November 9, 2021 • 38 mins
For most people, the old saying "it's good to be king" is just a cool phrase -- but for magician and noted spinner of tall tales Otto Witte, this sounded like an idea to take literally. In today's episode, the guys explore how one man (maybe) managed to con the entire nation of Albania into believing he was their king... and got away with it for a week. If, in fact, it actually happened.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. That's our one and only
super producer, Max Williams. Give him a hand. Folks, they
called me Ben. No, you and I started traveling again.
I think we've You've had some adventures. I've got some
on the way that I can't disclose quite yet. But
(00:48):
I don't think either of us has ever been to Albania. Now,
I've been to Albany. Is that the same thing, Georgia
or Albany New York. I haven't been Albany to New York.
I've actually never been to Albany, New York or Georgia.
I was lying, but that would definitely be more in
like my you know, immediate region of travel. Albania sounds
(01:09):
like a real, real exotic destination. Oh yeah, I I
read the wiki travel articles for different countries all the time,
and and expat forums, etcetera, etcetera. And Albania has an
amazing unique history, kind of a crossroads between Europe and
the rest of the world to the east, especially the
(01:33):
Ottoman Empire. It wasn't until November of nineteen twelve that
Albania proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire. And that's
part of where our story takes place today, because it
turns out you may not have heard of this guy,
but Albania for a little less than a week had
(01:55):
a king named King Otto the First and he was
king for um about five days. Yeah, we don't want
to spoil it, so let's like save the surprise for
just a little bit further and go into the events
that led up to this elaborate subterfuse that started in
the autumn of nineteen twelve when the Balkan League's conquest
(02:16):
of the Ottoman Empires European territories um started a massive
international crisis UM that was going to cause lots of
problems in Europe. Um. You know, in general, there could
have been a massive European wide war that was triggered
by this diplomatic crisis. Yeah, and as we know, there
(02:38):
is going to be a not just European war, but
a world war. It's on the way. Yeah, it's bacon
in the oven as we speak. The crisis comes about
because Serbia wanted to get access to the Adriatic Sea
and Austria, Hungary was dead set against it. They were like,
(02:58):
no way, Serbia, stay in your lane. And because of
this dispute, Austria Hungary was on a It was coming
into clear conflict not with just Serbia, but with Serbia's
big daddy at the time, Russia. And then you know,
the way that these wars happen, the way these big
(03:19):
multiple state wars happen is because of those alliances between
countries they for they create a domino effect. Right. It's
like if you are a picture, if m Max and
Noel and you listening along at home, ridiculous historian picture,
the four of us are hanging out, we're having um,
we're going bowling or something, and people in the next lane.
(03:42):
One of them starts a fight with Max. I don't
know why he would, he's the nicest guy. And then you,
ridiculous historian and Noel and myself were like, hey, hey, hey,
you mess with that guy, you messed with all of us.
We're basically like the teenage muntant ninja turtles here. That's true.
And then all of a sudden, there's no d mark
between the lanes anymore, and you're not bowling anymore. You're
(04:02):
just kind of brawling at a bowling alley, which isn't
very cute. That's just bad behavior, is what that is.
And then all of a sudden, neighboring lanes get involved
because they're like, we're totally screwing up our lane with her,
you know, um, irresponsible behavior, and we're not gonna have that.
Bowling is expensive. They got shoes this game. It's like, yeah,
(04:22):
it's it's it's a real commitment. You know, you've got
chicken wings probably getting cold now because you're not paying
them attention because you're brawling with your labor. And that's
not good for anybody. No, not at all in our
bowling alley situation here. Uh, it's it's easy to trace.
It's actually not a bad comparison because okay, Austria is
(04:43):
beefing with Serbia. Serbia has the big brother, Russia, and uh,
if Russia beefs with Austria Hungary, then Austria Hungary's boy
Germany is gonna come in, and then Russia's pal France
is gonna jump in as well, so the would lead
to catastrophe. On November twenty one, nine, Austria Hungary mobilized
(05:08):
six army corps near Russia and Serbia. This was clearly
a threat of the possibility of war. Oh yeah, but
the Foreign Minister of Austria Hungary, uh, Count Burketold great name.
I love a good count. Um. He had absolutely yeah,
(05:28):
a curly mustache, you know then, you know, curly on
the ends mustache. He had plans of his own. He
wanted to support an independent Albania or a bid for
an independent Albania. Also, guys, I went ahead and looked
up what Count Burke told looks like, and yeah, he is, um,
exactly what you'd think he would look like. Some stereotypes
exist for reason. You can't really be a count unless
(05:51):
you have some sort of outrageous appearance involving you gonna
have some head accessories, you know, no question about it. Yeah,
I don't know which one is better. There's the one
with his military gear on, but it's also the one
with just the top hat. And I kind of like
the top at one top hat. Okay, that's when that's
when the count's unwinded, you know, exactly again his leisure
(06:12):
time and okay, so this gets a little complicated, um,
in terms of just the interplay between all of these
nations and and the various um UH motivations at work,
but let's just try to simplify it a little bit.
Burke Hold in his infinite monocle wearing wisdom, UM, he
wanted to stop Serbia from getting access to the Adriatic Sea,
(06:34):
and also he wanted to avoid that larger war that
we talked about earlier. UM. In doing this, he wanted
to support an independent Albania UM where Serbia and already
staked a claim to that position on the Adriatic Sea,
neighboring Montenegro and Greece. Also, in this arrangement, it would
potentially lose parts of Albanian territory that they had claimed
(06:58):
UM Montenegro in particular, UH, this would include UM some
important UH strategic locations like the city of Scutari, which
is where Turkish forces were already under siege by Serbian
and Montenegrin forces. Okay, I think we kind of got
the lay of the land in terms of like the
(07:18):
way our risk board pieces are laid out ben what
happens next. So this is clever on birked Old's part
because now it's becoming kind of a proxy war. Right now.
The issue isn't Austria Hungary directly fighting Serbia. Now we're
(07:41):
supporting something. We're supporting Albania, and Albania looks good for this.
They already had rebelled against the Ottoman Empire earlier that
same year, and in as a result of their rebellion,
the Ottoman Empire promised them a little bit more autonomy.
And now the Albanians are threatened with the possibility of
(08:05):
even more oppression by the Orthodox Christians in Serbia and
Albanians are mostly Muslim at this time, so they say, Okay,
forget about it. We're gonna We're gonna go for full independence.
Autonomy is not enough. Uh. And just to be clear
of folks, Serbia and Albania already had a well established
(08:27):
history of conflict. We're talking about stuff like the First
Balkan War. We're talking about earlier atrocities committed against the
people of Serbia by both Turkish and Albanian forces. You
can even read about this in the New York Times
from nineteen twelve December thirty one, last day of nineteen twelve,
(08:49):
where they say thousands of men, women and children were
massacred during the Serbs March to the Sea as part
of a deliberate policy to exterminate people of the Muslim faith.
Wait a minute, wait anyway, exterminate all members of This
is the first I've heard of this, Ben, what's the
beef there? Well, the idea there is ideologically motivated, it's
(09:09):
also resource motivated. The general Western consensus of this was that, uh,
the Serbian forces were fighting dirty, using unjustifiable murder, and
this of course would foreshadow later atrocities to come. But
all to say, what you need to know about this
(09:30):
is Count Berthold was definitely aware of this past enmity,
and he was leveraging this again in a relatively complex
geopolitical calculation to keep the Serbs from getting that see axis.
