Legends of the Old West - OUTLAWS Ep. 1 | Joaquin Murrieta: “Bandit King”

Episode Date: January 18, 2023

After the Mexican-American War, a young man from Sonora, Mexico, travels to the new state of California. He brings his new bride, and they hope to help the young man's older brother establish a ranch. But the young man experiences two terrible tragedies in quick succession. In his quest for vengeance, raises a gang of outlaws. And his name, Joaquin Murrieta, is feared everywhere in California. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warning, this episode contains scenes and images of graphic violence that may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. On a late summer day in 1853, hordes of people lined up outside John King's saloon. They jostled each other for their turn to squeeze into the San Francisco establishment. For a dollar, they could see what Captain Henry Love of the California Rangers had brought to the saloon. It, or they, were in a jar of alcohol. And what a sight they were. Squished inside the glass vessel was the pickled head of the most notorious outlaw of his time, Joaquin Murrieta. Also stuffed in there was the hand of Murrieta's lieutenant,

Manuel Garcia, better known as Three-Fingered Jack. After their stint at King's Saloon, the ghoulish head and hand traveled all over Northern California. Captain Love exhibited them at private homes and pubs in Sacramento, Marysville, Stockton, Auburn, and other gold mining towns. Then in 1856, someone bought the grisly souvenirs for their private collection. The glass jar and its contents resurfaced when the collector's estate went into foreclosure. A San Francisco auction house bought them for $36 and then sold them for $100 to a shooting gallery owner. After that, a wealthy shipping merchant bought them. He told newspapers he intended to show them around the East Coast with the hopes of earning a new fortune. In 1865, the head and hand arrived at their final known destination. It was a place called Dr. Jordan's Pacific Museum of Anatomy and Science. Dr. Jordan's museum, on Market Street

in San Francisco, was similar to a Ripley's or Barnum's exhibition. Everywhere the jar went, was similar to a Ripley's or Barnum's exhibition. Everywhere the jar went, ghost stories surrounded it. A popular one said that Murrieta appeared every night to the ranger who had killed him. Murrieta would say, I am Joaquin, and I want my head back. Now, in the present day, the whereabouts of the body parts are just as elusive as the real story of the outlaw Joaquin Murrieta. Who was he?

Was he a real gold rush Robin Hood? Was he a humble miner turned Avenger? Was he a simple horse thief and murderer? Was he even just one man? Or could the name be confused with five or more outlaws? Ultimately, we'll never know the full truth about the gruesome souvenirs, just like we'll never know the full truth about the real Joaquin Murrieta. There are several legends and scores of myths surrounding him, but he was a real man, and depending on your point of view,

he was either a hero or the worst of villains. This is definitely a case where the legend has become fact, and we'll print a little of both. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the stories of three outlaws, California bandit Joaquin Murrieta, Texas killer Jim Miller, and train robber Black Jack Ketchum. This is Joaquin Murrieta, part one of two, Bandit King. Little is known about Joaquin Murrieta's childhood, except to say that he was regarded as quiet and gentle. That was why his friends and family were shocked that in just a few short years, the mild-mannered young man became a vindictive thief and murderer. Decades after his purported death, Mexican journalist Irineo Paz wrote what he believed to be the best information about Joaquin Murrieta. Murrieta was born in 1829 to a prosperous family in Sonora, Mexico, probably in a town called Alamos. In 1845, Murrieta left home to

find a job in Mexico City. His father helped him get a job as a groom in the stables of President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Murrieta loved horses and was an excellent rider. Though he was only 16, he'd already tamed wild horses in Sonora. Being a groom in a prominent household was often the first step to upward mobility in the government. Young Murrieta figured that after a year or two caring for the president's horses, he could rise to an even better position. But it wasn't to be. All the other grooms who worked in the president's stables wanted the same thing, and there were only so many jobs to go around. Supposedly, Murietta's abilities made others jealous.

