Latest / Ridiculous History / The Australian Prison Break of 1876 Part 1

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The Australian Prison Break of 1876 Part 1 · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you Oz always
0:30
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Over there on the other
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Speaker 1: side of the zoom, we've got the one and only
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Speaker 1: super producer, Max Williams. Give it up for him. And uh,
0:40
Speaker 1: they call me Ben. There's someone else on the zoom,
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Speaker 1: one of my favorite people wearing one of my favorite
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Speaker 1: t shirts. No, I noticed you noticed my shirt. I
0:51
Speaker 1: noticed your shirt. I like your shirt, thanks man. This
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Speaker 1: is a Daily Zeitgeist shirt, signed by every member of
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Speaker 1: the Daily Zeitgeist crew in blood. Um. It's a little
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Speaker 1: below the fold. You can't see that part, but it's
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Speaker 1: a very prized possessional and I only wear it, you know,
1:04
Speaker 1: as like a sort of podcast totem, you know, just
1:07
Speaker 1: to give me that podcast juice, because it really is
1:10
Speaker 1: sort of imbued with the spirit of podcasting. Yeah. Yeah.
1:14
Speaker 1: And also, I've wondered this before. This has nothing to
1:17
Speaker 1: do with today's episode, folks, but I've wondered this before.
1:20
Speaker 1: Maybe there's a question or fellow Ridiculous Historians can answer.
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Speaker 1: So you guys know how it's considered like poor taste.
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Speaker 1: You're kind of lame to wear the T shirt of
1:30
Speaker 1: a band that you're going to see at their concert.
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Speaker 1: Does the same thing happen with podcasts like we I
1:36
Speaker 1: have some old, ridiculous history T shirts and I never
1:40
Speaker 1: wear them outside because it feels strange for me. That's different, man,
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Speaker 1: That's that's the equivalent of you wearing your own band's
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Speaker 1: T shirt, which is the most epic of flexus. They
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Speaker 1: can only be pulled off by a select few, like say,
1:54
Speaker 1: maybe Metallica in the eighties. They could have done that,
1:57
Speaker 1: you know, our Mega Death or something like that, or
1:59
Speaker 1: one of those death metal bands where you can't even
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Speaker 1: read what the script says because it's just like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: angry angry thorns precisely. Uh. And again I would ask Ben,
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Speaker 1: who is it that says it's lame to wear a
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Speaker 1: band's T shirt? Let's just show solidarity? Or who are
2:14
Speaker 1: you are there to be seen? Are you there to
2:16
Speaker 1: support your your band? You know? Yeah, you know, it's
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Speaker 1: like we're in a jersey to a supporting of that.
2:20
Speaker 1: No one would shut you down for that. There you go,
2:22
Speaker 1: that's an excellent comparison. Max is nodding there, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: I think that's a really good point. And you know me, man,
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Speaker 1: I'd just like to see when people are enthusiastic and happy.
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Speaker 1: So if you're if you're wearing something that makes you happy,
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Speaker 1: and uh, it doesn't matter if you can pull it off.
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Speaker 1: But speaking and pulling stuff off, let's talk about you're
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Speaker 1: so good at that. It's just uh, I disagree, but
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Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. Uh No, you and Max and
2:51
Speaker 1: I were super into Heist recently and we had we
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Speaker 1: had teased another kind of like heist related I would say,
3:01
Speaker 1: a good old fashioned prison break in the past episode.
3:04
Speaker 1: But we got so excited when we had a chance
3:06
Speaker 1: to talk with Alex Williams earlier this week that we
3:10
Speaker 1: actually put a pause on our heist on our higst face.
3:14
Speaker 1: But my friend, I believe we're back to it today.
3:16
Speaker 1: Is that correct? That's right, We're back in high smoke.
3:18
Speaker 1: Can I still be the bagman? Ben? I just wanted
3:20
Speaker 1: the cost I've always wanted to be a bagman. I
3:22
Speaker 1: will have no other bagman in the crew other than you.
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Speaker 1: It's the bagman, the guy that carries the money like
3:28
Speaker 1: like like a suitcase with a handcuff, Like, well, what's
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Speaker 1: what's what's my role? Yeah, it's it depends on the
3:34
Speaker 1: nature of our heist, so like, because you always need
3:37
Speaker 1: a good bagman. So like, if we were robbing a
3:40
Speaker 1: bank and don't do it, by the way, you'd be
3:42
Speaker 1: surprised how little money bank robbers actually make. We have
3:44
Speaker 1: a brain stuff video about it. It's interesting and depressing.
