Speaker 1: Ah, that was exciting. No, it was, well, it was.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was like an air of tension. Okay,
Speaker 1: I guess that's there's some excitement there. We sat down
Speaker 1: to record and three hours ago, yeah, and my laptop
Speaker 1: just turned off and I was like, that's weird. And
Speaker 1: I turned it back on and it was like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm on now, and then it let out this crazy,
Speaker 1: this beeping sound like I'd never heard. It was like
Speaker 1: a fire alarm. Yes, it's very loud, and then it
Speaker 1: just shut off and I was like, what the hell
Speaker 1: is happening? Terrifying. Had to do some computer surgery. It
Speaker 1: was just a fan stuck, so you know, the laptop
Speaker 1: was like I I know, I can't. I can't the
Speaker 1: fans not working. I'm gonna freak out because if I
Speaker 1: run with that, I could burst into flames. So it
Speaker 1: kind of was a fire alarm. I guess. I guess
Speaker 1: I'm glad it was loud then if it was gonna
Speaker 1: burst into flames, I need to know that. Well, it
Speaker 1: seemed fingers crossed. It's working. I hope we get through
Speaker 1: this thro this what a week got jury duty? Damn.
Speaker 1: The Emmy nominations came out true well we got a
Speaker 1: story to get to. Oh my god that this laptop
Speaker 1: crashes knock on woods. But yes, I'm very excited about
Speaker 1: this episode. This turned out to be a very fun story.
Speaker 1: Um And I want to thank Simon um at chingwetty
Speaker 1: one on Instagram, who sent us this suggestion like several
Speaker 1: months ago, so I've been waiting a while. Thanks Simon.
Speaker 1: This was a really good one. And as I told Simon,
Speaker 1: fair warning, half the reason I was excited about this
Speaker 1: is because it takes place in Australia and New Zealand,
Speaker 1: which means we get to stun everyone with our terrible
Speaker 1: accidents from that region. And I cannot wait. Hey, mine
Speaker 1: might be pretty good. I don't know. I even tried
Speaker 1: it yet. Mine is terrible, so mine will be terrible.
Speaker 1: Elis might be it won't be good. Well, we won't
Speaker 1: overdo it. We won't overdo it, okay. So Agnes out
Speaker 1: the Way, always called Nessie by her family, lived in
Speaker 1: this South Otago coast in New Zealand, working at her
Speaker 1: parents boarding house for travelers. She was around thirty two
Speaker 1: years old and still single when a distinguished guest came
Speaker 1: to stay. A rich, dapper forty nine year old man
Speaker 1: named Perceval Leonard Carol Redwood. He was charming and generous,
Speaker 1: and best of all, he seemed very taken with Nessy.
Speaker 1: Only a few weeks after they met, Nesty and Percy
Speaker 1: were engaged. But some things about Percy we're not adding up,
Speaker 1: and people all over town were getting suspicious. So let's
Speaker 1: find out the deal with Percy and the surprising things
Speaker 1: he was hiding under the surface. Curious, Let's go Hey,
Speaker 1: their French, come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some
Speaker 1: stories to tell. There's no matchmaking, a romantic tips. It's
Speaker 1: just about pridiculous relationships, a lover. It might be any
Speaker 1: type of persion at all, and abstract concept a concrete wall.
Speaker 1: But if there's a story, were the second glanch boo
Speaker 1: ridiculous roles? A production of I Heart Radio. Percy had
Speaker 1: come from Dunnydin. He made a lot of friends there.
Speaker 1: In a nine nine article from The Evening Star, one
Speaker 1: Dunnyden resident said about Percy, quote, he was an all
Speaker 1: right check. He had plenty of money and if you
Speaker 1: wanted anything, he was the boy to buy it for you.
Speaker 1: What the funk? Where am I? By way of Dublin?
Speaker 1: That's what happens every time. Okay, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 1: We went to the theater with him, and he would
Speaker 1: have been quite disappointed if my wife and daughter had
Speaker 1: not gone with him. My daughter once said, finish the quote.
Speaker 1: I can't do it. My daughter once said she liked dimples,
Speaker 1: and he had a box sent to us. I once
Speaker 1: said I would like a pair of cat and he
Speaker 1: said he would get one for me from his uncle
Speaker 1: in Melbourne's. Amazing, amazing, that took like a minute. What
Speaker 1: a world traveler, this person, He's from everywhere. And then
Speaker 1: a cab driver chipped in to add and he told
Speaker 1: me he'd get me a Persian cat. So anyway, he
Speaker 1: took this generous attitude with him to nugget point, showing
Speaker 1: up dressed to the nines and thrown around money like
Speaker 1: it was going out of style. And he stayed at
Speaker 1: Albion House, the boarding house operated by Mr and Mrs
Speaker 1: George Ottaway and their daughter Nessy. Now everything about this
Speaker 1: guy Percy was legit. He was the nephew of an archbishop.
Speaker 1: His mother was a wealthy widow who lived on a
Speaker 1: sheep farm in Hamilton's and he bought gifts and bestowed
Speaker 1: favors indiscriminately, just left and right. You'll get a favor.
Speaker 1: You'll get a favor. Here's a fancy gift for you,
Speaker 1: very nice apples. One resident said that Percy was quote
Speaker 1: the essence of all that was good in coined, and
Speaker 1: he appeared to have to do good for other people.
Speaker 1: He's if a reality in obliging nature made us all
Speaker 1: like him. Having established himself so well in Nugget Point,
Speaker 1: it was no problem for any of the residents to
Speaker 1: do him a good turn as well. When Percy confessed
Speaker 1: that he'd lost his wallet on a fishing trip and
Speaker 1: he was all cleaned out, one lady offered him her
Speaker 1: life savings until he could have the money sent from
Speaker 1: his wealthy mom. Several other people felt compelled to give
Speaker 1: Percy loans, sometimes as much as thirty pounds, which in
Speaker 1: a modern New Zealand bucks is worth three thousand, eight
Speaker 1: hundred four pounds today. That's a big loan now. Maybe
Speaker 1: the people of Nugget Point were also eager to help
Speaker 1: with the romance they could see was brewing between Nestie
Speaker 1: and Percy, because it wasn't long after Percy arrived at
Speaker 1: Albion House that sparks started to fly, and after only
Speaker 1: a few weeks, Percy popped the question. Now Nessie's parents,
Speaker 1: the Ottaways, knew that Nessie was going to come into
Speaker 1: some money at some point, so they need to be
Speaker 1: pretty careful about her suitors. You know, you don't want
Speaker 1: any fortune hunters stuff and around. But all their fears
Speaker 1: were laid to rest when Mrs Ottaway got a very
Speaker 1: gratifying letter from Percy's mother, who wrote, quote, I have
Speaker 1: just had a talk over the marriage with my boys,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to town to see my lawyer. We
Speaker 1: have decided to give him three and five hundred pounds,
Speaker 1: and I will give him another one thousand pounds for
Speaker 1: the house and furniture as they wishes to live in Denedin. Yours,
Speaker 1: very sincerely, Francis Redwood. Hey, thank you. Even better, another
Speaker 1: letter arrived from Mrs Ottaway from the Auckland Drainage Board
Speaker 1: informing her that the secretary of the board was retiring
Speaker 1: and would hire Percy to replace him for a salary
Speaker 1: of seven pounds a week. Now. That is eight hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty seven pounds a week today, good salary in
Speaker 1: US dollars. It's like sixty cents to a New Zealand
Speaker 1: dollar today, so it's that's still like, yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: seven hundred bucks or so things. I mean, I would
Speaker 1: take it, so this couple would be financially set for life,
Speaker 1: and there's no reason to keep NeSSI away from this guy.
Speaker 1: In fact, Mrs Ottaway trusted him so much that when
Speaker 1: Percy wrote to a law firm to get a mortgage
Speaker 1: against the horses and sheep that he owned, she offered
Speaker 1: her own house as security on this loan because the
Speaker 1: lawyer had been a little suspicious of Percy, so he'd
Speaker 1: come out and Percy had to like name all his
Speaker 1: cattle and tell him isn't identifying marks and everything? And
Speaker 1: he did all that, which is funny because I'm like,
Speaker 1: did you have a picture of them? And yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he doesn't, just like spot on his ear. Oh you've
Speaker 1: got sheep? Do you well, tell me six of their names,
Speaker 1: and he's like, uh, jamieson coil, Michael Jamison to Philip.
