WEBVTT - Tenfold More Wicked - Entitled: The Secret Court 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:11.560 Hold on, here's the kitchen. Yeah, so this is so fascinating. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.760 Some of it it's really structurally intact, but it's not. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:17.800 So that's kind of where we just came from. That 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:20.360 window in the middle over there takes you to that 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.280 long hallway and then this is the kitchen. So you've 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.920 got the kitchen. You've got another outbuilding that looks like 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.360 it could have been in the eighteenth century, a carriage house, lumber, 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:36.200 shehd so storage, a dairy based on the ventilation privies in. 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:36.840 The back. 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:39.320 A well. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.760 Historian and interpreter Nicole Brown is given me a tour 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:47.040 of Colonel John Chisel's home on East Francis Street in Williamsburg. 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:52.240 There are large bedrooms, many many ornate fireplaces, and several 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:57.600 outdoor buildings where enslaved people once toiled. Nicole says that 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:02.720 Chisel's house was the epitome of gentry, wealth and colonial Virginia. 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.000 It's a very large operation. So if you're this wealthy, 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.400 which I mean the Chisels are ultra wealthy, they're going 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:11.319 to have their own dairy. They're going to have their 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.600 own private wealth. They're going to have, honestly, those two 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.040 privies with the beautiful garden. That's the status symbol, right. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.720 So all of this, especially now being inside this building 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:27.200 looks very simple on the exterior, but this screams ultra 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:32.760 elite gentry, Virginia wealth to me in a very profound 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:33.600 kind of way. 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.520 Seeing this house gives me historical context for the story. 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:44.040 Colonel John Chisel must have felt tremendous financial pressure in 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.520 seventeen sixty six to keep up with his family's lifestyle 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:55.920 their reputation in Williamsburg. I'll quickly summarize where we are 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.680 with this story. Chisel's son in law, John Robinson, had 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:04.520 recently died, and as his duplicity was revealed, it tarnished 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.720 the Chisel family name. That would have been devastating for 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.720 a member of the gentry in eighteenth century Virginia. 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.280 So the scandal starts to unfold, you know, around May 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.959 people start to say, oh, I think the late speaker 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.320 may have been doing some things in the treasury he 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:23.240 shouldn't have done. 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.920 Less than one month after John Robinson's death, news of 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.520 his financial scandal was spreading across the colonies and then 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.960 across the Atlantic Ocean to England. The revelations that Robinson 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:39.359 had loaned hundreds of thousands of pounds to his friends 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.240 had alarmed the gentry, which were the top five percent 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.720 of the population. John Robinson and his cronies had broken 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.800 the trust of the other ninety five percent of the colony. 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.560 And then, because John Chisel was Robinson's primary business partner, 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.840 the scandal had become focused on him, the one who 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.240 had benefited the most from his son in law's fraud. 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.160 So in the summer of seventeen sixty six, John Chisel 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.000 was distraught, but he hoped that perhaps a visit to 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.560 his mines in the country would quell his concerns over money. 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.880 Like most upper class colonists, he was hopelessly in debt 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:26.880 and the rural mining operation represented promising income. It was 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:31.040 the afternoon of June third, seventeen sixty six, in western Virginia, 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.880 at a tiny tavern called Moseby's for reference. The tavern 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:38.120 was originally built as a small one room house by 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:42.320 Benjamin Moseby in seventeen forty, two decades earlier. He soon 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.080 began using it as a tavern, and when the County 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.360 of Cumberland was formed in seventeen forty nine, the tavern 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.080 served as the County's courthouse. It would later be used 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.800 as a staging area for George Washington's Continental Army during 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.920 the Revolutionary War, but just to be clear, Moseby's tavern 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:11.520 was small there. John Chisel's jovial conversation with Scottish merchant 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.880 Robert Rutledge had suddenly become tense. Chisel had used some 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:20.680 obscene language defined as somewhat liberal of oaths in the newspaper, 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.479 and the drunken Ruttledge scolded him for it. When Chisel 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:29.440 responded irately, Rutledge began to argue back and hiccup. He 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:34.760 was that intoxicated. John Robinson's descendant, Simon Robinson, reminds us 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:39.400 of Rutledge's station in life and why insulting Chisel was 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:41.919 such a mistake. In the seventeen hundreds. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.520 Robert Rautledge, although he had done very well for himself 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.880 and had land and had done well in trade, he 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:50.479 wasn't of the right class. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:52.800 He wasn't of the ruling class. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.279 We hear a lot about the honor code, why duels 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.919 were declared, and why so many men died over insults. 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.160 Some of these insults were much more polite than what 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:07.320 we read on Twitter. By all accounts, Robert Rutledge seemed 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.640 to behave like a gentleman, but he was drinking that afternoon, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.479 really drinking, and his confrontation with Chisel seemed out of 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.440 the ordinary. But keep this in mind, John Chisel was 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:22.240 not drinking, or at least not outwardly drunk. So why 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.800 did he react in such a vicious, vile way by 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:30.960 calling Rutledge a derogatory term for Scottish people. Historian Julie 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:35.000 Richter says that this was a case of toxic masculinity 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.280 in eighteenth century colonial America. 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.200 Oh yeah, maybe part that it's somebody of a lower 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:45.640 social level, somebody from Scotland, So you've got that on 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.440 one side. Plus I'm a member of the elite. 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:49.960 You know. 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.960 I've read through this stuff multiple times again because it's 0:05:53.000 --> 0:06:00.560 just such an interesting intersection of social level identity illinity. 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:05.880 Here's a reminder of where we are in the story. 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.560 John Chisel had just returned from his minds in western 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.040 Virginia when he stopped at Moseby Tavern for the afternoon. 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:19.560 Both men were in the tavern and with their respective friends, 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:26.000 and Chisel was in very high spirits, thinking that a 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.680 mining operation was going to be a solution to some 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.760 of his financial woes. So he was in very high 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:39.720 spirits but being very loud and rather obnoxious, and this 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:44.360 didn't go down well with rather drunk Robert Ratlich, who 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.400 effectively said, do you think you could tone down your language? 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.640 It's not befitting of this establishment. 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.440 Colonel Chisel swung around and glared at Rutledge. His entire 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.760 personality changed, anger flashed in his eyes. 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.080 This, of course, was a red rag to John Chisel, 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.039 how dare you speak to me in this way? You're 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:11.280 a ghastly Scott and you're from a lowly stock. You 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.400 know you're not an aristocrat as i am, and you 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.400 may not speak to me in that way. This, of course, 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:22.800 with two men who had been drinking, escalated and drink 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:27.160 was thrown at each other. Chisel then followed it with 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:33.440 some fire tongs and a candlestick. Robert Routledge got hold 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:37.480 of a chair, possibly to defend himself. You could argue, 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.960 if there's candlesticks and firetongs coming at you. 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.120 Chisel screamed for the enslaved person who came with him 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.240 to retrieve a weapon from another room. 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:51.760 Chisel ordered his slave boy to get his sword. He 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.760 threatened death on the boy if he didn't obey his command. 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.640 I mean, it's difficult to understand that today this had 0:07:58.640 --> 0:07:59.960 may have been an everyday occurrence. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:01.960 But boy returned with the sword. 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.160 Rutledge was so intoxicated he needed the help of his 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:09.280 friend Joseph Carrington to drag him along towards the back door. 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.560 Carrington had the keys, but he fumbled with them as 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.760 he tried to unlock the door. To escape, Chisel charged 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.480 toward the table that separated them. The other men in 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:23.320 the tavern squinted in the hazy, smoky light from the candles. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.400 They tried to stay out of the way, but there 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.200 was no place to go. The gentleman in the room 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.400 must have assumed that Chisel would just continue yelling that 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.760 eventually he would calm himself. That's not what happened. 