When he was arrested in 1855, wanting to confuse the peace officers, he gave the name Tom Bell, a small time cattle rustler.
In 1855 he was serving time in Angel Island Prison for robbery when he met Bill Gristy and successfully escaped several weeks later.
When he found Bell near Firebaugh's Ferry on October 4, 1856, an impromptu posse commanded by Judge George Gordon Belt, a Merced River rancher, had already hanged him.
Three episodes of the Western television series "Tales of Wells Fargo" featured "Doc Bell" as a character.
Contrary to history, he was portrayed as a criminal who eventually reformed and returned to the medical profession to pay his debt to society.