The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit (1854) was published by John Rollin Ridge, writing as "Yellow Bird".

[1] Chapter one introduces Joaquín Murieta as a Mexican born in Sonora by "respectable parents", who eventually grew to disprove of the uncertain state of Mexico at the time.

A horrific scene is described by Rollin Ridge where a group of Americans, jealous of Murieta's mining success, beat him, tied him up, and then proceeded to rape his wife in front of him.

Though Murieta expressed his disbelief and claimed to have no knowledge that the horse was stolen, the mob tied him to a tree, whipped him, then proceeded to his half-brother's house and hung him.

Love followed the murders and robberies of the banditti to Rancho San Luis Gonzaga and nearly located Joaquín, who barely escapes unseen.

At the end of the chapter, Reyes Feliz, a close companion of Joaquín's and a member of the banditti, is attacked by a grizzly bear and asks to be left to die with his lover, Carmelita.

After various robberies conducted by the team of bandits, General Bean, another man in pursuit of one of Joaquín's band members named Claudio, was spotted near San Gabriel, California.

Joaquín conducted a surprise attack, and a member of the team named Three-fingered Jack stabbed Bean three times in the chest.

Joaquín's team then arrives in the town of Jackson, California, where he sees a friend named Joe Lake, who was from "more honest and happy days".

Chapter four begins with the death of Joaquín's close comrade and his lover's (Rosita's) brother, Reyes Feliz, who is pronounced dead in the newspaper.

While the group was resting and healing from battle, news that Mountain Jim, the man who had so graciously provided clothing and weapons to Joaquín earlier, had been hung in San Diego.

In chapter five, Rollin Ridge describes how other members of Joaquín's gang were blood-thirsty killers, such as Three-fingered Jack, who chased a poor, wandering Chinaman with a knife just for fun.

Having walked around the town afterwards in disguises, Joaquín heard of several successful miners who were going to be bringing in a large sum of gold by means of a nearby river.

At this rendezvous point, Joaquín made a speech of his imminent goals to arm 2,000 men and travel to the southern counties, where he will "kill the Americans 'wholesale'".

Though many claim he died in his sleep due to an overconsumption of alcohol, the truth is that his wife had murdered him with a bit of hot lead dripped into his ear.

Later, Joaquín forms a plan to travel several days, amounting to over 40 miles, in a circle, to trick Boyce and his miners into following a false trail.

During the trial, a man by the name of Samuel Harrington barges in and claims that he is an honest merchant of San Jose, California and that Viñuela had been working for him for four years, and could not be a part of a thieving band.

After a brutal massacre at Yaqui Camp by Joaquín and his team, enraged citizens begin burning all possible houses and areas where robbers are believed to be hiding.

The group of Mexicans got so out of hand that a meeting was eventually held at the town of Jackson, where everybody agreed that they should search for Joaquín, under command of Charles Clark, Esq., the sheriff of the county.

As John Rollin Ridge describes: "Thus was the whole country alive with armed parties… Arrests were continually being made… Pursuits, flights, skirmishes, and a topsy-turvy, hurly-burly mass of events occurred that set narration at defiance”.

John Rollin Ridge describes their preparations: "A shell was about to burst, which was little dreamed of by the mass of people because they merely looked upon Joaquín as a petty leader of a band of cutthroats!.

Being greatly outnumbered, Love exclaimed that he was simply sent to gather a list of names for people involved in mustang horse hunting, so a tax could be collected.

Love received $6,000 for the death of Joaquín Murieta, and collected spoils from the battle, including six revolvers, six Mexican saddles, a brace of holster pistols, and several pairs of spurs.

Not soon after the death of Joaquín, the mighty organization he had formed was broken up and existed in fragments across California and Mexico, never again reaching the power or influence it had while under command of Murieta.

Chapter six of Early Native American Writing: New Critical Essays by Helen Jaskoski includes an article written by John Lowe entitled, "I Am Joaquin!"

This article provides not only biographical history of John Rollin Ridge, but also includes a summary of The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta and its acceptance and prevalence into pop culture today.

[23] In Nineteenth-Century United States Literary Culture and Transnationality, John Carlos Rowe claims that Ridge's story on Joaquin Murieta has many political undertones that are reflective of his Cherokee roots.

[24] He focuses on how nationalist ideology affects various races in the area, and the negative effects it this transitional period after the Mexican War had on Native Americans.

[24] In Minority Interaction in John Rollin Ridge's The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, Peter Christensen discusses how John Rollin Ridge, in his story of Joaquin Murieta, portrays Mexicans in America as courageous heroes,[25] mocks Chinese as being feeble, weak, and pitiful (although very rich), and perceives Indians as cowards.

[25] Furthermore, he criticizes contemporary interpretations of the Mexicans as reflecting the Cherokee's - John Rollin Ridge's Tribe's - hatred towards the Americans and their government and critiques the viewpoint that the tale is a story of Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.