Ep 5 – Ham on Half

As the conspiracy to overthrow the United States government rushes from idea to action, Major General Smedley Butler draws a line in the sand. From what he can tell, the country’s most powerful people have both the money and the political will to betray their own nation. And he knows the plotters' mercenary army could outnumber U.S. forces. Smedley orders a pizza and then blows the whistle, triggering a Congressional investigation.

Yet, it seems, Smedley forgot one important thing: the shadowy forces plotting the coup may have already bought Congress.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is an I heeart original. Hey you on the piano,
cut that out. I need to use the phone, M
Philadelphia record. Hi. My name is Major General Smedley Darlington Butler.

(00:30):
Longtime reader, first time whistle blower. I'm calling because now
this is gonna sound nuts, but there's some big businessmen
who are trying to finance her coup on the Roosevelt
White House, and I don't think it's right. So after
a lot of soul searching, I'm calling them out finally
for you called Pizza Hut. I know, I'm just psyching

(00:52):
myself up to make the actual call. Oh okay, did
you want a pizza? Yeah? Personal pantsise ham on half? Okay?
And what did you want on the other? Just ham
on half? What's they can take my business elsewhere? Young man?
Anything else? Can I out a side of democracy and peril?

(01:17):
What's that? Get some garlic nuts? Garlic nuts? Okay, that'll
be ruddy in forty five minutes. Perfect episode should be
over by then. Thanks for calling Pizza Hut. Thanks for
helping me procrastinate. It's what we do, sir. Okay, here
we go, not yet, jip shit. I have to make
the actual call first, fell off again record? How many

(01:42):
I direct? Your call operator? Get me Paul Comedy French
on the Huff one moment. This is French French, you
ink stained wretch? How are you? I'm fine? Who is this? Please?
Smedley Butler here? You remember me? We met when I

(02:03):
was director of public safety in Philadelphia? Were you the
one with the cape? I was? Indeed that cape was
really cool? Don't I know it? Okay, here we go.
Listen up, French. I got a will of a story
for you from I Heart Originals in School of Humans.
This is let's start a coup. I'm your host, Ben Bolland,

(02:25):
and I'm the other guy, Alex French, and I'm a
historically based reimagining of nineteen thirties journalist Paul Comley French.
No relations to Alex French, who has been kind enough
to let me present this part of the program to
bring you this story. Alex and his associates have done
all the research, read the books, interviewed historians, but still
there are some big gaps in the record, and they'll

(02:46):
never know exactly what happened. I know what happened as
I was there, but as I'm merely a reinterpreted historical
person at our camp Talbo so on those gaps live
had some fun. This is episode five am on Half.

(03:07):
In early September of nineteen thirty four, retired Marine Corps
Major General Smedley Butler reached out to Paul Calmly French,
a reporter for a couple of liberal leaning newspapers, including
The Philadelphia Record and the New York Evening Post. French
covered high profile stories like the kidnapping of the Lindbergh Baby. French,
but I'm about to tell you may sound hard to believe.

(03:29):
It's a sort of tale of ambition, treason and what
happens when rich assholes have too much damned time on
their hands. That's my favorite kind of story, mister Butler,
let me hear it. It's kind of hard to take
the plunge once I tell you, I can't exactly take
it back, and I understand. Would it be easier if
you relayed the story in a series of flashbacks, maybe
with some harp music. I knew you were the right

(03:53):
man to call. McGuire pulls a lot of cash from
his pocket. He starts tossing thousand dollars bills on the match.
I counted eighteen of those McGuire. So that's somewhere on
the order of lots of money. I don't know from math,
but I know you're not the one pulling the string.
So make with a boss man. Who's behind this? All
the smoky room guys John Davis, Al Smith, Grayson Murphy,

(04:17):
Robert Sterling, Clark, all these guys were connected to an
anti Roosevelt organization called the American Liberty League. The due
punts in their lackeys from the League wanted a lot
of famous elimination of federal relief, perhaps a statue of
nuns and national mall on. That was the Lincoln memoria.
I don't know, just spit punning. They had the motive,

(04:41):
they had the muscle, they just needed the generally show.
These must be the puppet masters we've been looking for. Wow,
that was a really helpful flashback. Are you saying that
some shadowy businessmen want to stage a coup on the
Roosevelt White House and they asked you to lead it? Yes?

