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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zarah.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Hell Hello, Sorry, I was buried under some interns.

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Speaker 3: Oh were you?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're having a cuttle fight.

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Speaker 3: That's I'm gonna tell each charge.

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Speaker 2: Oh that sounds bad. It sounds really their four legged interns.

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Speaker 3: Elisam okay, well, okay, so bad. You know what's ridiculous?

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Speaker 2: Yes I do.

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Speaker 3: Oh spill it, sister.

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Speaker 2: Okay. So I was very excited to learn that the

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Speaker 2: Ghanaian seti, their unit of currency, was the world's best

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Speaker 2: performing currency in twenty twenty five. Oh good, Yeah, that's

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Speaker 2: not ridiculous. So that's good. But it did it searts

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Speaker 2: nearly fifty percent in value against the US dollars.

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Speaker 3: I'm suspicious, but this is good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. No, And then this has caused some problems back home. Right,

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Speaker 2: so there are people who are not super fond of this,

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Speaker 2: like well, for instance, the goods have become more expensive,

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Speaker 2: like inflationary proper.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So there's a group of people who've been now petitioning

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Speaker 2: the government for change, right and well, I'll just read

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Speaker 2: it to you. They are The group is called the

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Speaker 2: Ghana Drunkards Association, and they have issued a three week

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Speaker 2: ultimatum to the government to reduce the price of alcoholic beverages.

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Speaker 2: They claim to have sixteen million members nationwide and they're

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Speaker 2: going to stage a massive demonstration if they're demand for

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Speaker 2: lower priced alcohol and other drinks. They point out not

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Speaker 2: just alcohol, but all these drinks are and to date,

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Speaker 2: quote the price of alcoholic drinks keeps going up. If

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Speaker 2: you purchase alcohol, there's an increment about fifteen percent, and

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Speaker 2: this affects vendors. We've learned that the set he has

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Speaker 2: gained some strength, and prices of some items have been reduced. However,

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Speaker 2: the cost of alcohol remains high. And so they're upset

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Speaker 2: because they're like, this is part of our culture. So

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Speaker 2: I mean, they literally say that we have given them,

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Speaker 2: the government a three week grace period to meet us

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Speaker 2: so we can deliberate on how to reduce the prices

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Speaker 2: of alcohol. They're a very serious group of drunkards, Elizabeth.

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Speaker 3: And they're going to do a protest, yes, notably to

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Speaker 3: boycott the alcohol.

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Speaker 2: Well you know, no, no, come on, be ridiculous. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but they said, we're not just concerned about drinking for fun.

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Speaker 2: This is our livelihood and social fabric. When alcohol becomes

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Speaker 2: too expensive, it affects our community and economy and culture. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so they were talking to the Guinahan government good luck,

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Speaker 2: con and Druggards Association Luck ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: That is one hundred percent ridiculous. Do you want to

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Speaker 3: know what else is ridiculous? Yeah, getting arrested for being

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Speaker 3: crazy when the truth is Saren, We're all crazy.

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Speaker 4: That's true, that's so true.

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Speaker 3: This is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,

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Speaker 3: heists and cons. It's always ny nine percent murder free

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Speaker 3: and one hundred percent ridiculous. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: You damn.

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Speaker 3: Said before, and I'll say it again. Yes, I love

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Speaker 3: a good character, you do. I love a good eccentric.

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Speaker 2: You will text me when you find one.

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Speaker 3: We we need weirdos, you need them, and I feel

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Speaker 3: like our current society seriously shuns them. You think so, well, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I'm talking about like genuine weirdos.

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Speaker 2: Not people who want people doing it for the ground.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. And it's not attention seeking behavior and it's not

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Speaker 3: negatively impacting others.

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Speaker 2: Ah, it's so social mavericks.

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Speaker 1: Yes, people who.

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Speaker 3: Are they're just out there.

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Speaker 2: They're like, I got to live by my own rules.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it ain't hurting nobody here in the Bay Area.

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Speaker 3: That used to be common. Yes, people living on the fringe,

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Speaker 3: like being aborious, like existing way beyond the present in

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Speaker 3: terms of how they saw the world and the way

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Speaker 3: they expressed them.

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Speaker 2: A lot of rainbow children, Star warriors.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and that died out. It was it was run

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Speaker 3: off by tech money.

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Speaker 2: Really could honest literally could.

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Speaker 3: Like the tech folks. They all wear the same clothes.

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Speaker 3: And I'm painting with a broad brush purposefully.

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Speaker 2: Of course, they like to eat.

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Speaker 3: And shop at chain places because it will always be

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Speaker 3: the same wherever they go at upscale chains. But you know,

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Speaker 3: still sure, And don't say I'm overstating it, because I've

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Speaker 3: seen it with my own eyes, own.

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Speaker 2: Eyes, you know, I've entered that into my Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: part of the bit, I.

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Speaker 3: Says, says I.

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Speaker 2: I love that, Ah Streeter.

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Speaker 3: So, in honor of the San Francisco weirdos, in honor

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Speaker 3: of the crazy dreamers everywhere, in honor of those who

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Speaker 3: create their own reality for the benefit of humankind, I

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Speaker 3: have a guy for you today.

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Speaker 2: Who is it?

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Speaker 3: This is an ode to an outsider in praise of

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Speaker 3: the eccentriccentric. I mentioned this guy a little while ago,

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Speaker 3: saying I should do an episode about him. This guy,

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Speaker 3: Joshua Abraham Norton aka Emperor Norton aka Norton, the first

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Speaker 3: Emperor the United States and Protector of Mexico.

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Speaker 2: Totally.

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Speaker 3: He is one of my favorite San Francisco Gold Rush characters,

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Speaker 3: and he's actually one of my favorite characters full stop.

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Speaker 2: Large.

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Speaker 3: A year or two ago, you invited me to come

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Speaker 3: with you as you went on the Emperor Norton Historical

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Speaker 3: walking Tour in San francs.

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Speaker 1: Yes.

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Speaker 3: It was like a private It was just.

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Speaker 2: Us and the three of us walking around San Francisco. Good.

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Speaker 3: Amazing, I was. It was not something I would have

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Speaker 3: imagined that I'd love as much as I did. It

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Speaker 3: was fascinating, engaging the guy who plays Norton totally fabulous

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Speaker 3: if you ever have a chance to recommend it. So good.

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Speaker 3: One thing that stuck with me when was when we

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Speaker 3: were walking down the street, if we passed a cop

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Speaker 3: on foot, they'd salute the Emperor and say Emperor yes. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: And apparently that's what cops back and the day did

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Speaker 3: for the real Emperor tition. Yeah. But when that's back

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Speaker 3: when weirdos were allowed, so to have the cops today

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Speaker 3: do the same thing for the guy leading a walking

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Speaker 3: tour while in costume. Felt like a little slice of

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Speaker 3: old San Francisco totally because the guy who plays Norton,

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Speaker 3: he's an eccentric type too. I love him. He's like

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Speaker 3: classic San Francisco.

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Speaker 2: He's a clamper too, so he's into the whole, like

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Speaker 2: keeping things weird.

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Speaker 3: Yes, and so it's eccentric San Francisco in my mind,

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Speaker 3: real San Francisco. So let me regale you with the

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Speaker 3: tale of real Emperor Norse.

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Speaker 2: I love this.

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Speaker 3: Please no Norton. He was born in England to Jewish parents

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Speaker 3: in eighteen eighteen. Okay, his dad was a farmer and

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Speaker 3: then a merchant, and when he was two years old,

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Speaker 3: his parents moved the family to South Africa. They went

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Speaker 3: as part of this like colonial effort. British colonists were

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Speaker 3: sent by the UK government to live in the Eastern

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Speaker 3: Cape of South Africa.

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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, they're trying to take over for the Boers

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Speaker 2: that yeah.

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Speaker 3: So by eighteen thirty nine he was living in Port Elizabeth,

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Speaker 3: South Africa. He and his brother in law started a

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Speaker 3: business together but it flopped and then it lasted only

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Speaker 3: like a year and a half. He bummed around, He

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Speaker 3: worked for his dad for a little bit, and then

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Speaker 3: he was like an auctioneer. But then he had this

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Speaker 3: urge to move, so he hopped on a ship to

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Speaker 3: Liverpool and from there he headed to Boston. Shipping up

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Speaker 3: to Boston. That was like eighteen forty six or so.

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Speaker 3: By eighteen forty nine, the fateful year of gold discovery

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Speaker 3: in the Hills, Norton was in San Francisco already. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 3: he was there. So later accounts would say, quote in

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Speaker 3: eighteen forty nine, on the fifth day of November, Norton

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Speaker 3: arrived in San Francisco from the Cape of Good Hope

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Speaker 3: via Rio de Janio and Valparaiso. So legend was that

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Speaker 3: he arrived in San Francisco with forty thousand dollars on him.

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Speaker 2: Damn.

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Speaker 3: There is also a speculation that in between Boston and

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Speaker 3: San Francisco it was like three year period that he'd

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Speaker 3: stopped off in South America and done business there and

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Speaker 3: made serious cash. So whether like the some thought that

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Speaker 3: the forty thousand was like an inherent tints from his

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Speaker 3: father either way, or if it's just like a juiced

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Speaker 3: up version, we can only speculate either way.

