WEBVTT - Part One: Basil Zaharoff: The Man Who Sold World War One 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.560 Hello, America and the rest of the world. I'm Robert Evans, 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:10.040 and this is yet another terrible introduction for the podcast 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.360 that exists that you're listening to. And it's called Behind 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.280 the Bastards and About Bad People. And that's the introduction, Sophie, 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.360 do you think that's a keeper? I mean, honestly better 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:21.919 than some of the ones you've done the last couple 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.200 of weeks, Like, well, I'll have to I'll have to 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.159 correct that and make it worse in the episode, he 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:34.960 just goes hitl oh my god. Well, you know my 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:39.519 guest today who you're hearing from is Teresa Lee. Teresa, 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:44.120 what's up? How's it going? But you're not I can 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.159 see you, and I am not. I'm in the East Coast, 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.080 which is terrible. Um, and it knows it in general. 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.040 You just hate the East Coast. Yeah, I mean the 0:00:55.080 --> 0:01:01.520 West Coast, like the Yeah, exactly, We're we're we're all 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:07.880 West Coast elites on this podcast. Yes, elite, the three 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.280 how do they do the hacks or hacks? Are elite? 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:16.039 L No seven three three whatever? Don't at me? Okay, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.240 not Teresa. You and I worked together, we did a 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:22.680 number of years at a website called Cracked where we 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.959 were we were East or West Coast elites together. Um 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.520 and uh and now uh. You have a podcast called 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.880 you Can Tell Me Anything, which I've guessed it on once. Um, 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.399 is there anything else you'd like to announce right now? 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:40.920 You also are professionally funny, um, which I think is 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.280 a cute dog named woo Shoe whose friends with it. 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.680 She has an adorable dog. I do have a dog. Um. Sure. 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:51.280 I besides being uh, professionally funny, I'm not never funny 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:52.640 if you're not paying me. By the way, but UM, 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:55.640 I have a short film, so yeah, if you guys 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:57.200 want check outs called I Think She Likes you It. 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.120 It came out like about a month ago, but you 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.400 know it's still out there and you can never spread 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.480 the word too much considering we have no marketing money. 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.240 But it's on YouTube, YouTube dot com slash. I think 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.680 she likes you. Well, we're going to I'm gonna ask 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.280 my listeners right now to do guerilla marketing for your show. 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.640 Go spray paint an m T a station, UM, burned 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:23.919 down house. Do you have some problem with me urging 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.680 people to do commit crimes on your behind? Teresa? Is 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.880 that something you don't like please uh please do not 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.600 commit crimes on my behalf. Not commit crimes on anyone's behalf. 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:39.800 And uh, you know, just stay in school. Cool, Teresa 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:44.000 saying that to be polite. This podcast is very pro crime. Okay, 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.440 get out there, break some laws, break some random laws. 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:53.800 Go jaywalking. It's a good time. It's safe. Yeah, blind, 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:58.160 definitely do that. Yes, yeah, that's that's the competitive version 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:04.800 of jaywalking. Competitive. Yeah. Yeah, the judge, the judges, the 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:09.880 e R doctor who sees you. Um, Teresa, have you 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:16.919 ever heard of Basil Zaharov? I don't think so. It 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:22.480 the last name again h A R O F F. No, 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.920 that was me bying time to try to think of 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:28.400 an answer. But no, I'm going to just go with no. 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:30.639 And you know what if that sounds like that's okay, 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:33.440 it's not im did. I had never heard of this 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.080 guy until I started researching until like right before I 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:41.320 started researching him. Um, he's a fascinating figure. Um. He 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.560 has more nicknames than I think almost any historical figure 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.960 I've ever studied. Um. He was called the Merchant of Death, 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.960 the Armament's King, the mystery Man of Europe, a whole 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.680 bunch of her those through. The Mystery Man of Europe 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.160 really just doesn't hold up to the others. It's just 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:02.720 that sounds like like a drafts nickname. Yeah, like it 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.720 was in somebody's like Google. Uh, like like like like 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.040 a saved email. They're just like it sounds like when 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:10.600 you text your friends to be like what do you 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:15.080 think and they're like no, yeah, Well he didn't choose 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.400 his nicknames, but he didn't choose his career. Um, and 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.840 the things he did in his life are wive. So 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.040 this guy was the the inspiration behind one of James 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.920 Bond's early villains, the Head of Specter, So like one 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.360 of the first Bond villains, Like it was directly inspired 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.720 by this guy, and he was basically a Bond villain. Um, 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:36.719 this is going to be a different episode than a 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.520 lot because a lot of what I'm gonna tell you 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.960 today are lies because there are so this guy told 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.719 so many lies about his background that nobody knows for 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.920 certain a lot of things. Um. The dude we're talking 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:55.040 about today, UM is, in short, the guy who invented 0:04:55.080 --> 0:05:00.400 the international arms industry. Um. Yeah, so he this is 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.479 like the guy who figured out like selling guns to 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.080 multiple like different countries as like an international business. He's 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:08.760 like one of the very first, like there were a 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:10.760 couple of other people at the same time, but like 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.960 he's the he's the brilliant mind behind the arms industry. 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.400 You could call him like the father of the military 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:24.200 industrial complex. So that's our dude today. Are you a 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.240 fan of the international arms trade? Teresa? Um? You know, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.760 I'm usually fan of international things, but in this case 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.680 I have to say hard no. So your podcast is 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.560 not currently sponsored by Raytheon. Um. You know, I I 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.240 haven't checked, but I'm going to guess no, um that 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:47.039 I don't think we're sponsored by a mass weapons a distributor, 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:51.520 but you know, I guess we can still. I mean, 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.680 I don't know. If you're listening ray theon opportunity here 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.840 you could you could reach a lot of drones, a 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:04.440 small group of body slash therapy fans who might be 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:09.280 interest in buying mass weapons of mass destruction. I mean, 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.159 I I happen to know, Teresa, that your podcasts have 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.320 a lot of fans who are the potentates of small 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:19.920 Eastern European nations. So yeah, that's a there there might 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:25.920 be some sales in there. Um yeah, so uh Prince 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:31.400 Zacharias Basilius Zacharov was born in a small town in Anatolia, 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:37.400 which is like Turkey, on October six. There are very few. 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:41.920 Yeah he's there, you go, that's two in a row 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:46.800 they love. Yeah, we got um. So there aren't a 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.040 whole lot of set facts about his early life. Um. 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:51.039 But I called him a prince at the start, and 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.320 he absolutely was not a prince. We know for a 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:55.000 fact that he was in no way a prince. But 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.279 he would lie about being a prince's entire life, not 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:02.479 even by marriage, not not even by marriage. Um. Yeah. 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.680 His parents were Greeks um, and they'd spent most of 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.320 the mid eighteen forties fleeing political instability as Greece fought 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.200 for its independence from the Ottoman Empire. Um. Since they 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.440 were living in the Ottoman Empire for most of their lives, 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:20.240 identifying as Greek was not an entirely safe move. So 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:24.440 they changed the family last name from Zachariah DCS to 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.320 Zacharov um so that they could pretend to be Russians. Um. 