Copyright 1991 Aya Katz
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tax-Evading Rancher Wonders Why He Doesn't Have More Than One Vote, Underworked Mistress Reports
VACA CITY, TEXAS. Welcome to Vacuum County, Texas, where a Vaquero can really throw his weight around and nobody ever heard of one-man one-vote. Nabal Cabeza de Vaca is a rancher who owns half the County and whose property is currently assessed at five cents on the dollar of its current market value. The roads need repairing, a community center is badly lacking, many people are living in substandard housing, but Cabeza de Vaca is not too keen on helping out the `peasants'. Currently under investigation for tax fraud on both the State and Federal levels, Cabeza de Vaca even neglects his kept woman, whom he addresses only as "Miss Lackland."
It was Verity Lackland who first wrote to us requesting an investigation into the situation in Vacuum County, stating that she had been falsely convicted of driving under the influence and was then taken into de Vaca's service in order to pay off her probation fees.
"He steamrolls over everybody," Judge David Smith comments. "Why, he even murdered his wife. We tried to prosecute, but the grand jury no billed it." It seems the peasants were afraid of repercussions.
Cabeza de Vaca has dubious claims to be descended from the famous explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, but he also lays claim to the divine right of kings. "My mother anointed me," he said. "In the name of the bull god."
It seems the Cabeza de Vaca household practices a bizarre New Age form of bovine worship, involving hideously cruel sacrifices to various and sundry gods. The SPCA, we are told, has no offices in Vacuum County. Neither does the ACLU. For excerpts from the journals of Verity Lackland, which were confiscated during the IRS investigation of the Cabeza de Vaca case, see page A15.
Will the Golden Bull save him from his current troubles? We think not. Nobody beats the IRS.
In re Verity LACKLAND, Petitioner v. THE NEW YORK TIMES, Respondent.
Petitioner requested injunction on publication of excerpts from journals relating events surrounding Defendant's tax case on grounds of copyright infringement and invasion of privacy. Criminal Defendant moved to enjoin newspaper, and its corporate parent, from publishing accounts of conversations concerning his tax liabilities. The District Court, Leveller, J. held that: (1) Defendant was not entitled to a prior restraint order prohibiting newspaper from publishing journals based on impairment of right to impartial jury, (2) none of the conversations fell under the ambit of the attorney-client privilege and Defendant could not claim that his mistress was serving in the capacity of a tax advisor when the conversations took place, (3) none of the conversations bear directly on this case and nor do they involve any relevant information and (4) Petitioner's right as author of the journals to withold their contents cannot be upheld since the journals were seized during the course of a criminal action and their contents are ipso facto within the public domain. Likewise, Respondent newspaper is not entitled to exclude the public from a complete scrutiny of the journals.
Motions denied.
Defendant Nabal Cabeza de Vaca is currently charged with criminal tax evasion and fraud. The subject of this action concerns the private journals of Petitioner Lackland which were surreptitiously seized by Federal investigators under sealed warrants in the course of preparation for the prosecution of this action and which by circuitous means came into the possession of the Respondent newspaper.
According to Cabeza de Vaca's motion, representatives of Respondent appeared at the office of Defendant's lead counsel and provided copies of excerpts from the journals that were to be published in Respondent newspaper. According to the motion, the excerpts contained discussions of Defendant's tax liability and his attitudes and strategy with the regard to the pending criminal action. While the journals contained some descriptions of meetings with defense counsel, and several other discussions of the tax liability, they were in fact personal accounts by Petitioner Lackland of events personally witnessed by the said Lackland, who was not then, or at any time before or after, acting in the capacity of attorney or legal assistant. The motion states that Respondent intended to run a story on Defendant's situation and to publish the above described excerpts from the Lackland journal as a part thereof. On the following day, Cabeza de Vaca filed his emergency motion for an injunction prohibiting Respondent from publishing any portion of the Lackland journals. Petitioner intervened in the cause on her own behalf shortly thereafter. While Defendant's motion relies primarily on attorney-client privilege, Petitioner raises issues of privacy and copyright infringement.
Because a determination of whether the attorney-client privilege was waived as to any particular communication would have necessitated an evidentiary hearing which would in turn have required a restraint on The New York Times' publication longer than the court was willing to impose, the court assumed for purposes of the motion that Cabeza de Vaca had not waived the attorney-client privilege with respect to any conversation with members of his defense team. This assumption was communicated to all parties to the suit.
At the close of the 9:30 hearing on February 2, the court entered an oral order enjoining Respondent from publishing any of Cabeza de Vaca's privileged attorney-client communications until 8:30 am on the following day. The Court subsequently entered a written memorandum and supplemental order extending the injunction for ten (10) days or such lesser time as needed for the Court to review the journal entries in the possession of Respondent newspaper and ordering Respondent to produce the journals for the court's review. The New York Times refused to produce the journals and appealed the Court's order to the Fifth Circuit. This court orally stayed the portion of its order requiring production of the journals pending the Fifth Circuit's determination. On February 4 and 5, while The New York Times's appeal was still pending, Respondent twice published excerpts of the journal entries in question. On February 7 the Fifth Circuit upheld the restraining orders entered by this court. The New York Times then filed an application to stay the restraining orders and a petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court. This court then entered another order continuing its restraint on The New York Times's publication and staying the portion of its order requiring production of the journals, pending the Supreme Court's decision. Respondent newspaper proceeded to print further excerpts from the journals. On February 19th, the Supreme Court denied The New York Times's application to stay the restraining orders and petition for certiorari. Three days later, on February 22nd, The New York Times produced the journals for the court's review.