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Speaker 2: He's got stack.

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Speaker 3: He's got stacks. This author, Theodore Kertschoff. He wrote a

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Speaker 3: series of essays in eighteen eighty six in German called

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Speaker 3: Californish Colt will be the I'm saying, so it looks

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Speaker 3: like Californish culture builder. Okay, but it's like cult Bielda. Anyway,

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Speaker 3: it's an amazing name. I want our friend Derek to

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Speaker 3: make a vehicle named after that.

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Speaker 2: My German friend Derek, you are, you know, beloved.

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Speaker 3: He's a major friend of the show. He's like, he's

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Speaker 3: an honorary intern. Really, I'd say so, even though he

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Speaker 3: has two legs and so forth.

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Speaker 2: It's true.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So anyway, it translates to Californian cultural images. Oh

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Speaker 3: not California culture Builder, which I think is cooler, but

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Speaker 3: either way sounds good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So he said that Norton was one of seven passengers

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Speaker 3: aboard the steamer Francesca out of Rio headed for the

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Speaker 3: Bay San Francisco Bay on the twenty third of November

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Speaker 3: eighteen forty nine, and so that that was a gold

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Speaker 3: fever boat, right. Yeah, we have records that the boat arrived,

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Speaker 3: but not who was on it. And that was really

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Speaker 3: really common at the time. It was just a free

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Speaker 3: for all.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure that the purser jumped ship.

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Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, there's no immigration station there nothing. You just

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Speaker 3: jump off the boat and run.

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Speaker 2: Because it's not a state closed down.

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Speaker 3: You're like, and there's a record of ships, but that's

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Speaker 3: because they were hauling cargo and stuff like that. So

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Speaker 3: let's go with this as our truth here. That's how

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Speaker 3: he got there. So no matter how it happened, he

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Speaker 3: wasted no time setting up shop. He set up a

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Speaker 3: real estate and import business called Joshua Norton and Company.

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Speaker 3: That's as plexible title. And it was a success. In

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Speaker 3: just three years. He turned a two to a four,

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Speaker 3: turned a four to an eighth. So what was forty

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Speaker 3: grand when he first got here? By eighteen fifty one

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Speaker 3: he had two hundred and fifty grand. Wow, that's more

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Speaker 3: than eight million dollars today. Damn.

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Speaker 2: He's not a businessman, he's a business man. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So Norton from just another guy showing up to the

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Speaker 3: gold Rush to like a successful businessman respected by the community.

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Speaker 3: He was in with the city's elites. He joined all

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Speaker 3: the good social clubs. The Swells invited him to all

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Speaker 3: these amazing parties, he networked with the best of them.

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Speaker 3: He had totally made it in this fantastic boom town.

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Speaker 3: But saren, Yeah, it wouldn't last.

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Speaker 2: Oh what happened?

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Speaker 3: He made all the right choices until he didn't. What

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Speaker 3: can we explain this to you?

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Speaker 2: You see, I wonder where he could go wrong. He's

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Speaker 2: doing so well.

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Speaker 3: It's amazing. Okay. So eighteen fifty two, there's a famine

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Speaker 3: in China. Things are dire so coming out of the

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Speaker 3: First Opium War in the Treaty of Nanking, the Chinese

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Speaker 3: were on the losing end of that agreement with the British,

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Speaker 3: and so you add in then the Taiping Rebellion, there's

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Speaker 3: a drought. So between eighteen fifty one and eighteen seventy three,

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Speaker 3: ten to thirty million people died of starvation. They're just

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Speaker 3: not they do. Don't have it.

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Speaker 2: Humiliations, they call it.

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Speaker 3: Right. So there's a rice shortage in San Francisco. Okay,

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Speaker 3: rice prices as a result of this, rice prices.

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Speaker 2: Spiked because all the rice is going to China.

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Speaker 3: It's coming it was coming from China.

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Speaker 2: Oh, and they're just holding they're just holding onto their own.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they didn't have the rice production in California, like they.

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Speaker 2: Have Oh, interesting, so that's a more modern Yeah yeah.

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Speaker 3: So I mean there really there was nothing going on

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Speaker 3: in Central Valley.

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Speaker 2: Like that's why I thought they got to feed people

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Speaker 2: that rice is a cheap starch.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So the rice prices it was, they were up

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Speaker 3: nine hundred percent. Yeah. An importer came to Norton and said, look,

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Speaker 3: I had this huge opportunity. You can corner the market

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Speaker 3: on rice in San Francisco. There's a shipment of rice

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Speaker 3: coming from Peru, and you can buy it at twelve

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Speaker 3: and a half cents a pound as opposed to the

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Speaker 3: going rate of thirty six cents a pound. Huh, and

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Speaker 3: it's only Yeah, it's going to cost you twenty five

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Speaker 3: grand and then you can flip it. So he's like, yeah,

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Speaker 3: it gives them a two grand deposit on the contract.

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Speaker 3: The boat was scheduled to arrive December twenty second, eighteen

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Speaker 3: fifty two. He was stoked. He was about to make

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Speaker 3: serious cash. He had the cash on delivery money ready.

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Speaker 3: Twenty three thousand dollars. Ship comes into harbor, unloads, Norton

250
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Speaker 3: pays up. He's sitting on white gold seriously. But then

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Speaker 3: more ships started showing up from Peru and full of rice.

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Speaker 2: Oh so that wasn't the that was the only one shift.

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Speaker 3: After another with way better rice on board.

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Speaker 2: That's all I was thinking is that anywhere the Spanish

255
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Speaker 2: would have been there were they would have had rice

256
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Speaker 2: start being cultivated exactly.

257
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Speaker 3: So he gets America like it's like the crud rice,

258
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Speaker 3: and then like the.

259
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Speaker 2: Goods, he doesn't even get the goods st No, so the.

260
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Speaker 3: Good stuff starts, you know, coming in the market's flooded.

261
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Speaker 3: Rice goes down to three cents a pounds and he

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Speaker 3: is thinking he's buying it at twelve and a half cents.

263
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Speaker 3: So Buddy's underwater on a boatload of subpar res. He'd

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Speaker 3: been had bamboozled, so he tried to get the contract

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Speaker 3: nullified on the grounds of fraud. The fight went to court,

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Speaker 3: wound its way through there for two years, and it

267
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Speaker 3: wasn't a cheap fight.

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Speaker 2: No, he's got paid the legal.

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Speaker 3: Cost him and then bankrupted him. Basically. In October of

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Speaker 3: eighteen fifty four, he finally lost. The California Supreme Court

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Speaker 3: ruled that the contract held What Yeah, so there he is,

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Speaker 3: He's broke, dejected, He couldn't jumpstart his business because he's

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Speaker 3: his cash is gone. So he ran for office as

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Speaker 3: you do. Eighteen fifty five, He's like, I want to

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Speaker 3: be in charge.

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Speaker 2: Is that right?

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Speaker 3: He ran for San Francisco tax collector in eighteen two, Sara.

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Speaker 3: He did not win.

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Speaker 2: I'm guessing not.

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Speaker 3: Filed for bankruptcy in eighteen fifty six on the August

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Speaker 3: twenty fifth, eighteen fifty rice. Yeah, rice a'rony the.

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Speaker 2: San Francisco tree. The irony of this, I know it

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Speaker 2: runs deep.

284
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Speaker 3: So the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin they published a notice.

285
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Speaker 3: In August of eighteen fifty six, Joshua Norton filed a

286
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Speaker 3: petition for the benefit of the insolvency law. Liabilities fifty

287
00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:10,080
Speaker 3: five eight eleven dollars, assets stated at fifteen thousand dollars

288
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Speaker 3: uncertain in value.

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Speaker 2: Whoa, So he lost everything, lost everything off of one

290
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Speaker 2: attempt at corner. So he gets got too greedy in

291
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Speaker 2: a sense.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he thought I'm going to get one up.

293
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Speaker 2: On it everybody. And again it's he didn't investigate the

294
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Speaker 2: rice market of South America. No, he didn't really recognize

295
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Speaker 2: that how many there were rice coming before you make

296
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Speaker 2: a purchase that big you need to know a little

297
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Speaker 2: bit about the mark.

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Speaker 3: All the right choices. Until he didn't.

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Speaker 2: They got it.

300
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Speaker 3: Wow. So this is like a tipping point for him.

301
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Speaker 3: He lost touch with reality. And in eighteen fifty eight

302
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:48,520
Speaker 3: he made an announcement he's running for Senate, and when

303
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Speaker 3: people headed to the polls the next year, his name

304
00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:53,320
Speaker 3: wasn't on the ballot. It was like just a general announcement.

305
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Speaker 3: He didn't file.

306
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and then he's like, oh, get into bars, open doors.

307
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Speaker 3: So he's this ailed businessman. He's lost everything, he lost

308
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Speaker 3: his fancy digs. He was at this point, he's living

309
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Speaker 3: in a boarding house.

310
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Speaker 2: He has no family, no wife, no maub himself.

311
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Speaker 3: Gone are the glamorous parties, the social set had like

312
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:14,440
Speaker 3: passed him up.

313
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Speaker 2: Of course, the connections in.

314
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Speaker 3: The power gone. And it's not that he'd lost his mind.

