American Folk Figure. Legend calls him the "Robin Hood of El Dorado" and the "Robin Hood of the West." Along with his bride, Rosita Feliz, he moved in 1850 to Stanislaus County in Northern California lured by the mine fields. The white miners didn't like the thought of the sharing the gold fields with Mexicans, so five drunken miners broke into Joaquin and Rosita's cabin. They knocked him unconscious, then ravished and murdered Rosita. He and his elder brother went to Murphy's Diggings seeking revenge but the drunken miners ended up hanging the elder Murietta and horse whipping Joaquin. Murietta vowed to get revenge and his gang became one the most feared bands of outlaws in California. On May 11, 1853, California Governor John Bigler authorized the forming of the California Rangers under Captain Harry Love. The company of Rangers cornered and killed or captured most of the "Murietta gang," killing Three Fingered Jack. They cut his hand off and preserved it in a jar of alcohol. The Rangers took Murrietta to the jail in Mariposa, California, where they feared supporters would storm the jail and release him, so he was taken out of the jail and hanged, his head cut off and preserved for shipment to Stockton. On July 28, 1853, the California State Legislature accepted the evidence as presented. Father Dominic Blaine identified the head on August 11th, 1853. Murietta's head was taken to San Francisco where it was put on display along with the hand from "Three Fingered Jack." This head was later lost in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
American Folk Figure. Legend calls him the "Robin Hood of El Dorado" and the "Robin Hood of the West." Along with his bride, Rosita Feliz, he moved in 1850 to Stanislaus County in Northern California lured by the mine fields. The white miners didn't like the thought of the sharing the gold fields with Mexicans, so five drunken miners broke into Joaquin and Rosita's cabin. They knocked him unconscious, then ravished and murdered Rosita. He and his elder brother went to Murphy's Diggings seeking revenge but the drunken miners ended up hanging the elder Murietta and horse whipping Joaquin. Murietta vowed to get revenge and his gang became one the most feared bands of outlaws in California. On May 11, 1853, California Governor John Bigler authorized the forming of the California Rangers under Captain Harry Love. The company of Rangers cornered and killed or captured most of the "Murietta gang," killing Three Fingered Jack. They cut his hand off and preserved it in a jar of alcohol. The Rangers took Murrietta to the jail in Mariposa, California, where they feared supporters would storm the jail and release him, so he was taken out of the jail and hanged, his head cut off and preserved for shipment to Stockton. On July 28, 1853, the California State Legislature accepted the evidence as presented. Father Dominic Blaine identified the head on August 11th, 1853. Murietta's head was taken to San Francisco where it was put on display along with the hand from "Three Fingered Jack." This head was later lost in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
Bio by: Debbie
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