Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Secrecy is everything. Mexican massed wrestling, also called lucha libre,
Speaker 1: is a world that prizes discretion above all else. The
Speaker 1: luchadors fight dressed as colorful, larger than life characters, their
Speaker 1: true identities closely guarded secrets. But one particular luchador spent
Speaker 1: his career hiding in plain sight as Reverend Sergio Gutierrez
Speaker 1: beneath as he was a warrior in the church's holy
Speaker 1: fight between good and evil, and as the mass luchador
Speaker 1: Frey Tormenta aka Father Storm, he took that fight to
Speaker 1: the ring. Frey Tormenta didn't start out as a luchador
Speaker 1: or even a priest. He was born in nineteen forty
Speaker 1: five in the Mexican state of Hidalgo and grew up
Speaker 1: with sixteen brothers and sisters. Young Tormenta quickly became a
Speaker 1: fan of Luccador films, which were low budget, action packed
Speaker 1: films starring masked wrestlers that became popular in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 1: By the time he was twenty two years old, Tormenta
Speaker 1: was looking for a new path in life. He had
Speaker 1: trouble with drugs and alcohol and wanted a higher purpose
Speaker 1: to focus on, so he joined the priesthood. Tormenta ended
Speaker 1: up in the city of Texcoco, where he opened an orphanage.
Speaker 1: Remembering the way the priesthood helped him, he vowed that
Speaker 1: he would never turn away a child in need, but
Speaker 1: he quickly discovered this was easier said than done. Every
Speaker 1: child meant another mouth to feed, clothes to buy, and
Speaker 1: more heat to use. The bills were piling up, and
Speaker 1: the archdiocese could only help so much. So Tormenta came
Speaker 1: up with a new idea. He would train as a
Speaker 1: massed wrestler and win the money to help the orphanage.
Speaker 1: His character would be a priest named Frey Tormenta or
Speaker 1: Friars Storm, and after all, who would suspect a real
Speaker 1: priest of posing as a fake one. He was sure
Speaker 1: his gimmick as a fighting priest would be so successful
Speaker 1: that he'd be able to expand the orphanage and create
Speaker 1: a whole city for children in need. Of course, it
Speaker 1: didn't work out that way. In fact, at Frey Tormento's
Speaker 1: first match in nineteen seventy three, he only won about
Speaker 1: twenty dollars, but Tormenta kept at it, and bit by
Speaker 1: bit he was able to make ends meet for the orphanage.
Speaker 1: Soon rumors spread that the wrestling priest was a real father,
Speaker 1: and eventually the stories reached the ears of the archdiocese.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy six, Tormento was called into meet with
Speaker 1: the Bishop, his superior at the archdiocese. The bishop asked
Speaker 1: Tormenta if he had heard anything about a wrestling priest,
Speaker 1: and Tormenta decided to come clean. He admitted that by
Speaker 1: day he was preaching the Gospel, and by night he
Speaker 1: was pile driving luchadors. The bishop, of course, was furious.
Speaker 1: He demanded Tormenta quit at once, and Tormenta agreed on
Speaker 1: one condition that the bishop provide the orphanage with the
Speaker 1: same funds that Tormenta had been winning from Lucilibre. After
Speaker 1: some reflection, the bishop replied that he could keep wrestling. Eventually,
Speaker 1: word got out that Tormenta was in fact a real priest,
Speaker 1: which caused problems at his fights. His fans would throw
Speaker 1: tomatoes at the other fighters, telling them that they were
Speaker 1: going to hell for laying their hands on a priest.
Speaker 1: But the discovery of his identity actually brought Tormenta closer
Speaker 1: to the other luchadors. Many of them started seeking him
Speaker 1: out for confession after matches and asking him for spiritual advice.
Speaker 1: Frey Tormenta retired from wrestling in two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: but today still sports his mask at Sunday services. His
Speaker 1: orphanage has moved, but it now offers food, housing, education,
Speaker 1: and luccha training to dozens of young boys. One of
Speaker 1: his proteges has even taken up his mantle, fighting as
Speaker 1: Frey Tormenta Junior today. Frey Tormenta has been immortalized in
Speaker 1: comic books, TV shows, and several films, including the two
Speaker 1: thousand and six Jack Black comedy Nacho Libre, But the
Speaker 1: father counts something else as his greatest achievement. In twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: he told an interviewer that he's helped over two thousand
Speaker 1: children through his orphanage. He said, I have so much
Speaker 1: to be thankful for three doctors, sixteen teachers, one public accountant,
Speaker 1: one private accountant, one priest, twenty computer technicians, and five
Speaker 1: lawyers have all come out of the orphanage. It may
Speaker 1: not be as dramatic as a souplex, the changing so
Speaker 1: many lives is one heck of a finishing move. Of
Speaker 1: the many things that we take for granted in the
Speaker 1: modern world, geography is chief among them, not just the
Speaker 1: terrain itself, which we can now cross with ease in
Speaker 1: many places, but the human distribution of land. In America,
Speaker 1: we just accept that there are fifty states. Minnesota looks
Speaker 1: like a chef's hat, Louisiana looks like a boot. Michigan
Speaker 1: has that weird upper peninsula. It's all been this way
Speaker 1: for well over a century in most cases, so why
Speaker 1: question it while it turns out the last one has
Speaker 1: a seriously curious story behind it, with a lot to
Speaker 1: teach us. Michigan's seemingly arbitrary boundaries came at great cost.
