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Speaker 1: M. Knivess. This is the story of Jim Bowie of

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Speaker 1: the Bowie Knight, Part two. Behind the Bastards is Robert Evans,

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Speaker 1: the podcast of Bad People Talk about him co host

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Speaker 1: Billy Wayne Diddy. Billy, I have learned that you don't

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Speaker 1: actually need to order words in any meaningful way if

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Speaker 1: you just make sure all of the important words are

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Speaker 1: kind of jumbled up into a salad. People tend to

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Speaker 1: get what you're saying. Are you saying with the right emotion?

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Speaker 1: Damn right, yep, yep, yep. So why even have grammar?

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Speaker 1: That's the question. And the answer is there's no reason

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Speaker 1: to have grammar, and it's it's cowardly. I love grammar

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Speaker 1: is up, so there are raisins. No, yes, probably so.

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Speaker 1: In our last episode we talked about the famous sandbar fight,

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Speaker 1: which it's really just a giant ship show. Uh and

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Speaker 1: probably would have been pretty funny to watch. It was

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Speaker 1: hilarious to listen about. Yeah, up until that guy got

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Speaker 1: his guts spelled all over the sand bar. It was

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Speaker 1: pretty funny. Um. Still, that was that part. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know where you're getting into, you know, in some fairness,

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Speaker 1: Jim Booie's a monster because of the slaves stuff. In

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Speaker 1: that fight. He did say don't shoot at me, you rascal,

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Speaker 1: like he gave him proper warning, and that guy kept

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Speaker 1: shooting at him. He did, he did, And that is

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Speaker 1: the general rule. If somebody has a giant knife and

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Speaker 1: you're going to shoot at him, your best, your best

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Speaker 1: deal with them real fast with your gun, because if

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Speaker 1: you don't, they've got a real big knife and they'll

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Speaker 1: be angry at you. That is I had a My

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Speaker 1: middle school basketball coach told me he carried a twelve

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Speaker 1: gauge in Vietnam because an M six team just piste

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Speaker 1: him off. And I was like, okay, well that's we're

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Speaker 1: a basketball practice. But yeah, that's really not helpful in

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Speaker 1: any part of my life right now. But thank you

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Speaker 1: for scaring a child. Yeah, and that information has always

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Speaker 1: stuck with me. Yeah. I mean, in the days before

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Speaker 1: body armor was common in particular, stopping power was really

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Speaker 1: um anyway, let's just neither nor there wasn't not wrong.

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Speaker 1: If you want to stop a man, it doesn't get

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Speaker 1: much better than a twelve game shotgun unless you have

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Speaker 1: a gigantic knife like Jim Bowie have had that too.

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Speaker 1: He probably did. Now when we left our friend Jim.

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Speaker 1: He had just disemboweled a man during an argument and

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Speaker 1: been shot several times. And because the United States, he's

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Speaker 1: my friends, No he's not, because the United States has

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Speaker 1: not changed at all since those days. This made him

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Speaker 1: suddenly gigantically famous, and he became a living legend of

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Speaker 1: the Wild West, like Wyatt Earp or Davy Crockett or

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Speaker 1: I have to assume based on his name Grizzly Adams,

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Speaker 1: and I refused to look up who Grizzly Adams was,

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Speaker 1: so don't tell me if I'm wrong. I think he

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Speaker 1: I think he fought grizzly bears with his bare hands

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Speaker 1: because he had to defend orphanages. That's my head cannon

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Speaker 1: for Grizzly Adams. His brother was good at taking pictures,

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Speaker 1: probably Ansel yep Anzel and Grizzly. So once he'd healed

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Speaker 1: from the sandbar fight, Jim Bowie re entered polite society

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Speaker 1: as a celebrity. The eyes of the nation followed him

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Speaker 1: as he traveled through the Old West and gotten too

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Speaker 1: even more fights. Now, most of the fighting credited to

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Speaker 1: Jim Boweing never happened, and it's very possible that he

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Speaker 1: never killed another person with his knife again. But there,

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Speaker 1: of course numerous stories you can find about him getting

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Speaker 1: into fights and killing two or three armed men with

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Speaker 1: his gigantic knife. And almost all of these your tall tales,

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Speaker 1: you know. Um, yeah, once you're famous for stabbing a

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Speaker 1: guy to death, there's gonna be a lot of other

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Speaker 1: stories if you're stabbing guys to death, even if you

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Speaker 1: never stabbed another guy to death. That's just America. It's

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Speaker 1: Keith Richards. Yeah. Yeah, he doesn't do as many drugs

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Speaker 1: you'd as you'd think, but he got the reputation and

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Speaker 1: it's just stuck with him. Well, that's what in his

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Speaker 1: book he said, Yeah, I just never corrected anyonere No,

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Speaker 1: and why would you? Yeah, yeah, it's it's uh, it's

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Speaker 1: all about personal branding, and Bowie knows how to brand himself. Well,

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Speaker 1: so uh, yeah, he he didn't. Probably it's probable that

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Speaker 1: he never killed another human being with his knife. Um,

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Speaker 1: but he continued to kill his shipload of people. Don't

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Speaker 1: worry about that, billy, He kept yet he kept killing people.

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Speaker 1: That did not stop. Um. His brother John later wrote

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Speaker 1: that after recovering from the Sandbar fight quote, Jim felt

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Speaker 1: as though he had not been well used or properly

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Speaker 1: treated by some of his political friends, and this, John

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Speaker 1: Bowie says, is why Jim went to Texas. Now, in

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Speaker 1: writing this, he left out about a year or so

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Speaker 1: worth of crimes that he and Jim both committed. So

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Speaker 1: like the kind of frontier story that his brother tells us,

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Speaker 1: that like Jim got betrayed by some of his political friends,

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Speaker 1: and so he went to Texas, and he leaves out

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Speaker 1: like what actually happened, um, And what actually happened is

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Speaker 1: that for the next year or so after the Sandbar fight,

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Speaker 1: he got back into conning people over land. So basically

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Speaker 1: he would travel all across the frontier buy up tracts

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Speaker 1: of land, or purchase options to buy up tracts of land,

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Speaker 1: and then he would sell that land to the highest bidder,

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Speaker 1: hopefully for a profit. Now this is called land speculation

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Speaker 1: and it's not illegal, um, but it was kind of

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Speaker 1: slower than Jim Booie was comfortable with. So we started

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Speaker 1: forging options and land deeds and selling those two. Now

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Speaker 1: this is outright theft because he was just lying about

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Speaker 1: land that he had no claim to, selling it to

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Speaker 1: people and pocketing the money. But the Internet didn't exist

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Speaker 1: back then, and people usually weren't fast enough to catch him. Now,

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Speaker 1: Jim went towards quite a lot of effort to affect

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Speaker 1: these forgeries, even hiring actors to pretend to be landowners

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Speaker 1: so he could then convince buyers that he was this

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Speaker 1: person's representative, so he could sell them land that he

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Speaker 1: had no right to. So these were pretty elaborate cons Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well he had to have gotten caught. He got constantly, constantly.

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Speaker 1: He wasn't good at hiding it. People were just dumber

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Speaker 1: back then, and there was no Internet. Yeah, And I

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Speaker 1: was like, I'm gonna need an accomplice, yeah yeah, and

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Speaker 1: the accompany he didn't need an accomplice, and his accomplices

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Speaker 1: were usually congress Yeah. So he had friends in congress

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Speaker 1: um who would help him basically by like pushing you know,

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Speaker 1: the local banks and stuff to to to recognize these

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Speaker 1: deeds and stuff that he was he was bringing forward um.

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Speaker 1: And eventually he decided the best way for him to

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Speaker 1: continue his scams and make a bunch of money was

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Speaker 1: to run for a local congressional seat in Louisiana to

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Speaker 1: to basically get in power himself. And he worked at

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Speaker 1: a deal with one of his friends who was already

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Speaker 1: in Congress, to basically take up that guy's seat once

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Speaker 1: his term ended and run in the next election. But

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Speaker 1: then his friend decided to run for re election again,

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Speaker 1: and Bowie got angry at him, And this is what

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Speaker 1: his brother referred to as him not being properly treated

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Speaker 1: by political friends. So the congressional election that year actually

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Speaker 1: went against his buddy and probably would have gone against Bowie,

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Speaker 1: and he was left without any allies in Congress, and

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Speaker 1: without any way of easily continuing to swindle Rubes into

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Speaker 1: buying land he didn't already own. Over the course of

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Speaker 1: eighty eight, all of Jim's many schemes collapsed one after

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Speaker 1: the other, leaving him at risk of becoming destitute um

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Speaker 1: or at least if he'd actually bothered to pay any

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Speaker 1: of the debts he'd accrued. The book Three Roads to

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Speaker 1: the Alamo gives a good summary of the actual scale

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Speaker 1: of the con Bowie was trying to work, and it's

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Speaker 1: it's enormous quote. He had made a stunning lee, bold

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Speaker 1: play and exploitation and all laying fraudulent claim to eighty

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Speaker 1: thousand acres in Arkansas and between seventy three thousand and

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Speaker 1: eighty thousand more in Louisiana. Yeah, my god. If he

