CENTENNIAL SUNDAYS
New Mexico makes history
From inspiring to terrifying to tragic, NM stories often made the national news
Editor鈥檚 note: In the latest installment of Centennial Sundays, which marks 100 years of the Lang family鈥檚 ownership of the Journal, we feature a few of the New Mexico-based stories that made national headlines.
Through the years, New Mexico has often made the national news.
Many of the stories were tragic: Hantavirus, a mysterious deadly virus spread by mouse droppings, was first discovered in New Mexico.
Politics was always a player: For years, Republican Sen. Pete Domenici and Democrat Sen. Jeff Bingaman worked across the aisle on key issues. Democrat Gov. Bill Richardson made a run for the top position in the nation, as did former Gov. Gary Johnson on the Libertarian Party ballot. Republican Susana Martinez was the first Hispanic female in the nation to be elected governor; Democrat Dennis Chavez was the first Hispanic elected to a full term of the Senate.
In other areas: Bill Gates got his start here. Smokey Bear was rescued from a massive forest fire in the Lincoln National Forest. The TV series 鈥淏reaking Bad鈥� made Albuquerque a household name 鈥� and not necessarily in a good way.
Perusing Journal archives, there are dozens of stories that shocked, uplifted or captivated the country. Here are just a few.
鈥楢 New Space Age鈥�
That was the headline that dominated the front page of the Journal on July 12, 2021.
鈥淣ew Mexico took center stage Sunday when Sir Richard Branson made history with his successful flight from Spaceport America to the edge of space aboard his own passenger rocketship,鈥� began the story by Journal reporter Kevin Robinson-Avila.
Branson鈥檚 company, Virgin Galactic, livestreamed the flight, and millions of people across the globe watched online as Branson, two pilots and three other crew members took off from Spaceport鈥檚 massive runway built on an isolated piece of southern New Mexico desert.
The flight made Branson the first spaceship company founder to fly to space on his own rocket. It was supposed to be the first of many commercial flights into space, with passengers ponying up $200,000 and more for a slot on one of the space ships.
Five years later, reality has not kept up with the hype. A total of 30 passengers have been on seven flights aboard the VSS Unity, which was retired in 2024, so the company could focus on its new spaceships 鈥� the Delta-class. They are scheduled to start flying commercial passengers in 2027, at a cost of $750,000 per ticket.
Prison riot: 36 hours of horror
鈥淚t is mind numbing. The horror attacks relentlessly. Logic and reasoning crumble under the reality. 鈥� Inside, hidden from the sunlight, lie the charred remains of another world, a place of screams and terror, a place of torture and death.鈥�
That was an excerpt from Jim Arnholz鈥檚 front-page story after a tour of the New Mexico State Penitentiary, the site of one of the worst and bloodiest prison riots in the nation鈥檚 history.
The takeover began soon after midnight Feb. 2, 1980, as inmates quickly overwhelmed guards who were armed with whistles only.
Thirty-six hours later, the uprising ended with 33 inmates dead, hundreds of inmates injured, the prison itself a charred shell and 14 Corrections Department guards, who had been held hostage, freed 鈥� but only after most were severely beaten, tortured and/or sexually assaulted.
The inmates cited a list of complaints about overcrowding, poor conditions and mistreatment. There were 1,331 inmates at the time of the riot and 23 corrections officers on-site. Cell Block 4 housed many of the informants and weaker inmates. That block was hit the hardest, with many of the dead found there.
The manner of deaths were horrific. From the start of the takeover and for days after, Journal reporters and photographers described the gruesome scene and stories told by surviving inmates, corrections officials and inmate families desperate for information.
A week later, Journal reporter Bruce Campbell provided a comprehensive account and timeline of the takeover and negotiations. One of the inmates鈥� demands during the talks was to include the news media. As a result, Journal reporters were among those who met with inmates during the takeover. The inmates discussed the status of the hostages, the poor conditions and their fears over retribution.
The Journal has continued to cover the prison鈥檚 aftermath, from the construction of the new prison to the implementation of reforms. In recent years, it even hosted a town-hall panel of corrections and political officials that explored the question: Could this happen again?
Priest scandal rocks NM
In August 1993, the 近距离内射合集 published an 18-page broadsheet special section detailing decades of child abuse by Catholic priests in New Mexico. It also reported how pedophile priests from across the nation were sent to a Catholic 鈥渉ealing鈥� facility in northern New Mexico 鈥� The Servants of the Paracletes 鈥� that then distributed them to parishes throughout the state.
The special section named 19 priests accused of sexual misconduct. One of those, Archbishop Robert Sanchez, had recently resigned after several women revealed he had sexual relations with them years earlier when they were teenagers.
That scandal, which rocked the state, occurred as reports of the number of pedophile priests in New Mexico kept growing.
鈥淚t started with a few drops 鈥� Noah鈥檚 flood that is,鈥� according to the special section鈥檚 cover story. 鈥淭he drops fell faster and faster until the Earth was covered with water. That鈥檚 how this scandal of sexual impropriety in the Roman Catholic Church in New Mexico began 鈥� with a few drops: whispered allegations, a lawsuit, a seemingly isolated accusation of abuse or sexual misconduct leveled at a priest.鈥� But it soon 鈥渨ashed over the faithful, inflicting pain on innocent priests and parishioners alike.鈥�
Bruce Daniels was the lead reporter on the package, which consisted of more than a dozen stories. It included a statewide poll of Catholics that showed more than 60% of respondents believed the church leadership was aware of sexual misconduct of priests.