315
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Speaker 3: He was still sharp and insightful. He'd lost faith in

316
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Speaker 3: the system. He kind of broke him. He's disillusioned with everything.

317
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Speaker 3: He felt that he had to help get everything, society, people,

318
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Speaker 3: the city back on track. He could do it. He

319
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Speaker 3: could get people back to where they needed to be.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the world's out off kilter.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he tried sales for a little while

322
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Speaker 3: after his bankruptcy. Ran an ad in the paper offering

323
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Speaker 3: China sugars for sale, but it wasn't a goer. I

324
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Speaker 3: don't even know what that is. Yeah, China sugar product.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So for a few years he scraped by. He was

327
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Speaker 3: living in this cheap boarding house, staying under the radar. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: quite a change from his earlier days. But then he

329
00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,920
Speaker 3: made a splash. In July of eighteen fifty nine, he

330
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Speaker 3: took out an ad in the San Francisco Daily Evening

331
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Speaker 3: Bulletin newspaper. It wasn't so much an ad as a manifesto.

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Speaker 3: It reads as follows manifesto from Joshua Norton, Citizens of

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Speaker 3: the Union. The Union is threatened with dissolution. Dissensions exist

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00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:26,479
Speaker 3: between the North and South. Measures affecting the general welfare

335
00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,400
Speaker 3: cannot be got through Congress. Confidence ceases to exist with

336
00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:33,800
Speaker 3: foreigners in the integrity and stability of the institutions of

337
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,520
Speaker 3: the country. Will you inaugurate a new state of things?

338
00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:41,320
Speaker 3: Joshua Norton. So it's like, oh, what is this?

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Speaker 2: Does he understand a manifesto is not supposed to be

340
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Speaker 2: an open question.

341
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Speaker 3: No, it's you know, he's.

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Speaker 2: A manifesto, are you guys juting it so like you know,

343
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Speaker 2: but it's.

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00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:54,840
Speaker 3: Like pretty much your basic crackpot stuff totally having worked

345
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:57,720
Speaker 3: in municipal government for a period of time, like this

346
00:16:57,840 --> 00:16:58,240
Speaker 3: the stuff you.

347
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Speaker 2: Get the city council.

348
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Speaker 3: You got three minutes, yes, but then two months later

349
00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:05,400
Speaker 3: he's back with another message like this is like pre

350
00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:10,800
Speaker 3: Zodiac good messages. At the peremptory request of a large

351
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Speaker 3: majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton,

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Speaker 3: formerly of al Goa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and

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Speaker 3: now for the last nine years and ten months past,

354
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Speaker 3: of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of

355
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Speaker 3: these United States, And, in virtue of the authority thereby

356
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Speaker 3: and me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives

357
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Speaker 3: of the different States of the Union to assemble in

358
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Speaker 3: Musical Hall in this city on the first day of

359
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Speaker 3: February next then and there to make such alterations in

360
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Speaker 3: the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the

361
00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:52,119
Speaker 3: evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause

362
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:55,280
Speaker 3: confidence to exist both at home and abroad in our

363
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,679
Speaker 3: stability and integrity. Norton the first Emperor of the United States.

364
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:01,760
Speaker 2: If you're going to lose your marbles, have fun with her,

365
00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:04,720
Speaker 2: have a blast. If your country is in civil war,

366
00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:06,119
Speaker 2: be the one I'm gonna have.

367
00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:09,080
Speaker 3: I'm going to be the voice. I'll do it fine.

368
00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:12,639
Speaker 3: Everyone wants me to do it. No longer. Joshua Norton,

369
00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:15,280
Speaker 3: He's now Norton, the first Emperor of the United States.

370
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:17,960
Speaker 3: So his message ran in the paper, not as a

371
00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:21,000
Speaker 3: proclamation or called arms, but as a comic bit is

372
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:23,720
Speaker 3: the way they the paper's fund it, like, oh, what

373
00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:26,320
Speaker 3: an eccentric we have on our hands type thing. And

374
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:29,600
Speaker 3: from that moment until he took his last breath, Joshua

375
00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:32,200
Speaker 3: Norton was now emperor in the eyes of the good

376
00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:35,000
Speaker 3: people of San Francisco for real. So according to this

377
00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:39,600
Speaker 3: documentary Timothy speed Levitch quote, some say he'd gone mad,

378
00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:42,080
Speaker 3: others say he'd gone wise.

379
00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:44,280
Speaker 2: Distinction.

380
00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:46,479
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's take a break and I'll tell you more

381
00:18:46,520 --> 00:19:11,479
Speaker 3: about Joshua Norton and his grand visions when we get back, Zaren, Yes, Okay,

382
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:13,840
Speaker 3: So Joshua Norton, Dude.

383
00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:16,800
Speaker 2: I'm loving Norton the first because of one thing, Elizabeth

384
00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:19,359
Speaker 2: that people just asked me when I was young like,

385
00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:20,560
Speaker 2: what do you want to do it for a living?

386
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,399
Speaker 2: And I thought this was a career path. Apparently it's not.

387
00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:25,680
Speaker 2: Is I wanted to be a holy fool. I saw

388
00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:28,000
Speaker 2: what they got to do, and I'm like, that's the move, right,

389
00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:29,879
Speaker 2: you just get to live in your own world. And

390
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:31,760
Speaker 2: everyone's like, oh, we just let him do this thing.

391
00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:34,480
Speaker 2: How do you do that? He nailed it, He figured

392
00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:36,320
Speaker 2: it out. You got to go bigger than I thought.

393
00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:37,359
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm gonna be emperor.

394
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Speaker 3: He hit the sweet spot right like this time and

395
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Speaker 3: place totally.

396
00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:42,520
Speaker 2: Yeah.

397
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:46,240
Speaker 3: So he was keeping himself busy with lots of decrees

398
00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:50,080
Speaker 3: he got to. He'd hand them off to the local papers.

399
00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:52,399
Speaker 3: They were happy to run them because like, this is

400
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:55,400
Speaker 3: great copy and it wasn't limited to San Francisco papers.

401
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:58,280
Speaker 3: They would run them and then those would get picked

402
00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:01,040
Speaker 3: up by wire services and they ran all over the country.

403
00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:03,200
Speaker 2: Oh for real? Oh yeah, the syndicated the brother.

404
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:05,800
Speaker 3: Yes, so just like and it just built up the

405
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:09,359
Speaker 3: like San Francisco's coooky reputation for decades.

406
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:11,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, he helped the stabblers to come.

407
00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:15,199
Speaker 3: Yeah. So on October twelfth, eighteen fifty nine, he called

408
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,080
Speaker 3: for the formal abolition of the United States Congress.

409
00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:20,520
Speaker 2: A very popular and again.

410
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:22,800
Speaker 3: He invited everyone to meet up at the musical hall

411
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:24,520
Speaker 3: in February of eighteen sixty.

412
00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:25,679
Speaker 2: The great American music called San Francisco.

413
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:28,040
Speaker 3: No, it just doesn't exist anymore. He was like, let's

414
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 3: do this, folks, let's gather, let's tear tear it. Let's

415
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:31,800
Speaker 3: get together and.

416
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:33,560
Speaker 2: Tear it all down, show up at the music hall.

417
00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:37,600
Speaker 3: So through eighteen sixty one he ran ten more proclamations.

418
00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:40,520
Speaker 3: Let me give you some highlights. October twenty fourth and

419
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,119
Speaker 3: twenty seventh of eighteen fifty nine, he went after the

420
00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:49,240
Speaker 3: California Supreme Court. He first invited appeals to his authority.

421
00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 3: Then he officially abolished the state Supreme Court. Remember you

422
00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:54,920
Speaker 3: know he had that beef against the rifies.

423
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:55,920
Speaker 2: They made him poor.

424
00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:00,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they'll pay for that. November third, eighteen fifty

425
00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:05,959
Speaker 3: he censured defamatory publications. So he said that quote scurrilous

426
00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:10,760
Speaker 3: and untrue articles shall not insult the nation's honesty, just

427
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:12,160
Speaker 3: in general. Just don't lie.

428
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:14,720
Speaker 2: So like, don't stop it, France.

429
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:17,280
Speaker 3: You stop it. No, he's talking about the public papers.

430
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,240
Speaker 3: No more yellow journalism. Off knock it off, pals.

431
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 2: So he wasn't like badmouth America in your press is

432
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:23,760
Speaker 2: American press.

433
00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:25,399
Speaker 3: You're making us all dishonest.

434
00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:26,560
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, I like that.

435
00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:31,080
Speaker 3: November seventeenth, eighteen fifty nine, he condemned the John Brown

436
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:36,440
Speaker 3: Insurrection issued a proclamation alerting that quote treasonable and malignant

437
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:40,120
Speaker 3: motives in Virginia and Maryland must be punished, even at

438
00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:43,160
Speaker 3: the risk of bloodshed. Just an interesting position for him

439
00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:46,320
Speaker 3: to take, given his later views. December twenty eighth, eighteen

440
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:54,119
Speaker 3: fifty nine, he then removed Virginia Governor Henry Wise Oh

441
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:58,679
Speaker 3: for hanging John Brown, and he appointed John C. Breckenridge's replacement.

442
00:21:58,960 --> 00:21:59,920
Speaker 3: Kind of an about face.

443
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:01,400
Speaker 2: Wow, he really flipped on that one.

