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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of My Heart Radio. Oh

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Speaker 1: what's up, Elizabeth done? That's much. How are you doing today?

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Speaker 1: Oh man, I've just been sitting here gazing out of

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Speaker 1: the culture, considering the ridiculousness. And okay, did you know

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Speaker 1: I was wondering this because you know the times, and

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Speaker 1: I was like, what creature, what vertebrate creature has the

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Speaker 1: smallest brain to body weight ratio? All right now, just

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Speaker 1: thinking about that, And it turns out the answer is

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Speaker 1: the bony eared ass fish. Would you call me the

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Speaker 1: bony eared ass fish? Now? In case you're wondering, and

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Speaker 1: I know you how curious you are about things named

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Speaker 1: as fish. This is a form of eel to cusk eel.

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Speaker 1: And that's it. Is a three point seven five centimeter

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Speaker 1: long little fish. And uh, that's it. That is the

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Speaker 1: smallest brain to body weight. So there you go a

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Speaker 1: little ridiculousness. I like that. That is ridiculous. You want

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Speaker 1: to know what else is ridiculous? What I'm here for

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Speaker 1: building your entire career on a false identity, That's ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,

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Speaker 1: heists and cons It's always murder free, right, yes and ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: All right, to begin my lecture cultural identity subject, it's weird.

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Speaker 1: It's a weird thing. Well, we have groups that were

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Speaker 1: born into and then ones that sort of claim us

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Speaker 1: the ones that we claim right back, Like, let's keep

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Speaker 1: let me give you an example. I like to say

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Speaker 1: that my ethnicity is Californians, very fitting for you, right,

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Speaker 1: Like any other cultural or ethnic ties that I have

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Speaker 1: are so far removed that they don't really have an

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Speaker 1: impact on how people see me or how I see myself. Interesting. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so like I don't have it, I can't touch it.

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Speaker 1: Like you know, if you go back far enough, I'm

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Speaker 1: a fifth generation Californian. Oh, then you're definitely not completely Californian.

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Speaker 1: It's my history, it's my culture, my cuisine, my perspective,

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Speaker 1: my very state of being. People choke. You were joking

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Speaker 1: the other day about how most red hot Chili pepper

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Speaker 1: songs about California in some way, shape or form. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I did you know what I'm here for it? I

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Speaker 1: get it. Anthony keats share of zero California that not

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Speaker 1: the rest of us know about. We don't see the

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Speaker 1: purity of vision you have and I'm sorry, Yeah, we're

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Speaker 1: the ones missing out, not Anthony Keatis exactly. But that's said,

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Speaker 1: there are cultures to which I feel a great kinship.

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Speaker 1: Well though, I feel really comfortable in Italy. I love it.

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Speaker 1: It feels right, not just the like like the architectures,

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Speaker 1: everything everything. I'm fascinated by the culture, history, art, cuisine,

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Speaker 1: just the soul of the place, the people are. If

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Speaker 1: you want to try and lump all of Italy into

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Speaker 1: a monolith, which is very difficult, but I'm with you,

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Speaker 1: really a collection of city states. Do you have any

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Speaker 1: feelings like that? Communities that I feel a certain kinship. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I would say that the Scandinavian like berserker Viking thing

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, if I see anything about that and

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Speaker 1: I and I do have on my mother's side some

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Speaker 1: Swedish heritage, but I don't know why it's so loud

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Speaker 1: in me. So I feel that it's probably more of

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Speaker 1: an affinity that I have, and it's not like my

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Speaker 1: ethnic heritage bubbling up. But anytime I see a Viking,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, that's my people. Yeah, you feel it

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Speaker 1: makes sense, you know, the same thing for pirates, but

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Speaker 1: that's more of an occupation you could Yeah, it's a

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Speaker 1: multicultural occupation. Okay, So for my love of Italian culture, say,

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Speaker 1: I'd never go around and tell people that I'm Italian. No, no, no,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't give myself a fake name and concoct a backstory. Um,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't pretend to speak for all Italians or with

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Speaker 1: the bad Italian accent. No U house of Gucci. Ye

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Speaker 1: that Yeah, that's a whole other episode of ridiculousness, and

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Speaker 1: it's a crime. I wouldn't play into any preconceived notions

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Speaker 1: about Italians and like base my false identity on my

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Speaker 1: poorly understood and unresearched ideas about Italians. You would never

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Speaker 1: run a foul of the Italian American community. No, wouldn't

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Speaker 1: dress as a caricature nic a little like a plumber,

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Speaker 1: cartoon plumber as part of my fake identity. But you

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Speaker 1: know what, that's exactly what Edgar la Plant did. Just

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Speaker 1: not Italians. He was born in the US to a

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Speaker 1: French Canadian family with zero ties to the First Nations,

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Speaker 1: the indigenous. Yeah, but one day Edgar decided that he

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Speaker 1: was Native and American. He just woke up one day

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Speaker 1: and deep in his bones and then he ran that

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Speaker 1: con completely off the rails. So that's Edgar the plant.

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Speaker 1: He was born in Okay, time get just put yourself

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Speaker 1: in the time and place in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

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Speaker 1: Shout out to produce Big Dave Kisten, Rhode Island. What

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Speaker 1: are the few affordable places to live anymore in the

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Speaker 1: greater Providence area? Oh, good to know Central Falls. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure it's lovely how founders be worn So Edgar. When

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Speaker 1: he's fourteen years old, he got caught scamming change from

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Speaker 1: local businesses and was sent to reform school. Now, I'm

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Speaker 1: sure that he learned all sorts of stuff there. It's

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Speaker 1: a great education, reform school. But he also, you know,

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Speaker 1: he did learn to sing when he was there, Like

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Speaker 1: you're not using okay, he became a rat. He really

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Speaker 1: learned to sing. Johnny No, he could carry a tune.

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Speaker 1: When he was in his early twenties, he moved to

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Speaker 1: New York. So turn of the century by he was

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Speaker 1: working at Coney Island as a ballyho man Saren Webster's

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Speaker 1: Dictionary defiance bally who as a noisy, attention getting demonstration

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Speaker 1: or talk, flamboyant, exaggerated or sensational promotion or publicity or

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Speaker 1: excited commotion. Thank you for the Webster definance. When I

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Speaker 1: was teaching college English, there were two ways to make

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Speaker 1: me completely lose it when grading essays. If you started

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Speaker 1: an introductory paragraph with in Today's Society, or if you

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Speaker 1: used Webster's Dictionary defiance fill in the plank as anywhere

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Speaker 1: in the paper, I had an automatic ten point deduction

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Speaker 1: on essays. If any of those popped up students knew it,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't and they still did it in Today's Society. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I would just get hot on that one. I wonder

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Speaker 1: what they were thinking when they were typing nothing, this

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Speaker 1: is a winning opening. They were thinking nothing. It's lazy writing,

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Speaker 1: lazy brained. So this Bally who this would be the

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Speaker 1: same as like a barker, right, like the person. Yeah exactly.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for bringing me back on topic. So, Edgar

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Speaker 1: ballyhu Man, Coney Island, nineteen Coney Island in nineteen ten

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Speaker 1: is such an incredible place. Oh yeah, it was Atlantic

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Speaker 1: City before Atlantic City, right seaside, neighborhood in Brooklyn. Amusement, parks, attractions,

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Speaker 1: just general entertainable. Oh yeah, but like cotton Candy, Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: the attractions, the sin of cotton candy. Thousands of people

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Speaker 1: are there just walking around eating ice cream, riding rides,

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Speaker 1: playing Carney games, looking at EMUs. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken. Ice cream is a new thing at

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Speaker 1: that time too. This is like a new taste. Everything

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Speaker 1: is new and penny candy. Um yeah, so everything's new, exciting,

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Speaker 1: smells great, smells sweet. Yeah. Um no it doesn't. Uh

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Speaker 1: So anyway back to and the ballyhu Man. So that summer,

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Speaker 1: Edgar was hired as a Native American impersonator by the W. H.

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Speaker 1: Long's Big Indian and Medicine Concert Company, very nineteen ten

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Speaker 1: kind of outfit, right, Edgar toured with them. He did

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Speaker 1: tours three acts to night. What was his act, you asked, curious. Well,

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Speaker 1: he called himself Chief white Oak, and he just impersonated

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Speaker 1: a Native American and that was he doing, like the

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Speaker 1: grunts and the Howe and all that. So he's on

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Speaker 1: a medicine show. So they're basically doing patent medicine. So

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Speaker 1: they're already trying to hoodwink the audience and to get

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Speaker 1: the audience to come and see the show. They have

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Speaker 1: a fake Native American prison going. Here's the snake. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's so bad, so painful. So he mixes up concoctions

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Speaker 1: with them. He sells them under the promise that their

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Speaker 1: ancient Native American cures for whatever happens to ail a

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Speaker 1: person with cash in their pocket. You can relieve you

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Speaker 1: of the cash and pocket disease. Just will hear you

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Speaker 1: of having money, So I don't forget. He learned how

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Speaker 1: to sing and reform school. So he performed on vaudeville

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Speaker 1: stages across the country, which in nineteen ten, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're you know that was the thing. Yeah. Um, when

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Speaker 1: he was performing in Key West, opening for a young

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Speaker 1: George Burns. Yes, he started calling himself Chief Harry Johnson.

