WEBVTT - Uncut Gems: The Great Diamond Hoax 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.520 Ridiculous. Crime is a production of I heart radio. Hey, 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:07.800 Elizabeth Doutton, do you know it's ridiculous? Oh, I'm so 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:12.080 glad you asked. I do. It's actually human arrogance, like no, 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:13.840 I mean for real, like you know, we always think like, oh, 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:15.680 we're so special, but it turns out like if you 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:18.840 really look around and you investigate, like animal research, you 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.000 find that animals are just like us. Like, for instance, 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.680 did you know that it's been noted in captivity that 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.560 killer whales can learn to speak bottlenose dolphin? Really, yeah, 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.440 and not only that, sperm whales in the wild, like 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:33.720 in the Caribbean, they speak with an accent that other 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.680 whales can't. Do they when they speak Dolphin? Are they 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.040 speaking in a heavy whale accent? I wonder, but sperm 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:45.559 whales speak with their own specific Caribbean accent exactly like. 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:47.360 I just would love to hear what that sounded like. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.200 And Cats, you know, like we think like Oh, cats 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.680 don't really like speak English like like well, it turns 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.160 out they do. They understand their name, they just choose 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.640 not to respond. They just ignore you when you say 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:03.760 their name. But they do. And then also, like, for instance, cows, right. Cows. 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.920 Did you know that they love Cool Jazz? Yeah, cows, 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.520 if you played cool jazz, they will produce one point, 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:15.440 one point five more pints of milk per day for Jazz. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.119 For Yeah, well, for any like. You know, Cool Colm Jazz, 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:23.520 smooth jazz, Cool Jazz, really calming music, often warm. Yeah, 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:28.039 the quiet, quiet, wow, some animals are just like us. 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.040 Everybody always thinks that we're so special. Human arrogance. Telling 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.000 your ridiculous agreed, that is ridiculous. Do you know what 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:36.959 else is ridiculous? Oh, you got one. Yeah, throwing a 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.399 bunch of gems on the ground, calling it a motherload. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:42.880 It sounds like some one of my uncles would do. 0:01:43.040 --> 0:02:06.240 Probably this is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:11.360 outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always murder free. And 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:17.440 guess what ridiculous? I've talked about the California Gold Rush 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.680 in the eighteen fifties before in my life, and also 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:25.320 talking to you here, Um, Shanghai, Kelly and all that 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.799 great episode to the UK. Right, yeah, and I've talked 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.960 about the Yukon gold rush eighteen sixties, soapy Smith. Today 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.760 I have the story of a diamond rush sort of. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.160 I didn't know there were such a thing as diamond rush. 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:44.280 This sort of by the eighteen seventies, right, the golden 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:48.119 silver rushes of forty and fifty nine respectively had petered out. 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.880 In the late eighteen sixties, diamonds were discovered in South 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:57.680 Africa and so optimistic prospectors started looking around North America 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:02.639 figuring look, we got gold, we got silver, diamonds were amazing. 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:09.120 So a few were actually found near Plasserville, California, in 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:14.440 gold country. There were a few verbal accounts from Western explorers, 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:16.520 but no one found like a huge mine a big 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.600 load of them. Enter Philip Arnold. No, I don't really 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.600 know about where you find diamonds, like in the what 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.200 type of rock strata or like you know gold, you 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.519 need certain granite qualities, right, you need certain rock formations 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.280 with diamonds. Do we even have the geology? Isn't there 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.640 one where you look for courts somewhere? Yeah, I thought 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.480 that was with gold. Yeah, basically like streaks. Of course 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.520 I don't know diamonds. If there's a distinct smell, it's 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:45.520 an ore. Right, you gotta Break Open the Rock and 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:47.280 see the diamonds inside. So how are you going to 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:49.640 know anyway. I just wonder what they were looking for. 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:53.280 You look for Cay Jeweler's in the in the wild. 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:58.280 Philip Arnold. So he was born in Kentucky in eighteen 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:03.120 twenty nine. Does it really matter when? But as a 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.480 young man he dropped out of school and he wanted 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:08.720 to apprentice as a hatter, but he found that it 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.360 didn't suit him. So what did he do? He ran away. 