James Addison Reavis (May 10, 1843November 27, 1914), later using the name James Addison Peralta-Reavis, the so-called Baron of Arizona, was an American forger and fraudster. He is best known in association with the Peralta land grant, also known as the Barony of Arizona, a pair of fraudulent land claims, which if certified, would have granted him ownership of over of land in central Arizona Territory and western New Mexico Territory.<!--maximum claim dimensions were 236.4921 by --> During the course of the fraud, Reavis collected an estimated US$5.3&nbsp;million in cash and promissory notes ($ in present-day terms) through the sale of quitclaims and proposed investment plans.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase, the United States was required to recognize and honor existing land grants made by either the Spanish or Mexican governments. Reavis used this provision by manufacturing a fictional claim and then generating a collection of documents demonstrating how the claim came into his possession. The documents were then covertly inserted into various records archives. In his initial claim, Reavis claimed title to the grant via a series of conveyances. When serious challenges to this claim developed, Reavis developed a second claim by marrying the purported last surviving lineal descendant of the original claim recipient.

During the course of his deception, Reavis convinced prominent people to support his efforts. He obtained legal and political support from Roscoe Conkling, Robert G. Ingersoll, and James Broadhead. Business leaders such as Charles Crocker and John W. Mackay, in turn, provided financial support. Initial exposure of the fraud occurred when an unfavorable surveyor general report caused the claim to be summarily dismissed. In response to this action, Reavis sued the U.S. government for US$11&nbsp;million in damages ($ in present-day terms). The suit, in turn, prompted the U.S. government to perform a detailed investigation that fully exposed the forgeries Reavis had planted in a variety of locations.

Early life

Reavis was born the second of five children to Fenton George Reavis and Mary Reavis (née Dixon) on May 10, 1843, in Henry County, Missouri, near the town of Clinton. His father was a Welshman who had immigrated to the United States in the early 1820s. His mother was of Scottish and Spanish descent and proud of her Spanish heritage. The family lived on a small farm and owned a small tannery. Reavis received little formal education, but his mother read Spanish Romantic literature to him, and he developed a grandiose and eloquent writing pattern. In 1857, the family sold their farm and moved to Montevallo, Missouri, where they opened a store.

Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, Reavis enlisted in Hunter's Regiment of the Confederate Army, 8th Division of the Missouri State Guard. Several months later, he went to Springfield and re-enlisted in Captain Lowe's company. Initially holding dreams of glory, the 18-year-old Reavis soon discovered the realities of military life did not match his romanticized ideals. About this time, he accidentally discovered that he could accurately reproduce his commanding officer's signature. Using this new-found skill, Reavis began producing passes to avoid the drudgery of army life, and instead spent time visiting his mother. When his fellow soldiers noticed the frequency and manner by which he obtained his passes, Reavis began selling forged passes to them. When some of his superiors became suspicious of Reavis, he obtained leave supposedly to get married, but instead used it to surrender to Union forces. Following his surrender, Reavis joined the Union Army and briefly served in an artillery regiment.

Following the war, Reavis traveled to Brazil and learned Portuguese. He returned to St. Louis, Missouri, near the end of 1866. There, he worked a series of jobs, including streetcar conductor, traveling salesman, and clerk at a variety of retail stores. Eventually, he found success as a real-estate agent. After several small real-estate deals, Reavis saved enough money to open his own office. He then discovered that the skills he learned forging army passes allowed him to adjust real-estate paperwork and correct imperfect property titles. In one established instance, he aided in this manner a man seeking to purchase a tract of land near St. Louis. Three generations of documents accumulated by the selling family were unable to establish clear title for the land. Reavis was able to produce a yellowed and fading 18th-century document that all previous searches had failed to notice. Accepted as valid by all parties to the transaction, this (forged) document allowed his client to complete the transaction.

