In 1966 a film called The Professionals starred Burt Lancaster (photo, at left) and Lee Marvin (photo, at right) as two turn-of-the-century soldiers of fortune who traveled into Mexico to rescue a kidnapped woman (photo, at center, played by Claudia Cardinale). Unlike most Western movies, Marvin wore brogan shoes, a campaign hat, and packed a Colt revolver, a Colt 1911 pistol, and a Winchester Model 97 military shotgun. Lancaster, though dressed in more traditional Western garb, was armed with a Colt single action and a Springfield Model 1903 bolt-action rifle in .30-06.Rico says lessee, Dreben is described as a ladies' man and Richardson is described as a tall, slender man, broad-shouldered and tough, quiet and deliberate in his movements and action; yup, sounds just like Lancaster and Marvin... (But as for the Medaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre, they remind Rico of a comment once made about medals by Pete Georgiades' father, who was awarded a bunch of them in World War Two: Pieces of tin to make men fight harder...
The author of this exciting story started me on a study of the Mexican Revolution that continues to this day. As a result of that study, I have found two men, Sam Dreben and Tracy Richardson, who, much like the film characters, were two of the most interesting characters that ever graced our border country, and they saw more real adventures than any dozen motion pictures have ever portrayed.
Dreben was a Russian Jew, born in 1878. As a young man he immigrated to America and joined the U.S. Army. A stark existence in Russia made this young man appreciate the life of an American soldier, and he soon found that he naturally enjoyed being in the thick of the action. While a soldier, he participated in the Philippine Insurrection and, after his hitch was up, in the Boxer Rebellion in China and the Guatemalan Revolution.
Described by his colleagues as short and stocky, Dreben was said to have a good sense of humor and was impulsive and quick to act. He was also somewhat of a lady's man. a fact that often caused him a bit of trouble with his superior officers. I've worked with men like this in law enforcement and, while they might be a bit difficult to supervise when things were quiet, they were always handy to have around when things start getting rough.
Richardson was born in Nebraska in 1889. As a young man, he knocked around the country with various jobs until, on a whim, he joined some friends enroute to enlist in the Nicaraguan revolution. Richardson was described as a tall, slender man, broad-shouldered and tough, quiet and deliberate in his movements and action.
The two men were opposites in looks and demeanor, and met each other while serving under the famous General Lee Christmas in the Nicaraguan campaign. If it is true that opposites attract, then these two hit it off about like a Roman candle.
In 1912 Dreben and Richardson were ensconced in New Orleans, trying to figure out what to do with a shipment of guns and ammo that they'd planned to sell to a Central American revolutionary leader. This particular hero had managed to lose the revolution before he could pay for the equipment that Dreben and Richardson had bought. Short on cash and long on guns, the two men were pleased to have a visit with General Pasqual Orozco. He not only wanted to buy their guns, he also wanted the two fighters to come to Mexico and join in the revolution that had just gotten into full swing.
President Diaz, a longtime leader of Mexico, had just been overthrown, and Francisco Madero had taken over the presidential palace. Orozco and other military leaders were not happy with this turn of events and had started an open revolt against Madero. Our boys were excited about the prospects and immediately signed up.
Once in El Paso, they found that the Mexican Revolution was a hodgepodge of soldiers, politicians, cowboys, and bandits. Old and new ways clashed with a finality, and Mexican leaders wanted someone who could teach their men to fight using the new scientific methods. Richardson and Dreben immediately became commanders of machine gun squads, and began to train their crews in the proper use of the Colt and Hotchkiss machine guns.
They quickly taught their crews to set up triangulation of fire to criss-cross advancing troops and quickly turn an attack into utter chaos. They also used the quick mind of Dreben to come up with instant battlefield solutions. At the Battle of Rellano, for example, federal troops were advancing using an armored train. Dreben and Richardson quickly got a train engine of their own, stacked eight hundred pounds of dynamite on the front, and set it to ram the attackers. After the monumental explosion, the revolutionary cavalry quickly cleaned up the survivors.