And this is where we meet a guy named is
Mail Kimality. Is Mail Comalley would be uh, the who
(09:54):
would be the protagonist of this Albanian move for self
determined nature. Is Mail Commallely was a former ottoman Um admin.
Let's just call him that the ponds of our time.
He was. He was a bureaucrat. He was the father
of Albanian nationalism, which, if I'm not mistaken by nationalism
(10:15):
typically you know, you you could look at on one
hand as like patriotism, but it usually involves some sort
of mothering and ideals of exterminating those that are different
than us, or at the very least keeping them at
arms length. Isn't that right? Yeah? Yeah, it's the idea
of being of strongly identifying with one's own nation, and
(10:36):
what you see is that nation's goal, especially to the
exclusion of the interest of other nations. So like, if
we were strong nationalists in a way that nationalism goes wrong.
Let's say we wanted to do something that was very
good for Maine, but it was very bad for all
the parts of Canada connected to Maine. As nationalists, our
(10:59):
resp bonds would be well, who cares, that's Canada, that's
not us, go us. Other parts of Canada be damns. Yeah,
Main is number one. Main uber Alis. So this guy,
uh father of Albanian nationalism is male Kamali. He comes
back from exile, he's been exiled and with some help,
(11:20):
with a little bit of a boost, you know, assist
from Austria Hungary Um, he convenes an assembly of Albanian
nationalists at vli Um. Oh gosh, it's got the UM
loud over the e Vloria. I don't know if I
was saying that, right, it's got the um loud over
the eat. So I'm thinking the e as an oo
(11:41):
sound picturing. I'm picturing and picturing in my mind and
trying to say the way the picture looks, but they're
not quite adding up. But I will sally forth. Um.
So they didn't really have much leverage in terms of
actual control of Albanian territory besides that town that I'm
picturing the word of in my mind, um right now.
(12:03):
But on November nineteen twelve, the delegates of this council
declared Albanian independence. So that's sort of like, uh, that's
that's what you don't know, what is that called overplaying
your hand a little bit? Ben, You don't actually have
much juice, you know, our suction in the situation, but
you make an outrageous claim, hoping that maybe that in
(12:24):
and of itself will be enough to convince people that
you're like the person for the job, or that you
know what you're talking about. Yeah, this is this is
a tricky part of geopolitics, and it's one that I
think people should talk about more often in public and
in the mainstream. So if you want to succeed or
if you want to declare independence. What makes your government legitimate.
(12:47):
It's such a silly rule, but it's an important one.
Your government becomes legitimate when other world governments say, okay,
that's legit. So, for instance, take California here in the US.
Californi is a state. It has an enormous g DP,
like it's huge compared to other countries just that state alone.
And if California tried to succeed, uh, it would it's
(13:12):
legitimacy would hinge on the international community and on the US.
So if other countries basically said, okay, we believe you California,
you're a country now, then that would be like the
number one steps. So that's what that's what Albania and
Kamale are hoping to do here. Like you said, they
(13:32):
form their government. They form their own national government. And
this national government its representatives choose Comali as president, but
a couple of legislative decisions by a legislature that has
yet to be internationally recognized. They don't do much to
dispel the facts on the ground, which is that the
(13:53):
Serbian forces and their pals from earlier Bowling Alley example,
are still occupying most to Albania, and they're not gonna leave.
They're not gonna they're gonna be like, oh there was
a vote, Oh my bad. All right, t t y
l back to our own lanes. Times tend to resume.
Are our bowls are separate bowls, you know, and put
(14:13):
on blinders, uh to each other. No, that was not
going to happen because the lane change had already taken place,
and you can't walk that back that easily. I'm sorry,
Chicken wings be damned. So in November Um the Serbs
captured a an area called Darazzo Um and the Greek
navy started to blockade that town of the one that
(14:38):
I'm trying to picture better than i'm saying on December three.
That's a big deal. If you can't, you can't that
thing you're talking about ben about establishing like some sort
of international connection, you can't do that for being blockaded, right,
that's literally you know what a blockade is. It keeps
you from exercising trade with anybody or receiving things. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
(15:00):
it's the divide and conquer for sure. So their attempt
to their attempt to declare independence at this point has
only pushed the Serbs into further action. Austria. Hungarian forces
are still up there near Serbia and Russia. The whole
continent is waiting for the other monocle to drop. And
(15:22):
if yes, if Russia, and if you got if you
have two monocles, isn't that just a pair of glasses?
It depends on if you have the little bridge right over,
you could have a detachable glasses that become two separate monocles.
That'd be a fun flex Maybe each one is a
different strength. We're so far ahead of our time. Yeah,
so the uh, the thing is, I mean, we're we're trying,
(15:44):
we're joking a little bit, but this is a very
very serious situation. It's scary, and we want to shout out.
I want to shout out mental floss. Of course, you
did some great work on this. What was the title
of this one? The title of this one? How did
you know? Ben? Pulling it up right now? World were
one centennial Albania declares Independence was one of the articles
(16:05):
for mental flaws that we have been looking at. And
then another one was a New Albanian Crisis by Eric
sass sas Master the Sasmin himself so yes, So here's
what happens. Everybody knows that if Russia and Austria Hungary
go to war with each other, all their allies, the
other European great powers are going to be sucked in.
(16:27):
And so these tensions continue to ratchet up until Austria
and Hungary eventually agree on a compromise and all of
the all of the big fish, the big dogs of
Europe at the time, meet at something called the Conference
of London, and they agree that the best way to
smooth this out and avoid war is in fact, to
(16:49):
create a new independent Albanian state. So problem solved. That's
our episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. Promised deception,
most foul, and and and and subterfuge, most elaborate. And
I don't think we hinted circus performers yet, but we're
gonna go ahead and drop that hint right now, sort
of sword swallowers, let's do it. I think we're at
(17:12):
that place right now. So I appreciate you um coming
along with us for this very very uh inside baseball
geopolitical portion of the episode. But here comes the fun stuff. Yes,
here's the here's the fun stuff. Okay, so the Albanian
(17:34):
situation is not settled at all. Uh, Serbia and Montenegro
are like these guys, these fat cats over the Conference
of London. They don't know what they're talking about. We're nationalists.
We're not giving up our claims that easily. So they
have decided in a secret pact with Greece to divide
Albania into Serbian and Greek kind of the column spheres
(17:58):
of influence. And they never the Serbian has never actually
left Albania. They just said, oh, we're gonna like supervise
the border, blah blah blah. And at this point, folks,
you're probably saying, hey, um, this is Mail Kamali. Dude, Uh,
he's not the guy you you guys mentioned at first,
is he? He's a president, not a king. That's interesting
(18:19):
that you say that, because now a new protagonist has
entered our stage, an acrobat, a weird dude, which you
know was always a compliment on our show. His name
otto vite am I saying that right now? I think so?
