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23 - The Failed Kidnapping of Princess Anne · 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 back to Hear It What Now, the history podcast
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Speaker 1: that is not your history class with me your host
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Speaker 1: Katie Charlewood, unicorn appreciator and reader of books. It has
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Speaker 1: been a busy week, a very busy week. You know
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Speaker 1: what it's like when you have so many things to
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Speaker 1: do and not enough time to do them. That's been
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Speaker 1: the case. And also, apparently I have an esophagio tear
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Speaker 1: that caused in combination of stress. Stress me would a
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Speaker 1: combination of stress and cheap painkillers apparently, so I'm no
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Speaker 1: longer alerted to use those, which is super fun for
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Speaker 1: everybody involved. This week we are talking about Princess and
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Speaker 1: oh yeah, I am really mad about this because of
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Speaker 1: all the stories of all the things they could have
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Speaker 1: shown in the Crown. This this is a great one.
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Speaker 1: It's fantastic and it just seems so far fetched. The
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Speaker 1: way this event turns out is it's kind of like
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Speaker 1: a yes and improv show. It's like yes, and this
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Speaker 1: person shows up and yes, and this happens. It is.
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Speaker 1: It's fantastic, actually, but let's get down to it. And
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Speaker 1: so today I am telling you of apologies. I'm a
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Speaker 1: little horse because of everything. So we are talking about
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Speaker 1: the failed, the attempted kidnap it of an princess royal.
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Speaker 1: Now I know what you're thinking, quit your glibber jabber.
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Speaker 1: In fact, my god, damn it, and I will. But
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Speaker 1: first we got to get a sour so on. So
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Speaker 1: this the information I have here is from the I've
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Speaker 1: got the Daily Express, I've got The Independent, the Smithsonian
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Speaker 1: mag and and a book by Hoy hue Huey can't
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Speaker 1: relate to his name, John Huey and Princess Royal. So
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Speaker 1: let's do this and let's get down to business to
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Speaker 1: explain the puns. Okay, So if you haven't heard this story,
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Speaker 1: sit down, my friends. It's a wild ride. Let's start
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Speaker 1: from the beginning, shall we. Who is Princess Ann. Princess
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Speaker 1: Ann is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth second and
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Speaker 1: of course the second because Queen the first had no kids,
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Speaker 1: and Queen Elizabeth IOND and Prince Philip Princess Ann. I mean,
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Speaker 1: if you have to pick a royal out of the
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Speaker 1: four of the queen's children, who's the best? Definitely Princess
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Speaker 1: Anne is my favorite because she's so dry and quick
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Speaker 1: witted and very blunt, and I really appreciate that. And
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Speaker 1: also she finds things. She finds things funny, like my
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Speaker 1: mom had to do this table service thing when she
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Speaker 1: was working in London, and she had to wear like
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Speaker 1: these special white gloves and she was supposed to cook
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Speaker 1: this fish at the table for Princess Anne. And so
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Speaker 1: she tries. She tries, but as my mom is trying
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Speaker 1: to cook this fish sidebar as this my mom is
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Speaker 1: trying to cook this fish, she actually sets fire. She
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Speaker 1: sets fire to her gloves and is and obviously Princess
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Speaker 1: Anne finds this fucking hilarious and my mom has to
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Speaker 1: get sent back into the kitchen and someone else to
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Speaker 1: come out and do the fish. She's gonna kill me
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Speaker 1: for telling that story, but love you, ma'am. So when
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Speaker 1: you are children of royalty, you don't really have a
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Speaker 1: lot of options and stuff. She really liked horses, which
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Speaker 1: is something she got from her mom's side of the family. Actually,
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Speaker 1: her mum, Queenless likes she likes a horse. She does
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Speaker 1: so and Princess Anne she becomes an equestrian and she
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Speaker 1: actually meets Captain Mark Phillips through equestrian circles. They get
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Speaker 1: married in four months into the marriage, on March twentieth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, they were at this charity event and
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Speaker 1: when royals went to events like this, it was very
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Speaker 1: well publicized that they were going to be at these events.
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Speaker 1: So she goes to this charity film screening of some
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Speaker 1: kind and it is what maybe it was, I don't know,
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Speaker 1: do I care? Not really, So they've been to the
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Speaker 1: charity film screening up by Trafalgar Square and they're heading
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Speaker 1: back to Buckingham Palace. Now they're in this maroon Rolls
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Speaker 1: Royce limousine marked with the Royal insignia, because nothing says
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Speaker 1: look at me, I'm here than a colored car with
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Speaker 1: a Royal seal on it. So in this Marion Rolls
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Speaker 1: Royce we have Princess Anne, her husband, Captain Mark Phillips,
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Speaker 1: her lady in waiting whose name has not been anywhere,
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Speaker 1: her chauffeur Alex Callendar, and her bodyguard, Inspector James Wallace Beating.