George Willing

Reavis met George M. Willing Jr. in 1871. Willing was a physician-turned-prospector who supplemented his income selling patent medicine. He came to the real estate agent upon the recommendation of Colonel Byser, a previous customer of Reavis's, seeking assistance with a real estate purchase. According to Willing, he had purchased the rights to a large Spanish land grant from Miguel Peralta for US$20,000 in gold dust, prospecting equipment, and saddle mules. The transaction had occurred at a simple mining site in Black Canyon, southeast of Prescott, Arizona Territory without the usual documentation. As Willing explained, "When the trade was made, I had no paper on which to write the deed, so I scoured the camp and found a sheet of greasy, pencil-marked camp paper upon which I wrote ... and as there were no justices or notaries present I had it acknowledged before witnesses." The deed of transfer was dated October 20, 1864.

thumb|left|Cover of royal (decree) initially establishing the Peralta grant

Willing reached Prescott in 1867 to record the transaction. He was short of funds at the time of his arrival, so offered to sell a half interest in the claim to the local stable owner, James D. Monihon. Willing suggested that the two of them could reap a sizable profit by selling nearby mines back to their owners. Monihon was incensed by the offer, and the local townsfolk were soon unfriendly to Willing. Fearing for his safety, Willing quickly settled his bills and left the next morning with a government surveying team destined for Santa Fe.

Reavis suggested that Willing leave the documents to allow him time to inspect them. Willing declined the offer, and instead returned the next day with an expert in Spanish land titles, William W. Gitt. Recently returned to St. Louis, Gitt was known as the "Old Spanish Land Title Lawyer" following a series of dubious land deals in Illinois and Missouri. The previous two decades he had lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, after an 1847 land claim lawsuit had resulted in a bench warrant being issued in the lawyer's name.

The three men began meeting for several hours each week to examine the grant paperwork. In addition to the deed between Willing and Peralta, they had an , a copy of the legal papers relating to the Peralta grant. Accompanying the copies was a letter dated 1853 and bearing the signature of Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna claiming a diligent search had been performed to locate all related documents and that the expediente established secure title of the grant. Reavis used this time and association with Gitt to learn about Mexican and Spanish land documents. He also developed a friendship with Willing's wife, Mary Ann, whom the young real estate agent regarded as a second mother.

After a few years, Reavis and Willing formed a partnership aimed at promoting the claim. The two men planned to travel separately, allowing Willing to retain Reavis as a real estate expert upon his arrival. Willing left with the paperwork in January 1874, taking the overland route to Arizona Territory. Reavis traveled by sea to California via Panama. In California, Reavis visited Florin Massol, a Sacramento merchant with whom Willing had left papers assigning mining rights within the Peralta grant as collateral against a loan.

Reavis married Ada Pope of Montevallo on May 5, 1874. The couple had known each other since the days when Reavis' family operated their store. Following a brief honeymoon, he departed for the west and the couple did not see each other again for over six years. Dissatisfied with the state of their marriage, she received a divorce on grounds of desertion in 1883.

Establishing the grant

Willing arrived in Prescott in March 1874 and filed his claim in the Yavapai County Courthouse. The next morning, he was found dead. No official investigation as to the cause of Willing's death was ever performed. Suggested causes include poison, About this time, the acting commissioner of the Land Office had received inquiries as to the status of the Peralta grant. In September 1889, he sent Johnson a letter directing the surveyor general to "please report to me the exact condition of said grant as shown by papers and records in your office, and all the information you can obtain in regard to it." Johnson responded to this request on October 12, 1889, with the release of Adverse report of the Surveyor General of Arizona, Royal A. Johnson, upon the alleged Peralta Grant: a complete expose of its fraudulent character.

Among the issues found in the report with the Peralta grant were:

  • Most of the claim's 18th-century documents showed evidence of having been written with steel-nibbed pens – a tool rarely used until the 19th century – instead of a quill.
  • Printing styles on the Peralta documents differed with documents from the same time period, particularly in the use of the long s.
  • Searches of Spanish archives for supporting documents had failed to find information on the Peralta grant in locations where such information was expected.
  • Multiple spelling errors and grammar issues were present in the Peralta documents, a situation highly atypical of documents from the Spanish royal court.

Johnson's report was met with celebration by Arizona residents, and the once-demonized surveyor general became the toast of the town. The Gazette praised the surveyor general's intelligence and fairness, while extending the thanks of the Salt River valley. The Herald, in turn, printed, "No one has criticized Johnson more than we and these criticisms were founded largely on his own statements, but no one will do Mr. Johnson complete justice for his actions on behalf of the settlers sooner or more heartily give him credit for standing by them in their time of need than the Herald." Governor Murphy even invited Johnson to Phoenix where a public reception was held in his honor.