444
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:02,560
Speaker 3: He did a flip, but he kind of he thought

445
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:04,080
Speaker 3: about it a little more than he's like, you know what,

446
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 3: I'm going to pull this governor. He's bad, he's bad

447
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:08,600
Speaker 3: business problem.

448
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 2: Yeah.

449
00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:12,879
Speaker 3: January fourth, eighteen sixty, he summoned the US Army to

450
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 3: depose Congress. He ordered military action against Congress because no

451
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:19,360
Speaker 3: one was enforcing his decrees.

452
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:21,160
Speaker 2: Oh, so he's like turning the cannons on Congress.

453
00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:24,080
Speaker 3: Yes. And I need to note here that the February first,

454
00:22:24,119 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 3: eighteen sixty music Hall had to be rescheduled because the place.

455
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,639
Speaker 3: So the place burned down on January twenty third, Oh like,

456
00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,960
Speaker 3: no worries. On January twenty eighth, he made another decree

457
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,400
Speaker 3: that the venue would be moved to the Assembly Hall,

458
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:39,959
Speaker 3: and that would be February fifth.

459
00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 2: To update your calendar.

460
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:44,639
Speaker 3: So you know, slight little adjustment.

461
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,200
Speaker 2: Down the street. Don't worry, convenience. February five, refreshing eighteen.

462
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:53,880
Speaker 3: Sixty, he called a national convention. He wanted representative all

463
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,920
Speaker 3: the states to come to a different music hall.

464
00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:59,239
Speaker 2: Plats music hall on the music hall.

465
00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:02,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, party, different music hall. We're going to ameliorate the

466
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 3: nation's ills, guys. But just like posse up, yeah, les,

467
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:09,880
Speaker 3: here's a big dog one sure. On July sixteenth, eighteen sixty,

468
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:12,960
Speaker 3: he dissolved the United States of America, the whole thing.

469
00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:16,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, he declared, finally somewhat brave enough to do it.

470
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:19,480
Speaker 3: He declared the Republic dissolved, and he advocated for a

471
00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:23,680
Speaker 3: temporary monarchy. Was like I'm doing my Rodney Dangerfield collar pole.

472
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 2: So he basically saying, we'll keep this United States part

473
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,920
Speaker 2: and America part, but it's now no longer republicsh no longer.

474
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:33,879
Speaker 2: It's under I'm the captain. Would you be an empire?

475
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 3: He's the emperor, I think, so, you know whatever. So

476
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 3: he slowed down a little on the decrease after.

477
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:41,320
Speaker 2: That, Oh, I took it out of He's pretty much

478
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 2: gone to the top.

479
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,360
Speaker 3: What was there to do? He didn't stop. In eighteen

480
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:48,080
Speaker 3: sixty one, he expanded his title. So there was unrest

481
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,960
Speaker 3: in Mexico and he figured they needed his help, so

482
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 3: he changed his title to Emperor of the United States

483
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:54,840
Speaker 3: and Mexico.

484
00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:56,879
Speaker 2: It was also a big move eighteen sixty one. I mean,

485
00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:58,399
Speaker 2: the United States is in civil war. He doesn't know

486
00:23:58,480 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 2: that's going to.

487
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 3: Play out right, quite frankly, where he was in San

488
00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:05,199
Speaker 3: Francisco had been Mexico exactly.

489
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:07,280
Speaker 2: Let's reconnect this matter.

490
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:09,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, But then he thought better of it the next

491
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:12,480
Speaker 3: year and he decided to be Emperor of the United

492
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,480
Speaker 3: States and Protector of Mexico.

493
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 2: It's more, Yeah, he's like, they're good on their own.

494
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:18,919
Speaker 2: I just want to like shield them.

495
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:21,960
Speaker 3: I'm going to protect that. Yeah. So eighteen sixty two,

496
00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 3: he demanded that Catholic and Protestant churches formally ordain him

497
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 3: emperor in response to the divisions causing the Civil War,

498
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 3: like apparent, Yeah, it wasn't so much a sectarian thing,

499
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 3: but you know, okay, well, yes, July twenty fifth, eighteen

500
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 3: sixty ninety, went futurist.

501
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:43,400
Speaker 4: Ooh.

502
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:48,800
Speaker 3: He announced his support of this like innovative airship. In fact,

503
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 3: he ordered San Franciscans to provide financial backing for Frederick

504
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:57,639
Speaker 3: Marriott's airship experiments. I'm digging that's a sign of the

505
00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:58,680
Speaker 3: tech industry to come.

506
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 2: Future thinking. I love this, and also like, that's really

507
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 2: early on that.

508
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:08,400
Speaker 3: Yeah. He August twelfth, eighteen sixty nine, swinging for the fences,

509
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 3: but in something that made sense if you were living

510
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 3: under an emperor. He abolished major political parties.

511
00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 2: Of course, you don't need them anymore.

512
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:20,160
Speaker 3: He officially. He officially dissolved both the Democratic and Republican

513
00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 3: parties in order to quell partisan strife. I can get

514
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:26,480
Speaker 3: with that, sure. Between eighteen sixty eight and eighteen seventy eight,

515
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:30,880
Speaker 3: he released a flurry of proclamations, more than seventeen defending

516
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:34,760
Speaker 3: the rights of the Chinese in America. He wanted equal

517
00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 3: treatment for Chinese immigrants, including the including He demanded admission

518
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:42,680
Speaker 3: of Chinese testimony in courts.

519
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:43,680
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, because it couldn't testify it.

520
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 3: And this is even before the Chinese Exclusion Act of

521
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 3: eighteen eighty two.

522
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 2: Just about to say, it's just so.

523
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,920
Speaker 3: He saw how poorly Chinese immigrants in San Francisco were treated.

524
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:56,920
Speaker 3: They were the working backbone of the city and they

525
00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 3: contributed greatly and still due to the culture and spirit

526
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 3: of San Francisco. Pained him to see how they were

527
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 3: mistreated and abused. There's this one from.

528
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 2: April Chinatown, right right where he is.

529
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's this one from April eighteen seventy six

530
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 3: proclamation by Emperor Norton. Whereas the attempted legislation of the

531
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 3: State and City of San Francisco to offer an indignity

532
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 3: to the Chinese will bring the American lawmakers into contempt.

533
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:29,000
Speaker 3: And whereas we are determined to keep inviolate our treaty

534
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:33,200
Speaker 3: obligations between the Empire of China and the United States. Now, therefore,

535
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 3: we Norton, the First Dia Grascia, Emperor, do hereby order

536
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 3: the military and police authorities to arrest and have promptly

537
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 3: punished all persons who shall counsel any outrage or in

538
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:46,439
Speaker 3: dignity against the Chinese.

539
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:48,119
Speaker 2: First, I love it.

540
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 3: Also, he's got the language so good and the all

541
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:56,480
Speaker 3: caps whereas oh, well, his proclamations were often before their time,

542
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,280
Speaker 3: like the airship thing. He spoke out against corruption and

543
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 3: fraud of all corporate political personal He supported women's suffrage.

544
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:04,360
Speaker 2: Damn.

545
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 3: He demanded fair treatment and enhanced legal protections for not

546
00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 3: just Chinese immigrants, but all immigrants and all racial and

547
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 3: ethnic minorities. Yeah. For instance, he decreed that black people

548
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,800
Speaker 3: should be allowed to ride public street cars and be

549
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:19,640
Speaker 3: admitted to public schools across the nation.

550
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 2: WHOA, Yeah, he desegregated in America.

551
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 3: He did, like eighteen seventy in defensive days.

552
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,280
Speaker 2: It was actually before technically had been fully segregated. Because

553
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 2: before you get to focus in, he's like, he's going

554
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 2: to stop that.

555
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:34,719
Speaker 3: It's like, I know how they're all off.

556
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 2: I can see how reconstruction's failing.

557
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 3: Yeah. He defended Native Americans. He proclaimed, quote all Indian

558
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,959
Speaker 3: agents and other parties connected with frauds against the Indian

559
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 3: tribes were to be publicly punished before as many quote

560
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,119
Speaker 3: Indian chiefs as could be assembled together.

561
00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 2: We're going to bring the Indian agents. Had the ice

562
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,400
Speaker 2: for Native American issues, at the time, He's like, look,

563
00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 2: we when bring the Indian chiefs together, make these guys

564
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 2: get exactly. I think a lot of people get behind that.

565
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,920
Speaker 3: I think so if you were to classify his belief system,

566
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 3: he was a religious humanist who didn't believe in organized religion.

567
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 3: He saw Puritanism as a grave danger to society. He

568
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,639
Speaker 3: was a staunch believer in separation of church and state,

569
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 3: so far even though he wanted the Catholics and the

570
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,920
Speaker 3: Protestants to deem him and you're.

571
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:23,600
Speaker 2: Going to have spots.

572
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 3: He was strongly against blue laws.

573
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 2: You want people to know to drink.

574
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 3: Well, anything closed. If he had to force something to

575
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:36,160
Speaker 3: close on Sunday, or any probition of any commerce on Sunday,

576
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 3: he said it quote discriminated against the Germans and the Jews.

577
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 3: Huh the Germans they like their beer.

578
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:44,920
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's true, I guess. So.

