Contemporary newspaper accounts compared him to Robin Hood,[12] and he was reportedly aided in escaping from lawmen by Mexicans residing in California.

[8] Joaquin was killed by a group of rangers who placed his head in a brandy jar and displayed it at locations around California for spectators to view for a $1 fee.

[7][16] Procopio's gang was suspected in the brutal murder of rancher Aaron Golding (or Golden), his wife, and two children, at Corral Hollow on January 29, 1863.

[12] The Golding murders drew widespread attention, and suspicion immediately turned to Procopio, Narcisso Bojorques, Chano Ortega, and another bandit known to be operating in the area.

[18] Procopio and two other members of his gang were arrested in the Golding murders but were freed due to a lack of evidence against them (the only eyewitness having already been hanged for the crime).

[8] Procopio was released from San Quentin in March 1871,[7] and according to an August 1871 account in the Alameda Gazette "returned to his old practices as a dog to vomit.

"[12] He returned to the Livermore Valley after his release from San Quentin, where he was suspected in May 1871 of stealing two cows belonging to John Arnett.

An armed and masked mob of 50 men seized Camargo from the jail, took him into the woods three miles from Pleasanton, placed a rope around his neck, and lifted him by it until he confessed, charging the robbery upon Procopio and another man.

[12] A press report in 1871 noted that Procopio and his gang were "splendidly mounted and equipped, wear good clothes and sporting gold watches.

[7] Following a series of stagecoach robberies together, Procopio and Vásquez reportedly fled south for a "debauched stay"[19] in rural Mexico "to spend their new wealth.

[7]The case drew attention even on the East Coast where The New York Times reported: Tomas Rodundo, alias Procopio, who is charged with many murders, and stage robberies, and other crimes, was captured today at his hiding place in San Francisco.

[9]Procopio was initially arrested for complicity in the murder of a Frenchman at Pleasanton, a crime for which his colleague, Bartolo Sepulveda, was given a life sentence.

[19] In Caliente, Procopio and his gang reportedly made a "forced levy" on the town's stores and people in the style of Tiburcio Vásquez.

"[6] Procopio tied up Jerusalem and another worker, Emil Seligman, leaving them to lie on the store's floor overnight with their small dog for company.

[25] Loaded with clothing and supplies, Procopio fled on horseback for Arroyo Poso de Chane, several miles east of the present Coalinga.

[26] Procopio asked permission to dress himself and, when he put on his coat, drew two pistols from his breast pocket and opened fire.

[2] In the ensuing firefight, posse member Sol Gladden, who was to have been married the following week, was shot twice (once in the mouth) and killed as he entered the cabin.

[26] According to one press report: "Procopio made good his escape after the possemen had emptied their weapons vainly trying to shoot him in the smoke-filled cabin.

The San Jose Mercury reported on the chase as follows: Procopio is regarded as even a more dangerous man than (his intimate associate and dead confederate Tiburcio) Vásquez.

After his release from San Quentin he went to Livermore and one night in affray at the Mexican settlement, known as Mexico, he shot a man, but for some reason was not prosecuted.

[27][28] One historical account reports that, in 1882, Procopio shot and killed an actor in a Mexican brothel, was arrested and executed by a firing squad.

[26] Yet another says that, after fleeing California in 1878, Procopio wandered among Mexican settlements, "making himself heartily disliked for his quarrelsomeness and his boastfulness of what he had done as a bad man to the hated gringo.

In 1925, the Los Angeles Times published a lengthy profile titled: "Killing Was Pastime for 'Red-Handed Dick,' One of California's Most Fearsome Bandits.

One of his favorite pastimes was to ride gravely and innocently past when he met a stranger on the trail, and then to bury his huge knife to the hilt between the unsuspecting victim's shoulders.