Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Zaren Yes, Oh ellsbit done. What are you doing girl, I'm.
Speaker 3: Just hanging out here. Listen. You know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 2: Oh my god? Do I So? I was talking to
Speaker 2: the entrance before you got here, and I was like
Speaker 2: looking at different headlines looking for something. I was just like,
Speaker 2: I couldn't remember what I was looking for. I was
Speaker 2: going through old tabs and I didn't have time to
Speaker 2: read the stories. But they were laughing about my tabs. Anyway.
Speaker 2: One of the tabs, this was a headline elephant killed
Speaker 2: a woman, then attended her funeral and smashed her corpse.
Speaker 2: I was like, why did you want to see that one?
Speaker 2: Then another one I had was Catholic bishop resigns after
Speaker 2: falling in love with satanic erotic fiction novelist. I couldn't
Speaker 2: explain myself to these people, so I just was like,
Speaker 2: I just threw my hands up and walked away. I
Speaker 2: was like, where's my yogurt and walked away. There you go,
Speaker 2: that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Tabs are ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: I like that elephant story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I knew we couldn't do it because you know,
Speaker 2: there's the murder. But other than that, it's hilarious.
Speaker 3: Absolutely amazing. Do you want to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 2: I'm here for it. I love it.
Speaker 3: Go for it, Secret Princesses. Oh no, this is ridiculous
Speaker 3: Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons.
Speaker 3: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred
Speaker 3: percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2: You damn right? Who had to run from the stairs? Good?
Speaker 3: You're fat?
Speaker 2: I made it anything from the basement. No, okay, let's do.
Speaker 3: This smells so bad down there? Oh? Yeah, hello Sweden?
Speaker 2: Oh that they here?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm Elizabeth Thutton and I'm here to lovingly butcher
Speaker 3: the pronunciations of your beautiful language.
Speaker 2: Ah yes, leave it to me. I'll get in too.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: Here's okay, here's what I know of Sweden beyond Ikea,
Speaker 3: H and M, Volvo, puppet chefs, and gummy fish. Also ps,
Speaker 3: did you know that Spotify is a Swedish company? Shout
Speaker 3: out to anyone?
Speaker 2: I did not know that. Yeah, I thought it was
Speaker 2: Danish or Dutch Swedish.
Speaker 3: And did you know the Swedes invented the three point seatbelt?
Speaker 2: I did know that because of Volvo yeah, most of it.
Speaker 2: And also I think headlights, the running daytime running headlights
Speaker 2: and all that. I imagine, Well, they're all safety. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, you can flip a Volvo and it'll hold
Speaker 2: the weight of the car on its roof because of
Speaker 2: the snowy roads. So that's part of their design of
Speaker 2: the car. And you can flip it and I love.
Speaker 2: That's why I got one. I was like, I need
Speaker 2: one of these car and flipping it anyway, go on.
Speaker 3: Most of what I know about Sweden comes from like
Speaker 3: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and television.
Speaker 2: Yes, actually, I have to admit I liked to those books.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the books are amazing.
Speaker 2: I read them on the beach in Florida. Perfect place
Speaker 2: to read those kind of books.
Speaker 3: And like, now that I've come out as a television
Speaker 3: watch I can tell you I really love PBS.
Speaker 2: Yes, actually I love local.
Speaker 3: PBS like k q D here in the Bay area
Speaker 3: and their local show check please.
Speaker 2: By area area. You do talk about that.
Speaker 3: I'm a donor to k q D. I have PBS
Speaker 3: passport that lets me watch all the cool shows.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then when broad Church at the end.
Speaker 3: Of any masterpiece show, they give a shout out to
Speaker 3: Darlene Shyley and donors to PBS stations, Viewers like you, Viewers.
Speaker 2: Like us, Yeah, talking about Darling me, Yeah, you not me.
Speaker 3: Yeah. A lot of Masterpiece mystery shows, which are my favorite,
Speaker 3: are British.
Speaker 2: Production and sponsored by you and sponsored.
Speaker 3: By me, viewers like me. There's a lot of BBC
Speaker 3: stuff on there. There are so many that I love
Speaker 3: and I'm not going to start listing them off that
Speaker 3: teas Grandchester Unforgotten Murders. You know there's a new Magpie
Speaker 3: Murders coming out in September.
Speaker 2: I didn't know there was an old Magpie murder.
Speaker 3: Grace yourself. It's it's called something else.
Speaker 2: Okay, what is it?
Speaker 3: I don't remember, but it's something something like with a
Speaker 3: bird in It's okay. But one thing about.
Speaker 2: These betis pitch persons so good.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: One thing about these British productions is that they sometimes
Speaker 3: set them in other countries, like everyone's suspiciously British.
Speaker 2: Yes, no, I've watched The Three Musketeers, The Musketeers right, yeah,
Speaker 2: and everybody's British and you're like, it's French. I bet
Speaker 2: the French hate this. I love it.
Speaker 3: I tried watching this one show, Hotel port Afino. It's
Speaker 3: like a period drama about life and a resort hotel
Speaker 3: in nineteen twenties Italy. It's so me and like, I
Speaker 3: think the hotel in the show is owned by some
Speaker 3: English people, so whatever, but even the locals are so
Speaker 3: English that its just I couldn't do it. I watched
Speaker 3: like maybe like the first ten minutes, and then I
Speaker 3: dipped out. And I don't think anyone gets killed. So
Speaker 3: that's the other thing. There's also Wallander as they pronounce it,
Speaker 3: and that's set in Sweden and stars Kenneth Brenno. Oh,
Speaker 3: it's a great show. It's really good. But I found
Speaker 3: out that it's a remake of an actual Swedish show
Speaker 3: where Vallander is pronounced correctly.
Speaker 2: Okay, and then that one's better is that woman?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: No, what's the Swedish woman detective? Everyone was watching like
Speaker 2: a little while ago. I don't know anyway, there apparently
Speaker 2: it was a big hit.
Speaker 3: Now what I've learned from television is that I think
Speaker 3: I would really like to visit the Nordic countries. Oh,
Speaker 3: I can see that Denmark, Norway, Sweden. Norway is who
Speaker 3: gave us the Beforeigners, which is probably one of the
Speaker 3: best television shows ever.
Speaker 2: That I do love that show.
Speaker 3: If you haven't seen Beforeigners.
Speaker 2: So crazyly good. It's so surprising, as like a time
Speaker 2: travel show. You don't even see it coming.
Speaker 3: But that's Nordic.
Speaker 2: Let's talk Sweden, please, let's talk Sweden.
Speaker 3: The more people, the more I read and learn about Sweden,
Speaker 3: the more I would love to go.
Speaker 2: And there, welcome to my country.
Speaker 3: The caater affinity I have for the people. And I'm
Speaker 3: not saying this to butter up any Swedes who may
Speaker 3: be listening to us talking today. I know I'm going
Speaker 3: to disappoint them no matter what I do. And you,
Speaker 3: you and I have talked about this. We practice saying
Speaker 3: names and words that are like unfamiliar to us, over
Speaker 3: and over and over yes, and then you get in
Speaker 3: front of the mic, and at least.
Speaker 2: For me, it negates at all.
Speaker 3: Oh my mouth drops like fifty IQ points and suffers
Speaker 3: from a palsy. I can't it's a crying shame.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I suffer the exact same affliction.