Response in Washington to Johnson's report was more subdued. Reavis had enlisted the aid of Secretary of the Interior John Willock Noble and U.S. Senator Francis Cockrell in his lobbying efforts. As a result, it took until February 20, 1890, for the commissioner of the Land Office, Lewis Groff, to respond to Johnson's report. Groff's letter to Johnson was generally critical of the surveyor general, but could not disregard the report's findings. The letter ended with instructions for Johnson "to strike the case from your docket and notify Mr. Reavis of the action, allowing the usual time for an appeal to the Hon. Secretary of the Interior."

Reavis' response

In response to Johnson's report and the subsequent dismissal of his claim, Reavis filed suit against the United States in the Court of Claims. The lawsuit claimed the government had taken land belonging to Reavis and his wife and sold it to settlers, the government had reserved for its own use, had appropriated excessive water rights from the Gila River, and had denied the plaintiffs of their constitutional right to due process. Reavis sought US$11&nbsp;million in damages already incurred with provisions in the suit for "further relief and costs" against future damages. Southern Pacific Railroad attorney Harvey S. Brown served as Reavis' lead counsel, while Robert G. Ingersoll and James Broadhead assisted in preparing the case.

At the time of filing, Reavis and his wife said they were aware that the surveyor general had released a report, but claimed to have been unable to obtain a copy. Following the initial filing, a continuance was filed to allow time for the collection of additional evidence. During this delay, in March 1891, the United States Court of Private Land Claims was created with jurisdiction to adjudicate claims involving old French, Mexican, and Spanish land claims.

After filing suit, Reavis went to California to locate witnesses who were familiar with the details of Sophia's youth. During October and November 1890, a series of depositions was held in San Francisco and Los Angeles to take testimony from the witnesses he had located. Key witness located during this process were Miguel Noe, Sr., his son Miguel, Jr., Andrés Sandoval, Alfred Sherwood, and John Snowball. Noe testified to having been a friend of José Ramon Carmen Maso and to having met the second baron during his time in California before his trip to Spain. The testimony included a wide variety of details related to the second baron's stay and included Noe accompanying the baron to Sherwood Valley to confirm that his granddaughter was well cared for. The senior Noe's testimony was supported by Miguel, Jr., relaying his childhood memories of the second baron. Sandoval testified to having run a boardinghouse and restaurant where the second baron and his son-in-law had stayed while they were in San Francisco. Sherwood provided details of Sophia's life from when she had been brought home by John Treadway at four months of age in July 1862, how she had been attended by her wet nurse and grandmother, and how her grandmother had told the young girl of a large inheritance she would someday receive. Snowball, in turn, testified as to how he had taken the orphaned girl into his house when she was eight and raised her till 1876, when she left to work with a dressmaker. Other witnesses filled in additional details of Sophia's life between 1879 and 1882.

In addition to details about his wife's early childhood, Reavis discovered other witnesses able to relate details about her family. In this manner, additional details were revealed about the second baron and his activities during the 1850s. Another revelation was the existence of a previously unknown third cousin to the third baroness, Miguel Lauro Peralta y Vasquez. Information discovered about this cousin showed that he had traveled through Arizona during the time in which Willing had purchased the rights to the Peralta grant and could potentially have posed as the second baron during the transaction.

A trip to San Bernardino in early 1892 resulted in Reavis discovering baptismal records for the Maso twins, along with a record of burial of mother and newborn son. Following this stop, Reavis returned to Guadalajara to search for additional records. A local historian informed him that some records had been stored in the archives of the Ayuntamiento (Common Council). An extended search of these records resulted in a copy of the first baron's probate proceedings being found. The apparent reason for why they had never been found in previous searches was that they had been misfiled with a group of 1824 papers, possibly as a consequence of the first baron's probate proceedings. Included in these records was a Peralta family genealogy and escutcheon, and showing the first baron's promotion to captain of dragoons (1748), declaring the royal intention to make a land grant (1748), and approving the grant (1778).

thumb|left|The Reavis twins, Carlos and Miguel, circa 1898

During the second half of 1892, Reavis had hoped to perform another search for witnesses in the company of James Broadhead. Broadhead's duties as a congressman, however, forced a delay of this plan until at least mid-1893. This delay worked for Reavis, as on March 8, 1893, his wife gave birth to twin boys, named Carlos Jesús and Miguel in honor of the first and second barons. Reavis viewed this birth as further proof of Sophia being a twin.

