The Ghost of Joaquin Murrieta

The Ghost of Joaquin Murrieta
Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective
Sacramento Paranormal Investigations
Halo Paranormal Investigations
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Email: [email protected]
Sacramento Paranormal Haunted Hotline: 916 203 7503

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On the paranormal hotline for Halo Paranormal Investigations, I received 4 calls on the possible sighting of the ghost of outlaw Joaquin Murrieta. Before I get into the sightings, let me tell you who Joaquin Murrieta is, just in case you don’t know. Joaquin is definitely a legend. His story is blurry here and there, but there is a foundation of truth to it. This notorious outlaw was originally part of the California Gold Rush of the 1850s. Records show that Joaquin may have been a gold miner and a minor horse thief. There are newspaper accounts of a notorious bandido named Joaquin that robbed and killed many people. California Ranger Harry Love was tasked to track down Murrieta and the legend claimed that Harry killed Joaquin and brought in the head of Joaquin for the bounty. Other legends say that Joaquin was never killed, and he lived to be an old man. Joaquin being a forty-niner and gold miner would be hanging out in Sonora. Joaquin was a decent man, but when other gold miners got jealous of Joaquin for finding so much gold, they horse whipped him and then they took his brother and hanged him after falsely accusing Joaquin’s brother of stealing a mule. To make matters worse, they raped Joaquin’s wife. Legend has it that Joaquin’s wife after being raped, died in Joaquin’s arms. This drove Joaquin to madness and he vowed revenge. Joaquin hunted down the men that violated his wife and hung his brother and one by one, he killed them all. The killing didn’t stop, Joaquin continued to kill men that crossed his path.

Special Note: Joaquin Murrieta had many nicknames, some of them are:
Robin Hood of the West
Robin Hood of El Dorado
The Napoleon of Banditry

Lonnie Alberto from Reno, Nevada claims while visiting friends in Sonora, that he saw a Hispanic man dressed like a cowboy roaming the back trails in Sonora. As he watched this man on a horse, he faded away into the trees. When Lonnie went back to his friend’s house, he was told that he may have seen the ghost of Joaquin Murrieta. Joaquin was the inspiration for Zorro. 20th century author Johnston McCulley actually admitted that he based Don Diego de la Vega aka Zorro on a 1854 novel about Joaquin Murrieta.

Joaquin is known to have formed an outlaw gang. The gang was known as the Murrieta Night Bandits. The gang did some killing of at least 6 men, they were involved in illegal horse trading with Mexico. Terry Beltran of Trinidad, California said that when he was hiking in Gold Country, he saw a group of mustangs going through a trail and 4 men on horseback, leading the mustangs out into the range. One of the men, looked like Joaquin Murrieta. Terry says that he saw these men with the mustangs in 1982. A fog rolled in and when the fog lifted a short time later, the mustangs and the men on horseback had vanished. Terry is very familiar with the Joaquin legend and believes to this day, that he saw the ghostly apparitions of Joaquin and his men, herding the mustangs out of gold country.

The government of California paid the California Rangers $150.00 a month with a promise of $1,000.00, if Joaquin and his men were captured. The California Rangers on July 25, 1853, killed a group of armed Mexican men near Arroyo de Cantua on the edge of the Diablo Range near Coalinga. The California Rangers believe this was the Murrieta Night Bandits. In the confrontation, three of the Mexicans were killed. The rangers claimed one of the dead was Murrieta, and another Manuel Garcia, also known as Three-Fingered Jack. As proof of the outlaws’ deaths, the Rangers cut off the hand of Three-Fingered Jack, and the alleged head of Murrieta. They preserved these in a jar of alcohol to bring to the authorities to claim their reward. Officials displayed the jar of remains in Mariposa County, Stockton, and San Francisco. The rangers took the display throughout California; spectators could pay $1 to see the relics.

Cassius Abrams from Chico, CA, an independent ghost hunter says while ghost hunting at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Sonora, he captured an EVP of a man identifying himself as Joaquin Murrieta. Cassius heard reports of a Hispanic looking man dressed in dark cowboy clothes and a black cowboy hat had been seen near this park and walking through a train as if the train wasn’t even there. When Cassius talked into his recorder, he asked…”who are you and why are you haunting this State Park?” The EVP was of a man’s voice, that said…”Joaquin Murrieta”. Cassius says when he heard the EVP, he got chills all over his body.

Hugo Clarke of Santa Rosa says that his girlfriend claims that while playing with a Ouija Board with her girlfriends, an image of a man appeared on the closet door mirror. The image was the face of a Hispanic man in a cowboy hat. Hugo heard the girls screaming and he ran into the room and the room was ice cold. The incident happened on a hot summer day in Coloma, Ca. The girls when playing with the Ouija Board were asking “where is the gold?” Then the image appeared, and they believe it was the image of Joaquin Murrieta looking for his stolen gold.