The real name for this Apache war chief was Goyathlay Goyaale. He was born in 1829 in New Mexico. I believe that the thing that really set him off was the murder of his wife and 4 children in a raid against his village by the Mexican Army in 1858. I think that would have set me off too. When he went on a revenge raid the Mexicans gave him the name Geronimo. The name came from their appeal to Saint Jerome for protection from his knife attacks in which he repeatedly charged through gunfire to attack.

Geronimo was believed by his followers to have supernatural powers. Their eyewitness accounts of his exploits were the cause of their belief. I have seen Medicine Bluff in Fort Sill Oklahoma where he jumped from on his horse to escape pursuing cavalry and that definitely had to be a spider man move. His horse died from the fall but Geronimo lived.

Geronino terrorized both the US and Mexican armies for decades with his raids. There are numerous stories of his escapes and exploits. Geronimo died in captivity in 1909 in Fort Sill. It is rumored that his skull and bones were stolen from Fort Sill and are the skull and bones that the order of skull and bones has possession of at Yale University.

I believe that the term "Geronimo" which is suposedly uttered by parachutist before a jump came from his renowned jump off of Medicine Bluff.