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87. The Theft of the Irish Crown Jewels · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hi everybody, and
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Speaker 1: welcome to Who Dad What Now? The history podcast That's
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Speaker 1: not your history class with me your host Katie Charlwood,
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Speaker 1: History Harlotte and reader of books. This week I have
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Speaker 1: a very special guest, although I'm not sure the topic
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Speaker 1: is quite right for little ears, but I am joined today.
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Speaker 2: Bye baby, that's right, baby, And we always say it
0:42
Speaker 2: the way Moira Rose says it because that's just what
0:45
Speaker 2: you do.
0:46
Speaker 1: So baby, here is my little girl. And you're how old?
0:50
Speaker 1: You're seven? So we are getting ready for the festive season.
0:57
Speaker 1: Because where are we going? Disneyland in Paris is where
1:03
Speaker 1: we're going. That's absolutely right. Is coming too, that's right.
1:07
Speaker 1: Bubba is coming with us. Yeah, Bubba by birthday. Your
1:12
Speaker 1: brother is Bubba. He's not heavy, he's your brother. I
1:17
Speaker 1: mean he is heavy, he's so, he's so, he's just
1:21
Speaker 1: pure muscle and bone, and his bones are really dense,
1:25
Speaker 1: are really young. And who was coming with us?
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Speaker 3: My big sister.
1:31
Speaker 1: That's right, your big sister is coming with us. So yeah,
1:35
Speaker 1: we are going on a little family holiday and we're
1:39
Speaker 1: going to go see Mickey and Minny and Donald and
1:43
Speaker 1: Goofy maybe Pluto? Who else did it? We're gonna see Disneyland.
1:50
Speaker 1: I think the pencil, Maybe you think your Punzel? Maybe, Yeah,
1:54
Speaker 1: that'd be nice, wouldn't It's Tiana one. Yeah, Tiana's a princess.
2:00
Speaker 1: And I don't know. That's the one one with the
2:06
Speaker 1: tiny feet. She's good feet.
2:09
Speaker 3: You're the one with the flying carpet. Oh, flying wizards?
2:19
Speaker 1: The flying wizards are we still talking about? Doesn't he?
2:24
Speaker 1: There's a flying wizard. There's like a little ones. They're
2:32
Speaker 1: the little ones with the flying wizards. No, wait, do
2:40
Speaker 1: you mean? Do you mean Snowy in the Seven Dwarfs? Yes,
2:49
Speaker 1: I did not know you was. This is actually we
2:52
Speaker 1: change for anybody who usually listens to the show, because
2:54
Speaker 1: they're like, wow, she hasn't sworn yet. I have to
2:57
Speaker 1: wait for her to fall asleep. It's fine, make a cover.
3:01
Speaker 1: So normally this is the part where I give you
3:03
Speaker 1: a warning that my language can be colorful. But yeah,
3:08
Speaker 1: that happens sometimes me. Your language colorful. No, you don't
3:14
Speaker 1: get to swear. You don't use class words. That's not allowed. No. No,
3:24
Speaker 1: The worst part is right, she uses them in context,
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Speaker 1: which I part of me feels like is a failing
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Speaker 1: as a parent. But another part of me is like
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Speaker 1: in context though.
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Speaker 3: Yes I will.
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Speaker 1: No, no, wait, are you saying I'm a failure as
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Speaker 1: a parent and that I'm a good parent? Okay, then
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Speaker 1: the child this spoken, I went, but I know what
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Speaker 1: you are excuse me.
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Speaker 2: We have to get to the story. So that's right,
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Speaker 2: He's sorry that we thank you. So I would like
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Speaker 2: to thank everybody for their five star reviews. I don't
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Speaker 2: know what happened in the UK, but I am charting
4:10
Speaker 2: in the UK on both Spotify and Apple History Charts.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you've got a shocked face now, don't you, kid?
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Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, I don't know why.
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Speaker 3: I don't know.
4:23
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you don't know what Apple is, but you
4:26
Speaker 1: know what Spotify is.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I know music, and I want to listen to you.
4:32
Speaker 1: I don't think you'd like to listen to my podcast.
4:34
Speaker 1: But anyway, I know what you all are thinking. You're
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Speaker 1: thinking what your gibber jabber in fact me, in fact you,
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Speaker 1: I will, but first we've got to get our source on.
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Speaker 1: Our sources are Scandal and Betrayal, Shackleton and The Crown
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Speaker 1: Jewels by Kevin Hanathan and John kaferke Vicious Circle, The
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Speaker 1: Case of the Missing Irish Crown Jewels by Viola Banks
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Speaker 1: and Francis.
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Speaker 3: Bamford National like GUS of Island.
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Speaker 1: That's right, the National Archives of Ireland, the Theft of
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Speaker 1: the Irish Crown Jewels by Thomas o' warden, and of
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Speaker 1: course our world favorites History dot Com are wasted in
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Speaker 1: comfortably good.
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Speaker 3: Then let's begin.
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Speaker 1: So initially we were going to be talking about I
5:19
Speaker 1: same week, I was going to be talking about a
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Speaker 1: certain female serial killer or alleged serial killer. But I'm
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Speaker 1: seeing as I have a little person here who does
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Speaker 1: not like words like kill or coverers.
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Speaker 3: Martyr.
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Speaker 1: So because that happens, we we decided to change it
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Speaker 1: up to the Theft of the Irish Crown Jewels. See no, no,
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Speaker 1: no death in this one. Okay, well juice, Well I'm
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Speaker 1: glad you asked, because I'll tell you so. The Irish
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Speaker 1: Crown Jewels. It's funny because like they were never actually
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Speaker 1: called the Crown Jewels, like when they were in Dublin Castle,
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Speaker 1: so like when they existed, well no, they probably still exist,
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Speaker 1: but when they were in existence in Dublin Castle before
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Speaker 1: they were stolen, they were known not as the Irish
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Speaker 1: crown jewels, but instead they were like a kind of badge,
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Speaker 1: like a fancy badge, because it's called an insignia, right,
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Speaker 1: and it was for the most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick.
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Speaker 1: Now this is like mm, put this it's a chival order,
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Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, it's the Order of the Knights
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Speaker 1: Temple and stuff kind of like that, but less cool.
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Speaker 1: What they were is they were a group of just oristockracy.
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Speaker 1: Really people like to give each other titles in being
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Speaker 1: groups together. And the jewels would be worn by the
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Speaker 1: leader of the order, the most employant person, that is
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Speaker 1: absolutely right, And so they would wear these jewels. Now,
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Speaker 1: the jewels of the most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick.
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Speaker 1: They consisted of this star in badge regalia and it
7:28
Speaker 1: was set with Brazilian diamonds, rubies and emeralds, and all
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Speaker 1: these jewels actually came from Queen Charlotte's collection. So yeah,
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Speaker 1: Queen Charlotte married King George, you know, the one from Bridgerton,
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Speaker 1: her stuff like, and this was in this insignia, this
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Speaker 1: set of jewels. It was made at the order of
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Speaker 1: William the Fourth, So Charlotte and George's son and William
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Speaker 1: being the English sovereign, being the king, he was at
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Speaker 1: the head of the most illustrious Order of Saint Patrick.
