Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Eugene Frecois Vidoc was a scoundrel born in seventeen seventy
Speaker 1: five in Airiss, France. He was never interested in following
Speaker 1: his father's footsteps as a baker. Instead, he rebelled, beginning
Speaker 1: his life of crime. At the tender age of thirteen,
Speaker 1: Little Eugene stole all of his family's silver cutlery, sold it,
Speaker 1: and spent every cent that he got that same day.
Speaker 1: His parents were understandably show and hoping to nip such
Speaker 1: delinquency in the bud, they enrolled their teenager in a
Speaker 1: reformatory school. Eugene came back home a few weeks later,
Speaker 1: purporting to be completely reformed, but his good behavior only
Speaker 1: lasted about a year. At the age of fourteen, he
Speaker 1: was taking a fencing lesson when he killed his instructor,
Speaker 1: which is a big leap from stealing spoons, I know,
Speaker 1: but seeing as this happened about two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: years ago, nobody really knows the specific details. It might
Speaker 1: have been an accident, but if so, Eugene didn't own
Speaker 1: up to his deadly mistake. Instead, he stole his parents'
Speaker 1: life savings and ran away, hoping to sail to America
Speaker 1: and start a new life. Unfortunately for Eugene, his escape
Speaker 1: plan quickly soured. He lost all the money. It's not
Speaker 1: clear how, but before he even made it out of
Speaker 1: France it was gone. Unable to face his family, he
Speaker 1: spent the next two years working as a circus performer
Speaker 1: slash traveling salesman before enlisting in the army at the
Speaker 1: age of sixteen. There, Eugene gained a reputation as a
Speaker 1: man who was quick to argue and even quicker to
Speaker 1: demand a duel. He took up arms against at least
Speaker 1: fifteen of his fellow frenchmen, killing two of them. All
Speaker 1: of this could apparently be forgiven, but when Eugene full
Speaker 1: on hit his commander, he was forced to leave the army.
Speaker 1: At this point, now Eugene was eighteen, and for the
Speaker 1: next fifteen years he did whatever he had to to
Speaker 1: get by. He had love affairs with women from the
Speaker 1: very bottom to the very top of social hierarchy. He
Speaker 1: enlisted in the army multiple times under false identities, usually
Speaker 1: being promptly discovered and kicked out. He got into bar
Speaker 1: fights and committed petty crimes. Eugene was always in and
Speaker 1: out of jail, although mostly out. He mastered the art
Speaker 1: of disguise and learned how to escape from practically every
Speaker 1: prison in Paris. But as he reached his thirties, Eugene
Speaker 1: grew tired of running and scheming. He wanted to turn
Speaker 1: over a new leaf. In eighteen oh nine, at thirty
Speaker 1: three years old, he turned himself into the authorities. But
Speaker 1: there was a catch. Eugene told the friend police he
Speaker 1: would not go back to jail as a prisoner, but
Speaker 1: rather as a secret government informant for the police. This
Speaker 1: was a huge opportunity. Eugene was a slippery criminal who
Speaker 1: they couldn't manage to keep behind bars, but if he
Speaker 1: was willing to work for them instead of against them,
Speaker 1: well it could be the beginning of a beautiful, if
Speaker 1: unlikely partnership. The police took Eugene up on his offer
Speaker 1: and for the next twenty one months, the criminal turn
Speaker 1: cop supplied them with info from inside prison walls. He
Speaker 1: then got official permission to fake a prison escape so
Speaker 1: he could continue his work on the streets. There, Eugene
Speaker 1: organized in undercover crime fighting units made up entirely of
Speaker 1: his old criminal contacts. And I know what you're thinking,
Speaker 1: how effective could they possibly have been? Well, by one account,
Speaker 1: they helped lower crime rates in Paris by around forty percent.
Speaker 1: They were fantastic at their jobs precisely because they'd spent
Speaker 1: so many years skirting the law. They knew the tricks
Speaker 1: that criminals pulled, so they knew how to catch and start. Heck,
Speaker 1: at one point, Napoleon soon signed a degree making the
Speaker 1: group an official law enforcement brigade known as the National
Speaker 1: Security in English. From there, Eugene worked his way up
Speaker 1: in French law enforcement, pioneering all kinds of investigative techniques
Speaker 1: that we take for granted today, for example, undercover detective work,
Speaker 1: criminal records, ballistic testing, shoe print analysis, forensic fingerprinting. These
Speaker 1: were all Eugene's ideas. Eugene Vydac was the first modern detective.
Speaker 1: Eventually he became an esteem member of French society and
Speaker 1: rubbed shoulders with some very important people like Victor Hugo,
Speaker 1: the author of Les Misrah Hugo based the characters of
Speaker 1: Jean Valjean and Inspector Jauvert off of Eugene, and Eugene's
Speaker 1: literary influence didn't stop there. Edgar Allan Poe referenced him
Speaker 1: in the short story The Murders in the Room Morgue,
Speaker 1: which is considered the first ever detective tale. Sir Arthur
Speaker 1: Conan Doyle modeled Sherlock Holmes partially after Eugene, and Agatha
Speaker 1: Christie was so inspired by the Frenchman that she went
Speaker 1: on to create one of the most recognizable French speaking
Speaker 1: investigators in literature, her Cule Poirot. Eugene Francoisse Doc lived
Speaker 1: a crazy, curious life, but despite his flawed beginnings, he
Speaker 1: influenced detective work for the better and inspired characters we
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to live without. It can be very tempting.