(05:01):
And thanks for confirming that exposition. My goodness, mister Butler.
This could be the story of the sense well French,
the story it can be yours. In fact, I want
it to be yours and I'll help you in any
way I can. But before you write it for the papers,
there's something you need to do first. I need you
to go see Jerry McGuire the movie that comes out

(05:21):
in sixty two years No. The Thumb Faced Patchy. After
French agreed, Smedley called Jerry McGuire to set up the meeting. Hi, Jerry,
I'd like you to meet with my associate and here'
Smedley decided to use a fake name, my associate Billy French.

(05:42):
Good cover. Jerry. I'll make no further commitment to your
shadowy overlord until my pal Billy approves the plan, so
please describe to him what you have in mind. Soon after,
Paul Calmly French, going by the name Billy, drops in
on Gerald. Jerry McGuire, Hello, I am Billy. The meeting

(06:03):
takes place in the Lower Manhattan headquarters of Grayson MP
mr Fee Company. Murphy, if you're recall, is the American
spy turn investment banker. A gangster of capitalism if there
ever was one. McGuire works for Murphy as one hundred
dollars a week bond salesman. It's unclear what exactly transpired
in that office. Based on the use of a fake name,

(06:24):
We're pretty sure French didn't tell Jerry McGuire that he
worked as a journalist. In fact, it seems French was
there under some other pretense, undercover. I mean, maybe certainly
not what we would call above board. Sometimes I pretend
to deliver a pizza. Maybe I did that. Oh yeah, yeah,
it could have been that. Sometimes fick pizza deliveries take

(06:44):
a weird, sexy turn doll like this one time I
opened a door. That's good, that's good. Look. We know
that French didn't take notes during his conversations with McGuire,
and that after the meeting he rushed to its hypewriter
to get it all down. According to Paul Conley, French's
account of the meeting, McGuire proceeded at first with caut

(07:07):
nice mild weather we're having, isn't it? Is it? I
find that I can neither agree nor disagree with that sentiment.
Oh well, I'm just saying it's sixty five in cloudy,
so pretty classic mild day disinformation regarding what may or
may not be termed the weather, I can neither confirm
nor deny. That's weird right French kept going though, Sam

(07:28):
acguire just wondering any interest in um fascism, study any
fascist organizations ever, I really love fascist style, those arm
bands and tight haircuts, so slick right. I'm gonna need
another tactic here. How about comics, mister McGuire, you like

(07:53):
Dick Tracy. Yes? In fact, if I may slightly tangent,
that guy reminds me of Mussolini. What I only mean
in the heroic regard. You understand, yes, sir, that Mussolini
is a stand up guy, two way talk and radio
watch on not drunk pop. So yeah. Eventually maguire really

(08:13):
loosened up. He talked, sounds nuts, but what we're doing
is tremendously patriotic. We want to save the nation from
communists who want to tear our country a pot. And
since the former soldiers are only saved wils and talked
how the fascists operate? I wrote, Smedley a postcod It's
been a while, but it went something like this, how
are you, Smedley? I am fine? The brown Shirts are

(08:33):
lovely this time a year and talked word labor camps delay,
I mean Hitler's doing it. And if Hitler's doing it. It
It can't be that bad. And Smedley, he's so funny.
He's like, how are we gonna pay for this? And
I'm like, Viya, friends at JP Morgan and City Bank,
of course, and the DuPonts can help us secure arms
and AMO or whatever needs we're saying is the guy
just went on and on. One more thing, one more thing.

