In this country, if you ask anyone about Pancho Villa, they usually say: “A bandit, right? And didn’t he once raid Columbus, in New Mexico, and kill a lot of Americans?”
I never contradict that. It hardly seems worth the trouble to explain how I know it isn’t so, and it certainly wasn’t my purpose when I sat down to write this tale of my lost years.
Did I have a purpose beyond a middle-aged man’s self-gratification, and the purging of past sins? Probably, but it doesn’t matter. The means become the end, don’t they? I simply wanted to remember, because there’s not much time left, and it’s colored gray. And that time was the best time—a fever of the mind, an intoxication of the blood that you can’t find in any bottle. I’ve looked, and I know.
I was loved then, and I was in love. Not just with Rosa, and then Elisa Griensen, but with my very existence on the hot planet. I was young. Doesn’t that say it all? Our youth is so brimful with choices, and rarely do we make the intelligent ones that serve us best. How painful it seems, that journey through its startling landscape. But how precious the pain becomes, when it’s gone.
And I have my memories. When I meet a particularly attractive woman at a party in Beverly Hills or London, I can’t help but peer into her eyes to see if my name is reflected there from the list that Candelario swore was written lower down. “Life is short,” he said. I can still hear his voice, and the voices of the others. They speak to me at night, when I’m alone. They call me “Tomás …” or “my colonel…” and even “pendejo. “
Or, in a huskier tone, touched by desert sunlight, one says, “Go well, my sweet.…”
I’ve tried, Elisa. I’ve gone far, and sometimes well, although not always.
Another, as if reaching out from deep sleep to make sure I’m still there, whispers in the calm, silent darkness, “Mi capitán . . . ?” I see her even calmer face—bright, loyal, and full of grace.
Rosa, I haven’t stopped loving you. In your short life you brought me more joy than any other, then or since. I miss you still.
T. M.
Florence, Arizona
October 7, 1940
Tom Mix was driving from Tucson to Phoenix on the afternoon of October 12, 1940. Alone in the car, he swerved to avoid a crew of highway workers. He crashed and was killed instantly.
author’s note
This is a historical fantasy, although I prefer the word romance, which my dictionary defines as “a novel or other prose narrative typically characterized by heroic deeds, pageantry, romantic exploits, etc., usually in a historical or imaginary setting.”
For the most part I have tried to be faithful to the facts of the Mexican Revolution and Pancho Villa’s life. The battles, the political conflicts, the characters of such men as Carranza, Obregón and Zapata, are all accurately described. Patton and Pershing were in Chihuahua in 1916 (and the young lieutenant killed Julio Cárdenas in the manner chronicled); so were Franz von Papen, Rodolfo Fierro, Hipólito Villa and Candelario Cervantes, who was shot by the Seventh Cavalry.
Elisa Griensen is a historical personage who did indeed lead the citizens of Parral against Major Tompkins’ squadron.
Felix Sommerfeld and Sam Ravel were two of Villa’s purchasing agents in Texas.
Luz Corral vda. de Villa, at this writing, is alive and well in Chihuahua City, in the same house I described.
Rosa, Hannah, and Miguel Bosques are fictional characters.
The stories of the massacre in the stockyards and the gold taken from the column of the Banco Minero, among many others related. are true.
I have changed Tom Mix’s age somewhat to suit my purpose as a novelist. But the young actor’s role as a volunteer for Pancho Villa is mentioned briefly in several books. They include Ronald Atkin’s Revolution! Mexico 1910-1920 (John Day, New York, 1970); Haldeen Braddy’s Cock of the Walk: The Legend of Pancho Villa (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1955); Ernest Otto Schuster’s Pancho Villa’s Shadow (Exposition Press, New York, 1947); and Twenty Episodes in the Life of Pancho Villa (The Encino Press, Austin, 1973). by Elias L. Torres, the man who arranged Villa’s retirement for Adolfo de la Huerta. Torres’ memoir, based on his conversations with Villa, was first published in 1931.
