ashes remained with his family until they arranged for the Republic of China to receive them. In 1969, his ashes and those of his wife Ethel (née Bryant) were interred at Yangmingshan No. 1 Public Cemetery in Taipei, and travelled there in the custody of Ethel's son. President Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen's brother-in-law, took a personal interest in the arrangements. He believed the interment of the Lea's ashes in Taiwan should only be temporary until they could be transferred to Nanking and interred by Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum, when Taiwan and mainland China were finally reunited. To date, despite the availability of scholarly work on his life and career, a healthy mix of fact and possible exaggeration still surrounds Lea. For example, journalist Clare Boothe Luce's lengthy introduction to the 1942 edition of The Valor of Ignorance highlighted the book's influence on General Douglas MacArthur, the U. S. military commander in the Philippines, and his staff, and helped elevate Lea to the status of forgotten military genius and prophet. Booth's introduction and her lengthy 2 part lead article in Life Magazine, however, also fostered and perpetuated the aura of mystery and myth surrounding Lea. Not unlike medieval monks who copied books verbatim, including their mistakes, Boothe drew on numerous accounts, many accurate and some not, from writers and acquaintances of Lea without discriminating between myth and reality. Boothe made the same mistake as many before her and many continue to do. The problem began during Lea's lifetime when he was widely known as an international “man of mystery,” in part due to many exaggerated published accounts, rumors, and speculations about his exploits. He did little to set the record straight because the accounts helped advance his career without drawing undue attention to his illegal and covert activities. Furthermore, his papers were intentionally destroyed after his death to protect his former associates from actual and possible legal prosecution. General Chaffee who met with Lea in China during the Boxer Rebellion introduced Lea to Captain Ansel O'Banion, and by 1904, the two were training Chinese soldiers who were smuggled back into China, to join the military in China. These Chinese sleeper soldiers would make the Revolution of October 10, 1911 ("10-10") quite short and nearly bloodless. In fact, Captain O'Banion was indicted and imprisoned by America for training Chinese to fight. In popular culture Homer Lea is portrayed by Michael Lacidonia in the