(08:54):
You know who I think is sexy, like uncomfortably sexy,
that one m andem but not the one you're thinking of.
Oh my goodness. After his September nineteen thirty four interview
with Jerry McGuire, Paul Calmley, French actually held off on
publishing the story. We don't know for sure, but I
have a theory that Smedley wanted the government to investigate,

(09:17):
but must have recognized how insane his allegations sounded. So
we went to the Secret Service and told them everything
he knew. Perhaps Smedley asked French to sit on the
story so that when the government came cong for testimony,
Smedley would have a reliable, well known journalist ready to
corroborate his claims. At any rate, Now it won't be
just me who sounds crazy. And the government did come calling.

(09:39):
Earlier that year, the House of Representatives put together a
committee to investigate propaganda efforts against the US government. It
was called the Special Committee on Unamerican Activities Authorized to
Investigate Nazi Propaganda in certain other propaganda activities gazoot thank you.
More commonly, it was called the McCormack Distine Committee after
the chair and vice chair. The committee called Smedley in

(10:01):
French to testify in a closed door session, as in
no reporters or members of the public allowed. The meeting
can in the supper room of the New York City
Bar Association in Midtown on November twentieth, nineteen thirty four.
The committee swore Smedley in, I'm here to tell the truth.
God damn it. That's not what they mean by swearing Smedley.
What I mean by swearing snay fine. Then the committee

(10:24):
instructed him to recount the alleged plot. Because the proceedings
were secret, we only have some heavily sanitized summaries from
the meeting. There are some short transcriptions of the proceedings
included like this one. May I preface my remarks by
saying sure that I have one interest in all of this,
and that is to try to do my best to
see that a democracy is maintained in this country. Over

(10:47):
the next hour or so, Smedley recounted the plot really
in much the same way that we have on this show,
but without all the goofy voices and stuff. I heard
that it's nothing personal Herbie. When Smedley finished his testimony,
the committee called Paul Calmly French under oath. French backed
up Smedley's story by recounting his meeting with Jerry McGuire.

(11:08):
McGuire said, all alone, I mean, he went on and on,
but notably regarding Roosevelt. He said they might do with
him what Mussolini did with the King of Italy, you know,
keep him around the kiss babies, and that a Kade Bridges.
Then later that same day, Jerry McGuire Hall, escorted by

(11:28):
his attorney Hello, appeared before the committee. McGuire presented the
House Committee with testimony that could only be described as
well confounding. His remarks border on nonsensical. The committee members
seemed to think so, too, because during his testimony, McGuire
can't be pinned down to anything, and it's not just
that he sticks the old playbook for staying out of trouble. Oh,

(11:50):
admit nothing, deny everything, make counter accusations. Yes, correct, but
it's deeper and more confusing than that. McGuire seemed determined
to knock down every detail and smed the infrenchis story.
But then at the same time, McGuire can't construct anything
resembling a cohesive narrative, and he can't provide sound explanations

(12:11):
for fundamental details. He says at first that he wants
Smedley to give speeches on behalf of a new group
called the Committee for the Sound Dollar that's bankrolled by
Sterling Clark. Remember that guy. I'm the sewing machine guy
who talks like this, Oh yeah, him, yeah. But then
a little while later, McGuire says he never wanted Smedley

(12:33):
to give speeches to the Committee for the Sound Dollar
because Smedley doesn't know anything about money. McGuire does stuff
like this over and over, and so what you end
up with is no answers at all. Crazy like a fox, boys,
crazy like a fox with an erratic falsattle Alex. It

(12:54):
sounds like Jerry McGuire tried gaslighting Congress. No kidding. One
of my favorite moments is when McGuire says he keeps
showing up to see Smedley because he thought they were friends,
and at one point he warns his pal General about
getting involved with the wrong kinds of people and the
wrong kinds of causes. He says, Smedley confesses that he's
involved with the vigilante group hell bent on overthrowing the government.

