Speaker 1: Fellow Ridiculous Historians. One of the time honored aspects of
Speaker 1: US culture is to always make fun of people in power.
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, especially in podcasting, especially.
Speaker 1: In podcasting, sketch comedy, in cafes the nation round. There
Speaker 1: is a guy named William Walker. We would love to
Speaker 1: introduce you to him if you haven't heard our classic
Speaker 1: episode from twenty eighteen in his Halcyon days. You know
Speaker 1: he was an American hero because he was seen like
Speaker 1: some kind of military version of Rocky or what's that
Speaker 1: football film, Rudy Rudy.
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, the underdog. Always root for the underdog.
Speaker 1: Yeah, William Walker keeps trying to invade different parts of
Speaker 1: Mexico and Nicarock and keeps failing.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you got to fail a bunch to become
Speaker 2: an underdog. I suppose did he ever rise above underdog status? Well?
Speaker 1: Uh no, not really.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, why don't you hear more about that in
Speaker 2: this classic episode.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show,
Speaker 1: fellow Ridiculous Historians. Going to open today with a question,
Speaker 1: and I don't know the most diplomatic way to phrase this,
Speaker 1: but what's the ballsiest thing you ever did?
Speaker 2: Well, Ben, Today's episode's all about diplomacy. You really set
Speaker 2: the tone properly, asking the audience asking me.
Speaker 1: I'm asking the audience and I'm asking you.
Speaker 2: No ballsiest thing I ever did?
Speaker 1: And super producer Casey Pegram feel free to chime in again.
Speaker 1: For the three of us, it might be a little
Speaker 1: bit different because we have a caveat. We're saying the
Speaker 1: ballsiest thing we ever did that we're willing to admit
Speaker 1: on air.
Speaker 2: Mmm. That narrows the pool a little bit, my friend,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I once gosh when you put it
Speaker 2: like that, Ben, I just don't have a good answer,
Speaker 2: and it really makes me feel like I've squandered my life.
Speaker 1: No way, No, We're living lives full of strange and
Speaker 1: ridiculous adventure. Although it always does feel weird to say
Speaker 1: ridiculous on this show, a little on the nose. But
Speaker 1: the reason that we were thinking about this off air
Speaker 1: is that today's episode is about a very very let's say,
Speaker 1: self confident guy full of chutzpah who played an instrumental
Speaker 1: role in American history. When we say America, we mean
Speaker 1: the continents South American and North American history and It's
Speaker 1: a guy that a lot of people don't know about.
Speaker 1: I didn't know about him.
Speaker 2: I know about I mean, I know, I knew. I
Speaker 2: knew of his his type. Oh, his type, Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: imperialist swine.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, expansionist soldiers of fortune.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because who knew there apparently was a time where
Speaker 2: you could just kind of take it upon yourself to,
Speaker 2: you know, go forth and conquer other countries. Yeah, with
Speaker 2: nothing but a you know, a wish and a dream.
Speaker 1: And a posseum like minded reprobates exactly. Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about that too. So imagine if you would have
Speaker 1: you ever been on vacation somewhere and thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna take a flag of another country, post
Speaker 1: it in the ground here and declare myself in charge.
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about that? I've never seriously thought
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: No, doesn't seem like those rules apply anymore. I think
Speaker 2: there's a little more paperwork.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but back in the time of William Walker,
Speaker 1: there wasn't. Really. That's the subject of today's show, William Walker.
Speaker 1: Could you give us a little introduction to this guy, Noel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he grew up in a pretty affluent family in
Speaker 2: your neck of the woods, beIN in Nashville, Tennessee, or
Speaker 2: as they say around those ways, Nashville, Is that right, yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 2: And he did everything from like he studied fencing, I
Speaker 2: want to say, and he went to the University of
Speaker 2: Nashville where he graduated at the top of his class
Speaker 2: by the age of fourteen, which is nuts. And then
Speaker 2: he earned a degree in medicine. And then he also
Speaker 2: had a as if that wasn't enough, he got a
Speaker 2: law degree. And he was technically, no, not technically, in
Speaker 2: actual facts, both a lawyer and a doctor, a law doctor.
Speaker 2: Mom and dad were proud, let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1: Right, And he did, as I think we may have mentioned,
Speaker 1: come from a prestigious family. One of his uncles was
Speaker 1: John Norvill, a senator from Michigan, founder of the Philadelphia Enquirer.
Speaker 1: He had sort of a silver spoon life, but he
Speaker 1: was also a very smart guy. And the thing was
Speaker 1: he was very self assured. He practiced law, but not
Speaker 1: for a very long time because after he was practicing
Speaker 1: law in Philadelphia, he quit and he moved to New Orleans,
Speaker 1: where he became the editor and co owner of an
Speaker 1: outfit called the New Orleans Crescent, a paper of note,
Speaker 1: and then that still wasn't enough, so he moved to
Speaker 1: San Francisco, and in San Francisco he was a journalist,
Speaker 1: and his fencing also came into play. Is that right,
Speaker 1: Well sort of. I'm pretty sure he shot people, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't three duels.
