The Hilarious Hair-Raisin' Crimes of Professional Wigjackers

For centuries, wigs were the look. And in the era of Marie Antoinette, the bigger the better, and the more fantastical, the more whimsical, even better. Industries were built to attend to the many needs of the big wigs of Europe. And there was another industry born of the decadence and hair-based opulence. Enter the professional wigjacker! (Ridiculous crimes guaranteed.)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's Elizabeth Dutton, it's Zaren Burnett. See I said that
millennial style button. God, that drives me nuts. I know,
I don't know why that drives you nuts.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Language changes, it does, it changes, and I say things
poorly all the time. Yeah, I just like to feel superior.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I got a question for you, miss superior. Ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
I do what a story that was contained within an
email that we received. It was forwarded onto me. It's
not enough for an episode or a shorty, but I'll
read the email itself is phenomenal. Okay, So this is
from Emily Burdet, Dear Ridiculous Crime Team, Elizabeth Dutton, Zaren Burnett,

(00:46):
which ps is spelled correctly.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Nice job, Burdett.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
She did a good job on that one, because you
know there are a lot of new spellings of your name.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
This is true.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah, it's z A R O N is how you
spell zeren anyway, Producer d four legged free interns, esteemed
guests and judges. I don't know why that just sent
me like that. You want to know what's ridiculous? Being
pulled over by the cops.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
On a mule yes, that's good.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Start love it already. I've lived most of my life
in a small town in western Kentucky and probably no
more than around fifteen thousand people, which I don't feel
like is a small town, but I guess a small
college town pretty sleepy most of the time. So when
one of our local kooks got pulled over while riding
a mule drunk down one of the main drags, it

(01:33):
became part of town more, especially when he tried to
evade capture by fleeing on the mule. Yeah, he followed
up this barebacked dui with another equally ridiculous and more
dangerous crime. Now I need to pause because it's like,
legitimately one of the funniest things I've ever heard coming up.

(01:54):
Letting loose a rabid raccoon into a bar that he
had been banned from.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
That's just revenge.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
How do you source a rabbit?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Reccoon? Rabbit figured out this one's rat foam around the mouth.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Everyone in the bar is safe and without rabies. Promise.
It's not a one percenter love that, but it's added
significantly to the stories I get to tell about my
hometown while I'm away at college. Though he is not
a figure to be admired because of his reckless abandon
and mistreatment of animals. Cowboy Cody, Yes, is one of

(02:31):
the first figures I mentioned when people ask what Western Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Is like, Well, you gotta hear about cowboy cooking, Cowboy.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Good plus the look on his face and as many
mugshots never fails to make me giggles. See for yourself.
Links blow. We'll have those put up on the Instagram stories.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
I love Cowboy Code.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Thanks for the laughs and always keeping things lights stay ridiculous, y'all. Emily, Emily, Emily,
You've made my day week.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I wish you could see the grin you generated.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Elizabeth the rat When I got to the Rabid Raccoon
part is when I just lost my crackers.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
I mean, I laugh. If I was in that bar,
you would have had to knock me off the ceiling
because babies, Yeah, fingers deep in the ceiling, clutching at
the roof.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
I would just be like time out, everyone. I have
so many questions. Do you have raccoons already that you
went and got Cody? Or like, were you just you
got kicked out of the bar. You're feeling low, You're
eighty six and you look over and there's a rab
raccoon in a dumpster like drooling. You try and give
him a bottle of water. He's like, no, no, I
don't do that. Oh he's rabbit.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Maybe he was spent like a week or two just
constantly on the lookout for a rabid raccoon.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Did Cody have rabies and bite the racords?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
He gave it to the.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Sarah and I have so many questions.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
I can see you know.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
It is, and therefore, in summary, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
I got one for you.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yes, a second, I have all the seconds in the world.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Back down. You ever heard of wig jacking?

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Wig jacking?

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah? Oh yeah, you're in for a treat. I'm so excited.

(04:27):
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
Heis and cons It's all weighs ninety nine percent murder
free and one percent ridiculous. Oh, Elizabeth, Today's story falls

(04:48):
a little bit of a circuitous path. So I'm going
to love that. Yeah, I'm just I was reading about crimes,
you know, as we do, and this rabbit hole took
me to Johannesburg, South Africa, and I wound up reading
about wig hole in pre revolutionary France. Wig holes, wig holes,
it's a whole thing. So I went from Johannesburg to
wig holes in pre revolutionary France. You ever heard of
a wig hole?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
No, that's why I said it with this question to
it get more questions.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Like I said today, you're in for retreat. Okay, so
where do we start. Let me just retrace the steps
of my rab Yeah, I know you do. So let's
jump on over to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Jay Burg some people call it, Yes, that's right.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
I heard that the scene of today's first crime. There's
a Zimbabwean cat named Mutsa Madonco and he was in
Jayburg at a dance club. Things were going well. He
was moving it, grooving it, doing his thing. Yeah, and
then he bounces out of the night club. He hits
the streets Jayburg late night style, and that's where he
found he was a target for crime. Ye, Elizabeth, the
thief saw my man Mutsa Madonco. They clocked him as

(05:50):
having value that he couldn't defend, so they rushed up
on him demanded he give over what they were After
they pulled out nice watch scissors and told him to
hold real still, and then they cut off his ten
years of dreadlocks.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
Oh no, they sapped his life for us totally.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
They took it mojo.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
So, as the BBC reported, when these hairjackers struck, there's
little like what folks can do to defend their locks.
Like another man who was robbed of his dreads told
the BBC quote, I didn't go to the police because
I didn't think they could do anything about it. I
just don't believe the police would follow up on a
case about missing hair, which is.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
These must have been really nice dreads, not rasky like.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah. No, these are just like some like real.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Like Salon dreads.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Be proud of them. Yeah. So, another former dreadlock man,
Jack Mesico, said he experienced the same thing. He was
out alone in Jayburg. Three men came up on him.
They told him to hand over his cell phone. Then
they told him to hold real still. Twenty eight year
old told the BBC quote, they had a knife and
they cut off my hair with scissors. I still feel
pain when I think about that night. Right, And if

(06:54):
you're wondering why would someone want to steal dreadlocks.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Adam durrets to sell them to.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Him exactly, so it's not on does he really.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well he used to. Yeah, he looks like, I don't
know if I'm making that up. I feel like I'm not,
but I could be.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
That's either way. I like it whatever.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
It's my truth right.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Now, expression truth. I will support it now if you
were wondering, like, you know, like why they want to
steal them, it's not for some weird religious ceremony or like,
it's not like a you know, it's just it's pure
old fashioned black market fashion. Yeah. Turns out on the
streets of joe Burg there are these outdoor salons. They're
just they're basically just plastic joe Burg not er. Yeah, Joe,

(07:39):
I said, some people say that I think you do
your people.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
I don't know anything. I know nothing about nothing.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
So imagine like an outdoor salon like on the like
like the island between the two sides of the boulevard.
You know, they have a treaty the Median the Median Strip.
There you go salon in the Median in the Median Strip.
You imagine plastic chairs or range right in a row
of like three or four and there's like a hair
dresser working in the fresh air at these salons, and