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.240 So a lot of the other men in this room, 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.400 they don't assume that the sword's going to come out, 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.360 because the sword is in that other room that he 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.280 and Rutlige were supposedly supposed to be sharing. It's a 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.240 separate house, is what they say. But he threatens this 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.320 man servant so badly that he goes to get the sword, 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.160 and he brings it into the tavern room. Colonel Chisel 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.640 comes back out and says, get Robert Rutledge out of 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.120 this room. 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.640 Seething as Carrington struggled with the keys, Chisel baited Rutledge 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:09.680 by repeating the phrase Presbyterian fellow. Rutledge couldn't stop himself. 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.960 He smirked and replied that he was just as much 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:17.920 a gentleman as Chisel. Chisel became even more enraged at 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.880 this last insult. He screamed and gripped the sword. This 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.000 was the wrong thing for a Scottish merchant to say 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.840 to a member of the gentry that was certainly crossing 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.880 a line. Rutledge was so drunk that he didn't seem 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.800 to realize that he was in danger. He stepped toward 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.880 Chisel as Carrington desperately tried to draw him backward. The 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.720 colonel stood with the unsheathed sword in his hand. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.360 It's probably a pretty long sword, you know. We're not 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.640 talking about a knife, we're not talking about a switchblade. 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.440 We're talking about something that might be a foot two 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.840 feet long. Right. It's a big, heavy object, and the 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:55.880 point of that kind of sword is that it's meant 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:56.760 to do damage. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.920 The men in the tavern looked alarmed as the smoke thickened. 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:03.080 Some even left. 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.920 There's a scuffle. There's an altercation, you can see from 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.360 the diagram. They move from place to place around the room, 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.320 until eventually you have Colonel Chissel on one side of 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:14.320 a table, Robert Rutledge on the other. 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:18.400 Nicole just mentioned a diagram. She's talking about, an artist 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.400 rendering that someone drew of the crime scene, one that 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:24.960 was later printed in the newspaper. It actually became the 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:29.720 first crime scene diagram ever publicly published, the blueprint for 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:33.640 a document that is now staple in so many criminal cases. 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.959 Now the other men in the tavern became more involved 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.480 and tried to de escalate the whole thing. 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.560 Colonel Chisel is apparently being held back by both Moseby men, 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.679 and Robert Rutledge is being held back by a man 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.520 named Carrington, and a man named Swan is pushing him back. 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.120 The men stood across each other with a table in between, 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:59.160 with Chisels still bellowing insults at the Scottish merchant. They 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.680 were yelling just six feet away from each other. Colonel 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.240 Chisel was livid by this time, no one could stop him, 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:10.440 not even two large strong men. His hand tightened on 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.040 the grip of the sword. It was a weapon used 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.200 regularly by men in the gentry for protection while on 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:16.679 the road. 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.679 There was a bit of a dance around the tavern 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:24.360 with lots of words exchanged, people trying to intervene to 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:29.280 say calm down, calm down. And the final act happened 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:34.040 over a table where Chisel raised his sword and. 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.680 Then as Chisel's friend Samuel Swan stood in between the men, 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:39.520 Chisel lunged. 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:44.920 Forward and at this point Colonel Chisel's sword goes through 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:51.520 Swan's coat and into Reutledge's heart. He slumps down onto 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:53.960 Carrington and then down onto the floor. 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:02.200 His coat is pierced by the as it goes into 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:09.040 Robert Rutledge's heart. Robert Rutledge apparently goes immediately silent, is 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.160 caught by a man I think his name is Campbell 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:12.800 or something along those lines. 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:19.120 With just one thrust, Robert Rutledge was dead, slumped in 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:23.319 Joseph Carrington's arms. A man grabbed John Chisel from behind, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.959 but it was too late for Robert Rutledge. Chisel pulled 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:33.280 the sword from Rutlige's body as the Scotsman gasped for breath. 