Deputy Collector Richard W. Wallace

Richard W. Wallace

Deputy Collector Dick Wallace was killed about 20 miles north of Presidio, Texas, while transporting a prisoner and contraband goods to the town.

While passing a dangerous place about 200 yards from Rio Grande River near the Spencer Ranch, Deputy Collector Wallace was ambushed by four men hiding on both sides of the road. He was shot and killed and the men escaped with the prisoner and contraband goods into Mexico. Deputy Collector Wallace was found a few hours later by a citizen who went to search for him. When found, Inspector Wallace was lying in his own blood with a Winchester wound to the head.

Presidio is on the border in the Big Bend of the Rio Grande River, between Eagle Pass and El Paso, and is known as the Bloody Peninsula.

Deputy Collector Wallace was buried in the City Cemetery in San Antonio. There is no information available at this time as to his marital status or any children. The newspaper reported that Deputy Collector Wallace was a well known African American Republican politician in Presidio County. He had been appointed a deputy customs collector for the Saluria District with headquarters in Presidio five months earlier.