The fortress of Masada was the last stronghold of the Jewish zealots after the insurrection of 70 AD, and it fell to the Romans in 73 AD after a siege of two years and the collective suicide of the defenders. The site was excavated in 1963-65 and fragments of 14 manuscript scrolls were found. They contain parts of the Old testament, apocryphal texts and some material akin to the Dead Sea scrolls.
Donovan Joyce (1910-1980) was an Australian radio producer and writer. He came to Israel in 1964 to gather material for a book. He attempted to get access to the excavations at Masada but was denied. The excavation leader, Yigael Yadin, treated him with scorn and according to Joyce's own story unknown agents harrassed him by clogging up the toilet at his hotel! Later, at the airport in Tel Aviv, he met a professor "Max Grosset" who according to Joyce was acting under a false name. This person claimed that he had gained access to the excavations at Masada and had stolen a well-preserved scroll which he wanted Joyce to smuggle out of Israel for 5000 dollars.
Grosset took Joyce to the gents room at the airport and showed him the 3 or 4 meters long parchment scroll, while telling him of the sensational Aramaic contents which he had somehow been able to read and translate already. The scroll was supposed to have been written the night before the fall of Masada on april 15, 73 AD by a writer calling himself Jesus of Kinneret, 80 years old and the son of Jakob (english James) and the last of the Maccabees. Wikipedia cites other claims made in connection with this, e.g. that the scroll was taken away by Israeli security, probably to end up in the Vatican Archive. A familiar scenario; see e.g. "Pilate's report", "The Essene Gospel of Peace" and "Talmud Jmmanuel".
Yigael Yadin has disavowed any knowledge of this scroll and points to the physical state of the Masada fragments; there were no whole scrolls, just loose fragments. Anyone with the least knowledge of ancient scrolls will know that they cannot be rolled up to 3 or 4 meters length without breaking. If there ever was a scroll outside Joyce's imagination, it cannot have been genuine. Joyce himself does not vouch for the contents of "Grosset's" translation but deals in terms of "what if" and "perhaps". Still, he does not waver on his central point: that Jesus of Kinneret is identical with Jesus Christ. He imagines that he has evidence that Jesus was descended from the Maccabees, that he was never crucified and that he was killed at the fall of Masada.
Even if the scroll did exist and if it was genuine and if Grosset's translation was correct, there would still be no valid reason to identify the manuscript's writer with Jesus. "Jesus" was a common name and that his father was named Jakob and that he lived to be 80 years old would indicate that we are dealing with a different person. The final impression of "The Jesus Scroll" is that it probably never existed outside the imagination of a man who went to Israel in search of answers and was disappointed. Perhaps the whole thing is a revenge against Yadin for not having received Joyce with the courtesy and resepect he imagined that he deserved. A more sinister interpretation is that Joyce invented the alleged scroll to boost the sales of his book, the contents of which has been dismissed by New Testament scholars and theologians as sheer speculation and suggestion, lacking any verifiable evidence.