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.080 So from an early age, his parents are like, tell everybody, 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.560 we're fucking Russian. Don't let him know where Greek? Yeah, 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.880 so that's cool. Um. Hidden as Russians, the Zakarov's wound 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.360 up living in a town named Mugla in the Anatolian Peninsula. Um. 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.040 Today we would call it Turkey, but they didn't. Then. 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.920 Zacharias was named after his grandfather, and he lived in 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.040 Mugla until he was three, when his family decided Constantinople 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.640 was a safe enough city to move to. Um. All 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.680 of this part is probably pretty accurate, but Zacharov would 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:58.680 spend the rest of his life trying to obscure even 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.960 these very basic details of his upbringing. As an old man, 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.040 he told a teenage girl that he wanted to fuck 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:10.720 this quote. Also he yeah, he's that guy. Okay. Um. 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:15.840 Quote my father was Russian. It's one of these episodes. Okay, cool. 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:18.880 Well he's I mean, he's a rich old arms dealer. 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:26.000 Of course he's gonna try to have sex with children. Uh. Um. 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:28.520 Quote my father was Russian and my mother was Greek, 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.199 of the Byzantine family of des Brassinos Um. In another 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.079 interview published around the same time, though, he told a journalist, 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.360 I was born in Anatolia. My father was a Polish origin, 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.040 my mother was French with a Levantine Strain. So everyone 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:42.760 who talked him, he would tell a different story about 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.440 where his parents came from, what his his upbringing was. Um, 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:48.360 he was just like one of those people who lied 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.959 habitually about every single aspect of their lives. I feel like, 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:54.840 what that A lot of times you think, oh, there 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:56.920 must be some massive secret, but in general, is just 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.120 because the truth is so boring or so uninteresting that 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.839 they're just trying to obscure it. Yeah, you know, I 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.040 think it, And I think it often starts with people 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.520 who just like because the truth is so boring and 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.400 they don't want to be boring. Um, but some of 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:16.360 those people wind up living very interesting lives. And I 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:18.840 guess if you, if you have this combination of lying 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:22.560 about everything, uh and having an interesting life, that's what 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.920 it takes to be an international man of mystery. I 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.559 can see that. Yeah. And also, which is what I 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.560 lied about my upbringing? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.720 mean I've I've followed this blueprint in my entire life. Um. 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.840 So yeah, like none of you even know I'm Canadian. 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.760 I kept that, Yeah, I've I've never even seen your face. 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:44.880 It's a I don't know what you look like. No, 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:52.240 I always wear a mask. It's one of those president masks. Um. 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.280 So those zak are off would later claim we've grown 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.960 up poor. Uh, he did not. That was another lie. 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.360 His family was comfortably middle class and he attended very 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.280 good schools. His mother was blind and after school she 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:04.360 made her son repeat all of his lessons for that 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.960 day to her, which he claimed is how he sharpened 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.800 his memory. Um. His dad was in the business of 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.120 importing something called attar of roses, which I think is 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.959 basically a fancy rose into essential oil. He had to 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:19.200 boil like two or fifty pounds of rose pedals to 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.079 get a single ounce of the liquid, so it was 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:23.559 very valuable. Um. He traveled a lot for work, and 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.679 his family traveled with him. One of Zaharov's sisters was 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:28.640 born in England at the time. Abroad gave him an 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.400 early experience with foreign languages and cultures. So he again 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.560 lies about the number of languages he can speak the 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:36.320 rest of his life and says it's like fourteen or 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.760 something ridiculous. But he was a polyglot um, and he 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.319 gets experienced around the world from a young age. So 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.080 there are rumors that when Zaharov was young a wealthy 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.400 family offered to pay his tuition to an English school 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.679 in the capital. Um. These rumors usually end with allegations 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.760 of that wealthy family's Masonic connections, because this guy shows 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.560 up in a lot of conspiracy theories. You'll find him 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.200 in a lot of anti Semitic conspiracy theories. Even he 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.320 was not Jewish, um, because a lot of people are 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:05.640 convinced he was Jewish because he was an arms dealer 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.400 that spoilers helped lead the world into World World War One. 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.680 So yeah, that's a fun one. Yeah, it sounds like 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.720 these other people have to work through their issues. Yeah. 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.880 I mean, if you're any kind of important and any 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.560 kind of shady, racists will decide that you must secretly 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:29.760 be Jewish. Um. Yeah, it is cool. That's exactly what 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:35.320 it is, Teresa. It's it's cool. Um. So yeah, the 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.760 there's rumors that like, yeah, this wealthy Masonic family paid 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.240 for him to go to a fancy school for shady reasons. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.680 The reality is that he probably had attended this English 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.880 school in Constantinople for free because all of the English 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.600 schools in the city were run by churches, um, And 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.080 people didn't like the churches because they were Muslim and 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.880 not Christian um, and so the churches were always empty 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:56.880 and would give free schooling to people just to keep 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.000 it full. So that's probably how he was able to 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.480 go to a good school. So um Zaharrof nursed an 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.400 early love of England, regarding it from the beginning as 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.400 the one nation that could help him establish the kind 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.000 of career that he wanted to have. One version of 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.440 his background suggests that as an adolescent, he made his 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:14.880 way over to England and attended a mid level British 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.840 boarding school. Um. He claimed the other boys made fun 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.920 of him for his foreign sounding name, and so he 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.880 adopted his middle name, Basil as his new first name. 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.320 He also says that he learned how to box so 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.160 he could punch anyone who made fun of him. Um, 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.440 so that's yeah, it's like a healthy way to cope 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:36.199 with anger. Yeah, I mean, people make fun of you, 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.920 you learn how to punch. That's uh healthy, Yeah, that's 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.760 the word for it. Phillips write this guy's life, Now, 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:52.080 I think it was an inspiration for time. Yeah, yes, yeah, 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:54.640 this is this is actually this is like the opposite 0:12:54.640 --> 0:13:00.640 of that story. So I'm totally disputing. Yeah, so there 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.960 are some reasons to believe this version of the story, Um, 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.320 because he did know a lot about English culture, and 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.559 like knew a lot about boarding school culture in England. 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.520 But like people who later like looked through the records 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.160 of all of those schools, Uh, there's like no evidence 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:17.000 that he actually attended any of them. Um. The other 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.360 more legendary version of this guy's life story is that 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.680 when he was an adolescent, his family fell on hard 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:24.480 times and he was forced to take to the streets 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.280 of Constantinople to hustle his way to get enough money 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.520 to pay for an education. Um. These rumors will claim 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.120 that he worked as a brothel tout was the term 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:34.760 at the time. You know what a brothel tout is, 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.000 I can guess. Is it a guy who goes Is 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.160 it like a person who barks people into a brothel, like, hey, 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.160 we got we got we got sex tonight, come on 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:48.640 in you know where sex like that? Yeah? Okay, yeah, 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.280 you know that's exactly what it is. Yeah, do that. 