Speaker 1: You know, they're like oh wow, okay, well you name
Speaker 1: those pretty quickly. So I assume those sheep they must
Speaker 1: be yours to Jon's and did he have a roll
Speaker 1: call or something. I don't know. But yeah, once the
Speaker 1: lawyer had this valuable boarding house as collateral, you know,
Speaker 1: it was all good. The mortgage went through, Percy swimming
Speaker 1: in cash again, and so the wedding date was set
Speaker 1: for April one, nine nine. Okay, so Percy shows up
Speaker 1: in town, stays at this place, and falls in love
Speaker 1: with the girl. Her parents say, we're not so sure
Speaker 1: about this guy, and he just starts producing letters. Well here,
Speaker 1: this proves who I am. This proves who I am,
Speaker 1: and they're like, damn, okay, well let me put up
Speaker 1: my house as collateral for your loan. Then, yeah, this
Speaker 1: guy's great. He so trustworthy. I mean, he would never
Speaker 1: do anything to hurt anybody. He just seemed like such
Speaker 1: a lovely guy. So why not. It's given me music
Speaker 1: man vibes. You know, she shows up on the music Man. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: pool tables. So for this wedding, Percy spared no expense either.
Speaker 1: He gave see a ring with five diamonds in it.
Speaker 1: There were two hundred guests, that's almost as big as
Speaker 1: our wedding, including the local member of parliament who we
Speaker 1: did not get at our wedding. We invited all of
Speaker 1: Parliament and none of them came. Nestie had ten bridesmaids,
Speaker 1: and after the ceremony, everyone sat down to a lavish
Speaker 1: wedding feast, complete with limitless Rand's champagne. I know, right,
Speaker 1: we did not have that Tito's vodka like maybe Jamison, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it. Um. Percy had bought an
Speaker 1: extravagant cake. He had fancy suits and silver backed hair
Speaker 1: brushes for his bride. It was the social event of
Speaker 1: the year. But the residents of Nugget Point had another
Speaker 1: reason to be excited about this wedding. Remember all those
Speaker 1: loans Percy had gotten. Everyone was like, oh, yeah, young man,
Speaker 1: take my life savings until you can pay me back.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it, you're such a nice guy. Three dollars. Well,
Speaker 1: nobody had been paid back yet, and people were kind
Speaker 1: of starting to chatter. Whispers were growing, and Percy swore,
Speaker 1: my mother is going to be at this wedding. She'll
Speaker 1: pay everybody back. Don't worry you about it. So the
Speaker 1: guests had gotten dressed and ready for this party, expecting
Speaker 1: that they would come home with all their money. What
Speaker 1: a wedding gift. But when they arrived at the wedding
Speaker 1: several important seats were empty. What was going on? Where's
Speaker 1: Mrs Percy, where's the old rich lady? Where's the money?
Speaker 1: Where is the Redwood family? Well, of course Percy had
Speaker 1: an answer. You see, his sister was also getting married
Speaker 1: that exact same day, Shenanigan very rude. So his family
Speaker 1: hadn't been able to come after all, and again flashing
Speaker 1: back to our wedding, we waited a whole extra year
Speaker 1: so we wouldn't be near your brother's wedding. That's right.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's wrong with the sister. But don't
Speaker 1: worry everybody. Percy told them, my mother's gonna be here
Speaker 1: in a week. She'll have your money. Then everything's gonna
Speaker 1: be fine. So everybody's kind of a side on each other.
Speaker 1: Oh what's going on with this money? Alright? Alright, he says.
Speaker 1: A week. They don't say anything, and the wedding went forward,
Speaker 1: But Nsty's dad, George Ottaway, he stayed suspicious. He was like,
Speaker 1: this mom didn't turn up, and I don't know. So
Speaker 1: he insisted that the married couple stay in separate rooms
Speaker 1: until Percy's financial bona fides could be confirmed. Once Percy's
Speaker 1: mom got there, and paid everybody's debts. Great, you can
Speaker 1: consummate your union, but until then, it's a cold batchless
Speaker 1: bed for you. Percy, Oh New Zealand by way of Chicago.
Speaker 1: I think he's a very no nonsense guy. Okay, Now,
Speaker 1: Percy was fine with this arrangement. He went up to bed. Uh.
Speaker 1: He shared a room with one of his groom's men,
Speaker 1: who was very surprised when Percy climbed into bed to
Speaker 1: go to sleep that night, fully dressed in his wedding suit.
Speaker 1: But it was like, whatever, weird guy. Whatever. Lots of
Speaker 1: rooms have fallen asleep in their touch suits room, but
Speaker 1: George was far from the only suspicious one. A couple
Speaker 1: of family friends had actually like written to people they
Speaker 1: knew in Hamilton's and they were like, Hey, can you
Speaker 1: find this Redwood widow lady that we keep hearing so
Speaker 1: much about? And I know she owes me some money,
Speaker 1: so I've been interested, And nobody could find any trace
Speaker 1: of a woman with that name. So people started to
Speaker 1: talk to the police, and as the details of Percy's
Speaker 1: behavior emerged, one detective, detective Henry Hunt, felt his ears
Speaker 1: prick up overly complicated situations involving a lot of unpaid
Speaker 1: debts and a bunch of letters. This was familiar stuff,
Speaker 1: so Detective Hunt went straight to Albion House and asked
Speaker 1: for Percy down the stairs. Percy came pipe in his mouth,
Speaker 1: full suit on, looking sharp. Detective Hunt was not fooled
Speaker 1: for an instant. He said, quote, the game's up, Amy, Amy,
Speaker 1: Who the fuck is Amy? What is happening? Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: find out the real story of Percy Redwood right after
Speaker 1: this commercial break. Yeah, we'll come back to the show forward.
Speaker 1: I can't these ps unrelated. If anyone's a dialect coach,
Speaker 1: send your information to there's dialect coaches out there going right.
Speaker 1: I'm not taking this job. There's nothing I can do
Speaker 1: for you. The greatest challenge I've ever faced, and I
Speaker 1: don't have the energy. You can't afford meurs. All right,
Speaker 1: well everybody, Yes, our friend Percy is actually a woman
Speaker 1: named Amy maud Bach, and she's been called one of
Speaker 1: the most celebrated and energetic confidence tricksters in New Zealand history. Oh.
Speaker 1: She was born in eighteen fifty nine in Hobart, Tasmania.
Speaker 1: Her father was a photographer and an artist named Alfred Bach,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately her mother mary Anne suffered from a serious
Speaker 1: mental illness. In eighteen sixty seven, the family moved to Sale, Victoria,
Speaker 1: and her mother seems to become more delusional. She thought
Speaker 1: that she was Lady Macbeth. According to historian Jenny Coleman
Speaker 1: in her book Mad or Bad, The Life and Exploits
Speaker 1: of Amy Bach, Coleman thinks that Mary Ann Bach possibly
Speaker 1: had bipolar disorder. She was committed to an asylum, and
Speaker 1: she died in eighteen seventy two. Now, as a young
Speaker 1: girl in school, Amy was She was bright, she was clever,
Speaker 1: she was popular even, and she was an accomplished horsewoman
Speaker 1: and pianist. And she was a great actor. She even
Speaker 1: played male roles on stage several times in school plays.
Speaker 1: But her love of thieving got started early. In a
Speaker 1: statement to the police, Amy told them that as a kid,
Speaker 1: she loved buying a bunch of books on credit under
Speaker 1: her dad's name and then just giving them away all
Speaker 1: over town. When her dad found out that he was
Speaker 1: on the hook for all these books, he told her
Speaker 1: to quit it, which she said, quote only increased my
Speaker 1: desire to get things without his knowing. That made her
Speaker 1: dad afraid that she had inherited her mother's instability. Apparently also,
Speaker 1: she once passed herself off as the daughter of a
Speaker 1: wealthy family, and she ordered several coffins from a string
Speaker 1: of funeral directors, all delivered to a family who had
Speaker 1: no bodies to bury, which is one of the best
Speaker 1: pranks I've ever heard. Incredible, And I was like, is
Speaker 1: she trying to say, like I wish you were dead?
