1 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:07,000 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:09,960 Speaker 1: there's Jerry over there. Everyone be quiet, let's get started. 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:14,520 Speaker 1: Ambrose Beers goes missing. This is a good one. This 4 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:18,760 Speaker 1: is so. Ambrose Beers was a writer, and he's described 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:21,680 Speaker 1: in this article. And this is from the old friends 6 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:24,599 Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Oh yeah, good, good plug. Yeah. 7 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 1: They still have some great, great short content out there 8 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,000 Speaker 1: that we can mind for these short stuffs. But he 9 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:32,880 Speaker 1: has described here as equal parts Mark Twain and Edgar 10 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: Allan Poe is pretty good. Yeah. He was born in 11 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:38,680 Speaker 1: Ohio in eighteen forty two, and he was a journalist 12 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:41,800 Speaker 1: and like one of the big sort of early journalists 13 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 1: to kind of supposedly one of the first ones to 14 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: really make his byeline a brand in and of itself. 15 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but he also wrote horror stories. He wrote 16 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: horror short horror fiction. He wrote a lot of um. 17 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: He was kind of his generation's voice about how the 18 00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:58,960 Speaker 1: Civil War really was because he was one of the 19 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: few writers of his day who had actually fought in 20 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,040 Speaker 1: the Civil War. That's right. I remember. The one that 21 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 1: comes to mind for most people, probably that you read 22 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: in school was an occurrence at al Creek Bridge. Great story. Yeah, 23 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:12,119 Speaker 1: one of the classic American short stories of all time. 24 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:16,120 Speaker 1: He also wrote The Devil's Dictionary, which was his own 25 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:22,760 Speaker 1: take on words like um, ghosts are outward and visible 26 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:27,040 Speaker 1: signs of inward fears, or peace is just a period 27 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 1: of cheating in between two periods of fighting. Just kind 28 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:36,360 Speaker 1: of scathing, sarcastic, bitter takes on humanity. And to kind 29 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:39,679 Speaker 1: of make it more succinct, I saw a Poetry Foundation 30 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: description of him said he was a committed opponent of hypocrisy, prejudice, corruption, 31 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: and had contempt for politics, religion, society, and conventional human values. 32 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: So he's our kind of guy about to say he 33 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:55,560 Speaker 1: would really we should go get some coffee with him, 34 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:57,640 Speaker 1: and he he would have been one of the great 35 00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 1: American writers. A lot of people say he is, but 36 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:01,800 Speaker 1: he would have been one of the widely known great 37 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,400 Speaker 1: American writers had he ever gotten a novel together. But 38 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:08,799 Speaker 1: he didn't. He was a columnist, he was a short 39 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,760 Speaker 1: story writer, he was a correspondent, but he never made 40 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: became a novelist. And he was partially bitter. He was 41 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 1: bitter in part because of that. So when this article 42 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: says he was a novelist that is a lie. Yes, Okay, 43 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:27,080 Speaker 1: So this dude named Don Swam wrote a book called 44 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:31,639 Speaker 1: The Assassination of Ambrose Beers colon. When is someone going 45 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: to write a book without a colon? I think we 46 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:38,960 Speaker 1: need to colin a love story. And he seems to 47 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:41,520 Speaker 1: be sort of the guy who really is I think 48 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:43,919 Speaker 1: he runs a website on Ambrose Beers, is really carrying 49 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: this torch forward for this person? And what's interesting beyond 50 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:51,639 Speaker 1: the life of Ambrose Beers is the disappearance and mysterious 51 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,240 Speaker 1: death of Ambrose Beers. Yeah. I was reading an l 52 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:58,200 Speaker 1: A Times article about this very thing, and they said 53 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:02,640 Speaker 1: that Ambrose Beers would have become a totally obscure American writer. 