispanics. Baca considered running for governor despite his declining health, but he failed to secure the Democratic Party's nomination for district attorney in 1944.
Metz, his biographer, wrote: "Elfego was, and is, controversial. He drank too much; talked too much ... he had a weakness for wild women. He was often arrogant, and, of course, he showed no compunction about killing people." On his 75th birthday, Baca told the Albuquerque Tribune that as a lawyer he had defended 30 people charged with murder and that only one went to the penitentiary.
In July 1936, several years before his death, Janet Smith conducted an interview with Baca. Her notes can be found in the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection. Baca told Smith, "I never wanted to kill anybody, but if a man had it in his mind to kill me, I made it my business to get him first."
Starting in October 1958, Walt Disney Studios released a 10-part television serial entitled The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca, starring Robert Loggia in the title role.
Special edition of ''American Cowboy'' magazine, p. 28: "Walt Disney, the only producer of 1950s TV Westerns to focus on minority issues, powerfully told the full story of Baca's career in a ten-episode mini-series for ABC between 1958 and 1960, starring Robert Loggia. The title ''The Nine Lives of Elfago Baca'', played off the hero's nickname ''El Gato,'' the cat."
The serial aired as part of the anthology series ''Walt Disney Presents'' at irregular intervals from October 3, 1958, to March 25, 1960. (1985). 9780810816510, The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810816510
Disney took significant care to depict the famous siege in as authentic a manner as possible, given the known details. Among those who appeared in the series were Skip Homeier, Raymond Bailey, and I. Stanford Jolley. Episodes of the series were later edited into a 1962 movie titled Elfego Baca: Six Gun Law. The theme song's tag line was, "And the legend was that / Like el gato, "the cat" / Nine lives had Elfego Baca."
In 1966, a compilation of episodes was released as a film, Elfego Baca: Six Gun Law. It was directed by Christian Nyby and starred Robert Loggia's Elfego Baca. The film premiered in theaters in West Germany on May 20, 1966, and was later broadcast on American television with the title Elfego Baca: Attorney at Law.
Other popular culture depictions include Dynamite Entertainment's Lone Ranger and Green Hornet comic, where he cameos alongside other Western heroes including the Lone Ranger, Bat Masterson, Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley, Texas John Slaughter, and Black Bart.
New Mexican author Rudolfo Anaya (1937-2020) wrote four mystery novels featuring Elfego's grandson Sonny Baca of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who carries Elfego's supposed revolver; the modern stories involve sorcery and magic.
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