(13:17):
He told the same story to reporters. The thing was,
General Butler was always coming around to me with books
and letterheads from all these crackpot organizations, and I would
keep telling him, General, you're a goddamn ful to fall
for all those outfits. You'll be holding the bag. That's
a real quote, by the way. Basically McGuire denied every
accusation and turned it back on Smedley thing. That afternoon,

(13:42):
the New York Post released their evening edition. They're in
Paul calmly French's story in the front page. Ben I
actually found a copy. It's stunning. In huge bold font
the paper declares, General Butler chooses New York rukers are
plotting dictatorship in US. Take that fascist assholes shows that

(14:05):
it it's over, not even close. Bummer. In that same
evening edition, and in the spirit of fairness, the Post
devoted three columns of copy to angry denials from Jerry
McGuire and Grayson Murphy. Sterling Clark, on holiday in Europe
couldn't be reached, but in case you are curious, the answers, Yes,

(14:26):
I'm having a plentiful time. The Post described McGuire as
having bright blue eyes, close cropped hair, short, quite heavy,
with a small bullet shaped head. Oh they noticed my eyes,
he told a reporter. Quote I've kept a general Butler
added plenty of trouble, and this is what he does
to show his gratitude. Everybody told me not to trust him,

(14:49):
that he would pull his publicity stunts on his best friends.
But I always thought he was a square shooter. I
don't know whether I'll ask for a retraction or suffu
libel dollar diplomacy og and McGuire's boss, Colonel Grayson Murphy,
told the Post, I even had time to do anything
about this yet, because they haven't been able to STU
up laughing. You see, as soon as the New York

(15:13):
Post front page story broke, newspapers from all over the
country reached out to the accused, seeking reactions. The next day,
papers from coast to coast ran the Butler story on
page one above the fold. It shouldn't be a surprise
that every person implicated in the plot denied the charges.
Perfect moon, unutterably ridiculous, the calm curful with what are

(15:37):
you songs wired to me about anything of the kind?
And if they did, I'd throw them out the window.
The best last story of the year, the wizding I
deny it complain are November twenty four, the committee's heads
issued their preliminary findings, and this was the first sign
that something was off with the investigation. It's not my

(15:58):
pizza ham As its first order of business, the report
dismissed any suspicion aimed at a handful of very prominent men.
This committee has had no evidence before it that would
in the slightest degree warrant calling before it such men
as John W. Davis, General Hugh Johnson, Thomas W. Lamont.
We haven't heard that name before, Thomas W. Lamont, but

(16:20):
he was a huge deal in nineteen thirty five, the
man in charge of JP Morgan's investment bank. The committee
will not take cognizance of Dames brought into the testimony,
which constitute mayor hearsay, which is strange because investigating was
the committee's stated purpose. Hearsay could also be considered a tip,

(16:40):
a hint, a clue, precisely the kind of information that
investigations are based on. I mean, is it really a
surprise that slam dunk evidence against big name players wasn't
presented in the first three days of the hearing. Digging
is required, but you know nothing to see here. It's
like the rich guys got a pass. It was almost

(17:01):
like if you were above a certain income level, you're
automatically in his But these are only the preliminary findings.
We still got to wait for the final report to
find out what the committee found and what they're going
to do about it. This preliminary report did expose some
troubling irregularities in Jerry McGuire's testimony. Here's one strap it.