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.079 You know a lot about brothels? Yeah, they have people, 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:58.400 that's what if? That's so sad? Barking into comedy shows 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:00.840 is like the worst thing, and then to do it 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.439 for a brothel sounds just like do they need that? 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.600 I feel like people like sex, right, yeah, but they 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.760 don't always know where the sex true true, and they 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.200 don't know what time, at what time the doors open 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:19.880 for the sex. You don't want to, you know, for 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:22.200 you know, that was not meant to be pun but 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:30.000 that now it is okay, No, but it was okay. Yeah. 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.720 So he's a brothel town and like you'll find a 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:35.920 lot of like kind of poorly written and poorly researched 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:37.680 articles about him that will claim he got to start 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.120 as a pimp and it's just because people haven't heard 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.360 of a brothel town. Like it was way lower level 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.200 than a pimp. Like he was not getting a cut 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.680 of these girls money. He was getting paid to basically 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:48.680 stand on the street and shout out the prices of 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.000 different women in the brothel. Um, you can bug this, Yeah, 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:54.680 a dollar to I don't know, I don't know what 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:59.600 brothel prices were like in Constant, I don't know. I 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.360 mean that was a lot of money back then. Sure, 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.880 hard working person not to be able to afford a 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:09.400 bravl um. So yeah, it was the kind of job 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:11.200 that probably would have made a lot of sense for 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.240 someone like Basil um because he was very cultured. Um. 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.040 He spoke a lot of languages. He was very charming, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.200 tall and handsome. He's the kind of person you would 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.320 want to be doing that job. Um. He was good 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.760 at talking people into things. Um. He worked as a 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.800 money changer too, and as a tourist guide. But he 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.800 didn't find his first true calling until he got involved 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:37.120 in the noble profession of firefighting. Now that sounds like 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.400 it's normally a great thing to do, right, Working as 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.120 a firefighter one of the one of the most noble 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.840 professions you can embark upon. Um. That was not his 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:50.720 job in the fire department. His job was starting fires. Um. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:55.320 So in this period of time, the Constantinople Fire Brigade 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.360 UM was basically a mafia and in order to make money, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.200 they would burned down the houses of rich people and 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.600 then basically solicit bribes to go get their valuables out. 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:07.440 So they'd be like, oh, your house is on fire, 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:09.640 that's a shame. Be good if somebody win in there 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:14.480 and rescued your nice ship and get paid. Yeah, it's 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:20.640 pretty cool. That's dark where firefighters not provided, Like were 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.760 these bribes away? Like like you bribe police. But it's 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.480 not it's still a shady or we're firefighters the type 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.120 like private industry where you have to pay them to 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:37.840 come there. These were industry. Yeah, this would happen again, 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:39.560 that's what you don't do that. That's the thing that's 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.560 that with all the fires that were going on in California, 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:49.080 like rich people hired fire firefighters. So this is like 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.000 there's a long history of this. Like Marcus Licinius Crassus, 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.200 who was a Roman and one of the like considered 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:55.800 to be like the one of the wealthiest men in 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.680 the ancient world um made a lot of his fortune 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:03.000 by operating the fire department in ancient Rome, which was 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.600 a private enterprise, and charging people while their houses were 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.080 on fire to put the fires out. Um. Yeah, so 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:14.159 like this is like like fire like running firefighting like 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:15.919 companies was like a thing that you would do if 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:17.520 you were a real piece of ship for a very 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.080 long time because like the governments didn't do funk All. Yeah, 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:25.159 it's awesome. But his job, so Basil was not putting 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.560 out fires. He would start them, um, which is like 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.520 the easiest part of that gig. Really, Like I think 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.720 I would have been very good at this job. Um. Yeah. 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.000 In eighteen sixty five, a major fire tour through Constantinople, 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.320 destroying eight thousand homes, twenty mosques, five churches, and numerous businesses. 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.480 Roughly a quarter of the city was burned down, twenty 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.560 people were rendered homeless, and an unknown number were killed. 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.520 The Ottoman government responded with a vicious crackdown, arresting and 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.040 trying and hanging numerous perpetrators. It is impossible to know 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.359 of Zaharov had anything to do with this, but his 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:01.639 friends on the Iyer Brigade later noted that he fled 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:09.040 the city immediately afterwards and stayed away for five full years. Um. Maybe. 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.240 So here's the thing. There's again, as I said, there's 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.120 different versions of all of this, and it's entirely possible 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.359 that he fled the city because he committed a totally 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:23.600 different series of crimes. M because he was, yeah, always criming, um, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.160 And I'm gonna read you to you about what those 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.200 crimes were. In this quote from the book Man of Arms, 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.359 which is a biography of Zaharov in his late teens, 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.199 that is generally accepted, a maternal uncle, Sebastopolis offered him 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.280 a job in his cloth business and the busy Galada 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.560 district by the port. The merchant was delighted with his 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.040 astute and aspiring relation, and for two or three years 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.600 everything went well. Then suddenly and mysteriously, the young man vanished, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.840 and for several years all trace of his career vanished 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.320 with him, conveniently creating one of those vacuums in his 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.480 life which legends so avidly filled. One tale had it 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.679 that he absconded with his uncle's cash, was caught and 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:58.760 sent to a prison, from which he made his escape. 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:00.800 It was even hinted that he taken the life of 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.440 a warder of a guard in this bid. The least 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:05.800 sensational view was that he had committed some misdemeanor but 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.040 had managed to flee abroad with the proceeds to embark 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:12.520 on a new career under another name. So either he 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:14.919 got in trouble for burning down a quarter of the 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.520 city and had to flee um or he stole all 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.400 of his uncle's money and had to flee. And it's 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:23.800 also possible that he went to jail for stealing his 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.280 uncle's money and then murdered a cop and had to flee. 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:28.520 All of those things are possible. We don't know which 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.119 is true, if it or any of them, it might 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.160 have been something totally different. That's the fresh dri anything 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.840 about writing about this guy. Um yeah, it's like really 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.320 impossible to know what actually happened. And Basil himself only 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.240 deepened the mystery by saying ship like this to interviewers 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.120 later in life. Quote, I have been lucky all my life. 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:47.920 If I hadn't been, I should have been murdered long 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:52.119 ago or else serving a life sentence in some prison. Um. 