WEBVTT - Richard Dadd 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:14.080 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Hollley 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.480 Frye and I'm Tracy be Wilson. This is one that 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.040 I've had on my list for a minute, and it 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.560 got on my list for one reason because I didn't 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.400 know the whole story. And then it became a different story, 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.320 which is that I stumbled across a piece of art 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:33.400 by Richard Dad for reasons because it had come up 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:37.120 in the news last year, I believe, And then I 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.479 discovered the story behind him. Having already thought, oh, this 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:42.480 is an interesting person, I wished to do an artist 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.440 episode on him. So it is an artist episode, but 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.360 it is also a murder episode, and it is also 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:53.600 a madness episode. So we are talking about artist Richard Dad, 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.200 whose life story is quite a ride and quite sad, 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.920 so be worn there. There's some a good bit of 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.160 violence in here, as well as some issues of delusion. 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.080 If those are not enjoyable for you to hear about, 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:08.200 this one might not be for you. But if you're 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.640 like me and you find this utterly engaging, it's like 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:16.560 an on ramp to our Halloween time. I actually had 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.040 kind of thought that as I was reading through that line, 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.040 it was like, this feels almost like something that we 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:26.160 would do in October, but not quite. Nope. So Richard 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:30.679 Dad was born August first, eighteen seventeen in Chatham, Kent, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.959 That's in England, born to Robert and Mary Anne Dad. 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.119 His father, Robert was a chemist and his maternal grandfather 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:44.560 was the well known shipwright Richard Martin. This younger Richard 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.400 was the couple's fourth child out of eleven and as 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.960 a boy, Richard attended King's School, Rochester, and he loved literature, 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.480 particularly Shakespeare, and from the time he was quite young 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.960 it was very obvious to everyone that he had a 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.160 natural talent for drawing. By the time he was a teenager, 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.560 Richard had started to really sketch with focus on the 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.400 path to becoming an artist. In eighteen thirty seven, Richard 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.760 was admitted to the Royal Academy of Arts, where his 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.000 teachers all noted his skill as well as his gentle 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.160 and kind personality, and in his third year at art 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.040 school he won a medal for his life drawing. As 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.520 a young man, Richard seemed poised to become one of 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.640 the most prominent and perhaps even influential artists of England. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.440 He and several other artists founded a group known as 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.600 the Clique. That group included such artists as William Powell Frith, 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:41.360 who would become known for his scenes capturing English life, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.280 and Augustus Egg who was a friend of Charles Dickens 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:50.000 and painted images that were often historical or anecdotal, and 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.640 Henry Nelson O'Neill, who became known for his painting of 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:58.600 the Indian Rebellion of eighteen fifty seven. Dad was generally 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.880 seen as the leader of this group, or at least 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.679 the most talented of them. Their focus was on promoting 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:10.080 naturalistic art, and Richard really excelled at it. I will 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.200 note that in watching a couple of videos with English 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:19.120 art historians, they pronounce it the Clique, which I found 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.560 quite charming. In eighteen forty two Dad illustrated the book 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.480 of British Ballads by Samuel Carter Hall. And this is 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:28.880 a substantial project. It's a two hundred and thirty three 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.320 page book and about one third of that space is illustration, 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.880 including frames that he created for every page. So this 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.880 was really a lot of work on Dad's part. In 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:44.120 July of eighteen forty two, Sir Thomas Phillips contracted Dad 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.400 to accompany him on a grand tour of continental Europe, 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.600 then through Greece, into Turkey, over to Syria and into Egypt, 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.600 and then back to London. Phillips was the former mayor 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.480 of Newport and this, of course was all before people 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.720 could take photos of their travels, so he hired Dad 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:08.400 to capture the trip through sketches along the way. David Roberts, 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:10.720 a well known Scottish painter, was a friend of the 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:15.040 family and had recommended Richard for this job. This was 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:16.920 a pretty good gig. It was a way to see 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.200 some of the world and also get paid to do it. 