Speaker 3: And there are also words that I know well and
Speaker 3: I usually say without incident, and then I'm recorded and
Speaker 3: suddenly I'm new to this language.
Speaker 2: There's English words. I mess up all the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, why does this happen?
Speaker 2: How did you mispronounce is?
Speaker 3: I don't know. Let's let's talk. Sweden said, this is your.
Speaker 2: People, Yes, my people, Elizabeth. You know that I have
Speaker 2: Swedish relatives, like like way back, not like they married
Speaker 2: into the family. I'm talking like ancestors. I got like
Speaker 2: Swedish blood. So like back when I be playing like
Speaker 2: hockey games, I'm like, let me play Team Sweden. Like
Speaker 2: if I'm playing like World Hoick games, like I get people,
Speaker 2: I'm like, let me play Team Sweden. These are my people.
Speaker 2: Just to mess with people.
Speaker 3: You love Vikings, but take in a white supremacist way.
Speaker 2: But like he's like, you mean like the show or
Speaker 2: the idea of Vikings everything.
Speaker 3: Via shows you love the the actual Viking, the.
Speaker 2: Historic grouping and also the verb to go Viking. I
Speaker 2: just love that. I'm going to go raid. Lindis farness
Speaker 2: amazing big.
Speaker 3: That's for Sweden. Stockholm's the capital city.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, hey, they have a great stock great.
Speaker 3: Quality life, great education, healthcare, civil liberties, gender equality.
Speaker 2: Great fast drivers. I watched their videos on YouTube and
Speaker 2: they drive around really fast at Night.
Speaker 3: They basically prove it can be done, all of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, gender equality and fast Driver.
Speaker 3: We lay down a little history. I can go way
Speaker 3: back with Sweden, but let's take it to the beginning
Speaker 3: of the nineteenth century.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: That's and this is going to be important in understanding
Speaker 3: the story that I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 2: Is this involved upsala. There's no oa.
Speaker 3: This is all comes together. There's a reason for this.
Speaker 2: I'm here.
Speaker 3: So Gustav the fourth was king of Sweden from seventeen
Speaker 3: ninety two until he was deposed in a coup in
Speaker 3: eighteen oh nine.
Speaker 2: Rough stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: He was also the last Swedish monarch to be the
Speaker 3: ruler of Finland.
Speaker 2: Was he deposed for supporting Napoleon eighteen oh nine? Seems
Speaker 2: like that might be going in anyway.
Speaker 3: Go on, Yeah, So yeah, this the coup is when
Speaker 3: the Russians occupied Sweden, Aha, and they tossed him out.
Speaker 3: They tossed Gustav out, he abdicated, and then they had
Speaker 3: this new instrument of government that was like that seriously
Speaker 3: limited the powers of the monarchy.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, And so that was.
Speaker 3: Adopted June sixth, eighteen oh nine. And that's now National
Speaker 3: Day of Sweden.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting.
Speaker 3: Gustav's uncle, Charles the thirteenth he took possession of the
Speaker 3: title of King of Sweden, and Gustav he'd wanted it
Speaker 3: to go to his son upon abdication, but the Russians
Speaker 3: were like, no, way, bo, that's not happening. Yeah, we
Speaker 3: don't want your line in here entered Charles. Gustav and
Speaker 3: his family. They get exiled to Germany, which isn't so bad.
Speaker 3: And then he and his I mean, it's not like
Speaker 3: sit on this gross island.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, totally. It wasn't like bird go to Devil's Island.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, this is like go to Germany. He's like,
Speaker 3: all right, I can do that. But then he and
Speaker 3: his wife divorced in eighteen twelve.
Speaker 2: She's like, I can't do it.
Speaker 3: Was their own private War of eighteen twelve. Oh so,
Speaker 3: a while in exile, like Gustov, he tried on a
Speaker 3: bunch of titles like Count Gothorp and Duke of Holstein Euten.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah.
Speaker 3: Then he settled on count, calling himself Colonel Gustafson, and
Speaker 3: he went to live in Switzerland and he lived in
Speaker 3: this small hotel. Who's penniless. He was lonely.
Speaker 2: Oh man. Yeah, so he's got a big name.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a big name, small guy. So while Gustov
Speaker 3: was in exile in eighteen ten, this French Marshal Jean
Speaker 3: Baptiste Benedette, he was chosen as the heir presumptive to
Speaker 3: Charles the thirteenth.
Speaker 2: He had no kids of his own, and.
Speaker 3: Then he eventually this guy, Jean Baptiste. He's like, guess
Speaker 3: what look at me, Charles the fourteenth. Hey. So in
Speaker 3: eighteen thirteen Sweden they joined up with sar Alexander the
Speaker 3: First and Company to whoop on Napoleon as you brought up.
Speaker 3: So like, Sweden is one of the big dogs after.
Speaker 2: That total war. We got you and the They were
Speaker 2: big into European politics at that time nineteenth century.
Speaker 3: And that victory made it possible for Sweden to force
Speaker 3: Denmark Norway, which was an ally of France at the time,
Speaker 3: to cede Norway to the King of Sweden in exchange
Speaker 3: for the northern German provinces.
Speaker 2: I'mteresting, and a bet family is still uner Russian Empire.
Speaker 3: Rules was born. Yeah, in Sweden and Norway they went
Speaker 3: at it, and this is eighteen fourteen. This is actually
Speaker 3: the last time Sweden was at war and they settled
Speaker 3: it with a treaty. Yeah, they're like, well, and so
Speaker 3: around this time eighteen seventeen, a girl was born.
Speaker 2: Okay, this girl special.
Speaker 3: Yeah, are you distracting me again, closet, We're going to
Speaker 3: watch the birth Aurora. Breathe, Aurora Florentina Magnuson.
Speaker 2: Okay, Florentina Magnison.
Speaker 3: And when she when she was asked about her parents,
Speaker 3: she would demurur later in life and say that her
Speaker 3: father was Count Carl de Gear and that her mother
Speaker 3: was a Fornham Froken, unmarried noble woman.
Speaker 5: Ah.
Speaker 3: And you know, as you can guess, that was not true.
Speaker 5: Ah.
Speaker 3: Yes, her dad was a caretaker who died when she
Speaker 3: was young. She was raised in poverty by a single mom.
Speaker 3: But she knew in her heart, Zarin, that she was fancy.
Speaker 2: She felt it.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, she knew that she had noble blood. That's
Speaker 3: a shout out to your buddy, Danas Swartz.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 3: When she was about twenty, Aurora got a job from
Speaker 3: a fellow named Henrik Aspagan, and she was hired to
Speaker 3: help his daughters sew and prep these dresses for an
Speaker 3: upcoming ball, and as she looked around at this lavish,
Speaker 3: opulent life that they lived, she knew in her bones
Speaker 3: that this is where she belonged. Yes, she's not like, look,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to I shouldn't be a seamstress assisting
Speaker 3: these gals with their glad.
Speaker 2: I'm in the wrong place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I need to be wearing this finery. I need
Speaker 3: this drip, as the kids say, because.
Speaker 2: These girls should be working for me.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then this very like Cinderella type of vibe going on.
Speaker 2: I love it go on.
