About this episode

The episode explores the legend of Joaquin Murrieta, examining whether he was a social bandit or motivated by self-interest.

Robbing from the rich to give to the poor and downtrodden - this is the legend of Joaquin Murrieta. But how true was it? Murder rates in 1850s California were 30 times higher than they are today, and Joaquin was part of this violence. Was he a social bandit, or was he fuelled by self-interest? Don is finding out today with historian John Boessenecker, author of ‘Bring Me the Head of Joaquin Murrieta'. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe .   All music from Epidemic Sounds. American History Hit is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Don

Guest: John Boessenecker

Topics covered

• Joaquin Murrieta
• Wild West
• social banditry
• California history
• violence
• legend

Keywords

• Joaquin Murrieta
• Wild West
• California
• social bandit
• history
• violence
• John Boessenecker

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: History Hit, Acast

Books & works: Bring Me the Head of Joaquin Murrieta

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