It was only for the purposes of maintaining the status quo that temporary restraining orders were issued and upheld on appeal. Having now had the opportunity to review the materials, we turn to the issues at hand.
If the material in the journals which The New York Times intended to publish contained highly damaging or prejudicial information on important aspects of Cabeza de Vaca's preparation or trial strategy, their publicaton could impair Cabeza de Vaca's right to a fair trial by making it impossible to impanel an impartial jury and/or by revealing the trial strategy as well as protected confidences to the prosecution. Prior restraints on publication are presumptively unconstitutional and the Supreme Court has yet to uphold a lasting restraint on publication. And yet this court observes that the Supreme Court refuses to foreclose the possibility of a lawful prior restraint and even in the context of a fair trial has adopted a test for determining whether a prior restraint is appropriate when that right is at risk. Nebraska Press Ass'n v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 96 S.Ct. 2791, 49 L.Ed. 2d 683 (1976). The tests requires a factual inquiry as to (1) whether a publication would clearly impair the right to a fair trial, (2) whether less restrictive alternatives would mitigate the prejudice and (3) whether prior restraint would effectively prevent the harm.
In determining that Defendant is not entitled to an injunction in the present case we find that the information contained in the journals in question, while it may be of a highly personal and inflammatory nature, has little if anything to do with the conduct of Cabeza de Vaca's defense. On the contrary, the journals are primarily personal accounts of domestic matters involving Defendant's treatment of Petitioner Lackland in her capacity as his mistress, including a few rare sexual encounters. While the conduct of his case is touched upon obliquely, the journals can in no wise be described as containing legal confidences or defense strategy. Hence no Sixth Amendment rights are involved.
In view of the fact that many of these excerpts have already been published by Respondent during the course of its appeal, we further find that that a prior restraint would not mitigate any prejudice to Defendant or prevent the harm anticipated.
Furthermore, we deny Petitioner Lackland's claims of right to privacy. In view of the fact that Petitioner Lackland, less than a year prior to the publications in question, had written to Respondent Times to request an investigation of her situation, with the implication that she wished the facts made public, Petitioner is in no postion now to protest Respondents thorough, though belated, compliance with her request. The fact that she was not then cohabiting with Defendant has no bearing on the issues.
Likewise Petitioner's claim of copyright infringement is totally groundless. The manuscripts in question were not protected by copyright notice and they were made a matter of public record when they were first seized by Federal investigators.
Which brings us to the crux of Respondent's case. The New York Times' position contained an inherent contradiction: on the one hand it refused to produce the journals so that the court could make factual findings necessary to determine whether an investigation was justified, and at the same time it argued that the court could not enjoin publication without first making known its findings.
Without elevating the common law right to access to judicial records to the constitutional level of the right of access to criminal trials, we find the considerations supporting open trials particularly relevant in this case, where our judicial system is obviously on display. We should make public every aspect of this case public to the extent legally permissible. If this court's actions in this highly publicized matter are to be accorded any meaningful public scrutiny then the public should have access to all the contents of the journals which formed the basis of the court's decision, and not simply those small portions that The New York Times chooses to publish.
In contrast to the interests favoring full disclosure is The New York Times interest in exclusive possession of the Lackland journals. Even though The New York Times can claim no proper right to the contents of the journals in its possession, there is no question that Respondent's journalistic enterprise in securing the journals from their confidential source is the only reason The New York Times is able to assert a right to access. That The New York Times should lose its competitive advantage over other news organizations by virtue of its compliance with a court order requiring production of the journals seems fundamentally unfair, perhaps even tragic. Nevertheless, other issues take precedence.
The court has painstakingly considered The New York Times' interests in reaping the fruits of its journalistic labor. It is, nothwithstanding, the decision of this court that the diaries be made a part of the public record.
It has been seven days since this court has lifted its restraint on The New York Times' publication of the journals. During this interval, Rspondent has had more than enough time to `scoop' the competition by publishing the journals in their entirety. Instead, The New York Times has, for reasons unkown, declined to publish the vast majority of the journal entries in question. Though the court respects Respondent's right not to publish, it declines however to accord The New York Times absolute and unfettered control over access to information which, at this court's discretion, should be made available to the public.
For the reasons so stated, it is ORDERED AND ADJUDGED the motion for access is hereby GRANTED; it is further ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the transcripts will not be entered into the public record until February 28, thereby allowing The New York Times to appeal to the Fifth Circuit for a stay of this Order.
DONE AND ORDERED
THE WACO TRIBUNE HERALD.
NEW YORK TIMES CRITICISM PRODUCES VACANT LOOKS FROM VACUUM COUNTIANS
COW WORSHIPPING TAX RESISTER TOLERATED BY NEIGHBORS
Vaca City. The recent spate of New York Times articles and the expose of wealthy rancher Nabal Cabeza de Vaca has had little effect on the apathetic citizenry of Vacuum County. "There was nothin' in that there article we didn't know already, nohow," commented Eb Brown, proprietor of the Brown N' Serve. "Except maybe that he was kinda lonesome. Felt sorry for him really. Seems like he's had a real hard time."
