Speaker 1: You're listening to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Aaron Minkey Listener discretion advised. In the summer
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty five, an Australian lawyer named William Gibbs
Speaker 1: was sitting in his office reading the Sydney Morning Herald.
Speaker 1: His eyes glazed over a large advertisement. The ad had
Speaker 1: been placed in papers for weeks, and by now Gibbs
Speaker 1: practically knew the words by heart. A handsome reward will
Speaker 1: be given to any person who can furnish such information
Speaker 1: as will discover the fate of Roger Charles Tickborne. He
Speaker 1: sailed from the port of Rio de Janeiro on the
Speaker 1: twentieth of April eighteen fifty four in the ship Labella,
Speaker 1: and has never been heard of since. Roger Tickborn ship,
Speaker 1: it seemed, had completely wrecked, but rumor had reached England
Speaker 1: that the survivors had been rescued by ship headed to Australia,
Speaker 1: and Roger's mother, Lady Tickborne, was conveyed iNTS that her
Speaker 1: son still lived, making him the rightful heir to the
Speaker 1: tick Born baronetcy. Gibbs put down the newspaper and looked
Speaker 1: at his next client, a local butcher from Wagga Wagga
Speaker 1: named Thomas Castro. Castro's situation was pretty bleak. There wasn't
Speaker 1: much Gibbs could do to help him. Do you have
Speaker 1: any other properties that you could maybe liquidate? He asked,
Speaker 1: any valuable as you could sell any family abroad. Castor
Speaker 1: was evasive. Yes, there was some property. He had an
Speaker 1: entitlement back in England, but most of his possessions and
Speaker 1: his paperwork had been lost in a shipwreck. Castro pulled
Speaker 1: out a beautifully carved briar pipe and began smoking. It
Speaker 1: was the pipe of a gentleman, and Castor had hoped
Speaker 1: it added an air of legitimacy to the excuses he
Speaker 1: made to his lawyer. Please, sir, he said, I have
Speaker 1: a wife and daughter. Isn't there something you can do
Speaker 1: for me? Gibbs asked for a closer look at Castro's pipe.
Speaker 1: On the side of the burn mahogany would were three
Speaker 1: gilded initials, almost invisible in the surface. R. C. T.
Speaker 1: Roger Charles Tickborn. Gibbs salivated. His mouth tasted like copper.
Speaker 1: He rose to his feet and paced to the window,
Speaker 1: then paced back to his desk. All while the butcher
Speaker 1: who had called himself, Thomas Castro watched him nervously. I think,
Speaker 1: Gibbs said, still walking, pacing in steady circles around his
Speaker 1: small hot office. I think you've been lying to me.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about. Castro answered. I think,
Speaker 1: Gibbs said, his voice triumphant, that your real name is
Speaker 1: Roger Tickborne. Castro's eyes caught the newspaper still splayed on
Speaker 1: Gibbs's desk. He saw the words reward, inheritance, and air.
Speaker 1: The man cleared his throat, he in and exiled, and
Speaker 1: then looked right into gives his eyes and said two
Speaker 1: words that would send Victorian England into a frenzy to
Speaker 1: words that would launch the longest trial England had seen
Speaker 1: up until that point, Words that would tear families and
Speaker 1: lives apart, Words that would captivate writers like Mark Twain
Speaker 1: and George Bernard Shaw and ignite a populist movement. The man,
Speaker 1: using the name Thomas Castro, who from that day on
Speaker 1: would most commonly be referred to as the claimant, looked
Speaker 1: directly at his lawyer and said, you're right. I'm Danish
Speaker 1: Schwartz and this is noble blood. The story of the
Speaker 1: tick Borne claimant doesn't actually begin in Australia. It doesn't
Speaker 1: actually begin in England either. It begins in France, in
Speaker 1: a cell in eighteen o three, where an English nobleman
Speaker 1: named Henry Seymour was imprisoned during the Napoleonic Wars. Also
Speaker 1: imprisoned with him was a man named James Tickborne, one
Speaker 1: of the sons of an English baronet. Henry Seymour didn't
Speaker 1: let a little thing like being a prisoner of war
Speaker 1: stop him from enjoying himself. While in captivity, He seduced
Speaker 1: the daughter of the Duc de Bourbon and became the
Speaker 1: father of a daughter whom they named Henriette. Years passed
Speaker 1: and Henriette still hadn't found a husband. When she turned twenty,
Speaker 1: her father, Henry Seymour, took matters into his own hands
Speaker 1: and decided to arrange a match with James Tickborne, his
Speaker 1: former brother in arms as a prisoner of war in France.