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Speaker 1: had succeeded, he would have been a Holer, part owner

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Speaker 1: of two hundred fifty square miles of bayou and riverfront property,

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Speaker 1: and possibly another two hundred square miles and a hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty eight other Arkansas claims he had withdrawn, making

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Speaker 1: him the largest landowner in the reasons in the region

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Speaker 1: and in his time very possibly the largest private landholder

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Speaker 1: in the United States. So he would have been a

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Speaker 1: millionaire if he'd succeeded in this, but he failed, and

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Speaker 1: now he was all but broke by the end of

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Speaker 1: eighteen eight. So that's what leads him to Texas is

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Speaker 1: he has ailed in a series of incredibly ambitious land

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Speaker 1: cons he winds up broke, and Texas is the best

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Speaker 1: shot he has at getting a bunch more free land. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I didn't think it was gonna be a peer of

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Speaker 1: heart thing, No, no, so. And this is another part

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Speaker 1: that's interesting to me. Mexico's government in my Texas history

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Speaker 1: classes was always portrayed as cruel and oppressive um at

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Speaker 1: worst and kind of like absentee at best. And I

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Speaker 1: later learned that one of the many one of the

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Speaker 1: main reasons why white colonists hated the Mexican government was

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Speaker 1: that slavery was illegal in Mexico. Um. This was a

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Speaker 1: part of it, um. But also the Mexican government didn't

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Speaker 1: really stop a lot of these white people from bringing

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Speaker 1: in their slaves. They wanted Americans to move in because

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Speaker 1: they had a lot of empty land and they needed

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Speaker 1: people to kind of like hold it down and cultivate

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Speaker 1: it and provide a tax base and stuff, um. So

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Speaker 1: a lot of them looked the other way at forced

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Speaker 1: human bondage, um. But it was still more difficult to

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Speaker 1: uh to keep slaves there. But this was kind of

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Speaker 1: overwhelmed by the fact that Mexico wanted settlers badly enough.

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Speaker 1: They were willing to give huge amounts of land to

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Speaker 1: anyone who was willing to pretend to be Catholic and

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Speaker 1: agree to obey Mexican law. So for that small price,

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Speaker 1: if you became a non citizen settler in Texas, you

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Speaker 1: got a hundred and seventy seven acres to farm on

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Speaker 1: and a whole league four thousand, four hundred acres to graze.

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Speaker 1: Your Catalan even more land up to eleven leagues could

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Speaker 1: be purchased for the dirt for a dirt cheap price

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Speaker 1: if the buyer was willing to become a Mexican citizen.

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Speaker 1: So Jim Bowie, I would well, no, I wouldn't do

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Speaker 1: that for Texas land. I mean I know Texas too well,

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Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, Yeah, I do that for part of Mexico

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Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah. No, no, no, I do not want

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Speaker 1: to Texas. No, no, no, no no. So Bowie packed

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Speaker 1: up his unregional and reasonably large knife and he rolled

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Speaker 1: in Mexico. His brother John unceremoniously noted that he quote

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Speaker 1: disposed of his lands and negroes before set out, because

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Speaker 1: buying and selling people was again nothing at all to

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Speaker 1: the men of the Bowie family. So yeah, Jim was

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Speaker 1: thirty two years old when he finally made it to Mexico,

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Speaker 1: and the most entertaining description I've heard of him in

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Speaker 1: this period of time comes from historian J. Frank dbe Quote.

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Speaker 1: He found that reputation of his knife had preceded him.

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Speaker 1: He stood six ft tall and was all muscle. He

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Speaker 1: was pleasing and look speech men and manner to both

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Speaker 1: men and women. THO would have said that he seldom smiled.

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Speaker 1: Letters and other writing by him and Resent P. Bowie

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Speaker 1: are in clear, sinewy English. After he had been in

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Speaker 1: Texas a while, he spoke Spanish as well as French.

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Speaker 1: He was not a Ruffian, although he could be rough.

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Speaker 1: He comprehended the cutthroats and gamblers of Natchez. While he

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Speaker 1: dined in patrician houses on the hill or sang in

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Speaker 1: the theater. He was at home with bellowing alligators in

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Speaker 1: the marches, with mustangs and mustangers on the prairies, and

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Speaker 1: with lawyers who would circumvent God. In Texas, he fought

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Speaker 1: Indians and Mexicans and Texas. Yeah. This is Adobe's article

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Speaker 1: where he writes that is from nineteen fifty seven. And

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Speaker 1: you can tell that the attitudes on colonialism were a

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Speaker 1: lot different by the fact that he just dropped and

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Speaker 1: he fought Indians and Mexicans. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, this is

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Speaker 1: not inaccurate. Um, but it does leave out kind of

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Speaker 1: the brutality of what exactly Jim Bowie got up to. Um. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So here's how Jim's brother John describes this massacre of

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Speaker 1: a bunch of Native Americans that Bowie commits not long

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Speaker 1: after getting to Texas. Quote. Uh, during the few years

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Speaker 1: he spent in Texas, he had many strange and hazardous adventures,

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Speaker 1: probably the most notable of which was the following He

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Speaker 1: and Resin Bowie with nine others went in search of

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Speaker 1: a silver mine about two hundred miles northwest of San Antonio.

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Speaker 1: While on this expedition, they were attacked by about a

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty Comanche Indians. James, being well acquainted with

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Speaker 1: the habits and manners of these savages, soon perceived that

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Speaker 1: they were on trail of him and his little party

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Speaker 1: for the purpose of murdering or robbing them, So he

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Speaker 1: availed himself of the first suitable place for defense. Now,

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Speaker 1: John describes this as natives wanting to rob him, but

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Speaker 1: he and Jim, But the reality is that he and

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Speaker 1: like Jim and Rezin Bowie had moved into Native American

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Speaker 1: territory and we're trying to steal their ship, and they

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Speaker 1: were carrying weapons. Um. He also describes the natives as Comanche,

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Speaker 1: but they were Tawakoni, Waco and Catto um And by

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Speaker 1: any definition of the term I've ever heard during my

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Speaker 1: youth in Texas, these natives were acting in self defense because,

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Speaker 1: again Booie and his brothers were part of a posse

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Speaker 1: of large armed men who would come unto their land

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Speaker 1: to steal a bunch of silver. Yeah, we'll just judge

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Speaker 1: on their recent past history and I'm gonna like, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna go with the natives on this one. Yeah yeah.

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Speaker 1: And what followed was probably might have been the bloodiest

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Speaker 1: single fight of the period between white settlers and natives

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Speaker 1: and at least in the history of Texas. Um. The natives,

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Speaker 1: you know, a large group of them surround the little

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Speaker 1: fort that they built in the rocks and opened fire.

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Speaker 1: They kill one of Bowie's men, uh booie. The Bowie

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Speaker 1: brothers and their other men fire back repeatedly, and this

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Speaker 1: continues for literally days, Like there's multiple days of gunfire,

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Speaker 1: and by the time it's all over, fifty to sixty

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Speaker 1: Natives are dead, along with a lot of their horses. Um.

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Speaker 1: And it's hard to say if the death counts in

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Speaker 1: this are anywhere near accurate um because like white settlers

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Speaker 1: would lie a lot about how many people they killed

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Speaker 1: in firefights, but also they had access to much better guns.

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Speaker 1: That said, given what happened at the Sandbar fight, I

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Speaker 1: don't know how much I trust the story of Jim

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Speaker 1: Booie about his accuracy in a gunfight. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to say, but probably a lot of people

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Speaker 1: did die because they were in like a three day

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Speaker 1: gun battle. So whatever. Yeah, he murders a bunch of people. Well,

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Speaker 1: and he could have had like it could have been

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Speaker 1: like a like a regulator situation where he picks up

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Speaker 1: some people that are handy with the steel because he is.

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Speaker 1: He's not, and they're using rifles, you know, they're these

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Speaker 1: guys are like wielding like, you know, more accurate guns

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Speaker 1: in this the gunfight, they're using handguns and like in

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Speaker 1: this they're kind of shooting with like hunting rifles which

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Speaker 1: are more accurate and have rifled barrels and stuff. Most

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Speaker 1: people will say fifty to sixty dead in the total fight.

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Speaker 1: It's impossible to know for sure. But yeah, So after

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Speaker 1: the natives back off, Jim and his men flee back

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Speaker 1: to San Antonio, UH and he immediately petitions the local

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Speaker 1: government for petition to raise an expedition against the Tawakoni

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Speaker 1: tribe because you know, during this little invasion, he estimated

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Speaker 1: they had two thousand horses and he was basically like,

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Speaker 1: I just got into a gunfight with these guys, and

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Speaker 1: I think if you give me enough men, I can

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Speaker 1: steal all of their horses to sell them. So he's

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Speaker 1: a He's a good dude, That's what I'm saying. Yeah. So, um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we don't actually know if this expedition ever happened. Um,

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Speaker 1: it may well have. Uh. And Bowie is noted as

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Speaker 1: having numerous other conflicts with Native Americans during this period,

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Speaker 1: all of which kind of involved around him rolling into

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Speaker 1: their houses and stealing shit. Um, But they're usually called

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Speaker 1: expeditions by like the historians, even in the twenty century.

