Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: A year wrote Ambrose Bierce is quote a period of
Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty five disappointments. Ambrose was an American
Speaker 2: Civil War veteran, and he was also a writer. He
Speaker 2: was one of the most famous journalists of the late
Speaker 2: nineteenth century. He was a literary critic, a poet, and
Speaker 2: a short story writer, primarily exploring themes of war, death,
Speaker 2: and the general absurdity of life. He had a caustic
Speaker 2: wit and was a sharp tongued, eviscerating cynic. It said
Speaker 2: he kept both a human skull and a cigar box
Speaker 2: of supposedly an enemy's ashes on his desk. His motto
Speaker 2: in life was quote nothing matters. He's been called an editorialist,
Speaker 2: a journalist, and a fabulist, and a veteran and one
Speaker 2: of the biggest disappearing acts of the twentieth century. Welcome
Speaker 2: to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarky.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Frye. Ambrose Beers disappeared when he was
Speaker 1: seventy one years old. He wrote Into Mexico, and that's
Speaker 1: about the last anyone ever heard from him. But before
Speaker 1: we talk about his many deaths that have been described
Speaker 1: since his disappearance, let's talk about his very big life.
Speaker 1: Ambrose Gwinnet Beers was born on June twenty fourth, eighteen
Speaker 1: forty two, the tenth of thirteen children to Marcus Aurelius
Speaker 1: and Laura Beerce. The Beers family lived in Horse Cave Creek, Ohio,
Speaker 1: a primarily fundamentalist community that was close to the West
Speaker 1: Virginia border. His father was a farmer but held several jobs,
Speaker 1: including shopkeeper, and he'd been elected to county Overseer of
Speaker 1: the Poor. That was a position that was responsible for
Speaker 1: administering reals leaf such as food and clothing, and supervising
Speaker 1: care of those living in poverty. He was never a
Speaker 1: successful man, at least not when it came to money
Speaker 1: or influence. He and Laura were, though, avid readers, and
Speaker 1: some argued that the family's book collection could be the
Speaker 1: largest in the county. Though Ambrose never had much good
Speaker 1: to say about his family, he did not see eye
Speaker 1: to eye with their long standing puritanical ways, he did
Speaker 1: concede that his father's book collection was what turned him
Speaker 1: into a serious reader and influenced his writing career.
Speaker 2: The Beers family moved to Walnut Creek, Indiana, when Ambrose
Speaker 2: was four years old, and for the next eleven years
Speaker 2: he acted well as far as we can tell pretty
Speaker 2: aloof from his siblings and his classmates. He wasn't interested
Speaker 2: in making friends. We came across as one anecdote that
Speaker 2: if you gave him a puppy, he'd prefer a snake.
Speaker 2: At age fifteen, Ambrose left his family to work as
Speaker 2: a printer's Devil for the Northern Indiana, an abolitionist newspaper.
Speaker 2: A printer's devil is really just an apprentice with a
Speaker 2: fancy name. His father had been an early anti slavery advocate,
Speaker 2: and some biographers assume he may have influenced Ambrose's decision
Speaker 2: to join that particular paper. But then it's also really
Speaker 2: well documented that Ambrose wanted to get away from his family,
Speaker 2: So here we are just speculating some more on his motivations.
Speaker 2: When he left the paper after two years, he may
Speaker 2: or may not have been accused of theft by his employer,
Speaker 2: leading him to exit, but only after his name had
Speaker 2: been cleared. Or maybe that's just a yarn and it
Speaker 2: was just time to move on. And it did move
Speaker 2: his personal story along. His next move landed him in
Speaker 2: the home of his paternal uncle, Lucius Bears in Ohio.
Speaker 1: Lucius was a strong, intelligent, and moral man, and Ambrose
Speaker 1: admired him greatly. He wanted to be just like him
Speaker 1: in both his personal and professional life. Ambrose's family was
Speaker 1: strongly abolitionist. Lucius also was, but Ambrose liked that his
Speaker 1: uncle was not just talk. He was a man of action.
