El Muerto-Texas's Version of Sleepy Hollow

By Aaron Perez

Published 3/6/2025

    Everyone knows Washington Irvin's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a story about a man named Ichabod Crane being pursued by a purported apparition of a headless horseman. The headless spirit is that of a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball and roams at night searching for his head. Ichabod Crane is warned not to travel at night, but despite warnings, does so anyway and encounters what he believes is the specter. It is up for debate if the specter is actually a ghost or a prank by one of the characters, but Ichabod is nowhere to be seen at the end of the short story. Because of this short story's fame, it was adapted into films, the most famous being Tim Burton's 1999 horror adaptation, a Disney short, and its own TV series.

Image credit: Legends of America

    While Sleepy Hollow is a fictional tale based on an actual location, there is another headless horseman that roams the outskirts of Texas. This spirit is known as El Muerto, and he is just as interesting as Washington Irvin's short story. The legend begins when an outlaw and deserter of the Mexican army who went by the name of Vidal. Because he deserted his army at the end of the Texas Revolution, Vidal was unable to return home and thus became a horse thief. One day, he and some accomplices managed to steal a couple of mustangs, not realizing that one of them belonged to Texas Ranger Creed Taylor. Being the first to fight off Comanche raids, Taylor was out on duty when he noticed his priced horses were gone. He recruited fellow Ranger BigFoot Wallace and a local rancher to hunt down Vidal and his thieves, catching them on their way to Mexico. The trio then attacked the camp at night and managed to kill Vidal and the accomplices. Vidal's corpse was then strapped into his horse and his decapitated head and sombrero were placed on his saddle. The horse was then let loose and was cursed to roam the wilds of Texas with its rotting cargo, and thus the legend of El Muerto was born. For years, many ranchers, Natives, and wanderers spotted El Muerto, often shooting at him with arrows and bullets but never killing his steed. It was only when his horse was ambushed and killed that Vidal's mummified corpse was laid to rest. This didn't stop apparitions of the rider from being reported, as he has been spotted from the Texas hill country all the way to the outskirts of El Paso.

El Muerto in El Paso County

    In a town named Anthony, located northwest of El Paso, lived a couple whose husband would always go out drinking. He would leave his wife alone and one night she heard a sound outside and to her horror, saw El Muerto. The wife warned her husband of what she saw and he naturally dismissed her, thinking she was going mad. Convinced that his wife was making up the story to keep him at home, he again left to drink with his friends. His wife once again saw El Muerto and pleaded her husband not to leave him. Thinking that she is lying, the man stays on the third night to prove that his wife is making things up. To his horror, he spots the horseman just as his wife described outside of his home. The couple then fled the home with their belongings and the property was since abandoned. 

    

    This is but one of many sightings of El Muerto, as he has been seen in Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico. Each location also has its own version of the horror story about this apparition and all state that his spirit is observed after Vidal was laid to rest. This means that the horse he was strapped in joined him in the afterlife, forever roaming the outskirts of Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico. 

Sources

    “El Muerto – The Headless Horseman.” Legends of America, Legends of America, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-elmuerto/. Accessed 6 3 2025.

    Hudnall, Ken, and Connie Wang. Spirits of the Border: The History and Mystery of El Paso Del Norte. Omega Press, 2003.