Followup, Gary's beliefs...

Before saying I should expose my own belief/bias. There can be no doubt that Joaquin was a bandit, no Robin Hood. And a violent one at that. But Joaquin lived during a time when corruption was rampant… so many who pursued him were nearly as disreputable as Joaquin was himself. Thus - if one is of either of the two extreme beliefs… nothing but a common thief and criminal and the other belief being a Robin Hood like hero to the poor and oppressed you can find ample evidence either way to support your theory. Personally I think the scales weigh heavily toward him being a common criminal. I’m not well schooled on the topic.

Gary leans more to the Robin Hood end of things but no where near those who consider him a hero. There is no disputing some of his crimes. Gary is fascinated with him for a lot of reasons… he’s “local”, and often frequented homesteaders, (friends and family), who lived on and near my ranch near Coalinga. The most popular Murietta myth(?) being, (everyone who grew up here has heard this), that he and his gang buried on or near my ranch chest(s) of gold stolen from the gold miners up in gold country. The most notable landmark in the area being Three Rocks, the mountain. To this day people search the area. The area was home to another legendary historical figure, (much less known than Murietta)… by the nickname of Mariana la Loca. Gary believes he has found a connection between the two… possibly that they were married. Mariana started a religious cult in the area and attracted many followers.

This link is too a website, no longer active, put together by a friend of mine who wrote a book about the area…. I haven’t spoken to him in years and frankly I’m not sure he’s still living. [www.3rocks.org] If you're interested he has tales of Joaquin, Mariana, and many others.

Lastly… Murietta interests me but not overly so. My interest is more with the native Americans (Yokuts), who lived in the area and are probably the least well known and studied tribes in the entire world. I have found many artifacts on ranch which I keep ‘secret’, untouched, because my partners would exploit them in a heartbeat if they knew of them.