3:48
Speaker 1: But if if we were for some reason robbing a bank,
3:50
Speaker 1: then you, as the bagman, would be the person taking
3:54
Speaker 1: the money to you know, the getaway driver that we
3:56
Speaker 1: probably have, like the muscle. It depends on how we
3:59
Speaker 1: want to go with it. And if we were in
4:00
Speaker 1: a prison break, you would have probably a bag of tools.
4:03
Speaker 1: That's right, And one could argue that a prison break
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Speaker 1: is a heist where the stolen goods are in fact
4:10
Speaker 1: the heist ees you know, or the crew themselves. They're
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Speaker 1: literally absconding with themselves. They're literally stealing their own physical
4:19
Speaker 1: bodies from like this conceptual vault that is the prison
4:23
Speaker 1: that is helping them and conceptual and literal. So so
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Speaker 1: today's episode takes us to Australia. This is a continent
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Speaker 1: that we have always wanted to visit, at least Nolan
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Speaker 1: I Max. Have you ever have you ever found yourself
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Speaker 1: in Australia. I have not found myself in Australia. I
4:42
Speaker 1: want to go up, but I'm also like definitely afraid
4:45
Speaker 1: of that like country because I mean has some of
4:47
Speaker 1: the craziest animals ever, like giant snakes, like no, no,
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Speaker 1: So I don't know. Maybe yes, I would love to
4:56
Speaker 1: go to Australia, but I'm terrified of that country. Well, also,
4:59
Speaker 1: you wouldn't like the aim flight. I think was it
5:01
Speaker 1: about something crazy offline of Seattle here in a few
5:06
Speaker 1: weeks and it's like five hours? Are you kidding me?
5:09
Speaker 1: That's how long I would be on a plane. It's
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Speaker 1: gonna be so worth it. Max, You're gonna love it there,
5:12
Speaker 1: You're gonna love it real quick shout out. You're talking
5:14
Speaker 1: about the wilds of Australia. Just to shout out to
5:17
Speaker 1: my buddy peach Uh and Tom who live in I
5:21
Speaker 1: believe South Wales like Queensland area, but like near the
5:25
Speaker 1: Great Barrier Reef, like in this gorgeous, idyllic yet terrifying,
5:30
Speaker 1: you know rainforest situation. Constantly posting Instagram stories of like
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Speaker 1: snakes having sex in their ceiling and knocking down lights
5:37
Speaker 1: and them having to replace them and they're always just
5:40
Speaker 1: very humanitarian in their treatment of wildlife, even if they're
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Speaker 1: totally encroaching on their day to day But you're right, Max,
5:46
Speaker 1: some of these animals look like stuff straight out of
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Speaker 1: Doctor Seuss books. It's wild, very very wild country. It's
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Speaker 1: unique because it had been isolated for such a long
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Speaker 1: time from other ecosystems that there were some interesting opportunities
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Speaker 1: for evolution. And I like the shout out too, because
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Speaker 1: we do have a lot of Australian listeners, so I'd
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Speaker 1: also like to shout out Ellie and shout out Patrese uh.
6:10
Speaker 1: And if you would like a shout out, let us know.
6:13
Speaker 1: We'll tell you how to get in contact with us
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Speaker 1: at the end of the show. But first we gotta
6:17
Speaker 1: figure out how these how these jail breaks happened. Uh.
6:21
Speaker 1: For if you know much about the history of Australia,
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Speaker 1: you know that it is a complicated, winding, very old
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Speaker 1: story and for a time convicts were shipped from Europe
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Speaker 1: to Australia. Our our story starts today with a guy
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Speaker 1: named John Devoy. Can you introduce us to John sure Canman.
6:46
Speaker 1: John Devoy was an Irish revolutionary who went to prison
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Speaker 1: in England and was later exiled to America. UH he
6:55
Speaker 1: was a member and senior official in the Irish Republican
6:59
Speaker 1: brother Hood also known as the Fenians UM. Born in
7:04
Speaker 1: County Killdare in eighteen forty two. UM, he spent a
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Speaker 1: lot of his time as a recruiter, finding thousands actually
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Speaker 1: of Irish born young men to literally sabotage the British
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Speaker 1: army from within, and he was successful with this recruitment process.
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Speaker 1: By eighteen sixty six, UH there were an estimated eighty
7:28
Speaker 1: thousand Fenian recruits. But then someone dropped the dime, someone
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Speaker 1: snitched to the British and Devoi was exposed because the
7:36
Speaker 1: Powers that be found out there was a rebellion in
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Speaker 1: the works. So when Devoy is caught, he's convicted of treason.
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Speaker 1: He's sentenced to fifteen years hard time in a place
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Speaker 1: called the Isle of Portland's in England. We also want
7:50
Speaker 1: to give a big thanks to the good folks over
7:53
Speaker 1: at Smithsonian and our research associate Gabe Gilbert King wrote
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Speaker 1: this wonderful article that we're pulling some sources from here.