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Speaker 1: It does sound absolutely pretentious though, doesn't it. So William
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Speaker 1: or whoever the leader was at that time, he would
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Speaker 1: wear the jewels at the order's important events. Now, the
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Speaker 1: funniest thing about this order, I say funny, it's not.
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Speaker 1: It's it's a member's only club effectively. And you had
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Speaker 1: to be of the nobility slash aristocracy, and you had
8:36
Speaker 1: to be pro Unionist, so you had to be, you know,
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Speaker 1: pro the Crown. You had to be a supporter of
8:44
Speaker 1: British rule in Ireland and also quite obviously the British Crown. Now,
8:51
Speaker 1: unlike you know, the British Royal Crown Jewels, the Irish
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Speaker 1: Crown jewels firstly, again not called the Crown jewels during
8:59
Speaker 1: their time of being used, but they wear jewels, and
9:04
Speaker 1: they were Irish and they were owned by the Crown.
9:09
Speaker 1: I say Irish. They were in Ireland and they were
9:11
Speaker 1: owned by the Crown. And yeah, yeah, not like worn
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Speaker 1: at coronations or anything that was important like that, but
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Speaker 1: just by this order in their own little, i don't know,
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Speaker 1: fancy little meetings, so like the most Illustrious Order of
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Speaker 1: Saint Patrick. So it's such a mouthful and it is
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Speaker 1: so bloody pretendious. It is though it is the most
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Speaker 1: illustrious Order of Saint Patrick. Look how we're like really
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Speaker 1: high ranking, but we're like trying to include Irishness in it.
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Speaker 3: Mm.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. And so it was established in like seventeen eighty
9:44
Speaker 1: three basically to keep in good with you know, the
9:48
Speaker 1: crown and the jewels were made crafted in like eighteen thirty.
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Speaker 1: So step forward about seventy years, just over seventy years,
10:02
Speaker 1: and we are in the early twentieth century. So the
10:05
Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, Ireland was still very much under British rule.
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Speaker 1: And this is sort of pre sort of the big
10:15
Speaker 1: radical rebellion. Again, this is pre Easter Rising, pre all this,
10:22
Speaker 1: it wasn't as extreme, like they weren't trying to separate
10:25
Speaker 1: from Britain. Even the most nationalists of people. They were
10:29
Speaker 1: advocating for home rule at this point, so just governing
10:34
Speaker 1: themselves while still being part of the British Empire. But
10:39
Speaker 1: at the turn of the century, conflict was trickling in,
10:44
Speaker 1: it was growing. There was a change in the wind.
10:49
Speaker 1: So through Ireland there's a lot of cultural revival. There's growth,
10:54
Speaker 1: you know, there is better like telegram systems, postal radio.
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Speaker 1: People are connecting and word is spreading. And nineteen oh
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Speaker 1: four Gaelaga comes back into the school system after being
11:10
Speaker 1: erased for ah so long. Like the laws that were
11:17
Speaker 1: imposed as Britain did everywhere that it colonized, it would
11:22
Speaker 1: try and remove and eradicate the indigenous languages of those
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Speaker 1: nations countries that it would go in and take control of.
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Speaker 1: Then in nineteen oh five, the very first iteration of
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Speaker 1: shin Fain is established, and also the auster Unionist parties
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Speaker 1: there and they were on opposite sides of this conflict
11:44
Speaker 1: with shin Fain sort of starting this movement, and then
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Speaker 1: the auster Unionist Party basically stockpiling artillery because they're getting
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Speaker 1: ready for this this you know, coming battle. And in
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Speaker 1: nineteen oh five you see this huge change because you
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Speaker 1: have the ranch War, which is effectively the sort of
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Speaker 1: the lower classes sort of agriculturally, sort of small holders, farmers,
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Speaker 1: et cetera. And they are rebelling against the landlords because
12:18
Speaker 1: the landlords own all the land and they were basically
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Speaker 1: screwing people over. I mean, that's why boycotts exist because
12:27
Speaker 1: of the Irish so I will cover properly in probably
12:30
Speaker 1: another bity. So at some point, so there's this huge
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Speaker 1: protest by all of these smaller workers and small holders
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Speaker 1: and they're demanding to own their own land. And when
12:46
Speaker 1: things like that start happening, the concept of independence isn't
12:50
Speaker 1: exactly you know, a kick in the short away and
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Speaker 1: seeing the signs. Even members of Parliament, the Irish Parliament
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Speaker 1: who were made your landowners, started talking about land reform
13:03
Speaker 1: because you know, it's better to have a little bit
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Speaker 1: of land than no land at all, because you don't
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Speaker 1: want to lose everything you own and you know, maybe
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Speaker 1: be a attacked, looted, ruined, so on and so forth.
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Speaker 1: And now that we have all of that context, let's
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Speaker 1: get back to the Crown Jewels. So these are a
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Speaker 1: set of jewels worn by the Sovereign, the King of Britain,
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Speaker 1: made from British jewels, but held in Ireland and are
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Speaker 1: part of an Irish order of some kind blah blah blah.
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Speaker 1: So they're very much a symbol of Ireland being part
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Speaker 1: of Britain. Like that's it's what they represent, it's what
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Speaker 1: the insignia is effectively, that's why they chose Saint Patrick
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Speaker 1: as the most illustrious blah blah blah blah. Not being said,
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Speaker 1: it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to see
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Speaker 1: the Irish Crown jewels as a pretty tasty target. So
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Speaker 1: while I'm the fourth, he commissions the jewels in eighteen
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Speaker 1: thirty and from eighteen thirty one, so basically a year
14:13
Speaker 1: in Like, that's how long it takes to fashion jewels
14:16
Speaker 1: from one thing to another, I guess. So, yeah, they
14:19
Speaker 1: were delivered to Dublin in eighteen thirty one, and so
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Speaker 1: from then until nineteen oh three, the jewels were actually
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Speaker 1: held by a jeweler. Now this isn't surprising because I
14:31
Speaker 1: just took another look at these, okay, because somehow I
14:34
Speaker 1: had convinced myself that they were smaller because there was
14:39
Speaker 1: three hundred and ninety four jewels in total. Like in
14:43
Speaker 1: this this was made of three hundred and ninety four jels,
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Speaker 1: almost four hundred. That is a fucked on of jewels.
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Speaker 1: It's a star decorated with Brazilian diamonds. In the center,
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Speaker 1: there's an emerald trefoil and a cross on a blue
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Speaker 1: enamel background. Then a diamond badge and five gold jewel
15:08
Speaker 1: encrusted callers.
15:10
Speaker 3: Some of them are colorful.
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Speaker 1: They're very colorful and sparkly. Yeah, you know what, let's
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Speaker 1: remake them. Let's design our own crown jewels. You want
15:22
Speaker 1: crown jewels? Yes, do that. And you know what, baby,
15:26
Speaker 1: these jewels. Do you know how much they'd be worth
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Speaker 1: today in today's money? I don't know. Seven million euros.
