For more than a century and a half, the name of Joaquin Carrillo Murrieta or Murietta has been known throughout the world. He was a semi-legendary figure in California in the 1850s, during the era of the so-called Gold Rush. Some consider him a Chilean Robin Hood and a Mexican patriot, while others consider him a bandit and a bloody killer. So who is Joaquin Murieta really: a real person or a fictional character from the book of John Rollin-Ridge?
Real Biography
Joaquin Murieta was born in 1830 in southern Mexico, in the state of Sonora. Having married a girl named Rosa Felis, he goes to California, taking with him three of her brothers. Then the Gold Rush was in full swing. One of his wife's brothers, Claudio Feliz, was seriously engaged in the search for precious metal, and Joaquin himself worked as a mustang catcher, then as a vaqueiro (shepherd).
In 1849, Claudio was arrested on charges of stealing gold from another prospector. It must be said that the evidencethere was plenty of guilt, so the punishment for such a crime could be very severe - execution by hanging. Claudio reasoned that he was unlikely to get out of this scrape, so he developed an escape plan and successfully implemented it. A few months later, he managed to put together his own gang of the same people as himself. A little later, Joaquin Murieta will join her, whose biography from that very moment will be closely connected with the criminal craft.
Raids and killings
At the end of 1850, Claudio Feliz's gang committed their first crime. Her victim was John Marsh, whose ranch was attacked by a group of 12 people. They killed the owner, but did not touch other people. Later, the bandits realized that they had made an unforgivable mistake, leaving the witnesses alive. Subsequently, they tried not to make such mistakes again.
10 days after the robbery of John Marsh, the bandits carried out a night raid on the ranch of their next victim - Digby Smith. In this house, they have already killed three people with particular cruelty: two of them had their skulls cut open, and the third was completely cut off his head. As they left the crime scene, they set the ranch on fire, which burned to the ground. A month later, the gang again tried to rob another victim, but was rebuffed by fairly well-armed vaqueiros. It was then that the killers realized that the local settlers were now on their guard, so Claudio Felis decided to move to the area where the gold mines were located. There, his people began to rob and kill lone travelers on the roads.
Hunting for Claudio Felisa
Joaquin Murietta was in the gang of his wife's brother since September 1851 and managed to take part in several robberies and murders. When the law began to literally breathe in the back of the bandits, he left the criminal gang and settled in Los Angeles for some time, while Felice and his accomplices continued their outrages.
They didn't care who they killed - their victims were not only blacks, Chinese and whites, but also Mexicans, as long as it brought a good income. It was precisely such actions that became the main mistake, since even compatriots turned away from Claudio Felis and his people. Now he could no longer count on their support in any way. In addition, the Mexicans themselves began to hunt for the enraged leader of the gang, and soon the whole group was squeezed in a vise. According to eyewitnesses, during the last fight with the thugs, Felis's pursuers literally riddled his body with bullets.
New gang
Peaceful life in Los Angeles quickly got bored with Felice's former accomplice, and Joaquin Murieta returned to his bloody business again. After some time, he, along with Reyes Feliz (another brother of his wife), was accused of killing Joshua Bean, a state major general. Brother-in-law Joaquin was caught and executed, but he himself managed to escape. After this incident, it was rumored that Murieta shamelessly abandoned his relative without any help, while he cowardly fled.
Soon a new gang appeared in the area, but no one was sureknew who the leader was. It was assumed that the criminal gang included five Joaquins - Carrillo, Murieta, Botelier, Valenzuel and Okomorenya. It is worth noting that the first husband of the mother of the famous bandit had the surname Carrillo, so the young man was sometimes introduced by this name.
Among the members of the group was also a certain Manuel Garcia, nicknamed Three-fingered Jack. This bandit was distinguished by a special hatred for gold diggers who were of Chinese origin. In just a couple of months, the raiders killed 22 people, most of whom were from the Celestial Empire, stole about a hundred horses and stole up to 100 thousand dollars in gold. It is noteworthy that Asians, as usual, did not carry weapons with them, which is why they were easily robbed and killed. Sometimes members of the so-called gang of five Joaquins cut the throats of the Chinese just for fun. As you can see, the legend that made Murieta a fighter for the rights of the disadvantaged out of the thug has no basis.
Opposition from the authorities
In May 1853, then-California Governor John Bigler signed into law a law creating an armed detachment to counter gangs, called the "California Rangers". Captain Harry Love was appointed its commander.
I must say that the rangers had a very solid incentive - each of them was paid a monthly salary of 150 dollars. By the way, at that time it was good money. In addition, for the murdered banditthere was also a bonus of $1,000. In addition, the local Chinese diaspora, frightened by the numerous murders of their compatriots, established an additional bonus for the capture of bandits.