I think I think think Vita like bitch, like plea
(18:40):
alf Deutsch. So the thing that's interesting about this and
the reason maybe some of this sounds like convoluted gobbledygook
is because a lot of these claims in these UM series,
these these accounts of events following that proclamation of independence
from Albania UH independence from the Ottoman Empire are kind
of disputed. UM. And what we're telling today is one
(19:01):
version of the story UH. And. In this version, the
independence leaders chose UH their protector, or they essentially, you know,
UH ensconced like a new leader, a temporary leader by
the name of a person named Halim Adan, who is
a Turkish prince. UH. And in this version of the story,
(19:22):
Dan shows up in duriss Um, which was the Albanian
capital at the time, UM, dressed in luxurious flowing robes
and and silks and and adorned with fine incense and
mur and and an oil sweet smelling perfumes, I assume,
and of course was accompanied by a quite large valet
(19:44):
real bruiser of a bodyguard. UM. He immediately declared amnesty
UH for the prisoners of the conflict, declared a week
of celebration UM, and he appointed all of these feuderal
lords a place in his new cabinet. UM. Then he
was presented with twenty five presumably virgin women for his Harem.
(20:08):
Then it was everyone was really into this guy, and
everyone was like, Okay, we like this guy a lot.
It's very Prince Ali kind of situation. Um, And they
decided they wanted to formally crown him king and they
did that. He became king Otto five days. Yeah. Yeah,
So here's the thing, and we're in a bit of
a face off situation in a good way. So Otto
(20:29):
Viti uh Delica said, weird, dude. He has spent most
of his life kind of is what you would call
a hobo, you know, kind of a carney. He's lion
tam or. He's a magician. He has a nomadic existence.
He's traveled across multiple continents. He speaks Turkish fluently. Uh.
(20:50):
And he also loves telling a good story, like my
old man. He will never let the truth get in
the way of a good tale and he uh. He
was a major in the Ottoman army in nine and
as the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating Albania was becoming independent,
(21:10):
they decided that the only way to really have security
in the country was to crown a king, and Albanian people,
again largely Muslim population, would not ever go for your
garden variety Christian king of some denomination or another. They
wanted a king was Muslim, So they said, what about
(21:32):
this guy, this very striking figure that you just described,
nol Halim a dean. Uh. That suggestion was made and
people were on board, so the news was announced. They
wanted this man a deemed to be King. Vitte is
reading a story in a newspaper while he's living in
Budapesh and he says, you know what, I look a
(21:56):
lot like this guy. What what if I what if
I just what if I just go? What if I
just pull? Uh? Is it King Ralph? Vehicle that was
very first and learned the name of the uh the
very naught only named British delicacy spotted dick because they
(22:19):
make it. They make a real to do of that
in the movie King King King Ralph. UM. Yeah, so
he's like, you know, I mean I've done it before
after all, right, because um. One thing we didn't mention
about his uh CV is that he actually um threw
a similar subterfuge. UH. He was named the honorary chief
of a Pygmy tribe in Africa, UM largely because he
(22:41):
was able to wow them with magic tricks and all
that good stuff. So maybe he wasn't necessarily lying. He
was just they loved them so much that they made
him an honorary chief. Why why not do it again,
only this time maybe involving a little bit more deception.
So he sets off, Yeah, yeah, he sets off. He says,
you know what, I am fluent in Turkish. I'm gonna
(23:02):
pretend to be the king of Albania, and uh let
me let me just hop on it right, let me
strike while the iron is hot. He sends out some telegrams.
You know, picture picture this scene in Aladdin where it's
like Prince Lie and so he's announcing his arrival. He dude,
(23:25):
he literally rents an outfit that looks, you know, like
the kaid you described, because a normal person couldn't afford
to buy something of that caliber. He packed his bags.
He uh is joined by his ride or die, a
guy named Max Schlipsig. Schlipsig, who was a sword swallower.
That's where that comes in. And at this time they
(23:48):
arrive in the in the then capital of Albania, Durist,
and he convinces the locals with his wonderful gift of
gab that he is in fact Halim Dean he is
crowned the new king the next week is amazing. He
has an actual harem, which is very problematic thing, but
(24:09):
he definitely makes use of it. He has military parades.
He's kicking it in one of the top tier tents
for royals. He decides to declare war on Montenegro because
he can. Like how wild is his Wednesday and Thursday?
You know, what would you call this guy? Chaotic? Evil? Okay, chaotic?
(24:31):
He's chaotic? Something I don't is he? I don't think
he's neutral though, if he's declaring war on Montenegro, just
Willie Nilly for kicks, well, chaotic neutral is essentially the
primary guiding force of that alignment. Oh God, put him
a nerdy D and D monocle. Here is that they
(24:51):
just follow the individual rules. It's like nationalism for one person.
I see, Okay, I got it. So he's an army
of one, uh, not worried about anybody else? That makes sense.
I mean the whole thing. What does he think he's
gonna get out of this other than a handful of
days of like you know, King Ralph type behavior. Um.
Obviously he was not aware of that incredible seminal Hollywood
(25:13):
classic at the time, But like, did you think this
was gonna keep going? I mean, surely the real Adele
does seem I was gonna come. I'm sorry, I know
that's not his name. That's just the name the John
Travolta called Adina Menzel at the Oscars that one time,
which you know, made everybody on the internet laugh for
for weeks months even I continue to laugh at that joke.
Hallem Adem, Yeah, that's right, it's not that far off.
(25:35):
Did you think that guy wasn't gonna turn up? Like,
I just don't understand what goes through the mind of
a person like this. I mean, I guess it's it
takes a different type to live that circus life and
to just kind of, like you know, fly fly by
the seat of of of one's pants in such a
dangerous way like this seems like it would just result
in him being executed, you know. Yeah, the new you
(25:58):
have to wonder. I think he got caught up in
the love of the improv here and the love of
the con so, of course, a newly independent Albania, a
new king. This makes international headlines, newspapers and telegrams spend
a lot of ink on it. The word spreads quickly
and the word eventually reaches Istanbul, and in Istanbul, this
(26:20):
announcement is pretty confusing for the Sultan, because the Sultan
knew his nephew Haleem a Dean was on vacation in Vienna,
he physically was not in Albania. And eventually, eventually Vitta
has to realize. Al Otto has to say, okay, maybe
(26:41):
I jumped the gun a bit. So he and his
pal and his pal the sword Swallower say okay, uh,
this grift might not last as long as we thought.
They raid the treasury, They flee the country, and they
go to a place called Bari b a r I
with some help from some members of the Harem, who
(27:03):
apparently they have formed a fast friendship with. So uh yuh.
There's many reasons that could have happened. You know. This
reminds me of been. This reminds me of the reason
that are the very crux of like most of the
plots of like nineties sitcoms, Seinfeld in particular, like that
all of these elaborate ruses and misunderstandings are only allowed
(27:26):
to continue for as long as they do because of
lack of like cell phone or like fast communications would
Seinfeld problem, This would have deemed this whole ruse would
have fallen apart instantly if someone could have just like
you know, checked the guy's passport or like scanned his
you know face and compared it with an actual picture.
This is one of those situations that hinges on a
(27:47):
lack of technology and the ability to confirm people's stories,
because he stuck to it hard. He committed to the
bit until beyond the bitter end. Because, as you said,
ben Um, Vita and Schleipsig actually reigning the treasury. They
made off with some cash. There was a bit of
a heist element here, and then they fled the country
(28:10):
to bari Um and several years later Vita, who is
shockingly alive, shockingly alive Um, he tells he writes a book,
or his daughter rather writes a book, and he contributes
to this book, you know. In in the telling of
this tale, his daughter quote Princess Elfrida Vita Um. She
(28:33):
refers to her father in the book as quote the
greatest adventurer of all time. He somehow managed to escape
any kind of criminal charges or prosecution or any kind
of seemingly um consequences whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, that's the that's
the weirdest thing. He didn't more than just escape the consequences.