15:34
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, that's a lot of money. It's a
15:38
Speaker 1: lot of jewels. Just saying so, because you know, there's
15:42
Speaker 1: a ton of jewels and it's worth a lot of money. Typically,
15:47
Speaker 1: the jewels would be housed at West and Sons, which
15:50
Speaker 1: is this prominent Dublin jeweler. And why this particular jeweler, well,
15:55
Speaker 1: it was the official watchmaker for Queen Victoria. And these
15:59
Speaker 1: jewelers were in fact fastidious. So if they had spoons
16:04
Speaker 1: that were sent out to be used by the King
16:06
Speaker 1: and Queen, you know, they would count them to make
16:09
Speaker 1: sure that none are missing. So they were very much
16:12
Speaker 1: about security. They were double locking things. They were on
16:17
Speaker 1: the ball. Now, when the jewels weren't at this jewelers,
16:22
Speaker 1: they would be transferred to Dublin Castle and this would
16:26
Speaker 1: usually be for quote unquote castle season which had all
16:31
Speaker 1: these balls and events and Royalty would visit because they
16:34
Speaker 1: would be taken there for you know, the worlds to
16:37
Speaker 1: wear them as and when required. Dublin Castle pretty busy
16:42
Speaker 1: by the way, because not only was it where you know,
16:45
Speaker 1: where the government sat, so the Government of Ireland for
16:50
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. That's where
16:53
Speaker 1: the government sat in Dublin Castle, but also it was
16:57
Speaker 1: the headquarters of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, so it was
17:01
Speaker 1: full of military, it was full of the police. It
17:05
Speaker 1: had you know, members of Parliament, like everybody was there.
17:10
Speaker 1: You know. It was not a place that was easy
17:15
Speaker 1: to get into or to take anything from because again
17:20
Speaker 1: just all of these like authority figures were there. So
17:25
Speaker 1: when the jewels were transferred to Dublin Castle, they were
17:29
Speaker 1: kept in a wall safe. This was in Birmingham's Tower
17:33
Speaker 1: and the safe only had two keys. But they were
17:38
Speaker 1: actually going to be moved to a deeper part of
17:41
Speaker 1: the castle and where they getting moved to Bedford Tower.
17:45
Speaker 1: Bedford Tower which is going to be the new office
17:48
Speaker 1: off of the Ulster King of Arms, not the Ulster
17:54
Speaker 1: King of Ours baby, but it's fine. I mean also yes,
17:58
Speaker 1: but it's okay, it is okay, everything's fine. So basically
18:03
Speaker 1: around nineteen oh one it was decided the Ulster King
18:06
Speaker 1: of Arms has obviously been moved into Bedford Tower, which
18:10
Speaker 1: Arthur Vickers was quite happy about. Now he was the
18:13
Speaker 1: Ulster King of Arms, so basically he was the dude
18:17
Speaker 1: in charge of all the heraldry. So at the turn
18:20
Speaker 1: of the century, especially land power. You know, all of
18:25
Speaker 1: this was related to family tree. It was all to
18:29
Speaker 1: do with inheritance, so you would need to be able
18:31
Speaker 1: to track that. So being the Ulster King of Arms
18:36
Speaker 1: that put Vicars in an incredibly powerful position because he
18:42
Speaker 1: was the one who did the research and was able
18:45
Speaker 1: to tell people, well you get this and you get that,
18:48
Speaker 1: or no you're not allowed to have this, et cetera,
18:50
Speaker 1: et cetera. And so he was the one who would
18:54
Speaker 1: say if you were the heir to the estate, or
18:57
Speaker 1: you were the legitimate heir, you know, if you carried
19:01
Speaker 1: the title or if Jimmy over there carried the title,
19:06
Speaker 1: and who would get the money. So yeah, he was
19:09
Speaker 1: in a good position. Unfortunately for Arthur Vickers. Another important
19:14
Speaker 1: part of this job was to be in charge of
19:18
Speaker 1: the Irish Crown Jewels as they would soon be known. Now,
19:22
Speaker 1: he wasn't really keen on this part, but he liked
19:27
Speaker 1: the rest of his job, so yeah, I mean, I mean,
19:31
Speaker 1: as a quide pro quo, it's not that bad. He
19:35
Speaker 1: gets power, he gets a set of Parliament, and he
19:39
Speaker 1: gets a lovely apartment at Dublin Castle and a lot
19:43
Speaker 1: of money and respect. So when he gets told that
19:46
Speaker 1: the jewels have to be moved to a deeper part
19:49
Speaker 1: of the castle, he's like, great, I deserve a free
19:53
Speaker 1: place to live, and also that the jewel should be
19:56
Speaker 1: kept in a safe inside a special strong room. Now,
20:01
Speaker 1: it was an important job, but not that important that
20:05
Speaker 1: the board of works at Dublin Castle. We're gonna give
20:07
Speaker 1: them free board. But they did like his super cool
20:11
Speaker 1: strong room idea, which I think was just an excuse
20:14
Speaker 1: for him to not have to deal with the jewels
20:16
Speaker 1: as often. And yeah, this is where things get a
20:19
Speaker 1: little bit farcical. Now, anyone who knows me knows I
20:23
Speaker 1: love a farce and I love a heist, and this
20:26
Speaker 1: has both. So they're thinking, we need to get this
20:30
Speaker 1: strong room all set up yet, and they're renovating Bedfield Tower,
20:37
Speaker 1: so they're renovating in this office, and when they go
20:40
Speaker 1: to move the safe into the strong room, the workers
20:44
Speaker 1: pretty sharply discovered that the measurements were all buggered up right.
20:50
Speaker 1: The safe wouldn't even fit through the doorway. They couldn't
20:54
Speaker 1: get it in the room. Now, this left them with
20:57
Speaker 1: a conundrum because they had a safe that couldn't get
21:00
Speaker 1: the room and a strong room that didn't have a safe. Now,
21:03
Speaker 1: it was supposed to hold the crown jewels and a
21:05
Speaker 1: bunch of like manuscripts and other such important and expensive things.
21:11
Speaker 1: So yeah, they're thinking, do we knock down some walls,
21:15
Speaker 1: do we jump through hoops and go begging and get
21:18
Speaker 1: teas crossed and as dotted just so we can get
21:21
Speaker 1: a smaller safe made cove yours? Baby?
21:25
Speaker 3: Why?
21:25
Speaker 1: Because I'm gonna say naughty words, okay, So they say,
21:29
Speaker 1: fuck this for a game of soldiers. They came up
21:32
Speaker 1: of the fantastic decision of keeping the safe in the
21:36
Speaker 1: library and it would be guarded from the outside. That's enough, right,
21:41
Speaker 1: that's fine, that's fine. And this was going to be
21:44
Speaker 1: like a temporary solution because this was the safe of safes.