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Speaker 1: So anyway, Devoi is he serves about five years at
8:09
Speaker 1: at this location. He's been sentenced to fifteen, and then
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Speaker 1: he was exiled to the U S where he became
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Speaker 1: a journalist. Doesn't that seem like a little bit lenient
8:19
Speaker 1: it feels to me? And if it feels to me
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Speaker 1: like literally sabotaging the British army from within with like
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Speaker 1: moles and spies and you know, all of that kind
8:27
Speaker 1: of subterfuge, you know, the word treason was used That
8:30
Speaker 1: usually results in a death sentence, doesn't right, man? Like
8:34
Speaker 1: I mean, whenever I read about stories like this, I
8:37
Speaker 1: always think I can't get away with a late library book,
8:40
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And people are out here
8:42
Speaker 1: overthrowing governments. I fell asleep trying to put on a
8:45
Speaker 1: pair of pants one day. I just it makes me
8:47
Speaker 1: think about ambition and whether or not whether or not
8:51
Speaker 1: I have enough of it. But this guy, Yeah, you're right,
8:53
Speaker 1: he seems to have gotten off easy, doesn't he m.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I don't know about if they
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Speaker 1: had parole types that rations in these imprisonment scenarios, but
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Speaker 1: it sure feels like that's kind of what he got
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Speaker 1: because he was out after five years. He was exiled
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Speaker 1: to America, But like you said, he was able to
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Speaker 1: kind of start a new life and became a journalist
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Speaker 1: for the New York Herald and then became active with
9:15
Speaker 1: a subset of Fenians. Um there in the U s
9:19
Speaker 1: a group called Clan na Gael. Yeah, a legit secret society.
9:24
Speaker 1: There's a conspiracy. So he's back with the Finians. He's
9:27
Speaker 1: back with the cause. Let's go back to Ireland real quick.
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Speaker 1: Because as we said, Devoi wasn't the only Finian. Far
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Speaker 1: from it. There was another guy named James Wilson. We
9:43
Speaker 1: need to introduce. He was. He joined the Fifth Dragoon,
9:48
Speaker 1: the British Army Guards, the Fifth Dragoon Guards in the
9:51
Speaker 1: eighteen sixties, and he was secretly also a Fenian. So
9:57
Speaker 1: he had a different oath that he took in secret,
10:00
Speaker 1: and part of that was that he was going to
10:02
Speaker 1: do his utmost to secure democratic, independent republic in Ireland.
10:09
Speaker 1: And so eventually, in eighteen sixty five, he and a
10:13
Speaker 1: fellow conspirator named Martin Hogan decided to go a wall.
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Speaker 1: They desert the army, and they do this after they
10:22
Speaker 1: have already kind of turned a bunch of other Irish
10:27
Speaker 1: soldiers in the Dragoons and introduced them to the society
10:32
Speaker 1: of Fenians. But then again someone snitched and Wilson, like Devoi,
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Speaker 1: was arrested. He was court martialed on February tenth, eighteen
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Speaker 1: sixty six. Right, but he did get a death sentence,
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Speaker 1: at least initially. Uh. And it doesn't seem like what
10:50
Speaker 1: the two men did were that far afield from each other.
10:53
Speaker 1: That's why I'm a little confused about Devois, you know,
10:55
Speaker 1: comparatively lenient sentence. But again, it was commuted to lie
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Speaker 1: in prison at a place called Fremantle Prison, which was
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Speaker 1: on the continent of Australia, which, as we know, began
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Speaker 1: as an English prison colony. Essentially, Yeah, as far as
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Speaker 1: the British were concerned, it's it's funny because well not
11:18
Speaker 1: funny ha ha, but it's fascinating because if you look
11:22
Speaker 1: at the history of Australia in the way it affects
11:25
Speaker 1: people in the modern day, it's estimated that almost twenty
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Speaker 1: percent of modern Australians are descended in some part from
11:36
Speaker 1: people who who were punished with what was called transport.
11:40
Speaker 1: Transport was the word they would use, like your your
11:43
Speaker 1: sentenced to transportation, So you are shipped off to Australia,
11:48
Speaker 1: shipped off down Under. And this might sound like this
11:52
Speaker 1: might sound like a really cool thing. You might say,
11:55
Speaker 1: oh wow. So instead of instead of killing them, they said,
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Speaker 1: on an all expense paid trip to a place you
12:03
Speaker 1: know nowadays a lot of people would love to visit.
12:05
Speaker 1: This was not the case. So he goes on my ship.