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Speaker 1: A lot of historians will call it like he he

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Speaker 1: raised an expedition, and you're like, what was the expedition for? Well,

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Speaker 1: he wanted to steal things from these people, valuables. I'm

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Speaker 1: looking for valuables that It's like even you know, there's

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Speaker 1: at least with like the Lewis and Clark expedition, there's

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Speaker 1: like this they were making maps and ship right, Like,

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Speaker 1: there's criticisms to make of it, but they were they

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Speaker 1: did write some maps. Booie is just taking things. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So Jim applied for and eventually received Mexican citizenship, which

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Speaker 1: allowed him to buy eleven leagues of land. He also

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Speaker 1: succeeded in convincing a number of Mexican citizens to sign

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Speaker 1: over their options for purchasing land to him as well,

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Speaker 1: and throughout this period, Jim Bowie continued to make the

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Speaker 1: bulk of his money through an even mix of legitimate

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Speaker 1: and fraudulent land sales. So again, at any given point

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Speaker 1: in time, if you're wondering how is Jim making a living,

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Speaker 1: He's he's pretending. He's he's selling fake land to people.

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Speaker 1: He's a and he's a real estate con artist. That

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Speaker 1: is Jim Booie's like secret to wealth. How very modern

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Speaker 1: of him. Yeah, he has a lot in common with

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Speaker 1: our president, aside from the fact that he was clearly

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Speaker 1: willing to get into a fight. Oh he'll get his

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Speaker 1: hands dirty for sure. Yeah, Yeah, he's He's definitely a

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Speaker 1: better person than the president. He's also very good at spin,

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Speaker 1: like calling stuff an expedition, where like, now, man, you're

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Speaker 1: raiding villages that you're you're just raiding people, you're stealing

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Speaker 1: their horses, not expedition. Although this this does make me

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Speaker 1: think if I could get fifty to a hundred people

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Speaker 1: together and robbed the Toyota dealership near me. We could

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Speaker 1: just call it an expedition to get free land cruisers.

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Speaker 1: That's actually not AIP. You can call it an expedition

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Speaker 1: to get expeditions. Yeah, yeah, but I feel like we'd

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Speaker 1: be doing four to favor by taking expeditions away. Someone

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Speaker 1: got him, someone came and took them. You guys know,

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Speaker 1: I I really want to get down to an expedition.

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Speaker 1: That's what we ought to do. Just just just rebrand

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Speaker 1: shoplifting as an expedition. So during this time, Jim Billie

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Speaker 1: became friends with the Mexican governor of Texas, a guy

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Speaker 1: named Veramindy, and he worked at a deal with Aramindy

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Speaker 1: by which he could marry the governor's daughter. So he

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Speaker 1: signed a dowry with a Veramindy family, promising to pay

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Speaker 1: his wife more than fifteen thousand dollars in money and

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Speaker 1: property that he absolutely did not have. He listed as

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Speaker 1: collateral the fraudulent properties in Louisiana and Arkansas that he'd

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Speaker 1: never actually owned in the first place. Um, but he

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Speaker 1: basically conned to this governor and let him marry his daughter.

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Speaker 1: And then he immediately borrows seven fifty dollars from his

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Speaker 1: new family in law to take his new wife on

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Speaker 1: a vacation to New Orleans. All right, I want to

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Speaker 1: give you some money. Yeah, I have some Can I

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Speaker 1: have some money and your daughter? I could so. Jim

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Speaker 1: and his new wife were married on April thirty one.

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Speaker 1: She was nineteen years old and he was thirty five

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Speaker 1: years old, although he listed his age is thirty on

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Speaker 1: the marriage certificate. Weird, very weird, just a little vain.

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Speaker 1: Just lie about your age on when it's technically legal.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that makes me think if he's lying about

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Speaker 1: his age, maybe she her age was not. Actually, I

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Speaker 1: don't know, this is a different time. It's entirely possible

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Speaker 1: he actually thought he was thirty. Again, not a lot

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Speaker 1: of official governments documents about when you came into the

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Speaker 1: world at this point. And he's taking several guns to

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Speaker 1: the head at this point. Yes, he's been hitting the

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Speaker 1: head a number of times. And remember his mom only

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Speaker 1: taught him the alphabet, so numbers probably not Jim Bowie

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Speaker 1: strong suit. So um. Yeah, And a big part of

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Speaker 1: why you got married seemed to be that getting hitched

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Speaker 1: h to a Mexican, or getting hitched to anyone at all,

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Speaker 1: entitled him to another four thousand acres from the government,

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Speaker 1: and since his wife was a rich girl, he was

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Speaker 1: also entitled now to live at the Veramindy House, which

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Speaker 1: was basically a palace because he's you know, he's the

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Speaker 1: governor of Texas. UM. Now, the sources I have read

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Speaker 1: all tend to agree that he like was legitimately in

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Speaker 1: love with his wife and that the Veramendy family treated

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Speaker 1: him as a son. I have found no evidence to

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Speaker 1: discount this, so I kind of have to assume that

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Speaker 1: this was in fact the case, even though given all

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Speaker 1: of the scams he got up to, in the fact

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Speaker 1: that he lied about the money he had to get

365
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Speaker 1: a dowry, I'm very hesitant to give Bowie credit for anything,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know. I I have no evidence that

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Speaker 1: he didn't truly care for this woman or for his

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Speaker 1: adopted family, so I gotta say that. Um. And there's

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Speaker 1: definitely evidence that the Veramendy family really cared about Jim Uh.

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Speaker 1: He was quote furnished with money and supplies without limit,

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Speaker 1: and was basically got to live as a rich boy

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Speaker 1: for a while. UM. Since he no longer needed to work,

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Speaker 1: he gave up his land conning and spent several bliss

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Speaker 1: for years, living in a palace and occasionally going out

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Speaker 1: on expeditions to steal gold and silver from Native people,

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Speaker 1: mainly just for fun. I was gonna say, that's just

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Speaker 1: like it sounds like he just likes to go Yeah,

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00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:21,959
Speaker 1: just l Ron Hubbard's style gold hunting expeditions, but with

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Speaker 1: a higher body count. So that we know of, he

380
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Speaker 1: was on one of these trips getting into gunfights with

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Speaker 1: Native Americans when his wife, their two children, and his

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Speaker 1: father and mother in law all died horrifically during a

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Speaker 1: cholera outbreak. Um, so he's just like out camping and

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Speaker 1: his whole family is wiped out by cholera in the

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Speaker 1: space of a few days. Uh, which focks him up

386
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Speaker 1: right that that that's hard to deal with your whole

387
00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:50,960
Speaker 1: family dying at the same time, feel like most people

388
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,399
Speaker 1: would would would have a little bit of trouble with that.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of sources will claim that this is

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Speaker 1: when Jim began to drink heavily. You know, he'd always

391
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Speaker 1: had a tendency to party a little hard sometimes, but

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Speaker 1: kind of after this point you see him increasingly sort

393
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Speaker 1: of sinking into straight up alcoholism. Changed the way, Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that seems fair to say. If you want to protect

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Speaker 1: your family from cholera, the f d A guarantees that

396
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:19,600
Speaker 1: all of these products and services will render them immune.

397
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Speaker 1: So you can drink any kind of ditch water you want.

398
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Speaker 1: Just get out there, buy some products and go suck

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Speaker 1: it up. Ditch water. Here's a product. We're back. I

400
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:36,840
Speaker 1: hope you're all enjoying all this ditch water. It's good stuff.

401
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:42,240
Speaker 1: Keep buying the products. I don't know. Sometimes this is

402
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Speaker 1: where we go. This, this is the joke that I made.

403
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Speaker 1: And now we're returned, and it's time to talk about

404
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:52,000
Speaker 1: Jim Bowie some more. I'm so sorry. So it's debated

405
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,959
Speaker 1: by historians just how much the depths of Jim's family

406
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Speaker 1: influenced his drinking. Um, and it's also debated how much

407
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Speaker 1: of a drunk he was. A lot of very pro

408
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,720
Speaker 1: Texas types will argue that there's no real evidence that

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Speaker 1: he had a problematic history with alcohol. Um. I don't

410
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:10,240
Speaker 1: think this is true. Uh, And it seems like most

411
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Speaker 1: of the good historians, even the ones who are kind

412
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Speaker 1: of see him as a little bit of a hero,

413
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Speaker 1: disagree with this. Historian William C. Davis notes that after

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Speaker 1: his family's death quote. For the first half of eighteen

415
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:23,800
Speaker 1: thirty four, Bowie largely wandered and may have surrendered to

416
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:25,760
Speaker 1: drink more than he should as he tried to regain

417
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:28,960
Speaker 1: his personal and financial balance. His old temper flared again

418
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Speaker 1: and there were fights. After one supposed brawl in San Antonio,

419
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Speaker 1: he asked a friend why he had not come into

420
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:36,440
Speaker 1: help in the scuffle. The man answered that, so far

421
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Speaker 1: as he could tell, Bowie had been in the wrong

422
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,480
Speaker 1: in the encounter. Don't you suppose I know that as

423
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,119
Speaker 1: well as you do, replied Bowie. That's just why I

424
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:45,880
Speaker 1: needed a friend. If I had been in the right,

425
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:51,239
Speaker 1: I would have had plenty of them. He's not wrong, No,

426
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,320
Speaker 1: he's not. I love that though he's not right either.