(08:06):
that's where folks get dreadlocks sewn onto their heads.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Oh, it's like when people go to sandals and they
get the braid or like fabric woven and like feelings.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yes, exactly so, as Jack Mesico said, I used to
see people selling dreadlocks on the street, and I didn't
know where it came from. Now he knows.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Now it takes a long time, oh, Gruss, as you.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Well know totally. I've had dreads a few times, and
it takes years to get it down to a point
where someone want to come and steal it. And he
also figured out that his former hair was likely sewn
onto some stranger's head. Now somebody used to have dreadlocks.
I cannot imagine my hair being sewn onto someone else's head.
That's just so weird. But these black market hairdressers, they
use crochet needles and they sow the dreads onto the air.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Just like any other extension.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Would you ever wear some mu's dreadlocks on your head.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
I wouldn't wear anyone else's hair on my head, so.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
You wouldn't have any of the extensions. Now, no real
Indian hair for you.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, here's the thing, Like, I don't do well with
stuff like fake eyelashes or fake nails because I just
feel it on all the time. Oh and I so
if I had something stitched into my hair, Like I
like to be able to scratch my sculle, I don't
have to hit it with my open pald. I want
to not that I have an itchy scrull. You know

(09:22):
what I mean? Though, I just don't like I don't
like stuff on me.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, I know that's just me. Yeah, you get uncomfortable with.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
It, like a full face and makeup.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
Oh, I don't like this. I can feel it floating
on the skin.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah. I like to look like the troll that just
came out from under the bridge. That's natural.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
That's that's your natural, that's my natural.

Speaker 5 (09:41):
Look.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I know you care about these things. So I found
the cost of stolen.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Dr Yeah, I do care about these things.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Super cheap shoulder link dreads. You can buy them off
the black market and joe Berg for two hundred to
two thousand rand depending on quality and length. Okay, now
I know you're like, well, Zarin, I don't know how,
I know nothing. I got a conversion for you two
hundred ran. That's about eleven dollars and twenty five cents
stock American. Yeah, two thousand rand is about one hundred
and twelve dollars Americas. Between eleven and one hundred and

(10:08):
twelve dollars you can get.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm sorry, is that the cost of the hair or
hair plus installation?

Speaker 2 (10:12):
The cost of the hair? I think another installation, Maybe
not that twenty bucks.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Maybe just get a hot glow wow.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah. So that brings us to the topic of today,
the price of faking it. So where there's dreads are
like insane architectural wigs of pre revolutionary seventeen seventies air
of France, there are a whole subgenres of crime born
of people's desire to have good hair. Oh yeah, genres
of crime, Elizabeth, and that is patently ridiculous. That's how

(10:43):
I found the story I came here to tell you today. Okay,
now that he's got it all set it up, let's get
into it. Let's talk wigjackers wigjacket. Now, if you had
to guess, what do you think of when I say
wig jacks? Like someone, you got it. A wigjacker is
the same thing as a booth watched bandit. It's the
same thing as a hair thief. It's Elizabeth. We need
to travel back in time to an era of luxury
and decadence to truly appreciate the era of the wigjacker,

(11:06):
the days of King Louis the fourteenth aka the Sun King.
You're smart, you're well educated, so I won't bore you
with all the rundown of who the Son King was,
what he did for France and Europe and the land
they dubbed the New World. But I will feel like
I do need to mention just three things about King
Louis the fourteenth. Number one, he is the longest reigning

(11:27):
monarch of any monarch in the history of kings and
queens and kaisers and czars and caesars. Really, he reigned
over France for seventy two years from sixteen forty three
to seventeen fifteen, which means he ever saw the vast
expansion of the French colonial empire. He's the one right
in the creation of the idea of the absolute monarch
over France. That's him too. They called him the Sun

(11:49):
King for a reason. Like the Son he was always
there like every day, same for you as it was
for your father and your grandfather. He was the king.
That's nuts back then, it is so. Number two, he
created the French Baroque school of art. All they opulent,
the decoration. Yeah, you know, he created the Palace of
Versailles and as a luxurious playground in the court of

(12:11):
the French king. As also being the absolute ruler, he
was the one who barely created the idea of enjoying
the pleasures of being king. As mel Brooks once said,
it's good to be the king. That's him too, right.
Number three, it was due to King Louis the fourteenth
that wigs become a thing in Europe. He's the reason
that our founding fathers in America war powdered wigs. They

(12:33):
wore them because the Brits warm, and the Brids wore
them because he wore them. So the powdered wigs. They
were just trying to be as cool as the French, right,
because everyone knew the French had the world's fashion. Oh
it's back then, you know, they were the lingua franca
of fashion as well. Now this, as I said, this
all traces back to King Louis the fourteenth. Every wig
you see on a head today it's like, oh, I'm

(12:54):
a jurist, I'm a lawyer, I'm a judge wig. Yes,
they a non diva wig, a church wig no, yeah,
non church wigs yeah, non, Like I'm going out to
the club now, Elizabeth. You know why King Louis was
such a huge fan of the big hair, don't care lifestyle.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
I would imagine. I mean, if you're thinking of a
baroque it's just opulent piles on piles.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
There's that. There's definitely that. That's more about the styling.
The reason why he was so into wigs was syphilis. Well,
you know, the king had crotch rot just like al Capone.
The Sun King had the scythe Okay, so one of
the side effects of syphilis is that you lose your
hair in cold long life. Yeah, there's something also horrendous
called weeping sores that appear on the scalp. So that's

(13:40):
all disgusting, right, So since he's the Sun King and
he can't have a patchy scalp with weeping sores, something
had to be done. So since it's syphilis, which means
they couldn't cure it at the time, you just had
to deal with it. So that meant, how do we
hide the effects of syphilis. Sun King's like, see, I
got to I got the answer. I'm gonna need a
wig make So that's why he started to wear these

(14:00):
huge flowing wigs, which he made his look. That was
his thing. Everyone's like, man, that's dope. And because they
hadn't seen this since ancient Rome people wearing these types
of crazy hairs, so it seemed to call back to
a more glorious time. Meanwhile, Stall just to hide the
side of his patchy scalp and his crying lesions Richard
dead giveaways that the king had syphilis. So wigs, it
is what all this means is for centuries, men and

(14:22):
women around the world have worn wigs because the King
of France had syphilis.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Well, it's good that he didn't do like bucket hats.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Because then like the judges in like London and Hong Kong,
bucket has because you can find by the way, you
can find people in wigs in London, Toronto, Hong Kong,
acra God like Joe Burg. Anywhere there was the British Empire,
powdered wigs is still being rocked in the courtrooms right now.
They may think they look cute, but it's wild. That's
because the sun King liked to get down anyway. So

(14:52):
the sun King starts rocking wigs. That changes their meaning,
their value, their status. And as I said, not since
ancient Rome had this been So all of a sudden
we get this. Oh it's luxurious, Oh it's classical. Oh
it's decade, and oh it's the king. It's all these
things people aspire to ye So boom, suddenly the millennial later,
wigs are the thing again. Right, the trend spreads quickly

