WEBVTT - Know When to Hold 'Em: Canada Bill Jones 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.400 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:07.880 Zaren Elizabeth Zaron, Get over here, I'm here, I'm here questions. 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:08.680 Should I sit down? 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:09.160 No? 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:09.559 Yeah? 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.799 Stay stay standing? Okay, you know it's ridiculous. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:13.319 I do. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:16.200 So. You know I've told you recently that that story 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.439 about uh Keith Richards and John Lennon, right, Well, I 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:21.079 did some research and I was bumping around in the 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:25.240 Rolling Stones. I found something interesting about Mick Jagger and uh, 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:26.920 you know he was married to Jerry Hall, the model 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:28.840 for like a long time. Yes, well they were made 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.400 for about twenty three years, and apparently she got really 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.320 tired of all the like infidelities on his part. Yeah, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.280 and she's like, look, you're a sex addict. Oh and 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.600 he's like yeah, probably right. And so he's like, you 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:43.960 need to go to therapy and deal with this if 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:46.680 we're going to stay together. So Mick agreed. He's like, yeah, 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.080 I'll do that, you know whatever. So he goes and 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.839 h turns out he seduced his sex therapist. Stop it. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.440 So he just like did the chicken walk? 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:03.000 Can strutten over? She's like, I gotta have some of that. 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:05.640 All I think about with Mick Jagger is that John 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.959 mullaney bit about how when he was hosting Saturday Night Live, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:13.320 how he was deciding what, you know, skits they should do, 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.560 and John Mulaney would pitch one and Mick Jagger would say, 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:18.800 not funny. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:19.679 I thought that for. 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:26.440 You, not funny. That's ridiculous, right, seducing. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:29.679 Going to for help? Who is a sex therapist? Like 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:31.880 she knows this is the one thing I cannot do well. 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.840 But you know, I guess she's got she's got weaknesses. 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.120 Yeah, let me see what made those lips smile. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.039 For some reason? These the ladies, they can't resist them. 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:43.000 Yeah, he got the leading man itis. 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.240 I guess he's so like that doesn't matter. It's like 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.640 a dancing skeleton totally, that doesn't matter. 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:53.040 It's you're not really drawn to like the physical forms charm, 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:54.520 it's the attitude. 0:01:54.440 --> 0:02:02.160 Hands on the hips, yeah, the est pout, Yeah, not funny. 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:04.200 Do you know what else is ridiculous? 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:04.360 No? 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.320 I do not making people. 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:12.200 Believe they can win an unwinnable game, over and over 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:37.720 and over. This is ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:42.320 and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's always ninety nine 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.320 percent murder free. And one hundred percent ridiculous. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.000 Oh you damn right, I know I am. Are you 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:50.800 familiar with Alan Pinkerton? 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:54.760 Do you want me to not cuss and go off 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.160 on a rant and tirage pretend I'm familiar with that. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:02:59.920 I was just born. I don't know. 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.200 I think he was in maybe the last century or two, saren. 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:07.040 He was one of the most significant figures in American 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:08.720 law enforcement and private security. 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:10.480 Why is that, Elizabeth? Whatever did he do? 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:12.480 Let me tell you? You know? Oddly enough? 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.440 Yes, he was a product of the Deer Green Place, 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.000 my home away from home, Glasgow, Scotland. 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:19.840 Oh really, he was a Glaswegian. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.400 I'd explain some of his tenacity. 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:25.560 He was born there in eighteen nineteen. 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:27.600 Okay, why did they get rid of him? They do? 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:28.799 What he was like? 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.400 I think you're going to be interested. So his dad 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:32.960 was a police search I guessed that. 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.640 And he died when Alan was young, and he left 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.400 the family struggling. I mean, not on purpose, but you 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:42.880 know who knows. Maybe so Alan he trained as a cooper, 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.960 not a copper, oh, to make barrel cooper exactly, a 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:50.000 barrel maker, and he became active in the Chartist movement. 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.920 What is that I thought maybe you'd know it's working 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.440 class agitation for political reform. 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:56.680 Yeah, I'm trying to play a long. 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.880 So okay, so all these workers right, they want workers right, 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.720 they want you know, it's not just labor issues, but 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.880 for those like just the working yes, and just you know, 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.360 votes and all sorts of other stuff. So he gets 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:16.000 really into the chartists, and his political activism brought him 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:17.480 into conflict. 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.120 With the authorities, you know, as it does. 