1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:04,640 Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio. Hezaron, Hey, 2 00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:06,920 Speaker 1: what's up, Elizabeth Donton? What are you doing here saying 3 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:10,760 Speaker 1: it out? You know it's ridiculous? Oh word, I do. Actually, okay, 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,160 Speaker 1: American roller coasters were invented to fight sin and vice. 5 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:20,600 Speaker 1: How well, okay, I'm glad you asked. Back in the eighties, 6 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 1: there was this dude named LaMarcus Thompson, who, by the way, 7 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,800 Speaker 1: not a black man. He was selling ladies undergarments and 8 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: he gets rich, right, He's like, you know what I 9 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 1: want to do with all this money I've made from 10 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:34,519 Speaker 1: selling hosiery. I want to fight vice and sin. So 11 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:36,560 Speaker 1: he goes out to Coney Island, which is like a 12 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,159 Speaker 1: hotbed of sin at the time, and he's like, I'm 13 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 1: going to clean this place up. So he invents and 14 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:43,240 Speaker 1: doesn't invent. He takes the idea of a roller coaster 15 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 1: and builds America's first roller coaster, and he's like, now, 16 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:50,480 Speaker 1: this should clean up all the drinking in the brothel going. 17 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:52,640 Speaker 1: And it did not work at all. So Coney Island 18 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: is still like a nice Dennis Sin. So the panty 19 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: king of Coney Island wanted to just scare the sin 20 00:00:57,880 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: out of people, and that's why we have roller coasters 21 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 1: in a right kind of ridiculous. It's very ridiculous, like 22 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,160 Speaker 1: that dude Kellogg with the frosted flakes to keep you 23 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:09,119 Speaker 1: from pleasuring yourself. Sure, okay, this thing is just it's 24 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: always the indirect ones, right. I'm gonna fight sin, I'm 25 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: gonna fight moral corruption, and then they give us roller 26 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: coasters and corn flicks. Sometimes you just gotta let go 27 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:19,080 Speaker 1: and let sin do its thing. I suppose might go 28 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: and let God, let go and let God fight the 29 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:25,200 Speaker 1: sin for you. Frosted flakes are gonna help you. You 30 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 1: know what else is ridiculous? Pretending to be nobility in 31 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: order to smuggle glass eyeballs into the country. That is good. Wait, 32 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: smuggling glass eyeballs is a thing. And then on top 33 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: of that you put in I'm royalty. I'm loving this. 34 00:01:40,319 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: It's a lot of things. This is ridiculous Crime a 35 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:07,600 Speaker 1: podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's 36 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: always murder free and one ridiculous. Zaren Elizabeth, I called 37 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:17,640 Speaker 1: you here today because I want to tell you about 38 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: a man with the smugglers Blues Baby blues. That is well, 39 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:24,840 Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you that one. Thank you. He was 40 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: the king of black market glass eyeballs. I'm loving black 41 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:32,920 Speaker 1: market glass eyeballs. Yeah, I'm talking about Bruno Shoals. Bruno Shoals, 42 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 1: Bruno Shoals. He that was his original name. Now he 43 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 1: went by a lot of aliases in his time. Will 44 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:43,560 Speaker 1: consider that his government name. Then move on right now, 45 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: because my tiny brain and I are incapable of pronouncing 46 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: anything in German, I'm going to play a clip of 47 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:53,160 Speaker 1: my friend Patrick reading off all of his names. Oh nice, 48 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:59,920 Speaker 1: come on, Patrick, Bruno ak a Bruno a k atz 49 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 1: ons ak. Thank you Patrick. That was beautiful. Okay. So 50 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: this cat, no matter what namey was using, was crafty. 51 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: He was a crafty cat, and he saw a need 52 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: in the market and he went for it. Yeah. Well see, 53 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:21,840 Speaker 1: because a lot of people need prosthetic eyes. Yeah. No, 54 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:24,000 Speaker 1: I just didn't realize it was enough of a market 55 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:25,799 Speaker 1: that you would be like, oh, I should smuggle these 56 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: into the country. Well it's I think it was more 57 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:30,960 Speaker 1: true in the past, right, because medicines improved over the years. 58 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,639 Speaker 1: Back I'm talking about the early nine hundreds here, right, 59 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: So early nine hundreds. Like if you got an eye injury, 60 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: a lot of times you just lost the paper. Oh, 61 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: of course industrial accidents, all the people who are working 62 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: in dangerous industries. Before there were labor regulations we think of, 63 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: there was no ocean, so that you know, that was it. 64 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 1: You didn't have an eye. Plus, World War two kind 65 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 1: of put a run on glass eyes. Now this is 66 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 1: slightly after what I'm talking about, but there wasn't just 67 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: a need for glass eyes coming out of the war, 68 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: which there was, but also during the war there were 69 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:07,880 Speaker 1: supply chain issues because they needed glass for military purposes, right, 70 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,960 Speaker 1: and just the you know, transporting goods across the ocean's 71 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: blue a little bit tough, right, didn't even think about 72 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:18,200 Speaker 1: that totally. Well, And so it wasn't when we're talking 73 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:20,760 Speaker 1: about glass eyes too, it wasn't one and done with 74 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:23,160 Speaker 1: the glass eyes. So like you had to replace them 75 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:25,280 Speaker 1: every couple of years. You don't just get one and 76 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 1: then now I'm I'm set. So you don't have like 77 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: one you could like you know, pass down as a 78 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:35,159 Speaker 1: family heirloom, my grandpa's eyeball, I'm wearing my great Grandpafy's eye. Well, 79 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:37,599 Speaker 1: because you have to replace them because the acid in 80 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:40,839 Speaker 1: your that your body secretes breaks down the glass and 81 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: causes pitting. Whoa, yeah, our bodies break down glass and 82 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,160 Speaker 1: it discolors it too. I mean part of that I 83 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:50,960 Speaker 1: suppose would be like the enamel paint on there or whatever. Yeah. 84 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: So and those the glass eyes are hollow. It's not 85 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:56,840 Speaker 1: a solid. It's not like an actual marble. Now that'd 86 00:04:56,839 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: be too heavy, of course. So sometimes they shatter in 87 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: the socket. Oh yeah, that sounds horrible, and apparently it 88 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:08,120 Speaker 1: wasn't a glass in an open orbital socket, just shattering, 89 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:10,520 Speaker 1: and it didn't necessarily have to be as a result 90 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:15,440 Speaker 1: of trauma. I think that sometimes just press I don't know, yeah, 91 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: pressure age, that's wild atmospheric issues. I've had a family 92 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 1: members had glass eyeballs. Really yeah, they'd take them out, 93 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: put them in the the water glass. Why it guess 94 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,200 Speaker 1: because like I don't know why, for their comfort. But 95 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:33,840 Speaker 1: it was like when they took it out, that's when 96 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:36,159 Speaker 1: they put it like putting teeth in a glass, you know, 97 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: like when people at dentures. So they take a glass 98 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: eyeball and put in the glass. My old uncle Herbert, Yeah, 99 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 1: interesting alright, p Uncle Herbert. Yeah, thanks, Herbie's Um newspapers 100 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,480 Speaker 1: at this time, they ran stories about glass eyes every 101 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,039 Speaker 1: couple of years, just sort of features about like the 102 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,240 Speaker 1: gist would be basically like losing an eye, not a 103 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,440 Speaker 1: big deal, and lots of people have glass eye, please 104 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: don't make fun of it. So they were in a 105 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:04,680 Speaker 1: sense of like not not just normalizing it. They were 106 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:06,599 Speaker 1: kind of like doing like, like, let's reach out and 107 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: be kind to those with class eyes. Yeah, And so 108 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:11,599 Speaker 1: the beginning, like, well, I started to wonder was there 109 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: like epic bullying going on that the papers have to 110 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 1: jump in and be like, all right, everybody stop, it's 111 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:20,400 Speaker 1: not a big deal. It happens to a lot of people. 