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.000 I was gonna became cobb when you take a job 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.200 and it's not a good fit, you just straight everyone 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.839 to abandon every flee arms of flaylan. So he lied 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.000 about his age and enrolled in the army and he 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.840 served in the Mexican war. So he was out by 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.800 forty eight and after that he goes to California to 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.880 work as a gold rush forty niner. This guy's hitting 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.360 all the big marks. Totally doesn't strike it rich, runs 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:45.039 away arms flaalan. So he worked on all these Um, 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:50.600 he worked on various mining expeditions in the West for decades. Right. Um, 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.680 he did go back to Kentucky in eighteen fifty five 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.080 and he got married and then he went back again 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.640 in eighteen sixty two to buy some property he went 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:03.520 back during the war. Wanna say suspicious timing. Property going cheap. 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:08.040 I met this real cheap property in Kentucky right about now, colonel. 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:14.200 He's an opportunist. So he goes to Arizona and there 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:19.719 he meets another dude from Kentucky named Asbury harpending. That's 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.400 a hell of a Kentucky name. He's one of California's 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:29.400 foremost financiers. I Bet Asbury harpending. Is it harpending harpending? 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.800 I can't ask him, he's dead. It's all of them. 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.400 So in the mid eighteen sixties he goes to work 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:39.880 for Harpendings Lincoln Gold Mine Company in Plaster County California. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.960 So PLASTERVILLE, plastic. One of the board members is an 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.960 associate of harpendings and he is a dude named George Roberts. 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.240 Are you writing all of this down? Taking copy's notes? 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.240 Thank God, because I'm not. In a two thousand four 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:58.440 article in Smithsonian magazine, which, by the way, is amazing. Shout. 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:05.320 I love so many magazine it's really good. It's amazing. Roberts, 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:08.320 in the article was described as, quote, the sort of 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:12.080 businessman described in newspapers as prominent, but his was a 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.600 prominence earned by moving fast and not asking too many questions. 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:20.960 Move fast breaks down. So by eight seventy arnold goes 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.240 back to San Francisco. He's working at the diamond drill 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:29.560 company as an assistant bookkeeper. So he's mining adjacent right, 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.560 he's not actually out there in the field. James Cooper 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.039 also worked at the Diamond Drill Company and Arnold knew 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:41.880 him from earlier prospecting days. So Cooper teaches arnold about 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:46.760 diamonds and gems. Well, yeah, and they're just, you know, 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.560 they're working at the company together, yapping about diamonds. Now 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:54.400 it was allegedly cooper who first brought up the idea 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.039 of as salting a piece of land with gems. Do 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.960 you know what that means? I'm guess. So you gotta 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:04.720 pepper round, you're gonna salt it, sprinkle it, sprinkly, sprinkle me. 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.719 He didn't. He, Cooper didn't participate in the impending hoax, 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.520 but he's just like, you know, be really cool. You 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.080 guys being Super Fun for us to do. Just get 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:19.760 a bunch of the Earth Hannibal Styles. So there's this 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.400 book called diamonds in the Salt and it's written by 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:27.520 Bruce Woodard. He said that Cooper also gave Arnold a 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.280 starting collection of leftover gems from the shop. So he's 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.560 got he's got little scrappings, he's cut scrabblings from the 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:39.200 bottom of the bin. It's like how it like fried 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:42.000 chicken places they sell popcorn chicken, which is just the 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.320 stuff that fell off the regular chicken and the Fryer. 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.040 That's my dairy or like in a butcher's shop, like 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:48.880 the stuff that comes off the table gets turned into 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:54.160 hot dogs. He's got the hot dogs of gems. Yeah, exactly. 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:59.480 So he's like, I'll give you all these scrabblings and Um, 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:06.239 enter John Slack, names, John Slack. Okay, Um, Cooper slack 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.960 and yeah, so one note to go back a little bit. 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.840 That this Dude Arnold, he likely purchased some of the 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:17.040 non diamonds, which would be like rubies, sapphires, etcetera, from 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.800 native Americans in Arizona. Okay, so they had more than like. 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.240 That's just supposition on People's part. Okay, okay. I was wondering, 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.040 do they have these emeralds down in the southwest? I mean, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.320 I know they have, like you know, yeah, and I 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:33.920 don't know what if, like Arkansas, there's a lot in Arkansas. 