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:24.239 He went up against the Glasgow cops and maybe didn't 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:25.400 always go so great for him. 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.680 Yeah, I imagine they used the billy clubs too. Oh. 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:28.160 Probably. 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.240 In eighteen forty two he'd had enough. He immigrated to 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.480 the US with his wife. You got run out of town. 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.279 They settled in Chicago after spending a little bit of 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:40.080 time in Canada. 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:41.040 So they jumped over the. 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.360 Common understand the Scots to go to Canada America. 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.280 Yes, yes, And he at first he worked as a 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.080 cooper again in Dundee township near Chicago, so he had 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.279 to stick with the Scottish connection Dundee. 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:54.080 Uh. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.840 So he's orbiting Chicago and one time, just by chance, 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.200 he's out in the woods looking for wood because that's 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:03.160 where they keep woods. 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:04.720 That is true in the best place. 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.280 That's the name he wants to He's like, I got 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.600 to build a barrel, dude, and held raw material. It 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.800 goes out there and he finds a counterfeitters camp. I 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:17.920 don't know why I enunciated that so hard. 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:19.320 I maybe really wonder what was. 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:23.600 Very formal counterfeit A gang counterfeitters camp. You know, I'm 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.080 trying not to allide over everything all the time and 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.080 slur my speed because remember when we first started doing this, 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.400 and that guy said that if you play the show 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.919 on like seven point seventy five or halftime, I sound 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.120 completely drunk and you sound normal. 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:38.920 Because I talk so fast. 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:40.360 Yeah, anyway, I don't remember what. 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.680 People said like that about that. You do. I don't 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.159 you can remind me of what people say about It. 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.039 Lives in my head, but I make it pay rent. 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.200 He finds his counterfeitters camp eighteen forty seven. 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.800 We're talking money counterfeiting, right, yeah, yeah, and. 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.880 He he channeled his dad and he helped the authorities 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:03.440 arrest the counter and he gained this reputation for vigilance. 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:05.480 And also, I'm going to guess as. 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.960 A narc exactly like Yan. 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.520 So he gets appointed as a result of this, like 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.919 a couple of years later, he's appointed the first police 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.720 detective in Chicago in eighteen forty nine detection. They had 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.919 just lance committee. Yes, and now they're like, how about. 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:25.440 You, you nark, Yeah, we're gonna be you can't. 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.560 Mind your own business, you go detect. So eighteenth Chicago 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:29.000 the first. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:30.479 That's crazy. Wow. 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.840 And so eighteen fifty the next year, he founded the 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:39.840 Northwestern Police Agency, later renamed the Pinkerton National Detective Agents. Yes, 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.480 now my question what happened at the Chicago PD that. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.000 After a year they're like, a year, you should do 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:46.680 this privately. 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:48.680 Yeah, maybe like settle down there, but. 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:49.840 We don't want to pay you for this. 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.839 No. So the agency's logo was this wide open eye 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.719 with the motto we never sleep. Yes, ominous, but that's 0:06:57.720 --> 0:06:59.800 where we get the phrase private eye. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:04.000 Yeah. So the firm they specialized. 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.680 In railroad security, and then they added in like pursuit 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.040 of fugitives and then later little dash of strike breaking, 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:15.280 little which is rich considering what got him in trouble 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:16.040 as a lad. 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:18.120 Thank you. I didn't want to get into all that, but. 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.000 I mean like that. Yeah, so come on, now. 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:21.880 He's like you know what, I know what pays. Well, 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:23.880 it's like you know. 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:26.000 You change as you get older. 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:30.200 So the Pinkerton Agency became the most prominent private detective 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.040 service in nineteenth century America. Yes, and the name became 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.920 synonymous with like brutal private detectives and strongmens and strike breaking, oh, 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:43.400 strike breaking and operating outside of the law and yet 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:48.080 be thinking they are the law exactly. So eighteen sixty one, 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.000 Pinkerton he uncovered a plan. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.120 They're like goons and suits. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.000 Total goons, total goons. He found out that someone who's 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:59.240 going to try and assassinate President elect Abraham Lincoln, Yes, 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:03.840 in Baltimore, a Balmore during his you know trip to Washington, 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:08.680 d C. So Lincoln Chicago, right, so that like he 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.600 then Pinkerton organizes it. So Lincoln arrives in secret, and 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.000 he referred to it as the Baltimore Plot, and he 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.640 was able to foil it. During the Civil War, he 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.760 served as head of the Union Intelligence Service, so that's 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:26.960 like the pre secret service. He organized espionage networks behind 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:31.160 Confederate lines, although a lot of times his reports like 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:32.840 overestimated the. 