Speaker 2: Oh that's right. Oh, that's right, because he was a
Speaker 2: bit of a notorious track talker, wasn't he. Yes, he
Speaker 2: wrote these columns and there were a few notable figures
Speaker 2: who he got into some pretty serious beefs with, isn't
Speaker 2: that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah. He was quite a bantam figure because he
Speaker 1: was only five feet two inches tall, but apparently he
Speaker 1: would fill a room. One of his duels that gained
Speaker 1: national attention. The first time he really broke out in
Speaker 1: the public sphere was when he had a duel with
Speaker 1: a guy named William Hicks Graham on January twelfth, eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty one, in San France.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think Graham was known as something of a
Speaker 2: gun slinger.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So at the time Walker was the editor
Speaker 1: of the San Francisco Harold Graham was technically, for his
Speaker 1: day job, a clerk employed by Judge Rn Morrison and
Speaker 1: The thing is, as you said, Noel Graham was also
Speaker 1: a notorious gunslinger, which you could do that back in
Speaker 1: these days. You could be in the eighteen fifties both
Speaker 1: a clerk for a judge and a well known gunsman.
Speaker 1: Gunsman is a word I just made. I'm into it, Bennet,
Speaker 1: I support that. So what happened with this?
Speaker 2: So Walker, as the editor of said newspaper of note,
Speaker 2: was talking some trash about this judge Arren Morrison and dueling.
Speaker 2: This is you gotta remember, this is the time of
Speaker 2: like the California gold Rush and like you know, deadwood
Speaker 2: and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, you know this is also I mean it
Speaker 1: says it explicitly in books that we checked out for
Speaker 1: the show, like Age of the Gunfighter. At the time,
Speaker 1: dueling was a popular means of settling disputes in California.
Speaker 2: Though not technically legal, right, I mean, we're pretty far
Speaker 2: out west at this time. That's true, that's true. But
Speaker 2: so this is the funny part. It was such a
Speaker 2: popular thing that the judge actually had his clerks draw
Speaker 2: straws to see who would duel on his behalf to
Speaker 2: you know, defend his honor. They were beefed up. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that just seems real cowardly. But I guess you know,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't do that for my boss.
Speaker 1: No, I don't, but I don't think We're in a
Speaker 1: very pro dueling environment.
Speaker 2: Well, and again, Hicks was a you know, he was
Speaker 2: fond of this pastime, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: William Hicks. Graham had already taken part in numerous duels
Speaker 1: in the time of the Old and Wild West, and
Speaker 1: Walker had had some duels before, but the kind of
Speaker 1: duels he had were duels where you use a single
Speaker 1: shot revolver, and so you can if you just want
Speaker 1: to defend your honor but not hurt someone. Not going
Speaker 1: to say where this phrase is popular from. I don't
Speaker 1: want to spoil the musical for everyone, but you can
Speaker 1: just throw away your shot shoot in the air with
Speaker 1: a single shot firearm. But this fight was a little
Speaker 1: bit different because it was waged with revolvers colts specifically.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they had five and all of them were fired.
Speaker 2: And Walker took a bullet through. I don't think it
Speaker 2: actually injured him, but it went through the leg as
Speaker 2: this has this book describes through the leg of his pantaloons.
Speaker 2: And then he also got one. Oh, he did get
Speaker 2: one in the thigh. And the funny thing is is
Speaker 2: that Graham got charged with aggravated assault because this was
Speaker 2: in fact an illegal activity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was later found not guilty in no small part,
Speaker 1: I think, because while Walker was shot, he was not
Speaker 1: seriously injured. Right, That's what That's what I found. Also,
Speaker 1: he from what I understand, Graham walked away without a scratch,
Speaker 1: like he he got two shots off, and Walker didn't
Speaker 1: even manage to fire a shot at Graham. And so
Speaker 1: when he was wounded, Walker eventually conceded and as you said,
Speaker 1: Noel Graham was arrested but found not guilty. And one
Speaker 1: of the strangest things about this research, maybe want to
Speaker 1: trace the life of William Hicks Graham because in the
Speaker 1: books we're reading about this duel, Graham goes on to
Speaker 1: fight other duels pretty much like immediately after he gets
Speaker 1: the not guilty verdict.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he's thirsty for these these gunfights, and it
Speaker 2: sort of shows the kind of attitude this dude had
Speaker 2: about going out and conquering stuff, you know what I mean? Hm?
Speaker 1: Oh, And I want to correct myself there because I
Speaker 1: said he wasn't seriously wounded, but I found conflicting reports.
Speaker 1: Reports of the time described it as a trifling wound,
Speaker 1: but later historical reports described as very serious wound. I've
Speaker 1: always assumed a gunshot is a serious wound. I would
Speaker 1: assume so well assumption. Decide. One thing that is great
Speaker 1: about this duel is despite the fact that he lost
Speaker 1: the duel, William Walker, as we said, becomes known in
Speaker 1: the public sphere. He's in the paper, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Lawyer Dulis William Walker not walking for a while.
Speaker 2: That's a cute man.
