Last Words

While rummaging through my desk drawer this morning, I found a tag from a tea bag that I had removed and saved some months ago because I found it humorous.  
The following is printed on the tag:

"Don't let it end like this.  Tell them I said something."
Pancho Villa,
last words
(1877-1923)

Poor Pancho.
 I recall how, in the long ago past, one would see or read the 'last words' of famous people in any number of places:  books, magazines, newspapers, etc.  
Was it the mystery or fear of death that made people hover at deathbeds waiting for some sign that the dying person could see ahead to the other world?
Perhaps they expected a tidy summing up of the dying person's life experiences and they might be given some wisdom, a rule for life.
But I can't recall seeing the last words of anyone who had died since, say, 1950.  I wonder why. 
My guess is either they die so quickly they don't have a chance to speak, or they are so filled up with pain-killing drugs that the mind and speech organs won't work.
Poor Pancho.   Had a chance but was at a loss for words.
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