Even his detractors seem apologetic. "I've been getting a lot of flack ever since it got out that I tipped that newspaper man onto the journals," said Pipa Perez, a waitress at the Brown 'N Serve and daughter of Cabeza de Vaca's housekeeper. "I was really doing them a favor, you know, Nabal and that sl... girlfriend of his. He's always been so stuck up, he would never talk to anybody. Now, at least people know what he thinks. I'm not a snitch. That Yankee writer didn't even pay me anything for the information. He said he would, but he didn't."
Others feel they have seen a new side of the rancher they have grown to despise. "I was really surprised," said Lou Ann Turner, a cashier at the local hardware store, "at how devout and religious he turned out to be. I mean, I knew he was a very serious person, but I had no idea he was this spiritual. We always figured him for an unbeliever you know .. one of them what-you-ma-callums ... atheists. Yeah, I believe that would be the word." When questioned as to her feelings about the vaquero's claim to the divine right of kings, the redhead commented: "Hell, if I'd known he was god's anointed, I'd have been a lot nicer to him. But who knew?"
The local pastor of the First Baptist Church had this comment: "He's an evil man. He's never committed any of the major sins, except murder, of course, and that makes gullible people tend to believe this sort of garbage. They see a man that keeps to himself, who doesn't drink to excess or curse or steal from his neighbors and they think he's a saint. But impotence is not a virtue. Neither is arrogance. To believe that you haven't sinned is a sin in itself. And don't let them fool you. This anointing thing, it's nothing short of sacrilege. He's calling himself Christ. May not use those words, but that's what it amounts to."
Gary Hittner, a ranchhand at Carmel, described the amazing loyalty many of Cabeza de Vaca's employees feel for the self-styled Messiah who refers to most Vacuum Countians as `the rabble.' "What you've got to understand is that it's real hard on outsiders in town. Many of the ranchers wouldn't go near the Sheriff's office, much less file a suit in the county court. They know they're not gonna get a fair deal. One person told me about how he spent hundreds of dollars on filing fees, won the case, then had to pay more fees to the county to execute on the property of the person that they got the judgement against. It was a horse trailer, actually. Finally, they were told that this person's horse trailer had been auctioned off. And the money was just enough to cover the execution costs. Come to find out, the only person bidding at the auction was a sheriff's deputy! Anyway, the other day, two of the ranchhands at Carmel got into a dispute over a rental agreement on a truck. They didn't go to the County. They came to Nabal. He decided the case. They abided by the decision." Hittner explained: "See in town, they don't take too kindly to Nabal. But at the ranch, there's nothing they won't do for him. They trust him."
It appears that Cabeza de Vaca has an impressive cache of arms and has been putting away food stuffs as if preparing for a siege. According to the Lackland journals, the rancher plans to resist the anticipated attachment of his ranch by the IRS. Says County Judge David Smith: "My concern is that he may be contemplating some kind of suicidal stand. He's not stable and he doesn't care who he takes down with him."
Other citizens are more concerned with the County's reputation. "These Yankee journalists just swoop down here any time they feel like, and make us out to be like some kind of country bumpkins. Vacuum County is just a real nice, quiet place," said Mickey Jones Smith. "We've got a lot less crime going on here than those New York hot shots."
Verity Lackland, whose diaries sparked this entire discussion, declines to comment. Rumor has it that Cabeza de Vaca has forbidden her to leave the ranch. No one has seen her since the journals were first published. "It's a tradition in their family," Judge Jones reported. "They treat women like chattel."
THE WACO TRIBUNE HERALD.
GUNFIRE BREAKS OUT AT COWHEAD RANCH; FEDERAL AGENT SLAIN
Vaca City Gunfire broke out yesterday between IRS agents and Cabeza de Vaca's men at the Carmel ranch near Vaca City. Over one hundred federal agents, most of them members of an IRS special forces unit, stormed the ranch fortress. Witnesses disagree as to who fired the first shots, but when the unit, heavily armed and camouflaged, stealthily approached the fortress shaped hacienda, the insiders were prepared. Shots rang out through the gun turrets built into the Spanish style residence. When the fire subsided, one agent was dead and ten were wounded. Reportedly there were no fatalities on the Carmelite end of things, though several of the ranchhands, including Nabal Cabeza de Vaca, are said to be injured.
"We were told they would be sacrificing a heifer and thus too preoccupied to take notice of the raid," IRS agents reported. A preemptive strike was decided upon by the Internal Revenue Service after court documents revealed that the rancher, who has been charged with criminal tax evasion, intended to resist the seizure of his ranch. While Cabeza de Vaca's case has not yet gone to trial, Federal law entitles the IRS to seize the property to prevent any damage or diminution in value. In the course of the raid, however, heavy artillery did cause a cave-in at the east wing of the two hundred year old fortress. "We were trying to save lives first," commented an IRS spokesman. "Property values at this point are secondary."