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.680 And he dies right there in front of John Chisel, 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:41.560 who apparently shows absolutely, positively zero remorse. He says something 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:43.880 to the effect of I aimed at his heart and 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:45.680 I hit it well. 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:50.119 First, Chisel said, he is dead, and I killed him. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.679 The witnesses in the tavern reported that Rutledge died on 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.800 the spot, but that seems unlikely. A stab wound to 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.640 the heart would likely cause excessive bleeding and he would 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.280 have bled out at least That's what Paul Holes told me. 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.760 This was likely a very painful death for Robert Rutledge. 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.040 Witnesses say that Chisel looked at Samuel Swan. The men 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.520 had once been colleagues in the House of Burgesses. Swan 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.880 was also a member of the gentry, a gentleman like Chisel. 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.320 Chisel squinted at the hole in Swan's wool jacket. 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:24.959 He doesn't ask at all ever about Robert Utledge, but 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.400 he does ask Swan about his coat. You know, is 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.200 your coat fine? It was not. 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:35.640 He could not be more connected to the powers that be, 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:41.760 to the establishment, and when he just casually murders this 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:47.600 man and he doesn't express any concern for Rutledge. Instead, 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.320 he asks if mister Swan was okay the sword went 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.520 through mister Swan's coat, did I injure him? 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.280 Chisel thought so little of the Scottish merchant that his 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.040 life was easily discarded by the gentry. That was the 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:05.360 message telegraphed inside the tavern that day in seventeen sixty six. 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.600 The room was quiet. Chisel seemed more concerned about the 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:13.959 coat of a member of the gentry than he was 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.920 about a man dead on the floor of the tavern. 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.640 Chisel looked over at the enslaved person who had come 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.600 along on the trip, the one who had retrieved his sword, 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.480 and certainly must have been traumatized by all of this. 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.880 Chisel calmly and deliberately ordered him to take the sword, 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.160 dripping in blood, to another room. He told him to 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.360 clean it carefully and rub it well with tallow, which 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.720 was beef or mutton fat. Chisel was concerned that it 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.880 might rust. Then, while the body of Robert Rutledge lay 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.960 on the floor, Chisel did something extraordinary and frankly disgusting. 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:52.840 He ordered the tavern workers to make him a drink, 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:54.320 a big drink. 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.800 He sits and orders a bowl of punch, even though 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.520 there's a man whom he he has just outright murdered 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:02.400 laying on the floor. 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.280 Rutledge was drinking, but Chisel did not have a drink 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:10.080 until after the stabbing, at which time he calls for 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.360 a bowl of punch to calm his nerves. 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:16.800 I'm not sure if Chisel's nerves were frayed, but who knows. 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:21.120 He didn't seem contrite over any of this. He sat 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.760 on the floor of the tavern close to Rutledge's body, 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:28.320 drinking cupfuls of punch. He continued to bellow insults at Rutledge. 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.480 Chisel screamed, he deserves his fate. Damn him. I aimed 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:34.160 at his heart and I have hit it. 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.160 Anyways, He's sitting there and he continues, even though Rutledge 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:42.320 is literally dead on the floor, to hurl insults at 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.120 the man whom, prior to this evening everyone would have 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.680 thought was his friend. But you know, this man whom 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:50.400 he knew and cared for. 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:55.880 And at no point do any of the primary documentation 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.880 that survives indicate that he showed any concern for his 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.560 firstwhile friend, Robert Rutledge. They had known each other, they 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.480 had been friends previously. So just the kind of casual 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.080 murder of this individual. 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.440 Oh well, none of the men tried to move either 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.720 man for quite a while, but each witness noted where 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.200 they were and what they saw in the moment. 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.000 Nobody takes him out of the room. They eventually removed 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:28.560 Robert Rutlich's dead, bleeding body from the room. 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.200 So imagine this a room full of witnesses who just 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.280 watched a man murder another man over angry words. The 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.320 killer is sitting on the floor rapidly becoming intoxicated, and 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.680 no one is doing anything about it. Where is the law? 