ALICE, TEXAS - The cowboy’s dark
skin shone with sweat and his hand trembled as he placed the rope
over the weeping young woman’s head and tightened it around her
neck. He and the two other men, trusted by Don Ramos to run his
ranch and see to his affairs had been given a grim instruction by
their employer early that morning. They had been told to take his
lovely wife, see that she was dressed in black, and then see her
hanged by sunset that day.
Leonora, naturally had wept, begged and
implored the men during their long sad journey. She repeatedly
declared her innocence, but now with one end of the rope dangling
from a high tree branch and one end tried around her slender neck
she was stoic. She once again reminded them she was with child. She
once again stated she had done no wrong, but this time she told
them: "You will know, I will let everyone know that I am innocent."
Horrified by what they had to do, but terrified of Don Ramos the men
carried out their dreadful duty. Leonora was dead before the sun
completely left the sky. A sad end to a short life, but this is not
the end of the story.
The beginning of the story for Leonora
must have been like a fairy tale. Don Ramos was a young, handsome
and wealthy man, who brought her from Mexico to his ranch as his
wife. While many marriages at the time were arranged the young
couple had made a love match, outraging not a few neighbors who felt that
their daughters should be sharing Ramos’s good fortune and not an
outsider.
The discontent felt by some would be the
undoing of poor Leonora and her husband. Gossip is said to be a
harmless past time, but it was death for the hapless young woman.
She was murdered by rumor; slain by the slander manufactured by a
rival. Today even through we can understand the psychology of gossip
lives are often twisted out of shape by the rumormonger. The office
worker who will start cruel rumors about a co-worker who shows him
or her up is merely worried about keeping his job, and the lover who
poisons the social waters against a rival has low-self esteem. We
know that for this kind of person direct confrontation would likely
end badly for them so instead they manipulate others to do their
dirty work, and such was the case for Don Ramos and his wife.
Another woman had previously been his lover and had felt assured
that on his return he would ask her to be his wife. Instead the
pretty Leonora had arrived having stolen the prize of his affection.
Watching them happily enjoying each other’s company was too much for
the jilted woman.
If you have ever witnessed the ugly
transformation on the face of a gossip you will be able to conjure
the woman’s performance to your minds eye. Her words muffled behind
a fluttering black lace fan, her lips curved unattractively down in
a malicious sneer, the eyes slanted and glittering with
spitefulness, as she whispered her venom into a neighbor’s bejeweled
ear. Had she been able to see herself, maybe it would have crossed
her mind that her former beau had fallen out of love with her after
witnessing just such a repellent display.
Poison is a coward’s weapon. A poisoner,
doesn’t have to even be nearby when his or her’ victim begins to
suffer. Leonora may have seen calculating looks cast her way, heard
little whispers behind her back, but being guilty of nothing she
could only wonder what the reason was. She never got the chance to
confront the woman who ruined her reputation with lies. The
rumormonger remained hidden behind the individuals she had confided
her untruth to; she could watch from a safe distance as the human
instinct of passing on gossip accomplished her revenge.
If a change in how others looked at her disturbed the young bride a bright piece of news distracted her. With great joy she informed her husband that soon he would be a father. Their bliss lasted only until the false allegations reached his ears. How perfect the jilted lover’s plan had been, knowing Don Ramos as well as she did she had known his worse fear, and his greatest weakness. He feared infidelity, as his pride could not stand the humiliation of being made a fool of by a woman. When the rumor was repeated to him he returned immediately to his ranch and picked the three who would execute his wife. He instructed his men to ride with her as far north as they could reach by sunset, while he mounted his own horse and rode south as far as possible before the sun began to set.
Leonora |
No murder charge could ever be leveled
against his ex-lover. When the man who had been named as being
involved with the young bride, heard of the gossip he quickly
stepped forward to clear her name, but few could remember who had
started the slander. As for the guilty party did she blame herself?
Did she feel the weight of those lives on her conscience or was she
able to fool herself and blame her victims. What did she and those
she had used to carry her slander think when they heard a new rumor
about Leonora? Travelers had seen her near the trees where she had
met her death, they swore she remained only long enough to remind
them of her last words, "I am innocent", before she disappeared.
Was that really all there was to the
haunting? Did her former neighbor’s ever hear the rustle of dress
skirts when no one was near? Did a pale, tear stained face ever
appear out of the corner of the jilted girlfriend’s eye only to
disappear when she looked closer? If their conscience didn’t haunt
them, did Leonora?
An argument for gossip is: Where there
is smoke there is fire. Be careful that the smell is not actually
brimstone, which awaits those who bear false witness; be careful you
are not actually participating in someone else’s personal propaganda
campaign. Should you doubt the evils of lying about your neighbor
then visit the intersection of Highways 281 and 141 just south of
Alice where the ghost of a weeping woman dressed in black has been
seen for longer then Texas has been a state. She’ll tell you she has
done no wrong. How many people can say the same thing?
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