June 17, 2025 • 35 mins
Queen Min was the de facto power behind the throne in Korea, and so she had plenty of enemies. Eventually, a coup would come to the palace.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Air and Mankie Listener Discretion advised. On
a normal day, the grounds of the Korean Royal Palace
would be quiet at five a m. Servants would be
just rising to begin their day. Birds would be chirping,
(00:21):
leaves rustling in the wind.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
But at five a m. On October eighth, eighteen ninety five,
Queen min nowhere near her usual wake up time, was
awoken by one of her ladies in waiting. She was
told the Vice Minister of Agriculture had an urgent message
for her. The Queen hurriedly rose and got dressed. A
(00:44):
bit frustrated but also a bit nervous, Queen Men stepped
outside her quarters to see the minister. It seems that
the Japanese are attempting another coup, he whispered. They're here
trying to enter the palace grounds. Queen Men had been
through this before. Just a year earlier, the Japanese had
(01:06):
unsuccessfully tried to lead a coup against her, but something
about this morning felt different. Before she could express her fear,
her minister looked her in the eye and stated, no
harm will come to you. There is no need to
hide or even flee. You will be safe. The Queen
took a moment to process and reflect. She bowed to
(01:27):
her minister and retreated back into her quarters. She had
survived attempts to oust her before, and she would do
it again. All she had to do was wait for
this all to pass. Even so, probably rightly, her nerves
wouldn't allow her to fall back asleep, So Queen men
sat amongst her ladies in waiting and attempted to quiet
(01:49):
her mind. Across the palace grounds, Japanese so she were
scaling the palace walls with foldable ladders. Once over the walls,
they thrust over the palace gates and ushered their comrades inside.
No one was there to keep them from rushing in.
All of the palace guards normally stationed at the gates
(02:10):
had been relieved of their duties earlier by allies on
the inside. So the mob, made up of Japanese expats,
Japanese army officials, Korean civilians, Japanese trained Korean soldiers, and
consular policemen, streamed through the gates and surged into the
palace grounds, not even trying to hide their presence any longer.
(02:33):
They whooped and hollered as they dispersed and began their
hunt for queen men. There was no stopping this mob.
Not only had almost every remaining royal guard abandoned his post,
but the men who stormed the castle were too bloodthirsty
and crazed to be contained. One major obstacle, however, stood
(02:57):
in their way. None of the wood be assassins knew
what the queen looked like. Very few people had directly
interacted with her, and almost all who had done so
had done so through a screen which prevented them from
laying eyes on her. Rumor was that she had a
bald spot above her temple, but that was about all
(03:19):
the information about her appearance that the interlopers had to
go on. This major unknown element, however, hadn't deterred the men.
In fact, they had made a game out of their
murderous hunt, and each man was competing for the honor
of finding and killing Queen min. The mob headed for
(03:41):
the inner quarters of the palace and targeted any woman
whom they came across. According to eyewitness reports from foreign
envoys staying in the palace, the Japanese men burst into
each and every room. They beat women, dragged them by
their hair, and threw them off of veranda, all while
(04:01):
demanding to know where the queen was. They even came
upon two different women that they thought were queen men.
Each woman was stabbed to death. As these screams and
jeers got closer and closer, Queen Min's fears skyrocketed, but
so too did her survival instincts. Put me in your
(04:23):
robes quickly, she ordered her ladies rushed to take off
the Queen's garments and dress her in a clean set
of their clothing. Now all twenty five women in the
room were dressed exactly alike. She ordered the women to
hide wherever they could, and she tried to cover herself
in a pile of bedding in a corner. Queen Min
(04:46):
could hear the Minister of the Royal Household shouting at
the men outside her door, trying to prevent them from entering.
She heard the sound of metal slicing through flesh, and
his shouts turned to screams and then gradually to groans.
She steeled herself and took a deep breath. As the
(05:06):
screen door slammed open, Queen Min focused on keeping still
despite the chaos around her as the intruders trashed the room,
brutalizing her ladies. Suddenly, the bedding which covered her was
ripped off. Queen Min turned her head to make eye
contact with the young Japanese man now standing above her.
(05:28):
Her eyes burned with fear and determination, she refused to
cower or beg Unfortunately, her composure betrayed her regal stature
and gave her identity away. I found her was the
last full sentence Queen Min ever heard. I'm Dana Schwartz
(05:49):
and this is noble blood. According to the sixty year
cyclical calendar traditionally used in Korea, eighteen ninety five was
the year Yulmi. If you're from Korea, one particularly event
probably comes to mind when you hear that word, the
Yulmi Incident. This is, in my opinion, a rather undescriptive
(06:14):
name for a really brutal event, So I hope this
episode's introduction enticed you more than that very simple name might.
The Yulmi Incident, as it's known, was the assassination of
the Koreana Queen men as part of an attempted coup
by her father in law and by Japanese envoys to
(06:36):
the Korean Kingdom in eighteen ninety five. Before we finished
the tragic story we started, let me set the scene.
Korea in the late eighteen hundreds faced an entirely different
reality than they had been facing earlier in the century. Korea,
also known then as Chosun, had been officially ruled by
China for centuries, but the various Chinese diyeynesties had left
(07:01):
Korea pretty much alone, allowing the King of Chosan to
rule an absolute monarchy and run the country on a
day to day level pretty autonomously. And besides, the country's
relationship with China, Korea was entirely insular. That all changed
in eighteen seventy six, when Japan forced Korea to open
(07:24):
itself up to the rest of the world. All of
a sudden, Korea was inundated with emissaries from China, Japan, Russia,
and the United States, all looking to bring the Korean
peninsula under their influence. This massive change in international policy
had occurred under King Gojong. King Gojung was not a
(07:47):
particularly strong ruler. Although technically an absolute monarch, he was
easily persuaded by whoever last whispered in his ear Perhaps
this is because of his early experience on the throne.
He had risen to power in eighteen sixty three at
the age of only twelve, and so his father, known
(08:08):
as the Daywong Gun, stepped up as regent, a role
that he stayed in past Gojung's coming of age. As such,
Gojung became accustomed early on to being the supreme leader
only in name, and so he deferred to those who
supposedly knew better. Because of Gojung's personality, Korea of the
(08:31):
late eighteen hundreds was full of factions, all vying to
control the king and control access to him. These factions
only multiplied when the country was forcibly opened and international
powers joined the domestic powers in jockeying for favor. But
by far the most powerful party, the one most successful
(08:54):
at getting the king's ear, was the party of Queen Men.