Speaker 1: There are many examples of that action, but an important
Speaker 1: one is that he helped supply John Brown with the
Speaker 1: weapons for his bold fight in Kansas. We have seen
Speaker 1: Lucius described as a quote man who liked to argue
Speaker 1: and had an appealing swagger, a man who'd witnessed a
Speaker 1: slave auction in Charleston, South Carolina, and became an even
Speaker 1: more ardent abolitionist than Bierce's father. Lucius once organized a
Speaker 1: company of infantry and two companies of marines for battlefield service,
Speaker 1: but mostly he did not fight himself. Lucius was elected
Speaker 1: to the Ohio Senate, where he supported the war effort
Speaker 1: through legislation. In fact, in his bellowing opinion, the Union
Speaker 1: should be hitting the Confederacy even harder. In eighteen sixty three,
Speaker 1: Lucius was appointed Assistant Adjutant General of the United States
Speaker 1: Volunteers with the rank of major. Ambrose credited his uncle
Speaker 1: for giving him a strong moral compass and the confidence
Speaker 1: to speak out for his beliefs, even if they were
Speaker 1: contrary to the popular opinion. We're going to take a
Speaker 1: break here for a word from our sponsors, and when
Speaker 1: we return we'll talk about Ambrosebier's first lieutenant.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. Ambrose had a big military life
Speaker 2: and he had a big life as a writer, so
Speaker 2: let's talk about both of those things.
Speaker 1: Over the years, Ambrose emerged as a renowned writer, but
Speaker 1: before that course of events could be set into motion,
Speaker 1: Ambrose went to war. At age seventeen, he enrolled at
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Military Institute and trained to become a topographical engineer.
Speaker 1: That's someone who makes maps after collecting information and data
Speaker 1: about the area to be mapped. He was one of
Speaker 1: the first to enlist in the ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry
Speaker 1: Regiment for the Union at the start of the American
Speaker 1: Civil War, which officially began shortly after he left the Institute.
Speaker 1: He fought with the ninth Indiana Infantry Regiment and Buell's
Speaker 1: Army of the Ohio in military engagements that included the
Speaker 1: Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Stones River, the Battle
Speaker 1: of Chickamauga, and the Battle of Missionary Ridge. Also the
Speaker 1: Battle of Pickett's Mill, the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and
Speaker 1: Sherman's March to the Sea. The list is really quite lengthy.
Speaker 1: He served on and off for most of the duration
Speaker 1: of the war, and during his service he received numerous
Speaker 1: citations for bravery, and he rode to the rank of
Speaker 1: first lieutenant.
Speaker 2: Ambrose is considered to have been an admirable soldier who
Speaker 2: was also quite brave. For example, on July eleventh, eighteen
Speaker 2: sixty one, at the Battle of Rich Mountain, his first
Speaker 2: heavy combat situation, he received recognition for carrying a seriously
Speaker 2: wounded officer off the battlefield to safety while himself under
Speaker 2: fire from the enemy. In general, Bierce looked down upon
Speaker 2: those who behaved what he considered cowardly in battle. In
Speaker 2: Indiana newspaper published an article stating that quote in open
Speaker 2: view of the enemy, Bierce acted heroically as bullets were
Speaker 2: quote again falling around him. Like Hale. He later wrote
Speaker 2: fictionalized and semi fictionalized narratives of what he saw that
Speaker 2: day and during the rest of his time at war
Speaker 2: in his short stories.
Speaker 1: During fierce combat in the Battle of Kenesam Mountain in
Speaker 1: June of eighteen sixty four, Ambrose was wounded when Confederate
Speaker 1: marksman shot him in the head. Yes, the bullet fractured
Speaker 1: Bears's temporal bone and it got stuck in his skull,
Speaker 1: lodged behind his left ear. This was not a fatal shot,
Speaker 1: but there were complications from the injury, and he was
Speaker 1: placed on medical leave for months. Ambrose became prone to
Speaker 1: severe headaches, dizziness, and sudden fainting spells, and those would
Speaker 1: last for the rest of his life. He later wrote
Speaker 1: of his injury, quote at night, the bright, cold moonlight
Speaker 1: gave him quote jarring headaches. Despite the injury, he returned
Speaker 1: to duty during September of that same year, but he
Speaker 1: was discharged on January twenty fifth, eighteen sixty five, at
Speaker 1: the age of twenty two. He would often later recall
Speaker 1: in his writing that his head had quote broken like
Speaker 1: a walnut.
Speaker 2: He resumed his military career for just one year in
Speaker 2: eighteen sixty six, when he joined General William Hazen on
Speaker 2: an expedition inspecting military outposts across the Great Plains while
Speaker 2: mapping the topography from Nebraska to California. Later, Ambrose would
Speaker 2: write of him quote the best hated man I ever knew.
