Re: Pancho Villa's Silver
cactusjumper said:
Something else of interest:
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Cedar Rapids Republican
Cedar Rapids, Linn Co. Iowa
February 9, 1926
Body of Villa Decapitated; Iowa Man Jailed as Suspect.
El Paso, Tex., Feb. 9 (U.P.) - Accused of opening the grave and decapitating
The corpse of Francisco Villa, noted Mexican rebel chieftain Emil Holmdahl, American soldier of fortune, and Alberto Corral, Mexican, are being held in jail today at Parral, Mexico, according to word received here. Reports said Villa's head was carried about the streets of Parral and then sent to Columbus, N.M. Where Villa's band of rebels killed several Americans during
A raid in 1916. Holmdahl, whose parents live in Ft. Dodge, Ia., was purchasing agent for Villa at one time and later was decorated for bravery
While serving in the American army overseas during the world war. Lieut. Col. A.A. King, retired, who is Holmdahl's partner, in Mexican mining ventures, was making efforts today to secure Homdahl's release and offered telegrams to prove his partner was in Durango the night Villa's grave was said to have been opened. Villa was killed three years ago by former members of his band.
[*note: Emil L. Holmdahl was born in Ft. Dodge, Iowa in 1883. He first enlisted in the 61st Iowa Infantry and served in the Philippine insurrection. Later he joined the adventurer Lee Christmas in Honduras and fought in the Central American "banana wars". In 1926, while Emil Holmdahl Was on a "prospecting and hunting trip" to Mexico, he was arrested for desecrating Villa's tomb. Influential friends in the US arranged for his release and he returned to the United States. Emil Holmdahl died on April 4,1963 in Van Nuys, California.]
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Joe Ribaudo
I have that article Joe, heres a couple more
EL PASO HERALD POST (dec 23rd 1933)PAGE2
SPIRITUALIST FAILS TO FIND PANCHO VILLAS TREASURE
Radio Detector Also Falls Down on Job, But Hunters Of
Bandit's Wealth Will Try Again
Failure today had rewarded the efforts of the> latest expedition in
search ot the hidden treasure of Francisco (Pancho) Villa, Mexican
bandit leader.
Despite the assistance of a new-fangled radio treasure detector, a
spiritualist, and the leadership of the man supposed to have cut off
Pancho's head,'the party of American treasure seekers returned, empty
handed. * -
But faith in the radio detector
will take part of the group back into
Chihuahua after the holidays.
Headed by Emil Holmdahl, soldier
of fortune and colonel in Pancho
Villa's army, the Americans scoured
the hills of Chihuahua front Juarez
to Parral for several weeks.
It was rumored in Juarez that
natives near Parral took pot shots
at the fortune hunters,, but this
could not be confirmed.
J. H. Blackstone, California and
Shanghai, China hotel owner, financed
the expedition. v
Holmdahl, who has been wounded
13 times in Mexican revolutions and
has escaped several firing squads,
once was arrested at Parral and
charged with cutting the head from
Pancho Villa's body and sending it
to Chicago. He denied the charge.
While in Juarez the searchers
made headquarters at Hotel Koper.
: In an adjoining room, unknown
to the treasure seekers, resided Celia
Villa, daughter of Pancho Villa, who
.would like to have some of the loot
her father is supposed trf have
buried somewhere in Chihuahua.
(I have another version of this article which claims that AA king was also involved in the search)
ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE NM (SEPT 8th 1967) NEW MEXICO
Off the
Beaten Path
By HOWARD BRYAN
An antique dealer in Iowa believes maybe he!
has found the long-lost skull of Pancho Villa. I
It has eight bullet holes in it, and has been|
stored in an Iowa barn since the 1920's.
The skull has been missing since Feb. 5, 1926,
when a person or persons unknown opened Villa's
;rave at Parral, Mexico, and stole the head. The
Mexican government has been attempting in vain
o retrieve the head every since.
Villa, remembered particulary
in New Mexico for his attack
n the border town of Columius
in 1916, was assassinated
n Parral on June 20, 1923.
THE STORY of the possible
inding of Villa's skull was pubshed
in the DCS Moines Sunlay
Register on Aug. 27.
A clipping of the newspaper
article was sent to me by Al
figil, a former Albuquerque
esident now l i v i n g in Des
loines.
The antique dealer who thinks
ie may have the skull is Woodow
Breuneman" of Nichols,
Iowa. ' . . ' . ' .
About a year ago, accordng
to the article, Mr. Breneman
went to Columbus City,
bwa, to purchase some paintngs
of Southwestern scenes by
little-known Iowa artist, Ivan-
,oe Whitted, who died in 1950.