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.840 Confederate troop strength. Course, but like after the war. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.480 The agency became famous for pursuing criminals like the Reno Gang, 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.480 the James Younger Game, and then Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:48.040 Of course, so by the eighteen seventies, oh, he is, 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.960 he is, he's got star power. Eighteen seventies, eighteen eighties, 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:53.760 they're like, really. 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:54.960 That's when they get into the strike breaking. 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.280 Yes, and they're like, you know, we're here to protect 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:02.640 industry and destroy lives. And that tarnished his reputation among 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:07.000 organized labor obviously, which again, you know, you look at 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:08.720 his origins, it's an about face. 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:10.520 So now this is what he's taking on. 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.240 Mother Jones, correct the muckraker. 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.880 Now, let's get to what I want to talk to 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.000 you about today, but not just Alan Pinkerton. 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:19.960 I'd love to hear what you'd love to talk about. 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.280 I want to talk to you about your poor performance 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.760 and our detective agency nose. 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.040 I thought if I dressed like the job that I wanted, 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:29.480 that's all I had to do. 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:30.240 Time out. 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.640 You're wearing an incredible yellow Hawaiian shirt today. 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.640 That kind of is very magnum. 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.720 Pi, and I feel like you should be out, you know, 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.400 scoping something with some give. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.160 Me some short shorts and I'm going to be there for. 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.160 And some binoculars and then you just go sit in. 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.640 The car, keep binoculars in my car for bird watching. 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:51.760 You just did the air exactly. 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:55.720 All right, very magnum. 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.959 This this all is going to start for us with 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.600 one of Alan Pinkton's books. Ooh, because he wrote he 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.760 wrote The Expressman and the Detective in eighteen seventy four, 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.800 the Molly Maguires and the Detectives in eighteen seventy seven, 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.840 and then Criminal Reminiscence and Detective Sketches in eighteen seven 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:18.679 or memoir. Yeah, so these books widely read, but also 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.960 they were like totally sensationalized. So there was you know, 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.199 a lot of fiction up in that fact and it 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:26.600 was mostly you know, just. 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:28.600 To promote the Pinkerton Agency here totally. 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:30.920 I mean him and dashil Hammett basically do it. 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.480 And so but it's that last tone that kicks it 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:40.240 off for us. In Criminal Reminiscences and Detective Sketches, Pinkerton wrote, quote, 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.160 there are some men who naturally choose, or through a 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:48.239 series of unfortunate blunders, drift into the life of social outlaws, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.200 who possess so many remarkably original traits of character that 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:56.920 they become rather subjects for admiration than condemnation when we 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:58.280 review their life and character. 0:10:58.400 --> 0:10:59.720 It's a lot of words say outlaw folk. 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.400 We've talked about a good number of these dudes totally. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.200 But who in particular was Alan Pankerton talking about Zaren Who? 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.199 Elizabeth? Because I do not have any guesses, No. 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.920 Neither do I. It's a guy, We'll put it that way. 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:18.280 He was. It's just established. It's a human being and a. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.600 Man, not a dog, a wolverine or a child. 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:21.120 Correct. 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:27.240 Who was a con artist at a riverboat gambler? He yes, hey, 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:32.439 and a card sharp about He's been described by many as, 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:37.360 quote the greatest of confidence men, and quote, without a doubt, 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.040 the greatest three card Monty Sharp ever to work the boats, 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:42.800 perhaps the greatest of them all. 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:44.640 Oh old fastthand Matthews. 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.320 I like being talked about working the boats. Work in 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:48.760 the boats. 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:51.200 She's working the boats. 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.080 So was Sophie Smith. 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:55.880 But he wasn't a three card money guy. But he 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:57.520 was not the fastest. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.000 He was like the best either way. I'm not talking 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:01.640 came out so okay, I love him. I just kind 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.240 of wanted to say his name, you invoke his name, 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:08.240 bring me there. This guy has a great name, though 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:10.680 it is not as good as Soapy, but it's pretty proper. 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.760 Alan Pinkerton and I are talking about Canada Bill Jones. 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:15.680 Are you kidding? 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:16.880 That sounds like I made it up. 