Joaquin Murrieta Carillo was in California during the 1850s gold rush. There are many accounts, some contradictory, of his actions but he is generally thought of as The Mexican Robin Hood. His life and death was popularized in a dime novel and probably served as the template for Zorro.
Barton doesn't want to use dynamite, preferring his own smokeless nitroglycerin gelatin. Dynamite is nitroglycerin stabilized by being soaked into diatomaceous earth.