What I believe John Sherman Attempted

[bigscoop]

Sure, this is pure speculation based on circumstantial evidence, just like every other theory out there. But that circumstantial evidence is pretty strong as things go. So here's what I believe may be the actual case with the Beale Pamphlet.

I think John Sherman tried to write and publish what he thought was going to be a real money maker, but what was actually just a simple dime novel of fictional proportions. In doing so he knew he would be deceiving the public so he enlisted the aid of his cousin, J.B. Ward, to act as his agent in order to protect his own identity and to deflect the attention/suspicions away from himself and his paper. For his part in the conspiracy Ward was awarded the copyright which insured his stake in the hopefully profitable event.

From here Sherman used his influence and typesetting skills to place several ads for the pamphlet in the paper at virtually no cost to himself or to Ward, this allowing the pamphlet maximum exposure on the local level, the reference to the unknown author also helping to hide the real source behind the numerous ads. As long as Ward refuses to identify the real author then the entire affair remains unexposed.

The reasons why I believe this is the case are numerous, to be sure, but no so strong as the complete lack of evidence suggesting that the story was anything else. If there had been any truth to the tale then something credible would have surfaced by now with so many qualified people looking, so I think this fact says a lot and offers a lot of support to the presented theory. And to add to this, there are several discrepancies in the tale itself that simply scream fabrication and serve to discredit any possible truth in the tale. Perhaps the most obvious being the contradiction in the numbering of the ciphers, also the fact that the said "key" for all the ciphers only provides a solution for what is ultimately the bait of the tale. There's no possible way that Beale could have detailed what was in each cipher by their numbering if the unknown author had to endure numbering them himself according to their length. So very clearly the ciphers are a simply ploy employed in the fabrication as even the author of the tale becomes confused and trapped in his own deceit. So in my mind, this is very strong evidence that the story was a complete fabrication and there are other such inaccuracies and dependencies as well.

So there you go, what I believe to be the most likely theory now. Sherman needed money and it certainly appears that he was hanging all his hope and efforts on the sale of Beale Pamphlet in order to raise that money. I think all of the existing evidence, and complete lack of evidence to the pamphlet harboring any measure of truth or being in reference to anything else, points in this direction. So until something conclusive comes along to add some measure of credibility to this tale I think it's time to close the book on this mystery in favor of another, hopefully something that presents some measure of supporting evidence and credibility.

 

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[Rebel - KGC]

Sure, this is pure speculation based on circumstantial evidence, just like every other theory out there. But that circumstantial evidence is pretty strong as things go. So here's what I believe may be the actual case with the Beale Pamphlet.

I think John Sherman tried to write and publish what he thought was going to be a real money maker, but what was actually just a simple dime novel of fictional proportions. In doing so he knew he would be deceiving the public so he enlisted the aid of his cousin, J.B. Ward, to act as his agent in order to protect his own identity and to deflect the attention/suspicions away from himself and his paper. For his part in the conspiracy Ward was awarded the copyright which insured his stake in the hopefully profitable event.

From here Sherman used his influence and typesetting skills to place several ads for the pamphlet in the paper at virtually no cost to himself or to Ward, this allowing the pamphlet maximum exposure on the local level, the reference to the unknown author also helping to hide the real source behind the numerous ads. As long as Ward refuses to identify the real author then the entire affair remains unexposed.

The reasons why I believe this is the case are numerous, to be sure, but no so strong as the complete lack of evidence suggesting that the story was anything else. If there had been any truth to the tale then something credible would have surfaced by now with so many qualified people looking, so I think this fact says a lot and offers a lot of support to the presented theory. And to add to this, there are several discrepancies in the tale itself that simply scream fabrication and serve to discredit any possible truth in the tale. Perhaps the most obvious being the contradiction in the numbering of the ciphers, also the fact that the said "key" for all the ciphers only provides a solution for what is ultimately the bait of the tale. There's no possible way that Beale could have detailed what was in each cipher by their numbering if the unknown author had to endure numbering them himself according to their length. So very clearly the ciphers are a simply ploy employed in the fabrication as even the author of the tale becomes confused and trapped in his own deceit. So in my mind, this is very strong evidence that the story was a complete fabrication and there are other such inaccuracies and dependencies as well.

So there you go, what I believe to be the most likely theory now. Sherman needed money and it certainly appears that he was hanging all his hope and efforts on the sale of Beale Pamphlet in order to raise that money. I think all of the existing evidence, and complete lack of evidence to the pamphlet harboring any measure of truth or being in reference to anything else, points in this direction. So until something conclusive comes along to add some measure of credibility to this tale I think it's time to close the book on this mystery in favor of another, hopefully something that presents some measure of supporting evidence and credibility.

TY, "Scoop"... for telling us, what cha think.

 

[ECS]

"I HAVE BEEN REDUCED FROM COMPARITIVE AFFLUENCE TO ABSOLUTE PENURY"

It has been claimed that John William Sherman burned the unsold Beale Papers in a wood stove for heat.

 

[bigscoop]

Too bad we don't know how many copies were sold. But it doesn't appear that the pamphlet was a huge success which might suggest that the locals were on to his sham.

