The diverse reactions to the trial and the execution of José de León Toral show that prosecutors were unable to impose any unified message of secularism over fanaticism, revolutionaries over reactionaries, bureaucracy over individualism, or legitimate mechanisms over outbursts of violence. The preceding years of activism had generated a series of narratives about Mexico’s history, culture, and divine purpose that directly opposed the rhetoric of the revolution and the state, such that, for many people, killing Obregón appeared to be a moral and necessary action. On the day of León Toral’s execution in February 1929, snipers stood on the roof and police formed a wall around the penitentiary; this was, doubtlessly, a show of force – but by diverse actors. The armed presence aimed to prevent disturbances from the thousands who gathered outside the Lecumberri prison.1 Later, in defiance of a government ban, thousands crowded into the Santa María neighborhood during León Toral’s wake and then around the Panteón Español cemetery for his burial. Rocks rained down on police from roofs; firemen shot jets of water at the masses of people. Thirty-four people were arrested, thirty more were injured, and one died.2 In such convulsion, Palomar y Vizcarra saw hopeful presages. Right now, he speculated, León Toral is asking God to fulfill the Kingdom of Christ in Mexico.3 José’s specter did extend beyond his earthly life: customs agents scrambled to confiscate vinyl records with the “Ballad of Toral” produced in Texas, and police in Tamaulipas fined poets for selling their odes to Obregón’s assassin in public plazas.4