Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. It's hard for some people to get interested
Speaker 1: in politics. All the fighting and negativity doesn't exactly inspire
Speaker 1: a love for democracy, especially when it seems like one
Speaker 1: person's vote doesn't count for all that much. After all,
Speaker 1: what difference can one person make? Just ask Henry Shoemaker.
Speaker 1: Henry worked on a farm in DeKalb County, Indiana in
Speaker 1: the mid eighteen forties. He did what guys like him
Speaker 1: were supposed to do. He went to work every day,
Speaker 1: he paid his taxes, and he voted on election day. Now,
Speaker 1: back then, U S Senators were not elected by the people. Instead,
Speaker 1: the voters elected state representatives who would then go on
Speaker 1: to vote for the senators of their choice. That meant
Speaker 1: electing the wrong representative might lead to electing the wrong
Speaker 1: state senator down the line. Eighteen forty two was an
Speaker 1: important year for Decalp County and its neighbors Steuben. Both
Speaker 1: counties were to be counted as one, meaning their combined
Speaker 1: elections would determine which single candidate would go on to
Speaker 1: represent them in the state legislature. Decalb had put up
Speaker 1: a Democrat named Madison Marsh, while Steuben had nominated enos
Speaker 1: Biel from the Whig Party. The people came out and
Speaker 1: voted for their chosen candidate, well, everyone except Henry Schumacher,
Speaker 1: who had forgotten to cast his vote. He finally remembered
Speaker 1: that afternoon, but he was already over twelve miles away
Speaker 1: from his polling location. He mounted his horse and rode there,
Speaker 1: making it to the polls just before they closed. When
Speaker 1: he arrived, he asked for a ballot. It was printed
Speaker 1: with the name enos Beal on it, so he asked
Speaker 1: for a different one, one with Marsh's name instead. He
Speaker 1: had met the candidate weeks earlier, while Marsh had been
Speaker 1: campaigning in De Calp County. Henry had promised to vote
Speaker 1: for him, but the officials didn't need to know that.
Speaker 1: Not wanting to give up his right to cast his
Speaker 1: vote in private, Henry borrowed a pen knife and several
Speaker 1: other ballots from an official, he cut out the names
Speaker 1: of the various local candidates he wanted to vote for,
Speaker 1: including Marsh. He then folded the names he'd cut out
Speaker 1: into a larger sheet of paper and handed the bundle
Speaker 1: to the election inspector, who personally placed it into the
Speaker 1: ballot box himself. And then Henry waited around outside for
Speaker 1: another hour just in case there were issues with his
Speaker 1: makeshift ballot. Nobody said a word, so Mr Shoemaker went home.
Speaker 1: The following Sunday, the results came in and Madison Marsh
Speaker 1: had earned three hundred sixty votes. Enos Bill had also
Speaker 1: earned three hundred sixty votes. However, Henry's strange collection of
Speaker 1: papers was not among them. Since his ballot hadn't looked
Speaker 1: like the rest, the sheriffs had tossed it out and
Speaker 1: ultimately declared Beal as the winner, but Marsh wouldn't accept defeat.
Speaker 1: He filed an appeal and the election committee reassessed Henry's vote.
Speaker 1: They found that Henry Schumacher of Decalp County had committed
Speaker 1: no fraud. He had voted only one time, and the
Speaker 1: knife he had used not only belonged to the inspector,
Speaker 1: but the inspector himself had placed the ballot into the box. Therefore,
Speaker 1: Henry's vote would be counted and Madison marsh would be
Speaker 1: elected to the state Legislature of Indiana and a good
Speaker 1: thing too. After William Henry Harrison's death in eighteen forty one,
Speaker 1: John Tyler took over as president, leaving the vice president's
Speaker 1: seat vacant. A new problem was facing the country. The
Speaker 1: Republic of Texas had declared its independence from Mexico. It
Speaker 1: was to be annexed into the rest of the United States.