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Speaker 1: You gotta give me a war, and I'm sorry I've

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Speaker 1: blindsided you with it. Doesn't make Yeah. By late nineteen sixteen, now, um,

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Speaker 1: he's in Arizona and an army training camp near the

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Speaker 1: Mexican border. I was about as when he did in

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Speaker 1: the war. Yeah, he said that he was Tom Longboat.

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Speaker 1: He just keeps changing his native That's a famous Onondaga

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Speaker 1: distance runner from the Six Nations Reserve, Brantford, Ontario and

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Speaker 1: the Olympian War Hero. He was bouncing around the like

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Speaker 1: standing out Longboat. These are very different actual person though.

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Speaker 1: He's not just saying Chief Harry Johnson or Chief White Elk.

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Speaker 1: He's like, I'm Tom Longboat. He's not an Olympian in

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Speaker 1: real life Edgar, but he was athletic and he won

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Speaker 1: a one mile foot race against the other soldiers. So

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Speaker 1: they're like, oh, well he must be. He looked nothing

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Speaker 1: like Tom Longboat. Let me put that out there too.

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Speaker 1: But at the time it's like, you can't just go

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Speaker 1: look at us. His word is gold. So he travels

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Speaker 1: around the American West. He collects fees for speaking and singing.

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Speaker 1: March nineteen seventeen, he's still posing his Longboat. He's in

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Speaker 1: San Jose, California, and he gives a speech at the

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Speaker 1: first Baptist church there, and he told them he was

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Speaker 1: basically a doctor pretty much. He went, he said, he went,

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Speaker 1: he went to med school in Chicago, and then he

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Speaker 1: said he spoke a bunch of different languages because he

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Speaker 1: traveled all over the world. He said he worked as

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Speaker 1: a medic in the battlefields in France, Okay. And then

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Speaker 1: he also said that he as Longboat played on the

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Speaker 1: then famous Carlisle Indian Industrial Schools football team that upset

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Speaker 1: Harvard November nine eleven. He said he was on that team.

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Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, I was there. It's cool again, he

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Speaker 1: doesn't look like Tom Longboat. People didn't notice. They didn't care.

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Speaker 1: He loved story. Yeah, and they're like the the Associative Fame.

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Speaker 1: Oh guess who I got to meet. He enlisted the

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Speaker 1: Naval Reserve and he says, quote, my people have buried

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Speaker 1: the tomahawk and hatchet and war paint, but they are

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Speaker 1: ready to go to war with you boys to protect

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Speaker 1: our own star spangled banner if necessary. This story is

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Speaker 1: gonna I'm worried about my eyes. They're rolling so far

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Speaker 1: back in my head. I'm going to bruise them. They

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Speaker 1: made detached. I mean you wow, Well you know he

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Speaker 1: was a tomahawk of my people? Who I mean, like,

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Speaker 1: come on, bro. So we also said that he, as

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Speaker 1: Tom Longboat, had been severely injured by a bayonet and

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Speaker 1: yet still meddled in the Olympics. So back we could

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Speaker 1: be funnier as if he was bayonetted in the in

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Speaker 1: the Olympics and still meddled. Still did it a Please

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Speaker 1: note that there were people journalists and law enforcement that

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Speaker 1: did catch onto him at this point, and they would

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Speaker 1: warn the journalists, would warn the officials or journalists yeah

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Speaker 1: in the next town who he was or where he

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Speaker 1: had just been. So sometimes that became public, and oftentimes

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Speaker 1: it's because he was like getting in trouble with authorities

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Speaker 1: and they start to suspect him and then he blows.

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Speaker 1: So he gets to San Diego and the San Jose

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Speaker 1: Evening News called him out with his impersonation as fake.

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Speaker 1: But he's already gone, and you know, you'd have to

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Speaker 1: get the paper. So it's like, oh, that guy who

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Speaker 1: just left it. Yeah, one way or another, he's able

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Speaker 1: to get out of all these situations. Usually he just

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Speaker 1: denies it and leaves town. Now, after San Diego, he

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Speaker 1: goes to l A and he calls himself Chief Harry

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Speaker 1: Johnson when he's there, to Harry john I just felt right.

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Speaker 1: And he disguised himself in a long black wig, just

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Speaker 1: dicking around. Love a long black wig, love a wig anyway,

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Speaker 1: a pale head bag, moccasin's buckskin pants with beads on

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Speaker 1: him and then around his shoulder. He wears the striped

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Speaker 1: Native American blanket. Oh, he's just a melange of different cultures.

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Speaker 1: So he's like a walking cigar store in stat Yes,

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Speaker 1: that's his whole, that's his vibe. So then he goes

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Speaker 1: to the Midwest and then he changes his name. He's

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Speaker 1: chief to Wuana naturally. Sometimes he says he's Cherokee. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: he says he's Sue, but he's chief to Wana. Now.

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Speaker 1: Difference Like it's like if I wanted to pull off

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Speaker 1: a fake Italian thing, and sometimes I say him from

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Speaker 1: Luca and sometimes I say I'm from Naples. Are two

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Speaker 1: very different things. I would go further and say it's

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Speaker 1: more like saying sometimes I say I'm from Portugal and

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Speaker 1: sometimes I say I'm from Poland. That's a different nations. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: different nations and on the same continent. But weighed everything.

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Speaker 1: Different languages, different cultures, different environments, different regions, but hey

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Speaker 1: throw them all together. Continent. So he is swirling all

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Speaker 1: over the country and these things. Nineteen seventeen, in the summertime,

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Speaker 1: he makes it to New York City, Big Apple. Do

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Speaker 1: you know they call it that. I've heard this. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: He goes to the labor employment section because I guess

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Speaker 1: he didn't have a job, and so one of the

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Speaker 1: officers there had seen his act before. He's so honored

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Speaker 1: Tom Longboat, you need a job you're here. Edgar was like,

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Speaker 1: well sure, So they get him a job as a

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Speaker 1: seaman on the s s Antilles, and that's bringing US

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Speaker 1: troops to France. Yeah, I figures guessing everything going that

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Speaker 1: way at that time. W W one. Um. Through this,

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Speaker 1: he winds up getting a certificate of identification under the

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Speaker 1: name Tom Longboat. So he's now got US government. I

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Speaker 1: D say, it's hard to just say tong Longboat, Tom. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's hard out there for me that emin and they

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Speaker 1: want to switch, you know, Tom Longboat will just keep saying. So.

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Speaker 1: While he's at sea, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle discovers that

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Speaker 1: there are two men calling themselves Tom Longboat. Um, they

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Speaker 1: think that Edgar was the real one. And then the

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Speaker 1: news caused enough of a dispute that when he gets

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Speaker 1: back to the States, he's brought in for questioning by

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Speaker 1: the newspaper or for the police. By the police, he admits, look,

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Speaker 1: I'm not Tom Longboat. UM, my real name is Thomas Tajuanna.

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Speaker 1: He's like to wanna get out of here. It most

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Speaker 1: have been funny. You didn't have as much I D

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Speaker 1: not just the Google. But like when you didn't even

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Speaker 1: really have ideas, you're it's like, oh yeah, you infuse

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Speaker 1: me with another dude. Um So, there's like too much

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Speaker 1: heat on him, too much attention. He blows town. He

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Speaker 1: goes up to upstate New York. That's not a good move.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of native populations and kind of exactly.

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Speaker 1: But he starts calling himself Chief White Elk again, takes

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Speaker 1: a back full circle. He says, again he's telling people

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Speaker 1: I was on that Carlisle football team. He said he

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Speaker 1: had been wounded now in the Battle of Verdun. But yes,

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Speaker 1: World War One. He continues traveling around the country. He

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Speaker 1: like gathers himself. He's like, okay, I'm just going to

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Speaker 1: stick with the white Elk thing. He sings, He gives speeches.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes he gives speeches about his experience in the war.

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Speaker 1: This man did not go He didn't even I guess

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Speaker 1: he did get on a boat, yeah, and then dropped

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Speaker 1: a bunch of guys off. He was like sea uber

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Speaker 1: And he talks about the importance of enlisting, even though

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Speaker 1: he hadn't enlisted. Um so, yeah, that's what he's doing.

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Speaker 1: December nineteen seventeen he's in Laramie, Wyoming. He's caught by

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Speaker 1: the authorities and arrested for do we knowbody's impersonating? Oh,

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Speaker 1: he's a fraud, not just for defrauding all these people.

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Speaker 1: So a month later they realize we don't have enough

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Speaker 1: evidence to prosecute him. He's released under the promise to

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Speaker 1: quote quit posing as a hero more stolen valor for you,

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Speaker 1: exactly do you think that he quit posing as a hero.

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing now this is just an educated yes, but

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing no. Well, when we get back from this

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Speaker 1: ad break, I'll let you know. Okay, we're back. Uh.

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Speaker 1: When we went to the break, Edgar La Plant was

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Speaker 1: posing as a any variety of Native American. Yeah, chief right, Sorry,

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Speaker 1: I forgot. I left out his appellation sprinkling a fine

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Speaker 1: dusting of stolen valor over the top of it, now

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Speaker 1: now frosted with stolen valor. I asked you if you

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Speaker 1: thought he would obey the lawmen of Laramie, Wyoming who

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Speaker 1: told him to quit posing as a hero. And if

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Speaker 1: I remember correctly, I did the map and let me

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Speaker 1: check my answer. No, you're correct, you're correct. Instead, early

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, he goes to Pueblo, Colorado, good military towne.