54 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:05,079 Speaker 1: I'm not sure if that's true had he not made 55 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:11,679 Speaker 1: a great career choice at the end where he put 56 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: a shroud of mystery over his own demise. That's what happened. 57 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:20,240 Speaker 1: No one knows what happened to Ambrose Beers. He disappeared 58 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 1: and was never heard from. Starting in December of n Yeah, 59 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: there are there are a bunch of theories, and we're 60 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,240 Speaker 1: gonna throw some of them out there. Um over the 61 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 1: next seven or eight minutes. One of them, is that 62 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:36,880 Speaker 1: he loved the Grand Canyon, and he loved it so much. 63 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: He loved it like air wolf. He loved it so 64 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: much that he wanted to become a part of it 65 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: and leaped to his death. Uh, and went there to 66 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,520 Speaker 1: to leap to his death and die by suicide. That's 67 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,360 Speaker 1: one which is believable, as as we'll see you later on, 68 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: it's plausible. Um. But the the main story, the one 69 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: that most historians will point to as the story of 70 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: what happened to him, is that in December of nine 71 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: he left California to go down to Mexico to find 72 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: Poncho Villa, who was one of three leaders of the 73 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: Mexican Revolution um down there at the time, and that 74 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:20,960 Speaker 1: he either wanted to write a book about Poncho Villa, 75 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: write some articles about him, or he wanted to take 76 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:27,039 Speaker 1: up arms alongside Poncho Villa because he was an old 77 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:30,359 Speaker 1: Confederate war vett who had nothing to lose at this point. 78 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:33,560 Speaker 1: He was a bitter, old drunk who had an acerbic 79 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:37,600 Speaker 1: wit and bitter take on everything. Um. And that is 80 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,599 Speaker 1: actually not totally out of the realm of possibility for 81 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: why he was going down there. But the through The 82 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: common general story is that he went down to Mexico 83 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:49,960 Speaker 1: to hang out with Poncho Villa for one reason or another, 84 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 1: and that he was never heard from again at the age. 85 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 1: So should we take a break, Ye, all right, We'll 86 00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:58,120 Speaker 1: come right back and talk a little bit about what 87 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: people speculate happened south of a border stop. Mm hm alright. 88 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: So there are a lot. I mean, it seems like 89 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:29,680 Speaker 1: it's really hard to get a beat, a read, a 90 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:36,400 Speaker 1: beat on this a bead, because everything that seems like 91 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 1: it might have really happened is disputed by somebody. It's 92 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:42,919 Speaker 1: not just that chuck in addition to that, or the 93 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:46,040 Speaker 1: reason the reason why it's disputed by somebody is because 94 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:49,599 Speaker 1: he almost You get the impression that he went to 95 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: the trouble of setting it up so that his disappearance 96 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: would be a mystery that no one would ever be 97 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: able to figure it out. Perhaps, And it's also clear 98 00:05:57,040 --> 00:05:59,680 Speaker 1: that in nineteen thirteen it was a lot easier to 99 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: disap Pierre and no one ever knows what happens to 100 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 1: you just and then he's gone. So it is generally believed, though, 101 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:11,200 Speaker 1: that he did go to Mexico, and he did uh 102 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,000 Speaker 1: ride with Poncho Villas, a seventy one year old Civil 103 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:18,360 Speaker 1: War veteran. It's just not um proven out exactly why 104 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:22,920 Speaker 1: he was there or how he necessarily died there, right right, 105 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: Some people say firing squad, yes, which is supported by 106 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:31,160 Speaker 1: this letter. So his last letter was posted from Chihuahua, Mexico, 107 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,400 Speaker 1: which is where Poncho Villa was stationed in carrying out 108 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: his his arm of the revolution. So we made it 109 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:42,080 Speaker 1: as far as Poncho Villa's home territory. Supposedly. Some people 110 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:44,560 Speaker 1: don't even believe that that's true, but that's where the 111 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,120 Speaker 1: last known letter from ambro Beers was postmarked, was Chihuahua, Mexico. 