Joaquín Murieta
Joaquín Murieta, born in 1830 in the Sonora region of Mexico, is often regarded as a legendary figure in Californian history. Following his marriage to Rosa Feliz, he emigrated to California during the gold rush, where he initially worked as a mustang catcher and cowboy. Eventually, Murieta became involved in criminal activities, joining a gang that robbed and killed travelers, including miners. His transformation into an outlaw is often attributed to personal tragedies, such as the lynching of his brother and experiences of violence against him, although historical records provide little support for these anecdotes.
Murieta's criminal career escalated in the early 1850s, leading to a notorious violent spree throughout California, where he and his gang targeted vulnerable individuals. His life came to a violent end in 1853 during a confrontation with California Rangers, who later displayed his severed head as a grisly trophy. While Murieta is often romanticized as a folk hero representing the struggles of Mexicans against Anglo oppression, historical evidence suggests that his motivations and actions were more complex. Today, he remains a controversial figure, emblematic of the cultural narratives surrounding the Mexican American experience in the 19th century.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Joaquín Murieta
Mexican-born outlaw and folk hero
- Born: 1830
- Birthplace: Sonora, Mexico
- Died: July 25, 1853
- Place of death: Coalinga, California
Murieta is a legendary bandit who terrorized California during the mid-1800’s. The legend of Murieta was popularized by John Rollin Ridge’s biographical novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit (1854), which erroneously portrayed the outlaw as a vigilante avenging the injustices faced by Mexicans living in California.
Areas of achievement:Mexican-born outlaw and folk hero
Early Life
According to church records, Joaquín Murieta (wah-KEEN MYEW-ree-EH-tuh) was born in 1830 in the Sonora region of Mexico. His mother, Rosalia, had been previously married. Murieta occasionally used the last name of her first husband, Carrillo, as an alias.
Murieta married Rosa Feliz and moved to California along with his brother Jesus and three of Rosa’s brothers shortly after the beginning of the gold rush. The couple moved to Niles Canyon in Northern California, where Murieta worked as a mustang catcher and cowboy. He eventually followed his brother-in-law, Claudio, into a life of crime. Court records show that Claudio was arrested in 1849, escaped custody, and formed a gang. Murieta had joined the gang by 1851. They specialized in robbing and killing travelers, miners, and anyone vulnerable—whether they were Anglo, Chinese, or Hispanic.
According to Ridge’s novel, Murieta was a mild-mannered, pleasant young man, who became disillusioned by Americans after they whipped him and raped his girlfriend for being Mexican. This event and the lynching of his brother caused Murieta to seek vigilante justice. However, there are no records of any assault on his wife or any of his girlfriends, and his brother reportedly moved back to Mexico. The novel asserts that Murieta only killed Anglos out of revenge for the way he, his family, and all Mexicans were treated; however, historical evidence clearly disputes this claim.
Life’s Work
When Claudio was killed in 1851, Murieta took over control of the gang of bandits. Murieta was living in Los Angeles with one of his girlfriends, Ana Beniter, when he and Reyes Feliz were implicated as suspects in the murder of General Joshua Bean, a member of California’s militia. Feliz was arrested along with some other Mexican bandits, while Murieta fled back to the gold mining camps. While it was unclear which of the two men killed the general, Feliz was executed for the crime.
Shortly after Feliz’s death, in January, 1853, Murieta began a brief, bloody crime spree through California. He often attacked Chinese miners, most likely because they were rarely armed, but possibly because of his own racism. Twenty-two men from the mining camps were found with their throats slit in one month. Murieta and his gang were protected by the Hispanic community but were well-known in the camps. The men were tracked by a group of California Rangers led by Harry Love. The Rangers were paid $150 a month and had been offered a bonus for capturing the bandits.
In order to avoid capture, the Murieta gang retreated into the San Joaquin Valley in March, 1853. Love and his men managed to capture Jesus Feliz, Murieta’s youngest brother-in-law. Feliz was still angry at Murieta for abandoning his brother Reyes, holding Murieta responsible for Reyes’s death. Feliz gave the Rangers the location where Murieta was hiding out. The Rangers captured the gang near dawn on July 25, 1853. Murieta was killed in a gunfight with the lawmen. After the surviving members of the gang were arrested, Feliz was released from custody.
In order to verify that the dead Mexican bandit was in fact Murieta, the Rangers cut off his head and preserved it in a jar of alcohol. The head was shown to people living in the mining camps, who signed statements that it was Murieta’s. In his novel, Ridge claims that the Rangers only collected seventeen signed statements because Murieta always wore disguises during his raids. In reality, a large number of people could identify him, and some 167 Hispanics, Chinese, and Anglos signed statements. Murieta’s head was displayed in San Francisco and other cities before touring the state of California. Spectators could pay a dollar to see it. The head eventually was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Several claims were made in the years following his death that the head was not really Murieta’s. Some newspapers in 1853 claimed that Murieta was alive, and that the Rangers had bribed witnesses into signing false statements.
Ridge’s novel depicts the Murieta gang as horse thieves and blames Claudio Feliz for the brutal killings. The gang would lasso a traveler on horseback, pull him down, rob him, and kill him in the bushes along the road. While hiding out in the mountains along the coast, Murieta and his gang enlisted the help of local Native Americans to steal horses and mules from nearby towns. During this time, they were rumored to be involved in the disappearances of several prospectors.
Ridge describes Murieta’s ranch hideout, Arroyo Cantova, as a 7,000- to 8,000-acre ranch, surrounded by mountains and accessible only through a narrow pass, making it easy to defend. The ranch was reportedly located between Tejon and the Pacheco passes, to the west of Tulare Lake. Ridge does portray Murieta as a murderer in his novel but also includes anecdotes about the Murieta gang sparing those willing to help them.Ridge’s novel was plagiarized five years after its publication, with minor changes to names, such as that of Murieta’s wife. Copies of the books were soon spreading throughout Spain, France, and Chile. The legend became more confused as the books were translated into and out of the different languages.
Significance
Murieta was an outlaw who became a folk hero because of misconceptions that his crimes were aimed at avenging mistreatment of Hispanics by Anglos. Even though the majority of historians agree that this was not the case, and there is little if no evidence to support the legend, Murieta remains a beloved figure. The site where Murieta was killed has been deemed a historical landmark; in sharp contrast, protests by Mexican Americans have prevented any type of marker from being erected at Love’s gravesite.
Bibliography
Ridge, John Rollin. The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit. San Francisco, Calif.: W. H. Cook, 1854. Reprint. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977. Published within a year of Murieta’s death, Ridge’s novel was responsible for the popularizing the erroneous legend of Murieta.
Secrest, William. The Man from the Rio Grande. Norman, Okla.: Arthur H. Clark Company, 2005. A biography of Harry Love, the California Ranger who tracked down Murieta. Also includes a brief history of the Rangers and myths surrounding Murieta as a Robin Hood figure. Extensively researched and well written.
Thornton, Bruce. Searching for Joaquín. New York: Encounter Books, 2003. A biography of Murieta, that examines the history and myth surrounding the bandit. The author also discusses the lasting impact of Murieta’s legend. Includes an extensive bibliography.