THE MAN IN BLACK
In March 1863 the “Bloody Espinosas,” as brothers Felipe and Vivián would become known, began a reign of terror in central Colorado Territory, randomly murdering and mutilating residents and travelers alike. Over a two-month period they killed as many as 32 people, giving them the dubious distinction of being perhaps the first serial killers in the Western United States. Seeking to justify the killings, Felipe journaled about how he and his family had been victimized and left destitute by white Americans, and he recounted a dream in which the Virgin Mary had ordered him to kill 600 gringos.
In late April 1863 a citizens’ posse managed to corner the brothers and kill Vivián, temporarily halting the murder spree. But that fall Felipe recruited young nephew José Espinosa and resumed his depredations, recording at least one more killing. Then, in early October the pair ambushed a wagon west of Sangre de Cristo Pass. Unfortunately for them, the driver and passenger escaped and reported the crime to Lt. Col. Samuel F. Tappan, the commander at Fort Garland, in the nearby San Luis Valley. Tappan immediately sprang into action, or rather he called back into action former Army scout and esteemed tracker Tom Tobin—the perfect man to send after the notorious Espinosas.
Thomas Tate Tobin was born in St. Louis on May 1, 1823, to Irish immigrant father Bartholomew Tobin and wife Sarah (née Tate) Autobees, a widow of mixed white and Indian blood who’d brought into the marriage a son named Charles (who later styled his surname Autobee, without the “s”). In 1828, five years after his half-brother Tom’s birth, 16-year-old Charles left home to trap beaver. He returned to St. Louis in 1837 but soon turned back west, this time with 14-year-old Tom, whom he taught wilderness survival skills.
Autobee and young Tobin headed to Taos
