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Smoking Gun · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Every form of arts has to earn its legitimacy, whether
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  Speaker 1: it's theater, film, comic books, or video games. For some reason,
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  Speaker 1: it's a very human trait to look down upon emerging
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  Speaker 1: forms of entertainment as lesser to what came before. Theater
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  Speaker 1: seems like the most prestigious medium in modern entertainment, but
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  Speaker 1: there was a time when the theater was seen as
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  Speaker 1: a disreputable place where actors were seen as little better
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  Speaker 1: than the uggs. In fifteen ninety seven, theaters throughout London
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  Speaker 1: closed due to an outbreak of the plague. For those
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  Speaker 1: of us who can remember the year twenty twenty, this
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  Speaker 1: sounds familiar. An actor named Richard Burbage ran his own
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  Speaker 1: theater company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, and when theaters reopened
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  Speaker 1: later that year, the company was anxious to get back
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  Speaker 1: to work but there was a problem. Although Richard owned
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  Speaker 1: the theater they performed at literally just called the theater,
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  Speaker 1: he did not own the land that belonged to one
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  Speaker 1: Giles Allen, a Puritan that Richard had a history of
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  Speaker 1: fighting with. Giles decided that he didn't want to contribute
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  Speaker 1: to the sinful world of the theater any longer, and
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  Speaker 1: so he refused to allow the Lord Chamberlain's men to
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  Speaker 1: resume their performances. Not only that, but he claimed that
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  Speaker 1: since the theater was on his land, it belonged to him.
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  Speaker 1: And obviously this stung Richard, as the theater had been
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  Speaker 1: in his family for decades. Now all his company could
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  Speaker 1: do was moved to a different theater his family owned
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  Speaker 1: and resume their performances. But he couldn't just let go
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  Speaker 1: of what happened with Giles. It was an injustice, an
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  Speaker 1: insult to his family's name. So he reached out to
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  Speaker 1: the members of his company, offering them a business deal.
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  Speaker 1: If they could each cover ten percent of the costs
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  Speaker 1: of constructing a new theater, then they could receive ten
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  Speaker 1: percent of all the profits going forward. Not only that,
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  Speaker 1: but Richard knew a way that they could cut down
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  Speaker 1: on their construction costs if they were willing to do
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  Speaker 1: some of the legwork themselves. Late at night on December
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  Speaker 1: twenty eighth of fifteen eighteen, Richard and his troop of
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  Speaker 1: actors armed themselves with various construction tools and with swords.
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  Speaker 1: They set out in the night, arriving at the site
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  Speaker 1: of their old theater. Then they proceeded to dismantle it
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  Speaker 1: piece by piece. When surrounding onlookers began to notice what
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  Speaker 1: they were doing, they chased them off. They didn't worry
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  Speaker 1: about someone alerting Giles Allen, as Richard had made sure
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  Speaker 1: that he was away in the country celebrating Christmas. Now.
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  Speaker 1: History differs here on just how quickly the men were
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  Speaker 1: able to take down the theater. It was rather large,
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  Speaker 1: with a stage and a three sided triple decker proscenium.
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  Speaker 1: Some accounts say that despite its size, they deconstructed the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing in one night. Some historians are more conservative, though,
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  Speaker 1: and say that it took them a few days. Regardless,
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  Speaker 1: when Giles Allen returned to London, he was furious to
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  Speaker 1: find that his land was empty. He sued Richard, claiming
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  Speaker 1: that he had caused a huge stir in the neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: violently threatened the locals and trespassed on his land, but
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  Speaker 1: the courts wouldn't hear it. They found that the original
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  Speaker 1: contract between Richard's family and Giles stated that they definitely
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  Speaker 1: owned the theater and could do with it as they pleased.
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  Speaker 1: With Giles defeated, Richard and his men could finally construct
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  Speaker 1: their new theater on new land that they leased from
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  Speaker 1: a much more reasonable landlord. In the coming months, one
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  Speaker 1: of Richard's young playwrights produced several plays that were big
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  Speaker 1: hits with audiences. Richard pioneered many of the leading roles,
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  Speaker 1: including characters such as Julius Caesar, Romeo, Hamlet, and King Lear.
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  Speaker 1: The young playwright was William Shakespeare, and the new theater
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  Speaker 1: was the Globe. Now not everything was sunshine and roses
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  Speaker 1: from there on out. Although the theater became immensely profitable,
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  Speaker 1: it did have its ups and downs. In sixteen thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: for example, a cannon misfired during a production of Henry
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  Speaker 1: the Eighth, igniting the theater and burning it to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: The theater was rebuilt, but by this point Shakespeare had retired.
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  Speaker 1: He died just a few years later in sixteen sixteen.
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  Speaker 1: Richard Burbage followed in sixteen nineteen. Both men were in
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  Speaker 1: their early fifties when they passed away, and although they
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  Speaker 1: experienced great success later in life, they spent many years
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  Speaker 1: struggling to be respected in a thickle culture that wasn't
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  Speaker 1: sure how they felt about the theater. In fact, just
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  Speaker 1: a few decades after their deaths in sixteen forty two,
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  Speaker 1: the new right wing ultra conservative Puritan government in England
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  Speaker 1: shut down all theater for nearly two decades before the
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  Speaker 1: monarchy was restored and ended this oppressive policy. If Giles
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  Speaker 1: Allen had still been alive, he might have seen this
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  Speaker 1: as a bit of revenge, But of course Richard and
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  Speaker 1: Shakespeare won out in the end, with their work going
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  Speaker 1: on to become some of the most impactful art in
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  Speaker 1: Western civilization. It's curious to think that this would never
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  Speaker 1: have been possible if they didn't set out one night
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  Speaker 1: in fifteen eighteen to steal back what was rightfully theirs.