Speaker 3: The night that the Aspergrands were about to leave for
Speaker 3: the ball, they hear Aurora crying and the little delicate
Speaker 3: noble tears. They asked her, like, what's wrong. You know,
Speaker 3: we gotta go, but like, why are you crying? She's like, you, guys,
Speaker 3: I'm homeless. I have no where to go nor to sleep.
Speaker 3: They're like, oh, that sucks. But they're like the Aspergans
Speaker 3: are really lovely people, okay, And so they're like, you
Speaker 3: can you can live here in the bar. Yeah, you
Speaker 3: stay here. We're going to the ball, but you know,
Speaker 3: help yourself. There's there's you know, sunny day in the
Speaker 3: fridge and like it was a good choice though, Like
Speaker 3: she blended right into the family and so she never
Speaker 3: came right out and told them about her royal lineage,
Speaker 3: but she managed to like inadvertently drop hints in just
Speaker 3: her everyday conversation, and so it was like undeniable.
Speaker 2: Everyone could have guessed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one of the daughters, Henrika, doated on Aurora something fierce.
Speaker 3: She's like, this is my new doll. She bought her
Speaker 3: fashionable clothes, she took her around to like posh events,
Speaker 3: and she was able to kind of piece together Aurora's lineage,
Speaker 3: and she became dedicated to follow this noble woman, this
Speaker 3: young girl who outranks her and is so charming and unassuming.
Speaker 3: M So, in eighteen forty four, the two women they
Speaker 3: picked up stakes and moved to Finland together.
Speaker 2: Bye, so Henrika out.
Speaker 3: Yeah she Henrika totally ditches the family for Aurora.
Speaker 2: That's bold.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's during this move that Aurora changed her name
Speaker 3: on her passport. Okay, she had the new passport read
Speaker 3: de la broch Comma Anna Florentina Comma miss Comma, formerly
Speaker 3: known by the name Aurora Magnuson. So she's now miss
Speaker 3: Anna Florentina de la broch Okay, and the next move
Speaker 3: was to get her name changed on her birth certificate
Speaker 3: from Aurora to Helga. Why Helga? Why not?
Speaker 2: Why not Elizabeth?
Speaker 3: So then she waited and she reported Aurora as drowned.
Speaker 3: So she doesn't exist anymore. She's just Anna Akalla, eighty
Speaker 3: six year old lie completely. So Helga and Henrika they
Speaker 3: moved all around Sweden and Finland. Henrika got teaching gigs
Speaker 3: to support the two of them. In eighteen forty six,
Speaker 3: they were living in Turku, Finland.
Speaker 2: Do we think that they're like romantic?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know. I'm gonna guess, like based
Speaker 3: on the time and the fact that it's I would
Speaker 3: guess where they were, but it's never even.
Speaker 2: Because it could be like a Spengali and creation.
Speaker 3: I think that, I mean, honestly, I think I'm gonna
Speaker 3: be honest. There's very little information about like their day
Speaker 3: to day and so I wonder if they were like,
Speaker 3: you know, romancing guys. Who knows anyway, Honestly, it's just
Speaker 3: sort of like a blank slate. So they're living in Turku, Finland,
Speaker 3: and they managed a girls school there called dilabrach.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.
Speaker 3: When the parents asked questions of Helga that she didn't
Speaker 3: care to answer, she would faint.
Speaker 2: It's like she she got so rock.
Speaker 3: She got so good at it that she taught the
Speaker 3: students themselves how to fake fainting in order to avoid
Speaker 3: quote unpleasant questions.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, which is my new thing? Aren't you?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, just like eyes roll back in, kind of wobbly.
Speaker 3: So there was a cholera epidemic in eighteen forty eight,
Speaker 3: so they had to close the school. Okay, So they
Speaker 3: returned to Stockholm, and there they managed to connect up
Speaker 3: with Chancellor of Justice Nils von Coach.
Speaker 2: Neils von Coach.
Speaker 3: It was like a friend of a friend's situation.
Speaker 2: So Neils, he's German. I'm taking it. Ko h there,
Speaker 2: it's Neil whatever whatever.
Speaker 3: Neils he's just a he's a citizen of the earth.
Speaker 2: He bounces around. Who knows where he's from.
Speaker 3: Helda tells him, guess what, I'm nobility?
Speaker 2: Did you know that secret?
Speaker 3: And actually I'm more than that. He's like, oh what,
Speaker 3: She's like, I'm royalty. No, come on now, He's like, actually,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you. I am the daughter of exiled King
Speaker 3: Gustav the.
Speaker 2: Fourth straight claim on the crown.
Speaker 3: Yes. So she goes from like I'm from some random
Speaker 3: note like no, I'm the daughter of the last daughter
Speaker 3: of the Big Dog, and he totally believes her.
Speaker 5: Of course.
Speaker 3: He's like, I can neither confirm or deny this claim.
Speaker 3: This is not something I can prove or disprove. But
Speaker 3: Helga's like, you know, I'm telling you this because I
Speaker 3: want something. He's like, oh, that's a surprise. This isn't
Speaker 3: just like a fun fact. She's like, I want a
Speaker 3: pension for being the secret legitimate daughter of Gustav the
Speaker 3: fourth of Sweden.
Speaker 2: Oh, back my play for the rest of my life
Speaker 2: and I'll stay quiet.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So he goes on to convince a member of
Speaker 3: Parliament of this story, and then he gets the Royal
Speaker 3: Court Chaplain Carl Norby on board. Helga Mania is spreading.
Speaker 5: Record.
Speaker 2: It seems I could be pretty easy to be able
Speaker 2: to confirm.
Speaker 3: So she's this lost princess. It's crazy and it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: So Prime Minister Louis de gear and four and Minister
Speaker 3: Ludwig Manderstrom, they didn't buy it.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm with Louis.
Speaker 3: But the Queen Mother Josephina, she's intrigued. She's like, hmmm,
Speaker 3: was this her granddaughter?
Speaker 2: Oh, she's like maybe I got ken. I don't know
Speaker 2: about the queen before me.
Speaker 3: Let me look at her as She's like, let's give
Speaker 3: her an allowance and see how this plays. So she
Speaker 3: mainly like and the king, King Charles the fifteenth, now.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, he just wants the hub of to Yeah,
Speaker 2: money is distracted from him.
Speaker 3: This isn't the best story to be circulating, you know.
Speaker 3: So Parliament asks him about her claims of being the
Speaker 3: lost princess, and the King said he'd met with her
Speaker 3: and quote by she's just as sane as you or me, which, like,
Speaker 3: that's maybe not a ringing endorsement, depending on everyone's self
Speaker 3: image exactly.
Speaker 2: So it's also a very low bar declaring this question
Speaker 2: of like did you father this child? Yeah, I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: she's talking. I'm telling you.
Speaker 3: So the King he grants the pension quote without being
Speaker 3: able to prove the claims of miss de Labroch to
Speaker 3: be truthful or merely claimed as a consequence of a
Speaker 3: confused imagination.
Speaker 2: So it's either I could have done it or she
Speaker 2: could have made it up that then the door.
Speaker 3: Opened like she could be a fraud, But hey, this
Speaker 3: is fun, why not? Why ruin it?
Speaker 2: You know the parlor games.
Speaker 3: Remember how Gustav was exiled to Germany and then divorced
Speaker 3: his wife.