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Speaker 1: He says he's the Cherokee Chief Clyde White elkide throw

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Speaker 1: that in there, and then he says he speaks six

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Speaker 1: languages and fourteen Native American dialects. Did he name the

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Speaker 1: languages or just kind of say that, No one could testimony.

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Speaker 1: He's like, guess what, I went to medical school in

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Speaker 1: Chicago to He's they, Yeah, So he keeps talking about

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Speaker 1: being multi lingual. He keeps saying that he went to

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Speaker 1: med school in Chicago. Those are his like through lines

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Speaker 1: in his cons He tours around selling war stamps and

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Speaker 1: liberty bonds for the government or for the government. Yeah. No,

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Speaker 1: at first I'm thinking like, okay, he did this and yeah,

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Speaker 1: they'll pass this land. No, he was legitimately selling war

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Speaker 1: stamps and liberty bonds, and as you know, war bonds

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Speaker 1: basically loans that citizens give to the government to fund

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Speaker 1: military efforts in times of war. Uh. Taking that money

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Speaker 1: out of circulation also controls inflation, as you know, not

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Speaker 1: telling you anything new, just talking to myself. Um, you

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Speaker 1: can buy them in a bunch of different denominations. There's

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Speaker 1: a low yield, but like it became really popular and

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Speaker 1: easy to access for people. Because of the multiple denomination,

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Speaker 1: you could do small amounts and still feel like you're contributing.

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Speaker 1: So he's collecting him in all these different amounts. He

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Speaker 1: would talk to service clubs, community groups. He'd urge all

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Speaker 1: these white folks to enlist at the same rate as

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Speaker 1: Native Americans. That was his thing Natives. He said that

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Speaker 1: Native Americans were out pacing everybody else a capital basis.

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Speaker 1: It's more of my people are and the great father.

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Speaker 1: It is said that he sold one point eight million

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Speaker 1: dollars in bonds in San Francisco in a single week.

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Speaker 1: That can't be right. It is said. People are saying

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Speaker 1: that passed the fact check. People are saying that he

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Speaker 1: brought in five hundred thousand dollars in war bonds in

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Speaker 1: Oakland during a single lunch engagement. These numbers can't be right.

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Speaker 1: Back then, how are you getting that? I don't even know.

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Speaker 1: If you wouldn't like mugged all of the rich people,

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Speaker 1: you could get this much money. Maybe it's two day's dollars.

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Speaker 1: He's good at his work. The guy's charming and it's

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Speaker 1: quite the charlate. So but I mean, that's the thing,

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Speaker 1: like I'm imagining that he's getting speakers fees for this stuff.

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Speaker 1: But he's raising money for the war efforts. But he

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Speaker 1: told that he's got rotarians out there giving out big

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Speaker 1: chunks of money. I'm imagining, and people like that these

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Speaker 1: social clubs. Okay. March nineteen eighteen, he's in Salt Lake City.

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Speaker 1: He's calling himself Chief white Elk. Do we know which

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Speaker 1: first name at this? Probably Clyde, you know, Chief white Olk,

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Speaker 1: but you can call me Clyde, my favorite Clyde. Um.

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Speaker 1: He meets a thirty one year old woman named Auson

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Speaker 1: one time as a k a. Bertha Thomas. So did

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Speaker 1: he give her this name? No? She was born in Eureka, California.

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Speaker 1: Her mother was Uruk and her father was white. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I thought she was also running her own scamp. That's

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Speaker 1: what I thought too, And I had to be like

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Speaker 1: stop the presses. Everything screeched to a halt, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, wait, please tell me is this favorite? No,

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Speaker 1: she's a real deal. Um. She was a trained nurse,

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Speaker 1: but she was also a singer and actress like most

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Speaker 1: trained nurses. I know. She was a favorite model of

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00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: this photographer, Emma Bell Freeman. And I found a really

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00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,840
Speaker 1: cool picture of her taken by Freeman. I'll put it

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Speaker 1: on the Instagram and tacking at my front door. Edgar

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00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:04,800
Speaker 1: and Bertha meat and they're dating within twenty four hours

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00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:07,960
Speaker 1: back then does that mean something different? Like they met

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Speaker 1: at six o'clock on a Wednesday and six o'clock Thursday.

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Speaker 1: He's like, um, you want to be like boyfriend girlfriend?

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Speaker 1: But can I pin you? And she's like, my, es,

356
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Speaker 1: you're kind of cool. Should we make it telegraph official?

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00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:23,520
Speaker 1: And they did? They Yeah, they posted pictures of themselves

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Speaker 1: in telegram and then they walked around holding hands and

359
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:28,920
Speaker 1: everyone was like, oh, I think they're together. They're so cute,

360
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Speaker 1: you guys. Um hours two days after that, he asked

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Speaker 1: her to marry him. Wow. He's like, my name Chief

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Speaker 1: white Elk would like to marry you Asha. So yeah,

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00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: zaren Oh romance, I love a young love. I want

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Speaker 1: you to close your eyes. Oh god, my eyes. They're

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Speaker 1: rushing to quote. I want you to picture it. March thirteenth, nine,

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Speaker 1: Salt Lake, Sit, m h F from Clean it is.

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Speaker 1: The street. Cars are packed on this crisp afternoon. Cars

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Speaker 1: are clogging the streets, crowds. They're all heading to the

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Speaker 1: Capitol Building. You, Saren and five thousand other people cram

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Speaker 1: into the grounds around the Capitol building. So me and

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Speaker 1: my entourage. A thirty one piece band plays patriotic tunes

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Speaker 1: as spectators gather for a rally that will include sales

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Speaker 1: of war bonds and enlistening tables. The capital is dolled up, flags, bunting,

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Speaker 1: potted palms, the works. Four pm. Salt Lake City Mayor

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Speaker 1: w Mont Ferry climbs the steps. Beside him a very

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Speaker 1: tall man wearing a large feathered war bonnet. He wears

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Speaker 1: a whole beaded buckskin tuxedo head to toe. He's got

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Speaker 1: on blue moccasin's with American flag beat it onto the front.

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Speaker 1: He has total Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow level

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Speaker 1: of accessories. He's got ribbons, feathers, fors bells, a bone necklace. Yes,

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Speaker 1: he's maybe he's wearing eyeliner. Let's say he's holding a

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Speaker 1: tomahawk in one hand and a peace pipe in the other.

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Speaker 1: He's full party city right now. What we have here

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Speaker 1: is Chief White Elk standing next to the mayor. Then

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the band strikes up again. They

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00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 1: play long greens the bridal chorus, also known as here

387
00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 1: comes the broad So and her Bertha. She's decked out

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Speaker 1: in all white dress, shells, beads, head dress, moccasins mean

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Speaker 1: it's her wedding day. The Mayor conducts the wedding ceremony

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Speaker 1: for all five thousand plus strangers in attendance. The Governor

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00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: signs their marriage. Oh yeah, and they present the governor

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00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 1: with bow and arrow as I thank you a great

393
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 1: times had by all um. It's not really known at

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00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:19,680
Speaker 1: that point how much Bertha knew about Edgar's true identity. Okay, okay,

395
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 1: remember with you. She had to have known he was

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00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:24,280
Speaker 1: full of it. I'm guessing there's no way he's not

397
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Speaker 1: the only one who she didn't know when she married

398
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,399
Speaker 1: him after knowing him for three days. Then like she

399
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,400
Speaker 1: found out though, because the marriage was a lousy one

400
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: surprise around this time, like they get married, Edgar develops

401
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:45,440
Speaker 1: an alcohol and drug habit. Hello, he's doing He's doing

402
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:50,040
Speaker 1: morphine and cocaine. Yeah, he's doing coke. Yeah, that that's

403
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 1: a serious drug. Probably he had this guy that was

404
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:54,680
Speaker 1: like a friend of his that supplied it with him,

405
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,280
Speaker 1: And there were rumors and innuendos about his relationship with

406
00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 1: that guy. We're just going to leave that to the side.

407
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 1: A World War One veteran, he's going for the full

408
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: vet experience. Um, this is obviously tough for Bertha. So

409
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,200
Speaker 1: he continues to have these close calls with authorities. Summer

410
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,960
Speaker 1: of nineteen nineteen and don't forget. So they got married

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00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,600
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen. So a year later, I was there

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00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,880
Speaker 1: a beautiful ceremony, the governor is there you. I still

413
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 1: get choked up when I think about beautiful it was

414
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:32,200
Speaker 1: do you need a second? The buckskin he was wearing.

415
00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:38,159
Speaker 1: Did you feel You're like, I'm in the presence of

416
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 1: Chief White O Clyde. What's up? I'm pretty much just

417
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,880
Speaker 1: standing on the pages of history right now. That's beautiful.

418
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:47,440
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you. He's having close calls. A

419
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,600
Speaker 1: year later, he joins a lecture tour of Canada. This

420
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,399
Speaker 1: time he's calling himself Doctor to Juana, which at this

421
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: point Bertha has got to be like, look, dude, settle

422
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 1: on a name. Now. I know you're full of it.