Speaker 1: The Senate, though, had failed to pass the annexation of
Speaker 1: Texas via a treaty since it lacked a two thirds majority. Instead,
Speaker 1: Tyler attempted to annex as a resolution. He would only
Speaker 1: need a simple majority, not a two thirds. The resolution
Speaker 1: passed twenty seven to twenty five, not exactly an easy win.
Speaker 1: A single senator voting either way could have killed it
Speaker 1: since there would have been no vice president to break
Speaker 1: the tie. Among those who voted to approve the resolution
Speaker 1: was Senator Edward Hannigan from Indiana. He had run for
Speaker 1: election in eighteen forty two against two other candidates. At
Speaker 1: the time, state legislatures voted for state Senators, and Hannigan
Speaker 1: had only needed a single vote to win, and he
Speaker 1: got it from another man who had won by a
Speaker 1: single vote, Madison Marsh Sandra Rivet disappeared at nine pm
Speaker 1: on the night of November seventh, nine seventy four. She
Speaker 1: had worked as a nanny for the Lucan family in
Speaker 1: one of the wealthiest parts of London. Before retiring to
Speaker 1: bed for the evening, she asked Veronica Lucan, also known
Speaker 1: as Lady Lucan, if she would like a cup of tea.
Speaker 1: Sandra then went down to the basement kitchen to boil
Speaker 1: the water. Lady Lucan, irritated at how long it was
Speaker 1: taking the nanny to make her tea, descended into the
Speaker 1: basement around ten pm that night, at which time she
Speaker 1: let out a blood curdling scream. She then ran out
Speaker 1: the door to a local pub. She was bleeding and
Speaker 1: begging for help. Someone in her house had just murdered
Speaker 1: the nanny and had tried to kill her too. It
Speaker 1: had been her husband, John Bingham, the seventh Earl of Lucan,
Speaker 1: known to everyone as Lord Lucan. The two had met
Speaker 1: eleven years ago at a golf club where Veronica's sister
Speaker 1: and brother in law were members. Veronica and John were
Speaker 1: married less than a year later. Lady Lucan's social status
Speaker 1: grew due to her husband's standing among London's cultural elite.
Speaker 1: Lord Lucan had sophisticated taste. He gambled, raced boats, and
Speaker 1: drove an Aston Martin. This, combined with his friendship with
Speaker 1: James Bond author Ian Fleming, led many to believe that
Speaker 1: Lucan had even served as the inspiration behind the legendary spy.
Speaker 1: Except where Bond felt right at home at the Baccarat table,
Speaker 1: Lord Lucan's luck fared much worse. His gambling losses led
Speaker 1: to credit problems and debts, which his father helped pay
Speaker 1: off as a wedding present, a way to give the
Speaker 1: newlyweds a fresh start. The couple went on to have
Speaker 1: three children together and a happy marriage for those eleven years. Sadly,
Speaker 1: the good times wouldn't last. Lady Lucan suffered from postpartum
Speaker 1: depression after the birth of her second and third child,
Speaker 1: and her husband's gambling debts returned and continued to grow.
Speaker 1: The couple were being pulled further and further apart, and
Speaker 1: by nineteen seventy two, they had separated. Lord Lucan didn't
Speaker 1: handle the separation well. He stalked his family often and
Speaker 1: spread rumors about his wife's depression to make her look
Speaker 1: like an unfit other all in an effort to gain
Speaker 1: full custody of his children. They went back and forth
Speaker 1: for months, with the kids being pulled in and out
Speaker 1: of the home on several occasions by social services. The
Speaker 1: court required that Lady Lucan have a live in nanny,
Speaker 1: but Lord Lucan made sure whoever was watching his children
Speaker 1: was also drawn into his wild manipulations. He called the
Speaker 1: house late at night and breathe into the phone to
Speaker 1: frighten them, or asked to speak to people who didn't
Speaker 1: live there. He even took one of his wife's nanny's
Speaker 1: out for drinks one time, pulling information from her about
Speaker 1: what was going on inside the house. Ultimately, every nanny
Speaker 1: in Lady Lucan's employ would eventually leave until Sandra Rivet
Speaker 1: joined the home in nineteen seventy four. Lord Lucan fell
Speaker 1: deeper into debt and despair after the courts granted his
Speaker 1: wife full custody of his children. He spiraled into alcoholism.