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Speaker 1: So Inspector James Beaton he is he's a member of
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Speaker 1: the S fourteen, which is Scotland Yards like special Branch,
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Speaker 1: the whole purpose of which is Royalty protection. And at
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Speaker 1: this time, like it wasn't when royals went to unofficial
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Speaker 1: like functions like film screening stuff like that, they would
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Speaker 1: only have one bodyguard on them. That was just kind
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Speaker 1: of how it was at the time. So the other
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Speaker 1: film screening was on in Trafalgar Square and they were
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Speaker 1: traveling down to Buckingham Palace, where they were residing at
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Speaker 1: the time. They're heading down the mall towards Buckingham Palace
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Speaker 1: and suddenly this white Ford escort stops like right in
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Speaker 1: front of them, and so they have to stop the car.
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Speaker 1: The car door opens out and out jumps this man
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Speaker 1: with a beard and ginger hair and with a handgun
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Speaker 1: in each fucking hand, and he is racing towards the car.
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Speaker 1: So Beaten he's like, he's like, this dude's just you know,
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Speaker 1: got road rage. He's just mad and he's gonna cause
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Speaker 1: a fucking notion. So he gets out of the car
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Speaker 1: ready to speak to the guy and talk him down,
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Speaker 1: and the dude shoots him in his right shoulder. And
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Speaker 1: this man was Ian Ball, was twenty six years old
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Speaker 1: and he had just shot the princess's bodyguard. So Beaten
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Speaker 1: has a gun. So most like police officers in the
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Speaker 1: UK they don't have guns beaten because he was assigned
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Speaker 1: to protect the royal family had a gun. So Betan
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Speaker 1: tried to shoot Ian Ball, you know, but he's firstly
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Speaker 1: he's struggling to aim because he's been shot in the
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Speaker 1: fucking shoulder. But after the gun fires once it jams
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Speaker 1: so I and Ball. So he's trying to open one
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Speaker 1: of the back doors of the car and he is
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Speaker 1: and he's shaking it trying to get it open, and
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Speaker 1: he's yelling open or I'll shoot. So Captain Mark Phillips
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Speaker 1: and Princess Anne they are holding the door shut and
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Speaker 1: they're doing this so that the lady in waiting can
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Speaker 1: actually get out the car on the other side. So
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Speaker 1: they're holding the door shut. So Princess Ann she's actually
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Speaker 1: closer the door, so she's holding onto the door and
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Speaker 1: he's behinder sort of holding on to her, so he's
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Speaker 1: got his hands around her waist. So the two of
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Speaker 1: them are sort of holding onto the inside of the
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Speaker 1: door trying to keep it shut. And they're doing this
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Speaker 1: so that Princess Ann's lady in waiting can get out,
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Speaker 1: and she does. She crawls out the backseat, so well
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Speaker 1: this is happening, and she's crawling out the car. Inspector
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Speaker 1: Beaton gets himself back into the car to put himself
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Speaker 1: between between the princess and the assailant. But ian Ball
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Speaker 1: shoots into the car and through Beaten's hand, so he's
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Speaker 1: been shot in the shoulder, in the hand, and then
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Speaker 1: ian Ball he shoots him a third time, and it's
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Speaker 1: this third bullet, this third shot, which basically forces him
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Speaker 1: out of the car and onto the ground. At this point,
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Speaker 1: the chauffeur Alex Gallander, he gets out to try and
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Speaker 1: you know, stop to stop Ball. But while he's trying
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Speaker 1: to stop him, he gets shot in the chest and
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Speaker 1: he falls back into the car. So Ian Paul has
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Speaker 1: shot both her security guard and her driver, and he
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Speaker 1: pulls the door back open again. So he grabs Princess
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Speaker 1: Ann by the arm, and while he's trying to pull
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Speaker 1: her out, Captain Phillips he has his hands around her
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Speaker 1: waist trying to keep pulling her back into the car.
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Speaker 1: So the gunman and her husband, they're playing a game
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Speaker 1: of tug of war and Anne is the rope. He's
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Speaker 1: pulling her right. He's going, please come out, please come out.