(28:55):
He uh, he didn't get punished in any way. And
people even today will say that this is just a
tall tale. Uh, the old man may have spun because
folks will in their defense, they will rightly point out
(29:15):
that there's not a shred of local evidence to back
up any part of his story. Furthermore, if you look
at the historical record of the Ottoman Empire, there is
no Prince Halleen, there is no ka Ze. Oh yeah,
that was about bed out of my head. I think
it makes me look too much time together. I was
totally picturing that scene where you look at well, this
(29:37):
is actually the second time. Second time this has been
reference to the last few weeks between our various shows.
But this is the part where at the end he's
looking up at the board and he's just putting together
stuff based on like words that are just like on
like you know, Cathy cartoons that are pinned to a corkboard,
you know, at the bottom of like a coffee mug. Yeah,
and well it makes sense, right, but if you think
(29:59):
about it, I mean the Albanians were so horrifically you know,
um punked by this guy. That maybe and also this,
this this whole prince situation was only meant to be
kind of a stop gap or kind of remember they
did not really have the upper hand, so this was
all just kind of a farcet almost in a way,
(30:20):
or their ability to kind of create a front that
made it look like they had it under control more
than they actually did. If I'm not mistaken, because the
serbs were still breathing down their neck, right then, yeah, yeah,
this is still I mean, that's the that's the opinion
of it is supporters, right, is that the easiest way
(30:42):
to say it is maybe they were embarrassed that they
got played so hard, so they erased the evidence, of
which happens. Countries and empires do erase stuff. That's part
of the gig. Was one of Stalin's favorite things to do,
is someone that like you know, looked at it run
they would just he would just like literally cut their
faces out of like all the photos that they were together.
Why would you ever work for that guy? You know
(31:04):
what I mean. It's like anyway, that's an episode for
another day. But after all this does or does not happen.
The funny thing is that Vita spends the rest of
his life insisting on being called the former King of Albania,
and the government of Germany capitulates to this insistence. He
(31:28):
was able to have former King of Albania on his
official German I d wait? Is that is that a thing?
Can I get like a special line with some like
you know, what do you call that honorific? You know?
Like is that like sort of like the equivalent of
getting like a vanity plate for I've never heard of
this before. You can, it's a little different in the US,
(31:50):
but you can't what you can do. There's a loophole
where I'm not officially condoning, and I'm not officially saying
it's surprisingly easy to do this. Again, I'm not officially
say it is surprisingly easy to do this. You have
to commit to the bit though. If you legally change
your name to something that sounds like an honorific or
a title, then it will be put on you know,
(32:13):
your passport, your driver's license, your fishing license, your totem
chip whatever. Is there any law against having more than
one middle name, or having like multiple I No, I
didn't think so right, So I could be like nol
Christian cool guy McGhee brown, you know, I mean, if
I if I wanted to go all the way with him.
(32:34):
The only thing is, uh, I think I can't remember.
The law might be state by state, but the main
thing is a judge has to agree and think it's
a serious thing. So you might have a tougher time
if you're like, I'm gonna like if I went to
court and said I'm gonna change my name to snake
bite make fist punch, then I would need to, like,
I would need to have a reason why. You would
(32:57):
need to demonstrate bridle bad as that judge and then
stock him one. He would he would just be like,
I like the kind of this guy's jib snake bite,
Mr mcfist punch it is, And then he would also,
you know, probably send you to jail for contempt or
assault at the least probably Yeah. But but with is
it possible there may be a law I don't know yet,
(33:19):
but there may be a law that says like, um
Max can name himself anything you want, as long as
it doesn't mean that he's impersonating a like it's not
for identity theft or identity fraud. You know, probably there
are there are rules against having swears and there too,
I would imagine, yes, I would just imagine. I don't
(33:41):
know for sure, right, um, which is why snake bite
doesn't have a middle Namecock around and find out punch, punch, mcgilla, cutty, yes, bold, yes, Yeah.
It's a long line. It's a tradition. So let us
know if you have ever called to court and said,
(34:01):
you know, something along the lines of your honor, I
would like to change my name to viscount you know whatever,
or duke blah blah blah. But that's that's what this
guy did. That's that's what the German government let him do.
So in a way, whether or not the story happened,
he was successful. You know what else he did he died, Yeah,
(34:24):
he did on August thirteenth of n anniversary of his
possible coronation. So again, I want to make it real clear,
if we had, like all the worry stuff that we said,
all of that kind of boring geopolitics, that uh, this
part may or may not be true because you know,
things get lost in these kind of these these kind
(34:46):
of conflicts, you know, details, Um, so I'd like to
believe that this is true. Um Otto Visa definitely was
a real person, so we know that much. That's sure
that he died on August thirt of ben Do you know, Uh,
put you on the spot here for a little trivia.
Do you know what symbol the Albanian flag bears? I do?
(35:10):
I do because I've been watching a lot of weird
stuff involving Albania recently. It is an eagle, but it
is an eagle that does not exist in the natural world.
It's an eagle with two heads and it's kind of
I think they're facing opposite directions, right, like one's facing left,
one's facing right. Yeah. It's the symbol of fortitude, nationalism,
(35:33):
and empire, and the two heads are said to represent
the northern and southern portions of the of the country
and something that's wrapped up in local folklore. The Albanian
name for itself is uh, it's a weird, dude. It's
got a que after an s h. How do you
do that? Speria? I think um, which literally translates to
(35:59):
land of the eagles. Um. They must really love Hotel California.
That's their national song there. Yeah, yeah, that's the National
band as well, um, all of whom speak of Albanian,
all of the eagles and real big, real big, and
they when they stop in that country. Um. But yeah,
that's that's how we got for today, A nice, short
(36:20):
and sweet, one very interesting, potentially tall tale situated amidst
a very very real, uh story of a conflict. Yeah,
and I you know what I'd love to hear from
our fellow ridiculous historians. Will be other other stories of
great acts of impersonation like this. This is this is
(36:43):
a con He did hurt people, to be clear, because
he stole the National Treasury or stole from it, so
we can't condone it. But there's something I cannot help
but admire about the uh, the ambition, the sheer audacity
of the sort of can So let us know, let
us know if there are other stories throughout history that
(37:05):
seems similar. We'd love to hear about these rogues and
ne'er do wells. In the meantime, Thank you as always
for tuning in. Thanks so much to our one and
only super producer, Max Williams, who is Johnny on the
spot when it comes to looking up obscure members of
the aristocracy. Thanks to Casey, pegram and and nol as
(37:26):
always man, thanks to you. I feel like we can
pull this off if it weren't for cell phones. I
feel like we can pull something like this, You and I. Yeah,
I can be your wing I could be your wingman. Yeah,
we could have dual, dual wingman. I'll be the left
head of the eagle, masking me the right, and you
can be uh the the the impostor to the throne. Right.
(37:47):
Just in case podcasting doesn't work out for us, what
what country will we try for? We'll we'll have to
talk about this off air because no spoilers, definitely not.
We'll see you next time. Yeah. For more podcasts from
My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
(38:08):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. That's our one and only
super producer, Max Williams. Give him a hand. Folks, they
called me Ben. No, you and I started traveling again.
I think we've You've had some adventures. I've got some
on the way that I can't disclose quite yet. But
(00:48):
I don't think either of us has ever been to Albania. Now,
I've been to Albany. Is that the same thing, Georgia
or Albany New York. I haven't been Albany to New York.
I've actually never been to Albany, New York or Georgia.
I was lying, but that would definitely be more in
like my you know, immediate region of travel. Albania sounds
(01:09):
like a real, real exotic destination. Oh yeah, I I
read the wiki travel articles for different countries all the time,
and and expat forums, etcetera, etcetera. And Albania has an
amazing unique history, kind of a crossroads between Europe and
the rest of the world to the east, especially the
(01:33):
Ottoman Empire. It wasn't until November of nineteen twelve that
Albania proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire. And that's
part of where our story takes place today, because it
turns out you may not have heard of this guy,
but Albania for a little less than a week had
(01:55):
a king named King Otto the First and he was
king for um about five days. Yeah, we don't want
to spoil it, so let's like save the surprise for
just a little bit further and go into the events
that led up to this elaborate subterfuse that started in
the autumn of nineteen twelve when the Balkan League's conquest
(02:16):
of the Ottoman Empires European territories um started a massive
international crisis UM that was going to cause lots of
problems in Europe. Um. You know, in general, there could
have been a massive European wide war that was triggered
by this diplomatic crisis. Yeah, and as we know, there
(02:38):
is going to be a not just European war, but
a world war. It's on the way. Yeah, it's bacon
in the oven as we speak. The crisis comes about
because Serbia wanted to get access to the Adriatic Sea
and Austria, Hungary was dead set against it. They were like,
(02:58):
no way, Serbia, stay in your lane. And because of
this dispute, Austria Hungary was on a It was coming
into clear conflict not with just Serbia, but with Serbia's
big daddy at the time, Russia. And then you know,
the way that these wars happen, the way these big
(03:19):
multiple state wars happen is because of those alliances between
countries they for they create a domino effect. Right. It's
like if you are a picture, if m Max and
Noel and you listening along at home, ridiculous historian picture,
the four of us are hanging out, we're having um,
we're going bowling or something, and people in the next lane.
(03:42):
One of them starts a fight with Max. I don't
know why he would, he's the nicest guy. And then you,
ridiculous historian and Noel and myself were like, hey, hey, hey,
you mess with that guy, you messed with all of us.
We're basically like the teenage muntant ninja turtles here. That's true.
And then all of a sudden, there's no d mark
between the lanes anymore, and you're not bowling anymore. You're
(04:02):
just kind of brawling at a bowling alley, which isn't
very cute. That's just bad behavior, is what that is.
And then all of a sudden, neighboring lanes get involved
because they're like, we're totally screwing up our lane with her,
you know, um, irresponsible behavior, and we're not gonna have that.
Bowling is expensive. They got shoes this game. It's like, yeah,
(04:22):
it's it's it's a real commitment. You know, you've got
chicken wings probably getting cold now because you're not paying
them attention because you're brawling with your labor. And that's
not good for anybody. No, not at all in our
bowling alley situation here. Uh, it's it's easy to trace.
It's actually not a bad comparison because okay, Austria is
(04:43):
beefing with Serbia. Serbia has the big brother, Russia, and uh,
if Russia beefs with Austria Hungary, then Austria Hungary's boy
Germany is gonna come in, and then Russia's pal France
is gonna jump in as well, so the would lead
to catastrophe. On November twenty one, nine, Austria Hungary mobilized
(05:08):
six army corps near Russia and Serbia. This was clearly
a threat of the possibility of war. Oh yeah, but
the Foreign Minister of Austria Hungary, uh, Count Burketold great name.
I love a good count. Um. He had absolutely yeah,
(05:28):
a curly mustache, you know then, you know, curly on
the ends mustache. He had plans of his own. He
wanted to support an independent Albania or a bid for
an independent Albania. Also, guys, I went ahead and looked
up what Count Burke told looks like, and yeah, he is, um,
exactly what you'd think he would look like. Some stereotypes
exist for reason. You can't really be a count unless
(05:51):
you have some sort of outrageous appearance involving you gonna
have some head accessories, you know, no question about it. Yeah,
I don't know which one is better. There's the one
with his military gear on, but it's also the one
with just the top hat. And I kind of like
the top at one top hat. Okay, that's when that's
when the count's unwinded, you know, exactly again his leisure
(06:12):
time and okay, so this gets a little complicated, um,
in terms of just the interplay between all of these
nations and and the various um UH motivations at work,
but let's just try to simplify it a little bit.
Burke Hold in his infinite monocle wearing wisdom, UM, he
wanted to stop Serbia from getting access to the Adriatic Sea,
(06:34):
and also he wanted to avoid that larger war that
we talked about earlier. UM. In doing this, he wanted
to support an independent Albania UM where Serbia and already
staked a claim to that position on the Adriatic Sea,
neighboring Montenegro and Greece. Also, in this arrangement, it would
potentially lose parts of Albanian territory that they had claimed
(06:58):
UM Montenegro in particular, UH, this would include UM some
important UH strategic locations like the city of Scutari, which
is where Turkish forces were already under siege by Serbian
and Montenegrin forces. Okay, I think we kind of got
the lay of the land in terms of like the
(07:18):
way our risk board pieces are laid out ben what
happens next. So this is clever on birked Old's part
because now it's becoming kind of a proxy war. Right now.
The issue isn't Austria Hungary directly fighting Serbia. Now we're
(07:41):
supporting something. We're supporting Albania, and Albania looks good for this.
They already had rebelled against the Ottoman Empire earlier that
same year, and in as a result of their rebellion,
the Ottoman Empire promised them a little bit more autonomy.
And now the Albanians are threatened with the possibility of
(08:05):
even more oppression by the Orthodox Christians in Serbia and
Albanians are mostly Muslim at this time, so they say, Okay,
forget about it. We're gonna We're gonna go for full independence.
Autonomy is not enough. Uh. And just to be clear
of folks, Serbia and Albania already had a well established
(08:27):
history of conflict. We're talking about stuff like the First
Balkan War. We're talking about earlier atrocities committed against the
people of Serbia by both Turkish and Albanian forces. You
can even read about this in the New York Times
from nineteen twelve December thirty one, last day of nineteen twelve,
(08:49):
where they say thousands of men, women and children were
massacred during the Serbs March to the Sea as part
of a deliberate policy to exterminate people of the Muslim faith.
Wait a minute, wait anyway, exterminate all members of This
is the first I've heard of this, Ben, what's the
beef there? Well, the idea there is ideologically motivated, it's
(09:09):
also resource motivated. The general Western consensus of this was that, uh,
the Serbian forces were fighting dirty, using unjustifiable murder, and
this of course would foreshadow later atrocities to come. But
all to say, what you need to know about this
(09:30):
is Count Berthold was definitely aware of this past enmity,
and he was leveraging this again in a relatively complex
geopolitical calculation to keep the Serbs from getting that see axis.
And this is where we meet a guy named is
Mail Kimality. Is Mail Comalley would be uh, the who
(09:54):
would be the protagonist of this Albanian move for self
determined nature. Is Mail Commallely was a former ottoman Um admin.
Let's just call him that the ponds of our time.
He was. He was a bureaucrat. He was the father
of Albanian nationalism, which, if I'm not mistaken by nationalism
(10:15):
typically you know, you you could look at on one
hand as like patriotism, but it usually involves some sort
of mothering and ideals of exterminating those that are different
than us, or at the very least keeping them at
arms length. Isn't that right? Yeah? Yeah, it's the idea
of being of strongly identifying with one's own nation, and
(10:36):
what you see is that nation's goal, especially to the
exclusion of the interest of other nations. So like, if
we were strong nationalists in a way that nationalism goes wrong.
Let's say we wanted to do something that was very
good for Maine, but it was very bad for all
the parts of Canada connected to Maine. As nationalists, our
(10:59):
resp bonds would be well, who cares, that's Canada, that's
not us, go us. Other parts of Canada be damns. Yeah,
Main is number one. Main uber Alis. So this guy,
uh father of Albanian nationalism is male Kamali. He comes
back from exile, he's been exiled and with some help,
(11:20):
with a little bit of a boost, you know, assist
from Austria Hungary Um, he convenes an assembly of Albanian
nationalists at vli Um. Oh gosh, it's got the UM
loud over the e Vloria. I don't know if I
was saying that, right, it's got the um loud over
the eat. So I'm thinking the e as an oo
(11:41):
sound picturing. I'm picturing and picturing in my mind and
trying to say the way the picture looks, but they're
not quite adding up. But I will sally forth. Um.
So they didn't really have much leverage in terms of
actual control of Albanian territory besides that town that I'm
picturing the word of in my mind, um right now.
(12:03):
But on November nineteen twelve, the delegates of this council
declared Albanian independence. So that's sort of like, uh, that's
that's what you don't know, what is that called overplaying
your hand a little bit? Ben, You don't actually have
much juice, you know, our suction in the situation, but
you make an outrageous claim, hoping that maybe that in
(12:24):
and of itself will be enough to convince people that
you're like the person for the job, or that you
know what you're talking about. Yeah, this is this is
a tricky part of geopolitics, and it's one that I
think people should talk about more often in public and
in the mainstream. So if you want to succeed or
if you want to declare independence. What makes your government legitimate.
(12:47):
It's such a silly rule, but it's an important one.
Your government becomes legitimate when other world governments say, okay,
that's legit. So, for instance, take California here in the US.
Californi is a state. It has an enormous g DP,
like it's huge compared to other countries just that state alone.
And if California tried to succeed, uh, it would it's
(13:12):
legitimacy would hinge on the international community and on the US.
So if other countries basically said, okay, we believe you California,
you're a country now, then that would be like the
number one steps. So that's what that's what Albania and
Kamale are hoping to do here. Like you said, they
(13:32):
form their government. They form their own national government. And
this national government its representatives choose Comali as president, but
a couple of legislative decisions by a legislature that has
yet to be internationally recognized. They don't do much to
dispel the facts on the ground, which is that the
(13:53):
Serbian forces and their pals from earlier Bowling Alley example,
are still occupying most to Albania, and they're not gonna leave.
They're not gonna they're gonna be like, oh there was
a vote, Oh my bad. All right, t t y
l back to our own lanes. Times tend to resume.
Are our bowls are separate bowls, you know, and put
(14:13):
on blinders, uh to each other. No, that was not
going to happen because the lane change had already taken place,
and you can't walk that back that easily. I'm sorry,
Chicken wings be damned. So in November Um the Serbs
captured a an area called Darazzo Um and the Greek
navy started to blockade that town of the one that
(14:38):
I'm trying to picture better than i'm saying on December three.
That's a big deal. If you can't, you can't that
thing you're talking about ben about establishing like some sort
of international connection, you can't do that for being blockaded, right,
that's literally you know what a blockade is. It keeps
you from exercising trade with anybody or receiving things. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
(15:00):
it's the divide and conquer for sure. So their attempt
to their attempt to declare independence at this point has
only pushed the Serbs into further action. Austria. Hungarian forces
are still up there near Serbia and Russia. The whole
continent is waiting for the other monocle to drop. And
(15:22):
if yes, if Russia, and if you got if you
have two monocles, isn't that just a pair of glasses?
It depends on if you have the little bridge right over,
you could have a detachable glasses that become two separate monocles.
That'd be a fun flex Maybe each one is a
different strength. We're so far ahead of our time. Yeah,
so the uh, the thing is, I mean, we're we're trying,
(15:44):
we're joking a little bit, but this is a very
very serious situation. It's scary, and we want to shout out.
I want to shout out mental floss. Of course, you
did some great work on this. What was the title
of this one? The title of this one? How did
you know? Ben? Pulling it up right now? World were
one centennial Albania declares Independence was one of the articles
(16:05):
for mental flaws that we have been looking at. And
then another one was a New Albanian Crisis by Eric
sass sas Master the Sasmin himself so yes, So here's
what happens. Everybody knows that if Russia and Austria Hungary
go to war with each other, all their allies, the
other European great powers are going to be sucked in.
(16:27):
And so these tensions continue to ratchet up until Austria
and Hungary eventually agree on a compromise and all of
the all of the big fish, the big dogs of
Europe at the time, meet at something called the Conference
of London, and they agree that the best way to
smooth this out and avoid war is in fact, to
(16:49):
create a new independent Albanian state. So problem solved. That's
our episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. Promised deception,
most foul, and and and and subterfuge, most elaborate. And
I don't think we hinted circus performers yet, but we're
gonna go ahead and drop that hint right now, sort
of sword swallowers, let's do it. I think we're at
(17:12):
that place right now. So I appreciate you um coming
along with us for this very very uh inside baseball
geopolitical portion of the episode. But here comes the fun stuff. Yes,
here's the here's the fun stuff. Okay, so the Albanian
(17:34):
situation is not settled at all. Uh, Serbia and Montenegro
are like these guys, these fat cats over the Conference
of London. They don't know what they're talking about. We're nationalists.
We're not giving up our claims that easily. So they
have decided in a secret pact with Greece to divide
Albania into Serbian and Greek kind of the column spheres
(17:58):
of influence. And they never the Serbian has never actually
left Albania. They just said, oh, we're gonna like supervise
the border, blah blah blah. And at this point, folks,
you're probably saying, hey, um, this is Mail Kamali. Dude, Uh,
he's not the guy you you guys mentioned at first,
is he? He's a president, not a king. That's interesting
(18:19):
that you say that, because now a new protagonist has
entered our stage, an acrobat, a weird dude, which you
know was always a compliment on our show. His name
otto vite am I saying that right now? I think so?
