Sorry, but the use of a 1939 reference is not your best choice. Murrieta is a major historical California personality and he should be as accurately discussed as possible. Please see Latta, Joaquin Murrieta and His Horse Gangs, 1980. Interviewed over 3,000 people including his relatives and gang members from San Francisco to Hermosillo, Mexico over a 40 year period to produce an amazing historical record debunking so many myths it’s impossible to explain them here. Just a tip of the iceberg, forget the picture circulated, that was his compadre who lost his head, he was blonde, blue or grey eyed, fair, 6’ 2" tall, smart, multilingual (English, Spanish, and German all fluently). And, please, he didn’t steal cattle, he stole horses and gold, like any self respecting thief.
The column is a staff report by Veg, whomever that is.
In point of fact, the column dismisses the head as being Joaquin Murieta’s.
[QUOTE=excerpt from column]
“…that Joaquin Valenzuela, one of them, was killed as he was endeavoring to escape, and that his head was cut off by his captors and held as a trophy. It is too well known that Joaquin Murieta was not the person killed by Captain Harry Love’s party at the Panoche Pass. The head recently exhibited in Stockton bears no resemblance to that individual, and this is positively asserted by those who have seen the real Murieta and the spurious head.”
[/QUOTE]
Further comments in the column about the decapitation are recitations of the legends told about Murieta, not claims to fact.