First,
The map posted with the Egyptian Ankh is supposed to be Willie's Map. I couldn't say for certain.
RIF! Reading Is Fundamental! HAHAHA If you know the story of the Loriuses and Heberers, they drove up very near the cave. That would make the cave they went to the stash cave (smoke hole), and not the treasure cave. You can drive almost up to the stash cave. Kind of hard to drive up Burbank or Dark Canyons.
I believe that Margaret Perrone had no idea what Willie did or did not know. She only knew that Willie and Buster showed up with a map some time after Jack was murdered. I believe all that about them ripping the map in half was all supposition on either Margaret's or Jim's part. Apache Jim said he did extensive research, but could not find out who Bobby Jr or Palmer was. REALLY? The Palmer Brothers were local bad boy celebrities. Bobby Jr was Bobby Holden (I think). I found a Bobby Holden Jr. that was killed in New Guinea in 1943. May or may not be our guy. Bobby Holden Sr was from New Mexico (born in 1898).
You are also stating that Jack "loaded up with gold bars". That is not necessarily the case. Margaret stated that she and Jack only recovered two gold bars from their cave. She said that after she got Jack his new red jacket, she sent him to their cave to take the rest, and move them to the smoke hole. That was when he disappeared. She also said Willie and Buster were known to have sold soto stalk gold bars. For those that aren't familiar with Soto Stalk Bars; Soto is a kind of hollow reed. I read that the Spanish and Indians used them for recovering small gold from sand and dirt. It works like a primitive dry washer. Get a handful of sand from close to bedrock. Use the reed to gently blow the sand out of your hand. The heavy gold stays put, while the sand and dirt get blown away. You then pour the fine gold into the soto stalk and roast it. The gold melts into a small "finger" bar, and the wood burns away. Bars are small and easy to pack or carry. I have heard some people talk about soaking the soto before roasting, but anybody that has worked with molten gold can tell you what happens when you pour molten metal into a water saturated container--------------BOOOOOM or at least POP! Then you turn into El Dorado after the soto explodes and covers you in molten gold.
Unfortunately for that scenario, the bars that Willie and Buster had (at least the ones I know of) were 40 pounds of solid refined gold. IF Willie murdered Jack Reynolds and got his map, he might not have been able to find the Perrone/Reynolds Cave. He may have used the map to find a completely separate cave of bars. Her description of the soto bars don't jibe with what we know about Willie and his bars.
Mike