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  Speaker 1: In the American court system, truth is supposed to be sacrisanct,
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  Speaker 1: but there's something even more important. The jury. In a
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  Speaker 1: criminal case, you either win over twelve people or you
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  Speaker 1: lose them all. And because the stakes are so high,
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  Speaker 1: lawyers will go to extreme lengths to make their arguments
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  Speaker 1: as clear and persuasive as possible. They'll bring in diagrams, models, charts, videos, posters,
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  Speaker 1: and even put on live reenactments, anything that will help
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  Speaker 1: communicate their version of the events. When the legal world,
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  Speaker 1: these are known as demonstrative evidence, and while they may
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  Speaker 1: not be as indisputable as physical evidence, they can be
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  Speaker 1: powerful tools in swaying a jury's opinion. In eighteen seventy one,
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  Speaker 1: for example, a particularly ambitious lawyer put together an unconventional
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  Speaker 1: courtroom demonstration, one that he thought was sure to help
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  Speaker 1: him win the case, but it wound up backfiring spectacularly.
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  Speaker 1: It all started one fateful night in July of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy one in a crowded saloon in the town of Lebanon, Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: The scene was straight out of an old Western, with
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  Speaker 1: a piano player pounding out a ragtime tune, the bartender
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  Speaker 1: slinging drinks, and a group of regulars huddled around a
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  Speaker 1: poker game. The tension rose with every wager, and when
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  Speaker 1: the last hand was revealed, accusations of cheating erupted, voices rose,
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  Speaker 1: fists flew and chairs were tossed aside as the saloon
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  Speaker 1: devolved into an outright brawl. At the center of the
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  Speaker 1: melee were two men, Tom mcgeean and Tom Myers. They
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  Speaker 1: wrestled and clawed at one another until their companions finally
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  Speaker 1: managed to pull them apart. As the men scrambled back
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  Speaker 1: to their feet, a gunshot rang out. The saloon fell
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  Speaker 1: silent as Myers crumpled to the ground, clutching his bloody stomach.
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  Speaker 1: He was dead within minutes, and his opponent was arrested
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  Speaker 1: and charged with murder. The next day, mcgean reached out
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  Speaker 1: to a well known lawyer named Clement Velandingham. He was
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  Speaker 1: a seasoned attorney with a reputation for bold ideas and
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  Speaker 1: a big mouth, and he'd even spent a short stint
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  Speaker 1: in Congress. After hearing mcgehan's version of the events, he
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  Speaker 1: agreed to take the case on, and then he headed
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  Speaker 1: straight to the saloon to investigate. He interviewed the bartender
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  Speaker 1: and the patrons who had witnessed the brawl. Then he
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  Speaker 1: studied the blood stains still marking the spot where Myers fell.
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  Speaker 1: The more he examined the scene, the more convinced he became.
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  Speaker 1: His client was innocent. Both mcgean and Myers had been
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  Speaker 1: armed that night, and in the heat of the brawl,
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  Speaker 1: both men had reached for their pistols. With Meyers dead,
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  Speaker 1: everyone assumed that mcgean had drawn and fired first, but
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  Speaker 1: after studying the evidence, the Landingham had a different theory.
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  Speaker 1: He believed that Myers had accidentally shot himself while drawing
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  Speaker 1: his pistol as he scrambled to his feet. Now, convincing
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  Speaker 1: a jury of this would not be easy, but Valandingham
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  Speaker 1: put together a bold plan to do just that. He
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  Speaker 1: would re enact the shooting right there in the courtroom
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  Speaker 1: and demonstrate exactly how Myers might have accidentally fired his
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  Speaker 1: own weapon. The demonstration was carefully planned and rehearsed. Valandingham
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  Speaker 1: knew that a convincing performance would mean the difference between
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  Speaker 1: life and death. In the end, it was, but not
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  Speaker 1: the person he expected. In a cruel twist of fate,
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  Speaker 1: the lawyer made a terrible oversight. He forgot to check
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  Speaker 1: whether the gun he was using was loaded. You can
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  Speaker 1: probably guess what happened next. In the midst of demonstrating
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  Speaker 1: how someone might accidentally shoot themselves, the Landingham did just that.
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  Speaker 1: When he pulled the trigger. The demonstration pistol went off
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  Speaker 1: and shot him in the gut. He was rightush to
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  Speaker 1: the doctor, but the flow of blood could not be stemmed.
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  Speaker 1: The Langdingham died the next day, but perhaps he would
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  Speaker 1: have been heartened to know that his sacrifice was not
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  Speaker 1: in vain. The jury was convinced. Tom mcgeean was acquitted
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  Speaker 1: of the murder charges, thanks in no small part to
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  Speaker 1: his attorney's unconventional demonstration. Looking back, it was anything but
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  Speaker 1: a flawless execution, but in the end the lawyer got
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  Speaker 1: his smoking gun. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time,
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  Speaker 1: stay curious. Two