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well you know what we have found out that you can never get enough of the
crazy Jake stories and right now jack is going to share another one with us
Well in 1993 I was going out first water and there was a two guys coming out first
water with a pack horse the pack horse had an ordinary rock or yard rock
on it there's no out of first water area that's that was either Rhyolite or Dacite
the rock was either rhyolite or dacite it was not ore it wasn't anything
that's resembled ore and it was poking out and I picked a little piece out and
well they had stopped to get a breather for their horses and I looked at it and
I said yeah and and the guy on the horse one of the men on the horse turn around
and he said put that down put that back right away and okay I said I knew there
were crazy guys out there I knew and I known the story already of crazy Jake
everybody knew that's one of the first stories you learn when you come to this
area so I didn't equate put the two and two together and I said well listen let
me take you guys photos it's a great photo cuz we don't get too many guys
carrying ore out of the mountains please let me get your photo the guy
pulled his gun out on me was a it was a revolver looked like a 45 colt looked
like a 45 Colt revolver because being a policeman I carried a 6-inch Colt at one
time so it looked like Colt to me it had that black finish on it and he said no
pictures no pictures he was really mad he was acted like a crazy man I said I
just wanted to get a photo no pictures and so I put my camera away I said I'll
tell you what I'm gonna put my camera in my backpack will that make you happy
said yeah no pictures he was really upset about
that I looked at this so I had an opportunity for five minutes to look at
it got none with a guy a person does something almost the violence and points
a gun at you you remember that guy forever you'll
remember him forever and so I've had this picture burnt into my brain of this
guy and I'm gonna look him up see if there's any reason why guy would do that
it was yard rock he was carrying out but the the the other guy on the other
horse looked like like... I'll tell you this he didn't have cowboy
boots on his plants pants were light blue
he had tennis shoes on it looked like he was a he looked like he was a flatland
tourist or as people would call that he was an ordinary jamoke from back East
somewhere and he was going out into the mountain but the guy was dirty grubby
look grubby unshaven and a guy that was downright serious about his heaviness
photo not taken who why not I've only met two or three other people like that
in my whole life that said nope in the mountains so I I got no problem but I
let him go and they go on around the bend and they're gone and I'm saying I
should have taken that photo while they were leaving I scrambled to get into my
backpack to get the camera and I only carried little cameras so at that time I
was carrying little we went and so I was scrambling to get its travel to get it
by time I get it up and get focused whatever like a manual gone a shot was
gone the guy in the front was gone I only I only had the guy so I didn't take
the guys the back picture I don't care about him it was the whole scene that I
wanted to have a prospector coming out with another prospector or whatever or
his or his money man the guy that that grubstaked them and that's what I was
thinking the this Easterner or whatever it was
westerner but city slicker city slicker I'll pull he grubstake this prospector
to go in the superstitions and bring out some ore bring out what he thought
might have had mineral gold I didn't know at that time that
there was no gold in the western end of the Superstition Mountains I didn't know
that at that time I didn't know the demarcation line was about you at Canyon
anything east of you it you probably in right around Garden Valley east and
north you could find gold but nothing so but this first water when I went back
and start talking to somebody I knew about it and start looking it up he said
well that sounds like crazy Jake I said it sounds just like I said he wasn't a
tall guy and he was he was bald on top a hair on his side cuz he he took his
little hat off to wipe his head from sweating and it was bald on top and I
said he looked like a cab driver from New York City you know and I think crazy
Jake was from New Jersey or New York so anyhow I come back talking about and I
start looking up the story of crazy Jake and I find a photograph so that's a damn
that's who it was but then I started reading more about it and said it said
that crazy Jake died about 1991 and here was the story he died in Phoenix
exposing a heart attack a doctor certified him dead and then they shipped
the body to Wickenburg for cremation then brought back but the dust back to
Phoenix for burial wherever and I were talking to some of my newly acquainted
Dutch hunter things of poo-pooed said that couldn't have been crazy Jake he
died in 91 you couldn't have seen him in 93 or 94 ah there's the mystery the
mystery crazy Jake you know took millions of dollars from doctors lawyers
Indian chiefs whatever hit take your money he
love young girls and partying spend a lot of money and he was a flim-flam guy
from the word go he was a flim-flam man talk people should have been a used-car
salesman back in the day crazy Jacob probably made his millions
they're legally semi legally anyhow but reading more about it and and talking to
Bob Corbin later I met Bob Corbin talked to him but crazy prosecuted crazy Jake I
got that's another story though for another day that whole scam thing but
reading up on crazy Jake and the newspaper are quoted that crazy Jake had
paid two women that he flim-flamed and there was about 120,000 but he had paid them
forty seven thousand and then he went to jail and he feigned illness or whatever
they let him out of jail after two years after two years would have made it about
the time he might have been in the Superstition Mountains bringing out Rock
yard Rock and getting enough money to live live a life I always figure crazy
Jake went to Hawaii and was laughing and was just a tourist or wore wig and
nobody would know him over there that's my take on crazy Jake I think he cheated
death he cheated everybody he cheated everybody
why not death I think crazy Jake cheated death faked his own death he had all
these lawyers that he owed money to so he was going to pay some money back to
one of those doctors give them back some money or give them something yard rock
that he said was gold or would have been another scam and then he went on his
merry way with some young bimbo on his arm and thighs the way and lives till he
dies Jake I hope you did it but you should never pointed that damn gun at me
that's my story on crazy Jake so did crazy Jake faked his own death
was he still alive just another one of the mysteries of the Superstition
Mountains
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