The Wild West produced many wild figures, and when it comes to crooks, few were wilder or more brazen than James Reavis. The man created a barony out of whole cloth, claimed a huge chunk of Arizona, and became a millionaire off of people who believed his con. Below are eighteen things about those and other fascinating events from the life and career of the Wild West’s wildest conman.
18. A Villain’s Beginnings
“The Baron of Arizona”, as James Addison Peralta-Reavis (1843 – 1914) came to be known, might be the greatest conman you’ve never heard of. He defrauded thousands of people, and literally stole much of Arizona from its legal owners. Reavis’ father was a Welshman who arrived in America in the 1820s, and his mother was a part Spaniard proud of her Spanish heritage. He grew up in Missouri, and throughout his childhood, Reavis’ mother fired up his imagination with Spanish romantic literature. As a result, he ended up with grandiose notions of himself as a romantic hero in a melodramatic novel. It was reflected in his speech and writing, which was reportedly bombastic and overly grandiloquent.
