I wonder why this interesting fellow isn't more widely known. Doesn't even have his own Wikipedia entry...
"Tijuana's vice industry received a significant boost to its development during the town's occupation on May 9, 1911, by a group of approximately 220 insurrecto soldiers under the Welsh soldier of fortune Caryl Ap Rhys Pryce. Pryce commanded the so-called "Second Division" of the rebel group which operated in the Distrito Norte as part of the series of revolts undertaken by Ricardo Flores Magón and the Mexican Liberal Party from 1910-1911. The Magonistas aimed at the overthrow of the Díaz government and the creation of an anarcho-communist social order in Mexico. Pryce was forced to resort to any means possible for raising funds in order to continue the march on Ensenada, the remaining federal garrison in the region. The town's cantinas were reopened and permits granted to those entrepreneurs who wished to open casinos or gaming houses. On March 14, 1911, Pryce granted a concession to U.S. citizen W.J. Johnson for the establishment of a casino with dice games. This was followed by concessions for other games of chance, such as roulette, faro, poker, Klondyke, twenty-one and wheel of fortune. In addition to the sale of gaming house permits, the Magonistas also received 25 per cent of the winnings obtained from these sources. Pryce forwarded hundreds of dollars raised by these methods, as well as the sale of postcards and revenue from the town's customs house, to the Liberal junta headquarters in Los Angeles as a deposit for the purchase of arms and munitions.26
U.S. capitalists with extensive agricultural and ranching investments in the Mexicali Valley region, such as Harrison Gray Otis, owner of the Los Angeles Times, his son-in-law Harry Chandler, and C.D. Cudahy, head of the powerful Chicago meatpacker family, were alarmed at Pryce's capture of the border town, since the defeat of the remaining federal forces in the peninsula appeared imminent. Also concerned was John D. Spreckels, owner of the San Diego Union and San Diego Evening Tribune, as well as the San Diego-Arizona Railway, whose Mexican portion, as yet unfinished, ran through rebel-held territory. These magnates encouraged the Mexican government's efforts to crush the revolt and also persuaded the U.S. government to increase border security to prevent arms, recruits and other forms of aid from reaching the rebels.27
The fact that a free-booting soldier of fortune, who was of neither U.S. nor Mexican nationality, had given vice entrepreneurs a free rein in a town lying practically on San Diego's doorsteps was likely disturbing to California's moral reform movement leaders. The Second Division's control of the town, with its open invitation to businessmen to establish casinos and cantinas, was doubtless perceived to be a distinct setback for the moral crusade movement in southern California."
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2002-3/frontier.htm
"Tijuana's vice industry received a significant boost to its development during the town's occupation on May 9, 1911, by a group of approximately 220 insurrecto soldiers under the Welsh soldier of fortune Caryl Ap Rhys Pryce. Pryce commanded the so-called "Second Division" of the rebel group which operated in the Distrito Norte as part of the series of revolts undertaken by Ricardo Flores Magón and the Mexican Liberal Party from 1910-1911. The Magonistas aimed at the overthrow of the Díaz government and the creation of an anarcho-communist social order in Mexico. Pryce was forced to resort to any means possible for raising funds in order to continue the march on Ensenada, the remaining federal garrison in the region. The town's cantinas were reopened and permits granted to those entrepreneurs who wished to open casinos or gaming houses. On March 14, 1911, Pryce granted a concession to U.S. citizen W.J. Johnson for the establishment of a casino with dice games. This was followed by concessions for other games of chance, such as roulette, faro, poker, Klondyke, twenty-one and wheel of fortune. In addition to the sale of gaming house permits, the Magonistas also received 25 per cent of the winnings obtained from these sources. Pryce forwarded hundreds of dollars raised by these methods, as well as the sale of postcards and revenue from the town's customs house, to the Liberal junta headquarters in Los Angeles as a deposit for the purchase of arms and munitions.26
U.S. capitalists with extensive agricultural and ranching investments in the Mexicali Valley region, such as Harrison Gray Otis, owner of the Los Angeles Times, his son-in-law Harry Chandler, and C.D. Cudahy, head of the powerful Chicago meatpacker family, were alarmed at Pryce's capture of the border town, since the defeat of the remaining federal forces in the peninsula appeared imminent. Also concerned was John D. Spreckels, owner of the San Diego Union and San Diego Evening Tribune, as well as the San Diego-Arizona Railway, whose Mexican portion, as yet unfinished, ran through rebel-held territory. These magnates encouraged the Mexican government's efforts to crush the revolt and also persuaded the U.S. government to increase border security to prevent arms, recruits and other forms of aid from reaching the rebels.27
The fact that a free-booting soldier of fortune, who was of neither U.S. nor Mexican nationality, had given vice entrepreneurs a free rein in a town lying practically on San Diego's doorsteps was likely disturbing to California's moral reform movement leaders. The Second Division's control of the town, with its open invitation to businessmen to establish casinos and cantinas, was doubtless perceived to be a distinct setback for the moral crusade movement in southern California."
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2002-3/frontier.htm