(15:13):
because whatever France did, this becomes a style of the day.
Suddenly anyone who's anyone in London they want to wig.
Anyone in Berlin they want a wig because that's what
the ladies and gentlemen in Peri.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
That's today. Paris street style still does.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
The same thing, totally true.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Like when you see all of them gals walking around
in trench coats.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Because you saw it in Paris first.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
They all look like Colombo.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
You call them columbos too. In versides the sunking out
a whole team of wig makers and they were working
around the clock, seven days a week. Crank had pieces exactly.
He called it his Cabinet de Wigs. There were forty
eight of the finest wig makers of all of France.
And what a job now not to be outdone by
all of this, right, this whole industry that's being created.
King Charles the Second of England he also becomes known

(15:57):
for his wig game, and he is literal like the
colle league of the same. He's a monarch at the
exact same time. Yeah, so he's known to enjoy the
pleasures of being King two. So this means war of
the wigs between the two kings got the doper wig game.
And rumor has it though King Charles the Second he
liked to get down too, because he fathered school rooms

(16:18):
of illegitimate children. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Unsurprisingly, when King
Charles the Second died at age fifty four, it was
discovered he had a raging cases syphilis.

Speaker 5 (16:27):
Two.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
So, just like the son King of France, that seems
why they had that shared love of wigs. They were
both doing the whole.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Both covering up their using cats exactly.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
But anyway, by this point the trend is set on
both sides of the channel, and it's good now because
of them doing you know, expansion into the new world boom.
It shows up in America too, So these these flandering
kings are now they become the symbol of wealth, luxury, status. Right,
so the whole world over, because this is right at
the age of exploration to starts spreading, spreading. You see

(17:02):
it in Africa, you see it in the Americas. Right.
The wigs are spreading like cephilis exactly. So it spreads
from kings and queens to their cordiers, to the aristocrats.
From there it filters down to the aspiring wealthy, the
middle class, merchants, shopkeepers, on and on, until finally preachers
and doctors are wearing wigs while they're working. Yeah, so
everybody's got a wig now. So the demand for wigs

(17:23):
is so great. By sixteen fifty six, there's something called
the First Corporation of Barbers and wig Makers that's founded
in Paris. Right, this demand, it grows. Wigs become more
and more fantastic. Now that they got this whole professional
industry growing up, men are like, for instance, keen to
have something that's not so feminine, So they like wigs
that have the horizontal side curls that we know of,
for like the if you look at like our founding fathers.

(17:45):
Those lets on the sides of their hair. Yeah, that
becomes the thing that and they love like a fun
kicky ponytail.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
There there was a comedian in a while back who
had a whole thing about how what I think I
look like with a low pony and it was like
a picture of like a Ralph Lauren model, like a
stylish what I really look like, And it was a
picture one of the fetas Thomas Johnson. Yeah, that's how
I cannot wear a low ponytail. I look like a
founding father.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Well, they do love a good braid, they do, so
you know, just keep it loose and then maybe a
little more.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
French, fun, sporty low pony Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Exactly so. Around the same time. Back in Europe, by
seventeen sixty four, there's a whole encyclopedia printed on wig hairstyles.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Encyclopedia a wig printed about it, or actually on.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Wig hair on the wig, just about wigs. So it
was called the Perachier Encyclopedia. It includes one hundred and
fifteen different wig set examples.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
I love this right.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
There was one type of wig that was essentially a
nest for a live bird.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh, I think I've seen right, there was.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah. The next big trend in wigs is grand your spectacle, right,
fantastical whimsy. So we get the because this way, it's
something that the pores can't afford, so they have to
show that they're different. So the rich people start having
these ways of signaling their status. So it's whimsy and
sheer spectacle and then the near impossibility of design, like
for instance, there was a woman who's wearing a tall ship.

(19:04):
Yeah it's entirely of hair.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yes, yes, it's very Did you ever go to Beach
Blanket Babylon.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, yeah, I've seen that.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
That was an amazing show that they used to have.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Anyway, hetrickt wigs yea with all these things built into them, and.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, they are very much these types of pompadours.

Speaker 5 (19:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
So the so at this point, once the wig game
gets redick with it, right, we're talking this is like
the Dangerous Liaisons era. This is like Madame but the
pompadour era, right, Marie Antoinette, these are the names, right,
So just before the heads start to roll and fill baskets.
In the French Revolution, the ultra wealthy of France are
playing all sorts of crazy wig games for like a
decade solid, just to amuse themselves and let the poores

(19:48):
know how stupid wealthy they are. Look how stupid my
head looks. That's how wealthy I am. Yeah, now this
is the obviously most austentatious wig would win the Bell
of the Ball honors. So this is when we come
up with a to like signify this whole game as
the big wigs. That's where big wig comes from, to
signify the swells and their whole competition with their wigs

(20:10):
is being like, oh, he's a big wig, right, yeah,
so right. Anyway, by the end of the seventeen hundreds,
Louis the sixteenth now not the fourteenth, the sixteenth and
Marie Antoinette are holding it down Oversailles. Wigs have reached
their truth zenith of proportions, Like I don't think, I
don't know if I really conveyed how big these wigs were,
how layered and structured they were. But like for the
front of the wig, just above the forehead, there'd be

(20:32):
something called the fontage cofir, and that section would be
adorned with pearls, lace flowers, like tiny musical instruments veils
would hang down, so there was a kind of a delicate,
mysterious or decorous air. Right, So some of the the
used like they'd have the dazzle of jewels over the eyes.
And after that then comes the section that was typically
curled and piled into the curls. That's what you think.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
That's the one that's like, you know, the higher the hair,
closer to God.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Exactly, big like Dallas, Texas have like waterfalls of hair
now suspended above the pearls and the lace and the
jewels and the flower section. Right, this is this section
is structured with wires, and it's called the palisade. Okay,
So then beyond that there's the structure in the creation
of the opulence. Then you also have the maintenance of
how big these things are. These people are spending a

(21:18):
grip to maintain their palisades, their wires, their jewels, but
also just you know, to keep it in good standing
because it would start to stink. Right.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
Well, yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Now you got all kinds of goods and products and
services dedicated to wig game. You got perfumeas you've got
these structural people, fumigators. Wig maintenance was a whole other industry, right,
because there were creams, oils, soaps you could buy. You
also could just pay someone to clean your wigs. So
there's wig cleaners, and then there were brushes and pins
and barets and curling sticks and crimping irons, and steamers

(21:47):
and dryers and perfume powders. Is all the stuff you
can just be buying.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
In order to have them so structured, they must have had,
you know, glues and pastes and.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Oh starches, everything and all that will start to go bad. Yeah,
all right, So if you wanted to get a freshye,
it would cost you because it was labor intensive. Remember
these are to create these artorial celebrations of hair. I
found one quote that said one eighteenth century source stated
that it took six men six days working from sun
up to sundown. And then of course there was the
difficulty and expense of getting the hair itself, which is

(22:19):
often imported, plus the effort of customizing it to the
precise specifications of the purchaser's head and tastes. Right, So
this is why we have the whole industries. Now that
I've explained to you, all the wealth and the status
and the energy just floating around on heads next, Elizabeth,
we're gonna get to the crime and the people who
yank theseckers. Let's take a little break, chill out with

(22:40):
a ton of ads, and then it'll be bad with wigjackers.