King Min had been selected to marry King Gojung in
eighteen sixty six, when she was only sixteen years old
and he was only fifteen. The day One Gun had
signed off on the arrangement because he believed that Queen
Min would be a dutiful wife, and more importantly, that
(09:17):
she wouldn't pose a threat to his power as regent.
How wrong he was, Queen Min didn't adhere to the
role traditionally played by the wife of the king. Not
only did she shirk these social responsibilities typically held by
queen's instead investing time in her education, she also slowly
(09:40):
extricated herself from the traditionally secluded queen's apartment and crept
down to the political scene. By eighteen seventy three, when
King Gojung was twenty two and well passed the age
to rule independently, his father still acted as regent, which
was posing a problem for Queen Men. She hoped to
(10:02):
gain real political influence, she needed to rid the palace
of her father in law, who didn't like her and
her untraditional behavior. Queen Min secretly started organizing a powerful
political faction to oust the day one Gun as regent,
and in eighteen seventy three successfully forced her father in
(10:23):
law into retirement. He already didn't like Queen Min for
her quote radical ways, but that coup solidified his hatred
of her. With her plans to oust the dayongun successful,
Queen Men moved into the power vacuum left behind and
became the de facto regent of Korea alongside her husband,
(10:45):
the King, who was essentially a figurehead. With Queen Men
in the highest position of power in the country, her clan,
the Min clan, became the dominant political faction. Queen Min
was clearly a four to be reckoned with. Unfortunately for her,
it was her power and the threat her power posed
(11:07):
to both Japan's influence on Korea and to one man's
masculinity that would eventually lead to her death. That one
man was Mura Goro. Mura first arrived in Korea in
eighteen ninety five as Japan's new envoy to the country.
He was appointed to the position during a period of
(11:29):
great turmoil. Eighteen ninety four and eighteen ninety five had
seen two attempted coups against King Go Jung and Queen Men,
both of which had involved the King's father and Japanese
and pro Japanese actors. Japanese politicians back in Japan blamed
those two unsuccessful coups on their then envoy, who had
(11:53):
tried to work diplomatically with the Queen. So the Japanese
government hoped to try a different approach, and they sent
over Mura Goro as their new Envoy, Mura was incredibly
unqualified for the job. He had little diplomatic experience, no
(12:14):
knowledge of broader world politics, and a penchant for being
loyal too. As historian Danny Orbach put it, quote heaven
and the Emperor, but not the government. Mura's background was
as a commander in the Japanese army, and he was
known for his crude and direct style, not typically personality
(12:37):
traits one would imagine to be helpful in a diplomat.
Regardless of his lack of qualifications, Mura was in a
tough spot as the new Japanese envoy. Queen Men and
therefore King Gojung had started leaning away from Japanese influence
towards an alliance with Russia in eighteen ninety five. His
(12:59):
job was to fix that. One of Mura's first meetings
in Korea was his introductory interview with King Gojung. At
that meeting, Mura noticed that Queen Min directed the king
almost as if she were a disembodied, omniscient force. She
advised him in real time from a room behind the
(13:22):
King's throne, where she could remain out of sight and unapproachable.
Mura walked away from the meeting feeling that the Queen
looked down on him. In his mind, she viewed him
as a dumb soldier whose weakness could be taken advantage
of in order to dismantle the Hulian Day the pro
(13:43):
Japanese regiment of the Korean Army. The Hulunde was one
of the biggest bases of support for the Japanese on
the Korean peninsula, and so if Queen Min disbanded that regiment,
there would be little stopping her from bringing Russia and
forces in and pushing Japan out entirely. Given the situation,
(14:05):
Mura had a couple of options. He could employ a
woman to interface with Queen Men directly, since the queen
followed the Korean tradition of remaining secluded from men. Or
Mura could have turned to his envoy predecessor for advice
and guidance, because despite the fact that he was a man,
(14:25):
he had been able to meet with Queen men face
to face. But Mura wouldn't allow himself to stoop to
either of those paths. He wouldn't employ a woman, and
he wouldn't ask for advice. He felt clueless and helpless,
but he was too haughty to accept help, and so
he chose a different option where instead of fixing his problem,
(14:49):
he would just remove it. In his own memoir, Mura
confessed that he decided quote in the space of three
puffs on a cigarette, that he would assess the queen.
Even though Miuragurro wouldn't accept help to negotiate with queen men,
he knew he needed help assassinating her. He turned to
(15:11):
someone he knew would be more than up to the task.
Adachi Kenzo. Adachi was a Japanese reporter in Seoul who
ran a newspaper which was essentially a propaganda paper run
by Soshi or Japanese expats who advocated for hawkish Japanese
foreign policy achieved through violence. They held some pretty misogynistic beliefs,
(15:35):
and so they were quite antagonistic towards Queen Men. Some
of their reporters, including Adachi, described her as quote wickedness
at the king's side and that bewitching beauty who cunningly,
ubiquitously and treacherously manipulated virtuous men for over a generation
(15:55):
and the root of all evil in Korea. Within so
she circus men were openly calling on their comrades to
kill the queen, so Mura wasted no time in turning
to that paper and their owner, Adachi for help. On
September nineteenth, eighteen ninety five, Mua met with Adachi and
asked if he knew of any young men up for
(16:18):
a fox hunt. Adachi later admitted that his heart leapt
with joy when Mura asked him this question. He knew
that there was no actual fox hunt, but that Mura
was actually talking about killing queen men. The writers at
his paper frequently utilized a common metaphor of foxes as
(16:40):
evil and as cunning women. While discussing queen men, so
Adachi heard Mura's dog whistle loud and clear. Adachi was
thrilled to finally have a powerful partner giving him and
his staff the go ahead to act on their hateful desires.