He didn't get along with some of his co-workers, and he left. Disappointed, Murietta went back home to Sonora, thinking he could live a life with less ambition. He soon met a young woman named Carmen and fell in love. The teenagers got married, and it didn't take long for Murrieta to become anxious for adventure. He received news about his older brother Carlos, who had been in Northern California for many years. It seemed that Carlos had been given a large land grant. Joaquin and Carmen packed up and journeyed to the Bay City 1,200 miles to the north. The brothers happily reunited in San Francisco, but the timing was bad. According to Murrieta's biographer, this reunion was right after the Mexican-American War had recently ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In the agreement, Mexico gave the vast territory of California to the United States, and the laws and landscape changed seemingly overnight. Miners, squatters, and homesteaders started to take over lands that belonged to Californios, the people who had descended from Mexican or Spanish colonists who had been there for generations. Then, within days of the treaty's signature, word leaked out about gold that was discovered at Sutter's Mill in Northern California. The news attracted hundreds of thousands of fortune seekers from around the globe, including people from Murrieta's home state of Sonora, Mexico. Sonora is the Mexican state that is directly south of the modern-day state of Arizona. They share that entire border. And at first, Sonorans were welcome additions to mining camps.

They brought with them sluicing technology that had been perfected in their home country. That was the system of using essentially wooden gutters to filter gold out of streams. But as more Latin Americans arrived, white settlers became the minority. The new government of California decided it had to make some changes, and those changes would not favor men like Joaquin and Carlos Murrieta, as the brothers would soon find out. In San Francisco, Carlos told his younger brother Joaquin that he was fighting for the title to his newly purchased land. Lots of Mexican citizens were having the same problem. With the American government taking

over in California, the question of who owned each specific piece of land was murky at best. Many in the U.S. government didn't want to honor the ownership of lands that had been held by families for generations, let alone relative newcomers. Adding to the confusion were the thousands of people who poured into the state every day to try to strike it rich. Joaquin agreed to go see his brother's land firsthand and to help him find a witness named Flores who would help him firm up his claim. Joaquin left Carmen in the care of a San Francisco boarding house, and the brothers traveled to the gold country south of Sacramento. One night soon after their arrival, Joaquin was startled awake by the sounds of hundreds of men shouting in the street.

He raced outside into the dark toward what seemed to be the epicenter of the action. He pushed through the crowd of miners and saw what caused the excitement. Swinging from a tree branch were the bodies of his brother Carlos and the witness Flores. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch. And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits,

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that night, but the murder of Carlos Murrieta was one of two horrible and tragic events that changed Joaquin's life and drove him to become an outlaw of legend. After the murder of Carlos, Joaquin fled back to San Francisco. He cried to his wife. He wanted revenge against the people who had killed his brother, but Carmen talked him out of it. She encouraged him to focus on starting a family, which she said would be a better way to honor his brother. Joaquin decided she was right

and told her they'd go back to Mexico for good. But the couple was out of money, and obviously Joaquin couldn't work for his brother. To pay for the journey, he decided to do what everyone else was doing, mine for gold. The couple built a wooden shack on the banks of the Stanislaus River. Murietta spent his days panning for gold and minding his own business, until one day, several white men stumbled upon their camp. white men stumbled upon their camp. The men pressured Murrieta to abandon his shack and give it to them. He refused, so they beat them with the butts of their rifles. As he lay injured

on the ground, unable to move, he watched as the men raped and killed his wife. The assailants chose not to finish off Joaquin Murrieta, and from that day forward, he was no longer the young man who tried to get along with other people in this new land of California, and he lost all interest in moving back to Sonora. He wanted to avenge the murders of his wife and brother, but he didn't know how he was going to do it. In the meantime, he resolved to wait for the right opportunity. In April of 1850, Murrieta went to work at Murphy's Gold Mining Camp in modern-day Calaveras County, just below Sacramento. He saved his earnings and made

a little extra teaching other miners how to play the card game Monty, which was popular in Mexico. The details of what happened next are lost to time, but the legend goes something like this. One night, Murrieta went to go visit a friend named Valenzuela, not far from camp. It was late when Murrieta returned to his camp, so Valenzuela loaned him a horse. As Murrieta rode closer to his camp, a furious crowd encircled him. They accused him of riding a horse that his friend had stolen from a white worker. Murrieta tried to convince them that his friend was an honest man and this had to be a mistake. But the crowd wouldn't listen.