Speaker 1: So what if James was twice Henriette's age, was ugly
Speaker 1: and had the conversational abilities of a brick wall. Henriette
Speaker 1: was twenty already an old maid, and James, as the
Speaker 1: son of a baronet, was a suitable match, and so
Speaker 1: the pair got married and had a son of their own,
Speaker 1: Roger Charles Doughty Tickborn. James was his father's fourth son,
Speaker 1: and so the odds weren't in his favor when it
Speaker 1: came to him or his son Roger inheriting the baronetcy.
Speaker 1: But as luck would have it, his older brother died
Speaker 1: with no male heirs, his second eldest brother died young,
Speaker 1: also with no children, and his third brother only had
Speaker 1: a daughter, a girl named Catherine, and so it was
Speaker 1: young Roger who was raised with the knowledge that he
Speaker 1: would one day become the baronet. As one might have predicted,
Speaker 1: the arranged marriage between Henriette and James Tickborne was rocky
Speaker 1: at best. Although they eventually had another surviving son named Alfred,
Speaker 1: the spouses lived almost entirely separate lives. With her French pedigree,
Speaker 1: Henriette believed that France would be the best place to
Speaker 1: give her son Roger a proper education, and so she
Speaker 1: brought little Roger with her to Paris, where he spoke
Speaker 1: French before he spoke English. The little heir lived there
Speaker 1: until his father intervened and sent him to a British
Speaker 1: boarding school, where British schoolboys. Being British schoolboys, Roger was
Speaker 1: endlessly mocked for his thick French accent. His adolescence was
Speaker 1: not a happy one. After school, Roger joined the British
Speaker 1: Army and during his leaves he would spend time at
Speaker 1: Tickborne Park with his uncle Edward, the Baronet, his aunt
Speaker 1: and his cousin Katherine. It's there that he found the
Speaker 1: only joy in his young life because even though she
Speaker 1: was his cousin, Katherine was beautiful and Edward, who was
Speaker 1: tall and slim with dark hair and dark eyes, was
Speaker 1: very handsome. The two cousins became enamored with one another.
Speaker 1: The marriage between first cousins wasn't strictly forbidden in the
Speaker 1: nineteenth century. Roger's uncle, Sir Edward, was not a fan
Speaker 1: of the idea. He forbade Roger from seeing Katherine until
Speaker 1: their youthful attraction diminished the planned in work. Whenever Roger
Speaker 1: had time away from the army, he would sneak back
Speaker 1: to see Catherine, the two meeting in secret by moonlight.
Speaker 1: They exchanged love letters written in code, but Catherine's father,
Speaker 1: Sir Edward, was never going to agree to the match.
Speaker 1: Love sick lonely and desperate, Roger needed to get away.
Speaker 1: The twenty three year old resigned his military position, where
Speaker 1: his regiment had just been stationed in the British Isles,
Speaker 1: and he left on a private tour of South America.