Under order to maintain the utmost secrecy, Adachi set out
(17:03):
recruiting members of his newspaper staff for the mission. The
soshi at the newspaper all enthusiastically volunteered. They couldn't wait
to undertake this exciting, manly adventure. Mura, looking for additional support,
also recruited the hulliun Day, the pro Japanese Army regiment
(17:23):
that he feared Queen Min would disband, they would be
additional muscle for the operation. Now he had a critical
mass to execute his mission and the Queen. But Mura
couldn't dispose of Queen Min without someone to replace her
as de facto ruler of Korea. Quite reluctantly, Mura and
(17:45):
his advisers turned to the Day One Gun, King Go
Jung's father and former regent. Like I mentioned briefly, just
a year prior before Mua was the envoy, the Japanese
had already tried to work with the Day one Tie
to overthrow Queen Men, but the plot had failed. The
Day One Gun had gone behind the Japanese's backs and
(18:08):
collaborated with the Chinese, so the Japanese were understandably incredibly
hesitant to work with him. But the Day One Gun
was now in dire financial straits, and so Mura believed
that he could more easily be manipulated and pressured into
doing what he was told. Ultimately, though, the truth is,
(18:28):
Mua had no better option. It took some time to
iron out the details, but finally, on October third, eighteen
ninety five, the Day One Gun and the Japanese came
to an agreement with that the plan was set. Now
they just needed to wait for the perfect moment to strike. Unfortunately,
(18:50):
for Mura and his alliance, the necessary time to act
came before the perfect moment, and it came quite fast.
On October seventh, less than a week after the alliance
had finalized arrangements with Queen Men's father in law, Mura
received reports that Queen Men was about to disband the
Hullian Day ally with Russia and order the assassination of
(19:15):
multiple pro Japanese politicians. Mura needed to act fast before
his base of support was swept out from beneath them,
and so he decided that the very next morning they
would kill the Queen. As I described in this episode's introduction,
on the morning of October eighth, a mob descended on
(19:36):
the Royal Palace in search of Queen Men. The mob
was made up of Jullian Day so She's staff, members
from the newspaper, Japanese soldiers, Korean policemen and other soldiers
in plain clothes, and some random Korean civilians. With help
from palace insiders, the mob breached the inner rooms of
(19:57):
the Royal Palace, where they found the queen amongst her
ladies in waiting. I won't go into too much detail,
but once the mob found Queen Min, they assassinated her
very brutally. To say that they engaged in overkill would
be an understatement. Suffice it to say all that remained
of her after the coup was a singed fingerbone. Historian
(20:21):
Danny Orbach posits that the mob so brutally murdered Queen
Men for a couple of reasons, including their misogynistic attitudes
towards the queen and the competitive nature of the search
for her. Regardless of the reasons, they were so complete
in their decimation of her that, until her remains were
(20:42):
recovered in a forest much later, it was sometimes thought
that she had just disappeared. Importantly, there was no clear
evidence as to who the exact person was who had
killed Queen Min, and so to this day it's still
unknown which member of the mob murdered the monarch. Waiting
(21:04):
for the Queen's assassination to take place, the Daewengun arrived
at the Royal Palace at six a m ready to
swoop in to claim power back from the woman who
had taken it years ago. Mura later described the Dewengun,
as quote, beaming with delight as he entered through the
palace gates. He was pleased with himself to have toppled
(21:25):
the woman who had pushed him out previously, never mind
that he was now a pawn of the Japanese. The
day Onengan was ready to resume power with the assassination executed,
Mura and the Daewenguan met with the dayeongun son, King Gojung,
who was shell shocked and upset. The Daywengun presented the
(21:47):
king with a variety of documents to sign, including a
proclamation denouncing Queen Men and relegating her to the rank
of commoner. In a rare moment of courage, Ojung refused
to sign anything and told his father, you can cut
my fingers off, but I will not sign your proclamation.
(22:08):
The Day one Gun went ahead and published the edicts
without his son's official seal, but that was enough to
indicate to the general public that there was some sort
of foul play going on. Everyone denounced the edict as fraudulent,
and the Day one Gun had to retract it. He
attempted again to undercut Queen Min's public image. A couple
(22:31):
of days later, King Gojung was being kept confined to
the Royal Palace despite the horrific murder that had taken
place there just days earlier. Perhaps the king could stomach
this because he didn't yet know that his wife was dead.
He actually believed at this point that she had escaped
the mob, as she had during multiple previous other attempted coups,
(22:56):
and like I previously mentioned, there was no treece of
her remaining. So, capitalizing on his son's ignorance and seclusion,
the dewengan issued another edict under his son's name, stating
that the king was divorcing Queen Min for desertion and
that he would remarry. When King Gojung heard of this,
(23:19):
he was infuriated. He turned around and issued his own edict,
in which he raised the queen's status to bin the
title for the first rank of women of the Internal Court.
It took some time for everyone to accept what they
soon all knew Queen Min had been murdered. A month
(23:41):
and a half after the Royal Palace had been stormed,
King Gojung's cabinet finally made an official announcement that Queen
Min was dead, but that the events of October eighth
would be investigated. Even though it took over a month
for this investigation to be announced, the public knew from
(24:02):
day one who really was the power behind the murder.
From the moment news of the coup and Queen Min's
assassination became public, it was clear to everyone that the
Japanese were involved. Even as the coup was happening, witnesses
could see the men dressed in Japanese clothing and wielding
(24:24):
Japanese swords tearing through the palace. When reporters for the
English language newspaper arrived at the Royal Palace, they found
that the main gates were being guarded by Japanese soldiers.
Mura's personal involvement wasn't too difficult to deduce either. Korean
royal emissaries reported that after having been dispatched to alert
(24:48):
Mura to the coup, they arrived at his offices to
find him and the emissaries secretary dressed and waiting by
the door with their sedan chairs ready to carry them
to the palace knew what had happened and were just
waiting to be summoned. Once officials started investigating, there was
ample evidence that pointed to Mura's role in leading the conspiracy,
(25:12):
but that didn't stop Mua from attempting to hide his complicity.
He tried telling other foreign emissaries that some Koreans must
have dressed up in Japanese clothing to frame the Japanese.
