19 out 1852 ano - Murrieta Terrorizing

Descrição:

As early as 1850, newspaper reports told of outlaws named "Joaquín" terrorizing California, according to Ireno Paz’s The Life and Adventures of the Celebrated Bandit Joaquín Murrieta. But there's no way that all the crimes attributed to "Joaquín" were committed by the same person, since sometimes crimes would occur hundreds of miles apart on the same day.

Joaquín Murrieta’s full name first appeared in the Los Angeles Star on November 27, 1852—although the "Joaquín" bandit would continue to have multiple surnames in the press right up until the infamous beheading.

All agree that by early 1853 one or more men named Joaquín and his or their comrades were dodging in and out of the Sierra foothills on fast horses, stealing gold dust and livestock and occasionally killing people. Then the stories bifurcate. Murrieta associates and descendants recall that Joaquín Murrieta carried out a personal vendetta against only those Anglo thugs who heaped shame upon his family, and that his banditry consisted of hunting down the offenders and, one by one, roping and dragging them to death.

For Anglo men, Joaquin was like their own worst selves set loose in the diggings—dark, sensual, impulsive, out of control.41 Something had to be done.

Still, dozens of unsolved bandit murders piled up: a general in San Gabriel in November 1852; six Chinese gold miners near Big Bar in February 1853. Anglo fears of the mysterious "Joaquín" grew to a fever pitch, and people demanded that the California rangers bring the outlaw to justice. And while much debate raged as to whether "Joaquín" really existed (or was just a mash-up of outlaws, narratively blended into a singular bogeyman), fear won out: In the spring of 1853, the California legislature put a $6,000 reward out on Joaquín's head. A team of California rangers, led by Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Harry Love attacked an outlaw camp in the early morning hours of July 25, 1853, killing eight men—Murrieta allegedly among them.

But a hungry winter in the southern mines (in the same region where Jean-Nicolas Perlot encountered the hundreds of graves of starved miners) helped provoke an outbreak of armed theft and associated violence in January 1853 that was unusual even by the anarchic standards of the gold country.

The principal victims had been Chinese; the perpetrators appeared to be Mexicans. “During the week a party of three Mexicans entered a Chinese tent at Yackee [Yaqui] Camp, near San Andres, and ransacked everything, despite the opposition of the inmates, carrying off two bags of gold dust, one containing $110 and the other $50.” The article went on, “Three armed Mexicans—supposed to be the same who committed the above outrage— entered another Chinese tent in the same vicinity, assaulted its inhabitants, holding loaded pistols to their heads to keep them quiet, and robbed them of two bags of gold dust, $90 and $60. One of the Chinamen, named Akop [Ah Kop], refused to give up his money and attempted to defend himself, when one of the ruffians drew his knife and ran the unfortunate celestial through the body, causing almost instant death.”

Together with his fellow outlaws, including a Mexican army veteran named “Three-Fingered Jack” who’d had two fingers blown off in a firefight during the Mexican-American War, Murrieta targeted American miners, pulling them off their horses with lassos, murdering them, and stealing their gold.

Murrieta’s gang became infamous throughout the territory. Ranchers complained to authorities that the men were descending from remote hideouts in the hills to steal their horses. Miners lived in fear of being taken on the roads by the band of criminals. No American in the territory was safe from Murrieta’s revenge.

Stories soon spread of Murrieta giving the gold he’d taken to poor Mexican natives and targeting the people who were taking advantage of them, making him a sort of Robin Hood character.

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