PANCHO VILLA

                Pancho Villa was a folk hero in Mexico and a villain to Americans.  He was born Doroteo Arango, the son of a poor peasant farmer.  One day at age 16, he came home to find a local upper class man assaulting his sister.  He shot the man and headed for the hills to become a bandit.  He was so good at banditry that he soon had a small army.  Not just men, but women, were attracted to him and he may have been married as many as 26 times.  After ten years of robbing from the rich and giving to his poor, he came down to join the Mexican Revolution as a populist.  He was a general leading cavalry in courageous charges.  He became a wanted man when a rival named Carranza took power.  When President Wilson supported Carranza, Villa began to target Americans.  His men attacked a train in Mexico and murdered 18 Texas businessmen.  On March 9, 1916, Villa and his men crossed the border to attack Columbus, New Mexico.  They proceeded to loot, destroy, and kill.  18 Americans were killed.  In response, Wilson ordered Gen. John Pershing to violate Mexican territory on a military expedition to kill or capture Villa.  Villa was too elusive and Pershing returned to America empty-handed.  In 1920, Villa accepted a pardon from Carranza and retired to a hacienda where he supervised 2,000 people in something of a commune situation.  In 1923, he was assassinated by seven gunmen who ambushed him in a nearby town.  He was shot numerous times.

                –  Amazing 307-309