the common way a confession was obtained from a captured and accused Mexican, was to be hung from a tree, more than likely an oak tree, so that all blood ceased to flow to the head. And when the prisoner gasped his last before passing out he was released, enough to loosen his knot and be questioned. This is what happened several days prior to July 25, 1853 – Murrieta’s fated day- when Capt Harry Love obtained such an admission by similar means, from an unlucky member of Joaquin’s band, who gave up the hideout deep in the San Benito wilderness. Love, Captain of the California Rangers, an outfit formed by then Gov Bigler to apprehend the ‘five Joaquins,’, was a formidable lawman, and capable of any means to rid California of the scourge of Joaquin