This Week in Duval County History, April 29 — May 5
POSTED BY: CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM APRIL 29, 2019 April 29 The Fort Worth Daily Gazette credited Nueces County Deputy Paulino Coy, “Good Coy”, with involvement in the hanging of two alleged horse thieves. Alleged because they had not been charged, much less convicted. While the Gazette does not bother to mention the dead men by name, their names were Mateo Cadena and Pedro Peña. In the interest of full disclosure, I believe Cadena was my great-granduncle. For more information see my two-part series on this event here: https://www.soydeduval.com/2014/05/killings-of-four-men-is-one-of-most-heinous-events-in-the-annals-of-the-south-texas-frontier/ . By way of explanation, not in defense of, the Gazette was not alone in this type of reporting, which was epidemic. Take a note from the Corpus Christi Caller on the same event: “Coy had nothing to do with lynching. If he had and the thieves were killed while fighting and resisting arrest, it is not a crime that they would have died wi