CALIFORNIA KILLING - JOAQUIN MURRIETA

Joaquin Murrieta came to California to mine for gold and he was remarkably lucky in sniffing out rich strikes - he first struck lucky near Sonora but a band of American prospectors drove him away and Murrieta left without a fight. Then once again he struck gold - this time around 1850 and once again he was set upon by greedy prospectors. This time two Irish forty-niners asked him to leave but Murrieta was damned if he's give up another claim.

When the young Mexican refused the Irish men's demands a fight broke out. And Murrieta was beaten senseless, one of the man smashed a whiskey bottle in his face, leaving a scar that would become a distinguishing feature.

Murrieta, seething at the injustice of it all, decided that he would still search for gold but he wouldn't look for it below ground - no, he'd become a bandit and steal it just as it had twice been stolen from him.

In his 1932 book, The Robin Hood of El Dorado author Walter Noble Burns depicted Murrieta as a man fighting against injustice - like the titular Robin Hood or the legendary Zorro and even during the bandits life time there were many who shared the sentiments. The early Californians lost much of their lands to the encroaching Americans and to the Hispanic and Californio people he was seen very much as a man fighting for them, an avenger with God on his side. Indeed in the 1936 movie, The Robin Hood of El Dorado Joaquin is presented as a proud man and righteous in his rebellion against the greed and theft of the Americans. However the California Rangers would not see it that way and would hunt the man remorselessly until he was killed. And even when death stopped him that was not enough and Murrieta's head was preserved in alcohol and displayed for the curious to see.

Murrieta's luck finally ran out in 1853 when he was cornered and forced into a fight by the newly formed California Rangers. It is recorded that Ranger Bill Henderson shot Murrieta through the heart as the man was trying to flee the 20 strong team of Rangers. The leader of the Rangers, Captain Harry Love wrote down a description of the bandit and then ordered that he be decapitated. The head was transported to Fort Miller where it was preserved in a bottle of alcohol to later be exhibited as a warning against other bandits. The head was later destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

However there have always been doubts that the man killed was actually Murrieta and many claimed that the man actually escaped and lived his life out on a ranch south of the border.

Further reading:
The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta by James F. Varley
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