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The Oddest Conspiracies that Ever Saw the Light of Day

Khalid Elhassan January 30, 2022 38 min

10. The Baron of Arizona Lived it Up – For a While

Stock certificate in a company created by James Reavis to cash in on his fraudulent plan. Wikiwand

James Reavis’ illicit plan worked, and the money poured in. The ill-gotten loot allowed him and his wife, “Baroness” Sophia, 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. That, despite the fact that many in Spain saw through the Baron of Arizona’s scam, and realized that he and his wife were just a pair of fraudsters.

However, the Spaniards got a huge kick out of the brazenness of it all, and how Reavis was tweaking the yanquis’ noses. So they went ahead and feted the “Baron and Baroness of Arizona”. Life was great for Reavis, but all good things come to an end. Even as he lived it up and enjoyed his existence as a nineteenth-century version of a rich jet setter, the law was on his trail. The wheels of justice ground slowly, but steadily until they ultimately exposed his fraud and brought it all crashing down.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.