Speaker 6 (22:43):
Cup run over, Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Hi, do you know what, chicken? But I forgot to
tell you about wigg holes?

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, you did tell tell me about.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Before we get to wigjackers. I got to tell you
about wig holes. Do you want to guess what a
wig hole is? Now that I've told you a little
bit about it?

Speaker 3 (23:18):
A wig hole like where you put your head in
the I don't know.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
That's a good guess. That's pretty much it. It's like, well,
do you know why we call the bathroom the powder.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Room because you've got to powder your nose.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
To the days of castles and villas inside the royal
courts of Europe, right in these grand homes, these palatial homes,
the aristocrats had powder rooms. Yeah, they didn't always have
indoor plumbing because the Romans. It's set since the Romans,
like the Roman Empire fell apart, They're like Europeans were
not committed them.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
They weren't clear on the concept.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, so it wasn't common yet, right, so, but most
of these folks that they would just do their business
like outdoors or in an outhouse type situation, or if
you're really fancy and nice, you would you know, you know,
use a bedpan or like something like that. Then you
just toss the content at the window. Yeah, exactly. It
was a very filthy time. People are just dumping this. Yeah,
so the super rich they would have a room in
their homes called the powder room. Well, they didn't have

(24:09):
a bathroom, they would have a powder room. And then
so it's obviously the powder rooms not for relieving oneself.
Well what is it for? Wig upkeep? The room was
singularly dedicated to sprucing up one's peruka, which is the
specific term for a powdered wig. Same goes for a
hair dresser. That's another word that comes from this era
because to dress the hair was not about cutting it.

(24:30):
It was about your wig. So our hairdressers is just
another wig holerver anyway. So there's a problem with the
palm aides used back in the day to maintain the wigs.
So palmade back then was a rendered animal fat, right.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah, it's not petroleum lately.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
No, No, So it's just like you cut some fat back, render.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
It right, you just save your bacon grease from breakfast totally.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Then you throw in some flowers and you make obviously
you combined with perfume, and then you sprayed this animal
fat and perfume on the wig. And that's palm eight.
And the animal fat would eventually turn rancid and it
would start to smell and then start to attract flies.
And so you can't be shown up to the bell
of the bald moment with flies circling your head, right
you could, you could part of the show. Do you

(25:13):
want to be like pig Pen from Charlie Brown. But
to prevent the palm maade from going rancid, powders get
applied regularly, regularly applied. This this means extra wig maintenance,
which meant once you're all done and gussied up in
your get up, you can't be fussing with your your
head space, so you'd have to have a servant attend
to it. Yeah, So then the damn thing is you
got this. Your wig's so enormous your servant would need

(25:35):
a ladder to reach the top. They can't get up there,
not even with a chair. Thus a wig hole so
you build a giant wall, you put a chair there. Yes,
So the truly self conscious they had wig holes built
in their parlor and you know, also in their ballrooms,
so they could just like pop over to the wig hole. Yeah,
tuck their head into this large opening in the wall,
and then there would be like a secret servant sitting

(25:56):
back there with the powder and they go powder it up,
fume it up, and they pop back into the Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
The life of the of the wig hole worker, the.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
Wig hole servant.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
Wait, yeah, it's like a pit crew basically.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah. Yeah, but for just egotism.

Speaker 5 (26:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
So at this point, right the seventeen seventies, the height
of the Bouffont Pompadour, the architectural wig this is popping off.
Marie Antoinette is literally the queen and the style queen.
So everyone's trying to like impress her at these balls.
So they're wearing the most outrageous wigs you've ever seen.
This is where we get the battleship constructed on that hair.
So one I found this one wig Elizabeth. It was

(26:37):
literally her hair was a frothing ocean. The wig hair
was then powdered blue and shaped to resemble storm tossed
seas and the top this she puts this the warship
and so you have like the whole scene, like a
colored battle scene on top of this woman's head. Amaze,
like a frigate on top of her wig. So anyway,
this is this point we have this new ara wig game. Right,

(26:58):
So women of the court, they're arriving at these balls
wearing these bird cages in their hair, wearing these like
fantasy scenes. The Duchess of Devonshire from England, she once
wore a whole pastoral scene on top of her head,
which included sheep and barnyard animals.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
Wait, so what are the do you know what? The
sheep and the barnyard animals were made of human hair?
So everything human hair?

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Some yeah, exactly. That was the game they played back then.
Is it cake or is it hair? Or is it wigger?
Is it hair?

Speaker 3 (27:25):
So they're okay, wow, yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
And so there becomes a lucrative black market for human hair,
which also lasted for centuries. So for centuries people in
Europe are like harvesting hair. I found in eighteen sixty three,
eighteen sixty three, mind you, the periodical The Hairdresser Journal
reported that one hundred tons of real human hair was
sold in the markets of Paris in one calendar year.

Speaker 5 (27:48):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
The most valuable, most sought after hair was the long
black locks of the Italian women and the Spanish women.
The Spanish so they was known to be glossy and
sheen and then also black and a dark brown in color,
which was than the northern Europeans. So they're like, oh,
it's exotic, right right, So it also is often curly
and loose in texture was such another thing that was
not common. So the hair buyers would travel the back

(28:09):
roads in the farm country of Italy and Spain looking
for young women and girls, and you can imagine what
that means. Sometimes they'd offer to buy the hair. Other times,
less scrupulous hair peddlers would kidnap farm kids, shear them
like sheep, and then turn them loose. Oh no, yeah,
the hair was not valuable. The fact there was an
annual tradition I found in Italy called the hair harvest.
Want to take what the guests with the hair harvest was? Yeah,

(28:33):
unlike your fake spaghetti harvest video, this one's real. The
hair harvest of Italy apparently real and in the poor
and rural villages. Once a year, the farmers would, like
from in the vineyard like the Vintnors, would gather their
young women and girls of the village, and then they
would bring them so that way they couldn't be like
shorn while they were walking to town. They would bring
them to town together and there they would shear all

(28:53):
the girls and they take their hair to market, like
just pounds of hair from all the village.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Girls, growing that much in a year. They do this
every year. They have to rotate them out.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, I think it's like fallow fields, like you got
some of the girls.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
The girls are like, hey, listen, I'm working on I'm
growing out a really uncomfortable pixie.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, not this year, next year, maybe the year after.
I found an eyewitness account quote several girls sheared one
after the other like sheep, and as many more standing
ready for the shears, with their caps in their hands
and their long hair combed out and hanging down to
their waists. So this hair harvest. Can you imagine coming
into town every year for your year's crop of hair

(29:30):
shore from your head as a young woman, like is
it my year?

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Right?

