November 29, 2022 • 10 mins
Dealing with tricky situations can often require a heroic heart, and that's what's on display in today's tour of the Cabinet.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. For any parents, the happiness and well being
of their child is the most important thing in the world.
Making sure they grow up to be kind and respectable
members of society is one of the key goals of
being a good mom or dad, and sometimes that means
(00:49):
being the bad guy. When a child wants to test
the limits of their independence, maybe they want to stay
out past their curfew or try and illicit substance for
the first time. Sure, it's important to let kids fail
and learn, but there are certain occasions where allowing the
child too much freedom can be dangerous, even deadly. Take
d D for example. Born Deirdre in nineteen fifty three.
(01:13):
D D was no stranger. It's a luxury. Her parents
were celebrities who were often out of the house, so
she and her brother would hang around their Malibu mansion
looking for ways to keep themselves busy. For d D.
That meant drugs, quickly escalating to heroin and other harder substances,
often pushed by her group of questionable friends. By the
nineteen sixties, teenage d D had firmly entrenched herself within
(01:35):
the growing counterculture on the West Coast, hanging out with
free loving, anti establishment hippies and using her family's money
and fame to help them. D D was enthralled with
her new group of friends, especially their leader, Charlie. She
would introduce other people that she knew to him at
his request, so that he could gain access to the
inner circles of their famous parents and maybe get a
(01:57):
record deal for Charlie. D D was a means to
an end, and in order to get her to help him,
he supplied her with drugs and a sense of family.
He was a handsome manipulator who would find young women
estranged from their parents and offered them a sense of family.
He'd then isolate them and make them dependent on him
for everything. In other words, he was their cult leader.
(02:18):
But Deed hadn't just found herself embedded within a group
of countercultural misfits. She had inadvertently joined up with a
man who would eventually get the fame that he craved,
but not for his musical talents. He'd eventually be held
responsible for instigating one of the most heinous crimes ever
committed in American history. His name Charles Manson. Indeed, he
(02:38):
was firmly within his clutches thanks to the drugs that
he was providing. In exchange, she would buy him food
and clothes using her mother's credit cards. When Deed's mother
saw the state that she was in and the group
of friends that she was hanging out with, she stepped
in immediately. Deed's mother was an actress, one who had
started in numerous films and plays starting in the nineteen forties.
(03:00):
She was wildly successful and beloved on both the stage
and the screen, but none of that meant half as
much as the safety of her daughter. So in order
to get her clean, Deed's mother moved the whole family
out of California and across the ocean to Ireland. They
settled in County Cork, about three hundred miles south of
where Dedi's grandmother had been born. It was a fresh
(03:20):
start for everyone, with Deed's mother putting her own career
on hold for over a year as she fought the
addictions of both of her children. They eventually got clean
thanks to the simple life that they led, far from
the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. Deed's mother even learned
how to garden and cook while she was there. After
the children got sober and things calmed down, they all
(03:41):
returned to California so that Deeed's mother could resume her career.
And what a career it was. From the late sixties
all the way until the early Deed's mother played everything
from a murderous pie cook to a crime solving mystery
writer to a singing teapot. She was a versatile comedic
and dramatic actress and beloved by fans all over the world.
(04:03):
But her greatest role was that of mother to her children,
especially when they needed her the most. Because of Angela
Lansbury's commitment to her family, her daughter, Deared Rashaw, was
able to escape the clutches of a murderous cult leader
named Charles Manson. Not exactly a tale as old as time,
but a heck of a story, nonetheless. Queen Elizabeth, the
(04:39):
first reign during the sixteenth century brought turmoil to the
United Kingdom's Catholic community. The fear was that the Pope
would try to usurp power from the crown, which wasn't
entirely unfounded. Pope Pious the Fifth did exactly that when
he excommunicated the Queen in fifteen seventy and publicly denounced her.
