WEBVTT - Who was America's first murderer? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.319 from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.680 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:25.440 and this is Stuff you Should Know Episode three. Well, 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.640 I'm saying it is so now it's episode episode three 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:35.000 something three niner eight or that's good, Josh? Is that 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.760 your intro? Rocking and a rolling, splihing in the splashing 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.880 over the horizon? What could it be? Look like it's 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.279 gonna be a new country? Do you remember that one? Now? 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.560 What are you talking about? That idea? That was the 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:55.040 the schoolhouse rock for the Mayflower Voyage? Really rocking in 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.480 a roll and splashing in the splash, and you remember 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.600 that good coming over the horizon? What could it be? 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.920 Look like it's going to be a free country or 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:07.959 new country? Either way, it was both new and probably 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:12.080 knew because it was not free for everybody. That's true. 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.920 So you're talking about this because we're going to talk 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.959 about the first murderer? Right yeah? And before we start, 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.080 I want to ask why has no one ever made 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:25.000 a modern film about the Mayflower Voyage. It seems like 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.800 a no brainer, you know. Yeah, I don't know, especially 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.200 after gotting around to you yet. Like the awesomeness of 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.920 Master and Commander. Did you ever see that, the one 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.479 with um Russell Crowe? Yeah, it was very good, surprisingly good. Yeah, 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:40.520 it surprised me too. Actually, I didn't get the colon. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:42.440 It made it sound like it was a franchise, but 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.600 it was like the first of the franchise. It wasn't like, Oh, 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.200 I guess, I guess parts of the Caribbean did have 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:51.240 a call in the first one, didn't it. I don't know. Huh. 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:53.400 But Master, that was Peter we Are Master and Commander, 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.720 So it makes sense that it was awesome because he's 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:59.880 such a great director and related to bobwe right, I think, really, 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:01.960 I don't know, I don't think so. I've always suspected. 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:08.200 Did he do the Treaman show? Uh? That was written 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.520 by we did Gattica. I don't know who directed that. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:14.960 That might have been Peter Weir, but he did Gallipoly 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:19.280 and U like scores of great movies. Well cool, Well, 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:21.840 thank you for joining us at this discussion of Peter 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.920 Weird's films. He should direct the Mayflier movie was what 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.560 I'm saying. For goodness sakes, Okay, they need to do 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:29.839 it like a realistic because you know, when you learned 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:31.840 about it in school at least I did. I thought, 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:34.160 you know, you learned about it from Schoolhouse Rock, and 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.680 you get the picture. They sang songs and kind of 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.480 rock and rolled over the ocean and then ran into 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.720 Plymouth rock and shared Thanksgiving with the Indians, and they 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.560 need to make a real movie about how it really was. Well, yeah, 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.560 because you know, that whole Schoolhouse Rock impression is pretty 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:54.240 widely held even among adults, educated adults. And the reason 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.440 why is because there's a very small amount of firsthand 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:03.520 information that left Plymouth call any right um and was 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.720 allowed to stand. There was a small group of people 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.880 who were controlling all of the info about that place, 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:11.760 and they were trying to paint it in as good 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.600 as light as possible because they were trying to attract investors. 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:19.760 And these firsthand accounts that you know, basically painted the 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.959 Puritans as you know, these hard scrapple people who were 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.400 um guided by a divine hand in the wilderness. Has 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:34.120 stood all these centuries hard scrapple. So let's talk about 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.280 let's talk about the Pilgrims the voyage, right, They landed 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:44.320 in sixty just as a quick primer um. And they 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:48.760 were Pilgrims. They were Puritans separatists, as they were often called. 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.400 They were people who were so pious that no one 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.080 in all of Europe was pious enough to contend with them. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:57.960 And they were like, I'm sick of all you sinners. 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.720 Were going to go found a new um, a new 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.600 republic in the in the name and for the glory 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:06.760 of God, and we're going to be really, really good, 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.160 and we're going to do it in the new world. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.400 And that that's what they did. They sailed over to 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.800 Massachusetts and landed in Plymouth, as it turns out, nice 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:20.200 place to land, I imagine. And uh, welch, I mean, 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:21.560 are we going to get to the murder a guy 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.520 right away or should we just ease into that. Well, 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.320 let's talk about who was there. It wasn't just Puritans, 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.960 it wasn't just separatists. There's a whole other group of 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.279 people who don't get talked about a lot. Uh. And 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.800 they were called the strangers. Yeah, that sounded really creepy 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:36.120 when I read it. For some reason, I think it 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.640 sounds cool. I think it sounds creepy. Like they look 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.160 like they should have been dressed in like like the 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.680 pilgrim black, like with why brim hats that you can't 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.800 see their eyes. Yeah, what was the deal with them? 