112 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 1: But then they would also kind of tie it in 113 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:25,160 Speaker 1: into a longer form thing about the history of glass eyes, 114 00:06:25,279 --> 00:06:29,880 Speaker 1: or talking with distributors or manufacturers and so yeah, and 115 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:31,320 Speaker 1: it would it would be one that would put it 116 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: on a on a wire service, so then it would 117 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:35,680 Speaker 1: be like all around the country newspapers from Provode to 118 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 1: Providence precisely, and it would be the exact same articles. 119 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 1: How that works. But so one of the things that 120 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:43,839 Speaker 1: I noted in the papers is that a lot of 121 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:46,560 Speaker 1: theater at the time would use glass eyes as a 122 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:49,320 Speaker 1: plot point, interesting and it would be sort of a 123 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:51,239 Speaker 1: weird one. Plus, there were a lot of weird news 124 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,200 Speaker 1: stories about glass eyes, like people losing them, like them 125 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:59,760 Speaker 1: falling out during fist fights. There's a lot of news 126 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 1: in opportune time. There was this news report where this 127 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:05,960 Speaker 1: guy got beaten with an umbrella until the umbrella basically 128 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:09,720 Speaker 1: disintegrated because the man with the umbrella thought a man 129 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: with a glass eye was trying to flirt with his wife. 130 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:15,240 Speaker 1: But the glass eye guy was just blinking all crazy 131 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: because he got an ember in his good eye, and 132 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:21,840 Speaker 1: the glass one started rolling around independent shouldn't be laughing. 133 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:27,080 Speaker 1: They were on a train, and the man just beat 134 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,280 Speaker 1: him until there was nothing left of the umbrella. And 135 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:31,200 Speaker 1: so that was a popular news story. I'm betting a 136 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: lot of people flirted with his wife. He's got a 137 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 1: lot of angry. Yeah, she was his hands. It's a 138 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:42,400 Speaker 1: liquor pun intended. So glass eyeballs reliable business and there 139 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: were three facets to this industry. So there were the 140 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:50,320 Speaker 1: artisans who crafted these eyeballs, and Germans and Belgians made 141 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 1: the best eyeballs because of precision, Yeah, totally precise. Apparently 142 00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 1: they were made largely by peasant families in the Black 143 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:03,000 Speaker 1: Forest for many years, like out of a fairy tale, 144 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: like so a kid goes missing in town and then 145 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:09,400 Speaker 1: they discover him in the eyeball and the factory or 146 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: they just he's working for them, and they were, so 147 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: they're excellent. But then part of it too is that 148 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:20,240 Speaker 1: as they moved these operations into big cities and had 149 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 1: like an industrial angle to it. Um, there's precise, like 150 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:27,680 Speaker 1: you said, smooth, really masterfully crafted. They used the best 151 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:31,600 Speaker 1: painters in Europe to create perfect matches based on like 152 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:35,719 Speaker 1: a client's needs. So most people wanted as close to 153 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 1: match as possible. Obviously, some people wanted novelty eyeballs, Like 154 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:42,880 Speaker 1: what would be a novelty like all silver? I guess, 155 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:47,160 Speaker 1: like a different colors. Well there was one. There's one 156 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:50,040 Speaker 1: guy in a paper who had like the colors of 157 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 1: the Haitian flag. Yes, that's yeah, So they have, you know, 158 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:01,000 Speaker 1: novelty ones, but like um the boss an Evening Transcript 159 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:03,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen o five they had this article that talked 160 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,040 Speaker 1: about how blue eyes were the hardest to match. Um. 161 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: They said, there are many shades with what they called 162 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: imperceptible gradations. But I would imagine that's true. For I 163 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 1: think green eyes would be really hard to match. If 164 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:18,160 Speaker 1: you didn't have enough money for that. You could rent 165 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:21,200 Speaker 1: an eyeball for formal events, like I need to have 166 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 1: both eyes for for a job interview, and you don't 167 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,200 Speaker 1: want to wear a patch. I guess, so yeah, sense 168 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:28,880 Speaker 1: you're getting married and it's a big day, and I 169 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:33,800 Speaker 1: don't know, you know, for photos. I mean, like I 170 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: guess there's photography pretty rare at the time. It's super 171 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,120 Speaker 1: still during those photos, and so you just got like 172 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:44,880 Speaker 1: the one I don't like wearing rented shoes at a 173 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,760 Speaker 1: bowling alley. That makes me totally grossed out. I can't 174 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:52,640 Speaker 1: imagine renting an eyeball and inserting it into my body. 175 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:54,959 Speaker 1: They're not gonna are they going to spray it down 176 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:59,000 Speaker 1: with the disinfected or do they do like Herbie put 177 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:01,240 Speaker 1: it in a glass of water. I think, you know, 178 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:04,640 Speaker 1: the body is, you know, kind of resilient for that 179 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:06,199 Speaker 1: kind of stuff, And we put a lot of things 180 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:08,000 Speaker 1: in our mouths. It's kind of a hole in your head. 181 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,720 Speaker 1: Just like my brother wears contacts and one time he 182 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,080 Speaker 1: was on the street in San Francisco and outside of 183 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: like a nightclub or something, and his contact fell out, 184 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:19,679 Speaker 1: and there's this girl standing there and that she's helping him. 185 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 1: Look and she finds the contact and puts it in 186 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: her mouth to clean it off, and then hands it 187 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:26,160 Speaker 1: to him. Did he put it in his eye? Yeah? 188 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:29,520 Speaker 1: He did, Yeah, what I'm talking about. And he's still 189 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:32,480 Speaker 1: walking around today. But her she probably just keeled over it, 190 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:35,520 Speaker 1: picking it up out of the cutter. I like her 191 00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:39,960 Speaker 1: spirit like said, here you go, time my saliva like 192 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: a mama bear. Exactly. So you can rent these things, right, Um, 193 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:48,000 Speaker 1: so you're probably going to rent the high end ones. 194 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:51,199 Speaker 1: I suppose whatever. The French made good ones, but they 195 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,080 Speaker 1: weren't as exacting as German made eyes. Let's be honest. 196 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:56,000 Speaker 1: I would just put a marble in my head. I 197 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:58,679 Speaker 1: would be like, that's it. That's what you get kids, stone, 198 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:03,719 Speaker 1: a decorative of like a landscaping rock. Exactly. When I'm 199 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:08,760 Speaker 1: at restaurants is looking for things hard boiled egg um 200 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:14,720 Speaker 1: American eyes, trash American. They were uneven. They weren't particularly smooth. 201 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:19,120 Speaker 1: It sounds really uncomfortable. They weren't very realistically painted either, 202 00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:22,960 Speaker 1: because you gotta have like the little blood vessel. It 203 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:25,920 Speaker 1: was just like a goofy cartoon, like a sticker on 204 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:29,520 Speaker 1: a piece of glass. It was a marble with one 205 00:11:29,559 --> 00:11:33,839 Speaker 1: of those banana stickers, old banana company. Um. And that 206 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,040 Speaker 1: they say, I said there were three facets. Second facet 207 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:39,959 Speaker 1: where the optometrists who paired those in search of an 208 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:42,960 Speaker 1: eye with the perfect match or as close as their 209 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:46,640 Speaker 1: wallet would allow. Right. Um. So these guys would source 210 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: big lots of eyes and present those in need with 211 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:53,559 Speaker 1: a variety of options. So they would have the tray. Yeah, 212 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:56,560 Speaker 1: and some large shops had like ten thousand eyes in 213 00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,480 Speaker 1: stock to ensure a close match. That's a lot of 214 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:03,840 Speaker 1: storage anything, ten thousand of anything. This meant that German 215 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:06,560 Speaker 1: eyes then were sold at a total premium. And that 216 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:09,960 Speaker 1: takes us to our other facet of this industry, the importers. 217 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:14,400 Speaker 1: So obviously to get European glass eyes into the country. 218 00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:18,000 Speaker 1: Like the wholesale dealers, there were people in the glass 219 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 1: eyeball import export business. Just phenomenal. When you're stuck talking 220 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:25,120 Speaker 1: to someone, what do you do. I'm a legitimate businessman, 221 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:28,439 Speaker 1: I do import export. What do you move eyeballs, glass, eyeballs, 222 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:32,840 Speaker 1: olive oil, glass eyeballs. Um. And where there is important goods. 