Speaker 1: When they arrived on the West Coast, Ambrose decided to
Speaker 1: settle in San Francisco, where he left the army and
Speaker 1: began a literary career. Though many critics have said of
Speaker 1: him that he may have left the war, but the
Speaker 1: war never left him, and that's true on many levels,
Speaker 1: including in his writing. In eighteen sixty eight, he was
Speaker 1: hired on with a newspaper called The Newsletter, for which
Speaker 1: he penned a column titled town Crier. That column became
Speaker 1: a place for him to stretch his acerbic satire and wit,
Speaker 1: and he went all in on exposing and attacking any
Speaker 1: public figures and institutions that he considered guilty of hypocrisy.
Speaker 1: And he was a success, at least locally.
Speaker 2: On Christmas Day of eighteen seventy one, amb Gross married
Speaker 2: Mary Day known as Molly, the daughter of a wealthy miner.
Speaker 2: Her father gifted them a honeymoon trip overseas. This was
Speaker 2: the first time Ambrose had been to London, and he
Speaker 2: and Molly stayed in England for much longer than their honeymoon.
Speaker 2: The couple had two sons, Richard known as Day and
Speaker 2: Lee while living in London. Their daughter, Helen, was born
Speaker 2: in October of eighteen seventy five, but that was shortly
Speaker 2: after their return to the United States.
Speaker 1: In London, Ambrose began writing under the pseudonym DoD Grile
Speaker 1: for Tom Hood's Fun and for Figuaro, a popular Victorian
Speaker 1: weekly humor magazine. He also published three collections of columns, sketches,
Speaker 1: and fiction under that alias while abroad. The level of
Speaker 1: cynicism weaved into the pieces in these books, as well
Speaker 1: as in articles that he wrote for London papers, landed
Speaker 1: him the nickname Bitter beerce his motto nothing matters well
Speaker 1: that probably contributed to.
Speaker 2: In eighteen seventy seven, again living in the United States,
Speaker 2: Ambrose became associate editor of the San Francisco Argonaut. He
Speaker 2: left to become editor of the San Francisco Illustrated Wasp,
Speaker 2: and then in eighteen eighty seven he joined the staff
Speaker 2: of William Randolpherst's San Francisco Examiner, for which he wrote
Speaker 2: the Prattler column, where he specialized in attacking all kinds
Speaker 2: of things, from amateur poets, the clergy, politicians, money grabbers,
Speaker 2: those he considered boring, and frauds of all shapes and sizes.
Speaker 2: He also put together a collection of what many have
Speaker 2: called pessimistic and satirical themes, a now famous book of
Speaker 2: social commentary that's really just loosely disguised as definitions, titled
Speaker 2: The Devil's Dictionary. And here's an example quote litigation noun
Speaker 2: a machine which you go into as a pig and
Speaker 2: come out of as a sausage. He was known for
Speaker 2: his sardonic wit and bad observations on the personalities and
Speaker 2: events of his day, and it turned him into quote,
Speaker 2: the wickedest man in San Francisco. Despite that reputation, he
Speaker 2: was also known as a generous mentor to younger writers,
Speaker 2: including poet George Sterling and fiction author W. C. Morrow.
Speaker 1: Between eighteen eighty eight and nineteen oh five, Ambrose couldn't
Speaker 1: seem to escape tragedy in his personal life. Both of
Speaker 1: his sons predeceased him. Day took his own life at
Speaker 1: the age of seventeen after being rejected by a romantic
Speaker 1: interest in eighteen eighty nine, and Lee, his younger son,
Speaker 1: passed away from alcohol related pneumonia in nineteen oh one
Speaker 1: at the age of twenty seven. The same year as
Speaker 1: Lee's death, Bierce's daughter Helen, spent eight uncertain weeks in
Speaker 1: a hospital recovering from typhoid fever, but she did recover.
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty eight, he and his wife separated after
Speaker 1: he discovered compromising letters sent to Molly from an admirer.
Speaker 1: Molly died on April twenty seventh, nineteen oh five, just
Speaker 1: before their divorce was finalized.
Speaker 2: In eighteen ninety nine, Ambrose moved to Washington, d c.