According to Pious, Queen Elizabeth was no longer in charge
(04:59):
of any one. But that wasn't really the case, and
the Queen intended on proving it, so she began in
prisoning and executing Catholics, as well as Jesuits who supported them. However,
one of the men she had arrested and incarcerated for
the crime of being Catholic refused to bend to her will.
He wouldn't give up his faith, and he demonstrated his
loyalty to the Catholic Church in a very unique way.
(05:22):
His name was Sir Thomas Tresham and he was born
in fifteen forty three to a rich Catholic family. His
father died when Thomas was only three years old, so
he was raised by another Catholic family, the Throckmorton's. He
grew up to become an academic and an upstanding citizen,
with high ranking connections. He studied at the finest schools
and exchanged letters with the Queen's Secretary of State, William Cecil.
(05:45):
In fifteen seventy three he served as High Sheriff of Northamptonshire,
putting him in charge of law enforcement for the county.
Two years later he was knighted by the Queen. Tresham
was also something of a bibliophile. He spent most of
his life adding books to his ever expanding collection, and
he read voraciously. But his keen political mind and his
(06:06):
divisive opinions on states rights also made him a target.
He was often fined and even put in jail for
his beliefs, as well as his connections to the Jesuits.
The Queen was worried about a Catholic uprising, possibly involving
her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, and so she considered
Sir Thomas a threat. Over the course of almost twenty
five years, Tresham was forced to pay roughly eight thousand
(06:28):
pounds in fines that amounts to nearly two million pounds today,
and it was during this time that Sir Thomas got
the idea to stick it to the Crown in a
not so subtle way, he began work on a construction
project after spending fifteen years locked up in part for
refusing to give up Catholicism for Protestantism. The structure was
(06:49):
erected along the edge of his Rushton Estates, about ninety
miles north of London, as a testament to his unwavering faith.
It was triangular in shape, with three thirty three foot
long walls. Three sets of three windows adorned each wall,
many triangular shaped while others were circular and carved around
a cruciform. Each side also had three gables, each with
(07:11):
their own gargoyle perched beneath that looked down on visitors
from above. On top of each gable, Tresham placed an obelisk,
giving the roof a crown like shape, not unlike the
crown of thorns worn by Jesus at his crucifixion, and
just below the roof, around the perimeter of the building
were three separate Latin texts, each one no longer than
thirty three letters. And finally, inside the lodge, Tresham constructed
(07:36):
a basement and two additional floors on top of it,
making it a three story building. Triangles Christian iconography and
other religious nods were sculpted and placed all over the lodge,
turning the building into one giant puzzle for theologians and
scholars to solve later. It sounds like something out of
a National Treasure sequel or a Dan Brown novel. However,
(07:58):
one thing stands out above all else, the number three.
Three walls at thirty three ft long, three gables and
three sets of three windows on each side, three internal floors,
and bigger numbers that all had the number three at
their roots. But why the Holy Trinity? Of course, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The number thirty five
(08:19):
oh nine and thirty eight ninety eight were engraved into
the gables on the roof and were said to correspond
to the years of creation and when Abraham was called
by God to leave his home and travel to Canaan.
Other years, such as fifteen eighty, denoted when Tresham officially
converted to Catholicism, and he included future dates as well,
such as sixteen twenty six and sixteen forty one, but
(08:42):
not because he expected to live that long, nor did
he have any grand plans. Following his eventual death in
sixteen o five. He was believed that the numbers were
significant for two reasons. First, they were each divisible why three. Second,
when they had the number fifteen ninety three subtracted from
them the year that Tresham was least from prison, they
totaled thirty three and forty eight, respectively, numbers that were
(09:05):
said to connect to the deaths of Jesus and his
mother Mary. Tresham stayed devouts his entire life, despite the
constant threats from Queen Elizabeth hanging over his head, and
he saw no better way to rub his faith in
her face than to build a monument to his pettiness.
And I have to say he sure did make his point.
