Emil Lewis Holmdahl Emil Lewis Holmdahl ( August 26 , 1883 – April 8 , 1963 ) was machine gunner , soldier of fortune , spy , gun runner , and treasure hunter who fought under John J . Pershing in the Spanish American War in the Philippines , under Lee Christmas in Central America , under Francisco Madero , Pancho Villa , and Venustiano Carranza in the Mexican Revolution , and under John J . Pershing in World War I . In 1926 , Holmdahl was accused of having stolen Francisco Pancho Villa ' s head . Early career . Born on August 26 , 1883 in Fort Dodge , Iowa of Swedish - American parents , the young Holmdahl did not get much of a formal education . Before finishing high school , he followed President McKinley ' s call to arms against Spain . Lying about his age , he joined the 51st Volunteer Iowa Infantry Regiment in 1898 together with his older brother Monty . He shipped out to the Philippines within months . As the population of the Philippines did not take well to the American occupation and rose in revolt , the war ended as quickly as it had begun . With a brief interlude , in which Holmdahl joined American forces to battle the Boxer insurgency in China in 1900 , the young infantry soldier fought insurgents in the Philippine Islands . He returned to the United States in 1906 , 22 years old , and one of the youngest sergeants in the Infantry . In the years of combat in the Far East Holmdahl had become an experts marksman , a dare devil counter insurgency fighter , and committed to a soldier ' s career . Back in the United States , Holmdahl ' s unit , the 20th Infantry Regiment was based in San Francisco . Within a month of settling into camp life in Monterrey , a tremendous earthquake and subsequent fires virtually destroyed San Francisco on April 18 , 1906 . Holmdahl ' s unit rushed into the smoldering remains of the city to rescue residents and maintain order . " It was worse than soldiering in the Philippine Islands . I was on guard at the United States Sub Treasury Building for 125 hours with little sleep , " Holmdahl commented on his service in San Francisco . The army discharged him in January 1907 . Central America . Knowledgeable in jungle fighting techniques and without any other skills save for soldiering , Holmdahl joined the mercenary troops of " General " Lee Christmas in Honduras and Nicaragua . Christmas supported the Honduran President Manuel Bonilla against an invasion by Nicaragua in 1907 and fought to oust the Nicaraguan dictator Zelaya who was a puppet of the United Fruit Corporation . The Nicaraguan forces retreated as a result of Bonilla ' s counter offensive , in which the American mercenary army led by Christmas played a major role . In the fall of 1909 , Zelaya left Managua . Holmdahl fought alongside two other legendary soldiers of fortune , Sam Dreben and Tracy Richardson , all three highly paid and coveted machine gun experts . Machine guns had just become an important tactical weapon in warfare . People who could operate these unreliable and temperamental guns were few and far between and almost exclusively former American soldiers . Mexican Revolution . Holmdahl returned to the United States in 1909 . A severe recession in the United States that spilled into the Mexican economy combined with an aging dictator who refused to allow free elections created unrest all over Mexico . Holmdahl took a security job at a railroad company with the task to fight " bandits . " Supposedly switching sides when he realized that the " bandits " were Insurrectos , Holmdahl joined Francisco Madero ’ s forces in the spring of 1911 . Within months of an armed uprising that started in Chihuahua , Porfirio Diaz went into exile . Now a major Holmdahl remained a member of the Mexican army through the spring of 1913 . His first assignment took him to Morelos where he joined federal troops in a fight against Emiliano Zapata . Holmdahl also joined the Mexican Secret Service under the command of Felix A . Sommerfeld in the same period . As a machine gunner in Pancho Villa ' s irregulars he decimated Pascual Orozco ' s rebel forces , while relating important intelligence to Sommerfeld in El Paso . " We knocked the Hell out of him [ Orozco ] and his troops later while with Villa at San Andres where I earned the Legion of Honor medal . " When President Madero died in a coup d ' état in February 1913 , Holmdahl immediately joined the Constitutionalist forces under the command of Venustiano Carranza . After fighting in Sonora , the soldier of fortune was seriously injured and spent several months recovering in Douglas , Arizona . Still " thin and pale … but … cheerful , " Holmdahl was assigned to Villa ’ s forces around the beginning of November 1913 . In the summer of 1914 , the combined Constitutionalist forces ousted General Victoriano Huerta , who had usurped the presidency from Madero over a year prior . Not able to reconcile their differences , Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza split and started a new civil war in 1915 . Holmdahl chose to remain with Carranza and helped smuggle arms and ammunition across the border into Mexico . He was promptly caught , indicted , tried , and convicted in El Paso in the fall of 1915 . While free on bond , Holmdahl tried to re - join the US army but was rejected as a result of his felony conviction . Finally , in March 1916 , in the aftermath of Pancho Villa ' s attack on Columbus , New Mexico , his application was approved . Holmdahl joined the Pancho Villa Expedition under the command of John J . Pershing as a scout . World War I . As a prerequisite to join the US military permanently , Holmdahl had to get his felony conviction overturned . He tirelessly appealed to former commanders of his , Hugh L . Scott , by 1917 Army Chief of Staff , and John J . Pershing , the designated commander of the expeditionary forces , as well as members of Congress and the Mayor of El Paso Tom Lea for a presidential pardon . Finally , in July 1917 Holmdahl received his pardon , joined the 6th Engineers and shipped out to France . After he returned to the US and managed selling off military surplus , Holmdahl left the US Army in 1920 for good . Civilian Life . In the early 1920s , Holmdahl became obsessed with finding " Pancho Villa ' s gold . " Folklore had it that Villa hid millions of dollars in gold bullion somewhere in the Sierra Madres . Holmdahl organized several treasure hunting expeditions but did not find the gold . In 1926 , while on a treasure hunting expedition the retired soldier of fortune stopped in Hidalgo del Parral , Chihuahua . There federal police arrested Holmdahl and a companion and charged them with having vandalized Pancho Villa ' s grave and taken his head . Holmdahl managed to talk his way out of jail and through the waiting Mexican lynching mobs . Villa ' s head was never recovered . While Holmdahl maintained his innocence until his death , the suspicion remains that he stole the head for an American customer . While there are many theories of who vandalized Villa ' s grave and who took the head , one rumor claims that Villa ' s skull ended up in the secret Skull and Bones Society at Yale University . Emil Holmdahl died " on April 8 , 1963 , while loading his automobile with his prospecting tools . . . "