223 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,640 Speaker 1: There are taxes and fees. The import tax on glass 224 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: eyeballs at the time was wow, that seems really high. Well, 225 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:47,439 Speaker 1: the U s Okay protectionist tariffs were already artificially high. 226 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:51,400 Speaker 1: Glass eyeballs were classified as art not medical equipment. Also, 227 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:53,400 Speaker 1: just getting like the rates for luxury goods in art 228 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:56,439 Speaker 1: and everything. It's like, yeah, So in addition to the 229 00:12:56,520 --> 00:13:00,240 Speaker 1: high cost for this superior quality for German eyeballs, there's 230 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:02,760 Speaker 1: even more of a markup to cover the cost of 231 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:05,280 Speaker 1: the taxes. So you can see where there would be 232 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:11,280 Speaker 1: a market for crappy homegrown eyes American eyes, American eyes. 233 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,800 Speaker 1: So there's a robust market for a product there's a 234 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:19,320 Speaker 1: large fee levied on said product. Naturally, those with criminal 235 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:23,600 Speaker 1: inclination will see an opportunity. People, Yes, if you skip 236 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: the whole tax thing, but keep the retail price just 237 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:29,680 Speaker 1: a little lower than the market, you undercut your competitors, 238 00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:32,320 Speaker 1: you pocket some profit. So are they looking for like 239 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:34,800 Speaker 1: glass eyeballs that fell off the back of the truck, Like, 240 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:38,160 Speaker 1: well you this is here's the thing. This sets the 241 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:43,240 Speaker 1: stage for epic smuggling, right Bruno and our man Bruno 242 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:45,840 Speaker 1: steps right up big time. So I want you to 243 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:55,199 Speaker 1: picture it, okay as a closed Hoboken November nineteen eleven. Okay, 244 00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 1: there's a chill in the air. Is it the anticipation 245 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 1: of a young Frank Sinatra about to people? We've talked 246 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:04,600 Speaker 1: about this before. When was Frank Sinatra born? I think, 247 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:10,160 Speaker 1: Professor Dave, can you tell me when Frank Sinatra was born? Okay, 248 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,240 Speaker 1: I'm going nineteen fifteen. Come on, Zara, come on, let's see. 249 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:18,840 Speaker 1: If I'm right, my dad will be He was born 250 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:26,840 Speaker 1: December twelfth, nineteen fifteen. Come on, I still get my 251 00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:34,120 Speaker 1: father's love cabin. He was born an upstairs tenement, four 252 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 1: fifteen Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey, born at home. Yeah, 253 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:45,480 Speaker 1: so anyway, nine eleven, he's just but a glimmer. Passenger 254 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:48,960 Speaker 1: ship pulls into harbor. By the way, there are really 255 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,960 Speaker 1: cool photos of the Holland America Line pier in Hoboken 256 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,640 Speaker 1: from this time. Oh, that's like the luxury liner. That's 257 00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:58,160 Speaker 1: the line that Bruno took. I'm gonna put him on 258 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:02,000 Speaker 1: the Instagram. I can go to see it. Uh So, 259 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 1: here we are Hoboke in leven, This handsome, gregarious man 260 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:11,480 Speaker 1: calling himself Baron Bruno von Shaunovitz gets off the boat 261 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:14,240 Speaker 1: with his family. Now there are a few employees of 262 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:19,080 Speaker 1: the ship company um there to take some of Bruno's belongings, 263 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 1: you know, his luggage boxes marked for delivery to his 264 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:25,440 Speaker 1: printing shops. He's like porters and stuff. Yeah, taking him 265 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 1: off the ship put him off to the side where 266 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:31,040 Speaker 1: everyone else's stuff is being offloaded. An associated Bruno's who 267 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 1: worked as a printer in the shop, Philip Strow, He 268 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:36,640 Speaker 1: was hanging out waiting to help take the boxes away. 269 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:41,400 Speaker 1: Bruno is just swanting around, chatting people up. He's ordering 270 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:45,120 Speaker 1: workers around and generally playing the role of baron. And 271 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,720 Speaker 1: he like a big german guy who he's a big guy, 272 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:53,680 Speaker 1: like curly blonde hair and a mustache too, barrel chested, 273 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:57,120 Speaker 1: so customs agents, you know, so normal to see them 274 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: on the docks, right. They started heading towards Bruno's stuff, 275 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,760 Speaker 1: but they have obvious intention about it. They're marching. This 276 00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:07,440 Speaker 1: wasn't random. They'd been tipped off. It seems as if 277 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:14,120 Speaker 1: the local eyeball merchants all merchants Association and importers, they 278 00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:16,720 Speaker 1: figured out his gambit and they ratted him out to 279 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,160 Speaker 1: the fence and they knew when he was arriving, was 280 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:23,280 Speaker 1: this like, Okay, go on, customs officers crack open the boxes, 281 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 1: staring back at them. We're fifteen thousand glass eyeballs. Boys. 282 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:36,160 Speaker 1: That's a freaky sight. Okay. Oh so my invented detail 283 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,600 Speaker 1: for that is that one of them standing there let 284 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: out a high pierced shriek when the top came off 285 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:46,120 Speaker 1: the box. So the customers agents, they look at Bruno. 286 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:49,880 Speaker 1: Bruno looks at the customers agents. Agents look back at 287 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: the eyes, the eyes and the crate. I'll look over 288 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:58,800 Speaker 1: at Bruno. Busted, Bubba busted. In an instant, Bruno's smuggling 289 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:01,960 Speaker 1: scam is exposed. It looks like the end for our 290 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:06,800 Speaker 1: erstwhile Baron not even close. Yeah, I knew his story 291 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 1: gets weirder windier. Let's take a break for some ads. 292 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:14,199 Speaker 1: I don't know how many of them my ads. And 293 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:16,280 Speaker 1: when we come back, we're going to take a look. 294 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:20,520 Speaker 1: I caught that one. I'm over here, still catching. We're 295 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:25,880 Speaker 1: gonna take a look at the rest. Hey, pal, we're 296 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 1: going to take a look. I peeped your game here 297 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:52,159 Speaker 1: the rest of this caper. So is Aaron. Before we 298 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:58,000 Speaker 1: were so rudely interrupted by all that crass commercialism. We 299 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:02,399 Speaker 1: were with Bruno's Schultz on the docks in Hoboken, the 300 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:06,680 Speaker 1: Teutonic god of glass eyeballs. His glass eyeball smuggling operation 301 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:11,119 Speaker 1: had just been exposed, and he had fifteen thousand glass 302 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 1: eyeballs on him undeclared. I'm imagine that's a small tidy 303 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,399 Speaker 1: sum he has they're looking at there. Was basically just saying, like, 304 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:20,399 Speaker 1: you know, not gold bars, but like a ton of 305 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:22,280 Speaker 1: a fortune on that. Sure, I'm going to do a 306 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,120 Speaker 1: little math here, thank you. I hate doing that. Well, 307 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:27,000 Speaker 1: math is not my strong suits, so that should be 308 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:31,160 Speaker 1: a fun ride. He had fifteen thousand peepers, which were, 309 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:34,399 Speaker 1: according to the New York Times immediately following his arrest, 310 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:43,120 Speaker 1: valued at a hundred and five thousand dollars. Yeah, that's 311 00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:46,119 Speaker 1: a lot of money. I need you to understand something, Saron. Yes, 312 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,000 Speaker 1: a hundred and five thousand dollars in nineteen eleven is 313 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:54,000 Speaker 1: worth almost three point two million dollars today. Damn that's 314 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:58,600 Speaker 1: better than bitcoin. That's a lot of eye money. Look 315 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:02,440 Speaker 1: at that three point two million of glass eyeballs. Can 316 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:05,040 Speaker 1: you imagine that? And that's just on one run. It 317 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:07,840 Speaker 1: turns out he'd been doing this for eleven years. That's 318 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:10,360 Speaker 1: like cocaine cartel money. He's just sitting there like, yeah, 319 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:13,720 Speaker 1: I'm just a small time operator. Right, one run three 320 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:17,719 Speaker 1: point two million dollars and over in the eleven years 321 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:22,560 Speaker 1: that he was moving glass eyes. His total smuggled eyes 322 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:28,400 Speaker 1: a hundred thousand smuggled eyes. That's worth twenty one million 323 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:30,800 Speaker 1: dollars today. Well wait a minute, if he did he 324 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:34,240 Speaker 1: said a hundred thousand eyes over eleven over eleven years, 325 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,120 Speaker 1: and he did thousand on this run. So he's doing 326 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,440 Speaker 1: like two runs a year. Oh yeah, Yeah, he's back 327 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,600 Speaker 1: and forth. You can see him on various ship manifests 328 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:46,280 Speaker 1: at the time. It's pretty it's interesting to see when 329 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:48,800 Speaker 1: he was going in the frequency. He's going back and 330 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:52,480 Speaker 1: forth quite a bit. So, um, he's pushing serious eyeball 331 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:59,000 Speaker 1: weight and he's avoiding him totally. He's avoiding millions and 332 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:02,120 Speaker 1: millions in taxs, like I said, super proud of Yeah. 333 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:06,280 Speaker 1: So Bruno gets pinched. He's arrested on the docks that day. 334 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,679 Speaker 1: All the way, his bail has set at five thousand dollars, 335 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:12,760 Speaker 1: which is equivalent to a hundred and fifty thou dollars today. 