Joaquin Murrieta [pp. 530-539]

JOAQUIN MURRIETA.
Molinera, the faithless mistress of Joaquin. She had now been deserted by
Pancho Daniel, with whom she had
eloped, and fearing the wrath of Joaquin,
she sought protection from the Americans. For her own safety she had kept
herself informed of the movements of the
bandits, and reported that they were at
Tejon pass.
The rangers rapidly rode to the place
designated, and at dawn next morning
surrounded a party of Mexicans, whom
they believed to be the bandits. The
party consisted of seven, and the rangers
were eight in number. The Mexicans
had camped on a slight eminence or
knoll, in a plain, and though having an
unobstructed view for perhaps fifty
yards, were surprised. Six of the Mexicans were seated around the fire preparing breakfast, smoking and talking.
Their horses were perhaps twenty yards
distant. Murrieta was standing by his
horse, feeding and petting him.
The rangers seemed not to know Murrieta, even from the descriptions they
had received. Love first accosted him
as to his destination. Joaquin replied,
Los Angeles." Love was asking
other questions, when William Burns,
a former gambler, who knew Joaquin,
turned and recognized him.
Manuel Garcia, he of the three fingers,
was the only one who had not laid aside
his arms, and stood waiting for developments. As soon as Joaquin saw his former companion, Burns, he shouted to
his men to amn7os, threw himself upon
his bare-back horse, and sped away like
the wind.
Love and two others followed. Joaquin fell as his horse leaped a precipice,
amid the whistling bullets. He remounted, and threw his body over on the
side of the horse to protect himself. In
a moment, the horse was shot, and fell;
but Joaquin was instantly on his feet.
As he arose he was shot in the arm. He
stopped, faced his pursuers, held up his
arm, saying: "Mira! Mira!" " Look!
Look!"
No attention was given to the surrender, but the three pursuers again fired at
close range, each shot taking effect.
Murrieta raised his arms, scowled at his
assailants, and shouting, "It is enough,"
sank to the earth, dead.
In the meantime, " Three-Fingered
Jack" and the other men were having
trouble with the other four rangers.
Jack fought desperately, and fell riddled
with bullets, uttering a " Carajo, gringos," as he breathed his last. The remaining three bandits were either killed,
or captured and killed.
With the death of their leader, the
band disbanded. The head of JoaquinL
Murrieta was severed fromi his body, in
order that it might be identified, and the
reward secured. The strong right hand
of Jack, which contained only three fingers, was also cut off. They were
placed in alcohol and brought to San
Francisco by two of the company, Wil'iam Black and J. Nuttal.
A "dodger" issued on August i8,
1853, had these " scare lines," in big
black type: "Joaquin's head is on exhibition at King's, corner of Halleck and
Sansome streets; also, the hand of
Three-Fingered Jack! Admisison, one
dollar."
The press agent evidently did not
work the newspapers to any extent, for
the attraction failed to draw, and after a
short season of one week, the show
closed. The managers took the grewsome exhibit to the smaller towns, but
there it also met with a frost, and finally
the exhibit was seized by creditors and
sold by the sheriff to satisfy a claim of
fifty dollars. It was bought by a San
Francisco museum proprietor, and exhibited for many years. For a short times
536