 

[ECS]

Too bad we don't know how many copies were sold. But it doesn't appear that the pamphlet was a huge success which might suggest that the locals were on to his sham.

...and Sherman never had intentions of selling the pamphlet beyond Bedford county.

 

[releventchair]

Post 458's mention of the treasure story from the Virginian has many of the same ingredients as Sherman's later one does.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/b...riginal-beale-papers-published-1850-a-31.html

This story may have been John W. Sherman's inspiration for The Beale Papers. It has the following elements in common:

Buried treasure

in a cave

gold, silver, jewels

one mile south of this town (vs. four miles from Buford's)

in a kettle (vs. iron pots)

covered with boards and rocks

mysterious disappearance of the owner

presumed killed

imparted secret on her deathbed (as did Morriss)

amount put aside for husband, should he return (vs. amounts for 30 party members)

amount reserved for charity (vs. Sherman's original motive of charity for the fire victims)
From:
Page24

 

[bigscoop]

...and Sherman never had intentions of selling the pamphlet beyond Bedford county.

I think he probably did hope to be able to raise enough from the local sale of the pamphlet to allow him to market it in other areas. Sherman's problem was cash flow, so I suspect he marketed the heck out of it locally with the hope that he could experience a lot of sales in order to raise the money to allow him to expand his marketing area. Clearly we're talking just cents of profit with the sale of each pamphlet so I doubt he expected to reap "huge profits" from just local sales. But I do think he was hoping for good sales so he could make enough to allow him to market the story in other places. When we look at the amount of advertising for this pamphlet there's no way anyone was going to recover those cost of that marketing and production from just the local sale of the pamphlet unless those expenses were virtually free to them or at a very low cost. So I don't think there's any doubting that Sherman had a hand in the scheme.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

I think he probably did hope to be able to raise enough from the local sale of the pamphlet to allow him to market it in other areas. Sherman's problem was cash flow, so I suspect he marketed the heck out of it locally with the hope that he could experience a lot of sales in order to raise the money to allow him to expand his marketing area. Clearly we're talking just cents of profit with the sale of each pamphlet so I doubt he expected to reap "huge profits" from just local sales. But I do think he was hoping for good sales so he could make enough to allow him to market the story in other places. When we look at the amount of advertising for this pamphlet there's no way anyone was going to recover those cost of that marketing and production from just the local sale of the pamphlet unless those expenses were virtually free to them or at a very low cost. So I don't think there's any doubting that Sherman had a hand in the scheme.

Well, I WILL "say" this... YOU have a very unique "theory". Even PV never mentioned this "idea" in any of his "BT" books, or in talking with him... we must "focus" on John WILLIAM Sherman.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

It has been claimed that John William Sherman burned the unsold Beale Papers in a wood stove for heat.

HA! PROBABLY why he was sent to WSH, in Staunton, Va. Dunno...

 

[ECS]

Post 458's mention of the treasure story from the Virginian has many of the same ingredients as Sherman's later one does.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/b...riginal-beale-papers-published-1850-a-31.html

This story may have been John W. Sherman's inspiration for The Beale Papers. It has the following elements in common:

Buried treasure

in a cave

gold, silver, jewels

one mile south of this town (vs. four miles from Buford's)

in a kettle (vs. iron pots)

covered with boards and rocks

mysterious disappearance of the owner

presumed killed

imparted secret on her deathbed (as did Morriss)

amount put aside for husband, should he return (vs. amounts for 30 party members)

amount reserved for charity (vs. Sherman's original motive of charity for the fire victims)
From:
Page24

Add in the murder of Ward's great uncle, John Pickrell Risqué of New Mexico, by native Americans in Arizona while inspecting gold mines, April 1882, and you have another piece of the Beale story.
http://www.livlyroots.com/gerald/2/34969.htm

 

[bigscoop]

Impossible to know what exactly inspired the plot/events in the pamphlet but it's pretty certain that if anyone is putting boots on the ground in search of the treasure or claiming solution to the remaining two ciphers that they're just chasing/living a fairytale. Once again, once you clear away all that has been written about the legend by those embellishing the tale there's nothing left to support the existence of the legend. In fact, quite the opposite.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Impossible to know what exactly inspired the plot/events in the pamphlet but it's pretty certain that if anyone is putting boots on the ground in search of the treasure or claiming solution to the remaining two ciphers that they're just chasing/living a fairytale. Once again, once you clear away all that has been written about the legend by those embellishing the tale there's nothing left to support the existence of the legend. In fact, quite the opposite.

GREAT way to keep in shape, tho... and the scenery!

 

[Kenjmor2006]

You would think if a man wanted to fool people he sold his story too,there at least would not be so many mistakes made in the codes,I am leaning towards the codes coming from the tyler broadside(DOI) produced in 1818,also I think who ever wrote the codes wrote from a copy from a newspaper,also if my therory is correct,the codes were wrote to be broke like a combanation lock,example would be break code 2 then to break code three, subtract code two from the doi used ,add code two to bottom of doi and renumber,the doi would have th be exact one used to make codes.