579
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 3: He believed in technology as a means of advancing social

580
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 3: well being and prosperity. He believed in fair taxes and

581
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 3: their applications towards a robust transportation infrastructure.

582
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 2: I mean, there's a really good platform so to hear

583
00:28:59,200 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 2: for it.

584
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,959
Speaker 3: In fact, he was the one who championed the idea

585
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 3: for a bay bridge linking San Francisco to Oakland.

586
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 2: That was his idea.

587
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was in response, Okay, there was Why did

588
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 3: they call it the Emperor Norton Bridge. Well, that's there.

589
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 3: They're trying to get it real. Yeah, there's a movement

590
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 3: for that. So December eighteen seventy one, The Evening Bulletin

591
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 3: ran an editorial about this proposal that the Central Pacific

592
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:21,480
Speaker 3: Railroad Company had. They wanted to build a bridge across

593
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 3: San Francisco Bay at its narrowest point, and they wanted

594
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:27,080
Speaker 3: the people of San Francisco to underwrite a three million

595
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 3: dollar bond issue to pay for the job. That's like

596
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 3: eighty million today, which would be a bargain totally.

597
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 2: Anyway, you couldn't build a road then, So.

598
00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 3: The Bulletin was firmly against this idea, mainly because the

599
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 3: narrowest point was well south of San Francisco and would

600
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 3: link to very rural areas on the East Bay. So

601
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 3: it's like rural area to rural area. Scond to do.

602
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 2: It's not helping anybody. It's like where we currently have

603
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 2: the bridges at the bottom of the day, like.

604
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 3: That Sano Bridge would be like where the Sanitaeio Bridge is.

605
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 3: So Emperor Norton springs into action. He called for a

606
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 3: bridge between San Francisco and Oakland via what is now

607
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 3: You're ba Buena Island. It was Goat Island at the time.

608
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 3: Boom Yeah. Then he doubled down and he demanded an

609
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 3: underwater tunnel from San Francisco to Oakland.

610
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 2: He nailed the Bart Tunnel.

611
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 4: Room.

612
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 3: People thought he was crazy, or like crazier than he

613
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 3: already was. Sure, but history, as you said, bears him out.

614
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 3: So the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge opened on November twelfth,

615
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 3: nineteen thirty six, sixty four years after he argued for

616
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 3: the exact same thing in the exact same place. You're

617
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 3: bre Buena Island at all. The trans By Tube for

618
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 3: Bay Area Rapid Transit BART opened September sixteenth, nineteen seventy four.

619
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:37,760
Speaker 3: That is a full one hundred and two years after

620
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 3: he called for an underwater rail tunnel connecting Oakland San Francisco.

621
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:44,200
Speaker 2: He's like a Jules Vern he just saw it before

622
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:45,120
Speaker 2: other people said no.

623
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 3: I mean, granted, not all of his proclamations were serious.

624
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 2: Naturally.

625
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 3: August thirty, first, eighteen seventy, he'd decreed, quote, let there

626
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 3: be peace socially under penalty of grabbing the first young

627
00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,960
Speaker 3: lady we can get our hands on. We command the

628
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 3: ladies to forthwith supply us with an empress. Wait, what

629
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 3: he's just like, find me a girlfriend.

630
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 2: He's like, by decree, get me a woman. No, get

631
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 2: me a girlfriend, and he's asking the ladies to find

632
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 2: him one wrestle.

633
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love this social commentary in the San Francisco

634
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 3: Chronicle from eighteen sixty five. Quote. We have received the

635
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 3: following quote unquote proclamation from Emperor Norton, and presume that

636
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 3: the fact of it having reference to operatic manners furnishes

637
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 3: the reason of the chronicle being selected on this occasion

638
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 3: as the medium for propagating the imperial will. So here

639
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 3: it is the man that has no music in his

640
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 3: soul is fit for treason, stratagem, and spoils. Let no

641
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 3: such man be trusted. The Emperor's royal will and pleasure

642
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 3: is that all his lady subjects should take their husbands

643
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 3: and friends to the opera and refine and improve the

644
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 3: public taste. The nation that supports music shows an advancement

645
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 3: in civilization and refinement twenty one December eighteen sixty five,

646
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:03,880
Speaker 3: Norton the First.

647
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:05,080
Speaker 2: As a lady subject, Do you.

648
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 3: Agree, amen, Yes, I totally agree with that. There's this

649
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 3: nonsense from September of eighteen seventy quote. Whereas we have

650
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 3: been informed that one phil Magilder alamagazumum wang doodlum Larium

651
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 3: Murriam is engaged plotting with conspirators to usurp our prerogatives

652
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:28,720
Speaker 3: and is a traitor to our person and scepter. And

653
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 3: whereas all movements of such nature tend to weaken the

654
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:34,959
Speaker 3: stability of our government at home and cause it to

655
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 3: fall into the contempt and ridicule with foreign nations. Now, therefore,

656
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,680
Speaker 3: we Norton the First Dio Gratia, Emperor of the United

657
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 3: States and Protector of Mexico, hereby decree that Philip Magilder

658
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 3: Alama Gazulam wang doodlum Larium Murriam be appointed chief of

659
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 3: Police to ex Emperor Louis Napoleon Boudaparte, and that be

660
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 3: forthwith leave our realm to fill such appointment.

661
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 2: Frands like you go be.

662
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 3: The police achievement.

663
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 2: Friend.

664
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 3: I feel like there's some inside city joke here that

665
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 3: I can't decode the name. I don't know who he's

666
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 3: mocking whatever. You know, So he's going after someone who's like,

667
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:14,440
Speaker 3: you know who you are?

668
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 2: Everybody know.

669
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's what I find with a lot of

670
00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 3: old papers is they make statements and obviously are referencing

671
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 3: something else that everyone knows about.

672
00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 2: Anyone. What was I think it's like kind of like

673
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 2: the Becky with the good hair. It'd be really hard

674
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:29,360
Speaker 2: to know what that means in the future.

675
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:32,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, So what was ebraor Norton's life like on the

676
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 3: day to day when he's writing all these proclamations. I'm

677
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:40,040
Speaker 3: so glad I asked you to ask that he started

678
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,560
Speaker 3: his morning by reading every single local paper, and there

679
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 3: were more than just a few. Busy Yeah, and they

680
00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 3: need stroll around the city dressed in Imperial garb. So

681
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,760
Speaker 3: he wore a regimental uniform, sometimes a Union uniform, sometimes

682
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 3: a Confederate uniform.

683
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:55,240
Speaker 2: He's just like, I got a bunch of these.

684
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, You're like whatever looked most official to him that day.

685
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 3: He get the uniforms is like hand me down donations

686
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:05,120
Speaker 3: from the army base at the Presidio. And so he

687
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 3: carried this huge hand carved walking stick, and when he

688
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:11,960
Speaker 3: was feeling fancy, he'd put on oversized gold epaulets on

689
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,719
Speaker 3: his uniform okay, and he'd carry a sword instead of

690
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 3: the walking stick. And he wore a.

691
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 2: Beaver hat brandished or like in a saber.

692
00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 3: Like in a saber.

693
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:21,880
Speaker 2: Okay, So it's it's on his hip. He's not like

694
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:23,840
Speaker 2: walking around like waving a somebody would.

695
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,839
Speaker 3: Like maybe gesticulate with it. Occasionally he wore a beaver

696
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 3: hat with an ostrich How much this exactly he had

697
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:36,319
Speaker 3: is huge, yeah, huge ostrich plume in his hat. He

698
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 3: always wore a carnation on his lapel is any meaning well,

699
00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:42,520
Speaker 3: no flores would give him day old flowers that were

700
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 3: beyond their cell by day, and so he would. They

701
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:46,399
Speaker 3: would just you know, as a.

702
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:47,840
Speaker 2: Courtesy to them.

703
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 3: He wore shoes that he cut holes in his own

704
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 3: shoes to relieve his corns.

705
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:53,399
Speaker 2: Oh god.

706
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:56,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. So in the afternoons he would go to the

707
00:34:56,960 --> 00:34:59,640
Speaker 3: library and he read books there or he worked on

708
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:00,080
Speaker 3: his prop.

709
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 2: Clamation reader the Emperor.

710
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, he played chess at the library.

711
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 2: And now with a regular partner or just anybody.

712
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 3: He'd go. In the evenings, he would go to like

713
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:12,280
Speaker 3: public debates or lectures.

714
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, talking series.

715
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 3: Maybe he would sometimes go to the theater because the

716
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 3: owners of the theaters held a prime seat for him

717
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 3: on all opening nights. Really, yeah, he had his own

718
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:28,279
Speaker 3: He lived on other people's charity. So the Masons of

719
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,600
Speaker 3: which he had been a member in his original days,

720
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:34,879
Speaker 3: his old and his old business partners, they all paid

721
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,359
Speaker 3: his rent at the boarding house. The yeah, citizens bought

722
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 3: him meals and drinks and like paid his general living expenses.

723
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:43,120
Speaker 3: He referred to these as taxes.

724
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 2: I mean, he's going to be like an honor. If

725
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 2: you see him in a restaurant, you go over and.

726
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 3: Like let me, or the owners like please no sit.

727
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 3: And he.

728
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 2: Wanted to be a holy I don't even need money.

