True Tale Tops Sleepy Hollow Legend
By John Hafnor

Few American urban legends are based in fact. However, one such factual tale is of El Muerto, the headless horseman of Texas.

South Texas in the 1800s was a lawless place. Making matters worse, the U.S. claimed the Rio Grande as the border, while Mexico insisted the more northerly Nueces River was the boundary. This left a huge tract of land between the rivers in legal limbo. This godforsaken "No Man's Land" became a haven for cattle and horse thieves. In one year alone, 30,000 head of livestock were lost to banditos.

The most notorious bandito was known simply as Vidal. Showing his true colors in 1836 when he first served as a lieutenant in Santa Ana's army, Vidal defected to the Texan side. By 1850, he was the uncontested leader of South Texas livestock rustlers.

But when Vidal and his men stole a string of horses near the headwaters of the San Antonio River, he unknowingly nabbed several steeds belonging to feared Texas Ranger Creed Taylor. Before long, Taylor and fellow Texas Ranger William "Big Foot" Wallace were in hot pursuit of Vidal and his gang.

Horse theft was then a capital offense. So when Taylor and Big Foot caught up with the thieves, they dispensed "frontier justice" by killing all, including Vidal.

For years the Rangers had tried to send a "message" that crime doesn't pay by stringing up convicts to shrivel and rot in the Texas sun - or chopping them to pieces. Because these grizzly deterrents hadn't worked, Wallace and Taylor decided to add a twist: Big Foot Wallace beheaded Vidal, and then lashed the body to the high Mexican saddle on the back of a wild mustang. Big Foot's finishing touch was to loosely attach Vidal's severed head, and then turn the horse loose to wander the Texas Hill Country.

Before long, stories began to circulate of the dark horse with its fearsome rider. More than one cowboy attempted long-range shots at the skittish horse and bizarre rider, always without effect. Thus grew the real-life legend of El Muerto, the headless one.

Finally, a posse of ranchers captured the dark mustang at a water hole south of Alice, Texas. Still strapped to its back was the now mummified body of Vidal, riddled with bullet holes and broken arrows. In the year after Vidal's body was laid to rest, soldiers at Fort Inge (present-day Uvalde) reported multiple sightings of a headless horseman.

Folk tales from Ireland, Germany and elsewhere mention headless horsemen. America has Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." More recently a headless equestrian rode briefly through the pages of the Harry Potter series. But none can match El Muerto, history's only real headless horseman.

Share this page