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.920 Were they Catholic? They were anything but the separatists of 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:54.560 the Puritans. So they were Catholics, They were sailors, they 0:04:54.600 --> 0:05:00.600 were um Africans, they were whoever kidnapped Indians. I don't 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.480 know if all those people were on the main Flower, 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.640 but there it was. There was a bunch of people, 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.039 you know, I got them over there. He went with them. 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.240 And the Puritans were pretty rigid. Obviously they didn't like 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:16.039 Catholics at all. They were indeed extremely rigid. But to 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.960 this degree is we'll see, um. They they they found 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.880 that like, no nobody's this rigid. And there were a 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.920 lot of strangers who broke a lot of laws. But um, 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.680 there are a lot of Puritans who did too, um 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.280 and they just kind of glossed it over. They kept records, 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:37.720 but these things just didn't get promoted. Right. Yeah, Mort's relation. Yes, 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.960 so you're talking about mort relation. Written in sixteen twenty 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.160 two by William Bradford, who was clearly the governor, longtime 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:49.440 governor of Plymouth. His cousin George Morton wrote he was 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.120 a separatist and he wrote this book or an account, 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.159 and that was that sort of looked at as the 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.960 account of Plymouth. But as it turns out, as you 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.720 point out, because you wrote this um works relation was 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:04.600 written to attract funding, right for Plymouth. So it was 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:09.960 basically like a lengthy, in depth brochure to attract investors. 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:11.680 And what are you going to say. You're not going 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.000 to say, we're starving to death over here, we're having 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.000 a really hard time, we're probably not going to make it. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.480 People are committing bestiality, yes, buggery is what they call 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.000 the huh And we'll get to that and then okay, um, 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.400 And they're not going to say this. They're going to 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.440 say things are great, we're really you know, living and 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.719 by God's will, we're really just making it over here, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.640 and we need some more money. Yeah. Yeah, so that 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.039 means take take it with a grain of salt. They 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.320 but they didn't just pretend like the strangers weren't there, 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.880 but they painted some of the strangers in possibly less 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.279 than flattering light, right, Yeah, I mean, are we at 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.560 the Billington's Inn, might as well be the Billington's the family, 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:58.520 John Billington's, his wife um eleanor his son's little John 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:04.039 John Jr. And Francis who was a boy his other son. 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:10.680 They were sort of painted as like reading your reading 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.720 your article. They sort of seem like, on one hand, 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.720 like the first white trash, you know, that's one way 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.440 to put it, and then they also sort of seem like, no, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.120 you know, they might have been kind of cool and 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:27.560 just rabble rousers. Yeah, or yes, I think that that's 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.600 very accurate. But they definitely weren't any friends of Bradford 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:32.760 that he did not like these people. No, he didn't. 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.720 He called um He wrote in a letter to a 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:40.520 Mr Cushing I believe uh that who had some sort 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.240 of authority I guess in the over the colony in 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.120 back in England. But he basically says that Billington's still 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.480 rails against you and that he's a nave, which means 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.280 a scoundrel, and he'll always be a nave. He'll live 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.000 and dies so and and as so he'll live and die. Yeah, 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.760 that was Cushman. By the way, they cute same thing. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.880 And uh he also said he quote he said they 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.600 were one of the profanest families to come to the colony. 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.440 And it wasn't just John, I mean they didn't. He 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.360 didn't like any of them. His kids were a bit 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:15.600 of a handful too, well, one of them. It doesn't 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:17.920 say who in the records, but on the way over, 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.320 Um decided that he was going to shoot off his 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:27.400 father's musket, right gun in a cabin filled with people, 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.840 which is bad enough, but he did it right next 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:36.040 to a open, half filled keg of gunpowder, right, so 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.480 he almost just blew the whole Mayflower up and history 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.000 would have changed forever probably. So that was the first 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.520 thing that happened with the Billington's and the rest of 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.520 the people on the Mayflower. Yes, no, actually it wasn't. 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.040 There was part. There was a mutiny that John Billington's, 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:57.440 the father was involved in Um and he was he 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.960 was let off the hook because it was his first offense. 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:05.280 But he uh he that that started. Tensions were already high. 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.880 And then one of his sons, either Francis or John Jr. 