They yanked him from the horse, tied him to a tree, and beat him within an inch of his life. They stole every dollar he had and then rode out and captured Valenzuela and hung him. The mob seems to have left Murrieta tied to the tree and he must have wiggled free. He spent a few days healing from his latest beating and then decided the waiting was done. It was time for vengeance. Late one night, he hid in a ravine next to a footpath that was often used by

workers in Murphy's gold mining camp. When an American man walked down the path alone, Murrieta leapt in front of him. Murrieta didn't know the man's name, but he recognized him as one of the men who'd beaten him against the tree. Before the man could react, Murrieta buried a dagger in his heart. The man cried out for mercy, but Murrieta was in a blind rage. Even after the man was long dead, Murrieta kept stabbing. Murrieta might never find the man who actually killed his wife and brother, but he could take vengeance on people just like them. He was about to become the terror of Calaveras County,

and eventually of all Central California. Almost all of the stories about Murrieta's whereabouts in late 1850 and early 1851 revolve around him gathering a group of loyal compatriots. One, named Rinaldo Felix, was his wife's brother. Felix became one of Murietta's chief lieutenants, even though he was only about 16 years old. Murietta was only 22, and his growing gang was made up mostly of young men in their teens and 20s. The brother of Murrieta's friend Valenzuela, who had been hanged, joined the gang as well as about 45 others. They were all good at stealing horses, and they had all been through difficult experiences in the area. They were happy to join Murrieta in the collective pursuit of vengeance. The most vicious member of Murrieta's crew was a man named Manuel Garcia,

better known as Three-Fingered Jack. Garcia was described by Murrieta's biographer as a wild beast disguised as a man. During the Mexican-American War, Garcia lost a finger in a skirmish, which explained his nickname. By the time he joined up with Murrieta, he was already notorious for murdering two Americans on a road to Stockton, California. Supposedly, he tortured them in gory ways and then burned their bodies. As the year 1851 progressed, more men and even some women joined Murrieta's gang. Many drifted north from Southern California and Murrieta's home state of Sonora. It wasn't hard to find angry

foot soldiers. They were sick of targeted attacks like Murrieta had experienced. They were also angry about special taxes and laws that were passed by the new California legislature. about special taxes and laws that were passed by the new California legislature. The most outrageous was the foreign miners' tax. It charged non-citizens $20 a month for the right to mine. That would be well over $600 per month in today's money, which was a crippling sum that most small-time miners could never hope to pay. That summer of 1851, Murrieta was living in a remote part of the town of San Jose. Like many episodes of Murietta's life, the translation of this incident

is messy and uncertain. But to the best of our knowledge, here's the next step of Murietta's revenge story. One night, he was arrested on suspicion of participating in a brawl at a dance hall. A judge fined him $12. Murietta subtly offered the judge a bribe, and the judge accepted. Murietta used the bribe to lure the judge out onto a dark road later that night, and then Murietta stabbed the judge with a dagger and killed him. In the months following the judge's murder, stabbed the judge with a dagger, and killed him.

In the months following the judge's murder, several murders and cases of horse theft were attributed to Murrieta and his henchman Garcia. But like all outlaws who gained some measure of notoriety, Murrieta and his gang were accused of just about every crime in the region, whether they committed the crimes or not. Murrieta's profile was rising through both the real crimes and false accusations. And then the bloodletting around the town of Marysville, about 40 miles north of Sacramento, gave him nationwide status. Though Marysville was still a tent city, the discovery of gold nearby made thousands flood to it in a short period of time. During the first two weeks of November 1851,

at least 17 bodies were found in the area. A witness saw one of the victims get dragged off a road by what he said were four well-dressed Mexican men who threw a rope around the victim's neck. That conformed with what people said about some of the corpses They had clearly been strangled to death by a ligature of some sort The rest of the dead were stabbed or had their throats cut Except for the one witness, no one saw a thing At least, not that they would admit to But a few days later, a young man was caught stealing mules outside Marysville proper He was arrested and told lawmen he was from Sonora Camp, not far away.

