| the original state magazine
In This Issue: Books
Guest Review by Jeff Berg
True Crime
CRICKET IN THE WEB: The 1949 Unsolved Murder that Unraveled Politics in New Mexico
By Paula Moore
UNM Press, www.unmpress.com, 203 pages, cloth, $24.95
It has been almost 60 years since the body of 18-year-old Ovida “Cricket” Coogler was found in a shallow grave in the desert near Mesquite, about 14 miles south of Las Cruces. The case is one of the most infamous in the Southwest, and while the murder itself remains unsolved, it brought to light a ring of corruption, and sparked generations’ worth of rumors about what really happened to Cricket after she was last seen getting into an unknown car in downtown Las Cruces at 3 a.m. on March 31, 1949.
Using as a starting point the award-winning documentary film The Silence of Cricket Coogler (2000), author Paula Moore has been able to uncover many previously unknown details about the case, which at the time received notice by Time and the New York Times; in fact, El Paso Herald-Post reporter Walt Finley was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Coogler’s murder. More recently, the case has gained the attention of New Mexico author Tony Hillerman, who stated in the film that “this strange little murder, and the incredible effort to cover it up, caused a kind of outrage that cleaned up New Mexico.”
Coogler, an attractive, 18-year-old waitress and barfly from a poor family, most likely wanted to escape her mundane borderland life, and men with wealth and power may have seemed to open the door to excitement and romance. The impressionable teen was known to party with politicians—and in those days, the conduct of New Mexico’s high-ranking politicos was tawdry, to say the least. Although much of the behavior described in Cricket in the Web was local, the ugly tentacles of corruption, gambling, prostitution, and finally murder, were wrapped around the state—clear up to Santa Fe, and the office of then-governor Thomas J. Mabry.
In Las Cruces, sheriff A. L. "Happy" Apodaca was the coordinator for all things illegal, and besides being corrupt, he was incompetent. He and other local miscreants—some in elected offices, others just along for the ride—made sure that illegal gambling operations in Doña Ana County were not confronted with bona-fide law enforcement. That changed when Coogler turned up dead. The ensuing events included the arrest and two trials of an NFL player, Jerry Nuzum, and the torture of a black man—the latter resulting in one of the first-ever trials and convictions of elected officials on federal civil rights charges, thanks to one of the bravest grand juries ever convened. It also marked the end—albeit temporarily—of the long reign of power by New Mexico Democrats, and brought about hurried exits by members of the East Coast mob, who were surveying southern New Mexico with the idea of turning it into an adult paradise, an honor they instead bestowed on Las Vegas, Nevada.
Today, the Coogler case is still a hot topic among longtime residents of Doña Ana County, and any screening of The Silence of Cricket Coogler results in a theater full of the curious and the astonished. Sadly, Moore’s excellent account of a case muddied by cover-ups and deceit draws us no closer to the killer(s) of Cricket Coogler, though it does make clear that, in this case especially, it is never too late for justice to be served.
Jeff Berg is a freelance writer in Las Cruces. He wrote about Mesilla in “5 Cool Small Towns,” in the May issue.
Outdoors
Reviews by Charles Bennett
DEATH IN THE WEST: Fatal Stories from America’s Last Frontiers
By Chris Becker
Northland Publishing, www.northlandbooks.com, 209 pages, paper, $16.95
Phoenix resident Chris Becker, a graduate of the prestigious creative writing program at Arizona State University, is evidently accustomed to the life-threatening summer temperatures of his home city, and his collection of modern tales reminds the reader that much of the West is still wild. Touching on stories from the 1800s to the present day, this well-written book discusses such natural disasters as flash floods, avalanches, and lightning strikes; attacks by cougars, sharks, and grizzly bears; backcountry missteps that resulted in fatalities—as well as human predators of the West, including the Yosemite Killer, the Freeway Killer, and the man in Elephant Butte, New Mexico, who tortured and possibly killed as many as 14 women. The book also explores deaths in strange places, such as wrecks and cave dives, as well
as weather-related disasters (the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire), several train wrecks, and the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which Mormons and local Paiutes brutally murdered a wagon train of 120 Arkansans. The final chapter describes disastrous events and situations that should have killed their participants but didn’t: One of these is the story of Colorado hiker Aron Ralston, who in 2003 cut off his own arm to free himself from being trapped under an 800-pound boulder.
Death in the West ends with a thoughtful afterword, and a quote from famous mountaineer Jim Whittaker, who said, in reference to climbing Mount Rainier, “We love it, but it doesn’t necessarily love us.” His words seem appropriate to any wilderness area in the West.
