El Paso is a long way from Austin, and never one of my favorite destinations. “El Paso,” I used to say, “thy name is ugliness.” But Pancho Villa’s trigger finger?
“Luis immediately spots the finger in the window—gnarled and gray in a hammered bronze box next to shelves crammed with jewelry, its longish fingernail still intact. A typed message in a wood frame next to it explains that this is indeed the forefinger of a ‘notorious bandit’ and ‘ruthless killer’ who was also considered a local hero. That’s a lot of human paradox wrapped up into one little crooked finger in an El Paso pawnshop.”
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 