427
00:22:54,800 --> 00:23:00,040
Speaker 1: That is some good frontier logic. Um. Yeah, So he

428
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:02,439
Speaker 1: spent most of the next year engaged in a series

429
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:05,439
Speaker 1: of land speculation schemes because again, like he's rich, a

430
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:07,640
Speaker 1: rich boy for a while, but when his rich family dies,

431
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,159
Speaker 1: he doesn't inherit their money, right because he's like the

432
00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: son in law. So now he's back on his own again. Um.

433
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:17,880
Speaker 1: And unfortunately for him, the Mexican government had grown increasingly

434
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 1: concerned about the fact that it had been giving away

435
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 1: huge chunks of Texas to Americans. Uh these men often

436
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 1: flouted the laws of Mexico by, for example, bringing in slaves,

437
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,080
Speaker 1: and in general, it became very clear that they had

438
00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,480
Speaker 1: no real interest in being part of Mexico. So Mexico

439
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:34,879
Speaker 1: began to crack down and restrict the kind of speculation

440
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,680
Speaker 1: and sale of land that Bowie engaged in. Now Luckily

441
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 1: for Jim, right at about this period of time, a

442
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:44,879
Speaker 1: fella named Santa Anna succeeded in becoming the dictator of

443
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: Mexico in all but name, and like any good authoritarian,

444
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:50,960
Speaker 1: he's set right to work clamping down on opposition to

445
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: his regime, largely by shutting down local militias and ordering

446
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,199
Speaker 1: them to send him their guns. Zec Tecas, which was

447
00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:59,159
Speaker 1: one of the states in Mexico, rebelled and it was

448
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: brutally crushed. The whole situation resulted in a huge amount

449
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,280
Speaker 1: of unrest in other Mexican states, and we're not gonna

450
00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 1: be able to detail all of it here. The short

451
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 1: of it is that the capital of the Mexican state

452
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,840
Speaker 1: that Texas was in, a city called mont Clova, decided

453
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 1: that they needed to raise money to get up militia

454
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 1: in their own defense from Santa Anna, and they did

455
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 1: this by opening up a huge amount of land for purchase.

456
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:23,479
Speaker 1: Since Bowie had been the governor's son in law, he

457
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:25,840
Speaker 1: was given the job of disbursing and selling all of

458
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:28,160
Speaker 1: this land. And since he was corrupt as all hell,

459
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:30,359
Speaker 1: he basically took a bunch of bribes for this, and

460
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 1: he also got a huge chunk of that land himself.

461
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:34,840
Speaker 1: And by the time all of the chips had landed

462
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:37,400
Speaker 1: and all the land was so sold, he owned more

463
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 1: than a million acres. Now, this is a lot of land,

464
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:49,479
Speaker 1: so much even in Texas. Yeah, And basically, once Santa

465
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,919
Speaker 1: Anna heard that like the capital of one of his

466
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,119
Speaker 1: own states had given away this land, much land to

467
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: a bunch of white people to raise a militia to

468
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 1: defend themselves from him, he was like, fuck this ship. Uh.

469
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,119
Speaker 1: He declared the whole sale null and void, which effectively

470
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:07,120
Speaker 1: wiped out Jim's entire fortune. Um. So, Santa Anna sent

471
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,239
Speaker 1: an army up to Mount Clovi to crack down on

472
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,200
Speaker 1: all of this blatantly criminal land speculation, and Jim Bowie

473
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 1: and his friends like showed up to like protest and

474
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,679
Speaker 1: They were immediately arrested and jailed, but they succeeded in

475
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 1: escaping and fleeing back to Texas. Booie made his way

476
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,439
Speaker 1: to Nacodoches and became one of the loudest voices in

477
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,400
Speaker 1: the War Party, the men who increasingly advocated the taking

478
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: up of arms against Santa Anna's government. Well, I mean

479
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,720
Speaker 1: that that the War Party is pretty clear. Yeah, yeah,

480
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 1: I think we should have one of those now where

481
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 1: we know what you guys want. They're not framing themselves

482
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 1: as Texas independence advocates at this point. They're framing themselves

483
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 1: as against Santa Anna's dictatorship. Like they're saying they want

484
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 1: to return to the original Mexican constitution before Santa Anna

485
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 1: took power. Like that's kind of where they are right now. Uh.

486
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:54,119
Speaker 1: And a lot of people for because like there's a

487
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 1: lot of Mexicans and white people who are like kind

488
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 1: of all on the same side of this, and it's

489
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:02,159
Speaker 1: because a lot of those Mexicans like don't like Santa Anna. Um.

490
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: And then there's folks like Booie who kind of he

491
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,919
Speaker 1: doesn't really care politically about what's happened. He cares that

492
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 1: Santa Anna's screwed him out of his chance at becoming

493
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 1: a millionaire. Um. So yeah, on July five hundred citizens

494
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 1: of Nakodocha has declared themselves a militia and they vote

495
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 1: Jim Bowie to be their colonel. Um. Now, he immediately

496
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 1: his first act as colonel is to rob a Mexican

497
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 1: government storehouse of muskets uh and the government considered this

498
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 1: to be him inciting violence, which is pretty fair way.

499
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:35,520
Speaker 1: That's a good that's a good way to call it. Yeah,

500
00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:39,320
Speaker 1: it's very different from me stealing, for example, Toyota land cruisers.

501
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:43,880
Speaker 1: That's an expedition. You know, that's not inciting violence. So

502
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 1: Booie had to flee to the United States to raise

503
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 1: money and men uh to to you know, continue to

504
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:53,159
Speaker 1: make this revolution possible. And he returned to Texas just

505
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 1: in time for the first shots of the Texas Revolution

506
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:59,880
Speaker 1: to be fired on October two, eighteen thirty five. Um. Now,

507
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 1: there are a lot of other guys involved, and I'm

508
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:05,880
Speaker 1: not going to like for one thing, Texas revolutionary history

509
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 1: is and my favorite kind of history, so I'm not

510
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 1: going to go into wild detail about this. But yeah,

511
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,360
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of people and at the beginning, they

512
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 1: just kind of want to go back to the way

513
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,200
Speaker 1: things were before Santa Ana. And it gradually evolves into

514
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: an independence movement for Texas to become an independent nation, right,

515
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 1: but it doesn't really start that way. Um. And it's

516
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 1: a very democratic sort of movement that that that's that

517
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,600
Speaker 1: spot like pops up. So these guys are all voting,

518
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: like it's all guys. Women can't vote, obviously, neither can

519
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: enslaved people. Um. But these the men, all the white men,

520
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,439
Speaker 1: all vote for their leaders. And a guy named Stephen F.

521
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:45,440
Speaker 1: Austin is elected the commander of the Texas New Army. Um. So,

522
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,040
Speaker 1: by the time Booie got back into Texas from his

523
00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 1: little sojourn in the United States, that army was about

524
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,600
Speaker 1: five men in size. Uh. It continued to grow over

525
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:55,679
Speaker 1: the course of days, and Bowie was named a colonel

526
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:57,960
Speaker 1: once again and given command of a column of about

527
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 1: ninety men. Uh. And he was a pretty good military leader,

528
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 1: which you might guess from the fact that he was

529
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 1: just generally good at shooting people, well killing people that

530
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, he knew how to kill animals

531
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:13,320
Speaker 1: and people. And like a lot of killing animals is

532
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: the same it's the same. I started really reading a

533
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,639
Speaker 1: lot of military strategy. I was like, this is this

534
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:24,120
Speaker 1: is what this is. Yeah, and especially like these are

535
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: not gigantic Napoleonic battles like again the armies like five

536
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:30,960
Speaker 1: hundred dudes. Like these are often confrontations between a few

537
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:33,520
Speaker 1: dozen people in the middle of nowhere, Texas who like

538
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,040
Speaker 1: shoot at each other and like twenty people die and

539
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: one side backs off first, and it's a great victory,

540
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, yeah, so and Bolli was a pretty

541
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 1: good military commander. Several weeks later, he led his men

542
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: into battle against a Mexican army force at a place

543
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 1: called Conception, Uh. And the force that he winds up

544
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:53,720
Speaker 1: fighting is like double the size of his own army.

545
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 1: But he and his men win, and this is like

546
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:59,719
Speaker 1: the first great rebel victory of the war. UM. Now, Unfortunately,

547
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: Steve N. F. Austin was not a very good commander,

548
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 1: and the Army of Texas was not a particularly orderly army,

549
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,239
Speaker 1: and a series of organizational and leadership failures stopped them

550
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: from taking advantage of Bowie's victory. UH. And soon enough

551
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: they wound up in a kind of clusterfux situation. UM.