By 1893, Reavis began to develop financial problems. Travel, research, and legal expenses, combined with the maintenance expenses of his various households, had consumed most of his cash. Questions about the status of the Peralta claim, in turn, had dried up most new investments. To maintain solvency and defray his expenses, Reavis made arrangements with a group of Washington and San Francisco businessmen to extend him US$30,000 at the rate of US$2500/month.

With the volume of evidence and witness testimony accumulated, James Broadhead decided that the Peralta case was proven.

Reavis went to Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory, to file his final complaint in February 1893. Land office draftsman William Strover recalled "an express wagon drove up and unloaded an array of boxes and packages, all addressed to the court and marked 'Peralta Grant'. When all was unpacked, three large tables, placed end to end, were filled with documents, ancient books, [and] pictures, including a large oil painting of the Marquis de Peralta, in his robes as grandee of Spain. There were documents with large leaden seals attached and signed by the king of Spain. There was a complete history of the marquis [and] letters to him and from him."

After submitting his amended filing, Reavis and his family moved back to his mansion in Arizola<!--Town name is not a typo-->.

Government investigation

thumb|right|upright|This forged Peralta grant document was created by adding a page number (upper right) and the word "Lo" (lower right) to an otherwise valid original.

Mathew Given Reynolds, a special attorney for the United States Court of Private Land Claims, was assigned to represent the government in Reavis' suit. Sevaro Mallet-Prevost, a Mexican-born New York lawyer familiar with Spanish and Mexican law, and William M. Tipton, an expert on document analysis, were assigned to assist. Mallet-Prevost and Tipton were dispatched to Tucson in January 1894 to make an examination of Reavis' original claim. From there, Mallet-Prevost continued on to the archives in Mexico.

As the archives in Guadalajara were in the process of being moved, Mallet-Prevost began his search in Mexico City. A search of the National Archives found no record of the Peralta grant, but did produce copies of signatures and 18th-century documents for use in later comparisons. From Mexico City, he went to Guadalajara, arriving just after the move of the archive was completed. Upon his return to Santa Fe in April 1894, Mallet-Prevost stated he was "entirely convinced of the spurious character of every paper there filed".

Mallet-Prevost was then sent to Spain, arriving in Madrid on June 12, 1894. The first place the Mexican-born lawyer checked was the in Seville. There, he found that Reavis had arrived as a tourist and after several days had applied for and was granted permission to search the archives. Reavis searched bundles for several days without success, the archivist assigned to assist him believing the documents he was searching for did not exist. Reavis then requested access to case 77, drawer 3, (file) 31. The assisting archivist was surprised to see a document he had previously never seen in the bundle. This incident was reported to the chief archivist, who ordered that Reavis be carefully watched and that all records be carefully numbered before he was allowed to examine them in the future.

When Reavis later returned to the archive, the prescribed measures had been put into place. At the end of one day, Reavis discovered a document in a bundle he was searching and requested a certified copy of it. The document was in an envelope and the paper folded. No other documents in the bundle were folded, and the document Reavis had found was not numbered as other pages in the bundle had been. Based upon this evidence and testimony from other clerks in the archive that the questioned document had not originally been part of the bundle, an arrest warrant was issued for Reavis. Reavis, however, left Seville before an arrest could be made, and influential friends in Madrid had suppressed any further investigation.

