The 93 Rolls-Royces of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Some called Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh a messiah, and some called him a cult leader. Beginning in the 1980s, this controversial guru and his followers slowly took over an area of rural Oregon. Yet despite all his spiritual teachings and publications, he's perhaps best remembered for amassing a collection of nearly 100 Rolls-Royces. So what happened to them?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from house stuff Works dot com. Welcome to
Car Stuff. I'm Scott and I'm Ben. We are joined
by our super producer, Noel the Movement Brown, and of
course by you, ladies and gentlemen. The most important and

(00:24):
coolest part of this show, Scott, before we get started,
this has nothing to do with anything. Hang on a second, Well,
you can't let this the movement. Is he gonna like
that name? I don't know. I don't know. I guess
we'll have to have to run that by him before
before we published, because I don't know. That's it's very ambitious.
Well it is, yeah, it is. It is interesting. Okay,

(00:44):
that's sort of like the edge you to so apropo
of nothing. My friend, you may notice that I have
a nifty new uh coffee coffee holders. Very slick. You
just you just revealed the the branding to me, and
it is a Cadillac Thermis. Yes, how did you get that?
It's not really mine? I think they give it to

(01:06):
people when they buy Cadillacs. And my father purchased the Cadillac,
so I came along with a bunch of Caddie swags.
Wait now, is this a new Cadillac or is this
one the one prior? This is the one prior. Just
you know, my parents don't even drink coffee, but don't worry.
I'm making up for their absence. And you just you

(01:27):
just decided to swipe that from their catching drawers or something, right,
I mean, well, we're at that. We're at that stage
where every time that I visit them, and listeners, you've
probably been at this stage too with your parents or
maybe with your kids. Every time I visit my parents,
they give me things, you know, here, take this, take
this Thermis here? Sure you got room in your one

(01:49):
bedroom apartment? Right? Right? Do you need another ottoman? Yeah?
They're trying to empty out their giant home and and
stuff it all into your apartment. Um, and I do
appreciate it, but I did want to say it was nifty.
I feel a little bit classier. That is a pretty
nice mug. I mean it's it's classy. Then it's a

(02:10):
lacquered black thermos type mug. I guess Thermis is a
brand name, I know, but it's a it's a coffee
insulated beverage. It's like the folks at frisbeety container. Did
you ever hear about that? So the makers of Frisbee
products are very very protective of that name. Anything that

(02:34):
is not a Frisbee can only be referred to as
a flying disc and they're quite litigious. I have heard
about this before, and you know, there was a place
I think was there's some history there with with Pietons Um. Yeah,
it's all part of it, and Cleanex of course, and
Jello brand, and you know there's other brands that are
pretty particular about about what can be called that you

(02:55):
got towels, I guess is another one. Um, I didn't
know Frisbee was one. Lava lamp as he into it
as well. You could almost say their cult like in
their dedication. Oh I like it. I like it. Yeah. Hey,
But a little bit of administrative business before we get
started off air. Earlier you had mentioned that you have
an important tip for our list. No, I don't know

(03:16):
about important, but just that's something I've been thinking about
for a long time and this is something that was
It's pretty clever and it was passed on to me
from somebody else, and I feel like it's my duty
to pass this on as well. If you are somebody
who who regularly pays for your gasoline with a debit
card or credit card at the at the pump. There's
this simple, simple trick that will help you when it

(03:36):
comes time to review your bill at the end of
the month, you know, your credit card bill, to quickly
realize like what because you think back and you think,
what did I spend twenty seven dollars and thirty eight
cents at the gas station on last you know, last Tuesday. Well,
here's my my simple tip trip this. Always end your
gas gasoline purchase with a five. You're rounded up, like,

(03:56):
you know, you can bump a little bit more fueling,
you know it once it's really full. Do that every
time up to the point where the last number, the
last digit on that on that screen is a five.
And then when you get your bill, every time you
see um, you know racetrack or you know mobile gas
or whatever, there's a bolt really somewhere out there. So

(04:17):
anytime you're bolons and you're pumping the gas, you know,
a quick read down your bill. It saves you a
ton of time and trying to remember if that's your charge,
if that's a legitimate charge. Because I've had several relatives
that have been uh you know, kind of ripped off
I guess by um credit card scanners or what do
they call that were skimmers. Skimmers, that's a skimmers on
the machines at the pumps. So this is a real,

(04:39):
real simple way to keep track of your charges. And
it's it's a simple thing, but if you do it
every single time you fill up, it makes a huge
difference at the end of the month when you're trying
to tally all that stuff together, or at least keep
track of all that stuff. Don't get skimmed, don't get scanned.
I know it's a it has no place in this podcast,
it kind of does. And that we're talking about, uh well,

(05:00):
I'll say it, although it may be controversial, we're talking
about one of the oldest scams in the book of history. Yeah,
and you know a little bit about this to begin with,
because you have another podcast. As many people know the
stuff they don't want you to know. And years ago
you did a podcast and a video series maybe even

(05:20):
I don't know if there are more than one, but
at least at least one or two videos on cults. Yes,
that is right, Scott. You also made an appearance in
the video and and thank you so much for doing so.
Where in one of my co hosts and I started
a cult, or attempted to start a cult, And what

(05:41):
we were doing really was, hopefully in a humorous way,
presenting the mechanics of how a cult works, what people
do as leaders of cults, as followers of cults to
grow a cult, and why so often these things meet
at the bad end for the majority of people involved.

(06:04):
But you may be asking yourself, Scott Ben know the
movement Brown, Why are you guys talking about cults today? Yeah,
this isn't a show about religion. This isn't stuff. This
is car stuff. So what's going on? And if you
read the title, you probably know where we'reheaded with this.
But you're gonna find that there's another couple, you know what,

(06:24):
I'm gonna slip another couple of automotive manufacturers into this
podcast that maybe you don't know about it. It's Sumi
related great in a way. Um, so when we get
to it, you'll you'll you'll hear what I'm talking about.
But um, don't tune out if you think that there's
gonna be a lot about this, this guy, this religion
this this movement, and it's fascinating stuff. It's really interesting.

(06:45):
We'll give you some some uh some interesting things to
look at and and listen to along the way, and
some specs as well, and suspects that's right, yeah, and
just fascinating stuff that this This is a this is
a really intriguing story. And I encourage listeners to dig
into this even further if they would like to, because, um, well,
it comes from one of the books that we uh
we we regularly refer to here on the show, right right, Yes,

(07:08):
one of our favorite car stuff text Strange but true
Tales of car collecting by a fellow named Keith Martin
along with the editors of Sports Car Market. Our story
begins on December eleven one, when a strapping young man
named Chandra Mohan Jane is born. A strapping young man.

