A few names inspire the lore of the Wild West like Pancho Villa. Villa was a guerilla fighter and a Mexican revolutionary leader, whose exploits became legend. Born on June 5, 1878 as Jose Doroteo Arango Arambula, Villa was the son of a field worker.
When
he was 15 his father passed away, and a year later he would be a
fugitive from justice after killing the owner of an estate on which he
worked, protecting his younger sister. For the next 16 years he would
adopt the moniker, Francisco Villa, going by the nickname, Pancho Villa.
Pancho Villa Becomes a Revolutionary
In
1910, Villa was convinced to join with Francisco Madero's revolutionary
uprising against Mexican dictator, Porfirio Diaz. His knowledge of the
land and the people of Northern Mexico proved very valuable to Madero's
cause. Villa organized and commanded a division of soldiers and
contributed to the eventual success of the revolution. In May of 1911,
Villa married and retired from the army.
This retirement
would be short-lived. A year later, during the rebellion of
Pascual Orozco, Villa gathered troops to defend new president, Madero.
During this period, Villa had a falling out with General Victoriano
Huerta. Villa was sentenced to death and sent to prison. Though eventually granted a stay of execution, he was not released from prison.
Taking matters into his own hands, Villa escaped from prison and fled
to the United States.
Villa Becomes Governor of Chihuahua
A
year later, in 1913, when President Madero was assassinated by General
Huerta, Villa once again organized an army of several thousand men
and was part of a rebellion against the new president. His victories on
the field were such that he became the governor of the new state of
Chihuahua, and the uprising as a whole succeeded in removing Huerta from
power.
Peace was short lived, in 1914 Villa fell out with Venustiano Carranza, his former ally and leader of this
latest uprising. Villa had to flee Mexico. Unfortunately,
the United States was supporting Carranza's government at that time.
Villa Becomes Wanted by the U.S.
Villa demonstrated he was a force to be reckoned with in the
North. In January of 1916, he and his band killed 17 U.S. citizens at
Santa Isabel. Two short months later, they killed another 17 in
Columbus, New Mexico. Although President Wilson sent a party to bring
him to justice, Villa was never caught.
In 1920, with the fall of
Carranza's regime, Villa was granted a pardon, contingent on the
secession of his revolutionary activity. Part of the agreement was that
he would be given a ranch in Chihuahua. Three years after his
retirement, Pancho Villa was assassinated.
http://video.about.com/history1900s/Profile-of-Pancho-Villa.htm
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