I think I think think Vita like bitch, like plea
(18:40):
alf Deutsch. So the thing that's interesting about this and
the reason maybe some of this sounds like convoluted gobbledygook
is because a lot of these claims in these UM series,
these these accounts of events following that proclamation of independence
from Albania UH independence from the Ottoman Empire are kind
of disputed. UM. And what we're telling today is one
(19:01):
version of the story UH. And. In this version, the
independence leaders chose UH their protector, or they essentially, you know,
UH ensconced like a new leader, a temporary leader by
the name of a person named Halim Adan, who is
a Turkish prince. UH. And in this version of the story,
(19:22):
Dan shows up in duriss Um, which was the Albanian
capital at the time, UM, dressed in luxurious flowing robes
and and silks and and adorned with fine incense and
mur and and an oil sweet smelling perfumes, I assume,
and of course was accompanied by a quite large valet
(19:44):
real bruiser of a bodyguard. UM. He immediately declared amnesty
UH for the prisoners of the conflict, declared a week
of celebration UM, and he appointed all of these feuderal
lords a place in his new cabinet. UM. Then he
was presented with twenty five presumably virgin women for his Harem.
(20:08):
Then it was everyone was really into this guy, and
everyone was like, Okay, we like this guy a lot.
It's very Prince Ali kind of situation. Um, And they
decided they wanted to formally crown him king and they
did that. He became king Otto five days. Yeah. Yeah,
So here's the thing, and we're in a bit of
a face off situation in a good way. So Otto
(20:29):
Viti uh Delica said, weird, dude. He has spent most
of his life kind of is what you would call
a hobo, you know, kind of a carney. He's lion
tam or. He's a magician. He has a nomadic existence.
He's traveled across multiple continents. He speaks Turkish fluently. Uh.
(20:50):
And he also loves telling a good story, like my
old man. He will never let the truth get in
the way of a good tale and he uh. He
was a major in the Ottoman army in nine and
as the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating Albania was becoming independent,
(21:10):
they decided that the only way to really have security
in the country was to crown a king, and Albanian people,
again largely Muslim population, would not ever go for your
garden variety Christian king of some denomination or another. They
wanted a king was Muslim, So they said, what about
(21:32):
this guy, this very striking figure that you just described,
nol Halim a dean. Uh. That suggestion was made and
people were on board, so the news was announced. They
wanted this man a deemed to be King. Vitte is
reading a story in a newspaper while he's living in
Budapesh and he says, you know what, I look a
(21:56):
lot like this guy. What what if I what if
I just what if I just go? What if I
just pull? Uh? Is it King Ralph? Vehicle that was
very first and learned the name of the uh the
very naught only named British delicacy spotted dick because they
(22:19):
make it. They make a real to do of that
in the movie King King King Ralph. UM. Yeah, so
he's like, you know, I mean I've done it before
after all, right, because um. One thing we didn't mention
about his uh CV is that he actually um threw
a similar subterfuge. UH. He was named the honorary chief
of a Pygmy tribe in Africa, UM largely because he
(22:41):
was able to wow them with magic tricks and all
that good stuff. So maybe he wasn't necessarily lying. He
was just they loved them so much that they made
him an honorary chief. Why why not do it again,
only this time maybe involving a little bit more deception.
So he sets off, Yeah, yeah, he sets off. He says,
you know what, I am fluent in Turkish. I'm gonna
(23:02):
pretend to be the king of Albania, and uh let
me let me just hop on it right, let me
strike while the iron is hot. He sends out some telegrams.
You know, picture picture this scene in Aladdin where it's
like Prince Lie and so he's announcing his arrival. He dude,
(23:25):
he literally rents an outfit that looks, you know, like
the kaid you described, because a normal person couldn't afford
to buy something of that caliber. He packed his bags.
He uh is joined by his ride or die, a
guy named Max Schlipsig. Schlipsig, who was a sword swallower.
That's where that comes in. And at this time they
(23:48):
arrive in the in the then capital of Albania, Durist,
and he convinces the locals with his wonderful gift of
gab that he is in fact Halim Dean he is
crowned the new king the next week is amazing. He
has an actual harem, which is very problematic thing, but
(24:09):
he definitely makes use of it. He has military parades.
He's kicking it in one of the top tier tents
for royals. He decides to declare war on Montenegro because
he can. Like how wild is his Wednesday and Thursday?
You know, what would you call this guy? Chaotic? Evil? Okay, chaotic?
(24:31):
He's chaotic? Something I don't is he? I don't think
he's neutral though, if he's declaring war on Montenegro, just
Willie Nilly for kicks, well, chaotic neutral is essentially the
primary guiding force of that alignment. Oh God, put him
a nerdy D and D monocle. Here is that they
(24:51):
just follow the individual rules. It's like nationalism for one person.
I see, Okay, I got it. So he's an army
of one, uh, not worried about anybody else? That makes sense.
I mean the whole thing. What does he think he's
gonna get out of this other than a handful of
days of like you know, King Ralph type behavior. Um.
Obviously he was not aware of that incredible seminal Hollywood
(25:13):
classic at the time, But like, did you think this
was gonna keep going? I mean, surely the real Adele
does seem I was gonna come. I'm sorry, I know
that's not his name. That's just the name the John
Travolta called Adina Menzel at the Oscars that one time,
which you know, made everybody on the internet laugh for
for weeks months even I continue to laugh at that joke.
Hallem Adem, Yeah, that's right, it's not that far off.
(25:35):
Did you think that guy wasn't gonna turn up? Like,
I just don't understand what goes through the mind of
a person like this. I mean, I guess it's it
takes a different type to live that circus life and
to just kind of, like you know, fly fly by
the seat of of of one's pants in such a
dangerous way like this seems like it would just result
in him being executed, you know. Yeah, the new you
(25:58):
have to wonder. I think he got caught up in
the love of the improv here and the love of
the con so, of course, a newly independent Albania, a
new king. This makes international headlines, newspapers and telegrams spend
a lot of ink on it. The word spreads quickly
and the word eventually reaches Istanbul, and in Istanbul, this
(26:20):
announcement is pretty confusing for the Sultan, because the Sultan
knew his nephew Haleem a Dean was on vacation in Vienna,
he physically was not in Albania. And eventually, eventually Vitta
has to realize. Al Otto has to say, okay, maybe
(26:41):
I jumped the gun a bit. So he and his
pal and his pal the sword Swallower say okay, uh,
this grift might not last as long as we thought.
They raid the treasury, They flee the country, and they
go to a place called Bari b a r I
with some help from some members of the Harem, who
(27:03):
apparently they have formed a fast friendship with. So uh yuh.
There's many reasons that could have happened. You know. This
reminds me of been. This reminds me of the reason
that are the very crux of like most of the
plots of like nineties sitcoms, Seinfeld in particular, like that
all of these elaborate ruses and misunderstandings are only allowed
(27:26):
to continue for as long as they do because of
lack of like cell phone or like fast communications would
Seinfeld problem, This would have deemed this whole ruse would
have fallen apart instantly if someone could have just like
you know, checked the guy's passport or like scanned his
you know face and compared it with an actual picture.
This is one of those situations that hinges on a
(27:47):
lack of technology and the ability to confirm people's stories,
because he stuck to it hard. He committed to the
bit until beyond the bitter end. Because, as you said,
ben Um, Vita and Schleipsig actually reigning the treasury. They
made off with some cash. There was a bit of
a heist element here, and then they fled the country
(28:10):
to bari Um and several years later Vita, who is
shockingly alive, shockingly alive Um, he tells he writes a book,
or his daughter rather writes a book, and he contributes
to this book, you know. In in the telling of
this tale, his daughter quote Princess Elfrida Vita Um. She
(28:33):
refers to her father in the book as quote the
greatest adventurer of all time. He somehow managed to escape
any kind of criminal charges or prosecution or any kind
of seemingly um consequences whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, that's the that's
the weirdest thing. He didn't more than just escape the consequences.
