WEBVTT - The Fixer: Lou Blonger 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.400 Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:07.200 Zaren Elizabeth Saren. Do you know I am going to 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.879 start being early everywhere? Yeah. I got here twenty minutes early. 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:15.480 Life changing idly. So you actually showed up somewhere early. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:17.960 Yeah, for the rest of my life early everywhere. 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.160 Oh nice. You know I was raised by Navy people 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.560 and they beat that into me. So yeah, like you do. 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:24.720 The goal is you don't try to show up at 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:26.720 the time. You try to show up like five minutes, 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:28.880 ten minutes before. Can you make that the goal to 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:30.880 aim at? Because if you try to show up at 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:32.360 the time, like you s have to be somewhere too. 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:34.520 You try to show up at two? No, you miss 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:35.639 your I. 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.600 Went to Catholic school, man, I usually show up everywhere. 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:40.879 I know you're usually very tame minutes early. Yeah, you're 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:42.720 just very very busy these days. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.120 Things, you know, you start to think like what does 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:46.920 anything matter? 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.080 Well, also you have your your succulent fan club meetings. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.560 There's that You're British tea cozy mystery meetings. 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:55.120 Oh man, yeah, those two. 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:56.800 Your social life is getting busy. 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.000 I have a busy on the go lifestyle. 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:00.120 I know it. 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:01.600 And you know it's ridiculous. 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:01.880 I do. 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.360 I saw this story and I thought of you minor 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.240 league baseball. Yeah, because your your team is now playing 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:09.280 in a minor league ballpark. 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:10.720 I don't have a team. 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.200 Your former team, the A's, are playing in Sacramento's minor 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.760 league ballparks. So I was thinking about minor league baseball 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:18.920 and you and you see these two guys here. 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:20.880 That's two different guys. 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.240 Their names are Brad Figel. They're both named Brad Figel. 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.440 Brad Figel f E I g L Okay. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:28.840 Maybe I'm pressing that wrong. 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:29.240 Whatever. 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:31.520 So, yeah, one is a minor league ball player for 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:33.800 the Long Island Ducks. Another one is a ballplayer for 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.440 the Las Vegas Aviators. Oh okay, yeah right. So they're both, 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.800 as they said, ball players in minor league. But they're 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.399 both pitchers. They play the same position, and they. 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.480 Were and they're both named Brad Figels. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.000 And they look they look exactly the same, identical. So 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:50.360 they have the same doctor. 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.160 They both got Tommy John surgery, and their doctor confused 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:58.160 them and thought like, oh, because they had the same name's. 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.000 Like, what are you talking about? Man? They did this? 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:00.720 How did you undo the surgery? And then that's when 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:02.600 they realized, wait, there's another Brad Figel. 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:03.880 How does that work? 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:04.200 Yeah. 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.360 So then when they find out about each other, they 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.160 went and actually took DNA test to see if they 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:10.440 were related, like maybe dad was. 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:11.120 A traveling man. 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.040 Yeah yeah, right, so yeah, it was like a kind 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.600 of a hard to explain, uh mystery. But it turns 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.400 out that they were not and uh they're not related. 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:23.359 They were not separated at birth. The DNA showed no 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.760 biological connection. They just happened to have a really strong 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.440 gene expression for the Figyl genes, the. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.680 Name exactly, and they have the same First I want 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:35.440 to I want to retest. 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:37.880 That is very so ridiculous. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.040 That's weird, ridiculous. Do you want to know what else 0:02:41.080 --> 0:03:06.040 is ridiculous? Oh my god, I'd love to bunco. Oh yeah, 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:11.760 this is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.519 and cons. It is always ninety nine percent murder free 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.399 and one hundred percent ridiculous. 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:19.679 Oh you damn right. 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.919 Now. I am in my family, I'm known as the fixer. 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:24.600 Oh yeah, the wolf. 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.760 That too, Like someone has an issue, like I'm called 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.360 into repair things, solve everything and it's a lot of pressure. 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.480 But like hot diggity dog, I'm good at it. 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.040 Yeah, you know, you really are. 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.080 It can be something like mundane like travel stuff, or 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.760 maybe like someone's having a meltdown and they're stuck in 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:46.080 an unfamiliar city, or yeah, negotiations need to happen and 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:47.560 I can get everyone to agree. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.440 That is true. Yeah, you always ask the central question, 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:51.720 what do you want? 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.760 Yeah? What what remedy. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.360 Do you see? Say it? 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.119 But from what you've told me, you play that role 0:03:58.120 --> 0:03:59.040 in your family too. 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.680 Yeah. I was a much more of a blunt approach, 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.400 much more of like, look, this is what's happening. I'll 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.040 pay for you to shut up, you know, like that 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:08.800 kind of stuff that's fixing it. 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.560 I got a fixer for you today. This one takes 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:14.280 place in the wild West. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:15.680 Sort of like a lot of the Old West. 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:17.599 Yeah, kind of like we like wild West. 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:18.719 I love him. 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.760 I have one for you today is full of characters, 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:24.799 and I'm going to dive right into it. Bro getting 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.839 right in. I'm talking today about lou. 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:34.360 Blander lou Blannger, lou Blanger rhymes lou Blanger. 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:34.960 Did get lost. 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.359 It sounds it sounds like a name. I'd make it. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:41.880 To my friend Lou Blancher. 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:45.800 It's a real name. He was born in Vermont in 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.600 eighteen forty nine. He was the eighth of thirteen children. 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:50.840 Oh, the blonders. They liked. 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:53.600 His dad French Canadian Stonemason. 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:56.080 Oh, I called the French Canadian named. 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:56.640 Simon peter be. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:04:58.760 Yeah. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.919 His mom was from Ireland. When Lou was five, the 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.479 family moved from Vermont to Wisconsin. They went to a 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:07.840 place called Sholsburg. 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:09.640 Like to keep it wooded. 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.679 Well, no, they're out in them parts. They mind lead. 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:14.919 Oh and they made cheese. 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:16.599 Oh the Rocky mountain area. 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.120 Yeah, so the rocky Mountains of wiscons. 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.799 Well, not the actual rock the rocky in the mountainous area. 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:25.280 The village that they moved to, this Sholsburg, that had 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.920 only been around for like thirty years when they moved there. 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.000 You know, opportunity, I suppose. 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.960 So Lou's mom, Well, aren't all the towns new back? 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:34.360 And then really at. 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:35.479 Some point every town is new. 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:37.560 But I mean really, then it's like all the times, 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.640 like way were celebrating our twenty the anniversary. 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:43.680 Enjoy the lead. 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.760 Lou's mom passed when he was ten, Okay, and don't 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.840 forget he had five younger siblings. Oh man, Yeah, it's 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.560 tough times, right, what a life she had popped out 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.760 thirteen kids, Lou he moved in with his older sister 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.400 and her family, and then he changed his name, and 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.839 his brothers had already done this. They anglicized and like 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.200 simplified their last names from Belange Tolinger. 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:11.599 Try again, guys. 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.640 Well, I'm guessing that they just made the spelling match 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:16.560 the way that people were already saying. 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:21.480 Blinger okay, yeah, because they look at it and they're like, oh, yeah, correct. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.360 Pronunciation was probably more common when they were in Vermont, 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:29.440 Oh yeah, not so in Wisconsin. So since things seemed 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:31.560 to happen every five years for Lou at this point, 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.520 when he was a hair short of fifteen, he and 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.320 his brothers joined up with the Union Army to fight 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.120 in the Civil War, and so he put in for 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.360 a one hundred day enlistment, which was I don't know, 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:44.800 common for younger boys. 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:46.600 Then I don't know, yeah, and then extended. 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.000 Yeah. So they assigned him to play the fife keep 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:54.000 everyone in time while they battled the traders. Eight days 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.480 in he fell down and hurt his leg. Eight days, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:58.360 eight days, and he spent the rest of the tour 0:06:58.400 --> 0:06:59.440 in an army hospital. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.080 Seriously pothole. 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.360 Yeah no, or maybe he did, and he just milked 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:10.920 it like it was like this fify. Yeah right, so 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:14.600 you know, okay, all well, war ends. He meets up 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.480 with his twenty five year old brother Sam. Sam hadn't 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:20.800 served in the war. He was out west. He was 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.400 just out there being rugged. So he did like minor 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.840 forty nine er stuff in Colorado. He drove wagons through 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:28.120 the Sierra Nevada. 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:29.160 Reco the mid eighteen sixties. 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:31.440 Now yeah, okay, yeah, just after the so he was 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.320 there for the war totally. Sam had come back to 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.560 Wisconsin to visit the family. Lou was living with a 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:43.160 pal of his. Sam sweeps into town, he wooed and 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:49.360 then married Lou's pal's sister. Okay, and then he also 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:51.840 sent Lou off to go to college in Chicago at 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.280 a business college, and then off he goes. So he 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.360 just likes wow, cezes through. Five years later, Sam and 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.120 Lou and then lose pal and his family. They all 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.800 headed west. The railroad's hum and now so that sort 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:06.120 of like travel was easier. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.800 Yeah, you don't have to take your life in your hands. Yeah, exactly. 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.880 So they made their way to Utah and they hit 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.600 up a bunch of mining towns. In each of them 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.040 they would either like set up or buy a saloon. 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.080 And they're from a mining town, so they know mining 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:19.640 town call, they. 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:20.480 Know mining people. 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.800 Yeah we should sell drinks. 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:25.560 Yeah, we need to have a saloon. We're going to 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:27.960 have to establish some sort of vice trade here. 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:29.600 Ah, I hate a cover. 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:31.840 They do a little mining themselves. 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.439 A little prospect might get lucky. 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:34.480 They might get deputized. 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:36.880 Oh, you know the usual. 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:38.959 They did this all over the West. 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:40.440 Really, we run the vice out here. 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.520 Uh huh, Utah to Nevada, to California and back. In 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.440 eighteen seventy nine, Lou moved to Colorado. And when you 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.079 think about that time in the US and the Western States, 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.880 everything seems so transient, so like so many people made 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.240 their way out there, and they were often running from 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:02.160 something or running too and imagined no one was really tethered, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.000 and like everything must have seemed really temporary. 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:06.000 Uh. 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:08.439 It's so common to read about people who bounced around, 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.560 chasing opportunities or like looking for good fits until finally 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.120 finding a place. But then you look at places like 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:15.959 the South, and that's just not the case. 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:18.160 Oh yeah, completely, even a lot of the Midwest that's 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.960 considered the South, but West the same thing exactly. 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.880 And so I feel like the subsequent crimes of those 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.120 times reflected, oh good points, Like there's a much much 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.520 more of like an embedded nefarious storytelling in southern cons 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.320 of the era. It's more subtle and paste and not 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.520 like as brazen and audacious fraudsters and scammers and con 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.200 artists in the West. They were dealing with people who 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.520 almost had this sense of mania, right, and like they 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.480 could be looser and grander with their claims and their stories. 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:49.640 You're a lot more suckers if you're just running out 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:51.560 to get gold on the West. You know, you're somebody 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.720 who's already shown people that you will be happy to 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.520 cross and do arduous task, simple. 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.559 Gain and magical thinking. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.360 I'm going to go out there. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.760 And just pull, you know, gold from the roofs. I 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.000 may be off of, but you know, if I am 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:12.280 keeping to yourself, Yeah, anyway, thank you. Eighteen seventy nine, 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.760 Lou found himself in Georgetown, Colorado, that's just west of Denver, 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.200 and when he was there, he ran a theater that 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:23.440 put on vaudeville shows, and pretty soon the other Blonder 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:28.080 brothers started descending on the town. Simon, the oldest of 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:30.640 the kids. He got a gig, is superintendent at the 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:36.560 Robert E. Lee Mine, which is curious naming Marvin the youngest. 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.480 He worked there too, So this is a big spread. 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:43.280 No sooner had this gang of blonders reunited than Lou 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.600 and Sam hit the road like we're out of here. 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.200 They're scratching that itch. Maybe they're running from something. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:49.840 Who's run tight. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.280 Yeah, those two are best buds. There's ten years between 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.320 them that they're very close, so. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.120 They would have been similar or at least, you know, very. 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:04.920 Very similar in personalities. They went off to New Albuquerque, 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:09.400 New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Albuquerque. It was a little railroad 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:14.000 junction that would eventually merge with regular It's called out 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:19.640 so it would it becomes today, like what's downtown Albuquerque 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:24.640 different than old town. Back then it was like the 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.880 up and comer. It's the railroad spot, all these new businesses. 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:29.240 We should have settled here. 