More on Orvus Lee Howk

It's time to look a little deeper into that can of worms known as Orvus Lee Howk and his treasure claims just to see what crawls from the bottom. In my opinion, the deeper you look the more delusional Howk looks.

We have previously posted some information on Orvus Lee Howk, a.k.a. Jesse Lee James III that with any luck, has opened a few eyes to the possibility that not all is at it seems when it comes to the K.G.C. and their alleged treasures.

I have included another map drawn by “Jesse James III” at the top of this post for you to see. In this map Howk claims that Jesse James was hoarding copper in amounts exceeding ten thousand TONS just so he could keep the copper price up. Along with the tons of copper he supposedly had tons of gold and silver, hundreds of tons, stored at the same location. Now the most obvious question here would be that if you have hundreds of tons of gold and silver, why would you care what the price of copper was? It would cost you more to hoard the copper than what it was worth.

The map itself is of a town that has a “hollow mound” on its outskirts that is filled with thousands of tons of metals. I have retyped two parts of this map for you to read in their entirety. These two parts are the description of what Howk says Jesse James hid in the hollow mound. You just have to love this guy. According to Howk, Jesse James never did anything small! It’s always in the millions of dollars if not billions of dollars and the gold and silver is measured in tons. Has anyone given any thought to how many horses and wagons and/or mules it would take to move thousands of tons of metal?

From the map:

“J.W. James, used this town as his own baliwick. During bad years, he stored thousands of tons of excess Copper Bars to help keep the copper price up to 15 cents to 17 cents per lb., on the market. He hoped to store copper until the prices increased. He also hoarded placer gold & gold bars plus some lead bars and silver bars along with stocks of canned milk, canned meat, Beans & Pork in cans just in case. A lot of guns and supplies went through this Town to General Poncho Villa, Chihuahua (illegible word here) Mexico, from 1915 to 1922.

A Hollow Mound Mountain.

200 Repeating Rifles & Ammunition, 5 or 6 Gatlin Guns and 300 Pistols, 10,000 to 12,000 tons of Copper Bars, 500 to 700 tons of Silver Bars, 16 tons of Placer Gold, Saddles & Blankets, canned goods.

That’s a lot of stuff to be moving around the country without anybody knowing what you are doing, especially the people in the town next to the "hollow mound".

Now for some more interesting history concerning the flamboyant Mr. Howk, or is it Houk, no, wait, it’s James, no, wait, he said Baxter……............

Orvus Lee Howk, going by the name of Jesse Lee James III stated in 1961 that he was born in Saint Louis County, Missouri in 1905. He said that he is known by and likes to be called “The Hawk”. Is “The Hawk” really as impressive as Jesse James III?

About ten years earlier though, in 1951, upon the death of J. Frank Dalton, Mr. Howk told the Granbury, Texas undertaker that had Dalton’s body that he, Orvus Lee Howk, was Dalton’s “nephew”. That’s right, his nephew!! Throughout the years in different interviews with people Howk was also known to identify himself as the grandson or great grandson of Jesse James. Did he forget who his father was?

In 1963 Jesse Lee James III filed a lawsuit against a Colorado newspaper and it’s reporter saying that the newspaper had made “libelous statements concerning his claims of relationship to the outlaw”. Howk as Jesse James III sued for $1.1 million but didn’t even show up for his own case in court. Howk’s attorney, Robert E. McLean presented some newspaper articles as evidence and then rested his case. After talking with “the 57 year old James” a psychiatrist, Dr. Richard L. Conde, who was called as a witness in the court case stated “I felt he was mentally ill”, referring to Jesse Lee James III. This case was later ruled in favor of the newspaper. Really? Who would have thought?

I know, I know, enough with the smart-ass remarks; It’s kind of like that pirate sound, I just can’t help myself. ARGGGGGG!

As long as we are talking about lawsuits maybe I should mention the one where Howk, excuse me, Jesse Lee James III, sued an Indian named Joe Suazo in Colorado in 1962 claiming he had stolen a Jesse James treasure after he and Howk had found it. Supposedly Howk and Suazo had found the gold, 14 gold bars weighing 90 pounds each, lying on the ground, mostly uncovered but they failed to recover a single bar. In court Howk testified that when they found the gold bars it had begun to snow and he had a cold so they left so he could go lie down. I’m not making this up, really! A cold and a little snow kept either one of the men from picking up just one gold bar. Howk claimed that Suazo came back later and hid the gold bars in several other places and refused to tell him where they were. This case was dismissed after Howk sent a letter to the judge in the case saying “it was best to drop it” (the suit) and after Howk himself failed to show up for a court hearing and a scheduled deposition in the case. Mr. Suazo had already testified that there was never any gold and that he and Howk had never seen any gold.

I should point out that Suazo also said that Howk had come to the Santa Clara Indian Reservation with liquor, looking for information about buried treasure and that is how they met. Now see, that firewater will get you in trouble every time!

Did I mention that the alleged K.G.C template came from Howk?