21:48
Speaker 1: Nobody was going to break into this, right, right, she said, sarcastically,
21:53
Speaker 1: setting up this second part of this heist story. Now
21:58
Speaker 1: are there Vickers? He is for? He is pedantic as hell. Now,
22:02
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh five, Arthur Vickers he had written all
22:05
Speaker 1: of these rules and regulations about how the Crown jewels
22:10
Speaker 1: had to be kept in a safe, how the safe
22:12
Speaker 1: had to be kept in a strong room, and you know,
22:14
Speaker 1: not in the library. But he never moved a safe,
22:19
Speaker 1: that's right. He kept it in the libry, that's right.
22:25
Speaker 1: He loved the heraldry and inheritance and all that kind
22:27
Speaker 1: of stuff. He did loved that. Again, wasn't keen on
22:31
Speaker 1: actually guarding the crown jewels, you know, a pretty important
22:34
Speaker 1: part of his job description. And this was you know,
22:38
Speaker 1: kind of an issue because the library wasn't exactly hidden.
22:44
Speaker 1: It was the waiting room for Arthur Vickers's office, and
22:49
Speaker 1: so people were coming in and out of there quite
22:52
Speaker 1: a lot more than they should be for somewhere where
22:54
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be keeping you know, secure three hundred
22:59
Speaker 1: and ninety four jewels, like hmm, that's a lot of
23:04
Speaker 1: shiny rocks to be keeping, you know, relatively out in
23:08
Speaker 1: the open. Yeah. The library also very accessible, had a
23:14
Speaker 1: bunch of different doors, you know, many ways in, many
23:17
Speaker 1: ways out, and not every single one of these doors
23:22
Speaker 1: had a guard. Now, the whole point was they were
23:24
Speaker 1: going to have a sentry guard the door. Which door
23:29
Speaker 1: clearing out all the doors? Someone asked Bosco, which door
23:33
Speaker 1: is it? I don't know. That is a very nice joke.
23:37
Speaker 1: The only certain amount of my followers are going to
23:39
Speaker 1: get if they are Irish and old, or at least
23:43
Speaker 1: as old as me. So yeah, when when the sentry
23:50
Speaker 1: was guarding the safe, he couldn't actually see the safe
23:56
Speaker 1: from his guard boast, like where he was stationed, he
23:59
Speaker 1: couldn't see it. But yeah, yeah, the third time nineteen
24:05
Speaker 1: oh seven comes around, there's a bunch of stuff going
24:10
Speaker 1: on because it's it's a busy summer for the Irish
24:16
Speaker 1: government and Irish aristocracy, which are basically the same thing
24:20
Speaker 1: at this point. They're they're effectively one sort of homogeneous mass.
24:25
Speaker 1: They're just grouped together. We're just not doing as similar
24:28
Speaker 1: to other you know, ruling nations. Golf anyway, and May
24:34
Speaker 1: there was like World's Fair going on, the Irish International Exhibition,
24:40
Speaker 1: so yeah, from May, and it was supposed to run
24:42
Speaker 1: until November. So that was going on, and this fair
24:46
Speaker 1: was like legitimately massive though it had like two and
24:49
Speaker 1: a half million pusserals during it sort of run, and
24:52
Speaker 1: it had like a Somali village and a Japanese tea
24:55
Speaker 1: garden and other such symbols of you know, stuff that
24:59
Speaker 1: had taken from other countries. But anyway, the colonies. Yes, yes,
25:05
Speaker 1: actually you're you're right, okay, So you know British Empire colonization.
25:10
Speaker 1: You know, I mentioned the eradication of languages earlier, but
25:14
Speaker 1: also like to take things from other places and bring
25:17
Speaker 1: it sometimes did you show quote unquote the exotic other
25:23
Speaker 1: times to just you know, mm other stuff. So yeah,
25:30
Speaker 1: this fair was running from May. We had castle season
25:35
Speaker 1: going on, and of course the crown were coming. So
25:39
Speaker 1: we had King Edward the eighth. That's a lie, King
25:42
Speaker 1: Edward the seventh, we haven't Edward the eighth was later
25:46
Speaker 1: on he's he's the one who abdicated. Yes, so King
25:51
Speaker 1: Edward the seventh, his wife, Queen Alexandra, and Princess Victoria.
25:56
Speaker 1: So they were supposed to visit in July, go visit
26:00
Speaker 1: the exhibition, do some sort of royal you know duty stuff.
26:06
Speaker 1: And this is a time where remember you've got nationalism
26:10
Speaker 1: and unionism and this happening. And because of this political
26:17
Speaker 1: conflict and other such controversies that Royalty was having to
26:21
Speaker 1: deal with at the time, they very much needed this
26:26
Speaker 1: to be a smooth visit for things to go well.
26:31
Speaker 1: Spoiler alert, they did not. Four days before the monarchs
26:37
Speaker 1: were due to arrive in Ireland, the jewels go missing.
26:42
Speaker 1: Now I might be an anxious overthinker, but it does
26:44
Speaker 1: not take you know, Agatha Christie to realize that that
26:50
Speaker 1: a series of suspicious events have been happening consecutively, one
26:54
Speaker 1: after another in a row. On the twenty eighth of June,
26:58
Speaker 1: Arthur Vickers realizes his key is missing, the key to
27:03
Speaker 1: the front door of bedfuel Teller you know were his
27:07
Speaker 1: offices and you know the jewels, so he has to
27:12
Speaker 1: get a guard to let him in, like I don't know.
27:17
Speaker 1: Five days later, the cleaner, missus Farrell, She notices that
27:23
Speaker 1: the front door is unlocked and she tells the sentry,
27:26
Speaker 1: who then tells Arthur Vickers. Now the vicars, He's like,
27:30
Speaker 1: it's fine, and he does absolutely bugger roll. He doesn't
27:35
Speaker 1: go when he doesn't check the safe. He doesn't question
27:38
Speaker 1: the sentry or the guards, or even Missus Farrell, the
27:41
Speaker 1: cleaning lady, who at this point I'm convinced is the
27:44
Speaker 1: only sensible person here and also weird suspicious that this
27:51
Speaker 1: typically you know, pedantic, incredibly detail orientated man who you
27:57
Speaker 1: know has a penchant for security as well well, didn't
28:01
Speaker 1: think to mention to anybody, or I don't know, call
28:04
Speaker 1: a locksmith to change the locks because his key is missing,
28:07
Speaker 1: other stuff's gone wrong. Doesn't think to maybe organize something,
28:13
Speaker 1: you know. And again the cleaner, missus Farrell, she seems
28:17
Speaker 1: to be the only person with a head on her shoulders,
28:20
Speaker 1: or at least the only person who was actively aware
28:23
Speaker 1: of her surroundings, because three days after that, she's doing
28:27
Speaker 1: the round, she's doing her usual cleaning routine, and what
28:30
Speaker 1: does she discover but that the outer door of the
28:34
Speaker 1: strong room is unlocked. Bear in mind that the jewels
28:38
Speaker 1: are in the library and not the strong room. Bit
28:41
Speaker 1: still right, the outer door of the strong room is unlocked.