Speaker 1: What is she saying? It's just so weird, That's what
Speaker 1: I love about it. They just imagine that people who
Speaker 1: opened the door and there's like seven coffins, They're like,
Speaker 1: what the hell am I supposed to do with this?
Speaker 1: That's hilarious. I'm just saying, that's the funniest job. I
Speaker 1: want to know more, like were they varying sizes? Were
Speaker 1: they all the same? Like wood? Like what was did
Speaker 1: she have a one fancy one and one plane box?
Speaker 1: And they had to fight over it. In eighteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: when she was about seventeen, Amy left her father's house
Speaker 1: to become the only teacher at a rural school in Gippsland,
Speaker 1: right outside of Melbourne, but she was frequently absent, claiming
Speaker 1: she was too sick to come in, and twice inspectors
Speaker 1: found out that she was falsely inflating her school attendance
Speaker 1: records because her salary was based on how many students
Speaker 1: she had in the classroom, so she would just like
Speaker 1: add a few names forget Jamison and Jamison too, don't forget.
Speaker 1: She also used her status as a school teacher to
Speaker 1: get a line of credit, which she used to run
Speaker 1: up a bunch of debts. She stole two watches from
Speaker 1: a jeweler in Melbourne by pretending that her brother was
Speaker 1: giving the watches a gift and he wanted to choose
Speaker 1: between watches, and of course she had a letter from
Speaker 1: the brother and it apparently was not an unusual thing
Speaker 1: to do at the time, so the jewelers like, sure,
Speaker 1: go off with the watches and let me know. And
Speaker 1: of course she failed to come back with either of
Speaker 1: the watches or any payment. So the jeweler contacted the police,
Speaker 1: and since she had used her real name, it was
Speaker 1: not very hard to track her down. Investigating further, they
Speaker 1: found that she had also bought two carriages, a piano,
Speaker 1: and multiple pieces of furniture on credit, which she then sold,
Speaker 1: and then she tried to get out of paying by
Speaker 1: forging a bunch of letters from a fake sister named Ethel,
Speaker 1: claiming that Amy had died. Dear inspective, please stop looking
Speaker 1: for my sister. Turns out she's dead. Sincerely, Ethel, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at her rotten now she is in one of
Speaker 1: the many coffins that she's Your time searching for her
Speaker 1: might as well stop detectives like, well, okay, I mean
Speaker 1: someone said she's dead. I'm not gonna waste my time.
Speaker 1: So in eight four she's arrested on charges of fraud.
Speaker 1: This is her first arrest. However, the court decided that
Speaker 1: because of her family history of her mother's mental illness,
Speaker 1: Amy was not responsible for her own actions, and so
Speaker 1: she was discharged without a conviction. Um she was pledged
Speaker 1: to good behavior for twelve months, and her dad convinced
Speaker 1: her to move with him to Auckland, New Zealand, where
Speaker 1: he was living with his new wife, a woman who
Speaker 1: by the way, was only one year older than Amy.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't easy to live with her dad and
Speaker 1: her new same age step mom. We've seen that before,
Speaker 1: so she struck out on her own after only a
Speaker 1: couple of months at home. In May of eighteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: she was arrested again for obtaining one pound and concert
Speaker 1: tickets on false pretenses. Speculation station, What are the false
Speaker 1: pretenses that get you concert tickets? Right? It's like make
Speaker 1: a wish thing Like She's like, I'm very sick and
Speaker 1: I'm gady to die. I'd love nothing more than say
Speaker 1: they banned before I talk almost. I don't know, Wow,
Speaker 1: that would make her a bad person or what if
Speaker 1: it's just I'm the manager on the band's Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in the band actually, so I cannot get a
Speaker 1: couple of tickets from my brother Jamison and my sister
Speaker 1: Jamison two wow? Okay. Well. She was again found not
Speaker 1: responsible for her actions for these concert tickets, and she
Speaker 1: was released. She moved to Littleton on the east coast
Speaker 1: of New Zealand and became a governess for some family friends.
Speaker 1: Eight month scho by, no problems, no arrests, no theft, nothing.
Speaker 1: But then in eight six she informed her employers that
Speaker 1: she had just inherited a large sum of money and
Speaker 1: when they told her, they didn't believe her, because of
Speaker 1: course they were family friends they probably knew a lot
Speaker 1: of her history. She got offended and she quit and
Speaker 1: she bought some stuff on credit, probably sold it illegally,
Speaker 1: and she took off to Wellington. The thing is about amy.
Speaker 1: She does not try hard to cover her tracks, so
Speaker 1: she was quickly found arrested again and brought back, this
Speaker 1: time to christ Church for trial. And in this trial
Speaker 1: they decided, oh, we can't reverbet your family history, and
Speaker 1: they threw the book at her. She was sentenced to
Speaker 1: one month's hard labor and imprisonment. She gets out, goes
Speaker 1: back to Wellington. She gets a job teaching at the
Speaker 1: Otaki Mayori Boys College. Almost immediately she starts obtaining goods
Speaker 1: to false pretense in her favorite thing, using most of
Speaker 1: her ill gotten gains too, it must be said, buy
Speaker 1: books for her students. That's kind of cool hood action. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it isn't long before she's found out again. She
Speaker 1: goes back to court for fraud and she gets six
Speaker 1: months detention. But while she's in jail, the warden is
Speaker 1: so impressed by her manners and social skills he offers
Speaker 1: her a job teaching other inmates. Nice, I know, right,
Speaker 1: I guess manners and social skills. Let me teach you
Speaker 1: had a forge a chick not. Things are going great
Speaker 1: until the warden finds out that Amy is trying to
Speaker 1: secure her release from jail by forging a bunch of
Speaker 1: letters from a supportive but completely fictional aunt. Dear my
Speaker 1: sweet niece Amy. She's so kind and giving and loving.
Speaker 1: Actually the letters were to Amy her aunts, and they
Speaker 1: were very like. They were like, oh, Amy, how could
Speaker 1: you You're always I wish that God could solve your problems,
Speaker 1: but I'm an invalid and I can't come visit you
Speaker 1: see if they'll bring you to me. And they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's trying to like give us the slip on the
Speaker 1: way or whatever. Dear Amy asked the warden very nicely
Speaker 1: to put you in a carriage with no God tell him.
Speaker 1: I said, it's a very smart idea, signed your very
Speaker 1: trustworthy aunt Jamison to Jamison. Alright, So she got released.
Speaker 1: She started teaching music, but only a few months later
Speaker 1: she landed in court again for her favorite obtaining goods
Speaker 1: on false pretexts. At that trial, Amy explained she couldn't
Speaker 1: help herself when she said when she was teaching in Melbourne,
Speaker 1: she managed to keep quote the Malady at Bay because
Speaker 1: she really loved her work. Then she had a personal tragedy.
Speaker 1: She was engaged to a childhood friend who died tragically
Speaker 1: after being thrown from his horse, and her emotions were
Speaker 1: high and she was grieving, and that's what made her
Speaker 1: steal again. She asked at this trial to be committed
Speaker 1: to a lunatic asylum because she said, you know, I
Speaker 1: inherited this mental instability for and kleptomania from my mother. However,
Speaker 1: according to an eight article called Alleged Cleptomania in the
Speaker 1: Otago Daily Times, the judge was quoted as saying, we
Speaker 1: cannot give any support or show any favor to cleptomania.
Speaker 1: It would never do to countenance it. If we did,
Speaker 1: a good many people would soon be found to think
Speaker 1: that they were suffering with that disease. Pretty soon they'll
Speaker 1: I'll be doing it. Wow. So he's worried that people
Speaker 1: are just gonna start stealing, going to court and say, sorry,
Speaker 1: your honor, it's the cleptomania. Wow. I'll say, that's not
Speaker 1: a fair reason to not give people with, you know,
Speaker 1: mental health issues. While if we start giving you the
Speaker 1: things you need to survive, then soon ever one will
Speaker 1: want them. That's what I was just like, there's so
Speaker 1: many ways to tell if somebody stole because they stole,
Speaker 1: and if they stole because it's a compulsion. There's so
Speaker 1: many ways. But of course it's I'm not sure their
Speaker 1: mental health stuff was great, But up to this point
Speaker 1: they've been very forgiving and soft on this particular criminal.
Speaker 1: I will say, I feel that these sentences match the crimes.
