There are various eyewitness accounts and other reports of the massacre of Badajoz, including some from foreign correspondents, such as Jay Allen (American), Mário Neves (Portuguese), and Marcel Dany and René Bru (French); there are also photographs that survive of the massacre. Today, most historians recognize that Yagüe killed thousands of militiamen and civilians after the fall of the city and burned the corpses because he did not want to leave enemies, either soldiers or civilians, to the rear of his army. In fact, Yagüe was quoted to have said the following to one Jay T. Whitaker: