September 24, 2019 • 9 mins
This tour is full of tales about the darker side of humor, and how some jokes can go horribly wrong. And it's certainly worth the price of admission.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
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 of Curiosities. Accusing the wrong person
(00:29):
for a crime can ruin their life. Countless individuals have
wrongfully gone to jail or been executed, while the real
perpetrators go free. It often doesn't until much later that
the truth comes out, but by then it can be
too late. Those who have been wrongfully convicted can't get
back that time, and the ones who are executed, well,
it's not like they get a do over. At the
(00:51):
turn of the century, before forensic science became a standard
part of police procedure, a man named will West was
sent to Leavenworth Prison in New York. But clerk checking
him in took a series of measurements and checked them
against his current lineup of prisoners. He found a match,
a man named William West. The only problem was that
(01:11):
the William West on record was already serving a life
sentence for murder for the past two years. The will
West in front of him, whose measurements equaled those of
the other Mr West, almost exactly had never been convicted
of a crime before. The clerk checked his data again,
examining will West's bone structure, how far apart his eyes were,
(01:33):
the shape of his mouth, everything down to the last detail,
and this man was practically the convicted murderers twin. As
far as the clerk could tell, they were the same person.
The confusion wouldn't be sorted out for another few years,
when fingerprint analysis would prove the two will Wests to
be two completely different people. But perhaps the strangest case
(01:54):
of mistaken identity occurred much earlier. During the Napoleonic Wars,
happened off the coast of Hartlepool, a small town in
northeastern England. A French ship was sinking and the people
of Hartlepool were unsure of what to do. After all,
that ship could have been a decoy or a kind
of trojan horse waiting to be accepted onto English shores.
(02:16):
But the locals didn't really have to worry about much.
Only one survivor washed up on the beach, still clad
in his military uniform. He was found, but rather than
giving him the help he needed, the residents took him
in as a prisoner of war. They had never seen
a Frenchman before, and used the satirical cartoons they had
read about to guide their identification. Those cartoons often depicted
(02:40):
the French as furry creatures with sharp claws and long tails.
In a way, they looked a bit like monkeys, which
was bad news for the castaway who washed ashore because
he was a monkey. He'd been dressed as one of
the soldiers, probably to amuse the crew on the ship,
but the locals had no idea the animal had been entertainment.
(03:02):
To them, he must have been a French spy sent
to obtain information about their town. So they did the
only logical thing they could think of. They put the
monkey on trial, since it couldn't answer any of the
questions or defend itself in any way. It was eventually
found guilty of being a spy, and the townsfolk didn't
waste any time doling out justice to the interloper. They
(03:25):
took it to the town square and fitted it for
a noose, hanging the animal for all to see. At
least that's the legend according to modern day residents of
the town. That is, there's an alternate version of the
story that's much darker. Cannons on military ships were often
primed with gunpowder by adolescent boys called powder monkeys. It's
(03:47):
possible that one of the boys had made it off
the ship only to find himself at the center of
an international conspiracy. But it's not like the town is
eager to own up to the more macabre version of
the tail. They're sticking with the monkey, And if you
attend to Hartlepool United football match, you'll probably hear the
crowd chant who hung the monkey. The team's mascot is
(04:09):
even a monkey named Angus. In fact, the town is
so dedicated to the legend that Stuart Drummond, a two
thousand two candidate for mayor of town, dressed up as
Angus the Monkey and promised free bananas for school children
as part of his platform, and the voters liked him
enough to elect him to office not once but three times. Sadly, though,
(04:32):
the children never got their free bananas. John Montague, the
second Duke of Montagu, accomplished a lot in his short
forty years on this earth. During the early seventeen hundreds,
(04:56):
he governed the islands of St. Vincent and St. Lucia.
He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians,
and he helped build the Foundling Hospital, a first combination
medical center and children's home in London. He was also
father to five children, three of whom died quite young.
In fact, he outlived all of them, which might explain
Montague's peculiar quirk. He kind of let his inner child
(05:20):
run his life. You see, Montague love to be entertained.
More than that, he loved to entertain, to joke around
with friends and family. He was known to playfully lure
people into his garden and then squirt them with water,
or to invite guests to stay in his home only
to put itching powder in their beds. Whether that was
(05:40):
more entertaining for him than the people staying with him,
well that remains to be seen. But he wanted more.
