The following information was taken from Texas Ranger Tales by Mike Cox. Mike is a Texas Ranger historian/researcher and graciously granted me permission to use information on Ranger James Fulgham from his book. Mike Cox is the author of 12 books, including "Texas Ranger Tales" (two volumes) with a forthcoming book on the general history of the Rangers. His in-print books are available at www.amazon.com Victor L. Ochoa Victor L. Ochoa was an American citizen who published several Spanish-language newspapers in the New Mexico Territory, where he also held office. Ochoa's political interests extended across the Rio Grande. The Mexican government believed he was fomenting rebellion against President Porfirio Diaz and appealed to the U.S. Consul for help. Political mudslinging escalated into bloodletting in early 1894. The Mexican army attacked Ochoa and a group of his followers in Mexico, killing all but four of them. One of the survivors was Ochoa, who fled back to the United States wearing the uniform of a Mexican soldier he had killed. As a result of the violation of neutrality laws, a federal warrant was issued for his arrest. Ochoa disappeared into the desolate landscape of Brewster County in the Big Bend of Texas. He teamed up with someone else on the dodge, a Mexican outlaw wanted for murder in San Angelo. When the outlaw killed a cowboy in Alpine, the search for both men intensified. The Texas Rangers as well as the U.S. Marshal Service were then on Ochoa's trail. Ochoa, however, was popular with the Hispanics in the area and managed to stay on the lam for ten months. On October 11, 1894, Pecos County Sheriff A. J. Royal and Texas Ranger James W. Fulgham arrested a suspected horse thief, who claimed to be W. C. Blade. After going through his personal affects, it was discovered that the man in custody was indeed Victor Ochoa. This was a real coup for Sheriff Royal, who was up for re-election. With the cooperation of Ochoa, Royal appealed to the Hispanic vote by allowing Ochoa to give a speech at a campaign rally in Fort Stockton on about October 21, 1894. Every Hispanic of voting age in Fort Stockton had been assembled, at which time Ochoa delivered an impassioned address, in Spanish. The Sheriff and his supporters were quite impressed with Ochoa's oratory, only to learn later in later days that Ochoa had not been endorsing the sheriff's candidacy. Ochoa had been rousing his audience with a firebrand cry for revolution in Mexico. The night of the speech, once returned to the Pecos County Jail, the facility was stormed by a party of masked men armed with rifles and leading a saddled horse. Swinging into the empty saddle, Victor Ochoa galloped off into the cool desert night. Texas Rangers Fulgham and William Schmidt picked up Ochoa's trail the next morning and tracked him to Toyah, in Reeves County. Arrested without incident, Ochoa was booked into the Reeves County jail in Pecos and held there until U.S. Marshal George Scarborough came out by train and returned him to El Paso. Royal and several of his supporters were later arrested for aiding in the fugitive's escape. Sheriff Royal was mysteriously shot and killed by a shotgun blast on November 21, 1894. The murder has yet to be solved.