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Invitation to hanging of Tiburcio Vasquez 1875

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Title: Original invitation to the hanging of outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez on March 16, 1875
Author: **
Description: Printed on recto of 2¼x3¾" card, filled out in ink to James Hanna, with date and time also added; signed on the verso by J.H. Adams, Sheriff of Santa Clara County.Rare piece of ephemera from the wild and lawless days of California in the decades following the Gold Rush, featuring a legendary outlaw and a legendary lawman. Tiburcio Vasquez (1835-1875), an educated Californian whose great-grandfather had come north with the De Anza expedition in 1776, fell foul of the law at an early age, excusing his crimes by telling everyone that he was "punishing" the whites for discrimination against those of Mexican and Spanish decent. He robbed stores and stages up and down the state, gaining great notoriety and ever-growing rewards on his head, eventually caught when a family member of a young girl he had impregnated turned him in. He was remanded to San Jose for trial, convicted, and hanged by longtime sheriff John Hicks Adams. James Hanna, to whom the invitation is made out, was Adams' son in law, having married his daughter Mary in 1859. Accompanied by two cdv's of a young woman identified as Mary E. Hanna, daughter of James and Mary Hanna, and granddaughter of Sheriff Adams; a large photograph of Mary E. Hanna as an elderly woman; and a cdv of a bearded man tentatively identified as James Hanna.
Heading: AAA(Vasquez, Tiburcio)Place Published: San Jose
Publisher:
Date Published: 1875