112 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:50,920 Speaker 1: And in this letter he says, goodbye. If you hear 113 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:53,359 Speaker 1: of my being stood up against the Mexican stone wall 114 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:55,840 Speaker 1: and shot to rags, please know that I think it 115 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: is a pretty good way to depart this life. It 116 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:00,920 Speaker 1: beats old age disease or falling on the cellar stairs 117 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,600 Speaker 1: to be a gringo in Mexico. Ah, that is euthanasia. 118 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:07,680 Speaker 1: So this is the last letter he has, and he's 119 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:09,720 Speaker 1: in Chihuahua, Mexico, and then no one ever hears f 120 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:11,360 Speaker 1: him again. And he was going down to hang out 121 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: with Poncho Villa. That would support the idea that he 122 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: died at the hands of either Poncho Villa or maybe 123 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: the Federals who Poncho Villa was fighting. Right. There are 124 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,560 Speaker 1: also people skeptics that say, you know, there really was 125 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:26,600 Speaker 1: no letter um and there was a notebook that belonged 126 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,520 Speaker 1: to a secretary that had a summary of a purported letter. 127 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: Oh really, yeah, but I mean heard that one. I 128 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:36,120 Speaker 1: think the man who wrote the book, Mr Swain, says 129 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:38,680 Speaker 1: there was a literal letter, right, That's what I've heard, 130 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:41,520 Speaker 1: So I'm not sure how that can be up for debate. 131 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:45,440 Speaker 1: Some people say that he had somebody take the letter 132 00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:48,360 Speaker 1: down to Chihuahua, because you can give someone a letter, 133 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:50,520 Speaker 1: give him some money to take it down, and then 134 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:53,200 Speaker 1: have them mail it from Chiuauwa. Just because that last 135 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: letter was posted from Chihuahua does not indisputably prove that 136 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:00,240 Speaker 1: Ambrose Beers was in Chihuahua at the end of ten 137 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:03,360 Speaker 1: that's right. There are some other people that said there's 138 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,360 Speaker 1: a priest named James Lenert who says that he was 139 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:11,280 Speaker 1: executed by firing squad uh and this was in um 140 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:14,680 Speaker 1: Sierra Mohata and that he never made it to Chihuahua. Yeah, 141 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:16,960 Speaker 1: and that would have been the federal troops in a 142 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:18,880 Speaker 1: mine in a mining camp who found out he was 143 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:22,320 Speaker 1: going to aid ponto Villa and kill him. The idea 144 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 1: that he died at either the hands of or the 145 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:29,440 Speaker 1: order of Poncho Villa came from a guy named Adolf 146 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:34,320 Speaker 1: Danziger de Castro who wrote a very obscure biography in 147 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,440 Speaker 1: on Ambrose Beers, and in it he was one of 148 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:42,840 Speaker 1: De Castro was one of Ambrose Beers's drinking buddies. He 149 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: said that he went down to Mexico and had dinner 150 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 1: with Poncho Villa to find out what had happened to 151 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:53,680 Speaker 1: Ambrose Beers and eventually coaxed from Poncho Villa that Ambrose 152 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:58,240 Speaker 1: Beers had died because he had gone drinking and criticizing 153 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,199 Speaker 1: Poncho Villa in punch of He didn't like that, and 154 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: so he was killed because he ran he shot his 155 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:08,080 Speaker 1: mouth off, which was very believable. Yeah, it's entirely possible. 