A Tale of Jealousy and Witchcraft

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
​A man is induced by his wife to strangle her sister, and is in turn put to death in a horrible manner, or so it was rumored.

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The death of Maria Victoria who was accused of being a witch

In October, 1902 The San Francisco Examiner wrote about a remarkable story of "savage superstition". It read like the tales of torture and Indian justice related in James Fennimore Cooper's Indian stories. It came to light among the Mojave Indians who lived along the Colorado River in Arizona about an incident of love, jealousy, superstition, murder and finally a terrible death to the offending Indian. It all combined to make a story of unusual interest and cruelty, astonishing even with those familiar with the tragedies of the mountain and desert in the great Southwest.

This is the tale:

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The story had its beginning at Hesperia, California. and its sequel in the Granite Wash mountains, Arizona.

Hesperia is a small settlement on the line of the Santa Fe Railroad in the San Bernardino mountains, some 30 miles north of the city of San Bernardino. One of the many Indian camps or colonies scattered throughout Southern California is located there. They are what local residents call "Mission Indians". The men of the Hesperia camp find employment on the railroad and live in huts and tents after the fashion of their ancestors.

In the Hesperia camp was a big Indian named George Bruce. He took to wife an Indian girl named Anita. She had a sister, Maria Victoria, who came to live with the newly wedded couple. In the course of time Anita became violently jealous of her husband's attentions to Maria Victoria. She set about for means to put her out of the way. Anita hit upon the idea of playing upon her husband superstition. She told Bruce that Maria Victoria was a witch and that if she were not put out of the way, death and misfortune would come to the entire camp and to himself in particular.

For a long time, Bruce resisted the insidious and murderous advice of his wife. Anita was persistent, however and did not neglect to charge every ill that befell an inhabitant of the little camp to the witchery of Maria Victoria. Bruce gave way finally before the persistence of his wife and agreed to put an end to Maria Victoria in the manner of dealing with witches, namely, by strangling her.

The facts leading up to the murder and the details of the savage execution were difficult to obtain; but by dint of long and persistent questioning the coroner of San Bernardino county learned the whole terrible truth.

Anita played upon the superstitious fear not only of her husband, but of the entire camp and convinced them all that Maria Victoria, her sister, was a witch. One day in April last the Indians assembled at a chosen spot far up in the San Bernardino mountains, the condemned but unsuspecting girl among them. A circle was formed and a sort of preliminary ceremonial carried out. Maria Victoria was then brought into the center of the circle and promptly condemned by two Indians sitting as judges in the case.

​Bruce was selected as the executioner. He stepped forward with a rope and placed the noose around the girl's neck. Slowly he drew the coil about her throat and deliberately choked her to death. Her struggles are described as terrible; but no one among the spectators moved a hand or raised a voice in protest against the savage murder. When death had relieved the sufferings of the girl, the Indians held a ceremony over the body dancing around it and chanting a weird ritual. The body was then thrown into a shallow grave, covered with sand and the assemblage dispersed.

George Bruce found himself accused of being a witch and was executed

In the latter part of May, 1902 news of the savage execution reached those outside of Hesperia, and the coroner at San Bernardino was notified. Maria Victoria was savagely garroted with wire, and believed to have been buried alive in a shallow, sand-filled grave. George Bergin a well known prospector who had just returned from Yuma county, Arizona told authorities the story of Bruce's fate that was being circulated.

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The coroner's investigation developed the particulars already related. Bruce, who had made no effort to escape, was promptly arrested. In charge of a constable he was taken to the railroad station at Hesperia. While awaiting the arrival of the train, Bruce slipped out of the station room and escaped into the darkness. A posse was quickly formed and a long and perilous chase across the desert followed. Bruce made for the Colorado River and the posse followed.

The hardships of the men in the long pursuit across the trackless waste were terrible. Once they were close upon the fugitive, but his endurance carried him out of reach and he escaped across the Colorado River into Arizona, near Ehrenberg. When Bruce escaped across the Colorado river into Yuma county, Arizona he plunged into the mountains and joined a camp of Mojave Indians in the Granite Wash range. They knew of his crime, but shielded him from the officers of the law.

Here he lived until his crime brought terrible retribution. During the summer months the springs near which the Indian camp had been pitched for years dried up. The Mojaves were at a loss to understand the cause of the misfortune, but finally concluded that there was an evil spirit among them. In seeking out the one that had brought bad luck the suspicion of the medicine man of the camp fell upon George Bruce. It was concluded that Bruce was bewitched by the spirit of his victim Maria Victoria, and that he had in turn cast an evil spell upon the springs and caused them to dry up.

​A council was held and it was quickly decided to get rid of the hoodoo. The men of the camp assembled as the California Indians had done for the trial of Maria Victoria. A circle was formed and the ceremony of trial and condemnation was carried out much after the manner of the one that preceded Maria Victoria's execution. Bruce was brought forward and a rope placed around his neck, as he had placed one around the neck of his victim. But here the similarity of the execution ended. An Indian mounted upon a pony rode within the circle and tied the end of the rope around the pommel of his saddle. Slowly he rode out of the camp and into a wide patch of sand, cactus and sage brush. Bruce trotting along behind him. Suddenly the rider wheeled about, put spurs to his pony and jerked the doomed man off his feet. Lashing the pony into a furious pace Bruce was dragged back and forth through the cacti patch and finally hauled into camp over the rock strewn trail. Here the women set upon the now lifeless body and with long switches cut the shapeless remains of the victim to pieces. 

Hesperia c.late 1800s

What became of the deceitful Anita remains unknown, but as it turns out George Bruce's fate was not sealed in 1902. 

In January 1903, George Moran a miner received a letter from the secretary of a mining company at Searchlight that the man who was dragged to death near Timber Mountain was not George Bruce, but his cousin who he strongly resembled.

The letter described where Bruce had hidden out in a cave near Searchlight, and had friends taking him provisions. He was terrified that if he left the area the Piute would take him captive. This story turned out to be a ruse, so the law stop looking for him. There had never been a supposed execution of Bruce or his cousin by the other Indians.

It wasn't until March, 1905 that George Bruce was located in a mining camp at Beatty, Nevada in the Bullfrog district. The local sheriff was notified, and was supposedly on his way to arrest Bruce. The story fades from the newspapers which means that George Bruce was able to escape, and was never captured and prosecuted for the murder of Maria Victoria.

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