Joaquin Murrieta-The Legend
Local Folklore Prentice Mulford Tourist InfoBelow are excerpts, findings, supposition, folklore, tales, lies, myths, blatant untruths, quotes, misgivings, machinations about a most colorful early California bandito with Robin Hood charisma.
We owned a historic hotel in the California Gold Country, and spent many an hour pouring over old newspapers and tattered books, visiting musty libraries, sorting through documents in old attics and cellars searching for the "truth" about the likes of Murrieta, Black Bart, Mark Twain, Joaquin Miller, Prentice Milford and Bret Hart. Though such pursuits meander far from the practice of real estate management.....who could not be intrigued by such characters....
"The Ghost of Sonora"There was only a short period of about two months that local newspapers mentioned a bandit named "Joaquin." There was a Joaquin Carrillo, Joaquin Valenzuela and a Joaquin Murrieta all rejoicing in the name "Joaquin." The editor of
Alta California had his say about too many Joaquins: "At the time of the murder of General Bean at Mission San Gabriel, Murrieta was strongly suspected of the crime, and efforts were made to arrest him but he managed to escape. Since then, every murder and robbery in the country has been attributed to "Joaquin." Sometimes it is Joaquin Carrillo that had committed all these crimes; then it is Joaquin Murrieta, then Joaquin something else, but always Joaquin. The very act of the legislature authorizing a company to capture "the five Joaquins" was in itself a farce, and these names were inserted in order to kill the bill." Note: The other two Joaquins discussed by the legislature were Joaquin Ocomorenia and Joaquin Botellier. Perhaps, Murrieta was the most dangerous of the lot...His right hand man was Three-Fingered Jack, real name Manuel Garcia, who was known throughout California for committing atrocious murders, theft and robberies of a violent nature. He was known to have a dislike of the Chinese miners; Garcia's reputation was accentuated by more than one brutal multiple murder of Chinese miners in Calaveras County.
In Sonora there were over 5,000 Mexicans and South Americans in the early 1850's. Joaquin's legend grew due to the raucous times, for discrimination against Latinos and Chinese was rampant while local Miwuk Indians worked under unbearable conditions. Jamestown's name was almost changed to "America's Camp" with designs of removing all foreigners from the local mines. A law was passed to charge foreign miners a heavy monthly tax...resentments grew. The days of easy surface gold pickings were coming to an end. Robberies became common and violent racial atrocities were documented by local gold rush newspapers.
The Dons in California were resentful of the massive influx of intruders taking their land and mineral resources. They were sympathetic to the "Joaquins" and the oppressed foreign workers who had diligently mined over half the gold taken out of the Mother Lode. One reader of this tome emailed us that Joaquin was born in South America not in Mexico. He was a charcoal miner before moving to the gold country. Joaquin posed as a Mexican, for it was beneficial for him; Chileans and other South Americans were deeply resented as "foreigners" in the gold country.
William Perkins lived in the Sonora, California area during the early 1850's and wrote a book entitled Three Years in California--William Perkins Journal of Life at Sonora, 1849-1852. In this book he describes an outrageous incident of murder and cruelty, vigilante-style. Indians had killed a Mexican while trying to steal some mules. Perkins was in a party of eighteen men who traveled into the mountains tracking the culprits to a large rancheria with many huts, men, women and children. The men in Perkin's group quickly opened fire killing some of the Indians while Perkins remarked, "Collecting every thing movable, we piled all in the ranchos and set fire to the whole town, in imitation of the warriors of the middle ages. After the excitement of the fray had subsided, I could not help asking myself the question, as to how far we were warranted in destroying life and property to such an extent; for although the value of property destroyed probably did not amount to much, still it was the whole amount of worldly goods possessed by the tribe. We had invaded and destroyed the lives and property of these poor, miserable people, to chastise what in their eyes is no crime."
Perkins emphasized: "To say the truth, I was not entirely satisfied with myself...women and children suffered from the loss of their homes and necessaries of life."
