Real de Tayopa said:
HIO Peerless: you asked -->
A) Do you have or do you know where I can find evidence of Villa paying his troops with 60lb-70lb gold bars or jewel encrusted chalices or statues stolen from churches
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NO, in fact he used old copper boilers etc., for making his coinage and printed up his own paper currency which was to be accepted under the threat of death for refusal.
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B) .Was the tank built inside the cockpit?
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Yes, the front cockpit.
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C) With that 100 gallon (700lbs) tank would you have been able to carry a passenger and 1 and a half tons of gold in that stearman, and get off the ground?
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Nope, no way
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D) Was that stearman capable of "gliding" at 25,000ft
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Certainly, IF somehow you could "GET it UP TO THAT ALTITUDE"
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Also I wonder about the logic of villa attacking the New Mexico small town for the money in it's "small bank", which would at most, only have a few thousand, possibly even $ 100,000 at the time. IF he had any money or valuables hidden. He would know that both the US and the Mexican gov't would try to hunt him, and the remains of his small band down. He must have been desperate. I will not buy the popular theory that he was irritated by a gun deal gone wrong.
Also his widow was destitute and had to receive a dole from the gov't.
Don Jose de La Mancha
Thankyou for confirming those answers for me RDT
On the subject of Columbus, it would better be investigated by a non American, as patriotism may take the place of realism. There is no solid evidence that Villa was even prestent at the raid on Columbus.
Further more purshings pursuit of Villa for 11 months? was fruitless and they failed to find Villa, even though they battled with the reminants of the "Colubumbus raiders"
There is also the fact that the part of columbus that was tourched by Villas men just happened to be the hotel owned by the guy who he had reportedly done the arms deal with (Sam Ravels).
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And this excerpt:
This particular Account was in a Collection of eyewitness accounts of the Mexican Revolution [1910-1920]. It was an account by a man who claimed to have been Woodrow Wilson's personal Liaison to Pancho Villa, from 1914 into 1916. He began his testimony, and in words to this effect, he stated:
" Pancho Villa did not attack the town of Columbus, New Mexico, on March 9, 1916, as is commonly believed. I happen to know this for a fact, because I was with Pancho Villa at the time and we were eight hundred miles away, in the mountains of Coahuila."
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Lets face it Villa could only just write his name, so who is writing his history? I dont know if he was at Columbus or not, I like everyone else am reliant on what has been writen since the events took place.
My own thought is that if he was present at columbus it was because he had been cornered by the new Mexican government (carranza) and was unable to move back in to mexico, he would also have felt betrayed by the Americans who had allowed troops to move though the USA to head him off.
Also worth noting is why is the raid on Columbus so important? there were 38 such raids across the boarder between July 1915 and June 1916. It was most likely just the excuse Wilson needed to go against his word and get involved in the Mexican war.
Alas we will never know 100%
? Quien sabe.
