# TRUE CRIME/ UNSUNG HEROES: TOM TOBIN AND THE ESPINOSA TERROR

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/1001-heroes-legends-histories-mysteries-podcast-440432/true-crime-unsung-heroes-tom-tobin-and-the-espinosa-terror
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/1001-heroes-legends-histories-mysteries-podcast-440432/true-crime-unsung-heroes-tom-tobin-and-the-espinosa-terror.md
Podcast: [1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/1001-heroes-legends-histories-mysteries-podcast-440432)
Published: 2026-07-26T15:05:00+00:00
Episode link: https://bc761315-3509-4d33-926a-8d07f95cdff5.libsyn.com/summer-of-unsung-heroes-tom-tobin-and-the-espinosa-terror
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bc761315-3509-4d33-926a-8d07f95cdff5/TOM_TOBIN_AND_THE_ESPINOSA_TERROR_rev_1aup3.mp3?dest-id=4551967
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Duration seconds: 3003

## Resource

🎙️ 1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Summer of Unsung Heroes Episode 1 — "The Tracker's Burden: Tom Tobin and the Espinosa Terror" A Three-Part Special | Total Runtime: ~45 Minutes In the spring of 1863, while America was tearing itself apart at Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, two brothers moved through the high country of Colorado Territory and killed everyone they found. Nine confirmed dead in six weeks. Multiple posses. A terrified territory. And a government that had no idea what to do. This is the story of the men who did the killing — and the one man who finally stopped them. 📖 Episode Guide Part One — "A Season of Blood" ⏱ 0:00 – 15:00 Colorado Territory, March 1863. Felipe Nerio Espinosa and his brother Vivian cross into the high country and begin killing. We trace the world that made them — the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, land theft dressed up as legal process, and Felipe's claim of a divine vision from the Virgin Mary commanding him to kill. We walk through the murders one by one: Franklin Bruce on March 19th, Henry Harkens, John Addleman, F.W. Lehman, Albert Metcalf, and others. We look at the Rocky Mountain News coverage that threw an already nervous territory into full panic — and the posses that rode out armed and came back empty. Vivian Espinosa is shot dead by a military patrol in late May. Felipe vanishes into the mountains — carrying something with him that he should have left behind. Part Two — "The Man Worth Asking" ⏱ 15:00 – 30:00 Summer, 1863. Felipe Espinosa writes a letter to Colorado Territorial Governor John Evans — offering to stop killing in exchange for a land grant and pardon. Evans refuses. Felipe recruits his teenage nephew José Vicente and returns to the San Luis Valley. The murders resume. Dolores Sanchez survives a direct…

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