There appear to be some women and children in the fortress, primarily wives and mothers of the ranchers, but a recent report indicates that Bashful Jones, the eleven year old nephew of Judge David Smith, may also be in the hacienda. "For the time being, we have to hold off any further attacks," IRS agents stated. "We don't want any more bloodshed."
Houston Chronicle
CABEZA DE VACA `SMILED DEFIANTLY', AGENT COMPLAINS
Vaca City. Tax protestor Nabal Cabeza de Vaca `smiled defiantly and slammed his front door' before ranchhands began a barrage of bullets directed at armed Federal agents who were storming his house. "It was just so clear that he didn't care what happened to us," an IRS agent on the scene complained. "That man has no respect for anything."
Meanwhile, three children were released from the hacienda, including the handicapped nephew of the Vacuum County judge. The boy came out on crutches, bearing a heavy package of some sort that he would not release to officials. When questioned by the press later in the day, the child explained: "I'm not the Judge's nephew, I'm his brother-in-law, you moron. I don't know why everyone thinks I'm his nephew. And that thing I was carrying is just the journal of some dead coot who was a relative of Nabal's." When pressed further the child replied: "Some mafia goon, I guess, name of Hannibal Barker." The boy was whisked away in Judge Smith's car. "That boy needs to be in a wheelchair," Judge Smith told reporters. "He is not well. Yet those faith healers down at Carmel have convinced him he can walk. This stuff is dangerous."
Townspeople report that Cabeza de Vaca recently resurrected Judge Smith's illegitimate son, an infant who had died of yellow jaundice. "Now that's just exactly the kind of talk that makes people call us hicks," Mickey Smith, the Judge's wife told reporters. "My husband is the most caring person in the world. He has always been faithful to me. How could Nabal bring back to life a baby that doesn't even exist?"
Meanwhile the siege continues. The IRS has called for backup from the FBI and other Federal agencies.
THE HOUSTON POST
CARMELITE'S FIREPOWER OBTAINED LEGALLY; HISPANIC RANCHER CHARGED WITH MURDER
PREVIOUSLY
When Nabal Cabeza de Vaca dodged murder charges last year, the court ordered law
enforcement officials to return a massive stockpile of guns and ammunition to the
maniacal cattle rancher.
Joe Moore, who was then an assistant Assessor Collector and is now the Sheriff of Vacuum County, recalls: "He had killed his wife in cold blood and confessed. But the grand jury no-billed it. The real tragedy was we had to return all his weapons to him and even cases full of ammunition. "
All were legal. But the Federal government, when trying to execute a seizure of the ranch, found that it could not match the firepower of the rancher. They were outgunned. "Though we have seen no illegal weapons out there yet, I bet he has some," an FBI agent told reporters.
"He's a very dangerous criminal," authorities report.
The locals are less certain. "He just wasn't very nice to people, that's all," Lou Ann Turner, a highschool classmate reminisced. "But he never did anybody no harm. Mostly stayed to himself."
Houston Chronicle
CATTLE RANCHER'S SELF SUFFICIENCY MEANS CRISIS MAY CONTINUE; GIRFLFRIEND
LEAVES PREMISES
Vaca City. Day Two of the siege on Carmel. The fortress-like hacienda is essentially self sufficient and capable of sustaining its occupants for an indeterminate period of time, the townsmen report. "During the Republic of Texas days, it withstood Mexican forces for weeks," said Eb Brown, a local merchant. Business at the Brown 'N Serve has picked up considerably since Vaca City has been swarming with hungry Federal agents. "I recommend the steak," Brown advises. "All our beef comes straight from Carmel."
Authorities believe that with heavy weaponry and hundreds of lawmen at his front door, Cabeza de Vaca can eventually be persuaded to come out. "But it could take some time," agents concede.
Meanwhile, two more women have left the hacienda: Pipa Perez and Verity Lackland. Lackland is known as the author of the journals that were recently publicized in The New York Times. The women were charged with murder, but the charges were later dropped. When asked why she left the fortress, Lackland replied: "I have an AA meeting to attend."
Pipa Perez commented: "She goes to AA religiously. Never drinks, either." When asked why she had left Carmel, Perez replied: "I heard they were shorthanded for the lunch shift at the Brown 'N Serve, what with all the Feds swarming all over the place. I figure I could rake in big cash in tips."
Authorities speculate whether the loss of his mistress will demoralize Cabeza de Vaca into a peaceful surrender. "It's too close to call," an unidentified source commented.
TRANSCRIPT OF AA MEETING (from an audio tape)
0
VERITY LACKLAND: Thanks, Melinda. I guess you're all surprised that I came here today. I never say anything, but you all know me. I don't ever miss a meeting. I'm Verity. And I'm not an alcoholic. But I have been convicted. Because ... I pled nolo. Because I didn't take it to a jury. Because ... I was afraid of all of you ... the people of this County.
RANDY TANDER: Hey, we all read your book, man. It was real neat. Especially the ... like, the sex scenes, you know.
VERITY LACKLAND: My book ...
LOU ANN TURNER: Yeah. It came out in paperback the day the raid went down. I bought it at the supermarket. Shame you can't get any royalties, on account of you haven't got the rights to it.