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.600 Shot off the gun in the camp. So you start 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.760 to get an impression of this family, especially when you 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.920 look at you know when you think of them bristling, 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:22.679 not just the average persons, you know, right, ire, Yeah, yeah, 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:28.079 but a puritan's hire, right, because you can screw up 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.920 like innumerable ways in the eyes of a Puritan, especially 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.320 if you're not a Puritan, That's right. And then once 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.000 they got to the New World, Uh, they continue their shenanigans. 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.559 John Jr. Kind of wandered off one day twenty miles 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:47.439 worth and wandered into a Native American village, and then 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.000 he was taken to another village by those Native Americans. 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.640 And eventually they sent out a group to go find 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:54.319 him and took him a little while they set sail, 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:56.960 actually ended up on Cape Cod what is now Cape 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.880 Cod and uh said, you know you're gonna have to 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:05.679 come back, yes, And they found him because of Massa Swat, 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:12.080 who was the great statum of the Wappanoag Wapag. Yeah, 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.160 well panel Wag or get an email for that one 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.120 um who was involved in the first Thanksgiving with these 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.600 same people. So he might have had something to do 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:24.640 with that, then, Uh, well he did. He was already 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:29.800 like he he basically was um trying to use the 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:36.640 Englishman against his rivals. I think the Abenaki um to 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.680 basically run them out rather than consolidate with the other 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:45.480 Indians against the English, and basically that turned over the 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.520 whole continent to Europe. Like that one act is largely 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.640 considered as the the turning point. So he was already 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.400 pals with him, um and uh so he helped him 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.240 find the boy. And if you're from Plymouth, if you 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.640 live in the Plymouth area, then you might know Billington see, 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.320 which is a pond and that's name for John Jr. Yeah, 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.600 who wandered off right. Yeah, I think that he might 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:09.480 have found that. I mean, you know, he discovered the pond, 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.120 but he may have discovered it on his wander right, 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:16.440 his sojourn. Yeah, but they found him and he was 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.560 quote be hung with beads. So apparently they you know, 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.120 kind of adopted him a little bit like he was 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:26.480 the mascot and yeah, and then they gave him back. Yeah, 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.880 and then the I think that the colonists gave the 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.040 Indians and a couple of knives and said thanks and 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.680 went back to Plymouth, thanks for the beads and the guy. 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.040 But you have to imagine that mounting a ten man 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:44.680 sailing expedition into Indian country. Um, because your kid wandered off, 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:46.480 it's gonna you're gonna You're gonna rub the back of 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.600 your neck and be like a lot. Uh yeah, you know, 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.720 if you're a Billington and she like, thanks for getting 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.040 my kids back, you know, can I do I owe 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:59.800 you anything? Or you know? Not so though, because Billington 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.600 uh had a bad reputation and that he scoffed at 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.960 Captain Miles Standish and you don't scoff at Standish Miles 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.439 Standish proud Miles Standard was trying to get people to 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.120 uh to you know, serve in the military, and Bill 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.000 and was like, no, dude, I'm not doing that. He 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:18.640 was a part of anti government groups. Government subversion, well 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.680 there was in sixty four there was called what's called 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:25.120 the Old woman Lyford Conspiracy. That was the name of 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.439 the two main conspirators. He was named as a co conspirator. 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.480 And reading his history and then this, you know, the 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:33.720 the actual history of this conspiracy, which is a lot 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.240 of secret meetings about how they should overthrow this Puritan 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:43.240 regime and start governing this colony the right way. Um, 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:45.199 he was probably a part of it, but he denied 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.000 it and and was let off the hook again. Well, 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.360 and he he was also apologized for the UM for 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.520 standing up against Standish, and they said they threatened him 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.760 with hog tyme, which can actually kill you. I didn't 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.640 realize that I could see that could what you're all 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.520 your weights on your chest right, Well, it's they tie 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:05.600 your legs together, they tie your arms behind your back, 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.520 and then they tie your ankles to your neck around 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:14.160 your neck. What So, unless you stay completely arched like that, 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.640 you're gonna start cutting off circulation. Like it's a form 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.720 of torture. It's not just how we're gonna tie you up. Well, 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.240 the that whole second step has been kind of lost 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:26.320 to history as I understand it. Well, now is it 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.200 just tying the hands and tie your your hands and 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.920 your ankles, your wrists and your ankles together behind your back, 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.800 And yeah, you're arched, but I don't know anything about 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.160 tying the ankles around that. That's horrible. Apparently the old 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.560 hog tie is a little more brutal. Yeah, which makes 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.520 total sense. Which also makes sense why he's described as 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.280 basically like pleading for mercy not to have that happened 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.040 to him, and which is why they let him go. Yeah, 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.040 Miles