Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: 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. In the Superman film starring Christopher Reeve, Lex
Speaker 1: Luthor delivers a speech to his henchman and henchwoman about
Speaker 1: what truly matters in life. He says, and I quote,
Speaker 1: stocks may rise and fall, utilities and transportation systems may collapse,
Speaker 1: and people are no damn good, but they will always
Speaker 1: need land, and they'll pay through the nose to get it.
Speaker 1: And he wasn't wrong. Look back at the legend of
Speaker 1: Johnny Appleseed, for example, he was a real man named
Speaker 1: John Chapman who hailed from Massachusetts. A nursery man by trade,
Speaker 1: Chapman spent much of his life working around plants and flowers.
Speaker 1: He set out in the late seventeen hundreds to plant
Speaker 1: vast apple orchards in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana,
Speaker 1: and even up north into Ontario, Canada. But Contrary to
Speaker 1: the stories told in school, he wasn't doing it randomly.
Speaker 1: You see, the government recognized new orchards on unclaimed land
Speaker 1: as proof of ownership. In other words, Chapman planted apple
Speaker 1: trees to build up his real estate portfolio. But Johnny
Speaker 1: Appleseed had gone about things the right way. He'd been
Speaker 1: a shrewd businessman who worked within the law to earn
Speaker 1: himself a hefty income. Another man, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: found a much different way to acquire land, although he
Speaker 1: might have fared better if he had just stuck with
Speaker 1: apples Don Miguel de Peralta was born in seventeen o
Speaker 1: eight and joined the military in sevente He became a
Speaker 1: lieutenant into dragoons, a class of infantry that traveled by horseback,
Speaker 1: as part of the King of Spain service. Fifteen years later,
Speaker 1: he traveled to New Spain, a portion of North and
Speaker 1: Central America that encompassed modern day Arizona and Mexico. He
Speaker 1: had been appointed a royal inspector by King Philip the Fifth,
Speaker 1: who also happened to be his cousin. Although on paper,
Speaker 1: Peralta had been sent to merely hash out financial issues
Speaker 1: in the region, he was also there on a separate
Speaker 1: secret mission. The king wanted him to observe the Jesuits,
Speaker 1: as there had been rumblings about them wanting independence from Spain,
Speaker 1: and Philip wanted proof, and Peralta delivered. He sent back
Speaker 1: the evidence his cousin needed to expel all the Jesuits
Speaker 1: from New Spain, which worked in Peralta's favor. He was
Speaker 1: given the new title of baron day Arizonac and three
Speaker 1: hundred square leagues of land. Peralta lived to be one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixteen years old and had only one child,
Speaker 1: a son, who had a daughter of his own name Sophia,
Speaker 1: and as you might imagine, he listed his progeny in
Speaker 1: his ill as the heirs to the barony of Arizonac,
Speaker 1: the tract of land that makes up most of modern
Speaker 1: day Arizona. One hundred and thirty years later, that land
Speaker 1: was suddenly under the purview of one James Rivas, a
Speaker 1: former Confederate soldier turned land barren. He had come into
Speaker 1: possession of several grants, one of which happened to be
Speaker 1: the Peralta grant, which gave him ownership of the territory,
Speaker 1: and it was a massive territory to the grant specified
Speaker 1: a breathtaking eighteen thousand, seven hundred fifty square mile area
Speaker 1: that was bigger than Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington d C. Combined.
Speaker 1: Rivas quickly established himself as a force to be feared
Speaker 1: among settlers and the indigenous people's occupying the territory. Many
Speaker 1: left for greener pastures, while railroad and mine owners had
Speaker 1: to pay steep taxes to operate on his lands. Anyone
Speaker 1: who defied him was either beaten or had their homes
Speaker 1: set ablaze, sometimes both. If the newspapers ever wrote anything
Speaker 1: bad about him, Rivas's men would show up the next
Speaker 1: day and destroy their printing presses. He was a tyrant,
Speaker 1: and eventually his tactics could no longer be ignored. The
Speaker 1: press stopped being afraid and started printing expose s on
Speaker 1: the shady deals that he had been inking behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: The governments also then stepped in to assess whether the
Speaker 1: land really belonged to him in the first place. Desperate
Speaker 1: to hold onto his status in power, Rivas presented Sophia Treadway.
Speaker 1: He had met fifteen year old Sophia on a train
Speaker 1: trip and noted her uncanny resemblance to Miguel de Peralta's granddaughter, Sophia.
