AN AMAZING IMPOSTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 156, 27 October 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

AN AMAZING IMPOSTOR.

MAN WHO CLAIMED TWENTY MILLIONS. '

A tall,, thin, grey-haired, haggard man who lives in a lonely, squalid cabin home on the outskirts of Albuquerque, N.M., where he earns a pittance by looking after horses, has been, says a correspondent, the boldest, most, remarkable Impostor the United States has ever known. The most extraordinary forger of modem times, and the most remarkable legal fabricator he had ever heard of. He is James Addison Reavls, or, as the people used to know him, Prince Reavls. Through 18 years of persistent scheming, ceaseless activity and never-flagging perseverance, he built up a fraudulent title to over 13,400,000 acres of the most valuable strips of Arizona and New Mexico. He forged long deeds in Spanish, Inserted fabricated documents in ancient and guarded public records, invented royal Spanish cedulas, manufactured wills a century and more old, fabricated detailed probate proceedings during the eighteenth century, altered the Alcalde's records at Guadalajara, Mexico, and the old Cathedral records, now kept at Madrid, Spain. He got up old and beautifully coloured documents on parchment, showing the births and baptismal records of 33 ancestors, and altered archives at the City of Mexico as corroborative evidence. He created out of his own imagination a line of artlstocratic, holy, and rich ancestors from Seville, Spain, in 1704, to Monterey, Mexico, in 1856. He gave each ancestor au individuality, and had a lot of traditions concerning each ancestor. And he did all this so Ingeniously, and he worked out the plot so finely, that lawyers of national reputation believed his chain of evidence was flawless.

Reavis was no common impostor. He laid clajm by inheritance to land worth £20,----000,000. It comprises gold and silver mines, a score of copper mines and smelters, thousands of settlers' homes and ranches, a half-dozen railroads, vast Irrigation systems, several Indian reservations, many cattle and sheep ranges, a few militaryforts, mountain ranges, forests of pine, alnifa farms, five towns of over 2500 population, and eleven towns of over 2500 people, besides a lot of mining and cattle camps. The evidence of the Impostor's title /to this domain was so strong that more than £8000 was advanced to him from widely Known lawyers and business mea throughout the country for tha PROSECUTION OF HIS PRETENDED RIGHTS.

The Southern Pacific Railroad Company's attorneys looked into Reavis1 claim to a good slice of Arizona and New Mexico, and they gave him £10,000 for a perpetual right of way through his alleged grant. The Silver Mining Company of New Mexico gave him £6000 for a release of his protended claim on their property. The Empire Copper Company's attorney- came out from New York to Phoenix to examine into the Reavls claim on their mines, and gave him £5400 for a release.

Those were John Addlson Reavis's prosperous days. His wife testified at his trial for fraud and forgery that from 1887 until 1893 the Beavls family spent over £10,000 annually from sums collected on her husband's claims, to the Barony of Arizona. The family lived at the Windsor Hotel in New York City for months at a time. They travelled to Europe, and lived In fine style in Paris and Madrid. They had a retinue of servants, and kept splendid equipages. In Madrid, Reavls entertained the American Legation at lavish dinners that are still the talk of the city.

Keavls was born In a little Missouri town lv 1847. He was a tin pedlar, and drifted Into real estate dealing: A man named Willing brought him at St.' Joseph, Aio., during 1873, a claim which he Inherited throagh a Mexican grandmother to some 800,000 acres of land In Plma, Maricopo, and Pinal Counties In Arizona. While studyIng the Willing chain of title, Keavls came upon several Spanish' land grants made in the early eighteenth century to territory now In New Mexico and Ar'zona.' It was white studying these he concocted his' scheme of Imposture, claiming as heir to Willing (who died suddenly) the estate of Don Miguel de Peralta. By ISBI Keavls had got together so much evidence in support ol his ownership of the Peralta grant ( that he filed In the office of the United