Stands is like, all right, but get out of 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:56.400 my sight Billington, And I mean, like there's really there's 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.920 there's we can't forget. We can't leave out the fact 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.120 that these people were original Plymouth colonists, Like they were 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.960 the first he's on the charter, the first European, the 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.120 first English European Americans, and the first what would become 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.600 one of the first states of America. Like, these are 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.720 important people, no matter what their reputations are. He was 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.840 the signer of the Mayflower Compact, which is the first 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:26.280 um European based governing law. I guess you would call 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:31.200 it of laws um. And he was he was. He 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.280 helped Hugh the colony out of the wilderness. He was 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.680 one of the colonists, right, yeah. And there's a pdf 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.760 online I found that traces his family tree and apparently 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.720 James Garfield, the President, was a descendant of Billington and 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.880 it I mean, if you're I wish I would have 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:48.680 written down some of the last names. I know Witten 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.640 was one of them, but I mean there are people 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:54.040 that have said, like still alive today, Oh yeah, there's 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.720 an apparently I remember researching this. I couldn't find it 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.600 when I reresearched for this podcast. But there's like a 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.520 whole up of people who are into that kind of thing. 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:06.000 We're proudly ancestors of Billington's this rabble rous of the 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.400 first like real troublemaker in America. Well, people are proud 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.480 period just to be descendants of the Plymouth colonists for sure. 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:17.240 So um, but you you, I hopefully everybody has like 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.480 kind of an idea of how Billington and his family 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.320 were regarded. Right, Well, we didn't get to his wife 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:25.240 and daughter. I know that was after what he could. 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.320 His wife was Eleanor was locked in the stocks and 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.600 whipped at one point. She was also had to pay 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.040 fines of five pounds sterling because she was found guilty 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:42.920 of slandering her neighbors. And his granddaughter Dorcas. I love that. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.560 There's only one way to pronounce that, right, yeah, d 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.040 O r c As. I'm gonna bring that one back. 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:54.440 If I ever had a daughter, she's gonna be Dorcas Bryant. Uh. 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.360 Dorcas apparently was sentenced to whipping because she um had 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.160 sexual intercourse. She was twenty two years old, and he 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.640 didn't do that. So um, yeah, the whole family was 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:07.880 definitely not. They didn't fall in line with with the 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:10.200 rest of the crowd. Although that's that's not true because 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:11.560 a lot of the rest of the crowd was doing 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.680 even worse things. As it turns out, you just didn't 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:18.080 read it in the brochure, right, So can we talk 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.000 about some of the stuff that people were doing please? Okay. 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.640 So remember by there's still only seven and fifty five 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:31.640 people in Ploymouth Colony. Okay, so this this stuff is 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.760 happening like twenty fifty years before that the way fewer people. 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:41.040 And yet there were incidents where people like Thomas Granger, 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.640 who was a servant UM was indicted for buggery which 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.920 we established before it was beastiality with a mayor, a cow, 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:56.800 two goats, diverse sheep, two calves, and a turkey he 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.800 fell in love with. He he was sentenced to hang 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.280 by Um are sentenced to die by hanging John Walker 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:09.760 the next year turkey he yes, um, he was. He 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.800 laid with a bitch as it's uh put and of 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.000 course we mean the the well the pilgrims meant the dog, 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:22.879 the female dog. Um. Another guy was was he was 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:28.080 held on suspicion of buggery with the beast. Another guy 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.399 had buggery with the mayor, and it just keeps going 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.160 on and going on. So basically somebody would get caught 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:37.120 sleeping with a dog and would be whipped, put into 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:42.439 the stocks, pilloried, um, and it was just recorded but 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:44.919 never talked about. Yeah, there was also rape in sodomy 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.800 against humans. Yeah. The the way they put sodomy was 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.119 that they were um. These John Alexander and Thomas Roberts 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:57.400 back in sixty seven were caught um and they got 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.119 the hot irons, which wow, is that's rough. So you 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.320 hear about this stuff and you think Dorcas doing you know, 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.399 sleeping with a man, I presume is a very normal 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.520 thing for twenty two year old middle aged woman to do. 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:15.200 Right at the time. Yes, she's not, she's not laying 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:19.000 down with the turkeys. No, so Eleanor got put in 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.119 the stocks for slander, right, Yeah, there's no recording of 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.680 what she said or basically we've reached this point here 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.040 where we should probably talk about what John Billington did. Okay, 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.639 because now that we debunk the fact that not everyone 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:37.439 was super pure and you can't necessarily read uh Mort's 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.359 relation and the brochure and say, you know, everything was 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.560 just hunky dory over there. This maybe actually, maybe this 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:45.760 is why the movie hasn't been made because he wants 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.280 to see a guy sleeping with the turkey. I don't know. 