729
00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:59,440
Speaker 3: But so like he started printing up his own promisory notes.

730
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:01,480
Speaker 3: They can in all these different denominations, So.

731
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:02,600
Speaker 2: He made his own money.

732
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, the notes were payable at seven percent interest in

733
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 3: eighteen eighty I don't know, and most places in the

734
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,440
Speaker 3: city honored it as legal tender. And he was listed

735
00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 3: in the local directory and in the eighteen seventy census

736
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:18,080
Speaker 3: as emperor emperor nor in.

737
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 2: The first and do you think people are exchanging them?

738
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:21,960
Speaker 2: Like you know, knowing that, like, oh, this will be

739
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 2: good for you. If I can do this, you can

740
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:24,600
Speaker 2: then spend it over.

741
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 3: I think I'll just eat the cost or whatever. But

742
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:28,719
Speaker 3: I've got this.

743
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:30,960
Speaker 2: Nobody's actually second time.

744
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:32,399
Speaker 3: I think it was just only from him.

745
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:33,440
Speaker 2: You only want to get him from me.

746
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 3: You know, he was good for business totally. So imagine

747
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,479
Speaker 3: tourist shops sold little plaster figurines of him?

748
00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 2: Are you kidding?

749
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 3: Because people were reading about him in.

750
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,720
Speaker 2: The paps no national internet exactly.

751
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,440
Speaker 3: So he lit his boarding house was at six twenty

752
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,879
Speaker 3: four Commercial Street, which was a nine by six room.

753
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 3: It cost him fifty nine by six, nine by six,

754
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:57,239
Speaker 3: no closet, a little wash based.

755
00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:59,880
Speaker 2: Nine by six and lie down in one direction.

756
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,640
Speaker 3: That block of Commercial is now named after him. In fact,

757
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,200
Speaker 3: you and I went to the dedications they renamed it.

758
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:09,640
Speaker 3: Do you know who worked three doors down at the

759
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 3: morning call newspaper?

760
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,440
Speaker 2: Ok, I cheat and say I don't say it? Is

761
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 2: it Mark Twain?

762
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:18,319
Speaker 3: Yes? It is Samuel Clemens. He was a huge fan

763
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 3: of the Emperor.

764
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:21,480
Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, and he knows you know. It's like,

765
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 2: how do you never appreciate this?

766
00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 3: Exactly? Let's take a break and we'll get to the

767
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 3: actual crime. I mean, we'll have some side quests first,

768
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 3: but I do promise you a crime back in a flash.

769
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:54,799
Speaker 2: Zaren Elizabeth, We're back.

770
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 3: One of my favorite Emperor Norton tales is about his dogs,

771
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 3: Bummer and Lazarus.

772
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 2: Yeah.

773
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 3: So Bummer and Lazarus. They are these two straight dogs

774
00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:06,279
Speaker 3: who became beloved local celebrities in San Francisco during the

775
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:10,799
Speaker 3: eighteen sixties. They were known for their absolutely remarkable rat

776
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 3: catching abilities. They had like street smarts, and they were

777
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 3: really bonded together, and they were pretty much like the

778
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 3: most famous dogs in the city's history. They were featured

779
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 3: in newspaper columns and cartoons, especially those by Samuel Clemens.

780
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:29,280
Speaker 3: He wrote about him, Bummer was this like shaggy black

781
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 3: Newfoundland or Newfoundland terrier mix who earned his name from

782
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 3: bumming food from butchers and saloon patrons. Oh they like

783
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 3: they you know, sitting at the bar and they're like,

784
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,759
Speaker 3: have a pickle. Oh, they're so cute. It's a big old,

785
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 3: big old buddy. He became well known in the city

786
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 3: around eighteen sixty because he was like an amazing rat killer.

787
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:53,520
Speaker 3: Like they'd turn him loose into a building and then

788
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:58,279
Speaker 3: like he'd kill fifty rats and kind out. Yeah, so

789
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:00,719
Speaker 3: a rat problem. They had a huge were probably in

790
00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 3: like basements of bars and restaurants and stuff. So Lazarus

791
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,280
Speaker 3: was a smaller mixed breed dog. He entered the picture

792
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:10,560
Speaker 3: when Bummer rescued him from a dogfight in eighteen sixty two.

793
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:14,640
Speaker 3: So Lazarus was like badly wounded. Bummer nursed him back

794
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:18,040
Speaker 3: to health, like in a doorway, hence the name, you know,

795
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:20,879
Speaker 3: Lazarus who was raised from the dead. So the pair

796
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 3: they're inseparable. Newspapers like the Daily Morning Call.

797
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:29,920
Speaker 2: How did Bummer nurture Lazarus? I mean are you talking like?

798
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, like treated the wounds and then went out and

799
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 3: would bum food and bring it back and then cuddle

800
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:41,360
Speaker 3: around Lazarus and just nursed him back cool. So like

801
00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:45,360
Speaker 3: the Daily Morning Call, the Daily Alta, California, they published

802
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:47,560
Speaker 3: all these stories about the dogs, and they treated him

803
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:51,600
Speaker 3: like characters in a serialized novel. And at the time

804
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 3: then street dogs were like often rounded up and euthanized.

805
00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 3: Bummer and Lazarus got official immune due to their popularity

806
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 3: and how useful they were, and then it was extended

807
00:40:04,239 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 3: to other dogs later when Lazarus was once arrested by

808
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 3: a new dog catcher. There was this crazy public outcry

809
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:17,360
Speaker 3: and they got released the exactly. So over the years,

810
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 3: stories emerged that Emperor Norton had adopted or was like

811
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:22,319
Speaker 3: always accompanied by Bummer.

812
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 2: And Lazarus to travel together.

813
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like he treated them as his imperial guard

814
00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:29,919
Speaker 3: dogs or companions, and like in some illustrations at the time,

815
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,879
Speaker 3: the three are shown walking together, with Bummer and Lazarus

816
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:35,240
Speaker 3: flanking the emperor as he patrolled the streets.

817
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:37,239
Speaker 2: Imagine three of them.

818
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:41,440
Speaker 3: Here's the thing, like, there's no really like reliable contemporary

819
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:44,839
Speaker 3: evidence that he actually owned or cared for them, Like

820
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:46,680
Speaker 3: no one the city owned Bummer.

821
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:48,240
Speaker 2: And last put them together.

822
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, but like you know, contemporary accounts about Bummer and

823
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:54,600
Speaker 3: Lazarus showed them as like more attached to the local

824
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:58,480
Speaker 3: bar scene, but they crossed paths frequently, and they all

825
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:02,320
Speaker 3: were in the same central name around Portsmouth Square and Montgomery.

826
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 2: So they were all characters in the area.

827
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 3: So yeah, and so this idea of them as a

828
00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 3: trio became like this popular legend, particularly after they died.

829
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:12,960
Speaker 3: So people at the time did think, like, you know,

830
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:17,080
Speaker 3: we see them together, but all these editorial cartoonists use

831
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 3: them as as symbols of a bygone era after they

832
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:22,359
Speaker 3: were all gone. So, if you will indulge me, then

833
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 3: I want to make this lore into cannon.

834
00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:28,080
Speaker 2: Canon.

835
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:32,360
Speaker 3: So I want to say that the Emperor had a

836
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,720
Speaker 3: connection to street dogs. Yeah, so that said, Saren, close

837
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:36,160
Speaker 3: your eyes.

838
00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 2: Oh you're going to do it.

839
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:39,799
Speaker 3: I'm going to do it too. I want you to

840
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 3: picture it. It's January twenty first, eighteen sixty seven. It's

841
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:54,560
Speaker 3: a typical gray day in San Francisco, the city that

842
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:58,640
Speaker 3: knows how it rained yesterday, but today is just heavily

843
00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:02,279
Speaker 3: overcast and drizzling. That place where fog is toying with

844
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:05,280
Speaker 3: the idea of becoming rain. The sound of a fog

845
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:09,000
Speaker 3: horn pushes through the low, gray, flannel sky. You're standing

846
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:11,960
Speaker 3: on the corner of Montgomery and Washington in San Francisco.

847
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,280
Speaker 3: More than one hundred years later there would be a giant,

848
00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:19,359
Speaker 3: pyramid capped skyscraper where you stand, taller than you could

849
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:23,480
Speaker 3: ever imagine. It's impressive today though, built in eighteen fifty three.

850
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:26,320
Speaker 3: Where you stand is the largest commercial building west of

851
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:30,280
Speaker 3: the Mississippi, four stories and home to studios and apartments

852
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 3: for writers, including Mark Twain, Brett Hart and later Ambrose Bears,

853
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 3: Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, George Sterling, Emma Goldman. Carriages

854
00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:42,600
Speaker 3: roll by, their horses, huffing and snorting as they stroll

855
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:46,360
Speaker 3: toward Telegraph Hill. The footfall of passers by creek on

856
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:49,799
Speaker 3: the boards of the elevated wooden sidewalk. Some as they

857
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:53,040
Speaker 3: pass pat you on the head. See Zarin, You're a

858
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:57,520
Speaker 3: stray dog named punk. Everybody knows and loves you. Bummer

859
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 3: and Lazarus under Who's rat catching Tutelid you trained passed

860
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 3: on a few years ago. You uphold their tradition of

861
00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:07,680
Speaker 3: vermin elimination, as well as companionship to the real leader

862
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:11,560
Speaker 3: of this great city, Emperor Norton. You stand today right

863
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:14,040
Speaker 3: next to him. He's a little worse for wear right now.