Speaker 1: It's they were very cute papers at the time. So
Speaker 1: this is just some backgrounds about this guy. He's well off,
Speaker 1: he's a hot head. He's also not shy about his opinions,
Speaker 1: both his opinions on slavery, he's very much in favor
Speaker 1: of it, his opinions on the expansion of the United States,
Speaker 1: and his opinion on how to apply his patriotism.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he got a little bit of inspiration from
Speaker 2: some stuff that was going on in Cuba. There was
Speaker 2: a dude named Narcisco Lopez who was born in Venezuela,
Speaker 2: and this was in eighteen fifty, by the way, and
Speaker 2: he gathered up a band of mercenaries to basically try
Speaker 2: to conquer part of.
Speaker 1: Cuba and then make it part of the US.
Speaker 2: Make it part of the US is annexing And what
Speaker 2: is that.
Speaker 1: That that would be annexing it if it were an
Speaker 1: authorized state action.
Speaker 2: That's the thing. This guy has kind of took it
Speaker 2: upon himself, Yeah, to do it, and Walker like the
Speaker 2: cut of his particular jib and said, huh, interesting, I
Speaker 2: want to try something like that.
Speaker 1: And this was known as filibustering for a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of us listening in the US right now today,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, as we record this in case you happened
Speaker 1: to be listening three thousand years in the future. For
Speaker 1: a lot of US, philibustering today only describes the political
Speaker 1: practice wherein a congress person will try to put off
Speaker 1: certain voting actions by just talking forever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like we do on this podcast.
Speaker 1: We're good at we get to the point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we know what we do, but we're we're But
Speaker 2: I feel like I could be accomplishing so much stuff
Speaker 2: if I wasn't always just talking into a microphone.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could say that about anything. Think how
Speaker 1: many hours a day we spend sleeping fair, let's take
Speaker 1: a third of your life.
Speaker 2: Wow, you put it like that.
Speaker 1: But these weird statistics aside, and these strange definitions aside.
Speaker 1: Filibustering at the time described this specific practice illegally going
Speaker 1: into a foreign country or land and taking it over
Speaker 1: by force with a usually with aposse mercenaries or like
Speaker 1: minded people native to the region, and then declaring that
Speaker 1: land part of the United States. One of the big
Speaker 1: inspirations for this is the state of Texas. They had
Speaker 1: broken off from Mexico a few years before, and they
Speaker 1: were held up as an example of the practice of
Speaker 1: Americans going out taking over an area and then later
Speaker 1: making it a state, and filibustering, although illegal in the US,
Speaker 1: had wide popular support because we have to remember, this
Speaker 1: is full on expansion, this mode.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: See the Shining Sea?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean manifest that destiny, right, young man?
Speaker 1: So where did where did Walker go?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So Walker set his sights down Mexico away, specifically
Speaker 2: a couple of states, one of which was Baja California,
Speaker 2: which was actually in Mexico and Sonora, and there weren't
Speaker 2: a ton of folks living there at the time, so
Speaker 2: he gathered a posse of I think around fifty men, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and just you know, marched his way on in there,
Speaker 2: and he was able to take Lapause, which is the
Speaker 2: capital of Baja and he raised his own flag that
Speaker 2: he had designed himself, which I think had like three
Speaker 2: parallel stripes on it, and yeah, and you know he is,
Speaker 2: like you said earlier, you sort of put down his.
Speaker 1: Flag and say this is mine. Now the chutzpah alone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he named he renamed the area of the Republic of
Speaker 1: Lower California, declared himself president, and then said the new
Speaker 1: legal system will be well, we're just going to use
Speaker 1: the laws of the state of Louisiana. Unless you think
Speaker 1: he is some sort of Indiana Jones type lovable rogue character,
Speaker 1: we should mention that there's a reason he wanted to
Speaker 1: use the laws of the state of Louisiana. Wanted to
Speaker 1: use those laws because they included legalized slavery. He was
Speaker 1: again very pro slavery, and words spread in the US.
Speaker 1: Just imagine people saying, you know, remember that editor, that
Speaker 1: hot headed editor from San Francisco who disappeared for a while.
Speaker 1: Well it turns out he took over Baja California for
Speaker 1: the US and he had this massive wave of public support.
Speaker 1: People would read about this story and then go volunteer
Speaker 1: to join him a member of his military force in
Speaker 1: the Republic of Lower California. And this is where he
Speaker 1: got a really weird nickname. I'm talking about the gray
Speaker 1: eyed Man of Destiny. Yeah, it doesn't quite roll off
Speaker 1: the tongue.
Speaker 2: I think it's great. I would love people called me that,
Speaker 2: the gray eyed Man of Destiny.
Speaker 1: It's a lot to say. It feels like it's good
Speaker 1: to read it in print.
Speaker 2: I just said it twice, and I love the way
Speaker 2: it sounds. So I respectfully disagree with you, Ben. Of course,
Speaker 2: of course, to each their own and noted. Now, I
Speaker 2: don't think his vice president got a nickname. That was
Speaker 2: his former law partner, Henry P. Watkins.
Speaker 1: We should also mention that when he was filibustering in Mexico,
Speaker 1: he didn't just try to take over the Baja California territory.
Speaker 1: He took over another sparsely populated area, the Sonora State.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I do want to say, speaking of diplomacy,
Speaker 2: he did start off this whole thing by asking the
Speaker 2: Mexican government to let him make a colony in these
Speaker 2: areas that were kind of sparsely populated, and he referred
Speaker 2: to it, according to this article from History as Now magazine,
Speaker 2: that he wanted to create a buffer zone between Native
Speaker 2: American and American territories. So Mexico said no, and he
Speaker 2: decided to go forth with his wild plan.
