In the second part of our story, the Baron of Arizona has to create a Baroness so he can rise to great heights in Europe and use his connections to keep swindling in America. But while the upper crust in the old country buy into his wild story, Americans are starting to unravel his fraud.
Featured image: James Reavis in prison clothes in 1895. (Image source)
Carmelita, aka Sofia Loreto Peralta-Reavis, in Spanish court attire. This photograph comes from Peralta Reavis Real Life Illustrated, a short-lived magazine Reavis published after his release from prison. (Image source)
A certificate of shares from the Casa Grande Improvement Company Limited, one of Reavis’s companies. (Image source)
Carmelita posing by the carving Reavis forged as archeological proof of the Spanish expedition that discovered the land. (Image source)
Miguel and Carlos Reavis, the couple’s children, in 1898. (Image source)
The portrait that Reavis tried to pass off as the first Baron of Arizona, Don Miguel Nemecio Silva de Peralta de la Cordoba. (Image source)
An article from the Phoenix Herald in 1882 about Reavis’s claim, probably repeating the story Reavis himself tried to make sure was circulating in local papers. (Image source)
Sources
About James Reavis
- Map of Peralta land grant
- The Baron of Arizona
The Peralta Grant: James Addison Reavis and the Barony of Arizona
Fading Away! The Reavis Cloud is Dissolving
