A few weeks ago Jackie and I were over at the Brisbee cemetery picking up some of the trash that had blown over from the Brisbeestock bash, and being that we are both interested in old cemeteries, we sort of dawdled along reading the names and inscriptions on the stones while we picked up trash. As we were rounding the huge old chinaberry tree that stands in the back corner, overhanging the creek, I saw a stone that I hadn't noticed before. I motioned for Jackie to take a look and started to pull away some of the weeds so we could read what it said. To my amazement I saw a name that I quickly recognized and it brought to mind a story and event that I was very familiar with. The name on the tombstone was "Blackjack Boughton".I had first heard of the infamous outlaw last year when Jerry Holmes discovered a very large cache of gold nuggets while attending one of the Starsig meetings at Infomart in Dallas. During the course of the meeting it was revealed that pieces of a map to the treasure had been stashed around in various places within the meeting room. The Freeloader and others at the meeting began searching and they worked until each piece was found, and until they were able to put the map back together, but Jerry was the one to discover where the gold was buried and to claim the vast treasure.
Now there had been stories around for years that old Blackjack had hidden treasures all over Texas, but their locations had remained a mystery and some even wondered if they actually existed. The mystery surrounding the Infomart treasure was: Where did the map come from and who put it in the meeting room? Did Blackjack's ghost move the treasure and the map to Infomart? Is he still lurking about? Are the stories of his other treasures true?
After Jackie and I explored the stone and the surrounding area, I remembered the piece of an old map with the name "Beale" on it that I had found during an earlier trip to the Brisbee Cemetery. How it had survived all those years wadded up in an old Prince Albert can and stuck under a stone is beyond me, but there it was! I had taken the map home and put it away thinking I would study it later, but, what with one thing and another, I had not gotten around to it. Well, along with my knowledge of the Infomart treasure, finding the map in the cemetery, and now, finding a tombstone with Blackjack's name on it got me to thinkin'! So .... I went by C's bookmobile to scrounge around in some dusty old books she had stashed up on the top shelf where no one ever looks, and after several hours of sneezin' and readin', I found a really scruffy old journal. On the cover was scrawled, "Property of Blackjack Boughton"! Underneath was a clumsy depiction of a skull and crossbones, AND, right through the center of the "O" in "Property", was the ragged outline of a bullet hole! I had hit PAYDIRT!
Trying to contain myself over the fantastic discovery I hurriedly went and asked C if I could take the journal home to study it more closely under an illuminated magnifying glass and she allowed that if I would guard it very carefully, she would let me have it for a few days. My hands were shaking as I said good-bye to C and left the bookmobile. Little did she (or I) know that I had just discovered the key to ALL of Blackjack's chicanery and dirty dealin'!