VERITY LACKLAND: Nabal ... was furious with me when those New York Times pieces came out. He thinks I betrayed him. But ... I told him that I wanted to die with him. "Don't send me away," I told him. So he let me stay, even though I'm sure half the time he suspected me of being a spy. But today, I had an AA meeting. I told him that. I told him "I have to leave because I have an AA meeting." He just looked at me. Gave me that scornful scowl. Said "Yeah right." And he opened the front door for me to leave. I looked back, but the door was shut. Then the Feds arrested me... And now they've let me go.
RANDY TANDER: Why'd you leave him, man?
VERITY LACKLAND: It's something that Lou Ann told me once. About how you can't force someone to be a good Daddy. You remember, Lou Ann. You said Nabal never did anything for the people... And Nabal told me the people never did anything for him.
See, you can vote for a politician who's running for office. Who makes promises. Who builds community centers. Or you can sleep with a man who gives you things. But what if he gives you things just so you'll sleep with him? Or what if he's nice just so you'll vote for him?
MELINDA: Well, what's wrong with that, Verity? That's how it works.
VERITY LACKLAND: There's plenty wrong with that. You can't buy justice. And you shouldn't have to sell love. And the person who ought to be your Judge isn't someone who gives you things. It's someone who makes sure nobody takes anything away.
Nabal hates you because you let Sam Beck run this County. You turned his father over to Sam. And you let him have at Nabal, too.
And you hate Nabal because he turned his back on you and wouldn't take care of you. Wouldn't take any notice of you at all.
RANDY TANDER: We don't hate him, man.
VERITY LACKLAND: You do. Some of you do. Ed Jeeter hates him because Nabal's the biggest taxpayer in the County and he's never offered us free beer. Well, after they take away all his property, who do you think will be paying the taxes around here? Do you think the ad valorem will go down? You look down your noses on all those yankees for the New York Times, but what do you think David is planning? He talks about growth. About bringing in investors and selling real estate. He'll have you flooded in yankees. This County will be swarming with them. They'll outnumber you and they'll outvote you and they'll vote for higher taxes on the old homes, so they can finance new developments. I know, because I talked to David. He told me that. Only he made it sound good. He makes everything sound good.
ED JEETER: So what are you bitching about? You're a yank yourself.
VERITY LACKLAND: Lou Ann told me you can't make someone act like a Daddy, because even if you take a gun and aim it at him and tell him what to do, it's you who are being the Daddy, not him. But ... that's not true. You can get him started. He wants it so much, he's just too proud. All you have to do is give him a chance.
LOU ANN TURNER: Yeah, I read that part. That was nice, honey. But ...
VERITY LACKLAND: That land the Feds are seizing without even a trial ... it's not just Nabal's land, even if he thinks that. You're all living off that land. And maybe you think you'll get it back by buying it cheap at an auction. But that won't happen, because the Feds will have their own people bidding. And you won't see a penny of that supposed tax debt that it's going to cover. Because that money's going straight to Washington. You may think it's great to loot the high and mighty, but ... are sure you're backing the right side?
ED JEETER: We ain't backing no one, okay.
VERITY LACKLAND: I was so afraid of all of you, I let Saul Jones sentence me instead. David told me you would crucify me if I pleaded not guilty. He said you had the mob mentality.
ED JEETER: Why that son of a bitch!
RANDY TANDER: Hey, what say we go down to Carmel 'n show 'em what a mob can do!
MELINDA: Now hold on there ...
ED JEETER: No, I reckon we stop by at the the Bronsmith Gunshop first. Pick up a few things.
LOU ANN TURNER: I'll go fetch some more people from my other support group ...
MELINDA: Wait a minute ...
End of Tape
THE WACO TRIBUNE HERALD.
TOWNSPEOPLE AMBUSH FEDERAL AGENTS; IRS SURRENDERS TO
LOCALS; NATIONAL GUARD CALLED OUT
Vaca City. In a surprise move yesterday morning Vacuum County residents, armed with shotguns and rifles, attacked Federal agents. The IRS special unit and FBI backups, numbering in the hundreds were surrounded by a growing mob of angry and intoxicated Vacuum Countians. While the numbers were fairly even, the element of surprise was with the Vacuans. Surrounded from the outside by townspeople and on the inside by the Carmelites, Federal agents were forced to lay down their weapons and surrender to the locals. The Feds were then stripped of their uniforms and held in the County jail.
While the violence seems to have begun as a disorganized popular uprising, it soon gained structure and credibility with the support of local authorities. County Judge David Smith was among the leaders of the insurrection and even gunned down a lone Federal agent who took advantage of the celebrations to get a shot at Nabal Cabeza de Vaca. The rancher, wounded earlier in the siege, has received medical assistance from his faith healing mother and appears to be in good health. When asked to comment, Judge Smith replied: "I've been elected by the people of this County. If they feel this is worth fighting over, then I sure as hell am not going to stand in the way. I serve the people of this County, not the Federal government."
Celebration of the rebel victory were cut short at dawn today upon the arrival of the National Guard, who, in riot gear and wielding tear gas, took charge of the situation and arrested a majority of the townspeople, including women and children.
Houston Chronicle
THE RABBLE CAME TO MY RESCUE, CAPTURED RANCHER SAYS
BEFORE PASSING OUT
Vaca City. In one of the strangest episodes of mass hysteria, an entire county seceded from the Union and from the State for a almost a full day, before order was restored by the National Guard. The siege at the Carmel ranch in Vacuum County ended yesterday when a mob, consisting of a majority of the residents of the county, stormed the Federal barricades surrounding the ranch.