• Mr. Whitted had painted the
cenes during a trip to the
oiithwest in the 1920's. He also
ollected Southwestern
graphs and relics.
photo-
The paintings and relics, the
mtique dealer said, were stored
n a barn which had been owned
. Whitted before his death.
THE RELICS. Brenneman
continued, included the skull
with bullet holes, contained in
a svoodea box covered with
cloth. :
The skull was offered to him
at the time of his first visit to
the barn a year ago, he said,
but he turned it down. This
summer, after reading of Mexican
efforts to trace the missing Tuesday,
skull, the antique dealer re-
turned to Columbus City and
purchased the boxed-skull for
one dollar.
Why does he believe the skull
might be that of Pancho Villa?
First, the bullet holes, which;
enter the rear and top of the
skull corresponding to the angle
from which Villa was assassinated.
SECOND, the fact that Villa'
is said to have received four
bullets through his head, which
would account for eight holes.
And third, from the fact that
another Iowa man, the late Col.
Emil Holmdahl, was accused by
Mexican authorities of stealing
Villa's head from the grave.
The article, however, establishes
no link between Whitted
and Holmdahl, other than that
they were both from Iowa.
EMIL HOLMDAHL, a soldier
of fortune from Fort Dodge,
Iowa, was on Pancho Villa's
staff before the Columbus raid.
After the raid, he accompanied
the U.S. punitive expedition
which Gen. John Perslu'ng
led into Mexico in search of
Villa.
Holmdahl was in Parral on
the night Villa's grave was
opened in 1923. Arrested and
questioned by Mexican authorities,
he denied having taken the
head, and was released for lack
of evidence.
A short while later, it has
been reported without verification,
Holmdahl displayed Villa's
skull to friends in the privacy
of an Ei Paso hotel room.
Holmdahl died in 1963 in Van
Nuys, Calif.
AT THE TIME of his arrest
in Parral in 1923, Holmdahl was
in Mexico searching for Pancho
Villa's buried treasure, said to
be gold worth millions of dollars.
In 1952, he was questioned
WATERLOO EVENING COURIER ( DEC 18th 1913 page 7) IOWAIOWAN IS VILLA GUNNER,
Fort Dodge, la., Dec. 18.—Emil
Holmdahl, formerly of Fort Dodge,
•is now a colonel in General Villa's
army of constitutionalists. Holmdahl's
brother, Andrew, and a sister,
still live here.
Emil Holmdahl was sergeant in
company I, Twentieth United States
infantry in the Philippines. He recently
was promoted from captain to
colonel in the constitutionalist artillery
service. THE FRESNO BEE(feb 11th 1926)villas head reported
forwarded to
Chicago Criminologist
head of .General Francisco Villa had. been cut off at the instigation
of "an eccentric Chicago millionaire, a student of criminology" who
had &ni emissaries to Mexico with instructions to get Villa's head at
any cost, . / ' '
' y ilia's head» the Graf ico's article reads* has been shipped to Chicago
and was due there yesterday. '-.-'•
american RELEASED
VALLEJO (Ca[if.)t Feb.\ 11.—Word[was received here of
the release of Emil Holmdahl, American soldier of fortune, who Was
arrested m Pdrral, Mexico* aftei discovery of the violation of Villa's
grave last Friday. News of his release' Was communicated to Af. Holmdahl* Jiis
brother* by the state department at Washington and ends fears for
fate at'the hanJs of Mexican authourites
PASEDENA INDEPENDENT (jan 29th 1960) page 12
THE SAME issue of the magazine brought up.
again the knotty question: Whatever happened to
Pancho Villa's head. ,
For those of you who didn't know, after Villa
was buried, vandals broke into his tomb and
chopped off his head.
Villa, who was thought of as the Robin Hood
of Mexico by some of his followers and as a-border
ruffian by U.S. soldiery, was assassinated in 1923.
Three years later came the decapitation.
' ' Various people have been suspected of the
decapitation, including Salas Barrasa, Villa's
'assassin; Emil Holmdahl, an American soldier of
fortune; and Francisco R. Durazo, a Mexican
general. Holmdahl, in fact, was arrested at the time
of the crime, but he was later released. According
to some Mexican 'tales, he later turned up in Texas
with Villa's head in his luggage.
. If you have already accepted Maxwell Browns version as the holy grail on Villas life, then it would seem that rather than me being the one to show contept to education, that same quote could easily be applied to you.
Gary
(and I am easily confused) is why is it that so many believe that Villa had no back up plan should everything go pear shaped.