Speaker 1: A locked door, a warning sign in bright red letters
Speaker 1: saying stay out or no admittance. It's natural to want
Speaker 1: to peek behind the curtain, to go where we're not
Speaker 1: meant to go. What's on the other side? Why are
Speaker 1: we not allowed in there. But as enticing as it
Speaker 1: may be to sneak inside and have a look for ourselves,
Speaker 1: most of us will never take that step. The last
Speaker 1: thing we want is to get caught breaking and entering.
Speaker 1: But James Connolly didn't worry about such things. If he
Speaker 1: wanted in, he would find a way. Connolly was born
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty nine in Massachusetts. His parents and sister
Speaker 1: died when he was only ten years old, and he
Speaker 1: was sent to live in an orphanage. Over the years,
Speaker 1: he developed a keen sense for navigating the streets, finding
Speaker 1: his way into spaces where he wasn't allowed or wanted.
Speaker 1: When he got older, Connolly was known around town as
Speaker 1: One Eye, on account of having lost one of his
Speaker 1: eyes when he was only eighteen. It's what cost him
Speaker 1: a career as a professional boxer, but he still loved
Speaker 1: watching the matches anyway. He would even travel out of
Speaker 1: state to watch certain fights, like the time he went
Speaker 1: to New Orleans to see John L. Sullivan and gentleman
Speaker 1: Jim Corbett battle it out in eighteen ninety two. He
Speaker 1: showed up at the gates without a penny in his pocket.
Speaker 1: Thinking on his feet, he gave the guard a story
Speaker 1: about having a message for Sullivan from his brother. The gatekeeper,
Speaker 1: thinking nothing of it, led him through and escorted him
Speaker 1: to the boxer's prep area. Connolly came about the lie,
Speaker 1: but Sullivan didn't kick him out. He admired his gumption
Speaker 1: and let him watch the match anyway. From there, Connolly
Speaker 1: only got more brazen in his deceptions. He would flash
Speaker 1: a fake press badge at the door, or haul a
Speaker 1: block of ice into a venue, claiming that he was
Speaker 1: delivering it to a concession stand. He even wore the
Speaker 1: uniform of an ambulance driver and made up a story
Speaker 1: about responding to an emergency inside the building. The one
Speaker 1: particular ruse involved Connolly dressing up as a painter and
Speaker 1: pretending to paint a stadium. He asked a guard where
Speaker 1: he should paint next, and was instructed to go inside
Speaker 1: and ask the person in charge. Of course, someone as
Speaker 1: notable as James Connolly soon found himself recognized at every
Speaker 1: gate he tried to crash. Gatekeepers and guards were on
Speaker 1: the lookout, ready to pounce on the wily one eyed
Speaker 1: weasel as he tried to slip inside every arena, theater,
Speaker 1: and stadium without pain. One time in Jersey City, New Jersey,
Speaker 1: he was stopped from crashing a boxing match thirteen times
Speaker 1: before he picked up a coffee jug and a back
Speaker 1: full of sandwiches and made his way through the fourteenth
Speaker 1: Gate unnoticed. In his later years, though, he moved to Chicago,
Speaker 1: a new city full of new possibilities. It was there
Speaker 1: where he truly became famous too, especially for one particular
Speaker 1: businessman named Andy Frayn. You see, frain supplied venues with
Speaker 1: ushers and other staff for games and matches of all kinds,
Speaker 1: and there was Connolly trying to find new ways to
Speaker 1: breach the perimeter of each of those places. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't about the money. Connolly often took random jobs here
Speaker 1: and there to make ends meet. He worked as a
Speaker 1: waiter for a short time, as well as an elevator attendant.
Speaker 1: I guess my point is that he didn't need to
Speaker 1: sneak inside. He could have bought a ticket, and so
Speaker 1: for a long time he would find his way into
Speaker 1: an arena or a theater inevitably staffed by Frayne, and
Speaker 1: each time he would be discovered and kicked out, But
Speaker 1: eventually Frayne stopped fighting him. There were other gate crashers
Speaker 1: to stop, and what better way to catch them than
Speaker 1: to put the best one on the payroll. Oh Frayne
Speaker 1: hired Connolly as a gatekeeper himself, sticking him at one
Speaker 1: of the entryways to Wrigley Field during a World Series
Speaker 1: game in nineteen forty five. It was a game between
Speaker 1: the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers. Then on that day,
Speaker 1: one man tried to push his way into the stadium
Speaker 1: without a ticket, but Connolly wouldn't have it. He knew
Speaker 1: all of the tricks well except for one. The man
Speaker 1: he was keeping out was Philip Wrigley, the owner of
Speaker 1: the Cubs and the man whose family name was on
Speaker 1: the building. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune,
Speaker 1: Connolly just sneered and said, that's for the birds, please
Speaker 1: go away. James Connolly died in nineteen fifty three at
Speaker 1: the age of eighty four. When asked about his late acquaintance,
Speaker 1: mister Frayn said, I will give you eight to one
Speaker 1: that he crashes the pearly gates. I'd like to see
Speaker 1: Saint Peter keep him out. I hope you've enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show was created by
Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.