September 23, 2021 • 31 mins
It sounds like something straight out of a heist film: a motley crew bands together in an international conspiracy to rescue six Irishmen from a jail in western Australia -- via whaling ship. Tune in to learn more about the most infamous prison break in Australian history.
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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 Oz always
so much for tuning in. Over there on the other
side of the zoom, we've got the one and only
super producer, Max Williams. Give it up for him. And uh,
they call me Ben. There's someone else on the zoom,
one of my favorite people wearing one of my favorite
t shirts. No, I noticed you noticed my shirt. I
(00:51):
noticed your shirt. I like your shirt, thanks man. This
is a Daily Zeitgeist shirt, signed by every member of
the Daily Zeitgeist crew in blood. Um. It's a little
below the fold. You can't see that part, but it's
a very prized possessional and I only wear it, you know,
as like a sort of podcast totem, you know, just
to give me that podcast juice, because it really is
sort of imbued with the spirit of podcasting. Yeah. Yeah.
(01:14):
And also, I've wondered this before. This has nothing to
do with today's episode, folks, but I've wondered this before.
Maybe there's a question or fellow Ridiculous Historians can answer.
So you guys know how it's considered like poor taste.
You're kind of lame to wear the T shirt of
a band that you're going to see at their concert.
Does the same thing happen with podcasts like we I
(01:36):
have some old, ridiculous history T shirts and I never
wear them outside because it feels strange for me. That's different, man,
That's that's the equivalent of you wearing your own band's
T shirt, which is the most epic of flexus. They
can only be pulled off by a select few, like say,
maybe Metallica in the eighties. They could have done that,
(01:57):
you know, our Mega Death or something like that, or
one of those death metal bands where you can't even
read what the script says because it's just like, yeah,
angry angry thorns precisely. Uh. And again I would ask Ben,
who is it that says it's lame to wear a
band's T shirt? Let's just show solidarity? Or who are
you are there to be seen? Are you there to
support your your band? You know? Yeah, you know, it's
(02:19):
like we're in a jersey to a supporting of that.
No one would shut you down for that. There you go,
that's an excellent comparison. Max is nodding there, but yeah,
I think that's a really good point. And you know me, man,
I'd just like to see when people are enthusiastic and happy.
So if you're if you're wearing something that makes you happy,
and uh, it doesn't matter if you can pull it off.
But speaking and pulling stuff off, let's talk about you're
(02:43):
so good at that. It's just uh, I disagree, but
I really appreciate it. Uh No, you and Max and
I were super into Heist recently and we had we
had teased another kind of like heist related I would say,
a good old fashioned prison break in the past episode.
(03:04):
But we got so excited when we had a chance
to talk with Alex Williams earlier this week that we
actually put a pause on our heist on our higst face.
But my friend, I believe we're back to it today.
Is that correct? That's right, We're back in high smoke.
Can I still be the bagman? Ben? I just wanted
the cost I've always wanted to be a bagman. I
will have no other bagman in the crew other than you.
(03:25):
It's the bagman, the guy that carries the money like
like like a suitcase with a handcuff, Like, well, what's
what's what's my role? Yeah, it's it depends on the
nature of our heist, so like, because you always need
a good bagman. So like, if we were robbing a
bank and don't do it, by the way, you'd be
surprised how little money bank robbers actually make. We have
a brain stuff video about it. It's interesting and depressing.
(03:48):
But if if we were for some reason robbing a bank,
then you, as the bagman, would be the person taking
the money to you know, the getaway driver that we
probably have, like the muscle. It depends on how we
want to go with it. And if we were in
a prison break, you would have probably a bag of tools.
That's right, And one could argue that a prison break
is a heist where the stolen goods are in fact
(04:10):
the heist ees you know, or the crew themselves. They're
literally absconding with themselves. They're literally stealing their own physical
bodies from like this conceptual vault that is the prison
that is helping them and conceptual and literal. So so
today's episode takes us to Australia. This is a continent
(04:34):
that we have always wanted to visit, at least Nolan
I Max. Have you ever have you ever found yourself
in Australia. I have not found myself in Australia. I
want to go up, but I'm also like definitely afraid
of that like country because I mean has some of
the craziest animals ever, like giant snakes, like no, no,
So I don't know. Maybe yes, I would love to
(04:56):
go to Australia, but I'm terrified of that country. Well, also,
you wouldn't like the aim flight. I think was it
about something crazy offline of Seattle here in a few
weeks and it's like five hours? Are you kidding me?
That's how long I would be on a plane. It's
gonna be so worth it. Max, You're gonna love it there,
You're gonna love it real quick shout out. You're talking
about the wilds of Australia. Just to shout out to
(05:17):
my buddy peach Uh and Tom who live in I
believe South Wales like Queensland area, but like near the
Great Barrier Reef, like in this gorgeous, idyllic yet terrifying,
you know rainforest situation. Constantly posting Instagram stories of like
snakes having sex in their ceiling and knocking down lights
(05:37):
and them having to replace them and they're always just
very humanitarian in their treatment of wildlife, even if they're
totally encroaching on their day to day But you're right, Max,
some of these animals look like stuff straight out of
Doctor Seuss books. It's wild, very very wild country. It's
unique because it had been isolated for such a long
time from other ecosystems that there were some interesting opportunities
(06:02):
for evolution. And I like the shout out too, because
we do have a lot of Australian listeners, so I'd
also like to shout out Ellie and shout out Patrese uh.
And if you would like a shout out, let us know.
We'll tell you how to get in contact with us
at the end of the show. But first we gotta
figure out how these how these jail breaks happened. Uh.
For if you know much about the history of Australia,
(06:26):
you know that it is a complicated, winding, very old
story and for a time convicts were shipped from Europe
to Australia. Our our story starts today with a guy
named John Devoy. Can you introduce us to John sure Canman.
(06:46):
John Devoy was an Irish revolutionary who went to prison
in England and was later exiled to America. UH he
was a member and senior official in the Irish Republican
brother Hood also known as the Fenians UM. Born in
County Killdare in eighteen forty two. UM, he spent a
(07:08):
lot of his time as a recruiter, finding thousands actually
of Irish born young men to literally sabotage the British
army from within, and he was successful with this recruitment process.