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:38.040 There's all those places where you have the caverns. John 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:43.720 Slack so arnold needs help, so he brings in his cousin, 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.679 John Slack Action Slack Um. He was nine years older. 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.280 He's also from Kentucky, is his cousin, and he was 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.199 also a minor, forty niner. So cool if he was 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:58.840 nine years old from his nine year old cousin for 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:03.040 his tiny fingers to dig in the dirt. The idea, man, 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.880 it's so good. The plan. How could it fail? November eighteen, 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.200 Seventy Arnold and John Slack Um they go to George 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:16.000 Robert's office. The cousins are looking all weather beaten and 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.319 they said well, Hey, George, we got something really valuable. 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.839 They're like okay, Um, now it's too late in the 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.320 day to go deposit whatever they have at Bank of California. 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:29.840 So they're hoping that, Hey, can you store this for us? 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.760 We missed the bank is closed and it's just like 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.959 a bag. Can you store this for us, which, if 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.400 anyone comes to you and says can you hold this form, no, 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.520 the answer is no, especially if it's dripping especially if 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.040 it's dripping Um. So they're like, well, we got some 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.400 like rough diamonds, but we don't want to tell you 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.199 where we got them. We just have a bag of 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.520 rough diamonds. So, you know, Robert says, I'll store it 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.520 for you, and they said, please, don't tell anybody about this. 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.040 Is Their plan. Get him to tell one exactly. They 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.599 know that if you say don't tell anyone about this, 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.960 this man is going to turn around and tell everybody. 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:07.680 So what does he do? He Turns Around and he 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:12.000 tells William Ralston, the founder of Bank of California. Yeah, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.520 he's like, check it out, William, these dudes, these two 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.840 Ding Dong's, came in bag of diamonds. I'm holding onto it. 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.000 We got fresh marks in town. Who else does he tell? 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:27.360 As very harpending? Yeah, so Ralston is one of the 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:32.439 richest guys in California and he made his fortune mostly 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.960 from like the silver bananza in Nevada's comstockload. Yeah, that 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.000 was discovered in eighteen fifty nine Sara, Nevada's that's why 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:45.280 Nevada is called the silver state. That comstock looad kicked 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:49.319 off all the exploration for silver in Nevada. UTAH. That 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:53.760 cool weird town of Tonapon, Nevada exists because of the COMSTOCKLOAD. 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:56.520 A lot of the big names in the California gold 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.760 rush had a piece of this action too. Switched over. Yeah, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.600 so Roberts brings in more interested parties. He's not supposed 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.120 to be telling anyone. He tells all the big names. 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:11.280 He tells William Lent in general. George Dodge lent had 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:15.240 been a major investor in the comstock load. So this 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.840 group comes together and they want to buy the cousins out. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.560 So they're they're doing exactly what the cousins thought. We 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:23.520 want to buy you out. They're like no, no, sorry, 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:25.800 these are our special loose diamonds. We're not going to 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:30.240 tell you where we got him. Slack, John Slack. He 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.240 he says, okay, I'll make you deal. Give me fifty 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.480 dollars now and then fifty dollars when we come back 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.960 to our from our next visit to the quote unquote field. 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.560 So he's like, acts like he's doing this side deal. 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:46.840 I want you to please, I'm begging you to keep 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:49.880 in mind that fifty dollars then is like one point 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.200 two million dollars now. So he goes to them and says, 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.120 give me one point too cool, and I'll come back 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.199 to you after I've gone and check the field and 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:00.520 make sure there's more diamonds out there worth it. And 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.720 this guy is like saying yeah, because I at the 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.200 inside angle, like I'm planning, I'm buying this. Wasn't it 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.280 for him? He's thinking that this, if they've located a 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.720 place where there's all this these rough diamonds, are going 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.439 to be able to open a diamond mine. And they're 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:15.000 thinking these guys are marks and they can make me 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:16.920 move over on them. They don't realize what they've had. 