Speaker 1: You know, she feels a pound here, you know, thirty
Speaker 1: pounds here and there, and then she works it off
Speaker 1: and then she gets to get out instead of like,
Speaker 1: you're a thief, so we're gonna put you in jail
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life, And they're like, why
Speaker 1: not go out and you know, pay some taxes. At
Speaker 1: the same time, though, they're they're gonna proponents of more
Speaker 1: harsh sentencing are going to point to her and say, see,
Speaker 1: every time you'll let her out, she just did it again,
Speaker 1: repeat offender. Yeah, well she need a different kind of help.
Speaker 1: It's so true. So well, anyway, this this judge did
Speaker 1: not want to say anything about kleptomania or whatever mental instability.
Speaker 1: He's like, you're a thief. That's all I need to know.
Speaker 1: So she got two months in jail this time in
Speaker 1: eight nine, she gets out. She moved to Akaroa on
Speaker 1: Banks Peninsula, and she got a job as a governess
Speaker 1: and she stole some sh it again, her long record
Speaker 1: is working against her now. She got six months for
Speaker 1: larceny and false pretenses. When she got out in eight
Speaker 1: she moved to Dunedin and she forged a letter from
Speaker 1: a woman named Lucinda Edgar saying that Ida Bennett was
Speaker 1: the absolute best housekeeper, governess and companion a person could
Speaker 1: wish for. Then she went and posed as this Ida
Speaker 1: Bennett and she used this letter from Lucinda Edgar to
Speaker 1: get a job as a housekeeper at Mr Cox's house.
Speaker 1: An article from the Otago Witness called quote an artful
Speaker 1: schemer lays out her whole on here, from start to finish.
Speaker 1: First she forges the fake reference, the letter from Loosen
Speaker 1: to Edgar saying I'd have been it's the best. Once
Speaker 1: she had the job, she went to a money lender
Speaker 1: and she said there was a piano at Mr Cox's
Speaker 1: house that belonged to her, and since her brother was
Speaker 1: in desperate financial straits, she wanted to borrow some money
Speaker 1: against this piano. The money lender was like, oh, no problem,
Speaker 1: I'll write you out a bill of sale. Right now,
Speaker 1: but a bill of sale would be registered and that
Speaker 1: would you know, let Mr Cox know what was going
Speaker 1: on here. So she was like, oh no, I don't
Speaker 1: want Mr Cox to find out about this. He would
Speaker 1: turn me out of the house if he knew. But
Speaker 1: I do have a wealthy friend named Mrs Lucinda Edgar
Speaker 1: living in Burnside who will be willing to sign a
Speaker 1: promissory note pledging to pay it all back? Is that okay?
Speaker 1: And the money lenders like sure loosened to Edgar. She
Speaker 1: sounds very wealthy. I'll accept And she ended up getting
Speaker 1: from him again it's quite a bit of money back then.
Speaker 1: And then she told Mr Cox that her dear friend
Speaker 1: Mrs lusen To Edgar was really sick and not expected
Speaker 1: to live, so she was going to go stay with
Speaker 1: her for a few days. And she left him a
Speaker 1: letter like I know I'm leaving and that sucks of me.
Speaker 1: And you've been so good to me, and if you
Speaker 1: need to hire someone new, I completely understand, but I
Speaker 1: hope that you'll be good and kind enough to keep
Speaker 1: my position open when I come back. Well. Mr Cox
Speaker 1: is starting to get a little suspicious. He's like, this
Speaker 1: lady's crazy so he asks around Burnside and he discovers
Speaker 1: there's no such person as a Mrs Lusen to Edgar
Speaker 1: living there. So the cops get called. Amy's tracked down,
Speaker 1: and again, thanks to her long record of previous convictions,
Speaker 1: she's given the maximum sentence three years penal servitude, but
Speaker 1: she gets a few months taken off for good behavior.
Speaker 1: So the whole scheme was us, I'm going to get
Speaker 1: alone and put this piano up as collateral, and all
Speaker 1: that went into this, this whole fake identity, this many letters.
Speaker 1: She probably had to work for the guy for quite
Speaker 1: a while, you know, definitely, and like I think too,
Speaker 1: there were times where they would go talk to the
Speaker 1: postman and wherever these cities were, like Burnside, they would
Speaker 1: go to the Burnside postmaster and be like, hey, you
Speaker 1: got a letter for Lucin to Edgar and they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't know anyone by that name. So we returned
Speaker 1: all the letters, which of course meant they went to Amy,
Speaker 1: so she was able to respond as the fake person. Anyway,
Speaker 1: It's just insane the amount of letters, Like they talk
Speaker 1: about huge piles of letters that she would write and
Speaker 1: to like keep her frauds going it's just a lot
Speaker 1: of work. It feels like the the extreme hyper version
Speaker 1: of like when middle school kids, like, you know, forge
Speaker 1: a note, Oh he's sick, you can And then some
Speaker 1: they get their friend with a deep voice to answer
Speaker 1: the phone. Oh, yes, this is Mr Jamison. My son
Speaker 1: is very sick today. Come to school for Jamison who
Speaker 1: so Amy gets out of prison in eight two, she
Speaker 1: moves to tim Maru, where she promptly pretends to be
Speaker 1: a wealthy horst who lost her pocketbook. She borrows one
Speaker 1: pound off a school principle, which again that's worth about
Speaker 1: a dred and twenty six pounds today, so she's borrowing
Speaker 1: quite a sum from this like total stranger. And then
Speaker 1: she disappears and she was quickly caught and sentenced to
Speaker 1: a month in prison. And she told the judges that
Speaker 1: she did it because she was really upset that her
Speaker 1: father had died. Except her father was alive and living
Speaker 1: in Melbourne. So maybe that story about her childhood love
Speaker 1: who fell off his horse, and we talked about herlier,
Speaker 1: maybe we don't believe that. I'm not sure that there
Speaker 1: ever was a guy who fell off a horse. In
Speaker 1: three she pawned her landlady's husband's watch, and then she
Speaker 1: committed several other small thefts. She ended up once again
Speaker 1: in prison, this time for six months. Once she got out,
Speaker 1: she moved to Amaru and claimed to have come into
Speaker 1: a big inheritance that she wanted to use to buy
Speaker 1: a six room house to rent out. The second big
Speaker 1: inheritance she borrowed several times from a furniture seller, telling
Speaker 1: him she was planning to spend seventy five pounds furnishing
Speaker 1: this house. She applied for an official membership to the
Speaker 1: Salvation Army, but they found out about her record and
Speaker 1: they said they wouldn't accept her until she had proven
Speaker 1: that she changed her ways, so obviously, her next step
Speaker 1: was to defraud several Salvation Army members out of thirty shillings,
Speaker 1: which is like a little over a pound, by selling
Speaker 1: them tickets to a fake event. Oh you want me
Speaker 1: to prove I changed my ways? Tell you what, I
Speaker 1: got some great tickets to go see the Jamison's tonight.
Speaker 1: So she ran off to Palmerston but was arrested. They're
Speaker 1: brought back and sentenced, this time to four months hard labor.
Speaker 1: She gets out once again, she gets in prison very
Speaker 1: quickly after for not paying her room and board. Damn,
Speaker 1: she's just jack in the box with these prisons. Man,
Speaker 1: she is in and out now. When she was released
Speaker 1: at that point, she was sent to live in a
Speaker 1: house in christ Church, New Zealand for fallen women. You
Speaker 1: know that was run by Catholics, even though she had
Speaker 1: never really been accused or suspected of like promiscuous behavior.
Speaker 1: But they just figured, you know what, you need somebody
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on you. You're a hot mess.
Speaker 1: And there is no record of her time at this house,
Speaker 1: but for nearly five years she did not reoffend whatever
Speaker 1: they were doing there. Maybe it helped out some way,
Speaker 1: somehow she could not scam the nuns slapping her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were too quick, maybe because they didn't have anything.
Speaker 1: Now they take a valve poverty, so like there's nothing
Speaker 1: to steal. So I guess I'll just cook and hang out.
Speaker 1: I don't know, sister Mary. I got let her from
Speaker 1: my aunt, who says you need to give me everything
Speaker 1: in your pockets. I gotta let it from God rod here.
Speaker 1: I just sit here and read it. But then in
Speaker 1: nineteen o one, she posed as Miss Sherwin got a
Speaker 1: job as a housekeeper, accumulated large debts and then left
Speaker 1: town and faked Miss Sherwin's death to get out of repay.
