De la Peña Renounced?
Kent Biffle's Texana
The Dallas Morning News, November 15, 1998
© 1998 The Dallas Morning News
Historical illustrator Joseph Musso of Santa Monica, Calif., highlighted mistakes about Jim Bowie in the New Handbook of Texas, published by the Texas State Historical Association.Now he's doubting out loud the authenticity of the memoir of one of Santa Anna's gold-braided officers, Jose Enrique de la Peña. The journal will be auctioned on Wednesday in California -- conflicting with J.J.'s day in Texas (decisions, decisions).
The purported eyewitness account of the 1836 fight at the Alamo is owned by Texan Ruby Peace, 74, whose late husband, former state Democratic Party Chairman James Peace, bought it from Mexican rare coin dealer Jesus Sanchez Garza in 1974.
With Santa Anna in Texas - the journal's published title - ignited feuds about the death of Alamo defender Davy Crockett. It questioned whether the hero, famous for his coonskin cap, died fighting or, as the memoir suggests, surrendered only to be executed.
Mr. Musso warned San Francisco auctioneers Butterfield & Butterfield:
"Several years ago, while researching material for my biography on Alamo commander James Bowie, I noticed certain handwriting anomalies between the Peña memoir and that of a letter purportedly written by an Alamo defender, Isaac Milsaps. As it turns out, both documents had no known pedigree prior to 1955 and by March 1989, Texas Monthly magazine used research of the leading handwriting expert, Charles Hamilton, to report that the Milsaps letter was a suspected fake, written by a known forger, John Laflin, who died in 1970.Mr. Musso urged Butterfield & Butterfield to employ pre-auction scientific tests, such as ion diffusion analysis on the ink, to test the document's validity."Since I originally planned to quote from both documents in my Bowie biography, I decided to contact Charles Hamilton regarding the Peña memoirs. He, in turn, confirmed my fears and sent me a written certification, dated Oct. 18, 1993, stating his belief that the Peña memoir was also faked by Laflin."