What is most remarkable about the episode is the fact that County officials at the highest level participated in the event. County Judge David Smith, who only hours earlier had been denouncing Cabeza de Vaca to the media, made an astounding about face and proclaimed: "We all care about Nabal. He's a hard guy to get along with, but I guess when we're being attacked by a foreign invader, we can all set our differences aside and work together."
To which the rancher is said to have replied: "Shut up, David." This was met with cries of "hear, hear!" and "Way to go, Nabal."
When asked to speak, Cabeza de Vaca replied: "I despised you for being a mob. And I wasn't wrong. You are a mob. And a very good one at that!" Oddly enough, this was met with cheers and general approbation.
Celebrations were cut short when the National Guard arrived in riot gear and gasmasks and chemically subdued the inhabitants. Cabeza de Vaca, before passing out, made the following observation: "Doesn't matter. They came to my rescue. The rabble came to my rescue."
Federal officials have not yet released a statement on the incident.
FROM A PAPER NAPKIN IN NABAL CABEZA DE VACA'S CELL
The masses are the masses,
And the masses they have massed.
They by nature who are passive,
Their passivity is past.
The sheep have led the shepherd;
They have come to me at last.
They have given me the scepter,
And the Feds have had them gassed.
The rabble are the rabble,
And the rabble have rebelled.
They who sway with every ripple
For the nonce have caught a swell.
They scorned me when I scorned them
And their punishment I've borne.
Now they come without a warning
And the sheep will not be shorn.
The cattle are the cattle,
And I've heard the cattle low.
Yet the cattle have done battle
And the kine have beat the foe.
For my ancestors before me
They bore torches in their horns,
Now they gladly go a-warring
For a lord whom they've forsworn.
Tomorrow they'll be passive;
They will low and chew their cud.
They will nibble on the grasses;
They'll drink Schlitz and Coors and Bud.
But for ardor they have shown me,
I cannot forsake the kine,
And it seems the cattle own me
Just as much as they are mine.
From the New Diary of Verity Lackland0
It was David who finally got us loose, as only he could. It would have been really strange, of course, if they had charged an entire County with murder and sent us all to the pen. Women, children, the old, the retired, the halt, the lame. It would have been pretty bad public relations work. So when they dropped the charges against most of the people, nobody was really surprised. But it's common practice to crucify the shepherd and pacify the sheep. And it's really hard to say under the circumstances which category David would fall into: shepherd or sheep. Nabal and I, I thought, were obviously dead meat.
But David knew some dirt on the prosecutor and the Feds wanted to hush up the whole thing, anyway, because: what if everybody in the whole country rose up against them? What would they do then? Nabal and I could have gone on appealing forever and we could have generated a lot more publicity. People would forget the County that Fought Back that much faster if they let us go with a slap on the hand. So they reduced the charges and we got credit for time served and that was that. And they gave Nabal back all the property, which is even more. Except that the slimy prosecutor said that we'd better not talk to the press about this. They could still charge us. And there's no statute of limitations on murder, even if it is just a tax collector.
Still, I think that if it weren't for David, we'd still be locked up.
They let us go, yesterday and I sat there in the car next to Nabal while the Feds drove us to Vaca City, where we were remanded into local custody, until those charges, too, were dropped. He didn't say a thing. He hadn't said a thing to me since the Feds confiscated my diaries. Just looked at me in that hurt sort of way, as if I'd intentionally betrayed him, like Abby. And then that time at the siege, when I told him I had to go to my AA meeting and he turned his gaze on me, his lids drooping, his lips sneering and said: "Yeah right." I think he learned that expression from Ashbel.
Joe Moore led us out the door, once they were done with out paperwork and he said to Nabal: "Your truck's parked up front."
And Nabal raised his eyebrow: "How did it get there?"
"Somebody bought it at the auction," Joe said. I had a pretty good idea that somebody was Joe.
"And?" Nabal's eyes hinted bitter humor.
"David's seen to it," Joe said. "The registration and everything. It's yours."
Nabal flashed his teeth. "Thanks." It was without intonation and didn't at all sound like gratitude.
"Here," Joe said. He threw Nabal the keys, who caught them.
I couldn't help thinking about how Joe had killed Abner. And Abner had railroaded me. And David had shot a Federal agent. An agent he had sicked on Nabal in the first place. And Saul Jones had had Caleb committed... But Sam Beck had made him do it. And had beaten Nabal. And had set David up as the next Judge. And Nabal had helped save Betsy's baby, even though he hated David. None of it made any sense. Least of all the image of Lou Ann with shotgun against her shoulder, yelling obscentities at the Feds. And Randy Tander, high as usual, screaming: "Yankee go home!" And Gary Hittner, the proverbial Yankee, cheering him on. None of it made any sense. And there was prison and hearings and things.
Once we we were left alone in a room for a moment, because the prosecutors were arguing right outside. Nabal reached for my hand under the table. But he didn't say anything. He didn't even look at me.
The truck was in good condition. I could have sworn someone had polished it. Nabal opened the door for me, almost like a gentleman. "Get in," he said roughly. I complied.