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:33.800 Yes, So Lou and Sam they get there and they 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.920 like really quickly ensconced themselves. In eighteen eighty two, Sam 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:42.480 was appointed Marshal of New Albuquerque. He turned around and 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.040 then immediately deputized Lou. 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:44.680 Good call. 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:46.840 Yeah, so the two of them, they fought crime. They 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:51.480 took down bad guys. That's well. They also dipped into 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:57.080 the vices, well, apparently opening a brothel, you know, cop stuff. 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.280 In April of eighteen eighty two, Sam had to head 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:03.840 out of town to Denver for a bit. He's like 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.160 doing some sort of mining deal. So yeah, so he 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.760 left Low in charge. Zarin, close your eyes. Oh wow, 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.479 I want you to picture it. Hell yeah, It's April fifteenth, 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:20.360 eighteen eighty two. You are on a train from Tucson 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.200 headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Things got hot for you 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.920 in Tucson a few days back. You and your associates 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.560 got into a little trouble, caused a little trouble. You 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.600 were seeking revenge, but that doesn't matter. Crime is a crime. 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.839 A murder's a murder. It's morning and you can see 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.480 the New Albuquerque station in the distance. You sit across 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.400 from your closest friend, your brother at your side, four 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.800 others in the seats behind you. You're hoping to outrun 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.720 a state police posse that's after you. If you can 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.000 get somewhere quiet with some cover, there may be time 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.240 for the governor to negotiate a pardon for you and 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.040 your boys, or, more likely, you can regroup and try 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:03.720 and make it to Colorado. Your friend slowly, repeatedly flips 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.080 a silver dollar coin into the air with his thumb 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.520 as he stares out the window. The sound dances back 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.440 and forth with the chug of the car on the 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.360 rails and the occasional baleful whistle of the train. Oh 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.559 I should mention you're wyat er you and you're a 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.800 vendetta posse as you've been dubbed. Are on the run 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.920 after avenging your brother Morgan's murder and the naming of 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:30.040 your brother Virgil too. Oh yeah, you're on what they're 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.800 calling the IRP vendetta ride. You're trying to get to 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.880 Albuquerque because you understand that if you give interviews to 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.200 the paper there, they'll keep it quiet that you're in 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.320 town and they won't publish until after you're gone. It's 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.720 a deal, you'll take. The train has reached the depot. 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.200 The brakes let out a mighty squeal. The sound of 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.880 steam hisses alongside the cars and onto the platform at 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.120 the station. What's the Walt Whitman column, You think, the 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.839 one where he's totally describing a train as a man's 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.880 dingus is shaf as Pecker. That's right to a locomotive 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.280 in winter, type of the modern emblem of motion and 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:11.640 power pulse of the continent. He wrote that that's the train, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.760 all right. When the engine has finally halted, you and 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:17.240 your posse stand and make your way to the doors. 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.560 The station's empty, not many people on this early train. 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:24.400 You walk through the platform and into the station building. There, 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:29.000 just inside it stands a man. He's got a full nose, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:33.560 powerful like a potato, and a big bushy mustache turned 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.280 up at the edges like your pile. Doc. He stands 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.720 beside you, still flipping that silver piece. The man in 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.440 front of you is also wearing a uniform and the 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:46.920 gold star of a Marshal's deputy, lou Blander. He says, 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:52.400 Acting Marshal of New Albuquerque, Your men slowly lift their 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.560 right hands from their sides to the holsters concealed under 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.400 their coats on their belts. You lift a hands, stop them. 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.960 You recognize this man. You played poker with him some 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.400 ten years ago in Dodge City. So you remember me, 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.880 he says to you. You nod? You boys, Come with me, 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.240 he says, as he turns and heads for the exit. 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.440 I've got a place for you to bunk down, he 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.040 says over his shoulder. You'll be taken care of the 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.080 editor of the paper, he said, he'd like to see 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.040 you this afternoon. My brother Sam, he's the marshall and 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.120 he'll be back next week. We know what it is 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.520 to take care of family. You shoot a look at 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:29.160 your brother. Warren gives you a slight nod. Lou turns 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.040 and faces you out on the street in the glowing 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.680 light of the morning. Don't you boys worry, he says, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:37.400 tipping his head towards your group. Like I said, we'll 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.120 take care of you here. People keep their traps shut 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.520 here in New Albuquerque if and we tells them to. 