423
00:26:58,359 --> 00:26:59,439
Speaker 1: I don't know what to call you when I want

424
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 1: to get your tent to Jenner, he says, as doctor Tijuana,

425
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: he's a survivor of the sinking of the Antilles. He's

426
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: a Carlisle grad college football star, Cherokee chief. He's going

427
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 1: back to Cherokee and he's an Olympic long distance runner,

428
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 1: so he's using longboat mythology, but he's saying that he's

429
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 1: Doctor Tijuana. Edgar and Bertha they work together on various

430
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 1: speaking and entertainment circuits um but by late nineteen the

431
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:30,400
Speaker 1: relationship is really strained. Around that time, they also adopted

432
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 1: a fifteen month old Native American baby that they named

433
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:40,439
Speaker 1: ethel Lolita white Elk. Was that a dare the ethel

434
00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 1: Lolita white Elk? And that's like, all of that is

435
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 1: a lie. Bertha can't cope. She's like, you're a junkie.

436
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: I can't do this. Ta Yeah. So she stops touring

437
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 1: with him, separates, takes Ethel Lolita and off they go.

438
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:01,120
Speaker 1: And is Edgar bothered by this? I'm guessing no, not really.

439
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,560
Speaker 1: So by late nineteen two, he's calling himself Dr Ray Tajuana.

440
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,199
Speaker 1: This is probably my new favorite name of his Doctor Ray.

441
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: He takes a French Canadian lover and goes to England.

442
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,480
Speaker 1: You know, as you do, you've done that? Uh what

443
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,040
Speaker 1: I call spring break. Reporters are on hand for his

444
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 1: arrival in England. I'm sure he wired and he was like,

445
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,600
Speaker 1: guess what. He gets there and he requests a meeting

446
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:29,679
Speaker 1: with King George the Five. He's like, hey, Cherokee Royalty

447
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 1: in the house, busy chief, I want to talk to

448
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,199
Speaker 1: the king. Yeah, He's like, what are you doing on Friday?

449
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: He did not get a meeting. Listener, he did not

450
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 1: get a meeting. I'll wear my formal headwear. You wear

451
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: your formal headwear? Oh my gosh. Yeah. They there's a

452
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,160
Speaker 1: couple of kings having fun. Beautiful. So he performs around

453
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 1: England just as he had in the state. He's not

454
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,320
Speaker 1: getting war bonds obviously, but he's like, you know, giving

455
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: tales of his people. But they had a war effort.

456
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: Well doesn't matter. Yeah, I don't care about them. Uh.

457
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: In Man in Chester in April ofree he met the

458
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:07,640
Speaker 1: unmarried thirty seven year old Ethel Holmes, who had a

459
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: seven year old son named Leslie, and within three months

460
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: they were married fast on the job with this one.

461
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 1: On their marriage certificate, Ethel called herself a widow, which

462
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:24,040
Speaker 1: was not true, and Edgar used the name Ray Tijuana

463
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 1: and said he was a doctor of medicine and that

464
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: his father's name was Chief Waltrobe. Just just you know,

465
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,880
Speaker 1: he's like looking around, he sees something like a tin

466
00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:44,960
Speaker 1: of suspects. So September twenty three, the three of them,

467
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:50,479
Speaker 1: uh was? He called himself ray to Wuana wa Ethel

468
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: and then Leslie. They go to France and Belgium and

469
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:59,040
Speaker 1: Edgar is now giving lectures back under the name Chief

470
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: white elk and he's always got these ladies with him.

471
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: We're like, yeah, go ahead, how easy it was to

472
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:13,440
Speaker 1: scam people? Yeah, this is my well. He gets to

473
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: Paris and Paramount Pictures contacts him because they're like, we

474
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 1: have this movie coming out, the Covered Wagon. So they

475
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: ring them up, ring ring, like hey, Chief white elk Um,

476
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:27,880
Speaker 1: can you help us promote the film? Can you go

477
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 1: to Nice and promote the Covered Wagon? He's like, no problems,

478
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 1: goes to Nice. In the spring of he gets an

479
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: actual Native American head dress, because at this point I

480
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: think he's using party city stuff. He gets the head

481
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 1: dress from an American doctor living in Nice, and it

482
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 1: was supposed to be a loan of the head dress.

483
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: The doctor never saw it again. But while he's there,

484
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 1: he meets twenty seven year old Contessa Antoinette Kevin Hooler Metsch.

485
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 1: She's known as Ada her friends than because I couldn't

486
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 1: do that again. So twenty seven year old Ada. She

487
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:11,320
Speaker 1: gives Edgar three francs and says this is to tend

488
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 1: to the knees of Indian orphans, and then invites him

489
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: to dinner in Monte Carlo with her and her stepmother,

490
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,520
Speaker 1: Which how great is that? Once in my life, For

491
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:23,360
Speaker 1: once in my life, I want to be able to like,

492
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 1: you know what, hey, come to dinner in Monte Carlo. Yeah,

493
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,000
Speaker 1: come with me and my aunt, the contessa or my

494
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 1: mother thent why not? Why? Why? Why not me? That's

495
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to stay here. Um, so come with

496
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 1: me and my stepmom. Sixty three year old widowed contessa

497
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: Milania Kevin Cooler Metch, come on, let's go to Monte Carlo.

498
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 1: And he's like Austria. You know, we wouldn't be Austro Hungarian.

499
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: So they're like former royalty at this point. I don't know, well,

500
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: I think after World, for one, he had all those

501
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 1: people going around scam and saying, oh, yes, I'm the

502
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 1: the viscount of this, they're really a contessa of something. Yeah.

503
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 1: So they go to Monte Carlo. At the dinner, Milannia

504
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: gives Edgar five thousand francs that she won at the casino.

505
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,280
Speaker 1: This is like straight out of like a Bond film. Um.

506
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: And she says this is a gift for Native American

507
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:17,200
Speaker 1: children because they're all concerned, feeling like they're a bunch

508
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: of orphans. Um. He tells the contessas that he was

509
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: actually also an oil baron and in addition to being

510
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:30,760
Speaker 1: Cherokee royalty. So he's like, I'm I'm Cherokee Royalty, I'm

511
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: King of the Cherokee, and I'm an oil baron, and

512
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: I also own a ton of land in Canada. That's

513
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: that's me. I should have told you this. Let me

514
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 1: tell you a little about me, uh, he explains. Though,

515
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: he's like, here's the problem. Though, gals gather around. British

516
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:54,360
Speaker 1: bureaucracy is temporarily holding my money. Because it's all very complicated.

517
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 1: I can't get into it. It's very confusing. So I

518
00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 1: don't want to confuse you ladies. Um. I just need

519
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,360
Speaker 1: like a little loan because the Brits are holding all

520
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: my money. He basically, did the Spanish prisoner scam for himself. Yes,

521
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:08,360
Speaker 1: He's like, if you can free me, I will gladly

522
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 1: repay you with He's like, I will pay you back,

523
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 1: but just I need a little I need a temporary loan.

524
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 1: And then he tells Melania, well, the loans that you're

525
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 1: giving me are going to be secured by sources and governments.

526
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 1: And also you know I have Bourbon lineage, so not

527
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:30,560
Speaker 1: up to somehow I'm French royalty and Cherokee royalty. Don't ask.

528
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: Let's just say kings recognized kings. Thank you. He says,

529
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: my father, what do you think his dad's name is? Now? Oh,

530
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 1: I don't know. Pierre blanc elk. He's getting he's getting

531
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 1: like less and less creative, and it's more and more

532
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 1: like I feel like he's looking around the room, Chief

533
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:56,880
Speaker 1: yellow robe. He's looking chief pretty lamp in chief yellow robe,

534
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:00,400
Speaker 1: chief shiny shoes. He says that, so that when they're saying,

535
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: well how is it the Tierra Cherokee and a Bourbon

536
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: French royalty, Well, see Chief yellow Robe married my mother,

537
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 1: who's the daughter of Prince Ludovic Mario of Bourbon. That's

538
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a real person he himself had owned.

539
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,120
Speaker 1: Edgar was like, here's how I can tell you I'm legit.

540
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:24,280
Speaker 1: I once loaned the Empress of the Austrio Hungarian Empire

541
00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: a million lira after she was ousted from her throne. Okay,

542
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 1: so that's like when I go around scamming people and

543
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:34,560
Speaker 1: be like you, guys, it's totally cool. Because one time

544
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 1: I loaned Bill Gates like seven million dollars. Yeah, he

545
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,560
Speaker 1: just needed it because like the particular didn't matter to me.

546
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 1: Very confusing. I just want to make this easier for you.

547
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 1: Don't worry your head about these details. Uh So at

548
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:52,280
Speaker 1: this point, his second wife Ethel and the stepson Leslie,

549
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:55,919
Speaker 1: they had moved back to Manchester because like they're still

550
00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:01,279
Speaker 1: following him around. But now he's like and Tom too,

551
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 1: because she's lying. So Edgar goes back for a little

552
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 1: bit to Manchester, like please please, baby, and you must

553
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:13,080
Speaker 1: forgive me, and she's like lining alone. Um, but then

554
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 1: he goes back to visit Milannia. Remember this is the

555
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 1: sixty year old step mom Contesa Contesa, Yeah, Adda is

556
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:25,320
Speaker 1: the one he's younger. Um, he goes to see Milannia

557
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:29,719
Speaker 1: because guess what Milannia caught feelings for Edgar? Oh, and

558
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 1: he could just detect it with his like spider scamsen.

559
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 1: I think she put a little slipped a little note

560
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 1: in his suitcase that said do you like me? Check

561
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:40,879
Speaker 1: yes or no? Here's my hotel room. And she's she's like, oh,

562
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 1: you want to be a boyfriend and girlfriend. This happens

563
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:45,600
Speaker 1: a lot for Edgar, over and over and over again.