Almost all historians have assumed—I suppose for the sake of simplicity—that Villa either led or authorized the March 9. 1916. raid on Columbus, New Mexico. But there never has been any proof for that assumption other than that some of the raiders cried, “Viva Villa!” Until his death in 1923, well beyond a time of jeopardy, Villa continued to deny it. General Hugh Scott’s papers in the National Archives (Mexican Claims Case Files and General Claims Arbitration) reveal a letter dated March 11, 1916, in which he expresses his doubt that Villa was either present or responsible. Dr. R. H. Ellis, one of President Wilson’s personal observers on the border, claimed that on the day of the raid Villa was near Sabinas, Coahuila, more than three hundred miles away. “I was with him,” Ellis later wrote. In Pancho Villa: Intimate Recollections by People Who Knew Him (Hastings House, New York, 1977), Ellis also says: “After the Columbus raid, Carranza soldiers were captured in uniform at Columbus by National Guards. Placed in Federal detention they made statements in writing pleading guilty, and admitting that they were Carranzistas under the direction of Obregón and the German agent, Luther Wertz [who worked for Von Papen] … Wertz was finally apprehended in Nogales, Arizona, and taken in custody to Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, January 31, 1918. Under death sentence Wertz exonerated Villa of all blame for the Santa Ysabel massacre and the Columbus raid. This was a written, recorded statement and is in the files at Washington, D.C. Wertz was hanged.”
I have been unable to find any such statement. But I can’t find any, either, that proves Villa was there. Today, at the site of old Camp Furlong outside Columbus, one finds—incredibly—Pancho Villa State Park (with camping facilities). We are either a forgiving people, or else someone in the government knew that justice had not been done.
Was the chief responsible for the raid? Did Tom Mix rise to the rank of a Villista colonel before he became a Hollywood movie star?
It might be yes, it might be no. But most probably — who knows?
***
(continued ...)
The quotes beginning each chapter are from the following Shakespearean plays: 1 “I prithee, pretty youth…” As You Like It 2 “The eagle suffers…” Titus Andronicus 3 “He may at pleasure…” Antony and Cleopatra 4 “Assume a virtue…” Hamlet
5 “It is the purpose…” Troilus and Cressida 6 “If to do…” Merchant of Venice
7 “The web of our life…” All’s Well That Ends Well 8 “Courage mounteth…” King John
9 “The gates of mercy…” Henry V
10 “And if words will not…” 2 Henry VI
11 “And if I have a conscience…” Henry VIII 12 “Shall I be frighted…” Julius Caesar 13 “Fortune brings in…” Cymbeline
14 “And every tale…” Richard III
15 “Whose church-like humors…” 2 Henry VI 16 “Do you not know…” As You Like It
17 “The cankers of…” I Henry IV
18 “The bow is bent…” King Lear
19 “Tis time to fear…” Pericles
20 “Know of your youth…” Midsummer Night’s Dream 21 “Take all the swift…” Richard III
22 “I will find twenty turtles…” Merry Wives of Windsor 23 “Wisely, and slow.” Romeo and Juliet 24 “I see you stand…” Henry V
25 “And lay the summer’s…” Richard II
26 “What! wouldst thou…” Merchant of Venice 27 “So shines a good deed…” Merchant of Venice 28 “The path is smooth…” Venus and Adonis 29 “His bruiséd helmet…” Henry V
30 “Be bloody, bold…” Macbeth
31 “And one man…” As You Like It
32 “An you lie, sirrah…” King Lear
33 “There's magic in the web…” Othello
34 “Knock there and ask…” Measure for Measure 35 “Hoist w
ith his own…” Hamlet
36 “They kill us for…” King Lear
37 “Still ride in triumph…” 3 Henry VI
38 “But, since I am a dog…” Merchant of Venice 39 “Hark! the land…” Antony and Cleopatra EPILOGUE “I have some rights…” Hamlet
***
(Please continue ...)
Dear Reader,
If you enjoyed this book, please tell your friends about it. And if you have a few moments, you can post a review. Thoughtful and positive opinions encourage a writer.
And of course they help sales. Writers have to live and eat (just like real human beings).
