The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-02-11
American and Foreigners
Among Villas Recent
Victims in Mexico
SEVERAL TOWNS
LOOTED AND BURNED
American Shot Down Five Br1gands
Before He Was Slain - Young Girls
Carried Off to the Mountains-Aged
German Doctor Hanged.

Ell Paso, Texas, Feb. Il. - Ameri-
cans and Mexicans arriving by train
from interior Mexico declare that ban
dts operating west and southwest Of
Chihuahua city have killed 500 persons
IN the last 10 days, most Of them Mex |
leans, though a number of foreigners |
are reported among the number.
The bandits are all identified as for
mer Villistas, operating now IN small
independent commands. Many of them
assert to their victims that they are
operating under the orders of Villa. No
mercy is shown to any one, young or
old, male or female, It is declared,
where resistance is offered to the ban
dts.
Belleza, small town west of Parral,
is the most recent victim Of bandits.
Twenty young women, all MeXicans,
were carried into the mountains and
the town was sacked and everything
that could not be carried Oft was piled
| in the plaza and burned. Every house
F.! that would burn had the torch applied.
| In Puebla de la Cruz Adam Maurer,
an aged German doctor, was hanged
until almost dead in an effort to make
him reveal the supposed hiding place of
money. When the bandits failed to get
a confession from him they cut the
rope and let him fall. Then they sack
ed his home and burned it. Natives
looming into chihuahua report that the
old man will die. He is said to be a
Mexican citizen, having married a Mex
j.. lean woman and taken Mexican citizen
ship papers.
At Santa Juan de FL Eredia all Tho
, men in the town were driven into a big
room and locked up under guard. TheI
: the young girls in the town were herdet
: together. the reports state, and takel
! along by the bandits. The roof over TIL
8 house in which the men were locke
! was set on fire before the bandits rod
r away.
3 Throughout the region west an
f southwest of Chihuahua city all ranc
: people are reported fleeing for III
: towns, abandoning everything they pos
t. sess. The Mexican refugees declar
d that the Carranza troops are garrisene
d in all the larger cities and give thel
5, credit for occasionally going in scare
f Of the bandits.
= Some of the prisoners said their ban
numbered 500 and that they We're d
vided into small squads under captain
: with Instructions 60 do their wors
: They said their band had sworn alleg
: ance to Villa at any time he callt
= them to his service, and that he hs
sent them out to g live off the country
~ until such time as he should again SUI
? mon them to constitute part of h
NC - army. >
ne Confirmation of the murder of Oh
IL johnson in the hills between Nina
q and Ocampo was brought TO the be
der by an American who saw his boz
lying stripped in the timber country
which he was shot down after fig
with brigands, five of whom he kill
. before they ''got him. =
The American told the following sto
es of Johnson S death:
We johnson got too uneasy to stay
r. the ranch and decided to head for t
ne Ocampo country, pulling out in the /
in ter part of December on horseba'
% They got him in the hills. There
rs some timber there and he was W
armed, so there was considerable sho
. ing.
when | found his body he was pa
~ stripped, lying in a clump of bush
where he had made his last stand. G
- Johnson was fighter, and the only r
JP son they got him, | believe, was
running short of ammunition. He m
have peppered away at bis assaila
with such effect that they were afr
TO close in on him, for we found
l. &c La no haJ 1-i1lpl n 1