The film's story revolves around the Paiute Native American outlaw Willie Boy (Robert Blake), who escapes with his lover, Lola (Katharine Ross), after killing her father in self defense.

As depicted in the movie, Willie Boy and Lola (her actual name was Carlota, though she was also called Isoleta and Lolita in various accounts)[4] did run through the Morongo Valley.

Willie Boy was blamed for her death, but a 1994 book detailing Carlota's autopsy[5] proved that the bullet had been shot from a long distance away, implicating the posse.

[4] He ended his 'last stand' by suicide on the flanks of Ruby Mountain west of the current site of Landers, California.

The monument itself bears the inscription “The West’s Last Famous Manhunt”, alluding to the notion that this was the last effort of its type before the use of a posse was generally replaced by modern, 'fully' staffed and empowered law enforcement agencies.