Mura also tried to peddle this lie to his own
superiors in the Japanese government, and even pretended that Queen
Men might still be alive when he already knew she
(25:34):
had been killed. You might be wondering how much the
Japanese government back in mainland Japan knew about the assassination
scheme beforehand. Historians widely believed that Tokyo had no idea
of MUA's plan before it happened, and their actions after
the fact definitely do indicate that. There's pretty ample evidence
(25:56):
that Mura spent much of his days after October eighth
working to convince his superiors, like the acting Foreign Secretary,
that he had no idea of the plot and was
working to investigate it. But like a guilty child who
thinks they're smarter than their parents, Mura just couldn't help
himself and kept dropping hints that pointed to the truth
(26:19):
inadvertently or not. He eventually admitted to the Foreign Minister
that Japanese actors might have been involved, and that he
did believe something had needed to be done about the queen. Anyways,
when Mura's complicity became clear to government officials, Tokyo summoned
Mua and his co conspirators back to Japan, expecting a
(26:41):
hero's welcome upon their return. The foreign envoys were instead
met at the docks in Hiroshima and arrested. Mura and
his co conspirators had been charged with murder and conspiracy
to commit murder. The subsequent trial riveted the Japanese public
as multiple so she who had participated in the coup,
(27:03):
admitted under oath to participating in the killing that day,
and historians admit that the trial was shockingly honest and
forthright with the evidence regarding the conspiracy up until the
day of the assassination. However, the court ended up acquitting
all of the defendants of charges. The judge, in his
(27:24):
ruling stated that while everyone charged had clearly been involved
in a conspiracy to kill Queen men quote, there is
no sufficient evidence to prove that any of the accused
actually committed the crime originally mediated by them. In other words,
because no one could prove who had killed Queen Men,
(27:47):
they all got off. No one knows exactly why the
court made such a ruling. The case had been surprisingly
transparent regarding the complicity and responsibility of men like Mura,
and yet they were still acquitted. Perhaps the government stepped in,
but perhaps the judge in this case made the ruling
(28:09):
entirely of his own accord. There's no evidence pointing towards
government interference, but that's not to say it didn't happen.
A lack of evidence isn't proof that nothing happened. You
might also be wondering why Korea didn't try the various
co conspirators. Because of a clause about extra territoriality in
(28:31):
a treaty that Korea and Japan had signed in eighteen
seventy six, Korea was powerless to try Japanese nationals for
their crimes. In the end, Japan had wrapped up the
matter by January twentieth, eighteen ninety six, less than four
months after Queen Men's assassination. King Gojung's process of mourning
(28:55):
and commemorating his wife, on the other hand, took him
over two years. Perhaps because it took him almost two
years and support from the Russian delegation to wrest back
control of his throne from his father. But once he
was secure back in power in eighteen ninety seven, King
Gojung wasted no time honoring his late wife. He first
(29:18):
issued her a new posthumous name, Myung Sung, when Gojung
proclaimed himself as emperor a few months later. He also
changed Myeongsong's title from queen to empress. Her final and
current posthumous title is Mungsong the Great Empress. Gojung also
(29:39):
planned an extravagant funeral procession for his late wife. The
Procession through Soul featured five thousand soldiers, six hundred and
fifty policemen, four thousand lanterns, hundreds of scrolls honoring her,
and giant wooden horses intended for her use in the afterlife.
(30:00):
She was laid to rest in the Josian Royal Tomb Complex,
where Emperor Gojung would later be buried alongside her. Empress
Mungsong could not have known it, but she would be
the last queen of Korea, and even though she was
technically the second to last Empress of Korea, she is
(30:20):
commonly known today as the Last Empress, Her reign and
assassination have been dramatized as a television series, a movie,
and the first Korean musical to grace a Broadway stage.
Despite enduring a brutal death, Empress myungsung continues to have
an impact on Korea and lives on in the Korean
(30:42):
consciousness over a century after her passing. That's the story
of Queen Min and her assassination. But keep listening after
a brief sponsor break to hear how recently discovered documents
shed light on the details of what happened October eighth,
eighteen ninety five. Perhaps because of the chaos and confusion
(31:11):
of the attempted coup and assassination of Queen Men, there
were very few written accounts that captured the events of
that morning on October eighth, eighteen ninety five. Luckily for us, however,
there have been two separate recent discoveries of just that.
It's not surprising that the first recently discovered eyewitness account
(31:33):
only came to light over one hundred years after Queen
Men's murder, given where it was found in the nineteen
nineties and early two thousands, researchers uncovered an eye witness
account of the coup deep in the archive of foreign
policy of the Russian Empire, in the fourth appendix of
(31:54):
a report sent to the Russian government by the Russian
Minister to Korea. The writer was a Russian civilian under
the employee of King Gojung in eighteen ninety five. He
had been hired as an architect by the king to
design Western inspired buildings, and just so happened to be
living at the palace the morning the mob breached the walls.
(32:18):
He described the frenetic energy of the Japanese men as
they dashed around searching for the queen. When a palace
staff member who was participating in the raid recognized the
Russian man and told some of the Japanese soci that
he too was an employee at the palace, they grabbed
him and tried to force him to locate queen men.
(32:40):
The Russian wrote, Both of the Japanese and a new
one who had just joined them, ran up to me again,
grabbed me by my gown, and dragged me off to
the Queen's chambers, demanding that I show them where she
was hiding. Moreover, one of the Japanese repeatedly asked me
in English, where is the queen? Point the queen out
to us? I tried to convince them to leave me
(33:02):
alone because I did not know and would not know
where the queen was, but they did not listen to
me and just kept repeating, where is the queen? Point
the queen out to us? The Russian then supposedly escaped
the palace without witnessing the queen's actual murder to deliver
his report to the Russian minister. Some scholars believed that
(33:23):
he did in fact witness the murder, but to save
himself from becoming a target, never admitted it. Ultimately, his
account only confirmed what most already knew to be true,
the Japanese were involved in the assassination. A more recent
discovery revealed just how involved Japanese officials really were. In
(33:45):
twenty twenty one, a Japanese man purchased a collection of
letters at a flea market, and upon having them deciphered
by a Korean Japanese scholar, he learned they were written
by a consular assistant in Korea in the eighteen nineties.
In a letter sent to a friend one day after
the attempted coup and murder. The man didn't mince words.