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Speaker 1: You've got to come. So he's yanking her by the arm,
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Speaker 1: and you know, Phillips has got a good grip on
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Speaker 1: her waist and her bespoke dress rips right down the back,
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Speaker 1: and like later on she says that, you know, it
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Speaker 1: took everything for her to not lose her rug because
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Speaker 1: she was just so mad and her dress ripping, and
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Speaker 1: so he's like, you've got to come, You've got to come,
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Speaker 1: and her response is not bloody likely. So while this
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Speaker 1: commotion is going on, PC Michael Hills, he is just
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Speaker 1: patrolling nearby, like he's on his patrol nearby, and he hears,
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Speaker 1: you know, the struggle. He hears. But he comes across
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Speaker 1: the scene, he sees two cars just sitting out there
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Speaker 1: and him, you know, leaning into the car and grabbing someone.
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Speaker 1: You know. So initially he's just like so he thinks that,
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Speaker 1: you know, there's been some kind of car accident and
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Speaker 1: like this sort of fucking fight, some road rage fight
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Speaker 1: has come of it. And he's, you know, I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: go sort this out, police officer, you know what it's like.
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Speaker 1: And so he goes up, touches Ball on the shoulder,
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Speaker 1: and he turns around and shoots g. C. Michael Hills
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Speaker 1: in the stomach, and as he's collapsing on the ground,
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Speaker 1: he manages to radio station for backup. So Ron Russell,
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Speaker 1: a six foot four former boxer, he's driving home from
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Speaker 1: work because he's like, he's an execu of some cleaning
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Speaker 1: company at this point, and he's driving home from work
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Speaker 1: and he sees this commotion on the side of the
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Speaker 1: road and he's like shit, pulls over, gets out of
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Speaker 1: the car, and he sees the shooting happen, and he
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Speaker 1: legs it towards the gunman to try and stop what's
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Speaker 1: going on. And so while he's heading towards them, So
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Speaker 1: this car, another car, another driver, a chauffeur named Glenmore Martin.
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Speaker 1: He's driving up and he sees what's going on very quickly,
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Speaker 1: sees what's going on and parks his car in front
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Speaker 1: of the Ford Escort, boxing it in, meaning that he's
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Speaker 1: not going to be able to drive away and escape. So,
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Speaker 1: you know, he thinks I'll be able to distract him,
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Speaker 1: but then both you know, aims at him, and he
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Speaker 1: decides to run towards helping the you know, the shot
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Speaker 1: guy who's on the ground, the show officer that's on
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Speaker 1: the ground also, and what I can only assume is
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Speaker 1: the only time a journalist from the Tailey Mail ever
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Speaker 1: did anything decent. John Brian McConnell the insignia, You're like,
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Speaker 1: he was following the couple, so what was going on?
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Speaker 1: And was like shit, and he thinks I can resolve
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Speaker 1: this because I'm a tabloid journalist. So he sees the
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Speaker 1: ship that's going down and he's like, oh crap. So
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Speaker 1: he runs to the scene and he says to Paul
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Speaker 1: and I'm sorry, I'm gonna do the voice because I'm
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Speaker 1: gonna fuck. Don't be silly, out boy, put the gun down,
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Speaker 1: and you know what happens is he gets shot, making
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Speaker 1: him now the third man bleeding on the fucking ground.
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Speaker 1: So McConnell's falling to the ground. So Anne manages to
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Speaker 1: push herself out the other side of the car from
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Speaker 1: the so she out the sort of the driver's side
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Speaker 1: of the car. She's manages to throw herself out that side,
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Speaker 1: and Ball says that she's out, and he runs around
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Speaker 1: the car towards her, and when he does that, she
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Speaker 1: jumps back into the car and closes the door. Ball
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Speaker 1: turns around and as he turns around, Ron Russell, the
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Speaker 1: boxer that we mentioned before. He gets up to him
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Speaker 1: and punches him in the back of the head because
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Speaker 1: when in doubt, u's your fists. And by now all
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Speaker 1: the backup the PC Hills had called is now coming
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Speaker 1: upon the scene. And Anne notices that all the police
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Speaker 1: are sort of showing up at this point and says
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Speaker 1: to and says to her want to be kidnapper? Go on,
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Speaker 1: now's your chance, and basically telling him, you know, if
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Speaker 1: you want to escape, now it's the time to fucking
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Speaker 1: do it. So there's this temporary detective Constable Peter Edmonds,
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Speaker 1: you know, because he had heard he had heard PC
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Speaker 1: Hill's call for backup, and he's you know, driving up
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Speaker 1: and he sees this guy with a gun running like
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Speaker 1: fuck through Saint James's Park. So what Edmunds does is
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Speaker 1: he legs it after Ball throws his coat over Ball's head,
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Speaker 1: tackles him to the ground and makes an arrest. So
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Speaker 1: Ayan Ball had over three hundred pounds in ten pound
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Speaker 1: notes on him when he was arrested and in the car,
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Speaker 1: and as it turns out, Ian Ball was twenty six
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Speaker 1: years old. He had rented a car in the name
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Speaker 1: of John Williams. And inside the car there were two
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Speaker 1: pairs of handcuffs, valium tranquilizers and a ransom letter addressed
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Speaker 1: to the queen. So he types out this ransom note.
