To many he was a hero. Others saw him as an outlaw. He has been the subject of plays, novels, poems — even movies. Drawings show him as an intense, romantic figure riding a spirited horse in his fight against injustice.

He has been called “The Mexican Robin Hood,” and like his Sherwood Forest counterpart, he is remembered as a man who fought for the oppressed and the common people, who in turn sheltered him when the law got too hot on his heels.

In the 1850s the stretch of El Camino Real running from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara was known as “the deadliest place in America.” A veritable rogue’s gallery of cutthroats, thieves and murderers lurked along this picturesque highway: Jack Powers, Pico Lenares, and Salomon Pico are only a few of the men who terrorized the unwary travelers wh

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