552
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 1: So what's important to understand is that men kept deserting

553
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,320
Speaker 1: and kept stepping down, and eventually the army found itself

554
00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 1: having to hold another election to determine its commander. There

555
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,239
Speaker 1: are so many fucking votes with the Texas uh like

556
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: Revolutionary Army over like who should be in charge? Like

557
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 1: they hold them all of the goddamn time. Every time

558
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:32,680
Speaker 1: something goes wrong, they're like, all right, who do we

559
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:35,920
Speaker 1: want to be in charge now? Um? Yeah, But I

560
00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 1: think they got the Libertarian Party. There's a big aspect

561
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 1: of that to this, and like the Libertarians, they can't

562
00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: make up their mind about a goddamn thing. That's what

563
00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:48,000
Speaker 1: it sounds like. That's that's the exact metaphor I was used.

564
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 1: It was like, it just sounds like it's just like

565
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 1: the Libertarian Party. We're like, hey, I don't like, hey,

566
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 1: he's doing stuff changing. So Bowie campaigns hard to be

567
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 1: the commander of this army, and they hold a vote

568
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 1: and he receives five votes. Um. And this is generally

569
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 1: because people didn't really like him. He was considered to

570
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: be like a pretty good combat commander, so individual people

571
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 1: willing to follow him in the bat follow him in

572
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 1: the battle. But he was also like known to be

573
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: he was a guy with like a gigantic temper who

574
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 1: was drunk a lot of the time, tough hang. So

575
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: he gets angry that he loses this vote, and he

576
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 1: resigns his commission and like announces that he's becoming a

577
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 1: private again as kind of a fuck you to Stephen F. Austin,

578
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 1: and then he just leaves the army entirely and he

579
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 1: travels to San Felipe, where he meets with Sam Houston.

580
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:38,719
Speaker 1: Now another election had been held recently in human Houston

581
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: had been made the major general in charge of all

582
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: of texas Is armed forces, so Austin was reassigned and

583
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: the army now had no actual field commander, so it

584
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: had Houston in charge of it, but like nobody had

585
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 1: been voted actually lead it into battle. Um and Booie

586
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 1: like basically tries to ingratiate himself into Houston's that he

587
00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 1: can hopefully get appointed to be in charge of the army,

588
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:01,959
Speaker 1: but he can't really get a handle on his drinking,

589
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 1: and by the time he and Houston actually meet for

590
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: the first time in sam Pelipe, he is, in the

591
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 1: words of one attendee, dead drunk. Um and Houston is

592
00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: kind of like carefully, like, well, I'm not gonna just

593
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: a point you in charge of the army. Why don't

594
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: you go back and the whole army will hold another vote,

595
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 1: and now that Austin's out, I'm sure they will elect

596
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: you to be in charge of the army. So still wasted,

597
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 1: Jimbowie drunkenly rides back to the army and he keeps

598
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 1: right on drinking throughout the election. He actually gets blackout

599
00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: hammered on the night of the vote. Um, and for

600
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,640
Speaker 1: some reason his fellow soldiers decided to give the job

601
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 1: to another guy. Reading historians talk about this, it's really

602
00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:46,239
Speaker 1: funny because they'll often be like, it's peculiar that they

603
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 1: didn't vote for Bowie despite his good combat performance. And

604
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 1: I was like, well, because they saw he was wasted

605
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 1: every time he wasn't in a gunfight. I mean, you

606
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 1: gotta be a pretty bad drunk for other people, for

607
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:04,440
Speaker 1: other soldiers to be like, yeah, yeah, these guys are

608
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:08,720
Speaker 1: like patient zero for libertarianism. There's literally no law because

609
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 1: they're revolting against legal authority, and they all have guns

610
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere, and they're like, this guy

611
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:20,640
Speaker 1: is too much of a drunken ruin for us. Yeah,

612
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. So uh yeah, he just he didn't

613
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,800
Speaker 1: doesn't do well in elections. So he is, however, given

614
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 1: command of another unit of several dozen men, and they

615
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: perform well in a number of skirmishes against the Mexican Army.

616
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 1: And again, as a rule, when he actually gets into combat,

617
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 1: Jim Bowie does a really good job. He's good at

618
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:39,280
Speaker 1: leading men in battle. You gotta give him credit for

619
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 1: that he does. Yeah, if you want someone to help

620
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 1: other people kill a group of strangers, Jim Booie is

621
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: your fucking man. He's a good stranger killer. Any anything

622
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: other than that, he's gonna be drunk. Yeah, he's He's

623
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 1: not even good at land speculation. He just does it

624
00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah. Yeah, And I don't think he

625
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 1: knows he's doing. We think he had the blackout the hole.

626
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 1: He's just wasted the whole time. Yeah. So, at one

627
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 1: point during the war, along the San Antonio River, Bowie

628
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:14,160
Speaker 1: and his men heard a rumor that the general of

629
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:17,200
Speaker 1: the Mexican Army was grazing his horses nearby. And this

630
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: wasn't Santa Ana yet, This is like the Mexican army

631
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 1: before Santa Anna comes up. So they set out to

632
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:24,959
Speaker 1: like figure out where these horses are so they can

633
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:27,360
Speaker 1: either steal the horses or disperse the horde because you

634
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 1: know that the herd, because that would do a lot

635
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:30,560
Speaker 1: of damage to the army get rid of all of

636
00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 1: their horses. So while they're scouting around to try to

637
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:36,120
Speaker 1: find these horses, Bowie and his men capture a random

638
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 1: Mexican dude who claims to know the guy who was

639
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 1: tending the herd, and he told Bowie that if they

640
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 1: found that guy, they would be able to find the horses.

641
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: But Bowie isn't willing to listen to this. He thinks

642
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 1: this guy is lying and knows where the horses are,

643
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 1: so he arrests the man instead. And I'm gonna quote

644
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 1: from William C. Davis here he writes quote. One of

645
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 1: the volunteers, Placido Benavidez, suggested that they tie them in,

646
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:00,920
Speaker 1: put a rope around his neck and raised him by

647
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: a tree branch, strangling him until he agreed to talk.

648
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: There was nothing surprising in that for Benavidez. He was

649
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,840
Speaker 1: one of the ricos, the wealthy landed local aristocracy like

650
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: the Vara Mendez, the family that Buoy married into, who

651
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 1: felt an ancestral cultural contempt or at best disdain for

652
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:17,960
Speaker 1: the pabres the poor. Thus, for Benavidez, there was no

653
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 1: dishonor in torturing a peon for information, especially if he

654
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,839
Speaker 1: was working for the enemy. Bowie, who came from an

655
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: entirely different culture that generally frowned upon such brutality, agreed

656
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 1: to the suggestion perhaps his marriage into the Vara Mendes

657
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 1: had brought him not just family affluence, but also family attitudes.

658
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 1: The brutality, once commenced, almost got out of hand, almost

659
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 1: got out of hand. Bowie ordered a fire started near

660
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:42,360
Speaker 1: the tree, and then some of his men hauled the

661
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,760
Speaker 1: unfortunate man up over at adding the double torture of burning,

662
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,000
Speaker 1: or at least extremely uncomfortable proximity to the blaze, to

663
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 1: the strangulation that's almost out of hand. It was almost

664
00:34:56,880 --> 00:34:59,880
Speaker 1: this is almost too much. Yeah. At the same time,

665
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 1: eight of his company stood with cocked rifles besides the fire,

666
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: pointing them at the poor man. When the victims stopped

667
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:08,120
Speaker 1: kicking and appeared near unconsciousness, they let him down and

668
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 1: threatened to shoot him. He refused to talk. And the

669
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,719
Speaker 1: whole business was repeated twice more, even though one of

670
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:16,280
Speaker 1: Bowie's men rebelled at the cruelty and refused to participate further.

671
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: After the third time, the Mexican revealed the whereabouts of

672
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 1: a herd of horses, although Booie's one rebel suspected they

673
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:24,319
Speaker 1: may have belonged to the man himself instead of the

674
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: enemy army, and he gave them up simply to save

675
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,200
Speaker 1: his life. Even then, it seems Booie was not done,

676
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 1: announcing that he intended to continue the torture the next morning,

677
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 1: although what there was left to gain as a mystery. Now.

678
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 1: Thankfully he doesn't go through with continuing the torture this

679
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 1: poor son of a bitch. But he doesn't make the

680
00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 1: guy who'd refused to torture the prisoner guard him that night.

681
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:48,880
Speaker 1: This is like a punishment because he's a dick. Yeah,

682
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:53,600
Speaker 1: almost out of hand, Billy, Almost almost out of hand.

683
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:55,480
Speaker 1: Do you think like some of his friends like the

684
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,840
Speaker 1: next day, See, dude, this is what we're talking about.

685
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: This is why we can't let you. This is you

686
00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:05,799
Speaker 1: keep doing this ship Jim. Nobody wants this guy in charge. Like,

687
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:10,000
Speaker 1: we're all pretty racist, but come on, man, come on.

688
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 1: So the Texas Revolution had, as I said, started at

689
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 1: against the revolution against Santa Anna, and a number of

690
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:21,279
Speaker 1: the early revolutionaries were in fact loyal to the Mexican Constitution.