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Speaker 1: And this ransom note has it basically criticizes the royal
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Speaker 1: family and a two million pounds ransom in five pound
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Speaker 1: notes in five of us, with the money stored in
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Speaker 1: twenty unlocked suitcases and put on a plane destined for Switzerland.
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Speaker 1: And not only this, but Queen Elizabeth the Second herself
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Speaker 1: was to show up to the plane to confirm the
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Speaker 1: authenticity of our signatures on necessary paperwork. And on top
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Speaker 1: of this, at some point in this ransom note it
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Speaker 1: also says it says that if the money isn't delivered,
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Speaker 1: Princess ann will be shot dead. And what's weird is
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Speaker 1: that the plane is to go to Switzerland, but also
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Speaker 1: the money is supposed to go towards the NHS, the
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Speaker 1: National Health Service. Like that's with this, I just yeah,
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Speaker 1: which is really like obviously, nowadays you would get lots
15:00
Speaker 1: of information regarding this just because of how everything works.
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Speaker 1: But back in the day, like this was very much
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Speaker 1: kept quiet, like the reports were not everywhere like they
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Speaker 1: would be now. And when the news did get out,
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Speaker 1: people were scrambling to find out people just they couldn't
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Speaker 1: they couldn't understand how a mentally unstable twenty six year
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Speaker 1: old man who was unemployed managed to not only mastermind
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Speaker 1: but fund this whole kidnapping attempt. You know. But these
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Speaker 1: theories started coming up because the Simbaiinese Liberation Army had
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Speaker 1: they had kidnapped Patty Hurst, and what they had wanted
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Speaker 1: was the ransom for Patty Hurst was supposed to be
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Speaker 1: donated to like some charity refeed hungry Californians or something.
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Speaker 1: You know, there's a possibility that it was inspired by that.
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Speaker 1: So even after all that sort of speculation and everything,
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Speaker 1: no one thought it was anything more than just one
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Speaker 1: dude being obsessive. So Aamball appears in court on April fourth,
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Speaker 1: and he gives this statement as to what motivated this
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Speaker 1: particular crime. So he gets to speak in court and
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Speaker 1: he and he basically says that the reason he attempted
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Speaker 1: to kidnap Princess Anne was because he wanted to draw
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Speaker 1: attention to the lack of facilities for treating mental illness
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Speaker 1: under the NHS. Ball himself had a history of mental illness,
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Speaker 1: something his lawyer brought up quite a bit, and Amball
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Speaker 1: pleads guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping, and he gets
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Speaker 1: sentenced to a life term in this mental health facility, Broadmer,
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Speaker 1: which is a high security psychiatric hospital. And if this
16:56
Speaker 1: sounds familiar, that's because there are they've had quite a
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Speaker 1: number of high profile patients, including Peter Brian, a serial
17:07
Speaker 1: killer and cannibal, Robert Naver this serial killer, Roderick MacLean,
17:13
Speaker 1: the poet who tried to assassinate Queen Victoria Christiana Edmunds,
17:18
Speaker 1: the Chocolate Queen poisoner, Kenneth Erskin, serial killer, Ronald Cray,
17:24
Speaker 1: that's right, one of the great wines. He was there,
17:27
Speaker 1: Robert Maudley serial killer, Thomas john Ley murderer, Peter Sutcliffe,
17:35
Speaker 1: the Yorkshire fucking Ripper, to name but a few. So
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Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three, Ball writes a letter to Parliament
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Speaker 1: and basically claiming that the whole uh attempted kidnapping thing
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Speaker 1: was a hoax and he was framed and all this
17:53
Speaker 1: kind of other shit. Basically, the day after they attack
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Speaker 1: the royal couple, Princess ann and Captain Mark Phillips. They
18:00
Speaker 1: just went back to normal. They were like, Nope, this
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Speaker 1: isn't stopping us. She was going back to her horses.
