The mysterious death of Adolph Ruth

[Matthew Roberts]

Just a quick comment - one of the men who reportedly packed A Ruth into the mountains was Jack Keenan, not Jack Keegan. Not really that big of a deal, but if anyone wants to dig deeper into researching the person just wanted you to have the right name.

Thanks for catching that Cubfan64, the thread started out with the right name (Keenan) but somewhere got off the track and started spelling his name Keegan.!!! Hard to keep everything straight with so many individuals and issues.

It's interesting that Jack Keenan was the prime suspect in Ruth's disappearance. Many believe LeRoy Purnell was because of his criminal history and time spent in prison. But in fact, Purnell did time in prison for theft years before the Adolph Ruth incident and he was a model prisoner and never in trouble with the law afterward.

It was Jack Keenan's wife who slipped up while being questioned by Maricopa County investigators. Up until that time Jack Keenan and a few of his close associates had told investigators Keenan and Purnell simply packed Ruth into a camp and left.
They said they knew nothing of any maps nor were interested in maps or mines.
Then, under repeated questioning, and at different times, Keenan's wife absent-mindedly blurted out that it was strange her husband could not find the mine even with Mr. Ruth's maps.

Matthew

 

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[motel6.5]

First I would like to give credit for the map I posted above to a Mr. Joe Ribaudo.
2nd, apparently their are different copys of the same map floating around as stated above by another poster.
3rd, I can see that when copying a map, the details/landscape can change either by design or on purpose, as to slightly deceive.
4th, I am not going to post that map again anywhere.
and 5th, B.Storm, relates a tale that Mr. Charles M.Clark, as mentioned in my post above, grubbed staked Gonzales for his foreay in the mountains. When Gonzales returned ,according to Clark, he was loaded down with gold, and he gave Clark a bakeing soda can of gold dust as payback for the grubstake. Take that imfo as you will,I wasn't there.
.

 

[Matthew Roberts]

First I would like to give credit for the map I posted above to a Mr. Joe Ribaudo.
2nd, apparently their are different copys of the same map floating around as stated above by another poster.
3rd, I can see that when copying a map, the details/landscape can change either by design or on purpose, as to slightly deceive.
4th, I am not going to post that map again anywhere.
and 5th, B.Storm, relates a tale that Mr. Charles M.Clark, as mentioned in my post above, grubbed staked Gonzales for his foreay in the mountains. When Gonzales returned ,according to Clark, he was loaded down with gold, and he gave Clark a bakeing soda can of gold dust as payback for the grubstake. Take that imfo as you will,I wasn't there.
.

motel6.5

Your comments on treasure maps in general are right on the money.

Charles Clark was an old Arizona pioneer came to Maricopa Wells and Florence in 1872. Later settled in Phoenix. He was in a position to know many of the early prospectors and mining men in Central Arizona.
He gathered many stories of the early days, knew Jacob Waltz, Henry Wickenberg, Miguel Peralta and many others. His memoirs are in the Arizona Historical Society archives at Tucson.
Charles Clark and Dick Holmes were responsible in 1921 for starting the Arizona Pioneer Reunions held each April in Phoenix where thousands of the oldest Arizona pioneers gathered together to tell their stories of the beginning of Arizona.
Charles Clark was one of the most respected and honest men in Arizona and any story told by him would certainly carry some weight.

Matthew


Charles M. Clark in Phoenix

 

[azdave35]

motel6.5

Your comments on treasure maps in general are right on the money.

Charles Clark was an old Arizona pioneer came to Maricopa Wells and Florence in 1872. Later settled in Phoenix. He was in a position to know many of the early prospectors and mining men in Central Arizona.
He gathered many stories of the early days, knew Jacob Waltz, Henry Wickenberg, Miguel Peralta and many others. His memoirs are in the Arizona Historical Society archives at Tucson.
Charles Clark and Dick Holmes were responsible in 1921 for starting the Arizona Pioneer Reunions held each April in Phoenix where thousands of the oldest Arizona pioneers gathered together to tell their stories of the beginning of Arizona.
Charles Clark was one of the most respected and honest men in Arizona and any story told by him would certainly carry some weight.