(34:09):
We killed the queen, he wrote, My job was securing
the entrance. We crossed the wall and barely got into
the building where we killed the queen. Upon reflecting on
the queen's death, he stated, I was shocked to realize
how easy it was. While the man never stated exactly
who struck the murderous blow, that he so freely and
(34:32):
proudly admitted his role in this brutal, illegal act while
serving as a minister is astonishing. You never know what
you might find at a flea market. These two discoveries
just underscore to me and hopefully you listeners, just how
important archival research is. So next time someone is trying
(34:53):
to defund the libraries and archives, just ask yourself what
might they be trying to cover up. Noble Blood is
a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from
Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz,
(35:14):
with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender,
Amy Hit and Julia Milani. The show is edited and
produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il Kaali
and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(35:39):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Air and Mankie Listener Discretion advised. On
a normal day, the grounds of the Korean Royal Palace
would be quiet at five a m. Servants would be
just rising to begin their day. Birds would be chirping,
(00:21):
leaves rustling in the wind.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
But at five a m. On October eighth, eighteen ninety five,
Queen min nowhere near her usual wake up time, was
awoken by one of her ladies in waiting. She was
told the Vice Minister of Agriculture had an urgent message
for her. The Queen hurriedly rose and got dressed. A
(00:44):
bit frustrated but also a bit nervous, Queen Men stepped
outside her quarters to see the minister. It seems that
the Japanese are attempting another coup, he whispered. They're here
trying to enter the palace grounds. Queen Men had been
through this before. Just a year earlier, the Japanese had
(01:06):
unsuccessfully tried to lead a coup against her, but something
about this morning felt different. Before she could express her fear,
her minister looked her in the eye and stated, no
harm will come to you. There is no need to
hide or even flee. You will be safe. The Queen
took a moment to process and reflect. She bowed to
(01:27):
her minister and retreated back into her quarters. She had
survived attempts to oust her before, and she would do
it again. All she had to do was wait for
this all to pass. Even so, probably rightly, her nerves
wouldn't allow her to fall back asleep, So Queen men
sat amongst her ladies in waiting and attempted to quiet
(01:49):
her mind. Across the palace grounds, Japanese so she were
scaling the palace walls with foldable ladders. Once over the walls,
they thrust over the palace gates and ushered their comrades inside.
No one was there to keep them from rushing in.
All of the palace guards normally stationed at the gates
(02:10):
had been relieved of their duties earlier by allies on
the inside. So the mob, made up of Japanese expats,
Japanese army officials, Korean civilians, Japanese trained Korean soldiers, and
consular policemen, streamed through the gates and surged into the
palace grounds, not even trying to hide their presence any longer.
(02:33):
They whooped and hollered as they dispersed and began their
hunt for queen men. There was no stopping this mob.
Not only had almost every remaining royal guard abandoned his post,
but the men who stormed the castle were too bloodthirsty
and crazed to be contained. One major obstacle, however, stood
(02:57):
in their way. None of the wood be assassins knew
what the queen looked like. Very few people had directly
interacted with her, and almost all who had done so
had done so through a screen which prevented them from
laying eyes on her. Rumor was that she had a
bald spot above her temple, but that was about all
(03:19):
the information about her appearance that the interlopers had to
go on. This major unknown element, however, hadn't deterred the men.
In fact, they had made a game out of their
murderous hunt, and each man was competing for the honor
of finding and killing Queen min. The mob headed for
(03:41):
the inner quarters of the palace and targeted any woman
whom they came across. According to eyewitness reports from foreign
envoys staying in the palace, the Japanese men burst into
each and every room. They beat women, dragged them by
their hair, and threw them off of veranda, all while
(04:01):
demanding to know where the queen was. They even came
upon two different women that they thought were queen men.
Each woman was stabbed to death. As these screams and
jeers got closer and closer, Queen Min's fears skyrocketed, but
so too did her survival instincts. Put me in your
(04:23):
robes quickly, she ordered her ladies rushed to take off
the Queen's garments and dress her in a clean set
of their clothing. Now all twenty five women in the
room were dressed exactly alike. She ordered the women to
hide wherever they could, and she tried to cover herself
in a pile of bedding in a corner. Queen Min
(04:46):
could hear the Minister of the Royal Household shouting at
the men outside her door, trying to prevent them from entering.
She heard the sound of metal slicing through flesh, and
his shouts turned to screams and then gradually to groans.
She steeled herself and took a deep breath. As the
(05:06):
screen door slammed open, Queen Min focused on keeping still
despite the chaos around her as the intruders trashed the room,
brutalizing her ladies. Suddenly, the bedding which covered her was
ripped off. Queen Min turned her head to make eye
contact with the young Japanese man now standing above her.
(05:28):
Her eyes burned with fear and determination, she refused to
cower or beg Unfortunately, her composure betrayed her regal stature
and gave her identity away. I found her was the
last full sentence Queen Min ever heard. I'm Dana Schwartz
(05:49):
and this is noble blood. According to the sixty year
cyclical calendar traditionally used in Korea, eighteen ninety five was
the year Yulmi. If you're from Korea, one particularly event
probably comes to mind when you hear that word, the
Yulmi Incident. This is, in my opinion, a rather undescriptive
(06:14):
name for a really brutal event, So I hope this
episode's introduction enticed you more than that very simple name might.
The Yulmi Incident, as it's known, was the assassination of
the Koreana Queen men as part of an attempted coup
by her father in law and by Japanese envoys to
(06:36):
the Korean Kingdom in eighteen ninety five. Before we finished
the tragic story we started, let me set the scene.
Korea in the late eighteen hundreds faced an entirely different
reality than they had been facing earlier in the century. Korea,
also known then as Chosun, had been officially ruled by
China for centuries, but the various Chinese diyeynesties had left
(07:01):
Korea pretty much alone, allowing the King of Chosan to
rule an absolute monarchy and run the country on a
day to day level pretty autonomously. And besides, the country's
relationship with China, Korea was entirely insular. That all changed
in eighteen seventy six, when Japan forced Korea to open
(07:24):
itself up to the rest of the world. All of
a sudden, Korea was inundated with emissaries from China, Japan, Russia,
and the United States, all looking to bring the Korean
peninsula under their influence. This massive change in international policy
had occurred under King Gojong. King Gojung was not a
(07:47):
particularly strong ruler. Although technically an absolute monarch, he was
easily persuaded by whoever last whispered in his ear Perhaps
this is because of his early experience on the throne.
He had risen to power in eighteen sixty three at
the age of only twelve, and so his father, known
(08:08):
as the Daywong Gun, stepped up as regent, a role
that he stayed in past Gojung's coming of age. As such,
Gojung became accustomed early on to being the supreme leader
only in name, and so he deferred to those who
supposedly knew better. Because of Gojung's personality, Korea of the
(08:31):
late eighteen hundreds was full of factions, all vying to
control the king and control access to him. These factions
only multiplied when the country was forcibly opened and international
powers joined the domestic powers in jockeying for favor. But
by far the most powerful party, the one most successful
(08:54):
at getting the king's ear, was the party of Queen Men.
