Men led by Pablo López, one of Pancho Villa's followers, halted a train about 50 miles from Chihuahua City and pulled off around 17 American employees of the American Smelting and Refining Company, who were travelling to reopen mines at Cusihuiriachi. The Americans were robbed, stripped, lined up and shot; only one, Thomas M. Holmes, escaped in the darkness. Villa ordered the killings to show that his rival, Venustiano Carranza, did not control northern Mexico.
The victims had been assured by the local Constitutionalist government that the company's properties would be protected, and they were heading back to mines that had been shut amid the chaos of the Mexican Revolution. At Santa Ysabel the train was stopped and the Americans were taken off. The Associated Press reported 16 dead; The New York Times reported 17. Holmes, the lone survivor, got word to his wife in El Paso.
Villa's fortunes had turned. Once Carranza's ally against Victoriano Huerta, he had broken with him in 1914 and lost a series of battles, retreating to the mountains while Carranza's government, now recognised by the United States, held Chihuahua. The killings were a demonstration that Carranza could not keep order in the north.
American newspapers erupted in outrage, and calls for military intervention grew louder. Two months later Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico, killed more Americans and triggered President Wilson's order for General John J. Pershing to lead a Punitive Expedition into Mexico, a pursuit that lasted nearly a year and never caught Villa. López, wounded at Columbus, was captured by Carranza's forces in a cave near Santa Ysabel in April 1916 and executed.
Key people: Pancho Villa, Pablo López, Thomas M. Holmes