Matthew

View attachment 1465527
Charles M. Clark in Phoenix

i would tend to believe anything clark wrote down in his own handwriting but when i see this ....B.Storm, relates a tale....i tend not to believe.....storm has slung so much b.s. around here its hard to believe anything he said

 

[somehiker]

First I would like to give credit for the map I posted above to a Mr. Joe Ribaudo.
2nd, apparently their are different copys of the same map floating around as stated above by another poster.
3rd, I can see that when copying a map, the details/landscape can change either by design or on purpose, as to slightly deceive.
4th, I am not going to post that map again anywhere.
and 5th, B.Storm, relates a tale that Mr. Charles M.Clark, as mentioned in my post above, grubbed staked Gonzales for his foreay in the mountains. When Gonzales returned ,according to Clark, he was loaded down with gold, and he gave Clark a bakeing soda can of gold dust as payback for the grubstake. Take that imfo as you will,I wasn't there.
.

Better to use this image instead, rather than any of other "traced" versions.
It's a photo of Shaefer's original (now in the SMHS collection) shot by Al Reser and given to Jim Hatt.



Just came across this article as well.....

The Peralta-Fish Map and the Lost Treasures of Frank Fish | Xaviant Haze

...seems others, including myself (once) have made the same mistake of using the wrong copy.

Another link....

Scott Anderson Reporting

Regards:SH.

 

[starman 1]

Hello Mr. Roberts,

Tip of the hat to you for a great thread.

It is amazing the ease with which going into the rabbit hole is accomplished. Perhaps it is the wealth of information that is the burden and not the lack of it.

Let`s start with Mr. Knickerbocker. Who would have thought a painter from Mass. would play a role in Mr. Ruth`s murder. Mr. Knickerbocker is murdered and it is portrayed as a traffic accident. If it was a accident you have to believe it is reasonable there was a significant amount of blood on the victim but none on the road itself, as you have reported.

You also have to explain why Mr. Knickerbocker, who resided in Mesa, was wandering around a deserted road, far from Mesa, in the middle of the night.

So Mr. Knickerbocker, who knew Ruth and supposedly had discovered the LDM or something, is dispatched shortly before or after Mr. Ruth is sent to other side near a grove on Peter`s Mesa.

Now let`s take a comment made by Gassler in his diary:

"that evening he told me about Ruth. He said he knew he was dead. He said he looked for a couple of days and then got serious about tracking. It had rained back there before Ruth went in and he found his cane prints. He said he followed up to Peter`s Mesa and said Ruth found the landmark." Helen Corbin, page 330, "The Bible of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine and Jacob Waltz"

So where are we:

1. Mr. Knickerbocker is murdered. And shortly thereafter Ruth is murdered.
2. According to Gassler Tex knew Ruth was murdered before he took off to look for him or at least before he found him, yet Tex did not know where the body was.

If the above is true perhaps all of our murders were accomplished beforehand and one body ended up on a dark road and another ended up on Peter`s Mesa. A lot of work unless these two stumbled on something that others were already involved in.

And just perhaps Knickerbocker was also at the grove and escaped only to be murdered later and just perhaps in Mr. Ruth`s remains was something that belonged to Mr. Knickerbocker.

This is not the work of a couple of cowboys and definitely not the sole work of locals. Who knows maybe mountain lions got both of them.

Have a good day.

Starman

 

[Matthew Roberts]

starman 1,

That was an excellent post and something I have turned over and over in my mind a hundred times.

For those not familiar with Charles Knickerbocker, he was with Adolph Ruth at the Cal Morse ranch prior to Ruth going in the Superstitions. Knickerbocker had information about the mine Adolph Ruth was looking for and may have been working with Adolph Ruth to get to that mine. After Adolph Ruth went missing Erwin Ruth immediately went to the Cal Morse Ranch and looked up Knickerbocker and tried to get him to either lead him into the mountains to where he believed the elder Ruth had gone or show him on a map.