336 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:14,560 Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised. That's a damn. I'm kind of 337 00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 1: surprised he didn't like trying to greet some palms and 338 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,639 Speaker 1: you're like, how much five Maybe we forget about this. 339 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,240 Speaker 1: They tell him five thousand, and he doesn't, you know, 340 00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:24,640 Speaker 1: get a bail bonds or whatever. He gives them five 341 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:26,720 Speaker 1: grand cash and it's like, can I go oh, yeah, 342 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,080 Speaker 1: I mean he's yeah, probably got a fat wall, so 343 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:32,920 Speaker 1: you know, sure, off he goes. In the meantime, the 344 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:37,720 Speaker 1: opticians to whom he sold these smuggled prosthetics, they're starting 345 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:40,520 Speaker 1: to feel the pain, oh, because the supplies cut off 346 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:44,680 Speaker 1: well and they're seizing these eyes. Um, the Feds are 347 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,480 Speaker 1: going to these opticians and trying to go back and 348 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:52,800 Speaker 1: like take that that product to count up, you know, 349 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:55,760 Speaker 1: how much he had sold to these people, like who 350 00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:57,359 Speaker 1: are your buyers? And they go to the buyer and 351 00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:59,320 Speaker 1: like where did you get this? And they're like, let's 352 00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:02,119 Speaker 1: see the receipts are going the paper Yeah, they're going 353 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:04,280 Speaker 1: through the paperwork trying to reclaim them because it's they've 354 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:09,119 Speaker 1: got hot eyes. Right. So there's an optician in St. Paul, Minnesota. 355 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,520 Speaker 1: He had six hundred eyes taken away from him by customs, 356 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:16,639 Speaker 1: and that's got a huge dent in his business. A 357 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:19,200 Speaker 1: lot of the other opticians had been able to move 358 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:21,760 Speaker 1: their product before it was seized by the government, but 359 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:27,200 Speaker 1: those with high inventory they weren't so lucky, must move sale. 360 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:31,159 Speaker 1: They didn't get in as a bogo sale. Um, they 361 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:33,600 Speaker 1: didn't get in trouble with the Feds. They just had 362 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:37,600 Speaker 1: it taken away, which gives you financial trouble. Um, they didn't. 363 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:39,400 Speaker 1: They just thought they were getting like a good deal 364 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:42,280 Speaker 1: from this German aristocrat. Yeah, like he just happens to 365 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: have good product and a great price. Very American. What's 366 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:49,560 Speaker 1: wrong here? So Bruno's awaiting trial and he's out on bail. 367 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:54,720 Speaker 1: Then he gets arrested again. This time it's for smuggling 368 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,680 Speaker 1: eyes from earlier in the year. Um, but their animal 369 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 1: eyes this time, like animal like glass eyes. Oh, glass 370 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:06,760 Speaker 1: eyes four animals for animals. Animals also need glass eye 371 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: like really like like a really shy dog. It's like, 372 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:12,320 Speaker 1: I just don't want to leave the house unless I 373 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,639 Speaker 1: have two eyes. The cat who got into a scrap 374 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:16,960 Speaker 1: like I lost one and just now won't go out 375 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,040 Speaker 1: to they and wants to be in like the kitty pageant. 376 00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:24,080 Speaker 1: It's just not working. They wear those flippers, the fake 377 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:28,399 Speaker 1: teeth too. Uh taxidermy al right, okay, so for hunters 378 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,000 Speaker 1: and everything to like put eyes and deer. Yeah, I'm 379 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:39,200 Speaker 1: guessing it was for taxi dermatological. He used false consular 380 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 1: invoices to get the eyeballs through customs and when they 381 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,119 Speaker 1: did the investigation they found that that was so they 382 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:50,360 Speaker 1: arrest him again, this time bail ten thousand dollars. That's 383 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:54,880 Speaker 1: like he pays it. He's like, I'm out of here, 384 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,879 Speaker 1: suckers um. The animal I case goes to trial first 385 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:04,040 Speaker 1: and local eyeball merchants the ones for humanized too. They 386 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,119 Speaker 1: grass him out to the feeds. They testify his accomplice 387 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:12,160 Speaker 1: from the docks, the printer. He also testifies Philip Strow. 388 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,600 Speaker 1: He says that he printed up all the fake invoices 389 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,080 Speaker 1: that undervalued the goods. I'm telling you he's the inside snitch. 390 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:21,119 Speaker 1: He was on the dock when the cops showed up. 391 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:24,160 Speaker 1: He knew when Bruno was touching the side of his nose. 392 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: He doubled down with the opticians. He's like, all right, 393 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:28,480 Speaker 1: how about if I switched my cut to y'all. Yep, 394 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:33,080 Speaker 1: can't be trusted, Bruno. He's faced with all this solid evidence, 395 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,680 Speaker 1: he's found guilty and sentenced to four years. And it 396 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,360 Speaker 1: also turns out that he was arrested back in eighteen 397 00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:43,280 Speaker 1: nine seven for the same charge in New York and 398 00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:46,480 Speaker 1: he did a year then. So he this is this 399 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,000 Speaker 1: is not a new thing for him. He knows what 400 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:51,640 Speaker 1: it's like to go to jail. He's done it, he's 401 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,000 Speaker 1: been inside before. So he makes a choice like I 402 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:56,920 Speaker 1: can do the standing in my head. No, he skips town. Nice, 403 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:02,760 Speaker 1: true hero. That's February nineteen twelve. So I mean, I 404 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: guess that information sharing and access was difficult back then, 405 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:10,159 Speaker 1: if everything's just paper an lug um. So when you 406 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:13,159 Speaker 1: factor in not just the multiple aliases, but also the 407 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,960 Speaker 1: various spellings assigned to names from non English speaking countries 408 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:22,160 Speaker 1: because we we I had to look up so many 409 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,879 Speaker 1: iterations of how someone like me who doesn't speak German 410 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: would spell this dude's name, and also Germans like those 411 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:30,840 Speaker 1: big letters, like the essays that are not essays and stuff. 412 00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: When you search it on newspapers dot Com, one of 413 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,760 Speaker 1: my favorite websites, you search his name and they have 414 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:42,440 Speaker 1: German language newspapers from Pennsylvania that come up and it's that, yeah, 415 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:47,879 Speaker 1: it's that like flowery to have funt And so when 416 00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: I tried to screen cap it to then run it 417 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:53,680 Speaker 1: through Google Translate, Google Translate was like, you know, I 418 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:57,080 Speaker 1: don't translate art. What is this? What is this old 419 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:01,920 Speaker 1: timey like sou mirrors that you got gangs? Girl, I 420 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:03,879 Speaker 1: don't know. I don't recognize that. Tell what it looks like. 421 00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,760 Speaker 1: They're like, whose stomach is this? Um? Do say? Thug life? 422 00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:11,760 Speaker 1: What is that? But so things get lost in the 423 00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:15,000 Speaker 1: shuffle because of you know, like I said, analog paper 424 00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:17,280 Speaker 1: or whatever. Also in the state, things like if you 425 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,399 Speaker 1: jumped state lines, you pretty much a brand. Yeah. But 426 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:24,080 Speaker 1: so enter the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. 427 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: Nothing gets over all. These guys. They're the Morality Police, 428 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:32,320 Speaker 1: founded in eighteen seventy three by the New York State Legislature. 429 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,760 Speaker 1: They had to assist authorities in the courts in cracking 430 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:39,360 Speaker 1: down on immoral conduct and who gets decide what is immoral? 