The San Francisco call. [volume], March 26, 1899, Image 17

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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THE CALL Sunday Edition.
"*" The larjd that Reavis tried "*"
■*" to steal by msens of his "*■
"♦■ forged documents coy- ♦
•♦■ ered a larger area tbarj >
♦■ the States of Verroorjt >
•♦- and New ri^r^pshire ■♦•
•♦■ corrjbined. It was lo- >
+ cated partly in Arizona +
and partly in New Mexico. +
THERE Is a gaunt, white-haired, white-bearded man living in Denver
to-day. His shoulders stoop, his clothe? are worn and threadbare.
hanging loosely from a bony frame. Often he is seen on the street
with a dark-eyed woman of olive complexion who still retains traces
of fierce Andalusian beauty. The pair are always accompanied by
two children, twins, who have inherited the features and eyes of their
mother. The four live in a. lodpinsr-hou'se and at times -they- are hard
pressed for the necessities of \ . „ . . •-. •--» ,
The man is James A'ddison iPeralta> Reavis and • the, ■ •woman I? Wt
•wife. He planned and barely failed of executing the most gigantic, fraud
that was ever conceived against this Government. At one time he had a
fortune of millions within his grasp. Such famous men as Robert G. In
grersoll. Roscoe Conkling. Collis P. Huntingtoh; "William 8. Wood. Reuben
H. Lloyd, Phil B. Thompson, John W. Mackay. Ed S: Stokes, Bourke
Cockran. Charles Crocker. I. M. C. Curry and H. 1). Money espoused his
cause and helped fight hi.= cpse in the cnu>r.
In the end. when his scheme was on the verge of success, when he was
about to receive title from the Government to 12,500.000 acres of land
valued at $100,000,000, the Government succeeded in convicting him of con
spiracy to defraud the Government. His scheme was exploded and he
was sentenced to serve two years in a New Mexican prison. He served
his sentence.
A few days ago he wrote a confession of. the entire conspiracy. Ac
cording to his statements the Government, although it spent $100,000 in de
fending the case, never hit upon the real facts. His conviction, he says,
■was secured upon a mass of false and perjured testimony. He himself,
however, tells for the first time how he -conceived and executed the
fraud.
He tells how he met an Andalu-?lan girl whose parentage was un
known, how he man her and lilt about her a mythical lineage proving
that she was the descendant of one of the noblest families of Spain and
the sole heir to the Poralta [grant of Arizona. He tells how he
searched the archives of Spain and forged and stole ancient documents;
how he and his wife were received by royal and noble families, and how
he built up document by document a title to millions.
REAYTS' confessioi I
I ai r Scoi
dents with ;i U*aditional Spa
extraction in the i '••ra
tions. Three of my great grand
parents fought in . the revolution. I
was reared in Henry County. Mo. In
May, 1861, at the age of 18, I enlisted
in the Confederate army and during
my life as a soldier committed my first
crime. I forged an order and being
successful in this I raised a furlough,
and before this expired I surrendered
to the Union f<>r< ■
After the war I worked as a street
car conductor but subsequently opened
a real estate office in St. Louis. I was
successful in forging a title to sustain
a tax title to Borne valuable land I had
bought, not knowing the title was im
perfect. But these are incidents in
■which th^re is little interest. However,
success in these early evils sowed the
6eed that later sprang forth into the
most gigantic fraud of this century.
The plan to secure the Peralta grant
and defraud the Government out of
land valued at $100,000,000 was not con
-1 in a day. It was the result of a
series of crimes extending over nearly
a Kcore of years. At first the stake was
small, but it grew and grew in magni
tude until even I sometimes -was ap
palled at the thought of the possibili
ties. I was playing a game which to
•win meant greater wealth than that of
a Gould or a Vanderbilt. My hand con
stantly gaiped strength, noted men
pleaded my cause and unlimited capi
tal was at my command. My opponent
-tvas • rnment and I baffled its
agents fit every turn. Gradually I be
came absolutely confident of Mirv<--ss.
As I nearer! the verge of triumph I was
exultant and sure. Until the very mo
ment of my downfall I gave no thought
to failure. But my sins found me out
and as in the twinkle of an eye I saw
the millions which had seemed already
In my grasp fade away and 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.
The first I ever knew of the Peralta
prant was when Dr. George M. Will
ing walked Into my real estate office in
Ft. Louis and told me that he had a
land grant of fabulous proportions in
Arizona and wanted me to \ake hold of
it. After a number of Interviews I do
elded to give my whole time to the mat
ter.
Just as I wae about to ptart for the
West my health gave away completely
and I was forced to abandon the trip.
For two years I remained an invalid
at my father's home in Vernon County,
Mo. One night I had a dream that
warned me that I should start for Cali
fornia. I left immediately with scarce
ly any money and without preparations
for tho journey. Once in California mv
health improved and after two more
years I returned to my father's home
for my wife. She refused «yen to see
me and to appease my conscience I
placed what means I had accumulated
CONFESSION OF DERALTA-REAVIS,
THE KING OF FORGERS
at her disposal and returned to St.