564
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:47,400
Speaker 1: She's like, do you want to take a spin a

565
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 1: promenade around the square holding hands and varsity letter? Yes,

566
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 1: that's exacting. Well, he was on the cars. So apparently

567
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,919
Speaker 1: he wired a goodbye no to his stepson that read,

568
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:05,920
Speaker 1: dear leslie, your father must leave and never come back. Stop.

569
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,760
Speaker 1: That's like the worst letter to get from you. Spring.

570
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: Edgar's in Italy with Milania, and uh, things kind of

571
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:20,800
Speaker 1: start heating up, as in the law no with his lifestyle.

572
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:23,759
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and when we come back, I'm

573
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 1: going to tell you how Edgar took it to the

574
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 1: next level. All right, Saron, Hey, what's up? You got

575
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,480
Speaker 1: more from the White Elk for you better believe it.

576
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:56,600
Speaker 1: So remember when we left off, Edgar still going by

577
00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:01,680
Speaker 1: Chief White Elk, not by chief Harry Johnson. Which that's

578
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 1: a rude dude. Oh that's right, Billie Idol's a drug buddy,

579
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,919
Speaker 1: Harry Johnson. That name has a real energy to dude

580
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:12,560
Speaker 1: rude dudes. I don't think that Edgar la Plant has

581
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:15,800
Speaker 1: earned the title rude dude. Oh no, definitely not pretend.

582
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:21,160
Speaker 1: He's just rude. So he in rude fashion. He wires

583
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:24,600
Speaker 1: his stepson, Leslie back in Manchester. Dear Leslie, your father

584
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 1: must leave and never come back. And isn't he the stepfather?

585
00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:30,480
Speaker 1: So it's like, is he talking about like my dad?

586
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,480
Speaker 1: And then remember the wife said she was a widow,

587
00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:35,680
Speaker 1: so it's like, your dead dad must leave. And then

588
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,600
Speaker 1: he's like rub it in, why don't you so? Edgar

589
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:43,000
Speaker 1: now spring of he's in Italy with Milannia. They go

590
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:45,760
Speaker 1: on a huge shopping spree. Of course you're at the Contessa.

591
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:50,239
Speaker 1: He buys him gold watches. Yeah, multiple, He's got like

592
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:55,319
Speaker 1: three on each arm. He's like Swatch watches. I had

593
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:58,320
Speaker 1: two Swatch watches. Don't don't worry about it. Going to

594
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:02,800
Speaker 1: judge custom tailored suits to Swatch watches and Benetton sweaters,

595
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 1: I'm judging a little okay, um he she bought him

596
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:12,239
Speaker 1: this expensive car for him to give to her five

597
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:16,040
Speaker 1: year old stepson. When they met. George. His name is

598
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 1: g e O R g Oh. It's friends without the Art. Sure,

599
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 1: isn't that the name for the von Trapp family? The

600
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 1: dad is gay Organ? Okay, so gay Org, Right, I'm

601
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 1: gonna go with what you're saying. The sound of music, Dad,

602
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 1: that's all I know. Okay, I think I've seen that movie.

603
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:36,960
Speaker 1: I have a sister, I've seen it long ago. Um. So,

604
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 1: Melania has a twenty five year old stepson named Georg

605
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:43,520
Speaker 1: and she's like, Edgar, you're gonna love him, but you

606
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:45,840
Speaker 1: have to give a present when you meet him. And

607
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,479
Speaker 1: Edgar is looking around the room, he's like a yellow road.

608
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 1: She's like, no, he has this like souped up car.

609
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:56,920
Speaker 1: So she keeps giving Edgar cash. Um. He comes up

610
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:59,239
Speaker 1: with all these excuses of why he needs more. She

611
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 1: buys into him. I've got a hole in my pockets. Life.

612
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:06,920
Speaker 1: He goes on a tour of Italy paid for by Millennia,

613
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:11,160
Speaker 1: and he's greeted by these huge crowds. What does he

614
00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:14,759
Speaker 1: do when he meets the crowds? Something racist? Now he

615
00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:18,840
Speaker 1: made it rain baby, He handed out cash to these people.

616
00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 1: Is he wearing the head dress like handing out cash?

617
00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:24,759
Speaker 1: He's totally. He's like, guess what, chief fight elks here

618
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:28,040
Speaker 1: and it's time to party. He's making it rain with

619
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:32,040
Speaker 1: like Indians like yeah, I'm royalty, take it, and people

620
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:35,080
Speaker 1: are of course, these crowds are being attracted the hell. Yeah,

621
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,799
Speaker 1: this guy is handing out money. He's living it up

622
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 1: on the riviera, so he gets like super tan and

623
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 1: so it's really helping the costume game. He's just all

624
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:47,560
Speaker 1: greased up in tan um. This guy, Paul Willits wrote

625
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 1: a book called King Khan, The Bizarre Adventures of the

626
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:55,440
Speaker 1: Jazz Age's Greatest impostor the book on this cat um.

627
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: He wrote quote his face had over recent weeks becau

628
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,239
Speaker 1: I'm quite bronzed, which chimed conveniently with his chosen identity.

629
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:10,200
Speaker 1: Bolstering this where his current clothes white suede pants, brightly

630
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:15,839
Speaker 1: hued appurtenances, an orange shirt, and a cloak embellished by

631
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,720
Speaker 1: a thick mink tail. His practice of wearing a feathered

632
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,320
Speaker 1: head dress, tucking a dagger into his belt, and puffing

633
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:28,120
Speaker 1: on a traditional long stemmed ceremonial pipe in between cigarettes

634
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:33,399
Speaker 1: also boosted his credibility, so too did his frequent talk

635
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: of the land he owned. So let's just I'm sorry,

636
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:38,680
Speaker 1: can we just stop for one second and put this

637
00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 1: vision in our heads of Captain white, suede pants, cooling chain,

638
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:48,320
Speaker 1: smoking white. He's like puffing on a cigarette. Then he

639
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:53,040
Speaker 1: takes a little toke, looking like George Hamilton's so amazing. Um.

640
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:57,759
Speaker 1: He becomes also in this frame, in this phase of

641
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:02,800
Speaker 1: his life, a favorite of Italian fascist officials. I was

642
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: just about ask like, wait a minute, we're just post Marinetti,

643
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,799
Speaker 1: the fascist future submerged, and now you have them. Yeah,

644
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 1: and they're like, we love this. He's incredible. He doesn't argue,

645
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,960
Speaker 1: he's like I know, I'm um. In fact, he spreads

646
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:19,320
Speaker 1: some of that cash. He tosses cash at them. He

647
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,480
Speaker 1: donates money to party offices. And he gets the title

648
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:26,719
Speaker 1: of honorary corporal in the militia. So he's an honorary fascist. Yes,

649
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:28,840
Speaker 1: he's only one of three men in Italy to have

650
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 1: that title. They give to a fake Native American. He's

651
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:36,000
Speaker 1: running around with a war bonnet on and he's like

652
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 1: hamming it up all over Italy. He hired, well, he

653
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 1: hires a twenty three year old senior officer in the

654
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:49,239
Speaker 1: Fascist militia, to be his private secretary. And he also

655
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:52,200
Speaker 1: tried and then he failed to have a personal meeting

656
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:56,799
Speaker 1: with Mussolini in Rome in late August. There can only

657
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 1: be one big hamm in curve. I'm not let anyone.

658
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,440
Speaker 1: He gets curved by King George the Fifth and Mussolini

659
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 1: back in Manchester. Ethel not happy with the current arrangement,

660
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:12,400
Speaker 1: so she mails a letter to the contessa, both of them.

661
00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,719
Speaker 1: How did he know the contessa's address? And she was

662
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:18,280
Speaker 1: there in the beginning of it, and it's like Santi clause,

663
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:22,959
Speaker 1: you just write the old one. And then she draws

664
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 1: like a rough sketch of her on the front of

665
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:28,920
Speaker 1: the I'm like, oh, yeah, that's Milannia. Um proves to

666
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:30,920
Speaker 1: her with the documents to prove to her that he

667
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:33,160
Speaker 1: didn't have the money he says he has. Now, how

668
00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:35,439
Speaker 1: do you do the documents that prove a lack of money?

669
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 1: I guess like an empty bank. I mean, I know

670
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:43,160
Speaker 1: how I would believe I don't have any money. Um. Somehow, though,

671
00:42:43,239 --> 00:42:47,320
Speaker 1: either Edgar intercepted the letter or she didn't properly address

672
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:51,919
Speaker 1: it and just drew a picture. Milannia never gets the letter.

673
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:56,200
Speaker 1: Neither does add a. Um. Milannia in order to finance him,

674
00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:59,760
Speaker 1: she has to sell family property. What I mean finance

675
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,320
Speaker 1: and the she's sending him money, still giving Milannia is

676
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,920
Speaker 1: still giving Edgar money. What yeah, so she's still giving him.

677
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 1: She's like, I gotta sell some property. Lady, what about Leslie?