Speaker 1: And then a nineteen o two she landed in christ
Speaker 1: Church again under the name of Mary Shannon, and she
Speaker 1: made friends with a well known gardener she like, stayed
Speaker 1: at his house and stuff like that, and she started
Speaker 1: collecting money from all his friends to invest in her
Speaker 1: entirely fake poultry farm. In a nineteen o three article
Speaker 1: from The Evening Post called Remarkable female Swindler, it says
Speaker 1: quote she would supply exact figures of capital and interest,
Speaker 1: terms of mortgage and repayment, et cetera, with as much
Speaker 1: minuteness of detail as a London financier would display. So
Speaker 1: she was very good at maintaining a guise of respectability
Speaker 1: and everything um. This article also details another swindle where
Speaker 1: she basically she just knew the name of this lady
Speaker 1: who lived in a country township, and she knew this
Speaker 1: lady's son was involved at this bank. And then she
Speaker 1: also knew the name of a tradesman in Wellington who
Speaker 1: knew this lady. So she just conjures up a story
Speaker 1: out of her imagination and she shows up at this
Speaker 1: tradesman's place with a letter from the lady saying, Oh,
Speaker 1: my son has some money missing from his account. Would
Speaker 1: you send the missing twenty pounds to me by way
Speaker 1: of this messenger and the tradesman. And the tradesman immediately
Speaker 1: paid it. Amy rides off into the sunset, and the
Speaker 1: article goes on to say, quote, he was so sensitive
Speaker 1: about the way he had been taken in that he
Speaker 1: never prosecuted for this offense. So apparently Amy got away
Speaker 1: with several of her crimes because people were too embarrassed
Speaker 1: to go to the cops. And Yeah, for some reason,
Speaker 1: I decided to pay this total fucking stranger a bunch
Speaker 1: of money for nothing. Very convincing letter. Okay, but this
Speaker 1: letter you don't understand this. I'm just gonna eat that pounds.
Speaker 1: I deserved it. Wow. But with this poultry farm swindle,
Speaker 1: people were not afraid to go to the police. This time,
Speaker 1: she got three years hard labor, but again got some
Speaker 1: time shaved off for good behavior. She was released in
Speaker 1: nineteen o four and she went to live at a
Speaker 1: Salvation Army house in Rakaya, and she found work as
Speaker 1: a housekeeper under the name Amy Chanel until February, she
Speaker 1: was accused of forging a check. Now, uncharacteristically, Amy denied
Speaker 1: doing this. Usually she confessed right away. She always pled
Speaker 1: guilty in court. This time she said it wasn't her
Speaker 1: makes me feel like it probably wasn't know she's a liar,
Speaker 1: but like, she was so frequently honest about their crimes,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, why would she lie this one time? Well,
Speaker 1: whether she was really responsible this time or not, her
Speaker 1: record did work against her and she was sentenced to
Speaker 1: three more years in prison once again, time shaved off
Speaker 1: for good behavior. She was released in two and a
Speaker 1: half years. It's just a same cycle, over and over again.
Speaker 1: She pops up again in nineteen o seven when she
Speaker 1: became friends with a children's theater company and traveled with
Speaker 1: them to Dunedin, and she did have to commit a
Speaker 1: number of small frauds on the way in order to
Speaker 1: maintain her guys as a patron of this company, Like,
Speaker 1: can you donate some money today? And she's like, give
Speaker 1: me a few minutes to write a letter. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: got this letter from my uncle saying he's about to
Speaker 1: cut you a huge check. He says, the best thing
Speaker 1: for you to do right now actually it says in
Speaker 1: the letter here that you should give me thirty pounds
Speaker 1: and then when he shows up next week, he's going
Speaker 1: to give it back to you. Yeah, no problem, that
Speaker 1: makes sense to me, all right now. In Dunnydin, she
Speaker 1: posed as Agnes Valance and in eight got a job
Speaker 1: as a housekeeper to a nice family called the Roys.
Speaker 1: And they loved her just like everyone did and all
Speaker 1: her past jobs, I mean, just like Percy. She's very charming,
Speaker 1: she's a lovely person. They're like, we trust you, You're
Speaker 1: just a doll, you know what I mean. So when
Speaker 1: the Roy's left for their Christmas trip in December, they
Speaker 1: felt safe leaving everything in Agnes's capable hands, and she
Speaker 1: immediately forged a receipt from Mr Roy saying he had
Speaker 1: sold all his furniture to her, and then turned around
Speaker 1: and used the furniture as collateral for a thirty pound
Speaker 1: loan she got under the name Charlotte's Skevington. Well. Of course,
Speaker 1: when the Roy's returned and found out that all their
Speaker 1: furniture had basically been sold, a warrant was put out
Speaker 1: for Amy's arrest in January of ninety you know nine,
Speaker 1: But by then Amy had found the perfect disguise, Percival
Speaker 1: Leonard Carol Redwood as Percy. She stayed at a respectable
Speaker 1: boarding house in Dunnydin and just like a nugget Point,
Speaker 1: everyone loved Percy. She got several people to loan her money,
Speaker 1: including a cab driver, which is that guy who was
Speaker 1: expecting to get a Persian cat from her and let
Speaker 1: me talked about earlier. Um, that guy gave her thirty pounds.
Speaker 1: Another unnamed young lady gave her another forty pounds. So
Speaker 1: she's just a lot of money from these guys. And
Speaker 1: at this point Amy had been imprisoned thirteen times for
Speaker 1: a total of sixteen years and two months. All those
Speaker 1: little sentences really added up. And that is the Percy
Speaker 1: who showed up at Nugget Point to steal money and
Speaker 1: nesty Ottaway's heart. So let's find out what happened with
Speaker 1: that right after this commercial break, Welcome back everybody. Well.
Speaker 1: By now, Amy of course had a reputation with the police,
Speaker 1: probably in every city in New Zealand and Australia. I
Speaker 1: think I think she might have lived in every city.
Speaker 1: Her reputation firstly was of being curiously moral, like she
Speaker 1: almost always gave away her ill gotten gains, particularly to
Speaker 1: young female servants. According to Jenny Coleman, since her motive
Speaker 1: was rarely monetary gain kind of leads a lot of
Speaker 1: credence to her claims that she had some kind of
Speaker 1: compulsion or mania. Maybe. In that alleged kleptomania article from
Speaker 1: the Ottaga Deli Times, she's quoted as telling the police quote,
Speaker 1: you will see for yourself if you look into the case,
Speaker 1: that nothing I got has been for myself. The temptation
Speaker 1: has always been give, give, never mind where you got
Speaker 1: the things, you can pay for them by and by.
Speaker 1: So I wonder if she even sometimes thinks in her head,
Speaker 1: I will pay this guy back later, right, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know that. There's a lot of malice to her actions. Well,
Speaker 1: and what what does she convince herself? She's got a
Speaker 1: whole different perception. Tell this guy about my aunt's out
Speaker 1: of town. But you know what, I'll just I'll swindle
Speaker 1: of money out of somebody else and I'll pay him
Speaker 1: back with that. She just gets herself into a pattern. Maybe, yeah,
Speaker 1: I say, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul kind of
Speaker 1: she just I wonder if if she if she did
Speaker 1: do that. Ever, he wouldn't hear about it because those
Speaker 1: people wouldn't have reported it. I wonder well. She also
Speaker 1: had a distinguishable pattern to her cons that the police
Speaker 1: were starting to recognize in remarkable female swindler. They write
Speaker 1: quote her stories lacked nothing in plausibility, and she imported
Speaker 1: into them a wealth of natural detail. This, however, was
Speaker 1: not altogether an advantage, as her work was so peculiarly
Speaker 1: her own that the police could generally recognize it. Thus,
Speaker 1: as is not uncommon with great artists, she sometimes suffered
Speaker 1: through her task being too well done. She was so
Speaker 1: good they knew it was hurt that London financier ship, like, oh,
Speaker 1: as soon as we found a really complex scheme, pretty
Speaker 1: sure it's a So when Detective Hunt, who was on
Speaker 1: Amy's case with the Dunedin furniture fraud, heard about all
Speaker 1: these fake relatives, forged letters, small loans and unfulfilled promises,
Speaker 1: he could smell Amy all over it. Do you think
Speaker 1: whenever he was about to crack a case he looked
Speaker 1: up and said, the hunt is on. I hope so
Speaker 1: maybe he as a kid he was like, well, my
Speaker 1: name's Henry Hunt, so I guess I have to either
Speaker 1: become a hunter or a detective. I could either hunt
Speaker 1: animals or the most dangerous game. If only it's been
Speaker 1: around when TV was a thing, he could have had
Speaker 1: his own show, on the Hunt, on the Hunt with
Speaker 1: Henry Hunt. Oh my god, I'm ready. So Detective Hunt
Speaker 1: went to the boarding house in Dunedin where Percy had
Speaker 1: been staying, and he found women's clothes in Percy's room. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's some clue. And then he showed a picture of
Speaker 1: Amy two people in Dunningedin who knew her only as Percy,
Speaker 1: and they were able to immediately identify, Oh, that's Percy.