By eighteen sixty six, UH there were an estimated eighty
thousand Fenian recruits. But then someone dropped the dime, someone
(07:32):
snitched to the British and Devoi was exposed because the
Powers that be found out there was a rebellion in
the works. So when Devoy is caught, he's convicted of treason.
He's sentenced to fifteen years hard time in a place
called the Isle of Portland's in England. We also want
to give a big thanks to the good folks over
(07:53):
at Smithsonian and our research associate Gabe Gilbert King wrote
this wonderful article that we're pulling some sources from here.
So anyway, Devoi is he serves about five years at
at this location. He's been sentenced to fifteen, and then
he was exiled to the U S where he became
(08:15):
a journalist. Doesn't that seem like a little bit lenient
it feels to me? And if it feels to me
like literally sabotaging the British army from within with like
moles and spies and you know, all of that kind
of subterfuge, you know, the word treason was used That
usually results in a death sentence, doesn't right, man? Like
I mean, whenever I read about stories like this, I
(08:37):
always think I can't get away with a late library book,
you know what I mean? And people are out here
overthrowing governments. I fell asleep trying to put on a
pair of pants one day. I just it makes me
think about ambition and whether or not whether or not
I have enough of it. But this guy, Yeah, you're right,
he seems to have gotten off easy, doesn't he m.
I mean, you know, I don't know about if they
(08:58):
had parole types that rations in these imprisonment scenarios, but
it sure feels like that's kind of what he got
because he was out after five years. He was exiled
to America, But like you said, he was able to
kind of start a new life and became a journalist
for the New York Herald and then became active with
a subset of Fenians. Um there in the U s
(09:19):
a group called Clan na Gael. Yeah, a legit secret society.
There's a conspiracy. So he's back with the Finians. He's
back with the cause. Let's go back to Ireland real quick.
Because as we said, Devoi wasn't the only Finian. Far
from it. There was another guy named James Wilson. We
(09:43):
need to introduce. He was. He joined the Fifth Dragoon,
the British Army Guards, the Fifth Dragoon Guards in the
eighteen sixties, and he was secretly also a Fenian. So
he had a different oath that he took in secret,
and part of that was that he was going to
do his utmost to secure democratic, independent republic in Ireland.
(10:09):
And so eventually, in eighteen sixty five, he and a
fellow conspirator named Martin Hogan decided to go a wall.
They desert the army, and they do this after they
have already kind of turned a bunch of other Irish
soldiers in the Dragoons and introduced them to the society
(10:32):
of Fenians. But then again someone snitched and Wilson, like Devoi,
was arrested. He was court martialed on February tenth, eighteen
sixty six. Right, but he did get a death sentence,
at least initially. Uh. And it doesn't seem like what
the two men did were that far afield from each other.
(10:53):
That's why I'm a little confused about Devois, you know,
comparatively lenient sentence. But again, it was commuted to lie
in prison at a place called Fremantle Prison, which was
on the continent of Australia, which, as we know, began
as an English prison colony. Essentially, Yeah, as far as
(11:13):
the British were concerned, it's it's funny because well not
funny ha ha, but it's fascinating because if you look
at the history of Australia in the way it affects
people in the modern day, it's estimated that almost twenty
percent of modern Australians are descended in some part from
(11:36):
people who who were punished with what was called transport.
Transport was the word they would use, like your your
sentenced to transportation, So you are shipped off to Australia,
shipped off down Under. And this might sound like this
might sound like a really cool thing. You might say,
oh wow. So instead of instead of killing them, they said,
(12:00):
on an all expense paid trip to a place you
know nowadays a lot of people would love to visit.
This was not the case. So he goes on my ship.
He travels with other Finian prisoners, Wilson that is, And
when they get to Australia, there's a Catholic chaplain who says,
you should you should let these guys continue to work together.
(12:23):
They should be imprisoned together as a group, the Finians.
So they're allowed to work together separately from other convicts,
as long as they were civilians. Wilson was a military deserter,
so there's an extra level of dislike and repugnance for
him right well, and also probably scrutiny. You know, someone
(12:44):
like that has those kind of military chops and maybe
uh possesses the knowledge to pull a fast one on
the guards and maybe I don't know, plan some sort
of elaborate Oceans eleven style prison break Dun Dunn, and
we're getting to it. Yes. So, so because Wilson is
a military deserter, the powers that be don't don't like
(13:06):
that kind of They don't like that kind of vibe,
so they disperse those dudes just amongst the general population
there in gen pop, and people like Wilson hate it.
They're disgusted. Years and years past, it's eighteen sixty nine
and by this point a little more than half of
those Fitian convicts get royal pardons, but nine of those
(13:31):
ex British soldiers get pardons. And that's because the Duke
of Cambridge. Legend had it, as we're finding this from
Irish Central dot com, but legend has it that the
Duke of Cambridge had influenced Prime Minister Gladstone and said,
you will not you will not go easy on these people.
None of them can get pardons. What are you are
(13:54):
you playing, Gladstone? No, I'm the Duke of Cambridge, and
what I say goes. He doesn't play dukes, don't way.
Maybe they do. Maybe they play like polo or something.
I don't know what water polo. Surely I was thinking
more like traditional Horsey port polo. But maybe you know
in the summer the mansion. Oh what's that, Max Gsage? Yes,
(14:21):
I know, we can see my hands. I'm doing that
clippity kloppin. Yeah, really quick, just to call it another
awesome source. And if you're into Irish history and and
maybe even interested in visiting Ireland, highly recommend checking out
Irish Central dot com. There's an article there by the
staff that we also pulled some resources on for this episode. Yeah,
(14:42):
and so Wilson is many things, but he's not a dummy,
far from it. And he realizes Luke, as long as
people like the Duke of Cambridge or in the mix
me and the boys are not getting pardons, we are
either going to serve out the entirety of our tour
in this prison, or we are going to have to
(15:03):
go on the lamb. We'll have to make an escape.
And so he writes a secret letter, reaching out to
his network for some help. I love a secret letter.
Do you think it had some sort of like like
a cryptical hope, so like like a wax seal on
it of some kind, you know, I mean like a
code disappearing ink or you have disappearing ink. That was
(15:25):
what I was to remember that. Well, you can make
that with what like lemon juice and something else, I think,
so yeah, Or like maybe you have to fold the
letter like those old Mad magazine covers. Do you guys
mad magazine. Oh yeah, so I remember it being very baldy.