678
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 1: You got a baby? Come on now, let's how do

679
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:17,920
Speaker 1: you say that guy's name George Organ. It's like this

680
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:21,239
Speaker 1: step son. He's like suspicious, Like okay, now you're selling

681
00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:23,279
Speaker 1: property for this guy and you keep saying that he'll

682
00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: pay you back. Um, he has connections in Britain. I

683
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:31,320
Speaker 1: mistook it. Milani has selling property. I thought the wife

684
00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 1: she goes to wrap him out. The letter doesn't make it.

685
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:41,520
Speaker 1: That's okay, I'm not I I'm very confusing. So the

686
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 1: fal Son now is catching one. Son's like, hold up,

687
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:48,320
Speaker 1: I don't trust this guy. He starts an investigation, so

688
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:52,040
Speaker 1: he calls Britain people Baba. He sends a telegraph, but

689
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:55,359
Speaker 1: he knows how to address letters. He's like, let's get

690
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 1: to the bottom of Chief white Elk. So Gay Org

691
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:02,880
Speaker 1: I can't say that. He attempts to withdraw three hundred

692
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:07,520
Speaker 1: thousand lira from his family's account money walking around money.

693
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:11,399
Speaker 1: But he finds out the accounts empty because of all

694
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 1: of Millannia's withdrawals. Wow. So Milannia convinces ge Org that

695
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:24,920
Speaker 1: Edgar was good for the loans. That's it's Edgar feels

696
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:29,160
Speaker 1: the heat, feels feels feels, feels the heat. He promises

697
00:44:29,239 --> 00:44:31,239
Speaker 1: to repay the full loan, which is at this point

698
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:35,600
Speaker 1: is over a million lira, and by he says, I'm

699
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:40,880
Speaker 1: going to do that by December four, that's ten weeks

700
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 1: from ben Okay, so he gives him a dead line. Yeah,

701
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:45,680
Speaker 1: but then he's like, hold on, hold on, hold on,

702
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 1: how about January. Give me a little bit more time

703
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,399
Speaker 1: and I'll repay you. And you know what, plus six

704
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 1: percent interest. That's not a small amount. Now it's late November.

705
00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:04,759
Speaker 1: The Italian press and the government finally learn Chief white

706
00:45:04,760 --> 00:45:08,239
Speaker 1: Elk not Chief white Elk doesn't it. Finally catch up

707
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 1: finally and they're like, guess what, buddy, you're out of here.

708
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 1: They go to kick him out of the country o

709
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:15,279
Speaker 1: the fascist care They're like, we can't use this, not

710
00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:19,040
Speaker 1: to our benefits. So he gets escorted by Italian police

711
00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:25,359
Speaker 1: to the Swiss border on December, and he's then relocated

712
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:29,600
Speaker 1: to a hospital in Belenzona. So we relocated like they.

713
00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:31,680
Speaker 1: On the way there, he tripped a bunch and he

714
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:34,320
Speaker 1: had been injured somehow. I don't know if he tripped

715
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,880
Speaker 1: and fell on the dagger. If you're gonna take me

716
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:39,560
Speaker 1: to the border, I gotta go over to that hospital.

717
00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:44,719
Speaker 1: So according to that book, King con Quote, Swiss journalists

718
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:48,360
Speaker 1: had not thus far recycled the skating press coverage of

719
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:51,160
Speaker 1: him in Italy, France and elsewhere, so there was no

720
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:56,240
Speaker 1: obvious reason for skepticism. Even the hospital's director, Dr Emilio

721
00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:59,759
Speaker 1: Sacci bought the line that Edgar was a prominent and

722
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:02,759
Speaker 1: very wealthy man who is also a physician. Talk of

723
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:06,440
Speaker 1: the prince generated flattering stories in the Swiss newspapers, and

724
00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:09,320
Speaker 1: a parade of local worthies trooped to the hospital to

725
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:14,040
Speaker 1: pay homage to him. These visitors included numerous distinguished women,

726
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:17,319
Speaker 1: quite a few of whom seemed keen to bag him

727
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:19,799
Speaker 1: as a husband. Less than a week ago, his life

728
00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:22,759
Speaker 1: had been beset with problems, yet now it was ripe

729
00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 1: with encouraging possibilities. The con man's chorus, Yeah, so he's

730
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:29,799
Speaker 1: just laying in the hospital. Everyone's buying his game again,

731
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:31,879
Speaker 1: and then women are like, oh, I'll nurse you back

732
00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:34,719
Speaker 1: to health, and he's well, thank god, because I got

733
00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:39,080
Speaker 1: a loan to repay. So Contessa atta right, she paid

734
00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:42,719
Speaker 1: the medical bills in Switzerland and then but at the

735
00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:45,440
Speaker 1: same time she's like, I need to know for myself.

736
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:48,719
Speaker 1: I'm going to England and doing my own investigation. But

737
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:52,400
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, she pays the bills. He recovers and

738
00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:56,359
Speaker 1: he's like, I'm gonna start touring Switzerland on the road.

739
00:46:56,840 --> 00:47:04,759
Speaker 1: Why not early January? If he's in French speaking Nucatel, Switzerland,

740
00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:09,960
Speaker 1: he registers at the hotel there as Prince to Wuana Ray.

741
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,440
Speaker 1: So he switched to Way no longer a doctor, I

742
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:16,359
Speaker 1: haaded emotion, prince. But before he was ready to Juanna

743
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 1: exactly doctor Ray Tajuana. Yeah, now he's Prince to Wuana Ray.

744
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:22,560
Speaker 1: He says he's a diplomat and he has millions of

745
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:26,719
Speaker 1: dollars of Canadian assets. Give me a room, all right.

746
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 1: He propositioned a lot of members of staff and like

747
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:35,759
Speaker 1: some some he was successful, others not. He gets kicked

748
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 1: out a few days later without paying his bill. Turning

749
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:41,799
Speaker 1: out part of the staff. Exactly. He's made his way

750
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:45,520
Speaker 1: through the through the like laundry room. Uh, the owner

751
00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:48,759
Speaker 1: of the hotel took all his stuff. They kicked him

752
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:51,000
Speaker 1: out and they're like, we're confiscating all your belongings. We're

753
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,000
Speaker 1: going to pay your bill with your head dress. He well,

754
00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:55,200
Speaker 1: he know, he gets kicked out onto the street with

755
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 1: just his head dress, hat and a suit. The head dress,

756
00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:00,560
Speaker 1: take the war bonnet and you're suit and you're out

757
00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:04,239
Speaker 1: of here. Just offensiveness and get going to a chapstick

758
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 1: and a dance belt. He's out of there. All I

759
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:12,279
Speaker 1: need is this paddle ball game. Ada, she gets back

760
00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:15,719
Speaker 1: from her fact finding mission to the uk UM, she

761
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:19,560
Speaker 1: tells Melania, her step mom, what she discovered. What did

762
00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 1: she discover? He's a madman and a con man, is

763
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:26,719
Speaker 1: what she's been told. He's got to get arrested, was

764
00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:31,479
Speaker 1: what she says. So Ada goes to Switzerland to confront Edgar,

765
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:35,120
Speaker 1: but Milania super embarrassed that she fell for this scam

766
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:38,800
Speaker 1: and that she's like, please don't go to the police,

767
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:41,799
Speaker 1: So she sends out to go you confront him in person.

768
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:43,719
Speaker 1: But I'm not telling the fuzz on this one because

769
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:45,480
Speaker 1: it's going to make me look like a fool. So

770
00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 1: what's she gonna do with throw a drink in his face?

771
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:48,960
Speaker 1: Just sit ho home and cry. I mean like the

772
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 1: daughter when she goes to confront them, Like what's she

773
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:53,680
Speaker 1: gonna do like wave a bony finger and wave a

774
00:48:53,719 --> 00:48:56,640
Speaker 1: bony finger, throw a drink like a scene walk out? Okay,

775
00:48:56,800 --> 00:48:59,040
Speaker 1: well here, but then she's going to go find Edgar. Right,

776
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:02,719
Speaker 1: he's strung out in broke, cooling out in the hospital. Right.

777
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:07,120
Speaker 1: So I am happy to report that Edgar was arrested

778
00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:13,960
Speaker 1: by Swiss police January. Now, during questioning, he did admit

779
00:49:14,040 --> 00:49:17,040
Speaker 1: to being Edgar la Plant from Rhode Island. Yeah, he

780
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:20,239
Speaker 1: comes clean, but he told so many otherwise that the

781
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:23,719
Speaker 1: Swiss police thought that that was yet another alias, like

782
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,560
Speaker 1: we can't believe anything he said. Several weeks go by,

783
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:31,520
Speaker 1: they continue their investigation. Okay, yes it is. Actually they realized, yes,

784
00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 1: this is Edgar a Plant from Rhode Island. Atta who

785
00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:36,920
Speaker 1: thought Edgar still had a lot of the money that

786
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:39,520
Speaker 1: he'd taken from a family, and they thought maybe we

787
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:42,640
Speaker 1: can get it back. She paid off his Swiss debts,

788
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:46,400
Speaker 1: like the hotel and everything. Um made sure he was

789
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:49,399
Speaker 1: well treated in jail, he still cast the spell over.

790
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:54,920
Speaker 1: The family gave him money for his defense, and so Um,

791
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:59,160
Speaker 1: Adda Milannia and the twenty five year old fail son,

792
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:03,760
Speaker 1: George Um, they go to visit him in jail. Dude,

793
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:07,239
Speaker 1: his Harry Johnson game must be amazing. Just off the charge.