(07:30):
That's a strapping intent. Alright, no problem, good health, alright, Well,
this guy, I don't know what he was like in
his his early youth. I'm sure he was strapping, ben,
but I shouldn't. I shouldn't. I'm not sure what's strapping means. Actually,
I just I've been reading a lot of older books.
Doesn't mean in shape it does. I think that totally.

(07:52):
It doesn't fit. Well, it's okay, well it's it's finance.
Is a regular person, a normal boy was born in
India and and then later in life he went on
to get a master's degree in philosophy. He was a
professor at an Indian university in the nineteen fifties and
nineteen sixties, and um, somehow he became this kind of
the self described spiritual leader along the way. Yes, yeah,

(08:15):
a chosen one, someone with the express h O V
lane access to divinity. And he was a disciple of
a Russian spiritual teacher, um who thought his his belief,
I guess was that that most humans live in what
they call a walking sleep or awaking I'm sorry, awaking
awaking sleep, and that they live and die in this condition,

(08:39):
in some sort of benighted existence without enlightenment. And so
this guy, uh, we'll just call Shri Rajnish. Should we
should we give him the title right now? Ben or not? Uh,
you know, let's go ahead and do it all right.
The bag uan bag which means um, it's sanscrit for

(09:01):
like the chosen one, the embodiment of God. And so
this is like the human form of God on earth
and he is here to deliver the message of God
to his followers. And uh so the Baguan Shri rajnish
Um formed his own cult there, I shouldn't say cult,
his own movement in nineteen seventy four in India m

(09:21):
uh and this was set up at a place called
Puna he a p o o in A and along
the way, the Bagwan was making some major waves. He
was an advocate of free love. He was doing some
of the things that are considered by researchers to be

(09:47):
indicative of a cult. So right away, before we go
any further, I know that term is troubling to some people.
It's a loaded term, it's a loaded termine. It may
be an unfair one. Is one person's cult is another
person's true religion. Right, So, the connotations of a cult

(10:07):
or things like removing the agency or autonomy of the followers,
removing their financial independence, things like that. And as we'll see,
regardless of how this came to be or the intentions
behind it, ultimately that is what happened to a lot
of these people. Yeah, he was referring to himself as
a mystic, a guru, a leader, you know, spiritual leader,

(10:29):
a spiritual teacher, a messionic figure exactly. And he created
I guess what they call the Rajnish movement. And the
movement was and of course this this following to people
that that would follow him and do whatever he said
and whatever he thought. And uh it was it was
really um it just textbook. Uh you know, um, I

(10:49):
keep referring back to his textbook called behavior and he
along the way. Of course, you know, he's he's profiting
from uh you know Westerners and Europeans that are visiting,
uh this this Indian um complex that he is. He
is set up now at this point and it's kind
of like a retreat, but he is using the money
from that retreat to um enhance his lifestyle. I guess.

(11:12):
Ben he was a he was a lover of the
finer things in life. So even though he was preaching
and practicing or not really practical, he's preaching that um,
you know, austerity and you know service and service community
and things like that to his followers. He was, you know,
partaking of the finest French brandy and chocolates and Chinese
jade and umah pens. He was big and depends which

(11:36):
I found straight and not fountain pens, but like the
you know, um, the regular pens like stickpens. However, he
would get you know, like the gold and silver pens
that were diamond encrusted and at the top of the line.
He would order pen after pen from companies that would
create these, um luxurious pens. I don't know how better
to describe a pen, but that luxurious really, but it's
a luxury item. And in nineteen eighty one, the uh,

(12:00):
the problems between his organization and the government of India,
the Indian authorities, forced or let's say, inspired a move
to the United States. Yeah, you know, Ben, I need
to mention one quick thing here. When he was in India,
he was driving Mercedes, Benz and some other top of

(12:22):
the top of the line cars, but not quite the
level that we're going to talk about in just that's
that's right, Scott. Yeah, this guy as a love for
the finer things. He and his second in command had
discussed the idea of establishing a new commune in the
late nineteen in later in the year of nineteen eighty,

(12:44):
so he didn't agree to travel there until May of
nineteen one, when he got there he established compound where
they bought around what a hundred square miles or so, well,
it's sixty four thousand square acres okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
or two hundred sixties square kilometers. This ranch, which have

(13:05):
been called the Big Muddy Ranch, located across two counties
and near a small town in Oregon named Antelope. Yeah.
And then I'm going to just jump right ahead and
tell you this that they quickly renamed that ranch. It
was no longer the Big Muddy Ranch. It became raj
niche peram or the was it rancho some, some called

(13:27):
it m a lot of different names for it. But um,
as they moved into this town or this this area
that the the closest local area was a town called Antelope, Antelope, Oregon.
And we did we even say that we're in there
in Oregon. Yeah, okay, So so Oregon, like the northern
part of the state, and this, uh, this community that
has at this point in the population of nearby Antelope

(13:50):
was forty seven people, so very very small area. It
was a ranching town. Uh. They were really tolerant at
first to this big group moving in because he brought
with him, um, about twelve hundred people. I think um
a huge group of people, and they were going to
inhabit this ranch. But they found that the ranch um
did not have all the facilities that they need, all
the utilities. Utilities, not facilities, because they were building facilities,

(14:15):
but they didn't have utilities. That was the problem. They
didn't have electricity and running water and everything necessary. They
didn't have roads or any of that stuff. So all
that was going to be constructed and built on this property.
But so as you can guess, Ben, it wasn't too
long before they kind of moved into the the downtown
area of antal up the small downtown area, and they
started buying up property. They started renaming things, as I said,

(14:36):
and they were changing the names of things. So they
quickly also took political positions in town, which is important,
really important. And uh, you know, as I said that,
you know, the people in Antelope were at first tolerant,
but then they became a little bit concerned and then
eventually they became angry with this group. And we'll find
out why. But um, as said, they were changing names.