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.080 The artist both loved and hated the trip for reasons 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.279 we will explain, but more than anything, it was a 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.640 trip that was life changing for Dad, and not in 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:33.760 a good way. Dad and Phillips were not really of 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.440 the same temperament when it came to travel. Whereas Phillips 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:39.880 was sort of working through the sites they visited as 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:42.640 a tourist, wanting to see things and then quickly move 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.600 on to the next, Dad wanted to linger. Since Phillips 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.480 also arranged it, presumably he had a greater sense of 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.560 the schedule where his dad was just trying to capture 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.640 what he saw, and he got frustrated because he felt 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.160 he wasn't given enough time to really sketch things as 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.520 fully as he would have liked. And then on long 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.560 horse journeys he wanted to stop and sketch because he 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.279 had difficulty sketching while he was riding, but his desires 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.400 were not prioritized. And then at night when they camped, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.120 he found it was just too dark to do any 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.440 serious work. So this whole trip was just not what 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.360 he envisioned at all. In November of eighteen forty two, 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.880 the group spent time in Syria and Egypt, and this 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:26.320 was grueling travel. In December, Dad and Phillips were traveling 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.960 up the Nile River on a boat when Dad started 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.800 to behave oddly. He was described as having just a 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:38.200 huge change in his demeanor and personality. Dad started to 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.520 say things that were clearly delusional. He believed that the 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:46.640 Egyptian god Osiris had been communicating with him. At the time, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.839 Phillips thought Richard was experiencing a sunstroke or heat exhaustion. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.240 As a note, there are some other versions of what 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:56.760 happened with Dad at the end of this trip, at 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.800 the very end, and some of this suggests that it 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.880 was a more gradual change that got worse on the Nile, 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.440 and that it may have been brought about by drug 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.719 use during the journey. Even Dad said things like this 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.040 at various points, but in any case, by the end 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.279 of this trip, Richard definitely did not seem the same 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.640 as when he had started on the journey, and as 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.920 the group headed home through Europe, Dad continued to have 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.920 difficulty discerning reality from his delusions. He described feeling an 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.480 intense compulsion to kill the Pope when they were traveling 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.440 through Italy, but his fear of the Vatican Guard was 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.440 the only thing that kept him from it. Dad did 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.480 not make it back to London with the rest of 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.400 the Phillips party. He disappeared while they were all in Paris, 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.560 and then he returned to London on his own. When 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:50.680 Dad returned home, his odd behavior continued. He had a 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.280 rented room at seventy one Newman Street, Oxford Street and 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.080 started eating only a very limited diet. He would only 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.919 eat eggs and only ale, and it seems like he 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:06.560 was eating these eggs. Raw Newspaper reports state that the 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.560 floor of his room was covered with eggshells, and he 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.680 had huge quantities of eggs and ale on hand when 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:18.120 the room was later examined. Dad's strange behavior did not 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.800 go unnoticed, and his friends started to speak with his 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:25.000 father about getting him some help. And although Robert Dad 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.200 consulted with physicians and was advised that his son Richard 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.120 needed to be in a hospital, he decided that the 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:33.160 best thing for his son would be to go into 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.400 the country for a respite from the city, where he 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.360 could get plenty of fresh air and regain his health. 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.040 And there are some accounts that suggest that this trip 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.160 may have actually been Richard's idea, but in any case, 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.440 they secured rooms in a cottage and Cobbham, where they 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.360 had spent time earlier in Richard's life, and the night 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.840 of their arrival they had dinner at a public house 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.960 near those rooms. According to a waiter that worked at 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.920 the public house where they dined, whose name was John Adams, 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.000 the Dad's had stopped there inquiring about a place to 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.480 sleep first, and he had told them they had no beds, 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.080 but that he would check with a nearby cottage. Robert 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.840 Dad had told Adams that one bed would be fine 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.040 because Richard was his son. But Richard insisted that they 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.080 have two beds, and so Adams went away to make 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:19.680 these arrangements. He got two beds for them, and then 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:21.560 he came back to the inn and told the dads 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.680 that he had secured these lodgings. After dinner, Richard wanted 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.360 to go for a walk, but Robert said he had 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.920 walked enough that day. He ordered a whiskey and a water, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.080 and his son left. Robert and the waiter Adams chatted 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.240 for a little while, and then Richard returned. At about 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.600 eight forty five pm. Adams left the room to attend 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.960 to some work, and when he got back at nine thirty, 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.960 both of the men were gone. According to Adams, they 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.800 waited until twelve thirty for the men to return before 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.800 finally giving up and locking up the public house. Yeah, 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.640 it seems like because he had secured the rooms in 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.480 a cop and they hadn't gone there yet after dinner, 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:04.120 he was going to take them over there, so he 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:08.400 was waiting, but they never should back up. And apparently 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.840 at one point, as the two men went out walking 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.679 together after their dinner, the elder dad stepped away from 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.080 the path to urinate, and when he did, his son Richard, 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.320 attacked him. He first punched him in the head, and 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:23.720 then he stabbed him in the chest and cut his throat, 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.120 and according to his own account, Richard then shouted to 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.400 the sky, go and tell the great godd o Cyrus 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.520 that I have done the deed which is to set 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.920 him free. Coming up, we'll talk about what happened after 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.559 this murder, but first we will pause for a sponsor break. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.080 On the morning following the murder, a butcher named Abraham 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.280 Lister was driving a buggy through Common Park with his nephew, 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:59.040 Charles Lister. This was about seven am, and the two 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.640 of them noticed a gentlemanly looking man lying in the 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.640 park on his face, with his arms over his head 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.880 and without his hat. He was about thirty yards away 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.600 from the road, so the Lister thought the man may 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.280 have been asleep or in distress, and they stopped to 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.600 check on him and offer assistance, but a prawn approach 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:21.360 saw that the body was covered in blood. They immediately 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.680 reported the find, calling on the constable, and this body 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:29.400 was soon identified as Robert Dad. A locked knife, a razor, 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.280 and Robert's hat were soon found near where the body 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:37.199 had been found. This Constable William Dawes, believed that Robert's 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:41.080 body had been dragged some distance, and also noted that 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.640 he had money and a gold watch still in his pockets. 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.840 The surgeon who performed a post mortem, named William Saunders, 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.240 reported to the coroner's jury that he had found an 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.600 incision on the left side of the throat, although it 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.280 wasn't big enough to have caused Robert's death. He also 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.760 noted bruce on the deceased's face and head, and a 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.760 number of small puncture wounds on the right thumb. The 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.400 lungs had been penetrated by a knife in two places. 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.760 He was confident that none of the wounds could have 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:18.720 been caused by Robert himself. After hearing testimony for several hours, 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:23.960 the coroner's jury declared this death to be a wilful murder. Initially, 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:28.240 after Robert's body was found, questions arose about whether someone 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:32.240 had attacked both father and son, and if Richard might 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.640 also be somewhere in the park dead. No one had 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.080 seen him since that waiter at the public house had 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.440 left him and his father in the dining room. Then 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.120 there was speculation that this may have been a murder 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.640 suicide scenario and that Richard may have gone elsewhere and 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.480 taken his own life, but that theory soon died down 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.680 as reports began to surface of other people who had 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:59.679 seen and interacted with him after Adams the Waiter. Additionally, 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.640 when Richard's room in London was searched, authorities found some 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.760 really troubling artwork that he had made. These artworks depicted 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.840 people in his life, family and friends, each of which 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.480 was shown with their throat slit. Richard became the prime 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:18.800 suspect in Robert Dad's murder. After this discovery, police put 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.400 out an internal notice that read quote description of Richard 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.920 Dad who was suspected of having murdered his father at 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.360 Cobham Park, Kent on the twenty eighth or twenty ninth, 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.800 twenty four years of age, five feet eight inches high, 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:37.640 dark hair, light blue eyes, thick, dark eyebrows, sallow complexion, 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:42.480 no whiskers, dressed in a dark blue frock coat, light 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:47.440 blue trousers. His linen marked Richard Dad or RD. Up 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:49.800 to the time of the murder, he resided at number 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:54.080 seventy one Newman Street, Oxford Street. Every exertion is to 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.240 be used for the apprehension of the individual in question. 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.000 Not long after, a bulletin went released to keep an 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.800 eye on railroad stations, and another that every police division 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:09.480 should start making inquiries at their local lodging houses. As 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.360 the manhunt for Richard got into full swing, Robert Dad 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:17.240 was buried at Gillingham Churchyard near Chatham, with Richard's brothers 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:21.959 in attendance. According to a newspaper account published a week later. 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.520 Immediately after the murder, Dad went to a tavern called 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.560 Soul's Arms. Tavern was popular with artists, and he asked 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.960 for a glass of water. According to the Chester Chronicle, 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:37.479 published on September fifteenth, eighteen forty three, quote, his extraordinary 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.320 appearance and excitement caused a remark from the barmaid that 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.000 she thought the young gentleman was not in his right mind, 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:49.480 which expression being overheard by him, he hurried from the house. 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.320 Richard made his way to Rochester and from there took 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.800 a carriage to the port at Dover. There, he stated 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:00.239 at the Ship Hotel while working to secure passage to Frances. 