So before we get to this letter, maybe we talk
just a little bit about the Fremantled Prison. It is
(15:48):
not a super pleasant place and we know a lot
about it thanks to a writer named Peter Murphy himself
Irish Australian who wrote a book called Finny and Fear,
That's sure. And this is not to be confused with
the Peter Murphy from the Seminole goth band Bauhouse. Just
to put that out there in case anyone was wondering,
(16:09):
which I'm sure very few of you were. Yeah, but
sixty two Finnians all told, were sent to Western Australia
and locked up in Fremantle Prison, that, by the way,
was located in what is today modern day Perth, the
Perth metro area. And I believe Fremntal Prison it definitely
stands today, and I believe it is the only World
(16:30):
Heritage site in all of Australia, which is a massive continent.
And earlier, just want to say something real quick. Earlier
I said it's a wild country, referring to the you know,
the really rural parts of Australia. I know Australia is
a content I was like being, you know, like Dickenzie
in about it like it's a wild, wild country. It's
both a country and a continent. You know, it's it's
(16:50):
pretty and inn Island, Yeah, there is also in island.
I want it depends on your perspective, right, because it's
a good question. I I do want to shout out,
though unrelated to anything except the name, Australia is also
home to one of my favorite winds, W I and
D s. It's there's a wind called the Fremantle Doctor.
(17:16):
Isn't that a cool name? Sometimes the locals apparently just
call it the Doctor. I love the idea of a
wind that has a name. So if you, if you
have experience with, or if you're familiar with any other
thing like this, like a wind that has a name,
please tell us you can't wait to hear everything about
Isn't there a fantasy series of fantasy novels called the
(17:36):
Name of the Wind. There's something called the Name of
the Wind? Oh yeah, yeah, the King's Killer Chronicle Day one,
it's called the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
have not had the pleasure, but I've heard good things awesome. Yeah,
I haven't. I haven't read it either, but I love
a good fantasy series, so check it out. Well, you know,
what you know we haven't heard good things about is
(17:58):
the Fremantle Prison. This this place, uh, the construction on
it began in eighteen fifty two. It wasn't really done
until eighteen fifty nine, but they were putting people into
this prison before construction was complete. They were putting people
in in there as early as eighteen fifty five. And
(18:21):
it's it's a pretty big place. It's got, of course,
a lot of perimeter walls, their workshops, there's a hospital,
there's six houses for the senior officers of the prison.
And this thing did numbers. It moved volume between eighteen
fifty and eighteen sixty eight and estimated while almost ten
thousand convicts passed through the prison. And hey, I I
(18:44):
have learned something before we went on air, and I
came to Ben and Max about this, and I was
real proud of myself. If guys, I learned a new
word to day, it's gaul it's another word for for prison.
And then been very kindly pat of me on the
head virtually and said, I think it's pronounced jail um.
So I learned a cool alternate spelling for jail today,
(19:06):
and it's pronounced I only know it because of a
poem by Oscar Wilde, and I had this embarrassing moment
where I had to read it out loud in class,
and then my history teacher decided to you know, pointed
out publicly. So ostra size you really bad? Oh yeah,
they passed around the shards of the pots everything. Yeah.
(19:30):
It does make me wonder though, with the spelling of
that g A O L. I believe if there's any
connection between that and the word goolog, which is you know,
forced labor camps um that were very uh outfit full
effect during Stalin's reign. Yeah, that's that's a really good question.
I would say I wouldn't be surprised, but I'm not sure.
(19:53):
I haven't looked into it. So listeners, if you know,
let us know. And it gets its name in eighteen
sixty seven, that's when it's officially the remantled prison. Uh.
And at the same like just a year after that,
they stopped transporting convicts to that prison, So by eighteen
they are less than fifty convicts in this prison. It's
(20:16):
a ghost town. It's built a house a thousand people.
Now they're only fifty anyway. So we're giving you a
lot of context, but you need it for this heist.
Let's go back to Devoid Noel. He's in New York City,
as she said, he's got a new life. He's a
journalist now and he gets a secret letter from a
(20:40):
guy in Australia named James Wilson. And it's so cool man,
that's right, he says, Remember this is a voice from
the tomb two exactly. Uh. And you know the takeaway
there was I am a post of Christmas past kind
(21:01):
of situation, reminding you of your the oath that you made,
you know, so long ago, speaking to him and kind
of this esoteric language likely that would have been recognizable
to him as like kind of this coded talk between
members of the secret Society. Right, yeah, yeah, this is
this is a fascinating letter. He is one of seven.
(21:25):
Wilson is one of seven of the high profile Finians.
He's one of the seven people convicted a treason, sentenced
to death and then he got his sentence commuted to
just a terrible life life of hard labor. Uh. He
is in a bad situation now because he and his
compatriots have been building roads, they've been working in a
(21:48):
limestone quarry. Uh. They've also been physically abused. I think
it's safe to say, because they got branded like the
way you are brand cattle with the letter D for deserter.
And he says to Devoid, you know, we're getting sick.
We're not going to live much longer. We need help.
(22:09):
And at the same time in the Finnian network, another
guy reaches out to Devoi. That's right. It's a guy
named John Boyle O'Reilly who got to Fremantle along with
Wilson Um and uh many of the other Irish recruits,
and then he was singled out and transferred to Bunbury,
which was another prison um in the western part of Australia.
(22:31):
He had no no one to have his back. Um,
you know, he left all his compatriots behind, and he
started getting more and more depressed. Uh. And just in
this constant stated desperation, he tried killing himself by slitting
his own wrists, but thankfully another convict found him in
time and he was saved. And then he kind of
(22:55):
made friends with a Catholic priest and was able to
escape from Bunbury by rowing out to see and then
talking the captain of an American whaling vessel to let
him board, to hire him. Basically, well, first of all,
you gotta first of all, you gotta talk your way
from the rowboat onto the ship, and then you gotta, okay, well,
(23:18):
now that I'm here, how can I be of service?