During the Battle of Parral, Dreben got the idea of placing his machinegun crews in the bell towers of several churches. Richardson thought it was a grand idea, and their guns were on Rodolfo Fierro, Villa's bodyguard, and probably the most dangerous man in Mexico, as Richardson approached Villa. Richardson got in Villa's face; it is said that Tracy told Villa to publicly drop the reward or he would hunt him down and kill him. It is said that Villa looked into Richardson's eyes and got the message. He bought drinks all around to seal the deal and cancel the hit.
As the last days of the Mexican Revolution began to unfold, Richardson began to lose interest in the whole affair. By 1914, World War One was on, and Richardson went to Quebec and enlisted in a Canadian Light Infantry Regiment. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Richardson was allowed to join the American forces, and did so as a captain.
When World War Two began, Richardson, now 52, again joined up for a fight and was commissioned as an intelligence officer. He was honorably discharged in 1946 as Lieutenant Colonel Tracy Richardson. This old war-horse died in Springfield, Missouri, in 1949, in bed and with his boots off. He was not quite sixty years old.
Dreben, on the other hand, served on the border as a scout and intelligence man for Pershing's Punitive Expedition. Following that, he enlisted in the Army and served in France, where he was awarded the U. S. Distinguished Service Cross and the French Medaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre. In 1925, with a new wife and young daughter, he moved to Los Angeles and entered the real estate business. He died there in 1925, not from a revolutionary bullet, a firing squad, or a gunfight, but from an improperly prepared medical injection when he was being treated for a heart condition. He was just shy of his fiftieth birthday.
The Mexican Revolution was an interesting era. It was fought with sixguns and carbines of the Old West. It was fought with machineguns and modern artillery. It saw the last mounted saber charge by an American cavalry unit, and the first use of airplanes as a military tool. And Sam Dreben and Tracy Richardson went through it all. They may not have been the model for the Western movie, but they were truly "The Professionals".
The days of the Mexican Revolution were truly a time of change in the Southwest. A large number of the participants relied on old trusty firearms like the Winchester Model 1873 in .44-40 and the Winchester Model 94 in .30-30. In fact, .30-30 carbines were almost the unofficial gun of the revolution. Thousands of Marlin and Winchester carbines were shipped to El Paso and smuggled across the border to the Mexicans.
At the same time, the Federal troops relied heavily on the Model 98 Mauser in 7mm Mauser, one of the finest rifles of the day. The same can be said of the Springfield Model 1903 in .30-06. Both the Mauser and the Springfield were about the most modern fighting rifles a man could find. But many soldiers on both sides simply armed themselves with whatever rifle they could get their hands on, making ammunition supply a quartermaster's nightmare.
A large number of the Mexican fighters were armed with big-bore frontier single actions. There were probably more Colt single actions than anything else; however, the Smith & Wesson Model No. 3 in .44 Russian, .44 American, and .44-40 was always popular in Mexico and saw lots of action. The German Luger, first manufactured in 1900, also saw action on the plains of Mexico. And another popular European autoloader was the Model 1896 Broomhandle Mauser Pistol in 7.63mm; many found their way to this continent. And, of course, we can't overlook our own Colt Model 1911 in .45 ACP, which was just coming into its own, and was a desired pistol along the border.
Many of these guns actually got their baptism of fire during the Mexican Revolution, even though they went on to see much more use in the European war that became World War One. These were all great, reliable guns, and there were plenty of men who knew how to use them in those early years of the 1900s.
But if you want to know why Rico's cowboy alias is Rico, and why he usually wears a campaign hat and a dark shirt buttoned all the way up (see photo above) to cowboy shoots, you need to know that Lee Marvin (besides being one of Rico's favorite actors, in this or any movie) looked just like Rico's maternal grandfather, G.H. Wilson, and Marvin's character's name in The Professionals was Henry 'Rico' Fardan... (And Rico had to do some fancy footwork with SASS to make that happen.)
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