(14:58):
It's like the change things is into like places called
like Zorba the Buddha nightclub, and um Zorba, the Zorba
Delhi or you know, places like the things like that.
They changed the name of the landfill ben too. This
is the strangest thing, the Adolf Hitler recycling Center. I
don't have any clue why they did that. It almost

(15:18):
seems like just a like a like a snubbing to
the people of the town, like we're just gonna name
in an outrageous way. Well, maybe there was some sort
of spiritual uh logic behind it. No, there probably wasn't.
It was just it's just just a mean move, I think,
just to change, just to show how dramatically they were
gonna change things in this small town. And uh, you know,

(15:40):
should we mention um that at this point he decided that,
you know, after the purchase of the property, which which
was for something like six million dollars that ranch wasn't
cheat six million bucks um, he began a period of
public silence. He wasn't gonna speak anymore. So he had
a sidekick. And the sidekick was someone named mam On
Sheila Ah. Yes, the very outspoken, passionate uh person who

(16:09):
became the gatekeeper for any communication with the leader of
this movement. Yeah, because he was not speaking to anybody.
He wasn't doing any interviews, wasn't doing any of that.
This was the mouthpiece for the organization, and it was
kind of up to her. I guess in the direction
that all of this went, you know, the way that
the media saw this group moving into the small town
in Oregon, which is is going to be instrumental later

(16:32):
in the ultimate evolution of this situation. I just did it.
I said Oregon. I meant to say Oregon. I'm the Midwest.
I say it sometimes both ways. You'll hear it both
ways in this It's funny because we talked off the
air about it, and one of our coworkers is from Oregon,
and you had assured me. You said, well, he's from Oregon,
and I asked him and he says, this is the

(16:53):
correct way to pronounce it. But I might go back
and forth. Yeah, I have the different pronunciation. I think
there's a couple of different ways to say it. But
anybody from that region will say Oregon. So I'll try
to stick to that as we go through here. But
this this person, this uh, the Sheila will call yeah
mon non Sheila. She was what they called They said
that she was acid tongued pistol packing. She was his

(17:15):
his right hand man really, but it was a female ya,
And you can see some hilariously awkward interviews. Oh yeah,
you know what? Um? Can I point them to one? Yes? Okay.
So if you want to just get a taste of
what this person is like, take just just Google search
for this. Good luck to you and your pimps. Search
for that, and you'll find a three minute video clip
that will, uh, that will encapsulate what this person is

(17:38):
like too. In in a lot of interviews, it's not
just that one. The further you deep, further you dig
rather deeper, you'll find that most interviews went this way
with her, Yes, very contentious. The interview that Scott his
references in particular was in Perth, Australia. So here's the thing.
We're gonna get to the rolls races, I promise, because
it's it's it's coming fast here. This this group grows quickly.

(18:02):
I mean, of course, he has a huge following from India.
There was something like fifty thousand visitors annually to this
place in India when he left, and of course he
left amid some turmoil there. It wasn't it wasn't on
his own terms by any means, but when he gets here, um,
it also quickly grows into the thousands of people that
are visiting, and of course they're all, you know, contributing

(18:25):
to the commune and the dollars in the bank account
being to grow and grow and growing. Pretty soon, this
group has something like that like five thousand people that
live on the commune. Remember this is a town of
formerly forty seven people. Right now there's five thousand people
living on this commune and one hundred million dollars in
the bank, including infrastructure. So they went from no water,

(18:46):
no phone lines, no gas, no sewage to a community
with a fire department, police restaurants, malls, uh an airstrip,
a bus system, a sewage reclamation plan. It's a shocking
growth for this for this community. And not only that,
it's just it's it's really strange because they call this
group the Orange people, and the Orange people name is

(19:10):
maybe a little bit outdated at this point because here
in the States, they changed their their their mode of dress.
I guess just a little bit. They wanted to be
the warm, uh the warm colors of the sunrise, I
think is what they described it. As so these followers
would all wear um, initially just orange robes and that
was where the orange people name came from. Now they
were able to wear reds, maroons, pinks, color any color

(19:33):
that you would find in the morning sunrise, and uh
and that was what they were described as. And they
were all dressed in that way, and you would see
them in large groups out, you know, out and about
the city. Oh by the way, um in public parks.
They ruled that nudity would be allowed as well. So
it was just part of this whole free love idea.
And uh, just I guess I'm not really given anything

(19:54):
away here. This is this was this was oftentimes seen
as a sex cult because of the enlightenment thing, and
uh raj Nische's idea on that was that the the
human mind or individuals and current society were to hung
up on the concept of sex and that this repression

(20:15):
was in the way was stymying progress spiritually. So that
his argument would be, I'm making it not a big
deal sexist enlightenment to him and his followers, and not
only that drugs as well, and that let's play into
this whole thing as as well. So oh, you know,
let's just go and say it right now, what he was.
He was also a nitrous uh, nitrous oxide user. Yes,

(20:39):
he had a twelve thousand dollar commercial grade dentists chair
and he would just go through laughing gas a huge
amount of laughing huge amount. He was. He was regularly
hooked up to this thing, I guess, in this in
this really expensive chair. And um, that was like how
he would free his mind, I guess, and come up

(20:59):
with these these teachings. And he would give lectures. You know,
there's many many clips of him, uh, you know, sitting
in a chair lecturing into a large group about many
different subjects that you would not think that a spiritual
leader would be discussing. And most of them revolve around love, sex, relationships, drugs. Um,
there's a there's an infamous one about the F word,

(21:21):
the most powerful word in the world. Yeah, he calls
it the most powerful and he and it's almost, uh,
if you look at it now, it's almost like a
comedy routine. It's it's really bizarre, very very strange behavior,
but an interesting character, no doubt. But this guy with
his one d billion dollars and more coming in all
the time, it was like they just didn't have anywhere

(21:42):
to spend it. I mean that it's coming in that fast.
So he develops, like who said, the habit for the
finer things, and and one of those habits that he
decided to to grow into, I guess would be purchasing
fine European automobiles in the form of the Rolls Royce. Yes,
it is true, during the height of his Rolls Royce

(22:04):
collecting career, and we will we will show you his
side of the story as well, folks, during the height
of raj Nish's Rolls Royce collection, and he had a
little under one hundred Rolls Royce's. This collection, by the way,
was not considered complete because you see his followers, at

(22:26):
least according to the official party line, wanted to ultimately
have three hundred and sixty five so that he could
drive one every day of the year. The reason this
became so iconic in US history was that there would
be well even before a lot of the criminal activity
that led to the downfall of this this particular location,

(22:50):
even before that. It became iconic because there was such
a visual contrast between these people toiling in fields and
building infastructure and then lining up at two p m
It was I believe, every two pm, every day at
two pm, to throw flowers on this guy's rolls Royce

(23:10):
one of them as he drove past as he delivered
a drive by blessing daily drive by blessing. Now, the
thing that you're saying that the optics of this were
really really poor, right, it looked like massive inequality. Yeah,
because these people are working literally seven days a week
in jobs that are in service to Rajnich so that
this commune can continue, you know, whether it's in in

(23:33):
goods and products that they can sell to uh, you
know locals or the rest of the commune and uh
and as well as you know other people from outside
they come into the antelope areum um. But the thing
is like the the commune itself had forty one businesses
and they were all staffed by like people that worshiped
at the they call it worshiping at the jobs. And