States Surveyor-General of Arizona a formal petition praying that the Peralta grant be recognised under Act of Congress of July 22, 1854, relative to Spanish and Mexican land grants existing at the time of the treaty of peace at Gaudalupe, Mexico. The people of Arizona and New Mexico were thrown into consternation at the news that Keavls was legally the owner of all the property upon which they had spent their savings and years of toil. Dozens of local lawyers said that Reavls's title seemed Indisputable. Keavls suddenly became rich. Hundreds of cattle ranchmen were frightened 'at his assertion. of a title to their ranges, and at his threats to dispossess. They made terms with him by the . PAYMENT OF SMALL FORTUNES

for jrelease. In one day at the Royal Hotel in Preseott the cattlemen of Yavapal County alone handed over to Reavis and his lawyers (17,000 dollars for releases.

Muanwhile.Surveyor-General Johnson had been looking into the mass of documents, transcriptions,, and maps filed in support of the Peralta grants He announced in June, 1887, that the claim was a fraud, and that Keavls was a rare impostor. The SurveyorGenoral had no sooner denounced the claim than Keavls brought to Arizona a young wife, whom he introduced as the only blood descendant of Don Miguel de Peralta de la Cordoba. The Reavls-Peralta case came up in court in the Spring-of 1895. As the trial of the case progressed a very formidable array of evidence was presented. It showed the Indomitable zeal, the unflagging perseverance, 'and the Inventive resources of Reavis.' There were bushels of papers in Spanish to show how Mrs Reavis was a descendant of the Baron of Arizona. Copies of oil paintings were even Introduced, showing the lineaments of some Peraltas In different generations. There did not appear a weak link In the wonderful chain of evidence.1 Keavls and his wife were each examined and cross-examined for three days, and they were never stirred In their testimony concerning the long line of Peralta grandee genealogy. The diligent and careful Reavis supported his wife's testimony by producing a sworn copy of several books he had dug out of the musty archives of the Ayumtanlento at Guadalajara, Mexico. These books, he alleged, showed the probate records of Mrs Keavls's father's will, and of hqr grandfather's will, and apparently proved a dozen points in the chain of testimony given by. the youngwife as to how the barony of Arizona had been transmitted from father to son for 116 years. Then the defence came on. Investigation showed that there was not one line in any' unmutllated Mexican or. Spanish records to show that any such man as Don Miguel de Peralta de' la Cordoba ever lived, and' that the barony of Arizona existed only .' in Keavis's Imagination. Priests told how Keavis had bought ancient portraits of Spanish grandees which he swore were pictures of rich, haughty Per- , altas. Marriage, baptismal, and death RECORDS HAD BEEN INGENIOUSLY . DOCTORED to show; documentary facts concerning a mythical family.

Other Investigators employed by Mr Reynolds for the Government came forward

and swore that Mrs Reavls was a half-breed Mexican who had lived in Sacramento Valley in California since she wa^ a little girl. Another witness testified ttfat Reavls had approached her with an offer of marriage If she would Join him in his legal flight to palm herself off as the great-great-grand-daughter of the Baron of Arizona. A young man testified that Reavls spent nearly a year in seeking some bright young Mexican woman of hazy origin who would be a sagaclous heir to the barony of Arizona. Still another witness testified that Reavis met his wife on a railroad train between Sacrnmento and. Red Bluff, and that he spent months in coaching her on the Pcralta ancestry before they were married.

The Court of Private Land Claims unanimously rejected Reavis's claim. The same day he was arrested for conspiracy. He was tried speedily. Mrs Reavis went on the witness stand. Under a searching cross examination she broke down and confessed that she had been married solely because her husband wanted some one to help his claim to the mythical barony of Arizona. Amid her tears she told how she had been taken to Mexico to acquaint her with the local colour of her supposed home there, and how she had been drilled daily for years concerning what she was to say of her childish recollections and the Peralta history.

Reavis was convicted and sentenced to the United States penitentiary at Santa Fe for six years. That was In January, 1895. He earned time by good conduct, and last September he was set at liberty.