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:48.000 Why isn't anyone coming to arrest John Chisel for murder? 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.440 That's one of the controversies around this story. 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:57.240 I cannot help but believe that he was entirely confident 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:02.520 when he murdered Robert Rutledge that he would pay no 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.159 price for it, or at the very most, that he 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:07.920 might be charged with manslaughter. 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.520 Nobody him right now. 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.399 No, So you know in the period here, it's going 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.199 to be a magistrate who detains him anyway. So I 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.280 don't recall there being any mention of a magistrate being present. 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:23.120 You as a as a free citizen, can arrest someone. 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.199 This is where we get the modern misinterpretation of what 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:31.479 a citizen's arrest actually is. But you can, as a 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.600 free citizen of Virginia lay your hands on someone. That's 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:37.879 literally what an arrest is, to lay your hands on 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.120 someone to detain them. But he's not going anywhere. It's 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:42.720 pretty clear he intends to stay. 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.480 Eventually, John Chisel would sober up, and when he did, 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.560 what would he say happen that day? Would he feel remorse? 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.679 Would he admit that he attacked an unarmed man in 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.200 a room full of witnesses? Would he acknowledge that Robert 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:05.760 Rutledge was innocent, an unwitting victim, and a terrible tragedy? Somehow, 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:14.400 I doubt it. Other patrons in the tavern had already 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.120 begun recounting their own versions of the story. Remember this 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.639 was a very small room with many witnesses, but a 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.879 lot of those people had been drinking for hours, and 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.120 it might have been difficult for them to even make 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.320 sense of what they had seen. There was smoke billowing 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.480 from the fireplace, the light was dim because the room 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.000 was filled with candles. These were not good circumstances for 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:38.080 witnessing a murder. 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:40.560 Basically, if you go back to the scene of the 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.480 crime and we've done this, put all the people in 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:45.960 the room, put them where they were supposed to be 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.800 at certain times. Plus the lack of light with candlelight, 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:55.080 and at the moment that the sword actually pierces his heart, 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:56.680 anything could have happened. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:01.399 Gisel's friends were already building a case a very specific 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.240 kind of defense. Self defense. 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.399 People sometimes try to excuse his behavior, saying, well, he 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.040 wasn't drunk. Other people try to say, well, well, we 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.320 don't know, but he's picking up every heavy object he 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:17.280 can find in this room to inflict damage. And I'm 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.840 sure I don't have to tell you anything. As I 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.200 think I've heard Paul Huls say before, anything can be 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:26.040 a weapon if used with proper force and intent. You 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.720 can make a candlestick a weapon. So now he's picked 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:33.679 this very sharp object, this very big, heavy object, that 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:35.800 is going to be his weapon. 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:39.560 But then there's the matter of where the weapon struck 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:40.360 the victim. 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.680 Yeah, he was stabbed, it was a deliberate stabbing. 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:43.840 You. 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.879 He did not fall into the sword. There are people 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.520 who say that they saw Chisel lunge. There are people 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.439 who say that he didn't lunge, that he was holding 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.840 his sword out. Another thing that people don't consider is 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.880 again the size of the room. The table over which 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.159 these guys are arguing are just three feet five and 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.760 a half inches, you know, take a yard The sword 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.360 was two and a half or three feet, I mean 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:10.280 the yardstick. 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.840 Eventually, John Chisel's friends, some of those in the tavern, 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:19.320 would offer the law this story. Chisel did snidely call 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.960 Robert Rutledge a Presbyterian fellow, which was an insult. Ruttledge 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:28.760 swung around, startling Chisel. Yes, Chisel was still holding the sword, 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.080 but then he felt threatened and he lowered the point 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.160 of his weapon and then held it without lunging forward. 