Speaker 1: Roger's ship landed safely in Chile, where he received a
Speaker 1: letter informing him that his uncle had passed away just
Speaker 1: weeks after Roger had departed on his voyage. Now Roger's
Speaker 1: father was the baronet. The air continued his journey, traveling
Speaker 1: through South America for nearly a year, crossing the Andies,
Speaker 1: traveling to Buenos Aires and then to Brazil. It was
Speaker 1: from a port in Rio de jan Era that Roger
Speaker 1: boarded a boat called Labella, sailing for Jamaica, what would
Speaker 1: be one of the final stops on his tour. No
Speaker 1: one aboard Labella was ever heard from again. Four days later,
Speaker 1: a wreck was discovered off the Brazilian coast, presumed to
Speaker 1: be the ill fated Bella. By all appearances, every passenger,
Speaker 1: including Roger Tickborne, had perished, but Roger's mother, Henriette now
Speaker 1: Lady Tickborne, refused to believe that her eldest son was dead.
Speaker 1: Roger had been her shining boy, the beautiful child she
Speaker 1: had raised in Paris and spent the mornings with chattering
Speaker 1: in French. He was the dashing soldier, well read, quiet,
Speaker 1: always polite, and he couldn't possibly be dead without telling
Speaker 1: her husband. One afternoon, Lady Tickborn snuck out to see
Speaker 1: a psychic in London, at the type of place where
Speaker 1: a woman of her stature would have been more than
Speaker 1: a little embarrassed to be seen, but Lady Tickborn didn't care.
Speaker 1: She brought with her one of Roger's hats and a
Speaker 1: newspaper clipping but the wreck of the Bella, and laid
Speaker 1: her beating heart onto the psychic's velvet covered table. The
Speaker 1: psychic smiled and told Lady Tickborne that, without a doubt,
Speaker 1: her son was still alive. There were rumors that the
Speaker 1: passengers of the Bella, or at least some of them,
Speaker 1: had been picked up by a ship and brought to Australia.
Speaker 1: Roger must have been among them. That was the conviction
Speaker 1: that Lady Tickborne carried with her after the death of
Speaker 1: her husband. When her indolent younger son, Alfred became the
Speaker 1: new baronet, it was the conviction that Lady Tickborne carried
Speaker 1: with her when Alfred's drinking and gambling nearly led him
Speaker 1: to bankruptcy and he had to begin to lease out
Speaker 1: the estates of Tickborne Park to tenants. And it's the
Speaker 1: conviction that she carried with her when she issued out
Speaker 1: a series of advertisements in Australian newspapers, including the Sydney
Speaker 1: Morning Herald, which a lawyer in Wagga Wagga named William
Speaker 1: Gibbs just happened to read. The man who had been
Speaker 1: going under the alias of Thomas Castro, whom history would
Speaker 1: refer to as the Claimant, made his way from Wagga
Speaker 1: Wagga to Sydney, where he raised money from banks on
Speaker 1: the declaration that he was Roger Tickborne, heir to a
Speaker 1: title and a vast fortune. The claimant said he had
Speaker 1: been on the sinking Bella, but had been rescued by
Speaker 1: a ship and made it to Melbourne, and with his
Speaker 1: memories adult from the trauma of the shipwreck, he had
Speaker 1: made up the name Thomas Castro, taking on the surname
Speaker 1: from a kind family he had met in South America.
Speaker 1: The so called Thomas Castro then settled in Wagga Wagga,
Speaker 1: began working as an apprentice. Butcher got married and had
Speaker 1: a daughter. But now the memories were flooding back. He
Speaker 1: was actually Roger Tickborn and all he needed was enough
Speaker 1: money to get back to England to see his mother.
Speaker 1: In order to prove it while in Sydney, the claimant
Speaker 1: meant a man from Roger Tickborn's past life, a servant
Speaker 1: named Andrew Boggle. Boggle was born a slave in Jamaica,
Speaker 1: but had stowed away with Roger's uncle Edward, and worked
Speaker 1: with him as a man servant for many years until
Speaker 1: Edward's death, when Boggle was cast off unceremoniously into forced
Speaker 1: retirement with a tiny pension. Most long time servants at
Speaker 1: the time were given a small property upon retirement. Boggle
Speaker 1: had been given scarcely enough to support himself, which necessitated
Speaker 1: his move to Australia, where living was cheaper. At first,
Speaker 1: Boggle didn't recognize the man calling himself Roger Tickborn. As
Speaker 1: a youth, Roger was lean, all angles and long legs.