691
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:24,279
Speaker 1: Bowie himself professed a loyalty to it initially, but as

692
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 1: the fighting went on, the cause of total independence took

693
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 1: off primarily among the white residents of the area, and

694
00:36:29,239 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 1: Bowie got on board with this train. William see Davis

695
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:33,879
Speaker 1: clearly believes that he did so out of a mix

696
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 1: of patriotism and a healthy desire to get back all

697
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 1: the land he'd stolen and then had stolen back from him.

698
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 1: Um I personally see Jim and his bartaceous participation is

699
00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:45,680
Speaker 1: an even mix of land grab and an addiction to violence.

700
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 1: But whatever honest men can disagree. In any case, Boway's

701
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:52,080
Speaker 1: passed through the war eventually led him to the Alamo

702
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,480
Speaker 1: and modern day San Antonio now the town around it

703
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:57,800
Speaker 1: was then called Beijar, and the fourth of the Alamo

704
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,440
Speaker 1: contained a large number of field guns, which is actually

705
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,480
Speaker 1: the vast bulk of the artillery available to the Texan rebels.

706
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: As Santa Anna marched Fourth because the army he had

707
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:08,799
Speaker 1: first sent in they do eventually beat that army, so

708
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,319
Speaker 1: Santa Ana has to march up with a larger Mexican army,

709
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:13,919
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of soldiers. And at first they think

710
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 1: he's just going to send a few men to attack

711
00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:17,279
Speaker 1: the Alamo, and they have plenty of guns to hold it.

712
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:19,120
Speaker 1: But then he sends like the bulk of his army

713
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:22,040
Speaker 1: there um and they don't abandon it because all of

714
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 1: the guns that has means that it's kind of critical

715
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 1: to the war effort. And to make a long and

716
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:29,439
Speaker 1: pretty boring story short, eventually Santa Anna's whole big gass

717
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 1: army winds up marching on the Alamo, and the two

718
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: men in charge of its defense where a guy named

719
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:37,520
Speaker 1: Colonel William Travis and Jim Booie. By the way, Austin

720
00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: is in Travis County. Like I was, I was gonna say,

721
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:44,160
Speaker 1: I know how all that comes together? Yet Yeah, so joke,

722
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 1: I usually do what I'm in Austin. It's like it's

723
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,319
Speaker 1: just two of the widest names you've ever heard of,

724
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:52,799
Speaker 1: Just like it's just somebody from around rock yelling at

725
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:57,480
Speaker 1: their kids. Austen, Travis, Gideon here Travis, Jim Bowie, you

726
00:37:57,520 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 1: get in here, now Gideon here, Yeah, get you all

727
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:06,399
Speaker 1: on in there. Yeah, it's it's it's good old home

728
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 1: state of Texas. So Bowie's went rank of colonel had

729
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:13,360
Speaker 1: never really been real. He'd been elected by militia and

730
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,919
Speaker 1: then sort of voted into or appointed into a couple

731
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 1: of different command positions. But his troops were like irregulars.

732
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 1: They were what was called volunteers, while Colonel Travis was

733
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,240
Speaker 1: a man with an actual military experience and his troops

734
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:29,160
Speaker 1: were like regular trained troops with like like they couldn't

735
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 1: just leave if they wanted to. Like Bowie's men were

736
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:33,640
Speaker 1: kind of there as volunteers, they could funk off at

737
00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:39,800
Speaker 1: any point. Travis's troops were like normal soldiers. So yeah,

738
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: once they arrive, you've got the military at the Alamo

739
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:47,080
Speaker 1: divided into like regular soldiers under Travis and irregulars under Bowie.

740
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,600
Speaker 1: And Travis is ostensibly supposed to be in charge of

741
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 1: the whole operation. But Bowie's men aren't willing to listen

742
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 1: to this guy. They trust the dude that they've been

743
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,400
Speaker 1: fighting with more than some like fancy colonel with a

744
00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:00,920
Speaker 1: fucking army degree. So the whole army holds yet another

745
00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:03,880
Speaker 1: fucking election and the two. The result of it leaves

746
00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:07,000
Speaker 1: the two men sharing power. Bowie stays in charge of

747
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,759
Speaker 1: the volunteers and Travis is in charge of the regular army.

748
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:13,600
Speaker 1: And this is not a good state of affairs, having

749
00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 1: the army divided into two chunks who don't listen to

750
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:18,800
Speaker 1: each other or each other's commander. Turns out that's actually

751
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:24,920
Speaker 1: not like an ideal way to army. No, no, yeah,

752
00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:27,800
Speaker 1: as Davis writes, quote, no one was completely in charge.

753
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:30,279
Speaker 1: Bowie would not obey Travis, and Travis certainly would not

754
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 1: yield a Bowie, so that garrison divided into somewhat unfriendly camps.

755
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,840
Speaker 1: On February twelfth, Adjutant J. J. Boss saw that Bowie,

756
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 1: availing himself of his popularity among the volunteers, seemed anxious

757
00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:44,359
Speaker 1: to arrogate to himself the entire control. So he's trying

758
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:46,719
Speaker 1: to like he wants to take control. But the next

759
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:50,360
Speaker 1: day the situation become intolerable, precipitated mainly by Bowie unfortunately

760
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:53,000
Speaker 1: choosing his election as an event worth celebrating with a

761
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:55,560
Speaker 1: two day drunk. So they have this vote that splits

762
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:57,279
Speaker 1: them into and Bowie just spent the next couple of

763
00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:00,640
Speaker 1: days wrecked out of his fucking head, Robert. What else

764
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 1: celebrates a two day drunk me? Yeah? Who else? Yeah?

765
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:10,320
Speaker 1: That's I mean Quip the toothbrush people probably probably probably,

766
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 1: That's why I like them so much, and also the

767
00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:17,120
Speaker 1: other products and services that support this podcast all big

768
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 1: fans of being drunk for two straight days, we're back.

769
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 1: Oh what a day, What a day it is? Yeah, So,

770
00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:31,600
Speaker 1: Jim Bowie, they've just held this election, they've split the

771
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:34,160
Speaker 1: control of the army into and Jim Bowie is just

772
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:38,359
Speaker 1: fucking celebrates this by getting ship house wasted. Like he's

773
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,160
Speaker 1: never succeeded in being elected to command of the army,

774
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:43,800
Speaker 1: but he's gotten elected to command of half of an army,

775
00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:47,719
Speaker 1: and that's that's worth celebrating. So drunk Bowie pretty much

776
00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 1: immediately let this new state of as little be happy

777
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 1: about it, yet might as well be for a good reason. So, uh,

778
00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 1: he's wasted in celebrating his control of half of an

779
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 1: army when he sees a group of local bahernos like

780
00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,719
Speaker 1: citizens of the nearby town trying to flee the town

781
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,040
Speaker 1: with their property to avoid the fact that a battle

782
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:09,840
Speaker 1: is about to happen, and he arrests these people for

783
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,919
Speaker 1: no real reason. Now, at the same time, he also

784
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:16,279
Speaker 1: started randomly de arresting people that the local judge had

785
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 1: already sentenced for crimes. There seems to have been no

786
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 1: real rhyme or reason for any of this, because he

787
00:41:21,640 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 1: actually sat on like the judge panel that had convicted

788
00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:27,560
Speaker 1: some of these friends these men when he was sober,

789
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:31,280
Speaker 1: and then just decided to free them from jail at random. Uh.

790
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 1: When the judge complained about this, Bowie had his volunteers

791
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:36,240
Speaker 1: marched through the main square of the town of Behard

792
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,879
Speaker 1: to intimidate him. Unfortunately, Bowie and all of his men

793
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: were wasted, as one volunteer. One volunteer described the marching

794
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:46,320
Speaker 1: and quote a tumultuously and disorder and disorderly manner. Bowie

795
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:48,319
Speaker 1: himself and many of his men being drunk, which has

796
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:50,360
Speaker 1: been the case ever since he has been in command.

797
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:53,480
Speaker 1: So like he randomly decides to free a bunch of prisoners,

798
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:56,479
Speaker 1: the judge complains, and he has a drunken mob gather

799
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:58,280
Speaker 1: in the middle of town to yell at the judge.

800
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: All this sounds like a right fun Bowie. Now, yeah,

801
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:05,279
Speaker 1: I do think, yeah, he's got all his killing done.

802
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:06,840
Speaker 1: He's like let's just mix it up a little bit.

