Sunday, August 28, 2016

Gus Raney and the Smell of Death

Smell of death
Gus Raney
La Ultima
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
            Gus Raney was long part of our family verbal history.
He would arrive during those nighttime sessions when the thunder would rattle the windows, rattlesnakes would be a certain feature, memories were retold of crazy women in abandoned cabins sitting up in the rafters watching cowboys light fires to dry out and get warm, and lightning stories were in the offing. It was when television wasn’t even part of our culture. We kids would sit on the edge of our seats in great anticipation listening to the elders. The suspense was infectious and intense. We could have set off in full stampede with a simple “boo”.
            Gus stories were always spooky. He was the villain of villains. Most of us never laid eyes on him, but we were scared to death of him. He was gone from our area before those “kids” were born, but stories of his life would suggest such fears were warranted.
            Gus Raney
           
 The more finite details of Gus’ life will be left to writer Richard Melzer who is doing a series on the crusty legend. Only the verbal history that I know will be dealt with this morning, but perhaps it adds an interesting corollary to Melzer’s two part series.
            About 2000, I met a descendent of Gus who worked at the Physical Laboratory at NMSU. In our discussion, he suggested Gus actually came to Grant County with a contract by a mining operation to rid the country of claim jumpers. Whether true or not Gus’ demeanor was suggestive that he would have been good at such a mission.
            A common theme in all stories was that he had either succeeded in killing somebody or he was discussing the threat of same.
            The Raney family settled at Cliff, New Mexico and lived at or just above the potholes in Davis Canyon. Prevailing accounts had the family living in a tent and or a cave. The children of Gus and Sugarfoot Raney were known to the Cliff community as Ethel, Hale, Sleet, and Snow (contemporary children of Cliff knew Orville as Snow).
The story starts in a dispute over a horse. In the days of the Depression, there were still a number of wild horses that ran in the Davis Canyon country. From those mustangs, many local families acquired saddle horses. It was there the McMillans moved their ranch horses in the spring of either 1932 or 1933 to avoid a loco weed outbreak up the Mangus to the east.
            Immediately, they started having trouble with a stud horse that was running in the canyon and playing havoc with the remuda. He was known to be owned by Gus. Having dealt with that particular horse too many times without a response from the Raneys, Tom McCauley and my grandfather, Albert Wilmeth, roped the horse and castrated him.
            Gus was then in prison serving a sentence for murdering another man, but the news of the castration was relayed to him by Sugarfoot. Never one to worry about good behavior, he announced from his cell he was going to kill Tom and Albert upon his release from prison for the castration of his horse.
            Giving credence to the possibility he was employed on the sly by an influential mining operation, Gus was paroled in 1934 after serving only 22 months and 22 days for the killing. As it happened, the McMillans and the McCauleys were both shipping cattle at Silver City the day Gus rode the train back into town. Tom and Grampa were both there when Gus stepped off. Tom was driving a new Chevy and pulled over and asked Gus if he needed a ride home.
            One account of the incident suggested one of them mentioned that if there was going to be another killing they might as well get on with it.
            The other account suggested not a single word was mentioned of the castration (or the unfortunate and untimely death of horse in the aftermath) or the death threat from the jail cell. In this latter version, Gus was a subdued gentleman all the way home.
The trip to Cliff wasn’t without incident, though, by the account of Tom’s son, Freddie. Freddie was seated between his father and Gus and had been thinking about the death threat from the time he saw Gus at the rail station. He just knew when they started across the old steel bridge at Riverside Gus was going to grab him and throw him into the river!
He was crowding his father to the point Tom asked him, “What in the Sam Hill is wrong with you?”
            At five years old, all death threats were terrifying.
            Freddie also remembered Gus’ eyes and he spoke about them repeatedly through his life. As an old man, he told me he woke up many times in his childhood in the midst of a nightmare seeing Gus and those eyes were glaring at him. He thought it started from the time he and his dad had ridden up on Gus at the head of a canyon and he had confronted them with a gun. What had Gus on the prod was the statement Tom had made about the theft of a big roll of rope. Gus claimed that Tom had cussed him without cause and he was going to even the score. His eyes were glaring at them like a wild man, a savage, or an animal on a desperate hunt. They matched the muzzle of the gun pointing in their direction.
            The apparent score in the maniacal view of Gus Raney was to kill Tom McCauley for calling him a son-of-a-bitch. Tom suggested to Gus that is not what he had said, and, in fact, he had clearly restated what he did say.
“I said whoever stole that rope from me is a son-of-a-bitch,” Tom said coolly. “Furthermore, I don’t think this better go any further because there will be hell to pay.”
            What caught Gus’ attention was the six inch Stillson wrench that Tom always carried in his leggins’ pocket. When the confrontation reached crescendo pitch, Tom had poked the end of the wrench against his chap pocket making it appear that he had a loaded pistol in the pocket.
            “Now, Tom, you and I have no issue here at all,” Freddie remembers Gus saying in a tone change with all anger and threats gone.
            “I didn’t think so, Gus,” Tom concluded.
            As they turned and rode away, Tom told Freddie not to look back and to act like nothing happened. Freddie suggested they should “fly” and get out of there, but Tom reminded him that is exactly what they were not going to do.
            There was little doubt, though, who the culprit was in the rope theft.
            La Ultima
            The death of Hale and Snow was a deflowering ebb in the life of Gus Raney. People who knew those boys talked in awe of their toughness. Like too many families in the Depression, the needs and wants of children were not the highest priority. The Raney children were normally barefooted, but that didn’t stop them from astounding feats of physical endurance. The wild horses of the Davis country represented opportunities of income and they became mustangers. Their method of capture was to relay those horses on foot until they could trap them. They were known to do it in bare feet in the rough malpais of the Davis watershed. They were tough and they weren’t easily prone to take stupid chances much less put themselves into a situation that was life threatening.
            Their deaths, therefore, sparked questions. The prevailing story in the Cliff community was that one of them had drowned swimming in a tank and the other had drowned trying to save him. Those that knew Gus came to believe Gus had killed one of them and had to kill the other to keep him quiet. He had thrown them both in the tank to make it appear they had drowned.
            The bizarre only got more bizarre when Gus decided he needed to have a picture taken with the boys. He dressed up and stood between his dead sons propping them up for the photographer to take the picture.
            Gus spent the rest of his life near Grants, New Mexico spreading his own fame by continuing to polish his bad guy persona. He killed several more men before he died at an unknown age made more confusing by the various dates he claimed he was born.
            In the end, the only thing that was certain about Gus Raney was … the smell of death.

            Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Two copies of the pictures of Gus and his two dead sons were rumored to exist in Cliff. One was supposed to be in the McCauley collection and the other from the collection of Lorena Terman Moss Lewis, my great grandmother. I saw neither.”


 Part 1 of Melzer's 2-part series can be viewed here.  Part 2 will be published on Sept. 8.

26 comments:

Eli Blake said...

I've always had a fascination with Gus Raney. My college roommate was from Grants and talked about how everybody knew to be careful and avoid him, but apparently he was also a perfect gentleman who was always gracious to the ladies and could tell some very tall tales.

Joe walker said...

Gus was my Great Grandfather. He was my mother's mother's father. He would always visit on our birthdays and give us a silver dollar for each year we old. I remember him as good to us but stern when he said something. Course we loved him and didn't realize he was supposed to be a hard man, he was just grandpa fussy to us.

Joe walker said...

I meant Gussy not fussy

Karen weathers Lattimer said...

I always remember running up to his Jeep, my Great Grandfather "Gus Raney", and Great Grandmother "suger foot". I loved my Grand parents an never feared them/him but I was well aware of people's fear of the unknown.

Bird Bradberry said...

We have Gus Raneys old place. There is a rock that has one of the boys name scratched into it. Edwin is kin to Gus through the Blalocks. Ediwn Mom sure wasn't scared of him.

TheHolodomorMatters said...

I'm good friends with his grandson.

TheHolodomorMatters said...

He's almost twice my age

TheHolodomorMatters said...

I'm good friends with his grandson.

Unknown said...

I grew up scared to death of this man. I would visit and play with his grandchild as long as he was not in camp. As soon as I heard him coming I would be sent home and I ran all the way. His daughter carried a small gun in her bra. She said if he threatened her she would kill him.
My parents were there and helped find the two boys. It was obvious he killed them. He was evil. Please do not make him to be a hero or glamorize his life in any way. I have had nightmares because of him.

Unknown said...


My father was Ray (Jack) Jackson. I always knew Gus as uncle Gus. Although I don't believe we were actually blood relatives. In fact the first pic in this article was a pic of Gus with my father. We supplied it to Melzer for his article on uncle Gus. I always remember him with awe and love. Cheryl Jackson-Padilla

James S. said...

The stories of Gus and the gold he had found are true. Just much larger than anyone can imagine. I am surprised that no one has yet found the gold hidden on his property. He didn't hide the gold to keep it safe, he actually hid it to get rid of it. Let me explain, Gus in his house, had under his bed 15 gold bars weighing 100 pounds each which he had taken from a Spanish treasure stash he had found. One night a ghost appeared to him and Sugar foot standing at the foot of his bed. What the ghost said I won't explaine here but it scared the two of them so much that Gus took the gold outside and burried it deep in the ground. I know this to be true because my father was a close fiend of Gus who had related the ghost/gold story to him and then I was latter told the story as well as how the gold was found.