Speaker 1: After getting to know one another over several months, he
Speaker 1: learned the truth. The girl's mother, Sophia de Peralta, had
Speaker 1: died giving birth to her and her twin brother, who
Speaker 1: had also passed away. Her father had run off to
Speaker 1: Spain and sent her to be raised by his friend
Speaker 1: John Treadway in California. She was the true heiress to
Speaker 1: the Peralta fortune. Rivas was thrilled by the discovery and
Speaker 1: married Sophia on December thirty one, eighteen eighty two. He
Speaker 1: was now officially bona fide royalty. He and so Via
Speaker 1: traveled to Spain and enjoyed living in the lap of luxury,
Speaker 1: rubbing elbows with all kinds of nobles and elites while
Speaker 1: they were there, But their extended honeymoon soon came crashing
Speaker 1: to a halt when Rivas learned that his barony was
Speaker 1: being challenged. Back home, President elect Grover Cleveland's new Democratic
Speaker 1: administration was taking a long look at the Peralta grant,
Speaker 1: especially since its owner had been in the pockets of
Speaker 1: the previous Republican administration, and after a long drawn out lawsuit,
Speaker 1: the truth finally came out, Rivas did not officially own
Speaker 1: any claim to the land in Arizona, nor did his wife,
Speaker 1: the Heiress. In fact, she wasn't related to the Peraltas
Speaker 1: at all, because there had never been any Peraltas to
Speaker 1: begin with. Sophia had been upon and one of the
Speaker 1: greatest con jobs in American history. Rivas, you see, had
Speaker 1: made the whole Peralta family up. He had invented Miguel
Speaker 1: the son and the granddaughter, the relationship to King Philip,
Speaker 1: all of it. He had also spent a decade forging
Speaker 1: all kinds of official documents as his way to legitimize
Speaker 1: his claim, and it had almost worked. Unfortunately, Rivas had
Speaker 1: made a lot of enemies along the way, including a
Speaker 1: surveyor general named Royal Johnson, who had nearly brought his
Speaker 1: scam to an end years earlier. It was his investigation
Speaker 1: that had forced Revas to invent a living air in
Speaker 1: the first place. Six years after opening up the case,
Speaker 1: Johnson came back with proof that all the documentations surrounding
Speaker 1: the Peralta grant was fictional. They was full of spelling
Speaker 1: and grammatical errors, and had been written with a modern pen.
Speaker 1: Rivas lost everything his land his money and his freedom.
Speaker 1: He went to prison for six years, after which he
Speaker 1: spent his remaining days homeless on the streets of Phoenix,
Speaker 1: a far cry from the mansion that he had lived
Speaker 1: in not long before. James Rivas was a career criminal,
Speaker 1: always looking for the next con. Had he applied half
Speaker 1: the effort that he'd put into forging an entire Spanish family,
Speaker 1: he might have gone on to do great things. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: he'll be remembered as the artificial land baron who was
Speaker 1: left with nothing, no money, no spouse, and no land.
Speaker 1: A baron baron, now, I'd call that curious. Each of
Speaker 1: the assassination attempts so far had failed miserably, but the
Speaker 1: CIA wasn't going to give up. They had Marita Lawrence
Speaker 1: in the perfect position, and if everything went according to plan,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have to deal with del Castro anymore. Castro
Speaker 1: once said, if surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event,
Speaker 1: I would win the gold medal, and he was right.
Speaker 1: There were six hundred and thirty seven attempts on his
Speaker 1: life as leader of Cuba, spurred on by years of
Speaker 1: Spanish colonization and violence followed by dictators and presidents. Castro
Speaker 1: and his recruits waged a guerrilla war against the Batista dictatorship,
Speaker 1: culminating in the ousting of Batista on January one of
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine. Castro took control of the government, rounded
Speaker 1: up Batista's supporters, and consolidated power. Batista's supporters were tried
Speaker 1: and executed, which helped Castro cement his foothold. The elections
Speaker 1: Castro had called for never materialized, and he seemed to
Speaker 1: install himself as a new leader for life. At first,
Speaker 1: the United States had a friendly relationship with the new
Speaker 1: governments and with Castro himself. He visited Washington, d c.
Speaker 1: Not long after he took power, where he met Vice
Speaker 1: President Nixon and saw the sites and Americans watched Cuba
Speaker 1: with interest. That interest turned to anger and fear when
Speaker 1: Cuba began reaching out to the other superpower of the day.
