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The Old World’s Medieval Untouchables and Other Random Historical Facts

Khalid Elhassan March 17, 2020 33 min

Pancho Villa - Mexican Revolution — General Pancho Villa before a firing squad in 1912. Wikimedia

25. A Dying Pancho Villa Was Stumped For Great Last Words – So He Asked His Followers to Make Up Some

When a third round of infighting erupted, Pancho Villa fared poorly. When America shifted its support to Villa’s foes, he felt betrayed, and eventually crossed the border to raid Columbus, New Mexico. America responded with a military expedition to hunt Villa down, but he eluded his pursuers. Eventually, Villa accepted a government amnesty and a 25,000-acre hacienda to settle down.

Then he threatened to again rock the boat, by announcing his intent to run for president in 1923. Soon thereafter, his car was ambushed and shot up, and he was mortally. A dying Villa understood drama, having lived a life in the limelight. As a romantic folk hero, he figured that his life story needed to end with some memorable last words. However, he could think of nothing to say – it is hard to focus on coming up with an original zinger while you’re bleeding to death. So he turned to his followers and said: “Don’t let it end like this! Tell them I said something!“

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.