But Knickerbocker had become afraid and evasive and the night before he was to meet with Erwin Ruth and show him where his father may have went, Knickerbocker is found dead along a dark road near Claypool, Arizona. As starman1 said, he was covered in blood yet no blood was noted on the road where he lay. The explanation for his death was he was struck by a car in the night and the driver probably thought he had struck a coyote and never stopped. No one ever came forward to say they had struck something on the road that night. There is more to the mystery of Adolph Ruth's death than most people ever imagined.

Matthew

 

[motel6.5]

Ola, Erwin Ruth was a cattle inspector, and that is what he was when he went to Mexico on a job, and obtained or made a copy of the Gonzales map, from the Peralta family. Adolf Ruth was a engineer by trade. These are and were very astute vocations then and now. My guess is both Ruths made Copys of the Copy of the Gonzales map,but neither had the Original. The Original may still be with the decendints of the Peraltas.

 

[Gregory E. Davis]

Good afternoon Matthew: Let me know if I have this sequence of events correct. Adolph Ruth was driven to Apache Junction by someone unknown and stopped at Cal Morse's Gas Station when reaching Apache Junction. The driver did not take Ruth to the U Ranch because he either did not know how to get there or would not drive on the old dirt road to the ranch. He then either drove Ruth to the Morse's Ranch or he left Ruth at Morse's Gas Station for Morse to drive Ruth to Morse's Ranch and then went on his way to somewhere along the West Coast. Later McKnight drove Ruth to the U Ranch. So it appears to me that Ruth stayed at both places. Ruth either met Keenan and Purnell at Morse's Gas Station or at Morse's Ranch or at the U Ranch. Later Keenan and Purnell packed Ruth into West Boulder Canyon at Willow Spring from First Water where Ruth set up camp. This last statement about them leaving First Water is a bit controversial but from my many years of hiking the area, I feel this was the route they took. It is by far the easier way in than the other's that have been proposed. I am not sure you could have gotten pack animal's over any other route at that time in the 1930's. From there, anybody knows. Cordially, Gregory E. Davis

 

[azdave35]

Good afternoon Matthew: Let me know if I have this sequence of events correct. Adolph Ruth was driven to Apache Junction by someone unknown and stopped at Cal Morse's Gas Station when reaching Apache Junction. The driver did not take Ruth to the U Ranch because he either did not know how to get there or would not drive on the old dirt road to the ranch. He then either drove Ruth to the Morse's Ranch or he left Ruth at Morse's Gas Station for Morse to drive Ruth to Morse's Ranch and then went on his way to somewhere along the West Coast. Later McKnight drove Ruth to the U Ranch. So it appears to me that Ruth stayed at both places. Ruth either met Keenan and Purnell at Morse's Gas Station or at Morse's Ranch or at the U Ranch. Later Keenan and Purnell packed Ruth into West Boulder Canyon at Willow Spring from First Water where Ruth set up camp. This last statement about them leaving First Water is a bit controversial but from my many years of hiking the area, I feel this was the route they took. It is by far the easier way in than the other's that have been proposed. I am not sure you could have gotten pack animal's over any other route at that time in the 1930's. From there, anybody knows. Cordially, Gregory E. Davis

it has been brought up that cal morse may have had more than one gas station...one in mesa and one in florence junction....if this is true...which station are we talking about?

 

[Matthew Roberts]

Good afternoon Matthew: Let me know if I have this sequence of events correct. Adolph Ruth was driven to Apache Junction by someone unknown and stopped at Cal Morse's Gas Station when reaching Apache Junction. The driver did not take Ruth to the U Ranch because he either did not know how to get there or would not drive on the old dirt road to the ranch. He then either drove Ruth to the Morse's Ranch or he left Ruth at Morse's Gas Station for Morse to drive Ruth to Morse's Ranch and then went on his way to somewhere along the West Coast. Later McKnight drove Ruth to the U Ranch. So it appears to me that Ruth stayed at both places. Ruth either met Keenan and Purnell at Morse's Gas Station or at Morse's Ranch or at the U Ranch. Later Keenan and Purnell packed Ruth into West Boulder Canyon at Willow Spring from First Water where Ruth set up camp. This last statement about them leaving First Water is a bit controversial but from my many years of hiking the area, I feel this was the route they took. It is by far the easier way in than the other's that have been proposed. I am not sure you could have gotten pack animal's over any other route at that time in the 1930's. From there, anybody knows. Cordially, Gregory E. Davis

