File No. 312.115C96/17
[Untitled]
Following is substance of facts as seen by Thomas B. Holmes, only American survivor of Santa Ysabel massacre, as condensed by me with his sanction, which he is also giving to the press:
Our train left Chihuahua January 10 about 11 a.m. Was stopped at or about Rancho Baeza, a point about five miles west of Santa Ysabel, between 1.30 and 2 o’clock that afternoon. Last car was just inside a cut. Evans, Newman, MacHatton and I were the first to get off; Watson was getting off or about to get off the steps behind us. Just after alighting I heard a volley of rifle shots from other side of cut and just above train from a bunch of twelve or fifteen men standing shoulder to shoulder and shooting directly at us, between 50 and 75 feet from us. The back end of the coach shut off my view so I could not see how many bandits there were. Watson, after getting off ran at right angles to the train toward the river. MacHatton and I were directly behind Watson on the bank of the cut. MacHattan fell. They were still shooting at Watson when I ran diagonally back from the train down grade, where I fell in some bushes probably 100 feet from the rear of the train. I lay perfectly quiet and looked around. Seeing they were not shooting at me and thinking they believed me already dead, I took a chance and crawled into some thicker bushes until I reached the bank of the stream at about 100 yards from the train. There I lay for half an hour and heard the shooting, as they were evidently finishing the Americans. Then I continued farther under the bank, wading the stream part of the time, to a point probably 200 yards from the train. There I remained a half or three-quarters of an hour. Later, after going to several ranch houses and picking my way cautiously for several miles, I met an unknown Mexican who directed me to Chihuahua. I arrived January 11 about 7.30 a.m.