(28:55):
He uh, he didn't get punished in any way. And
people even today will say that this is just a
tall tale. Uh, the old man may have spun because
folks will in their defense, they will rightly point out
(29:15):
that there's not a shred of local evidence to back
up any part of his story. Furthermore, if you look
at the historical record of the Ottoman Empire, there is
no Prince Halleen, there is no ka Ze. Oh yeah,
that was about bed out of my head. I think
it makes me look too much time together. I was
totally picturing that scene where you look at well, this
(29:37):
is actually the second time. Second time this has been
reference to the last few weeks between our various shows.
But this is the part where at the end he's
looking up at the board and he's just putting together
stuff based on like words that are just like on
like you know, Cathy cartoons that are pinned to a corkboard,
you know, at the bottom of like a coffee mug. Yeah,
and well it makes sense, right, but if you think
(29:59):
about it, I mean the Albanians were so horrifically you know,
um punked by this guy. That maybe and also this,
this this whole prince situation was only meant to be
kind of a stop gap or kind of remember they
did not really have the upper hand, so this was
all just kind of a farcet almost in a way,
(30:20):
or their ability to kind of create a front that
made it look like they had it under control more
than they actually did. If I'm not mistaken, because the
serbs were still breathing down their neck, right then, yeah, yeah,
this is still I mean, that's the that's the opinion
of it is supporters, right, is that the easiest way
(30:42):
to say it is maybe they were embarrassed that they
got played so hard, so they erased the evidence, of
which happens. Countries and empires do erase stuff. That's part
of the gig. Was one of Stalin's favorite things to do,
is someone that like you know, looked at it run
they would just he would just like literally cut their
faces out of like all the photos that they were together.
Why would you ever work for that guy? You know
(31:04):
what I mean. It's like anyway, that's an episode for
another day. But after all this does or does not happen.
The funny thing is that Vita spends the rest of
his life insisting on being called the former King of Albania,
and the government of Germany capitulates to this insistence. He
(31:28):
was able to have former King of Albania on his
official German I d wait? Is that is that a thing?
Can I get like a special line with some like
you know, what do you call that honorific? You know?
Like is that like sort of like the equivalent of
getting like a vanity plate for I've never heard of
this before. You can, it's a little different in the US,
(31:50):
but you can't what you can do. There's a loophole
where I'm not officially condoning, and I'm not officially saying
it's surprisingly easy to do this. Again, I'm not officially
say it is surprisingly easy to do this. You have
to commit to the bit though. If you legally change
your name to something that sounds like an honorific or
a title, then it will be put on you know,
(32:13):
your passport, your driver's license, your fishing license, your totem
chip whatever. Is there any law against having more than
one middle name, or having like multiple I No, I
didn't think so right, So I could be like nol
Christian cool guy McGhee brown, you know, I mean, if
I if I wanted to go all the way with him.
(32:34):
The only thing is, uh, I think I can't remember.
The law might be state by state, but the main
thing is a judge has to agree and think it's
a serious thing. So you might have a tougher time
if you're like, I'm gonna like if I went to
court and said I'm gonna change my name to snake
bite make fist punch, then I would need to, like,
I would need to have a reason why. You would
(32:57):
need to demonstrate bridle bad as that judge and then
stock him one. He would he would just be like,
I like the kind of this guy's jib snake bite,
Mr mcfist punch it is, And then he would also,
you know, probably send you to jail for contempt or
assault at the least probably Yeah. But but with is
it possible there may be a law I don't know yet,
(33:19):
but there may be a law that says like, um
Max can name himself anything you want, as long as
it doesn't mean that he's impersonating a like it's not
for identity theft or identity fraud. You know, probably there
are there are rules against having swears and there too,
I would imagine, yes, I would just imagine. I don't
(33:41):
know for sure, right, um, which is why snake bite
doesn't have a middle Namecock around and find out punch, punch, mcgilla, cutty, yes, bold, yes, Yeah.
It's a long line. It's a tradition. So let us
know if you have ever called to court and said,
(34:01):
you know, something along the lines of your honor, I
would like to change my name to viscount you know whatever,
or duke blah blah blah. But that's that's what this
guy did. That's that's what the German government let him do.
So in a way, whether or not the story happened,
he was successful. You know what else he did he died, Yeah,
(34:24):
he did on August thirteenth of n anniversary of his
possible coronation. So again, I want to make it real clear,
if we had, like all the worry stuff that we said,
all of that kind of boring geopolitics, that uh, this
part may or may not be true because you know,
things get lost in these kind of these these kind
(34:46):
of conflicts, you know, details, Um, so I'd like to
believe that this is true. Um Otto Visa definitely was
a real person, so we know that much. That's sure
that he died on August thirt of ben Do you know, Uh,
put you on the spot here for a little trivia.
Do you know what symbol the Albanian flag bears? I do?
(35:10):
I do because I've been watching a lot of weird
stuff involving Albania recently. It is an eagle, but it
is an eagle that does not exist in the natural world.
It's an eagle with two heads and it's kind of
I think they're facing opposite directions, right, like one's facing left,
one's facing right. Yeah. It's the symbol of fortitude, nationalism,
(35:33):
and empire, and the two heads are said to represent
the northern and southern portions of the of the country
and something that's wrapped up in local folklore. The Albanian
name for itself is uh, it's a weird, dude. It's
got a que after an s h. How do you
do that? Speria? I think um, which literally translates to
(35:59):
land of the eagles. Um. They must really love Hotel California.
That's their national song there. Yeah, yeah, that's the National
band as well, um, all of whom speak of Albanian,
all of the eagles and real big, real big, and
they when they stop in that country. Um. But yeah,
that's that's how we got for today, A nice, short
(36:20):
and sweet, one very interesting, potentially tall tale situated amidst
a very very real, uh story of a conflict. Yeah,
and I you know what I'd love to hear from
our fellow ridiculous historians. Will be other other stories of
great acts of impersonation like this. This is this is
(36:43):
a con He did hurt people, to be clear, because
he stole the National Treasury or stole from it, so
we can't condone it. But there's something I cannot help
but admire about the uh, the ambition, the sheer audacity
of the sort of can So let us know, let
us know if there are other stories throughout history that
(37:05):
seems similar. We'd love to hear about these rogues and
ne'er do wells. In the meantime, Thank you as always
for tuning in. Thanks so much to our one and
only super producer, Max Williams, who is Johnny on the
spot when it comes to looking up obscure members of
the aristocracy. Thanks to Casey, pegram and and nol as
(37:26):
always man, thanks to you. I feel like we can
pull this off if it weren't for cell phones. I
feel like we can pull something like this, You and I. Yeah,
I can be your wing I could be your wingman. Yeah,
we could have dual, dual wingman. I'll be the left
head of the eagle, masking me the right, and you
can be uh the the the impostor to the throne. Right.
(37:47):
Just in case podcasting doesn't work out for us, what
what country will we try for? We'll we'll have to
talk about this off air because no spoilers, definitely not.
We'll see you next time. Yeah. For more podcasts from
My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
(38:08):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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