Speaker 2: Where he continued newspaper and magazine writing for more roughly
Speaker 2: the next fourteen years. He also focused more on writing
Speaker 2: short stories and poems. Originally published in nineteen oh six
Speaker 2: under the title The Cynic's Word Book. The Devil's Dictionary,
Speaker 2: which we mentioned earlier, was one of his best known works,
Speaker 2: has been called quote, a volume of ironic, even bitter
Speaker 2: definitions that has often been reprinted. He's perhaps best known
Speaker 2: for his anthologized short story titled An Occurrence at Owl
Speaker 2: Creek Bridge, about a Southern plantation owner who attempts to
Speaker 2: sabotage a railroad bridge and is condemned to be hanged
Speaker 2: by Union soldiers. Elements and theme is drawn from his
Speaker 2: war experiences at Chickamauga, Shiloh, and Kennassau Mountain all together
Speaker 2: in this work. Bierce's war experiences proved to be so
Speaker 2: influential to him and his work that biographer Richard O'Connor
Speaker 2: commented of it, quote, war was the making of Beers
Speaker 2: as a man.
Speaker 1: And a writer.
Speaker 2: Bierce himself wrote, quote, When I ask myself what has
Speaker 2: become of Ambrose Bierce, the youth who fought at Chickamauga,
Speaker 2: I am bound to answer that he is dead.
Speaker 1: You can't argue Ambrose Bierce had a lasting legacy. But
Speaker 1: that legacy isn't necessarily his writing or his military successes.
Speaker 1: It's his disappearance. We're going to take a break for
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsors, and when we're back, we'll
Speaker 1: ask the question, what the heck happened to Ambrose Biers.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. Ambrosepierce disappeared while trying to allegedly
Speaker 2: gain first hand experience in the Mexican Revolution. Was he
Speaker 2: killed in action? Was he executed was it aliens? Let's
Speaker 2: talk about how many theories there are surrounding his disappearance.
Speaker 1: In October of nineteen thirteen, at age seventy one, Ambrose
Speaker 1: organized his personal affairs. He visited the American Civil War
Speaker 1: battlefields one last time. His plan was then to go
Speaker 1: to Mexico, find Pancho Villa's forces, and document the Mexican
Speaker 1: Revolution up close and personal as it was playing out.
Speaker 1: In a letter to his niece Laura, he wrote, quote, goodbye.
Speaker 1: If you hear of my being stood up against a
Speaker 1: Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that
Speaker 1: I think that a pretty good way to depart this life.
Speaker 1: It beats old age disease or falling down the cellar
Speaker 1: stairs to be a gringo in Mexico, Ah, that is euthanasia.
Speaker 1: And then in El Paso, he crossed the border into
Speaker 1: Mexico on horseback and disappeared.
Speaker 2: According to alleged witnesses, Ambrose died over and over again
Speaker 2: and all over Mexico.
Speaker 1: For two decades. After his disappearance, search parties traveled to
Speaker 1: Mexico to try to solve the mystery. The United States
Speaker 1: Department of State and Pinkerton Private detectives questioned former officers
Speaker 1: in Poncho Villa's army. Bierce had written in correspondence that
Speaker 1: he wanted to join the revolutionary forces as an observer,
Speaker 1: of course, but no one there recognized Bierce's description or picture.
Speaker 1: There were alleged witnesses, and yes we have to air
Speaker 1: quote that, who claimed to have seen his execution or
Speaker 1: had heard about it happening. There were problems, though. These
Speaker 1: witnesses all placed his execution in different states, at different
Speaker 1: time periods, and conducted by different factions. The search for Ambrose, though,
Speaker 1: was ultimately curtailed when the United States joined the First
Speaker 1: World War. There just weren't resources to continue, and that
Speaker 1: left us with theories.
Speaker 2: And there are a lot of theories. Bierce's stated intentions
Speaker 2: leave many to believe that he did actually travel to Mexico,
Speaker 2: But then there are different narratives as to what happened
Speaker 2: once he got there. So let's just begin. Maybe he
Speaker 2: fell victim to bandits or local militias, suggests one theory.
Speaker 2: An alleged witness, this one an American soldier of fortune
Speaker 2: named tex O'Reilly, claimed that Ambrose was killed by government
Speaker 2: security forces in the isolated mountain mining camp of Sierra
Speaker 2: Mohatta because they suspected that the elderly man who didn't
Speaker 2: speak Spanish was actually a spy. According to O'Reilly, a
Speaker 2: local who claimed to have housed Beerce for a short
Speaker 2: time was able to produce letters he'd left behind, each
Speaker 2: one addressed to Ambrose Bierce.
