Hocus Pocus

Legendary battles and tales of revenge. Those are our focus on today's tour through the Cabinet.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed Aaron Menkey'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. The story of Pierre Piccat wasn't actually told
by Pierre Piccat. It was told by one Antoine Alou,
the man responsible for his murder, but we'll get to
that later. Pacade, born Francois Pierre Pacade, had been a

(00:50):
shoemaker from Nemez, France, before he was thrust into life
of intrigue and deception. He had everything going on for him.
He had a good job, the love of a beautiful,
rich woman named Marguerite Vigoro, and hardly a care in sight.
By eighteen oh seven, Pierre had proposed a Vigoro and
the two were engaged to be married, but their happiness

(01:10):
was not meant to last. Matthew Loupain, one of Pierre's friends,
was besotted with Vigaro and mad with jealousy. He wanted
her for himself, but rather than let his friend be happy.
He fueled that jealousy into something sinister. Lupienne, with assistance
from his compatriots Solari and Shubar, conspired to take down
the captivated cobbler by any means necessary. They reported Pierre

(01:34):
to the authorities, accusing him of being a spy for England.
Allu was aware of the false nature of the accusation,
but did not participate in its spread, nor did he
refute it to help Pierre. So Pierre was arrested on
his wedding day no less, and whisked off to Fenistrelli,
a fort in northern Italy that had been turned into
a prison by the French. Seven years passed, during which

(01:57):
time Pierre started digging, but not to freedom, rather to
the adjacent cell. Inside was an Italian priest named Father Tory.
The two inmates sparked up a strong friendship, and one
year after they had met, Tory informed his companion of
a hidden treasure that he had left behind in Milan.
The priest died shortly after the confession. Pierre finally got

(02:18):
his first taste of freedom when he was released in
eighteen fourteen. The first stop on his journey back to
society Milan to recover the treasure Father Tory had told
him about. It was all there, and it was enough
to buy him a new identity and get him back
to France to pull off a revenge scheme like no other.
But he didn't jump right in. Pierre took his time

(02:39):
ten years in fact, to perfect the plan. His first
course of action was to seek out Alu and get
the names of the men who had had him arrested,
and Alu gave Pierre all the information he needed, including
the juicy tidbit that Lupien, the ringleader of the whole plot,
had married Pierre's former fiance two years after the arrest.

(02:59):
With anger coursing through his veins, Pierre picked off each
member of the offending party one by one. He stabbed
Shobar to death with a dagger before poisoning Solari, but
the piece to resistance he saved for Lupien and his family. First,
he tricked Lupien's daughter into marrying a criminal, and once
they were wed, Picat had the groom arrested, which made

(03:20):
the daughter so distraught that she died of shock. Lupien's
name had been tarnished now, but there was still more
work to be done, Pierre set his sights next on
Lupien's son, whom he convinced to steal a bit of
gold jewelry. The theft was found out and the Sun
was incarcerated, And as if that wasn't enough, he then
said his former friends restaurant ablaze his penultimate act of revenge,

(03:42):
before finally stabbing the man to death. That shouldn't bend
the end of it all, but Alou found out what
Pierre had been up to and kidnapped him for his money.
When Pierre refused to pony up, however, a Lou mortally
wounded him and left him for dead. By the time
the French police arrived, Pierre was close to death. He
told the officers everything, the whole story of his revenge,

(04:04):
before he succumbed to his injuries and died. Lu ran
off to London, where he hid an obscurity until his
death in eighteen twenty eight, but not before he told
his side of the story to a French priest. Allegedly,
parts of the epic tail he had not been privy
too had been relayed to him by the ghost of
Father Tory, the priest who had befriended Pierre in prison.

(04:25):
And here's where I have to point out that if
this murderous and intricate revenge plot sounds familiar, it's for
a very good reason. It was published by an archivist
with the Paris Police in eighteen thirty eight. His name
was Jacques Pouchet, and he had put a series of
books out called Memoirs of the Paris Police. But they
aren't the reason we know the story today, because another

(04:47):
author happened to come across it and adapted it for
his own purposes. The character of Pierre became Edmund Dantes,
who was arrested on false charges on his wedding day.
He spent fourteen years in prison for a crime he
did commit, where he met an Italian priest who told
him of a buried treasure that had been hidden away.
But it wasn't buried in Milan like Father Tory's treasure.

