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Juan Miranda

Juan Miranda (1867-) was a Mexican bandito and revolutionary during the Mexican Revolution. He was originally a notorious bank robber and murderer who led a bandit gang consisting almost entirely of his family, but he inadvertently became a hero of the Revolution alongside his IRB friend John H. Mallory.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Juan Miranda family

Miranda's family, 1913

Juan Miranda was born in rural Mexico to a family of Catholic peasants who had turned to banditry in order to survive the poverty of the Porfirio Diaz era. When he was eight, Juan accompanied his father in a failed heist of the large Mesa Verde National Bank, and he resolved that he would return one day to successfully rob it himself. By the start of the Mexican Revolution, Juan had become the leader of his family gang, which included his father and his own six illegitimate children, all of whom came from different mothers. 

Mesa Verde[]

Juan Miranda Mallory

Miranda proposing the bank job to Mallory

In 1913, he robbed a stagecoach of wealthy men and a Catholic priest, raped a wealthy woman inside, had the men stripped naked, and had the men and the woman get into a cart which he then sent down a hill. Shortly after, they came across a man on a motorcycle, and Miranda shot out his tire and prepared to rob him. However, the man threw a bomb into the captured stagecoach and showed Miranda and his men that he had several sticks of dynamite in his suit, convincing them that shooting him would be suicidal; Miranda nicknamed him "Firecracker". Miranda realized that the man was an explosives expert who could help him rob the Mesa Verde National Bank, so he immediately brightened up and agreed to fix the man's bike. While going through the man's satchel, he discovered that he was John H. Mallory, a wanted IRB guerrilla. He then told Mallory of his plan to rob the Mesa Verde bank, figuring that Mallory - who was looking for gold in the hills - would be interested in acquiring gold through a heist.

Miranda Mallory TNT

Miranda and Mallory looking at the debris

Mallory was uninterested and decided to return to his claim, but Miranda and his men followed him there. Miranda woke to hear people rushing into the guard tower next to the mine, and he prepared a TNT line to blow up the tower if the armed people threatened him. Suddenly, Miranda stood over the prone Mallory, and, when a shocked Mallory asked who the people were inside, Miranda stepped on the detonator, killing Miranda's boss, three Mexican Army soldiers, and a captain. He told Mallory that he had lured them into a trap by claiming that Mallory had found silver and was bleeding to death from an accidental explosion, and he explained to Mallory that, while he was now free of his obligations to his boss, he would be wanted for the captain's death, and he offered his "protection" from the law and thus forced Mallory to join him for the heist.

Mallory Miranda horses

Mallory and Miranda riding towards Mesa Verde

Miranda, Mallory, and the gang then rode towards the bank, and Miranda talked of his dream of robbing several banks across the USA before a train barreled down the tracks. Mallory rode to the other side and hopped the train, escaping into Mesa Verde and leaving Miranda and his men behind. Miranda entered town on another train, killing two security guards who attempted to arrest him onboard. Upon his arrival, he scoped out the bank, but he was shocked to see a firing squad kill the political prisoners Anibal Escalante Espinosa, Fantino Solano Rubio, and Aniano Carmona Serna, and he sarcastically asked God if he was sure that he had arrived in Mesa Verde.

Miranda carried

Miranda being carried by the rebels

Miranda later tracked Mallory down to a cantina, where Mallory brought Miranda into the basement to meet with several revolutionary leaders, including their chief, Romulo Villega. Mallory volunteered Miranda's help with the planned uprising against the city's garrison, telling Miranda that he could get him inside the bank during the battle. Miranda and his family stormed the bank, but, when they opened the vaults, they only found political prisoners and no money; ultimately, Miranda set 150 men free. Miranda angrily confronted Mallory after the battle, and Mallory explained that the money had been moved to Mexico City a year before, and that he only promised Miranda that he could get him inside the bank. He then told Miranda that the people now saw him as a hero of the Revolution, and the liberated revolutionaries then ran up to Miranda and carried him on their arms, celebrating him.