431 00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,760 Speaker 1: They did them in the churches, so they're like especially 432 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: concerned about print publications, and they had the powers of search, seizure, 433 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,680 Speaker 1: and arrest. They also got half the money from the 434 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:54,440 Speaker 1: fines imposed for the crimes. They were the smutbusters. So 435 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:58,000 Speaker 1: these smutbusters were incentivized defined crimes that they got paid 436 00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:01,560 Speaker 1: off when they found Yes, yes things that's moral. Yeah, 437 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,320 Speaker 1: that's a certain incentive. So the name of the organization 438 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:09,920 Speaker 1: was changed to the Society to maintain public decency. And 439 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,439 Speaker 1: then they yeah, they just busted it all up, got 440 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,960 Speaker 1: rid of it. In nineteen fifty they're like, there's too much. 441 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 1: This world is too full of films. Did they give 442 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,240 Speaker 1: up or did they give in? I think they gave in. 443 00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:22,760 Speaker 1: I like that. So let me tell you some of 444 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:27,960 Speaker 1: their greatest hits. The magazine The Little Review published a 445 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 1: part of James Joyce's Ulysses where the main character was masturbating, 446 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:35,000 Speaker 1: so the Society tried to keep the book from being 447 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:38,280 Speaker 1: sold in the US, and at trial in one the 448 00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:41,960 Speaker 1: magazine was declared obscene and as a result, Ulysses was 449 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:45,080 Speaker 1: banned in the United States. So they got Ulysses. Yes, 450 00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:50,240 Speaker 1: they they alone got James Joyce. Yes. Two. Raymond Halsey 451 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:54,120 Speaker 1: a bookstore employee. He gets arrested for selling the quote 452 00:26:54,160 --> 00:27:01,159 Speaker 1: unquote obscene novel Mademoiselle Dempon by Field Gautier and I 453 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:06,560 Speaker 1: do you like my Alex Trebek heavy French? Because of 454 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:11,399 Speaker 1: the adultery and homosexuality in it. He is arrested, he 455 00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,880 Speaker 1: gets acquitted. Now he's just the employee of the bookstore. Yeah, 456 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,160 Speaker 1: he's just a bookseller, not the writer, not the publisher, 457 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:21,400 Speaker 1: not the owner of the store. Uh. He successfully soothed 458 00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:25,720 Speaker 1: the society for false arrest and malicious prosecution. And this 459 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,760 Speaker 1: is the case that established that literary experts could offer 460 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:33,120 Speaker 1: testimony in support of a book to guide the judge's opinion. Interesting. Yeah, 461 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,399 Speaker 1: I like all these historical precedents. Right, nine twenties and thirties, 462 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:40,120 Speaker 1: they fought against what we're called girly pulps, which featured 463 00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:44,080 Speaker 1: what they said was titillating fiction and nude photos. So 464 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:45,879 Speaker 1: he's like the predecessor to what we would think of 465 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:50,919 Speaker 1: his playboy pen. They shut down May West's first starring 466 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,840 Speaker 1: role on Broadway, which was a play called Sex. Oh yeah, 467 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:55,760 Speaker 1: when he became a star, right, and I spent ten 468 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,120 Speaker 1: days in jail. Oh wow. Because of the society. I'm 469 00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:00,960 Speaker 1: wondering if they kind of help these people along the 470 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:05,800 Speaker 1: way with the reputation, give them some street credit. Two, 471 00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,040 Speaker 1: they falsely arrested a bookseller for displaying a book on 472 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:14,680 Speaker 1: nudism in the store window, and this secretary of the Society, 473 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,200 Speaker 1: John Sumner, he was ordered to pay the bookseller five 474 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:25,280 Speaker 1: in restitution to come back. Yeah. Four, they rated magazine 475 00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:28,200 Speaker 1: shops and they wanted to confiscate for new magazines. And 476 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:30,600 Speaker 1: the only reason I'm sharing this is the magazine titles 477 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:35,720 Speaker 1: are amazing, real boudoir tales. They're real. It's the real 478 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:42,560 Speaker 1: boudoir tales of real temptation tales. That's a difference between 479 00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:48,000 Speaker 1: boudoir and temptation. Real forbidden sweets. Oh no, that's just 480 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,200 Speaker 1: all about candy. Okay, Yeah, that's what I'm picturing. It's 481 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:55,520 Speaker 1: a magazine for diabetics. Um. And then real French capers, 482 00:28:55,880 --> 00:29:01,320 Speaker 1: real French. That's my magazine. Now. Teen thirty five, they 483 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,360 Speaker 1: claimed that Jim Tully's novel Ladies in the Parlor was 484 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: indecent and emphasized what they called dirt in the raw. 485 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:16,200 Speaker 1: Dirt in the raw, guess as opposed to clean, clean, manufactured. 486 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: They didn't play around this society. They were all up 487 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:25,560 Speaker 1: in everyone's business. Thankfully for us. They published an annual report. No, 488 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: thank goodness. So in thirteen they detailed their interaction with 489 00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:34,360 Speaker 1: none other than Bruno. Bruno he was an eyeball guy. 490 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:36,800 Speaker 1: Not so much so I'm gonna read to you from this, 491 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:40,440 Speaker 1: they said. For instance, in August last we discovered a 492 00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:45,760 Speaker 1: person operating as Albert Freuenbach in Berlin, Germany. He was 493 00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:49,840 Speaker 1: sending into this country through the mails, circulars advertising one 494 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:55,000 Speaker 1: hundred and eleven varieties of obscene books looked at. He 495 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,680 Speaker 1: brings that, he brings the numbers. He brings the numbers 496 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:02,400 Speaker 1: with eyeballs, he brings the numbers with smut, So it 497 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,720 Speaker 1: goes on. By corresponding with him, we secured the facts 498 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: and recorded reported the same to the Post Office Department, 499 00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:11,640 Speaker 1: with the request that the matter be called to the 500 00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: attention of the Honorable Secretary of State, and that he 501 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:18,760 Speaker 1: asked to instruct our ambassador to Germany to advise the 502 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,520 Speaker 1: local authorities of the operations of this criminal. They wanted 503 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,120 Speaker 1: to call on the ambassador with some smut charge. He did. 504 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:33,520 Speaker 1: They did so. He is arrested in Berlin. So like 505 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,400 Speaker 1: he they looked through him. They're able to pull up 506 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:41,440 Speaker 1: his records of getting arrested for yeah, all of those, 507 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:45,920 Speaker 1: and then um, he they have when he did time 508 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,920 Speaker 1: when he skipped bail um. And then they find they 509 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,280 Speaker 1: were able to track him to this alias Albert. They 510 00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: must have connected the alias with Shawn Nowitz. Yeah. And 511 00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:58,920 Speaker 1: well because then in Berlin he's going by the name 512 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:07,040 Speaker 1: Albert Frauenbach Schultz. Shots. Yeah, he did it himself, and um, 513 00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:12,120 Speaker 1: he used the Bruno von Schonovitz to do his mailing. Um, 514 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 1: and he had citizenship papers for the US as Schultzbach. 515 00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:21,480 Speaker 1: And he also used had papers that said Bruno, Baron 516 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:25,600 Speaker 1: Bruno von Schonovits f von Ugensworth, whatever goes on. Do 517 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: you think like in his newsletter or whatever his circular was, 518 00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:33,920 Speaker 1: it's like Baron Bruno's big body, bunch of bodous babes. Yeah, 519 00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,880 Speaker 1: it just got like, well it probably had like a 520 00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 1: picture of him, Yeah, exactly, the little character in the 521 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:41,680 Speaker 1: corner of the piece of paper and there's like you know, 522 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,080 Speaker 1: framing around the guilding and then in the center it 523 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:49,640 Speaker 1: just smut books with his seal of approval. Yeah, and 524 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:53,440 Speaker 1: he's holding an eyeball. Um. So the smutbusters they tracked 525 00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:58,000 Speaker 1: down Bruno. They tip off the German government. Um he's 526 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:01,440 Speaker 1: you know, out of eyeballs into naughty books. And he 527 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:04,640 Speaker 1: and some other German nationals had what the Society was 528 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:09,240 Speaker 1: calling an International Gang of Smut Dealers. That's a pretty 529 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:11,280 Speaker 1: cool title. Yeah, I want to kind of want to 530 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:12,960 Speaker 1: join that club. What do you guys do? I'm the 531 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,560 Speaker 1: International Gang of Smut Dealers, I G S D. Brother, 532 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:20,720 Speaker 1: it's a union. Um. They operated out of Berlin, Paris 533 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:23,960 Speaker 1: and Barcelona local for one. Two. I want to get 534 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,360 Speaker 1: a shirt that says International Gang of Smut Dealers and 535 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:31,760 Speaker 1: then Berlin Paris, like like those very eighties fashion shirts 536 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,440 Speaker 1: where young I like when you are on a vacation 537 