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.640 According to accounts from people who saw him there and 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.120 noted his disheveled state, he claimed that he had fallen 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.280 from a coach in an accident. He was noted as 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.439 carrying large amounts of cash, and he paid ten pounds 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:17.559 for his passage to Calais. In Calais, Dad was taken 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.840 to the passport office. He told officials there that he 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.800 was on pressing business. His passport was brand new, having 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.960 just been issued the week before, but it was valid 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.520 and he was sent on his way. He purchased new 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.920 clothes in Calais and left his old, bloody suit behind 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:39.720 at the hotel that was later seized as evidence. As 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.960 newspaper reports relayed the grizzly details of Robert's murder at 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:47.280 his son's hand, they offer up what's now a classic 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:51.400 description of the perpetrator that's actually become kind of a trope, 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.560 like this one in the Chester Chronicle quote, he has 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:56.960 always been considered as a young man of the most 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.560 mild disposition, and had ever exhibited fear links of the 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:05.080 warmest and most affectionate attachment to his father. The unfortunate 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.520 father was also devotedly attached to and proud of his son, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.640 whose abilities as an artist are stated to be of 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:15.400 a very high order. Coverage of the murder was so 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:20.080 extensive that the Lester Chronicle included it in an editorial 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.960 that questioned whether newspapers had started to focus too much 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:28.920 on satanic topics instead of things like literature when there 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:33.240 isn't much political news. The article notes of Dad's story quote, 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.880 this is a rare specimen. The world heard little enough 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.760 of Richard Dad, the humble artist. But Richard Dad, the 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:45.000 patricide becomes at once a man of reputation, his career 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.800 worthy of a memoir, his artistic abilities of an essay, 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.520 and his productions of a place in the pictorial times. 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.800 Patricides are found to be a saleable commodity. Public patronage 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:02.600 is fished for an atroci murder, being employed as bait. 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.160 And as all of this was being hashed out in 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.800 the papers, the English and French authorities worked cooperatively on 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.480 Richard's case. This was not only because the French were 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.920 helping to apprehend the suspect. It was because he also 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.200 committed a violent crime in France and was arrested for it. 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.680 Richard was not planning to stay in France. He was 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.320 passing through it because he wanted to go to Vienna. 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:29.720 He believed that he needed to get to Austria and 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.880 assassinate Emperor Ferdinand the Ist, and as part of this journey, 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.760 he had boarded a stagecoach at Fontainebleau headed from Montreux. 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.400 But on this leg of the journey, Richard attacked one 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.600 of the other passengers and attempted to slit his throat. 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.800 Richard was quickly subdued and arrested, and his victim survived 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.040 the attack. Dad would later say that he had a 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:56.280 communication from ursa Major directing him to attack this man. 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:01.000 French newspapers ran an account of the attack claims made 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.399 by Dad. While in custody quote, it appears that the 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.399 young man states himself to be the son and envoy 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:11.159 of God, since to exterminate the men most possessed with 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:15.919 the demon. He relates with great coolness that in the 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:20.960 park of Lord Darnley he was seized being with him 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.880 who is said to be his father, with the divine 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:28.600 inspiration which commanded him to sacrifice him. So, in case 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.320 it's unclear from the somewhat stilted phrasing of that time period, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.240 Richard thought the man he was with was not his father, 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.600 but was some sort of demonic presence pretending to be 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.639 or perhaps the physical body of his father, but in 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:49.439 a state of demonic possession. When French doctors asked Dad 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.760 how he felt about his actions, he stated that he 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.200 had done the right thing because he destroyed an enemy 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.960 of God. He similarly felt he must attack his felf 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:05.280 traveler as something commanded by a higher power. Incidentally, that 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:07.960 quote stating that he believed he was the son of 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.159 God actually makes this belief a little unclear, because he 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.080 didn't believe he was the son of the Christian God, 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:18.359 which the paper's readers likely assumed. Dad thought he was 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.560 the son of the Sun, as in the center of 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.520 the solar system. His delusion wasn't as simple as that, 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:27.840 though he would later say he was the son of 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.600 the Egyptian god Osiris, sent to the Earth to cleanse 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.280 it of demons. One of the interesting points of news 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.080 coverage as Richard's arrest in Paris was covered was what 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.320 was going to happen to him and how things would 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.679 be handled between England and France. As we said, the 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.600 two countries were cooperating, but they had to decide how 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.960 to proceed with his charges in both France and England. 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.600 But as the Essex Hertz and Kent Mercury noted in 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:58.760 its coverage quote, should he, however, be dispatched to this country, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.359 there is not a doubt that his relatives will be 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:06.200 spared the distress attending a public examination, with the understanding 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.440 that they will immediately adopt measures for his safe keeping 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.879 in the lunatic asylum. Since Dad had confessed to murdering 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:17.440 his father, French authorities held him in an asylum while 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.200 decisions were made about how to handle the case. French 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.679 doctors declared him homicidal and noted that Dad would stare 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.320 straight at the sun for long periods of time without blinking. 