Speaker 1: The USSR AS relations continued to dissolve through the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: including the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban
Speaker 1: Missile crisis. The United States became desperate to rid themselves
Speaker 1: of Castro. The U. S government knew that there wasn't
Speaker 1: likely going to be a serious challenge to Castro's regime
Speaker 1: from the inside, but they hoped that they might be
Speaker 1: able to help the dictator shuffle off his mortal coil
Speaker 1: so to speak. Now, you would assume that this would
Speaker 1: lead to serious meetings with serious outcomes as they discussed
Speaker 1: how best to handle the Cuba problem. And maybe there were,
Speaker 1: but the results were something that seemed to come more
Speaker 1: from the ACME Corporation's boardroom than any shadowy CIA office.
Speaker 1: Marita Lawrence was just one of the CIA's attempts to
Speaker 1: assassinate Castro, called Operation Mongoose and costing four point four
Speaker 1: million dollars. Young Cuban exiles were recruited to infiltrate Castro's Cuba,
Speaker 1: and Lawrence was among them. You see, she was Castro's
Speaker 1: ex girlfriend, and even though she had been spurned years earlier,
Speaker 1: she still had an intimate access to his home. The
Speaker 1: CIA gave her poison pills that would dissolve quickly into
Speaker 1: food or drink and we're entirely lethal. Unfortunately, Lawrence decided
Speaker 1: to smuggle them inside a jar of cold cream, which
Speaker 1: dissolved them. She panicked and confess to everything to Castro,
Speaker 1: who lost his temper. He proceeded to rail against the
Speaker 1: United States for several minutes before handing over his forty
Speaker 1: five and telling her to finish the job. She claimed
Speaker 1: to have thrown down the gun and left both Castro
Speaker 1: and the CIA to their own devices. Now, clearly this
Speaker 1: plan failed due to bad luck, but the CIA had
Speaker 1: others in store that probably would only have worked against
Speaker 1: the likes of Wiley Coyote and Yosemite Sam. In the
Speaker 1: early nineteen sixties, for example, the CIA poured money and
Speaker 1: time into researching cigars that would be rolled with explosives
Speaker 1: so that they would blow up in Castro's face when
Speaker 1: he smoked one. Other sources say that they thought about
Speaker 1: coding one of Castro's ever present cigars with a nerotoxin
Speaker 1: that would take care of the job. Looking back, the
Speaker 1: CIA seemed to be enamored with the idea of explosives,
Speaker 1: so when the cigar plan wasn't successful, they decided to
Speaker 1: focus on his love of diving. Based on CIA documents,
Speaker 1: they debated painting a conk shell with bright colors to
Speaker 1: catch his attention, and when he swam over to pick
Speaker 1: it up, it would be an explosive. They also tried
Speaker 1: a poison pen which apparently failed because the inside man
Speaker 1: thought that it was a stupid plan. That attempt to
Speaker 1: pass the poison pen off happened on the day that
Speaker 1: JFK was assassinated, so the CIA decided to do away
Speaker 1: with that one entirely. And there were other crazy ideas
Speaker 1: as well. They tried thallium in his shoes, hoping that
Speaker 1: he would lose his beard, because in the CIA's mind,
Speaker 1: that was the true source of his influence. They tried
Speaker 1: blowing up a podium while he was giving a speech
Speaker 1: in Panama, which was foiled by Cuban security. For all
Speaker 1: the dynamite happy, proactive poisoners that seemed to be operating
Speaker 1: the CIA, their most spectacular attempt came when they tried
Speaker 1: to hire the real professionals to help. The mob was
Speaker 1: extremely bitter about Castro's control of Cuba because they lost
Speaker 1: several profitable casinos, and so a CIA agent went undercover
Speaker 1: and approached three members of the mafia, pretending to be
Speaker 1: an international businessman who had lost money to Castro's gam
Speaker 1: billing band. Apparently, poison pills were passed over to the
Speaker 1: mafiosi and they tried to get the drugs into Castro's
Speaker 1: food for months until the plot was called off due
Speaker 1: to the extreme heat and the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion.
Speaker 1: Of course, we know that Castro managed to dodge every
Speaker 1: assassination attempt that came his way, ridiculous as some of
Speaker 1: them may have been, and lived to the rifled age
Speaker 1: of ninety. The CIA may have been successful at toppling
Speaker 1: regimes all around the world, but in Cuba they hit
Speaker 1: a wall that they never quite overcame. As more historical
Speaker 1: files are released to the public, maybe we'll come across
Speaker 1: something stranger than poison pens and exploding seashells. But for now,
Speaker 1: as Porky Pig always said, that's all folks. 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 Mankey 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,