It wasn't enough for Rosario "Zarco" Sainz to break out of the Orange County Jail, beat up legendary Sheriff Theo Lacy, toss a female Bible-study teacher against a wall, lock them both in a cell, steal a rifle and revolver, then make a run for the border. He also wanted a hat.
Sainz was in for first-degree murder, for shooting a man just for the hell of it. He had done four months for the killing after nearly half a year on the lam, a seemingly ignoble end to a criminal career that included smuggling Chinese immigrants into the United States, assaults, brawls, at least five murders for which he never faced punishment, and more nights in the drunk tank than law enforcement in both OC and Baja California cared to remember. A trip to the gallows seemed certain--and Sainz didn't give a damn.
The local press couldn't get enough of Sainz's devil-may-care exploits, gunmetal-blue eyes and charming personality; the Los Angeles Times gushed he was of "unconquerable disposition." And Zarco called upon those wiles on Oct. 9, 1910, as he sat for a Sunday noontime jailhouse church service.
After an hour of hearing a female missionary offer the Word, the 30-year-old got up and offered to escort her out of the felons' ward. Sainz tapped a steel-grated door to let Lacy know she was ready to leave--a signal done multiple times by other inmates over the years without incident. But Sainz had never done it before, and he'd never do it again.
Lacy unlocked the inward-swinging door and let the missionary out. As he began pulling the heavy door shut, another inmate grabbed onto a handle on the other side and began a tug-of-war with the sheriff. Sainz reached through the resulting gap to break off the key. He somehow managed to knock down Lacy, who lost his grip and let the door swing open.
Inmates rushed to stop Sainz, but it was too late. He grabbed the Sunday-school teacher and threw her inside the cell, then punched Lacy in the face and shoved him in as well. He quickly shut the door, then ran off with a partner. And in the middle of all this chaos, Sainz looked at an inmate imprisoned for trying to kill a brother-in-law and took his hat. Just like that. The hat was black.
Lacy recovered to lead the largest search in Orange County history up to that time, deputizing anyone and everyone who might find the fugitives. But he never found Sainz. It was Sainz who turned himself in, who got Lacy tossed out of office, who made a mockery out of OC law enforcement, and embarrassed the establishment again and again. His saga, long-forgotten, never featured any of the revolutionary undertones of infamous California Latino gunslingers of yore such as Joaquin Murrieta or Tiburcio Vasquez and lacked the nationwide notoriety of Willie Boy, the Chemehuevi Indian whose kidnapping of his lover and subsequent trek through the Mojave Desert in 1909 is considered the West's last manhunt.
Nope, Zarco Sainz was a bad hombre, plain and simple. And the Orange County public loved every moment of it.
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