On September 27, 1915, Jesus Bazán and his son-in-law Antonio Longoria, both recognized Tejano community leaders and Longoria a Hidalgo County Commissioner, traveled to a local Texas Ranger camp on the Sam Lane ranch to report a horse robbery that had occurred a few days earlier at their ranch north of the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County. Although they should have had the law on their side, anti-Mexican violence in the region was persistent. After a seemingly uneventful conversation with Ranger Captain Henry Ransom, the two men left on horseback. When they were about 300 yards from the campsite, laborers on Sam Lane’s ranch saw Captain Ransom and two civilians climb into a Model T Ford and follow them. One passenger reached outside a window and shot both men in the back. Bazán and Longoria fell from their horses and died on the side of the road. Captain Ransom reportedly returned to the campsite to take a nap, leaving the bodies to decompose. Several days later, a family friend and neighbor buried the men where they fell. Neither the Texas Rangers nor local law enforcement investigated, explained, or reported the murders. In 1919, the Bazán and Longoria murders, along with many other incidents of violence against Mexican Americans, helped lead the Texas Legislature to conduct a formal investigation into state and local law enforcement practices, and many law enforcement groups were reorganized as a result. Memories of the killings continue through oral tradition, reflecting a violent yet pivotal time in Texas history.