28:46
Speaker 1: Now the inner room to the strong room it's locked,
28:50
Speaker 1: but the key is still in the door, and it's
28:58
Speaker 1: not exactly inconspicuous because it's on a key ring with
29:02
Speaker 1: a bunch of other keys just dangling there in the
29:07
Speaker 1: lock of the inner door of the strong room, which
29:11
Speaker 1: is you know, meant to be storing a bunch of
29:15
Speaker 1: expensive shit.
29:16
Speaker 3: Did you say.
29:19
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm sorry, baby, Please forgive me now. The other
29:26
Speaker 1: key is there for like printing presses and a bunch
29:29
Speaker 1: of other like regular office stuff. But that's not the point.
29:33
Speaker 1: Missus Farrell, again, being the only one in this entire
29:36
Speaker 1: castle with at least a brain cell, she writes a
29:40
Speaker 1: note for the sentry explaining, you know the situation, and
29:45
Speaker 1: she leaves the keys for him. So the sentry reads
29:52
Speaker 1: the note, goes to the strong room and doesn't find
29:54
Speaker 1: anything or a peculiar going on. But then he decides
29:58
Speaker 1: to wait for Arthur Vicker's to come into work so
30:01
Speaker 1: we can tell them you know this situation. Now. Vickils
30:05
Speaker 1: he's up to high door. He's a bit stressed, you know,
30:08
Speaker 1: because the King's coming, and he appears to be so
30:12
Speaker 1: focused on this task that he's none too fust about
30:15
Speaker 1: some keys ending up in a place they shouldn't have been.
30:18
Speaker 1: And instead of, I don't know, doing anything, he decides
30:22
Speaker 1: to go up the stairs and sit at his desk,
30:25
Speaker 1: so West and Sun the jewelers. They had been working
30:28
Speaker 1: on one of the gold collars for the crown jewels,
30:32
Speaker 1: so they were making some changes to it, you know,
30:34
Speaker 1: fixing it up whatever. And so they had done that
30:38
Speaker 1: and they were sending it back, so they had a
30:39
Speaker 1: messenger bringing it back so it could be stored in
30:43
Speaker 1: the safe with the rest of the crown jewels. But
30:46
Speaker 1: of course other vicars is extremely busy because you know,
30:49
Speaker 1: the king is arriving in four days. So he gives
30:52
Speaker 1: the keys and the gold collar from West and Son
30:55
Speaker 1: over to the sentry and tells him to just go
30:57
Speaker 1: put it in the safe, this safe that is in
31:00
Speaker 1: the weirdly accessible library. So the century he's not nearly
31:05
Speaker 1: half as important as Vickers is, so he just does
31:07
Speaker 1: as he's told. He takes the golden collar, he takes
31:11
Speaker 1: the key, He goes down to the library. He puts
31:14
Speaker 1: his key in the lock and he tries to turn it,
31:19
Speaker 1: but uh, it doesn't turn. We all know the rules
31:23
Speaker 1: of righty tidy, lefty lucy. So he's trying to lock
31:27
Speaker 1: the safe, but this keyn't budgeon, and so he tries
31:32
Speaker 1: to turn it the other way and pull the handle,
31:37
Speaker 1: but when he does that, he can't open the safe
31:42
Speaker 1: and he very quickly realizes that at the very least
31:47
Speaker 1: for the entire morning, that safe had been unlocked. Naturally,
31:54
Speaker 1: the Fellaw panics and runs up to tell Arthur Vickers
31:58
Speaker 1: that they had a situation on their hands. The two
32:01
Speaker 1: men rush from Vickers office into the library and open
32:05
Speaker 1: the safe and inside basically empty, like nearly every piece
32:15
Speaker 1: of jewelry is gone. We are talking every single one
32:20
Speaker 1: of the gold collars worn by the Knights of the
32:23
Speaker 1: Order of Saint Patrick. They're all missing, you know, minus
32:27
Speaker 1: the one that western Son had been working on. A
32:31
Speaker 1: case full of the Mahoney family's jewels, which, like Vickers,
32:35
Speaker 1: was actually related to by his mum or something. And
32:40
Speaker 1: of course the Irish Crown jewels all bloody missing. No,
32:49
Speaker 1: that's a lie, that's a bare faced lie. They left ribbon,
32:53
Speaker 1: That's that's something. The ribbon was still in its box
32:59
Speaker 1: in the safe, so the jewels, and like the badge part,
33:04
Speaker 1: it was attached to the ribbon by this small hook.
33:07
Speaker 1: Now you could sort of pull it off if you
33:09
Speaker 1: really wanted to, but it was actually unscrewed. Like whoever
33:15
Speaker 1: did this took their time. They very very carefully unscrewed
33:21
Speaker 1: it and took the badge off. On top of that,
33:27
Speaker 1: all of the cloth and the tissue paper and other
33:32
Speaker 1: sort of garmentry which you know, wrapped the jewels and whatnot.
33:36
Speaker 1: They were carefully folded and placed back in their boxes
33:42
Speaker 1: like this was meticulous. This was careful. This was not
33:46
Speaker 1: you know, go in, swipe it, get the heck at
33:50
Speaker 1: a dodge like this was how patient. Whoever did this
33:58
Speaker 1: took their time. Now remember this is in Dublin Castle
34:02
Speaker 1: where the Dublin Metropolitan Police are stationed, so it didn't
34:06
Speaker 1: take very long for the police to arrive. And so
34:09
Speaker 1: they start their investigation. So they checked the front door
34:12
Speaker 1: of the tower, they check the strong room, and they
34:15
Speaker 1: check the safe and they notice all of the doors
34:18
Speaker 1: to these haven't been forced. There is no scratches on
34:24
Speaker 1: them or markings that would indicate, you know, a very
34:29
Speaker 1: quickly copied key, you know, and it would have taken
34:35
Speaker 1: a decent amount of time to make, you know, copies,
34:39
Speaker 1: especially during this time because it's the early nineteen hundreds.
34:44
Speaker 1: So there are two options right now, Either you know,
34:50
Speaker 1: a very good locksmith had fashioned some professional keys, or
34:59
Speaker 1: someone had take the original keys. So Bedfell Tower has
35:06
Speaker 1: seven keys to the front door. So you've got the sentry,
35:09
Speaker 1: you've got Arthur Vickers, you've got missus far with the cleaner,
35:13
Speaker 1: and then like just a couple of people who work
35:16
Speaker 1: for the Ulster Office of Arms, right the Office of
35:21
Speaker 1: the Arms, I should say. Then of course we've got
35:24
Speaker 1: the inner keys. So we've got four keys to the
35:29
Speaker 1: outer door of the strong room, and then the inner
35:32
Speaker 1: door of the strong room has two keys, and then
35:36
Speaker 1: the safe had two keys. And all the keys they're identical.
35:41
Speaker 1: We're not they're identical. All keys in each set are identical.