And you not like knark me out when I'm clearly
an escaped escaped convict. Right, maybe not, he might have
had a very you know, the Irish have the gift
of gab oftentimes. But yeah, So he on board this
whaling vessel sailed to the US, and that's where he
started his second life as a poet. He edited a
(23:39):
Catholic newspaper called The Boston pilot Um, where he was
a journalist as well, and he started to feel a
little guilty of the men that he left behind, even
though again he was pulled away from them and was
kind of left defend on his own, but that wasn't
their fault. But he still felt the you know, the
brunt of that oath that these Fenians took, this brotherhood
(24:02):
took it very seriously, and he started to think of
ways that he could help them, and that's when John
Devoy came to mind. He decided he was going to
reach out to Devoi and ask for his help in
rallying members of that American kind of subset of the
Fenians called the Clan and the Gael. Forgive me anyone
(24:22):
who from Ireland out there, if I am butchering that pronuciation.
We tried to look it up. I couldn't find an
audible pronunciation. So it's doing the best we can with
what we've got. But the idea was that he would
rally members of this group to assemble a crew and
rescue the men who had been left behind. Right, So
the plan is coming together and Devoy is Devoy is
(24:47):
getting is an easy self for this, right, because he
also has loyalty to the Fenians and additionally oh Riley,
who I agree, No, he must be a very charismatic dude.
Because he talked his way onto the whaling ship. He
obviously influenced that priest in Australia, right, and then now
(25:10):
he's influencing Devoi and he is living proof that escape
is possible. So this conversation with O'Reilly plus Wilson's letter
makes Devois think you know, I bear some responsibility because
I recruited a lot of these people. And he even
(25:30):
writes about explicitly later. This is referenced in the Smithsonian
article we mentioned. Devoy says most of the evidence on
which the men were convicted related to meetings with me.
I felt that, I, more than any other man than
living ought to do my utmost for these Finian soldiers.
And that speaks to his character, I think, because he's
(25:50):
realizing I got these guys in this situation one way
or the other. So I I think I I respect that,
you know, that's right. And again, these Finians and a
lot of these Irish revolutionaries, they just wanted to be
to have their own free state, you know, away from
English rule. Uh, in the same way that members of
the American Revolution did. So it's like, you know, one
(26:10):
person's re freedom fighters, another person's terrorists, depending on what
side of thea divide that you're on. So it does
seem that they weren't, you know, just out too so anarchy.
That they did have you know, good hearts, and they
you know, had a had a cause that they believed
in passionately. Um, we have a reprinting of this letter
that Wilson wrote that Devoy actually read out loud to
(26:33):
rally the troops at a meeting of the clan. That's
with the scene the clan they kale uh and uh.
I mean we could tag team this one man. Yeah,
this is a great way Max kick in the music,
because this is the part of the heist film where
the leader makes a speech, an impassioned speech, and where
you start rounding up all your specialists. Uh so, so
(26:55):
this is the moment the voice stands up. He's that
like you said in a secret meeting, and he reads
Wilson's words, and Wilson is cracker jack writer guys. He
says what to death is staring us in the face,
the death of a felon in a British dungeon and
a grave amongst Britain's ruffians. I am not ashamed to
(27:17):
speak the truth that it is a disgrace to have
us in prison today. A little money, judiciously expended would
release every man that is now in West Australia. I
think that we have been nearly nine years in this
living tomb since our first arrest, and that it is
impossible for mind or body to withstand the continual strain,
(27:40):
and it's upon us. One or the other must give way.
Remember this is a voice from the tomb, for is
this not a living tomb. In the tomb, it is
only a man's body that is good for worms. But
in this living tomb, the canker worm of care enters
the very soul. And we think, if you foreseek us,
(28:02):
then we are friendless. Indeed, I have a question. No,
what is a canker worm? Oh gosh, I'm imagining it's
some sort of like maggot that infests you know, open sores.
Is that accurate? That's just me using context clues. Yeah,
(28:22):
I um. I wasn't familiar with this, and it sounded
very unpleasant because I I immediately associated it with those
little things in people's mouths, canker sores. It seems like
if your canker store gets bad enough, or their canker
worms of all. But no, they're they're the little uh
like inch worm guys. Oh you know, okay, so, but
(28:43):
but but even the little inchworm guys will will will
eat you know, rotting flesh if it's buried in the ground,
and their little inchworm paths happened across a tasty morsel right,
or is it just earthworms that eat flesh. I'm not sure.
Neither of us are worm experts, but that is my theory. Yeah,
and and so so he Devoid reads this letter and
(29:05):
then he pauses with great gravitas and all I want
to lean on your amazing voice acting skills here, because
when he puts down the letter, picture him looking around
the secret meeting moment of silence, and then he shouts,
these men are our brothers. Yeah and uh that that
(29:26):
that did the trick. That was like that was like
the freedom you know cry, or like give me liberty
or give me death, you know, all of that good stuff. Whatever.
The action the one big, big fighting words, boisterous rallying cries.
(29:47):
That's literally what a rallying cry is. That is the
very foundation of a rallying cry. So they start to
gather funds together, like like cash money to put together
the resources they need to pull off this rescue. So
we're getting really into this story. I think it's clear
that the three of us love this tale, and we
(30:10):
are gonna make this aitude parter because we don't want
to cut anything. Yes, indeed, um, I think this is
a great stopping point and we will be back in
just a couple of days time with the stunning conclusion
to the Katalpa prison break. In the meantime, why don't
you check us out as human beings and as a
show on Instagram. You can find the show on Instagram
at Ridiculous History and us as individuals as well. That's right.
(30:33):
You can find me at ben bullin hs W on Twitter.
You can see my various misadventures sometimes international on Instagram where,
in a burst of creativity, I've called myself at ben
bullan bow l I and what about you? Mr Brown?