He wanted to be enthralled by something he'd never seen before,
something astounding he'd heard of. A man called the bottle
conjuror a performer who could do things most people only
dreamt about. For example, if someone was wearing a mask
(06:01):
during the show, the bottle conjurer could name them without hesitation,
even if he had never met them before. He would
then ask an audience member to name someone they knew
who had passed away. For the next several minutes, he
would become the deceased person, talking with that audience member
as if he was their loved one and had returned
from the dead. The Bottle Conjurer was a wonder. He
(06:24):
could look at someone and tell them their deepest, darkest
secrets from a past life. He could take a walking
stick from a random person in the crowd and play
it like any musical instrument, all while singing perfectly at
the same time. And then there was the reason for
his name. His most impressive feet would always come later
in the evening, when he would present a simple wine
(06:45):
bottle to the audience. Someone would be invited on stage
to examine the bottle to make sure there was nothing
funny or strange about it, and once it was confirmed
to be a normal tavern bottle, the Conjurer would place
it on a table in the middle of the stage,
lean in, squeeze his entire body inside of it, and
then sing for the crowd. And Lord Montague wanted to
(07:08):
see this for himself, and he wanted as many people
as possible to see it with him, so he put
an advertisement in the local newspaper on the night of
January seventeen forty nine, the Bottle Conjurer would appear at
the theater in the Haymarket and perform all the amazing
feats described. The show sold out. The theater was packed
(07:31):
that night as people waited for the Conjurer button. By showtime,
he still hadn't appeared. Minutes passed and the crowd grew
increasingly agitated. Ushers and management assured the audience that if
the Conjuror didn't begin soon, they would all be refunded
their money, but that didn't help. Everyone had come to
see a show unlike anything they could have imagined. Eventually,
(07:54):
someone in the audience, who felt that they had waited
long enough, shouted for double the prices the Conjurer will
go into to a pint size bottle, and that did it.
Everyone leapt to their feet and anger. They knew that
they had been had and no refund was going to
satisfy them. Spectators started pulling down curtains and ripping their
seats out of the floor. They tossed everything into a
(08:15):
giant bonfire outside the theater and watched it all burn.
One audience member managed to get away with the ticket receipts,
so no one was able to get their money back.
In the end, however, despite their protests and rage, no
one could figure out who had placed the ad or why.
Some names were floated around as possible perpetrators, but all
(08:37):
of them denied it until one day when it was
revealed that it had all been John Montague, who had
promised everyone a show featuring the bottle conjuror apparently it
had all started been the Duke, talking with another nobleman,
had made a bet. He wagered that if he advertised
an impossible spectacle for the public to witness, it would
draw and I quote, enough fools in London to fill
(09:00):
a playhouse. That nobleman took him up on that bet
and lost, and the Duke of Montague turned the English
into a punchline for years to come, much to their dismay.
And I guess that means the old saying really is true.
Some people just can't take a joke. I hope you've
(09:23):
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 and you can
(09:46):
learn all about it over at the world of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
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 of Curiosities. Accusing the wrong person
(00:29):
for a crime can ruin their life. Countless individuals have
wrongfully gone to jail or been executed, while the real
perpetrators go free. It often doesn't until much later that
the truth comes out, but by then it can be
too late. Those who have been wrongfully convicted can't get
back that time, and the ones who are executed, well,
it's not like they get a do over. At the
(00:51):
turn of the century, before forensic science became a standard
part of police procedure, a man named will West was
sent to Leavenworth Prison in New York. But clerk checking
him in took a series of measurements and checked them
against his current lineup of prisoners. He found a match,
a man named William West. The only problem was that
(01:11):
the William West on record was already serving a life
sentence for murder for the past two years. The will
West in front of him, whose measurements equaled those of
the other Mr West, almost exactly had never been convicted
of a crime before. The clerk checked his data again,
examining will West's bone structure, how far apart his eyes were,
(01:33):
the shape of his mouth, everything down to the last detail,
and this man was practically the convicted murderers twin. As
far as the clerk could tell, they were the same person.
The confusion wouldn't be sorted out for another few years,
when fingerprint analysis would prove the two will Wests to
be two completely different people. But perhaps the strangest case
(01:54):
of mistaken identity occurred much earlier. During the Napoleonic Wars,
happened off the coast of Hartlepool, a small town in
northeastern England. A French ship was sinking and the people
of Hartlepool were unsure of what to do. After all,
that ship could have been a decoy or a kind
of trojan horse waiting to be accepted onto English shores.
(02:16):
But the locals didn't really have to worry about much.
Only one survivor washed up on the beach, still clad
in his military uniform. He was found, but rather than
giving him the help he needed, the residents took him
in as a prisoner of war. They had never seen
a Frenchman before, and used the satirical cartoons they had
read about to guide their identification. Those cartoons often depicted
(02:40):
the French as furry creatures with sharp claws and long tails.
In a way, they looked a bit like monkeys, which
was bad news for the castaway who washed ashore because
he was a monkey. He'd been dressed as one of
the soldiers, probably to amuse the crew on the ship,
but the locals had no idea the animal had been entertainment.
