The Treasure Cave of Pedro Nevarez - 3

When Pedro Nevarez and his brutal New Mexican outlaw gang were finally outfoxed by Spanish soldiers in 1649, Nevarez spilled the beans about the location of a decade's worth of loot hidden in a remote cave in the Organ Mountains, hoping for clemency, which he did not receive. But there was another unnamed bandit who managed to escape from the battle, and survived long enough to provide a second account of the secret location.

The outlaw turned up wounded and unconscious the day after the battle at a mission in Doña Ana, where the the priest heard the last confessions of the dying man. The priest wrote down what that the man had to say about the location of the valuable church items that had been recently stolen and hidden away by the gang, and later filed the notes away.

Victorio

Thirty years later, in 1879, the notorious Apache Chief Victorio was leading attacks on Spanish settlements throughout RIo Grande Valley that cuts New Mexico in two, north- to-south. When Victorio raided the Doña Ana Mission, destroying it and making off with the food and silver, books and documents were scattered. Among them was a never-sent letter to the Acolman Monastery, detailing the hidden canyon and its cave of stolen riches.