156 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:11,480 Speaker 1: And the fact that this guy knew him. Uh, A 157 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: lot of historians say this seems authentic. That's really possible 158 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:18,080 Speaker 1: that that happened. There was also a journalist named Jake 159 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 1: Silverstein and early two thousand's that said, Uh, he got 160 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 1: into this theory that he never made it to Mexico 161 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:28,200 Speaker 1: and he died in Texas. Uh. He dug up a 162 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:31,559 Speaker 1: letter to the editor of a little newspaper in Marfa, 163 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:35,120 Speaker 1: Texas from a man who said, he's buried here in 164 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:38,680 Speaker 1: an unmarked grave because I picked up a hitchhiker once 165 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:42,040 Speaker 1: who fought for the federal forces, the Mexican federal forces 166 00:09:42,440 --> 00:09:46,120 Speaker 1: when he's a teenager. And he said that he picked 167 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:51,439 Speaker 1: up an old gringo who called himself Ambrosia, and uh, 168 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:53,200 Speaker 1: he said, hey, can you pay me to get me 169 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:56,040 Speaker 1: back into the US. And during this trip he talked 170 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:58,199 Speaker 1: about books that he had written, and one had the 171 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:01,120 Speaker 1: word devil in the title. And he died of pneumonia 172 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:06,559 Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen and was buried in Marfa, Texas. Mhm, okay, 173 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 1: that's just as legitimate as anything else. What about the 174 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:13,080 Speaker 1: one that he actually he like like somebody was saying 175 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:15,920 Speaker 1: that he gave the letter to somebody else to post 176 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:18,800 Speaker 1: from Chihuahua and he went to the Grand Canyon and 177 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:21,840 Speaker 1: died by suicide. That that was how he died, and 178 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:24,280 Speaker 1: that he was throwing everybody off the trail. This one 179 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:26,960 Speaker 1: is actually supported by a couple of things. His son 180 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,880 Speaker 1: um died by suicide. He spoke of suicide as a 181 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 1: noble out that it was somebody's right to make that choice. 182 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:39,839 Speaker 1: And then also, Um he did a tour of Civil 183 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:43,319 Speaker 1: War battlefields in the United States right before he went 184 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 1: to Mexico, So it's possible that he was in the 185 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:49,360 Speaker 1: kind of mindset that he would have been in to 186 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:51,719 Speaker 1: to take his own life. Who knows, but that's a 187 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:55,040 Speaker 1: I mean, that's why we'll probably never know what happened 188 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:57,959 Speaker 1: to him. Because each of these is really plausible, and 189 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:02,439 Speaker 1: each of them can be not constructed but arrivaled by 190 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,200 Speaker 1: the next theory too. None of the theories are just 191 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:08,960 Speaker 1: like outlandish, They're all pretty pretty reasonable and supported by 192 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,360 Speaker 1: some factor other. Yeah, and there was one final one 193 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:14,600 Speaker 1: that this is from Swain's book, that Beer's actually went 194 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:18,400 Speaker 1: to Mexico and fought and lived and then retired to 195 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:21,560 Speaker 1: Saratoga Springs, New York, where he fell in love and 196 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: then died of asthma. And that was of course entirely fiction, 197 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:27,720 Speaker 1: I think so, right, Yeah, because that was his book 198 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:30,719 Speaker 1: was the Ambrose Beer's love story was fiction, and I 199 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:32,640 Speaker 1: think that's what happens to him in the book. You 200 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:35,200 Speaker 1: know that movie, you know, the movie Old Gringo with 201 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,240 Speaker 1: Gregory Peck that came out Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda 202 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:44,720 Speaker 1: and Jimmy Smits. It reimagines Ambrose Beers's death at the 203 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:47,760 Speaker 1: hands of one of ponto Villa's generals, shot in the 204 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:51,520 Speaker 1: back and supposedly from dust till Don three, not supposedly. 205 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:57,080 Speaker 1: I never saw it, but that tackles ambro Beers. Ambro Beers, 206 00:11:57,080 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 1: he's a character in it. Yeah, and I think he 207 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:04,719 Speaker 1: lives in in that in Old gringoy Dies. Well, if 208 00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 1: you know what happened Ambrose Beers, we want to know 209 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:09,600 Speaker 1: about it. You can send us a message to Stuff 210 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,160 Speaker 1: Podcasts at I heeart radio dot com and uh, I 211 00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:16,199 Speaker 1: think that's it right, that's it. Well, then short stuff 212 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:21,320 Speaker 1: is out. Stuff you Should Know is a production of 213 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: iHeart Radios. How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my 214 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,320 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 215 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.