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.840 I think there's a market that you paid a lot 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:53.720 for it. You know, it's a market for that, but 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.440 it's not the box office grossing record breaking numbers. Peter 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.840 Weir wouldn't touchdown or not what the didn' football? So, um, 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:04.360 we should probably talk about how Billington became America's first murderer. 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.560 It took it took place what ten years after he 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.000 got there, So you have to think, like, this guy's 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.920 an original settler and he's been farming and hewing an 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:19.359 existence out for himself and other people. And as a 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:22.600 h an original Mayflower compact signer, he got a bunch 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.240 of land parcel to him, like this is probably ten's 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.080 land now. So but while he made an enemy, clearly 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.760 one real enemy. He made quite a few, Bradford being 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.280 one of them. But he made one enemy named John Newcomen, 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.440 who was a newcomer as it turns out, to Plymouth. Um, 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.040 he hadn't been there for ten years and it seems 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:45.240 like history is a little sketchy because, like you said, 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:50.480 it's not all like recorded at that point. But one 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.439 thing I read was that it was possibly over hunting rights, 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.960 and I don't know how true that is. It is true, 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.920 it is, Yeah, there there's I When I was going 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:05.520 back and um reading the the source material for this, 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.160 I'm like, why did I Why was I so vague 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:10.920 when I wrote this article? Because it did that confirm? 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.920 Did it confirm that? Yeah? Well so in the Bradford's 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:19.400 version basically is like this, he wayed at Billingtons Waylade Newcoming, 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.320 which we should explain what waylate is. Waylade is like 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.119 basically lying in wait and then murdering, like hiding in 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:31.080 the bush. It premeditated. It's huge if you read a 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:33.600 stranger's account. There's an account by a stranger and I 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:36.800 don't know who. Um it's not in this, not in 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.320 the source I cited, but um it's It talks about 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:45.200 how Newcoming was already known to Billington's because he um 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.560 he used to steal from Billington's traps, he poached on 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:51.840 his land and um Billington had chased the kid off 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.520 a bunch of times newcomers seventeen at the time. He 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.240 was a little jerk basically, and he was what the 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:00.000 strangers called a saint, which meant you were in good 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.640 with Bradford because you're a Puritan, and compared to a stranger, 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.560 you had exponentially more rights and you got away with 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:11.040 exponentially more stuff. Okay, So here's Billington, who already has 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.680 a bad reputation, and there's some little seventeen year old 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.120 punk kid stealing from his traps who's chased off time 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.720 and time and time again, and um, he catches him there. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:23.920 So he goes after him with his gun, and the 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.560 kid goes and hides behind a tree, and Billington shoots 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.439 at the tree. I don't know if he meant to 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.560 shoot at the kid. Apparently he's a pretty good marks mint, 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:37.680 but he hit the kid in the shoulder, not exactly 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:41.719 a lethal shot. Today. Well, the kid died in like 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:46.000 three days of an infection. That's how the America's first 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.040 murder took place. And it was apparently with a blunderbuss. 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:51.399 Have you ever heard of these guns? Is that the 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:56.280 one with the big sort of like pilgrim hunting with yeah, 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:57.840 a little bit. I mean, it's not like an elephant gun, 0:21:57.840 --> 0:21:59.280 but if it does flare out at the end, and 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.280 it's sort of, um, what would be considered today, it's 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.120 sort of like a sawed off shotgun. So like it 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.320 was a musket, but it was short and flared, and 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:13.320 so I imagine it it had a wider spray, even 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:15.680 though it wasn't well it wouldn't be a spray because 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.199 they didn't use pellets, but they compared it to a 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:20.280 sawed off shotgun. And what I read hand on the 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:25.359 pump exactly. So, um, that's how the first murder took place. 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:29.520 I get the impression. Billington, who was also um described 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:34.800 as um beloved by many in another account by a 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.840 stranger kind of a satirical take on Plymouth colony. Yeah, 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.359 Thomas Morton in the New English Canaan said that he 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.840 was a beloved dude. He was beloved by many. Basically, 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:48.439 if you were a stranger, you probably like Billington's He 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:51.560 sounded like a kind of a fun guy to be honest. 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:54.800 I know he's the first murderer, but he's a rebbel 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.200 rouser that's into associate with those types. Well, Billington thinks 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:03.080 that because of the um, the fact that they need people, 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:07.560 they're still each individual is very important. UM. And that 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.480 this kid had been really it was the kid's fault 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.239 that he was on his property. Billington and warned him, 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:15.240