THE MANY DEATHS OF DAVID CROCKETT

   Nobody has ever died more often and in more ways than David Crockett. He's died swinging his rifle like a club against advancing soldados; blowing up the gun powder room with a torch (twice); there was even a screenplay for a proposed film comedy in the eighties called Davy Crockett After the Alamo where he escaped the Alamo and rode off to more adventures (by the makers of Bachelor Party -- yikes!).
   That's the problem with dying in an almost mythological fashion -- everybody's going to try to re-interperet it to fit their point of view. Revisionists, patriots, historians and seven-year-olds in coonskin caps all mold David's death to fit their own ideas about heroes and about themselves. So how did David really die?
   Truth be told, there is no way to get a straight answer. Memories dimmed with the years, and statements made by Texian survivors and Mexican officers all vary enough to smack of rumor more than first-hand knowledge. Captured Mexican soldiers all gave differing accounts of Crockett's death to Texas authorities, many detailing how David was captured and then killed by some unnamed Mexican officers after the battle, under the order of Santa Anna (they sure didn't want to claim to have killed him personally).
   One of them, General Cós, even claimed to his captors that he had tried to save David. Of course, he was the general who originally lost the Alamo in 1835, promised the victorious Texians that he would never come back in exchange for his life, and was captured there again with the Mexican Army that next year -- so he needed a good story.

   Today, many historians consider the most reliable account to be from a diary by José Enrique de la Peña, Lieutenant Colonel in the Mexican army. This account seems to confirm parts of the captured soldiers' stories. But recently historians have even accused this document of being faulty at best (Travis' death in the book is incorrect, according to the accounts of eyewitnesses, while the death of David is only mentioned in later drafts, and words or phrases that are used about Crockett's death seem to have been copied from other newspaper accounts), and at worst, a forgery.
   On top of that, other historians argue that even if there were prisoners executed, the identity of Crockett is only surmised: would Mexican soldiers really know who David Crockett was? Couldn't anybody who survived claimed to be United States Congressman David Crockett, hoping the notoriety and possible U.S. repercussions would grant them a reprieve from execution? Why did David's body have to be pointed out to Santa Ana during his inspection of the battle scene (see below)?
   All that is really known is this: You can get away with building a loud, gaudy, despicably sleazy tourist spot a hundred feet from the Alamo (there are dozens), you can pee on the shrine's walls like Ozzy Osbourne, but never infer that David Crockett surrendered if you want to get out of San Antonio alive.
   Who knows how Davy died, really. But all of the following versions are, at the least, entertaining stories:

The Reports:

"Some seven men survived the general carnage and, under the protection of General Castrillón, they were brought before Santa Ana. Among them ... was the naturalist David Crockett, well known in North America for his unusual adventures ... Santa Ana answered Castrillón's intervention on Crockett's behalf with a gesture of indignation, and ... ordered his execution ... several officers who were around the president and who, perhaps, had not been present during the moment of danger ... thrust themselves forward, ... and with swords in hand, fell upon these unfortunate, defenseless men just as a tiger leaps upon its prey. Though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates died without complaining and without humiliating themselves before their torturers."
-- José Enrique de la Peña. "With Santa Ana in Texas: A Personal Narrative of the Revolution."

"CROCKETT was found in an angle made by two houses, lying on his back, a frown on his brow, a smile of scorn on his lips -- his knife in hand, a dead Mexican lying across his body, and twenty-two more lying pell-mell before him in the angle. Glory enough this -- for one day!"
-- The Columbian Centinal (from a description by Joe, Travis' slave and Alamo survivor)

"(Santa Ana) was then conducted to the body of (Crockett). This man lay with his face upward, and his body was covered by those of many Mexicans who had fallen upon him. His face was florid, like that of a living man; and he looked like a healthy man asleep. Santa Ana viewed him for a few moments, thrust his sword through him and turned away."
-- Saldigua, Mexican officer, from "Texas: An Album of History," by James Haley, 1985.

Newspaper Article Image Newspaper:   Washington National Intelligencer Year:   16 Apr 1836 Article:   "From Texas" View image

"He was a tall American of rather dark complexion and had on a long buckskin coat and a round cap without any bill, made out of fox skin with the long tail hanging down his back. This man apparently had a charmed life. Of the many soldiers who took deliberate aim at him and fired, not one ever hit him. On the contrary, he never missed a shot. He killed at least eight of our men, besides wounding several others. This being observed by a lieutenant who had come in over the wall, he sprang at him and dealt him a deadly blow with his sword, just above the right eye, which felled him to the ground, and in an instant he was pierced by not less than 20 bayonets."
--Sergeant Felix Nuñez, Mexican Army.

"Returning to the subject of David Crockett, the old Señora said he was one of the first to fall; that he advanced from the Church building towards the wall or rampart running from the end of the stockade, slowly and with great deliberation, without arms, when suddenly a volley was fired by the Mexicans causing him to fall forward on his face, dead."
-- William Corner's interview with alleged Alamo survivor Mrs. Andrea Castanon de Villanueva ("Madame Candelaria"), "San Antonio De Bexar: A Guide and History," 1890.

Crockett and the others tried to surrender, but were told there was no mercy for them."
-- New Orleans Post-Union, March, 1836.

"When the final assault was made upon the walls these men fought like devils. 'Kwockey' was killed in a room of the mission. He stood on the inside to the left of the door and plunged his long knife into the bosom of every soldier that tried to enter. They were powerless to fire upon him because of the fact that he was backed up against the wall and, the doorway being narrow, they could not bring their guns to bear upon him. And, moreover, the pressure from the rear was so great that many near the doorway were forced into the room only to receive a deadly thrust from that long knife. Finally a well directed shot broke the man's right arm and his hand fell useless at his side. He then seized his long gun with his left hand and leaped toward the center of the room where he could weild the weapon without obstruction, felling every man that came through the doorway. A corporal ordered the passage cleared of those who were being pressed forward, a volley was fired almost point blank and the last defender of the Alamo fell dead."
-- Calvary company commander Rafael Soldana of the Tampico battalion.

"DAVY CROCKETT NOT DEAD! We are happy to state, on the authority of a letter from Tennessee that the report of the death of the eccentric Davy Crockett is not true. 'He stated,' says the letter, 'on a hunting expedition to the Rocky Mountains, was his main objective, and then drop down into Texas. But we expect him home early, in the Spring.'"
-- The Monroe Democrat (New York State), April 5, 1836.

"Too much has been made over the details of how David died at the Alamo. Such details are not important. What is important is that he died as he had lived. His life was one of indomitable bravery; his death was a death of intrepid courage. His life was one of wholehearted dedication to his concepts of liberty. He died staking his life against what he regarded as intolerable tyranny. A poor man who had long known the devastating consequences of poverty and who all his life had fought a dedicated fight for the right of the dispossessed to a new opportunity, he died defending a poor and insecure people and proclaiming their rights to participate in the arts of self-government ... This is the true significance of the death and rebirth of David Crockett."
-- James Atkins Shackford, "David Crockett: The Man and the Legend."

Music: "Deguello," from "Asleep At The Wheel Remembers the Alamo".