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The Fake Nobleman Who Scammed Millions in the Wild West

Khalid Elhassan November 19, 2024 12 min

Conman - James Reavis behind bars — James Reavis behind bars. Pinterest

1. From Riches to Rags

Reavis lost the lawsuit against Uncle Sam. 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 he left the court, he was arrested, and hit with a 42 count indictment that included charges of fraud, forgery, presenting false documents, and conspiracy to defraud the US government. He was tried, found guilty on June 30^th, 1896, and sentenced to two years behind bars, plus a $5000 fine. After his release, James Reavis drifted around in poverty, pitching investment ideas that found no takers. His wife divorced him in 1902, and he eventually ended up in a Los Angeles poor house. He died 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

Cookridge, E. H. – The Baron of Arizona (1967)

History Collection – 12 Notorious Wild West Outlaws

Powell, Donald M. – The Peralta Grant: James Addison Reavis and the Barony of Arizona (1960)

True West Magazine, November 21^st, 2017 – The Great Swindler James Addison Reavis

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.