You can find me exclusively on Instagram where I am
at how Now Noel Brown? Huge thanks to super producer
(30:54):
Max Williams, Alex Williams who composed our theme, Researchers Extraordinaire
Gabe Louisier, and of a big thanks to Christopher Hasiotis
big thanks to Eve's Jeff Coat. Big thanks to Jonathan Strick,
Linda k the quister. I'm after you here Part two, folks,
help us figure out how we're gonna cast ourselves. So, no,
you're the bag man, Max. You want to be the captain,
(31:17):
I mean Captain Anthony. You know the story. You know
the score. Oh yeah, no, I could. I could totally
keep it together. I think three of us on the
most Captain material. So alright, okay, alright, okay, that's fine,
that's fine. I'll be so I'll be one of the
other guys. Well, I'm as long as I get to
be the bat man. I'm all good. We'll see you
next time. Books. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
(31:44):
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, 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 Oz always
so much for tuning in. Over there on the other
side of the zoom, we've got the one and only
super producer, Max Williams. Give it up for him. And uh,
they call me Ben. There's someone else on the zoom,
one of my favorite people wearing one of my favorite
t shirts. No, I noticed you noticed my shirt. I
(00:51):
noticed your shirt. I like your shirt, thanks man. This
is a Daily Zeitgeist shirt, signed by every member of
the Daily Zeitgeist crew in blood. Um. It's a little
below the fold. You can't see that part, but it's
a very prized possessional and I only wear it, you know,
as like a sort of podcast totem, you know, just
to give me that podcast juice, because it really is
sort of imbued with the spirit of podcasting. Yeah. Yeah.
(01:14):
And also, I've wondered this before. This has nothing to
do with today's episode, folks, but I've wondered this before.
Maybe there's a question or fellow Ridiculous Historians can answer.
So you guys know how it's considered like poor taste.
You're kind of lame to wear the T shirt of
a band that you're going to see at their concert.
Does the same thing happen with podcasts like we I
(01:36):
have some old, ridiculous history T shirts and I never
wear them outside because it feels strange for me. That's different, man,
That's that's the equivalent of you wearing your own band's
T shirt, which is the most epic of flexus. They
can only be pulled off by a select few, like say,
maybe Metallica in the eighties. They could have done that,
(01:57):
you know, our Mega Death or something like that, or
one of those death metal bands where you can't even
read what the script says because it's just like, yeah,
angry angry thorns precisely. Uh. And again I would ask Ben,
who is it that says it's lame to wear a
band's T shirt? Let's just show solidarity? Or who are
you are there to be seen? Are you there to
support your your band? You know? Yeah, you know, it's
(02:19):
like we're in a jersey to a supporting of that.
No one would shut you down for that. There you go,
that's an excellent comparison. Max is nodding there, but yeah,
I think that's a really good point. And you know me, man,
I'd just like to see when people are enthusiastic and happy.
So if you're if you're wearing something that makes you happy,
and uh, it doesn't matter if you can pull it off.
But speaking and pulling stuff off, let's talk about you're
(02:43):
so good at that. It's just uh, I disagree, but
I really appreciate it. Uh No, you and Max and
I were super into Heist recently and we had we
had teased another kind of like heist related I would say,
a good old fashioned prison break in the past episode.
(03:04):
But we got so excited when we had a chance
to talk with Alex Williams earlier this week that we
actually put a pause on our heist on our higst face.
But my friend, I believe we're back to it today.
Is that correct? That's right, We're back in high smoke.
Can I still be the bagman? Ben? I just wanted
the cost I've always wanted to be a bagman. I
will have no other bagman in the crew other than you.
(03:25):
It's the bagman, the guy that carries the money like
like like a suitcase with a handcuff, Like, well, what's
what's what's my role? Yeah, it's it depends on the
nature of our heist, so like, because you always need
a good bagman. So like, if we were robbing a
bank and don't do it, by the way, you'd be
surprised how little money bank robbers actually make. We have
a brain stuff video about it. It's interesting and depressing.
(03:48):
But if if we were for some reason robbing a bank,
then you, as the bagman, would be the person taking
the money to you know, the getaway driver that we
probably have, like the muscle. It depends on how we
want to go with it. And if we were in
a prison break, you would have probably a bag of tools.
That's right, And one could argue that a prison break
is a heist where the stolen goods are in fact
(04:10):
the heist ees you know, or the crew themselves. They're
literally absconding with themselves. They're literally stealing their own physical
bodies from like this conceptual vault that is the prison
that is helping them and conceptual and literal. So so
today's episode takes us to Australia. This is a continent
(04:34):
that we have always wanted to visit, at least Nolan
I Max. Have you ever have you ever found yourself
in Australia. I have not found myself in Australia. I
want to go up, but I'm also like definitely afraid
of that like country because I mean has some of
the craziest animals ever, like giant snakes, like no, no,
So I don't know. Maybe yes, I would love to
(04:56):
go to Australia, but I'm terrified of that country. Well, also,
you wouldn't like the aim flight. I think was it
about something crazy offline of Seattle here in a few
weeks and it's like five hours? Are you kidding me?
That's how long I would be on a plane. It's
gonna be so worth it. Max, You're gonna love it there,
You're gonna love it real quick shout out. You're talking
about the wilds of Australia. Just to shout out to
(05:17):
my buddy peach Uh and Tom who live in I
believe South Wales like Queensland area, but like near the
Great Barrier Reef, like in this gorgeous, idyllic yet terrifying,
you know rainforest situation. Constantly posting Instagram stories of like
snakes having sex in their ceiling and knocking down lights
(05:37):
and them having to replace them and they're always just
very humanitarian in their treatment of wildlife, even if they're
totally encroaching on their day to day But you're right, Max,
some of these animals look like stuff straight out of
Doctor Seuss books. It's wild, very very wild country. It's
unique because it had been isolated for such a long
time from other ecosystems that there were some interesting opportunities
(06:02):
for evolution. And I like the shout out too, because
we do have a lot of Australian listeners, so I'd
also like to shout out Ellie and shout out Patrese uh.
And if you would like a shout out, let us know.
We'll tell you how to get in contact with us
at the end of the show. But first we gotta
figure out how these how these jail breaks happened. Uh.
For if you know much about the history of Australia,
(06:26):
you know that it is a complicated, winding, very old
story and for a time convicts were shipped from Europe
to Australia. Our our story starts today with a guy
named John Devoy. Can you introduce us to John sure Canman.
(06:46):
John Devoy was an Irish revolutionary who went to prison
in England and was later exiled to America. UH he
was a member and senior official in the Irish Republican
brother Hood also known as the Fenians UM. Born in
County Killdare in eighteen forty two. UM, he spent a
(07:08):
lot of his time as a recruiter, finding thousands actually
of Irish born young men to literally sabotage the British
army from within, and he was successful with this recruitment process.
By eighteen sixty six, UH there were an estimated eighty
thousand Fenian recruits. But then someone dropped the dime, someone
(07:32):
snitched to the British and Devoi was exposed because the
Powers that be found out there was a rebellion in
the works. So when Devoy is caught, he's convicted of treason.