(09:29):
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
(09:52):
and you can learn all about it over at the
World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
One
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. For any parents, the happiness and well being
of their child is the most important thing in the world.
Making sure they grow up to be kind and respectable
members of society is one of the key goals of
being a good mom or dad, and sometimes that means
(00:49):
being the bad guy. When a child wants to test
the limits of their independence, maybe they want to stay
out past their curfew or try and illicit substance for
the first time. Sure, it's important to let kids fail
and learn, but there are certain occasions where allowing the
child too much freedom can be dangerous, even deadly. Take
d D for example. Born Deirdre in nineteen fifty three.
(01:13):
D D was no stranger. It's a luxury. Her parents
were celebrities who were often out of the house, so
she and her brother would hang around their Malibu mansion
looking for ways to keep themselves busy. For d D.
That meant drugs, quickly escalating to heroin and other harder substances,
often pushed by her group of questionable friends. By the
nineteen sixties, teenage d D had firmly entrenched herself within
(01:35):
the growing counterculture on the West Coast, hanging out with
free loving, anti establishment hippies and using her family's money
and fame to help them. D D was enthralled with
her new group of friends, especially their leader, Charlie. She
would introduce other people that she knew to him at
his request, so that he could gain access to the
inner circles of their famous parents and maybe get a
(01:57):
record deal for Charlie. D D was a means to
an end, and in order to get her to help him,
he supplied her with drugs and a sense of family.
He was a handsome manipulator who would find young women
estranged from their parents and offered them a sense of family.
He'd then isolate them and make them dependent on him
for everything. In other words, he was their cult leader.
(02:18):
But Deed hadn't just found herself embedded within a group
of countercultural misfits. She had inadvertently joined up with a
man who would eventually get the fame that he craved,
but not for his musical talents. He'd eventually be held
responsible for instigating one of the most heinous crimes ever
committed in American history. His name Charles Manson. Indeed, he
(02:38):
was firmly within his clutches thanks to the drugs that
he was providing. In exchange, she would buy him food
and clothes using her mother's credit cards. When Deed's mother
saw the state that she was in and the group
of friends that she was hanging out with, she stepped
in immediately. Deed's mother was an actress, one who had
started in numerous films and plays starting in the nineteen forties.
(03:00):
She was wildly successful and beloved on both the stage
and the screen, but none of that meant half as
much as the safety of her daughter. So in order
to get her clean, Deed's mother moved the whole family
out of California and across the ocean to Ireland. They
settled in County Cork, about three hundred miles south of
where Dedi's grandmother had been born. It was a fresh
(03:20):
start for everyone, with Deed's mother putting her own career
on hold for over a year as she fought the
addictions of both of her children. They eventually got clean
thanks to the simple life that they led, far from
the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. Deed's mother even learned
how to garden and cook while she was there. After
the children got sober and things calmed down, they all
(03:41):
returned to California so that Deeed's mother could resume her career.
And what a career it was. From the late sixties
all the way until the early Deed's mother played everything
from a murderous pie cook to a crime solving mystery
writer to a singing teapot. She was a versatile comedic
and dramatic actress and beloved by fans all over the world.
(04:03):
But her greatest role was that of mother to her children,
especially when they needed her the most. Because of Angela
Lansbury's commitment to her family, her daughter, Deared Rashaw, was
able to escape the clutches of a murderous cult leader
named Charles Manson. Not exactly a tale as old as time,
but a heck of a story, nonetheless. Queen Elizabeth, the
(04:39):
first reign during the sixteenth century brought turmoil to the
United Kingdom's Catholic community. The fear was that the Pope
would try to usurp power from the crown, which wasn't
entirely unfounded. Pope Pious the Fifth did exactly that when
he excommunicated the Queen in fifteen seventy and publicly denounced her.