Speaker 1: One newspaper published a story that Ambrose wasn't following Pancho
Speaker 1: Villa's revolutionary fighters to write about them, and that he
Speaker 1: wasn't even in Mexico. They reported that instead he was
Speaker 1: seen in France fighting for the Allies in the World War.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of odd theories, so we're just
Speaker 1: gonna wrap these ones up together. There was a story
Speaker 1: of beers and a magical crystal skull. Really Indiana bears no.
Speaker 1: Another story suggested that he was seen in a South
Speaker 1: American jungle dressed in animal skins. Yes, even the possibility
Speaker 1: of alien abduction has been considered by some. Things have
Speaker 1: gotten pretty far fetched in the Ambrose beers theory.
Speaker 2: Pool because his body has never been found, you're bound
Speaker 2: to run into the theory that maybe he's still alive. Yes,
Speaker 2: there is one rather silly theory out there that Ambrose
Speaker 2: is alive. While maybe that could have been possible for
Speaker 2: a decade or two after his disappearance, today he would
Speaker 2: be one hundred and eighty two years old. So was
Speaker 2: there something to that magical crystal skull after all? A
Speaker 2: few reports over the years have mentioned a middle aged
Speaker 2: man who looked suspiciously like Beiers, except he was Mexican
Speaker 2: American writer and journalist Francisco Goldman. Coincidence most certainly.
Speaker 1: In his nineteen twenty nine biography Life of Ambrose Biers,
Speaker 1: author Walter Neil stated quote, his last letters to me
Speaker 1: were written in December nineteen thirteen. He first wrote from Galveston,
Speaker 1: next from San Antonio, and a few days later from Laredo, Texas.
Speaker 1: I know he greatly desired to visit both Eagle Pass
Speaker 1: and El Paso, but there is also speculation that Beerce's
Speaker 1: final letters to close friends and family were all a
Speaker 1: ruse and that he never actually went to Mexico. Heads up.
Speaker 1: As we get into this next section, there is a
Speaker 1: brief mention of suicide. So if you don't want to
Speaker 1: listen to that, you can just jump forward about a minute.
Speaker 1: You'll be good. In his nineteen twenty nine biography Life
Speaker 1: of Ambrose Bierce, author Walter Neil stated quote his last
Speaker 1: letters to me were written in December nineteen thirteen. He
Speaker 1: first wrote from Galveston, next from San Antonio, and a
Speaker 1: few days later from Laredo, Texas. I know he greatly
Speaker 1: desired to visit both Eagle Pass and El Paso. But
Speaker 1: there's also speculation that Bierce's final letters to close friends
Speaker 1: and family were all a ruse, and that he never
Speaker 1: actually went to Mexico. Some have considered that he secretly
Speaker 1: took his own life by jumping off a cliff into
Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon. Some thought that he went to Mexico
Speaker 1: as a way of taking his own life, and by
Speaker 1: that we mean that he went with the assumption that
Speaker 1: he would be executed during revolutionary fighting. While there are
Speaker 1: some stories of his execution by firing squad under the
Speaker 1: orders of General Thomas Urbina, some scholars believe he may
Speaker 1: have been killed while fighting with revolutionary forces in the
Speaker 1: taking of Ohinaga in January of nineteen fourteen, a battle
Speaker 1: that took place just across the border from the American
Speaker 1: town of Presidio. We can't forget, after all, that it
Speaker 1: was his own suggestion that he may be shot in
Speaker 1: the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution. Ambrose Bierce clairvoyant, probably not.
Speaker 2: Both Beer's biographer, Richard O'Connor and Don Swam, who runs
Speaker 2: the Ambrose Bierce site, have over the years both concluded
Speaker 2: that the most likely scenario now still remember that this
Speaker 2: is not at all proven, is that Biers probably accompanied
Speaker 2: Pancho Villa's forces to the taking of Okinaga, during which
Speaker 2: he was killed and left in a mass grave. Or maybe,
Speaker 2: if not that they have a backup theory that his
Speaker 2: quote asthma strained heart gave out on him, or perhaps
Speaker 2: that traumatic head injury had some new and unforeseen consequences
Speaker 2: later in his life.
Speaker 1: There is no concrete evidence to support any of these ideas.
Speaker 1: Whatever the real story is, one thing is sure. By
Speaker 1: the fall of nineteen fourteen, no one had heard from
Speaker 1: him in several months, and then no one would ever
Speaker 1: hear from him again. His death is presumed to have
Speaker 1: been in January of nineteen fourteen.