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.520 So he would drop little lines like that just to 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.760 keep the mystery alive. Um. So, there's some buried bodies 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:02.640 in his past that have not been found. There were, 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.280 There are a lot of buried bodies in his past 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.280 that everybody saw, because that's kind of the benefit of 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:10.360 being an arms dealer is you can get a lot 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:14.680 of people buried and you're just doing your job. So yeah, 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.200 he's just boosting those Q four numbers, you know, Yeah, 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:27.879 yeah four numbers for me is all her jokes, Robert, 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.840 aren't you a Funnies three? And I think it's because 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:34.160 he's on a screen, so then I feel more compulsion 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.120 to say things. But then they feel more Um, what's 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:40.600 the call non sequitur, so I will. And then Sophie 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:43.439 across from me, so she's laughing at me, but I 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:47.520 am paying. I'm paying wrapped attention. You're paying very close attend. 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:52.520 So he lied, okay, And I don't know everything he 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:54.440 ever said is a lie, and we don't know what 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:56.520 he did. These are the different stories. He may have 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.879 been a prostitute barker and then an arsonist who fled 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.560 the country. He may have stolen all of his uncle's money, 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:07.600 might have murdered a cop. Who knows. By the early 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.240 eighteen seventies, though, we know that Zaharov had made it 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:12.560 to Great Britain, and we know this to a point 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.040 of certainty because he almost immediately got arrested in a 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.400 massive legal troubical over there, and there are thankfully court records. 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.000 So this is the ship we absolutely know happened. During 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:25.120 his travels to England, he met a young woman named 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.160 Emily Burrows, who was the daughter of a Bristol based businessman. 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:30.879 And depending on which version of history you believe, Basil 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:32.840 was either living off money stolen from his uncle or 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.880 living there off money given to him for commodity speculation 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:39.440 by a number of businesses. Back in Constantinople. Either way, 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.000 when he meets this woman, Emily, he succeeds in passing 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:44.639 himself off as a very wealthy foreign man, which he 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.159 was not. Um but he was charming, and he had 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.240 a nice suit, and no one had the Internet, so 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.119 he was able to get away with yeah, these lies. 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.280 Emily falls in love with Basil. He proposed to her, 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:57.600 and in short order the couple were married in Paris. 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.000 They quickly returned back to England to repeat the marriage 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.600 ceremony in front of her family. Years later, Emily's niece, 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:06.919 Henriette recalled that this second ceremony was quote planned in 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:09.720 a great rush. My aunt seemed agitated about something. She 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.480 wanted to wait a little longer, but Basilius was pressing 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:16.879 her to marry him. So. Anthony Alfrey, one of Basil's biographers, 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:19.240 suspects that she might have been nervous because she hadn't 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:21.399 told her parents about the first marriage that they had 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.119 had in Paris. But it's also possible that she'd started 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:26.679 to suspect that her new bow might be a con artist, 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:30.679 because he absolutely was. On the marriage register, he listed 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:33.879 his name as Zacharias Gortzakov, which was a reference to 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:37.119 Prince Michael Gortzakov of Russia. So he was claiming to 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:41.720 be a Russian prince to this woman. That's why he's yeah. Um. 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.080 He claimed that his dad, a Rose oil salesman, was 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.639 a high ranking Russian general. Um, and Basil himself claimed 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.199 to be a general. And it's entirely possible that Emily 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:52.159 didn't even know of that her new husband had like 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:54.840 grown up in Constantinople and believed him to be a 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.280 full blooded member of the Russian nobility. For his part, 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:00.760 Basil's interest in Emily probably he had less to do 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:03.760 with love than real estate. She was four years older 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.080 than him, and her wealthy father was somewhat desperate to 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:07.960 marry her off, so he'd set her up in a 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:11.840 fashionable apartment right off of Belgrave Square in Bristol. Now. 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:14.159 Basil was very much taken with her high class home, 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:17.000 and he wanted to live there himself. Unfortunately, once the 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:19.520 two were wed, Emily's father started pushing for them to 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:22.119 move back to the family home in the country. Basil 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:24.479 resisted this because he was marrying this woman for her 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:29.440 nice apartment. Yeah so um yeah. For a little while 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.680 they lived very well together in that nice apartment. Um, 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:36.679 but that was not to last very long. And in 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:40.720 a little bit, Teresa, I'm gonna tell you what happened next, 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:43.760 how Zaharov got arrested, and how his first time in 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:47.320 court went. But first, you know who won't lie to 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:57.040 women and claim to be a Russian prince? Who Raytheon? No, 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:00.560 they will make a missile that's nothing but vibes to 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:04.360 assassinate people in Afghanistan and Yemen. But they will not 0:24:04.800 --> 0:24:09.000 pretend to be a Russian prince to romance British woman. 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:12.840 I mean they would if they could. But Raytheon is 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:16.440 notoriously bad at faking a Russian accent. That's one thing 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:22.600 everyone knows. So we're off two ads. Uh, there, here 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:33.720 we go, We're back. The podcast returns. The ads are done, 0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:37.200 so um, I'm gonna read another quote from the Bookman 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:40.960 at Arms about the early days of Basil's ill fated 0:24:41.000 --> 0:24:44.879 marriage to miss Emily. Um quote In Hill Street, they 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:48.159 remained the bogus boyer ms Greenslade recalled who is this 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:51.000 woman's like niece? Years later, accompanying himself on the piano 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:52.960 and entertaining his wife and her niece with talk of 0:24:53.000 --> 0:24:55.080 life on the steps and the gay goings on in 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:57.920 the court of St. Petersburg. The idol lasted little more 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:00.239 than a month, then sending trouble, perhaps a lit by 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:04.400 news from Constantinople, Zaharov uh persuaded his wife that it 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:07.720 was imperative they leave the country. He gave the impression 0:25:07.720 --> 0:25:10.320 that he was engaged in important diplomatic missions for the 0:25:10.359 --> 0:25:12.760 Russian government and had acquired enemies who are vetted by 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:15.960 the police. Were on his tail, accompanied always by the 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:19.600 woman relating the story this woman's niece. They moved to Brussels, 0:25:19.640 --> 0:25:23.119 where they were royally treated. But unfortunately for Zaharov and 0:25:23.160 --> 0:25:25.199 his new bride, the news of a wedding between this 0:25:25.280 --> 0:25:28.919 Russian prince and the high society englishwoman had made international news, 0:25:29.240 --> 0:25:32.119 and businessmen in Constantinople who sent him over to England 0:25:32.119 --> 0:25:34.760 to make investments were really pissed to see this guy 0:25:34.840 --> 0:25:37.600 that they knew was a Greek businessman living the high 0:25:37.640 --> 0:25:39.880 life in England pretending to be a Russian prince. These 0:25:39.880 --> 0:25:42.879 people he stole from basically see him in the paper 0:25:42.880 --> 0:25:47.000 and are like, that's not a fucking Russian prince. Um. Yeah, 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:50.399 So these businessmen had sent Zaharov over to England with 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:53.439 about seven thousand pounds and merchandise and securities, which was 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:55.320 somewhere in the ballpark of one and a half million 0:25:55.440 --> 0:25:58.200 U S dollars. Yeah, so he stole steals a lot 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:01.840 from these people. Um. They immediately sent a representative over 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:04.359 to London to file charges, which is why Zaharov had 0:26:04.359 --> 0:26:06.520 felt the need to flee Britain in the first place. 0:26:07.119 --> 0:26:09.800 Unfortunately for him, England and Belgium had just signed one 0:26:09.840 --> 0:26:13.520 of the world's first extradition treaties, and Prince Zaharov quickly 0:26:13.560 --> 0:26:16.760 became the very first person arrested and extradite it under it. 0:26:16.880 --> 0:26:23.920 So that's cool, Yeah, breaking new ground now. The new Princess, 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:26.400 his new wife, was not happy with this, but Zaharov 0:26:26.440 --> 0:26:29.119 assured her it was all a terrible misunderstanding, just a 0:26:29.119 --> 0:26:31.600 case of mistake and identity, and promised he would take 0:26:31.600 --> 0:26:33.880 care of it very quickly if only her wealthy father 0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:35.679 would help him with some of the legal bills in 0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:37.600 the short term while he put matters to write and 0:26:37.640 --> 0:26:40.720 got in touch with his royal family members back in Russia. 