794
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:10,799
Speaker 1: How was he pulling this? He promised he was going

795
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:13,279
Speaker 1: to repay the debt, and he says he's going to

796
00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:18,040
Speaker 1: pay them a hundred dollars a month. Now, it's estimated

797
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:21,359
Speaker 1: that in today's money, it's estimated that he gave away

798
00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:25,240
Speaker 1: and spent as much as sixty five point four million

799
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:29,440
Speaker 1: dollars of their money. And so at that rate, it's

800
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:32,120
Speaker 1: gonna take him four hundred years to pay it back.

801
00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:35,200
Speaker 1: He's like hundred bucks a month, Yeah, it would take

802
00:50:35,239 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 1: him seven generations exactly. So by this time Adda and

803
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:43,480
Speaker 1: the family, they learned from Edgar's British wife, Ethel, that

804
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 1: Edgar is not Native American. They get that confirmation. So

805
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:51,319
Speaker 1: even though he's Edgar will Plant, he's also not Native American. Um.

806
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:56,680
Speaker 1: Ethel got that intel from the Canadian government, not First Nations.

807
00:50:57,280 --> 00:51:01,800
Speaker 1: The family accused Edgar of defrauding them by quote, using

808
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:06,040
Speaker 1: his powers as a hypnotist and master of magic. Oh

809
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:08,440
Speaker 1: they busted out like the rescute and card on. He

810
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 1: did abra cadabra? Or is my three year old nephew,

811
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:19,600
Speaker 1: says Bobby Cadaver, Bobby Caldaver. Magic. Um? She pressed charges. Finally,

812
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:26,000
Speaker 1: Milannia in Italy. Edgar reaches out to Ethel, the one

813
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:29,160
Speaker 1: in England for help. Says, guess what, we'll get back

814
00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:32,160
Speaker 1: together when all this is over. I'll come back to you.

815
00:51:32,280 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 1: You can, me and Leslie. We're going to make a

816
00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:37,640
Speaker 1: go of it. I was wrong. Well. Ethel starts writing

817
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:41,240
Speaker 1: letters of support for him and asking the US government

818
00:51:41,320 --> 00:51:44,240
Speaker 1: for help. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna need a second.

819
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:47,080
Speaker 1: I mean, this is really disappointing. Really, I am so

820
00:51:47,239 --> 00:51:50,600
Speaker 1: disappointed in so many I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed Ethel.

821
00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:54,200
Speaker 1: He goes on trial in Switzerland. He his defense is

822
00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:57,799
Speaker 1: partial insanity. This a little bit. I'm half mad? Hey,

823
00:51:57,880 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 1: which who among us isn't you know? Um? Here's an

824
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:04,360
Speaker 1: excerpt from his cross examination. Do you remember that you

825
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:07,360
Speaker 1: told the authorities that you had a medical diploma from Carlisle?

826
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:10,840
Speaker 1: I don't remember. Do you not often claim to have

827
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:14,719
Speaker 1: attended Carlisle. I just went there to play football. A

828
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,640
Speaker 1: letter from that college has just been received by the authorities.

829
00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:19,800
Speaker 1: It states that they don't know you even as a

830
00:52:19,840 --> 00:52:24,480
Speaker 1: football player. The gallery erupts in laughter. Did you say

831
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:26,839
Speaker 1: that you owned a lot of land in Canada? Well,

832
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:32,200
Speaker 1: I certainly hope to own a lot of them. Don't

833
00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:34,759
Speaker 1: hold him against me. He gets sentenced to one year

834
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:37,640
Speaker 1: in prison minus time served and a heavy fine which

835
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:41,520
Speaker 1: he cannot pay. He's released from the Swiss prison October

836
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:47,839
Speaker 1: immediately gets handed over to the Italians. Bring him over here. Um,

837
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:50,000
Speaker 1: he's going to go down trial for charges that the

838
00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:53,440
Speaker 1: Contessa has filed against him. So he's held in Trieste

839
00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:57,440
Speaker 1: in turn for tin for about a year before the

840
00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:02,400
Speaker 1: trial and then fall of the trial begins. Um, all

841
00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 1: of the Milannia crew testifies against him. Edgar gets sentenced

842
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:11,320
Speaker 1: to seven years, five months and fifteen days and a

843
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:15,359
Speaker 1: nine thousand lira fine and in order to repay one

844
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:21,120
Speaker 1: million over one million lira to Millannia. Yeah, good luck happened.

845
00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:24,200
Speaker 1: So he's in prison. He works in a nitwear shop.

846
00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:28,880
Speaker 1: He hand embroidered and also operated a weaving machine, and

847
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,400
Speaker 1: he had a lot of cash though, when he's in

848
00:53:31,480 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 1: prison because a wealthy female Belgian writer who believed in

849
00:53:38,600 --> 00:53:42,560
Speaker 1: his cause, his self proclaimed cause as an Indian rights campaigner.

850
00:53:43,960 --> 00:53:46,680
Speaker 1: He she's sending him money and he puts half in

851
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:49,840
Speaker 1: the commissary and he puts the other half to like

852
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:52,799
Speaker 1: habits of the special lunch is brought into him every

853
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:55,560
Speaker 1: day from a local restaurant. He really should have gone

854
00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:59,840
Speaker 1: into politics. He missed his mark. And the Belgian writer

855
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:01,400
Speaker 1: it's like, you know what, when you get out, you

856
00:54:01,480 --> 00:54:04,920
Speaker 1: can be my chauffeur or my secretary. You can be

857
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:09,000
Speaker 1: my bodyguard when you get out, just pick one guard

858
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:12,600
Speaker 1: that body um. But he says, no, I can't because

859
00:54:12,640 --> 00:54:15,200
Speaker 1: I don't want He says, quote, I'm not certain what

860
00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 1: i want to do with the rest of my life.

861
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:22,400
Speaker 1: I'm just finding myself. So he gets transferred to a

862
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:25,680
Speaker 1: prison near Rome and thanks to good behavior, paroled after

863
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:28,279
Speaker 1: just two and a half years of his sentence. He

864
00:54:28,400 --> 00:54:31,640
Speaker 1: couldn't leave for two months though, until he secured a

865
00:54:31,719 --> 00:54:37,279
Speaker 1: ticket back to America. So he's got no money. So

866
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:39,600
Speaker 1: the US Consulate's like, all right, we got you a

867
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:42,680
Speaker 1: job as a mess stewart on an American cargo vessel

868
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:49,400
Speaker 1: to s s executive leaving mid August Edgar kisses American

869
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:55,719
Speaker 1: Soil September Brooklyn carrying nothing but quote, a dog eared

870
00:54:55,800 --> 00:54:59,760
Speaker 1: copy of the transcript of his Italian trial reading fift

871
00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:03,160
Speaker 1: dollar bills, and a wooden spoon used for the duration

872
00:55:03,239 --> 00:55:08,239
Speaker 1: of his imprisonment. No word on the war bonnet if

873
00:55:08,239 --> 00:55:10,320
Speaker 1: he's still wearing, and what did he need the wooden

874
00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:12,120
Speaker 1: spoon for the duration of his imprisonment? Is is like

875
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:14,279
Speaker 1: a poop knife, Like what is this? He's just you know,

876
00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:17,360
Speaker 1: it's for like all the sundry thing, digging out of

877
00:55:17,440 --> 00:55:22,040
Speaker 1: the cell, eating a scoop in your own eyeball out

878
00:55:22,840 --> 00:55:26,920
Speaker 1: Goode's on the only clothes that he was wearing, a

879
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:31,440
Speaker 1: gray suit and a pair of tan oxfords, and um,

880
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:34,160
Speaker 1: there were reporters waiting for him when he did actually

881
00:55:34,200 --> 00:55:36,400
Speaker 1: because his PR team had the advanced work. So he

882
00:55:36,520 --> 00:55:38,680
Speaker 1: tells the New York Times that he's given up his

883
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:42,920
Speaker 1: whole game and he would quote remain plane edgard la

884
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:46,279
Speaker 1: plant of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Look, he's even lying from

885
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:50,320
Speaker 1: there and go in for some ordinary job like umbrella fixing,

886
00:55:51,040 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 1: a job. I don't know, but he says, that's you know,

887
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:55,000
Speaker 1: what I mean, just be an ordinary guy. Just hear

888
00:55:55,040 --> 00:55:57,800
Speaker 1: every day umbrella fixing, nothing about work. So he's like,

889
00:55:58,000 --> 00:55:59,640
Speaker 1: I could be a ditch digger. He's like, I could

890
00:55:59,640 --> 00:56:05,359
Speaker 1: be you, as like yellow Robed got a broken umbro

891
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:07,360
Speaker 1: I can fix that for a job. He said that

892
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:11,200
Speaker 1: during his time with the Contessas he realized that, you know,

893
00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:14,960
Speaker 1: I'm not a Native American, but that quote as he

894
00:56:15,080 --> 00:56:17,919
Speaker 1: felt sure anyone with a spark of romance may see.

895
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:20,120
Speaker 1: It was hard for him to disavow a tale that

896
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:23,360
Speaker 1: meant so much inattention and money. This part I believe

897
00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:26,239
Speaker 1: that the first honest statement. It just felt too good.

