Pico was considered by some Californios to be a patriot who opposed the American conquest of Alta California and its subsequent incorporation into the United States.
José Pico had spent a long career with the military, but by 1821 was partially retired as a manager for the King's Ranch, which provided food, leather, and other supplies to the Presidio.
Salomón spent his early life on the Rancho del Rey, but returned to Monterey pueblo with his mother when his father died in 1827.
His name appears with the rank of Ensign on a captured, September 7, 1846, letter by General José Castro to the Minister of War and Marine.
In southern California, there was little gold mined, but great numbers of cattle were raised, giving the area the name the "Cow Counties".
Men would ride south with the large amounts of gold dust, to buy stock, then drive them north to sell for a profit.
In later years, numbers of human skeletons were found in the countryside with a bullet hole in the skull, accounting for the mysterious disappearances of so many cattle traders.
He had become so popular, that with a knock on the door and an urgent request for shelter, he could ride his horse right into people's homes and so elude the pursuit of any posse.
A party of volunteers pursued the murderers, and near San Luis Obispo, captured a group of men, that included Solomon Pico and William Otis Hall, an American.
[16] However members of his gang and others continued to plague the central coast region for many years, under new leaders like Pio Linares and Jack Powers.
[17] Salomón Pico thought to have moved south to Los Angeles County and been protected by local Californios.
The following morning Pico had his arm dressed in Los Angeles without the Sheriff being alerted, protected by his Californio and American friends.
In November 1852, following the murder of Major General Joshua H. Bean, renewed efforts were made to rid the county of a suspected gang of highwaymen infesting it.
The Vigilance Committee of Los Angeles caused the arrest of several Mexicans thought to belong to Salomón Pico's band, including Reyes Feliz, who made a confession that before he came south to Los Angeles he was in the company of Joaquin Murrieta and Pedro Gonzales was robbing with him, and included a confession of the murder of a Mexican while at the mines, but professed ignorance of General Bean's death, or of any person accessory to it.
[27] Like Zorro, Salomón lived a dual life, defending justice by night, riding a powerful steed and trusting to the loyal support of his people.
[citation needed] A newspaper article published in 1925, claimed Pico carried with him a string of ears, removed from his victims to mark them forever; proof that they had met him.
Collecting the ears of his victims seems to have been borrowed from Hubert Howe Bancroft's account of the conduct of Domingo Hernandez, a California bandit contemporary with Pico, that operated from the vicinity of Monterey northward.