Tragedy At Pig Pen Part 1
By Maggie Sims Robertson
The crack of gunshots bounced from the hilltops a time or two–then died away in the distance. now all was quiet, including the two pitifully still forms lying together where they had fallen. Alice Krebaum and Bill Parker of Hidalgo County, New Mexico, had been married just five months to the day, when they breathed their last on that hot evening of June 26, 1916.
They had been up that morning with the sunrise and busy with their work. Alice was painting and making big plans for their future, and Bill, with the hel of a young Mexican, Andreas Valenzuela, was fencing and improving the “Pig Pen” place, bought earlier from Charlie Yarborough. The Mexican and his wife were well known to Bill and Alice, since Andreas had worked for Bill’s dad, Dave Parker, for about two years before Bill married and moved to the Pig Pen.
With a hard day’s work behind them, Alice and Bill had gone to the corral and cowpen about 5 or 6 p.m. to milk, leaving Bill’s guns, of course, in the house. Andreas evidently knew where both the .45 six-shooter and rifle were kept as he had been with them long enough for them to trust him completely. Old Man Valenzuela, Andreas’ father, was a horse of a diffeent color, so Bill thought, since he was wanted on both sides of the line–in Old Mexico for murder, and in the States for murdering three sheep herders near Carlsbad, new Mexico.
After Bill and Alice moved to the Pig Pen, the old man kept coming out of Mexico to visit Andreas and his wife. Pancho Villa was kicking up quite a dust against his government at that time, and in Mexico horses, saddles and guns were badly needed and bringing good money. So after his third trip out on this side of the line, Bill told Andreas to tell his dad to stay away or the next time he crossed the border, Bill would turn him over to the law. This evidently was what triggered the double murder since, despite rumors and suppositions, of a few, there had been no quarrel between Bill and Andreas.
Drake Station 