UPDATE: The Lynching Of Frank "El Navajo" Tafoya In Las Vegas New Mexico.

Click on the image to make it larger. It is the actual image of the hanging.

 

Update; I want to thank Richard A. Garcia for information on the where abouts of the image. Refer to the comments below. To view  the original image click on the highlighted name below:

 

Frank "El Navajo" Tafoya

Frank "El Navajo" Tafoya was lynched in Las Vegas, New Mexico on the night of June 25 and 26 of 1882 for the killing of Jennie Lawrence at George Close's dance hall in El Moro, near Trinidad in the brand new state of Colorado. El Navajo Frank Tafoya was a half breed New Mexican Hispano/Navajo.

"El Navajo" had come into the dance hall after midnight as the dance was going on, he wanted to trade his rifle to George Close for a bottle of whiskey. George refused to make the trade, for Navajo Frank had swilled down too much liquor, and besides it was against the law to sell or give liquor to an Indian.

This refusal made Navajo Frank very angry and out the front door he walked cursing George and the whole world. He stalked across the street until he reached the railroad tracks; there he sat down on the end of one of the cross ties facing the dance hall. He then pointed his rifle towards the glass of the front door and fired into the dance hall while the dance was still going on. A very pretty girl, Jennie Lawrence from Pueblo, Colorado was dancing with Jimmie Russell of Trinidad. Navajo Frank's bullet struck her in the left side, passing thru her heart. She was killed instantly.

Navajo Frank escaped somehow. But he was later captured in Las Vegas, New Mexico and lynched.

Information comes from the books;

My Life on the Frontier, 1864 - 1882 written by Miguel Antonio Otero and published by the University of New Mexico Press and Death On The Gallows written by West Gallager and published by High Lonesome Books in Silver City, New Mexico.