Speaker 1: Things got so dark that he sometimes talked about killing
Speaker 1: his wife, even describing how he would get rid of
Speaker 1: the body. But it looked like things might have been
Speaker 1: turning around for him. On the night of November seven,
Speaker 1: Lucan had planned to go out on a date with
Speaker 1: a young woman named Andrena, except he never showed up. Instead,
Speaker 1: he traveled to his old home, where he waited in
Speaker 1: the basement for his wife to appear. His fingers wrapped
Speaker 1: around a lead pipe. At nine pm, footsteps clicked and
Speaker 1: clacked down the staircase. Lord Lucan raised the pipe over
Speaker 1: his head and swung The other person collapsed into a
Speaker 1: heap on the floor. It hadn't been his wife, though,
Speaker 1: but the nanny, Sandr Rivet. He stuffed her body into
Speaker 1: an old canvas mail sack and retrieved his pipe. One
Speaker 1: hour later, his wife came looking for miss Rivet. Lady
Speaker 1: Lucan screamed as her husband hit her and then wrapped
Speaker 1: his hands around her throat, but she fought back until
Speaker 1: she broke free. They stood opposite each other, nursing their wounds.
Speaker 1: Where was Rivet, she asked. Lucan told her that he
Speaker 1: had killed her. She told him to lay low in
Speaker 1: the house until she had healed enough. She didn't want
Speaker 1: anyone asking questions. The two walked up to the bedroom,
Speaker 1: but while he went to the bathroom to fetch towels
Speaker 1: so that she could clean the blood from her face,
Speaker 1: Lady Lucan dashed downstairs and out the door to the
Speaker 1: Plumber's Arms, a nearby pub. The next day, detectives arrived
Speaker 1: at her London apartment to begin their investigation. They found
Speaker 1: Sandra Rivet's body in the bag, as well as blood
Speaker 1: on several surfaces. Lord Lucan, however, was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1: He wasn't in his own apartments either. In fact, many
Speaker 1: of his personal effects had been left behind, including his passport, wallet,
Speaker 1: driver's license, and car keys. His car was still parked
Speaker 1: outside too. The search was underway, though police dogs started
Speaker 1: tracking his scent. Family and friends were interrogated as to
Speaker 1: his possible whereabouts, but amazingly nothing was turned up. On
Speaker 1: November and across the Atlantic Ocean, police found a pile
Speaker 1: of clothes abandoned on a Miami beach. It was believed
Speaker 1: that whoever they belonged to had gone swimming and had
Speaker 1: either drowned or been killed by a shark. In reality,
Speaker 1: their owner had been spotted in Denmark before traveling to Australia.
Speaker 1: Authorities monitored his actions for almost a month. It appeared
Speaker 1: as though they had found their man. They arrested him
Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve of nineteen seventy four, and once he
Speaker 1: was in custody, police asked him to pull down his
Speaker 1: pants to verify that he had a six inch scar
Speaker 1: running on the inside of his right thigh, a distinguishing
Speaker 1: mark for Lord Lucan. To their surprise, the suspect didn't
Speaker 1: have a scar. Apparently, the police had not captured alleged
Speaker 1: murder John Bingham, the seventh Earl of Lucan. Instead, they
Speaker 1: had caught John Stonehouse, a British labor politician who had
Speaker 1: faked his own death in Miami two weeks after Sandra
Speaker 1: Rivett had been murdered. Stonehouse served five years in prison
Speaker 1: for fraud before his release in nineteen seventy nine. Lord Lucan, however,
Speaker 1: was never found. But that doesn't mean we don't know
Speaker 1: the whole story. Something that sounds straight out of the
Speaker 1: classic movie Clue, Lord Lucan in the kitchen with the
Speaker 1: lead pipe. I hope you've enjoyed Today's guided tour of
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,