Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-01-18
PERALYA-REAVIS INDICTED
us. Grand Jury Returned Five True
Bills Against Reavis This
Morning.
BILLS CONTAIN RORTY-TWO COUNTS
Uttering Forgeries, Presenting False
Claims Against Government, Pro-
curing Perjury and Conspiracy
toDefraud Among Charges.

The U. s. grand jury in Santa Fe thi
morning returned five Indictment
against James Addison Peralta- Reavil
containing in all forty-two different
counts.
The Indictments cover uttering forger
les, presenting false claims for land and
money, presenting to the court of privat,
land claims dispositions of witnesses
whom he procured to commit perjury
and also conspiracy to defraud the United
States, In which Indictment Reavis' prin-
Opal witness, Miguel Noe, is also also in.
dicted as co-conspirator.
And the end is not vet reached, as the
grand jury isstill at work on his case.
The indictments returned to-day cover
over 1000 pages of printed and type
written matter, and Mr.. Reynolds, the U
s. attorney, specially in charge of the
case, upon inquiry, stated that if the
indictments were not good and convic.
tion could not be obtained under them,
Reavis was surely entitled to his release
and also to certificate that he is the
most adroit and skillful scoundrel that
has ever lived.
It is understood that Mr.. Reynolds
in presenting the case to the grand jury
has brought his witnesses also for the
purpose of pushing Reavis to a trial and
Santa Fe may in few days be the sceno
of more sensational Developments than
occurred in the court of private land
claims last summer.
Miss Laura Belle Bridger, whom Reavis
attempted to marry two years after the
date of the marriage contract with his
present wife, is expected to arrive in time
for the trial, as we'll az Carl Snyder, the
New York Herald correspondent, who in
duced Rsavis to unbosom himself against
the court of private land claims, but, in
doing so made confessions and state
ments that make the U. s. attorney smile
when the matter is suggested to him.
A. E. Sherwood and wife, at whose
house the government claims that Mira.
Reavis was born, are here, as we'll as Mr..
W. W. Jenkins, whom Reavis in his inter-
view stated put him on to the means
of showing that the girl from Sherwood
valley was the long lost heir of the Pc
ralta grant.
1t is apparent, from the movements OF
Mr.. Reynolds and his assistants and the
witnesses who are arriving, that the gov
ernment means that the bottom of this
celebrated case shall be reached.
A New MEXICAN reporter met Mr.. Rey-
nolds this morning and asked him what all
this meant and he very quietly said: SIT is
simply the beginning of the end Of the
Peralta grant and particularly of those
who have defrauded citizens of thousands
of dollars, and attempted to defraud the
United States of millions of acres of land
and not less than $25,OOO,0OO."
Besides the above mentioned indict-
ments the grand jury also returned this
morning six other trne bills, including
two against Bachelor Bros, charged
with timber trespass. The jury is still
at work. The trial Of the United States
vs.. s. L. Bachelder began this forenoon,
with U. s. Attorney Hemingway and As
sistant U. s. Attorneys Money and Jones
prosecuting and Mr.. Charles A. Spiess
defending.
Peralta- -Reavis asked and was granted
leave to plead on Wednesday.