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Speaker 1: He travels with other Finian prisoners, Wilson that is, And
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Speaker 1: when they get to Australia, there's a Catholic chaplain who says,
12:19
Speaker 1: you should you should let these guys continue to work together.
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Speaker 1: They should be imprisoned together as a group, the Finians.
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Speaker 1: So they're allowed to work together separately from other convicts,
12:31
Speaker 1: as long as they were civilians. Wilson was a military deserter,
12:37
Speaker 1: so there's an extra level of dislike and repugnance for
12:40
Speaker 1: him right well, and also probably scrutiny. You know, someone
12:44
Speaker 1: like that has those kind of military chops and maybe
12:47
Speaker 1: uh possesses the knowledge to pull a fast one on
12:51
Speaker 1: the guards and maybe I don't know, plan some sort
12:53
Speaker 1: of elaborate Oceans eleven style prison break Dun Dunn, and
12:59
Speaker 1: we're getting to it. Yes. So, so because Wilson is
13:03
Speaker 1: a military deserter, the powers that be don't don't like
13:06
Speaker 1: that kind of They don't like that kind of vibe,
13:09
Speaker 1: so they disperse those dudes just amongst the general population
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Speaker 1: there in gen pop, and people like Wilson hate it.
13:18
Speaker 1: They're disgusted. Years and years past, it's eighteen sixty nine
13:22
Speaker 1: and by this point a little more than half of
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Speaker 1: those Fitian convicts get royal pardons, but nine of those
13:31
Speaker 1: ex British soldiers get pardons. And that's because the Duke
13:36
Speaker 1: of Cambridge. Legend had it, as we're finding this from
13:40
Speaker 1: Irish Central dot com, but legend has it that the
13:42
Speaker 1: Duke of Cambridge had influenced Prime Minister Gladstone and said,
13:47
Speaker 1: you will not you will not go easy on these people.
13:50
Speaker 1: None of them can get pardons. What are you are
13:54
Speaker 1: you playing, Gladstone? No, I'm the Duke of Cambridge, and
13:57
Speaker 1: what I say goes. He doesn't play dukes, don't way.
14:00
Speaker 1: Maybe they do. Maybe they play like polo or something.
14:02
Speaker 1: I don't know what water polo. Surely I was thinking
14:07
Speaker 1: more like traditional Horsey port polo. But maybe you know
14:09
Speaker 1: in the summer the mansion. Oh what's that, Max Gsage? Yes,
14:21
Speaker 1: I know, we can see my hands. I'm doing that
14:24
Speaker 1: clippity kloppin. Yeah, really quick, just to call it another
14:28
Speaker 1: awesome source. And if you're into Irish history and and
14:31
Speaker 1: maybe even interested in visiting Ireland, highly recommend checking out
14:34
Speaker 1: Irish Central dot com. There's an article there by the
14:37
Speaker 1: staff that we also pulled some resources on for this episode. Yeah,
14:42
Speaker 1: and so Wilson is many things, but he's not a dummy,
14:47
Speaker 1: far from it. And he realizes Luke, as long as
14:51
Speaker 1: people like the Duke of Cambridge or in the mix
14:54
Speaker 1: me and the boys are not getting pardons, we are
14:57
Speaker 1: either going to serve out the entirety of our tour
15:00
Speaker 1: in this prison, or we are going to have to
15:03
Speaker 1: go on the lamb. We'll have to make an escape.
15:06
Speaker 1: And so he writes a secret letter, reaching out to
15:11
Speaker 1: his network for some help. I love a secret letter.
15:14
Speaker 1: Do you think it had some sort of like like
15:16
Speaker 1: a cryptical hope, so like like a wax seal on
15:20
Speaker 1: it of some kind, you know, I mean like a
15:22
Speaker 1: code disappearing ink or you have disappearing ink. That was
15:25
Speaker 1: what I was to remember that. Well, you can make
15:27
Speaker 1: that with what like lemon juice and something else, I think,
15:29
Speaker 1: so yeah, Or like maybe you have to fold the
15:31
Speaker 1: letter like those old Mad magazine covers. Do you guys
15:34
Speaker 1: mad magazine. Oh yeah, so I remember it being very baldy.
15:40
Speaker 1: So before we get to this letter, maybe we talk
15:43
Speaker 1: just a little bit about the Fremantled Prison. It is
15:48
Speaker 1: not a super pleasant place and we know a lot
15:53
Speaker 1: about it thanks to a writer named Peter Murphy himself
15:57
Speaker 1: Irish Australian who wrote a book called Finny and Fear,
16:00
Speaker 1: That's sure. And this is not to be confused with
16:02
Speaker 1: the Peter Murphy from the Seminole goth band Bauhouse. Just
16:07
Speaker 1: to put that out there in case anyone was wondering,
16:09
Speaker 1: which I'm sure very few of you were. Yeah, but
16:11
Speaker 1: sixty two Finnians all told, were sent to Western Australia
16:15
Speaker 1: and locked up in Fremantle Prison, that, by the way,
16:19
Speaker 1: was located in what is today modern day Perth, the
16:23
Speaker 1: Perth metro area. And I believe Fremntal Prison it definitely
16:27
Speaker 1: stands today, and I believe it is the only World
16:30
Speaker 1: Heritage site in all of Australia, which is a massive continent.