898
00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:28,439
Speaker 1: He tells the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that he was part

899
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:31,719
Speaker 1: of the Tuscarora tribe and that he got his name

900
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:34,440
Speaker 1: Chief white Elk from a pr man, and that he

901
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:37,360
Speaker 1: was interpreting for the Native Americans acting in a film

902
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:41,960
Speaker 1: his imagining. He also told the reporter that Otta had

903
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:45,640
Speaker 1: thrown money and gifts at him and that the stepson

904
00:56:45,719 --> 00:56:49,040
Speaker 1: got him arrested because he was jealous, and when talking

905
00:56:49,080 --> 00:56:52,160
Speaker 1: about an Italian jail, he said, quote, all I ever

906
00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:55,440
Speaker 1: had to eat was thin soup and half steamed spaghetti.

907
00:56:55,880 --> 00:56:58,239
Speaker 1: I used to starve myself, so that the doctor would

908
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:00,520
Speaker 1: order milk and eggs just to get off the diet

909
00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:03,000
Speaker 1: for a few days. The only person to go to

910
00:57:03,080 --> 00:57:07,080
Speaker 1: Italy and complain about the food. Chief white Elk March

911
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:09,960
Speaker 1: nine thirty. He's living in Boston, still trying to make

912
00:57:10,000 --> 00:57:13,840
Speaker 1: it his Chief Winal and he's looking for two women

913
00:57:13,880 --> 00:57:17,720
Speaker 1: to accompany him on a touring radio show. Strikes out

914
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:21,720
Speaker 1: on that one moves to Pawtucket to live with his cousin,

915
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 1: so he does. Okay, he's not really lying now he

916
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:28,880
Speaker 1: fa Yeah. He gets a job as Chief white Elk

917
00:57:29,680 --> 00:57:32,960
Speaker 1: in a vaudeville venue and then starts touring the Northeast.

918
00:57:33,360 --> 00:57:36,280
Speaker 1: He again goes back to using the name Chief Tajuana,

919
00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:38,840
Speaker 1: but now he's Chief Louis Tajuanah. My god, I would

920
00:57:38,840 --> 00:57:41,120
Speaker 1: love her somehoe in a shownee from like the upstate

921
00:57:41,160 --> 00:57:42,560
Speaker 1: New York to come down to one of his shows

922
00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:44,000
Speaker 1: and be like, brother, we just want to talk after

923
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:48,640
Speaker 1: the show. Yes. Two. Now he's in Oregon and he

924
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:51,160
Speaker 1: claimed he was a sixty five year old Native American

925
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:54,520
Speaker 1: and former Olympian. He tried to convince locals to give

926
00:57:54,600 --> 00:57:56,280
Speaker 1: him money so he could get to l A where

927
00:57:56,280 --> 00:58:01,640
Speaker 1: the summer Summer Olympics were being held. Yeah. Five, it

928
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:06,720
Speaker 1: goes from l A to Berlin. We know that is

929
00:58:06,760 --> 00:58:11,440
Speaker 1: to Berlin because Hitler a thirty five back in Pawtucket

930
00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:16,880
Speaker 1: working as a church organist and an amateur umbrella repairman.

931
00:58:17,040 --> 00:58:19,680
Speaker 1: You say the church is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

932
00:58:19,840 --> 00:58:25,160
Speaker 1: So late nineteen seventies, now in Montana, calling himself Dr

933
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:30,680
Speaker 1: Dylan white Elk Dylan part of an Alaskan delegation traveling

934
00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:33,600
Speaker 1: to d C to quote protest illegal Japanese fishing in

935
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:38,600
Speaker 1: American territorial waters, shifting all over the place. Now, okay,

936
00:58:39,160 --> 00:58:42,840
Speaker 1: uh not? Late thirty eight he gets hospitalized in Flint, Michigan,

937
00:58:42,840 --> 00:58:46,880
Speaker 1: after having a heart attack. Now August thirty nine, he

938
00:58:46,960 --> 00:58:50,120
Speaker 1: has another heart attack, this time in northern California. He

939
00:58:50,280 --> 00:58:53,680
Speaker 1: tells the hospital staff there that quote. Four years previously,

940
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 1: he'd led a team of nine dog slits through the

941
00:58:56,000 --> 00:58:59,160
Speaker 1: Alaskan wilderness, he said, as objective had been to reach

942
00:58:59,240 --> 00:59:02,120
Speaker 1: the crashed air plane in which the columnist, broadcaster, and

943
00:59:02,200 --> 00:59:05,960
Speaker 1: Hollywood star Will Rogers had been flying. The Associated Press

944
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:09,080
Speaker 1: wire service picked up Edgar's story, providing a conduit into

945
00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:11,920
Speaker 1: newspapers up and down the West coast. Everyone loves a

946
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:14,800
Speaker 1: good story. And later in Oregon he says he's Dr

947
00:59:14,880 --> 00:59:17,440
Speaker 1: E Warren the Plant. So I gotta say, if you

948
00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:20,080
Speaker 1: want to see the world, either join the military or

949
00:59:20,120 --> 00:59:22,800
Speaker 1: become a con. Because one of the people are bouncing

950
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:26,480
Speaker 1: around Summer forty two, were kind a long way en.

951
00:59:26,600 --> 00:59:28,520
Speaker 1: We started this journey part of the country right now,

952
00:59:28,680 --> 00:59:32,600
Speaker 1: New Orleans. He has a third heart attack, and he

953
00:59:32,720 --> 00:59:35,560
Speaker 1: makes some money for selling fake shares in non existent

954
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:39,400
Speaker 1: oil companies Solid Solid, and then he goes to Phoenix.

955
00:59:39,800 --> 00:59:43,200
Speaker 1: December forty three. He's calling himself Dr White Eagle. He

956
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:45,760
Speaker 1: says he's a native of the nearby town of Gila

957
00:59:45,840 --> 00:59:49,880
Speaker 1: Bend and by implication of the Papago tribe, many of

958
00:59:49,960 --> 00:59:53,920
Speaker 1: whom lived in the Gila River Indian Reservation. Okay, I

959
00:59:54,080 --> 00:59:57,360
Speaker 1: just hope that some of them become into town. Catches pneumonia, bronchitis,

960
00:59:57,880 --> 01:00:02,640
Speaker 1: dies from a heart attack. January death certificate list. His

961
01:00:02,760 --> 01:00:07,120
Speaker 1: name is White Eagle. Doctor Indian mail gets it in

962
01:00:07,160 --> 01:00:09,920
Speaker 1: the very end, lies to the end. What's your ridiculous

963
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:15,720
Speaker 1: takeaway here? Oh man, If you're gonna be a Charlatan,

964
01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:19,800
Speaker 1: go big. If you're going to pick an ethnicity. Pick

965
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:22,400
Speaker 1: one that apparently nobody knows anything about. It would never

966
01:00:22,600 --> 01:00:24,960
Speaker 1: question because if you can just be native or been like,

967
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:27,800
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you got the head dressed, must be native, right,

968
01:00:28,160 --> 01:00:31,040
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go do that. I'm gonna see if

969
01:00:31,080 --> 01:00:33,160
Speaker 1: I can get myself like I don't know a couple

970
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:36,400
Speaker 1: of them like Kaiser Wilhelm hats I look at the

971
01:00:36,440 --> 01:00:38,400
Speaker 1: spike in the top. I'm gonna tell people that I'm

972
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:40,600
Speaker 1: a German royalty and I'm perfect how far I can

973
01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:44,320
Speaker 1: take this perfect? My takeaway since you asked, yeah, I'm sorry,

974
01:00:44,360 --> 01:00:49,560
Speaker 1: but he's a Boso. That's my takeaway. Contessa is bosos.

975
01:00:49,880 --> 01:00:53,640
Speaker 1: The only non Boso main characters Bertha and the adopted daughter,

976
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:58,560
Speaker 1: the rest, everyone's a Boso the end. That's it. I'm done.

977
01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:03,640
Speaker 1: You can find us on Life Ridiculous Crime on both

978
01:01:03,720 --> 01:01:07,040
Speaker 1: Twitter and Instagram. Bozos all of them. Got a tip

979
01:01:07,120 --> 01:01:09,520
Speaker 1: for us about a ridiculous crime you want to hear about.

980
01:01:09,880 --> 01:01:12,880
Speaker 1: I want to confess to a ridiculous crime. Email us

981
01:01:12,920 --> 01:01:15,440
Speaker 1: at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. The world is

982
01:01:15,480 --> 01:01:18,320
Speaker 1: divided into bozos and rude dudes. Don't let the bozos

983
01:01:18,360 --> 01:01:20,360
Speaker 1: get you down. Be a rude dude, tune in next time.

984
01:01:26,320 --> 01:01:29,360
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Vernett,

985
01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:33,680
Speaker 1: produced and edited by indifferent Italian Consul General Dave Kuston.

986
01:01:34,000 --> 01:01:37,360
Speaker 1: Research is by the savvy and undupable contested Marissa brown.

987
01:01:37,640 --> 01:01:40,200
Speaker 1: The theme song is by twelve time Olympian Thomas Lee

988
01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:43,720
Speaker 1: and totally real and not fake medical doctor Travis Dutton.

989
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:47,400
Speaker 1: Executive producers are War Bonds salesman Ben Bollen and Noel

990
01:01:47,440 --> 01:02:00,080
Speaker 1: Browne Say It One More Time Dequeous. Ridiculous Crime is

991
01:02:00,120 --> 01:02:02,600
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio four more podcasts. My

992
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:05,680
Speaker 1: heart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

993
01:02:05,720 --> 01:02:07,440
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.