(17:22):
McGuire's testimony lasted three days. On the first day, the
chairman asked McGuire about his final meeting with Smedley just
after he'd come back from Europe. McGuire maintained it, no,
he hadn't gone to Europe to research fascism. No, no, no,
why Sterling Clark, the sewing machine guy, had just sent

(17:43):
him there to research economic conditions. Did you tell General
Butler now was the time to get the soldiers together? No? There?
Did you tell them that you went abroad and looked
into the setups of the governments there and the part
that the veterans played in Italy? Mister McGuire, no was there.
Did you tell him that you went to France and

(18:04):
there you found the organization that you were looking for,
a group called quadafu quadah Oh damn right? Well, I
told simatly that there had been an organization formed over there,
an organization of bat rooms men who were in the
front line trenches on the fire, and I said that

(18:26):
they are a very fine group, that they are with
the government and the people over there, And as far
as I could see, I thought France was all right.
It was mainly economic my talk. So that's what he
said under oath. But later McGuire handed over a humble
looking stack of carving copies to the committee that contained
proof that he had lied. They were the letters he

(18:48):
sent from Europe. Some were addressed merely gentlemen, others to
mister Clark, specifically McGuire expressed great admiration for one fascist
organization of armband wearing Frenchmen, in particular, you guessed it,
Quada h stop it. Jerry Quadafu is known for having
violent and anti leftist Here's how he described these guys

(19:10):
in a letter he wrote while in France. These fellows
are interested only in the salvation of France, and I
feel sure that the country could not be in better
hands because they are not politicians. They are a cross
section of the best people of the country, from all
walks of life, people who gave their roll between nineteen
fourteen and nineteen eighteen that France might be safe. And

(19:33):
I feel sure that if a crucial test ever comes
to the Republic, that those men will be the bulwark
upon which France will be safe. Okay, did you catch that,
Folks On the stand, maguire just said that he was
in Europe to study economic conditions, that he was not

(19:54):
there to take in all the fascist organizations of the land.
But here he is writing an elegy to the Quas
de fout for the committee. This was a red flag.
Despite the committee's mandate to examine Unamerican activity. Dick Stein
and McCormack never asked McGuire a single question about the

(20:16):
story Paul calmly French had told in his testimony. They
never interviewed the DuPonts or any official from Remington Arms
or former New York Governor Al Smith or Robert Sterling
Clark good because I'm still on vacation. Oh these crossans.
They didn't doctor Grayson Murphy either. McCormack said it was

(20:37):
not necessary to subpoena him because the committee already had
hard evidence linking him to the plot. McCormack said he
quote didn't want to give Colonel Murphy an opportunity to
pose as an innocent victim, which is a load of
horsen if I ever heard one called his seditious, asked
to the stand and make him sweat. And as the
committee adjourned to put its findings in writing, it seemed

(20:58):
like every mention of the plot's most powerful figures is
either being downplayed or ignored. What we're saying is it
sounds like a cover to shield some very powerful people
from accountability. This is not going well. After the break,
the press has a field day, and the country's reaction

(21:19):
or lack thereof, two days after the start of the
congressional hearing, what became known as the Business plot was
the biggest story in America. The New York Post afternoon

(21:41):
edition once again dedicated the front page to an article
featuring reactions from big name government officials. The Secretary of
War called for a full investigation, and the Secretary of
the Navy expressed confidence that the committee would get to
the bottom of things, and the hearings continued. Grace and
Murphy spoke to the press, telling a reporter quote, the

(22:02):
whole thing is just as somebody walked in and accused
me of still in the moon. It looked on me
like an absurd joke. Even if McGuire had been foolish
enough and stupid enough to fuss around with such a thing,
it would be obvious that it would be ineffective. Meanwhile,
some very loud voices in the news media also tried
squashing the story. Yeah, Smedley may have been a decorated

(22:25):
American hero, but in nineteen thirty four he was an
easy target. He seemed like a bitter kok and dire
wallet of some attention. Remember when Smedley told a crowd
that Mussolini ran over and killed a child. He was
almost court martialed for saying that, and he caused public
embarrassment for the US government by airing America's dirty imperialist laundry.