Louis.
Four years had elapsed since I had
talked with Willing.
About this tim*> I received a letter
from Mrs. Willing: reciting the death
of her husband and proposing that I
resume the grant matter. I entered
into a contract with her and returned
to California. Here my money ran out
and I went to work on the Los An
geles Daily Star. Subsequently I work-
Ed on daily papers in Ran Francisco
and all the prominent extreme West
ern papers. During these months the
land grant was in my memory but I
did not have the means to examine
further Into the matter.
The contest between Jay Gfcoull acd.
the Southern Pacific railroad was then
at its height. - The Southern Pacific
right of way. as surveyed ran through
the Peralta grant. I went to Hunting
ton, Stanford and Crocker with the
Willing 'title and they advance. j-^o
rno^gy f i-i tT ji'«V'Bilil'i^Bi" " ll |""' <l " : tv.
I went immediately tb Arizona and
there, after much patient research and
a trip to Mexico, learned that the
Willing: title was purely mythical. The
way of it was this: October 20, 1864,
In Black Canyon, Yavapai County*. Ari
zona, there existed a mining camp, the
principal persons of the camp being
Dr. George M. Willing of St. Louis,
Don Antonio Pablo Peralta, his son
Miguel Peralta, Don Jose Ybarra, M.
Bernatto Guiness, Don Rafael Ma
chado, Don Manuel Ramon and
Charles Lovejoy, a friend of Willing.
Among these originated the idea of the
Peralta grant. Another mythical per
son executed a deed of this parole
grant to Dr. Willing, the paper recit
ine: that the grant had been ceded to
the father of the maker of the deed
by tho King of Spain for military serv
ices in 1158 and that he had been forc
ed to abandon it on account of hostile
Indians. It embraced 300 square
leagues of land located along the Gila
River, thirty leagues from east to west
by ten leagues wide, resting its western
border upon the eastern line of the
Pima reservation.
One of the alleged witnesses, M.
Bernatto Guineas, was a Frenchman
who afterward located in business in
I.os Angeles, Cal.. but died before he
explained. Ms part in the matter, as
SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 1899.
flld also Don Antonio Pablo Peralta,
The only other Mexican, Don Rafael
MachadO of Rosario, Lower California,
affirmed that a Spaniard named Miguel
Peralta made the deed. The writing
was more that of Don Pablo, and he
suited the hero of Willing's tale bet
ter Than Miguel Peralta.
Willing represented that he had
given a^ pack train of sixteen mule?,
valued at $22,000, for the land. This re
cites in a nutshell all I could determine
about the grant.
Becoming certain that Pinalto. the
name given as the maker of the deed,
was a myth, I forged the documents
necessary to shift the title into the Pe
ralta family. Immediately the Peraltas
became so numerous that I realized
that a title in their names would never
do. After considering the matter sev
eral months I decided to again shift the
title into pome noble family of Spain
that had become extinct.
In the meantime I traveled much In
the towns where I could gain informa
tion concerning the men who might be
interested In this title. I talked with
old residents and stored my mind with
many incidents that proved of great
value in later years. But I will pass
quickly over this period and come down
to the time when the great fraud as it
was presented to the Government be
par. to.- take shape in my r-ind.
.During, .these travels, I met a young
Spanish- • girl. Her features rather in
clined-to the Jewish type;,her eyes were
laFge and of darkest .hazel : : a profusion
. of black and silken hair hung in a great
' mass below her waist; the delicate lines
of .her body and her exquisite grace and
fascination told of noble-Spanish ances
try "She.was of splendid physique. elas .
„ lic-'step.^nd a superb, dancer. She was
* a t 'home in th« water or'on a hrvr?e and
was an adept with rod, gun. or lariat. .-.
I inquired • into the j history of this
child of nature and found-, that she had
been reared from ,her earliest recollec- 1
tion in the fastness, of -the mountains
remote from civilization. No one knew
the history of her birth. Investigation
only threw a deeper mystery about her
parentage. From a baby she had only
Indian children for playmates, having:
been raised by a ranchero's family who
sold her into bondage to John W.
Snowball and wife. "Those who might
have known her history had died, and
the ranchero. claimed that the child
was an Indian waif whose parentage
was unknown. .
I became Infatuated with her ■ ana
also saw. in her a possible heir to the
Peralta grant. I Induced her to accom
pany me and returned to San Fran
cisco. I made a satisfactory showing
of a partial title (which I had forged
with the aid of the Willing title) and
John "W. Mackay stood sponsor for me
to go to Spain for the purpose of com
pleting the title and determining of
what lands the grant actually con
sisted. I had a guarantee of $500 per.
(Continued on Page Thirty-Two.)