CHAPTER VII
WHO PLEAD FOR IT
There can be little doubt the coroner's jury of Fresno would have
returned a verdict of "death from alcoholism," as the result of their
inquest into the cause of Concho's death, had not Dr. Guild fought nobly
in support of the law and his own convictions. A majority of the jury
objected to there being any inquest at all. A sincere juryman thought
it hard that whenever a Greaser pegged out in a sneakin' kind o' way,
American citizens should be taken from their business to find out what
ailed him. "S'pose he was killed," said another, "thar ain't no time
this thirty year he weren't, so to speak, just sufferin' for it, ez his
nat'ral right ez a Mexican." The jury at last compromised by bringing
in a verdict of homicide against certain parties unknown. Yet it was
understood tacitly that these unknown parties were severally Wiles and
Pedro; Manuel, Miguel, and Roscommon proving an unmistakable alibi.
Wiles and Pedro had fled to lower California, and Manuel, Miguel, and
Roscommon deemed it advisable, in the then excited state of the public
mind, to withhold the forged application and claim from the courts and
the public comment.
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