King Min had been selected to marry King Gojung in
eighteen sixty six, when she was only sixteen years old
and he was only fifteen. The day One Gun had
signed off on the arrangement because he believed that Queen
Min would be a dutiful wife, and more importantly, that
(09:17):
she wouldn't pose a threat to his power as regent.
How wrong he was, Queen Min didn't adhere to the
role traditionally played by the wife of the king. Not
only did she shirk these social responsibilities typically held by
queen's instead investing time in her education, she also slowly
(09:40):
extricated herself from the traditionally secluded queen's apartment and crept
down to the political scene. By eighteen seventy three, when
King Gojung was twenty two and well passed the age
to rule independently, his father still acted as regent, which
was posing a problem for Queen Men. She hoped to
(10:02):
gain real political influence, she needed to rid the palace
of her father in law, who didn't like her and
her untraditional behavior. Queen Min secretly started organizing a powerful
political faction to oust the day one Gun as regent,
and in eighteen seventy three successfully forced her father in
(10:23):
law into retirement. He already didn't like Queen Min for
her quote radical ways, but that coup solidified his hatred
of her. With her plans to oust the dayongun successful,
Queen Men moved into the power vacuum left behind and
became the de facto regent of Korea alongside her husband,
(10:45):
the King, who was essentially a figurehead. With Queen Men
in the highest position of power in the country, her clan,
the Min clan, became the dominant political faction. Queen Min
was clearly a four to be reckoned with. Unfortunately for her,
it was her power and the threat her power posed
(11:07):
to both Japan's influence on Korea and to one man's
masculinity that would eventually lead to her death. That one
man was Mura Goro. Mura first arrived in Korea in
eighteen ninety five as Japan's new envoy to the country.
He was appointed to the position during a period of
(11:29):
great turmoil. Eighteen ninety four and eighteen ninety five had
seen two attempted coups against King Go Jung and Queen Men,
both of which had involved the King's father and Japanese
and pro Japanese actors. Japanese politicians back in Japan blamed
those two unsuccessful coups on their then envoy, who had
(11:53):
tried to work diplomatically with the Queen. So the Japanese
government hoped to try a different approach, and they sent
over Mura Goro as their new Envoy, Mura was incredibly
unqualified for the job. He had little diplomatic experience, no
(12:14):
knowledge of broader world politics, and a penchant for being
loyal too. As historian Danny Orbach put it, quote heaven
and the Emperor, but not the government. Mura's background was
as a commander in the Japanese army, and he was
known for his crude and direct style, not typically personality
(12:37):
traits one would imagine to be helpful in a diplomat.
Regardless of his lack of qualifications, Mura was in a
tough spot as the new Japanese envoy. Queen Men and
therefore King Gojung had started leaning away from Japanese influence
towards an alliance with Russia in eighteen ninety five. His
(12:59):
job was to fix that. One of Mura's first meetings
in Korea was his introductory interview with King Gojung. At
that meeting, Mura noticed that Queen Min directed the king
almost as if she were a disembodied, omniscient force. She
advised him in real time from a room behind the
(13:22):
King's throne, where she could remain out of sight and unapproachable.
Mura walked away from the meeting feeling that the Queen
looked down on him. In his mind, she viewed him
as a dumb soldier whose weakness could be taken advantage
of in order to dismantle the Hulian Day the pro
(13:43):
Japanese regiment of the Korean Army. The Hulunde was one
of the biggest bases of support for the Japanese on
the Korean peninsula, and so if Queen Min disbanded that regiment,
there would be little stopping her from bringing Russia and
forces in and pushing Japan out entirely. Given the situation,
(14:05):
Mura had a couple of options. He could employ a
woman to interface with Queen Men directly, since the queen
followed the Korean tradition of remaining secluded from men. Or
Mura could have turned to his envoy predecessor for advice
and guidance, because despite the fact that he was a man,
(14:25):
he had been able to meet with Queen men face
to face. But Mura wouldn't allow himself to stoop to
either of those paths. He wouldn't employ a woman, and
he wouldn't ask for advice. He felt clueless and helpless,
but he was too haughty to accept help, and so
he chose a different option where instead of fixing his problem,
(14:49):
he would just remove it. In his own memoir, Mura
confessed that he decided quote in the space of three
puffs on a cigarette, that he would assess the queen.
Even though Miuragurro wouldn't accept help to negotiate with queen men,
he knew he needed help assassinating her. He turned to
(15:11):
someone he knew would be more than up to the task.
Adachi Kenzo. Adachi was a Japanese reporter in Seoul who
ran a newspaper which was essentially a propaganda paper run
by Soshi or Japanese expats who advocated for hawkish Japanese
foreign policy achieved through violence. They held some pretty misogynistic beliefs,
(15:35):
and so they were quite antagonistic towards Queen Men. Some
of their reporters, including Adachi, described her as quote wickedness
at the king's side and that bewitching beauty who cunningly,
ubiquitously and treacherously manipulated virtuous men for over a generation
(15:55):
and the root of all evil in Korea. Within so
she circus men were openly calling on their comrades to
kill the queen, so Mura wasted no time in turning
to that paper and their owner, Adachi for help. On
September nineteenth, eighteen ninety five, Mua met with Adachi and
asked if he knew of any young men up for
(16:18):
a fox hunt. Adachi later admitted that his heart leapt
with joy when Mura asked him this question. He knew
that there was no actual fox hunt, but that Mura
was actually talking about killing queen men. The writers at
his paper frequently utilized a common metaphor of foxes as
(16:40):
evil and as cunning women. While discussing queen men, so
Adachi heard Mura's dog whistle loud and clear. Adachi was
thrilled to finally have a powerful partner giving him and
his staff the go ahead to act on their hateful desires.
