Buried secrets: Mission San Miguel Arcángel and California’s first recorded mass murder

SAN MIGUEL, Calif. (CN) — In a small dirt graveyard next to the old mission, two shovels and a bow rake lean against the sacristy wall.

There are a few weathered tombstones sprinkled throughout the old cemetery. But the most notorious grave here — next to those tools — has been unmarked for nearly 175 years.

Like many old buildings, the Mission San Miguel Arcángel holds its share of secrets. And it’s clear the church would rather have visitors focus on its original interior paint than the state’s first recorded mass murder that occurred here. But as the author and activist James Baldwin once wrote, “People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.”

And this place has plenty of history.

Resembling an old Western movie set, the lonesome mission is located just off Highway 101 — a quick sightseeing detour for those passing this midpoint between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Founded in 1797, San Luis Arcángel was the 16th of 21 missions built to convert Native Americans to Catholicism. After fire destroyed the original mission, members of the Salinan tribe helped build the current structure beginning in 1816.

Its cracked adobe walls, wooden gates and exposed brick have long provided inspiration for watercolor painters. During a recent visit, a professional photographer shot photos of a teenage girl in her quinceañera dress, posing among the picturesque mission’s cacti and signature arches.

Damaged by an earthquake in 2003, the mission has undergone a series of renovations. The latest includes the gateway to its cemetery, which had formerly been adorned with a wooden sign simply labeled “Cemetery.”

Some 2,000 members of the Salinan tribe are said to be buried in this tiny graveyard. While those Indigenous people were converted Christians, the Reed murders had nothing to do with religion.  

When the Mexican government sought to trim financial burdens, the mission in San Miguel became private property in 1834. According to the late historian Wally Ohles, William Reed, a former British sailor, had acquired the mission on July 4, 1846, and operated a sort of Gold Rush-era motel.

The following December, a group of six men — five white and one Indigenous — arrived to spend the night. During their stay, Reed reportedly bragged of having substantial amounts of buried gold.

It was a tragic mistake.

The group left the next day but then decided to return, with sinister intent.

The bandits moved from room to room, slaughtering 10 people by ax, including Reed, his wife and unborn child, their young son, and several others who lived and worked there.

A small child, who hid during the carnage, was the only survivor.

Headlined “Atrocious Murder,” a story in California Star & Californian — San Francisco’s first newspaper — reported the bodies were piled “as though intended to be burned.”

But they hadn’t been stacked when mail carrier and legendary freed slave Jim Beckwourth first discovered them.

According to his account, he arrived during the night and tripped over a body in the kitchen doorway. As he discovered more corpses, he had a premonition that the killers were still in the residence so he quickly fled to the nearest ranch. When he returned with 15 vaqueros, the bodies were stacked in the carpenter shop, with signs of an attempted fire.

Petronillo Rios, Reed’s business partner who lived in a nearby adobe, buried the bodies in one grave. Meanwhile, a posse was formed to find the culprits.

The 37-member group caught up to the murderers in Santa Barbara County. One of the bandits died in a shootout. Another jumped into the surf but drowned after being shot. Three others were captured and eventually executed by firing squad.

One escaped.

Of course, the passing of time is not always friendly to facts. While Ohles wrote that William Reed was killed with an ax and a knife, the Star & Californian reported he was shot below the ear. Accounts vary on exactly who was the first to discover the victims. And some even claim there were more than ten dead.

But one thing is clear: The church doesn’t want to dwell on it.

In 2018, San Luis Obispo County historian Dan Krieger wrote that he reached out to Father Reginald Gardiner about the crime, but Gardiner “told me he felt uncomfortable with too much mention of the murders.”

Requests for comment from Mission San Miguel Arcángel and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Monterey went unanswered.

According to a 2017 story in the San Luis Obispo Tribune, a plaque memorializing the victims was to be dedicated at the nearby Father Reginald Park, though no memorial exists there today.

Meanwhile, the mission, which has closed in recent years due to earthquake damage and a pandemic, is back in business as a national landmark and place of worship, a testament to the Salinan building skills.

While the Salinan graves are also unmarked, unlike Reed, they will remain nameless for the rest of eternity. Meanwhile, Reed’s spirit lives on in the form of ghost stories that offer cautionary tales about the dangers of greed and loose lips.

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