Benton Case

Pancho Villa and the April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

Shortly after the untimely death of William Benton in November 1913, Pancho Villa seized a mine in Durango, known as El Desengaño.   It was just one of many expropriations made by Villa to support his growing army in the field.   Land reform, was, after all, the principle which unified all of the anti-Huertista forces, and Pancho Villa was, if nothing else, a man of action.    With the demands of raising money to buy arms, Villa was not much of a stickler for legal due process.

The Benton Case and the April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

Pancho Villa’s pal, Rodolpho Fierro, put a bullet in the head of one of Her Majesty’s Subjects, a certain Scotsman named William Benton.   God and his angels must have seen it as just one in a long series of summary executions throughout the sanguine course of the Mexican Revolution, but the British tend to see privation of the life of a Subject as a threat to the hegemony of the empire itself, and are disposed to make a scene, even over such a scoundrel as Benton.

Pancho Villa through the eyes of Thord-Gray

Thord-Gray’s most significant contributions to the Mexican Revolutionary Army came as Calvary commander under General Lucio Blanco; that is to say, under Obregon. But his service under Villa made a contribution which has been overlooked in the historical accounts, at least so far. I’ll write more about that later, but first, let’s take a look a Pancho Villa through the eyes of Ivor Thord-Gray.

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