Man, Myth, Devil or Angel... Who, What Was Joaquin Murieta? From out of the pages of history, Joaquin Murieta, California's Legedary Robin Hood Bandit, returns to El Dorado to battle an old adversary and rescue the woman he loves.... According to the most popular legend, Joaquin was born in Sonora, Mexico around 1832. After the war with Mexico, he headed for the California gold fields to seek his fortune. He staked his claim and built a small cabin on the banks of the Stanislaus River where he and his beloved wife, Rosita, lived and worked in peace and harmony. Tragedy struck when some drunken Anglos descended upon Joaquin's home, raped and killed Rosita, whipped Joaquin, then stole his claim. Penniless and griefstricken, Joaquin made an oath to get revenge. In 1853, California's governor offered a $5000 reward for the capture of "Joaquin," the notorious bandit. He sent Captain Harry Love, a former Texas Ranger and twenty California Rangers to find the elusive bandit. West of Three Rocks, California, across the Interstate 5, is the site where Love's rangers killed the 21-year-old Joaquin. Or did they? There seems to be some question about whether it was Joaquin Murieta and not someone else, perhaps mother Joaquin, who was beheaded that hot summer day, July 25, 1853. And if Joaquin Murieta did not die--if he lived--what became of him? That question was the birth of Touch The Dawn. Stories of Joaquin and his adventures have been dratnatized in books, plays, and poems. Episodes of "Bonanza" and "Big Valley" brought the Murieta legend to TV. In 1936, a motion picture film entitled "The Robin Hood of El Dorado," starring Warner Baxter as Joaquin, told yet another version of the bandit's life as did subsequent films, "The Avenger" and "Vengeance of the West."