He's sentenced to fifteen years hard time in a place
called the Isle of Portland's in England. We also want
to give a big thanks to the good folks over
(07:53):
at Smithsonian and our research associate Gabe Gilbert King wrote
this wonderful article that we're pulling some sources from here.
So anyway, Devoi is he serves about five years at
at this location. He's been sentenced to fifteen, and then
he was exiled to the U S where he became
(08:15):
a journalist. Doesn't that seem like a little bit lenient
it feels to me? And if it feels to me
like literally sabotaging the British army from within with like
moles and spies and you know, all of that kind
of subterfuge, you know, the word treason was used That
usually results in a death sentence, doesn't right, man? Like
I mean, whenever I read about stories like this, I
(08:37):
always think I can't get away with a late library book,
you know what I mean? And people are out here
overthrowing governments. I fell asleep trying to put on a
pair of pants one day. I just it makes me
think about ambition and whether or not whether or not
I have enough of it. But this guy, Yeah, you're right,
he seems to have gotten off easy, doesn't he m.
I mean, you know, I don't know about if they
(08:58):
had parole types that rations in these imprisonment scenarios, but
it sure feels like that's kind of what he got
because he was out after five years. He was exiled
to America, But like you said, he was able to
kind of start a new life and became a journalist
for the New York Herald and then became active with
a subset of Fenians. Um there in the U s
(09:19):
a group called Clan na Gael. Yeah, a legit secret society.
There's a conspiracy. So he's back with the Finians. He's
back with the cause. Let's go back to Ireland real quick.
Because as we said, Devoi wasn't the only Finian. Far
from it. There was another guy named James Wilson. We
(09:43):
need to introduce. He was. He joined the Fifth Dragoon,
the British Army Guards, the Fifth Dragoon Guards in the
eighteen sixties, and he was secretly also a Fenian. So
he had a different oath that he took in secret,
and part of that was that he was going to
do his utmost to secure democratic, independent republic in Ireland.
(10:09):
And so eventually, in eighteen sixty five, he and a
fellow conspirator named Martin Hogan decided to go a wall.
They desert the army, and they do this after they
have already kind of turned a bunch of other Irish
soldiers in the Dragoons and introduced them to the society
(10:32):
of Fenians. But then again someone snitched and Wilson, like Devoi,
was arrested. He was court martialed on February tenth, eighteen
sixty six. Right, but he did get a death sentence,
at least initially. Uh. And it doesn't seem like what
the two men did were that far afield from each other.
(10:53):
That's why I'm a little confused about Devois, you know,
comparatively lenient sentence. But again, it was commuted to lie
in prison at a place called Fremantle Prison, which was
on the continent of Australia, which, as we know, began
as an English prison colony. Essentially, Yeah, as far as
(11:13):
the British were concerned, it's it's funny because well not
funny ha ha, but it's fascinating because if you look
at the history of Australia in the way it affects
people in the modern day, it's estimated that almost twenty
percent of modern Australians are descended in some part from
(11:36):
people who who were punished with what was called transport.
Transport was the word they would use, like your your
sentenced to transportation, So you are shipped off to Australia,
shipped off down Under. And this might sound like this
might sound like a really cool thing. You might say,
oh wow. So instead of instead of killing them, they said,
(12:00):
on an all expense paid trip to a place you
know nowadays a lot of people would love to visit.
This was not the case. So he goes on my ship.
He travels with other Finian prisoners, Wilson that is, And
when they get to Australia, there's a Catholic chaplain who says,
you should you should let these guys continue to work together.
(12:23):
They should be imprisoned together as a group, the Finians.
So they're allowed to work together separately from other convicts,
as long as they were civilians. Wilson was a military deserter,
so there's an extra level of dislike and repugnance for
him right well, and also probably scrutiny. You know, someone
(12:44):
like that has those kind of military chops and maybe
uh possesses the knowledge to pull a fast one on
the guards and maybe I don't know, plan some sort
of elaborate Oceans eleven style prison break Dun Dunn, and
we're getting to it. Yes. So, so because Wilson is
a military deserter, the powers that be don't don't like
(13:06):
that kind of They don't like that kind of vibe,
so they disperse those dudes just amongst the general population
there in gen pop, and people like Wilson hate it.
They're disgusted. Years and years past, it's eighteen sixty nine
and by this point a little more than half of
those Fitian convicts get royal pardons, but nine of those
(13:31):
ex British soldiers get pardons. And that's because the Duke
of Cambridge. Legend had it, as we're finding this from
Irish Central dot com, but legend has it that the
Duke of Cambridge had influenced Prime Minister Gladstone and said,
you will not you will not go easy on these people.
None of them can get pardons. What are you are
(13:54):
you playing, Gladstone? No, I'm the Duke of Cambridge, and
what I say goes. He doesn't play dukes, don't way.
Maybe they do. Maybe they play like polo or something.
I don't know what water polo. Surely I was thinking
more like traditional Horsey port polo. But maybe you know
in the summer the mansion. Oh what's that, Max Gsage? Yes,
(14:21):
I know, we can see my hands. I'm doing that
clippity kloppin. Yeah, really quick, just to call it another
awesome source. And if you're into Irish history and and
maybe even interested in visiting Ireland, highly recommend checking out
Irish Central dot com. There's an article there by the
staff that we also pulled some resources on for this episode. Yeah,
(14:42):
and so Wilson is many things, but he's not a dummy,
far from it. And he realizes Luke, as long as
people like the Duke of Cambridge or in the mix
me and the boys are not getting pardons, we are
either going to serve out the entirety of our tour
in this prison, or we are going to have to
(15:03):
go on the lamb. We'll have to make an escape.
And so he writes a secret letter, reaching out to
his network for some help. I love a secret letter.
Do you think it had some sort of like like
a cryptical hope, so like like a wax seal on
it of some kind, you know, I mean like a
code disappearing ink or you have disappearing ink. That was
(15:25):
what I was to remember that. Well, you can make
that with what like lemon juice and something else, I think,
so yeah, Or like maybe you have to fold the
letter like those old Mad magazine covers. Do you guys
mad magazine. Oh yeah, so I remember it being very baldy.
