James Reavis and his wife, the fake baroness. Arizona State Library
2. Living the Gilded Age High Life
At some point, even the US government fell for the con, and considered paying James Reavis millions of dollars to settle his claim. All in all, Reavis collected about $5,300,000 in cash and promissory notes – the equivalent of about $170 million today. With that kind of loot, Reavis and his wife Sophia were able to live it up in style. In addition to various ranches, they maintained nice homes in Arizona, New York City, Washington, DC, San Francisco, St. Louis, Madrid, and Chihuahua City. They traveled throughout Europe and mingled with the Spanish aristocracy – despite the fact that many Spaniards saw through his scam and figured him and his wife for frauds.
Nonetheless, people in Spain got a huge kick out of the brazenness of it all, and how he was tweaking the yanquis’ noses. So the Spaniards went ahead and feted the “Baron and Baroness of Arizona”. Things were going great for Reavis, but all good things come to an end. Even as Reavis lived the high life and enjoyed the Gilded Age version of a rich jet setter existence, the wheels of justice were grinding – slowly but steadily – to expose his fraud and bring about his ruin. For years, an official named Royal Johnson had investigated Reavis’ claim, and in 1889, he released a devastating report that labeled it a fake.
James Reavis in jail after his scam finally fell apart. Pinterest
1. From Riches to Rags
James Reavis had a good run, but despite his meticulous forgeries, this bold Gilded Age crook had not been meticulous enough. His documents used printing styles different from those of the period they supposedly came from. Steel-nibbed pens – which did not come into use until the 1880s – were used instead of quills. There were basic Spanish spelling and grammatical errors, unlikely to have been made by a Spanish official. Reavis tried to brazen it out, and even sued the US government for eleven million dollars. He lost the lawsuit, and the court noted that his claim was “wholly fictitious and fraudulent“, and that his documents had been forged and “surreptitiously introduced” into the records they supposedly came from.
As Reavis left the court, he was arrested, and hit with a 42-count indictment that included charges of fraud, forgery, the presentation of false documents, and conspiracy to defraud the US government. Tried, he was found guilty on June 30th, 1896, and sentenced to two years behind bars, plus a $5000 fine. After his release, Reavis drifted around in poverty, and pitched investment ideas that found no takers. His wife divorced him in 1902, and he eventually ended up in a Los Angeles poor house. He passed away in Colorado in 1914, and was buried in a pauper’s grave.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
