Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Some soldiers only feel at home on the battlefield.
Speaker 1: They know peace when a weapon is in their hand
Speaker 1: and pointed at their enemy. Those who make it out
Speaker 1: of the military still carry a piece of it with
Speaker 1: them forever. It's etched onto them like a tattoo. For William,
Speaker 1: the battlefield was more than a home. It was everything.
Speaker 1: He was born in Wiltshire, England, in six twenty and
Speaker 1: couldn't wait to become soldier. At the age of just thirteen,
Speaker 1: he enlisted and fought for King Charles the First. By
Speaker 1: the time he turned twenty two, William had already become
Speaker 1: a seasoned fighter. In October of sixteen forty two, the
Speaker 1: young soldier joined fifteen thousand of his brothers to fight
Speaker 1: in the first battle of the English Civil War, known
Speaker 1: as the Battle of Edge Hill. The first day of
Speaker 1: fighting left hundreds dead, and wounded. After a chilly night
Speaker 1: of rest, both sides reconvened the next morning to continue
Speaker 1: the fray. Unfortunately, nobody felt like fighting any longer. The
Speaker 1: Battle of Edge Hill didn't bode well for the rest
Speaker 1: of the Civil War, which ended almost a decade later
Speaker 1: with King Charles's execution, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell would rule
Speaker 1: the new English Republic for the next eleven years. William,
Speaker 1: now thirty one, retired to a peaceful life until Cromwell's
Speaker 1: death in sixteen fifty eight. The age of the Republic
Speaker 1: was now over, and Charles's son, Charles the Second, had
Speaker 1: become king. Like his father. The new Charles led his
Speaker 1: kingdom for almost thirty years. His passing in sixteen eighty five, however,
Speaker 1: left the throne vacant, as he had not produced an
Speaker 1: air during his reign. Instead, his brother James the Second
Speaker 1: took his place. This put Parliament on edge. James was
Speaker 1: a Roman Catholic, and with him as king, there was
Speaker 1: a possibility of England rejoining with Rome. To prevent this
Speaker 1: from happening, Parliament asked William the Third, the Dutch Prince
Speaker 1: of Orange, to take the throne. He obliged, moving in
Speaker 1: and forcefully taking England, Ireland and Scotland away from James.
Speaker 1: But King James wasn't about to go down without a fight.
Speaker 1: He planned an invasion of Ireland as a way to
Speaker 1: reclaim what he felt was rightfully his. Meanwhile, William was ready.
Speaker 1: He joined William of Orange's forces to take on the
Speaker 1: former king. In March of sixteen eighty nine, King James
Speaker 1: marched into Ireland with France's help, which kicked off the
Speaker 1: Williamite War in Ireland. He managed to hold Ireland for
Speaker 1: a short time through several key battles, hoping to spin
Speaker 1: his victory into a takeover of England and Scotland as well,
Speaker 1: but William of Orange's army was too much for James,
Speaker 1: and William was there for all of it. For two
Speaker 1: and a half years, the seventy two year old soldier
Speaker 1: fought on behalf of the Republic and helped them win
Speaker 1: the war. And then another age of peace broke out
Speaker 1: and William retired again, but not for good. His services
Speaker 1: would be required again in seventeen o nine, during the
Speaker 1: War of the Spanish Succession. Spain and France were going
Speaker 1: to unite, which would have threatened England's power. In what
Speaker 1: would become his final and most important fight, William and
Speaker 1: one hundred sixty one thousand other troops gathered on the
Speaker 1: French border for the Battle of mal Paquet. He joined
Speaker 1: up with the Royal Scots Regiment and fought alongside one
Speaker 1: of the youngest participants he'd ever seen, the three week
Speaker 1: old son of one Private McMain, who fought with his
Speaker 1: baby on his back. The eighty nine year old Williams
Speaker 1: valiant efforts helped Great Britain defeat France and stop the Union.
Speaker 1: It seemed that the time had finally come for the
Speaker 1: octogenarian to hang up his uniform for good. As thanks
Speaker 1: for his service, William was made a sergeant and given
Speaker 1: a comfortable pension of two crowns per week, not a
Speaker 1: bad legacy for a man who literally spent his entire
Speaker 1: life fighting in wars. But it didn't stop there. William
Speaker 1: found love several years later. He married a much younger
Speaker 1: woman when he was one hundred and three. Their time
Speaker 1: together was short, though, as she passed away before him
Speaker 1: in the early seventeen thirties. He wouldn't grieve for long, though.
Speaker 1: The super soldier himself died not long after, at the
Speaker 1: ripe old age of one eleven. William Hesslin had cheated
Speaker 1: death for over one hundred years, but his time had come.