Speaker 1: And like Gregor McGregor from our earlier show, he funded
Speaker 1: his project by selling script that was redeemable in the
Speaker 1: state of Sonora. Oh wow, that he would create so even.
Speaker 2: More ballsy, seriously seriously. So yeah. He stated his claim
Speaker 2: in La Pause and also in Baha and also in Sonora.
Speaker 1: And it didn't all go smoothly, obviously. He moved his
Speaker 1: headquarters twice over the next ninety days or something, once
Speaker 1: to Cabo San Lucas and then once a little further
Speaker 1: north to Ensnata, because he knew that it would be
Speaker 1: a really close fight if the Mexican government was able
Speaker 1: to raise forces to attack. And he actually didn't get
Speaker 1: control of Sonora. He just sort of started saying that
Speaker 1: the Republic of Lower California was part of the larger
Speaker 1: Republic of Sonora, even though he didn't actually control it.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like It's like, imagine if we declared
Speaker 1: ourselves the emperors of Birmingham, Alabama, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: we're not in Birmingham, Alabama. That's kind of what happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1: And there was a notable series of attacks that he lost,
Speaker 1: which further adds noal to the one of the themes
Speaker 1: in this guy's life, which is talking a big game
Speaker 1: and then getting his keys handed to him. One of
Speaker 1: those relocations he took was a consequence of him losing
Speaker 1: a skirmish to General Manuel Marquez de Leon, and so
Speaker 1: he was eventually forced to retreat from Mexico entirely.
Speaker 2: So it's eighteen fifty four and the Gray Eyed Man
Speaker 2: of Destiny has sort of rallied some troops to support him.
Speaker 2: He actually was able to get around two hundred Mexicans
Speaker 2: to back him up, along with another couple hundred folks
Speaker 2: from San Francisco, who thought this scheme of his, you know,
Speaker 2: had had legs. But you know, as megalomaniacs often do,
Speaker 2: he didn't really plan this thing out very well. They
Speaker 2: didn't have enough supplies, and you know, the folks that
Speaker 2: were helping him started getting restless and the Mexican government
Speaker 2: wasn't having it, and they were able to really make
Speaker 2: things pretty uncomfortable for the occupying forces there in La
Speaker 2: Pause Rights.
Speaker 1: So at the same time, this is getting domestic support
Speaker 1: in the US, with hundreds of people wanting to join
Speaker 1: the expedition, raising the flag of the Republic of Sonora
Speaker 1: in different streets in the US. Things are getting increasingly
Speaker 1: hairy for Walker and co. Down there in Baja California.
Speaker 1: And know you mentioned earlier that the supplies were an issue, right,
Speaker 1: There's a strange thing that happens. He has a ship
Speaker 1: named the Caroline that is supposed to wait on shore
Speaker 1: or bring him the AMMO and the food stuffs he
Speaker 1: needs to continue surviving the conflict, and this ship sails
Speaker 1: away with most of his supplies. And then when two
Speaker 1: hundred more recruits arrived from San Francisco, his supplies are
Speaker 1: already so low. He can't feed them, he can't arm them.
Speaker 2: Wait, so they just bailed on him with his stuff.
Speaker 2: The ship just left, so it was like they were deserting. Basically,
Speaker 2: they were like this is this is it. We're done,
Speaker 2: and we're taking your ship and your supplies and you know,
Speaker 2: go af yourself.
Speaker 1: So the most diplomatic way I found it was in
Speaker 1: an article from the Virtual Museum of the City of
Speaker 1: San Francisco by Fanny Judah that says, for some unknown reason,
Speaker 1: his vessel the Caroline, sailed away with the greater part
Speaker 1: of his supplies. So when these people show up, he
Speaker 1: sends a group of them toward Toto Santos Bay on
Speaker 1: a foraging expedition, and he says, you know, find us
Speaker 1: some food to eat, find us some cattle, et cetera.
Speaker 1: They get in a fight with the natives. This band
Speaker 1: does because those people don't want to give up their
Speaker 1: stuff in return for script again the fake money that
Speaker 1: you can redeem in Sonora, which he does not control.
Speaker 1: And since they were running low on food, they couldn't
Speaker 1: get their plundering done successfully. The men began to desert.
Speaker 1: Walker starts to rest them. He shoots two of them.
Speaker 1: He has two others publicly flogged, and this makes him
Speaker 1: even less popular, so much so that he only had
Speaker 1: one hundred men when he started walking for Snorra or
Speaker 1: moving on Snorra, and by the time they reached the
Speaker 1: Colorado River there were only thirty five people with him.
Speaker 1: He's hemorrhaging supports that.
Speaker 2: You're just dropping like flies, man, and not a good look.
Speaker 2: Not a good look for a leader and a conqueror, right.
