Randolph Runnels
Born in Texas probably in 1830, Randolph Runnels was a nephew of Hiram Georges Runnels. He became a Texas Ranger and took part in the Indian wars.
He came to Panama in his early 20s, recruited by the Railroad company who was looking for a man capable of pacifying the isthmus for the construction of the Panama Railway, the first intercontinental railway, which was inaugurated in 1855.
The Isthmian Guard
He settled in Panama and opened a company of mule rentals and transportation services. This was a cover for his true occupation, the extermination of the bandits --- the so-called "Derienni" --- who plagued the isthmian transit zone during railroad construction days.
After registering the movements and the names of the bandits in a "black book", Runnels, with the help of the railroad company and the tacit approval of Colombian and US authorities, created a company of agents called "The Isthmian guard", with whom he organized a couple of mass hangings, one of which took the lives of 37 presumed criminals. Their bodies were found one morning strung up near the Panama City seawall. In another purge, 41 people died.
Runnels was also believed to be in charge of quelling labor unrest, and he supposedly whipped the mayor of the village of Las Cruces in the town square, to end a labor stoppage.
Nicknamed "El Verdugo" (the executioner), Runnels and his Isthmian Guard are said to have quelled crime by the time the Panama Railroad was finished.
Runnels and the Watermelon War
Runnels is also famous in Panama for his role in the 1856 "Watermelon War", a name given to an anti-American riot which began when an American traveler named Jack Oliver refused to pay for a watermelon slice he had eaten from a street vendor. A very violent riot took place during which 17 people died. The violence subsided when Runnels and his men arrived on the scene and rescued the travelers assaulted by the mob.
One consequence of that incident was a US Marine Corps intervention in Panama some weeks later. Randolph Runnels shortly after left Panama and ended his career in Nicaragua where he became an American consul. Runnels died in Nicaragua, after having served as US consul there.
Much of the information about Runnels is contained in a book called "The Golden Road", whose content may be partially fictional.
More direct information comes from his letters to his sister who lived into the 1930s and had saved his letters.
Sources
- Joseph L. Schott, Rails Across Panama - The Story of the Building of the Panama Railroad 1849-1855, The Bob Merrill Company Inc., New York: N.Y., 1967.
- Michael L. Conniff, Panama and the United States: the forced alliance, University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia, 2001.