Speaker 2: Whatever may have really happened, Perhaps the most fitting epitaph
Speaker 2: was offered by Ambrose's fellow iconoclast H. L. Mencken, who wrote,
Speaker 2: quote death to him was not something repulsive but sort
Speaker 2: of low comedy, the last act of a squalid and
Speaker 2: rib rocking buffoonery. When grown old and weary, he departed
Speaker 2: from Mexico and there, if legend is to be believed,
Speaker 2: marched into the revolution, then going on and had himself shot.
Speaker 2: There was certainly nothing in the transaction to surprise his acquaintances.
Speaker 2: The whole thing was typically Beiersian. He died happy when
Speaker 2: maybe sure if his executioners made a botch of dispatching him,
Speaker 2: if there was a flash of the grotesque at the end.
Speaker 1: When he announced he was going to Mexico to see
Speaker 1: the revolution, he promised, quote nobody, we'll find my bones,
Speaker 1: and nobody has. But perhaps the best theory in all
Speaker 1: of this is Beer would have wanted it this way.
Speaker 2: He would have wanted it this way, and he would
Speaker 2: have written about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have strong feelings about amberse Beier. He's kind of
Speaker 1: one of my history crushes. He was cute as a button.
Speaker 1: He was real cute. But also I just for some
Speaker 1: random I don't even know how I stumbled across it,
Speaker 1: but I stumbled across the Devil's Dictionary when I was
Speaker 1: pretty young. Did you I remember in school one of
Speaker 1: my teachers saying something about Mark Twain being the great,
Speaker 1: you know, the greatest humorist of the US, which is
Speaker 1: often reported, and I remember asking, have you not read
Speaker 1: Ambrose Biers like.
Speaker 2: Your teacher's like, yes, I know who Ambrose Beeers is.
Speaker 1: Like, because to me, he's way funnier. Like I just
Speaker 1: no shade to Mark Twain, but I've never connected with
Speaker 1: his work the way a lot of people do. And
Speaker 1: Ambrose Beers really shaped my humor in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: I was I was gonna say, the wit that he
Speaker 2: has is it's not the same as Mark Twain. Ever,
Speaker 2: you can't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just that that cynecal really wry aspect to it.
Speaker 1: I have always loved so I I really really adore
Speaker 1: Ambrose Beiers in a big way. The Devil's Dictionary is
Speaker 1: a really fun read if it's one of those great
Speaker 1: books because of the way that it's laid out as
Speaker 1: a dictionary, you can just turn to any page any
Speaker 1: day you need a you need a humorous thing. And
Speaker 1: it also contains a lot of references to alcohol, which
Speaker 1: are many which are very very funny. Like he describes rum,
Speaker 1: I'm going by memory and not not quoting but he
Speaker 1: described rum is something that will that makes that drives
Speaker 1: people mad and crazes them, especially if they don't drink it. Essentially,
Speaker 1: he's very funny.
Speaker 2: He's very funny, and if you haven't had any introduction
Speaker 2: to him, that is a good place to begin.
Speaker 1: I love it. His favorite drink, by many accounts, was cognac,
Speaker 1: which also endears me to him because.
Speaker 2: I love because it's serious too. I love it.
Speaker 1: There are like some wild stories about him and drinking,
Speaker 1: so I knew I wanted to use cognac in his drink.
Speaker 1: But I also got to thinking that I also wanted
Speaker 1: to use tequila because of the whole Mexico connection. If
Speaker 1: that sounds crazy to you to combine these two things,
Speaker 1: I promise it's been done in drinks before. There's actually
Speaker 1: a drink called Adulce di Tequila that is very popular
Speaker 1: that literally means tequila candy. Essentially that combines cognac and tequila.
Speaker 1: Although the proportions are flipped from what I'm about to do.
Speaker 1: Mine is heavier on the cognac and that one is
Speaker 1: heavier on the tequila. But I also wanted to include
Speaker 1: other notes to it, and so I started thinking about
Speaker 1: fruits that are native to Mexico, and we haven't really
Speaker 1: we have used I think passionfruit liqueur once, but we
Speaker 1: haven't used passion fruit juice.
Speaker 2: Actually, we've only used anything passionfruit.
Speaker 1: Wants very delicious in anything. So passion fruit juice is coming.