803
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:10,600
Speaker 1: Let's just get wasted, buddy. So next Bowie de arrested

804
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:12,880
Speaker 1: a private in the regular Army, a man that Colonel

805
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:18,440
Speaker 1: Travis had convicted of mutiny for. Again no real reasonable man. Yeah,

806
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:23,920
Speaker 1: this pissed Travis off. Anyway, he wound up writing a

807
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,799
Speaker 1: letter to their governor, and Davy Crockett also wrote a

808
00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:28,880
Speaker 1: letter because Davy Crockett was there at this point, and

809
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:31,520
Speaker 1: he's really pissed a Jim Bowie's bullshit now. In his

810
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: lever letter, Travis complained that the situation was quote truly

811
00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 1: awkward and delicate due to the fact that his co

812
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:40,080
Speaker 1: commander had been roaring drunk all the time and was

813
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,960
Speaker 1: turning everything topsy turvy. He ended the letter by stating

814
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:46,000
Speaker 1: he would remain at the album over the sake of honor,

815
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 1: but quote I am unwilling to be responsible for the

816
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:52,200
Speaker 1: drunken irregularities of any man. I mean, that's gonna cost

817
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:55,440
Speaker 1: him his life. That's what's going to happen. They're all

818
00:42:55,480 --> 00:43:04,000
Speaker 1: gonna die. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's so. The situation continued

819
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,160
Speaker 1: to deteriorate, and Bowie's drunkenness grew even more extreme. His

820
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 1: volunteer army turned into a multi day long keg party,

821
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:12,319
Speaker 1: and some of his men actually sold their rifles to

822
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:22,520
Speaker 1: buy liquor. Yeah, I'm not gonna need this this fucking thing,

823
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,440
Speaker 1: so one observer at the time reported most of the

824
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 1: garrison was drunk. Travis kept on complaining about this, and

825
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:32,480
Speaker 1: the fights between the two men soon degenerated into an

826
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:36,400
Speaker 1: utterly untenable situation. Travis eventually had to leave the Alamo

827
00:43:36,520 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 1: with his regular soldiers because he was afraid the two

828
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:40,840
Speaker 1: groups would start shooting at each other if they stayed

829
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,600
Speaker 1: together any longer. But then on Valentine's Day, Jim Bowie

830
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 1: sobered up. And we don't really know why. He might

831
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:49,279
Speaker 1: have come to his senses, or he might have just

832
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:51,480
Speaker 1: trade out of ran out of liquor and guns to

833
00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:54,840
Speaker 1: trade for liquor. But as Davis writes, as quickly as

834
00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 1: it arose, the problem seemed to evaporate, and that was

835
00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,239
Speaker 1: probably due to Bowie. It is well known that he

836
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,320
Speaker 1: sometimes drank too much, recalled William W. Fontaine, who was

837
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:04,840
Speaker 1: one of the little children at Montville with Charles Travis,

838
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:07,120
Speaker 1: but it is not so generally known how quickly he

839
00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:09,879
Speaker 1: hastened to make the amends honorably, so that he soon

840
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:11,919
Speaker 1: came under the influence of as soon as he came

841
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,160
Speaker 1: out from under the influence of liquor on February fourteenth,

842
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:17,360
Speaker 1: but he sobered and apparently went on to see Travis

843
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:19,760
Speaker 1: and gave an apology for Immediately, Travis and his command

844
00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:22,560
Speaker 1: returned to San Antonio, and all signs of friction between

845
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 1: the two disappeared for good. Wow. Yeah, he's a charming guy,

846
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:30,520
Speaker 1: I guess. I mean that's real charming when you have

847
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 1: to move an army because you're so drunk and then

848
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:38,040
Speaker 1: you go tonight. Hey, Hey, hey, s got wild, didn't it.

849
00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 1: I apologize for diet. Are you star in retrospect? I

850
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:47,080
Speaker 1: was drunker than you should be while commanding an army.

851
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: I see that now, I see that as clear to me. Now. Also,

852
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:53,560
Speaker 1: can I borrow some money? We need to get our

853
00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:58,360
Speaker 1: guns back. Yeah. Now. Other sources I've read suggests that

854
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 1: the reason Bowie chilled out maybe the he got sick

855
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:03,799
Speaker 1: with yellow fever right around this time. He definitely got

856
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 1: sick with yellow fever. It's just kind of as a

857
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:08,400
Speaker 1: debate what that had an impact on, and his illness

858
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:11,080
Speaker 1: was probably due to a combination of poor sanitary conditions

859
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: at the Alamo and the fact that he'd been on

860
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:15,799
Speaker 1: a multi week alcohol bender, which is bad for your

861
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:18,920
Speaker 1: immune system. Whatever the truth, by the time the Battle

862
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 1: of the Alamos started on February twenty third, Colonel Travis

863
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 1: was back in the fort and Jim Bowie was confined

864
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 1: to a sick bed, unable to command or fight. Uh

865
00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:29,799
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to detail out the battle for

866
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:32,120
Speaker 1: the Alamo. Everyone listening this knows the broad strokes the

867
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:34,239
Speaker 1: Texans got wiped out. They killed a lot of the

868
00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:37,440
Speaker 1: besieging Mexican army, and that provided the Texan revolutionaries with

869
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 1: a powerful rally and cry, YadA YadA, remember the Alamo.

870
00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:42,719
Speaker 1: All that bullshit. The actual reality of the battle is

871
00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:45,440
Speaker 1: less glorious than what I was raised to believe in school.

872
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:47,560
Speaker 1: You know, we were told that thousands upon thousands of

873
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:51,880
Speaker 1: Mexicans had been killed by the defenders. That's almost certainly bullshit.

874
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:55,520
Speaker 1: It is probably to say that they on balance fought

875
00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:58,840
Speaker 1: competently and acquitted for themselves pretty well. But there it

876
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 1: was never a close fight. You know, they were horribly

877
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:05,919
Speaker 1: outnumbered and outclassed. Uh. Now, for some amount of time

878
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:08,600
Speaker 1: it was de rigor for Patrick patriotic retellings of the

879
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 1: story of the battle to invent a heroic end for

880
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,560
Speaker 1: all of like the main figures you've got, You've got

881
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:16,120
Speaker 1: William Travis, You've got Bowie, Crockett, you've got Jim Bowie.

882
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:17,839
Speaker 1: All these famous guys are at this fight, and they

883
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:20,120
Speaker 1: all have to die heroic deaths if you're doing like

884
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:25,560
Speaker 1: the the propaganda retelling of this right, yeah, the myths.

885
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:28,239
Speaker 1: The most famous painting of Jim Bowie at all is

886
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: him at the Alamo leaping out of his sick bed

887
00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,160
Speaker 1: and shooting a pair of Mexican soldiers with a brace

888
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:37,279
Speaker 1: of pistols that he's concealed under his bed um. And

889
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:39,759
Speaker 1: that's kind of the like the picture that a lot

890
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:42,359
Speaker 1: of people like to portray him, like how he went

891
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:45,200
Speaker 1: out as I found a passage from nineteen fifty seven's

892
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:48,080
Speaker 1: Jim Booie James Bowie Big Dealer, which is an article

893
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,120
Speaker 1: about the man's life that kind of gives you an

894
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:53,080
Speaker 1: idea of how his last days are portrayed by the

895
00:46:53,080 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 1: the pro Booie crowd. For Bowie not to have his

896
00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:59,400
Speaker 1: knife at the end would be unthinkable. David Crockett had

897
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 1: arrived before Bowie became critically ill, and Colonel Crockett's Exploits

898
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 1: and Adventures in Texas a farrago of undetermined authorship that

899
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:09,439
Speaker 1: rings true to Crockett only in spots. Is this passage.

900
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:12,320
Speaker 1: I found Colonel Bowie and the Fortress, a man celebrated

901
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,799
Speaker 1: for having been in a more desperate personal conflicts than

902
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:16,840
Speaker 1: any other in the country. He gave me a friendly

903
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 1: welcome and appeared to be mightily pleased that I had

904
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:21,279
Speaker 1: arrived safe. While we were conversing, he had occasion to

905
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:23,360
Speaker 1: draw his famous knife to cut a strap, and I

906
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 1: wish I may be shot at the bare side of it.

907
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 1: Wasn't enough to give a man of squeamish stomach the colic,

908
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:31,600
Speaker 1: especially before breakfast. He saw I was admiring it and said, Colonel,

909
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:33,960
Speaker 1: you might tickle a fellow's ribs a long time with

910
00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:37,920
Speaker 1: this little instrument before you'd make him laugh. Now this

911
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 1: story never happened. David Crockett never wrote this. Uh. Crockett

912
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:45,360
Speaker 1: actually probably hated Bowie because we know he wrote a

913
00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 1: letter complaining about his behavior. Um and the book that

914
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:51,239
Speaker 1: this is being quoted from was written by somebody else,

915
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 1: just in Crockett's name to capitalize on his legend, and

916
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:56,680
Speaker 1: there is no evidence whatsoever that his famous knife was

917
00:47:56,719 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: ever used even as like a camp tool in the battle,

918
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:02,080
Speaker 1: especially since Bowie was too sick to get out of bed.