Carmel was pretty much intact, except for that cave-in in the east wing. But everything else was okay and Pilar was in the entranceway sweeping. Anadora invited us to have tea, but Nabal shut himself up in his office with Angelo and the new lawyer and Gary and I didn't even see him at lunch. I went to my room and was going to take out my diary to write in, except that I remembered all my diaries had been confiscated and Nabal wouldn't let me have a new one.
I sat there in my room. Beulabelle's room really. Anadora had told me that during the siege. This was the room Othniel had kept Beulabelle locked up in for seventeen years. That's why it was equipped with a bathroom and everything, way back at the turn of the century. Not like many of the other bedrooms in the house, where the bathroom was a later addition.
Then Pilar came to tell me the Se·or would see me now. In the library.
I tiptoed in hoping to catch him off guard, but he was watching me. There was a blue manuscript covered folded bunch of papers in his hands. "Sit down," he said, indicating a chair across the table from him, as if we were in an interrogation room again. I sat down at the edge of my chair and looked at him expectantly. "Here," he said. "This is for you." He handed me the papers.
I scanned the first few lines. It was all mumbo jumbo. "Know all men by these presents ..." That kind of thing. I was tired of legal stuff. "What is it?"
"I've set up a trust for you," he said. "You're free."
"What?"
"It's only for your lifetime. You can't bequeath or sell it. But it will provide you with a modest income, while you live. When you die, the principal will revert to my estate. Do you understand?"
"No." I shook my head. "No..."
"It isn't much. I can't afford anything more. It wouldn't be fair to the ranch and my men and the gods and the cattle. Do you understand?"
I just stared at him.
He tried again. "The income it will provide you is approximately the annual salary that Pilar earns. It won't make you wealthy. But you will be free."
I bit my lip. "Free?" I remembered what he'd said before. Free to wander the earth in search of another master ... I tried to understand. "Why, Nabal? Why?"
He seemed almost ashamed. "You've earned it," he said.
"Earned it!" I didn't know what to think. "But we agreed ... bread and board and my probation fees."
He laughed. "No, not like that. No. I wouldn't pay you a penny more for that."
I leaned back. I felt that I ought to be insulted, but I was too confused.
"It's what you did for the ranch."
I looked at him, confused. He hadn't said anything. He thought I had sold him out and then when it turned out I hadn't, he didn't say anything at all. Not anything like "I'm sorry" or "thank you" or anything. I leaned forward across the table. "Nabal ..."
He didn't look at me. "If I were a king, Verity, I would knight you. But as it is, that's the best I can do. Anything more would be counterproductive. You helped save the future. I can't mortgage the future to pay you. You can see that can't you?"
"But I didn't ask ..."
"David is on his way," he interrupted. "With your release from probation. When you have that, you'll be free. No one will make you do anything you ... don't want to." He seemed to choke on the last phrase.
"But who said I didn't want to?"
He ignored that and looked away as if that took care of the whole subject. "I'll want your IUD back," he said matter-of-factly.
"What?!"
"Your intrauterine device," he said precisely, carefully enunciating.
I was very cold all over for a moment. "Why?"
"I think ... the time has come to terminate our previous arrangement."
I stared at him. "The Texaco card then. You want the Texaco card. But ... what do you want with my IUD?" I could feel myself flushing with anger and tears started to choke my throat. "What would you do with it? Give it to somebody else?"
He was expressionless. "If you want, you can buy a new one," he said. "This one is mine." His voice was cold and stubborn. "I paid for it. It's mine."
What was he going to do with it? Add it to his collection of souvenirs? Abby's lingerie. My bloody sheet...
"Sit down," he said calmly. And I noticed that I was standing up. "No." I shook my head. "No."
"I can't marry you, Verity," he said. He looked sad.
I was really confused. "I didn't ask you to marry me." I was standing over him in touching range, but he shrank from me. He'd have liked it if we were back in prison, I thought. He'd be protected there.
"But ... I don't want you to serve me ... if you don't want ..." He seemed to change his mind in midsentence. "I don't want you to be with me, if it's for some other reason. Or with anyone else. Do you understand?"
I shook my head. "Why can't we go on as before?"
"Because I don't want the mother of my children to be a slut."
I lashed out at him before I knew what I was doing, but he caught me by the wrist. "Don't strike me, woman."
Tears stung my eyes. "Is that it? I'm not good enough, because I slept with you?"
He pulled me down to sit on his lap and his voice was low and soft. "You're not listening. That's not what I said. I said I didn't want you to be a slut."
My head was spinning. "No, you said the mother ..." I stared at him. "Children? You want to have children ... with me?"
"Astarte has never smiled on me," he said. "But maybe it's because I always forgot her offerings."
Tears were blinding me. "Children?"
He said: "This trust that I've set up for you, it's unconditional. It's irrevocable. You need not curry favor with me, to receive your annuity, nor will you ever get a penny more out of me. I swear it. That means you're free."
"But Nabal ... you said slavery was good."
