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welcome to another episode of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains and today
we're going to talk about a character that you may or may not have heard quite
a bit about on our shows in the past and that's crazy Jake we're gonna find out
all about him from somebody who actually worked for him Ron Feldman so let's get at it.
when I first came here and I worked for
crazy Jake I I went back there and lived in his camp for 3.... 3 months and I never
came out and it was the best months of the year June, July and August is like
living in hell and I wouldn't do it again
I had other guys with me
I wouldn't do it again but it was one of the best experiences of my life
crazy Jake! crazy Jake! you know everybody talks about crazy Jake I've heard some
wild stories about him. Crazy Jake.. Robert F Jacobs was his name
hum..
I got to know him pretty well I rode for him for two and a half years I worked for him
for two and a half years he conned me for two and a half years now back then I
had nothing to give him except labor and you know I was there on
his site and I was digging what he told me to do but he was I honestly believe
if he made up... he was so smart that if he made up his mind he could have been
president in the United States he was a very intelligent man
hum..
and you had... there
was a way to tell whem he was lying you had to watch his lips very carefully
when they started to move you knew he was lying so he always lyied but he
always said don't ever tell the small lie people want to believe the big lie
he always told the big lie because people wanted to believe in that and I
learned a lot from him and I could have been the second best con man here if I
wanted to be but I chose no I don't want to do that I'm not doing that kind of
stuff I'm not dishonest but he is one of the best colors of the mountain he is I
hope his legacy lives on because he's a story in itself he not in this show be
here he's uh he's a matter of fact there's
very few people alive today that actually had any doings with him that
know him that are left but I he pretty much was a I'm gonna tell you he was
actually a mentor to me of my life one of them
well you know
when I was growing up going through junior high, high school and all that and
we would always talk about the people that were back there mining we always
thought they were just legends I mean here we are we're in Mesa we what's a
young Celeste Jones and Ed piper
Al Marrow. I actually went up to his mine but you know we didn't know these were
real people we didn't put names these people we just knew that they were up
there and then it was dangerous and not to go back there but I'm a native born
Mesa guy.. Mesa boy here when we talked about the superstitions that was it yeah
we had no idea what was behind no, no and most people today that come here as
tourists they think well how long does it take you to climb up that mountain
well what they're talking about is they want to go into superstitions they say
no...no that's one mountain of the whole superstition range which is a hundred
and sixty thousand acres you don't climb that mountain
so the conception of that yeah that's all there is... I mean and we grew up here
yeah you know that's it yeah we took it for granted right and and this was while
that stuff was going on to all them damn streets and Mesa named after your family name.
[laughter]
that's another whole other story
[Laughter]
yeah so you know it's it's amazing that and I you know I say this kind of
tongue-in-cheek but there's always a nugget of truth in what people say about
those mountains usually yeah yeah and if they're in if you hear a story isn't
it's based on something that was was truth correct but did crazy Jake ever
tell you about Marie Celeste Jones up there or about Ed Piper he... he didn't
actually know them yeah he knew Al Marrow of course and a lot of them guys he knew
that Berkeley well he knew text bar he didn't actually know Tex, he knew Bill
Berkeley a lot of questions I think the one on the top of my list is
did he ever kill someone Jake was a coward he would have somebody else maybe
kill somebody but never I don't know he didn't kill anybody
okay no I did I I backed him down one day when Jake and I broke
I finally got tired of his bullshit and rely I grew up and said this guy's full
of shit he had my eyes glazed over for a while
for two and a half years you know if he told me that bench there was gold
underneath it I believed it I didn't see it but I believed it
well that changed so we broke and one day he had sent just what I'm telling
you one of the guys that it was working for him at that time out in the
mountains he got him so pumped up about me being a
rival and I'm doing this and I'm raiding his camp but this guy shows up in my
apartment with a gun he's gonna kill me so basically that didn't happen and by
the time I got through with him he believed me not crazy Jake so I knew he
was after me this was 1967 and I always wore a gun I still got one on myself
right now but I wore one on my hip, six gun and I was in Bayliss shopping center
if you remember that Bayliss shopping center the managers name there was
Charlie LeSueur
[Laughter]
Really? he was a cousin. okay
Bayliss shopping center here's Al Marrow
I think was a 53 lime green Chevy sitting in the parking lot
Al Marrow is in it and crazy Jake's in it
and I saw that and this happened right after
this guy come after me and nobody's gonna threaten me and I walked up to the
car and I grabbed the handle of that door and he grabbed the handle inside
and I says get out there we're gonna have a goddamn gunfight you sent that
guy to do do me bodily harm and I'm gonna kill you and he screamed the top
of his lungs as he wouldn't get out of the car and Al Marrow drove off he would not
get out of the car Jake was a coward crazy Jake do you have any more?