Speaker 1: He might have had more love for the battlefield than most,
Speaker 1: but no soldier can fight forever. Be careful what you
Speaker 1: put out into the world. A careless statement can spell
Speaker 1: disaster down the road. James was a humble shoemaker from
Speaker 1: the town of Leamington in Warwickshire, England. He owned a
Speaker 1: small shop in town and enjoyed a regular drink at
Speaker 1: his local pub. Unfortunately, James suffered from two bad habits.
Speaker 1: He liked to drink and he liked to gamble. The
Speaker 1: problem was that he only gambled when he drank. On
Speaker 1: the afternoon of September three, seventy three, James was in
Speaker 1: the pub with a few of his drinking buddies. He'd
Speaker 1: already had a few pints when he started bragging about
Speaker 1: what a great athlete he was. He bet that he
Speaker 1: could run from Leamington to Coventry and back again on
Speaker 1: the same day. It would be a round trip of
Speaker 1: forty miles, but James didn't care. He was ready to
Speaker 1: prove himself for the Grand prize of one sovereign a
Speaker 1: gold coin worth about one British pound. James headed out
Speaker 1: toward Coventry, with three men from the pub following behind
Speaker 1: him in a horse drawn cart. There was the unknown
Speaker 1: man that he had made the bet with, as well
Speaker 1: as a merchant named Barnum Wise and a photographer by
Speaker 1: the name of Hammerson Burns. James seemed to be doing
Speaker 1: pretty well for the first few miles. He was bright
Speaker 1: and alert, showing no signs of slowing down, not bad
Speaker 1: considering how drunk he had been when he started the contest.
Speaker 1: But he was also egged on by the three men
Speaker 1: behind him, who did their best to motivate him by
Speaker 1: poking fun. Then, without warning, James tripped over something in
Speaker 1: the road. He fell forward and shouted out. The men
Speaker 1: got out of their cart to check on their friend,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't see anything. James was gone. He hadn't
Speaker 1: left an imprint in the dirt where he had landed,
Speaker 1: because he had never landed in the first place. It
Speaker 1: was as though he had evaporated instantly. Burns, Wise and
Speaker 1: the unnamed third man searched the area for some time
Speaker 1: before accepting that James was gone and gone for good.
Speaker 1: They climbed into the carts and rode back the town,
Speaker 1: unsure of what they were going to tell everyone. The
Speaker 1: police heard their story, but they didn't buy it. Instead,
Speaker 1: they arrested the men for James's disappearance and possible murder.
Speaker 1: The trio were questioned again. The police conducted an investigation,
Speaker 1: talking to character witnesses and other people in town, hoping
Speaker 1: to find some kind of motivation for the killing. But
Speaker 1: the authorities couldn't find anything, and because the men had
Speaker 1: no prior records and were thought highly of in town,
Speaker 1: the charges were dropped and the men were released. Sadly,
Speaker 1: James Warson was never found, which makes sense seeing as
Speaker 1: how he had never existed in the first place. He
Speaker 1: was the main character of a short story written in
Speaker 1: eight by author and journalist Ambrose Beers. Throughout Beers's seventy
Speaker 1: two years on Earth, he produced almost two hundred fifty
Speaker 1: short stories and over a thousand other works. It's fair
Speaker 1: to say that he was prolific. He was also ahead
Speaker 1: of his time, so to speak. Beers had fought for
Speaker 1: the Union Army during the American Civil War fifty years
Speaker 1: and many published works later. In nineteen thirteen, he took
Speaker 1: a trip down through Louisiana in Texas on a tour
Speaker 1: of old Civil War battlegrounds before anding up in Mexico.
Speaker 1: While south of the border, Beers saw war once again
Speaker 1: during the Mexican Revolution as part of Poncho Villa's army.
Speaker 1: He didn't fight, though, he was merely an onlooker, watching
Speaker 1: VIA's rebellion overcome state forces during the Battle of Tierra Blanca. Afterward,
Speaker 1: he followed Villa for several months, eventually arriving in the
Speaker 1: city of Chihuahua. It was during his stop there in
Speaker 1: December of nineteen thirteen, when Beers wrote a letter to
Speaker 1: a colleague back home, Blanche Partington. He ended his letter
Speaker 1: with these words, as for me, I leave here tomorrow
Speaker 1: for an unknown destination. It was the last thing he
Speaker 1: ever wrote. Just like his character of James Warson Ambrose,
Speaker 1: Beers disappeared and was never heard from again. Stories spread
Speaker 1: throughout Mexico as to what might have happened to him,
Speaker 1: but no one us the definitive answer. He simply vanished
Speaker 1: into thin air. And if that's not a case of
Speaker 1: foreshadowing coming true, I don't know what is. I hope
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities,
Speaker 1: subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,