(22:47):
It wasn't hard to paint Smedley as radical, detached from reality.
The New York Times likened him to a famous Cohn Man.
Time magazine satirized the allegations with a story called a
Plot without Plotters. Other papers knocked down Smedley's story, characterizing
it as far fetched or impossible to pull off. If

(23:08):
you read these articles, though, it becomes very clear, very
quickly that something is up. The press seemed to have
an agenda to minimize the story or just ignore it altogether. Yeah,
the press was running opinion pieces dressed up as facts.
You two should be grateful that that's a thing your
generation won't have to worry about. Well, so, why would

(23:32):
the mainstream American media want to bury a story about
a plot against the president of the United States the
scary thing. The answer to that question is relatively straightforward.
The mainstream press was largely run by a handful of
powerful men who controlled the media, and therefore the national conversation,

(23:53):
and an alarming number of them were fans of fascism.
What a great time to be alive with it white.
Nothing can stop us, and nothing ever will. Don't tout
pass the jazz cigarettes. One of the most notable of
these individuals will be familiar to you, our listeners. Oh

(24:15):
you always make Uncle Randy sounds so oh. That would
be William Randolph Hurst, or Uncle Randy, as our favorite
plutocrats apparently like to call him. Uncle Randy's a teddy bear,
a teddy bear with extremely sharp claws and a troublingly
long memory. M This Hurst sounds like it'd be a
great target, I mean subject for a movie that's orson. Wells,

(24:39):
everybody go back to the green room orson Okay. In
our sleuthing, we found a fascinating paper about the episode
called the Business Plot in the American Press, written by
Bradley Gawka. Gawka points out that around the time Smedley
made his allegations against the shadowy caaball of Tycoons, Hurst

(24:59):
Media Company produced twenty six daily newspapers in seventeen Sunday
only editions, as well as magis, radio stations and movie companies.
You name it. Hurstoned a piece of it one in
eight American newspapers were his Here's, Bradley Gawka. So Hurst
at this time had an audience that was unrivaled. He

(25:22):
had a tremendous influence over the opinions of ordinary Americans
who would receive their news, as well as political commentary
and things of that nature, directly from whatever was printed
in a Hearst newspaper. If Hirst ever wanted to bury
a story or to stort one, and he often did,
he was in the perfect position to do so. Funny

(25:43):
thing Hurst started out as a pretty liberal guy. He
supported Roosevelt's candidacy, but then took a hard right turn.
He considered FDR's New Deal to be communistic, socialistic, and
thoroughly un American, and he used his newspapers to broadcast
this perspective. Hurst himself wrote an open letter that he

(26:04):
published across the front pages of his newspapers all across America,
in which he characterized fascism as only being a response
to the greater threat of communism. He argued basically that
as long as Americans prevented communism from being a threat
to American democracy, they had no reason to worry about
fascism in America. Among the publishing elite. Hurst wasn't alone

(26:28):
in his opposition to Roosevelt or sympathy for fascism. Henry Luce,
the publisher of big news stand titles like Fortune and Time,
was also a Mussolini man. In nineteen thirty four, Fortune
devoted an entire issue to a puff piece, soft focused
portrait of life in Mussolini's Italy. Observers called Luce's foreign

(26:49):
affairs editor at time an outright pro fascist who slanted
and perverted the news on a weekly basis, And surprisingly,
The New York Times, which had a reputation for remaining
above the partisan fray and adhering to the principles of
journalistic objectivity, was at best inc assistant. It stands down fascism,
modulating between condemnation and glorification. Yeah to the point, nerds, eh, okay, Okay.

(27:15):
The point is when Smedley came forward in November of
nineteen thirty four, all of these sources provided cover for
the plotters. Papers run by Hurst devoted minimal column space
to the details of the plot while at the same
time discrediting the investigation itself. One column in the Chicago

(27:35):
Daily Tribune alleged that the Committee's investigation exhibited a comic
opera atmosphere, and Riley noted that dick Stein and McCormack
liked to see their names in the paper. Here's Bradley
Galka Again. Many of the outlets that were particularly critical
of Butler when the story first broke chose not to
cover the story again in February when the Congressional report