16:34
Speaker 1: And earlier, just want to say something real quick. Earlier
16:36
Speaker 1: I said it's a wild country, referring to the you know,
16:40
Speaker 1: the really rural parts of Australia. I know Australia is
16:42
Speaker 1: a content I was like being, you know, like Dickenzie
16:45
Speaker 1: in about it like it's a wild, wild country. It's
16:48
Speaker 1: both a country and a continent. You know, it's it's
16:50
Speaker 1: pretty and inn Island, Yeah, there is also in island.
16:57
Speaker 1: I want it depends on your perspective, right, because it's
17:00
Speaker 1: a good question. I I do want to shout out,
17:02
Speaker 1: though unrelated to anything except the name, Australia is also
17:06
Speaker 1: home to one of my favorite winds, W I and
17:10
Speaker 1: D s. It's there's a wind called the Fremantle Doctor.
17:16
Speaker 1: Isn't that a cool name? Sometimes the locals apparently just
17:19
Speaker 1: call it the Doctor. I love the idea of a
17:21
Speaker 1: wind that has a name. So if you, if you
17:24
Speaker 1: have experience with, or if you're familiar with any other
17:28
Speaker 1: thing like this, like a wind that has a name,
17:31
Speaker 1: please tell us you can't wait to hear everything about
17:33
Speaker 1: Isn't there a fantasy series of fantasy novels called the
17:36
Speaker 1: Name of the Wind. There's something called the Name of
17:39
Speaker 1: the Wind? Oh yeah, yeah, the King's Killer Chronicle Day one,
17:43
Speaker 1: it's called the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
17:46
Speaker 1: have not had the pleasure, but I've heard good things awesome. Yeah,
17:49
Speaker 1: I haven't. I haven't read it either, but I love
17:52
Speaker 1: a good fantasy series, so check it out. Well, you know,
17:55
Speaker 1: what you know we haven't heard good things about is
17:58
Speaker 1: the Fremantle Prison. This this place, uh, the construction on
18:03
Speaker 1: it began in eighteen fifty two. It wasn't really done
18:07
Speaker 1: until eighteen fifty nine, but they were putting people into
18:12
Speaker 1: this prison before construction was complete. They were putting people
18:16
Speaker 1: in in there as early as eighteen fifty five. And
18:21
Speaker 1: it's it's a pretty big place. It's got, of course,
18:23
Speaker 1: a lot of perimeter walls, their workshops, there's a hospital,
18:27
Speaker 1: there's six houses for the senior officers of the prison.
18:31
Speaker 1: And this thing did numbers. It moved volume between eighteen
18:35
Speaker 1: fifty and eighteen sixty eight and estimated while almost ten
18:39
Speaker 1: thousand convicts passed through the prison. And hey, I I
18:44
Speaker 1: have learned something before we went on air, and I
18:48
Speaker 1: came to Ben and Max about this, and I was
18:50
Speaker 1: real proud of myself. If guys, I learned a new
18:52
Speaker 1: word to day, it's gaul it's another word for for prison.
18:55
Speaker 1: And then been very kindly pat of me on the
18:58
Speaker 1: head virtually and said, I think it's pronounced jail um.
19:02
Speaker 1: So I learned a cool alternate spelling for jail today,
19:06
Speaker 1: and it's pronounced I only know it because of a
19:10
Speaker 1: poem by Oscar Wilde, and I had this embarrassing moment
19:13
Speaker 1: where I had to read it out loud in class,
19:17
Speaker 1: and then my history teacher decided to you know, pointed
19:21
Speaker 1: out publicly. So ostra size you really bad? Oh yeah,
19:25
Speaker 1: they passed around the shards of the pots everything. Yeah.
19:30
Speaker 1: It does make me wonder though, with the spelling of
19:31
Speaker 1: that g A O L. I believe if there's any
19:35
Speaker 1: connection between that and the word goolog, which is you know,
19:38
Speaker 1: forced labor camps um that were very uh outfit full
19:43
Speaker 1: effect during Stalin's reign. Yeah, that's that's a really good question.
19:48
Speaker 1: I would say I wouldn't be surprised, but I'm not sure.
