Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. John Osborne lived a
Speaker 1: charmed life. Born in eighteen fifty eight to immigrant parents,
Speaker 1: he worked hard and built a reputation as a smart
Speaker 1: young man. He graduated in eighteen eighty from the University
Speaker 1: of Vermont with a degree in medicine and was quickly
Speaker 1: hired by the Union Pacific Railroad as a company surgeon,
Speaker 1: which ultimately lead him from the East coast to the
Speaker 1: western town of Rollins, Wyoming. He dabbled in other occupations
Speaker 1: and seemed to find success in all of them. He
Speaker 1: was a farmer, a banker, a chemist, and a enter
Speaker 1: and together with his day job as a physician, these
Speaker 1: careers all seemed to fill his coffers and bolster his reputation.
Speaker 1: By the age of twenty five, he was an elected
Speaker 1: official in Wyoming, kicking off a career that led him
Speaker 1: to the U s House of Representatives and even a
Speaker 1: two year term as the Governor of Wyoming. It said
Speaker 1: that Osborne could often be seen around town, smiling and
Speaker 1: waving to people he knew, all dressed up in his
Speaker 1: fine suit with his two tone leather shoes and matching
Speaker 1: leather medicine bag. He was normal, successful and the sort
Speaker 1: of man you'd want on your side if you were
Speaker 1: feeling ill or needed the advice of a kind doctor.
Speaker 1: That's John Osborne. But I want to tell you about
Speaker 1: another man as well, because if John Osborne had an
Speaker 1: exact opposite George Big Nose Warden, was it born around
Speaker 1: the same time, George hadn't managed to find the same
Speaker 1: path to success that John had. In fact, by eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight, Big Nose George was an outlaw running his
Speaker 1: own gang of criminals. That was the same year that
Speaker 1: George and his associates try to rob a train outside
Speaker 1: of Rollins, Wyoming, home to good old doctor John Osborne.
Speaker 1: But it turns out there were a couple of undercover
Speaker 1: sheriffs working alongside him. George ran and then when he
Speaker 1: had the lawmen in his sight, he killed them. He
Speaker 1: managed to live on the run for two years before
Speaker 1: making the mistake of telling someone about the murders. He
Speaker 1: was turned in, arrested, and then transported back to rollins
Speaker 1: for his trial. On March twenty eight, one before his
Speaker 1: trial could actually begin, George was pulled out of jail
Speaker 1: by an angry mob and dragged, kicking and screaming, to
Speaker 1: a nearby telegraph pole where a noose had been arranged.
Speaker 1: George was the opposite of John Osborne. John was popular,
Speaker 1: but the entire mob hated George, so when he managed
Speaker 1: to get his hands free from the rope that bound
Speaker 1: him and then wrap his arms around the pole to
Speaker 1: keep himself from hanging, the crowd just watched and waited.
Speaker 1: No one helped him, no one took him up on
Speaker 1: his request to shoot him and prevent the slow death
Speaker 1: by strangulation. They just mocked him and watched the clock.
Speaker 1: Before long, big nose, George's arms gave out and he dropped.
Speaker 1: He was dead a few minutes later, slowly choked by
Speaker 1: the noose around his neck. He was buried in a
Speaker 1: plain pine box. Legend says that George's nose was so
Speaker 1: big that the undertaker had to get helped to hold
Speaker 1: the lid down so that he could nail it shut.
Speaker 1: I've seen pictures of the guy, and honestly I can
Speaker 1: believe it. Big nose. George earned that nickname a short
Speaker 1: while after he was buried, though someone dug him up.
Speaker 1: Local physician wanted to do an autopsy and study the
Speaker 1: remains of the murderer to see what physical reasons there
Speaker 1: might be for George's deviant behavior, but he didn't find anything.
Speaker 1: He did, however, keep some souvenirs. The doctor took some
Speaker 1: skin from George's chest legs and had its hand. He
Speaker 1: made leather from the flesh of a dead human, and
Speaker 1: then he took that leather to a cobbler and had
Speaker 1: a pair of shoes made. Oh and a medicine bag naturally.