Speaker 2 (29:34):
So all to say, where does this much obsession and
status seeking and obviously crime. We have real crime. We
have the real robbers, the wigjackers, because with the rich
folks demand this is like, you know, they're showing up
with like money clutched in their hot little fists. People
were like, I got hair, Yeah, I can get you
some hair. So the wigjacker, like the cut purst technology

(29:55):
and times have changed and left behind this once famous criminal.
The wigjack is no longer known. But for a number
of centuries, from the sixteen hundreds at least until deep
into the late eighteen hundreds, and some people would say
into the early nineteen hundreds, wigjackers were hair raising criminals,
just constantly doing their thing. Returning once again to the

(30:15):
Hairdresser's Journal from the eighteen sixty three.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
Edition, I love that magazine, boss, I.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Know you still subscribe. The black market demand for hair
was so great that wig theft became commonplace. Like quote,
even in the present day, it has happened over and
over again that a good crop of hair has been
laid in wait for and shorn from the trembling victim
who's been only too glad to get free with. But
the loss of their hair well yeah, yeah, So basically
it's like, I didn't lose anything but my hair. Fine,

(30:40):
I'll take it.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
It grows back.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
This one is like, basically it's a crime that was
very big in Europe. I will say this much for
the most part when I was looking into it. At
the time I'm talking about hair, theft for wig makers
was going down in the States too, right, So, like,
I have a story from Florida from the Jacksonville Weekly
Sentinel from eighteen sixty nine that talks about after traveling
to Jacksonville from San Francisco, quote, eight newly arrived Chinamen

(31:05):
had their handsome pigtails cut off by hair thieves. H
welcome to Florida.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
But Florida's been Floridaing for a while.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
But the thing is too is that's also like a
very I would hope that it was just for wig
making and not like it's a way to sort of
emasculate at the time.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Oh, there would be that, yes, But I think, well,
I have another story also from Florida, but I think
then carries.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Forward that this was They can't act like, oh, it's
the Sunshine laws. That is the reason these stories are like, girl,
this happened a long time ago.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
This is this is just Florida. This is nineteen thirteen
from The Evening Independent, which is a newspaper out of
Saint Petersburg, Florida and so Tampa, Saint pete In. In addition,
from September nineteen thirteen, quote, hair thieves have appeared in
the West. They enter homes in the night and cut
the hair from the heads of sleeping women and children.
They do not attempt to move their victims, but cut
only such hair as can be convey de anniately reached without

(32:01):
awakening the sleepers. There seems to be an organized gang
of these thieves. No attempt is made in any other
form of robbery, the thieves leaving even watches and jewelry untouched. Yeah. Now,
as we often do point out, Florida is an easy target.
So let's get back to what I came to talk about.
Wig trackers in general. In Great Britain they called these

(32:22):
perfumed and powdered wigs periwigs, because they're like, oh, we
don't want to call it peruks. That's what they call
it in France, yea perry wigs. So they were hugely
they were ornate, opulent, same thing in England. Even Eve
might not imagine the English be like big into this,
but remember they're competing with the French, so they're doing
the same crazy like I've got a bird on my
head too. So at this point, the thing about a

(32:44):
wig is there's the obvious vulnerability. It's not real hair,
which means it's not fully attached to the head of
the wearer. Yeah, exactly right, Which said, these elaborate headpieces
could be like knocked off the head. You're walking around
with a fortune on your head that just can be
tipped off. Oh sure, So if a wig's net was
a little more creative, they could go for fishing for
big wigs. For instance, I read about wigjackers who would

(33:05):
hide above the thoroughfare or on the gates of a
stately home, and then when some impressive and expensive wig
went bobbing by, they'd lower a fishing pole and with
one good yank they'd tug off the headpiece. So these
hair raising thieves, right, they pull the wig, make their escape,
and they're off with basically a stolen treasure. Now these
head pieces would have to be sold though, so now

(33:25):
you need a fence, same as with any other goods.
So now we got wig fences out there working right,
Just try to picture that exactly, like the scalps in there,
who needs fresh head gear?

Speaker 3 (33:38):
I got lace fronts.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
So this is also the wigs could be like anything
like jewelry could be broken apart and sold off as elements,
so the hair could be used for a new wig,
the bobbles and the jewels and the lace could be
broken off and used for different wigs. So then that's
how the wig makers could buy back certain things and
be like, oh, yes, I just happened to have the
same lace, I got more of it right, right right.
And then also they could be sold overseas in the America,

(34:00):
so he could just take a whole wig and not
have to break it down and just sell to the Americans.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Steal cars here and ship shop them to the east.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Is exactly. The crimes have not changed the thing. So
there's so many ways to get into wig crime. But
the wigjackers, they're my favorites, and more than the wig
fences or the whigs smugglers or whig distributors, the wigjackers
the ones on the line. Yeah, they had so many
methods to lifting a wig. But rather than me tell
you about that I'd like you to close your eyes

(34:26):
as I'd like you to picture it. The year is
seventeen seventy six, and you, Elizabeth, are in London. At
the moment, you are chilling on a bench along a
walkway that wends through a high walled orchard park. Families
of birds sing from the branches above you. A slight

(34:49):
breeze makes leaves dance. It is a pleasant Saturday summer
afternoon as the day heads on its way towards evening.
At the moment, you are seated watching the crowd pass by,
not the crowd inside the orchard, but rather the crowd
passing by just outside of it. But due to the
nature of the high wall, all you can see is
the tops of their heads. Mostly it's tasteful chapeaus and

(35:11):
top hats. You admire their construction and gleam, but your
eyes also pass over them without much excitement, because that's
not what you're after. You are clocking the wigs. Next
to you is a dog, your trustee partner. He listlessly pants.
Waiting on the bench next to you is a basket
covered by a tasteful blanket. You hum a little song
to yourself as you wait and then you see it

(35:33):
a highly koift structural affair. It looks to be a
super expensive powdered wig. It's creatively designed to resemble a
bird taking wing. A smile curls your lips. Then you
let out a whistle. A furry hand shoots out from
the basket. It's not your hairy baby boy, Nope. As
the blanket pushes back out, pops a monkey. The monkey

(35:55):
looks up at you. You nod to the monkey. It
makes a little monkey sound of understanding. Then you turn
your head and you look in the direction of the
wig bobbing along on the other side of the high wall.
The monkey nods, makes another monkey sound, this time it's agreement.
The monkey takes off, bounds off the bench. She runs
across the orchard, springs up into a tree, crosses a

(36:15):
long branch, pops onto the high wall that's around the orchard,
and you watch as your monkey runs along the wall.
When he gets close to the wig, you whistle. Your
trusty dog looks up at you. You give a second
different whistle, and with that signal, the dog runs off.
Just as you've practiced. The monkey does what she's trained
to do. She runs up, grabs hold of the wig.