Speaker 2: Yes, I do remember that.
Speaker 3: So the story that Helga told the king was that
Speaker 3: Gustav the fourth and Frederica of Baden remarried in secret
Speaker 3: in a convent in Germany.
Speaker 2: Best place to get married and see.
Speaker 3: And then Helga gets born in eighteen twenty, after which
Speaker 3: she was sent in secret, of course, to Sweden to
Speaker 3: be raised by her aunt, Princess Sophia Albertine of Sweden.
Speaker 3: All of this secrecy was to keep her from being
Speaker 3: named heir to the throne, and apparently Alexander the First
Speaker 3: of Russia, who was Helda's uncle, had to pay money
Speaker 3: from the estate of his mother to the children of
Speaker 3: Gustav the fourth, So Alexander deposited three million reeks dollar
Speaker 3: to cover the cost of raising and educating Helga. Really now,
Speaker 3: a Russian naval squadron did show up in Stockholm's harbor
Speaker 3: in eighteen thirty eight, and some say Alexander was on board.
Speaker 3: In disguise to bring another three million weeks dollar for Helga.
Speaker 3: Let's pause, let's gather our thoughts.
Speaker 2: I'm so on the edge of my Helga, and when we.
Speaker 3: Return, we'll hear more of Helga's story. Zaren Elizabeth Helga
Speaker 3: de la Brosh Yes, yeah, aka Aurora Magduson. They're both
Speaker 3: fantastic names.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 2: I love her name, especially the Magnuson one Magdison.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's like tough.
Speaker 5: I like it.
Speaker 3: She said she was the secret legitimate child of King
Speaker 3: Gustav the fourth of Sweden, and that she'd been raised
Speaker 3: by her aunt, Princess Sophia Albertine of Sweden. We know
Speaker 3: this wasn't true, and others at the time suspected it
Speaker 3: wasn't true, but a lot of people believed her story.
Speaker 2: They want to. It's a fun story.
Speaker 3: So what about Princess Sophia, That's what I'm going to
Speaker 3: could they ask her? Yeah, well, the princess she passed
Speaker 3: away in eighteen twenty nine, and we're in eighteen sixty
Speaker 3: when this is all going down. Oh, Hellga's in her forties, so.
Speaker 2: It's not even like a lady in waiting or a
Speaker 2: nurse maid who could likely be drawn out all deed. Yea.
Speaker 3: So Helga said that when Princess Sophia died that she
Speaker 3: she Helga was taken to an insane asylum and a child.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, because she would have been pretty young.
Speaker 3: Right nine years old, and then if she tried to
Speaker 3: tell people who she really was, they just say she
Speaker 3: was crazyow so that.
Speaker 2: She was like the woman in the Iron Mask, but
Speaker 2: the Iron Mask was in insane asylum.
Speaker 3: So she's like fourteen, eighteen thirty four, She's like, I
Speaker 3: got out of the asylum. But then they sent her
Speaker 3: to Baden to live under house arrest with her family there.
Speaker 3: And then in eighteen thirty seven she read about the
Speaker 3: death of her father the hang in the paper and
Speaker 3: she lost it. This is her story, Yeah, this is
Speaker 3: her story. She's just overcome with grief. She's so torn
Speaker 3: up about it that she gets tossed in an insane
Speaker 3: asylum again. Yeah. And then this is, of course, according
Speaker 3: to her, a way to keep her identity secret. Everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 3: she's going to talk. Put her in the insane asylum.
Speaker 2: Who's under our course?
Speaker 3: And who's they in this?
Speaker 2: I don't know, Shadowliabeth.
Speaker 3: It was well, I mean she's saying, it's like the
Speaker 3: family in Baden, like, I guess her mom's folks who
Speaker 3: want this all hush.
Speaker 2: Hush, but whatever, the powers that be will say yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: So she said she was able to escape from the
Speaker 3: asylum and she was on her own, surviving on the
Speaker 3: kindness of others, those who believed her story. Her grandma's
Speaker 3: family in Germany gave her a yearly pension, according to her,
Speaker 3: but that all stopped in eighteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Huh did they run out of money? Someone die, I'm
Speaker 2: not carrying an She's like, the stop.
Speaker 3: Cashing exactly, and then there she was. She owed people
Speaker 3: all this money that they'd fronted her over the years,
Speaker 3: and she was forced to live like a pauper, which
Speaker 3: is just gross.
Speaker 2: I mean, have you seen the food.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So she's begging the government for a pension and like,
Speaker 3: but she's like, I really need a pension, but it
Speaker 3: can't be smaller than five thousand or six thousand Swedish
Speaker 3: Rick Stoller.
Speaker 2: I've become accustomed to a start and oh completely, anything
Speaker 2: else would be insulting.
Speaker 3: So people throughout Sweden and Finland believed her story and
Speaker 3: people gave her money aside from any government assistance. They're like, oh, here,
Speaker 3: please take.
Speaker 2: Just Swedish kickstarter. Yeah, okay, and so.
Speaker 3: Plus her best pal, Henrika. She was from a rich
Speaker 3: family and she's well educated, and so that gave her credibility. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so she's like, oh she's hanging around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's got a good friend. Of course they would
Speaker 2: know each other exactly, private school or whatever.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So Helga, she's a great actress. She's all wide eyed
Speaker 3: and like blink, blank eyes, I'm new here, disarming. Yeah,
Speaker 3: she's just telling her simple story. She came across as
Speaker 3: really pure naive. People didn't think she had it in
Speaker 3: her to tell this sort of wap, and she didn't
Speaker 3: seem insane, something like it had to be true. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but like, why couldn't this just be verified with Gustav.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. Well, there's anyone in the family close.
Speaker 3: Anyone in the family. Okay, so Gustav's dead, but all
Speaker 3: contact with the deposed former dynasty in Excite was forbidden
Speaker 3: after the coup of eighteen oh nine.
Speaker 4: Talk to him.
Speaker 3: There was no way the pres could get in touch
Speaker 3: and ask the right questions. They'd be breaking the lawn. Apparently,
Speaker 3: no one wanted to do that. In March of eighteen
Speaker 3: sixty one, the king awarded Helga an annual pension of
Speaker 3: twenty four hundred Swedish ricks dollar per year.
Speaker 2: Wow, I have no Ideama lowballing her.
Speaker 3: Remember she wanted five to six k, but they're like,
Speaker 3: we'll give you twenty four hundred. But they also gave
Speaker 3: her a house and like furnishings befitting a princess. Well,
Speaker 3: then come on, now, I imagine like a very nineteen
Speaker 3: eighties four poster bed with like frilly lace canopy and
Speaker 3: a dresser with like super cheap gold ornate detailing and
Speaker 3: a Garfield pillow, and then like a Pikachu squish.
Speaker 2: In a day bet on the sidewall, and a poster of.
Speaker 3: A Korean boy band, whichever was the most popular in
Speaker 3: the eighteen sixties for a forty year old woman. Eighteen
Speaker 3: sixty eight, the author Auguste Blanche and then Captain Julius Mancow.
Speaker 3: For whatever reason, these two got together and they petitioned
Speaker 3: for her pension to be increased. What yeah, and it was,
Speaker 3: why is she like? I don't know, They're like, she's awesome,
Speaker 3: give her more money?