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:24.199 That okay with you. So July one that Arnold and 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:26.640 slack they decided to go to London to buy more 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:31.360 uncut gems, like London, London, London, London. So Arnold's calling 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.839 himself Ondo. They're taking steamships to go buy Lord. I 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.240 love this. They like flap their wings, and then slack 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.679 uses his middle name, bircham. So they use these aliases. 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:46.280 They buy twenty dollars with rough diamonds and rubies. So 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:53.360 they come back to California. They got sixty pounds pounds. 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.400 Legitimately they've I'm imagining they put them in a crate 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.080 like a chess and so it's like a cartoon. You 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.320 open it up and he's like yeah, although they're rough. 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.320 So it's like rocks Um. So they have the diamonds 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.000 and the rubies, sixty pounds. They smuggle them back in 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:12.840 and then they show Roberts and they're like, look what 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:18.400 we found in the field, sixty pounds. So they said, okay, 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:20.520 we're gonna go back. We're going back to the field 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.200 and they told the businessman we're going to bring you 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.480 back a couple of million dollars worth of stones. So 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.280 if they're talking millions, then think about the value. Now 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.240 that's where we are right now. So we have huge 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.120 crates of stones that everyone thinks is getting pulled out 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.920 of the earth somewhere in the West field, undisclosed location. 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.760 When we come back from this break, I'm gonna let 0:13:42.760 --> 0:14:00.040 you know how that delivery of precious stones went. And 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.880 and we're back hey, our pants on. I still got 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.280 all my teeth when we left off Arnold and slack. 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:18.400 Remember those two? Uh, they'd promised George Roberts, a board 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:24.000 member of Kentucky Creep, Asbury Harpendings, Lincoln Gold Mining Company 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:31.680 Plaster County California. George Roberts slippery businessman. So he says 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.280 he's beat. He'll be quiet about the gems. Turns around 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.720 tells the President of the Bank of California, tells Asbury, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.280 Arnold and slack. He basically goes back into the smoky 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.240 dark room and says, Hey, guys, I got a live one. Well, 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.840 they're all doing all sorts of other illicit deals and 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.880 the exploiting people and they're like, Oh, time out on 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.720 this exploitation. We've got another one coming in Arnold and slack. 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.200 They go to a remote spot in southern Wyoming. What 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.840 they've decided is the field and that's where they salt 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.720 the ground. So they have like they're like flower girls 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:08.680 at a wedding, just tossing like little like fabric petals 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.520 all over the ground. They were wearing little pinafores and 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:20.640 it was wild. SOTYO history, like Wyoming, abbreviated wyo history 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:24.720 dot org. Quote. Arnold and slack had salted the Mesa 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.720 which straddles the Wyoming Colorado border, about forty four miles 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.920 south of rock springs, Wyoming territory, with low grade diamonds 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.440 and other gemstones. To this day, the Mesa is officially 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:41.360 marked on US Geological Survey Topographic maps as diamond field. 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:44.480 I wonder if you could go out there and still 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:46.680 find a loose rock to they maybe, I mean if 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.240 they spread around wide enough. But yeah, so it's just Oh, 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.440 diamond field, that's where the diamonds are. So Arnold chose 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.280 the location because it was so remote and the weather 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.240 was so bad. No one's gonna want to go out there. 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.200 No one's gonna pop in, you know, just like I 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:01.680 was in the neighborhood, just a loot to check out 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.160 diamond field, taking a walk and with my dogs and 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:08.600 Oh my look, Dang kids get a pail. So they 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.440 even so right, they still don't want anyone tracking them. 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.120 So they keep the trail hidden by wrapping the horses 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.280 hoofs in Canvas and they wore moccasins. Damn, that's going 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.640 the extra mile. They don't want anyone. I've never heard 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:23.800 of anyone wrapping a horse's feet like that. I do 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.240 it all the time, but go to the store. I 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.440 don't want to know. That's commitment. Thank you. So back 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:37.440 in California, Um hardpending, Asbury harpending, he meets him at 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.640 the train station when they come back, and he said, quote, 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.920 both were travel stained and weather beaten men and had 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:48.240 the general appearance of having gone through much hardship and privation. 