Today in Manhunting History -- May 9, 1914: "The Life of General Villa"

Even amidst the vicious backdrop of the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa stood out for his brutality.  After each victory, Villa ordered the mass executions of hundreds of prisoners.  He oversaw the torture and slaughter of hundreds of ethnic Chinese in the towns he captured.  And any individual who dared cross him, including friends who fell out of favor like the American writer Ambrose Bierce, were murdered without hesitation.

But America loves bad boys. 

Despite his depredations, Villa's flamboyance and reputation for helping the poor made him a popular figure with the American press and the public, and even the staid New York Times referred to Villa as "the Robin Hood of Mexico."  President Wilson himself declared that Villa was "not so bad as he had been painted," and that amidst the turmoil of the Revolution, "Villa was perhaps the safest man to tie to."

Thus, on May 9, 1914, The Life of General Villa, filmed by the Mutual Film Corporation with Villa's permission, premiered at the Lyric Theater in New York City.  (The photo below is of Villa above his famous horse, Siete Legusa, in a still from the film).

HBO made a movie, "And Starring Pancho Villa as himself" about this episode in 2003 starring Antonio Banderas.  Also, another biopic about Villa is in development, although Johnny Depp, who was supposed to portray Villa, is no longer attached to the film.

It is a topic for another time, but it never ceases to amaze me how Hollywood lionizes the men whom America targeted (Geronimo, Villa, Che Guevara, and supposedly Pablo Escobar), each of whom was a bad man, while the heroes who tracked them down are lost to history if not altogether forgotten.