Speaker 1: The man before him was nearly two hundred pounds, his
Speaker 1: facial features less defined. During his time in Sydney, the
Speaker 1: claimant would gain twenty pounds, and he would gain another
Speaker 1: forty pounds on the ship from Australia to England. Sympathizers
Speaker 1: explained he was just in joining his new found indulgent lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Skeptics would say the man was purposely trying to distort
Speaker 1: his appearance. But Bogle looked closely and he made his determination.
Speaker 1: The man was most certainly Roger Tickborne. And so, with
Speaker 1: the money he had raised in Australia, he his wife,
Speaker 1: his daughter and Boggle would all depart back in order
Speaker 1: to claim his inheritance from his mother, Lady Tickborne. So
Speaker 1: the claimant made his way to England. He stayed at
Speaker 1: a hotel in London and whispered to the man at
Speaker 1: the front desk that his identity was actually that of
Speaker 1: the missing Baronet, Roger Tickborne, but that it was top secret.
Speaker 1: Moms the word. The receptionists promised. First thing that the
Speaker 1: claimant set out to see Lady Tickborne at her London residence,
Speaker 1: but when he got there he was told that the
Speaker 1: lady was residing in Paris. Then the claimant went somewhere else.
Speaker 1: He went to a rough Cockney neighborhood in East London
Speaker 1: called Wapon and as the first man he saw, if
Speaker 1: he knew the whereabouts of family? Called Orton, Who's asking?
Speaker 1: The stranger responded. The claimant said that he was close
Speaker 1: friends with Arthur Orton. They had worked together in Australia
Speaker 1: on a cattle station. Orton, the claimant said, had done
Speaker 1: incredibly well for himself and was now one of the
Speaker 1: wealthiest and most successful men in Australia. The claimant was
Speaker 1: told that the Orton family had left the area a
Speaker 1: while back. Just over a week later, the claimant met
Speaker 1: Lady Tickborne at the Hotel de Lille in Paris. Upon
Speaker 1: seeing his face, Lady Tickborne burst into tears. It's my son,
Speaker 1: she cried. She embraced him and declared for all the
Speaker 1: world to hear that her lost son Roger, had been
Speaker 1: found at last. Although Lady Tickborne was fully convinced that
Speaker 1: the claimant was the lost heir and haply bestowed an
Speaker 1: income of a thousand pounds a year on him, the
Speaker 1: rest of the Tickborn clan remained less than convinced. The
Speaker 1: claimant's physical stature aside, and by now he was nearly
Speaker 1: four hundred pounds, he didn't speak a word of French,
Speaker 1: nor did he speak with a French accent, and after
Speaker 1: all French had been Roger's first language. The claimant mixed
Speaker 1: up Greek and Latin, didn't know his Virgil, couldn't identify
Speaker 1: distant family members, but then again, he didn't know small
Speaker 1: strange details about Roger's life. He knew the type of
Speaker 1: fly fishing tackle Roger had used and the name of
Speaker 1: the dog he had adopted during his travels in South America.
Speaker 1: On one hand, he knew where certain paintings were located
Speaker 1: at Tickborne Park. But on the other hand, he had
Speaker 1: referred to his mother, Lady Tickborn, in a letter as Hannah,
Speaker 1: even though her name was Henriette. Still, Lady Tickborn would
Speaker 1: hear nothing against the miraculous return of her son, and
Speaker 1: though the family didn't allow him to formally claim the
Speaker 1: baronet tight after the degenerate Alfred's death, that title went
Speaker 1: to his infant son. The claimant still received a thousand
Speaker 1: pounds a year annual income from her ladyship, and he
Speaker 1: was quite content enjoying his new position in society as
Speaker 1: a rogue noble, that is, until Lady Tickborn died. To
Speaker 1: the outrage of the Tickborne family. The claimant took the
Speaker 1: position of chief mourner at her funeral to them, he
Speaker 1: was a low born impostor, an embarrassing blight on their
Speaker 1: family name, and he would receive no title and no
Speaker 1: more money. Bankrupt, the claimants set up a fundraising venture
Speaker 1: in which he issued Tickborn bonds that holders could purchase
Speaker 1: and then received interest for once he had claimed his
Speaker 1: rightful inheritance. He made a living that way, affording enough
Speaker 1: to temporarily maintain his posture living as a noble born gentleman.