Speaker 1: Which is why you know, I think Gray Eye Man
Speaker 1: in Destiny is a good nickname. I just don't think
Speaker 1: he deserves it.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing, though, Ben, I didn't realize this. I mean,
Speaker 2: we're talking about how the laws were different, and how
Speaker 2: it was a little bit easier just to kind of like,
Speaker 2: you know, go forth and conquer, but it was in
Speaker 2: fact illegal, just like dueling. It was widely done, and
Speaker 2: I guess, you know, it was just kind of like
Speaker 2: if you don't get caught, but filibustering was illegal. And
Speaker 2: after this debacle and he returned back to San Francisco,
Speaker 2: he and his remaining ten dudes or whatever got arrested
Speaker 2: by the Army.
Speaker 1: Right for violation of US neutrality laws. Exactly. So how
Speaker 1: did this how did this trial actually go? I wonder
Speaker 1: if he was able to represent himself. He was a lawyer, right,
Speaker 1: there's a doctor, lawyer, duellist.
Speaker 2: Lawyer, dualist, imperialist, conkerer man. His business card must have
Speaker 2: been extra long.
Speaker 1: Do you think it was? Bone k yeah, bone line.
Speaker 1: So The thing is, yes, he is arrested, he's tried
Speaker 1: for these multiple violations of US neutrality laws. But in
Speaker 1: the US the population is still supportive of him. The
Speaker 1: trial goes to a jury, they list all the charges,
Speaker 1: prosecution makes the argument, defense makes an argument to your point, nol,
Speaker 1: I would be fascinated to know whether he represented himself,
Speaker 1: and the jury leaves to deliberate. They come back eight
Speaker 1: minutes later, and what do you think happened? They let
Speaker 1: him go, right, Yeah, he's acquitted of all charges. He's
Speaker 1: a true America.
Speaker 2: Do you think it's because of the chutzvah keep talking
Speaker 2: about Vin? You think the people were just like, you know,
Speaker 2: this guy is a real American, and why would we
Speaker 2: put him away for just doing what Americans do, which is,
Speaker 2: you know, going out and conquering the wilds.
Speaker 1: I think it was, you know, I think there's something
Speaker 1: to it, honestly, because I believe that the public support
Speaker 1: for manifest destiny and expansionism was at such a fever
Speaker 1: pitch that people were maybe having conversations where they said, well,
Speaker 1: there's a difference between what's right and what's legal sometimes
Speaker 1: right And so after he gets away unscathed through this
Speaker 1: adventure attempting to capture Baja California and Sonora. He says,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to go back to practicing
Speaker 1: law a little bit. They've got a reputation. Maybe I'll
Speaker 1: just go be a lawyer. And that lasts a little
Speaker 1: less than a year.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry, I just want to interject really quick. Man,
Speaker 2: I remembered something. The reason we don't hear about him
Speaker 2: practicing medicine is because as a right out of medical school,
Speaker 2: he saw his mother die. Oh wow, very horribly.
Speaker 1: So he's traumatized.
Speaker 2: He was traumatized and turned away from ever practicing medicine.
Speaker 2: So that's why the whole doctor lawyer thing didn't didn't
Speaker 2: work out. He didn't really he couldn't really do the combo. There.
Speaker 1: That's a tragedy.
Speaker 2: Please go on.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm setting you up to tell one of the
Speaker 1: strangest turns in the story. Right, he got away unscathed
Speaker 1: from his ill fated adventures in Baja California and Snorra,
Speaker 1: and he says, you know what, I'm going to go
Speaker 1: practice law again. And that lasts for about a year,
Speaker 1: and then he gets that itch, he gets that conquering itch. Yes,
Speaker 1: he gets that filibuster rich.
Speaker 2: Oh, he needs to be filibustering every day, philibuster, and
Speaker 2: so he sets his sights on Nicaragua. Weird. It's really
Speaker 2: really far, far, far far away from San Francisco, you know,
Speaker 2: Mexico made sense, you know, on the on the border.
Speaker 1: And it's sparsely populated. He also, by the way, he
Speaker 1: gets a lot of public support because he's saying that
Speaker 1: he's setting up this buffer colony to protect people from
Speaker 1: the Apache.
Speaker 2: That's right. That's right, because it was during the gold
Speaker 2: Rush and there was a lot of like these little
Speaker 2: settlements there and Indian attacks and the like, but not
Speaker 2: the case with Nicaragua. For this, this was purely exploitative
Speaker 2: on his part because Nicaragua was having some serious problems.
Speaker 2: They were like in the absolute throes of a horrible
Speaker 2: civil war, and there were these factions that were trying
Speaker 2: to control the government of the country, and they were
Speaker 2: the Leonese and the Grenadins. The Leonese were more liberal
Speaker 2: and the Grenadins were more conservative. And if I butcher
Speaker 2: that pronunciation, I don't know, you know, you got it.
Speaker 2: I just don't even care anymore. Ben, you did it.
Speaker 1: You did it.
Speaker 2: Good. I just don't care. Hey up man, No, no,
Speaker 2: I'm good. I just I just really, you know, pronunciations
Speaker 2: be damned well.
Speaker 1: Also, English is a living language.
Speaker 2: That's just that's just a thing dumb people say they
Speaker 2: mispronounced words.
Speaker 1: Are you accusing?
Speaker 2: No? No, yeah, you're just trying to make me feel better.