(23:55):
for that, in exchange, they would get ten dollars each month.
And this is remember this is thinking eight uh one
I think it was one. Uh. They would get ten
dollars a month, free vegetarian meals and a mattress space
in an a frame house. So very austere living conditions,
very very minimal, and here he is driving by in
one of his ninety three uh you know rolls royces

(24:18):
for the daily drive by blessing as there as they're
standing at the road, you know, praying to him. Again,
it's just a it's a really difficult image to take in,
I guess if you see what's happened, like the the
disparity between the two there um. So not only that
he's making money from a few there were other commune
residents that didn't work in those businesses, but that would

(24:38):
pay pay to live there, to experience life with him
on a daily basis and with him for a drive
by a two pm. Yeah. And then there were others
that were like you know, the farmers and the you know,
the other community members that would work in places like
the Rajanish Delhi or the Rajanish Beauty salon or the
Rajani's bookstore. And the bookstore only carried Rajnish's books. So
he had said he had six it in fifty books

(25:01):
that he had written or supposedly he had written, which
of course, of course, so he had written six books,
let's say, and those are on the shelves and that's
all you can buy in there, and he would sell
photos of himself and every follower had a photo of
him on you know, Woulden Wooden beatd necklace that. No,
they had to pay pay for that as well, so

(25:22):
it's really interesting. But they would work seven days a
week at this and then he would do these drive
by rolls Royce blessings and this was I think he
got his first rolls race in nineteen eighties, so before
the actual you know, commune was anything, you know, but
when he first arrived in the United States, he bought one,
and then after that point, you know, he decided that
that was that was the car for him, that was
going to be the way that he traveled. And I

(25:43):
think he passed it off, didn't say something like it
was like, um the serenity that he yes, yeah, something
about driving in it. It was so perfectly quiet and
serene that it was the way that he needed to
travel in order to be able to meditate. I think
was how he put it. Something along that them paraphrase
and of course, but um in d the first one
and later you know, as his h as this started

(26:06):
to grow, you know, the commune started to pick up
strength of in numbers and in dollars. This became something
that he would do twice a month. He would purchase
a new Roles race twice a month, right uh. And
he defended this by he had called himself the rich
man's guru before, and he said once, I would like

(26:28):
the whole world to live so luxuriously that people start
becoming bored with luxury. And the whole earth is capable
for the first time to be so luxurious that you
don't feel any material need. All material needs are fulfilled,
then what are you going to do? There is nothing
else than meditation. So in this perspective, and I do

(26:50):
feel like an interest of fairness, we have to present
his side of it. In his perspective, this was a
step toward me enabling the war old to gain greater enlightenment.
So the logic from the detractor's side would be like, oh,
so it's okay for you da all these people. He
also maintains that his followers bought the rolls Royces for

(27:12):
the commune and that he didn't known them. But the
logic there to the opponents of this idea would be,
it doesn't make it for everyone if you just say
this is for everyone. You know, Ben, I did read
an article in a magazine that's called eighteen fifty nine
Oregon and the article is talking about, you know, the

(27:33):
the invasion. I guess they called it an invasion. And
the person that wrote this her father, I think was
a city council member or something like that. I'm foggy
on the details of that because I wasn't really focused
on that at the moment. But um, the the author
mentioned as a child remembering seeing commune members driving in

(27:53):
those rolls royces. So they might have had use of
those that on occasion, or maybe with some of the
higher up members of the of the church or the
v I P. Visit of the movement. I should say, yeah,
so maybe that was it. But um, they do remember
seeing someone other than rush Nis driving those those rolls
royces into town. However, you don't have to have that
as kind of like the fleet vehicle for your your commune.

(28:15):
I mean, that's a that's a pretty extravagant thing. Um,
and I think we all know that what's going on
here it was for him. It's it's for him. They're
all decorated the way that he wanted them to be. Decorated,
because that's another thing we haven't even touched on, is
that these aren't just like from the factory versions of
Rolls Royce cars. He would paint them in psychedelic colors.
He would use um, you know, lace curtains to further

(28:37):
decorate them. Um you know, um just crazy bizarre paint
jobs that were created by his his swammy artists. And
these were these were new Rules Royces. We should emphasize
that these weren't, you know, vintage phantoms or anything. No.
In early eighties, I think they said that the price
of Rolls Royce cars was somewhere in between. It was
like a hundred and ten thousand and two about a

(28:59):
hundred and six five thousand dollars the top end. Yeah,
there was a time where there was a brief period
of time there where there were the most expensive production
car in the world, and that would have been right then,
probably right, and so hundred and sixty five thousand. I
don't have my calculator in front of here, but um,
that's a lot of money. So yeah, they weren't. They
weren't cheap by any means, and I think they went
up to even higher that they were like a hundred

(29:20):
and seventy five thousand at the top end, I think.
But but he was generated a huge amount of sales
to the not just to that area, to to one person,
but to the United States because Rolls Royce wasn't producing
as many cars as they do. Now. Oh, I've got
the calculation. There's Scott hundred and sixty five grand in
let's say nineteen eighty when he bought the first winter,

(29:42):
would be a roughly four hundred seventy six thousand, eight
hundred forty one and cents. So this is so this
is ballpark. I mean, if we put it in today's perspective,
this is a million dollar a month habit. Yeah, a
million dollars a month. One one more quickening. A little
side note. I forgot to mention this. He was also

(30:02):
enamored with movies, movies of all kinds, and he would
watch movies. I would guess, well, he's you know, his
nitrous meditation, Yeah, you know, kick. I would think he'd
watched movies all day long because he was watching so many,
to the point where he had staff members or members
of the commune that would fly to nearby cities like
San Francisco or maybe to Portland and by the latest

(30:25):
movies to stock his shelves. He had that many movies
and that much of a fixation on watching the latest movies,
and he would just do that all day long while
he was thinking or whatever he was doing. It seems
more and more isolated too, which is where our story
takes a little bit of a turn. But first, let's
talk about maybe the kind of Rolls Royces that he had.