He nodded. "It is. The cattle need us. Once, when I was a boy, I asked my father whether they knew what lay in store for them. Whether they knew about the stockyards. My father said: `Even if they knew, they would not act differently. They need us. We pay them to die for us, and they do it gladly, because it's a living.' Verity, we would not suffer them to trample our land, if they did not serve us. And servitude is good. If there were no slavery, most men on Earth would be dead of hunger. No, not hunger. Of loneliness. They would die because they couldn't bear to be without a master. And it's as it should be. Only a very few can be free. Do you think I could give such a boon to everyone in this County? I can barely afford yours."
I shook my head. "Then why bother?"
"Because no Cabeza de Vaca was ever suckled by a slave."
I thought about that. "What about Beulabelle?"
"I do not want another Beulabelle on my hands. Which is why ... if we have children, you must relinquish your rights to the firstborn son upon birth. Then you'll be free to go at any time. That way, I won't have to lock you up in that room for eighteen years. Do you understand?"
I frowned. "Relinquish my rights to the firstborn son. You mean, like Rumpelstiltskin?"
He laughed. "Something like that." He smoothed down my hair. "Would you do that for me, Verity?"
I turned my head around to look at him. "Nabal, you are really weird."
"Yes?" he asked, prompting. As if that were taken for granted.
"I thought you were sending me away. Instead, you just want me to hand over to you a firstborn son that doesn't even exist."
He sobered. "And may never. Abigail didn't give me a child. I ... hoped for one, but it didn't come. My mother said that the gods would not grant me a child by a woman who didn't speak the tongue."
"And the fact that Abby was on the pill may have had something to do with it, too," I suggested.
His eyebrows went up. But he kept talking, slowly. "I was rebellious then. I thought the gods could rot in a hell of their own making, for all the good they had done my father, or me. I thought that I could snatch a personal happiness with Abby. I thought that it didn't matter that she didn't know about my heritage and my culture and my language ... that it made no difference that she didn't even understand there was anything to know. She always assumed my mother and I spoke Spanish." He laughed. "Everybody always assumed that, except for the help. Even Sam, who ought to have known better, being a doctor of divinity ..."
"Nabal ..."
He shushed me with a finger lightly on my lips. It felt like a funny kind of kiss. "When you asked me ... to teach you my language, it was only then that I realized how long I had waited to hear that question. From her."
I could feel my blood boil. After all this time, and he still wanted Abby.
He restrained me from getting up. I thought he was laughing at me, but he just kept on talking. "I gave her everything. My name, and the jewels and title to half my earnings, just by virtue of our marriage. I thought I had a right to do that. But I had no right. I almost lost it all to her, and it didn't even belong to me." He paused, as if he had lost his train of thought to her, too. But before I could say anything, he found it again. "After ... I killed Abby, I swore to Melkarth that I would never marry again."
I stared at him. "You didn't swear not to ... do anything else, did you?"
He smiled. "No."
"Well, then that's all right."
He ignored this last remark, but his arms felt warm, wrapped around me. "When the people came up behind the Feds, massed like an army, or a mob or the rabble that they are and must always be, when they surrounded the enemy forces, I realized something very important about ... tyranny."
"Tyranny?"
"Someone once said that tyranny is a leash with a noose at both ends."
"Who?"
"That's not important. When they came that day and presented themselves to me, I realized that it was true... I belong to them. And to the cattle. And to the past and the future. I couldn't sign that over to anyone. Verity, if I let you be my lawful wife and a legal parent to my heir, just because I loved you, I'd be giving away the ranch and the County and the people and the future. But I can't give you those things -- they're not mine to give."
I twisted around to look at him again. "You love me? You just said you love me!"
He shook his head impatiently. "I didn't say that. You're not listening."
"Yes. You did. I heard you."
He was annoyed. "That wasn't the main clause. And it was in the subjunctive."
I laughed. "Then you love me in the subjunctive. I'll settle for that."
He looked really confused for a moment so I asked: "Could I still be your slut?"
His voice was soft. "Only when you want it ..."
I was going to tell him that I always want it, but just then David came in, unannounced and Nabal eased me off his lap. But it was David who looked embarrassed. I imagine he wasn't used to walking in on someone else. Everyone always had to tiptoe around his gropings.
But he recovered fast and soon he was smiling as he handed me a piece of paper that looked rather a lot like the one Nabal had given me. "Not another trust?" I said.
"Huh?" David's face was pleasantly vacant. Then he said. "No. It's your release from probation. Congratulations."
"Yeah?" I skipped all the mumbo jumbo and went straight to the last page. David's friendly signature was stamped on, right above where it said Judge Presiding. Then I noticed the date. "But ... this was signed almost six months ago!" I squinted at David.
He had a sheepish grin on. "I told you I thought I had taken care of it. But you know how it is, I guess the file clerk forgot to forward you the copy."
I rocked a couple of times back and forth on my heels. "Funny how these things happen."
"What with everything, Betsy and the baby and the IRS investigation ... I guess a few things fell through the cracks. I'm sorry. But ... better late than never, right? It won't happen again. Things will be back to normal now soon."
Nabal got up from the chair. "I wouldn't be so sure, David. I won't leave you unguarded to fleece the flock."
David gave him a funny look. "Really. And why do you suddenly care?"
"Because they're my people."
Only the emphasis was on "my" instead of "people." He didn't say it as if he were one of them. It was more like "my cattle" or "my ranch", or ... "my slut."
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