While Mallet-Prevost was at the archives in Spain, Reynolds went to California to perform background investigations on the witnesses Reavis had located. During this process, Reynolds was approached by San Francisco lawyer William W. Allen. Allen informed the investigator, "I have an original contract made by and between Reavis and his wife, and a witness, in which the witness is to receive a contingency fee of fifty thousand dollars if he testifies to a certain statement prepared by Reavis." Allen later told how Reavis had given Miguel Noe information about Don José Maso, his supposed close friend, for Noe to commit to memory. As part of the agreement, Noe was expected to locate other persons willing to memorize and testify to other events.

On September 6, 1894, the government requested a judge be commissioned to take testimony. Despite protests from Reavis' attorney, Judge Thomas C. Fuller was appointed. Testimony was taken in Guadalajara between October 16 and 26, 1894. Despite being informed of the proceedings, no one representing Reavis attended the proceedings. The most likely explanation for this is that Reavis could no longer pay his attorneys. The testimony centered on the December 20, 1748, recommending the viceroy make the Peralta grant. When asked about this document, archivist Emitiro Robles Giles testified, "I have searched all those archives in which such a should be found and I do not find it; I have found, however, a record to that effect; I have found in the protocol of the Notory Diego de la Sierra y Dueñas certain documents in relation to the matter, which are notoriously not genuine."

On January 5, 1895, Judge Wilbur F. Stone left New York to take evidence in Spain. Due to delays in obtaining cooperation from the Spanish government, this process was not completed till March 3, 1895. Following his return, a trial date was set for May 30, 1895. As details of the government's evidence became known, the lawyers representing Reavis began withdrawing from the case. Attorney Phil B. Thompson notified the Court of Private Land Claims of his withdrawal in a letter. James Broadhead was unable to continue to represent Reavis due to his appointment as Minister to Switzerland.

In the meantime, Reavis' money had run out and he was destitute by the time the trial began.

Civil suit

The trial for Reavis' civil action began on Monday June 3, 1895, at 10:00. As neither Reavis nor anyone representing him was in attendance, the court adjourned till 14:00 before beginning without his presence. The first motion was from a lawyer representing a group of 106 individuals related to Miguel Peralta of Wickenburg, Arizona Territory. These real Peralta family members had heard about the case and hoped for a portion of any settlement. In his statement to the court, the lawyer informed the court that:

<blockquote>The Government Attorney ... yesterday afternoon placed in my hands the printed evidence .. and to my mind it did seem as though that grant, upon which Reavis relies—it seems to me, from a cursory examination ... that it is a fabrication, and as such, if such it turns out to be ... I want it distinctly understood by the Court and by the Government Attorney, that we have had nothing to do with it. We wash our hands from all of it.</blockquote>

Presentation of the government case began in earnest on Tuesday morning, Reavis and his counsel still not present. First on the stand was Mallet-Prevost, who testified about language and grammar problems present in some of the Peralta documents. As an example of the problem, he identified one document containing the word , a word not in the Spanish language. Another example was the word , an incorrect past tense of the verb , being used instead of the correct .

thumb|upright|left|FA forged Peralta grant document: The page in entirety was inserted into a .

Tipton, the government's document analysis expert, next took the stand to discuss the 1748 . His examination had found that while the coversheet appeared to be authentic, the only mention of Don Miguel de Peralta was located on a piece of yellowed tissue paper pasted to the paper. He declared the five sheets of paper contained inside the cover to be forgeries due to their style of writing not being consistent with the handwriting in use at the time and the seals being glued to the paper instead of impressed by a metal seal as was the custom at the time of the document.

Following this, Tipton went on to problems with other original papers that had been located during the search of the Guadalajara archives. One group of papers was located in a set of papers related to work done by the notary Diego de la Sierra between 1697 and 1698; the Peralta papers had been inserted between two pages of a bound volume numbered 178 and 179, respectively, printed on paper that was shorter and narrower than the other pages of the book, showed evidence of being folded unlike the book's other pages, and were glued in place instead of being bound as was the rest of the volume.

Wednesday began with Mallet-Prevost testifying on his findings during his trip to Spain. He began with the will of Miguel de Peralta, where the only mentions of the name occurred over erasures. Additionally the will indicated it had been recorded in the Registry of Mortgages, volume 23, page 2, leaf 216, in section 122. An examination of that part of the registry found an unrelated document. Tipton and Mallet-Provest continued to examine other documents and depositions until later that afternoon. At that time, a telegraph arrived from Reavis asking for a continuance till June 10, 1895. The request was granted.