(05:09):
This one was on the island of Monte Cristo. The
Counts of Monte Cristo became one of Alexander Duma's most
famous works, and inspired by the supposedly true experiences of
the world's unluckiest shoemaker. Do Ma put it best when
he wrote all human wisdom is contained in these two words,
wait and hope. In the end, Pierre Piccad got his revenge,

(05:33):
and all he had to do was just that wait
and hope. Once out of nature, I shall never take

(05:54):
my bodily form from any natural thing, but such a
form as Grecian gold smiths make of hammered gold and
gold enameline. Those words come from a poem called Sailing
to Byzantium, written in nineteen six by William Butler Yates.
The poem is about growing old and letting go of
the physical realm as we prepare our bodies for something more.

(06:18):
Yates had a passion for exploring the metaphysical, which is
probably why he joined a secret society devoted to study
in it. It was called the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn, formed in eighteen eighties seven around a collection
of texts known as the Cipher Manuscripts. These manuscripts outlined
a series of teachings and rituals centered on the four
main elements of nature, earth, water, air, and fire. Those

(06:42):
who studied the rituals learned about all kinds of occult subjects,
including astrology and alchemy. Among the Hermetic Orders, alleged members
were some of the greatest literary and artistic minds that
would ever live. Sir Arthur Conan, Doyle, Brahms Stoker and
British poet Charles Williams all belonged to the Order at
one point, as did another guy, Alistair Crawley. Crawley, born

(07:06):
in Warwickshire, England, in eighteen seventy five, was more than
just a writer. He dabbled in several interesting hobbies, such
as painting and even mounting climbing, but he was also
an occultist. Crowley founded a religion known as Felima, meaning
will in classical Greek. He relied on a text written
himself called The Book of the Law, which was something
of a bible for his religion. He had written it

(07:29):
while on his honeymoon in Egypt, and its words had
allegedly been dictated to him by the disembodied voice of
his guardian angel named Iwas. Crawley's beliefs ran deep. To him.
Magic was real and not the kind of magic one
might encounter at a holiday work party or on a
Las Vegas stage. Magic, which he spelled with a c
K at the end, was the bridge between science and religion,

(07:52):
change was possible through the power of sheer will. Meanwhile,
Yates was being courted magically speaking by a Russian journalist
named Helena Blovotsky. She was the dubious head of the
Theosophical Society, an organization that sought to join the mysticisms
of the East and the West together, and she wanted
Yates to become a member, but the poet was just

(08:14):
two out there for them. He chose to spend his
time performing magical experiments, a passion that he referred to
as the most important pursuit of my life. One such
experiment had Yates burning a flower until it was nothing
but ash. Then he placed those ashes underneath a bell
jar and left them in the moonlight for several nights,
after which time the ghost of the flower was supposed

(08:35):
to visibly float above the ashes. But the Society didn't
take kindly to yates experiments and asked him to leave
in eight But that didn't matter. He had already found
a group much more amenimal to his brand of studies,
the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It's leader, McGregor Mathers,
had wowed him with a demonstration of his magical powers,
forcing him to see strange visions in his mind, and

(08:58):
Yates possessed an infair actious enthusiasm for the Order and
its goals, and enthusiasm not shared by one of its
other members, Alistair Crawley. Yates believed that Crawley didn't hold
the same values as everyone else. In fact, he thought
his rival might be trying to use the Order's teachings
to commit heinous acts of evil, so he tried to
have Crawley expelled from their inner circle. In reality, Crowley

(09:22):
might have just been a bit too socially progressive for
yates taste, and that just didn't mesh with the orders
more conservative beliefs. But he wasn't about to go down
without a fight, so Yates traveled to Paris, where he
consulted with McGregor Mathers and asked to be deputized. Crawley's goal,
he told them, was to take over the London Temple
on blythe Road, the one being watched over by Yates

(09:42):
and a few others. So Mathers agreed and equipped him
with several exorcism spells and various charms to aid him
in his quest. Once back in England, Crawley made it
to the temple and ascended the stairs. He started casting spells,
but Yates and his two magical companion were ready. They
waited until he was close enough and encountered Crowley with

(10:04):
something even more powerful, a swift kick down the stairs.
The disgraced Crowley took a tumble and then fled the temple,
hoping to eventually coax others towards his cause. He wanted
revenge against Yates and everyone else in the order who
had wronged him. He even met the artist Althea Giles
and tried to persuade her to help him, but she
quickly turned the tables. She cut off a lock of

(10:27):
Crawley's hair and gave it to Yates so that he
could cast his own spells with it and keep Crowley
at bay. William Butler Yates may be revered today as
a poet, but to those with a more magical bent,
he'll be fondly remembered as the victor against Alistair Crawley
at the Battle of blythe Road. I hope you've enjoyed

(10:50):
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 come. The show was created
by me, Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
I make another award winning show called Lore which is
a podcast, book series, and television show and you can

(11:12):
learn all about it over at the World of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,