Here's what they saw: a rider whose head was not situated atop his shoulders but tied to the horn of his saddle and protected by a big Mexican sombrero. He was riding a large and extremely wild black mustang that seemed to carry its gruesome rider and cargo with great reluctance. Always together, the crazy horse and headless rider were seen all over that wild country by a wide assortment of people who always described the horse and rider exactly alike, though sometimes a band of gold bullion was added to the spooky equation.
The rider sat rigid in the saddle, never moving to the left or right, not even when daring cowboys and vaqueros ventured close enough to shoot him. People said the bullets seemed to pass right through him. Other riders with heads intact sometimes gave chase to the headless mustanger and the horse he rode in on but the big mustang was always too fast, too wild.
Though the country was thick with wild mustangs at the time, this horse was always alone. Other horses fled wildly at the sight and scent of the horse and its rider, creating great mustang stampedes. Some mustangers are said to have placed scarecrows on the back of a horse and sent it off into a herd of mustangs, who would run away en masse until they were too tired to run anymore, at which time they would be captured.
This wasn't like other tall tales of the day, or some of the UFO sightings of a century later. People really saw this thing and one day they ambushed the horse and rider at a watering hole. They shot the rider a few times, captured the horse and partially solved the mystery.
The rider, riddled with bullet holes, was a dried up carcass of what had once been the earthly body of a former Lieutenant in the Mexican army known as Vidal. Vidal deserted the Mexican army and joined up with the Texans in December of 1835. He brought with him some valuable information about the Mexicans and presented himself as a Texas patriot. Thus established, he set up a horse stealing ring that managed to secure a lot of Texas horses while casting suspicion toward the Comanches.
Following one particularly fierce raid by several Comanche bands, when most of the settlers were away chasing the marauders, Vidal and his confederates gathered up a bunch of the settlers' horses and began driving them toward Mexico.
The thieves ran into what might be called bad luck or maybe it was just fate that among the settlers they raided was a Mexican rancher named Flores and a Texan named Creed Taylor.
Flores and Taylor shared a belief that no distance was too great to pursue the people who stole their horses. Adding to the thieves' misfortune was the fact that Flores and Taylor met up with former ranger and legend-in-his-own time, Bigfoot Wallace, who saw such a trip as not only worthwhile but a whole lot of fun to boot.
Wallace rode with the other two men to a point where they came upon the rustlers' camp. It was a fairly relaxed camp; they must have thought they were out of danger. If they dreamed that night of getting away with the horses, it was the last dream they had because the thieves were awakened long enough to be shot to death.
Bigfoot Wallace always said he was just kidding, sort of, when he suggested they cut off Vidal's head and tie him onto the back of a big mustang and send horse and rider into the world to spread fear and loathing among, well, everybody.
That's just how it played out. The mustang that they chose was blindfolded and affixed with most of Vidal on his back and the head and sombrero firmly fastened to the saddle horn. Vidal's feet were tied into the stirrups, which were double-fastened to each other under the horse's belly. The horse almost killed itself trying to get that thing off its back but to no avail.
Finally, the horse took off at a terrified gallop into the countryside.
Flores, Taylor and Bigfoot Wallace took the stolen horses back to their rightful owners at a much more relaxed pace.