864
00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:18,680
Speaker 3: Is current uniformist really threadbare? He stinks and his hands

865
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:21,520
Speaker 3: and face are dirty. They're smudged with ink. After an

866
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 3: all night proclamation writing session, you sense a disturbance in

867
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,880
Speaker 3: the force. You look up and see a quote special

868
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:33,000
Speaker 3: officer approaching. His heavy steps match the dull look behind

869
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:37,120
Speaker 3: his eyes, armand barbier. You've had run ins with him

870
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:41,600
Speaker 3: before you let out a low, soft growl. Special officers

871
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 3: aren't actual cops. They're auxiliary guys, basically goons hired by

872
00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:48,200
Speaker 3: the fat cats and the business owners to watch over

873
00:43:48,239 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 3: their stuff. Unlike the cops, he has no respect for

874
00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:54,280
Speaker 3: the likes of you. He derives great pleasure from kicking

875
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:56,360
Speaker 3: a stray dog right in the ribs or stepping on

876
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:59,400
Speaker 3: the tail of a wayward cat. Basically, he's the worst.

877
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 3: He reaches the corner where you and the Emperor stand.

878
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,600
Speaker 3: He holds out his trunch in a thickly lacquered billy

879
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:08,080
Speaker 3: club if ever there was one, and pokes it at

880
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 3: the Emperor, smashing his carnation. Two lone pale pink flower

881
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:16,120
Speaker 3: petals detach and flutter to the ground, landing in the

882
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:20,520
Speaker 3: grimy gutter. Move along, there, you bum Barbier, says, you.

883
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:23,600
Speaker 3: Growl again. The rent a cop looks down at you

884
00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:25,440
Speaker 3: and makes an attempt to kick you in the shanks

885
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:28,799
Speaker 3: with his blocky, muddy boot. You're too quick and screwed away,

886
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:31,240
Speaker 3: leaping to the other side of the Emperor. You won't

887
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 3: abandon your friend in this moment. The Emperor clears his

888
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 3: throat and announces to you that he is nort In,

889
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:40,320
Speaker 3: the first Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico.

890
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:44,000
Speaker 3: He doesn't appreciate being spoken to in such low terms, nor,

891
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:47,480
Speaker 3: he says, will he tolerate such man handling and rough attention.

892
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:50,960
Speaker 3: You move along now, or I'll charge you with vagrancy,

893
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:55,440
Speaker 3: you filthy hobo. Barbier grunts. The Emperor ignores the officer,

894
00:44:55,560 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 3: regally turning away from him with a raised chin. Look here, you,

895
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 3: the officer shouts, grabbing the Emperor by the elbow. A

896
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:06,240
Speaker 3: carriage pulls to a stop, and the driver, a wells

897
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:10,000
Speaker 3: fargo courier, looks down at the action. Everything all right here,

898
00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:13,840
Speaker 3: he calls out, mind your own business, pal barks the officer.

899
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:16,840
Speaker 3: The courier pauses for a moment and then rolls on,

900
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:19,080
Speaker 3: looking back a few times. As he makes his way

901
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:22,960
Speaker 3: down the block. The foghorn sounds again. The officer begins

902
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:25,560
Speaker 3: to pull the Emperor down the street, ready to shove

903
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,480
Speaker 3: him down the block, when a crisp dollar bill falls

904
00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:32,600
Speaker 3: from his imperial pocket. The officer freezes. He reaches into

905
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:34,879
Speaker 3: the Emperor's pockets and pulls out more bills, a good

906
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 3: wat of cash. He looks at the emperor with confusion

907
00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 3: than irritation. Why you ain't no bum running around dressed

908
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:45,400
Speaker 3: like a tattered clown and carrying all this cash. You

909
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:48,760
Speaker 3: must be crazy. We can't have your types on these streets.

910
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:52,560
Speaker 3: Mister I hereby arrest you on the charge of lunacy.

911
00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 3: You're coming with me, And with that he begins to

912
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:59,160
Speaker 3: drag the silent but dignified Emperor Norton down the block

913
00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:02,239
Speaker 3: toward the police. You look down the block and see

914
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:04,680
Speaker 3: that the courier has stopped again and is watching the

915
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:07,799
Speaker 3: scene from atop his buggy. You take off down the road,

916
00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:10,840
Speaker 3: letting out sharp barks as you race at full speed.

917
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:13,799
Speaker 3: When you reach the carriage, you leap into the shotgun seat.

918
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:16,160
Speaker 3: You stare at the courier and he nods at you.

919
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:18,839
Speaker 3: Good boy. He says, let's go get help. We got

920
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:23,240
Speaker 3: to save the emperor. So Zarin, the Emperor was taken

921
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 3: to the station, booked on a charge of lunacy really yeah,

922
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:29,840
Speaker 3: and scheduled to be approved by a judge for transfer

923
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:33,560
Speaker 3: to the state insane asylum in Stockton. Damn yeah. So

924
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:36,400
Speaker 3: the press gets win to this though, and there is

925
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:39,839
Speaker 3: absolute outrage, like people just lose it. The Bulletin wrote

926
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:44,440
Speaker 3: a scathing editorial quote, in what can only be described

927
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:47,880
Speaker 3: as the most dastardly of errors, Joshua A. Norton was

928
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:52,200
Speaker 3: arrested today. He's being held on the ludicrous charge of lunacy,

929
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 3: known and loved by all true San Franciscans as Emperor Norton,

930
00:46:56,880 --> 00:47:00,759
Speaker 3: this kindly monarch of Montgomery Street, is less a lunatic

931
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:04,239
Speaker 3: than those who have engineered these trumped up charges. As

932
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 3: they will learn, his Majesty's loyal subjects are fully apprized

933
00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:13,160
Speaker 3: of this outrage. Yeah, and then the Daily Alta chimes in, quote,

934
00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 3: Norton was in his day a respectable merchant, and since

935
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:20,440
Speaker 3: he has worn the Imperial purple, he has shed no blood,

936
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:24,680
Speaker 3: robbed nobody, and despoiled the country of no one, which

937
00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:26,759
Speaker 3: is more than can be said of any of his

938
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:31,240
Speaker 3: fellows in that line. WHOA yeah, right. So the police chief,

939
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:33,600
Speaker 3: Patrick Crowley, he knew he was going to have a

940
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:36,640
Speaker 3: riot on his hands if they shipped Emperor Norton off

941
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 3: to Stockton, So so he immediately releases Norton issues and apology.

942
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:45,960
Speaker 3: The Emperor, ever, the gentleman, announced in the papers an

943
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:50,040
Speaker 3: imperial pardon for armand Barbier, that special officer who busted him.

944
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:53,840
Speaker 3: He's a gentleman. And it was also from that day

945
00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:57,800
Speaker 3: forward that police officers saluted the Emperor when he passed

946
00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 3: them on the street. We look bad the door, and

947
00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:08,799
Speaker 3: that extends to today's historical reenactor. So it was on

948
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 3: the cool, dreary, rainy evening of Thursday, January eighth, eighteen eighty,

949
00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:17,680
Speaker 3: that the Emperor bid his city farewell. He was on

950
00:48:17,719 --> 00:48:20,440
Speaker 3: his way to attend a regular monthly debate of the

951
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:24,319
Speaker 3: Hastings Society at the Academy of Natural Sciences. He was

952
00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:27,000
Speaker 3: almost there, is just across the street, when he collapsed

953
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:29,960
Speaker 3: on the sidewalk and died. He was sixty one years old.

954
00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:33,200
Speaker 3: So the next day, January ninth, the San Francisco Morning

955
00:48:33,239 --> 00:48:37,640
Speaker 3: Call ran an obituary with the headline Imperial ashes quote

956
00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,799
Speaker 3: on the reeking pavement, in the darkness of a moonless night,

957
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:45,440
Speaker 3: under the dripping rain, and surrounded by a hastily gathered

958
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 3: crowd of wandering strangers, Norton the First, by the grace

959
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:52,160
Speaker 3: of God, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico,

960
00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:56,399
Speaker 3: departed this life. Other sovereigns have died with no more

961
00:48:56,520 --> 00:49:00,000
Speaker 3: of kindly care. Other sovereigns have died as they have lived,

962
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:03,640
Speaker 3: with all the pomp of earthly majesty, but death having

963
00:49:03,719 --> 00:49:07,279
Speaker 3: touched them. Norton the first rises up the exact peer

964
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:10,720
Speaker 3: of the haughtiest king or kaiser that ever wore a crown.

965
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:13,840
Speaker 3: Perhaps he will rise more than the peer of most

966
00:49:13,840 --> 00:49:17,120
Speaker 3: of them. He had a better claim to kindly consideration

967
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:20,800
Speaker 3: than that his lot. Quote forbade to wade through slaughter

968
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:23,040
Speaker 3: to a throne and shut the gates of mercy on

969
00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:27,759
Speaker 3: mankind through his harmless proclamations can always be traced an

970
00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:31,440
Speaker 3: innate gentleness of heart, a desire to affect uses, and

971
00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:35,120
Speaker 3: a courtesy, the possession of which would materially improve the

972
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:39,200
Speaker 3: powerful living princes whose names will naturally suggest themselves.