35:45
Speaker 1: Like nobody has like a different key, you know. So
35:51
Speaker 1: the four outer keys that century vicars Pierce Gone Mahoney,
36:00
Speaker 1: which I'm telling you because it's just a cool name,
36:03
Speaker 1: and that's Arthur Vicker's nephew and assistant. And then there's
36:10
Speaker 1: the secretary. But like the secretary's keys were actually in
36:13
Speaker 1: the strong room, so kind of rolled them out. Now
36:16
Speaker 1: the inner strong room keys. One was kept in Arthur
36:20
Speaker 1: Vickers's office, like so up the stairs in the air
36:23
Speaker 1: next and safe, and then the other key was kept
36:30
Speaker 1: in the door the inner door of the supposedly secure
36:38
Speaker 1: strong room. They just left the key in the door
36:42
Speaker 1: and they would only take out whenever the sentry left
36:45
Speaker 1: his post. And this baffles me because what they would
36:51
Speaker 1: do is they would leave it in a drawer near
36:55
Speaker 1: the strong room, just in case anybody needed to act,
37:00
Speaker 1: says it like other members of staff, which just I mean,
37:06
Speaker 1: that's that's bad enough. That's a bad security measure if
37:11
Speaker 1: ever there was them. I mean that being said, the
37:14
Speaker 1: safe wasn't in the strong room, but I feel like
37:17
Speaker 1: somewhere where you're keeping you know, priceless manuscripts should not
37:20
Speaker 1: be that accessible. So that's the information the Dublin Metropolitan
37:25
Speaker 1: Police managed to Ascultaine. Now again, the King is supposed
37:30
Speaker 1: to be visiting in four days. Naturally he is a
37:34
Speaker 1: little bit miffed, and but a little bit mift I
37:37
Speaker 1: mean absolutely livid, and so he sends in the big
37:41
Speaker 1: guns Scotland Yard. Scotland Yard come in, bringing with them
37:47
Speaker 1: Inspector John Kin who is absolutely convinced this is an
37:51
Speaker 1: inside job. So John Kain presents his report to the
37:55
Speaker 1: Dublin Police, who just keep rejecting it. They're like, no,
37:59
Speaker 1: definitely in job, you're wrong, you know, we wouldn't let
38:03
Speaker 1: that happen, And so they just reject it, and no
38:08
Speaker 1: one ever sees the report again, it does not reach
38:11
Speaker 1: the light of day. We have no idea what he
38:15
Speaker 1: thought it was, and John Kain and his team gets
38:19
Speaker 1: set back to Scotland Yard. Now, of course Arthur Vickers himself,
38:24
Speaker 1: he is adamant that absolutely none of his staff would
38:28
Speaker 1: do such a thing. They would not steal the Crown Jewels,
38:31
Speaker 1: which at this point are being called the Crown Jewels
38:33
Speaker 1: by the newspapers and the general public. And there's a
38:38
Speaker 1: reward as well, and he's convinced somebody's gonna come forward
38:41
Speaker 1: because it's like a thousand pounds reward, which I don't
38:44
Speaker 1: know is like one hundred and sixty one hundred and
38:47
Speaker 1: seventy grand in today's money. It's quite a bit. I mean,
38:52
Speaker 1: people do send in tips like people do when there's
38:55
Speaker 1: a reward on offer. But shockingly enough, these tips go nowhere.
38:59
Speaker 1: They even get this tip from like this trigger of
39:02
Speaker 1: saying she's having visions of them being buried in a cemetery.
39:06
Speaker 1: And so Arthur Vickers makes a point of going to
39:09
Speaker 1: two separate cemeteries, digging up around some terms, and shockingly enough,
39:14
Speaker 1: not finding the Crown jewels. This did not do much
39:17
Speaker 1: for his reputation. By the way, things were so bad
39:20
Speaker 1: for Arthur Vickers though, because he did have several assistants.
39:23
Speaker 1: He had three of them. So I mean about this,
39:27
Speaker 1: it's it's like an internship, except you get like a
39:31
Speaker 1: big fancy title and power because you don't get paid,
39:37
Speaker 1: but you do get a bunch of stuff. So he
39:40
Speaker 1: has three assistants, Francis Shackleton, Pierce Gone Mahoney and Francis
39:51
Speaker 1: Bennett Goldeney. Now these are these are three interesting fellas.
39:56
Speaker 1: So Francis Shackleton and you're thinking that's not common name
40:00
Speaker 1: and that sounds yeah, that's the brother of Ernest Shackleton,
40:05
Speaker 1: you know, the world famous explorer. So yeah, he's doing well.
40:10
Speaker 1: His brother's a big celebrity. And also he's very charming
40:15
Speaker 1: and handsome. And he was a ladies man, man's man,
40:18
Speaker 1: man about town, and he was known as a party boy.
40:23
Speaker 1: So he spent most of his time in London, but
40:25
Speaker 1: he did come to Dublin sort of here and there.
40:28
Speaker 1: And when he did come he would stay with Arthur
40:31
Speaker 1: Vickers at his house and like he was only there
40:35
Speaker 1: like one month a year, but still got to be
40:38
Speaker 1: an assistant and just somehow for some reason. For some way,
40:47
Speaker 1: Francis Shackleton pays half of Arthur Vickers bills, so like
40:52
Speaker 1: his rent, his I don't know fuel bill. It's it's
41:00
Speaker 1: why I mean, because he happened to be rich and
41:03
Speaker 1: like to get you know, titles and other such heraldry.
41:09
Speaker 1: Like what is that about now, hello the fat that
41:13
Speaker 1: I called him a ladies man. It's a habit. It's
41:16
Speaker 1: from the movie Down with Love where he's known as
41:20
Speaker 1: a ladies man. He's not. He's a man's man, man's man.
41:24
Speaker 1: Because Shackleton was something that was illegal in Ireland at
41:29
Speaker 1: the time. He was a homosexual, and nobody, nobody, well
41:34
Speaker 1: Vicars didn't care because he was paying his bills. Now,
41:39
Speaker 1: you can get away with most stuff at that time
41:41
Speaker 1: if you're very, very rich and you don't cause issues
41:46
Speaker 1: to the right kind of people, and so Francis was
41:49
Speaker 1: pretty lucky. Then of course we have the guy with
41:52
Speaker 1: a really cool name, Pierce Gunn Mahoney. So he's Arthur
41:57
Speaker 1: Vicker's nephew because he's the son of his half brother.
42:01
Speaker 1: So the Mahoney's that was their sort of box of
42:06
Speaker 1: family jewels that was in the safe. So they are
42:10
Speaker 1: very very rich and uh, fairly high up in Dublin society.
42:16
Speaker 1: Now he would spend most of his time in England,
42:19
Speaker 1: but shuggenly enough still spent more time working for the
42:23
Speaker 1: Office of Arms more than Shackleton, did you know, even
42:27
Speaker 1: he was there slightly more. And then we come to
42:30
Speaker 1: mystery drawer number three. Francis Bennett Goldney. He was an
42:34
Speaker 1: antiquarian and he was from a line of antiquity scholls,
42:41
Speaker 1: which made him, you know, very rich because he had
42:46
Speaker 1: this massive collection of just old stuff, rich stuff, you know, antiquities.
