Vanishing Without a Trace

 Have you ever heard of Ambrose Bierce?  I guess I'm not as learned as I thought I was, because Ambrose Bierce is famous, and I never heard of him.  He was a novelist, poet, short story writer, journalist, as well as serving as a First Lieutenant in the Civil War.

He was born in a log cabin in 1842, .  His parents were poor but literary.  All 13 of their children learned to read and discuss literature critically. Interesting, the Bierce's 13 children all had names beginning with the letter "A".  Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Ambrose, Arthur, Adelia, and Aurelia. Ambrose himself, left high school at age 15 to work at a small abolitionist newspaper, the Northern Indianan.

His disappearance is what peaked my interest.  I was reading Kathleen Norris' book, The Cloister Walk, and she quoted Ambrose Bierce as writing, "You can't stop the wicked from going to Chicago by killing them...", so I googled Ambrose Bierce, and found out that his life and disappearance have been the subject of over 50 novels, short stories, movies, Televison shows, stage plays, and comic books. They portray his interesting life and ending with his mysterious disappearance.

The last he was seen was touring Civil War battlefields.  He was age 71 and decided to journal the revolution in Mexico.  He passed through Texas and in Juarez he joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer. That's it. In one of his final letters, he wrote,

 "Good-bye. If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it is a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico--ah, that is euthanasia!"  

Some other theories:

Bierce deliberately left a notebook but concealed his true whereabouts because he was going to commit suicide.

Some of Pancho Villa's men said he was killed in battle.

Oral tradition in Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, documented by priest James Lienert states that Bierce was executed by firing squad in the town's cemetery.

His ultimate fate is unknown.  It's a mystery, like the stories he wrote.  His disappearance is one of the most famous vanishing acts in American literary history.

            https://youtu.be/t2dAv5zcgPs?si=GKmHS7R61wVqdxaa