(36:37):
With a quick yank, she rips the wig from the
head of the unseen wealthy woman. There's a scream of surprise.
Then the monkey jumps down from the fence and she
lands on the back of your dog. The monkey looks
like a tiny cowboy on the back of the dog.
With the monkey secure on its back, the dog rears
up like a horse. The monkey holds tight to the
dog's collar. She grips the stolen wig and her other

(37:00):
tiny monkey paw. The dog's feet returned to the earth,
and the dog scampers off with the monkey wigjacker holding
tight on its back. You watches your dog with your
monkey accomplice race between the folks walking through the orchard. Meanwhile,
you lift yourself up casually from the bench, grab your
basket and walk in the other direction. You and the
monkey and the dog will all meet up back at

(37:21):
your crime layer another day, another wigjacked.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
That's facing.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
So wig snatching monkey and a criminally trained dog, right,
that was fun. Now, how about a fake butcher and
a real boy. Okay, there was a classic wig stealing
scheme that I read a couple times. It involved a
real young boy, baskets blankets and a fake butcher. In
the book At the Sign of the Barber's Poll, published
in nineteen oh four, there's this account of a wig
stealing tactic. The story goes, Imagine like, there's a butcher

(37:50):
walking in the streets of London carrying a butcher's basket
of meats on his shoulder, and the baskets covered by
a sheet like a white sheet and standard fair. You know,
everyone would see this very common. Nobody would look twice.
And the butcher passes some of the swells that fill
the streets. Oh, they must be delivering to a very
nice house in the area. Of course, there's a butcher
hand delivering all the meat. And when the butcher draws
close to a man wearing a prominent wig, out from

(38:11):
underneath the blanket that covers the butcher's basket shoots a
boy's hand. The boy's hand takes a firm grip of
the wig and with a twist, pops the wig loose
of the man's head. The boy then pops up from
the basket, hops down from the butcher's shoulder, and runs off.
And then the butcher tosses the basket and runs in
the other direction.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
So you're very elaborate, right, unnecessary.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Take it. The idea is they don't want them to
be suspicious, that they need to get close enough, and
so the proximity part is the issue.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
So you could just be a butcher carrying a basket
and when you come to pass the guys, shove the basket.
Even no, you grab the wig and drop the basket
and run.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Boy. It's because the boy is likely to get away
and the butcher can get away because you can't chase
two people. You're one person. So what do you go after?
You go after the wig? Right, Yeah, boys got the
wig boys fast and was gone like huffing and puffing away.
And he's probably gonna fight you because he's a criminal
and he's trained a boy to heal wig. You're like,
I got no good a thing.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
It's just overwhelming. You just stand there with a denuded head.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, that you've been wigjacked.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Even totally. We had There was a when I was
in high school. Uh, it was very popular to slick
your hair back and if you didn't have long enough
hair for a ponytail, put the false ponytail on there.
Oh really, like a wig pony chair was a big thing.
And some girl I went to an all girls school.
Some girl irritated another, and the aggrieved party snatched the

(39:37):
ponytail as she walked by her in the hall, and
she was just left with I mean, she didn't even
have enough to like gather. It was just sleep back here.
And everyone laughed really hard, but then felt really bad
about laughing.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah, cry and run away.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Well no she yeah, she was pretty upset, and so
then everyone got after the wig snatcher, the like, come.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
On, this is his sister, give her back her hair.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, but oh it looked bad.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Scene. That's how these wigjacks people dresses a.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
Butcher and she didn't have a little boy with her.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Noo, just came down. Well, Elizabeth, le's take a little break,
chill our domes, reset our wig hats, and we back
up to these warm and delicious ads. We're back, Elizabeth, Oh,

(40:44):
we are back. Zaren you ready for some more hair
raising antics?

Speaker 3 (40:47):
As many as you got, did you know?

Speaker 2 (40:50):
The etymology of the word robbery comes from the word robes,
as in disrobing our person and stealing their fine clothing,
especially their robes. In the Middle Ages, that's where we
get the word robbery. Yeah, I learned that doing this research.
I like that robbery and banditry have always been focused
on closed and then later just focused on wigjacking. It
was just an evolution, is what I'm saying. It started

(41:12):
the robes and they moved to the head. Now I've
got a famous bandit from you from English history who
apparently was also a wigjacker. His name is Dick Turpin.
Oh yeah, you familiar with Dick Turpin. Yeah, so you
know that one show you like, The Great British Bakeoff. Yes,
there's that one. Presenter looks like Dracula's baby cousin. He's
a goth British comic actor. Was his name, Noel, Noel

(41:33):
Fielding Coward If you can believe it. That dude recently
starred in the series where he played Dick Turpin. Really
he played a high woman. You're like that guy? How
would you cast him? Why would you put him on
the horse?

Speaker 3 (41:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Apparently it was called The completely made up Adventure of
Dick Turpin. He played the high Women, but I guess
he wasn't super into it because in the middle of
the production of the second season he just stopped coming
to work.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
Oh he did I love that the.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Production took a break for the holiday at the end
of twenty twenty four, and when the show returned to
the production to start the year, he's like, remember the
last time you saw me on the set?

Speaker 3 (42:06):
It was he was upset they didn't have enough sweaters
with long sleeves. Pull his hands in exactly.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Come on, sir, I was like, So apparently he was like,
I am not Dick Turpin anymore.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
He wasn't into it. Yeah, we're all allowed to change
our minds.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah, contracts be damned. They were like, damn. So they
released the cast and canceled the show. Oh wow, done deal.
So somehow this result feels very much in the spirit
of the famous highwaymen, you know, get paid disappear. Hey,
way to go, Dick. So apparently the real Dick Turpin.
Uh wigjacker. The prophets were just too great to ignore.

(42:42):
He wasn't big into wig jacking. It was not his
primary source of bandit amusement or profits. Yeah, Like, I
could find no specific incidents I could tell you about this.
It's like a great story. I just find I'd found
mention of him being a wigjacker. I read about him.
I learned about tactics of some of his more prominent
wigjacking colleagues. Criminal colleague feel like.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
For him it was probably like, oh, ps, I'm going
to take the wig.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Yeah, it was like a humiliating thing. I think for
some of the people he didn't like. He actually often
seemed to have very personal reactions to the rich people
he was robbing.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
It was a dirty dude.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, no, he's not. He's not good from what I read.
So the Highwaymen, right, you know term for bandits, they
would and.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
A phenomenal supergroup.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
Yes, very true, very very.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
I'm like that dog and up it like squirrel. So
I hears highwaymen, I hear words, and it's like I
have to I'm my sights back into the story.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Yes, so the I didn't really actually know this or
imagine it. I mean I kind of heard it, but
I didn't think about it. And the Wild West Outlaws
right one hundred years before them in England, you'd find
the same exact moves. You'd find dudes on morse back
hiding out in a cave hidden by a thicket or brush.
When the wagon wheels would go by, they come charging out.
They were just doing stagecoach robberies. But they were not

(44:00):
calling it back.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Isn't that what Saint Lawrence O'Toole and I was talking
about his relic getting stolen? Like I think it was
St Lawrence o'tooles, the one who like was gone after
the highwaymen. Yeah, you know they were.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Terrorible for centuries. They were just you couldn't leave town
without you knew that bandits or highwaymen would get you. Yeah,
So they would ride out on horseback, chase down the
wagon right. Sometimes they would stop the wagon like at
a gunpoint. Other times the highwaymen known as chiving lace.
Don't know what that means. They would just cut into
the coach, like literally cut into the side of the