Hunting the gang of five Joaquins
Authorities of the state of California signed a contract with the Love Rangers for a period of 3 months. When the allotted time for the elimination of the gang was already coming to an end, on July 25 they nevertheless attacked the trail of the criminals. They were helped in this by a group of Indians who had recently seen Mexicans passing by, who looked very much like people from a gang whose leader was supposedly Joaquin Murieta. His photo has not been preserved, although there are images made on the basis of a verbal description of this person.
Death of the leader
The Rangers quickly got on the trail of the killers and caught up with them. A battle ensued, which soon ended with the complete victory of the representatives of the law. As evidence that the gang was eliminated, Love's men provided two trophies. One of them is the hand of Three-Fingered Jack, as his face was mutilated beyond recognition. The second was the head of a Mexican who looked like a leader. These trophies were placed in containers of alcohol.
It was officially recognized that it was Joaquin Murieta who died in that battle. Cause of Death: Shot and then beheaded. The governor personally accepted and examined the trophies, after which he paid the rangers the due reward. And this despite numerous doubts that this is the head of Murieta. Whatever it was, the people rejoiced. Newspapers, in theirturn, sang of the bravery of Ranger Commander Harry Love and his men, who were hailed everywhere as heroes. As you can see, the real Joaquin Murieta, whose biography was closely connected with crime, could not have anything to do with the Latin American insurgency.
Start of the legend
A year after the defeat of the gang and the murder of its leader, John Rollin Ridge wrote an adventure novel about Murieta, where he outlined the biography of his protagonist invented by him. It was this book that became the main source of the spread of the legend. I must say that the fate of this work of art and its fictional character is very interesting. The fact is that after the publication in America, Ridge's novel was very quickly recognized in Europe. The book was immediately translated into several languages. It was very popular among the European reader, so it was reprinted more than once.
By some coincidence, one of the French copies of the book ended up in Chile. Here, Roberto Ninne quickly translated the novel into Spanish and added in the preface to it that he allegedly was in California during the Gold Rush and heard about Murieta firsthand. Thus, the impression was created that the events and characters described in the book were genuine.
The plot of the novel
Rollin Ridge's book, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, tells the story of a poor Mexican boy who, in search of a better life, travels toCalifornia, where gold was recently discovered. According to the story, gringos (the so-called white Americans) have always disliked immigrants from Mexico, so they dishonored his wife, and her brother was slandered, accusing him of stealing horses. The poor man was hanged on the nearest tree, without listening to his arguments, and the main character was tied to a tree and whipped.
After such a cruel massacre, the Mexican, together with his wife and several compatriots, disappeared into the mountains. There he swore that he would kill any white American who got in his way. So Joaquin Murieta, whose years of life were now devoted to revenge, gathered a small detachment of like-minded people and began to settle scores with the gringo for all the insults inflicted on him and his wife Rosita. The book ends with the fact that he was about to start a real uprising of the Mexicans against the atrocities of the white enslavers, but the rangers hired by the authorities under the command of Harry Love soon overtook his squad and de alt with him, killing the main character as well.
The fate of the book
There are several versions of John Rollin Ridge's novel, which originally sold an incredible 7,000 copies at the time. This work could take its rightful place in the Guinness Book of Records in terms of plagiarism. 5 years after the Rollin-Ridge novel was published, a double of this bestseller appeared, remade by an unknown author, where Joaquin's wife is already called Carmela, and not Rosita, who was not only dishonored, but also killed. Later, a play was published in San Francisco, created all according to the sameplot. In it, the wife of the famous avenger was already called Belloro, and he himself also had a scar on his face.
Joaquin Murieta: a Latin American rebel leader or a simple robber and murderer?
There were several more reincarnations of this adventure novel until it was translated into Spanish. Now it was already called "The Chilean Robber", where Joaquin Murieta was from the same places. Here, a partially fictional character became so popular that a monument was erected to him as a brave and uncompromising fighter against injustice!
The appearance of this novel in Chile and its perception as a biographical work has so misled historians that some of them in their writings indicate the town of Quilleto as the real birthplace of Murieta. But it is known for certain that in the old church records that have survived to this day in Mexico, a certain Joaquin Murieta appears, whose year of birth coincides in time with the birth of the cruel leader of a gang of thugs. Many historians tend to think that these documents are evidence that he was still a Mexican bandit, and not a Chilean rebel leader.
So who is Joaquin Muriette really? There is still no clear answer to this question, and, to tell the truth, it is unlikely to be.