So before we get to this letter, maybe we talk
just a little bit about the Fremantled Prison. It is
(15:48):
not a super pleasant place and we know a lot
about it thanks to a writer named Peter Murphy himself
Irish Australian who wrote a book called Finny and Fear,
That's sure. And this is not to be confused with
the Peter Murphy from the Seminole goth band Bauhouse. Just
to put that out there in case anyone was wondering,
(16:09):
which I'm sure very few of you were. Yeah, but
sixty two Finnians all told, were sent to Western Australia
and locked up in Fremantle Prison, that, by the way,
was located in what is today modern day Perth, the
Perth metro area. And I believe Fremntal Prison it definitely
stands today, and I believe it is the only World
(16:30):
Heritage site in all of Australia, which is a massive continent.
And earlier, just want to say something real quick. Earlier
I said it's a wild country, referring to the you know,
the really rural parts of Australia. I know Australia is
a content I was like being, you know, like Dickenzie
in about it like it's a wild, wild country. It's
both a country and a continent. You know, it's it's
(16:50):
pretty and inn Island, Yeah, there is also in island.
I want it depends on your perspective, right, because it's
a good question. I I do want to shout out,
though unrelated to anything except the name, Australia is also
home to one of my favorite winds, W I and
D s. It's there's a wind called the Fremantle Doctor.
(17:16):
Isn't that a cool name? Sometimes the locals apparently just
call it the Doctor. I love the idea of a
wind that has a name. So if you, if you
have experience with, or if you're familiar with any other
thing like this, like a wind that has a name,
please tell us you can't wait to hear everything about
Isn't there a fantasy series of fantasy novels called the
(17:36):
Name of the Wind. There's something called the Name of
the Wind? Oh yeah, yeah, the King's Killer Chronicle Day one,
it's called the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
have not had the pleasure, but I've heard good things awesome. Yeah,
I haven't. I haven't read it either, but I love
a good fantasy series, so check it out. Well, you know,
what you know we haven't heard good things about is
(17:58):
the Fremantle Prison. This this place, uh, the construction on
it began in eighteen fifty two. It wasn't really done
until eighteen fifty nine, but they were putting people into
this prison before construction was complete. They were putting people
in in there as early as eighteen fifty five. And
(18:21):
it's it's a pretty big place. It's got, of course,
a lot of perimeter walls, their workshops, there's a hospital,
there's six houses for the senior officers of the prison.
And this thing did numbers. It moved volume between eighteen
fifty and eighteen sixty eight and estimated while almost ten
thousand convicts passed through the prison. And hey, I I
(18:44):
have learned something before we went on air, and I
came to Ben and Max about this, and I was
real proud of myself. If guys, I learned a new
word to day, it's gaul it's another word for for prison.
And then been very kindly pat of me on the
head virtually and said, I think it's pronounced jail um.
So I learned a cool alternate spelling for jail today,
(19:06):
and it's pronounced I only know it because of a
poem by Oscar Wilde, and I had this embarrassing moment
where I had to read it out loud in class,
and then my history teacher decided to you know, pointed
out publicly. So ostra size you really bad? Oh yeah,
they passed around the shards of the pots everything. Yeah.
(19:30):
It does make me wonder though, with the spelling of
that g A O L. I believe if there's any
connection between that and the word goolog, which is you know,
forced labor camps um that were very uh outfit full
effect during Stalin's reign. Yeah, that's that's a really good question.
I would say I wouldn't be surprised, but I'm not sure.
(19:53):
I haven't looked into it. So listeners, if you know,
let us know. And it gets its name in eighteen
sixty seven, that's when it's officially the remantled prison. Uh.
And at the same like just a year after that,
they stopped transporting convicts to that prison, So by eighteen
they are less than fifty convicts in this prison. It's
(20:16):
a ghost town. It's built a house a thousand people.
Now they're only fifty anyway. So we're giving you a
lot of context, but you need it for this heist.
Let's go back to Devoid Noel. He's in New York City,
as she said, he's got a new life. He's a
journalist now and he gets a secret letter from a
(20:40):
guy in Australia named James Wilson. And it's so cool man,
that's right, he says, Remember this is a voice from
the tomb two exactly. Uh. And you know the takeaway
there was I am a post of Christmas past kind
(21:01):
of situation, reminding you of your the oath that you made,
you know, so long ago, speaking to him and kind
of this esoteric language likely that would have been recognizable
to him as like kind of this coded talk between
members of the secret Society. Right, yeah, yeah, this is
this is a fascinating letter. He is one of seven.
(21:25):
Wilson is one of seven of the high profile Finians.
He's one of the seven people convicted a treason, sentenced
to death and then he got his sentence commuted to
just a terrible life life of hard labor. Uh. He
is in a bad situation now because he and his
compatriots have been building roads, they've been working in a
(21:48):
limestone quarry. Uh. They've also been physically abused. I think
it's safe to say, because they got branded like the
way you are brand cattle with the letter D for deserter.
And he says to Devoid, you know, we're getting sick.
We're not going to live much longer. We need help.
(22:09):
And at the same time in the Finnian network, another
guy reaches out to Devoi. That's right. It's a guy
named John Boyle O'Reilly who got to Fremantle along with
Wilson Um and uh many of the other Irish recruits,
and then he was singled out and transferred to Bunbury,
which was another prison um in the western part of Australia.
(22:31):
He had no no one to have his back. Um,
you know, he left all his compatriots behind, and he
started getting more and more depressed. Uh. And just in
this constant stated desperation, he tried killing himself by slitting
his own wrists, but thankfully another convict found him in
time and he was saved. And then he kind of
(22:55):
made friends with a Catholic priest and was able to
escape from Bunbury by rowing out to see and then
talking the captain of an American whaling vessel to let
him board, to hire him. Basically, well, first of all,
you gotta first of all, you gotta talk your way
from the rowboat onto the ship, and then you gotta, okay, well,
(23:18):
now that I'm here, how can I be of service?