Grandpa Daddy Longlegs said...

Gus Raney was my the cousin of my uncle's great-grammy.

Jonathan Wright said...

I knew Gus Raney when we lived & worked in the Grants, NM area from 1969-1979.
Saw him in Sturges Market in Milan, NM, had his Monkey on his shoulder right in the store.
Drove a old style Ford Bronco!!

Tallman said...

I came to know Gus as uncle Gus at fourteen years old. He was not my uncle but my friends uncle. I got to know the Tucker family in Albuquerque south valley Dead Mans Corner. I knew the whole family. I don’t know if they mind me putting this in here . Some of the family
Has done passed on or as they say done went under. I was not around from 1967 to 1970 but in 1970 I moved to grants or Milan and renew relation with Gus til 1982 when I moved to Farmington
Yes I knew Gus and sugerfoot a couple of his dogs and his paint pony
I am thinking of writing a small book about life in Milan the Malpais and my ranch in the el Malpais monument .ranches around me are all owned or used to be kin with Gus. Sleet Randy , Ethel Randy married joe weathers , Joyce weathers married Andy walker .I never knew what happened to Ethel an joe’s daughter
I still own my ranch in the Malpais it is not for sale at any price. WILLIAM TALLMAN also known as WILLIAM BONNIE died and is bearied there

Kelli Douké said...

Joe walker, Gus is my great great uncle!!! Who is your mother?? My grandmother is elvie (nicknamed sugar after sugarfoot), and great grandmother is elbie, sister to GUS!!!
We are Family!!!
Karen lattimer same to you as well!!!
I'd lovw to connect and find out more about our family!!!

Anonymous said...

My Name is Dorthy Weathers Aguilera my Grandfather is Gussy D Raney people have their own ideals of what he was and how he was but for the man that wrote this story about him you are so wrong but some things have to be left alone praise God for that and for the family that is on here hello get in touch find me on face book

Anonymous said...

I am his granddaughter and TRUE you are not related to him!

Anonymous said...

And your uncle's GREAT GRAMMY was who? I'm very curious! Plz do share that information since you're already sharing!!

Anonymous said...

Yes that would be common knowledge by now.

Karen Lattimer said...

Wait you say "MY GRANDMOTHER" said to you if he "THREATENS" her she will kill him!

Karen Lattimer said...

Wow, a ghost story! I'm never surprised by now the imagination of people and the false information given in regards to my great Grandfather who I was raised with!!!

Anonymous said...

My name is Karen weathers Lattimer and you're speaking about my great-grandfather who actually was in my life and helped raise me, on top of that you are given incorrect names no Randy's , Joe weathers is my grandfather we share the same birthday every year on our birthday he would take me and him alone fishing, my auntie that married Andy Walker her name was not Joyce! And my grandmother and my grandparents Ethel and Joe weathers did not just have one child they had a handful of children. You are giving second hand information that is untrue you have nothing to write a book with it would have to be called The book of lies!!! I know my auntie Dorothy weathers and my cousin Joe Walker have commented on these posts and I can only imagine they were feeling as sick in their stomach as I am reading all these comments. I am a woman of God and love Jesus Christ being honest these comments on here are infuriating me!!! For anybody on here thinking they would write a book on my family heritage should know I'm not the type to lay down and be walked on nor will I allow my family to be done that way you've been warned!!!!

Anonymous said...

I am his great granddaughter my grandmother was Ethel Rainey weathers.. you can find me on Facebook under PutGodFirst BarneyLattimer

Anonymous said...

Auntie I'm so upset that you have to read this nonsense I love you stay strong talk to you soon.

Anonymous said...

My family knew him. They ran a gas station/store that Gus always stopped at between Grants and Quemado. One of my very very very first memories as a child (late 70s) was seeing/meeting this refuge from the old west. When i saw him i was scared to death. I dont recall what he said to me exactly (I must have been like 3 or 4) but when he spoke to me I remember hiding behind my dad's leg and seeing Gus bust out in laughter. As I grew up I heard all of the stories and legends about him shooting a man/men and he still carried a six shooter on his hip even in the 1970s. Also heard the stories about him and the Spanish gold that he had found/hidden. He was as iconic and memorable as the Old West itself.. New Mexico legend.

Anonymous said...

Im too young to know Gus so I have no stories that I can tell other than my dad and dads family is from grants and my grandmother was friends with a lady that owned a restraunt. And the lady gave my grandma a picture of Guss and my dad use to tell us stories about him. Dad use to work at a gas station and Guss would come in amd was always stern but nice. And always carried a holster on him. My dad still has the picture of him.