Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1888 — The Last Mexican Bandit. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Last Mexican Bandit.

FTER the death of Eraclio Bernal, the Mexican newspapers were full of anecdotes of that celebrated bandit It appears that Bernal was a prey to melancholy for some time previous to his death,and that

he felt a strong presentiment that his career was soon to be cut short His melancholy was intensified by a fatal quarrel over a woman named Louisa Garcia, in which he killed a former friend and comrade. The party which attacked Bernal on the morning of his death was small, and might have been easily repulsed. But Bernal’s men were dispirited by the melancholy of their chief. He himself was one of the first to fall, being struck in quick succession by three bullets, all from the pistol of the captain of the little band of recruits, who were eager to win the SIO,OOO offered for Bernal’s capture or death. The first bullet was probably fatal, but the second, which crashed thro igh the outlaw’s brain, did the work of all three. Bernal planned his assaults with great care and skill. His attacks were always delivered in the early morning, as he had found by experience that he encountered less resistance at that hour than at any other. He was occasionally overtaken by fits of remorse, and at such times he would repair to one of the numberless chapels which rear their spires in the heart of the sierra, and remain for hours in prayer before an image. On leaving the oratory he would drop a S2O gold piece into the poor box. His amendment never lasted long. A few days generally brought tidings of some new and daring exploit. Bernal will probably be the last of Mexican bandits. Isolated cases of assault will, no doubt, occur, as they do, even in the United States. But never again will an organized band of desperadoes be allowed to terrorize a whole state. A number of legends have already begun to cluster round the name of Eraclio Bernal, and in future ages his story may. become as famous in traditions of the sierra as that *f Robin Hood in England. His life has a'ready been dramatized and represented with success at one of the theaters in Boston.