Perkins again: "Stern necessity of pioneer life! We invade a land that is not our own, we arrogate a right through pretense of superior intelligence and the wants of civilization, and if the aborigines dispute our title, we destroy them!"
Perkins that evening made a comfortable bed and slept like a top arising the next day to continue the hunt for other rancherias to burn and devastate Indian inhabitants.
So was life for Indians, Chinese and Mexicans and South Americans. How many Joaquins resulted? Or only one Joaquin Murrieta...
Of course, as time went by the more positive aspects of gold rush life endured with readers; so it was with Joaquin Murrieta, the handsome folk hero driven to crime by social injustices. He was steadfast in his loyalty to his gang, his friends and associates, he buried gold and loot in numerous caves and secret places, treasure maps were plentiful, he generously gave to the poor(or politely did not rob them) and loved his many ladies. He was handsome, died young bravely and was embellished lavishly by western writers. He was
"The Ghost of Sonora."Caleb Dorsey was the district of Tuolumne County, the only Harvard man in the gold rush; he described Joaquin as quiet and a gentlemen, a reluctant revolutionary while others referred to him as El Patrio-The Patriot.
In 1854, John Rollin Ridge, Yellow Bird, wrote
The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murrieta, the Celebrated California Bandit. Almost all literature that followed is based on the material found in Yellow Bird's book, a pure work of fiction to make money per Ramon F. Adams, noted western author and biographer. Ridge did not make money from his famous book. After almost twenty years of numerous plagiarisms here and abroad, Yellow Bird was on the verge on raising enough money to publish a third edition of his originally published work when he passed away at 40 years of age. As a collectors item, the first edition of a reported 7000 copies is exceptionally rare-one or two copies exist today.Thomas Penfield in
A Guide to Treasure in California mentions about a dozen places were Murrieta buried his loot. In Tuolumne County, there was an old house In Tuolumne City that was the purported local headquarters for Murrieta's gang. The house was referred to as "Murrieta's Haunted House." Extensive treasure hunts were made at this property....no gold or loot was ever found.At least three movies were made based on Joaquin Murrieta's life and times. In 1919, the famous director D. W. Griffith made his only western
Scarlet Days in Tuolumne County. Griffith disliked shooting in natural surroundings. He declined the opportunity of using the unknown Rudolph Valentino to play the lead part as Joaquin Murrieta; Griffith felt a "latin" would not be a big box office draw. This silent film is lost, but their are some stills available in film collections. If a copy of this film were found today, it would fetch a large sum from collectors.In 1932, Walter Noble Burns wrote the book
The Robin Hood of El Dorado; it was purported to be only biography, a collection of writings on what was ever printed about Joaquin Murrieta; Burns had reconciled many stories and myths about Joaquin, so the average reader could easily understand what possibly happened concerning Joaquin during the early gold rush days in the Mother Lode. There are no references included in his book; one wonders where is his original research material, for Burns' book is a rather detailed, stimulating and thought provoking read......
In 1936, Hollywood made a movie in Tuolumne County near Sonora, California with Warner Baxter in the lead role as Joaquin Murrieta, the same Warren Baxter who earlier earned an academy award for his part playing the Cisco Kid, an early California swashbuckling hero of Latino descent. Burns' book on Murrieta as well as Warner Baxter's movie portrayal of Joaquin solidified Joaquin Murrieta as California's most recognized folk hero. There was no glamour being knee deep in cold water with a gold pan...but with Joaquin...we have "the" California Robin Hood.