Speaker 2: They come on, she deserves better than this. Was she
Speaker 2: like working them?
Speaker 3: Well, she was really good at spending money.
Speaker 2: I bet you won.
Speaker 3: So the pension was raised the next year in order
Speaker 3: to bail out some of her money troubles. She's like, you, guys,
Speaker 3: I just don't there's not I really wish that spending
Speaker 3: habits were what dictated your salary.
Speaker 2: How would that work? And that's what's going on with her. Yes,
Speaker 2: but it will not work, I know.
Speaker 3: But like, let's just say, wouldn't that be amazing.
Speaker 2: That's kind of incentivizing people to spend as much as
Speaker 2: they can, right? You just know, you just let them
Speaker 2: live like on their like just so you see how
Speaker 2: they want to live.
Speaker 3: Live like you want for a and then we'll give
Speaker 3: you whatever salary accommodates that.
Speaker 2: I will say that you're onto something there because we
Speaker 2: found a lot of people need a lot less to
Speaker 2: be happy, and there is a certain amount or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's always moving around, but it's like you get to
Speaker 2: a certain amount and you really don't need any more
Speaker 2: money and you're happy because of all the conditions that
Speaker 2: allow you to be out.
Speaker 3: I think that's a good way. I think spend like
Speaker 3: you can and then we'll see how much that is.
Speaker 2: I do believe in a universal basic income. I don't
Speaker 2: know if a universal basic credit card.
Speaker 3: Will work, but I do like you're the shot, so
Speaker 3: hell go. Well her story couldn't be verified for a
Speaker 3: time by anyone, it was still a really great story.
Speaker 2: I'm loving it.
Speaker 3: People loved it, especially other like nobility and rich folks.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it makes them all sound more interesting.
Speaker 3: And they saw her pension is like proof of her story.
Speaker 3: So she's she's in the government wouldn't give her money
Speaker 3: for being royal if she wasn't a royal right there?
Speaker 3: And then so the swells they kicked her down a
Speaker 3: lot of cash too. It was like this ongoing gofund
Speaker 3: me where she's just like, I just you guys, have
Speaker 3: you given the mon I'm a princess, Like, oh, here's
Speaker 3: you're right, you're right here. So remember Charles the thirteenth,
Speaker 3: the one who came after Gustav.
Speaker 2: The fourth, yes, two before the fifteenth.
Speaker 3: After him was Charles the fourteenth, and Charles the fourteenth
Speaker 3: reign from eighteen eighteen to eighteen forty four.
Speaker 2: Wow, good rain.
Speaker 3: And then after him, not Charles the sixteenth, Oscar the.
Speaker 2: First imagining a short reign.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So he was king from eighteen forty four to
Speaker 3: eighteen fifty nine, and then he died.
Speaker 2: But then I thought he died, that's what happens for kings.
Speaker 3: So then Charles the fifteenth took the throne and he
Speaker 3: was king when all of this is going down.
Speaker 2: Okay, he's the king on the scene.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but then there's Oscar the First's wife.
Speaker 2: She's just still in the scene, Okay.
Speaker 3: Josephine of Luxemburg, she was still alive, and that made
Speaker 3: her the Queen Dowager. Okay, So Josephine. She became one
Speaker 3: of Helga's benefactors, and Josephine sent money, like a lot
Speaker 3: of money to Helga.
Speaker 2: Was she like an agent of chaos where she can
Speaker 2: kind of knew and she's wanted to her keep it going?
Speaker 2: Or do you think she actually liked her? No, I
Speaker 2: think she really liked it.
Speaker 3: She's like, she's one of us here, how's a marcash?
Speaker 3: And so she sent it via this agent of hers,
Speaker 3: mister Norby, tens of thousands given to Helga, and Norby
Speaker 3: did what Josephine asked, but he was like starting to
Speaker 3: doubt Helga's stories and he wanted the truth. He didn't
Speaker 3: hire a private eye. He became one. Oh yes, Saren,
Speaker 3: closed eyes. I want you to picture it. You are
Speaker 3: a maid at the home of Henrika Aspriggan's sister Sissy,
Speaker 3: in Turku, Finland. She's a lovely woman and a great boss.
Speaker 3: Super chill. The other day she got a letter from
Speaker 3: a guy in Stockholm who said he was an agent
Speaker 3: of the Queen Dowager of Sweden. He said he had
Speaker 3: a delicate matter to discuss and wanted to pay her
Speaker 3: a visit. She sent back word that she'd loved to
Speaker 3: meet with him, but she had no idea what he
Speaker 3: must want. It was the early afternoon when the butler
Speaker 3: let the gentleman into the house. The weather is delightful.
Speaker 3: It's sunny and unseasonably warm. You have the windows open
Speaker 3: and you can hear the old lady next door playing
Speaker 3: the piano. Sissy looks at you with raised eyebrows when
Speaker 3: he enters the room. You put a plate of ham
Speaker 3: and cucumber sandwiches on the sideboard, wink at Sissy and
Speaker 3: adjust the lush tea setting. On your way out of
Speaker 3: the room, you go around the corner to the hallway
Speaker 3: to the kitchen. You'd take a seat leaning toward the
Speaker 3: parlor to try and get a listen to the conversation.
Speaker 3: The man introduces himself and says he has some questions
Speaker 3: about Henrika. Ah, Henrika, you've heard all the stories about her.
Speaker 3: This is going to be good. What does an agent
Speaker 3: of the Dowager Queen want with her? He asks Sissy
Speaker 3: if she knows anything about Henrika's companion Helga. You mean Aurora,
Speaker 3: asks Cissy. The man's eyes widen. A cuckoo clock on
Speaker 3: the wall chimes two. Sissy proceeds to tell him all
Speaker 3: about Aurora and that she expected that one day she'd
Speaker 3: have to tell this story. Rora was born poor and
Speaker 3: always tried to say she was royalty. Sissy saw right
Speaker 3: through her. Her sister Henrika did not. She fell for
Speaker 3: the story. The man takes copious notes as Cissy gets
Speaker 3: them all the details. No, she hasn't really followed the
Speaker 3: stories about Helga and ney Aurora. It just seemed too silly. No,
Speaker 3: she hadn't talked to Henrika in ages. The man stands
Speaker 3: to see himself out and thanks Sissy for her time.
Speaker 3: His knee catches the corner of the tea tray and
Speaker 3: sends it crashed into the ground. No worries, says sissy.
Speaker 3: She shows him out and then comes around the corner
Speaker 3: to ask if you caught it all and dish about
Speaker 3: how wild this all is. You laugh and go get
Speaker 3: some rags him up up the tea and fragments of China.
Speaker 3: What a day. So, with this interview of Henrika's sister
Speaker 3: out of the way, Norby went even closer to the source.
Speaker 3: He made contact with Prince Vasa of Germany. This is
Speaker 3: Gustav the fourth son.
Speaker 5: Ah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't know if this is legal or
Speaker 3: not for him to reach.
Speaker 2: Out to the guys, and it would make it his
Speaker 2: sister if it was legit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so he did, he reaches out.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't care. Yeah, I want the truth.
Speaker 3: So the Prince says, there's absolutely no chance that this
Speaker 3: is his sister, or his half sister or anything else.