He was proud, if not very smart. He bragged that he was one of the party that had murdered the 17 people, and he would have done more if he hadn't been suffering from some sort of sickness. And so, Sheriff R.B. Buchanan of Yuba County decided to go take a look at this Sonora camp for himself. He had no idea he was walking into a deadly trap. Introducing the Miller Optics 2KW Handheld Laser Welder. It's so simple to use, even a rookie can weld like an expert, allowing you to boost your shop's productivity up to 5 to 10 times more than with traditional arc welding processes.

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Advantage now and start changing the welding game. The citizens of Marysville formed a vigilance committee to deal with the murders that were supposedly committed by Murrieta's crew. In late 1851, they met to decide what law enforcement should do about it. Naturally, there was talk about sending a bunch of men into Sonora Camp, guns blazing, to shoot anybody who seemed suspicious. Sonora Camp was a crude settlement of people who were mainly from Mexico. Not everyone there was an outlaw, but the outlaws used it as their headquarters. In Marysville, cooler heads prevailed, and they decided against an all-out attack. Sheriff Buchanan and one of his deputies

decided they would sneak into Sonora Camp at night. There would be less chance of warning away any murder suspects, though they didn't seem to have much in the way of visual identification of the suspects. At one in the morning, by the light of the moon, Buchanan and his deputy crawled into a back corner of Sonora Camp. As they tried to get their bearings, four men descended on them. The sheriff and the deputy heard the loud crack of a gunshot. Just as the sound registered, Sheriff Buchanan fell to the ground. He'd been shot in the back, and the deputy thought he was dead. The deputy ran to get help. Some volunteers hurried back to the camp and hauled the sheriff to a doctor in Marysville

who saved his life. When the sheriff recovered, he felt sure he had seen who had shot him, even though he'd been shot in the back at night. He never gave a name, but he said it was definitely one of the men who were roaming the countryside, robbing and killing. Despite all the murky details, the story got picked up by newspapers all over the U.S. It seemed to be a cautionary tale about a very organized, cohesive, and sneaky group of bandits who terrorized miners and merchants. According to one of Murrieta's biographers, the attack on Sheriff Buchanan made it impossible for Murrieta to stay in or near Marysville, whether he had been part of the attempted murder or not. Murrieta and his gang hid in the western edge of the Shasta Mountains and wandered down to the valleys to steal food and horses. Occasionally, traveling miners told

newspapers they stumbled across human remains in the valleys, plainly showing the victims had been shot. In the spring of 1852, Murrieta and his clan went down from the mountains. They allegedly spent the better part of March and April moving about 300 stolen horses from California's Central Valley all the way down to Sonora, Mexico. Once there, they sold the horses, earned a handsome payday of cash and silver, and returned to California. This time, they stayed south of Gold Country and south of Sacramento. Murrieta and Garcia established their new headquarters at a place called Arroyo Cantua. This lush valley was seven or eight miles long, fertile, and had plenty of water. It was protected by a range of hills with only one narrow pass for access.

They could protect themselves against an army of lawmen or other criminals if need be. When Murrieta returned to California, he brought with him a young woman named Clarita. She was the daughter of a Spanish grandee, and the new couple had known each other since they were kids. By the end of April 1852, the bandit tribe had grown to about 75 people. Murieta decided to break it into three detachments so he could maximize his ability to rob several locations at once. He gave command of the units to three of his trusted lieutenants, and all the bandits became experts in using disguises to hide their identities. So, with lots of outlaws working together, and three different groups mixing and matching and roaming the region,

and lots of them using disguises, it was impossible for law enforcement to fully understand the organization and its operation. But, while all that confusion was good for the outlaw business, it had one drawback from Joaquin Murrieta. He was 23 years old, and he was the leader of a huge gang of outlaws, and his ego had grown considerably in a few short years. He didn't necessarily want to hide behind a disguise. Murietta's endgame was usually horse theft, unless a target appeared to be wealthy or hostile toward Mexicans or ready to fight back. In that case, he or any member of his gang was willing to kill with little thought to it. But Murietta also liked to gamble.