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.440 Slack was sound asleep, but, Arnold said, grimly erect, like 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.120 a vigilant old soldier with a rifle by his side. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:00.200 Also a bulky looking buckskin package. So they come back 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.240 and they're like and see, like they're in character, like 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:06.320 you know, they're just lounging in the train. We're getting 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.800 close to the station, rumful up those one to three 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:14.639 sleep pretends. So in the package, in that bulky looking 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:19.679 buckskin package, large collection of diamonds. The cousins said they 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.360 had originally had two bundles but they lost the other 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.760 one crossing a river. So it's like, you think, this 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.680 is a lot more guys, much more of what a trip? 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.159 So way too many just to carry. I love how 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.320 they're playing these guys. Oh, they're amazing. So the Group 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.000 of investors, they decided to get the diamonds inspected by 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:42.240 a third party. You think they bring ten of the 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.080 gems that Arnold had given them to New York and 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.480 they head over and talked to none other than Charles Tiffany, damn, 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.320 founder of the eponymous tiffany. Go right to the top. 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.760 The New York meeting participants also included civil war generals 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:03.119 George McClellan and Benjaminer, the coward, George mcquean. That's what 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:08.600 he's doing. He got into the Emerald Business. So Benjamin Butler, 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.439 he's a US representative from Massachusetts. He was recommended as 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:16.439 someone who could help with issues regarding the land, like 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:21.960 I can grease those wheels, um. And then Horace Greeley coune. 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:24.119 He was there, but who knows why? Well, you know, 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.719 chrony is m he just liked to watch. So Um 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:35.480 tiffany praises the stones corruption. It's my cank. Tiffany appraises 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.040 the stones at a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:42.119 is three point six million dollars today. Yeah, that's a lot, 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.720 that's a fair bit. And please remember, I'm begging you, 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.280 please remember, these are just ten percent of a collection 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.320 that had been purchased in London for dollars exactly. This 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.000 isn't incredible. It's quite the come up. So these New 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.880 York jewelers that they're having, like, is there any way 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:01.640 that they're in on this. No, they can't be. No, 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.240 they have no idea. That bad at their jobs completely 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:08.800 and they're rough. So it's not like I can tell 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.840 that these were cut somewhere or whatever. So, Um, it 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.439 was later revealed because tiffany's expertise was in cut stones, 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.200 not in uncut ones. But still, I mean like it's 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.359 like if you're a farmer and you grow corn and 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:24.960 I bring you baby corn and you're like, oh, that 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.440 looks just like corn. I mean like you've got to 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:31.000 be able to Parse a couple of these things. I 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.200 don't know. I don't know, but you know what act 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.680 like you know. That's what tiffany's up in there acting 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:41.200 like he knows. So the group values the most recent 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.920 bounty brought in at one point five million and then 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:47.840 officially forms the San Francisco and New York mining and 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:52.320 commercial company when in doubt form a company. December eight 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:56.040 seventy one arnold goes back to London. It was like, 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:58.960 come on, I need somewhere. I'm good. Jumps Dude. He 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.680 spends there between eight thousand and thirty five thousand dollars 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.600 on uncut gems. We know how this is going. To 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:10.120 come right. I'm wondering, like there's obviously no communication between 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:12.520 London and New York. That's what surprising me is that 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.399 they're not like they're going over there making a major 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:16.520 purchase and they don't. None of this is filtering ring 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:21.280 back across the Atlantic. has either from just well still though, 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:23.480 a major purchase. I mean like the jewelers. You think 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.760 there'd be some like, you know, price change, like, oh, 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:29.040 we got a big plant. There's this whale in London constelling, 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:30.800 buying up jewels. Why don't they come to New York? 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.760 Who are they? Whatever? Good questions. And if they're Americans 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:36.159 going to London, the Brits would know that. Maybe they 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.919 used fake accents. That would be amazing. Do you have 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:45.760 any diamonds? And then people trying to speak French to 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:52.160 them and they all UM, okay. So they start this company, 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.440 legal paperworks in place. They decided to take their first 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:57.600 visit to the diamond field. I mean it makes sense. 