Speaker 1: No, no, it is. It is a living language. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: when's the last time you heard filibustering described in this way?
Speaker 1: That's a very good word.
Speaker 2: Has changed over I have never heard it actually, because
Speaker 2: we I mean, it's not even in the Webster's definition.
Speaker 1: We're yeah, we got to break it back. I'm going
Speaker 1: to start filibustering places like our local bar across the street.
Speaker 2: Where you hang out for early long time.
Speaker 1: I think I think the main thing is I need
Speaker 1: a flag. It seems like flags are really key here.
Speaker 1: I need I need it. So if you were a
Speaker 1: good vexologist, which is the fancy word for flag lover, vexologist,
Speaker 1: that's right, vexillologist. If you are a vexillologist one who
Speaker 1: is very familiar with the study of history, symbolism, and
Speaker 1: usage of flags, then hit us up and let us
Speaker 1: know what kind of flags we should have. I'm open
Speaker 1: to ideas. Are you on board with this? I don't
Speaker 1: want a pigeonhole, you know.
Speaker 2: No, man, pigeonhole away. Okay, I'm malleable. I will bend
Speaker 2: to your whims.
Speaker 1: You're a gray eyed man of destiny.
Speaker 2: No, that's you, buddy. I would I will follow you
Speaker 2: to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: I would much prefer that you take the nickname gray
Speaker 1: Eyed Manadestiny over this Walker character.
Speaker 2: Oh that's very kind, member. You can be the power
Speaker 2: behind the gray eyed throne. Man.
Speaker 1: I just want a filibuster, which sounds like we haven't
Speaker 1: learned our lesson. We're mostly joking, except you know, let
Speaker 1: us know if you have a good idea for a flag.
Speaker 1: So Walker is aware of this situation that Noel you
Speaker 1: just described in Nicaragua. The Granada faction, the more conservative faction,
Speaker 1: is at the time winning winning so hard, like winning
Speaker 1: to the nth degree, and the Leonese seem set for defeat.
Speaker 1: Walker sees an opportunity in this chaos. And this is
Speaker 1: again we have to remember, these are the days before
Speaker 1: the Panama Canal. So a lot of shipping went through Nicaragua.
Speaker 1: It was a it was a tremendously important crossroads for trade.
Speaker 2: Wasn't the kind of masterminded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was
Speaker 2: like the railroad tycoon.
Speaker 1: That trade position.
Speaker 2: Well, I think he sort of had the idea of
Speaker 2: building this canal and he wanted to connect you know,
Speaker 2: the Caribbean with the Pacific Ocean. And so Walker, knowing this,
Speaker 2: saw what a strategic stronghold economically the Nicaragua was and
Speaker 2: decided to roll the dice and offered his assistance to
Speaker 2: the Leonese.
Speaker 1: Right, yes, he offered his assistance, and he did it
Speaker 1: with very sketchy support from the US government. So he says,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get down there. I'm going to get
Speaker 1: with the Leonese, use them to augment my fighting forces.
Speaker 1: We're going to take over Nicaragua for America. Who's with me?
Speaker 1: Who's with me? Kind of like that scene in Half Baked.
Speaker 2: How many were with him? Then?
Speaker 1: Sixty sixty people said, well, I'll do it.
Speaker 2: Is not enough.
Speaker 1: That's not enough.
Speaker 2: I'm not so you know, master of war. But that
Speaker 2: seems a little on the light side.
Speaker 1: We have never in fact purposely filibustered, but just ballparking,
Speaker 1: that seems Yeah, that seems low. So here's the thing though,
Speaker 1: here's what the sketchy support was. He's got these sixty
Speaker 1: people and says, Okay, we're gonna set sail. It's eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty five by this time, and the United States Marshall
Speaker 1: tries to prevent Walker and his men from leaving, but
Speaker 1: the federal officials who earlier tacitly supported him in his
Speaker 1: quest to take over parts of Mexico, they're still on
Speaker 1: his side. In fact, before he sets sail, Walker meets
Speaker 1: with a guy named General Wool who is the military
Speaker 1: commander of the Pacific Coast. And Wool had special powers
Speaker 1: granted from the President to suppress all filibustering expeditions. But
Speaker 1: this guy, this guy meets with Walker. Walker says, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go take over Nicaragua for America. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make it like its own thing first, but then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hand it off to the US. And the General
Speaker 1: hears this plan and he says, you know what, not
Speaker 1: only am I not going to interfere, but break a leg, buddy,
Speaker 1: I wish you well, Yeah, totally. I got a question
Speaker 1: for you, man. In all of this, how is he
Speaker 1: benefiting like he is? He cashing in on all of
Speaker 1: these exploits. Like, is he just totally power mad and
Speaker 1: just wants to like be the king of a country. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough for us to ascribe motive. We know he
Speaker 1: didn't come from impoverished means or anything.
Speaker 2: I just think he was obsessed and driven and like
Speaker 2: just like kind of to a completely self destructive level. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think he just really dug power. So I think
Speaker 1: you are right, Noel, I think you're right. I think
Speaker 1: it was about the power for him. It was about
Speaker 1: the drive to conquer and to rule. As soon as
Speaker 1: they land in San Juan del Sur, he's starts to
Speaker 1: flex his muscles. He's got his sixty people with him,
Speaker 1: and he's got those Leonese troops and he starts fighting
Speaker 1: the Granada faction at the Battle of Rivas. And because
Speaker 1: he wins the day for the Leonese, he gets another title.