19:53
Speaker 1: I haven't looked into it. So listeners, if you know,
19:55
Speaker 1: let us know. And it gets its name in eighteen
19:58
Speaker 1: sixty seven, that's when it's officially the remantled prison. Uh.
20:01
Speaker 1: And at the same like just a year after that,
20:06
Speaker 1: they stopped transporting convicts to that prison, So by eighteen
20:12
Speaker 1: they are less than fifty convicts in this prison. It's
20:16
Speaker 1: a ghost town. It's built a house a thousand people.
20:19
Speaker 1: Now they're only fifty anyway. So we're giving you a
20:28
Speaker 1: lot of context, but you need it for this heist.
20:31
Speaker 1: Let's go back to Devoid Noel. He's in New York City,
20:33
Speaker 1: as she said, he's got a new life. He's a
20:35
Speaker 1: journalist now and he gets a secret letter from a
20:40
Speaker 1: guy in Australia named James Wilson. And it's so cool man,
20:46
Speaker 1: that's right, he says, Remember this is a voice from
20:49
Speaker 1: the tomb two exactly. Uh. And you know the takeaway
20:57
Speaker 1: there was I am a post of Christmas past kind
21:01
Speaker 1: of situation, reminding you of your the oath that you made,
21:06
Speaker 1: you know, so long ago, speaking to him and kind
21:08
Speaker 1: of this esoteric language likely that would have been recognizable
21:13
Speaker 1: to him as like kind of this coded talk between
21:16
Speaker 1: members of the secret Society. Right, yeah, yeah, this is
21:19
Speaker 1: this is a fascinating letter. He is one of seven.
21:25
Speaker 1: Wilson is one of seven of the high profile Finians.
21:28
Speaker 1: He's one of the seven people convicted a treason, sentenced
21:32
Speaker 1: to death and then he got his sentence commuted to
21:35
Speaker 1: just a terrible life life of hard labor. Uh. He
21:40
Speaker 1: is in a bad situation now because he and his
21:43
Speaker 1: compatriots have been building roads, they've been working in a
21:48
Speaker 1: limestone quarry. Uh. They've also been physically abused. I think
21:53
Speaker 1: it's safe to say, because they got branded like the
21:56
Speaker 1: way you are brand cattle with the letter D for deserter.
22:00
Speaker 1: And he says to Devoid, you know, we're getting sick.
22:04
Speaker 1: We're not going to live much longer. We need help.
22:09
Speaker 1: And at the same time in the Finnian network, another
22:12
Speaker 1: guy reaches out to Devoi. That's right. It's a guy
22:16
Speaker 1: named John Boyle O'Reilly who got to Fremantle along with
22:20
Speaker 1: Wilson Um and uh many of the other Irish recruits,
22:24
Speaker 1: and then he was singled out and transferred to Bunbury,
22:27
Speaker 1: which was another prison um in the western part of Australia.
22:31
Speaker 1: He had no no one to have his back. Um,
22:35
Speaker 1: you know, he left all his compatriots behind, and he
22:38
Speaker 1: started getting more and more depressed. Uh. And just in
22:41
Speaker 1: this constant stated desperation, he tried killing himself by slitting
22:46
Speaker 1: his own wrists, but thankfully another convict found him in
22:51
Speaker 1: time and he was saved. And then he kind of
22:55
Speaker 1: made friends with a Catholic priest and was able to
22:59
Speaker 1: escape from Bunbury by rowing out to see and then
23:03
Speaker 1: talking the captain of an American whaling vessel to let
23:08
Speaker 1: him board, to hire him. Basically, well, first of all,
23:13
Speaker 1: you gotta first of all, you gotta talk your way
23:14
Speaker 1: from the rowboat onto the ship, and then you gotta, okay, well,
23:18
Speaker 1: now that I'm here, how can I be of service?
23:20
Speaker 1: And you not like knark me out when I'm clearly
23:23
Speaker 1: an escaped escaped convict. Right, maybe not, he might have
23:27
Speaker 1: had a very you know, the Irish have the gift
23:30
Speaker 1: of gab oftentimes. But yeah, So he on board this
23:34
Speaker 1: whaling vessel sailed to the US, and that's where he
23:37
Speaker 1: started his second life as a poet. He edited a
23:39
Speaker 1: Catholic newspaper called The Boston pilot Um, where he was
23:43
Speaker 1: a journalist as well, and he started to feel a
23:47
Speaker 1: little guilty of the men that he left behind, even
23:50
Speaker 1: though again he was pulled away from them and was
23:52
Speaker 1: kind of left defend on his own, but that wasn't
23:54
Speaker 1: their fault. But he still felt the you know, the
23:58
Speaker 1: brunt of that oath that these Fenians took, this brotherhood
24:02
Speaker 1: took it very seriously, and he started to think of
24:05
Speaker 1: ways that he could help them, and that's when John
24:09
Speaker 1: Devoy came to mind. He decided he was going to
24:13
Speaker 1: reach out to Devoi and ask for his help in
24:16
Speaker 1: rallying members of that American kind of subset of the
24:20
Speaker 1: Fenians called the Clan and the Gael. Forgive me anyone
24:22
Speaker 1: who from Ireland out there, if I am butchering that pronuciation.
