Modern Activities

The current headquarters for the Society are located underneath the new downtown baseball stadium. Paul Foster, one of the current rumored members of the Society’s inner circle spearheaded the construction of the stadium to create a new underground headquarters.

As word has leaked about the existence of the Society, particularly with the rise of the Internet, new tactics have been adopted. Much like the Illuminati’s use of the Freemasons as a cover organization from which new members can be recruited, the Trigger Finger Lemonade Society has ostensibly come out into the open. While ordinary citizens may have the opportunity to “join” the Society, by drinking the Trigger Finger Lemonade, only a very select few who are deemed worthy will have the opportunity to ascend into the shadowy structure of the Society.

Hal Warren and Manos: Hands of Fate

Prior to achieving infamy as the creator of one of the worst movies ever made, Hal Warren was one of the first individuals to uncover evidence of the Trigger Finger Lemonade Society. In 1964, Warren attempted to identify then-mayor Dick Dudley as a member of the Society.

At the time, these accusations were portrayed as laughable. Failing to gain any traction, Warren used his research to create a documentary film that would eventually become Manos: Hands of Fate. Seeing Warren as a threat, the Society infiltrated the project and ensured that Warren’s efforts would be seen as laughable, and indeed its reputation as one of the worst film’s ever made has discredited the pioneering work of Hal Warren.

Early history

The most prominent headquarters of the Society were located in the Bassett Tower in downtown El Paso. The Bassett Building was specifically built with this purpose in mind, and was named for Oscar T. Bassett. He was a businessman and financier that contributed in the creation of the El Paso’s First National Bank and the Texas and Pacific Railways.

According to secret documentation that has been found, it has been revealed that Bassett held the rank of Digitus Maximus from 1884 until his death in 1898. The many chambers and passageways that still exist under the Bassett Tower were used for secret rituals. One such ritual involved the filling of the Bassett Tower’s subterranean swimming pool completely with lemonade.

About the Bassett Tower:

This building was considered the city’s first skyscraper.  It was designed by a famous architect Henry C. Trost, known as the architect of “arid America,” his commissions exist throughout Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

This building construction was finished in 1930.  The Bassett tower is unique for its architectural design, based on Art Deco (popular style in the late 1920s and 1930s).  Art deco was influenced for the classic style used in Paris.  The tower’s single most striking feature is the fact that it was designed as a finished building from all sides.  At this period that type of construction was unusual.  Another characteristic is its main lobby’s doors made of bronze.  Ten eagle sentries guard the 15th floor.  The mustachioed face over the main entrance is reputed to be that of Henry C. Trost himself.

Henry Trost was known to be a member of the Trigger Finger Lemonade Society, at least as early as 1908. The Bassett Tower was intended to be the centerpiece in a vast, cryptic Trigger Finger Society puzzle, encoded in the very buildings Trost designed. Study of Trost gives some insight into the goals of the society; the creation of a new state with El Paso as its capital:

"The unification of the state of Sacramento, its capital El Paso, and [my architecture will be] a formula for regional identity, relative advantage, and strength. Never has the area melded into the priorities or politics of Santa Fe or Austin."

Doroteo Arango

During his lifetime, Doroteo Arango (a.k.a. Francisco "Pancho" Villa) was known to be a ruthless killer, notorious bandit, and revolutionary. Despite his bloodthirsty reputation, he was considered, to the poor people of Mexico, to be an enduring hero. On Friday July 20, 1923, Villa's luck finally ran out. As he drove through the city of Parral, a group of seven riflemen shot him dead. Even in death, Pancho Villa would not rest, as controversy continued to engulf him. Three years after his burial, it was alleged that an ex-Villista officer, Captain Emil L. Holmdahl, opened the tomb and removed Villa's head to sell to an eccentric Chicago millionaire. 

The finger on display at Dave's Pawn Shop is purported to be Pancho Villa's actual mummified trigger finger, which was also noted to be missing with his head. 

In a tribute to their fallen hero, the ever faithful Mexican people placed the finger in the reliquary to keep it safe, and more importantly, to serve as a glimmer of hope to all those that faithfully served and admired Villa. 

Pancho Villa's Trigger Finger

Pancho Villa’s actual finger — or at least a severed and mummified appendage claiming to have been his — is on sale for $9,500 at Dave’s Pawn Shop downtown.

Grayish-black, shriveled and curved slightly, the finger still retains a chuck of nail, the middle of which features an eerily jagged gash — as if it dug its way out of the grave.

Store manager David Delgadillo said that in 2004, a man came in offering to pawn on-the-cheap the right trigger finger Villa supposedly used to fire many a pistol. The seller wouldn’t admit where he got it, however, and Delgadillo won’t say how much the store paid to acquire it.

“We don’t know if it’s real or not, but it’s still a nice piece,” he said.

The famous trigger finger of Pancho Villa for sale at Dave’s Pawn Shop in downtown El Paso is merely a recreation. Who was this mystery customer? Sources believe that the man was actually himself a member of the Trigger Finger Lemonade Society and that the replica finger was displayed to throw the public off the track of the society. In particular, investigative journalists in the 1980’s were getting close to unearthing information about the society. 

Hand-related imagery plays an important role in the society. The inner circle of the Society consists of five senior members who make up The Hand. The five roles are called by the latin names of the fingers: Digitus Minimus, Digitus Anularis, Digitus Secundus, Digitus Maximus, and Pollex (the thumb).

It is rumored, but never confirmed, that members of the Society donate one of their own fingers after death. It is said that somewhere in El Paso, the Society keeps a collection of the index fingers of famous past members. Only those in the upper circles of the Society are privy to the location of this morbid collection.

El Paso's "Illuminati"

Many people have heard of secret societies consisting of ruling elites that are responsible for the world’s finances, media, and politics such as the Illuminati. What would surprise many is that for decades, the city of El Paso has had its very own secret society right under our noses.

The Trigger Finger Lemonade Society takes its name from its bizarre initiation ritual where members are forced to drink lemonade that contains a severed, dehydrated human finger. For many years, at least as early as 1925, the finger in question, was that of none other than Pancho Villa.