Speaker 3: His parents never reunited and his dad died alone.
Speaker 2: And he knows that for a thund knows he got weird.
Speaker 2: Trust me, no one wanted to be around that guy.
Speaker 3: I was like, so Norby, he's like very interesting and
Speaker 3: adds it to his little dossier. Then he scours the
Speaker 3: church records with all these new leads until he's able
Speaker 3: to complete a full dossier on how Helga is a
Speaker 3: big phony.
Speaker 2: I love the church records gallery.
Speaker 3: Yeah, everything. So then he takes his little manifesto to
Speaker 3: the government and an investigation is open. I mean, like
Speaker 3: Norby did all the heavy lifting, but whatever. They're like, oh,
Speaker 3: an investigation. Here, we have this report. February seventh, eighteen
Speaker 3: seventy the results of the investigation were published and Helga
Speaker 3: was publicly exposed as a fraud. Six weeks later, the
Speaker 3: government stopped her pension.
Speaker 2: Six weeks that.
Speaker 3: They noted that quote all uncertainty regarding the birth of
Speaker 3: the so called Helga dela Broch is now raced, and
Speaker 3: Helga de la Broch officially declared to be identical to
Speaker 3: Aurora Florentina.
Speaker 2: Magnuson, Oh, Helga, boom, all went up in her face.
Speaker 3: Let's take a break. When we come back, we're gonna
Speaker 3: see how this all shakes.
Speaker 4: Out totally, Zarenbarren.
Speaker 3: All right, So we have Helga de la Brosch.
Speaker 2: Yes, Helga Helga, who.
Speaker 3: Has now been exposed as Aurora Florentina Magnuson, a very
Speaker 3: much non royal person, but a great name, great name.
Speaker 3: Helga was not charged with fraud for the whole pension thing. Really,
Speaker 3: they just cut her off.
Speaker 2: They wanted the newspaper no more, no more embarrassing the crown.
Speaker 3: After she's she goes to the Foreign Office and at
Speaker 3: one point she said, quote you think then that I
Speaker 3: am an impostor, And the general at the Foreign Office said, quote,
Speaker 3: I don't think so, I'm sure of it.
Speaker 2: I'm imagining all this outing like the Swedish chef.
Speaker 3: And then they said that she left quote looking more
Speaker 3: like a bad tempered woman found out than an offended princess.
Speaker 2: So the dewey eyed girl is now suddenly hard as feelia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's like, what would give.
Speaker 2: Me my money? And where's my money? Money?
Speaker 4: I got you?
Speaker 3: So I'm not sure what happened between eighteen seventy and
Speaker 3: eighteen seventy six.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: Here's my speculation. I think that the pension was cut
Speaker 3: quietly in order to save face for a lot of people. Sure,
Speaker 3: and like she stayed mum about it. How she was living,
Speaker 3: who knows. But in eighteen seventy six, six years after
Speaker 3: the government learned who she was and stopped paying her
Speaker 3: for being nobility, like the public at large found out
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: Wait, so it didn't hit the newspapers at first, No, no, no,
Speaker 2: I was comically exposed, but it was like the y
Speaker 2: in the royal courts, but not in the newspaper.
Speaker 3: Years. Then the public really finds out whoa and they
Speaker 3: go nuts and so how the call on that way?
Speaker 3: She gets arrested and she gets charged not with defrauding
Speaker 3: the government of all that money?
Speaker 2: Do you think she doubled in the secrety like shadowy
Speaker 2: area of the royal courts, Like she's still hanging around
Speaker 2: somehow trying to and then she messes up the wrong person.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, you know, I know someone at the paper. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're getting rid of this for good.
Speaker 3: I totally think.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting.
Speaker 3: So she gets arrested and charged with Like they didn't
Speaker 3: charge her with defrauding the government.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: She's charged with registering herself under a false name and
Speaker 3: year of birth and charged with not paying taxes in
Speaker 3: her real.
Speaker 2: Oh the compone style.
Speaker 3: The trial is a corker. Yes, it came out that
Speaker 3: Helga had taken on the name of a girl about
Speaker 3: her age, who had died or was otherwise like missing.
Speaker 2: She did the classic I doesn't.
Speaker 3: Say, classic move, Wow, classic move. According to a testimony
Speaker 3: in eighteen seventy seven by a member of parliament av Ure,
Speaker 3: Helga's two actual sisters told him that their sister had
Speaker 3: drowned on purpose, and they'd written to their mother asking
Speaker 3: her not to tell anyone how their sister died. And
Speaker 3: they believed this, and they said it happened on June ninth,
Speaker 3: eighteen forty two, when the body of an unknown woman
Speaker 3: was taken to the local mortuary having drowned, and Helga
Speaker 3: made it seem like it was her, and she fooled
Speaker 3: her sisters and her mom into thinking the very same. Now,
Speaker 3: Norby went and interviewed one of the sisters and she
Speaker 3: was like, well, let me tell you the whole story.
Speaker 2: We didn't quite fully believe it.
Speaker 3: So, but that was not one of Helga's sisters. That
Speaker 3: was one of Henrika's sisters.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, keep that in mind.
Speaker 3: So her, but Helga's family thinks she's taken her own
Speaker 3: this gone. Yeah, And so the problem is that here's
Speaker 3: the problem. So she makes it look like she drowned
Speaker 3: and with an insinuation that she did it to herself.
Speaker 3: The problem is that Aurora Florentine and Magnuson wrote a
Speaker 3: church book note on September twenty second, eighteen ten forty four,
Speaker 3: when she was supposed to have died June ninth, eighteen
Speaker 3: forty two. So she writes in there and then remember
Speaker 3: eighteen forty four, that's when she applied for the passport
Speaker 3: in her new name. But it's said that she used
Speaker 3: to be a roar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so she waited to way too long, way too long,
Speaker 2: so she got the order backwards that you get the passport.
Speaker 3: Then you go and yeah, so Helga, well, I mean,
Speaker 3: why do you even have to say what you're I mean,
Speaker 3: I guess you have to say that you changed some paperwork.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Helga had this like convoluted explanation for
Speaker 3: this in court, that the church book note was falsified
Speaker 3: and there was like some intrigue about a priest protecting.
Speaker 2: The king, oh good, and always throwing dir covering things up.
Speaker 2: But oh, I love this.
Speaker 3: I don't understand what she was talking about. And I'm
Speaker 3: not even going to give you the quote because the
Speaker 3: quote is like, you know, you think that your brain
Speaker 3: starts circuiting. On March second, eighteen seventy seven, Helda gets
Speaker 3: found guilty of registering herself under a false name, a
Speaker 3: false year of birth, and for not tax registering herself
Speaker 3: for the year of eighteen seventy seven year. They gave
Speaker 3: her a fine, but she didn't have to do anything, okay.
Speaker 3: So she and Henrika they lived together in this little
Speaker 3: apartment that some supporter was paying for. So she still
Speaker 3: had people who believed in her, and they kept to themselves.
Speaker 3: They didn't go out much. They had a very sort
Speaker 3: of proto COVID lockdown thing going, okay, Like when they
Speaker 3: left the apartment it was to go for a walk
Speaker 3: in a big park. They had all their food delivered
Speaker 3: in huh. So then on November twenty did just to.
