Ebook: Season of terror: the Espinosas in central Colorado, March - October 1863
- Tags: Frontier and pioneer life, Frontier and pioneer life--Colorado, Murder, Murder--Colorado--History--19th century, Murderers, Murderers--Colorado--History--19th century, Race relations, Serial murderers, Serial murderers--Colorado--History--19th century, Serial murders, Serial murders--Colorado--History--19th century, History, Nonfiction, Local history, Espinosa Felipe Nerio -- -1863, Espinosa José Vivián -- -1863, Vincente José -- -1863, Serial murders -- Colorado -- History -- 19th century, Murder -- Col
- Year: 2018
- Publisher: University Press of Colorado
- City: Boulder;Colorado
- Edition: First paperback edition
- Language: English
- epub
Season of Terror is the first book-length treatment of the little-known true story of the Espinosas—serial murderers with a mission to kill every Anglo in Civil War–era Colorado Territory—and the men that brought them down.
For eight months during the spring and fall of 1863, brothers Felipe Nerio and José Vivián Espinosa and their young nephew, José Vincente, New Mexico–born Hispanos, killed and mutilated an estimated thirty-two victims before their rampage came to a bloody end. Their motives were obscure, although they were members of the Penitentes, a lay Catholic brotherhood devoted to self-torture in emulation of the sufferings of Christ, and some suppose they believed themselves inspired by the Virgin Mary to commit their slaughters.
Until now, the story of their rampage has been recounted as lurid melodrama or ignored by academic historians. Featuring a fascinating array of frontier characters, Season of...