Before you sit back and read some excerpts below from the legend of Murrieta, western author Joseph E. Doctor, in 1958, reminds us in his book
Shotguns on Sunday , "The power of the press agentry in sustaining an outlaw's reputation is well demonstrated by the fact that one of the West's best known desperadoes, Joaquin Murrieta, did not exist at all except in the imaginative mind of a learned Cherokee who made him up in a fictional pot-boiler that ultimately passed as truth."Joaquin arrived in Murphys from Sonora, Mexico in 1850. His girlfriend Rosita was brutally raped and killed before his eyes in Shaw Flat. Joaquin was whipped and nearly killed himself. His half brother was murdered by twelve miners in Murphys. Joaquin swore vengeance on all Americans and went on a bloody tirade to avenge the injustices to Mexicans in the mining towns of the Southern Mother Lode. Some say he killed over 300 people, 200 of this total being Chinese, for he disliked the Chinese too! Who really knows, for their were various Mexican and South American banditos in the mining towns, communications and identification techniques were poor, and newspaper writers embellished stories with impunity to sell newspapers. Note: No grave markers or death records in Tuolumne or Calaveras County????
1853, the California legislature hired Captain Harry Love, a former Texas ranger, and approximately 20 of the roughest characters in the Mother Lode to hunt for Joaquin Murrieta. There was a $5,000 reward for Joaquin's capture plus a generous $150.00 monthly stipend for all concerned in this frantic manhunt. Love and friends were deeply motivated...!
There was lots of friction in Quartzburg between Americans and Mexicans, and the Americans voted the Mexicans out of town to Hornitos. Hornitos is Spanish for "little ovens" and refers to dome shaped ovens used in this legendary gold rush town. There were 15,000 residents(triple the population of booming Sonora) who delighted in the numerous saloons and fandango halls. Joaquin was a regular at Hornitos, and he used a tunnel near the north end of town for quick escapes from the likes of Captain Love and his men.
One morning Captain Love and his men left Quartzburg on patrol and came across some Mexicans at Ponche Pass; the temptation of a $5,000.00 reward prompted Captain Love to bring in the head of a Mexican pickled in a jar and another jar with the pickled hand of Joaquin's top gun "Three Fingers Jack". Was this really Joaquin? Was this the hand of "Three Fingers Jack.". Could they be dead?
Murrieta's reported second cousin gave the final eulogy for Murrieta: "To the Mexicans he was a great liberator; he came out of Mexico to take California back from the hands of the gringos".
The editor of Alta California was giving voice openly to what others were silently thinking:
"It affords some amusement to our citizens to read the various accounts of the capture and decapitation of "the notorious Joaquin Murrieta." The humbug is so transparent that it is surprising any sensible person can be imposed upon by the statements of the affair which have appeared in the prints. A few weeks ago a party of native Californians and Sonorians started for the Tulare Valley for the expressed and avowed purpose of running mustangs. Three of the party have returned and report that they were attacked by a party of Americans, and that the balance of their party, four in number, had been killed; that Joaquin Valenzuela, one of them, was killed as he was endeavoring to escape, and that his head was cut off by his captors and held as a trophy. It is too well know that Joaquin Murrieta was not the person killed by Captain Harry Love's party at the Ponche Pass. The head recently exhibited in Stockton bears no resemblance to that individual, and this positively asserted by those who have seen the real Murrieta and the spurious head."
Note:
Captain Harry Love reportedly never took his display to Calaveras County, for too many people had seen the real Joaquin Murrieta. Interesting..... on the internet, a writer claims Murrieta's sister saw his head in a jar in Murphys; another writer claims the sister did not see the head of Joaquin in the infamous jar. Did Joaquin have a sister? Was she in Murphys? Was the head ever displayed in Murphys in Calaveras County? Do you have enough clues and start points in unravel the truth about Joaquin????In 1854, John Rollin Ridge penned the legendary account of Joaquin Murrieta while Captain Love took Joaquin's head and Three Fingers Jack's hand to gold rush towns for exhibition at a rate of $1.00 per person ... This grotesque exhibition by Love initially drew large crowds, but by 1856 the crowds began to dwindle, so Mr. Craigmiles of San Francisco purchased the exhibition with high hopes of raising $50,000. from an exhibition across the United States. In 1881, the head and hand exhibition were permanent attractions in San Francisco at the Pacific Museum. They reportedly disappeared in the rubble from the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Speculation...Conjecture...Fact...imagination... Joaquin, the real Joaquin probably slipped back to Mexico with the gold and loot from his dozen California hideouts, caverns and tunnels.