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,040 Speaker 1: in a in a kind of out of the way 538 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,200 Speaker 1: place and they'll a shop will have a T shirt 539 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:45,520 Speaker 1: with that that's like, you know, Barstow, London, Paris. So 540 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,080 Speaker 1: the American contact for this group was a guy named 541 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,400 Speaker 1: James Emerson, but he also went by the name C. Nash. 542 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:55,040 Speaker 1: Of course he did, right. So the Society goes to 543 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,880 Speaker 1: investigate period, so it could be any whatever you feel 544 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:03,360 Speaker 1: like calling him, you know, they go to investigate him 545 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:07,120 Speaker 1: at his mail drop at US Express Company on West 546 00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:11,280 Speaker 1: in New York and um, he gets wise to him 547 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:15,000 Speaker 1: and just abandons his mail. This leaves all the checks 548 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,800 Speaker 1: for the smut off he goes. They did manage to 549 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:21,600 Speaker 1: get to his actual residence in Brooklyn, and they seized 550 00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:26,320 Speaker 1: eight D fifty one photographic negatives, twenty nine films, and 551 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:32,440 Speaker 1: four electric plates for printing naughty photos. Who collection. Here's 552 00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:36,040 Speaker 1: the cool part though, he also typed up spicy tails 553 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:40,800 Speaker 1: on his typewriter and he wrote them. Yeah, he wrote 554 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:44,200 Speaker 1: them on legal sized paper and bound them up to 555 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,480 Speaker 1: look like an official legal brief, so that you know. 556 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 1: And then he was selling him for anything from fifty 557 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:57,520 Speaker 1: cents which would be fifteen dollars today, to bucks which 558 00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,800 Speaker 1: would be seven like a custom job. Are you tell 559 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,040 Speaker 1: give the names? He does some fiction for you, Yeah, 560 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:08,000 Speaker 1: so he I really want to read like the I 561 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,520 Speaker 1: want to read both ends of the spect Yes, I 562 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:12,600 Speaker 1: want to read the cheapo ones and then I want 563 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:16,120 Speaker 1: to read the ones. Yeah, literature version, in the postcard version, 564 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:21,240 Speaker 1: like a lot of talk about pillowy exposed flesh flesh 565 00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:27,560 Speaker 1: great phrase. So the society they were able to slowly 566 00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,640 Speaker 1: track down the whole organization. They worked with the German authorities. 567 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,680 Speaker 1: Bruno gets arrested and jailed. He does a four month 568 00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:37,319 Speaker 1: bid and then but that's not the last we hear 569 00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:42,160 Speaker 1: state side about old Broom Bruns Albert Fred Brock, this 570 00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,880 Speaker 1: is the very same. When we come back, I'm going 571 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,080 Speaker 1: to tell you the weird conclusion to this tale of 572 00:34:47,200 --> 00:35:11,360 Speaker 1: smuggling an intrigue. So when we left off, Bruno was 573 00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:16,520 Speaker 1: busted for racy mailings in Germany. Baron Bruno's body Babes 574 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:22,320 Speaker 1: the Black Fourth. He had a lovely estate outside of 575 00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:26,040 Speaker 1: Dresden at the time, and apparently while the eyeball money 576 00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,840 Speaker 1: dried up, he was able to continue his capers, just 577 00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:35,200 Speaker 1: selling porn. So his smart bust and time served was 578 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:37,800 Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen. And I'm going to assume it's early in 579 00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 1: the year. Why is that because the war? Well, no, 580 00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:46,440 Speaker 1: because in September of nineteen fourteen, he pops up in 581 00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:52,040 Speaker 1: a Muskogee, Oklahoma newspaper. Oh there you go, of course, Oklahoma, 582 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,000 Speaker 1: you know, connect the dots. Szaren was right there for you. 583 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,720 Speaker 1: So he's over there in like Creek Country. He wrote 584 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,960 Speaker 1: a letter to an attorney in Muskogee, and the attorney 585 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,359 Speaker 1: found the letter so interesting that he handed it over 586 00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:06,960 Speaker 1: to the local paper and they did an article about 587 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:11,600 Speaker 1: the letter. His letter that compelling. Why was he writing 588 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:16,040 Speaker 1: to the lawyer? Seems Bruno lost some luggage while traveling 589 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: on the Midland Valley Railroad in nineteen twelve, and he 590 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:23,160 Speaker 1: was suing the railroad for damages. So his complaint letter 591 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:25,480 Speaker 1: about lost luggage is worthy of being printed in the 592 00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:28,719 Speaker 1: paper given the timing. I'm gonna guess that he lost 593 00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:30,920 Speaker 1: his luggage while he was on the run. Yeah, total. 594 00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:34,040 Speaker 1: So he had to give a deposition in the case 595 00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:38,120 Speaker 1: for the American officials to send to the US because 596 00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:40,879 Speaker 1: he's over there. He's in Germany. But he was having 597 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:43,759 Speaker 1: trouble getting the American consul in Germany to do it. 598 00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:51,320 Speaker 1: Why World War One? Okay, I knew waited. So the 599 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:55,120 Speaker 1: American consulate was overwhelmed with American citizens looking to get 600 00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:57,880 Speaker 1: out of dodge, looking to get out of Germany, right, okay, 601 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:05,960 Speaker 1: at a dome, want to volunteer. I gotta get out 602 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,560 Speaker 1: of here. So Bruno he goes to the consulate one 603 00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:11,759 Speaker 1: day and there are fifty five people waiting in line 604 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:16,239 Speaker 1: for help, and he says unacceptable, and um. He goes 605 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:19,960 Speaker 1: home and he calls the consulate and he says, can 606 00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:22,640 Speaker 1: I just have this deposition taken and like send it 607 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:26,719 Speaker 1: myself to the States. Is that is that cool? Is 608 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:30,400 Speaker 1: that a thing? Put a stamp on it? And they're like, no, sorry, 609 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:34,360 Speaker 1: the German post office is only going to accept unsealed 610 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:39,080 Speaker 1: mail that's written in German. It's war time. Oh you 611 00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:41,600 Speaker 1: keep having to remind me I'm there with it, and 612 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:44,440 Speaker 1: then I forget immediately. That's why I'm here. I'm here 613 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:48,279 Speaker 1: to guide everyone through these these tales. Uh. The letter 614 00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:50,480 Speaker 1: that he sent to the lawyer that went into the paper, 615 00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,759 Speaker 1: he said he had to send that from Austria and 616 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,239 Speaker 1: it took him two hours by train to get there 617 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:58,439 Speaker 1: to be able to send it. And then he said 618 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:01,400 Speaker 1: that he was sending like two fifty other letters at 619 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:04,560 Speaker 1: the time. Hello, is it smut? Did you learn nothing? 620 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,279 Speaker 1: He likes to run a con into the ground, this guy. 621 00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:16,320 Speaker 1: I was sending tasteful news and stories about Pillowy Flash 622 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,800 Speaker 1: and I just happened to put this one in the 623 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,600 Speaker 1: mail to um. He said that when he was sending 624 00:38:21,680 --> 00:38:24,040 Speaker 1: it from Austria that it would have to be routed 625 00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:27,640 Speaker 1: through either Italy or Asia. I'm not sure why those 626 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:30,520 Speaker 1: are your choices, um, But what's wild about the letter 627 00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:34,839 Speaker 1: is what comes next. He gives the details about this case, 628 00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:37,600 Speaker 1: like I'm trying to send you my deposition, blah blah blah. 629 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:40,920 Speaker 1: But then he gives his commentary on strategic elements of 630 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:45,400 Speaker 1: the war. Remember the letter comes to Muskogee just a 631 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:48,920 Speaker 1: couple of months after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. 