The scandal in New Mexico broke more than 10 years before the high-profile priest scandal in Boston. But for this state, with more than 450,000 Catholics at the time, it was even more shattering. Ultimately, the church acknowledged at least 140 clergy members with ties to New Mexico were credibly accused, though survivor advocates claimed the number was much higher.
In 2022, the state鈥檚 largest diocese, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, agreed to a historic $121.5 million settlement to resolve hundreds of claims, finalizing its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Journal has reported the story through the years, combing through legal documents and interviewing scores of parishioners and priests.
A storage facility half a mile deep
After decades of controversy and lawsuits, thousands of studies and $2 billion, the first truckload of radioactive trash arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad on March 26, 1999.
The burial of the waste was 鈥渢he first time the nation engineered, licensed and opened a deep underground dump for plutonium waste,鈥� said the story on the front page of the March 27, 1999, Journal.
Contaminated tools, gloves, clothes and debris originating from the research and production of nuclear weapons in the 近距离内射合集 States were placed in steel drums and driven from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the WIPP site.
Since then, more than 40,000 shipments from LANL, Idaho and Colorado have been buried in the salt beds nearly half a mile below ground. Over time the shifting salt will encapsulate the containers, sealing them away.
The U.S. Department of Energy officials said WIPP鈥檚 opening would help accelerate the cleanup of its weapon sites around the country, predicting this would pave the way for other disposal sites in the U.S.
But so far, WIPP is alone as an underground storage site. It remains controversial and lawsuits continue aimed at curbing the type and amount of waste stored there.
An unsolved serial killer case
A woman walking her dog in a remote area of Albuquerque鈥檚 West Mesa on Feb. 2, 2009, spotted what turned out to be a human bone sticking out of the sand. Officials working the scene soon discovered the remains of two more bodies.
And so it began. Officers and others combed the massive crime scene near 118th Street searching for evidence and more bodies.
Over the next several weeks, a total of 11 bodies and a 4-month-old fetus were discovered in the area that quickly came to resemble a giant archeological dig. The bodies included two 15-year-old girls and nine women ranging in age from the early 20s to 32. It took months for police to identify them all.
Journal reporter Jeff Proctor鈥檚 Feb. 10 story reported the discovery of the first three bodies, which appeared to have been buried in 2003 or 2004.
Proctor followed the story step by step 鈥� as the bodies were discovered, as police sought their identities, as victims鈥� families came forward and as authorities investigated thousands of leads.
Proctor鈥檚 March 5 story revealed the Albuquerque Police Department had been assembling files on women reported missing since 2001. As the victims鈥� identities emerged, so did a pattern: Most were reported missing between 2003 and 2005; many had a transient lifestyle; and many were associated with prostitution or sex trafficking.
The case remains one of the largest unsolved serial killer cases in the nation.
In memory of the victims, the city unveiled the Women鈥檚 Memorial Park in 2020, on the site where the bodies were found.
APD Under Fire
A video of Albuquerque police fatally shooting a mentally ill transient man in the Sandia foothills not only shocked New Mexicans in 2014 but also caught the attention of the nation.
National news print and broadcast organizations featured the police cam footage along with stories shining a light on the city鈥檚 police department. A federal investigation was already underway to determine if APD maintained a pattern or practice of violating civil rights, specifically through the use of force.
James Boyd, 38, had been discovered camping illegally in the Sandia foothills when police shot him, and as public anger rose over the incident, APD dug in to defend the officers鈥� actions.
The shooting occurred after an hourslong standoff between police and Boyd, who was armed with two knives. Boyd had a history of mental illness and violent confrontations with police. During the standoff, he rambled about various topics and demands, and at one point put down his knives. He later picked the knives back up. Police remained 20 feet from him, and Boyd was turning away when the officers fired the fatal shots.
A Journal story quoted Mayor Richard Berry describing the lapel video that emerged as 鈥渉orrific鈥� and 鈥渦nsettling.鈥�
Within days, hundreds of protesters filled Central Avenue Downtown and near the University of New Mexico, confronting armed officers until late in the evening.
Four weeks after the Boyd shooting, the Department of Justice completed its 16-month investigation and issued a scathing 46-page report that called for sweeping police department reforms.
Before the report鈥檚 release, Justice Department officials met with Journal editors and reporters to review the document. They said their investigation relied heavily on yearslong reporting by the Journal on APD鈥檚 use of force and its many fatal shootings.
The April 11, 2014, front page of the Journal included multiple stories about the report. Among its many startling conclusions, this one stood out: 鈥淲e reviewed all fatal shootings between 2009 and 2012 and found officers were not justified under federal law of using deadly force in the majority of those incidents. This level of unjustified deadly force by the police poses unacceptable risk to the Albuquerque community.鈥�
Over the next five months, the city and DOJ negotiated and finally signed a consent decree, placing APD under DOJ oversight and requiring it to overhaul many of its policies and training. Under the decree, APD hired an independent monitor to oversee the changes. Eleven years and millions of dollars later, a federal judge in May 2025 ended the consent decree, determining that Albuquerque had finally met the conditions.
The Journal鈥檚 interactive special report online, titled 鈥淎PD Under Fire,鈥� that followed the DOJ investigation and the incidents leading to its report received national recognition as a finalist for a 2014 prestigious Editor & Publisher EPPY award.
Karen Moses is a former editor of the Journal and can be reached at kmoses@abqjournal.com.
Coming July 19: The Journal鈥檚 offerings have long extended beyond hard news, with its diverse features 鈥� from society reports to comics 鈥� continuously evolving to match the spirit of the times.