Speaker 2: Avoid the public as anyone recognized her.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And November twentieth, eighteen seventy eight, Helga brought
Speaker 3: an action against the Fiscal Office and King Oscar. She
Speaker 3: said that they owed her money.
Speaker 2: Where's my check?
Speaker 3: Yeah, In fact, they owed her all the money she
Speaker 3: should have gotten since eighteen seventy when they cut her off.
Speaker 2: Okay, of course, why not?
Speaker 3: Yeah, eight years worth of pension all of my background,
Speaker 3: and her lawyers asked the court to order that the
Speaker 3: Fiscal Office and then King King Oscar, under pain of execution,
Speaker 3: pay Helga.
Speaker 2: Under pain of execution. Terrence Howard trying to get honey
Speaker 2: he's owed by his old agency. You only one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty million dollars I cut a made. You're like,
Speaker 2: what do you do?
Speaker 3: You understand how she wants the whole thing.
Speaker 2: I'm going to kill the king. I don't get my money.
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty seven thousand, and I don't know if they
Speaker 3: put interest on that or it's just interest. Obviously, the
Speaker 3: Crown and the government told him to kick Rocks because
Speaker 3: it was proven that Hellgo wasn't who she said she.
Speaker 2: Was, and no one had forgotten.
Speaker 3: Case gets thrown out eighteen eighty four. King Oscar the
Speaker 3: Second saw Helga and Henrika. He's like looks out the
Speaker 3: window and he sees him walking in the gardens of
Speaker 3: Drotting Home palace.
Speaker 2: So there's like walking back and forth inro front of
Speaker 2: his window.
Speaker 3: They're like walking around like do to do as if
Speaker 3: they own the place.
Speaker 2: Oh like that, uh huh oh, it's not even like
Speaker 2: public garden.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, this is the palace garden. Yeah, he
Speaker 3: looks at his bedroom windows.
Speaker 2: They are in his garden basically.
Speaker 3: Sniffing flowers and cutting them, and oh isn't this lovely?
Speaker 2: And he's like, oh, hell no, uh, set them girls
Speaker 2: away from my roses.
Speaker 3: He's like, she's not going to pull this again and
Speaker 3: go for like squatters rights or something. That he's getting nervous,
Speaker 3: so he has the guards like rush out there and
Speaker 3: escort them out. And like this brush with authorities really
Speaker 3: spooked the ladies. So they moved to a new apartment
Speaker 3: and tried to lay low again. It was like they
Speaker 3: got a little too much confidence.
Speaker 2: Do you think they got ruffed up?
Speaker 3: I think so, yeah. I think they were, like, you know,
Speaker 3: they raised a fist at them. So the thing is like,
Speaker 3: at this point, Helga believes her story. She doesn't even
Speaker 3: think she's conning anymore at this point. Yeah, And so
Speaker 3: in fact, I'm not really sure when it became her
Speaker 3: reality and not a con but at this point she
Speaker 3: believes the story one hundred percent. She's like positive that
Speaker 3: she's the king's daughter. She carried herself like a princess,
Speaker 3: like one who had to face in dignities and soldier on.
Speaker 2: It could put upon princess.
Speaker 3: Totally, and she was sad. There was like this paul
Speaker 3: about her. But she held her head up and she
Speaker 3: didn't waver in her belief about her identity.
Speaker 2: The quiet dignity of the world.
Speaker 3: She carried that on all the way until the end
Speaker 3: of her life eighteen eighty five. She died at the
Speaker 3: age of sixty seven. So fourteen years.
Speaker 2: Later, I'm not done, Zarin, Are you kidding?
Speaker 3: Not done? Fourteen years later, on the cuspand of a
Speaker 3: New Century July ninth, eighteen ninety nine, the run socker
Speaker 3: end I said that wrong, political weekly published in Uppsala.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, there, I told you, I told you it said. Quote.
Speaker 3: Gustaf the fourth Adolph, the last King of Sweden of
Speaker 3: the House of Wassa Vasa, who was dethroned May tenth,
Speaker 3: eighteen oh nine, was married October thirty first, seventeen ninety
Speaker 3: seven to Princess Fredrika of Baden. Three children resulted from
Speaker 3: the wedlock, Prince Gustav, who died as Field Marshal of
Speaker 3: the Austrian Army, Sophie Wilhelmina, Grand Duchess of Baden, who
Speaker 3: died July seventh, eighteen sixty five, and Cecilia, Grand Duchess
Speaker 3: of Oldenburg, who died January twenty seventh, eighteen forty four.
Speaker 3: The dethroned king was divorced from Frederica in eighteen twelve,
Speaker 3: and here begins what is either a romance or a
Speaker 3: dangerous state seeker?
Speaker 4: Great, this is official, this is in the paper.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so then the article goes on to say
Speaker 3: that the then Swedish Crown Prince, who became Oscar the
Speaker 3: First told this guy named Professor Tornos to free Helga
Speaker 3: quote and the latter remained since then and until the
Speaker 3: death of her protector July eighth, eighteen fifty nine, unmolested
Speaker 3: in Stockholm and part of the time in Finland. So
Speaker 3: they're making this canon. They're like, this is this state
Speaker 3: secret and everyone covered it up, and here's the truth
Speaker 3: why they said that. Charles the fifteenth, Yeah, a successor
Speaker 3: you know of Charles the fourteenth, also paid Helga's pension
Speaker 3: until he got sick in eighteen seventy and that's why
Speaker 3: the payments ceased. So they're like, none of this thing
Speaker 3: with the research and the dossier. They wait, you know, no,
Speaker 3: that's all and.
Speaker 2: The investigation and then the courts and all that's out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they said that Swedish politicians made it look
Speaker 3: like Helga was a swindler who was under Russian protection.
Speaker 2: They blame the Russians.
Speaker 3: They blamed the Russian and then so they in the
Speaker 3: paper they're claiming that the Russians were asking for their
Speaker 3: money back and wanted payment for damages for the insults
Speaker 3: against Helga for not taking her at her word. What
Speaker 3: And they said that it was Sweden who caught her
Speaker 3: up in this web of espionage, not them, Like this
Speaker 3: is all coming out of left field.
Speaker 2: Is I'm assuming this is tied to imperial politics of
Speaker 2: the area.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, okay, and so like this has not been
Speaker 3: brought up during her life exactly. So in nineteen oh nine,
Speaker 3: this politician, Pere August Johansen, he tries to clear Helga's name.
Speaker 3: He like wants the whole thing settled. No one does anything.
Speaker 3: So then the next year, the next year he comes
Speaker 3: out and he's like, Okay, the reason I want to
Speaker 3: do this, I'm Helga's grandson.
Speaker 2: No, we have another grifter.
Speaker 3: Well, and that's pretty amazing since it looks like she
Speaker 3: never had children.
Speaker 2: Yes, I don't remember anything.
Speaker 3: There are okay, there are some documents in Swedish. There
Speaker 3: was one document that I found that mentioned a pregnancy
Speaker 3: in her early years, but the context in the translation
Speaker 3: led me to believe that it meant her birth, not
Speaker 3: the birth of a child. Ah and like, because you
Speaker 3: know how translation goes gets at times. Yeah, and this
Speaker 3: is the only time I saw anything with like a
Speaker 3: close mention of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: There were no men in her life, you know, So
Speaker 3: I think this is just a fellow grifter. And so
Speaker 3: Johansen said he wanted one point two five million krona
Speaker 3: from the Swedish royal family.