Under order to maintain the utmost secrecy, Adachi set out
(17:03):
recruiting members of his newspaper staff for the mission. The
soshi at the newspaper all enthusiastically volunteered. They couldn't wait
to undertake this exciting, manly adventure. Mura, looking for additional support,
also recruited the hulliun Day, the pro Japanese Army regiment
(17:23):
that he feared Queen Min would disband, they would be
additional muscle for the operation. Now he had a critical
mass to execute his mission and the Queen. But Mura
couldn't dispose of Queen Min without someone to replace her
as de facto ruler of Korea. Quite reluctantly, Mura and
(17:45):
his advisers turned to the Day One Gun, King Go
Jung's father and former regent. Like I mentioned briefly, just
a year prior before Mua was the envoy, the Japanese
had already tried to work with the Day one Tie
to overthrow Queen Men, but the plot had failed. The
Day One Gun had gone behind the Japanese's backs and
(18:08):
collaborated with the Chinese, so the Japanese were understandably incredibly
hesitant to work with him. But the Day One Gun
was now in dire financial straits, and so Mura believed
that he could more easily be manipulated and pressured into
doing what he was told. Ultimately, though, the truth is,
(18:28):
Mua had no better option. It took some time to
iron out the details, but finally, on October third, eighteen
ninety five, the Day One Gun and the Japanese came
to an agreement with that the plan was set. Now
they just needed to wait for the perfect moment to strike. Unfortunately,
(18:50):
for Mura and his alliance, the necessary time to act
came before the perfect moment, and it came quite fast.
On October seventh, less than a week after the alliance
had finalized arrangements with Queen Men's father in law, Mura
received reports that Queen Men was about to disband the
Hullian Day ally with Russia and order the assassination of
(19:15):
multiple pro Japanese politicians. Mura needed to act fast before
his base of support was swept out from beneath them,
and so he decided that the very next morning they
would kill the Queen. As I described in this episode's introduction,
on the morning of October eighth, a mob descended on
(19:36):
the Royal Palace in search of Queen Men. The mob
was made up of Jullian Day so She's staff, members
from the newspaper, Japanese soldiers, Korean policemen and other soldiers
in plain clothes, and some random Korean civilians. With help
from palace insiders, the mob breached the inner rooms of
(19:57):
the Royal Palace, where they found the queen amongst her
ladies in waiting. I won't go into too much detail,
but once the mob found Queen Min, they assassinated her
very brutally. To say that they engaged in overkill would
be an understatement. Suffice it to say all that remained
of her after the coup was a singed fingerbone. Historian
(20:21):
Danny Orbach posits that the mob so brutally murdered Queen
Men for a couple of reasons, including their misogynistic attitudes
towards the queen and the competitive nature of the search
for her. Regardless of the reasons, they were so complete
in their decimation of her that, until her remains were
(20:42):
recovered in a forest much later, it was sometimes thought
that she had just disappeared. Importantly, there was no clear
evidence as to who the exact person was who had
killed Queen Min, and so to this day it's still
unknown which member of the mob murdered the monarch. Waiting
(21:04):
for the Queen's assassination to take place, the Daewengun arrived
at the Royal Palace at six a m ready to
swoop in to claim power back from the woman who
had taken it years ago. Mura later described the Dewengun,
as quote, beaming with delight as he entered through the
palace gates. He was pleased with himself to have toppled
(21:25):
the woman who had pushed him out previously, never mind
that he was now a pawn of the Japanese. The
day Onengan was ready to resume power with the assassination executed,
Mura and the Daewenguan met with the dayeongun son, King Gojung,
who was shell shocked and upset. The Daywengun presented the
(21:47):
king with a variety of documents to sign, including a
proclamation denouncing Queen Men and relegating her to the rank
of commoner. In a rare moment of courage, Ojung refused
to sign anything and told his father, you can cut
my fingers off, but I will not sign your proclamation.
(22:08):
The Day one Gun went ahead and published the edicts
without his son's official seal, but that was enough to
indicate to the general public that there was some sort
of foul play going on. Everyone denounced the edict as fraudulent,
and the Day one Gun had to retract it. He
attempted again to undercut Queen Min's public image. A couple
(22:31):
of days later, King Gojung was being kept confined to
the Royal Palace despite the horrific murder that had taken
place there just days earlier. Perhaps the king could stomach
this because he didn't yet know that his wife was dead.
He actually believed at this point that she had escaped
the mob, as she had during multiple previous other attempted coups,
(22:56):
and like I previously mentioned, there was no treece of
her remaining. So, capitalizing on his son's ignorance and seclusion,
the dewengan issued another edict under his son's name, stating
that the king was divorcing Queen Min for desertion and
that he would remarry. When King Gojung heard of this,
(23:19):
he was infuriated. He turned around and issued his own edict,
in which he raised the queen's status to bin the
title for the first rank of women of the Internal Court.
It took some time for everyone to accept what they
soon all knew Queen Min had been murdered. A month
(23:41):
and a half after the Royal Palace had been stormed,
King Gojung's cabinet finally made an official announcement that Queen
Min was dead, but that the events of October eighth
would be investigated. Even though it took over a month
for this investigation to be announced, the public knew from
(24:02):
day one who really was the power behind the murder.
From the moment news of the coup and Queen Min's
assassination became public, it was clear to everyone that the
Japanese were involved. Even as the coup was happening, witnesses
could see the men dressed in Japanese clothing and wielding
(24:24):
Japanese swords tearing through the palace. When reporters for the
English language newspaper arrived at the Royal Palace, they found
that the main gates were being guarded by Japanese soldiers.
Mura's personal involvement wasn't too difficult to deduce either. Korean
royal emissaries reported that after having been dispatched to alert
(24:48):
Mura to the coup, they arrived at his offices to
find him and the emissaries secretary dressed and waiting by
the door with their sedan chairs ready to carry them
to the palace knew what had happened and were just
waiting to be summoned. Once officials started investigating, there was
ample evidence that pointed to Mura's role in leading the conspiracy,
(25:12):
but that didn't stop Mua from attempting to hide his complicity.
He tried telling other foreign emissaries that some Koreans must
have dressed up in Japanese clothing to frame the Japanese.