(03:02):
To them, he must have been a French spy sent
to obtain information about their town. So they did the
only logical thing they could think of. They put the
monkey on trial, since it couldn't answer any of the
questions or defend itself in any way. It was eventually
found guilty of being a spy, and the townsfolk didn't
waste any time doling out justice to the interloper. They
(03:25):
took it to the town square and fitted it for
a noose, hanging the animal for all to see. At
least that's the legend according to modern day residents of
the town. That is, there's an alternate version of the
story that's much darker. Cannons on military ships were often
primed with gunpowder by adolescent boys called powder monkeys. It's
(03:47):
possible that one of the boys had made it off
the ship only to find himself at the center of
an international conspiracy. But it's not like the town is
eager to own up to the more macabre version of
the tail. They're sticking with the monkey, And if you
attend to Hartlepool United football match, you'll probably hear the
crowd chant who hung the monkey. The team's mascot is
(04:09):
even a monkey named Angus. In fact, the town is
so dedicated to the legend that Stuart Drummond, a two
thousand two candidate for mayor of town, dressed up as
Angus the Monkey and promised free bananas for school children
as part of his platform, and the voters liked him
enough to elect him to office not once but three times. Sadly, though,
(04:32):
the children never got their free bananas. John Montague, the
second Duke of Montagu, accomplished a lot in his short
forty years on this earth. During the early seventeen hundreds,
(04:56):
he governed the islands of St. Vincent and St. Lucia.
He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians,
and he helped build the Foundling Hospital, a first combination
medical center and children's home in London. He was also
father to five children, three of whom died quite young.
In fact, he outlived all of them, which might explain
Montague's peculiar quirk. He kind of let his inner child
(05:20):
run his life. You see, Montague love to be entertained.
More than that, he loved to entertain, to joke around
with friends and family. He was known to playfully lure
people into his garden and then squirt them with water,
or to invite guests to stay in his home only
to put itching powder in their beds. Whether that was
(05:40):
more entertaining for him than the people staying with him,
well that remains to be seen. But he wanted more.
He wanted to be enthralled by something he'd never seen before,
something astounding he'd heard of. A man called the bottle
conjuror a performer who could do things most people only
dreamt about. For example, if someone was wearing a mask
(06:01):
during the show, the bottle conjurer could name them without hesitation,
even if he had never met them before. He would
then ask an audience member to name someone they knew
who had passed away. For the next several minutes, he
would become the deceased person, talking with that audience member
as if he was their loved one and had returned
from the dead. The Bottle Conjurer was a wonder. He
(06:24):
could look at someone and tell them their deepest, darkest
secrets from a past life. He could take a walking
stick from a random person in the crowd and play
it like any musical instrument, all while singing perfectly at
the same time. And then there was the reason for
his name. His most impressive feet would always come later
in the evening, when he would present a simple wine
(06:45):
bottle to the audience. Someone would be invited on stage
to examine the bottle to make sure there was nothing
funny or strange about it, and once it was confirmed
to be a normal tavern bottle, the Conjurer would place
it on a table in the middle of the stage,
lean in, squeeze his entire body inside of it, and
then sing for the crowd. And Lord Montague wanted to
(07:08):
see this for himself, and he wanted as many people
as possible to see it with him, so he put
an advertisement in the local newspaper on the night of
January seventeen forty nine, the Bottle Conjurer would appear at
the theater in the Haymarket and perform all the amazing
feats described. The show sold out. The theater was packed
(07:31):
that night as people waited for the Conjurer button. By showtime,
he still hadn't appeared. Minutes passed and the crowd grew
increasingly agitated. Ushers and management assured the audience that if
the Conjuror didn't begin soon, they would all be refunded
their money, but that didn't help. Everyone had come to
see a show unlike anything they could have imagined. Eventually,
(07:54):
someone in the audience, who felt that they had waited
long enough, shouted for double the prices the Conjurer will
go into to a pint size bottle, and that did it.
Everyone leapt to their feet and anger. They knew that
they had been had and no refund was going to
satisfy them. Spectators started pulling down curtains and ripping their
seats out of the floor. They tossed everything into a
(08:15):
giant bonfire outside the theater and watched it all burn.
One audience member managed to get away with the ticket receipts,
so no one was able to get their money back.
In the end, however, despite their protests and rage, no
one could figure out who had placed the ad or why.
Some names were floated around as possible perpetrators, but all
(08:37):
of them denied it until one day when it was
revealed that it had all been John Montague, who had
promised everyone a show featuring the bottle conjuror apparently it
had all started been the Duke, talking with another nobleman,
had made a bet. He wagered that if he advertised
an impossible spectacle for the public to witness, it would
draw and I quote, enough fools in London to fill
(09:00):
a playhouse. That nobleman took him up on that bet
and lost, and the Duke of Montague turned the English
into a punchline for years to come, much to their dismay.
And I guess that means the old saying really is true.
Some people just can't take a joke. I hope you've
(09:23):
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 and you can
(09:46):
learn all about it over at the world of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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