Speaker 1: But if he actually wished to prove to the world
Speaker 1: that he was Roger Tickborne, then the claimant had only
Speaker 1: one an option. He needed to go to court. While
Speaker 1: the claimant was living as either a pretender or a
Speaker 1: populist hero, depending on your perspective, members of the Tickborne
Speaker 1: family sent private investigators to try to look into the
Speaker 1: story that they were told the cleimant had mentioned that
Speaker 1: he used to work with a man named Arthur Orton
Speaker 1: on a cattle ranch in Australia. Maybe if they could
Speaker 1: find Orton, they would uncover the truth about the claimant.
Speaker 1: The Tickborne family agent traveled down to Australia and made
Speaker 1: it to the old cattle station where the claimant had
Speaker 1: claimed to work a place run by a man named
Speaker 1: William Foster. Foster's widow checked the old employment records. There
Speaker 1: was an Arthur Orton listed, but no one by the
Speaker 1: name of Thomas Castro the claimants alias. Maybe he had
Speaker 1: been using another alias at the time. The agent showed
Speaker 1: the widow the photograph of the man claiming to be
Speaker 1: Roger Tickborn. Oh I do know him, she said, that's
Speaker 1: Arthur Orton. Arthur Orton, born in Wapping in England, was
Speaker 1: the son of a butcher who had traveled to Chile
Speaker 1: as a young man and later moved to Australia. He
Speaker 1: worked at the cattle station owned by William Foster, but
Speaker 1: his paper trail ends there. It's as if he disappeared
Speaker 1: from existence or took up a new identity. When the
Speaker 1: claimants civil trial came to court in eighteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: the defense lawyer asked about the mysterious Arthur Orton. The
Speaker 1: claimant was evasive, saying they had been friends in Australia,
Speaker 1: but that saying anything else about the time they had
Speaker 1: spent together would incriminate him. Finally, the lawyer asked the
Speaker 1: man on the standpoint blank, are you Arthur Orton? No?
Speaker 1: The claimant responded, I am not at stake in the
Speaker 1: trial was Tickborne Park, which consisted of over two thousand
Speaker 1: acres manners farm land in Hampshire and a number of
Speaker 1: other properties in London and beyond. The baronet title would
Speaker 1: afford whoever held it an annual income of what to
Speaker 1: day would be several millions of dollars. The witnesses lined
Speaker 1: up to testify. Some pointed out that the claimant couldn't
Speaker 1: speak French, or claimed that the real Roger Tickborn had
Speaker 1: had tattoos. But some witnesses, former soldiers in Roger's battalion,
Speaker 1: a servant that Roger had traveled with in South America,
Speaker 1: maintained that after spending time with the man, the claimant
Speaker 1: was Roger Tickborne. The defense lawyer had two hundred witnesses
Speaker 1: ready to go to disprove that claim, but the judge
Speaker 1: held up his hand no more witnesses would be necessary.
Speaker 1: The case was dismissed and the claimant was arrested on
Speaker 1: charges of perjury. During that civil trial, the claimant had
Speaker 1: become a massively popular figure of the public imagination. Here
Speaker 1: was a working class hero with a Cockney accent going
Speaker 1: up against the aristocracy and the criminal system, being denied
Speaker 1: something that belonged to him. I appealed to every British
Speaker 1: soul who was inspired by a love of justice and
Speaker 1: fair play, and is willing to defend the weak against
Speaker 1: the strong, The claimant wrote in an essay appealing for
Speaker 1: donations for his upcoming criminal trial. Support poured in his
Speaker 1: story was a Victorian sensation. His trial followed breathlessly. Knick
Speaker 1: knacks were sold featuring the major players of the story.