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.840 Richard was prescribed cold water bats as part of his therapy, 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:37.439 which did not improve his condition. After several months in France, 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.480 he was sent back to England and that made him 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:43.720 the first person ever extradited between the two countries. We'll 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.040 talk about Dad's life after he returned to England after 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.200 we hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed 0:19:49.200 --> 0:20:01.959 in history class going As mentioned in the papers that 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:04.720 we read from earlier, British authorities did not put the 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.520 Dad family through a trial. There was a brief hearing 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.080 and then on August twenty second, eighteen forty four, Dad 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.639 was committed to Bethlum Hospital, So this is the same 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.119 Bethlum that has come up on the show before. It 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:22.040 had the nickname Bedlam because of its terrible reputation regarding 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.600 the treatment of its patients, but it had been rebuilt 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.639 in the eighteen teens and it was considered quite a 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.040 bit reformed, although it still had problems and because of 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:34.959 his violent past, Dad was sent to the criminal ward 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.840 Though Richard Dad was cut off from the outside world. 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:43.040 After he was allowed art materials by the warden, he 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.919 continued to sketch and paint, often working from memory and 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.760 also using the staff at the hospital as models. Even 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:53.480 for women. He would use men there as stand ins 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.520 to do his figure work. He also sometimes used his 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:01.120 fellow patients as models. The staff at Bethlum often encouraged 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:03.719 him in his work, and they even commissioned art from 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.879 him from time to time. Some of these works depict 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:10.600 events in the place of Shakespeare, even occasionally writing lines 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:12.600 from the plays at the bottom of the works are 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.080 on the back. Several of these focus on instances of 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:19.360 violence or murder in the place, such as one titled Hatred, 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.840 which depicts Henry the Six being killed by Richard of Gloucester. 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.720 He also drew from classic literature and biblical stories for inspiration, 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:31.439 including a watercolor of Cain. Just after his murder of 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:36.520 Abel titled Murder. In eighteen fifty five, Dad created one 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.120 of his most famous works called Sketch of an Idea 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:43.680 for Crazy Jane. I shows a character from a folk 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.520 ballad titled Poor Crazy Jane, who goes mad when her 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:52.439 lover abandons her. This sketch shows Jane in the foreground, 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:57.040 staring directly at the viewer, with her arms overhead, clutching 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:00.200 a switch with ribbons tied onto it, and looking as 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:04.440 though she may be dancing. She's bedraggled but not dirty, 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.960 and in the middle ground ravens fly overhead. In the 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:11.840 distant background, there's a castle. This is a striking image 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.800 for a number of reasons. It's a watercolor done almost 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:19.000 entirely in pale shades of blue gray and faint brown. 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.360 It also looks almost oddly modern. It would be right 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:27.240 at home in a modern goth or even manga inspired sketchbook. Yeah, 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.760 there is something about the shape of her face and 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.959 the furrow of her brow that I was like, this 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.000 looks like it literally looks like manga to me, like 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:39.560 prota manga. It's very interesting. Another work that he started 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:43.080 in eighteen fifty five and that really defines the painter's ouvre, 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.959 is The Fairy Feller's master Stroke, which was commissioned by 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:51.520 the hospital's head steward, George Hayden, and this painting features 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:55.080 Oberon and Titanya from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, as 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:57.760 well as other fairies, but the rest of the fairies 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:02.200 are original characters created by da The Fairy Feller is 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:05.280 a character he's poised to cut open a chestnut that's 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:09.600 to be used in construction, presumably for a palace for 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:13.000 the Fairy Queen, and this is considered by many people 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:15.200 to be his masterpiece, and it has earned him the 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:19.280 nickname the Fairy Painter, although this particular work was never completed. 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:23.480 In eighteen fifty two, Bethleem had gotten a new superintendent, 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:28.679 William Charles Hood, who was interested in further reforming the facility. 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:33.440 He was also keenly interested in Dad's case. Dad wrote 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:36.199 out his entire account of what happened the night he 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:39.000 killed his father and gave it to Hood, but that 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:44.439 account has not survived Hood's notes on Dad half, though 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:48.399 on March twenty first, eighteen fifty four, Hood wrote quote, 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:51.520 for some years after his admission, he was considered a 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:54.879 violent and dangerous patient, for he would jump up and 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:59.000 strike a violent blow without any aggravation, and then beg 0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:03.119 pardon for the This arose from some vague idea that 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:06.240 filled his mind and still does to a certain extent, 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:09.879 that certain spirits have the power of possessing a man's 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:14.119 body and compelling him to adopt a particular course, whether 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:17.639 he will or not. When he talks on this subject, 0:24:17.760 --> 0:24:20.880