 

[bigscoop]

There was no point to ciphers beyond presenting the bait (C2 and it's designed solution) and then the two completely bogus ciphers supposedly containing the location of the vault and the parties involved, this all making it appear official and believable. But 130 years later we're well aware of all of the discrepancies in the tale, and let's not forget that you would be hard pressed today to formulate a new theory on how the ciphers might be cracked - with most of these solution theories having already been run through the most sophisticated computer programs possible without so much as a clean solution. I think we want to continue attacking the tale with primitive approaches because we can, yet we tend to forget about the many advancements that have been applied, and are still being applied, that are already light years ahead of us. Stop and think about all of this and yet there is still absolutely nothing to offer any credibility to the story, or the ciphers, whatsoever. In the face of all of this I have to believe this is because there's absolutely nothing to be found. Like I said before, in the face of all of this, if there was any truth to the tale at all something would have surfaced by now with so many qualified people looking for so long.

 

[ECS]

... Stop and think about all of this and yet there is still absolutely nothing to offer any credibility to the story, or the ciphers, whatsoever...

...and that is the point many miss.

 

[bigscoop]

...and that is the point many miss.

I don't know if they miss that point or if it's just something that's difficult to swallow after so much time and effort trying to find that totally absent credibility. We start out hoping there might be something more to the tale and then we dedicate a lot of time and effort trying to find it, and naturally, during that time and effort we actually discover a lot of interesting things that we want to believe might be connected in some way. It's like a defense mechanism that kicks in and it drives us to ignore the cold hard realities.

 

[ECS]

Sure, this is pure speculation based on circumstantial evidence, just like every other theory out there. But that circumstantial evidence is pretty strong as things go. So here's what I believe may be the actual case with the Beale Pamphlet.

I think John Sherman tried to write and publish what he thought was going to be a real money maker, but what was actually just a simple dime novel of fictional proportions. In doing so he knew he would be deceiving the public so he enlisted the aid of his cousin, J.B. Ward, to act as his agent in order to protect his own identity and to deflect the attention/suspicions away from himself and his paper. For his part in the conspiracy Ward was awarded the copyright which insured his stake in the hopefully profitable event.

From here Sherman used his influence and typesetting skills to place several ads for the pamphlet in the paper at virtually no cost to himself or to Ward, this allowing the pamphlet maximum exposure on the local level, the reference to the unknown author also helping to hide the real source behind the numerous ads. As long as Ward refuses to identify the real author then the entire affair remains unexposed.

The reasons why I believe this is the case are numerous, to be sure, but no so strong as the complete lack of evidence suggesting that the story was anything else. If there had been any truth to the tale then something credible would have surfaced by now with so many qualified people looking, so I think this fact says a lot and offers a lot of support to the presented theory. And to add to this, there are several discrepancies in the tale itself that simply scream fabrication and serve to discredit any possible truth in the tale. Perhaps the most obvious being the contradiction in the numbering of the ciphers, also the fact that the said "key" for all the ciphers only provides a solution for what is ultimately the bait of the tale. There's no possible way that Beale could have detailed what was in each cipher by their numbering if the unknown author had to endure numbering them himself according to their length. So very clearly the ciphers are a simply ploy employed in the fabrication as even the author of the tale becomes confused and trapped in his own deceit. So in my mind, this is very strong evidence that the story was a complete fabrication and there are other such inaccuracies and dependencies as well.

So there you go, what I believe to be the most likely theory now. Sherman needed money and it certainly appears that he was hanging all his hope and efforts on the sale of Beale Pamphlet in order to raise that money. I think all of the existing evidence, and complete lack of evidence to the pamphlet harboring any measure of truth or being in reference to anything else, points in this direction. So until something conclusive comes along to add some measure of credibility to this tale I think it's time to close the book on this mystery in favor of another, hopefully something that presents some measure of supporting evidence and credibility.

It does appear at one time that you embraced the dime novel theory.

 

[ECS]

Too bad we don't know how many copies were sold. But it doesn't appear that the pamphlet was a huge success which might suggest that the locals were on to his sham.

Which leads to the belief that Guggenheimer and Button were aware that the Beale Papers was a dime novel with ciphers added as a parlor entertainment.
Its as if Poe had written a play along with version of THE GOLD BUG.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Which leads to the belief that Guggenheimer and Button were aware that the Beale Papers was a dime novel with ciphers added as a parlor entertainment.
Its as if Poe had written a play along with version of THE GOLD BUG.

Heh...

 

[bigscoop]

It does appear at one time that you embraced the dime novel theory.

It doesn't matter what I personally believe, or what any one of us believes to be the case. The only thing that matters is what we can prove and very clearly, after all of the years of research and solutions and claims, none of us can prove much of anything. That has been the point I've been trying to make in recent post. We can continue to debate and argue all manner of speculation and assumption and association but in all of this smoke and daggers nothing conclusive will ever come of it. 2015, just like every year before it, has brought new claims of solution and solve, just as will continue to happen in 2016 and beyond. And I have never let go of the fiction theory and I have often stated that it is a very strong "theory" but that like everything else, it is still just another unproven theory. Texas or a simple work of fiction, they are the two strongest theories on the table, but they are just theories, neither being an established fact.