In 2010, the veracity of Stump's reminiscences of
Ty Cobb that are recounted in the book that is the basis of the 1994 film
Cobb, a Lenda (1994) were called into question in an article by William R. "Ron" Cobb (no relation to Ty). The article, published in "The National Pastime" (official publication of the Society for American Baseball Research), accused Stump of extensive forgeries of Cobb-related documents and diaries. The article accused Stump of having falsely claimed to possess a shotgun used by Cobb's mother to kill his father (in a well-known incident officially ascribed to her having mistaken him for an intruder). The shotgun later came into the hands of noted memorabilia collector Barry Halper, but in reality Cobb's father had been killed by a pistol. The article further accused Stump of numerous false statements about Cobb in his last years, most of which were sensationalistic in nature and intended to cast Cobb in an unflattering light.