Speaker 1: Tickborne was recreated in wax at Madame Tousseau's In a
Speaker 1: political cartoon published in Punch magazine in eighteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: the claimants to destroy the shoulders of a man demarcated
Speaker 1: as quote representing the British public. The quote British public
Speaker 1: man is sweating and read under the significant weight of
Speaker 1: the claimant, his cheeks puffed out with effort. On either
Speaker 1: side of the men are crowd holding signs Australia police, socialism, politics.
Speaker 1: The caption of the cartoon reads, I cannot be expected
Speaker 1: to attend to any of you with this interesting topic
Speaker 1: on my shoulders. George Bernard Shaw wrote about the case
Speaker 1: and its peculiar contradictions and the introduction to his play
Speaker 1: Andrew Cles and the Lion, A Shaw wrote, the claimants
Speaker 1: attempt to pass himself off as a baronet was supported
Speaker 1: by an association of laborers, on the ground that the
Speaker 1: tick Borne family, in resisting it, were trying to do
Speaker 1: a laborer out of his rights. Two Shaw, the paradox
Speaker 1: was obvious, who had to believe simultaneously that this man
Speaker 1: was a cockney workman just like you, and at the
Speaker 1: same time that he was a born and raised, legitimate aristocrat.
Speaker 1: Mark Twain also paid attention to the massively popular trial.
Speaker 1: While in London, the celebrated writer was at a party
Speaker 1: with the claimant, where he noticed the way Uppercross men
Speaker 1: and women in high society always referred to him as
Speaker 1: Sir Roger. It was Sir Roger, always, Sir Roger, on
Speaker 1: all hands, no one withheld the title. Of course, the
Speaker 1: upper Cross didn't really believe that the man was Sir Roger.
Speaker 1: The only reason that this man had been invited to
Speaker 1: all these parties in the first place had been a
Speaker 1: sort of a joke, a hilarious little pantomime like seeing
Speaker 1: a monkey dressed in human clothes. But the claimant maintained
Speaker 1: that he was Roger Tickborne, never wavering even as lawyers
Speaker 1: and witnesses abandoned his case. His criminal trial for perjury
Speaker 1: lasted one hundred and eighty eight days, one of the
Speaker 1: longest trials in English history, but the deliberation lasted only
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. The jury declared that he was not Roger Tickborn,
Speaker 1: and he was guilty on two counts of perjury and
Speaker 1: sentenced to fourteen years in prison. The loss in court
Speaker 1: did nothing to quell the groundswell of popular support among
Speaker 1: the working class for the claimant and his lawyer, an
Speaker 1: eccentric irishman named Keennoy, who was ultimately disbarred thanks to
Speaker 1: his violent and excessive performance in court during the trial.
Speaker 1: But Kenoy used that popularity to launch a campaign for
Speaker 1: election to Parliament, which he won in a landslide victory.
Speaker 1: But if the people were hoping for a champion, they
Speaker 1: had unfortunately chosen the wrong one. Keen only attempted to
Speaker 1: get the House of Commons to establish a Royal Commission
Speaker 1: to re examine the Tickborn case, but it only received
Speaker 1: a single gay vote. His own popularity and fervor over
Speaker 1: Roger Tickborne and his mysterious disappearance and reappearance gradually dissolved,
Speaker 1: and newspapers moved on to covering newer and more exciting gossip.
Speaker 1: In eighty four, after serving a ten year sentence, the
Speaker 1: man the public had come to know as the Claimant
Speaker 1: was released from prison. He had lost nearly a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty pounds. Ironically, his time in jail had made
Speaker 1: him look even more like Roger Tickborn than ever before.