a good friend of mine I'll reiterate what I had said that I worked and lived in the
mountains with four crazy Jake we both did Chuck luing he was from Texas and we
worked out there a year together off and on and I had started in my own
business the OK Corral and basically it was just
in the beginnings but 1973 Chuck Luing came to me and said Ron I know the
Dutchman is but it's on crazy Jake's claims and I'm going in and I'm gonna
find it and he said I want you to come with me and I said no I can't at this
time I'm too busy I got other obligations well he went in and one of
crazy Jake's guys that dig for him was an illegal immigrant Mexican fella and
they got into probably the guy couldn't speak English he couldn't speak Spanish
they got into an argument I'm sure they drew down at each other and the Mexican
was faster and killed Chuck now the Mexican guy stuffed Chuck in a crack
for 8 days he was not found finally he came out and I believe what happened is he
confessed to the murder or to the killing the authorities went back got
his body and brought him out now 1973 that's not long ago really we're still
having gunfights unfortunately we're still not having them but there that was
a true happening that did happen and what always happened with crazy Jake is
no matter who was working for him including myself
he'd pump me up and everybody else was an enemy and he gets you so salivating
towards that guy or that group of people that are mining out there that you you'd
go I won't even tell you those stories but you'd go out and do things
well I'm sure that he fed this guy enough of stuff that, that when Chuck
showed up and said I'm gonna dig the Dutchman and he says no, no, no you're
not! mmm that's what happened so yeah because of Jake, Chuck is dead do you have
any more? well we had broke apart as I said I had not seen Jake for many, many
years after that time that confrontation and he left and in the in the parking lot
and one day I was had you'll remember Stuckey's
and getting fuel and he pulls up and it was like oh hi Ron how you doing just as
friendly could you pack me into the mountains and I said sure you want to
pay the price so that went by it never happened so one day he calls me up
again
and he said hey I have a surprise for you
and I'm thinking huh at that time he was living on Pecos and Alma school. I don't
know if you remember that place it was like as far as I'm concerned a mansion
it was not a castle but oh just the grounds were spectacular in the home it
wasn't a house it was just just it was spectacular he was conning some some
doctor I think at the time doctor see I'm thinking out there wolves Winkle.. and
all... doctor mom, mom maybe but anyway he had this guy on the string and he was
living there like the life little king Riley you know so he says come on down
to my little Chataeu I'll never forget that and so I did and my wife and I went
down there and he treated us royally and what the surprise was is a friend of
mine that I hadn't seen in many years that I actually got involved with crazy
Jake that went out there in the mountains with me to dig all those for
a year or two was Winn Borden well he had got Winn Borden down to Arizona to
his place and then we had a reunion and so that was my surprise so then you know
okay so that went along a little while and then I bought this, I had this horse
that I had bought he was a stud horse and he was very blooded high end horse
and I decided..it's not my cup of tea I'm gonna sell him and at the
time we're talking about a while ago $3500 was a lot of money for a horse it
is in some ways now so I said you know what crazy Jake's got a lot of bucks
right now I think I wonder if he wants a horse I called him up and he blustered
over the phone I walked that horse I'll give you cash!
Jake you got 24 hours to get here with the money if you're not here I'm gonna
I'm gonna send him down the road to somebody else he showed up $3500 just.
So after that I started packing with him a little while packing for him yeah in the
mountains which he paid me and then next thing I know he's in jail
and I do you know the story behind that I've heard of him being spending some
time in jail well but what he was living over there
Bob Corbin was our Attorney General at the time and a good friend of mine and a
Dutchman hunter and he was involved in some very very nasty stuff Jake and
basically what he was doing is he was filming sex porno tapes with young girls
at that place so that part of him is like really taboo to me well Corban told
me this and he... he went after Jake now Jake put out that Colburn and
Corbin were after his Dutchman mine and therefore they're trying to put him in
jail that was his story well Corbin went after him to tide try
and put him jail but you know he went to all these he found these women some of
them which they were married they were older they didn't want to testify they
don't nothing so matter-of-fact had a young gal that used to work for us at
the other place and for years she actually grew up Jane
and I raised her pretty much her father had died and she left went to school and
she came out to my house and one night and she said my god I met a guy he's
gonna put me through college Ron he's gonna pay for everything and I got a
place to live and I said what's his name Robert Jacobs I said Jeanie you're not
to go by that man ever again and she never did
but see they she would have been another victim so consequently Corbin could not
hang that charge on Jake but what he did get is he got to two
different parties to step forward to say he conned me out of money when I was an
oil company small oil company and they put him away for seven years
and after
seven years I think he got out maybe in five or six he showed up in my place
and he telling me he's, he's gonna die because he's got heart problems and of
course I didn't believe that and shortly thereafter supposedly he passed away but
like Elvis Presley he's been cited. still??? not okay not still but back then he was
back okay so what isn't there a body sure all that stuff was there all that
stuff was documented he had died but people said I saw crazy Jake people I
know hasn't there been other so-called crazy Jake's up here small times. small
time. Chuck Crawford was another one okay I don't have you know remember Chuck
Crawford yeah Chuck Crawford was everybody would pale to crazy Jake
nobody would even come up to him but there was a lot of con men out there
yeah you know I there still are!
so you see the Mysteries of the Superstitions
don't need to be just the mountains they could be people as well just as we've
learned about crazy Jake another one of the mysteries of the Superstition
Mountains
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