(44:33):
coach while it's rolling, while they're trying to get away,
and then they would reach into the hole that they
created and snatch a wig off the head of a
big wig.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
Wait, that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
So if they could manage it, though they preferred, they
would just snatch the wig off of an open window
or else. If the curious matter woman stuck their head
out of the coach to see what all the noise
was about, then that was great game for them.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
This is I would love to see, uh for you.
I would love for you to see this is a
stunt sequence in a Mission Impossible movie. I say it
for you because I don't watch.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
Them, but I know you like obsessive kind of like
it's like a fetish, but I think that, like, I
would love for you to be able to see that
and happen with Tom Cruise yank and a wig.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Tom Cruise getting yank either way, Yeah, because probably be
more accurate because they're known for wearing the masks and
so you've got a wig on top.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
I'm putting that, I'm manifesting that for you, Tom, Tom,
friend of the show Cruise, Come on.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
There was a story I did find out a highwayman
named John Everett, the author of Fiona McDonald. She wrote
this great book called Gentlemen, Rogues and Wicked Ladies. Oh yeah,
and she describes some wig heists in her book. And
as McDonald writes, quote, Everett fancied a bob wig that
sat atop the head of a Quaker seated in a
coach with a number of other passengers. Everett pulled it
off the man's head and swapped it with his own

(45:53):
secondhand tie wig, which he had bought, not stolen, the
tie wig, which made the man look like a comical devil,
and the rest of the coach party burst out laughing.
The robbery ended with all parties going there's separate ways,
without any hard feelings, except perhaps for the Quaker.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
The Quaker bob wig has evolved into like the Auntie wig. Yes,
so I just imagine that, and like how starkly different
that is from the big baroque cocoa confections.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
But he loved it. He was like, I want this.
This is sporty. That will looks so good with my cheekbones.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
Were busy on the go lives, though, My question is.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
How many people like old John Everett here were buying
and wearing used wigs, Like are there are enough folks
to buy used wigs? That stolen wigs was a reliable
source of income. Oh sure apparently, because this is like.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Look at it this way, the number of iPhones that
get stolen, you think, like are enough people buying hot iPhone?

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Apparently we're just selling them back to Apple you know
or whoever? What I mean?

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Like, like you want some cans, there's like, hey, you.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Got some We got some goods in here. I'm sure you'd.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Like, I don't know, I don't know. Apparently there's it's
or it's like junk mail. Oh yeah, people must be
answering hundred like otherwise they wouldn't they wouldn't waste their money.
So people were buying hot well.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Also, it's like when I watched movies from this nineteen seventies,
and people are always stealing hubcaps. It's super common. Apparently
there was a huge market for used hubcaps in the
seventies and like you never see people selling the used tubcaps.
You just see them stealing them and then talking about it.
But apparently there had to be people going out buying
used hubcaps to replace the ones they were stolen.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
That's when you think, are they taking it to a
metal shop?

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Are they melting it down? But they're mostly like you know,
like aluminum, they're not like.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
You know what I mean. The flea market, Yeah, go to.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
You will find hubcaps down there.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
You will find stuff that you think someone stole that.
And I'm not sure why, but that is one hundred.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Percent's gonna buy it. And I also don't know why.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
A little saddest or when it's like a workman's tools
and you're like, so you tool stole that.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
I have been the workman who's yeah, tools were stolen. Like, yeah,
we were painting at a nursery on the weekends because
you can't be there because the kid's there in the weekdays.
So we're painting and we got to air out and
we just left our tools outside and these guys was
in Compton. They came in and just took everything.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
It probably at the coliseum.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Yeah, I should go down there and look. Now, if
you were wondering setting all these historical analogs of stolen
hubcaps aside, after centuries of wigjacking, how did wig theft
come to an end?

Speaker 3 (48:22):
Did it come to an end?

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Zero question?

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Thank you for wanting to think about it?

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Is I got another thing coming on? There is a
prosecution of wig thiefs. By the way, what do you
think about that? The expression that you have another think
coming or another thing coming?

Speaker 3 (48:37):
You know, I always thought it was another saying coming,
but apparently another think.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
How could another thing that doesn't even make sense to me?
But think thing with the g think makes sense because
you have basically it's it's a lazy or a creative
way of saying you got another thought coming like, well,
I got.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
This one thing that happened to me. Well guess what
another thing's about to happen.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Oh, that's I heard it.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
I'm not smart. Well noways I had a friend and
she's a thing truther. She insists that it's you got
another thing coming. That's what I say. I'm always like that,
you're gonna really die on this hill.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
Here's the thing, too, is that I am always right, yes,
because when I know, because when i'm wrong, I know
i'm wrong.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Right, So you're always right even you're wrong. You were brilliant, right,
thank you. Right. The wig jacking era came to an
end because of one prosecution of wig thieves. But this
was actually not that common. It's very sporadic. Sometimes wig
thieves would be acquitted just because people are like, yeah,
you know why, we don't.

Speaker 3 (49:37):
Get the wig doesn't fit?

Speaker 2 (49:39):
You must there you go.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
Now.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Other times, though, wig thieves would be hung like horse thieves.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Oh dear, yeah, so there was they would be hanged.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
That was right, Sorry, that thief is hung.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
You're like wow.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
There was no fair and consistent basis of prosecutions. My point.
Mostly it was seen as a petty crime. Right, So
despite the cost of all these wigs and the prominence
of the victims, Yeah, it wasn't something that was prosecuted much.
In fact, theft that I found was not prosecuted much.
In seventeen hundreds in England, only four point three percent
of cases of theft went to trial. Yeah, and for

(50:15):
that's for all thefts, not just wig jacking. And then
so this kind of explains like wigjacking so low on
the set of priorities if you're only like bringing four
percent of cases, right, and then there's a rated prosecution.
I found at the court the Old Bailey. Yeah, seventy
percent of those cases that were brought to court were
found not guilty. Apparently you can just rob That's why
it was a highwayman.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
It was just like it was like, yeah, high skills,
well lacking.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
It was like, okay, it's like if you aren't going
to chase the thieves, they're just gonna You've incentivized.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
The whole What are you going to do? Well, actually,
there's not much I can't do, So go ahead, break
everybody's windows.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Like, look, you're not prosecuting, I'm not stopping. So anyway,
this left it to wig makers to offer some protection
for their clients. So they are coming totally exactly it.
They had like it made it near impossible to yank
a wig off a person's head. You'd have to spend
a lot extra. But they would make all these like
elaborate straps or like a draw string system. There was

(51:10):
also I found buckles where they would buckle to the head,
so you got like a double strapping.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
I bet you they fit me. You could probably gesticulate better.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Truly, you could dance more. You can get your head
and do some bobbing and dipping. So at this point,
once your buckle in, your fake hair to your head
to make sure no one jacks your pompadour, I mean,
you've really committed to the last ye. Now. The other
aspect that helped to diminish the incidents of wigjacking was
the American Revolution, but more precisely the French Revolution. Oh yeah,
in France, right, seeing all the pompadours in the head

(51:40):
baskets had a chilling effect on.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
French republank those.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Exactly, but nobody wanted that because as a reaction to
the French Revolution, the bourgeoisie began to wear their hair
natural as a symbol of their natural gifts rather than
the power of the purse. Okay, so they wanted natural beauty,
the one that would you know, I had given what
was what was common as opposed to what was bought
and exploited. So natural hair becomes in line with the

(52:07):
spirit of liberty, egalite fraternity wear. I wear my hair natural.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
Brother, That's kind of where I hope we're gonna swing.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Oh yeah, we always swing, because A going to go
back and forth.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Because like the kind of powers that be thing right
now of having the alien plastic surgery face and like
the same hair like pumpkin.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Get bored of that. Yeah, yeah, you will see that.
And I don't think it'll be much more than five
to seven years tops figures. I think much sooner than that.
But that's the longest this will go.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Oh, another term I found that I thought would be interested.