(30:46):
So we mentioned that a lot of these had paint jobs,
which some of some of uh, you more traditional members
of of car stuff may find disturbing. One on a
great example would be the black kimono Rolls Royce, which
you can see you can see some close up pictures

(31:07):
of on YouTube. This is a Silver Spur. A Silver
Spur Rolls Royce is the longer wheelbased version of the
Silver Spirit and these are nice cars. This is the
first time in Rolls Royce history that they have the
retractable uh what's the thing, the Spirit Spirit of Ecstasy. Yeah,

(31:28):
the retractable Spirit of Ecstasy because, as you may know
from one of our earlier shows, that is also one
of the most frequently stolen, uh, the most frequently stolen
badges of his show. Okay, so it was automated even
back then. All right, so this is one that's it's painting,
not just this one in particular, this is one of
ninety three. But yeah, the black kimono, the black kimono,
is this the one that has a Swan's painted on

(31:49):
the outside flyin swans um and I believe any of
the kimono or kimono versions of these if you see
the word kimono after or anywhere in the name. He
also would wear match and kimonos that that went along
with us for photo opportunities because there's a lot of
press up, you know, out there interested in talking to
him or at least talking to his followers while he
was standing there. So these elaborate photo shoots would happen

(32:12):
with him dressed to match this this Rolls Royce. It's
just it's unbelievable what was going on there. And there's
so many of those two. I mean, there's there's several
themed Rolls Royce cars that he had in the collection
with you know, I think every one of them had
some kind of crazy paint job. It wasn't like there
were there were many that were left stock, right, like
Swan's Japanese silk Grove super bright candy colors on them

(32:35):
UH two tone vehicles. Yeah. Almost every paint job on
these was customs and for the most part he dealt
with you know, one local dealer I think, and you know,
had good, good reputation and relationship with that guy. Um,
you know, the owners of of uh, while the owners
of Rolls Royce at the time, the CEO of the
top guns there would say, Um, you know, it's an

(32:57):
unusual place, but he's a great customer. We really enjoy,
enjoy and there's a there's a good, um, you know,
marketing opportunity there for us, you know, because anybody who
has ninety three of our cars, of course that's going
to be a great customer. And you know, just to
give you an idea of you know, what's going on here,
Rolls Royce Motor Cars. UM. I think the the u
S headquarters at the time was in Lynhurst, New Jersey.

(33:19):
I don't know if that's still true or not, but
they said it was a profitable and somewhat odd relationship
with with rush Niche of course, with what he's asking
for the colors and things combinations. Um. The commune had
its own service center and a Rolls Royce engineer would
periodically travel there to troubleshoot the cars for him because
he did drive them. And that's another That's another thing,
little spinoff here too, is that, um, a lot of

(33:40):
people felt that he was kind of a menace on
the roads in that area. They didn't like him because
he would drive these I guess really fast and kind
of recklessly. These have V eight engines too, Yeah, real
will drive V I'm guessing he's doing a little bit
of uh yeah, he's doing a little bit of uh
bag uan drifting out there and the and the in

(34:01):
the rural areas of Oregon. So, um, a lot of
people didn't like the way he drove those cars around.
And I don't know how much you know there is
to that. Of course, they probably just didn't like the
guy in general. What's doing to the company. Only May
twenty hundred of the car of those cars for years
every year and then not that May made it to America.
Only only eleven hundred made it to America. So he's

(34:21):
buying a percentage a pretty good chunk of the cars
that are coming to America just himself. He represented something
like I think it was a million and a half
dollars in sales. I think, um in h for just
for this one guy. And of course that was towards
the end. I guess that was the the near the
end of the whole thing. But um, what an interesting

(34:44):
character this was it. Now there are some things that
led to the downfall of the of the rules in
this town now. So he's of course massive, huge collection.
There's you know, all these strange happenings going around. He's
renamed everything in town there. They've got political control of
that Antelope area, right, and they're bringing they're bringing things
to a boiling point to what Malcolm Gladwell would call

(35:06):
a tipping point when they do things like politically shut
down the Native residents is access to schools of their choice.
And then he is also going according to his former
right hand Sheila, he's also uh going bigger. And he

(35:26):
demands at a time when he has ninety rules royces
that she buy thirty more. Oh my gosh, okay, so
so okay, So it's getting a little bit crazy. They're
they're they're really hungry for political seats at this point,
and they're trying to get seats on the on the
county board. There's only three seats, I guess on this
county board. Two of them are up for for upper

(35:47):
grabs in this in this election that's coming up at
the end of And this gets really strange, and I
don't know how much we really even want to go
into this, but uh, they launched a one of only
two bio terror attacks that happened in the United States. UH,
poisted against U. S citizens right, yes, in a town
called the Dallas, Oregon. The a faction of the movement

(36:15):
coordinated and successfully deployed salmonella in a deliberate food poison attack.
And they were doing this specifically to influence the outcome
of that election they just mentioned. This is so crazy.
They were They poisoned the entire town in order to
keep them from going to the polls so that they
would then have the majority vote so they could get
those those uh, those county seats. And that was in

(36:36):
nineteen and you can look up the details of this
whole thing, but it was ten it was ten local restaurants,
and they distributed it via glasses of water, um, salad,
bars of salsa, salsa, salsa bars, salad, dressing, salad. That
was another thing. In salad dressings and just any way
that um, you know, they would go to buffet restaurants

(36:56):
and distribute it there, you know, in the in the salads. Um.
So that lot of people got this and in the end,
seven hundred and fifty one people contracted this this Uh
it was it was salmonella is what they distributed, um,
the biological agent, and forty five had to be hospitalized.
There were no fatalities, luckily, but there was something that
were very close to dying from this. It was a
really serious attack. In fact, is one of those is

(37:17):
probably they I think it was the largest attack. The
other one that we're talking about would be two thoue anthrax, Yes, yes,
two thousand one, where the anthrax was sent to media agencies.
This what's interesting. The people here who were accused were
very fortunate that no one died. Two of the leading
officials were convicted on charges of attempted murder. They served

(37:39):
twenty nine months of twenty years sentences. Uh, they were
at a minimum security federal pen. But what did this
maybe of interest, what did our rules Royce loving leader
of the movement say when he found out about this, Ah,
he blamed it on everybody else, he was not involved
at all. Right, there was nothing, nothing wrong here, nothing

(38:01):
to see. It was other members. I have no control
over what they're doing. Right. He also said that there
were other crimes that they that he that he had
found out they were planning to assassinate a U S
Attorney h He asked state and federal authorities to investigate
whether or not he is telling the truth in that situation.
That's what people refer to as getting out in front

(38:23):
of something and see I'm I'm I'm chuckling at this
because what they thought was a peace loving, nonviolent commune,
you know, on the surface, I guess, and I think
the locals knew better than this because they saw the
actual activity what was happening. But the front that was
put out there for the media, for the public was
that there peaceful, you know, non violent, non violent group.
But it turns out that they're involved in arson murder plots.

