Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Bishop Joseph lan Ye was
Speaker 1: told that something terrible would happened, but he didn't find
Speaker 1: out until it was too late. He had been sitting
Speaker 1: at his desk going over some letters when he spotted
Speaker 1: one standing out from the rest. The envelope was black
Speaker 1: around its edges, and it was sealed in black wax.
Speaker 1: The Archduke's royal seal pressed into it. Joseph knew who
Speaker 1: had sent it immediately he tore it open and read
Speaker 1: its contents. The letter he held was a premonition from
Speaker 1: an old friend. This friend was concerned that he and
Speaker 1: his wife would be killed in a political assassination traveling
Speaker 1: in Sara Jevo. The letter had come from Archduke Frantz
Speaker 1: Ferdinand himself and was dated June at three thirty a
Speaker 1: m Also tucked into the envelope was a photograph. It
Speaker 1: depicted a crowd gathered near the Archduke and his wife Sophie,
Speaker 1: who were seated in the back of their car. Across
Speaker 1: from them sat a general while the driver and another
Speaker 1: officer occupied the front seat. Two men with guns had
Speaker 1: stepped forward from the crowd and fired into the car,
Speaker 1: killing the Archduke and his wife, and then Joseph woke up.
Speaker 1: The whole thing had been a dream. There had been
Speaker 1: no letter, no photograph, but it had all seemed so
Speaker 1: real to him he was even crying. He looked at
Speaker 1: the clock, which read three thirty a m. Leaping out
Speaker 1: of bed, he ran to his desk and recorded everything
Speaker 1: that had happened in his dream, followed by hours reciting
Speaker 1: his rosary. His servants found him just before six am
Speaker 1: and asked if he was okay. He was not okay.
Speaker 1: Joseph told the servants to find his mother and the
Speaker 1: house guests that had been staying with him, and for
Speaker 1: everyone to meet him in the chapel. He would hold
Speaker 1: mass for their royal highnesses. After mass, he sat down
Speaker 1: and sketched the scene from his dream. He drew the street,
Speaker 1: the crowds, and the car, paying close attention to the
Speaker 1: people inside and how they had been positioned in the photograph.
Speaker 1: He then sent the sketch, along with his story of
Speaker 1: the dream, to his brother. For the rest of the day,
Speaker 1: he watched the clock in fear, wondering waiting. A knock
Speaker 1: on his door startled him. He opened it to find
Speaker 1: a messenger holding a telegram from Vienna. Joseph looked at
Speaker 1: the clock again. It was half past three in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: The telegram brought the news that he had feared the most.
Speaker 1: Upon entering their car, which had been specifically built just
Speaker 1: for them, someone threw a grenade at the Archduke and Sophie.
Speaker 1: It flew over the vehicle and exploded, injuring royal staff
Speaker 1: behind them. The couple, however, had not been harmed. Ferdinand
Speaker 1: and Sophie laid at the Governor's residence in Sara Jevo
Speaker 1: before venturing back out. They wanted to visit those who
Speaker 1: had been hurt in the blast before they left the city,
Speaker 1: but their instructions hadn't been given to the drivers in
Speaker 1: their caravan. Realizing their mistake, the chauffeur's backtrack to a
Speaker 1: side street and stopped. They've been blocked from moving any further.
Speaker 1: A young Serbian nationalist of only nineteen had been sitting
Speaker 1: in a cafe across the street and recognized the famous couple.
Speaker 1: This was his chance. He got up and walked over
Speaker 1: to the car, where he pulled out a pistol and
Speaker 1: fired at the Archduke and his wife. Ferdinand died within minutes,
Speaker 1: Sophie passed away before the driver could reach the hospital.
Speaker 1: The scene was almost exactly how Joseph had envisioned it
Speaker 1: in his dream. Ferdinand and Sophie had been seated together
Speaker 1: in the car, which had stalled on a narrow street.
Speaker 1: The only difference had been the lack of a second
Speaker 1: shooter during the real life attack, Joseph was questioned about
Speaker 1: his premonition, as were his brother Edward, a Jesuit priest,
Speaker 1: and other witnesses. He told everyone confirmed that they learned
Speaker 1: of the dream hours before the actual murder took place.
Speaker 1: The sketch only added to the mystery. Ferdinand's death hit
Speaker 1: Joseph pretty hard. Not only had he been a supporter
Speaker 1: of the archdukes, but Ferdinand had been a student of
Speaker 1: his as a young boy. The bullets that had killed
Speaker 1: the royal couple had been heard around the world, and
Speaker 1: in many ways were the first shots of World War One,
Speaker 1: and Bishop Joseph Lanny had heard them before anyone else.