Speaker 1: So there you go, the story of two very different men,
Speaker 1: a convicted killer and the well respected local doctor who
Speaker 1: wanted to better understand him, which reminds me of an
Speaker 1: old saying. Sometimes in order to understand a person, you
Speaker 1: need to walk a mile in their shoes. If that's true,
Speaker 1: then one thing is certain. No one understood big nosed
Speaker 1: George Warden better than Dr John Osborne. Jimmy ran away
Speaker 1: to join the circus. I know it's a bit stereotypical,
Speaker 1: but I promise you it is the truth. He jumped
Speaker 1: on a train in Brooklyn, and let it take him
Speaker 1: all the way to Nebraska. Somewhere between those two locations, though,
Speaker 1: he tossed the circus idea out the window and decided
Speaker 1: to see what else life might have in store for him.
Speaker 1: When he arrived in Nebraska, he stepped off the train
Speaker 1: and began a new life with a clean slate. He
Speaker 1: even changed his name. From that moment on, he would
Speaker 1: be Richard Hart. He worked to get rid of his
Speaker 1: thick Brooklyn accent, made friends and built a career, and
Speaker 1: life was good. He spent time in the army and
Speaker 1: served as an officer in France during World War One,
Speaker 1: but eventually returned home because that's what Homer, Nebraska had
Speaker 1: become for him. It was home. In nineteen nineteen, a
Speaker 1: flash flood swept through town, Heart managed to save the
Speaker 1: local grocery store owner, and as a result, the grocer
Speaker 1: thought so highly of Heart that he allowed the man
Speaker 1: to date his daughter, a pair eventually married to. During
Speaker 1: the Prohibition, Heart served as an investigator, seeking out bootleggers
Speaker 1: and bringing them to justice. When he began wearing a
Speaker 1: pair of guns, one pistol on each hip, the locals
Speaker 1: started to call him two guns Heart. He was effective
Speaker 1: to making numerous arrests and shutting down dozens of operations,
Speaker 1: and all that success earned him a new job as
Speaker 1: the town marshal right there in Homer. But that's when
Speaker 1: the cracks started to show. Richard Hart, they said, was
Speaker 1: a wolf in sheep's clothing. He had a track record
Speaker 1: for being more than a little too violent with the
Speaker 1: Native Americans he encountered, and had been accused a number
Speaker 1: of times of petty theft while performing his duty as marshal.
Speaker 1: His true nature was catching up with him, it seemed.
Speaker 1: When he was removed from his post as marshal, he
Speaker 1: found himself unemployed and running out of money. So he
Speaker 1: reached out to the family he had abandoned years before,
Speaker 1: sending a letter to one of his brothers for help.
Speaker 1: In response, that brother sent a check. The following month,
Speaker 1: he sent another, and on and on it went, with
Speaker 1: the generosity of his family helping him stay afloat and
Speaker 1: pay the bills. That's the thing about family, when times
Speaker 1: are tough, they always seemed to be there. They rally
Speaker 1: around us, lift us up, and give us what we need.
Speaker 1: Richard Hart's own family seemed completely normal in that respect,
Speaker 1: except they weren't. They were so far from normal that
Speaker 1: it's no wonder Little Jimmy had left town two decades
Speaker 1: before and then changed his name. Because even though they
Speaker 1: were blood, they were dangerous. Don't believe me, then, I
Speaker 1: recommend doing a bit of light reading about Jimmy's brother Alphonse,
Speaker 1: because I guarantee it'll open your eyes. After all, there's
Speaker 1: a reason Jimmy's brother had a lot of money. He
Speaker 1: was a mobster. Perhaps the mobster who had built a
Speaker 1: career and fortune in the illegal bootlegging industry. Jimmy's brother Alfonse.
Speaker 1: You see, it was none other than the legendary crime
Speaker 1: boss himself, Al Capone. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.