Speaker 1: And then we're also going to have a note of
Speaker 1: violet because in a lot of a lot of cultures
Speaker 1: that practice magic, violet is one of the things that
Speaker 1: is used to draw out the truth in rituals, and
Speaker 1: so I thought that would be a good addition.
Speaker 2: So maybe we can get a litld truth around his
Speaker 2: death right exactly.
Speaker 1: So this drink, which I am called dying wish because
Speaker 1: I do think if there's an afterlife. He loves all
Speaker 1: of this. He loves that nobody knows what happened and
Speaker 1: that they're He's like, I.
Speaker 2: Told you, you're never gonna find my bones.
Speaker 1: He loves that someone thought he was in France. He
Speaker 1: loves it.
Speaker 2: So it's like an alien abduction. Of course that happened.
Speaker 2: I got to add an entry in my dictionary.
Speaker 1: Here is how you make the dying wish. You're gonna
Speaker 1: do a half ounce of lemon juice, an ounce of
Speaker 1: passion fruit juice, three quarters of an ounce of violet syrup,
Speaker 1: and I will tell you at the end you can
Speaker 1: dial that back if you want, but it does change
Speaker 1: it a lot. A half ounce of tequila and then
Speaker 1: an ounce and a half of cognac, and you are
Speaker 1: gonna shake this in your shaking tin with ice, get
Speaker 1: it really nice and cold, and strain it into a
Speaker 1: pre chilled glass. This is another one of those dangerous
Speaker 1: ones where you cannot tell there's a ton of kognac
Speaker 1: and tequila in it. The note that really starts to
Speaker 1: come through is violet from the syrup, which I actually
Speaker 1: love because it obscures all of the other ingredients, just
Speaker 1: the way his story gets completely obscured by all of
Speaker 1: the question marks. So I really really liked that that happened.
Speaker 1: As I said, if you don't like a drink that's sweet,
Speaker 1: you could dial that back to like a half ounce,
Speaker 1: but you're not going to get that same impact, but
Speaker 1: it will be a brighter drink and less sweet. It's
Speaker 1: so yummy, It's so dangerously yummy. The mock tail, we're
Speaker 1: going to do some tricks here, so the measures are
Speaker 1: the same in lieu of kognak, you're going to do
Speaker 1: an ounce and a half of chai tea. I know
Speaker 1: chai also means tea, but you know, most of the
Speaker 1: time when you are in the US, your ki will
Speaker 1: be labeled as Chai tea. And then you're gonna do
Speaker 1: a half ounce of white grape juice. You'll still keep
Speaker 1: your ounce of passion fruit juice, your half ounce of lemon,
Speaker 1: and you're three quarters of an ounce of violet syrup.
Speaker 1: But for the mocktail, you are also going to add
Speaker 1: into your shaking tin one slice of a fresh holapeno
Speaker 1: to give it just a little more kickup and counter
Speaker 1: some of the sugar of having more juice in it
Speaker 1: and not as much spirit. So give that a shake,
Speaker 1: make sure you strain it, perhaps even double strain it
Speaker 1: to make sure you don't get any little jolopenno seeds
Speaker 1: in there, and then you are ready to go. I
Speaker 1: also as an optional garnish, if you have access to
Speaker 1: fresh violets. It makes it very pretty. It might be
Speaker 1: too fruitfreugh of a drink for Ambrose Beers himself. He'd
Speaker 1: be like, just stop at the kognac and keep that coming.
Speaker 1: But it's a really fun drink and I do like
Speaker 1: that it kind of plays. It's a nice way to
Speaker 1: tell his story in the glass because it does obscure
Speaker 1: itself with all of the other things. So that is
Speaker 1: the dying wish, which I think might get made at
Speaker 1: my house with that might go on my canteena menu,
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. It'll have to get a Star
Speaker 1: Wars name to work in there, but it'll happen.
Speaker 2: It's still in beta mode.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, still, we can do more tweets. We'll still
Speaker 1: it happens, to see what happens. We are so grateful
Speaker 1: that you spent this time with us. We hope you
Speaker 1: like Ambrose Beiers as much as we do. I like
Speaker 1: this one for this season because it feels a little
Speaker 1: less tragic and sad than some of our others.
Speaker 2: Oh by far.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it's been a nice respite for you, the listener,
Speaker 1: as well as for us. We will be right back
Speaker 1: here though, next week, with another cold case and another
Speaker 1: probably cold drink to go with it. Criminalia is a
Speaker 1: production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.