Speaker 1: Put on a uniform, act like you own the place,
Speaker 1: and you'd be surprised how many people rushed to fall
Speaker 1: in line. Famously, the Milgram experiments tested a subject's willingness
Speaker 1: to follow an authority figures instructions, even if it meant
Speaker 1: harming someone else. At Stanford University in nineteen seventies, a
Speaker 1: prison experiment was set up where one group pretended to
Speaker 1: be officers and others acted as prisoners. The exercise quickly
Speaker 1: turned sour, and the student guards became authoritarian tyrants, abusing
Speaker 1: the student prisoners, who accepted their abuse willingly. Con Artist
Speaker 1: Friedrich Wilhelm Voit also knew the effect the uniform would
Speaker 1: have on certain people. In nineteen o six, Voit had
Speaker 1: just been kicked out of Berlin after serving fifteen years
Speaker 1: in prison four attempt at burglary. He tried to make
Speaker 1: an honest living working for a local shoemaker once he
Speaker 1: was released, but his criminal record made him an unwanted
Speaker 1: entity in town. The local police forced him out. What
Speaker 1: they didn't know was that his supposed honest living hadn't
Speaker 1: been so honest. While he'd been employed by the shoemaker,
Speaker 1: Voit was also working on a new scheme he'd been
Speaker 1: scouring used clothing shops, buying and assembling pieces from different
Speaker 1: captains uniforms to make one for himself. Just a week
Speaker 1: after leaving his job with a shoemaker, Voit donned his
Speaker 1: make shift uniform and headed to a local army barracks.
Speaker 1: Though his uniform was comprised of pieces of other uniforms,
Speaker 1: it was convincing enough, made more so by Void's confidence.
Speaker 1: Wearing it, he convinced a sergeant and four other soldiers
Speaker 1: to follow him, which they did before he told the
Speaker 1: sergeant to leave and the soldiers to stay. Voits then
Speaker 1: recruited another six soldiers from the shooting range. All the
Speaker 1: while no one ever asked why they simply followed orders,
Speaker 1: voits uniform held immense power over them. He commanded the
Speaker 1: soldiers to accompany him by train to Copennick, a small
Speaker 1: town that was part of the southeastern portion of Berlin.
Speaker 1: It was here where his elaborate plan would finally be
Speaker 1: set in motion. He took the soldiers to Copenick City
Speaker 1: Hall and had them cover all the exits. The local
Speaker 1: police were brought in and instructed to arrest both the
Speaker 1: town's treasurer von Waldburg as well as Mayor gay Or
Speaker 1: Glander Hunts. Void charged them with corruption of the town's
Speaker 1: financial records. Longer Hunts demanded to see the warrant for
Speaker 1: us of rest, Voit pointed at his soldiers and said,
Speaker 1: these are my authority before continuing on with his plan.
Speaker 1: He collected over four thousand marks as evidence, then told
Speaker 1: his soldiers to take the two town officials to a
Speaker 1: separate facility for interrogation. Meanwhile, Voits and the money left
Speaker 1: town in two carriages. He boarded a train and changed
Speaker 1: out of his captain's uniform into regular clothing. Having gotten
Speaker 1: away with one of the most elaborate and fearless heists
Speaker 1: in history, but Voids had made a grave mistake in
Speaker 1: his planning. After the details of the incident came to light,
Speaker 1: a reward was posted for information leading to his capture.
Speaker 1: Voits had inadvertently spilled the details of his heist to
Speaker 1: his former prison cell mate, who was only too happy
Speaker 1: to claim the reward for himself. Wilhelm Voight was arrested
Speaker 1: a few days later and charged with forgery, wrongful imprisonment,
Speaker 1: and impersonating an officer. Surprisingly, these were all lesser crimes
Speaker 1: than the one that he had committed fifteen years earlier.
Speaker 1: As a result, he was sentenced to only four years
Speaker 1: in prison. The press and the public found themselves amused
Speaker 1: by his antics, calling him the Captain of Kopenick. German
Speaker 1: Kaiser Wilhelm the Second pardon him after only two years,
Speaker 1: presumably because Voits had proven that the German military was
Speaker 1: a force to be respected and obeyed no matter what.
Speaker 1: British papers found it laughable that all the authoritarian German
Speaker 1: stereotypes have been proven to be true, and Voids himself
Speaker 1: finally managed to turn his life around and make an
Speaker 1: honest living. He became a kind of celebrity all over Germany.
Speaker 1: Playwrights put on shows about his caper which he attended,
Speaker 1: and signed autographs for the audience. He wrote a memoir
Speaker 1: detailing his account of the heist as well. Voits eventually
Speaker 1: settled in Luxembourg, where he once again resumed work as
Speaker 1: a shoemaker. With the help of a wealthy dowager, he
Speaker 1: managed to buy a house for himself and retire before
Speaker 1: passing away in nine two. Since then, Voit has become
Speaker 1: a folk legend of sorts, a reminder of the power
Speaker 1: that someone in uniform has over people and why the
Speaker 1: old adage still holds today but absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,