24:25
Speaker 1: We tried to look it up. I couldn't find an
24:27
Speaker 1: audible pronunciation. So it's doing the best we can with
24:30
Speaker 1: what we've got. But the idea was that he would
24:32
Speaker 1: rally members of this group to assemble a crew and
24:38
Speaker 1: rescue the men who had been left behind. Right, So
24:41
Speaker 1: the plan is coming together and Devoy is Devoy is
24:47
Speaker 1: getting is an easy self for this, right, because he
24:51
Speaker 1: also has loyalty to the Fenians and additionally oh Riley,
24:56
Speaker 1: who I agree, No, he must be a very charismatic dude.
25:02
Speaker 1: Because he talked his way onto the whaling ship. He
25:04
Speaker 1: obviously influenced that priest in Australia, right, and then now
25:10
Speaker 1: he's influencing Devoi and he is living proof that escape
25:14
Speaker 1: is possible. So this conversation with O'Reilly plus Wilson's letter
25:21
Speaker 1: makes Devois think you know, I bear some responsibility because
25:25
Speaker 1: I recruited a lot of these people. And he even
25:30
Speaker 1: writes about explicitly later. This is referenced in the Smithsonian
25:33
Speaker 1: article we mentioned. Devoy says most of the evidence on
25:37
Speaker 1: which the men were convicted related to meetings with me.
25:41
Speaker 1: I felt that, I, more than any other man than
25:44
Speaker 1: living ought to do my utmost for these Finian soldiers.
25:47
Speaker 1: And that speaks to his character, I think, because he's
25:50
Speaker 1: realizing I got these guys in this situation one way
25:54
Speaker 1: or the other. So I I think I I respect that,
25:57
Speaker 1: you know, that's right. And again, these Finians and a
25:59
Speaker 1: lot of these Irish revolutionaries, they just wanted to be
26:02
Speaker 1: to have their own free state, you know, away from
26:05
Speaker 1: English rule. Uh, in the same way that members of
26:08
Speaker 1: the American Revolution did. So it's like, you know, one
26:10
Speaker 1: person's re freedom fighters, another person's terrorists, depending on what
26:14
Speaker 1: side of thea divide that you're on. So it does
26:16
Speaker 1: seem that they weren't, you know, just out too so anarchy.
26:20
Speaker 1: That they did have you know, good hearts, and they
26:22
Speaker 1: you know, had a had a cause that they believed
26:24
Speaker 1: in passionately. Um, we have a reprinting of this letter
26:29
Speaker 1: that Wilson wrote that Devoy actually read out loud to
26:33
Speaker 1: rally the troops at a meeting of the clan. That's
26:37
Speaker 1: with the scene the clan they kale uh and uh.
26:40
Speaker 1: I mean we could tag team this one man. Yeah,
26:42
Speaker 1: this is a great way Max kick in the music,
26:45
Speaker 1: because this is the part of the heist film where
26:48
Speaker 1: the leader makes a speech, an impassioned speech, and where
26:51
Speaker 1: you start rounding up all your specialists. Uh so, so
26:55
Speaker 1: this is the moment the voice stands up. He's that
26:58
Speaker 1: like you said in a secret meeting, and he reads
27:01
Speaker 1: Wilson's words, and Wilson is cracker jack writer guys. He
27:04
Speaker 1: says what to death is staring us in the face,
27:09
Speaker 1: the death of a felon in a British dungeon and
27:13
Speaker 1: a grave amongst Britain's ruffians. I am not ashamed to
27:17
Speaker 1: speak the truth that it is a disgrace to have
27:20
Speaker 1: us in prison today. A little money, judiciously expended would
27:25
Speaker 1: release every man that is now in West Australia. I
27:29
Speaker 1: think that we have been nearly nine years in this
27:31
Speaker 1: living tomb since our first arrest, and that it is
27:35
Speaker 1: impossible for mind or body to withstand the continual strain,
27:40
Speaker 1: and it's upon us. One or the other must give way.
