Ambrose Bierce’s Disappearance
Ambrose Bierce is likely more known for his satirical The Devil’s Dictionary and supernatural stories such as “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” He also wrote stories that helped inspire Season 1 of True Detective. But there’s one detail about this early American writer that most history books leave out.
Bierce was a veteran of the Civil War, so you can only imagine the horrors we went through. In addition to his wartime experiences, he had a fascination with horror and death, which could have been due to what he went through during the conflict, or perhaps he just had an interest in those topics. Whatever the case may be, at the age of 71, he decided to leave his life in the United States behind to observe Pancho Villa’s Mexican revolution of 1913 as it unfolded.
He wrote his cousin a farewell letter that said “Good-bye — if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stars.”
After he set out for Mexico, no one ever heard from him again and some believe that he was killed in the siege of Ojinaga in 1914, while others speculate that it was all a cover-up and he never disappeared to go to Mexico at all. Where he went, no one will ever know.
Admittedly, Bierce was headed into conflict, and he knew it, but our next case is much more modern and, unfortunately, this time it features a young, innocent victim…
Great read……wish it was longer. Good work