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.520 Ruttledge was the one who had moved forward toward Chisel. 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:44.200 Because the Scottish merchant was drunk, he accidentally fell onto 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.119 the sword. It went through his heart and Chisel felt it. 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:51.760 He pulled out the sword and realized what had happened. 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.560 Chisel then told witnesses to take away Rutledge. It had 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.680 all been a horrible mistake. Chisel had not attacked Rutledge. 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.080 Rutledge had attacked him, and he had caused his own death. 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.400 It was self defense, but it was also an accident. 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.840 Chisel's friends admitted that Chisel had been extremely angry. If 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.960 Robert Rutledge had not verbally abused Chisel, they said, then 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.480 none of this would have happened. They were blaming the victim, 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.640 which happens with both female and male victims. It's hard 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.639 to believe that this would be a valid defense, but 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:32.440 it was. This seems like an extraordinary amount of anger, 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:34.840 even for a simple insult, right. 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:39.439 And it's interesting because the first anonymous article published in 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:44.400 the Gazette on July eighteenth, actually says that I'm paraphrasing here, 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.680 but essentially says, you know, while this is an insult, 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:49.879 you usually would let it go if it were a 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.040 friend or someone who's extremely intoxicated, of which Robert Bruttledge 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:58.800 apparently was both. Does this speak to Colonel Chisel's personality maybe? 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.640 Does it also speak to the idea of how important 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:07.240 status is and having people stay in their place? I 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:07.600 think so. 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.199 And here's what's complicated about this case. According to the 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.359 law and the Colony of Virginia, self defense could work 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:20.080 as a legal justification because technically Robert Rutledge threw the 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:25.680 first punch. He was technically the instigator, not John Chisel Rutledge. 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:27.359 By the letter of the law, he is the first 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:31.320 person to assault someone because he throws wine from his 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.399 glass onto Colonel Chisel. And according to the newspaper, I 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.760 think this is a quote some small part did land 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:44.320 on him, at least to some small part is which 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:48.280 I read and laughed. But Colonel Chisel returns the favor 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:52.439 by throwing a bowl of punch at mister Rutledge, and 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:54.840 then the two continue with their insults. So this is 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.040 a duel. I suppose it's a duel in the same 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:02.239 way that someone might spit at someone else and that 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.080 person shoots them. Right. If it is a duel, it 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:06.680 is certainly an ill matched to duel. 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:12.760 As the story spread, the situation didn't strike most colonists 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:16.760 as self defense. Colonel Chisel was clearly the aggressor, and 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:22.320 Robert Rutledge was unarmed. This, said most colonists, was murder. 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:26.600 The people in the tavern that afternoon all declared it, 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:30.240 and they told the newspapers that John Chisel had stabbed 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:34.520 a local merchant. This case should have been easy to prosecute. 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:40.520 In theory, there is no case more open and shut 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:46.400 than this. There are multiple witnesses, they're all of good character. 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:49.680 The one person in the newspaper who is recorded as 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:53.440 countering what anybody says is a person who is known 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:56.800 to be of ill character and offers several versions depending 0:23:56.840 --> 0:23:59.200 on who's listening to him at any time. 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:02.720 So the gentry in the Thirteen Colonies, it was not 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:06.439 open and shut. After all, being accused of murder was 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:09.760 scandalous and certainly not befitting of a member of the 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:10.760 higher class. 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:14.080 I don't understand why you're holding the accountable for this. 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:18.960 It seems to be Chisel's reaction to it. And I 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:24.440 think that kind of casual response to life of individuals 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:27.600 in the lower sorts, or at least stations in society 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:29.879 below yours, is pervasive. 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:33.720 And because that attitude was so pervasive among the elites, 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:38.320 something else began to happen organically. Some of them changed 0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:42.200 their stories. The witnesses in the tavern began to side 0:24:42.320 --> 0:24:45.960 with their own social class. Remember that on that day 0:24:46.080 --> 0:24:48.720