According to Pious, Queen Elizabeth was no longer in charge
(04:59):
of any one. But that wasn't really the case, and
the Queen intended on proving it, so she began in
prisoning and executing Catholics, as well as Jesuits who supported them. However,
one of the men she had arrested and incarcerated for
the crime of being Catholic refused to bend to her will.
He wouldn't give up his faith, and he demonstrated his
loyalty to the Catholic Church in a very unique way.
(05:22):
His name was Sir Thomas Tresham and he was born
in fifteen forty three to a rich Catholic family. His
father died when Thomas was only three years old, so
he was raised by another Catholic family, the Throckmorton's. He
grew up to become an academic and an upstanding citizen,
with high ranking connections. He studied at the finest schools
and exchanged letters with the Queen's Secretary of State, William Cecil.
(05:45):
In fifteen seventy three he served as High Sheriff of Northamptonshire,
putting him in charge of law enforcement for the county.
Two years later he was knighted by the Queen. Tresham
was also something of a bibliophile. He spent most of
his life adding books to his ever expanding collection, and
he read voraciously. But his keen political mind and his
(06:06):
divisive opinions on states rights also made him a target.
He was often fined and even put in jail for
his beliefs, as well as his connections to the Jesuits.
The Queen was worried about a Catholic uprising, possibly involving
her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, and so she considered
Sir Thomas a threat. Over the course of almost twenty
five years, Tresham was forced to pay roughly eight thousand
(06:28):
pounds in fines that amounts to nearly two million pounds today,
and it was during this time that Sir Thomas got
the idea to stick it to the Crown in a
not so subtle way, he began work on a construction
project after spending fifteen years locked up in part for
refusing to give up Catholicism for Protestantism. The structure was
(06:49):
erected along the edge of his Rushton Estates, about ninety
miles north of London, as a testament to his unwavering faith.
It was triangular in shape, with three thirty three foot
long walls. Three sets of three windows adorned each wall,
many triangular shaped while others were circular and carved around
a cruciform. Each side also had three gables, each with
(07:11):
their own gargoyle perched beneath that looked down on visitors
from above. On top of each gable, Tresham placed an obelisk,
giving the roof a crown like shape, not unlike the
crown of thorns worn by Jesus at his crucifixion, and
just below the roof, around the perimeter of the building
were three separate Latin texts, each one no longer than
thirty three letters. And finally, inside the lodge, Tresham constructed
(07:36):
a basement and two additional floors on top of it,
making it a three story building. Triangles Christian iconography and
other religious nods were sculpted and placed all over the lodge,
turning the building into one giant puzzle for theologians and
scholars to solve later. It sounds like something out of
a National Treasure sequel or a Dan Brown novel. However,
(07:58):
one thing stands out above all else, the number three.
Three walls at thirty three ft long, three gables and
three sets of three windows on each side, three internal floors,
and bigger numbers that all had the number three at
their roots. But why the Holy Trinity? Of course, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The number thirty five
(08:19):
oh nine and thirty eight ninety eight were engraved into
the gables on the roof and were said to correspond
to the years of creation and when Abraham was called
by God to leave his home and travel to Canaan.
Other years, such as fifteen eighty, denoted when Tresham officially
converted to Catholicism, and he included future dates as well,
such as sixteen twenty six and sixteen forty one, but
(08:42):
not because he expected to live that long, nor did
he have any grand plans. Following his eventual death in
sixteen o five. He was believed that the numbers were
significant for two reasons. First, they were each divisible why three. Second,
when they had the number fifteen ninety three subtracted from
them the year that Tresham was least from prison, they
totaled thirty three and forty eight, respectively, numbers that were
(09:05):
said to connect to the deaths of Jesus and his
mother Mary. Tresham stayed devouts his entire life, despite the
constant threats from Queen Elizabeth hanging over his head, and
he saw no better way to rub his faith in
her face than to build a monument to his pettiness.
And I have to say he sure did make his point.
(09:29):
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
(09:52):
and you can learn all about it over at the
World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
One
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Aaron Mahnke
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