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.880 It totally sounds like he would make up every Jones 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:21.880 over here. 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:25.240 Now and then I'm tempted to just completely make up 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.520 a criminal and a crime to tell you and just 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:30.440 never never revealed it. 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:31.360 I've just made it up. 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:32.480 That would be kind of fun. 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:35.920 So Canada Bill Jones sounds like one that I would make. 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:38.200 I don't know. 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:40.480 We'll find out. Canada Bill Jones is incredible. 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.320 We'll do a little fact checking when we're doing. 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:44.559 So you got the name Bill Jones, are like, you 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.079 know what, you need a Canada in front of that. 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.720 Canada Bill Jones. Well, it's not even cool. The Bill 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.320 Jones part, like, go further with Bill Jones. 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.840 So it's it should be like Canada, Jack McGill cuddy exactly. 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:56.320 Canada. 0:12:56.360 --> 0:13:01.959 Bill Jones's false flat deflate so William Jones and also. 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.000 Implies that there's another Bill Jones in town that you 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:04.440 needed to. 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:09.199 Be differentiated from Mexico, La Colorado. Bill Jones. Which member 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.080 of NAFTA are you so, Canada? Bill Jones? 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.880 William Jones born in a tent, of course, in Yorkshire, 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.000 England in eighteenth forty seven. 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.000 I was picturing in Canada. Born in his. 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:25.960 Family were Romanical. So the Romantical, often referred to as 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.880 the Romneys, are a subgroup of the Romany people. Yes, 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:33.640 aka what you know in the olden times they called gypsy. 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.079 With this long history, the Romantical have this long history 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.240 in the British Isles, especially England. So they trace their 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.800 ancestry to the Romany people of northern India who migrated 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:45.800 westward over one thousand. 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.120 Years, with many deviations along the way. 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:51.280 Yeah, and the first recorded Romany groups arrived in England 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:54.920 around the early fifteen hundreds. Okay, so over the centuries 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:59.200 the community developed this really distinct identity within Britain, that's 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.640 what they. Yeah, Well, this is different. So that the 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:07.080 Romantical or the English branch of the Romany diaspora, and 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:11.440 they run parallel to other subgroups like the Welsh, Kale 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:16.360 and Wales, the Scottish Travelers, the Irish travelers, although Irish 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.440 Travelers are actually a separate ethno linguistic group, and they're 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.120 not truly romany way, don't you. I mean, I am 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:29.120 a font of knowledge, so speak. I'm just gonna hold on, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.400 all right. It just all came out. Speaking of language, 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:37.720 the Romanical traditionally spoke Anglo Romany, which is this mixed language, 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.680 the core vocabulary from Romany and the grammar and syntax 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.400 from English and then Anglo Romany. That's spoken in a 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.120 lot of families today, but most of them now, most 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.600 of the Romanticals speak regional British English as. 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:52.800 Their main language. 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:57.119 So like historically they're itinerant. They moved in caravans wagons 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:02.400 and they made their living through horse trading, tinkering or metalwork, yeah, 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:06.600 fortune telling, and then entertainment, music fairs, circuses. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.200 You mentioned also horse breeding, Yeah, that. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:09.320 Horse trading and breeding. 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.960 They did seasonal agriculture work so like fruit picking and 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:14.320 gathering hops. 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.320 And they you know, they would run run scams and come. Yeah. 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.880 So from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, Romanticals face 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:27.720 really heavy persecution in England. From fifteen thirties to seventeen eighties, 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.640 there were laws that made it a crime simply to 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.400 be a quote gypsy, you could get whipped, you could 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:36.840 get sent off to America or Australia. 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:38.640 You could be executed on site. 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:38.920 Wow. 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:39.280 Yeah. 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.600 And a lot of them get deported to the American 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.240 colonies in the like seventeen eighteenth century. 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:45.920 A lot of breaking up of families too, right, Like 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.160 kids go to the poorhouse, family gets seut Australia. 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:48.720 Right. 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.240 But like in the US, that's why we have those 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:56.000 traveler communities in the South and Appalachia. Right, they're the 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.400 ones who were, you know, sent off to Georgia. 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:00.920 I remember growing up there always be outside of town 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:02.320 and they were known for the horse trade. Yeah. 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:02.640 Yeah. 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.800 So Canada, Bill Canada dry From a young age, he 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:11.640 learned handling and short games rigged card players, and so 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.520 in eighteen sixty he migrated to Canada. You can see why, like, you. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.960 Know, I got a home not appreciated, and his options. 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:22.240 Are limited, and you know he's being like severely discriminated against. 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.120 So in Canada he partners up with this guy, Dick 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.480 Caty and it was there that he owned three card 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.400 Monty as a specialist quote thrower, and the thrower is 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.800 the con artist who performs the card manipulation has this 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.560 like sleight of hand, their toss techniques to trick spectators 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:42.920 into losing their money. And that's around the time that 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.880 he gets the nickname Canada Bill, and I suppose like 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.760 Yorkshire Bill before that, and then he became Canadbill. He 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.080 had this really interesting look. According to Alan Pinkerton quote, 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:58.200 his personal appearance, which was most ludicrous, undeniably had much 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:02.000 to do with his success. He was the veritable country gawky, 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:06.920 the ridiculous, ignorant, absurd creature that has been so imperfectly 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:10.240 imitated on and off the stage for years, and whose 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.280 true description can scarcely be written. He was fully six 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:17.080 feet high, with dark eyes and hair, and always had 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.840 a smooth shaven face full of seams and wrinkles that 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.400 were put to all manner of difficult expressions with marvelous 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:29.400 facility and ease. All this coupled with long, loose jointed arms, 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:34.000 long thin and apparently a trifle unsteady legs, a shambling, 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:38.000 shuffling awkward gait, and this remarkable face and head bent 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.480 forward and turned a little to one side like an 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.679 inquiring and wise old owl, and then an outfit of 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:47.920 granger clothing. The entire cost of which never exceeded fifteen dollars, 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:51.719 made a combination that never failed to call a smile 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:55.640 to a stranger's face or awaken a feeling of curiosity 0:17:55.680 --> 0:18:01.720 and interest wherever he might be seen. He's describing Nick Checker. 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.880 I mean, like all also, I love how Alan Pickerton 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:10.639 never hesitates to judge like everything. He's like, god, man, he's. 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:11.960 Like, oh, is there an opening for that. 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:17.080 Let's take a break and when we come back, we're 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.560 going to continue on following the life of Canada. 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:52.800 Bill nice. 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:45.360 Zaren Elizabeth welcome back. Yes, So all right, we're talking 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:46.000 about Canada. 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:46.240 Bill. 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.439 You can see that he's not too put together, like not, 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:51.960 but he's not really one way or another anything. 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:54.600 He just seems really charismatic, especial when he's talking about 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:56.000 the creases in his face and how they dance. 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.960 He's got this like charm that draws people in. That's 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.439 that's an important for So you got to be somewhat 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.480 memorable but not too much and like not too flashy, 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.280 relatable put people at these So he Bill, he worked 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.280 his card sharp skills, honed his talents, but he didn't 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.760 stick around Canada very long. Soon he moved south into 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:20.119 the US riverboat circuit on the Mississippi tributaries because that's 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:20.879 where the money was. 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:21.960 Oh yes, yeah, and. 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:22.720 You were the action. 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.439 And yeah, he worked with these teams of people and 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:28.160 one of them was George Devall. 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:33.000 That name sounds familiar, George Hildreth Deval, Okay, less familiar. 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:33.800 He was born. 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.640 I'll just keep adding names to it until it's like unrecognizable. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.680 Born in eighteen twenty nine in Ohio. He was a riverboat, 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.720 railroad professional gambler and a card sharp. He also he 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.879 wrote the best selling memoir Forty Years A Gambler on 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:49.720 the Mississippi. 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:51.720 That's why, Yeah, I figured you probably read that. 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:57.199 So the memoir is like this nineteenth century picuresque filled 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:01.120 with bravado and like these kind of stock characters. It's 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:05.240 more of this window onto the milieu and his self presentation. 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:07.600 It's not a work of nonfiction really. 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:09.040 Yeah, no exactly. And also I mean this is where 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:11.600 we get like later on the character Maverick, who is 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.959 like a riverboat gambler. Yes, they're imitating the world he 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:15.760 described in. 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.400 Yeah, and he grew up in it right like so 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.679 he had he was early into steamboat life as a 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.400 cabin boy. And but then he really picked up all 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.320 of like the card you know, tricks and slights really 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:29.720 really easily in his. 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:31.360 Team and had to pick your marks too. 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.280 Yeah, and so he was able to be a really 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.280