Good afternoon Gregory,

You have a mix of the old accepted story of Ruth arriving in Arizona and what actually happened.

Cal Morse had more than just a gas station, his place was a bus stop for what was in 1931 the cross country bus route from El Paso, Texas to Los Angeles. Morse station was a bus stop on that route. The bus was the old Motor Transit Company which became Greyhound at about that same year.
Morse also ran a grocery store out of his place and it was an informal mail drop for local residents (not a US post office).
The man who accompanied Ruth to Arizona rode with Ruth as far as Cal Morse station then boarded the bus at the station and continued on to Los Angeles.
There is no evidence or record of anyone taking Adolph Ruth to the QCU ranch the day he arrived at Morse station (May 13, 1931).
Ruth very well did visit the QCU ranch but he would not have needed someone to drive him. He was perfectly capable of driving that distance himself as long as he had proper directions.

It is also interesting to note that no one was living at the QCU ranch at that time (May 1931). The Barkley family lived in a house in Mesa across from Pioneer Park and near the Mormon Temple.
When not in Mesa the Barkley's stayed at the 3R's ranch house, not the QCU ranch house.
The only people at the ranch would have been a hand or maybe two to see the range stock were getting water, salt and keep an eye on them. Ruth would have had little reason to be at the QCU ranch.
It is much more probable that if Ruth spent time with the Barkley's it was in Mesa, not at the QCU.

And yes you are correct, Sheriff's investigators found that Ruth was taken into his camp in West Boulder Canyon through the First Water Ranch. And that is the route searchers used also when going into Ruth's camp.

Matthew

 

[Matthew Roberts]

it has been brought up that cal morse may have had more than one gas station...one in mesa and one in florence junction....if this is true...which station are we talking about?

azdave35,

You are correct Cal Morse ran more than one gas-service station. I have not been able to find out if he ran them both at the same time or at separate times. He had one station that appears to have been at his ranch which was out past where the Buckhorn Baths are at Recker Road on the Apache Trail. That is the station I believe Ruth arrived at but cannot be 100% sure. If he had a station in Florence Junction it probably would have been the Shell station but again cannot be 100% sure. I believe the other station was somewhere near the site of Apache Junction today (Apache Trail and Idaho Road).

Matthew

 

[cactusjumper]

Good afternoon Gregory,

You have a mix of the old accepted story of Ruth arriving in Arizona and what actually happened.

Cal Morse had more than just a gas station, his place was a bus stop for what was in 1931 the cross country bus route from El Paso, Texas to Los Angeles. Morse station was a bus stop on that route. The bus was the old Motor Transit Company which became Greyhound at about that same year.
Morse also ran a grocery store out of his place and it was an informal mail drop for local residents (not a US post office).
The man who accompanied Ruth to Arizona rode with Ruth as far as Cal Morse station then boarded the bus at the station and continued on to Los Angeles.
There is no evidence or record of anyone taking Adolph Ruth to the QCU ranch the day he arrived at Morse station (May 13, 1931).
Ruth very well did visit the QCU ranch but he would not have needed someone to drive him. He was perfectly capable of driving that distance himself as long as he had proper directions.

It is also interesting to note that no one was living at the QCU ranch at that time (May 1931). The Barkley family lived in a house in Mesa across from Pioneer Park and near the Mormon Temple.
When not in Mesa the Barkley's stayed at the 3R's ranch house, not the QCU ranch house.
The only people at the ranch would have been a hand or maybe two to see the range stock were getting water, salt and keep an eye on them. Ruth would have had little reason to be at the QCU ranch.
It is much more probable that if Ruth spent time with the Barkley's it was in Mesa, not at the QCU.