Speaker 1: His old supporters attempted to rally him into their populist
Speaker 1: political movements, but the claimant had no interest in any
Speaker 1: of that. Instead, he made paid appearances at dance halls
Speaker 1: and circuses and married a young music hall singer he
Speaker 1: had long since separated from his Australian wife. When no
Speaker 1: one in England seemed to care about him anymore, he
Speaker 1: went to America, where he thought he still might make
Speaker 1: some money. But no one in America cared about who
Speaker 1: he was either, and the claimant worked as a bartender
Speaker 1: there Before coming back to England. A newspaper paid him
Speaker 1: a few hundred pounds for a confession that he was
Speaker 1: Arthur Orton all along. The claimant retracted that confession as
Speaker 1: soon as he spent the money. The claimant died in
Speaker 1: abject poverty on April Fool's Day in eighteen. His funeral
Speaker 1: was attended by nearly five thousand people. For one last moment,
Speaker 1: the public seemed to care about him again. Some call
Speaker 1: it foolishness or kindness or mercy, but for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: the Tickborne family permitted a card on the claimant's coffin
Speaker 1: that said Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tickborn. And so it
Speaker 1: was a coffin that bared the title of a baronet
Speaker 1: that was laid into a pauper's grave. That's the end
Speaker 1: of the claimant's life, but his story doesn't end there.
Speaker 1: Stick around after a brief sponsor break to learn more
Speaker 1: about how the Tickborn case lives on a century later.
Speaker 1: Because the Tickborne controversy had happened a century before the
Speaker 1: discovery of DNA evidence, it's impossible to determine for certain
Speaker 1: who the claimant actually was. He went to his grave
Speaker 1: still declaring that he was Roger Tickborn. Years later, the
Speaker 1: claimant's daughter would go on to say that her father
Speaker 1: had confessed to her that he had accidentally killed Arthur
Speaker 1: Orton back in Australia, and that's why he couldn't reveal
Speaker 1: the true details of his past. The claimant's daughter would
Speaker 1: spend a lifetime declaring that she was Roger Tickborne's daughter.
Speaker 1: Some believe that the claimant was Arthur Orton all along,
Speaker 1: and that he was helped in the details of Roger's
Speaker 1: life by the disgruntled servant Boggle, angry at the Tickborne
Speaker 1: family for terminating his position and looking for revenge, Perhaps
Speaker 1: they orchestrated the conspiracy together. Another theory is that the
Speaker 1: real Roger Tickborn had made it to Australia and befriended
Speaker 1: the man who would later claim his identity. Maybe that
Speaker 1: man had killed the real Roger Tickborn. In his nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty seven book The Tickborne Claimant, Douglas Woodruff argues that
Speaker 1: it's possible the claimant actually might have been the real
Speaker 1: Roger Tickborn all along. After all, what kind of lunatic
Speaker 1: would travel halfway across the world with the wife and
Speaker 1: daughter in tow to meet a mother and a family
Speaker 1: he knew nothing about if he had nothing to go on.
Speaker 1: The soap opera saga of the Tickborn case captivated the
Speaker 1: Victorian public, but it's a story that continues to fascinate
Speaker 1: modern audiences. In the Simpsons, writer Ken Keeler Pendant episode,
Speaker 1: he says was influenced by the Tickborn case. In the
Speaker 1: episode Principal, Skinner reveals that his real name is Armand
Speaker 1: Tamsarian and that as a soldier in the Vietnam War,
Speaker 1: he made friends with the fellow platoon man named Skinner.
Speaker 1: When Skinner was assumed dead, Tamsarian went to Springfield in
Speaker 1: order to deliver the bad news to his mother. Mrs
Speaker 1: Skinner mistook Tamsarian for her own son, and Tam'sarian began
Speaker 1: life anew under a false name. It was an episode
Speaker 1: so outlandish that some critics consider at the end of
Speaker 1: The Simpsons Golden Age. Ironically enough, the episode takes its
Speaker 1: title from a story by Mark Twain. It's called The
Speaker 1: Principal and the Pauper. Noble Blood is a co production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Aaron Mankey. The show is
Speaker 1: written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can
Speaker 1: learn more about the show over at Noble Blood Tales
Speaker 1: dot com. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.