Mura also tried to peddle this lie to his own
superiors in the Japanese government, and even pretended that Queen
Men might still be alive when he already knew she
(25:34):
had been killed. You might be wondering how much the
Japanese government back in mainland Japan knew about the assassination
scheme beforehand. Historians widely believed that Tokyo had no idea
of MUA's plan before it happened, and their actions after
the fact definitely do indicate that. There's pretty ample evidence
(25:56):
that Mura spent much of his days after October eighth
working to convince his superiors, like the acting Foreign Secretary,
that he had no idea of the plot and was
working to investigate it. But like a guilty child who
thinks they're smarter than their parents, Mura just couldn't help
himself and kept dropping hints that pointed to the truth
(26:19):
inadvertently or not. He eventually admitted to the Foreign Minister
that Japanese actors might have been involved, and that he
did believe something had needed to be done about the queen. Anyways,
when Mura's complicity became clear to government officials, Tokyo summoned
Mua and his co conspirators back to Japan, expecting a
(26:41):
hero's welcome upon their return. The foreign envoys were instead
met at the docks in Hiroshima and arrested. Mura and
his co conspirators had been charged with murder and conspiracy
to commit murder. The subsequent trial riveted the Japanese public
as multiple so she who had participated in the coup,
(27:03):
admitted under oath to participating in the killing that day,
and historians admit that the trial was shockingly honest and
forthright with the evidence regarding the conspiracy up until the
day of the assassination. However, the court ended up acquitting
all of the defendants of charges. The judge, in his
(27:24):
ruling stated that while everyone charged had clearly been involved
in a conspiracy to kill Queen men quote, there is
no sufficient evidence to prove that any of the accused
actually committed the crime originally mediated by them. In other words,
because no one could prove who had killed Queen Men,
(27:47):
they all got off. No one knows exactly why the
court made such a ruling. The case had been surprisingly
transparent regarding the complicity and responsibility of men like Mura,
and yet they were still acquitted. Perhaps the government stepped in,
but perhaps the judge in this case made the ruling
(28:09):
entirely of his own accord. There's no evidence pointing towards
government interference, but that's not to say it didn't happen.
A lack of evidence isn't proof that nothing happened. You
might also be wondering why Korea didn't try the various
co conspirators. Because of a clause about extra territoriality in
(28:31):
a treaty that Korea and Japan had signed in eighteen
seventy six, Korea was powerless to try Japanese nationals for
their crimes. In the end, Japan had wrapped up the
matter by January twentieth, eighteen ninety six, less than four
months after Queen Men's assassination. King Gojung's process of mourning
(28:55):
and commemorating his wife, on the other hand, took him
over two years. Perhaps because it took him almost two
years and support from the Russian delegation to wrest back
control of his throne from his father. But once he
was secure back in power in eighteen ninety seven, King
Gojung wasted no time honoring his late wife. He first
(29:18):
issued her a new posthumous name, Myung Sung, when Gojung
proclaimed himself as emperor a few months later. He also
changed Myeongsong's title from queen to empress. Her final and
current posthumous title is Mungsong the Great Empress. Gojung also
(29:39):
planned an extravagant funeral procession for his late wife. The
Procession through Soul featured five thousand soldiers, six hundred and
fifty policemen, four thousand lanterns, hundreds of scrolls honoring her,
and giant wooden horses intended for her use in the afterlife.
(30:00):
She was laid to rest in the Josian Royal Tomb Complex,
where Emperor Gojung would later be buried alongside her. Empress
Mungsong could not have known it, but she would be
the last queen of Korea, and even though she was
technically the second to last Empress of Korea, she is
(30:20):
commonly known today as the Last Empress, Her reign and
assassination have been dramatized as a television series, a movie,
and the first Korean musical to grace a Broadway stage.
Despite enduring a brutal death, Empress myungsung continues to have
an impact on Korea and lives on in the Korean
(30:42):
consciousness over a century after her passing. That's the story
of Queen Min and her assassination. But keep listening after
a brief sponsor break to hear how recently discovered documents
shed light on the details of what happened October eighth,
eighteen ninety five. Perhaps because of the chaos and confusion
(31:11):
of the attempted coup and assassination of Queen Men, there
were very few written accounts that captured the events of
that morning on October eighth, eighteen ninety five. Luckily for us, however,
there have been two separate recent discoveries of just that.
It's not surprising that the first recently discovered eyewitness account
(31:33):
only came to light over one hundred years after Queen
Men's murder, given where it was found in the nineteen
nineties and early two thousands, researchers uncovered an eye witness
account of the coup deep in the archive of foreign
policy of the Russian Empire, in the fourth appendix of
(31:54):
a report sent to the Russian government by the Russian
Minister to Korea. The writer was a Russian civilian under
the employee of King Gojung in eighteen ninety five. He
had been hired as an architect by the king to
design Western inspired buildings, and just so happened to be
living at the palace the morning the mob breached the walls.
(32:18):
He described the frenetic energy of the Japanese men as
they dashed around searching for the queen. When a palace
staff member who was participating in the raid recognized the
Russian man and told some of the Japanese soci that
he too was an employee at the palace, they grabbed
him and tried to force him to locate queen men.
(32:40):
The Russian wrote, Both of the Japanese and a new
one who had just joined them, ran up to me again,
grabbed me by my gown, and dragged me off to
the Queen's chambers, demanding that I show them where she
was hiding. Moreover, one of the Japanese repeatedly asked me
in English, where is the queen? Point the queen out
to us? I tried to convince them to leave me
(33:02):
alone because I did not know and would not know
where the queen was, but they did not listen to
me and just kept repeating, where is the queen? Point
the queen out to us? The Russian then supposedly escaped
the palace without witnessing the queen's actual murder to deliver
his report to the Russian minister. Some scholars believed that
(33:23):
he did in fact witness the murder, but to save
himself from becoming a target, never admitted it. Ultimately, his
account only confirmed what most already knew to be true,
the Japanese were involved in the assassination. A more recent
discovery revealed just how involved Japanese officials really were. In
(33:45):
twenty twenty one, a Japanese man purchased a collection of
letters at a flea market, and upon having them deciphered
by a Korean Japanese scholar, he learned they were written
by a consular assistant in Korea in the eighteen nineties.
In a letter sent to a friend one day after
the attempted coup and murder. The man didn't mince words.
(34:09):
We killed the queen, he wrote, My job was securing
the entrance. We crossed the wall and barely got into
the building where we killed the queen. Upon reflecting on
the queen's death, he stated, I was shocked to realize
how easy it was. While the man never stated exactly
who struck the murderous blow, that he so freely and
(34:32):
proudly admitted his role in this brutal, illegal act while
serving as a minister is astonishing. You never know what
you might find at a flea market. These two discoveries
just underscore to me and hopefully you listeners, just how
important archival research is. So next time someone is trying
(34:53):
to defund the libraries and archives, just ask yourself what
might they be trying to cover up. Noble Blood is
a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from
Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz,
(35:14):
with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender,
Amy Hit and Julia Milani. The show is edited and
produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il Kaali
and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(35:39):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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