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.880 You follow him down the raised wooden sidewalk. You look 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.720 over at Doc and he raises an eyebrow to you. This, 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:51.080 Lou is all. 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:59.040 Right, yeah, oh man, I know you enjoy that does 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.239 better in tombstone indible. 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.200 So the IRB posse. They left about a week later, 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.760 and it wasn't long before Sam lost his job as 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.080 Marshall well off on another land deal. But it didn't 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.520 matter because Lou and Sam they went their separate ways 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.400 and kept driving in that way that people did in 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.840 the old way, you know, like lose. Lou's drifting wouldn't 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:23.840 last long. He would meet up with Sam again. Of course, 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.480 they would start a whole new venture. Let's take a break. 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:29.480 How hard it is to run into your brother. 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:31.440 Back in like the middle of nowhere. 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.640 There's not that many towns you're going around. You're like, oh, 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:35.520 I'll just go over this town, over the hill. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:38.800 How do you reach each other if you don't know 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.800 where you've got. It's not like oh, I can send 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.680 a telegram and like, yeah, let's take a break and 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:46.600 think about that. When we get back, we're going to 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.480 hit the next stop on the Blonder Tour and get 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.040 into some actual crime aside from harboring a fugitive. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.040 Zaren Elizabeth. 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:15.080 How about them ads? 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.160 Oh my goodness, so good. I gotta put my wallet away. 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:19.879 I don't know about you, but I'm really glad that 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:21.359 I listened to him. I feel like I'm a better 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:22.240 person for it. 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:31.879 Probably doesn't take munch, but yeah, it's now inflamed Lou Blanger, 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:34.800 he was drifting around the Southwest. 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:40.600 He even headed out to San Bernardino Old Burdou eighteen 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.439 eighty eight. He arrived in Denver and so did his 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:50.000 brother Sam. Reunited and it felt so good. They got 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.920 to work setting up enterprises on both sides of the law. 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:58.679 So they opened saloons and they opened gambling parlors. Do 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.679 you remember who else had gambling halls and saloons in 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.399 Denver at this smith? Soapy Smith. 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:05.560 That's right. 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.119 They were swindling the good folks of Denver at the 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:14.240 same time. Yes, so Soapy he ran the Tivoli saloon 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:15.520 and gambling hall. 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.199 And he was from the South, so that maybe that 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.840 Robert E. Lee Mine suggests there's a lot more people 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:21.959 from the South who thought, oh, we can all make 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:23.679 a ride in Colorado. 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.880 Right, yeah, and they should have left that behind, so 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.640 you don't name things, okay. Anyway, Lou and Sam they 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.919 owned the Elite Saloon on Stout Street, and the place 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:40.400 was over the top, like super rich, dark wood frescoes 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:44.560 on the Elite so luxurious, and. 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:49.160 We're talking like Art Nouveau style picture, yes, very yeah, 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.440 and also ornate and so. 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.040 This saloon they had all manner of like poker and 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.879 farrow tables, and they also really fell I don't know, 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:03.119 let's open a parlor. Why not. They also ran something 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.680 that we've talked about a number of times on this show. 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:08.480 Numbers games illegal lotteries. 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:09.240 Yeah. 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.240 So in some of our tales that racket was just 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:17.560 for neighborhood folks or for like Rube prospectors in Denver 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.360 in the late eighteen hundreds, it was aimed at tourists. 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.640 So like, just like Soapy and his scambars are Soap 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:28.040 filled with supposed cash. So the Blonders their policy racket, 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.400 the numbers game played into people's gambling addictions. They made 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:36.879 it way too irresistible. But make no mistake, well they 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.800 would just juice numbers and like tease people in. When 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.760 Lou and Sam got to town, Soapi was the one 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.400 running the joint. He ran the town. Denver had become 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.879 known as a place conducive to running scams with like 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:55.240 little or no interference from the funds, and Soapy made 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:57.600 sure of that. So on top of the gambling and 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.479 the vice, Soapy and the city fathers they had this 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.919 whole protection racket going keeping the other crimers in line, 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.320 So the Planders and Soapi they had somewhat of like 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:09.080 an agreement. 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:10.879 Of course they have to. 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:13.679 They tussle over territory or like the share of the 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.280 roobs on the street, but generally they kept a good time. 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:18.440