The longest expediente in the volume (~LXVI pp. 90–390, dragging from Aug 1828 into 1831). Causa criminal for the murder of two small children — María Antonia (~5 yrs) and Blas de Jesús (~1 yr), children of soldier Ignacio Olivas — and the estupro (rape) of the girl, on the denuncia of soldier Ignacio Ribas; accused: fellow SF-company soldier Francisco Rubis (25, native of Los Ángeles). Post-mortem autopsy 16 Aug 1828 by the English settler-physician Antonio [William A.] Richardson ('de nación inglés'): both children strangled with a cord, the girl raped. Evidence: parents at a fandango at Sra Bibiana's; a surviving small child blamed 'un coyote muy bravo'; Rubis (who had quarreled with the mother 4 days before) tried that night to swap a clean shirt and passed off a bloodstained *sarape* (borrowed from Juan García, returned via young Rafael Pacheco) — central evidence; Rubis claimed the blood was sheep's (de borrego). Procedural wrangling over jurisdiction, fiscal turnover (Mariano G. Vallejo among fiscals), and the Monterey↔SF distance. Fiscal Padrés (27 May 1831) recommended sparing Rubis the death penalty given time served; ⭐⭐⭐ but Rubis was EXECUTED by garrote, maintaining his innocence — and per an inserted eyewitness reminiscence of Ignacio Cibrián (b. 18 Oct 1816, SF; he was ~14 at the execution), ~2 years later an Indian arrested for robbery/murder, sentenced to death, confessed that *he* had committed the crime and that 'Rubis murió inocente' — a documented wrongful execution. (A Bancroft-collector's English note vouches: 'Cibrián is a man of family… very honorable… living in the rancho of Salsi Puedes, Contra Costa County, near Mount Diablo.') An early CA forensic examination + a wrongful-execution case
| Date | 1828-08-16 → 1831 (exact) |
|---|---|
| From | Ignacio Martínez (juez fiscal); later fiscal José Mª Padrés; comte Manuel Victoria |
| Place | San Francisco |
| Series | Dep. State Papers, Benicia (Military) |
| Tomo | LIII–LXVIII (volume range; this entry is not resolved to one tomo) |
| Original tomo page | LXVI.~90–390 |
| Scan leaf | n327–n386 |
| Document type | abstract |
| Source | Savage abstract |
Read this leaf on the Internet Archive ↗ · leaf n327–n386
Ignacio Martínez (juez fiscal); later fiscal José Mª Padrés; comte Manuel Victoria, San Francisco, 1828-08-16 → 1831, Dep. State Papers, Benicia (Military), LXVI.~90–390, Archives of California, C-A 18, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. [page interpolated; verify at the leaf] [the tomo is given as the volume’s full range: this entry has not been resolved to a single tomo within LIII–LXVIII]Cite the document by series, tomo and original tomo page, as the literature does; the C-A number locates it in the repository. To cite this catalogue entry itself, use https://archivesofcalifornia.com/record/ca18/ca18-d347.html