Elfego Baca, a notorious womanizer, masterminded a jail break for a Mexican revolutionary general, killed an opponent (Celestino Otero)in cold blood and destroyed his wife in court, and intimidated juries, specializing in getting murderers acquitted. Not a man I would call a hero. Disney bears the blame for much of the legend, along with Baca's self-aggrandizing claims and a book ghost-written by Kyle Crichton.

As amply shown in this thread, people believe the legend and dismiss facts because they never read history.