0:26:41.320 --> 0:26:44.160 In December, he went to court charged with stealing twenty 0:26:44.400 --> 0:26:46.600 cases of gum and a hundred and nine bags of 0:26:46.640 --> 0:26:49.480 gall along with the theft of seven Yeah, that's not 0:26:49.520 --> 0:26:53.800 what I expected. And yeah he stole like these were 0:26:53.800 --> 0:26:56.080 like products they sent over as like samples that he 0:26:56.320 --> 0:26:58.520 took with him and just sold in England, along with 0:26:58.600 --> 0:27:02.239 seven thousand pounds worth of securities. Upon arrest, he had 0:27:02.280 --> 0:27:04.600 been found with the securities in the form of twenty 0:27:04.640 --> 0:27:08.119 four Turkish bonds and a loaded revolver. The court asked 0:27:08.160 --> 0:27:10.040 Basil if he was often in the habit of traveling 0:27:10.040 --> 0:27:12.080 with thousands of dollars of other people's money and a 0:27:12.119 --> 0:27:14.720 loaded gun. He assured them that he had been traveling 0:27:14.720 --> 0:27:18.240 with a revolver regularly since the age of seven, which 0:27:18.240 --> 0:27:19.920 is a weird thing to brag to a court about 0:27:21.720 --> 0:27:25.760 money and guns. Yeah, I don't, don't worry. I've had 0:27:25.800 --> 0:27:27.960 a gun since I was a child, so you don't 0:27:28.000 --> 0:27:31.280 have to worry. No, No, I got a gun when 0:27:31.280 --> 0:27:33.640 I was a baby. It's fine, Yeah, don't don't. Don't 0:27:33.680 --> 0:27:37.080 freak out. Um, And there's a court artist depiction of 0:27:37.160 --> 0:27:40.360 him giving his deposition and it's pretty fucking great. Um. 0:27:40.560 --> 0:27:42.240 I'm gonna have Sophie show it to you now so 0:27:42.280 --> 0:27:44.240 you can get a look at how the court artists 0:27:44.480 --> 0:27:52.720 thought of this guy. Okay, let's see it. It looks 0:27:52.720 --> 0:27:56.360 like he was like in a therapist office. Yeah, yeah, 0:27:56.359 --> 0:28:01.240 I mean he's it's weird. Yeah, that waste is very thin. 0:28:01.520 --> 0:28:04.359 His mustache and like beard or like pointed and like 0:28:04.880 --> 0:28:09.879 very vibe. Yeah. Kind of like a cross between Captain 0:28:09.880 --> 0:28:13.119 Hook and a New Yorker caricature of a fancy British person. 0:28:14.040 --> 0:28:18.840 Yeah yeah. So uh. There are again two stories as 0:28:18.840 --> 0:28:21.480 to hold how this whole court case was resolved. Zaharov 0:28:21.520 --> 0:28:23.520 would go to his grave claiming that he settled the 0:28:23.560 --> 0:28:25.680 matter in court when he found a lost letter from 0:28:25.680 --> 0:28:27.840 his uncle, the head of the firm that had hired him, 0:28:27.880 --> 0:28:30.000 stating that he should take the bond money as payment 0:28:30.040 --> 0:28:33.399 for his travel expenses and services rendered. Um and it 0:28:33.480 --> 0:28:35.480 does seem to be true that the aggrieved party who 0:28:35.520 --> 0:28:38.480 sued him was his uncle, but the rest of the 0:28:38.520 --> 0:28:41.920 story is probably a lie. Court records note that Prince 0:28:42.000 --> 0:28:45.080 Zaharov was declared guilty of embezzlement, but only sentenced to 0:28:45.080 --> 0:28:47.640 pay about a hundred pounds and fines. This is likely 0:28:47.680 --> 0:28:49.720 because he agreed to pay restitution to the people he 0:28:49.760 --> 0:28:52.400 had robbed, or rather he got his new wife to 0:28:52.400 --> 0:28:55.320 pay back the people he had stolen from. His biographer 0:28:55.360 --> 0:28:58.040 notes quote. All that is clear is that Zaharov had 0:28:58.080 --> 0:29:00.680 made a promise of at least partial rested Usian and 0:29:00.720 --> 0:29:03.640 there is little doubt parental indulgence so recently overtaxed of 0:29:03.720 --> 0:29:08.320 its probable source. Miss Zacharov, the late Princess Gortzakov knee Burrow. 0:29:08.360 --> 0:29:11.080 So like his his his wife, who was pretending like 0:29:11.200 --> 0:29:13.560 using the name Gortzakov, which was the fake name that 0:29:13.600 --> 0:29:16.720 this guy used. Um, this in her husband's legal expenses. 0:29:16.760 --> 0:29:20.000 According to her niece, swallowed up her aunt's money. UM. 0:29:20.040 --> 0:29:23.080 So basically he has her pay the payback the people 0:29:23.120 --> 0:29:26.200 he stole from, so he gets to keep the money. Um. 0:29:26.280 --> 0:29:28.360 And then as soon as he's released from jail, he 0:29:28.480 --> 0:29:32.920 flees England and abandons his wife. Uh and also abandoned 0:29:32.960 --> 0:29:36.280 the contents. Well yeah, I mean, you're not really a 0:29:36.320 --> 0:29:41.880 grifter if you don't abandon at least one wife. Yeah. 0:29:42.040 --> 0:29:45.160 It's crazy that she I feel like she almost got 0:29:45.160 --> 0:29:46.959 out of it before that, or you said she had 0:29:47.000 --> 0:29:49.680 doubts before the second marriage. Yeah, it seems like that 0:29:49.680 --> 0:29:51.800 that she was starting to realize this guy was shady 0:29:52.080 --> 0:29:53.680 and then it's almost she had to just keep going 0:29:53.680 --> 0:29:56.400 because it's like, well, at this point, I wanted to 0:29:56.480 --> 0:30:00.120 see it through. The sunk cost fallacy is a like 0:30:00.280 --> 0:30:06.520 the romance. It makes fools of us all. So. Um, Now, obviously, today, 0:30:06.600 --> 0:30:08.800 if you've got a grifter who gets in trouble in 0:30:08.880 --> 0:30:12.120 one country and caught in a grift and tried in court, 0:30:12.920 --> 0:30:15.080 you're gonna flee to Mexico. That's just where you're gonna 0:30:15.120 --> 0:30:17.200 go if you're a grifter in the modern era. But 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:21.080 Mexico was not the place for grifters in the late 0:30:21.080 --> 0:30:24.800 eighteen hundreds, and so instead Prince Zaharov left for the 0:30:24.840 --> 0:30:29.160 United States, which was the Mexico of the eighteen hundreds, 0:30:29.360 --> 0:30:32.040 um in terms of being a place for grifters to 0:30:32.040 --> 0:30:34.560 go and absolutely be able to get away with anything. 0:30:35.240 --> 0:30:36.920 So yeah, he gets on a boat fox off to 0:30:36.960 --> 0:30:40.320 North America. He never divorced Emily. He basically just abandoned 0:30:40.360 --> 0:30:42.560 her to her family after taking all of their money. 0:30:43.080 --> 0:30:47.080 Um so, uh, yeah, that's that's cool. Well sorry, I 0:30:47.360 --> 0:30:51.240 should say he went to Cyprus, Like yeah, it's it's 0:30:51.280 --> 0:30:57.840 cool stuff. Um so yeah, like it's very complicated. This 0:30:57.920 --> 0:31:01.920 guy is like the the mo the movements. This guy 0:31:01.960 --> 0:31:05.000 goes through. But after like some time in North America, 0:31:05.080 --> 0:31:07.560 he goes to Cyphrus, this tiny Grecian island, and he 0:31:07.600 --> 0:31:11.080 found a business. And he starts a series of small enterprises, 0:31:11.120 --> 0:31:14.480 operating a gradually expanding number of shops and importing exotic 0:31:14.520 --> 0:31:18.800 food stuffs. Um And as his finances gradually improved, he 0:31:18.840 --> 0:31:21.600 started going back and forth to England again. Um and 0:31:21.640 --> 0:31:24.320 he never met with his wife um like like he 0:31:24.800 --> 0:31:26.560 like would hide from her every time he was back 0:31:26.560 --> 0:31:30.000 in England on business. Um. By the early eighteen hundreds, 0:31:30.040 --> 0:31:32.080 he took on a few small jobs selling rifles to 0:31:32.120 --> 0:31:37.160 the government um and like he didn't like at this 0:31:37.240 --> 0:31:40.280 point really like take up arms dealing as a major trade, 0:31:40.280 --> 0:31:41.760 but it was certainly something he was willing to do 0:31:41.800 --> 0:31:44.520 a little bit of. Um. He sold Linen's too. He 0:31:44.560 --> 0:31:47.200 catered barracks is for the British Army. His company laid 0:31:47.240 --> 0:31:49.800 down telegraph poles and train tracks. He got involved with 0:31:49.840 --> 0:31:52.760 shipping and was constantly investing in different markets during his 0:31:52.800 --> 0:31:55.280 trips to London. He lived pretty well off of this, 0:31:55.560 --> 0:31:57.920 but his businesses were constantly in one sort of debt 0:31:58.000 --> 0:32:00.160 or another, and his profits were already always in the 0:32:00.200 --> 0:32:03.680 process of being reinvested into a new enterprise, he hatched 0:32:03.680 --> 0:32:05.520 a scheme to get the British government to let him 0:32:05.560 --> 0:32:08.200 run the development of Cypherus, which they controlled thanks to 0:32:08.200 --> 0:32:11.840 a shaky treaty deal with Russia and the Ottoman Empire 0:32:11.880 --> 0:32:17.440 government let him develop this island he was trying to. 0:32:18.160 --> 0:32:21.640 He was trying to he failed out. Um. So England 0:32:21.680 --> 0:32:23.640 was kind of like in control of Cypherus due to 0:32:23.680 --> 0:32:26.520 these like weird series of political events, and he was 0:32:26.560 --> 0:32:28.480 trying to get them to like develop the island and 0:32:28.560 --> 0:32:31.600 let him run it. Um. But that didn't end up working. Um. 0:32:31.760 --> 0:32:34.440 Neither did a series of like business ventures in Alexandria 0:32:34.520 --> 0:32:37.480 and then France and then back to the Mediterranean coast. Um. 0:32:37.520 --> 0:32:40.160 And trying to keep track of all his businesses and 0:32:40.200 --> 0:32:43.880 plots in this period is like impossible. Um, there's just 0:32:43.920 --> 0:32:46.520 so much ship going on and like so much doubt 0:32:46.560 --> 0:32:49.040 about it. What matters is that he was a serial entrepreneur. 0:32:49.080 --> 0:32:50.840 He's one of these guys that always has an angle, 0:32:50.880 --> 0:32:53.440 always has a business he's trying, always has an investment 0:32:53.480 --> 0:32:57.800 going on. Um. And yeah, he was successful enough at 0:32:57.800 --> 0:32:59.680 this that he was able to dress well and live 0:32:59.720 --> 0:33:02.200 come doably and put on the image of being wealthy, 0:33:02.240 --> 0:33:04.480 but he was also always on the edge of disaster 0:33:04.600 --> 0:33:07.000 and always had most of his assets invested into the 0:33:07.000 --> 0:33:12.000 next big thing. Um have you seen Uncut Gems? No, 0:33:12.600 --> 0:33:18.040 this reminds me of that movie. Yeah, he's just constantly 0:33:18.280 --> 0:33:21.680 Adam sand there's characters like constantly just like getting in 0:33:21.760 --> 0:33:24.800 higher stakes gambling debt and he'll like finally get it 0:33:24.840 --> 0:33:26.640 back to pay someone, but instead of paying it back, 0:33:26.640 --> 0:33:29.440 he's like, I'm gonna gamble this on this new game 0:33:29.880 --> 0:33:31.480 and then I'll make even more and you we'll both 0:33:31.520 --> 0:33:33.120 get paid. And he's just doing it more and more, 0:33:33.120 --> 0:33:34.880 and then at the end, well, I won't give it away, 0:33:34.960 --> 0:33:39.280 but you know, gambling, you can you can assume that 0:33:39.320 --> 0:33:43.360 it's how gambling happens, what happens when Yeah, generally this 0:33:43.480 --> 0:33:46.640 is kind of that story. But for him, when he 0:33:47.120 --> 0:33:50.360 gambles too much, it helps start World War One. Um, 0:33:50.400 --> 0:33:53.000 so a little bit more high stakes. Wow, Okay, so 0:33:53.040 --> 0:33:56.320 we're going there. Okay, cool, Yeah, that's where this ship goes. 0:33:56.720 --> 0:33:59.760 Um So, Basil built a reputation as a man of scandal, 0:34:00.120 --> 0:34:02.240 and he left behind a constant stream of sobbing women 0:34:02.240 --> 0:34:05.680 and outraged families. Um, I'm gonna read you now a 0:34:05.760 --> 0:34:07.800 letter that he sent while he was in a hotel 0:34:07.840 --> 0:34:10.040 in Paris to one of his business partners. And this 0:34:10.200 --> 0:34:12.040 letter kind of gives you some insight into the way 0:34:12.080 --> 0:34:15.560 he conducted his relationships. Um. And he's talking in this 0:34:15.640 --> 0:34:18.440 about like two women he met at the hotel and 0:34:18.440 --> 0:34:22.880 and slept with. Quote, Uh, Miss Jehren, whom I was 0:34:22.920 --> 0:34:25.279 fool enough to poke a few times immediately after my 0:34:25.360 --> 0:34:28.000 arrival at the hotel, had her knife in me and 0:34:28.040 --> 0:34:30.600 Miss mccraith from my giving her up with the ladder. 0:34:30.800 --> 0:34:32.720 You appear to be under the impression that Miss mccraith 0:34:32.760 --> 0:34:34.840 was divorced and I might marry her. You were wrong. 