42:54
Speaker 1: So he's one of the people that shoots from the
42:56
Speaker 1: hip because he just straight up asks Arthur for like
42:59
Speaker 1: a job, and he's like, I want to work for
43:01
Speaker 1: you because I want more lofty titles. And he's like, cool,
43:07
Speaker 1: because you have lots of aristocratic connections. So yeah, yeah,
43:12
Speaker 1: it's fine. So you know, Arthur Vickers is only interested
43:19
Speaker 1: in like antiques and whatnot if it helps him find
43:23
Speaker 1: our information about you know, family trees and other such heraldry.
43:28
Speaker 1: And Bennett Goldeney would actually only be sworn into his
43:31
Speaker 1: position two months before the theft occurred. And he also
43:37
Speaker 1: had a secret, a secret that no one would discover
43:43
Speaker 1: until he passed away. Anyway, back to the story. After
43:48
Speaker 1: you know, the heist and or massive theft, the king
43:52
Speaker 1: is well pissed and he is straight up demanding the
43:56
Speaker 1: Arthur Vickers resign. He's like, give up your you know,
44:01
Speaker 1: resign as ulster king of arms and are the Vigors
44:06
Speaker 1: as no, because as far as he was concerned, he
44:09
Speaker 1: hadn't done anything wrong. The real people to blame were
44:12
Speaker 1: the Board of Works because the other ones who had
44:17
Speaker 1: a safe that was too big for the doorway because
44:20
Speaker 1: they didn't get the measurements right. He wanted to defend
44:23
Speaker 1: his he did. He didn't want to defend himself. He
44:27
Speaker 1: wanted to be able to stand up and tell his story,
44:31
Speaker 1: you know, is publicly as physically possible, because he wanted
44:34
Speaker 1: a big show and tell, and so he asks for
44:36
Speaker 1: a royal commission and uh, this was promptly denied. Instead
44:43
Speaker 1: he gets this absolute mockery of a trial. Right, it's
44:48
Speaker 1: a vice regal commission trial which he doesn't have any witnesses.
44:51
Speaker 1: There's no press, there's no members of the public and yeah,
44:57
Speaker 1: yeah it it's not based abound the investigation itself, but
45:02
Speaker 1: about how Arthur Vickers performed his duties. And so when
45:09
Speaker 1: you hear this, when they get this information, Arthur Vickers
45:14
Speaker 1: and his lawyers straight up get up and walk out
45:20
Speaker 1: like they say nothing. They just up and leave. And so,
45:25
Speaker 1: because he's not there to defend himself or provide any information,
45:28
Speaker 1: the Commission basically says that he failed in his job,
45:33
Speaker 1: like he didn't do it right because of the rules
45:37
Speaker 1: and regulations, the stipulations that he had written out in
45:40
Speaker 1: nineteen oh five which stated that the safe must be
45:44
Speaker 1: kept in the strong room and instead the safe was
45:48
Speaker 1: kept in a library. Arthur Vickers had been delinquent in
45:54
Speaker 1: his juries and you know, hadn't done the right thing,
45:59
Speaker 1: even though it wasn't his fault that the safety didn't fit.
46:04
Speaker 1: So he is fired. But here's the thing, mahoney. You know,
46:09
Speaker 1: the nephew was all about defending Arthur Vickers, and so
46:14
Speaker 1: he's contacting members of Parliament and he's trying to get
46:18
Speaker 1: people to get on board and to you know, fix this,
46:21
Speaker 1: but they're refusing to help. And when he asks them why,
46:26
Speaker 1: it's because he is, you know, consorting with people of
46:30
Speaker 1: undesirable character. Basically, they were referring to Francis Shackleton and
46:36
Speaker 1: the circle of known homosexuals in society at the time.
46:41
Speaker 1: That being said, higher ranking members of parliament, people in
46:45
Speaker 1: high society are working very hard to make this story
46:48
Speaker 1: just kind of go under the rug. The first thing
46:51
Speaker 1: they do is offer Arthur Vickers a full pension, which
46:54
Speaker 1: is weird for somebody they just fired from negligence because yeah,
46:57
Speaker 1: that Marthete Mathin and a lot of pres was put
47:00
Speaker 1: on the press to make sure they didn't mention anything
47:04
Speaker 1: about a sex scandal within the Irish government, not even
47:08
Speaker 1: hint at it. It's almost as if you know, there
47:13
Speaker 1: was a member of royalty involved, like the Duke of Argyle,
47:16
Speaker 1: the King's brother in law. Basically, there was rumors circulating
47:20
Speaker 1: that in Bedford Tower they were having special parties, and
47:24
Speaker 1: by special parties, I mean oh geez, which I'm saying
47:28
Speaker 1: in that way so the little ears do not repeat them.
47:32
Speaker 1: But yet, as it turns out, ah, those special parties
47:37
Speaker 1: weren't special parties at all, because Arthur Vicars is an
47:41
Speaker 1: absolute lightweight, like he cannot handle his booze. And instead
47:47
Speaker 1: of there being big gay soirees, it was like frat
47:51
Speaker 1: boys together and they were just pranking each other or
47:56
Speaker 1: you know, pranking Vickers, because again first one down, you know,
48:02
Speaker 1: so Arthur Vickers, he gets so incredibly sloshed, I don't know,
48:08
Speaker 1: because he's one and a half gins in or something
48:11
Speaker 1: and he passes out. So he's in his office and
48:15
Speaker 1: he is down. Now apparently this was a common occurrence,
48:20
Speaker 1: like he would often have a couple of drinks and
48:22
Speaker 1: then just be just zonked in his office. So what
48:26
Speaker 1: they do is his pals they go through his clothes,
48:30
Speaker 1: you know, is drinking buddies, and they find his keys.
48:34
Speaker 1: They go downstairs, open the safe, take out the Crown jewels,
48:39
Speaker 1: go back upstairs and then put the keys back. Then
48:43
Speaker 1: his burial pals posted the jewels back to him, so
48:49
Speaker 1: he gets away surprise and he's like, oh great, these
48:53
Speaker 1: have happened, and so he brings them back and puts
48:57
Speaker 1: them back in the safe. Right, So this might explain why,
49:02
Speaker 1: you know, for the first wee while the Vicars isn't
49:07
Speaker 1: that other, Vickers isn't too fussed about things going missing,
49:10
Speaker 1: or why he expected the jewels to just show up
49:14
Speaker 1: after a couple of days, because you know, as had
49:17
Speaker 1: already happened, it was probably just another prank. But the
49:21
Speaker 1: jewels were never returned and they have not been seen
49:25
Speaker 1: since anywhere in existence in the world. But of course
49:31
Speaker 1: there's some theories which I know you're dying to hear about.
49:34
Speaker 1: So the first theory is about Lord Aberdeen. So Aberdeen
49:40
Speaker 1: is a nationalist and he's trying to get Home rule.