Speaker 2: He's going big, don't we all?
Speaker 3: He said, The royal family also had to fork over
Speaker 3: four letters that Helga gave the royal family in eighteen
Speaker 3: forty two.
Speaker 2: How did you know about that?
Speaker 3: Well, it's his grandmother. So what's with the one point
Speaker 3: twenty five Yeah, Johansen said, Helga never got the millions
Speaker 3: of reeks doaller that Czar Alexander the first brought for her.
Speaker 3: And apparently the letters, those four letters proved Johansen's title
Speaker 3: to the money.
Speaker 2: Okay, and that was the Russian money part. And maybe
Speaker 2: showedown my.
Speaker 3: Grandson and someday he's going to come out the woodwork
Speaker 3: and ask for this money.
Speaker 2: Give him his money, run him his check.
Speaker 3: Jo Hansen said the Russians paid the money to the
Speaker 3: Swedish royal family and that's where the pension money came
Speaker 3: from up until eighteen seventy and we want interest, but
Speaker 3: we have the whole other investigation that proved this sort
Speaker 3: of thing fault exactly. So there's this guy, Count von Rosen.
Speaker 3: He testified at the trial that he believed Helga to
Speaker 3: be sincere, stating, quote, if she did deceive, it was
Speaker 3: because she herself had been deceived. She had from her
Speaker 3: earliest childhood heard statements from which sprang the conviction till
Speaker 3: her dying hour that she was, in truth, the daughter
Speaker 3: of the king. So he's making it out like there
Speaker 3: were outside forces. Yeah, that she's part and she's not
Speaker 3: just from other like cons but like she's told this story,
Speaker 3: King Ostricar the second and others didn't believe there were
Speaker 3: any letters ever. They're just like, get out of here.
Speaker 3: Helga's landlady Maria Charlotte Nyberg said that during the last
Speaker 3: years of her life, Helga often talked about all the
Speaker 3: drama around her royal life, and that she once told
Speaker 3: Nyberg that of a meeting that she had with her
Speaker 3: father with Gustas around eighteen thirty on the island of
Speaker 3: Then in the Sound, during which she received from him
Speaker 3: letters regarding that one point twenty five million that was
Speaker 3: deposited in her interest with the Swedish royal family by
Speaker 3: the Russians. So whether the Landlady Nyberg was talking to Johansen,
Speaker 3: who's say so. The officials, they all continued to reject
Speaker 3: the claims of royal lineage. They brushed off Johansen. However,
Speaker 3: one member of the government testified that in nineteen oh
Speaker 3: one he spent three months in Stockholm interviewing high officials
Speaker 3: and members of parliament, including the Premier, Baron von Auter.
Speaker 3: Everyone he talked to assured him that Helga was who
Speaker 3: she claimed to be. The guy found out that Helga
Speaker 3: had been to the Royal Palace a bunch of times
Speaker 3: and that while she was there she was privately acknowledged
Speaker 3: to be of royal blood, and that oh the Russians
Speaker 3: also had given the royal family money and then it
Speaker 3: had been deposited and that was used to pay the pension. Sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So then in nineteen twenty four, Professor Karl Hollendorf he
Speaker 3: published a study where he said the whole thing had
Speaker 3: to be put in historical context. Apparently there were similar
Speaker 3: nineteenth century claims to royalty, and he said they were
Speaker 3: a product mainly of quote adventurous over excited imagination, which
Speaker 3: has hardened around a fixed idea.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, I know there's a lot of stuff with
Speaker 2: the French and the Germans, where like all those little
Speaker 2: German baronies, and then obviously the French Revolution claim buddy
Speaker 2: and lost and faked, and then they're like, oh I
Speaker 2: found the paperwork and the right Wait a.
Speaker 3: Minute, exactly. So I mean humans do love royalty?
Speaker 2: Oh god do we some reasons?
Speaker 3: And you know we love a good story. Yeah, so,
Speaker 3: Zaren was your ridiculous takeaway.
Speaker 2: I don't love royalty, so all this stuff. I'm just like,
Speaker 2: I've never my sister, she's a royal watcher. She loves
Speaker 2: the stuff. A shout out mags. But you know, I know,
Speaker 2: not me. I don't even like it, like in my stories,
Speaker 2: Like if I'm watching a movie, I'm like, oh no,
Speaker 2: down with the king. I don't know why what about me?
Speaker 2: But I'm so much a proletariat of the people, like
Speaker 2: I just want them to I don't so all these
Speaker 2: stories I root for them, like any of these con
Speaker 2: artists to try to weasel their way in. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: go on, Aurora, bilk them. I don't care, you know,
Speaker 2: Like I'm a little weird about how I root for
Speaker 2: these con artists. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It
Speaker 2: all comes down to really who their targets are and
Speaker 2: these people they're getting their entertainment. It seems like a
Speaker 2: fair exchange. They want to feel exciting and they want
Speaker 2: to feel like, oh people want to be in our circle. Boom,
Speaker 2: everyone's happy. I don't see a victim.
Speaker 3: I agree.
Speaker 2: Weezom girl, I agree. I'm with thers, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: That's my takeaway. I say, you know, when it comes
Speaker 3: to like the royal families, they didn't they didn't earn
Speaker 3: that money.
Speaker 2: No, there's always there's always a great crime story totally.
Speaker 3: So you know what I do need?
Speaker 1: Though?
Speaker 2: What do you need? Elizabeth? Can I can I get it?
Speaker 2: Can I lift it? I need a talk bag's? Oh
Speaker 2: my god, I love.
Speaker 1: You, Hey, guys, just another rude dude here, just wanted
Speaker 1: to let you know that Horsey sauce is a mayonnaise
Speaker 1: based horse radish sauce. Not that good kind of spicy
Speaker 1: if you're into that kind of thing.
Speaker 4: How is that that's the.
Speaker 3: Oh it's a hmm okay, a horse radish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got that horse and then the mayonnaise. I
Speaker 2: guess it's just the bas sauce in this case. I
Speaker 2: like that I can get you to.
Speaker 5: Thank you for that.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: That's it for today. You can find us online at
Speaker 3: ridiculous Crime dot com and we're also at Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 3: on Twitter and Instagram. Email. Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot
Speaker 3: com started off Dear Dave and then most importantly a
Speaker 3: number one download the iHeart app. Leave us a talk back,
Speaker 3: please reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton
Speaker 3: and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Swedish disco empresario
Speaker 3: Dave Cousten, starring Annalis Rutger as Judith. Research is by
Speaker 3: Ikea Furniture namer Marisa Brown and Meatball tester Andrea Song
Speaker 3: Sharpened Tear, the theme song is by executive vice president
Speaker 3: of leather Trim at Volvo, Thomas Lee and Secret Air
Speaker 3: to the Spotify Dynasty Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided
Speaker 3: by Botany five hundred guest Haron, makeup by Sparkleshot and
Speaker 3: Mister Andrea. Executive producers are Swedish chef Puppet Operator Ben
Speaker 3: Bollen and three point Seat Belt Truther Noel.
Speaker 5: Brown Disquime Say It One More Times Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four More Podcasts.
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