Western Heritage
WILD RIDE: The History and Lore of Rodeo
By Joel H. Bernstein, Gibbs Smith Publisher, www.gibbs-smith.com, 176 pages, cloth, $24.95
Staying astride a madly bucking bareback horse, saddle bronc, or 2,000-pound bull, roping a steer and then wrestling it to the ground, racing around barrels on horseback at breakneck speeds—all are standard events in modern Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) rodeos. These events, and the history of the sport of rodeo, are well presented in this nicely designed volume by New Mexico writer, bareback rider, and rancher Joel H. Bernstein, who lives in Animas.
Wild Ride includes many historic photos, and begins with the early folklore of the rodeo, which originated when cowboys from neighboring ranches gathered to determine who was best at his job. Bernstein then moves on to the Wild West Shows (the advent of rodeo as we know it today), the post-World War II era, when the sport really began to explode, and concludes with chapters on the National Finals Rodeo, “Rodeo Today,” descriptions of various standard rodeo events, and a short essay, “The Cowboy Way.”
History
ROOTS OF RESISTANCE: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Foreword by Simon J. Ortiz
University of Oklahoma Press, www.oupress.com, 224 pages, paper, $19.95
Originally published in 1980, Roots of Resistance interprets the history of New Mexico through the cycles of land ownership. The Native, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo residents of New Mexico each had a different concept of land ownership, and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz examines the roles these concepts played in issues of culture and land use from 1680 to the present. This edition contains a new chapter in which this aspect of New Mexico history is applied to recent issues surrounding land use and the control of minerals, timber, and water.
Environment
THE RIBBON OF GREEN: Change in Riparian Vegetation in the Southwestern United States
By Robert H. Webb, Stanley A. Leake, and Raymond M. Turner
University of Arizona Press, www.uapress.arizona.edu, 480 pages, cloth, $75.00
The mainstream media bombard us with chilling facts about global warming, deforestation, and urban sprawl, but there is good news from the authors of Ribbon of Green: Change in Riparian Vegetation in the Southwestern United States. The riparian wetlands of the Southwest are actually in pretty good shape at the moment, and Webb, Leake, and Turner prove it by making comparisons at various times over the last 140 years through the use of comparative photography, historic information, and data about species composition and vegetation history.
The authors present a series of black-and-white photos side by side. One need only compare a historic photo from the 1920s, ’30s, or ’40s—sometimes as early as the 1870s—with one of the same scene taken in the 1990s or 2000s to see that, in virtually every case, a given riparian landscape today boasts more vegetation. The various factors affecting riparian areas are all discussed: floods, grazing, woodcutting, wells and groundwater depletion, tamarisk eradication, etc. While a bit technical for the casual reader, The Ribbon of Green discusses an important aspect of the Southwestern landscape.
Photography
HISTORIC PHOTOS OF ALBUQUERQUE
Text by Sandra Fye
Turner Publishing Company, www.turnerpublishing.com, 206 pages, cloth, $39.95
These 196 black-and-white images of Albuquerque were gleaned from various photographic repositories and have been organized by Sandra Fye into four periods: the railroad boom years, 1880–1899; the “Chief City of a New Empire in the Great Southwest” (from a subtitle of a 1908 booster booklet issued by the city), 1900–1919; the period 1920–1939, when tourism brought changes and celebrities; and the years of World War II and Route 66, 1940–1980.
Fye accompanies each photo with just enough information to entice the reader. Photo historians “read” a photo to gather as much information about what is depicted, as well as about the photo itself: from the photographer, the date the shot was taken, the photographic technology used to produce the image, and its subject matter and location, to the material culture represented by the image. More of this specific information would have been helpful.
Nevertheless, the photos—many taken by William Henry Cobb or his wife, Eddie Ross Cobb—are captivating on their own. Cobb died in 1909, but Mrs. Cobb continued their photography business until she retired, in 1942. The Tom Thumb miniature golf course, depicted on page 139, was located on West Gold Avenue, and was one of several in Albuquerque. Fye tells us that miniature golf was a popular pastime during the Depression. (Who knew?) Other photos include luminaries who visited Albuquerque: Hal Roach’s Little Rascals, of the Our Gang comedies; Rin Tin Tin and his owner; and Albert Einstein—all photographed on the train. You can also see Amelia Earhart, former governor Clyde Tingley, and the UNM Lobo football team in front of the Ford Tri-Motor airplane that took them to California for the 1929 Rose Bowl. This book is a joy to peruse, and a celebration of Albuquerque.