(38:46):
Of course, the bio bioterrorism, you know, the with the poisoning, prostitution,
wire tapping, drug running, yet drug running, there was illegal
immigration fraud. Uh, just unbelievable amount of things that were
going on, and the people that were charged for the poisoning.
Were also find five thousand dollars. But as you said,
they're putting a minimum security prison and released after just

(39:07):
a few months, really only like twenty months or something
like that, you said, out of a twenty years sentence. Um,
and that's for attempted murder. I don't know what what
the you know, the reasoning was behind that. But they
got out and one of them was Sheila, one of them.
And I think there's another female that was, yeah, Diane
Vaughan o'nong, yeah, who I think went by my non
sunshine maybe yeah, okay, well yeah, yeah, the names are confusing.

(39:31):
But but those two were put away for this and
he just read him out, I mean, and then after
all that, you know, when he got out in front
of the charges, as you said, he hiled. He high
tailed it out of the country back to India and
started up another commune and changed his uh changed his
title to Osha or Osho excuse me? Uh? This one

(39:54):
one thing with eight eight rolls royces until because he
had set up a uh you know, of course he
knew that all this is going down, you know that
that he was likely not going to not going to
be able to hang onto everything. So you know, as
they find all the fancy pens and his his twelve
thousand dollar dentist chair, and you know everything that um
was going on behind the scenes at the commune. He

(40:16):
realized that he was gonna be able to take the
ninety three rolls royces with him, so he puts eight
of them into a separate trust for him, So he
owns those outright. And because he's not part of this whole,
this whole thing, you know, he was um on I
guess if you can call it on the good said,
he's on the good side of this uh um of
this trial. Good side, I mean that he didn't serve
any prison time um, and that he he was the

(40:39):
one who officially he sent out an official request for
an investigation. Now another part of his side of the stories.
In nineteen eighty one, he gave Sheila his lieutenant uh
limited power of attorney, and in nineteen eighty two he
removed limits on that. So Sheila announced then eighty three
that he would only speak with her. And later he says,

(41:02):
so it's very plausible, right, that's plausible deniability, Scott, because
later he says, she didn't tell me any of this
I would never condone poisoning people. Okay, Well, the whole
commune was was wired for for for video and audio
and surveillance. Uh, the pay phones were all tapped that

(41:23):
were on the property. Uh. They found that there was
a wire tapping control room with sorts that was behind
a secret door in Sheila's room of this commune. He knew,
he knew what was going on, He knew all this
was happening. Oh, absolutely, yeah, of course, and he was involved.
You know, he was involved in this stuff in India
before he even came over the United States as well,
So it doesn't seem too hard to believe that he

(41:45):
would be involved in this here as well. Yeah, yeah,
I think there's a precedent for this there. And again
that's all kind of the fall out of this whole thing.
But but the other part of this was that now
that they had to kind of break up what was
remaining there, you know, now at the town of Antelope's
return into Antelope and by the way, the only they've
got a plaque in town where they refer to this
as the invasion and you can read you can read

(42:07):
what it says. There's an inscribed plaque that um um well,
you know what, I can read it to you. I've
got what it says. It's right outside of the envelope
Oregon Post Office, and it commemorates the local resistance to
the time you know, I guess designated the time between five.
It says, dedicated to those of this community who, throughout
the Raji Nish invasion and occupation of nineteen eight one

(42:28):
to nineteen eighty five, remained, resisted and remembered the only
thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing. And that is a quote by
Edmund Burke, who was an eighteenth century Irish statesman. So
they called it a an invasion and an occupation between
nineteen one and nineteen eighty five, and it goes to
show you how they felt about this group moving into

(42:50):
their community and just taking over. And you know, there
were there was a lot of media surrounding this. I mean,
I remember in nineteen eighty five is this was all
falling apart watching this on I think it was sixty minutes,
may be um And if it wasn't the U S version,
it was the Australian version of sixty Minutes that they
were then replaying here in the States, because I do
remember seeing the people in all the different robe colors,
and you know the Rolls Royce is driving by, But

(43:12):
I didn't know the whole story. I don't think it
really paid much attention at the time. Now, the bug
one entered a guilty plea, really U Yet so the
way he did it is, uh, this is the kind
of plea where someone does not admit guilt but does
contest the charges. Uh. It was contesting charges that he
had concealed his attempt to stay in the country indefinitely sleeping.

(43:33):
What plead guilty with no time served or anything or
something like that, or don't write uh, no time to
be served. He received a suspended sentence, five years probation
and four dred thousand dollar penalty. Well, then after that
five months probation is when he he lit out of here.
Then probably he high tailed it. And I know what
a lot of us are thinking. This is one of
my first questions too. What happened to the rest of

(43:58):
those cars? What happened to the other eighty five? Right? So, UM,
I guess the best way to say this is that
you know, Rolls Royce decided that they wanted to make
sure that these were indeed cars that that were befitting
the Rolls Royce name before they were put up for auction,
because the auction was the U I guess the primary
focus here. They were going to just get rid of

(44:19):
the whole lot of them all at one time. And
they were also you can tell from some of their
publications and later statements and interviews that they were increasingly
uncomfortable with being associated with this movement for good or ill.
But uh, there's a great quotation wherein one Rolls Royce
veteran is describing how uh horrified the Rolls Royce exacts

(44:45):
were when they saw what was happening in these vehicles.
You know, like something that has Kurt Kitchen window lace
pasted on the windows. Yeah, yeah exactly, and ur or
cotton balls glued to the outside of it, and stuff
like that was happening. And of course you know the
crazy paint schemes and everything that were that were concocted
or dreamed up. But Rolls Royce did inspect the cars.

(45:06):
This is kind of an unusual move on their part. Um.
Just to give your heads up here to two of
these offers that I'm gonna tell you about failed the
third one is accepted, but Rolls Royce inspected the cars
and then, in a surprising move, offered to buy all
of them. And I'm not sure why that happened, but
the offer I guess was, you know, far short of
what the commune thought they were worth. The commune thought
they were worth five million dollars as a collection. So

(45:28):
these eighty five vehicles five million dollars. That was way
too much that the company thought that was too much,
So that says something right there. I don't know what
their offer was. But then a group called Consolidated International,
which this is this is where the other two car
manufacturers come in that I mentioned earlier in the YEA
this is strange. Now Consolidated International which is now known

(45:51):
as the Big Lot chain of stores. So you know
big lots that you see, you know the retails. They
buy all the stuff that's like leftovers from stores as
they sell. Um, big lots that you would think, what
do they have interest in in eighty five Rolls Royces?
Why are they doing that? It's it's really just a
big company that that buys and sells things to other investors.
So um, you know, they'll buy like construction equipment, they'll

(46:13):
buy auto parts or you know, consumer closeout products, and
this was something that interested them at the time, and
I thought, well, that's that's interesting. Why would they dabble
in rolls race, you know, because it's kind of out
of their realm Oh by the way, five million in
eighty five is the equivalent of about eleven point two
million today. Wow. Okay, so that's a huge chunk of
money for eighty five rolls races. But and in this condition,