Reavis first appeared in court on Monday June 10, 1895. His first act was to ask for a continuance so that he could locate new legal representation. When this motion met resistance, Reavis moved to dismiss. Reavis was finally granted a one-day continuance so he could prepare to represent himself.

Tuesday's court session began with Reavis taking the stand. Beginning with an account of his early career, he described his meeting Dr. Willing and his trip to Prescott to obtain the Peralta documents. During the testimony, Reavis listed the names of the many influential legal and business figures with whom he had associated. When cross-examined by Reynolds, Reavis employed a tactic of providing excessive and irrelevant details within his answers. Later in the day, Reavis was questioned about his discovery of documents within the San Xavier record books, his 1883 trip to the archives in Mexico, and his trip to Spain.

Wednesday morning's session began with Reavis being questioned about his marriage contract to his wife, moved to details on his discovery of the "Inicial Monument", and was followed by questions about his financial transactions with the Southern Pacific Railroad and Silver King mine.

When questioned about the boundaries of the grant, Reavis testified that he had found a copy of a map in the Mexico City archives, but the archivist had refused to make him a copy, as the map was surrounded by papers the archivist considered to be of a questionable nature. To explain the lack of documents from Mexico City, Reavis stated that the archives of the Inquisition had been sealed and no one was allowed access.

In the afternoon, questioning turned to Reavis' discovery of the baptismal and burial records in San Bernardino. The subject then turned to Alfred Sherwood's 1887 affidavit regarding Sophia's noble birth.

During this line of questioning, an apparent contradiction appeared where Reavis had known of Miguel Noe and others with knowledge of Sophia's early life as early as 1885, but he did not look for any of these people till 1892. On the morning of June 13, Reavis was forced to admit he had doubted some of the documents in his 1883 filing were genuine, but he had still filed them on advice of counsel, while believing his wife was the true heir. At the same time, he admitted that he had at that time not told his lawyers of his marriage.

On Thursday afternoon, Father P.J. Stockman, rector of the church of San Bernardino, testified the records of the baptismal of Mrs. Reavis and her twin brother and deaths of the boy and his mother were forged. During a trip away from the parish, Stockman had left a young and inexperienced priest, Father Joseph O'Reilly, in charge of the church. The young priest had been convinced to lend the birth and death registers to Reavis, but had failed to inform Reavis that the church kept a separate index that was organized by last name and updated annually.

During Father Stockman's testimony, he pointed out differences in the inks between the pages related to Mrs. Reavis and the rest of the ledger. The index made no mention of Doña Sophia Laura or her son, with no evidence of either of their graves in the parish graveyard. This testimony was followed by Father O'Reilly, who identified Reavis as the person he had given possession of the record books for a period between two weeks and a month. Following the priest's testimony, the trial returned to an examination of the documentary evidence. Reavis was granted a request to be excused from the court during this phase of the trial.

Testimony on Friday began with Tipton examining the genealogical document for the Peralta family from the first baron's will. His testimony showed the first and last leaves of the document to be genuine documents from the indicated period, but that the pages in between were all forgeries.

This was followed by an examination of the 1742 appointment of Don Miguel Peralta as royal inspector. It was pointed out the bottom of the document contained the line "". Within this line, an untrained person could see the words and had been written in a darker ink and by a different hand than the rest of the line. Further investigation of the document by Tipton had revealed the document had originally announced the appointment of Pedro Cebrián, 5th Count of Fuenclara as Viceroy of New Spain. Other evidence showed that the name Peralta had never appeared on lists of members of the Military Order of Montesa or the Knights of the Golden Fleece. The rest of the day was taken by Royal Johnson, who testified to the steps he had taken during his investigation of the Peralta claim and how he came to his conclusions. Rufus C. Hopkins testified on Saturday morning about his part in the Peralta claim investigation. During the examination, he admitted to having a limited knowledge of Spanish and having to make educated guesses as to a document's true meaning during his translations into English.

