I doubt there was any surprise that the
first words James Reavis-Peralta spoke when he finally showed up in
court, on Monday June 10, 1895, was to ask for a continence, while he
tried to find a new attorney. When Mathew Reynolds, lawyer for the
government, objected, Reavis retreated and made a motion to dismiss
the case. Despite being the plaintiff, his motion was dismissed. But
he was granted a one day continuance. And when the trial reconvened
on Tuesday, June 11th, the Baron of Arizona announced that
he was going to be doing a single: lawyer, plaintiff and witness. He
spent most of his direct testimony by describing his dealings with
Huntington, Crocker, various Senators and cabinet members. If the
jury was impressed, they had little time to be, because Reynolds
began his cross examination that very afternoon.
No matter what question Reynolds
presented to him, Reavis' answers were endless and rambling. Did he
not notice that the documents he claimed to have discovered in the
San Xavier record books, were on a different paper than the others,
and at right angles to the standard pages? What about his marriage
contract with his wife? And what about the questionable testimony
regarding Sophia's noble birth? Did he pay anyone to lie in their
testimony? But no matter how long Reavis talked, no matter how many
twist and turns he made in responding, Reynolds just kept
attacking. By Wednesday, June 13, Reavis had been forced to admit
that even he had doubts about some of his documents. His explanation
was that he just filed them, he wasn't vouching for them.
On Monday, June 17, the Baroness
Sophia Reavis Peralta took the stand. She admitted she had no
knowledge about any of the documents filed supporting her noble
birth. Perhaps it was the paternalistic Victorian machismo at play,
but the courtroom was convinced the lady was telling the truth, as
she believed the truth to be. Presented with convincing evidence that
she was in fact the daughter of John A.Treadway and an Indian squaw
named Kate Loreta, she broke down in tears, but still insisted,
through her sobs, that she was the wife and granddaughter of the
Baron of Arizona..
Having put his wife through this
torture, on Tuesday the clean shaven Reavis introduced a portrait he claimed was of Don Miguel
Nemecio de Peralta de la Cordoba (above), and noted the facial resemblance to
his own two sons (below).
After that he just ran out of gas, reduced to rants
about grand conspiracies and lunatic explanations and justifications.
During his closing Reavis did not bother arguing his case, but
rather entered a list of 52 objections to rulings the court had made. They would be ignored.
The government did not even bother to
present a final argument. Ten days later, the Court of Private Land
Claims, created by political allies to control the Peralta Grant
case, found “the claim is wholly fictitious and fraudulent”, and
dismissed it entirely.. That was, of course, not the end. James
Reavis (above) had gone too far for that to be the end of the affair.
Reavis was arrested as he left the
courtroom, and charged with 42 counts of forgery, presenting false
documents to the Land Court and conspiracy to defraud the United
States Government. Bail was set at $500. And although the court
allowed him to telegraph his connections in California and
Washington, D.C., nobody stepped up. James Reavis spent the next year
in jail, awaiting trial, which began on Saturday, June 27, 1896 and
ended on Tuesday June 30, with a verdict of guilty. Two weeks later,
on Friday July 17, James Reavis was sentenced to two years – one
of which he had already served – and a $5,000 fine –about
$130,000 today.
To pay the fine, the mansion in San
Francisco was sold, and Arizola, the fortress that represented the
single reality of the Peralta grant, was seized by the U.S.
government. It was later used for a barn. When James Reavis was released
from prison in April of 1898, he and his family lived in Denver,
where he tried for many years to find investors for his various
schemes and plans. But all that any one was interested in buying from
him was “The Confessions of the Baron of Arizona”, which were
serialized in his old newspaper, The San Francisco Call. He may not
have even written it himself.
But whoever the
actual author, it was presented as a classic Victorian
morality tale.
“The plan to secure the Peralta Grant and defraud the Government
out of land valued at $100,000,000 was not conceived in a day. It
was the result of a series of crimes extending over nearly a score of
years. At first the stake was small, but it grew and grew in
magnitude until even I sometimes was appalled at the thought of the
possibilities. I was playing a game which to win meant greater
wealth than that of a Vanderbilt. My hand constantly gained strength,
noted men pleaded my cause, and unlimited capital was at my command.
My opponent was the Government, and I baffled its agents at every
turn. Gradually I became absolutely sure of success.”
"As I neared the verge of triumph”,
wrote Reavis, “I was exultant and sure. Until the very moment of my
downfall I gave no thought to failure. But my sins found me out, and
as in the twinkling of an eye I saw the millions which had seemed
already in my grasp fade away and I heard the courts doom me to a
prison cell. Now I am growing old and the thing
hangs upon me like a nightmare until I am driven to make a clean
breast of it all, that I may end my days in peace.”
No where in his “clean breast”
account did James Reavis mention Mr. Huntington, or Crocker or any of the other wealthy and powerful men who had financed his scam. It seemed that
Reavis had learned something from the affair, after all. Sophia had
certainly gained in knowledge. In 1902, she filed for divorce on the
grounds of “nonsupport”. And the old forger who began his career
at 18, faking passes for his army buddies, died alone, at the age of 71 on
November 20, 1914, in Denver Colorado. Cause of death was listed as
bronchitis, but I suspect he just ran out of ideas. He was buried in
paupers grave. Sophia, once the child of royalty and then the
daughter of an Indian squaw, lived the last years of her life under the name Sophia Treadway
Reavis. She died on April 5, 1934. Her obituary in the Rocky Mountain
News failed to even mention the Peralta Grant. That was probably not
an accident.
In
1963 the National Park Service decided that it was not financially
feasible to save the the fortress south of Casa Grande. The ten room
mansion of Arizola was allowed to slowly decay and collapse into the
desert. The next year they erected
maker on Arizona route 84 at milepost 181, to explain the
significance of the spot to passersby. It reads (inaccurately), “James
Addison Peralta Reavis was a brazen forger who claimed over 12
million acres of Central Arizona and Western New Mexico as an Old
Spanish Land grant. He and his family lived here in royal style until
his fraud was exposed. From the barony he went to federal prison in
1895 “
And
that is all most people will ever know about this story. But now, you
know better.
- 30 -
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