It not only relaxed him, but it allowed him to visit saloons and listen to what was being said about his exploits. Part of this was pride, and part was gathering intelligence. By now, he was incredibly skilled at disguising himself. He could steal a man's horses by gunpoint in the morning and sit across from the same man at the pharaoh table that night. On one particular night, he couldn't help himself. It was in May of 1852, and Murietta sat at a monte table in Calaveras County.

He was completely disguised, though we don't know for sure what the disguise looked like. As he played, he overheard someone say his name in a low voice. Murietta looked around at the other tables and spotted four or five men who were discussing his latest crimes. One of them, a tall man, was clearly the most animated. Murietta could see that he had a dagger and a revolver in his belt. Murietta tried to concentrate on his own game, but he couldn't stop eavesdropping on the other table. Then he heard the tall man say that his greatest wish

would be to find himself face-to-face with Joaquin Murietta. If he ever did, the man bragged, he would kill Murietta with the same speed that a rattlesnake struck a man's ankle. That was all Murietta could handle. He leapt over his card table, drew his revolver, and pointed it at the stunned man. He shouted, I am Joaquin Murietta. If any of you wish to kill me, now is your chance. I will wager that none of you fire a shot. The move was so sudden and so unexpected that the crowd in the room sat in petrified silence. Then Murietta realized he had created a really bad situation for himself.

Before anyone in the saloon could act, Murietta raced outside, jumped on his horse and galloped away. He hurried back to the hideout in Arroyo Cantua. He made it safely, but the night could have been a disaster. The episode could have proven that he should be more cautious, or stay out of the action completely and let his gang do all the work. But the bandit king loved the thrill of riding out at night and hunting for a mark. According to Murrieta's historians, he, his lieutenants Garcia and Felix, and four others left camp and roamed the highways of the Central Valley looking for trouble. In Mariposa County, in the early morning hours, they came upon a young man named Alan

Ruttle. 27-year-old Ruttle had just arrived in California from Missouri and staked out a land claim with his brother. Except for his team of oxen, Ruttle was alone. He wanted to get to Stockton before the day grew too hot. He planned to buy furniture for his new ranch home, and he had several hundred dollars worth of gold dust in his pocket. There's no direct proof that it was Murietta who attacked Ruttle, but reports placed his gang in the area. When Ruttle's oxen returned to the cabin late that afternoon without their driver, Ruttle's family feared the worst. Their fears were confirmed the next morning. A search party found Alan Ruttle's body about six miles out on the Stockton Road. Allen Ruttle's body about six miles out on the Stockton Road. His pockets were empty,

and his body had been riddled with bullets. Ruttle was by no means the only victim who brought attention to the escapades of Joaquin Murrieta, but Ruttle's murder was the proverbial last straw. The gang had expanded its reach by terrorizing California businessmen and ranchers in addition to small-time miners and workers. The violence might scare away investors in the new state of California, so something had to be done. Governor John Bigler put up a $1,000 reward, no small amount in the early 1850s. He appointed bounty hunter Henry Love to lead a new force called the California Rangers. bounty hunter Henry Love to lead a new force called the California Rangers. Officially, their first and primary objective was to capture Joaquin Murrieta and his lieutenants. Henry Love gathered a posse and told them the unofficial mandate. Bring in Joaquin Murrieta,

dead. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Henry Love and the California Rangers track Joaquin Murrieta across northern and central California. Murrieta continues his crime spree until the inevitable clash of the two forces outside one of the most picturesque places in the country. The conclusion of the Joaquin Murrieta story is next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes.

They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Julia Bricklin. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details, and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And all our episodes are available on YouTube.

Just search for Legends of the Old West Podcast. Thanks for listening.