632 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:55,040 Speaker 1: Take me out, indeed, so let me read to you. 633 00:38:55,320 --> 00:39:00,440 Speaker 1: Let me read to you. You're welcome, he said in 634 00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:04,520 Speaker 1: his letter. Insofar as the war is concerned, there is 635 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:08,120 Speaker 1: absolutely no doubt but what Russia and France will get 636 00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:11,000 Speaker 1: what they deserve. By the time this letter will reach you, 637 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:15,280 Speaker 1: German troops will be besieging Paris and warsaw heavy battles 638 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:19,160 Speaker 1: are expected honor about August. It is generally known that 639 00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:23,040 Speaker 1: Russia will lose Finland and the East Sea provinces, which 640 00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:25,840 Speaker 1: will become a part of Germany. Poland will become a 641 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:28,680 Speaker 1: sovereign state, which it should have been long ago. The 642 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:33,319 Speaker 1: Ukraine will go to Austria and Bessarabia will be given 643 00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:37,759 Speaker 1: to Romania. Serbia will be divided up, the most of 644 00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:40,640 Speaker 1: it going to Austria and what is left to Albania 645 00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:44,280 Speaker 1: and Bulgaria. France will lose most of her colonies, especially 646 00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:49,520 Speaker 1: everything in Africa except Algeria. Italy will get Corsica, UH, 647 00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:51,840 Speaker 1: and then other ones that I can't read on this 648 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:56,600 Speaker 1: piece of paper, and the newspapers dot com not always 649 00:39:56,680 --> 00:40:00,280 Speaker 1: like the clearest scanning. Belgium is going to just appear 650 00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:02,840 Speaker 1: as a separate state, and the Netherlands will become a 651 00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:06,759 Speaker 1: sovereign state in the German Empire if England should also lose, 652 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:09,640 Speaker 1: and from what I hear from official sources, there's very 653 00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:12,759 Speaker 1: little doubt. But what she will it will mean the end. 654 00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:15,600 Speaker 1: I wish to say further that there are rumors that 655 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:17,960 Speaker 1: the United States is going to declare war, but nobody 656 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:21,880 Speaker 1: seems to know against whom or why he got a 657 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:31,640 Speaker 1: couple right and the rest. So you'd figure he's writing 658 00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:33,839 Speaker 1: these batty letters and he's just going to live out 659 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:37,440 Speaker 1: the rest of his days in Germany, sending off naughtiness 660 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:40,560 Speaker 1: and random letters about the world. We know Bruno. He 661 00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:43,239 Speaker 1: likes to pop up with the ridiculous nous. So no, 662 00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:48,640 Speaker 1: there's more. Nineteen fifteen. Now he's back in the USA, 663 00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:54,560 Speaker 1: right back where he started his smuggling operation. He's living 664 00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:59,200 Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. So October two, nineteen fifteen, he files a 665 00:40:59,239 --> 00:41:02,680 Speaker 1: petition in the Court of Common please number three, and 666 00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,640 Speaker 1: he was asking the court for a name change. What 667 00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:09,080 Speaker 1: do you want to change his name to? Rebecca Regina Corntower. 668 00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:15,880 Speaker 1: He wanted to go from Bruno Carl Schulze to Bruno 669 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:21,719 Speaker 1: von Schonovitz, Frey har Von unguswirth n Alter Sloan And 670 00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:25,040 Speaker 1: I know, I know, I just butchered that, and I apologize, 671 00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:27,520 Speaker 1: but I'm doing the best I can ever hear people, 672 00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:32,040 Speaker 1: if you want to work why this new long name, 673 00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:37,000 Speaker 1: why he's got new charges, Well that's a that's a 674 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,719 Speaker 1: big possibility. He said he was actually the son of 675 00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:44,680 Speaker 1: a German viscount. Official. Yeah, he wants to make it official. 676 00:41:45,080 --> 00:41:48,200 Speaker 1: And then he weaves this incredible tale to the court. 677 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:51,640 Speaker 1: He says he was born in Saxony in eighteen sixty eight, 678 00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:55,040 Speaker 1: and that his father was a viscount and his mother, 679 00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:59,680 Speaker 1: Marie linden Er. It was a beautiful young German girl 680 00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:03,359 Speaker 1: with a difficult to say names, just twenty one years old. 681 00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:07,560 Speaker 1: It's a little thing. His parents madly in love. And 682 00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:11,480 Speaker 1: he says, but before he was born, the viscount went 683 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:14,160 Speaker 1: out for cigarettes and never came back. Ah that kind 684 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:18,920 Speaker 1: of madly in love. So the Viscount he deserts his 685 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,759 Speaker 1: pregnant galt. Was he like a viscount like in jazz terms? 686 00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:24,759 Speaker 1: Was he a quote unquote viscount? Do you play saxophone? 687 00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:27,080 Speaker 1: And they called him the Viscount. I'm gonna go ahead 688 00:42:27,080 --> 00:42:30,839 Speaker 1: and get smokes. She's two months She's only two months 689 00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:35,480 Speaker 1: pregnant at this time, and so he splits. She's despondent. 690 00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:38,280 Speaker 1: She marries this she's two months pregnant, bretty much splits 691 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:40,800 Speaker 1: right when he hears like she's like, oh I'm pregnant. 692 00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,759 Speaker 1: He was like, okay, have you seen my bags? He's like, 693 00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:47,560 Speaker 1: I'll be b rb uh. She marries this sad sack 694 00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:51,560 Speaker 1: named Carl Schultz. Oh that's where he gets. So he 695 00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:54,279 Speaker 1: doesn't like his stepfather's name. Yeah, Carl knows about the 696 00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:59,440 Speaker 1: viscount and the pregnancy, and he wants to preserve Marie's honor, 697 00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:01,920 Speaker 1: and he agrees to give the child his name, So 698 00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:11,680 Speaker 1: Bruno becomes Carl's Jr. Look on your face, I want 699 00:43:11,719 --> 00:43:18,640 Speaker 1: to do the whole c s I Miami. Bruno's mom 700 00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:24,960 Speaker 1: divorced Carl nine years later Carl's Sr. Because he renounced 701 00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,239 Speaker 1: her and denied his fatherhood of Bruno. So she's like, 702 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:31,600 Speaker 1: all right, that's it. We're over. Bruno, his mom, and 703 00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:35,359 Speaker 1: the Viscount all now separately. We'll do this. They all 704 00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:38,239 Speaker 1: immigrate to the United States on their own, one at 705 00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:40,759 Speaker 1: a time, one at a time, independent of each other, 706 00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:45,560 Speaker 1: and over time, both Bruno and his biological father, the Viscount, 707 00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:49,839 Speaker 1: they became American citizens. His mom's day illegal, Yeah, she's 708 00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:54,160 Speaker 1: not here with papers, Bruno said. He kept using his 709 00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:59,160 Speaker 1: government name until May d and it was on that day. 710 00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:07,440 Speaker 1: Why yes, his mother, after all those years marries the viscount. 711 00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:11,520 Speaker 1: Get out Bruno thirty two year old at the time, 712 00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:15,360 Speaker 1: the thirty two year old ring bearer. He's like, he 713 00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:17,320 Speaker 1: has a little like Disney movie. He's so happy he 714 00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:20,160 Speaker 1: got his parents back together. The mom's fifty one at 715 00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:23,719 Speaker 1: this point, so you know they finally found each other. Uh, 716 00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:25,719 Speaker 1: and does you have a twin brother? Did you find 717 00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:31,239 Speaker 1: out that he on the dad the whole times holy 718 00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:34,920 Speaker 1: parent trapped h To restore his true place in the 719 00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:39,360 Speaker 1: line of nobility, Bruno had the viscount given Alfa David 720 00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:44,120 Speaker 1: to a Chicago notary public very trustworthy people, yeah, stating 721 00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,240 Speaker 1: that Bruno is his lawful child and heir and entitled 722 00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:54,040 Speaker 1: to the family fortune. On paper, it's my name, he 723 00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:57,359 Speaker 1: gets my wealthy gets everything. We know that Bruno knows 724 00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,560 Speaker 1: a lot of shady characters himself, included people who can 725 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:03,279 Speaker 1: push paper, like the printer who snitched on Yeah. We 726 00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:07,120 Speaker 1: know he has fake documents in the past, official documents. Um, 727 00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:09,759 Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it was actually the viscount who 728 00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:12,160 Speaker 1: gave the statement, or if the notary was in on it, 729 00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:14,720 Speaker 1: or if there was even a visit to the notary, 730 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:18,520 Speaker 1: or if the viscount even exists. Vicoun't even marry his mom, Like, 731 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:21,480 Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm what I was having trouble finding 732 00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:25,440 Speaker 1: out if this because you know, world War Two they 733 00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:28,800 Speaker 1: wiped out all the titles from my understanding in the 734 00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:34,120 Speaker 1: German aristocracy, so trying to track this title, it was 735 00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:36,040 Speaker 1: really hard to track. So there's but there's a part 736 00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:38,080 Speaker 1: of me that thinks that this was like if I 737 00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:41,760 Speaker 1: started going around saying that I'm like Baroness Hoosie Watson, 738 00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:45,160 Speaker 1: We're just like, that's not really a title. Liked you guys, 739 00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:49,000 Speaker 1: you just don't know how to translate it. From my 740 00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:54,080 Speaker 1: my title bistowed in Planet California. Um, until we know 741 00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:56,560 Speaker 1: he's a faker, we don't know what part of this, 742 00:45:56,719 --> 00:46:00,360 Speaker 1: if any, is true. In his petition, he as he 743 00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:02,960 Speaker 1: attests that he's not changing his name for the purpose 744 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:07,680 Speaker 1: of evading any obligation like skipped bail Um. He also 745 00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:10,440 Speaker 1: says he has no judgments or suits pending or threatened, 746 00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:14,680 Speaker 1: So no bankruptcy lawsuits I got yeah, and um, he 747 00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,440 Speaker 1: does say, well, I have one possible action in Germany. 