And you not like knark me out when I'm clearly
an escaped escaped convict. Right, maybe not, he might have
had a very you know, the Irish have the gift
of gab oftentimes. But yeah, So he on board this
whaling vessel sailed to the US, and that's where he
started his second life as a poet. He edited a
(23:39):
Catholic newspaper called The Boston pilot Um, where he was
a journalist as well, and he started to feel a
little guilty of the men that he left behind, even
though again he was pulled away from them and was
kind of left defend on his own, but that wasn't
their fault. But he still felt the you know, the
brunt of that oath that these Fenians took, this brotherhood
(24:02):
took it very seriously, and he started to think of
ways that he could help them, and that's when John
Devoy came to mind. He decided he was going to
reach out to Devoi and ask for his help in
rallying members of that American kind of subset of the
Fenians called the Clan and the Gael. Forgive me anyone
(24:22):
who from Ireland out there, if I am butchering that pronuciation.
We tried to look it up. I couldn't find an
audible pronunciation. So it's doing the best we can with
what we've got. But the idea was that he would
rally members of this group to assemble a crew and
rescue the men who had been left behind. Right, So
the plan is coming together and Devoy is Devoy is
(24:47):
getting is an easy self for this, right, because he
also has loyalty to the Fenians and additionally oh Riley,
who I agree, No, he must be a very charismatic dude.
Because he talked his way onto the whaling ship. He
obviously influenced that priest in Australia, right, and then now
(25:10):
he's influencing Devoi and he is living proof that escape
is possible. So this conversation with O'Reilly plus Wilson's letter
makes Devois think you know, I bear some responsibility because
I recruited a lot of these people. And he even
(25:30):
writes about explicitly later. This is referenced in the Smithsonian
article we mentioned. Devoy says most of the evidence on
which the men were convicted related to meetings with me.
I felt that, I, more than any other man than
living ought to do my utmost for these Finian soldiers.
And that speaks to his character, I think, because he's
(25:50):
realizing I got these guys in this situation one way
or the other. So I I think I I respect that,
you know, that's right. And again, these Finians and a
lot of these Irish revolutionaries, they just wanted to be
to have their own free state, you know, away from
English rule. Uh, in the same way that members of
the American Revolution did. So it's like, you know, one
(26:10):
person's re freedom fighters, another person's terrorists, depending on what
side of thea divide that you're on. So it does
seem that they weren't, you know, just out too so anarchy.
That they did have you know, good hearts, and they
you know, had a had a cause that they believed
in passionately. Um, we have a reprinting of this letter
that Wilson wrote that Devoy actually read out loud to
(26:33):
rally the troops at a meeting of the clan. That's
with the scene the clan they kale uh and uh.
I mean we could tag team this one man. Yeah,
this is a great way Max kick in the music,
because this is the part of the heist film where
the leader makes a speech, an impassioned speech, and where
you start rounding up all your specialists. Uh so, so
(26:55):
this is the moment the voice stands up. He's that
like you said in a secret meeting, and he reads
Wilson's words, and Wilson is cracker jack writer guys. He
says what to death is staring us in the face,
the death of a felon in a British dungeon and
a grave amongst Britain's ruffians. I am not ashamed to
(27:17):
speak the truth that it is a disgrace to have
us in prison today. A little money, judiciously expended would
release every man that is now in West Australia. I
think that we have been nearly nine years in this
living tomb since our first arrest, and that it is
impossible for mind or body to withstand the continual strain,
(27:40):
and it's upon us. One or the other must give way.
Remember this is a voice from the tomb, for is
this not a living tomb. In the tomb, it is
only a man's body that is good for worms. But
in this living tomb, the canker worm of care enters
the very soul. And we think, if you foreseek us,
(28:02):
then we are friendless. Indeed, I have a question. No,
what is a canker worm? Oh gosh, I'm imagining it's
some sort of like maggot that infests you know, open sores.
Is that accurate? That's just me using context clues. Yeah,
(28:22):
I um. I wasn't familiar with this, and it sounded
very unpleasant because I I immediately associated it with those
little things in people's mouths, canker sores. It seems like
if your canker store gets bad enough, or their canker
worms of all. But no, they're they're the little uh
like inch worm guys. Oh you know, okay, so, but
(28:43):
but but even the little inchworm guys will will will
eat you know, rotting flesh if it's buried in the ground,
and their little inchworm paths happened across a tasty morsel right,
or is it just earthworms that eat flesh. I'm not sure.
Neither of us are worm experts, but that is my theory. Yeah,
and and so so he Devoid reads this letter and
(29:05):
then he pauses with great gravitas and all I want
to lean on your amazing voice acting skills here, because
when he puts down the letter, picture him looking around
the secret meeting moment of silence, and then he shouts,
these men are our brothers. Yeah and uh that that
(29:26):
that did the trick. That was like that was like
the freedom you know cry, or like give me liberty
or give me death, you know, all of that good stuff. Whatever.
The action the one big, big fighting words, boisterous rallying cries.
(29:47):
That's literally what a rallying cry is. That is the
very foundation of a rallying cry. So they start to
gather funds together, like like cash money to put together
the resources they need to pull off this rescue. So
we're getting really into this story. I think it's clear
that the three of us love this tale, and we
(30:10):
are gonna make this aitude parter because we don't want
to cut anything. Yes, indeed, um, I think this is
a great stopping point and we will be back in
just a couple of days time with the stunning conclusion
to the Katalpa prison break. In the meantime, why don't
you check us out as human beings and as a
show on Instagram. You can find the show on Instagram
at Ridiculous History and us as individuals as well. That's right.
(30:33):
You can find me at ben bullin hs W on Twitter.
You can see my various misadventures sometimes international on Instagram where,
in a burst of creativity, I've called myself at ben
bullan bow l I and what about you? Mr Brown?
You can find me exclusively on Instagram where I am
at how Now Noel Brown? Huge thanks to super producer
(30:54):
Max Williams, Alex Williams who composed our theme, Researchers Extraordinaire
Gabe Louisier, and of a big thanks to Christopher Hasiotis
big thanks to Eve's Jeff Coat. Big thanks to Jonathan Strick,
Linda k the quister. I'm after you here Part two, folks,
help us figure out how we're gonna cast ourselves. So, no,
you're the bag man, Max. You want to be the captain,
(31:17):
I mean Captain Anthony. You know the story. You know
the score. Oh yeah, no, I could. I could totally
keep it together. I think three of us on the
most Captain material. So alright, okay, alright, okay, that's fine,
that's fine. I'll be so I'll be one of the
other guys. Well, I'm as long as I get to
be the bat man. I'm all good. We'll see you
next time. Books. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
(31:44):
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
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Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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