My father, Archie Perry (b. 1935, d. 1992), was the youngest son of Mary Murle Boulet (b. 1890, d. 1951). There was a story in his family that sometime during the Depression, his mother was approached by a couple of men who said they represented her uncle (?) who had an oil field in Humble, TX. If she would just sign this paper, they had an inheritance for her. She made her mark and they gave her something like $20? When her older boys got home, they saw that she had taken the money in lieu of a larger inheritance. But the woman did not know how to read! Had the men had waited for her to be left alone?

My father and my mother pursued this story with a good lawyer in the 60's but although that lawyer found the company and the bank accounts in Houston, he told my parents to not pursue this any further because those oil companies were notorious for winning these kinds of battles.

Has anyone else heard this story? The lawyer is right, there's no reason to pursue it; I'm just curious.