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.919 You've now created this diamond field. So they hire a 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:05.680 well respected mining engineer named Henry Jannon to come along 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:10.880 for the ride. Hop in Henry Jannon, total protogists. Yeah, 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:15.280 he had inspected hundreds of minds really conservative in his 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.919 assessments as well. So he's like Hurst or like the 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.520 color talks to him. No, I think he's like science 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:27.040 guy and because he'd done all these conservative assessments so 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:29.760 that the owners would wind up getting way more than 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.560 a thought out of all of these minds. So it's 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:33.959 like a good guy to come in. He's not going 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:38.040 to overstate it. He's basically internationally known for being the 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.920 final boss of mine inspection. They bring in the final 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:50.200 boss Spring of Eighteen, Seventy two, Arnold John Slack, harpending, Asbury, Jannon, 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.520 a general dodge, and then a British acquaintance of harpending's 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:58.639 named Alfred rubery. They get together in St Louis and 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:03.320 they head on a train to Wyoming. Now, fun fact 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.240 Asbury and rubery they first met in the United States 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.399 during the civil war. Both were sympathetic to the south. 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:14.479 They outfitted a schooner in San Francisco Harvard to plunder 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:21.920 ships for the cause of confederacy. However, that went overwhelm 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.360 I bet the San Francisco whalers and gold ships are 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.080 just like, Oh yeah, come with it. So well, they 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:29.440 could both get arrested and convicted of trees. I was 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:31.960 going to say that did not last long. Harpending did 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:35.520 ten years. Well, he was sentenced to ten years in Alcatraz, damn, 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.680 and after four months he was released, though, because Lincoln 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:42.639 granted amnesty to all political prisoners who would agree to 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:47.159 take and keep the oath of allegiance. So rubery was 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:50.480 also sentenced to ten years, also pardoned. So he gets 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:53.119 by on the whole, mouth towards none. So here we have. 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:57.520 This is who we're dealing with here. Um Anyway, Arnold 0:22:57.600 --> 0:22:59.760 and slack. They're about to head this group up to 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:04.359 this spot where they say that they've just been picking gems. Willing, Willy, Um, 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:07.359 they purposefully take the group on the super roundabout path 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:11.760 to the field, trying to confuse them about the exact location. Finally, 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.480 on June four, after four long days on horseback, they arrive. 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:20.240 The group they begin digging. They find gems almost immediately because, yeah, 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:25.800 there's like everywhere, harpending Asbury. Harpending later writes, quote, I 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.040 had not been on the ground three minutes before I 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:33.040 found a large diamond. I got off my horse. That 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:37.960 day we got over five hundred diamonds, rubies sapphires and emeralds. 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:40.360 Arnold would generally tell me where the best places were 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:46.159 to dig for the gems, the Easter egg where. This 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:47.639 is right in front of the cage, like, I don't know, 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:52.520 look under that room. So over the next few days 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:58.760 the group continues to look successfully surprised gems. Jannen, don't 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.919 forget final bosses. He surveyed three thousand acres, although the 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:06.679 salted area was only like an acre. So he surveys it. 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:09.840 They head back to San Francisco. They left slack and 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:15.160 rubery to guard the grounds. Right unknown reasons, who knows 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:18.359 those two? They bail out after a few days. The 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:22.440 ones guarding it. Slack, he had been paid his hundred thousand. 0:24:22.520 --> 0:24:25.040 Remember the fifty and then fifty. He was never seen 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:29.480 by the group again. So smart he's like, I think 0:24:29.680 --> 0:24:32.720 I've gotten as much as I can. I'm going to 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:39.080 tap out now. So Jannon, though, he submits a report 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:42.600 of his findings to the group. He estimates the value 0:24:42.600 --> 0:24:47.160 of the company's stock at around forty dollars share and 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:51.960 the property at least four million. Right. So, as part 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:55.399 of his deal, Jannen, who just assessed the value of 0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:59.320 the stock, he purchases a thousand shares at ten dollars each. 0:24:59.320 --> 0:25:01.280 He's saying that the shares or forty, but they're going 0:25:01.320 --> 0:25:03.199 to let him buy a thousand at ten. Yeah, so 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:05.280 this is his like payback from the group. It's like 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:07.000