Other good books by Clifford Irving are available. The titles follow, and they link to Kindle. Or you might want to visit the author's website at:
cliffordirving.com
TRIAL – A Legal Thriller
“The courtroom scenes are breathtaking . . . gripping suspense . . . riveting!” — Publishers Weekly
FINAL ARGUMENT – A Legal Thriller
“A courtroom thriller, a mean streets thriller, a Florida cracker thriller, a gritty prison thriller, and an Everyman study of good and evil all rolled into one. And every part of it is terrific. What a wonderful piece of storytelling!”— Donald Westlake, The New York Times
DADDY’S GIRL: A True Thriller of Texas Justice
“Irving builds suspense with skill and makes the people come to life . . . a fine book.” — Houston Chronicle
Clifford Irving’s PRISON JOURNAL (a/k/a JAILING)
“A tale of intelligent triumph under remarkable stress. It has the ring of truth and is highly recommended.” — Times of London
TOM MIX AND PANCHO VILLA – a Romance of Revolutionary Mexico and the 20th Century American West
“Fabulous, big, rawboned wild-blooded adventure tale that gives the sights and sounds and smells of a turn-of-the-century world real enough to touch. Clifford Irving has written a novel to make any writer proud and many readers grateful.” — Los Angeles Herald Examiner
Clifford Irving’s AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD HUGHES
“It’s almost impossible to know where fact leaves off and fiction begins, if indeed that distinction should be made. This is a hypnotizing narrative, a brilliant study of money’s power to corrupt absolutely.” — Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times
THE ANGEL OF ZIN – A Holocaust Mystery
“Exciting, dynamic, and marvelously written.”— Publishers Weekly
FAKE! – the Life of the Master Art Faker of the 20th Century
“The wild, true story of three men who raped the art world . . . one of the most sophisticated suspense sagas of our time . . . fantastic.” — Chicago Tribune
THE SPRING – A Legal Thriller
“An extraordinarily entertaining and thoughtful combination of Lost Horizons and Presumed Innocent. Not only is it a mystery--on at least two levels--but it poses troubling questions concerning prolonged life and its ultimate value.”— Booklist
STRANGER TO THE KINGDOM (formerly THE VALLEY) – a mythic novel of the Old West
"A superb novel that grips the reader from start to thrilling finish. Its solidity is that of a Greek myth." — Times Literary Supplement
PROJECT OCTAVIO – the Rise and Fall of the Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax
“Brilliant.” – Newsday “A masterpiece.” – CBS Radio
THE DEATH FREAK – A CIA Thriller (an Eddie Mancuso and Vasily Borgneff novel)
“A suavely persuasive, anti-Establishment thriller with the bitter aftertaste of Campari and vodka. A clever, cynical, and compelling novel.” — Time Magazine
THE SLEEPING SPY – A CIA Thriller (an Eddie Mancuso and Vasily Borgneff novel)
"A dazzling combination of high suspense and hijinks, and some most unusual killings." — Los Angeles Times
THE 38TH FLOOR – A Thriller of International Politics
“Some smashing skullduggery, with shadowings, chases, and a marvelous climax.” — Sunday Telegraph
THE LOSERS – A New York Thriller
"A serious book built out of thriller elements." — London Sunday Times
CLASH BY NIGHT (formerly ON A DARKLING PLAIN) – A first novel
“A fine debut.” — New York Times
THE BATTLE OF JERUSALEM – A Personal History of the Six-Day War, 1967
“Clifford [Irving] was there, he saw what happened, and he tells it the way it happened.” – Irwin Shaw
BOY ON TRIAL – A Legal Thriller
not yet reviewed
(continued ...)
Author’s Bio:
(at the request of some readers)
Hello. I’m Clifford Irving, a man who’s had an eventful time on the planet. I was once on the cover of Time Magazine, and Hollywood made a movie about part of my life. Richard Gere played me.
I traveled twice around the world before most people living in it today were born; I stood guard in an Israeli kibbutz, crewed on a 56' three-masted schooner that sailed the Atlantic from Mexico to France, smuggled whisky from Tangier to Spain, and one spring I lived on a houseboat on Dal Lake in Kashmir from where I rode horseback intoTibet.
