It was half-past midnight September 18th, 1891 when a group of 75 hooded and well armed men dropped Luis Ortiz to his death from Reno’s Virginia Street Bridge. By all accounts, he went to his Maker without a whimper.
Before his death, Ortiz was run out-of-town. He was also not welcomed in parts of north-eastern California as well as Nevada’ Humboldt County.
Ortiz, by all accounts had a nasty drinking problem, becoming belligerent and mean when drunk. The evening before, he had returned to Reno, only to start drinking at the Grand Central Hotel.
When the establishment closed for the night he, bartender Tom McCormack and bar patron Tom Welch stepped out side. Ortiz decided that would be a good time to fire his pistol in the air.
In drawing his six-shooter, Ortiz accidentally shot Welch in the butt, knocking him down. McCormack grabbed the gun as Ortiz squeezed the trigger, again.
The bullet missed McCormack, creating powder burns in his top coat. However his struck Washoe County Sheriff Deputy and Reno Night Watchman Richard Nash above his groin.
Nash was still able to arrest Ortiz, who was escorted to the county lock-up. As for Nash, he was taken home, where it was expected he would die from his wound.
It didn’t take long for Ortiz to sober up. He reportedly told Undersheriff Bill Caughlin that he didn’t recall anything from the night before – let alone the shooting of a deputy.
As Ortiz slept off his drunk, a group of men, calling themselves the ‘601,’ gathered for an informal meeting in a nearby lumber yard to decided what was to be done with Ortiz. It was quickly agreed upon that they would hang him.
Within minutes the ban of vigilantes swarmed and over powered Caughlin, dragging Ortiz away to meet his fate. It would take two tries before Ortiz finally found his feet off the ground.
The first attempt ended when the rope broke. But not to be undone in their deed, someone found a thicker rope.
Before his first experience at the end of a noose, Ortiz was asked if he had any last requests. The doomed man asked for a drink of water and priest.
Neither was available. Yet someone did offer him a flask of whiskey, which he quickly gulped down.
A minute or so later, Ortiz found himself choking to death, dangling over the Truckee River, from the steel girder of the bridge that crossed the expanse of water. His body was left there until he was removed to Sander’s Undertaking Parlor.
Nash would recover from his wounds, going on to being elected in 1902 as Justice of the Peace. He served in that capacity until his death, December 15th, 1905.
A convening Grand Jury refused to indict anyone for the lynching. As for Ortiz, he was buried without ceremony, the thick rope still tight around his stretched-out neck.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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