And yes you are correct, Sheriff's investigators found that Ruth was taken into his camp in West Boulder Canyon through the First Water Ranch. And that is the route searchers used also when going into Ruth's camp.

Matthew

Matthew,

As you know, that has been my conclusion for years......without the benefit of reading a Sheriff's report.

Good luck,

Joe Ribaudo

 

[nobodie]

On page 11 Erwin doesn't mention any one riding with his father when he left on May 4, 1931. It's possible that Ruth picked someone up on his way to AZ. Maybe paid for the bus ticket, for his help.

 

[deducer]

Matthew,

As you know, that has been my conclusion for years......without the benefit of reading a Sheriff's report.

Good luck,

Joe Ribaudo

Why was this photo captioned "Ruth's last camp"?

The man in this photo is Maricopa Sheriff Deputy Lon Jordan.

What is he doing so far away from West Boulder Canyon?

 

[cactusjumper]

View attachment 1465865

Why was this photo captioned "Ruth's last camp"?

The man in this photo is Maricopa Sheriff Deputy Lon Jordan.

What is he doing so far away from West Boulder Canyon?

deducer,

Deception!

Does that look like a good spot to set up a camp? Does it, in any way match Ruth's description that he wrote to his wife? Where is there a wall to hang some shelves from? Where is the water, front and back? I don't have a single doubt that he was camped at Willow Spring. There are a number of places around Willow Spring that would provide a level camp site, along with water on two sides. Here's a sample:



Deception from start to finish.

Take care,

Joe

 

[cactusjumper]

View attachment 1465865

Why was this photo captioned "Ruth's last camp"?

The man in this photo is Maricopa Sheriff Deputy Lon Jordan.

What is he doing so far away from West Boulder Canyon?

deducer,

To make a bit of a finer point on this photo, I do believe it was taken on the north end of Black Top, probably where Ruth's bones were claimed to have been discovered. Not much water to be found up there.

Believe that picture has been around for quite awhile. Probably can be found in Greg's files. Why is it being touted as "Ruth's last camp" today? That may be what they were trying to sell back when the picture was taken. This may be being dredged back up for an upcoming book with "new" evidence for a hook.

IMHO, That picture is no "campsite". What's your opinion, or for that matter, what do the rest of the folks posting on this subject think?

Take care,

Joe

 

[Shortfinger]

deducer,

To make a bit of a finer point on this photo, I do believe it was taken on the north end of Black Top, probably where Ruth's bones were claimed to have been discovered. Not much water to be found up there.

Believe that picture has been around for quite awhile. Probably can be found in Greg's files. Why is it being touted as "Ruth's last camp" today? That may be what they were trying to sell back when the picture was taken. This may be being dredged back up for an upcoming book with "new" evidence for a hook.

IMHO, That picture is no "campsite". What's your opinion, or for that matter, what do the rest of the folks posting on this subject think?

Take care,

Joe

Well, Joe, not having been to the site (as I said earlier in another thread, I don't hike the Supes), I suppose it is possible that directly behind the photographer, there is a flat spot with a grove of trees and a spring. Not likely, but possible. I'll defer to those who have been to the site.

JB

 

[cactusjumper]

Well, Joe, not having been to the site (as I said earlier in another thread, I don't hike the Supes), I suppose it is possible that directly behind the photographer, there is a flat spot with a grove of trees and a spring. Not likely, but possible. I'll defer to those who have been to the site.

JB

Hi JB,

Thanks for the reply. Been there, but it's been many years ago. Best I can remember.........That area is what you can see.

Doubt even a tough guy like Gollum would camp on that spot.

Good luck,

Joe Ribaudo

 

[cactusjumper]

This is the roughest place I ever set up a tent in the Supe's:



The left and right edge of the picture drops off precipitously. Hard to find a spot to drive tent pegs into. We tied off to boulders instead. No water.

Good luck,

Joe Ribaudo