Growing up in Manhattan, I studied painting at the High School of Music & Art. At Cornell University I chased beautiful but unconquerable Ivy League coeds, rowed on the crew, and dreamed of becoming a great writer. I sailed to Europe, settled on the decadent Mediterranean island of Ibiza, and wrote my first novel. I sent it to a literary agent in New York. G. P. Putnam’s Sons published it.
Was it really as easy and as quick as that? Of course not. I was lucky. And determined.
I taught at UCLA graduate extension school, with Betsy Drake and Cary Grant among my pupils. I became a correspondent to the Middle East for NBC. And I kept writing books.
In 1970, I created a writing event which became the Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax. Many believe that the threat of the book’s publication, with its revelations of the Hughes-Nixon bribes, caused Nixon to approve the Watergate break-in.
My reward in 1972 for these accusations (and lunacy) was 16 months in three federal prisons.
Over time I wrote write 20 books that were published to varying degrees of success in the USA by Putnam, McGraw-Hill, and Simon & Schuster, as well as translated into many languages.
All of my books are on Nook and Kindle at affordable prices: $2.99 to $5.99. That’s less expensive than a paperback and half the price of a movie. A good read is one of the amazing pleasures offered to us by civilization.
“Move over, Butch and Sundance, it’s not that I love you both less, just that I’ve come to love Pancho and Tom more”– said the New York Times Book Review about Tom Mix and Pancho Villa, which I believe is my best book. Trial, followed by Daddy’s Girl, and Final Argument – all legal thrillers – are the top sellers.
My manuscripts, notes, journals and correspondence are stored permanently at the Center for American History at the University of Texas (Austin), which acquired the archive in 2013.
(continued ...)
Further descriptions and reviews:
TRIAL
A Legal Thriller
“Terrific! Don’t begin this book at bedtime or you’ll be up all night . . . Trial is like a birchbark canoe or a seven-layer cake. You can go crazy trying to figure out how it’s made, and it’s made by a master.” — Caroline See, Los Angeles Times
“Riveting legal edge-of-the-seater, has Texas and American justice systems by the tail.” — Daily Telegraph (London)
“Jet-propelled . . . colorful, down-and-dirty characters . . . most readers will want to read this at one sitting.” — Library Journal
A thrilling adventure into the real world of criminal law, a powerful novel that deals with murder, the morality of justice and the perils of love, Clifford Irving’s book sets a new standard for courtroom fiction.
A Texas lawyer, Warren Blackburn, defends two accused murderers in two separate cases. One of his clients is a former beauty queen and brazen owner o
f a topless nightclub, who shot her multimillionaire doctor lover – she claims – in self-defense; the other is a homeless illegal alien accused of killing a man for his wallet.
Without warning, the two cases become one, and Warren’s entire life and career are threatened.
William Safire in The New York Times called Trial “the novel of the year.”
FINAL ARGUMENT
A Legal Thriller
“A courtroom thriller, a mean streets thriller, a Florida cracker thriller, a gritty prison thriller, and an Everyman study of good and evil all rolled into one. And every part of it is terrific. What a wonderful piece of storytelling!”— Donald Westlake, The New York Times
“Only a handful of American authors have ever been able to transform murder and infidelity into poetry, and Irving is one of those writers . . . Not to be missed.”— Donald Porter, Mystery News
“Two cliffhanger trials, a moral crisis, violence, love . , , it’s all here.” — Mail on Sunday (London)
The startling story of a district attorney who, twelve years after sending a convicted murderer to Death Row, returns to the same courtroom to try to save that same man’s life. A masterly tale of murder, guilt, and infidelity, set in Florida and featuring that rarest of heroes – a lawyer with a conscience.
Can a lawyer represent a murderer he once prosecuted? The legal establishment insists he can’t.
Final Argument is the story of Ted Jaffe’s war – at the risk of his career, his marriage, his personal safety – to free a man he believes he has grievously wronged.
The London Daily Express hailed it as “a spellbinding courtroom drama.”
FAKE!
The Life of the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time
TOM MIX AND PANCHO VILLA: A Novel of Mexico and the Texas border Page 68