Emilio Kosterlitzky

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Calvary Cemetery
Allegiance Russian Empire
 Mexico
Service/branch Imperial Russian Navy
Mexican Apache Wars

Yaqui Wars

Mexican Revolution

Spouse(s)Francisca López
Children2
Other work
Spy

Emilio Kosterlitzky (Russian: Эмилио Костерлицкий; 16 November 1853 – 2 March 1928) was a Russian Empire-born Mexican colonel during the Mexican Revolution. He had also served in the Mexican Apache Wars and Yaqui Wars. He is most noted for being the commander of the Mexican Rurales, or border police, during the late Nineteenth Century.

Biography

Emil Kosterlitzky was born on November 16, 1853, in

Cossack father. He was noted for his language ability; he spoke Russian, Polish, Spanish, French, Italian, English, German, Danish, and Swedish.[1]

In his teens, Emil joined the

Mexican Army
.

Conflicts and wars

Mexican Apache Wars

During the 1880s he fought in the

Apaches across the border under the 1882 United States–Mexico reciprocal border crossing treaty. Kosterlitzky became known to the American troops, who called him the "Mexican Cossack". In 1885, Kosterlitzky was appointed commander of the Gendarmería Fiscal, the customs guard for the Mexican government, by President Porfirio Díaz.[2]

Yaqui Wars and Nogales Uprising

In March 1896, the

Pima
, and Mexican Revolutionaries united in a rebel band called ''Teresitas'' to participate in a raid.

On August 12, the Teresitas had attacked. Kosterlitzky, who was in charge of many Mexican soldiers, had chased the Teresitas out of Nogales with the help of the U.S. 24th Infantry Regiment, under Brigadier General Frank Wheaton. Sources claimed that around 7 Mexican soldiers were killed, while the Teresitas had suffered equivalent casualties.[3][4][5][6][7]

Mexican Revolution

Costa Oeste Campaign

Kosterlitzky, his wife Francisca, and their two daughters, in Los Angeles as exiles form the Mexican Revolution.

In 1910, Kosterlitzky had clashed forces with Emil Lewis Holmdahl, who was an American mercenary. Holmdahl had previously worked for Díaz as a captain in the rurales, which Kosterlitzky was in command of, as a security guard for the American railway operating near Mazatlán. He had repelled a raid in late October of the same year.[8] Holmdahl had defected from the government forces to create his own faction.[9] Throughout most of January, 1911, Holmdahl, alongside an unknown number of men, had captured small towns and villages including a majority of Nayarit near the West coast. He had plans to capture Tepic, but failed after his men had betrayed him and was lure to an ambush.[10] Kosterlitzky had ended up executing 300 of his men.[11]

Nogales

In 1913, Kosterlitzky was commanding a force of 400 men in

Los Angeles, California
.

Later life and death

After Kosterlitzky had moved to Los Angeles with his family, he became a translator for the

U.S. Postal Service. During World War I, he pretended to be a German physician. Later in 1917, he was appointed as a special employee within the FBI.[12] On May 1, 1922, he was appointed a Bureau special agent. Because of his unique qualifications he was assigned to work border cases and to conduct liaison with various Mexican informants and officials. He resigned from the FBI on September 4, 1926. He returned to Mexico in 1927, to investigate a plot against the government of the state of Baja California
. Kosterlitzky died in Los Angeles on March 2, 1928, and is buried in
Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles
.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-8223-3389-9
    .
  2. ^ Vanderwood, P. J. (1972). Review: Emilio Kosterlitzky: Eagle of Sonora and the Southwest Border. by Cornelius C. Smith, Jr. The Hispanic American Historical Review, 52(2), pp. 304-306.
  3. ^ Johnson, pg. 664-665
  4. ^ Garcia, pg. 173-176
  5. ^ Ruiz, pg. 97-117
  6. ^ "TSHA | Urrea, Teresa". www.tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  7. ^ Garza, pg. 40-41
  8. ^ Soldier of Fortune: Adventuring in Latin America and Mexico with Emil Lewis Holmdahl By Douglas V. Meed, page 53
  9. ^ The Magonista Revolt in Baja California, Laurence Taylor
  10. ^ Soldier of Fortune: Adventuring in Latin America and Mexico with Emil Lewis Holmdahl By Douglas V. Meed, page 55
  11. ^ Soldier of Fortune: Adventuring in Latin America and Mexico with Emil Lewis Holmdahl By Douglas V. Meed, page 56
  12. ^ "The Nation Calls, 1908 - 1923". Federal Bureau of Investigation.
  • Samuel Truett, "Transnational Warrior: Emilio Kosterlitzky and the Transformation of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands", in Continental Crossroads: Remapping U.S.-Mexico Borderlands History, ed. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004, p. 241-70.
  • Cornelius Smith, Jr., Emilio Kosterlitzky, Eagle of Sonora
    (1970)

External links
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