Speaker 1: So he took himself off to Nugget Point and arrested
Speaker 1: Amy for fraud. From an article in the nineteen o
Speaker 1: nine Evening Star called Amy Bok's Latest Escapade, it says
Speaker 1: quote Miss Ottaway is said to be sick in bed
Speaker 1: after the news was broken to her. No surprise there,
Speaker 1: although her father George has quoted us saying, well, it
Speaker 1: could have been worse. The guy was a girl, but whatever.
Speaker 1: At least she wasn't marrying an actor. Gross would have
Speaker 1: been worse. Maybe it would have been worse if she
Speaker 1: had been legally married to an actual liken Man's and
Speaker 1: he was like, at least she's no, no, we're gonna
Speaker 1: get this marriage anald, and there's I'm done or whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but that's just such a funny question.
Speaker 1: I see George like not even looking up from his newspaper.
Speaker 1: I knew he's something off about him. Now, Amy, as usual,
Speaker 1: confessed immediately. She's just like, I see you know everything.
Speaker 1: I'll go right with you. And she went quietly with
Speaker 1: Detective Hunt to jail. He said, the game is up, Amy,
Speaker 1: and she's like, there is. I guess it is. Now
Speaker 1: we go. She's like, how a Detective Hunt. Good to
Speaker 1: see you again. Oh my god, you're still on this
Speaker 1: So okay, Why why this elaborate con Why why fake
Speaker 1: this whole romance with NeSSI and propose? And yeah? Some
Speaker 1: people today have suggested that Amy might be a lesbian
Speaker 1: or even a transman, but there's really not much evidence
Speaker 1: to support that. She never intended to stay with Nessie
Speaker 1: after the marriage. In fact, she planned to leave for
Speaker 1: Melbourne for their honeymoon and shake Nessie off along the
Speaker 1: way and then leave her a note explaining the whole
Speaker 1: shamo which you know, in which case, she would have
Speaker 1: abandoned her in Melbourne, you know, in a strange town
Speaker 1: without her on the way to Melbourne, not even it
Speaker 1: could have been somewhere totally random, and for Nesty would
Speaker 1: been like, well, how am I supposed to get home?
Speaker 1: All he got his letter finding my husband's a lady.
Speaker 1: I don't know what is going on. But in addition
Speaker 1: to that, the only time that she ever dressed as
Speaker 1: a man was to commit fraud or hide from the
Speaker 1: consequences of her fraud. So Jenny Coleman thinks that it's
Speaker 1: more likely this was just the thrill of the con
Speaker 1: for Amy, like how far she could take it, how
Speaker 1: far she could be believed, you know, like an extreme
Speaker 1: sport for her. Almost Yeah, you know, I wonder if
Speaker 1: I could I wonder if I could convince a woman
Speaker 1: to marry me as this girl. I imagine that Nesty
Speaker 1: maybe got a little flirtatious at some point, and you know,
Speaker 1: she's like as Percy, She's like, Wow, my disguises working great.
Speaker 1: I kind of want to see how far Ago I
Speaker 1: could get all the way to a doubt read with Okay,
Speaker 1: Eventually she's like, what if I asked her to marry me?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be so funny? Hey girl, would you marry me?
Speaker 1: And she's like, okay, oh shit, she said, yes, that
Speaker 1: was dumb. I guess we're having a wedding. I don't
Speaker 1: know what I am about to take off my clothes.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm sleeping in my tuxedo right, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, how lucky? Or do you think it was
Speaker 1: even her suggestion, like, well, you know, I haven't proved
Speaker 1: my money yet, so maybe you should make us sleep
Speaker 1: in separate rooms. I wondered that too. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was her suggestion or if she was just
Speaker 1: super relieved that he suggested that. I like to think
Speaker 1: speculation station. She went to the dad and said, how
Speaker 1: how dare you let an unproven man with open debts
Speaker 1: stay in the same room as your daughter. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: want a father in law like you. And he was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, goodness, well you better sleep in separate rooms.
Speaker 1: That's more like you, Percy. I'd hate to disappoint you.
Speaker 1: Whatever you want. It's such a stand up guy. And again,
Speaker 1: in addition to all this behavior, her schemes never really
Speaker 1: benefited her or sometimes even anyone, Like those coffins nobody
Speaker 1: got anything out of that. It's just hilarious, just the
Speaker 1: thrill of the lie for Amy, you know, figuring out
Speaker 1: the story, acting the part to get her, just trying
Speaker 1: to see what she can get away with rather than
Speaker 1: you know, the stuff for the money that she got
Speaker 1: out of it. Sometimes and I get it because I'll
Speaker 1: tell you, hearing the story, there is a part of
Speaker 1: me deep down inside that's like I want to try this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know I wouldn't. I'm not a very
Speaker 1: good I'm not going to keep in a lot of
Speaker 1: lies together in my head, but I could totally see
Speaker 1: how it would be. Um, you know, we all like
Speaker 1: to be good at something, and I think she was
Speaker 1: really good at this, and she just felt good doing
Speaker 1: it because she's like, I'm good at it. And then
Speaker 1: she maybe felt like because I give it away, I'm
Speaker 1: not a bad person because so like people are getting
Speaker 1: hurt there, you know trades, people are losing money and
Speaker 1: people losing their savings and I don't know if they
Speaker 1: have recouped that or what happened with the money. But
Speaker 1: like she felt like she wasn't a bad person because
Speaker 1: she was giving it away, So I'm okay in the
Speaker 1: long run or something. I feel like I could do it. Well.
Speaker 1: I'm very good at keeping many lies up in the
Speaker 1: air at once, and I don't care about people's feelings
Speaker 1: or anything like. I'm just so lazypath in that way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just a lazy sociopath. I'm so glad. The worst kind,
Speaker 1: motivated sociopaths scary. Oh yeah, I guess the lazy sociopath
Speaker 1: is the best kind, the only kind you can live with.
Speaker 1: Trust me. Well. The day after Percy was arrested, the
Speaker 1: press got ahold of the story, and they probably ran
Speaker 1: out of inc they got so many headlines after it.
Speaker 1: Of course, this is a big, funny, hilarious thing, that
Speaker 1: this lady was just like a man and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: It's like the story of the century. In fact, she
Speaker 1: was so ubiquitous in the headlines that one anonymous person
Speaker 1: was so fed up they sent a very long poem
Speaker 1: about how sick and tired they were of Amy Boch
Speaker 1: to the Observer, where it was published in full May nine,
Speaker 1: o nine. And it is hilarious, so funny, But it
Speaker 1: is like five minutes long. So we'll finish up the
Speaker 1: story here, but please stick around at the end. Of
Speaker 1: the show, we will redo the entire lugubrious lament. So
Speaker 1: Amy went to trial at the end of May nineteen
Speaker 1: o nine to face two counts of false pretenses, one
Speaker 1: of forgery and one for making a false declaration under
Speaker 1: the Marriage Act. So this is not only for the
Speaker 1: sham wedding but also that furniture fraud back in Dunedin
Speaker 1: where she sold all her employers furniture. Um. She was
Speaker 1: sentenced to two years hard labor. And at this point
Speaker 1: she was also finally declared an habitual criminal um, which
Speaker 1: I'm starting to think you might do this again fulls
Speaker 1: not time UM. That basically meant that she would be
Speaker 1: detained in prison until quote such a time as the
Speaker 1: governor is convinced that she can be granted her liberty
Speaker 1: with perfect safety to the public immediately. I'm Amy's uncle,
Speaker 1: Jamison the second, and I think she's great. She's gonna
Speaker 1: be fine that around immediately, Yours very sincere, and if
Speaker 1: you could drop on your way out back next week,
Speaker 1: don't worry, I'm good for it. According to the New
Speaker 1: Zealand Geographic, Amy is the first woman in New Zealand
Speaker 1: to be classified and a bit of criminal and apparently
Speaker 1: at this trial that Ottaways put in a petition to
Speaker 1: the judge for leniency on Amy. Now that tells you
Speaker 1: how likable she was in my opinion. Like, they're straight up, like,
Speaker 1: we still have to petition the Supreme Court to and
Speaker 1: all our daughter's marriage to you. But you're just such
Speaker 1: a nice guy, I mean, lady, go easy on him,
Speaker 1: I mean her. Wow, oh my god. Also, you know,
Speaker 1: congratulations women for breaking the glass ceiling of habitual criminal criminality. Now,
Speaker 1: that same year, in June, Nessie Ottaway petitioned the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court to a null her marriage like we said, and
Speaker 1: of course they did right away. In nineteen ten, she
Speaker 1: married a stock inspector and widower twenty years older than herself. Now.