748 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:20,520 Speaker 1: I've been using the name von Shaunovitz instead of Schultze 749 00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:24,960 Speaker 1: for the last fifteen years without authorization from the German courts. 750 00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:27,640 Speaker 1: But you know, it's not a big deal. It's not 751 00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:31,200 Speaker 1: just it's cool. It's cool. So he gives his address 752 00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:34,879 Speaker 1: in the petition as thirteen forty two Pine Street, Philadelphia. 753 00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:39,640 Speaker 1: Is there at today really but you can see where, Yeah, 754 00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:41,680 Speaker 1: that would be like an area where because you know, 755 00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:45,480 Speaker 1: they'd be like tenement homes. The newspaper goes to the 756 00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:48,920 Speaker 1: address and is told that no one named Bruno lives there, 757 00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:53,480 Speaker 1: and so then the newspaper Record contacts the attorney listed 758 00:46:53,520 --> 00:47:00,040 Speaker 1: on the petition, A. J. Howard rebber reber Um. He 759 00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:03,360 Speaker 1: says he knows nothing about the case when he's on 760 00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:10,319 Speaker 1: the bus. He's the attorney of record. Yeah, so that's 761 00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,160 Speaker 1: like the kicker in the article about this whole thing, 762 00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:17,200 Speaker 1: which again wound up on wire service stories about this. 763 00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:19,800 Speaker 1: This guy wants to change his name from a short 764 00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:21,800 Speaker 1: name to a long name, and you see it just 765 00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:24,640 Speaker 1: popping up at all these papers across the country. Influenci 766 00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:30,600 Speaker 1: Our culture was so different back so he that's it. 767 00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:32,719 Speaker 1: At the end, they're like, yeah, I guess what, you know, 768 00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:35,560 Speaker 1: no one's at that address, and the attorney wouldn't get 769 00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:37,440 Speaker 1: back to us, and we should have a decision on 770 00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:40,000 Speaker 1: this next week. And then it never pops up in 771 00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:44,640 Speaker 1: the paper again that things reported on the name changed. 772 00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:47,600 Speaker 1: We don't know if it was approved. The last we 773 00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:54,360 Speaker 1: hear about Bruno in historical documents is May and so 774 00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:58,200 Speaker 1: this is like right before his parents wedding anniversary that year. 775 00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:05,480 Speaker 1: So this is the classification Value Report Bureau of the 776 00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:09,520 Speaker 1: Customs Intelligence Office r B. Yeah, of the c i O. 777 00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:15,600 Speaker 1: They issued bulletin number three seven class called von Schonovits 778 00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:20,680 Speaker 1: Bruno formerly doing business at Hoboken, New Jersey, under the 779 00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:24,560 Speaker 1: name of Schulze bc L where it is said he 780 00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:28,040 Speaker 1: was indicted for smuggling artificial eyes into the United States. 781 00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:34,200 Speaker 1: Von Schonovitz has sent circulars into the United States from Zurich, Switzerland, stating, 782 00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:38,160 Speaker 1: now he's sending circulars. What's on the circulars? I think 783 00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:41,120 Speaker 1: we all know. Now he's coming full circle, stating that 784 00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:44,480 Speaker 1: he has made arrangements to send glass eyes into this country. 785 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:47,880 Speaker 1: He's back on the glass eye game. And so now 786 00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:50,680 Speaker 1: he's sending circulars from Germany, saying, how about this, I'll 787 00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,959 Speaker 1: send him from here well, and he said it says 788 00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:56,920 Speaker 1: He states in his circular that while the laws prohibit 789 00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,480 Speaker 1: traffic with hostile countries, they do not prohibit traffic with 790 00:49:00,520 --> 00:49:03,960 Speaker 1: an American citizen which he is living in a neutral 791 00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:06,680 Speaker 1: country like Switzerland, if the goods are made in the 792 00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:10,760 Speaker 1: neutral country too. There is some doubt whether the artificial 793 00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:13,120 Speaker 1: eyes to be shipped to the United States by von 794 00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:17,879 Speaker 1: Schaunovitz originated in Switzerland or Germany. But with German, that's 795 00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:19,960 Speaker 1: not German. German did see that writing. You can tell 796 00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:24,919 Speaker 1: such merchandise should be carefully scrutinized. Therefore, to determine whether 797 00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:27,840 Speaker 1: there has been any violation of the trading with the 798 00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:31,560 Speaker 1: Enemy Act. Trading with the Enemy Act. So he's back 799 00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:33,759 Speaker 1: in the eyeball game. He was in too deep, baby, 800 00:49:33,800 --> 00:49:35,759 Speaker 1: you couldn't get him out. He can't pull yourself out 801 00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:38,799 Speaker 1: that it'll pull you right back. And so now he's 802 00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:42,520 Speaker 1: dabbling with the trading with the Enemy Act. It's good money. 803 00:49:42,560 --> 00:49:45,520 Speaker 1: I'm telling you. I am positive that he kept up 804 00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:48,719 Speaker 1: his felonious ways until his last breath. I'm thinking it 805 00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:51,400 Speaker 1: is his way. I'm guessing he also probably switched up 806 00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,160 Speaker 1: his name again, and that's why we're having been able 807 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:58,040 Speaker 1: to find anything beyond he just disappears entirelyand can't find 808 00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:01,080 Speaker 1: a thing. Yeah. So no, I couldn't even find a 809 00:50:01,160 --> 00:50:05,080 Speaker 1: death notice anywhere. Do you think maybe the war? No, 810 00:50:05,239 --> 00:50:07,040 Speaker 1: I think he just I think I'm saying that he's 811 00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:09,759 Speaker 1: over there in a war, you know, like maybe some 812 00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:12,680 Speaker 1: aspect of the war like caused him to either change 813 00:50:12,719 --> 00:50:16,600 Speaker 1: his identity or lose his identity completely and with his mortality. 814 00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:20,799 Speaker 1: Could could be maybe he tries to run a scam 815 00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:22,560 Speaker 1: on somebody in more times and it doesn't play out 816 00:50:22,560 --> 00:50:24,520 Speaker 1: as well. That's true. That could have all these things 817 00:50:24,640 --> 00:50:28,560 Speaker 1: or possibilities and the beautiful possibilities. We get to decide 818 00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:32,160 Speaker 1: for ourselves. I'm gonna get I'm going to say, or 819 00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:34,200 Speaker 1: the Tiger. I'm going to say that he's still with 820 00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:40,960 Speaker 1: us today, polishing eyeballs. Um. So that right there, that's 821 00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:43,600 Speaker 1: the story of the greatest glass eye smuggler of all time, 822 00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:48,719 Speaker 1: not them, not the runner up, the number one, Bruno Schultze, Yah, 823 00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:56,120 Speaker 1: the king of the game taking Bruno Schultze. My ridiculous 824 00:50:56,160 --> 00:51:00,279 Speaker 1: takeaway is the human body will dissolve glass if you 825 00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:04,879 Speaker 1: give it a time. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. I think 826 00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:08,719 Speaker 1: that Bruno is just the embodiment of ridiculous. You know, 827 00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:12,640 Speaker 1: it's ridiculously ballsy to skip out on a sentence and 828 00:51:12,680 --> 00:51:15,560 Speaker 1: then keep getting caught but not have to do anything 829 00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:18,719 Speaker 1: about it. He switches up his illicit activities and then 830 00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:21,280 Speaker 1: he gets caught again, and then he walks, he walks 831 00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:25,239 Speaker 1: into a court. Hi, it's me. I want to change 832 00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:29,239 Speaker 1: my name. The name is already on the government papers. Ridiculous, 833 00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:33,480 Speaker 1: a ridiculous hustle. Just never died with him. So um, 834 00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:36,279 Speaker 1: some say he's still out there sneaking glass eyes into 835 00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:39,160 Speaker 1: the country. This to this day, ridiculous crime. First Team 836 00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:44,000 Speaker 1: All American Bruno Shalz. That's it. Thank you for joining us. 837 00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:48,000 Speaker 1: I'm Elizabeth Sutton and I am Elizabeth Dutton. Yes, you 838 00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:50,960 Speaker 1: can find us online at Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter 839 00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:54,759 Speaker 1: and Instagram. Hey, hey, pal, you got a tip for 840 00:51:54,840 --> 00:51:56,919 Speaker 1: us about a ridiculous crime that you want to hear about. 841 00:51:56,960 --> 00:52:00,520 Speaker 1: You want to confess to a ridiculous crime and we 842 00:52:00,719 --> 00:52:02,920 Speaker 1: don't need any more emails about the duct tape bandit 843 00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:06,359 Speaker 1: his head's up. Um Email us at ridiculous Crime at 844 00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:15,719 Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Thank you, thank you. Ridiculous Crime is 845 00:52:15,760 --> 00:52:18,880 Speaker 1: hosted by Elizabe Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produced and edited 846 00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:22,560 Speaker 1: by organ of site Dave Kusten. Researches by Glassie Orb 847 00:52:22,719 --> 00:52:25,760 Speaker 1: Mercer Brown. The theme song is by Thomas Manson lamps 848 00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:29,920 Speaker 1: Lee and Victorian smut peddler Travis Dutton. Executive producers are 849 00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:38,120 Speaker 1: Ben left E Bowling and Noel Key bas Brown. Ridiculous 850 00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:41,000 Speaker 1: Crime it's a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts 851 00:52:41,040 --> 00:52:44,080 Speaker 1: to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 852 00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:46,000 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.