49:43
Speaker 1: He's an advocate for it, and of course the Unionists
49:47
Speaker 1: the pro British people want to embarrass him because you know,
49:52
Speaker 1: they don't want Ireland to be ruled by itself. They
49:57
Speaker 1: don't want to lose power or control or money. And
50:02
Speaker 1: I mean he's the thing. The majority of the public
50:05
Speaker 1: in Ireland Catholic and the ruling elite Protestant, so of
50:10
Speaker 1: course they want to maintain what power they have. Yeah,
50:16
Speaker 1: So when they will have to deal with Aberdeen and
50:19
Speaker 1: they hatch a plan, they decide they're going to steal
50:23
Speaker 1: the crown jewels and they do this so that they
50:26
Speaker 1: can get him dismissed. Oh I should mention, mahoney, is
50:31
Speaker 1: Lord Aberdeen? Like? That's him? Unfortunately this doesn't work because
50:36
Speaker 1: he's not blamed and he doesn't lose his position. So yeah,
50:41
Speaker 1: theory number two involves Francis Shackleton, So he plans the
50:49
Speaker 1: theft because you know, he's always sworning about flashing his cash,
50:54
Speaker 1: but he's not doing to be all financially. He's got
50:58
Speaker 1: an expensive lifestyle and he owes molla to his pals.
51:05
Speaker 1: Like in nineteen oh seven, he ends up having to
51:08
Speaker 1: testify that he had to borrow money from loan sharks
51:12
Speaker 1: because of how broke he is, and he knows how
51:16
Speaker 1: to get access to the jewels. So Shackleton one night,
51:21
Speaker 1: one of the drunken nights, gets a hold of Arthur's keys.
51:25
Speaker 1: He gets professional copy made because he can get them
51:29
Speaker 1: maybe a drinking party, you know, or maybe at Vicker's
51:32
Speaker 1: house that he pays for. So he gets them and
51:39
Speaker 1: he goes away. He makes a point of being seen
51:42
Speaker 1: in London or wherever the hell he was in order
51:45
Speaker 1: to have an alibi, and then he gets one of
51:49
Speaker 1: his undesirable whatever dude's his lover or whatever to go
51:56
Speaker 1: in and actually do the thievery right, and he wants
52:01
Speaker 1: it to look like a big, proper scary theft, but
52:06
Speaker 1: it doesn't work out that way because because of course
52:09
Speaker 1: it doesn't, like they couldn't organize a piss up in
52:11
Speaker 1: a brewery like not. So yeah, it's all to do
52:16
Speaker 1: with like all this, and then Shackleton takes the jewels,
52:19
Speaker 1: he pops them apart, and like he just starts selling
52:22
Speaker 1: them all over Europe where now and we know what
52:25
Speaker 1: they are and like this is a theory that many
52:29
Speaker 1: believe was actually part of John Kaine's official report because
52:34
Speaker 1: it would have included people like the Duke of Argyle,
52:37
Speaker 1: the King's brother in law. They think that this is
52:40
Speaker 1: how it was suppressed. Now there's another theory involving Shackleton,
52:44
Speaker 1: where he didn't do it because you know, he was broke.
52:48
Speaker 1: He did it because he was being blackmailed because he
52:51
Speaker 1: was gay. So although you know, although his sexuality was
52:56
Speaker 1: known within society or you know, polite society, it was
53:01
Speaker 1: you know, it was brushed onto the rocket was ignored.
53:04
Speaker 1: You know, people look to the side. But as the
53:08
Speaker 1: theory goes, he was being blackmailed to prevent you know,
53:12
Speaker 1: this scandalous information from hitting the newspapers, you know, and
53:17
Speaker 1: so he had to go break in, steal the jewels.
53:22
Speaker 1: He manages to get access to Arthur Vicker's keys, gets
53:25
Speaker 1: them copied, and then you know, hopes for silence. But
53:30
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Blackmailers rarely stop at one they want
53:34
Speaker 1: to keep getting it, so I don't really hold this
53:36
Speaker 1: one particularly true. Theory number four revolves around Irish nationalists
53:42
Speaker 1: who orchestrated the crime in order to embarrass the king
53:46
Speaker 1: and to basically insult British rule, which would promote Irish
53:52
Speaker 1: nationalism somehow. Now remember our antiquarian Bennett Goldeney. This is
54:01
Speaker 1: theory number five, and this is his secret. Turns out,
54:08
Speaker 1: Bennett Goldeney was a thief, something that didn't come out
54:13
Speaker 1: about him until after he passed away. So, naturally, being
54:18
Speaker 1: a collector of antiquities and being from you know, generations
54:22
Speaker 1: of them, a lot of stuff was getting sorted and
54:25
Speaker 1: arranged to be auctioned. And as they're going through all
54:30
Speaker 1: the stuff that's to be auctioned off, they discover ancient
54:34
Speaker 1: manuscripts from Canterbury, Like of all the things to hoard, like, hmm,
54:42
Speaker 1: I must have the old things like that's that's an obsession, mate.
54:47
Speaker 1: So on top of that, you've got like paintings, manuscripts,
54:52
Speaker 1: and you know a few other pieces which you know
54:57
Speaker 1: ethically and legally did not belong to him. And so
55:04
Speaker 1: then the theory goes that Bennett Goldeney, you know, has
55:09
Speaker 1: access to the key, and either by himself or in
55:13
Speaker 1: association with Shackleton or one of the other men the century,
55:17
Speaker 1: perhaps he plans the heust and arranges an alibi. He
55:24
Speaker 1: gets the jewels, he travels to Europe and then fences them.
55:29
Speaker 1: But as I said before, the jewels were never discovered,
55:34
Speaker 1: they were never seen after this, so they could be
55:38
Speaker 1: somewhere in the Irish countryside or mainland Europe, or anywhere
55:44
Speaker 1: right now. And so ends the story of the Irish
55:49
Speaker 1: Crown Jewels. If you liked my retailling of this very
55:52
Speaker 1: peculiar heust with an unsatisfactory ending, feel free to writing
55:56
Speaker 1: review five stars. Of course, you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook,
56:01
Speaker 1: TikTok whatever Twitter is known as. Now, I don't know,
56:06
Speaker 1: just to squiggle on a dot at this point, probably
56:09
Speaker 1: and yeah, it is recommendation time. Hey, do you want
56:13
Speaker 1: to give a recommendation for people to to watch or
56:16
Speaker 1: listen or read? What a recommendation is when you suggest
56:21
Speaker 1: to someone something like like, I can recommend a movie
56:26
Speaker 1: to watch or TV show or a book to read.
56:31
Speaker 1: What book do you think people should read? Ryan Chalk Factor,
56:35
Speaker 1: Charlie the chalka Factory. You heard it here first, she said, well,
56:39
Speaker 1: in that case, we should recommend they go watch the
56:42
Speaker 1: new Wonka film.
56:42
Speaker 3: It's out, and we one day we can tell you
56:48
Speaker 3: to try you in your Choco Factor book, we can
56:50
Speaker 3: read it to you.
56:51
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe we could do that, maybe we could. And
56:56
Speaker 1: for listening, I am going to recommend again my friend
57:02
Speaker 1: actually Kraken's Cabin podcast. And with that we are going
57:07
Speaker 1: to bid you good night. Adieus Au revoir of We
57:12
Speaker 1: Is My Friends, Bye bye