Newspaper accounts do chronicle a brief two month period of crime and mayhem in Calaveras and Amador County as well as many injustices committed against Mexicans as reported by a Stockton newspaper, "If an American meets a Mexican, he takes his horse, his arms and bids him leave."
According to Gary McCarthy in his 1991 book
Gringo Amigo, " It is said that Joaquin's bones lie in the old Jesuit cemetery of Cucupe, high in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Sonora, Mexico."At rest...
Excerpts From
The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murrieta by John Rollin Ridge:The first that we hear of him in the Golden State is that, in the spring of 1850, he is engaged in the honest occupation of a miner in the Stanislaus placers, then reckoned among the richest portions of the mines. he was then eighteen years of age, a little over the medium height, slenderly but gracefully built, and active as a young tiger. His complexion was neither very dark or very light, but clear and brilliant, and his countenance is pronounced to have been, at that time, exceedingly handsome and attractive. His large black eyes, mouth, his well-shaped head from which the long, glossy, black hair hung down over his shoulders, his silvery voice full of generous utterance, and the frank and cordial bearing which distinguished him made him beloved by all with whom he came in contact. He had the confidence and respect of the whole community around him, and was fast amassing a fortune from his rich mining claim. he had built himself a comfortable mining residence in which he had domiciled his heart's treasure--a beautiful Sonorian girl, who had followed the young adventurer in all his wanderings with that devotedness of passion which belongs to the dark-eyed damsels of Mexico.
A band of lawless men, having the brute power to do as they pleased, visited Joaquin's house and peremptorily bade him leave his claim, as they would allow no Mexicans to work in that region. Upon his remonstrating against such outrageous conduct, they struck him violently over the face, and, being physically superior, compelled him to swallow his wrath. Not content with this, they tied him hand and foot and ravished his mistress before his eyes. They left him, but the soul of the young man was from that moment darkened. He departed with his weeping and almost heart-broken mistress for a more northern portion of the mines; and the next we hear of him, he is cultivating a little farm on the banks of a beautiful stream that watered a fertile valley, far out in the seclusion of the mountains. Here he might hope for peace--here he might forget the past, and again be happy.
But his dream was not destined to last. A company of unprincipled Americans-shame that there should be such bearing the name!- saw his retreat, coveted his little home surrounded by its fertile tract of land, and drove him from it, with no other excuse than that he was "an infernal Mexican intruder!" Joaquin's blood boiled in his veins, but his spirit was still unbroken, nor had the iron so far entered his soul as to sear up the innate sensitiveness to honor and right which reigned in his bosom. He bundled up his little movable property, still accompanied by his faithful bosom-friend, and again started forth to strike once more, like brave and honest man, for fortune and for happiness.
He arrive at "Murphy's Diggings" in Calaveras County, in the month of April, and went again to mining, but meeting with nothing like his former success, he soon abandoned that business and devoted his time to dealing "monte", a game which is common in Mexico, and has been almost universally accepted by gamblers in California.
One day he had gone a short distance from Murphy's Diggings to see a half-brother, who had been located in that vicinity for several months, and returned to Murphy's upon a horse which his brother had lent him. The animal proved to have been stolen, and being recognized by a number of individuals in town, an excitement was raised on the subject. Joaquin suddenly found himself surrounded by a furious mob and charged with the crime of theft. He told them how it happened that he was riding the horse and in what manner his half-brother had come in possession of it. They listened to no explanation, but bound him to a tree, and publicly disgraced him with the lash. They then proceeded to the house of his half-brother and hung him without judge or jury. It was then that the character of Joaquin changed, suddenly and irrevocably. Then it was that he declared to a friend that he would live henceforth for revenge and that his path should be marked with blood.
Report after report came into the villages that Americans had been found dead on the highways, having been either shot or stabbed, and it was invariably discovered, that the murdered men belonged to the mob who publicly whipped Joaquin, killed his wife or hung his brother..... Who can blame him? The iron had entered too deeply in his soul for him to stop here.
