(September 11, 2007)--The Texas Historical Commission has backed away from the contention that a letter from Alamo hero Davy Crockett is authentic.

The commission will seek expert authentication of the letter the state plans to buy for nearly $500,000.

State officials last week announced a plan to buy the letter, claiming "99.9 percent" certainty that it's real.

But the commission has since retracted the statement, after skeptics raised questions.

The letter was presented as Crockett's last, written Jan. 9, 1836 before he and about 200 other Alamo defenders were killed by Mexican forces.

The letter was to his children.

The purchase from Simpson Galleries of Houston is conditioned on authentication within 120 days.

Rare book dealers say published facsimiles of the letter bear little resemblance to Crockett's poor spelling, bad grammar and uneven penmanship.

The commission announced last week it had purchased the letter for $490,000 from a fine arts auctioneer.

Historical Commission spokeswoman Debbi Head said the state has 120 days to have a third-party team of experts verify the letter.

Ray Simpson III, the letter's seller, says he's positive it's the original Davy Crockett letter.

Simpson said his grandfather bought the letter from a descendent of Crockett's in 1986 and misplaced it years ago.

Simpson said he and his father found it several weeks ago in their office.

Simpson thinks the document likely could have sold for a much higher price in an open auction.

But the family wanted to offer it to Texas first.

They also knocked off $60,000 from the originally agreed upon purchase price of $550,000.

Click Here For Texas Historical Commission Web Site

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