Speaker 1: Isn't he gets the other? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well not a nickname, say, this is almost an official title.
Speaker 2: And he's a white man. He's from from Nashville, right right.
Speaker 2: I mentioned it's so crazy how he found himself in
Speaker 2: this situation. I just don't understand like the impulse to
Speaker 2: do that maybe I'm just my brain doesn't work like this.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so he's General Lisimo now, and he declares
Speaker 2: himself to be the new president of Nicaragua.
Speaker 1: HUTSPA for days. Yeah, and the population in the US
Speaker 1: hears about this, and they love it, and soon pro
Speaker 1: slavery advocates begin trying to recruit more people to help
Speaker 1: with this cause. In Nicaragua, large southern cities host public
Speaker 1: meetings and fundraisers, and Walker begins to really settle in
Speaker 1: and make himself comfortable. And this is where he makes
Speaker 1: a powerful enemy. And Nolan's so glad you mentioned this
Speaker 1: guy earlier. We had a little foreshadowing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this Vanderbilt character does not play because I believe
Speaker 2: that General Lissimo l Presidente Walker did not allow his
Speaker 2: ships to travel through like we were saying before. He
Speaker 2: saw the strategic power of controlling Nicaragua. So I guess, yeah,
Speaker 2: there was money he was getting he was I mean,
Speaker 2: come on, he had to have been cashing in on this,
Speaker 2: no question about it, because he had such power that
Speaker 2: he was actually able to revoke the deal with Vanderbilt's company.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Vanderbilt steamship company.
Speaker 2: That's right to allow them to travel through that very
Speaker 2: important region for getting from the Caribbean the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 2: This is before the Panama Canal, right.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, this is before the Panama Canal. And Dad
Speaker 1: insult to injury. Walker gives that right of transit to
Speaker 1: a guy named Edmund Randolph, the competitor of Vanderbilts, for
Speaker 1: a term of twenty five years. And then as soon
Speaker 1: as he's consolidating his power, he reverses the anti slavery
Speaker 1: laws that Nicaragua had had for the last thirty two years.
Speaker 1: And because this guy is essentially reinstituting slavery, revolts begin
Speaker 1: to break out. Also, there's a there's a puppeteer helping
Speaker 1: strengthen and augment these acts of revolt. It's Vanderbilt, the
Speaker 1: owner of the steamship company. This has become a proxy
Speaker 1: war for him, dang making waves he is he is,
Speaker 1: and Costa Rica declares war against Walker as well. Things
Speaker 1: just go to go to pot They go pear shaped
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. And you know, it's not hard to see
Speaker 1: why if somebody came in and took over a US
Speaker 1: state and reinstituted slavery right and then angered the largest
Speaker 1: corporations in the area. Of course, things would be incredibly unsustainable.
Speaker 1: And so after about two years, as a result of
Speaker 1: these various conflicts, in May of eighteen fifty seven, Walker
Speaker 1: has to surrender. He has to leave Nicaragua. Until that is,
Speaker 1: he convinces people to join him on his second Nicaragua campaign.
Speaker 1: So he's in Mobile, Alabama, and he organizes the second
Speaker 1: Nicaragua expedition.
Speaker 2: Well, how do you get to Mobile? Where'd that come
Speaker 2: into play? It's when he left Nicaragua, he belined it
Speaker 2: for Mobile.
Speaker 1: He went back to the States. He was forced by
Speaker 1: Central American Armies and the government of Costa Rica to
Speaker 1: surrender to US Navy Commander Charles Henry Davis. And so
Speaker 1: he was taken back to New York City. And then
Speaker 1: when he got to New York, at first there was fanfare,
Speaker 1: you know, imagine the confetti, the applause. People are like,
Speaker 1: this guy's a real American hero. But then the public
Speaker 1: turned against him when he said, the only reason I
Speaker 1: lost is because of the US Navy. Also, he was
Speaker 1: using very dirty tactics in the war. He was purposely
Speaker 1: contaminating water wells with corpses. Yeah, he's waging biological war.
Speaker 1: It's awful, caused a cholera epidemic. What a guy, What
Speaker 1: a guy? And so now the US public has starting
Speaker 1: to turn against him. He goes from New York, makes
Speaker 1: his way down to Mobile, Alabama, starts his second Nicaragua expedition,
Speaker 1: and then he gets arrested by the US Navy under
Speaker 1: the command of a guy named Commodore Hiram. Paulding gets
Speaker 1: returned to the US again, writes a book War in Nicaragua,
Speaker 1: published in eighteen sixty, and then he goes back, but
Speaker 1: this time he says, you know what, if Nicaragua didn't work,
Speaker 1: if Baja California didn't work, there's another place I can try.
Speaker 1: It was trild Honduras, old old.
