The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca
(1958 – 1960)
Family / Western
1 hour
Cast:
Rico Alaniz as El Sinverguenza
Valerie Allen as Lucita Miranda
Herbert Anderson as Charles Lowell Smith
Raymond Bailey as Mr. Bixby
Paul Birch as Sheriff Jim Wilson
Lillian Bronson as Mrs. O'Brien
Edward Colmans as Fernando Bernal
Brian Corcoran as Ross Minters
Patricia Crowley as Patricia Kettrick
Audrey Dalton as Mrs. Cunningham
Skip Farrell as Josh Jordan
Linc Foster as Jim Spears
Richard Garland as Ben Palmer
Coleen Gray as
Peggy Minters
Raymond Greenleaf as Judge Thomas Raine
Robert F. Hoy as Sam Carter
Clegg Hoyt as Bruiser
Barry Kelley as Sawyer
John Kerr as Marter Didler
Robert Kline as Lonny Griswold
Joe Maross as Horace Towne
John Maxwell as Pappy Sawyer
Lisa Montell as Anita Chavez
Nestor Paiva as Justice of the Peace
Roger Perry as Luke Sawyer
Carl Benton Reid as Judge Hargraves
Leonard Strong as Zangano
Phillip Terry as Steve Shannon
This western themed series was produced by
Walt Disney as part of the
Walt Disney Presents … television program. The series aired from 1958 to 1960 in ten hour-long episodes. Episodes of the series were edited into a movie in 1962 titled Elfego Baca: Six Gun Law.
The program was based on the life and adventures of Elfego Baca (February 10, 1865 – August 27, 1945), a real-life
legend who was a gunman, a
lawman , a lawyer, and a politician. Born in Socorro,
New Mexico , his family moved to Kansas, but he and his father returned to
New Mexico when his mother died in 1880. His father became a marshal, and in 1884 Elfego stole some guns, bought a sheriff’s badge, and decided he would be
the deputy sheriff for Socorro County. His ambition was to bring
law and order to the area.
His further exploits included a famous shootout in Lower San Francisco Plaza,
New Mexico in 1884 (known as the Frisco Shootout), where he was surrounded a large crowd of men as he hid in a house. Baca survived the siege, but six men were killed and several others wounded during the fray. When the door to the house was presented as evidence at Baca’s trial in 1885 with more than 400 bullet holes in it, Baca was acquitted of the killings.
When Elfego Baca officially became the sheriff of Socorro County he would write letters to
wanted lawbreakers urging them to turn themselves in. His letters allegedly said, “I have a warrant here for your arrest. Please come in by March 15 and give yourself up. If you don’t, I’ll know you intend to resist arrest, and I will feel justified in shooting you on sight when I come after you."
After serving as a U.S. Marshal for two years he began studying law and joined a Socorro law firm in 1894. He then went on to serve in various public offices such as county clerk, mayor, and school superintendent, and was
the district attorney for Socorro and Sierra Counties. He would later run for Congress, but fail to be elected, and served as a political investigator for Senator Bronson Cutting of
New Mexico .
In his biography he is quoted as saying, “I never
wanted to kill anybody, but if a man had it in his mind to kill me, I made it my business to get him first.”
Episodes:
The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca – pilot (10/3/1958)
Four Down and Five Lives to Go (10/17/1958)
Elfego:
Lawman or Gunman (11/28/1958)
Elfego Baca, Attorney at Law (2/6/1959)
The Griswold Murder (2/20/1959)
Move Along, Mustangers (11/13/1959)
Mustang Man, Mustang Maid (11/20/1959)
Friendly Enemies at Law (3/18/1960)
Gus Tomlin is Dead (3/25/1960)
