8. Marrying Into Made Up Nobility
Reavis created the fictional aristocratic Peralta family, then decided to his bets by creating an even closer connection between himself and the Peralta land claim. So he married into the aristocratic Peralta family. The fact that the baronial brood was fictional was no problem for the ever enterprising Reavis. He came across a sixteen-year-old orphaned Mexican girl named Sophia, and convinced her that she was a descendant of the noble Peraltas. By then, Reavis had honed his skills to the point of being a master forger. So it was child’s play for him to alter church records and insert documents that made Sophia the “last surviving” member of the fictional but illustrious Peralta family. Then, having made Sophia the “Baroness of Arizona”, Reavis married her, and through that marriage he became the Baron of Arizona.