0:34:35.040 --> 0:34:36.960 I would not do so if she had millions. I 0:34:37.040 --> 0:34:39.800 poked her because it was my caprice. I poke her still, 0:34:39.840 --> 0:34:41.600 and when I want to change, I shall give her up. 0:34:41.880 --> 0:34:44.560 I'm under no obligations to her family, as she cost 0:34:44.600 --> 0:34:46.719 me what an average whore would do, and I pay 0:34:46.760 --> 0:34:48.640 her in one way or another. And I have no 0:34:48.680 --> 0:34:50.560 doubt that if another man chose to court her and 0:34:50.560 --> 0:34:52.479 pay for it, he could have her if he paid 0:34:52.520 --> 0:34:54.800 more than me, and she would turn me up. This 0:34:54.880 --> 0:35:00.560 is the guy way this guy talks about, Oh my god, yeah, 0:35:00.600 --> 0:35:05.879 he's pretty gross. So shortly after yeah, I didn't even 0:35:05.920 --> 0:35:08.440 realize that I don't know people. It just seems very 0:35:08.560 --> 0:35:12.840 current to be like a poked her. Yeah, it's weird 0:35:13.040 --> 0:35:14.920 to hear in like an eight you expect people to 0:35:14.920 --> 0:35:17.239 be like, I don't know, what's a fancy way to 0:35:17.280 --> 0:35:21.440 say fuck, I lay with you know, stooped. It's not 0:35:21.560 --> 0:35:28.520 fancy at all. So shortly after writing this, Zaharov fell ill. 0:35:29.000 --> 0:35:31.400 He was diagnosed with anemia, and it's impossible to know 0:35:31.560 --> 0:35:34.800 what ailment he actually had because eighteen seventies medicine was 0:35:34.800 --> 0:35:38.279 basically drunk guessing. His description of his doctor's orders for 0:35:38.320 --> 0:35:40.840 how to treat this ailment as entertaining, though quote I 0:35:40.880 --> 0:35:43.560 am to avoid the least excitement, to take gentle exercise 0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:46.320 and avoid all stairs. And if I want to kill myself, 0:35:46.360 --> 0:35:48.800 I am to have a woman. This last is strictly enforced. 0:35:48.840 --> 0:35:51.080 I am to give up women altogether, and in fact 0:35:51.080 --> 0:35:53.560 avoid them so as to not get excited. His doctor 0:35:53.600 --> 0:35:55.640 says he's got to stop sucking after you. So it's 0:35:55.680 --> 0:35:58.640 a dick disease. He probably go on STD because they 0:35:58.640 --> 0:36:01.480 were like and they said he can't. He can't get excited, 0:36:01.880 --> 0:36:04.640 not because of the heart, but because of his dick. 0:36:05.239 --> 0:36:11.319 Because so maybe his burns and he when it gets 0:36:11.320 --> 0:36:14.640 hard it hurts, might have gotten some of that chlamydias. 0:36:15.960 --> 0:36:20.279 I don't know. Poke disease. Yeah, he was poking too much, 0:36:20.320 --> 0:36:22.080 and his doctor said he had to stop it with 0:36:22.080 --> 0:36:26.680 the poke in. So whatever illness actually affected him, Basil 0:36:26.760 --> 0:36:30.840 Zaharov eventually recovered and continued his unsuccessful bouncing around the 0:36:30.920 --> 0:36:34.879 Mediterranean in search of a big score. By eighteen eighty four, 0:36:34.960 --> 0:36:36.960 he'd given up on this quest and decided to take 0:36:37.080 --> 0:36:39.359 leave of the continent for good and try his luck 0:36:39.400 --> 0:36:42.520 in the United States of America. Um, and I'm not 0:36:42.520 --> 0:36:44.520 going to kill myself by giving you an itemized list 0:36:44.520 --> 0:36:46.600 of every con and legitimate business that he dipped his 0:36:46.600 --> 0:36:49.640 fingers into. The Smithsonian magazine gives a pretty good overview 0:36:49.719 --> 0:36:53.680 of Basil's time in the United States. Quote it appears 0:36:53.680 --> 0:36:55.440 that he was the Count Zaharov who in Utah in 0:36:55.520 --> 0:36:57.719 eighteen eighty four claimed to be in possession of four 0:36:57.760 --> 0:37:01.080 black diamonds that played a celebrated part in Turko Russian War, 0:37:01.480 --> 0:37:03.480 and who a year later caused a small scandal in 0:37:03.520 --> 0:37:07.040 Missouri by associating it with the notorious Madam Pearl Clifford, 0:37:07.239 --> 0:37:10.040 one of the most beautiful soiled doves ever known in St. 0:37:10.080 --> 0:37:12.880 Louis were working as a superintendent of a local railway 0:37:12.920 --> 0:37:16.040 sleeping car company. He was certainly the Count Zaharov who 0:37:16.160 --> 0:37:19.440 hastily promoting himself to the imminence of Prince Zacharias Basilia 0:37:19.520 --> 0:37:22.600 Saharov married the New York heiress Genie Billings for her 0:37:22.680 --> 0:37:25.520 hundred and fifty thousand dollars and her expectations later in 0:37:25.600 --> 0:37:32.239 eighteen eighty five. So he bounces around like sells like 0:37:32.360 --> 0:37:34.520 like gets involved in some sort of scheme pretending that 0:37:34.520 --> 0:37:39.239 he has like these historic diamonds. Um, like runs a 0:37:39.320 --> 0:37:42.040 railway sleeping car company at some point. Like he's just 0:37:42.080 --> 0:37:45.840 constantly involved in these like weird little get rich quick schemes. Um. 0:37:45.920 --> 0:37:48.480 And then he marries this New York heiress uh and 0:37:48.560 --> 0:37:56.239 steals her money. UM. So yeah, um, he definitely has 0:37:56.280 --> 0:37:59.600 a pattern. UM. And I found a like a quote 0:37:59.600 --> 0:38:02.560 from the Maha Daily b Um like an article at 0:38:02.600 --> 0:38:04.759 the time, like written about him at the time that 0:38:04.800 --> 0:38:08.880 describes his modus operandi during this period. Quote, he maintained 0:38:08.880 --> 0:38:11.440 a high social position by means of letters from prominent 0:38:11.480 --> 0:38:14.160 society people which purported to be genuine, and had a 0:38:14.160 --> 0:38:16.440 library full of documents which he claimed were written to 0:38:16.520 --> 0:38:19.120 him by European dignitaries. He claimed to be a nephew 0:38:19.120 --> 0:38:21.880 of Prince Gortchakov, and told a remarkable story of his 0:38:21.920 --> 0:38:24.520 banishment by the Tsar. At one point, he created a 0:38:24.520 --> 0:38:26.879 considerable commotion among the set here in which he moved 0:38:26.920 --> 0:38:28.920 by threatening to go abroad and fight a duel with 0:38:28.960 --> 0:38:32.319 a Prussian prince who dared to insult his mother. So 0:38:33.040 --> 0:38:34.719 it's the same kind of lie, Like I mean, there's 0:38:34.719 --> 0:38:36.279 no Internet, so you just go over to America and 0:38:36.280 --> 0:38:37.680 just try a new set of lies on a new 0:38:37.719 --> 0:38:40.680 set of people. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's almost 0:38:40.719 --> 0:38:43.200 like the bigger the lie, the less like he thinks, like, 0:38:43.239 --> 0:38:45.799 the less likely. It's like you think, like, oh, someone 0:38:45.840 --> 0:38:48.240 wouldn't lie about something that big, Like you could easily 0:38:48.280 --> 0:38:50.120 find out if he was a prince so capitalized, so 0:38:50.239 --> 0:38:53.520 let's not look and do it at all. Yeah, exactly, Like, well, 0:38:53.520 --> 0:38:55.200 if he was a prince, we would know that. If 0:38:55.200 --> 0:38:58.720 he wasn't really a prince, it would be someone was saying, yeah, 0:38:58.960 --> 0:39:01.400 I do feel like in that period of time in America, 0:39:01.560 --> 0:39:04.480 if you had an accent that was vaguely European, most 0:39:04.480 --> 0:39:07.600 people would believe that you were royalty as long as 0:39:07.680 --> 0:39:10.319 long as you wore a suit. I think even like 0:39:10.480 --> 0:39:13.279 when I studied abroad with in college, it was like 0:39:13.600 --> 0:39:16.120 the girls weren't crazy for accents. It's like, you know, 0:39:16.680 --> 0:39:18.359 just have an accent. You could still be a bad, 0:39:18.520 --> 0:39:20.120 bad person. The Gauls still be mean to you, but 0:39:20.120 --> 0:39:25.239 they're like, no, the European accent, they're perfect and you know, 0:39:25.360 --> 0:39:28.759 can do no wrong better than American man. Oh yeah, 0:39:28.760 --> 0:39:30.440 I mean you can get away with anything if you 0:39:30.520 --> 0:39:32.719 have the right kind of British acts. If you have 0:39:32.800 --> 0:39:35.040 the wrong kind of British accent, you can't get away 0:39:35.080 --> 0:39:42.359 with anything. Um real crapshoot being English. So um yeah. 0:39:42.360 --> 0:39:45.320 Basil's scamming in America worked out well for a while, 0:39:45.440 --> 0:39:48.359 but as always, he was eventually found out. Uh. This 0:39:48.400 --> 0:39:51.040 time it was by a Philadelphia businessman who happened across 0:39:51.080 --> 0:39:55.640 another newspaper article announcing his marriage in New York. Like 0:39:55.719 --> 0:39:57.320 that this woman in New York was getting married to 0:39:57.320 --> 0:40:00.120 this Russian prince. Um. So this wedding between in the 0:40:00.200 --> 0:40:03.440 Russian prince and a wealthy socialite was once again big news. Uh. 0:40:03.520 --> 0:40:06.279 And unfortunately for Basil. The businessman who came across this 0:40:06.400 --> 0:40:08.640 was originally from Bristol and was like, didn't I read 0:40:08.680 --> 0:40:11.000 a news article about a Russian prince marrying a rich 0:40:11.040 --> 0:40:13.400 woman and then that guy got arrested for like stealing 0:40:13.400 --> 0:40:17.120 a shipload of money. Um. So this guy reaches out 0:40:17.160 --> 0:40:19.800 to Basil's first wife over in England and her family 0:40:19.840 --> 0:40:24.919 starts an international manhunt to arrest this bigamist um. And yeah, 0:40:25.000 --> 0:40:28.160 so Basil has to flee the United States for again. 0:40:28.640 --> 0:40:32.560 So he's now fled two countries um for marrying rich 0:40:32.600 --> 0:40:34.640 woman and stealing their money while pretending to be a 0:40:34.719 --> 0:40:37.520 Russian prince. Um. But he got out just ahead of 0:40:37.560 --> 0:40:39.960 the authorities. He managed to make it back to Europe 0:40:39.960 --> 0:40:42.440 as the law was closing in on him. Um. He 0:40:42.560 --> 0:40:44.919 left behind his wife and a pile of debts once again, 0:40:45.000 --> 0:40:47.280 and by eighty five he was back in the Balkans 0:40:47.320 --> 0:40:50.960 working for an old employer of his named Thorsten nordon Felt. 0:40:51.880 --> 0:40:56.200 Now norton Felt ran a sizeable arms company. He was 0:40:56.320 --> 0:40:58.919 a weapons manufacturer and he was one of a number 0:40:59.000 --> 0:41:01.120 of up and coming business is that we're selling ever 0:41:01.239 --> 0:41:04.160 deadlier guns to the armies of Europe. Norton Felt had 0:41:04.160 --> 0:41:07.560 employed Basil as a salesman briefly back in eighteen seventy seven, 0:41:07.719 --> 0:41:09.600 but the two had fallen out of touch over the years, 0:41:09.840 --> 0:41:12.920 as Basil had fucked and scammed his way across multiple continents. 0:41:13.239 --> 0:41:15.520 But now that Zaharov was back and looking for work, 0:41:15.640 --> 0:41:17.920 Norton felt arms seemed as good a place to make 0:41:17.960 --> 0:41:20.200 money as any And it's here we should talk a 0:41:20.200 --> 0:41:23.560 little bit about the global armaments industry. Um, it didn't 0:41:23.560 --> 0:41:26.960 really exist for most of history. Early firearms were like 0:41:27.080 --> 0:41:30.000 artisanal tools. Each one was made by hand by like 0:41:30.080 --> 0:41:33.319 an artisan um and so like you couldn't really have 0:41:33.440 --> 0:41:35.920 gigantic gun companies in the same way you do now 0:41:35.960 --> 0:41:41.240 because you needed like some some dude like manufacturing. Yeah, 0:41:41.280 --> 0:41:45.360 it wasn't really possible with like early arms. Um, you know, 0:41:45.600 --> 0:41:48.440 some firearms makers were like larger and more successful and 0:41:48.520 --> 0:41:51.759 like hired a lot of these artisans. But like international 0:41:51.800 --> 0:41:54.320 arms conglomerates the way we know them did not exist 0:41:54.360 --> 0:41:57.040 at the time, which is a shame because it means 0:41:57.080 --> 0:42:00.360 that the good people of the late eighteen hundreds couldn't 0:42:00.440 --> 0:42:04.160 enjoy the fine products that the Raytheon Corporation makes. Like 0:42:04.280 --> 0:42:07.200 that knife missile I told you about. I bet there's 0:42:07.239 --> 0:42:09.719 a thousand things you could use a knife missile for. 0:42:09.840 --> 0:42:13.759 To reason weapons person, you know, I like to get 0:42:13.800 --> 0:42:16.440 my weapons at the farmer's market. I just think I 0:42:16.520 --> 0:42:19.400 like to look someone in the eyes when I'm buying 0:42:19.440 --> 0:42:21.360 a killing machine. You know, I want to be like, 0:42:21.400 --> 0:42:24.960 I want to know the hands, you know, I want 0:42:25.000 --> 0:42:27.520 to touch the hands that that made it. I like 0:42:27.640 --> 0:42:36.400 twine guns, you know that makes sense. Farm to table drones, Yeah, 0:42:36.560 --> 0:42:43.200 like I see me where these drones free range. I 0:42:43.239 --> 0:42:45.759 want my drones to be played classical music while they're 0:42:45.800 --> 0:42:49.680 being made. I I only local bullets. I am not 0:42:49.760 --> 0:42:52.279 going to like yeah, I'm not. I don't want to 0:42:52.320 --> 0:42:56.000 murder the environment, just these random people I've decided to 0:42:56.080 --> 0:43:01.840 my enemies. Yeah, well, if you and joy artisanal killing machines, 0:43:02.080 --> 0:43:05.000 then will enjoy the fine products and services that support 0:43:05.080 --> 0:43:15.760 this podcast. We're back so talking about the arms industry 0:43:16.080 --> 0:43:18.000 in the late eighteen hundreds. I'm going to read a 0:43:18.080 --> 0:43:21.200 quote from Smithsonian magazine kind of laying out the state 0:43:21.239 --> 0:43:23.480 of the industry at the time. It was not then 0:43:23.520 --> 0:43:27.120 a huge industry. Best known was perhaps Alfred Krupp, the 0:43:27.280 --> 0:43:30.040 cannon maker of sen at Ten. He inherited a modest 0:43:30.080 --> 0:43:32.640 iron foundry from the old Frederick Krupp, who had started 0:43:32.640 --> 0:43:35.960 in in eighteen three. At fourteen, Alfred went into the 0:43:35.960 --> 0:43:38.680 business and slowly took over its direction. Cannon were made 0:43:38.680 --> 0:43:41.799 of copper. Alfred perfected a solid, crucible steel block from 0:43:41.840 --> 0:43:44.120 which he made cannon, but he had not yet perfected 0:43:44.160 --> 0:43:48.879 any projectile capable of penetrating the transigent mentality of military bureaucrats. 