Mexican bandit and revolutionary, born at Las Nieves, Zacatecas. He was outlawed for murder, and a price was put on his head by President Díaz. He joined Madero in 1910 for the sake of immunity, served under Huerta, and in 1914 joined Carranza, but quarrelled with him over military jealousies and presidential aspirations. He opposed Carranza in the Convention at Aguascalientes, led a campaign against him and occupied Mexico City in April and again in November 1915, but was defeated by Obregón and driven to the border, where surrender under guarantee was denied him. On January 12, 1916 he led the Santa Ysabel massacre, in which a special train carrying a party of American mining men was held up and nineteen of the number shot, and also the raid on Columbus, TX, in March 1916, when the city was fired and seventeen of the inhabitants killed. A punitive expedition under Gen. Pershing crossed the border March 16, and operated in the border states for 11 months, but did not succeed in capturing Villa. After Obregón’s seizure of the presidential power in 1920 Villa was eliminated from political and military activity, and settled in the hacienda La Canutilla, Durango.
