On this day, 18 March 1915, Mexican revolutionary Wenceslao Moguel was shot by a firing squad in Halacho, Yucatan, but miraculously survived. After the defeat of Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa’s forces, Moguel was arrested by constitutionalist military forces in the wave of the subsequent repression. At 5 PM he was stood in front of a firing squad of nine soldiers with rifles. They opened fire, hitting him eight times, then an officer walked up with a revolver and shot him point blank range in the head in a coup de grace. But somehow he managed to survive, and after his “executioners” left he made his way to safety. While suffering permanent facial injuries, he lived until the age of 75 and appeared on the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! radio show in 1937 to tell his story, who dubbed him “El Fusilado” (the executed/shot one). British anarchist band Chumbawamba released a song about him in 2008. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1675166092668534/?type=3