0:43:49.200 --> 0:43:51.520 Cannon were made of copper had always been it must 0:43:51.520 --> 0:43:53.920 always be hair. Krupp learned from the start that the 0:43:53.920 --> 0:43:56.000 way to sell cannon to the Prussian king was to 0:43:56.000 --> 0:43:59.080 sell them also to Prussia's neighbors and enemies. He made 0:43:59.080 --> 0:44:01.680 his first sales to Egypt, then to Austria. When the 0:44:01.680 --> 0:44:05.279 Austria Prussian War began, both armies fired crups cannonballs at 0:44:05.280 --> 0:44:07.239 each other, and his guns would have been working in 0:44:07.320 --> 0:44:10.280 both armies in the Franco Prussian War, but for Napoleon 0:44:10.320 --> 0:44:13.600 the Third's refusal to buy them crups cannon made bismarck 0:44:13.719 --> 0:44:17.960 swift victory possible. Um So this is like the first 0:44:17.960 --> 0:44:22.760 big armed manufacturers Krupp Um, and by the mid eighteen hundreds, 0:44:23.000 --> 0:44:25.360 like the industry was starting to grow. In part because 0:44:25.360 --> 0:44:29.040 of Krupp, Modern firearms made by companies like Winchester and 0:44:29.080 --> 0:44:34.040 Martini had also started to sweep into the world's wars. Yeah, yeah, exactly, 0:44:34.080 --> 0:44:37.120 Barrier company. See shot. Shoot the houses right by the 0:44:37.160 --> 0:44:39.759 Winchester mystery house. Shout out to San Jose is right 0:44:39.760 --> 0:44:43.399 by women, Shout out to San Jose. And if if 0:44:43.480 --> 0:44:46.640 you're in California and you're going to kill people, make 0:44:46.680 --> 0:44:51.200 sure it's with a Winchester rifle. No, no, no, don't 0:44:51.320 --> 0:45:00.200 don't listen to that. Just don't kill people. Cool, But 0:45:00.239 --> 0:45:04.120 if you do kill local Roberts As a Texan, I 0:45:04.280 --> 0:45:07.200 use Raytheon because it's made outside a plane, Oh Texas. 0:45:07.239 --> 0:45:09.800 So I know that if I'm gonna drone strike somebody, 0:45:10.000 --> 0:45:12.400 I'm gonna drone strike them with a drone made right 0:45:12.480 --> 0:45:16.439 down the road by the same artisans that I meet 0:45:16.440 --> 0:45:19.080 in line at the Trader Joe's before they go build 0:45:19.120 --> 0:45:23.439 missile guidance systems. That's good, you know, It's like, yeah, 0:45:23.600 --> 0:45:28.239 keep keep killing local. That's what we want in our community. Yeah, 0:45:28.520 --> 0:45:32.360 kill lot, wan't no, this is too dark a line effect. 0:45:34.520 --> 0:45:38.160 Um So, yeah, like the the American Civil War had 0:45:38.200 --> 0:45:40.359 been impacked on the growth of the arms industry at 0:45:40.400 --> 0:45:42.279 this time because like we start to make like you 0:45:42.280 --> 0:45:44.680 start to see mass produced weapons that are like way 0:45:44.719 --> 0:45:47.640 deadlier than guns had ever been before, and suddenly all 0:45:47.680 --> 0:45:50.640 these these nations in Europe start wanting to buy them. 0:45:50.760 --> 0:45:53.720 Um there's fighting in between Greece and Russia and Serbia 0:45:53.760 --> 0:45:56.560 and Turkey and the Balkans, and like this spreads the 0:45:56.600 --> 0:45:59.480 development of new cannons and new firearms and spreads their 0:45:59.480 --> 0:46:04.400 adoption by the armies of Europe. Um so yeah, uh, 0:46:04.440 --> 0:46:06.360 this is kind of the state of the industry in 0:46:06.440 --> 0:46:09.640 eighteen eighty five when Basil gets involved in it. So 0:46:09.680 --> 0:46:12.680 like it is starting to explode, but you're still at 0:46:12.680 --> 0:46:15.640 this point where like the idea of massive international arms 0:46:15.680 --> 0:46:18.960 companies is kind of weird and new. Um and Zaharov 0:46:19.080 --> 0:46:21.839 was initially commissioned to act as the Norton Felt Arms 0:46:21.920 --> 0:46:25.680 corporate representative for the Balkans. He received five pounds a 0:46:25.719 --> 0:46:29.200 weekend salary plus commissions. Basil being an entrepreneur, and it 0:46:29.520 --> 0:46:31.920 instantly realized that selling a handful of guns at a 0:46:31.960 --> 0:46:33.759 time to a single country was not going to earn 0:46:33.840 --> 0:46:36.319 him the kind of money he desired to make, so, 0:46:36.800 --> 0:46:39.279 taking a leaf out of Krup's book, he decides that 0:46:39.520 --> 0:46:43.239 he should start selling guns by triggering arms races. That like, 0:46:43.320 --> 0:46:45.279 this is the way to make fucking money. If you're 0:46:45.320 --> 0:46:46.839 gonna if you want to sell a lot of guns, 0:46:46.840 --> 0:46:49.520 you make an arms race. Um. Norton Felt was not 0:46:49.600 --> 0:46:52.080 a large manufacturer, but they traded in some very novel 0:46:52.120 --> 0:46:54.960 weapons systems, including a brand new submarine that had just 0:46:55.080 --> 0:46:57.919 been invented. Now, submarines were really new at the time, 0:46:58.040 --> 0:47:00.479 and they weren't very well understood, and they usually killed 0:47:00.480 --> 0:47:03.360 the people inside of them. You wouldn't want to be 0:47:03.400 --> 0:47:06.200 a submarine person in this time. Um. But there were 0:47:06.239 --> 0:47:09.960 also like this, the new sexy weapons system like uh 0:47:10.080 --> 0:47:12.319 so they represented a huge opportunity because like, no one 0:47:12.360 --> 0:47:15.680 really had them yet. Um. And here's how the biography 0:47:15.760 --> 0:47:20.399 Man of Arms describes what basiled it. Next quote. Many 0:47:20.480 --> 0:47:22.680 years later, zaharof Re counted his part in opening up 0:47:22.680 --> 0:47:24.880 this market. I sold a submarine to the Greeks, and 0:47:24.920 --> 0:47:27.000 then he added with a conventional chuckle, and went to 0:47:27.000 --> 0:47:29.600 the Turks and sold them a couple Russia presented the 0:47:29.600 --> 0:47:32.200 next obvious target. From a less reliable source, we learned 0:47:32.200 --> 0:47:35.080 that Zaharov, with bland impudence, expounded the situation as he 0:47:35.120 --> 0:47:37.680 saw it to the navy minister in St. Petersburg. My 0:47:37.760 --> 0:47:40.080 firm is the agent of no one power. The Turks 0:47:40.080 --> 0:47:42.239 have brought two submarines from my firm. In the event 0:47:42.280 --> 0:47:44.759 of war, the Turkish navy can, thanks to these submarines, 0:47:44.960 --> 0:47:47.200 minister ships in the Black Sea and strike you where 0:47:47.239 --> 0:47:49.759 you least expect them. What the Turks possess you two 0:47:49.880 --> 0:47:52.760 can have in greater numbers if you wish. I proposed 0:47:52.760 --> 0:47:55.120 that while two submarines are sufficient for the local needs 0:47:55.120 --> 0:47:58.000 of a small power like Turkey, four should be necessary 0:47:58.040 --> 0:48:00.880 for your own great security. Is a great power. Legend 0:48:00.920 --> 0:48:03.319 relates that Russia fell for this logic that was, this 0:48:03.320 --> 0:48:05.319 would have made a total of seven submarines, which is 0:48:05.440 --> 0:48:07.799 a lot of money for him. So he sparks like 0:48:07.800 --> 0:48:11.279 a minor submarine arms race between three countries. He's like 0:48:11.320 --> 0:48:13.680 a high school girl. That's like trying to start drama 0:48:13.719 --> 0:48:15.840 where you go up to like one two best friends. 0:48:15.840 --> 0:48:18.319 You're like, oh, I heard so and so I heard 0:48:18.360 --> 0:48:20.840 Becky's you know, say that she didn't like you, and 0:48:20.880 --> 0:48:22.960 then they're like, Becky's a bit and then you go 0:48:22.960 --> 0:48:26.080 to Becky and you're like, I heard Kelsey while and 0:48:26.280 --> 0:48:29.600 now they're like fighting, but they weren't if it wasn't 0:48:29.600 --> 0:48:32.960 for him. I mean, that makes me think that teenage 0:48:33.000 --> 0:48:36.360 girls would actually be incredible arms dealers. I think teenage 0:48:36.360 --> 0:48:40.960 girls would make excellent UM intelligence officers because all of 0:48:41.000 --> 0:48:45.680 the CIA and intelligence companies, companies, you know, organizations do 0:48:45.880 --> 0:48:48.520 is they're just gossiping. That's all they're doing. They're meeting up, 0:48:48.560 --> 0:48:52.880 just exchange secrets and make little alliances, and we should 0:48:53.360 --> 0:48:56.279 use teenage Well no, let's never mind. I take that back. 0:48:56.400 --> 0:48:59.640 Let's not use teenage girls for anything. But let's harness 0:49:00.120 --> 0:49:02.439 He does listen to this podcast a lot, so maybe 0:49:02.440 --> 0:49:05.800 they'll take you up on that. Yeah, harnessing teenage girls 0:49:06.440 --> 0:49:11.600 and teenage crops. Not literally, not so. The submarines that 0:49:11.719 --> 0:49:16.960 Zaharov sold were notoriously shitty and basically death traps um 0:49:17.040 --> 0:49:19.560 and they were they were renowned as being death traps 0:49:19.600 --> 0:49:23.080 by the standards of late eighteen hundred submarines. So like 0:49:23.120 --> 0:49:25.960 in the era where all submarines are death traps, everyone's like, 0:49:26.080 --> 0:49:29.200 but don't get in those fucking submarines because they're terrible. 0:49:29.960 --> 0:49:32.440 Um but he makes a lot of money selling them. 0:49:32.560 --> 0:49:35.920 Um So. Uh. This, this fact that he sold seven 0:49:35.960 --> 0:49:39.400 submarines and got a cut of the commissions obviously generated 0:49:39.440 --> 0:49:41.680 him a tidy prophet and turned him instantly into one 0:49:41.719 --> 0:49:45.080 of the most influmential minds within the Norton Felt Arms company. 0:49:45.520 --> 0:49:49.200 Zaharov basically coined this codified his strategy of selling arms 0:49:49.200 --> 0:49:52.000 to one country to panic another, to then panic another 0:49:52.200 --> 0:49:55.720 so we could sell arms to them all. Uh. He 0:49:55.760 --> 0:49:58.600 came to like basically turned this into like he called 0:49:58.600 --> 0:50:01.400 it the system Zahara off. So he like he like 0:50:01.600 --> 0:50:06.840 names this thing he did to spark arms right, No, 0:50:07.160 --> 0:50:14.279 like system with an ether, like the zach a masterpiece. No, 0:50:14.520 --> 0:50:16.600 it's he is kind of naming it like a masterpiece. 0:50:16.640 --> 0:50:18.920 He's like when he goes into court meetings, he's like, 0:50:19.000 --> 0:50:21.960 the thing you gotta do is sparking arms race. That's 0:50:21.960 --> 0:50:24.759 how you fucking make bank with this ship. And like, 0:50:24.840 --> 0:50:26.719 I'm the guy who invented even though he's kind of 0:50:26.719 --> 0:50:30.280 stealing that from Krupp because he's, you know, a scammer. 0:50:30.760 --> 0:50:34.120 Um So, having cornered the Mediterranean submarine market, Zaharov next 0:50:34.160 --> 0:50:36.719 set his sights in a more ambitious goal, the European 0:50:36.800 --> 0:50:40.479 machine gun industry. Here In Maxim, the American arms maker 0:50:40.520 --> 0:50:42.600 who invented the Babe Ruth of weaponry meant to kill 0:50:42.680 --> 0:50:46.040 large numbers of European teenagers, had just arrived on the continent. 0:50:46.360 --> 0:50:49.719 Maxim was demonstrating his new quick firing Maxim gun, which 0:50:49.719 --> 0:50:52.400 worried Norton Felt since their own quick firing gun was 0:50:52.480 --> 0:50:55.920 really shitty. Zaharov knew at once that Maxim single barreled 0:50:55.920 --> 0:50:57.960 machine gun was way better than the one that Norton 0:50:58.040 --> 0:51:00.560 Felt made, and in the tradition of all gray businessman, 0:51:00.640 --> 0:51:03.440 he decided that if you can't beat them, join them. 0:51:03.480 --> 0:51:06.840 No one is certain how Basil convinced Hiram Maxim to 0:51:06.880 --> 0:51:09.920 merge his company with Norton Felt Um, but H. G. 0:51:10.080 --> 0:51:12.560 Wells wrote out one of the explanations of this. So 0:51:12.640 --> 0:51:18.280 this is H. G. Wells talking about how Zaharov achieved 0:51:18.320 --> 0:51:22.000 this coup quote. Maxim exhibited his gun in Vienna. When 0:51:22.000 --> 0:51:24.360 he fired his gun at a target and demonstrated its powers, 0:51:24.400 --> 0:51:26.960 Zaharov was busy explaining to expert observers that the whole 0:51:27.000 --> 0:51:29.600 thing was an exhibition of skill, that only Maxim could 0:51:29.600 --> 0:51:31.560 fire the gun, it would take years to train men 0:51:31.600 --> 0:51:33.799 to use it, that these new machines were delicate and 0:51:33.800 --> 0:51:36.360 difficult to make and could not be produced in quantities, 0:51:36.400 --> 0:51:39.600 and so forth. Maxim, after tracing the initials of the 0:51:39.640 --> 0:51:42.480 Emperor upon a target, prepared to receive orders, they were 0:51:42.520 --> 0:51:45.320 not forthcoming. He learned that Norton felt was simple and strong. 0:51:45.600 --> 0:51:48.279 This gun of his was a scientific instrument, unfit for 0:51:48.360 --> 0:51:52.200 soldierly hands. His demonstration went for nothing. What had happened? 0:51:52.239 --> 0:51:54.480 He realized he was visa v with a salesman, a 0:51:54.560 --> 0:51:57.719 very formidable salesman. In the end, he amalgamated with a salesman. 