Speaker 5 (52:43):
You.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
You know, we talk about big choker energy and someone
having big choker energy to refer to a certain type
of person. No, I don't think so. But I learned
that chokers became a thing after the French Revolution. The
necklaces weren't close around the throat, they were colored bright
red and nicknamed guillotine necklaces.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
This so fits in with big chokers.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Right, totally. So trends at this point clearly had.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
Four They will explain it.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah today not today. The idea was that at this
point the common man common women were the new ideals
in France, and so the common man and common women
have no use for a ridiculously quapped wig. So then
once the French who set the trends, it's just a
matter of time. Over in America, where trends had always
been the thing. After the Revolution, our revolution, wiggs came
to be seen as a symbol of the former English sugarlords. Right,

(53:28):
so they came to see this like, oh, the shallow
symbol of old world vanity, specifically vanity more so than wealth,
which I thought was really interesting. Yeah. Powdered wigs came
to be known as bushes of vanity. Wow, that was
their nickname. By the time Andrew Jackson's president in eighteen thirties,
no one in America's rocking a wig anymore, pretty much right.
In fact, to show that they were old school, the
opposition party to Andrew Jackson called themselves the Whig Party. Yeah,

(53:52):
and that lasted for two decades the party right by
the Civil War. They're done. But they even saw a
couple of presidents be Wigs. They didn't last long. They
had a ten of dying off of real quick. But
the party was done by the time of Lincoln, and
the former Whigs became Republicans. Holding to your idea that
the maga face with the plastic surgery is very much
the same. Like, hey, they were trying to signal back then, Hey,

(54:12):
we're about the Whigs and grandeur and opulents. They were like,
we're America. We're not into that. So back in jolly
old England, though, in seventeen ninety five, as if basically
in response to the French Revolution, the British Prime Minister
at the time, William Pitt He oversaw the creation of
something called the whig powder Tax. So it was a
tax on wig powder, like the stuff to keep your
hair like from steaking and draw and flies. The aim

(54:35):
was to impose this harsh tax on wig makers and
wig buyers and so forth. So it ultimately kills the
trend from both sides. Yeah, and mostly only the wealthy
then and those in the legal trade, the lawyers and
judges yeah, held the to it, so that way was
now once again a symbol and status signifier, but for
a very specific thing. The wigs of there were then
remanded to museums where they quote grew infested, dusty, and tangled.

(54:57):
I found that the British National Museum described its own
collection of wigs from this time as quote associated with
an aristocracy opposed to reforms in a bygone era a
little bit. Yeah, with that era of the big wig
began its slow fade into memory and to be replaced
with the now metaphor. So that's why we still associate
big wigs with the same past excesses. Yeah, just because

(55:19):
they may have taken off their wigs. It's still the
same crowd.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
It's the truth.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
So what's some ridiculous take away here, Elizabeth oh Man?

Speaker 3 (55:25):
I think go natural, you know, like it just always.
And what's curious is the French. I mean, like you
look at with French fashion, they continue that today of
just like aging naturally and gracefully.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
And without surgeries. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Yeah, being over there not too long ago, you see,
like people don't have like filler lips and like they
let their hair gray, and it's just interesting.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
It's very, very attractive. Actually, I agree.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
I find it really refreshing when you see, like the
actresses on television, you haven't done anything, haven't any work done?

Speaker 2 (56:05):
Rogers me.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
Rodgers is a good example in the Bosch series.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
She looks fantastic, Like I put those in your terms,
like I picked someone for something. I know you've watched sar.
What's your ridiculous takeaway mine, Elizabeth, thank you for asking me.
I'm so happy as a rare instance my Actually, uh,
I don't know. I think it's just basically that the
cutting the hole in the coach to steal the wig

(56:30):
just picturing that I was having I was laughing out
loud when I was reading about wig holes. I just
people just like I got to hit the wig hole.
But then when I got to cutting a hole in
a coach that's rolling along, you got a knife in something,
you're on a horse, you're going up and down. I mean,
that's not easy. That's commitment to the bit. I love that.
That's like, what are you an improv actor over here?
So you in the mood for a talkback, Elizabeth, watch

(56:52):
all baby, I am producing d if you could favor
us with one? Oh my god, did you see that.

Speaker 5 (57:06):
I love you. Bye. This is Jack from Australia. I
really love your podcast. It's such a good keep up
the good luck and I love the funny and ridiculous
crimes without the mode. And that's all I happy, Thank you,

(57:27):
goodbye bye Jack.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
If you're okay, blink, I'm guessing he's like under his
covers listening to a podcast and he's not supposed to
be aware.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
Jack took a parent's phone, downloaded the iHeart a congratulations
job recorded this and then they're gonna and Jack's gonna go. Jack.
You're my hero.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
New friend of the show, Jack, Jack one friend of
the show.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
Love it.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Well as always. You can find us online Ridiculous Crime
on social media if you'd like some more. We got
our images on Instagram, go check those out. Every episode
we put up pictures on the show that often will
we refer to or just help you visualize these criminals
in the crimes, So do check out our Instagram page. Also,
we're over on Blue Sky and YouTube. We got our
YouTube account Ridiculous Crime Pod on YouTube, so check those out.

(58:15):
And we have our website Ridiculous Crime dot com, which
is apparently just been nominated for a Another Awards second
best planet in the Solar System, right fingers crossed. I
feel it's a big one. It really is, so yeah.
Also email us if you'd like please at Ridiculous Crime
at gmail dot com. You can go to the iHeart app,

(58:36):
download it and leave us talk back because we love those.
Thank you for listening. We will catch you next. Crime.
Ridiculous Crime associated by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarah Brunette, produced
and edited by the world's pre eminent wig maker for
chest hair, Dave Cousten, and starring Analie's Rutger as Judith.

(58:57):
Research is by our resident fact shopping Lady Guillotine Marissa Brown.
Our theme song is by former members of cy Spurling's
Hair Club for men, Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. The
host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and
makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are Ben
Sometimes you get in hairy situations Bowling and Noel. You

(59:19):
know I want Jack de Wig Brown we g.

Speaker 5 (59:28):
Crime Say it one More Times.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more
podcasts my Heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.