A BRAVE ENGLISHMAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3991, 26 July 1915, Page 3

A BRAVE ENGLISHMAN.

M URDEBED IX MEX I GO. STORY OF BENTON’S DEATH. CALMLY WATCHES CRATE LUG. SAN FRANCISCO, June 7. In February of last year a great stir was occasioned in this countiy and in England by the murder in Mexico or a British subject, "William S. Benton. Benton’s death was the subject of strong representations from the English Government to Washington, and probably did more than anything else to bring about the occupation of Vera Cruz by,American sailors. OnU- now, and in a roundabout manner, have the real circumstances of the taking off of Benton been disclosed, and Englishmen all over the world will bo gratified but not surprised to learn that the remarkable coolness and bravery with which he met death l measure right up to the traditions of his race. The story is told in New York by Luis Aguirre Benavides, former secretary of the bandit leader Villa. It was stated at the? time that Villa murdered Benton with his own hand. This is not so. But the murder was perpetrated on Villa’s orders. Because ot his close association with the Torreon family, wealthy residents of the State of Chihuahua, whom Villa lias despoiled of all they had, Benton incurred the ill-will of the ruthless ex-bandit. All Ids property was seized. "With reckless courage Benton walked into the presence of Villa, the latter surrounded by his subservient, bloodthirsty bodyguard, and demanded tho return of his property. Villa cursed him and cried out that Bentom had called 11 him a bandit. “Don't insult me, general,” Benton answered. “It is true I have said you are a bandit, because everybody said so formerly. As for the rest, I am as mueh_.of a man as you.” Villa thereupon flung himself, pistol in hand, on the Englishman with the intention of instantly killed him, but a woman placed herself between the two, preventing the Mexican from firing. Benton was disarmed, and, upon Villa’s orders, handcuffed, and taken in a train to a lonely- spot, to he there shot and buried where he fell.

The, story of The. Englishman’s conduct as he watched' the brutal 1 Mexicans digging his grave is one that deserves to endure. “When the soldiers were digigng the hole,” relates Benavides, “Benton stood calmly by, and looking into the cavity, said, 'Please make the hole deeper; otherwise tile coyotes will be able to got my body/ So great was the courage of the Englishman that on the brink of the grave his, British calm and serenity did not desert him. They gratified Benton’s' desire, making tho hole deeper, and then Fierro fired his enormous pistol, calibre .45, with expansive bullet, through the bond of the Englishman, who fell lifeless, with his head torn to pieces.” Afterwards, m

order to bolster up his stoiy that Benton had been tried and shot by a guard because be bad tried to murder him, Villa had the body exhumed, five shots were fired through the corpse, and it was interred in a cemetery. But a physician pointed out to Villa that this precaution was of doubtful efficacy, inasmuch as the most experienced doctor could tell whether the bullet wounds had been inflicted before or after death. Accordingly, he had Benton’s'body taken out of the ground a second time, and where it lies now is not known.