0:51:58.320 --> 0:52:00.560 So Zaharov is like, I can't beat this guy's guns. 0:52:00.600 --> 0:52:03.440 We'll light everyone about him until he realizes he's basically 0:52:03.480 --> 0:52:05.239 just gotta work with me, otherwise he's not going to 0:52:05.320 --> 0:52:09.120 succeed in selling any guns. That's such a classic manipulation move, 0:52:09.160 --> 0:52:11.560 because he's like, that gun sucks, don't buy that gun. 0:52:11.600 --> 0:52:13.400 And then once they join, he's like, now I have 0:52:13.480 --> 0:52:15.879 your gun, and now he's like it's good again. Now 0:52:15.920 --> 0:52:18.320 we're selling it. So no, this is the best, guys, 0:52:18.320 --> 0:52:20.759 super easy to use. You can kill so many teenagers 0:52:20.800 --> 0:52:24.080 with this gun. You want to kill teenage British people. 0:52:24.239 --> 0:52:30.120 This is the gun, so stop the killed so many 0:52:30.120 --> 0:52:32.799 teenage British people. This is World War One, Sophie. Yes, 0:52:32.880 --> 0:52:37.560 but but don't say if you want to I mean 0:52:38.920 --> 0:52:42.640 the domestic. If you want to kill the most European 0:52:43.000 --> 0:52:47.200 conscript soldiers possible, you want a Maxim machine gun. And 0:52:47.239 --> 0:52:54.440 they do sponsor this podcast. Jesus. So this happened in 0:52:55.120 --> 0:52:57.520 six and over the next couple of years, Norton Felt 0:52:57.560 --> 0:53:00.160 himself increasingly bowed out of the company he'd found, did 0:53:00.160 --> 0:53:03.040 while Basil Zaharov took control of much of the enterprise. 0:53:03.480 --> 0:53:05.719 And it's hard to overstate what a big deal this is. 0:53:06.160 --> 0:53:10.880 So Maxim Norton Felt Arms quickly becomes maxim Um like 0:53:11.200 --> 0:53:14.080 like it's just known by the name Maximum because their 0:53:14.080 --> 0:53:16.759 gun is like the is like the defining weapon of 0:53:16.800 --> 0:53:20.160 the age. Um and Maxim under Zaharov becomes one of 0:53:20.200 --> 0:53:24.640 the very very first massive international gun companies uh international 0:53:24.719 --> 0:53:27.520 arms companies, and they sold a huge variety of weapons 0:53:27.520 --> 0:53:30.960 to parties in multiple hemispheres. The additional reach the merger 0:53:31.000 --> 0:53:33.360 gave Zaharof meant it was even easier for him to 0:53:33.360 --> 0:53:35.799 spark arms races all over the world. And I'm gonna 0:53:35.840 --> 0:53:39.120 quote from the Smithsonian again here. The next step was 0:53:39.160 --> 0:53:42.480 a condembination with Vickers, Thomas Vickers, the second largest English 0:53:42.520 --> 0:53:45.520 manufacturer of arms. Maxim became a member of the Vickers 0:53:45.520 --> 0:53:48.000 board of directors. Zaharov's name did not figure into the 0:53:48.120 --> 0:53:50.480 organization at all, but he and Maxim and some proportion 0:53:50.520 --> 0:53:53.359 unknown to history, got for their company from Victors one 0:53:53.400 --> 0:53:56.440 point three million pounds over six and a half million dollars, 0:53:56.480 --> 0:53:59.040 partly in cash and partly in stock. For the Vickers company, 0:53:59.360 --> 0:54:02.560 Zaharrof became a substantial stockholder and Vickers and would one 0:54:02.640 --> 0:54:04.759 day be the largest of all. He also became the 0:54:04.800 --> 0:54:07.759 chief salesman of Vickars, which, unlike Krup and Schneider, had 0:54:07.800 --> 0:54:10.080 remained up to this point, out of the international market. 0:54:10.400 --> 0:54:13.080 But Zaharov showed the way in this bountiful field, and 0:54:13.120 --> 0:54:15.240 therefore he got moving about Europe with a card announcing 0:54:15.280 --> 0:54:18.680 himself as the delegate of Thomas Vickers and Sons. So 0:54:18.880 --> 0:54:21.960 the period from eighteen seventy seven to nineteen fourteen, when 0:54:22.000 --> 0:54:26.279 he's the chief representative of like the big one of 0:54:26.280 --> 0:54:28.680 the probably the biggest arms company in the world. Was 0:54:28.719 --> 0:54:31.239 also the period where the world went through the most 0:54:31.239 --> 0:54:34.759 significant arms build up that has ever happened. New technologies 0:54:34.760 --> 0:54:37.680 were being constantly invented and refined, and every nation in 0:54:37.719 --> 0:54:40.839 Europe was like worried about fighting every other nation in Europe. 0:54:40.880 --> 0:54:43.480 So they all were buying up piles of Maxim guns 0:54:43.480 --> 0:54:45.440 and Krupp cannons and like all of the weaponry they 0:54:45.480 --> 0:54:49.239 could possibly get. And Zaharov himself drove this trend. In 0:54:49.280 --> 0:54:52.160 eighteen ninety his Vickers Guns became the sole supplier of 0:54:52.239 --> 0:54:54.920 naval weaponry for the British Empire. Uh they bought a 0:54:54.920 --> 0:54:58.000 controlling interest in beard More shipbuilding firm in Glasgow, which 0:54:58.000 --> 0:55:01.480 gave the Gigantic arms concern. Zaharov managed a cut of 0:55:01.520 --> 0:55:04.560 the fortune that Britain spent building up her navy. Now, 0:55:04.640 --> 0:55:07.840 Britain's naval build up was driven largely by Kaiser Wilhelm's 0:55:07.840 --> 0:55:10.680 obsessive need to grow the German navy, which was steadily 0:55:10.760 --> 0:55:13.840 encouraged by Krupp. So like the German Arms Company, Krupp 0:55:13.880 --> 0:55:15.560 is telling the leader of Germany, like, you got to 0:55:15.600 --> 0:55:19.320 build more ships, and Basil's being like, hey, the Germans 0:55:19.320 --> 0:55:21.560 are building more ships. We gotta build more ships, and 0:55:21.560 --> 0:55:23.160 it just so happens that I get a cut of 0:55:23.239 --> 0:55:26.799 every ship built. So both corporations profited massively from this 0:55:26.920 --> 0:55:29.880 naval build up, which also ratcheted up tensions between Imperial 0:55:29.920 --> 0:55:35.120 Germany and Great Britain the world before where planes invented here? 0:55:35.400 --> 0:55:38.200 Or is this all of your boat? Like? Okay, so 0:55:38.239 --> 0:55:41.160 he because I'm just imagining, like because when you say 0:55:41.200 --> 0:55:42.920 like he went to this country and said this, I 0:55:42.960 --> 0:55:46.360 went to this country, I'm imagining like him getting on 0:55:46.400 --> 0:55:48.719 a boat, taking a long time to get there, and 0:55:48.719 --> 0:55:51.560 then being like, here's some gossip by this thing, and 0:55:51.600 --> 0:55:54.520 then like getting back on It's it's very slow. It's 0:55:54.680 --> 0:55:57.360 very slow. He's not taking plane. There are planes in 0:55:57.360 --> 0:55:59.840 this period and he a little later we'll talk about 0:55:59.840 --> 0:56:02.920 how he started convincing countries to buy air forces. How 0:56:02.960 --> 0:56:07.640 does a submarine like once it's bought, like, does someone 0:56:07.760 --> 0:56:11.600 drive it over to Germany? I think they were probably 0:56:11.600 --> 0:56:14.160 built in the Mediterranean and then just like sailed over 0:56:14.160 --> 0:56:18.560 to where they were going. Amazon delivery your U boats 0:56:18.560 --> 0:56:22.160 are here, Yeah, I mean Amazon will get a U 0:56:22.200 --> 0:56:25.200 boat to you way faster. I mean, they've gotten so 0:56:25.320 --> 0:56:31.479 much better at delivering submarines. Um so um, yeah do 0:56:31.480 --> 0:56:34.920 do do Yeah. Both Krupp and Uh and Uh Maxim 0:56:35.239 --> 0:56:38.120 or Yeah profited massively from the naval build up that 0:56:38.200 --> 0:56:40.560 just you know, also ratcheted up tensions in Europe and 0:56:40.560 --> 0:56:43.600 got both countries closer to fighting each other. Um and 0:56:43.680 --> 0:56:46.799 Zahrov continued to sell arms to both sides of conflicts 0:56:46.800 --> 0:56:49.680 and wars all over the world, using the cynical tactics 0:56:49.680 --> 0:56:52.000 of the system he had designed to ensure ever growing 0:56:52.000 --> 0:56:54.879 profits while the world lurched closer and closer to cataclysm. 0:56:55.520 --> 0:56:57.799 I found a really interesting book called Men of Wealth 0:56:57.800 --> 0:56:59.359 by a guy named John Flynn, that is a good 0:56:59.440 --> 0:57:02.840 job of ill straining how this web came together. Quote 0:57:02.920 --> 0:57:06.080 Evince favored them the Spanish American War, the Chinese American War, 0:57:06.160 --> 0:57:08.360 the English Bower War, in which the Tommy's armed with 0:57:08.440 --> 0:57:11.839 Vickers rifles were scientifically mowed down with Maxims machine gun 0:57:11.920 --> 0:57:14.520 or quick filing in cannon supplied to the Bowers by 0:57:14.600 --> 0:57:17.720 Mr Zakharov of Vickers. But the greatest opportunity was the 0:57:17.760 --> 0:57:20.440 Russo Japanese War, when it ended all of Europe's war 0:57:20.480 --> 0:57:23.120 ministries awoke. The war had been a great proving ground 0:57:23.160 --> 0:57:26.160 for guns and ships, a laboratory for militarists. Above all, 0:57:26.240 --> 0:57:28.400 Russia had to start at the bottom and completely rebuilt 0:57:28.440 --> 0:57:31.120 her shattered armies. The Czar provided over six d and 0:57:31.160 --> 0:57:34.280 twenty million dollars for rearming. All the armament makers in 0:57:34.280 --> 0:57:37.960 the world flocked to St. Petersburg. Zaharof representing Vickers, arrived 0:57:38.000 --> 0:57:42.000 first on scene. So like, he's the official arms manufacturer 0:57:42.000 --> 0:57:44.320 of the British army and he's selling guns to the 0:57:44.320 --> 0:57:47.480 Bowers who were murdering British soldiers. Um. And then he 0:57:47.520 --> 0:57:49.720 sells a bunch of weapons to the Japanese, who then 0:57:49.760 --> 0:57:52.640 beat the Russians in a very surprising war. And the 0:57:52.680 --> 0:57:55.440 fact that Japan, this like third rate power in the 0:57:55.480 --> 0:57:58.640 eyes of Europeans, beats Russia in this war leads to 0:57:58.680 --> 0:58:01.520 all these nations buying in more guns because they're like, oh, ship, 0:58:01.880 --> 0:58:03.640 Japan can do that stuff to Russia, they might be 0:58:03.680 --> 0:58:05.480 able to do it to us. We gotta buy more weapons, 0:58:05.640 --> 0:58:07.400 and the Russians are like, we need to buy way 0:58:07.440 --> 0:58:11.720 more fucking weapons. So like, he's very successful in getting 0:58:11.760 --> 0:58:15.360 everybody to continue buying way the funk more guns. Um. 0:58:15.400 --> 0:58:18.280 And what Basil Zaharov did in St. Petersburg would establish 0:58:18.320 --> 0:58:20.360 him as the greatest arms dealer of his era and 0:58:20.360 --> 0:58:22.560 perhaps of all time. It would also help make the 0:58:22.640 --> 0:58:25.800 horrible blood letting of the First World War completely inevitable. 0:58:26.200 --> 0:58:28.919 But that story, Teresa, we're gonna have to talk about 0:58:29.000 --> 0:58:32.640 in part two. How are you feeling so far? Well, 0:58:32.680 --> 0:58:36.520 I mean, like, you know, I I know how, I 0:58:36.600 --> 0:58:38.760 know part of how it ends because I know I 0:58:38.800 --> 0:58:41.040 know we're getting up to the war, so so I'm 0:58:41.080 --> 0:58:45.120 just like I want to put those dots together. Can't wait. Yeah, 0:58:45.200 --> 0:58:47.160 it is good. It's a good time. We're at the 0:58:47.200 --> 0:58:50.840 part right now where um, I don't know, he's helped 0:58:50.880 --> 0:58:54.920 spark a couple of wars, but um, not nearly as 0:58:54.960 --> 0:58:58.720 much as he's gonna do. Um. But for now, it's 0:58:58.760 --> 0:59:00.760 time for all of you to go off and try 0:59:00.840 --> 0:59:09.200 to provoke your own wars. In he means it's time 0:59:09.240 --> 0:59:12.160 to plug your plugables. Teresa, Yeah, it is time to 0:59:12.160 --> 0:59:16.320 plug your plug doubles. Oh my plugables. I was like, 0:59:16.320 --> 0:59:19.400 wait what sorry? I thought this was like I thought 0:59:19.440 --> 0:59:22.880 you were doing a sponsored ad for Glade plugables. Um, no, 0:59:24.800 --> 0:59:27.480 my plugables. Oh well, you know you can listen to 0:59:27.480 --> 0:59:31.080 my podcast. You can tell me anything where comedians like Robert, 0:59:31.120 --> 0:59:33.840 who's been on before, um confess something they've never told 0:59:33.840 --> 0:59:37.320 anyone before. I guess if this this guy Basil was 0:59:37.360 --> 0:59:40.360 on and be all lies, but generally speaking, people tell truths. 0:59:40.840 --> 0:59:43.919 And then we talked it's fun. You know what else 0:59:44.040 --> 0:59:49.960 is fun? Teresa? What the fine products produced by great 0:59:50.000 --> 0:59:59.240 companies like Raytheon. What what Robert means to say to tables? What? Okay? 0:59:59.240 --> 1:00:00.760 What Robert means the say is that he's doing a 1:00:00.800 --> 1:00:03.000 live show with Billy Wayne Davis in Los Angeles on 1:00:03.080 --> 1:00:07.280 March three at Dannisy Typewriter. You should get tickets and 1:00:07.400 --> 1:00:10.320 we will be saving selling our teas and a arms there. 1:00:10.600 --> 1:00:13.520 We will not be doing anything of that nature. You 1:00:13.560 --> 1:00:17.240 can follow Robert on Twitter. I'm saying you can follow 1:00:17.280 --> 1:00:21.640 our podcast at at Bastard's pod on Twitter, Instagram, and 1:00:21.760 --> 1:00:24.439 if your grease or turkey and you want to buy 1:00:24.440 --> 1:00:28.800 some submarines, will have a couple of we're listening Chris 1:00:28.880 --> 1:00:29.200 and it