973
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:43,879
Speaker 2: I like the how respectful they were, and I got

974
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:46,200
Speaker 2: to the essence of his value to the city and

975
00:49:46,239 --> 00:49:49,120
Speaker 2: to all of us in comparing him to the real.

976
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:51,960
Speaker 3: Leaders, that he could be an example totally. So. The

977
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:56,000
Speaker 3: Chronicle published coverage of his funeral with the headline leis

978
00:49:56,160 --> 00:49:59,960
Speaker 3: more the king is dead. He died with six dogs

979
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:03,799
Speaker 3: and no personal effects to his name. The members of

980
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:06,279
Speaker 3: the Posh Pacific Club, they all chipped in to give

981
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:10,160
Speaker 3: him this regal sending off. Ten thousand people attended the

982
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:13,759
Speaker 3: funeral in wake Damn. The line to pay respects to

983
00:50:13,800 --> 00:50:16,320
Speaker 3: the coffin snaked out the door and down the street.

984
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:19,319
Speaker 3: The cops had to come to manage the crowd, and

985
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 3: the crowd was a cross section of the city, right,

986
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:25,120
Speaker 3: So there were the elites, the criminals, the clergy, the

987
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:29,680
Speaker 3: banker's maids, clerics, ladies who lunch, all ages, all origins,

988
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 3: people of all ethnicities, all walks of.

989
00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 2: Life, all the true San Franciscos, true San.

990
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,080
Speaker 3: Francisco's, but also in the true San Francisco the majority

991
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:40,799
Speaker 3: of the mourners were everyday workers. Yes, the people who

992
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:44,160
Speaker 3: kept the city humming. They loved him and believed in him.

993
00:50:44,520 --> 00:50:47,880
Speaker 3: So five years after his death, Mark Twain published Adventures

994
00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:51,600
Speaker 3: of Huckleberry Finn. The character of the King is modeled

995
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 3: after Emperor Norton. The Emperor also appears at as the.

996
00:50:55,200 --> 00:50:57,400
Speaker 2: King in The Duke from Huckway Finn. Yes, totally.

997
00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:01,400
Speaker 3: The Emperor also appears as himself in Robert Lewis Stevenson's

998
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:05,480
Speaker 3: novel The Wrecker. He's in there. In nineteen thirty four,

999
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:09,400
Speaker 3: San Francisco moved all the residents of its cemeteries except

1000
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:11,880
Speaker 3: for the one of the Presidio to Colma of the

1001
00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:14,399
Speaker 3: city because they'd run out of room, and so the city,

1002
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:18,600
Speaker 3: the city's only seven miles by seven months trained. Yeah,

1003
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:22,840
Speaker 3: and so in that great cemetery eviction, Emperor Norton's remains

1004
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:27,520
Speaker 3: were moved from the Masonic Cemetery to Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma,

1005
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:31,040
Speaker 3: and they had like a whole reburial ceremony with full

1006
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:35,480
Speaker 3: civic and military honors and a new headstone. Yeah. And

1007
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:37,839
Speaker 3: there are those who visit the grave often, like as

1008
00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:40,959
Speaker 3: a pilgrimage. One of those groups friends of the show

1009
00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:44,279
Speaker 3: you mentioned him earlier, the Ancient and Honorable Order of

1010
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:47,920
Speaker 3: e Calampus Vitis. They made an appearance in Our Drake's

1011
00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:53,160
Speaker 3: Plate episode Clampers. And so that is my ode to weirdness,

1012
00:51:53,239 --> 00:51:56,880
Speaker 3: my elegy for the fringe, my celebration of the flyers

1013
00:51:56,880 --> 00:51:59,560
Speaker 3: of the freak Flag. Thank you for indulging me. This

1014
00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:04,240
Speaker 3: was a humphort episode for me, very nice comfort escapist episode. Saren,

1015
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:05,440
Speaker 3: what's your ridiculous takeaway?

1016
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:07,440
Speaker 2: A couple of things I learned even though we take

1017
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,080
Speaker 2: the tour, I still learned stuff in this episode, So

1018
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:11,560
Speaker 2: thank you for doing research.

1019
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,719
Speaker 3: The tour is great because it's focused mostly on San

1020
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:17,799
Speaker 3: Francisco history, but you're like, he tells it through the

1021
00:52:17,800 --> 00:52:20,759
Speaker 3: eyes of the Emperor. It's I cannot recommend.

1022
00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:23,120
Speaker 2: I recommend it. You can find it online. Just look

1023
00:52:23,160 --> 00:52:25,319
Speaker 2: up the Emperor Norton's Tour Walking Tour.

1024
00:52:25,400 --> 00:52:26,759
Speaker 3: Yes, so good, so good.

1025
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:28,840
Speaker 2: Also, I did have one though, that I think is

1026
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:31,799
Speaker 2: interesting to the point you've made or the points you

1027
00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:36,120
Speaker 2: made throughout, which is possibly, in my opinion, one of

1028
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:39,360
Speaker 2: the greatest Americans ever lived is somebody who named himself Emperor.

1029
00:52:39,360 --> 00:52:42,520
Speaker 3: And I like the I of that well, and he

1030
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:44,880
Speaker 3: encapsules I know you and I have talked to about

1031
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:48,239
Speaker 3: like what this notion of America or the United States is,

1032
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:51,920
Speaker 3: and that I always classify it as you'r the Walt

1033
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 3: Whitman version of it. The witmen esque version of America

1034
00:52:55,320 --> 00:52:59,080
Speaker 3: is what I subscribe to. And like this vast possibility

1035
00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:05,239
Speaker 3: and vast capabilities and potentials, vast community and very inclusive,

1036
00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:09,920
Speaker 3: you know. And so that's what Norton locks into that

1037
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 3: of like here he's got this whitman esque version of

1038
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:17,400
Speaker 3: our best selves and our most giving selves, and in

1039
00:53:17,560 --> 00:53:22,399
Speaker 3: taking a title. He's absolutely giving and shining a light.

1040
00:53:22,440 --> 00:53:24,360
Speaker 3: I mean, he's obviously he knows he's not going to

1041
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:27,800
Speaker 3: dissolve Congress. But when you make those kind of statements

1042
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:30,600
Speaker 3: that it shines a light for people. So and you know,

1043
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,880
Speaker 3: my god, you gotta have fun exactly know.

1044
00:53:33,840 --> 00:53:36,879
Speaker 2: What I mean? Like, you gotta have fun in this life.

1045
00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:40,680
Speaker 3: One chance at it. So anyway, I like it, Dave,

1046
00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:52,280
Speaker 3: I need to talk back. That's my takeaway.

1047
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:53,360
Speaker 2: I want.

1048
00:53:57,080 --> 00:54:01,000
Speaker 3: You knew do want about a school group because I've

1049
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 3: heard of it and you need to do one.

1050
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:07,680
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for this podcast. I love it.

1051
00:54:07,680 --> 00:54:11,600
Speaker 2: It's our pleasure is That's what it's called. A skull

1052
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:13,840
Speaker 2: group or just find a group about skulls.

1053
00:54:13,840 --> 00:54:19,200
Speaker 3: Skulls all right, we's like skull and bones.

1054
00:54:20,400 --> 00:54:22,239
Speaker 2: I'm gonna look up a skull group and start there.

1055
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:25,719
Speaker 3: Let's do it. Okay, We're on it, dude. Uh that's

1056
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:28,760
Speaker 3: it for today. You can find us online at ridiculous

1057
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:31,960
Speaker 3: Crime dot com. We're also at Ridiculous Crime on Instagram,

1058
00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:35,640
Speaker 3: Blue Sky. We're on YouTube now Ridiculous Crime Pod with

1059
00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:41,359
Speaker 3: just the most adorable uh illustrations, animations, I should say

1060
00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:47,319
Speaker 3: or whatever. Both of them drawings Pictures Pictures Email us

1061
00:54:47,560 --> 00:54:50,239
Speaker 3: Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com, leave it talk back

1062
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:59,080
Speaker 3: on the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted

1063
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:02,279
Speaker 3: by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by

1064
00:55:02,360 --> 00:55:07,240
Speaker 3: Dave Cousten, Emperor of BofA, starring Annalise Rutger as Judith.

1065
00:55:07,640 --> 00:55:10,560
Speaker 3: Research is by expert in uniform repair and hat plumage,

1066
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:14,080
Speaker 3: refreshing Marissa Brown. The theme song is by Thomas Lee,

1067
00:55:14,120 --> 00:55:17,840
Speaker 3: protector of Mexican Food, and Travis Dutton, Protector of Mexican Spirits.

1068
00:55:18,040 --> 00:55:20,920
Speaker 3: Host wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair

1069
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:24,799
Speaker 3: and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are

1070
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:28,239
Speaker 3: Pacific Club ad Hoc Funeral Fundraising Committee co chairs Ben

1071
00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:29,640
Speaker 3: Boleen and Noel Brown.

1072
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:40,240
Speaker 2: Gigs Quime Say It One More Time, Geequius Crime.

1073
00:55:41,280 --> 00:55:44,600
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more Podcasts

1074
00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:47,800
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1075
00:55:47,800 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.