Speaker 1: He died in nineteen eighteen, and in nineteen seven Nessie
Speaker 1: married again to a soldier that she'd known since he
Speaker 1: was a young boy in their childhood. During the trial,
Speaker 1: many of the people Amy had defrauded cashed in on
Speaker 1: the craze around her name, and they auctioned off Amy's
Speaker 1: wedding suit and Nessie's engagement ring to recoup their losses.
Speaker 1: I love the whole town coming together, holding up the Hey,
Speaker 1: let's get paid back by selling this ship. All right, everyone,
Speaker 1: bring me your receipt. We'll put the numbs down. We'll
Speaker 1: see what we can get. I've got four letters from
Speaker 1: Amy's ants. Got bad news for you. Amy also sold
Speaker 1: some things to pay her lawyers, but her lawyers donated
Speaker 1: most of their feet and nessy, that was nice of them, right.
Speaker 1: An article called Amy Bok's Latest Escapade, published in The
Speaker 1: Evening Star in nineteen nine, spends a whole paragraph talking
Speaker 1: about how Amy looked so much like a man that
Speaker 1: she could have deceived anyone. They even kind of sound
Speaker 1: like a little mad about It made us sort of laugh,
Speaker 1: so we wanted to read most of this letter here. Quote.
Speaker 1: Men without knowledge of her identity would not have taken
Speaker 1: the dapper individual and bridegroom gray to be a woman.
Speaker 1: Many women, indeed, have turned eager eyes on less attractive men,
Speaker 1: and this woman are tired as a man. The way
Speaker 1: she had her hands sunk into the pockets of a
Speaker 1: light gray overcoat was the way of a man. She
Speaker 1: walked with the slight stoop of the scholar, but with
Speaker 1: a firm tread. The back of her head was a man's,
Speaker 1: from the back rim of a colored cat placed jauntily
Speaker 1: on the head to the collar of the overcoat. Her
Speaker 1: hair was shorn like that of a man on parade
Speaker 1: or that of a man who gets his sixpence worth
Speaker 1: from the barber every time. In a word, the woman
Speaker 1: was a man. Her walk was not womanly. Most men
Speaker 1: know how women walk, and this woman walked more like
Speaker 1: a man fond of easy fitting trousers. Altogether, one could
Speaker 1: easily understand why women have been deceived by this woman.
Speaker 1: As showing how men were deceived, it is interesting to
Speaker 1: mention that the bridegroom was measured and suited at the
Speaker 1: New Zealand clothing factory, and although her petite form required
Speaker 1: nothing more than thirteen and a half for collars and shirts,
Speaker 1: no one suspected anything amiss, not even the measurer. I
Speaker 1: I am obsessed with this paragraph. They go on and
Speaker 1: on about the most random characteristics that an assigning gender
Speaker 1: to the way you walk or the way her hands
Speaker 1: in your pockets, and they're like the back of her
Speaker 1: head was a man. She was even wearing a hat
Speaker 1: like the What was I supposed to think? I mean,
Speaker 1: she had a overcoat on. I can always tell me.
Speaker 1: This article also goes on to say, quote the accused,
Speaker 1: it might be mentioned, is a very temperate woman. She
Speaker 1: never drinks, but on the day of her wedding, in
Speaker 1: order to play her part, she took seven whiskeys, which
Speaker 1: she says nearly killed her. Oh no, that's right, whiskey
Speaker 1: nearly kills me right now. Well, she was really committed
Speaker 1: to the part dairy committed. She was ready to drink
Speaker 1: the funk out of whatever I'm like. Well, she had
Speaker 1: fallen down, no wonder, she crawled into bed and her
Speaker 1: suit she has probably wasted. Amy spent two more years
Speaker 1: in jail, and when she was released in nineteen eleven,
Speaker 1: she moved to Mocow, where, according to a biography written
Speaker 1: by Fiona Farrell, she quote organized any entertainments and plays
Speaker 1: and was the life of the district. In November of
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, Amy got married. This time, as the papers
Speaker 1: were careful to point out as the bride, she married
Speaker 1: a Swedish guy named Charles Edward Christofferson, and according to
Speaker 1: Fiona Farrell, they parted within a year because of Amy's debts,
Speaker 1: but in a headstuff dot org article called Amy Bach
Speaker 1: the feminine bridegroom by Kieran Conliffe. It says that he
Speaker 1: was a heavy drinker who abandoned her after a couple
Speaker 1: of years and left her destitute. Yeah, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: which is accurate. There's a very different stories right right,
Speaker 1: with very different feelings on my part right now. Either way,
Speaker 1: she was still up to her old tricks. In nineteen
Speaker 1: seventeen she was fined twenty pounds for theft, and then
Speaker 1: she moved to Hamilton's And in nineteen thirty one she
Speaker 1: faced five charges of obtaining money through false pretenses. That
Speaker 1: that old. She loves charge false pretenses, that's her way
Speaker 1: of life. She was seventy one years old at that point,
Speaker 1: so they just sentenced hearted two years of probation on
Speaker 1: the condition that she lived in a Salvation Army home
Speaker 1: for the elderly. Now, Amy died in the year nineteen
Speaker 1: forty three, and weirdly, she is in an unmarked grave
Speaker 1: in a Puka Cohe cemetery. Yeah, considering how obsessed everyone
Speaker 1: was with her story, it's odd to me that they
Speaker 1: wouldn't mark her grave. But maybe we've heard before. I
Speaker 1: can't remember who I'm thinking of, but I've heard before
Speaker 1: about people who were marked who were buried in unmarked
Speaker 1: graves so that people didn't go flock to them and
Speaker 1: desecrated and like turn it into a whole tourist site.
Speaker 1: It's like almost more respectful, like let's let this woman
Speaker 1: lay in peace here, Like who knows if we put
Speaker 1: her name on it, someone's going to steal the tombstone
Speaker 1: down the road? Did she die in or did a
Speaker 1: letter say she did so? Sorry? Amy spec reulation station.
Speaker 1: Amy Bach was a con the whole time. She's actually
Speaker 1: Jamison two of Wellington alive and well sheep farmer who
Speaker 1: who put on this whole ruse of a con artist, wow,
Speaker 1: just to see if he could, to see if he
Speaker 1: could Percy was the real one all along. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I love this story. Amy Bach is insane and so interesting,
Speaker 1: like against this sort of robin Hood tendencies, all of
Speaker 1: these tiny I mean tiny is not really accurate because
Speaker 1: it's still in the thousands of dollars, but they're still
Speaker 1: pretty small cons. She usually didn't keep anything, like, she
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of money or wealth herself. She
Speaker 1: just seemed and she was such a good like people
Speaker 1: loved her. They were just like I want to be
Speaker 1: your friend. I just think that's so interesting. So thank
Speaker 1: you again to Simon for this suggestion. This was a
Speaker 1: really fun research project, really fun story to hear about,
Speaker 1: and I love doing my terrible exits. I think it
Speaker 1: improved throughout the episode. I know it did, but then
Speaker 1: I also probably got worse sometimes, who knows. Look, this
Speaker 1: story ain't over. We have a very very fun poem,
Speaker 1: important poem to read. So let's all go down to
Speaker 1: poetry Corner and hear the letter that this anonymous person
Speaker 1: sent to a newspaper called the Irrepressible Amy b a
Speaker 1: lugubrious lament. Oh listen to my tearful and kindly wipe
Speaker 1: a weep away. But watch please that you do not
Speaker 1: say Amy Bach, for Oh, that name has got me down,
Speaker 1: gives rise to a ferocious frown. This name obsesses all
Speaker 1: the town Amy Bach. The daily papers Philip space by
Speaker 1: reproducing Amy's face and everywhere these words you trace Amy Buck.