27:46
Speaker 1: Remember this is a voice from the tomb, for is
27:50
Speaker 1: this not a living tomb. In the tomb, it is
27:53
Speaker 1: only a man's body that is good for worms. But
27:55
Speaker 1: in this living tomb, the canker worm of care enters
27:59
Speaker 1: the very soul. And we think, if you foreseek us,
28:02
Speaker 1: then we are friendless. Indeed, I have a question. No,
28:09
Speaker 1: what is a canker worm? Oh gosh, I'm imagining it's
28:13
Speaker 1: some sort of like maggot that infests you know, open sores.
28:19
Speaker 1: Is that accurate? That's just me using context clues. Yeah,
28:22
Speaker 1: I um. I wasn't familiar with this, and it sounded
28:27
Speaker 1: very unpleasant because I I immediately associated it with those
28:30
Speaker 1: little things in people's mouths, canker sores. It seems like
28:34
Speaker 1: if your canker store gets bad enough, or their canker
28:36
Speaker 1: worms of all. But no, they're they're the little uh
28:39
Speaker 1: like inch worm guys. Oh you know, okay, so, but
28:43
Speaker 1: but but even the little inchworm guys will will will
28:45
Speaker 1: eat you know, rotting flesh if it's buried in the ground,
28:49
Speaker 1: and their little inchworm paths happened across a tasty morsel right,
28:53
Speaker 1: or is it just earthworms that eat flesh. I'm not sure.
28:57
Speaker 1: Neither of us are worm experts, but that is my theory. Yeah,
29:00
Speaker 1: and and so so he Devoid reads this letter and
29:05
Speaker 1: then he pauses with great gravitas and all I want
29:08
Speaker 1: to lean on your amazing voice acting skills here, because
29:11
Speaker 1: when he puts down the letter, picture him looking around
29:14
Speaker 1: the secret meeting moment of silence, and then he shouts,
29:20
Speaker 1: these men are our brothers. Yeah and uh that that
29:26
Speaker 1: that did the trick. That was like that was like
29:29
Speaker 1: the freedom you know cry, or like give me liberty
29:34
Speaker 1: or give me death, you know, all of that good stuff. Whatever.
29:40
Speaker 1: The action the one big, big fighting words, boisterous rallying cries.
29:47
Speaker 1: That's literally what a rallying cry is. That is the
29:49
Speaker 1: very foundation of a rallying cry. So they start to
29:53
Speaker 1: gather funds together, like like cash money to put together
29:58
Speaker 1: the resources they need to pull off this rescue. So
30:03
Speaker 1: we're getting really into this story. I think it's clear
30:06
Speaker 1: that the three of us love this tale, and we
30:10
Speaker 1: are gonna make this aitude parter because we don't want
30:13
Speaker 1: to cut anything. Yes, indeed, um, I think this is
30:16
Speaker 1: a great stopping point and we will be back in
30:18
Speaker 1: just a couple of days time with the stunning conclusion
30:21
Speaker 1: to the Katalpa prison break. In the meantime, why don't
30:25
Speaker 1: you check us out as human beings and as a
30:27
Speaker 1: show on Instagram. You can find the show on Instagram
30:29
Speaker 1: at Ridiculous History and us as individuals as well. That's right.
30:33
Speaker 1: You can find me at ben bullin hs W on Twitter.
30:36
Speaker 1: You can see my various misadventures sometimes international on Instagram where,
30:42
Speaker 1: in a burst of creativity, I've called myself at ben
30:45
Speaker 1: bullan bow l I and what about you? Mr Brown?
30:48
Speaker 1: You can find me exclusively on Instagram where I am
30:51
Speaker 1: at how Now Noel Brown? Huge thanks to super producer
30:54
Speaker 1: Max Williams, Alex Williams who composed our theme, Researchers Extraordinaire
30:58
Speaker 1: Gabe Louisier, and of a big thanks to Christopher Hasiotis
31:02
Speaker 1: big thanks to Eve's Jeff Coat. Big thanks to Jonathan Strick,
31:07
Speaker 1: Linda k the quister. I'm after you here Part two, folks,
31:11
Speaker 1: help us figure out how we're gonna cast ourselves. So, no,
31:14
Speaker 1: you're the bag man, Max. You want to be the captain,
31:17
Speaker 1: I mean Captain Anthony. You know the story. You know
31:19
Speaker 1: the score. Oh yeah, no, I could. I could totally
31:21
Speaker 1: keep it together. I think three of us on the
31:23
Speaker 1: most Captain material. So alright, okay, alright, okay, that's fine,
31:27
Speaker 1: that's fine. I'll be so I'll be one of the
31:29
Speaker 1: other guys. Well, I'm as long as I get to
31:32
Speaker 1: be the bat man. I'm all good. We'll see you
31:35
Speaker 1: next time. Books. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
31:44
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
31:47
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.