(46:37):
because we do know that Rolls Royce offered them a
significantly less amount because the wouldn't wouldn't accept it, all right,
So I was thinking, why would why would consolidated international
big lots be interested in these rolls races? But apparently
they were the company that acquired the DeLorean assets back
in so when you know, remember when Delirians shut down

(47:00):
amid the scandal, and you know in Ireland, m all
of the all the unbuilt cars and parts and machinery
and all that that was left behind, that's the group
that purchased all of that, you know, And I thought, well,
that's really interesting they were that they were the owners
of Delirian for a while. Then I found out that
They also purchased the Brooklyn Car Company. H you know

(47:20):
from Malcolm Brooklyn Brooklyn when he built his SD one,
the sports car. And I think that, I want to
say the early nineteen eighties, I think was when that happened. Um,
but interesting that you know they're involved in all this.
So that's the DeLorean hasn't mentioned here, and so does Brooklyn. Um.
The third person to come in, I'm sorry I should
say that they they felt the five million dollar price

(47:41):
tag was too much as well, so they didn't they
didn't bite. They offered them less. They didn't accept it,
of course. And then the third bid was a guy
named Bob Roethlisberger who was the co owner of a
place called European Auto Group in Dallas. And Roethlisberger arrived
at the commune just three days before Thanksgiving Day and
nine eight five, this is the November. He was in

(48:03):
a private jet and he had a six million dollar
line of credit from his bank and a two million
dollar cash down payment to make. So of course money talks,
and he was able to pick up the entire lot
of vehicles, all eighty five, and according to this article
in the Orlando Sentinel, he paid almost seven million dollars
in the end for all eighty five vehicles. So you

(48:24):
know that's less the eight that that n took off
with as well. So here he is in November, he's
got to get eighty five vehicles back to um back
to Texas, and he shows up with more than a
dozen or maybe it's a dozen call car haulers that
have to go through deep snow and trying to load

(48:45):
eighty five rolls forces onto these these car haulers in November.
It's a difficult thing to do, and it cost him
a pile of money to cost him two hundred thousand
dollars just to haul them down to Texas. So this
is already seeming like a a complicated idea that he
would I would say so, and then this is it
takes a tragic turn here because the guy that the

(49:07):
Roethlisberger I just mentioned, he was only he was only
forty years old, and in April the very next year,
just uh was that six months later he died of
cancer um at the age of forty And at that time,
at that moment, forty three of those cars had already
been sold between somewhere between sixty five and one thousand

(49:28):
dollars each and so that leaves forty two cars left
to go, and thirty of those cars went to UM
an unidentified buyer from somewhere in the Middle East. I
don't know if they've ever identified who that was. It's
probably known at this point, but not in this article.
And a lot of those cars that were then remaining
from that, you know, the the the thirty as well
as you know the remaining twelve that state in Texas.

(49:50):
Some of them were repainted. But they found that a
lot of the people that were interested in these cars,
like filmmakers and athletes and business owners, they wanted those
crazy colors. They wanted this psychedelic paint jobs. They wanted
the unusual rainbow car, and the kimono cars and the
autumn car. They all had theme names, so they were
all interested in those. And you can see photos of
I think it might be Roethlisberger outside of that European

(50:13):
Motor Car Company UM, you know, with hands in the air,
you know, celebrating the fact that he's got this lot
full of Rolls Royce cars. Really interesting time in history, strange,
strange story. There's so much to say about this, about
this thing, about this uh, this group, the story. We're again,
we're just barely touching the tip of the iceberg on
on the interesting stuff that's going on behind the scenes

(50:35):
at this commune. Yeah, and this this movement we must
we must say this movement continues after the death of
its founders. So, which happened not long after as well,
right right in January, at the age of fifty eight,
oh show A Ka Chandra Mohan jane A k A

(50:59):
raj Niche passed away. And often in spiritual movements of
this nature, there they die within either the founders generation
or the generation of their successor. And typically their successor
is some kid that that that they raised in this movement.

(51:21):
So it does speak to at least the commitment of
the followers that it continues. However, there m national or
international renown really peaked in the eighties and Rolls Royce
spokes spokespeople for Rolls Royce will downplay their involvement in

(51:42):
this incident by saying, you know, this is a blip
in our eight decades and counting history. I agree, but
it was also at the time for several years, I mean,
it was a something that a lot of people really
focused on. I got a lot of press that he
was the you know, the Rolls Royce cult leader, Um,

(52:03):
the Rolls Royce guru. Yeah, the Rolls Royce guru. Maybe
that's a better way to put it, but um, yeah
it was. It was kind of it kind of worked
for them for a while, you know, they and they
use that to their advantage. I think, of course they did.
You know, as they said, he's a good customer. You know,
we're not going to we're not going to destroy that
relationship because of you know, the way that this this
appears to everybody. But um, yeah, you're right. As as

(52:24):
as a company as a whole, I guess maybe, um
it was a minor, minor blip on the screen, um,
in the history of the company. Now, may I read
a quote from the man himself, the Bagweman himself. Okay,
it's a little bit long, you okay with that? Why
it's always entertaining. Just the other day, Andando was showing

(52:45):
me one book published against me in Australia by a
couple who have been Sannyasen's for three years and have
been in the commune. But just looking at their ideas,
it seems they have never seen me. They are saying
that they were working, working hard art and with their work,
I was purchasing rolls royces. You can see the absurdity.
Their work was not bringing any money. Their work was

(53:08):
making their own houses to live in the roads, which
were needing money, not producing money. But in their mind
and for all those three years also they must have
been resentful. Those rolls royces were not produced by the commune.
They were presents from outside, from all over the world,
and I was not their owner. I had given them
to the commune. They were commune property, and I have
not brought any of them with me. I have left

(53:29):
them with the commune. Side note not entirely true, anyway,
continues Everything that I had has been left with the commune.
I never owned anything. But there must have been the
idea that they are earning money and I am wasting money.
That is their resentment. What money were you earning? In fact,
you needed money to make houses, to make roads, to
make a damn. A damn needed two and a half

(53:49):
million dollars to make You were contributing your labor, but
we were not creating money out of it so that
I could purchase rolls royces, so that I could purchase anything.
I have not purchased anything from the money produced by
the commune. Because the commune never produced any money. The
commune was absorbing money. In fact, all my royalties, all
my books, all their profits were going to the commune.
The situation is just the opposite that I had given

(54:12):
everything to the commune. Now four hundred books in different
languages were bringing millions of dollars and royalties. Those royalties
were going to the commune. If I had wanted to
purchase rules royces, I could have purchased my own rules
royces as many as I wanted, just out of my royalties. Okay, Well,
the flaw and that the thinking about the labor there,

(54:33):
because he's saying that they're a bit resentful, that they
worked seven days a week, all day long, and this
guy will drive by and as rolls Royce to give
them a drive by blessing at two pm, and that's
all that's all I get, um, you know, or outside
of ten dollars at ten I was a month, and
what was it? A free like free space on a mattress,
I think, and pre vegetarian meals. I think it was
the other thing. Um. The problem is that they're they're

(54:57):
building up this community that is then sought out by
you know, Americans and Europeans that that come here to UM.
I think he said they spend something. Again, we're talking
tens of thousands of people visiting every year and fifty
plus maybe even more than that. And he said they
spent an average of something like five dollars apiece every week.