After adjourning for the weekend, the trial resumed on Monday, June 17. Local newspapers had reported that Mrs. Reavis had arrived from Denver on Friday afternoon and the courtroom was packed with spectators looking to see the third baroness. Upon taking the stand, she told of her childhood memories and then confirmed her husband's claim that an archivist in Seville had demanded a bribe before allowing documents related to the Peralta grant to be copied. She was, however, unable to provide any details about the claim papers. Throughout the proceedings, Mrs. Reavis maintained she was the granddaughter of the second baron despite intense questioning about his existence. Monday's testimony ended with Bishop Salpointe stating he was familiar with the San Xavier record book from his historical studies, and the documents related to Miguel de Peralta in the record book had not been present before the book had been sent to Philadelphia for the Centennial Exposition.

The final day of testimony came on June 18. In an attempt to bolster his case, Reavis attempted to show that a portrait of Don Miguel Nemecio de Peralta de la Córdoba bore a strong resemblance to his twins. Other portraits, photographs, and documents were introduced in an attempt to prove the existence of Don Miguel and his family. Closing arguments were presented the next day. The government waived the right to a closing statement, feeling the presented evidence was strong enough to prove their case. Reavis used the opportunity to introduce a bill of 52 objections.

The Court of Private Land Claims presented its findings on June 28, 1895. The decision rejected the claim, finding "that the claim is wholly fictitious and fraudulent" and deeming the various Peralta documents had been forged and "surreptitiously introduced" into the various archives and record books where they were discovered.

Criminal trial

Some Reavis associates did not believe the court's conclusion. Dr. A. T. Sherwood, who led an attempt to colonize the grant, told reporters, "It is impossible that any one man could have forged all the signatures in this case. Reavis would have had to forge over 200 Spanish documents and signatures. No man could have done it. It is the most improbable thing conceivable." Despite this support, Reavis was arrested and charged, in a 42-count indictment, with forgery, presenting false documents to the Court of Private Land Claims, and conspiracy to defraud the United States government.

thumb|upright|Reavis while imprisoned at Santa Fé, circa 1895

Reavis pled not guilty and requested release on bail. The court set bail and allowed him to send telegrams to his previous business associates requesting assistance. No one was found willing to post the US$500 bail. Reavis spent roughly a year in jail awaiting trial. During this time, his appeal of the civil ruling was denied and his wife moved to Denver. During this time, Reynolds went to California to investigate the witnesses who had testified for Reavis. While there, he discovered the date on John Treadway's tombstone showed November 21, 1861, six months before Mrs. Reavis' birth.

The criminal trial began on June 27, 1896. The trial was mostly a recapitulation of evidence presented during the civil trial. Confronted with the government's evidence, José Ramon Valencia and Andrés Sandoval confessed to perjury and testified against Reavis. During his testimony, Valencia stated that he had been given a set of facts by Miguel Noe and was to testify to these facts in exchange for US$20,000 once the claim was confirmed. Noe had left for Mexico following the Court of Land Claims ruling and was not expected to return. Reavis was found guilty on June 30, 1896. On July 17, 1896, he was sentenced to two years and a fine of US$5,000.

Upon hearing the verdict, Reavis told his lawyer that he was sure the verdict would be reversed by the Supreme Court.

Later life

Reavis was imprisoned from July 18, 1896, to April 18, 1898, earning a three-month sentence reduction for good behavior. By the time of the release, Sophia was living in Denver with the couple's children and working as a milliner. Reavis' life served as the basis for The Baron of Arizona, a 1950 movie in which Vincent Price played the title role. The long-running TV series Death Valley Days, which recounted famous incidents from the history of the Old West, aired two separate dramatizations of the Arizona land-grant scheme. The 1956 episode "The Baron of Arizona" starred Britt Lomond as James Reavis. In the 1968 episode "The Pieces of the Puzzle", Reavis was portrayed by veteran film actor Robert Taylor, who at the time was also the host of "Death Valley Days".

The mansion that Reavis built in Arizola<!--Town name is not a typo--> was rediscovered by the National Park Service in 1953 following years of use as a barn by a local farmer. An evaluation in April 1963 by the Park Service determined restoration of the building was financially infeasible.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

  • , from Internet Archive
  • (Part I)
  • (Part II)