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Stories of the Old West are riddled with reckless criminals, but cunning scammers also made their mark on the Wild West. One of the most notorious con men of the late 1800s was a man called James Reavis. A sophisticated criminal, Reavis managed to forge a noble title and fraudulently obtain huge portions of land in today's Arizona and New Mexico. Through his schemes, Reavis was able to make millions of dollars. That is, until he was caught!
Click through this gallery to learn all about the fascinating story of one of America's greatest con men.
James Addison Peralta-Reavis was born on May 10, 1843, in Henry County, Missouri. His father was a Welshman who immigrated to America in the 1820s, while his mother was of Scottish and Spanish descent.
Reavis grew up in Missouri. Although Reavis lacked formal education, his mother regularly read to him. Due to the influence that Spanish Romanticism had on his life, Reavis developed an eloquent writing style, which is a skill that would prove to be useful throughout his life.
Reavis was just 18 years old when he joined the Confederate Army to fight in the American Civil War. It was then that Reavis took his first step into his lengthy career as a con man.
Desperate to escape his military duties, Reavis’ forged his commanding officer’s signature. This newfound skill meant that he could issue himself passes to escape his military duties as he pleased.
Reavis' colleagues took note of his frequent escapades. Reavis then took the opportunity to exploit his talent: he began selling forged passes to other soldiers.
When his superiors became suspicious of his activities, Reavis found an excuse to leave. He claimed he was getting married. He then moved out of Confederate territory and surrendered to the Union Army, with whom he ended up serving in an artillery regiment.
Reavis clearly had a talent for forgery. After his experience in the Confederacy, he traveled to Brazil, where he worked in real estate. Clients would seek his services when they needed certain ownership documents to sell land. These documents were successfully forged by James Reavis.
In 1871, Reavis helped a prospector named George Willing with a large Spanish land grant of 2,000 sq miles (5,179.976 sq km) in today's Arizona. They partnered up, and three years later headed to Arizona.
George Willing got there before Reavis. He filed a claim in the Yavapai County courthouse and was found dead the following day. Reavis was in California when he heard the news.
A lot of land was ceded to the US under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War. The Public Lands Commission was established under the terms of the treaty. The corrupt nature of the treaty was an opportunity that Reavis couldn't resist.
After paying a bribe, Reavis managed to claim land he said he had bought from one Miguel Peralta. This land was acquired with his late partner, George Willing. The Peralta Grant was, of course, a false document (pictured). Reavis then bought Willing’s interest in the land from his widow.
Reavis proceeded to generate an entirely false family lineage for Peralta. He went as far as forging documents in the Mexican archives. The documents linked Miguel Peralta to an 18th-century Don Nemecio Silva de Peralta de la Cordoba.
The story was as follows: Don Nemecio Silva de Peralta de la Cordoba had been given land in Arizona, as part of the Peralta Grant, and had been granted the title of Baron Peralta de los Colorados by Spain’s King Ferdinand VI in 1748. The family tree led to the emergence of a fictitious great-grandson, Miguel Peralta.
Reavis studied the challenge. He traveled to Spain to forge the documents the best way he could, using specific paper and ink. As for pictures of the Peralta family, he bought old portraits of random people in a flea market in Spain for the effect.
Reavis then thought that he should marry into the nobility he created. Sophia, a 16-year-old orphaned Mexican girl, was the perfect target. Reavis convinced the girl she was a descendant of the Peralta family.
Through a number of forgeries, Reavis turned Sophia into Dona Sophia Micaela Maso Reavis y Peralta de la Cordoba, 3rd Baroness of Arizona. Reavis married her and became Baron of Arizona.
In 1883, Arizona residents woke up to the following notice within newspapers and public spaces: “To communicate immediately with Mr. Cyril Barratt, attorney-at-law and agent general, representing Mr. James Addison Reavis, for registering tenancy and signing agreements, or regard themselves liable to litigation for trespassing and expulsion when the Peralta Grant is, as it must be, validated by the US government.”
Reavis claimed about 12 million acres, in an area stretching from near Sun City, Arizona, to Silver City, New Mexico. The claim was taken seriously by big businesses such as Arizona’s largest mining corporation, Silver King Mine, which paid Reavis US$25,000, a huge sum of money at the time, to avoid litigation.
James Reavis’ goal was not to evict people. All he wanted was to get as much money as he could in rent and quitclaim fees. The richest landowners largely obliged, as they saw paying Reavis as a cheaper alternative to the pursuit of legal action.
The Southern Pacific Railroad, for instance, paid James Reavis a whopping US$50,000.
It is estimated that Reavis earned about US$5.3 million in cash and promissory notes. Today, this would be equivalent to about $180 million!
The 'noble' family had quite a luxurious lifestyle. The 'barons' and their children (pictured) traveled to Europe constantly, owning properties in Arizona, New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. Reavis also had homes in Madrid, Spain, and Chihuahua City, Mexico.
Suspicion over Reavis’ fraud started to arise in Spain. Investigators became involved, determined to prove that the Baron and Baroness of Arizona were fraudsters.
An official named Royal Johnson investigated Reavis’ claim of noble origins thoroughly and in 1889 proved they were fake. What was the great giveaway? A pen!
Reavis used steel-nibbed pens to forge some of the documents. But, it turns out, these were not used until the 1880s. Instead, quills would have been used.
The forged documents also contained spelling and grammatical errors, which was something very unlikely to occur in the production of official documents.
James Reavis refused to accept his loss. Instead, he sued the US government for US$11 million. He lost the lawsuit. The court stated that his claim was both "wholly fictitious and fraudulent."
Reavis was arrested with a 42 count indictment. He was charged with fraud, forgery, presenting false documents, and conspiracy to defraud the US government.
On June 30, 1896, Reavis was sentenced to two years in prison and was forced to pay a US$5,000 fine. He lived in poverty after leaving prison, divorced in 1902, and died in Colorado in 1914.
Sources: (History Collection)
See also: How wild was life in the Wild West?
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Stories of the Old West are riddled with reckless criminals, but cunning scammers also made their mark on the Wild West. One of the most notorious con men of the late 1800s was a man called James Reavis. A sophisticated criminal, Reavis managed to forge a noble title and fraudulently obtain huge portions of land in today's Arizona and New Mexico. Through his schemes, Reavis was able to make millions of dollars. That is, until he was caught!
Click through this gallery to learn all about the fascinating story of one of America's greatest con men.