Pancho’s Head

Mi amigo Craig McDonald reminds us that today, February 6, is the 90^th anniversary of one of the most notorious grave robberies in history:

Ninety years ago (on Feb. 6, to be precise), someone broke into the grave of assassinated Mexican Revolutionary General Francisco “Pancho” Villa and made off with his head.
Pancho’s skull remains MIA, so far as we know officially, on this 90^th anniversary of the sacking of his grave.

Craig knows what’s what about that caper — because he wrote the book on it. What book? “Head Games,” cabrónes! McDonald derailed my research reading and gave my pal Pete Rathbun a sleepless night (literally) with this lurid, gonzo chase novel. What better time than now to give it a read? I promise, it won’t take long; you’ll chow it down in big, bloody chunks.

I said it before, and I’m sayin’ it again: McDonald is in love with the same kind of pulpy goodness that trips my trigger and he put together a wild-and-wooly, lurid trip through 1957 America with a soundtrack by Tom Russell.

Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, the ghosts of the Mexican Revolution… What’s not to love?

Dig the caper:

In a dusty cantina on the far side of the Rio Grande, larger-than-life and recently widowed crime writer Hector Lassiter and Bud Fiske, a callow young poet sent by True Magazine to profile Hector, are handed a carpet bag. Inside they find the stolen head of Mexican general Francisco “Pancho” Villa — a long missing relic that may point the way to a fortune in lost treasure or a blood-and-thunder death…

In the dank, hallowed halls of Yale University creep the members of the Skull & Bones, a secret society shrouded in whispers. They are a fraternity whose members include media barons, über executives and politicians, including three generations of men called Bush — and their sanctum sanctorum’s trophy cabinet is purportedly packed with the stolen bones of long-dead luminaries…

In a ‘57 Bel Air, Hector, Bud, and the beautiful Alicia tear through the desert with a trunk full of human heads. Caught in a crazy crossfire, they lead all manner of headhunters on a breakneck chase across Lost America. U.S. intelligence services, murderous frat boys, the soldier of fortune who stole Pancho’s head from its grave, and the specter of a dead Mexican legend all want Villa’s head—though they might settle for Hector’s…

That comment about the Tom Russell “soundtrack”? That’s literal. The book is dedicated to Tom and his former guitar-slinger Andrew Hardin and the book is loaded with easter eggs for TR fans. Hell, Lassiter is working on a script for John Ford for a movie about cockfighting…

McDonald is clearly having a blast just wallowing in his passions: noir; hyper-masculine literature; booze; good music; the old, weird America; Mexico; The Road; dark-eyed beauties. Sure, it’s over the top — that’s part of its charm.

What are you waiting for? Pour the cerveza and tequila, cue up the Tom Russell (throw in Dylan’s “Romance in Durango” and maybe a little Chingon!) and hit the road.