Joaquin Murrieta

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Most biographical sources hold that Murrieta was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Historian Frank Forrest Latta wrote that Murrieta was from the Pueblo de Murrieta on the Rancho Tapizuelas, across the Cuchujaqui River, north of Casanate in southeast Sonora near the Sinaloa border. Murrieta was educated at a school nearby in El Salado. He reportedly went to California in 1849 to seek his fortune in the Gold Rush, traveling with a large family party including his new wife Rosa Feliz, his younger brother Jesus Murrieta, stepbrothers, brothers-in-law, and cousins. According to the dime novel by John Rollin Ridge, Murrieta encountered prejudice and hostility: American miners supposedly attacked him and raped his wife, but the only source for this account is Ridge's novel. Historian Latta wrote that Murrieta formed a gang with well-organized bands, one led by himself and the rest by trusted Sonoran relatives. The gang engaged in illegal horse trade with Mexico, driving stolen herds from as far north as Contra Costa County via the La Vereda del Monte trail to Sonora for sale. At other times, they robbed and killed miners or American settlers, believed to have killed up to 28 Chinese and 13 Anglo-Americans based on accounts of their raids in early 1853.

Reader's Guide

Controversy surrounds Murrieta's life and deeds. Historian Susan Lee Johnson says: 'So many tales have grown up around Murrieta that it is hard to disentangle the fabulous from the factual.' The California state legislature listed him as one of the 'Five Joaquins' in a bill passed in May 1853, authorizing a company of 20 California Rangers led by Captain Harry Love to hunt down 'the five Joaquins, whose names are Joaquin Muriati [sic], Joaquin Ocomorenia, Joaquin Valenzuela, Joaquin Botellier, and Joaquin Carillo, and their banded associates.' On July 25, 1853, rangers encountered a band of armed Mexican men near Arroyo de Cantua on the edge of the Diablo Range near Coalinga. Three Mexicans were killed; the rangers claimed one was Murrieta and another Manuel Garcia, also known as Three-Fingered Jack. They cut off the hand of Three-Fingered Jack and the alleged head of Murrieta, preserving them in a jar of alcohol to claim their reward. Officials displayed the jar in Mariposa County, Stockton, and San Francisco; spectators could pay $1 to see the relics. Love and his rangers received $1,000 reward money. In August 1853, an anonymous man wrote to the *San Francisco Alta California Daily* claiming Love and his rangers had murdered innocent Mexican mustang catchers and bribed people to swear affidavits. On May 28, 1854, the California State Legislature voted to reward the Rangers with another $5,000. Some 25 years later, myths began to form: in 1879, O. P. Stidger reportedly heard Murrieta's sister say the displayed head was not her brother's, and numerous sightings of Murrieta as a middle-aged man were reported but never confirmed. His preserved head was destroyed during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire. Murrieta's nephew, known as Procopio, became one of California's most notorious bandits of the 1860s and 1870s, said to have wanted to exceed his uncle's reputation. Johnston McCulley's 1919 character Zorro is believed to have been based on Ridge's 1854 novel about Murrieta. For some political activists, Murrieta has symbolized Mexican resistance against White Anglo-Saxon Protestant domination of California.

Did You Know?

• The novel *The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta* (1854) by John Rollin Ridge is the only source for the story that American miners beat Murrieta and raped his wife.
• The California state legislature listed Murrieta as one of the 'Five Joaquins' in a bill passed in May 1853.
• Rangers cut off the hand of Three-Fingered Jack and the alleged head of Murrieta, preserving them in a jar of alcohol to claim a reward; spectators could pay $1 to see the relics.
• Murrieta's preserved head was destroyed during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire.
• Johnston McCulley's 1919 character Zorro is believed to have been based on Ridge's 1854 novel about Murrieta.