919
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:08,640
Speaker 1: Um Yeah and it. The task of trying to unravel

920
00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:10,920
Speaker 1: exactly how Bowie died is difficult, both because of the

921
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:13,600
Speaker 1: hero worship around him and because of the network of

922
00:48:13,640 --> 00:48:16,759
Speaker 1: grifters that arose around the Battle of Alamo. The most

923
00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:20,120
Speaker 1: famous of them was mad Madame Candelaria, a woman who

924
00:48:20,200 --> 00:48:22,279
Speaker 1: in her old age claimed to have been Bowie's nurse

925
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:25,240
Speaker 1: during the battle. She made a sizeable living and secured

926
00:48:25,280 --> 00:48:27,880
Speaker 1: a pension from the state of Texas by providing patriotic

927
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:30,840
Speaker 1: Texans with heroic stories about how Travis, Bowie, and Crockett

928
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 1: all died because she claimed she'd been there. There's no

929
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:35,560
Speaker 1: evidence that this is true, and her stories about what

930
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:38,120
Speaker 1: happened at the Alamo changed repeatedly over the years of

931
00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 1: her life. Um I found a good article though, in

932
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 1: True West magazine that's you Know, attempted to co collate

933
00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:49,120
Speaker 1: all the different rumors of of Bowie's end quote. According

934
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:51,520
Speaker 1: to story spread after the battle, Bowie died either as

935
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:54,440
Speaker 1: a murder victim, a suicide, a battle casualty, or a

936
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:56,960
Speaker 1: victim of sadistic torture. He may have died fighting from

937
00:48:56,960 --> 00:48:58,960
Speaker 1: his sick bed, helplessly in a sick bed, or of

938
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,839
Speaker 1: an illness before sickon soldiers did the job. He may

939
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:04,759
Speaker 1: have been killed by swords, bayonets, gunfire, or fire. He

940
00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:07,520
Speaker 1: may have died heroically or as a coward. One of

941
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:09,800
Speaker 1: the first reports to Sam Houston after the battle reported

942
00:49:09,840 --> 00:49:12,400
Speaker 1: that Bowie was killed while lying sick in bed. Houston

943
00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:14,840
Speaker 1: others passed on this information, interpreting it to mean he

944
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:17,640
Speaker 1: had been murdered while sick in bed. However, Houston changed

945
00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:20,640
Speaker 1: the story two days later, writing, our friend Bowie, as

946
00:49:20,680 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 1: now was understood, unable to get out of bed, shot

947
00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 1: himself as the soldiers approached it. And unidentified Mexican soldier

948
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:29,760
Speaker 1: expressed a different opinion in the April fift eighteen thirty

949
00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:34,040
Speaker 1: six edition of El Mosquito Mexicano uh he stated the

950
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:37,120
Speaker 1: perverse in Braggert Santiago, Bowie died like a woman almost

951
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:41,400
Speaker 1: hidden under a mattress. Alamos survivor Susannah Dickinson Hannig waited

952
00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 1: on the subject thirty eight years later, she stated that

953
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:46,160
Speaker 1: Bowie was sick in bed, and when Mexican soldiers entered

954
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:48,000
Speaker 1: his room, he killed two of them with his pistols

955
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,880
Speaker 1: before they pierced him with their sabers. Nothing in Hannig's

956
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:54,200
Speaker 1: statement indicates she actually witnessed this. Perhaps the most horrifying

957
00:49:54,239 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 1: Taylor Bowie's death came in eighteen eighty two when William P. Zuber,

958
00:49:57,560 --> 00:50:00,280
Speaker 1: who popularized the Alamo's famous line in the Sands Story,

959
00:50:00,520 --> 00:50:03,360
Speaker 1: told the tale of a young Mexican fifer at Polinaro

960
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:07,720
Speaker 1: Salda Naga Poland Zuber claims witnessed Bowie brought out alive

961
00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:10,160
Speaker 1: on a cot and placed before at a Mexican captain.

962
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:12,600
Speaker 1: Bowie delivered a short patriotic speech to the captain, who

963
00:50:12,600 --> 00:50:14,799
Speaker 1: became so outraged that he ordered his soldiers to cut

964
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 1: Bowie's tongue out and hurl the still living man onto

965
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:21,520
Speaker 1: the Texas uh Texan dead's burning funeral pyre. So these

966
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 1: are the different stories. We will never know which of

967
00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:28,080
Speaker 1: these is true. Um we do know pretty well that

968
00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:30,239
Speaker 1: he had yellow fever. So one thing we can all

969
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:33,880
Speaker 1: safely assume is that, however, James Bowie went out He

970
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:36,839
Speaker 1: died with the symptoms of advanced yellow fever, which are

971
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:45,000
Speaker 1: uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting. So that's that's that's the story. Wow,

972
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:49,680
Speaker 1: fitting into a frontier hero. I mean, I just I mean,

973
00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:55,319
Speaker 1: I'm not super shocked because I assume everyone starting about

974
00:50:55,320 --> 00:51:00,800
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty years ago back just had constant diarrhea. Yeah, yeah,

975
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:04,719
Speaker 1: it was he was sick and yeah yeah, yeah, but

976
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:09,120
Speaker 1: he was consistent that he wasn't bad like both definitely

977
00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:11,600
Speaker 1: in bed. Seemed to say he was in bed. Some

978
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:14,479
Speaker 1: say like he's being real pussy about it on other side,

979
00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:18,760
Speaker 1: but no, he kind of thought that he wasn't laying down. Yeah,

980
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 1: it would have been hard for him to um have

981
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:24,840
Speaker 1: done much fighting with the yellow fever. It's pretty crippling.

982
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:28,800
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's the story of old Jim Booie. That's

983
00:51:29,640 --> 00:51:33,520
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll be honest, I never thought if you

984
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:37,840
Speaker 1: if you have a weapon named after you, your life

985
00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:42,319
Speaker 1: was probably rough. Yeah yeah, not a lot of not

986
00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:45,919
Speaker 1: a lot of peaceful lives wind up with weapons named

987
00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:53,480
Speaker 1: after them. He was just a great diplomat, huh. Yeah,

988
00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:56,759
Speaker 1: he didn't want to argue, Yeah, we probably should have

989
00:51:56,840 --> 00:51:59,399
Speaker 1: a weapon named after Henry Kissinger. But I don't think

990
00:51:59,400 --> 00:52:01,839
Speaker 1: there's any in system that's killed as many people as

991
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:05,279
Speaker 1: Henry Kissinger. So yeah, I guess so war crimes, isn't

992
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:08,359
Speaker 1: that what it is? Yeah? Yeah, we could just name

993
00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:16,200
Speaker 1: the concept of bombing people the Kissinger. Yeah yeah, so

994
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 1: that is the motherfucking story of James Bowie. How are

995
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:24,680
Speaker 1: you feeling about old Jimbo? There was there was more

996
00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:29,640
Speaker 1: Louisiana then than I had anticipated. A lot of that,

997
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:34,040
Speaker 1: which makes more sense about like who and how he

998
00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:37,000
Speaker 1: gets that name? I mean, but I like, I think

999
00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:40,360
Speaker 1: my favorite part is just how everyone in his family

1000
00:52:40,400 --> 00:52:44,880
Speaker 1: capitalize on his fame. Yeah. Yeah, they would continue doing

1001
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:49,239
Speaker 1: that well after his death because it was easy and

1002
00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:53,160
Speaker 1: made him a lot of money. Such an American thing too.

1003
00:52:53,719 --> 00:52:58,239
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, they're the first Duck dynasty. Is the Buoy family? Well,

1004
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:00,400
Speaker 1: and I can't I keep thinking of I've been to

1005
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:06,319
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bill's grave site in several different locations, so I

1006
00:53:06,400 --> 00:53:08,680
Speaker 1: keep thinking of that kind of stuff too, where it's like,

1007
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:11,319
Speaker 1: oh it is it's like Jesse James hit out and

1008
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 1: never made you mean a wild Bill Hickock. Yeah yeah, okay, yeah,

1009
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:16,600
Speaker 1: you gotcha. Yeah, No, not Buffalo did I say the

1010
00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:21,719
Speaker 1: guy like, yeah, yeah, while Bill sorry, but yeah, I've

1011
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 1: been to his several of his uh graves, which always

1012
00:53:27,040 --> 00:53:29,759
Speaker 1: makes me laugh. That's like that kind of meat those

1013
00:53:29,800 --> 00:53:34,160
Speaker 1: that happens. Yeah, that's kind of what you get. So

1014
00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:36,640
Speaker 1: this has been the episode Billy you got any plug

1015
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:40,960
Speaker 1: doubles you wanna wanna throw down? I just find me

1016
00:53:41,040 --> 00:53:44,279
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Billy Wayne Davis or on Instagram at

1017
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:48,520
Speaker 1: Billy wyn Davis. Uh. And I have a podcast out

1018
00:53:48,520 --> 00:53:52,080
Speaker 1: called Growing Local that is about the people in the

1019
00:53:52,080 --> 00:53:56,239
Speaker 1: communities that make up just who where your cannabis comes from,

1020
00:53:56,320 --> 00:53:59,720
Speaker 1: and the first season is about Eugene or again. Check

1021
00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:03,760
Speaker 1: out Billy Wayne's Cannabis podcast, pick Up a Bowie Knife,

1022
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:08,480
Speaker 1: um and uh follow us on behind the Bastard's dot

1023
00:54:08,480 --> 00:54:11,000
Speaker 1: com and at Bastard's pot on Twitter and Instagram, and

1024
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:13,640
Speaker 1: check out my new podcast, The Women's War, which is

1025
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:18,200
Speaker 1: about people who aren't a piece of ships like James

1026
00:54:18,239 --> 00:54:24,359
Speaker 1: Bowie uh and are cool. So that's the episode Motherfucker's

1027
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:31,960
Speaker 1: Wash your hands Goodbye. Yeah h