Speaker 1: The state gained its upper peninsula after a war, and
Speaker 1: not just any war, but one with a neighboring state.
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventeen, Michigan was still a territory, but Ohio
Speaker 1: had already become a state, and the two just couldn't
Speaker 1: agree over where Ohio's northern border ended and Michigan's southern
Speaker 1: border began. A treaty dating all the way back seventeen
Speaker 1: eighty seven, claimed that Michigan's southern border is a line
Speaker 1: that runs east from the southern tip of Lake Michigan
Speaker 1: all the way to Lake Erie. That is to say,
Speaker 1: where Lake Michigan ends, so does the Territory of Michigan.
Speaker 1: But of course, there were no satellites back then to
Speaker 1: provide perfect images of the earth. Human surveyors had to
Speaker 1: go out and take their own measurements to determine the
Speaker 1: exact shape of the land. Two separate surveys, one commissioned
Speaker 1: by the governor of the Territory of Michigan and one
Speaker 1: by the Governor of Ohio, conveniently found that Lake Michigan
Speaker 1: ends in two different spots. The Ohians thought that it
Speaker 1: ended further north, and the Michiganders thought that it ended
Speaker 1: farther south. Go figure The land in between these two
Speaker 1: points became known as the Toledo Strip. Imagine a thick
Speaker 1: strip of land that runs across Michigan's southern border from
Speaker 1: Lake Michigan to Lake Erie. The strip was so named
Speaker 1: because it contained the city of Toledo, which is on
Speaker 1: the mouth of the Mammie River off Lake Erie. At
Speaker 1: the time, this was an important trade route, worth a
Speaker 1: lot to whatever state or territory controlled it, and eventually
Speaker 1: Michigan was able to prove their claim, and if you
Speaker 1: look at a modern map you can tell that they
Speaker 1: are indeed right. Lake Michigan goes farther south than Toledo,
Speaker 1: although just barely so. They took control of Toledo for
Speaker 1: a time, but by eighteen twenty five, the Erie Canal
Speaker 1: was completed in New York. This connected Lake Erie to
Speaker 1: the Hudson River, which flows south from upstate New York
Speaker 1: to New York Harbor. So now ships could travel all
Speaker 1: the way from New York Harbor, up the Hudson River
Speaker 1: and across Lake Erie and arrive in Toledo. The region
Speaker 1: became so economically important that by eighteen thirty three, Ohio
Speaker 1: suddenly began a claim once again that they were the
Speaker 1: rightful owners of Toledo. When Michigan tried to gain statehood
Speaker 1: later that year, Ohio used its influence in Congress to
Speaker 1: prevent Michigan from joining the Union. In eighteen thirty five,
Speaker 1: Ohio sent new surveyors to the Toledo Strip to try
Speaker 1: and prove once and for all that it belonged to them,
Speaker 1: and Michigan, still raw and being blocked from statehood, sent
Speaker 1: a posse of thirty lawmen to arrest those surveyors. It
Speaker 1: was war. Michigan sent even more lawmen and soldiers to
Speaker 1: Toledo to keep the peace and prevent an invasion from Ohio,
Speaker 1: and one of those Michigan lawmen was stabbed by a
Speaker 1: guy from Ohio that he was trying to arrest. He lived,
Speaker 1: don't worry, and as far as we know, he was
Speaker 1: the only one injured in this inner state conflict because
Speaker 1: things were about to be settled at the federal level.
Speaker 1: Although some members of Congress supported Michigan who were clearly
Speaker 1: in the right, President Andrew Jackson did not. He disapproved
Speaker 1: of Michigan's armed response to Ohio, so he gave Toledo
Speaker 1: to Ohio, which seemed like a major victory at the time.
Speaker 1: But Jackson was also smart enough to grant Michigan statehood
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty six and give them the unclaimed Upper
Speaker 1: Peninsula to the north of their territory as consolation. This
Speaker 1: proved to be just as valuable. Explorers soon discovered that
Speaker 1: the peninsula was rich in copper and iron. Today, it's
Speaker 1: curious to see how things have shaken out. Michigan and
Speaker 1: Ohio have comparable economies and population sizes, but Toledo is
Speaker 1: not the price jewel that it once was. It's a
Speaker 1: major trade hub, but the population has declined after the
Speaker 1: loss of manufacturing jobs. Meanwhile, the Upper Peninsula is known
Speaker 1: for its incredible views of the Great Lakes and pristine nature.
Speaker 1: It's all a matter of perspective. Both areas have their
Speaker 1: pros and cons but it is curious that by giving
Speaker 1: up one city that was rightfully theirs, the people of
Speaker 1: Michigan gained more beauty than they could have ever imagined.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and tell
Speaker 1: television show. And you can learn all about it over
Speaker 1: at theworldoflore dot com, and until next time, stay curious.