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Speaker 1: He was going back to teach cadets. And then later
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Speaker 1: on that year the George Cross, which is like the
18:17
Speaker 1: highest civilian award for courage. So basically in September people
18:23
Speaker 1: involved were given the sort of honors. Inspector Beaton he
18:29
Speaker 1: gets the St. George's Cross, which is like the highest
18:32
Speaker 1: civilian award for courage. One the second highest for bravery
18:37
Speaker 1: is the George Medal, and that went to PC Hills
18:39
Speaker 1: and Ron Russell. Then the Gallant Trade Medals they went
18:44
Speaker 1: to p. C. Edmonds, John Brian McConnell, Alex Callendar and
18:50
Speaker 1: then Glenmore Martin. He receives the Queen's commendation for brave conduct.
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Speaker 1: So when Ron Russell is getting his George Medal, when
18:59
Speaker 1: he's getting presented with the George Metal, the Queen says,
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Speaker 1: you know, you know, the medal is from the Queen
19:04
Speaker 1: of England and the thank you is from Anne's mother.
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Speaker 1: In that and that, my friends, is the story of
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Speaker 1: the field kidnapping of Princess Anne. So what did we
19:13
Speaker 1: learned today? Ah, that sometimes daily mail writers can be
19:19
Speaker 1: something other than giant turds. Also, even when in danger,
19:25
Speaker 1: just because you're im mortal Perl does not mean you
19:27
Speaker 1: do not have the opportunity to be snarky. So I
19:35
Speaker 1: am going to do some recommendations. So recommendations for this week. Ah. So,
19:42
Speaker 1: reading wise, I am actually reading a little book called
19:46
Speaker 1: Horrible Histories Spies by Terry Deary. It is a children's book.
19:51
Speaker 1: I make no regrets regarding that. But that's how it is,
19:54
Speaker 1: and that's how we're doing it. Says suck it up
19:57
Speaker 1: if you haven't, although I must say if you have
20:00
Speaker 1: haven't read, if you haven't read Crazy Rich Asians, absolutely one,
20:05
Speaker 1: you should totally go read it. It's very good. You
20:08
Speaker 1: could always watch The Crown and be mad that they
20:11
Speaker 1: did not add this fantastic, fantastic scene. But of course
20:16
Speaker 1: let's have the let's have the camera pan at a sad,
20:20
Speaker 1: sad Diana, but like whatever. Also, in addition, furthermore something
20:27
Speaker 1: to watch, I recently started watching Filthy Rich on Disney
20:33
Speaker 1: Plus because I I'm but I am surprised. I mean,
20:38
Speaker 1: it is kind of soapy, but I just I find
20:41
Speaker 1: anything that sort of revolves around sort of TV preatures.
20:45
Speaker 1: I find that a weirdly interesting genre, although if you're
20:50
Speaker 1: looking for something that's more comedic, unlike this feels more
20:54
Speaker 1: like a drama day to me. But if you're looking
20:56
Speaker 1: for something more comedic, I would definitely definitely suggest The
20:59
Speaker 1: Righteous Gemstones. That is fantastic, It is glorious and yeah, yeah,
21:10
Speaker 1: and listening to I have been listening to actually to
21:14
Speaker 1: help me sleep at night. I listen to an episode
21:17
Speaker 1: of crime in Sports and I have zero interest or
21:21
Speaker 1: knowledge regarding sports, but you don't really need it for this.
21:25
Speaker 1: I want to say a big thank you to everyone
21:27
Speaker 1: has been supporting on Patreon. You've really been helping. You've
21:31
Speaker 1: really been helping because hosting and then the bonus episodes,
21:35
Speaker 1: it's all been a bit so I want to thank
21:37
Speaker 1: you so much for that. And if you want to
21:40
Speaker 1: keep supporting me, you can. You can have I think
21:43
Speaker 1: it starts like a euros it's like ninety cents or something,
21:47
Speaker 1: you know, if you want to support that way, if
21:49
Speaker 1: you want to support in other ways. There's also there's
21:51
Speaker 1: also following and interacting on social media, so on TikTok, Instagram,
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Speaker 1: and Facebook. It's wodd whatnopod and on Twitter it is
22:01
Speaker 1: hooded what now PD And you can also follow my
22:04
Speaker 1: personal account what Katie had on Twitter as well if
22:10
Speaker 1: you want to do that. And I am going to
22:12
Speaker 1: go check on my pur per throat. I think it's
22:16
Speaker 1: about time I rested my voice because I can really
22:17
Speaker 1: feel the horse in thiss happening right now. So I
22:20
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you to everyone for listening.
22:23
Speaker 1: It's been great. Adios or or what is them my friends,
22:29
Speaker 1: Bye bye,