Boyce roared out: "Boys, that fellow is Joaquin; d--n it, shoot him!" At the same instant, he himself fired but without effect. Joaquin dashed down to the creek below with headlong speed and crossed with the intention, no doubt, to escape over the hills which ran parallel with the stream. Not only was there danger of falling a hundred feet from the rocks, but he must run in a parallel line with his enemies, and in pistol-range, for a hundred yards. In fair view of him stood the whole company with their revolvers drawn. He dashed along that fearful trail as if he had been mounted upon a spirit-steed, shouting as he passed: "I am Joaquin! Kill me if you can!"
Shot after shot came clanging around his head, and bullet after bullet flattened on the wall of slate at his right. In the midst of the first firing, his hat was knocked from his head, and left his long black hair streaming behind him. He had no time to use his own pistol, but, knowing that his only chance lay in the swiftness of his sure-footed animal, he drew his keenly polished bowie-knife in proud defiance of the danger and waved it in scorn as he rode on. It was perfectly sublime to see such super-human daring and recklessness. At each report, which came fast and thick, he kissed the flashing blade and waved it at his foes. He passed the ordeal, as awful and harrowing to a man's nerves as can be conceived, untouched by a ball and otherwise unharmed. In a few moments, a loud whoop rang out in the woods a quarter of a mile distant, and the bold rider was safe!
Did Joaquin Turn South To His Beloved Mexico?
Postscript:
A Joaquin Murrieta was born in Sonora, Mexico in 1830. He was baptized in the old church of Alamos, a city in Sonora, Mexico. He studied in the Jesuit school of Alamos and as a young man fled Sonora where local Indians and citizens were in constant rebellion against Mexico and........later....The
"Ghost of Sonora" was seen farming in the late 1870's in northern Sonora in Arispe.Harry Love went on to operate a sawmill in the Santa Cruz Mountains until 1862 when his mill was lost to a flood. He had married a wealthy 300 pound woman in 1858, they fought constantly and ended up living apart. Love was becoming an alcoholic and felt Chris Iverson was having an affair with his wife. Iverson and Love were in a shootout in 1868 and Love was badly wounded. Love needed to have his arm amputated, and he died on the operating table.
If you have any input concerning the
Legend of Joaquin Murrieta, please contact us at pkashinsky@gmail.com. We are starting in 2005 to include input from emails we receive.Input 1/2/2005: I choose to believe his wife was violated, not killed, at Murphy's New Diggins's and his half-brother(Jesus Carrillo Murrieta) hanged there. One of the killers escaped to Kentucky. Capt Love did not kill Murrieta as he believed, but did kill Chappo, Joaquin Valenzuela and Tres Dedos(Three-fingered Jack) at the battle of the Cantua. Joaquin was shot a few days after this battle by an unknown officer on his way from Monterey to his ranch in Niles Canyon. Murrieta lived only two days after being shot and insisted on a secret burial. Murrieta lives in the minds of those who want to make him into a hero. He was a good man who sought revenge for his wife and brother. Mike.
Input 07/15/05. I don't know if you are aware that "The Head of Joaquin" and the hand of "Three Finger Jack" are on display in Spring Green, Wisconsin at The House on the Rock Museum. They are exhibited in the Days of Yesteryear collection. The head and hand in jars rest upon an antique desk in a sheriff's office complete with wanted posters of Joaquin and his gang. I believe them to be authentic. Mike from Wisconsin.
Input 10/19/05 Regarding the hand and head in the jar in Wisconsin, if you go to one of the websites by a visitor, you can see a photo of the head and the hand, Authentic? I think not, clearly plastic, and not even in a liquid, not even close to the old "Pickled Punk" variety found in the old sideshows! I would stick to the reports that the head was lost in the "06 quake in SFO. Kay.
Input 01/29/06
If you think you are a relative of Joaquin.... or you think you have seen Joaquin...have a nice day!!!
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