Speaker 2: Honduras, with the same you know, the same designs in
Speaker 2: mind as he's had the whole time. This guy's just
Speaker 2: got like stars in his eyes about his conquering. I
Speaker 2: just I still want to know, like, how is he
Speaker 2: how is he benefiting from this? It sure seems like
Speaker 2: he's putting himself in harm's way. You know, I just
Speaker 2: think he maybe just got off on the on the
Speaker 2: chaos and the chaos. I guess, yeah, this is very interesting,
Speaker 2: very interesting character.
Speaker 1: Doesn't seem like he was doing much to institute sustainable
Speaker 1: government after he took over.
Speaker 2: Now, or even had any real plans on how to
Speaker 2: do it. He doesn't wanted to declare himself the president.
Speaker 2: He just wanted to be important, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: But all this bad behavior finally caught up with him
Speaker 2: in the form of a firing squad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's right. Mm hm. So after he's organized
Speaker 1: this other expedition, put it together New Orleans, set sail
Speaker 1: for Central America. He lands near Trouscillo in Honduras, and
Speaker 1: he's still thinking, you know what, eventually I'm going to
Speaker 1: get to Nicaragua. But his men, probably thinking we have
Speaker 1: heard this before, they desert him. So eventually, as he
Speaker 1: is probably trying to take over Nicaragua, he has to
Speaker 1: surrender himself to the captain of a British naval vessel
Speaker 1: that was nearby off the coast. This guy, Commander Noel Salmon,
Speaker 1: who would later become Admiral Sir Noel Salmon, for reasons
Speaker 1: that aren't completely clear, decided that instead of returning Walker
Speaker 1: to the US, he was just going to deliver him
Speaker 1: to the authorities of Honduras along with his chief of staff,
Speaker 1: Colonel A. F. Rutler. Rudler was sentenced to four years
Speaker 1: hard labor in the mines Aaron Honduras, which shit in
Speaker 1: many ways, was a death sentence. But as he said,
Speaker 1: Walker met a different thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And we've got a really good account of it from
Speaker 2: the New York Times, published in October fifth of eighteen
Speaker 2: sixty by John E. Norvil, And this is how he
Speaker 2: describes it. He marched from his cell to the place
Speaker 2: of execution with a steady step and unshaken mien. A
Speaker 2: chair had been placed for him, with his back toward
Speaker 2: the castle. Having taken his seat, he was blindfolded. Three
Speaker 2: soldiers stepped forward to within twenty feet of him and
Speaker 2: discharge their muskets. The balls entered his body and he
Speaker 2: leaned a little forward, but it being observed that he
Speaker 2: was not dead, a fourth soldier mercifully advanced so close
Speaker 2: to the suffering man the muzzle of the musket almost
Speaker 2: touched his forehead, and being there, discharge scattered his brains
Speaker 2: and skull to the winds. Thus ends the life of
Speaker 2: the gray eyed man of Destiny. And I have to
Speaker 2: make this joke, Ben. They were using musket balls you
Speaker 2: live by the balls you die.
Speaker 1: Oh that's so good. Were you planning on that? Just
Speaker 1: that just to screw had to, had to that's good
Speaker 1: to give it. Yeah, yeah, let it fly. And so
Speaker 1: this is the conclusion of the story of the Man,
Speaker 1: the Myth, the Monster, William Walker. Side note, I don't
Speaker 1: know if we mentioned this. Do you know how old
Speaker 1: he was when that firing squad got him? No?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that here, thirty six years old. He
Speaker 1: did all these terrible things in thirty six years.
Speaker 2: Can I just turned thirty five? I know, man, I've
Speaker 2: never conquered a country even half successfully.
Speaker 1: Hey, you know what, neither is he?
Speaker 2: That's true? Do you know he was half successful?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think he just raised the rockets, okay,
Speaker 1: and then he was never legally recognized by another country.
Speaker 1: But you know what, we've still we've still got time
Speaker 1: to start countries of our own, maybe on the moon
Speaker 1: when SpaceX gets his stuff together. But that's a story
Speaker 1: for another day. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed the tale of William Walker, and
Speaker 1: stay tuned for our next episode, when we break down
Speaker 1: the story of what are they know monkey.
Speaker 2: Hangers, the Hartlepool monkey or why Hartlepoodlians are known as
Speaker 2: monkey hangars. That's happening. That's happening with a vengeance, my friend.
Speaker 1: It is inevitable.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, hit us up on the internet. We
Speaker 2: are ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com. You can join our
Speaker 2: Facebook group of ridiculous historians on the Facebook. All you
Speaker 2: gotta do is name one of our names. It's a
Speaker 2: pretty low bar. That's the magic entry question. And you
Speaker 2: know what, even if you don't know, or you say
Speaker 2: something clever, we'll still let you ends.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we like jokes. Your Nol and Ben, that's Casey,
Speaker 1: that's us.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh and we want to thank Casey super producer, Casey Pegren.
Speaker 1: Want to thank Alex Williams who composed this track, our
Speaker 1: research associates, Christopher Hasiotis and Eve's Jeff cot.
Speaker 2: And most importantly you out there in podcast land, specifically
Speaker 2: you and YouTube Ben Nol. Really you really carried me
Speaker 2: on this one, I gotta say, and I appreciate.
Speaker 1: Oh man, oh last thing. Please know we're serious. Send
Speaker 1: us flag designs if you have one.
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