(27:59):
came out. As for the tenor of the news coverage,
the liberal leaning or left leaning in general news sources
tended to cover the story much more frequently, so when
the final report came out, not many people were paying attention,
which is really unfortunate because this is where Smedley got
his due. The report issued by the Committee in February

(28:21):
included the following passage. Your committee was able to verify
all the pertinent statements made by General Butler, with the
exception of the direct statement suggesting the creation of the
organization meaning the creation of a fascist army under Smedley's leadership. This, however,
was corroborated in the correspondence of McGuire with his principal
Robert Sterling Clark of New York City. While McGuire was

(28:44):
abroad studying the various forms of veterans organizations of fascist character.
Stop the tape. Did you hear what the congressman just said?
You need me to repeat? It isn't signposting, the phrase
you podcast monsters use for saying things slowly and repeatedly. Yes,
that's correct. All right, Well let me signpost then, And

(29:05):
do you mind if I get up on this lecture
here because I really need to share this with as
many Americans as I can reach. Okay, Hi, America, listen up. Okay,
here it goes. The Dixton Committee substantiated my testimony. They said, quote,
there is no question but that these attempts were discussed,

(29:27):
were planned, and might have been placed in execution when
and if the financial backers deemed it expedient. So with
all the evidence and all the testimony, they basically said, yeah,
this happened. See I'm not crazy. But here's the thing,
and I hope you really absorbed this part. The big
thing that didn't happen is never as big a deal

(29:50):
as the big thing that does happen. So the papers
might make me seem like a delusional, over the hill,
attention seeking nutback all they want, and the history books
might bury the story, And yes, the shadowy cabal of
billionaires might survive to pillage and bob another day. That's
what they do, retrench and then keep going. Maybe there

(30:12):
were no arrests, no trials, no further investigations. But there
was also no coup, was there? Just consider for a moment, America,
what might have happened if I hadn't spoken up? Might
you still be able to vote? Might you still be
able to speak freely? I don't know, but I can
say with some amount of certainty, through my gimlet adult perception,

(30:34):
that I helped ensure both those things remained possible. I'm
no hero and certainly no saint. I learned that in life.
But that wasn't the point. The point is sometimes it's
worth giving yourself up doing the right thing, regardless of
how much applause there'll be once it's all said and done. Hey,

(30:57):
where'd everybody go? I think they went home? Man? Oh?
How much of that do you think they heard? Time
will tell. Well, at least it's been said. We should
probably clear out of here. Yeah, let me get my jacket.
You guys want to get a pizza on the way home? Sure,

(31:19):
I'm on half sure. On our next episode, we learn
the fate of the rest of the participants in this story,
from Clark to Maguire, Hello to former presidents. Wait and
of course you too, Smedley. Was that not enough Catharsis
for you? Just now you're telling me there's gonna be
more poignant emotions coming down the pike? Fredso major general

(31:44):
shit join us for the next and final episode of
Let's Start a Coup. Let's Start a Coup as a
production of School of Humans and I Heard Podcasts. Our
hosts are Alex French and Ben Bolan. The show was
written by Alex French, with additional writing by Joe Kenosian.

(32:04):
Original music and scoring by Joe Kenosian. Character voices by
Joke and Ocean on both half Ladies and Alistas is
our producer. Emilia Brock is our senior producer. Sound design,
mixing and mastering by Alexander Overington. Our story editor is
Lacy Roberts. Fact checking by Austin Thompson. The Heat Frazier

(32:27):
is our recording engineer. Recorded at the iHeart Studio in
New York. Executive producers are Jason English, Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
and Elsie Crowley. If you're enjoying the show, help us
get the word out by leaving a rating in your
favorite podcast app. We'll also take your comments on M
and m's like. If I was to leave a comment,
I'd say, take off your Schellen sayoy, mister McQuire, please sorry, folks,

(32:51):
I'm going to get him out of here. Tune in
again next time for Let's Start a Coup School of
Humans