(55:20):
And it's it's unbelievable the amount of money that's coming in.
But he's not he's not distributing that to the people
that are really putting in the work, the backbreaking work
in order to UM to keep that going. He's not
paying a fair wage, right. And he also also these
were not all silver spurs. They had spirits, they had
you know, whatever they get there some lower line. They

(55:43):
leased several of these you know. You know, can I
just make a quick clarification when I say it wasn't
paying for And I understand that some people are gonna say, well,
they were what they were getting in return with spiritual enlightenment,
and they were, you know, they were part of this.
They went into this knowing what they were getting and
uh and they had agreed to give up all of
their material things in order to to uh be part

(56:05):
of the spiritual movement and that's what they were getting
out of it, and they also yeah, yeah, And then
there's also that argument that maybe this was a security concern.
The guy didn't leave the compound without a bodyguard or
a driver. You know, several of the vehicles had some
customized protective things, like there's one that had tear gas

(56:29):
nozzles and the bumper. There's one. Yeah, there was one
that was extended and armored. Nine silver wraith to his
that was his first Rolls Royce. He had it. He
had it, steel, he had plated with armor. Have you
purchased it? Yeah? Interesting? And then also bulletproofing, special air
conditioning and uh, you know, filtration, and then custom carpeting

(56:50):
and stuff. The works, the works, The works, my friend.
And so if you know it is it is doubtlessly
true that many, many people believed the exchange in which
they entered spiritual enlightenment for physical labor was a fair one, right.
And you can see interviews with people saying this is

(57:13):
the most important thing happening to humanity now. And for
some people, that's inspiring. For other people, and I would
count myself amongst this latter group. That's chilling but we
know that some of these rolls Royces are still around
in the hands of private collectors. Listeners. Maybe one of
you out there has seen one, or driven one, or

(57:34):
experienced enlightenment due to the amazing suspension. Yeah, maybe enlightenment
due to the suspension, right if he could travel like
boodhoo want you to travel? Oh gosh, I'm I'm trying
my best. They're going to help. Man. You know what
I got about it. That's where all my friends will
behave you know what. You know, it's funny and we're
talking about this like it's like it's something that's in
the past, but they still run a commune. The commune

(57:56):
exists to that today. And if you go to if
you look up that clip that I that I mentioned that,
uh you know that good luck to you and your pills.
Uh yeah, that that interview. If you look that up
you will see that even today. I watched it again
today because it's it's funny and uncomfortable to watch, I'll
tell you that. But if you watch that and look
in the comments today, somebody had commented I think it

(58:18):
was ten hours ago. So there's there's active members of
this community that are still searching out stuff like that
and still defending uh the views expressed in that in
that clip. And if somebody writes anything that says any
other anything otherwise, uh, they are then quickly you know,
reprimanded in those comments by someone that is of that
faith and of that community. And you'll see it's like

(58:40):
an active thing. So there's the people out there that
are that are still involved in, like you know, searching
out media about this and trying to right the right
the wrongs that are that are the method messages I
mean that are delivered about oh show um in the
media and you know, whether they were not right or wrong,
that's all in your your point of view, but um,
the arguments are still happening today. Also, you know we

(59:05):
you and I and knowl the movement Brown believe that
people's spirituality should be their own decision. It's a private decision.
We would never tell somebody what to believe. You know.
I know some of our listeners even like Honda Odysse's
and I've dealt with that, and that's their decision to make.
That's their own type of cult, their own their own

(59:27):
there oh boy, Okay, yeah, you're right now, we teach
their own right, and we always we have said that
from the very beginning, and if this is the kind
of thing that you're interested in, we're not downplaying that
in any way. But um, some people see it a
different way. What a what a fascinating story though, the
rise and fall of the largest Rules Royce collection in

(59:48):
the world to this day, I believe you know, it's unbelievable.
You would think that there would be a chic somewhere
that would have more than this at this point, but
this was and I don't know, maybe maybe at this
point in history, maybe there is somebody that has more. However, Uh,
this is the one that got the most media attention.
This is the one, the first one really that that
guard um worldwide attention, that that drew the eyes of

(01:00:11):
the world really to this small little town in Oregon
and what was happening. And I guess the outrage of
the locals. You have to you have to really dig
into this to to understand what we're saying about this
and how the people felt it was such a disruption. Um.
Again that that magazine that I mentioned, UM Oregon Magazine
eighteen fifty nine or some combination of that. If you

(01:00:32):
if you search there for information about this. You're gonna
find some interesting history tidbits and things that we didn't
describe here today or talk to you about, um, but fascinating. Man.
I love when we get a chance to look at
bizarre or little known car collections, you know, like the
car collections of Middle Eastern billionaires. Always fascinating. And this

(01:00:55):
was so short lived. This is a four year period
where he had asked this collection and there are four
or five years and then it was just gone. It
was dissolved because of you know, the the breakdown of
the imploding of this commune. Very strange. We'd like to
hear from you listeners. Are there any car collections that
you think your fellow Car Stuff listeners should know about.

(01:01:16):
If so, we would love to cover them. You can
check us out on Facebook and Twitter where we're Car
Stuff hs W and you just might see a video
of a very awkward interview from Perth, Australia back in
the day. Yeah, and oh man, I'm cracking up thinking
about it. I'm gonna go watch it after we get

(01:01:38):
me too. You can also check out some of our
episodes on Unusual Car Collections, along with every other podcast
we have ever covered at our website, car Stuff show
dot com, and you've got something else, like, say, maybe
an important automotive event coming up that you'd like listeners
to know about, maybe a topic that you would like

(01:01:58):
us to investigate in the future, or a story of
your own strange encounter with an odd car collection. We'd
love to hear that too. You can write to us
directly at car stuff at how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
a how stuff works dot com. Let us know what
you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff

(01:02:21):
works dot com.