Speaker 1: They publish with ecstatic glee, long yarns about her pedigree.
Speaker 1: Their whole contents appear to be Amy back. They serve
Speaker 1: up columns every day detailing Amy's winning way. They metaphorically
Speaker 1: flay Amy Bach her past career in lurid light they
Speaker 1: placed before the public site. They don't at all object
Speaker 1: to slight, Amy Bach. Those thrones may totter, Empire's fault,
Speaker 1: The pestilence abroad may crawl. The dailies put before them
Speaker 1: all Amy Buck, the weighty cable, Graham's intrude. The dailies
Speaker 1: think it would be rude because of these things to
Speaker 1: exclude Amy Back. When in the car you chance to ride,
Speaker 1: it makes you feel like homicide to hear folk mutter
Speaker 1: loud with pride, Amy Bach. And even when you pay
Speaker 1: your fare, the conductor, with a far off stair exclaims,
Speaker 1: as you are well aware, Amy Bach. Again in desperations,
Speaker 1: say you go perchance to see the play the Prose
Speaker 1: Dragon in subtle way, Amy Bark. So there you find
Speaker 1: no rest or cure. It adds to pains that you
Speaker 1: endure to find. They've named the overture, Amy Bark. To
Speaker 1: seek relief, We'll say, maybe you go a fishing on
Speaker 1: the sea to banish with celerity, Amy Bark, tis unavailing.
Speaker 1: All the same, you feel well, anything but tame to
Speaker 1: meet a yacht that owns the name Amy Bach in
Speaker 1: frantic frenzy neath the strain you go to save your
Speaker 1: toppering brain a modest stimulant to drain Amy Bark, unless
Speaker 1: you feel you're doubly banned to find tis more than
Speaker 1: you can stand that they've renamed your favorite brand Amy Bark.
Speaker 1: You go to buy a Sunday tie. The shopman looks
Speaker 1: you in the eye and answers, yes, sir, will you
Speaker 1: try Amy Boch, And with insinuating smile, he says, it
Speaker 1: is the latest style. We've named it as tis free
Speaker 1: from guile Amy Bok. When traveling on a railway train,
Speaker 1: you find tis absolutely vain to try and banish from
Speaker 1: your brain Amy Bark. For as the wheels go round
Speaker 1: and round, and even in the pistons pound, you hear
Speaker 1: but one incessant sound, a buck again for sweet relief.
Speaker 1: To search, you pay a visit to a church, attempting
Speaker 1: to leave in the lurch Amy bach alas you find
Speaker 1: no antidote, because the organs every note drones out the
Speaker 1: words as if by rote Amy Balk again in horror,
Speaker 1: off you fly with murder gleaming in your eyes, and
Speaker 1: there he fears deeds. If you've got nigh Amy Bok good,
Speaker 1: then on your homeward way you steer, but when you
Speaker 1: get there, sad and drear, these fatal words fall on
Speaker 1: your ear. Amy Buck, the very household cat can do
Speaker 1: not else but sit and sadly mew yowling, or so
Speaker 1: it seems to you, Amy Back. And in the rooster,
Speaker 1: scornful crow. There seems to be that name you know
Speaker 1: too well, that name that makes you low, Amy Bo.
Speaker 1: You're sitting quietly on your own, thinking or grief with
Speaker 1: piteous moan, when loudly resounds the telephone, Amy Book, who's there?
Speaker 1: In fearful? Are you? Shout? A voice replies, I say,
Speaker 1: no doubt you've heard the latest news about Amy Book.
Speaker 1: Ray off you, savagely reply, says young sweet Central. Oh my,
Speaker 1: your language is enough to try, Amy Bach. You really
Speaker 1: mustn't talk so hush. You're making all the Central blush
Speaker 1: with muttered curse away you brush Amy Back. The town
Speaker 1: clocks chimes when out they ring, calls you to swear
Speaker 1: like anything, because it seems as if they sing me
Speaker 1: and talk of singing. Twon't be long before we'll get
Speaker 1: although tis wrong. The very latest comic song Amy Back
Speaker 1: and Amy's face and figure fair on picture postcards everywhere,
Speaker 1: spread abroad. You cannot scare amy Bach. The postman calls,
Speaker 1: Do you think he's got important letters? He has not,
Speaker 1: tis but a postcard. Oh great Scott amy Bach. On
Speaker 1: land and sea, on earth and air. Yes, oh, creation
Speaker 1: everywhere is saying to that fact, you'd swear Amy Buck.
Speaker 1: And in the rustle of the trees, and born upon
Speaker 1: a balming breeze, is but one sound which doesn't please
Speaker 1: amy Ba. From Cape Maria to the bluff, the only talk,
Speaker 1: and quite enough is all the same unnerving stuff, Amy Buck.
Speaker 1: Wherever you bend your weary feet you get this same
Speaker 1: most doubtful treat Oh, nothing that you know can beat
Speaker 1: amy Bach. Oh, legislation should be framed without delay, or
Speaker 1: so disclaimed to quickly suppress this subject named amy Back.
Speaker 1: If not, tis easier to foresee that unto all eternity,
Speaker 1: this only topic there will be Amy Buck the end.
Speaker 1: That is seriously, like Hark the Raven series, this is
Speaker 1: a man at the end of his rope who could
Speaker 1: not take one more article. This is how I felt
Speaker 1: about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. I was definitely thinking
Speaker 1: that as I was typing it out. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: this guy, this is amazing. It is so long. He
Speaker 1: really could not for it stop. He was like, and more,
Speaker 1: there's more to say, And if I hear this name
Speaker 1: one more goddamn time, the postman comes Like this man
Speaker 1: is going fully nuts. I love. I also love that
Speaker 1: they printed it in full the amount of space this day,
Speaker 1: because it's the greatest poem of a Zealand generation. He
Speaker 1: really is is. I do love the stanza where he says, Oh,
Speaker 1: we're going to get a comic song, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: aren't you writing that right now? That? Yeah, He's like,
Speaker 1: look what you made me do. Here we are singing
Speaker 1: my comic song. What a beautiful I wish it weren't anonymous,
Speaker 1: I know, I want. I want to credit. This person
Speaker 1: deserves to be in the in the poetry books, just
Speaker 1: like a weird owl. It's it's brilliant. It's so brilliant.
Speaker 1: I love, and I'm so glad I found it. It
Speaker 1: was linked in the head Stuff article that we used
Speaker 1: as a source, and I'm so happy that I went
Speaker 1: and looked at it because just cracked me up the
Speaker 1: whole time I was reading it, and I knew we'd
Speaker 1: have fun performing it. So great. Oh man, well thanks
Speaker 1: for sitting through it. I know you're sick of hearing
Speaker 1: that name. Do by now, I know I am probably amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: please let us know what you thought of this story.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed as much as we did this
Speaker 1: insane con woman. Yes, thank you again Simon for sending
Speaker 1: us away uh starts kill. And please send us your
Speaker 1: suggestions for future episodes. Obviously we're getting so many good
Speaker 1: ones from you all. Yes that we've been never know
Speaker 1: about it, so we keep them coming. Yeah, reach out
Speaker 1: to us. We're dick Romance at gmail dot com right
Speaker 1: or we're on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Dianamite Boon
Speaker 1: and I'm at Oh Great, It's Eli and the show
Speaker 1: is at ridic Romance. You can't wait to hear from
Speaker 1: you all again, and we'll bring you another episode soon.
Speaker 1: Love you by so long. Friends, It's time to go.
Speaker 1: Thanks so listening to our show. Tell your friends name's
Speaker 1: uncle Sandance. To listen to a show ridiculous roll nance