Juan Miranda machine-gun

Miranda using a machine-gun

Some time later, at the rebel camp in the woods, Mallory and Miranda argued about the Revolution, as a cynical Miranda told Mallory that revolutions were merely occasions when book-reading people told the illiterate people to fight to have a chance, only for the victorious intellectuals to talk and eat around polished tables while the poor people's lot remained the same. Soon after, the rebels were forced to pull back to the San Ysidro Caves as government reinforcements arrived, and Mallory and Miranda stayed behind at San Jorge Bridge with two machine guns and dynamite to hold off the Army as the rebels withdrew. They successfully held off all of the Mexican soldiers, killing most of them with their machine guns and by dynamiting the bridge. However, upon returning to the caves, Miranda found that his entire family - along with the other civilians and revolutionaries who had sheltered there - had been massacred. Miranda, suicidally seeking revenge, was captured while going by himself to seek out the men responsible, and he was sentenced to death by Colonel Gunther Ruiz's firing squad. Just before Miranda was about to be executed, he was encouraged when he heard the warning, "Duck, you sucker!" (a line which Mallory often shouted before an explosion), and he ducked as Mallory threw a bomb at the firing squad, killing them. He then approached Miranda on his motorcycle, and Miranda hopped on, escaping with his friend.

Miranda hero

The rebels greeting Miranda and Mallory

The two men then hid in the animal coach of a train, and Mallory discussed taking up Miranda's offer to go to America and rob banks there. However, the train stopped at Mesa Verde, where Don Jaime - the cruel governor - climbed aboard with several other Mexican Army soldiers. The train was ambushed by Rebeldes shortly after, and Jaime fled into the animal car, only to be confronted by Mallory and Miranda. Jaime begged for mercy, offering a bag full of money to the two men if they spared him. Mallory tossed his gun to Miranda to test his loyalty, and Miranda ultimately shot Jaime in the back as Jaime began to climb out of the carriage, shooting him again in the chest as he turned around. They found that the Rebeldes were waiting outside, and Miranda was once again hailed as a hero; Mallory joked that he was once again a "great, grand, glorious hero of the revolution."

Miranda smiling

Miranda greeting Mallory during the battle

Shortly after, the two men met with General Ricardo Santerna, who told them that Pancho Villa was approaching with his army, and that Villa himself had heard of Miranda and wanted to meet him. However, they also learned that an army train carrying 1,000 troops and heavy weapons was on its way, and that Gunther Ruiz was in command. Shortly after, Villega - who had previously been captured - returned to the rebels, and Miranda enthusiastically greeted him. Mallory hatched a plan to send a dynamite-laden train down the tracks and into Ruiz's train, and he decided to choose Villega - instead of his usual sidekick Miranda - to assist him, as he had witnessed Villega's betrayal of the revolutionary cause while under torture. Ultimately, Villega - feeling guilty after Mallory revealed his knowledge of the betrayal - stayed on the train as it crashed into the Army train, killing himself in the ensuing explosion. In the Battle of Mesa Verde, Miranda manned a Maxim gun and took part in the fight against the Mexican soldiers, mowing several of them down.

Miranda Mallory death

Miranda holding a dying Mallory

Miranda later spotted Mallory searching through the wreckage, and they gave each other a thumbs-up. As Mallory - having been unable to find Ruiz - walked towards Miranda, Ruiz shot Mallory three times in the back with a Mauser pistol. Miranda furiously emptied his Maxim gun into Ruiz's body before rushing to a dying Mallory's side, attempting to comfort him by reminding him of their plans for America and asking about Villega, whom Mallory said died a "great, grand, glorious hero of the revolution." Miranda also asked what would happen to him if Mallory died, and Mallory said that the revolutionaries would probably make Miranda a general, which he shrugged off, as he did not wish to be a rebel commander. A tearful Miranda eventually told Mallory that he was leaving to get help for his friend, but Mallory smoked one last cigarette as he recalled his younger days, and he set off the explosives in his jacket, killing himself as a helpless and heartbroken Miranda watched. Miranda then forlornly asked, "What about me?", and his fate following the battle is unknown.

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