El Muerto, The Headless Horseman of Texas

Posted: 10.21.2025 | Updated: 10.18.2025

“The Headless Horseman” invokes images of Sleepy Hollow, a cool autumn night, and maybe even a rider holding a jack o’lantern head. Yet, what if another decapitated rider also roamed the countryside—much further south?

Texas has its very own Headless Horseman: El Muerto. The difference about this decapitated rider, however, is that it doesn’t originate from a Washington Irving short story. The tale of El Muerto stems from a very real murdered man who was forced to roam the Texas plains long after death.

From headless bandits to ghostly soldiers, learn about San Antonio’s spookiest sites on a ghost tour with River City Ghosts. 

Who is the headless horseman of Texas?

In the 1840s, Vidal was a Mexican horse thief who had a bounty on his head for stealing prized horses. After targeting the wrong ranch, Vidal was tracked down and killed. 

To send a message to other horse bandits, Vidal’s head was cut off. Then his decapitated body was lashed to a horse and sent off into the Texas backcountry. After terrifying countless cowboys and settlers, the phantom has continued to ride and can still be seen throughout southern Texas to this day.

The Wild, Wild South

Texas was a truly wild place to be in the 1830s. The Mexican government had invited Americans to begin settling around the Texas region, in hopes that they would push the Comanches out. 

However, by the next decade, Mexican officials were facing a new issue. The U.S. wanted to claim part of Texas, but the Mexican and American governments couldn’t agree on where the border was. 

Americans claimed the Rio Grande River to be the border, but Mexicans said the Nueces River, 150 miles north of the Rio Grande, was the dividing line. 

Due to this disagreement, the area between the two rivers, stretching 400 miles long, came to be known as “No Man’s Land.” Both governments avoided this area, meaning there were virtually no laws. The only kind of justice was served by the Texas Rangers, who often resorted to ruthless tactics to try to enact some semblance of order.

The Ferocious Texas Rangers

To decide the U.S.-Mexican border once and for all, the two countries waged war between 1846 and 1848. The United States would come out victorious, acquiring a massive section of land—in addition to cementing the Rio Grande River as the official border.

However, the war didn’t immediately clean up No Man’s Land. Bandits from both countries remained in the area for several years after the war, even as the Texas Rangers worked to clean up the area. 

Several rangers became well known for their unrelenting antics, including Creed Taylor and Big Foot Wallace. Criminals tried to stay out of these rangers’ way, but one thief put himself directly in the path of these unforgiving lawmen—and he paid dearly for it. 

A Fatal Choice in Ranches

In 1850, a Mexican man named Vidal had a hefty price on his head for stealing many horses throughout No Man’s Land. Wanted dead or alive, Vidal may have felt like he had little to lose at this point. 

So, when a Comanche raid drew many of the rangers and settlers north to aid in the fight, Vidal saw an opportunity. He and a few others started sweeping through ranches close to present-day San Antonio and rounding up all the horses they could. 

Vidal likely didn’t know whose ranches he was robbing. If he did, he may have chosen differently. Because among his herd of horses were the prized mustangs of Ranger Creed Taylor. 

Another fact that Vidal did not know? Taylor hadn’t gone up north to fight. Once he realized the theft, Taylor called up Big Foot Wallace and another ranch owner to join him in hunting down the thieves. 

Wallace was an expert tracker, and quickly, the posse was just behind the bandits. They waited until nightfall, then crept into their camp and killed the thieves.

However, the rangers were tired of all this brazen thievery. So they decided to make an example out of Vidal. 

They cut off the dead man’s head, then placed his headless body on the back of a wild horse, tying him to the saddle to keep him secure. For extra measure, Taylor secured Vidal’s head and sombrero to the saddle as well—so there was no question as to whose body was riding that horse. 

Releasing the Headless Horseman 

With a final tightening of the strap, the rangers shooed the horse off. For months, the horse wandered around the area with the heavy load strapped to its back. When the horse passed a new group, they were shocked and horrified by what they saw. The ranchers would shoot bullets at the decapitated rider, while the Indigenous people would fire arrows into the corpse. 

When some settlers did finally get hold of the horse, the decomposed body was fried by the sun and riddled with holes from various weapons. 

El Muerto Today

Even after Vidal’s corpse was removed from the horse, people still claimed to see a headless rider throughout No Man’s Land. Some of the most famous reports include:

• Soldiers at Fort Inge (present-day Uvalde) saw the phantom rider near where his body had been buried.
• In 1917, a couple traveling to California by wagon saw a headless rider speed past them, yelling, “It is mine. It is all mine!”
• In 1969, a report was filed of seeing a horse rider without a head near Freer, Texas.

Even today, people in remote areas of Texas report seeing a stallion flash by with a headless rider upon its back. 

Haunted San Antonio 

Headless horse thieves aren’t the only spirits who haunt the San Antonio area. Phantom soldiers can be spotted around the Alamo, while Teddy Roosevelt can be seen at his favorite hotel in town. 

To learn about all the best San Antonio lore and see the haunted locations for yourself, book a ghost tour with River City Ghosts tonight.

To discover other headless apparitions around the U.S. (there are more than you’d expect), follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. To read more San Antonio ghosts and ghouls, check out our blog. 

Sources:

• https://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-elmuerto/
• https://petticoatsandpistols.com/2015/01/21/law-comes-to-the-nueces-strip/
• https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2020/07/08/the-legend-of-the-south-texas-headless-horseman-el-muerto/