Pancho Villa Sold Loot Back To Wells Fargo, Documents Show

BERKELEY, Calif. - Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa stole 122 bars of silver from a Wells Fargo train in 1913, then secretly struck a deal to sell most of the loot back to the bank, according to newly found documents.

University of California library curator Walter Brem said that after the robbery, Villa found it impossible to sell the silver, so he arranged to sell it to Wells Fargo for $50,000 in cash. At the time the silver was worth about $160,000.

Villa agreed not to steal any more Wells Fargo property, and the bank decided to keep the buyback secret, Brem said. He said he suspects the bank didn't go public so that it wouldn't be seen as aiding a revolutionary and so that others wouldn't copy Villa.

Brem said Villa ultimately returned only 93 of the silver bars, claiming others were stolen by his men.

The documents were letters written by Wells Fargo personnel about the holdup. They were contained in a collection of corporate history papers from a regional Wells Fargo office that were given to the university in 1996.

"It's a real smoking gun. It documents an event that historians have treated warily," Brem said.

Villa, who helped lead a series of rebellions against the Mexican government, stole the bars from a train in Chihuahua, Mexico, according to the documents.

Brem said a letter from the Wells Fargo shipping subsidiary in El Paso, Texas, details Villa's attack, during which Villa and 25 of his 200 rebels boarded the train. The army reportedly killed one man who possessed enemy military orders.

Villa continued to lead his rebel army until reaching a truce with the government in 1920. He was assassinated in 1923.