Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Shrunken Head

Transcript

Shrunken Head · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Salvador Dolly had a bit of an unconventional
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: streak about him. He enjoyed surprising people, He liked thinking
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and painting outside the box. And if his mustache is
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: any testament to his temperament, you can assume just by
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: looking at him that he was quite the interesting character
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to have a conversation with. Counted among his lack of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: convention was his undying quest to upset the status quo,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to do something a little different, and he received just
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: such an opportunity when U S Department of Corrections Commissioner
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Anna moscowits Cross approached Dolly's manager and invited the artist
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to give an art lesson to inmates at Rikers Island
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Prison in New York. The manager must have pinched himself,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of course his client would want to take the commissioner
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: up on this. He was, after all, Salvador Dolly, and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: true to form, he did intend to give the lesson,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: but unfortunately became sick before his visit and had to cancel.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: A shame too, as he had planned on bringing Baboo
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: his pet acelot. But Dolly wasn't just going to call
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: it quits. No, he decided to paint an original work,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: especially for the prison, to be displayed proudly. Inside it
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: was a black blot representing Christ's head with the crown
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of thorns from which red and black splatter fell. Dolly
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: even signed it for the dining room of the prisoners
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Rikers Island, s d and from nineteen sixty five to one.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: That was where it was, right in the middle of
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the prison dining room. It didn't take long though, before
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: food fights became a problem. The painting got caught in
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the crossfire or perhaps became the target of all manner
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of flying entrees and tableware. One such projectile even cracked
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the glass and left coffee splotches on the paper itself.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Seeing no other option, the prison decided to invest in
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: better protection, and while they were doing that, they had
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: it appraised, stunned by a valuation of two hundred and
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars. They soon locked it safely inside a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: perspect's box, where no food fights could further tarnish it.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: It remained there for another two decades, the subject of
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: many conversations, I'm sure. But then things changed on March
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: one of two thousand three. That was when a fire
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: alarm went off inside the prison. Now, according to standard
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: operating procedure, all officers gathered at a predetermined location. However,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: four officers didn't show up. You see, they were too
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: busy with a more artistic endeavor. As the all clear
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: was given and the prisoners and guards went back about
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: their business, folks noticed that something had changed between the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: time the fire alarm had gone off and the return
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: of the inmates and guards. The painting had shrunk by
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: about twelve inches in height and width. Worse, it was
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: now oil on canvas instead of water color and charcoal
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: on paper. It had also found itself a new frame,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: which had been stapled directly to the wall rather than hung.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: This new painting obviously was a fake, and not a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: very good one either, And yet through it all, the
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: perspective box had remained locked. While there have been many
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: art heists that defy investigators. This one was easy enough
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: to solve, almost right from first glance. It took just
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: a few days for one of the guilty guards to
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: confess everything. A short time later, the other three had
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: been brought in as well. There was a trial, of course,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: but despite the evidence of the new fake painting and
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the four guards absence from the place of meeting during
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the fire alarm, that trial was complicated and frustrating. In
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the end, they walked free. Which leads to the biggest
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: mystery of all, and the one that's still not been
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: solved to this day. The painting, that original valuable work
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: by Salvador Dolly is still missing, and no one, not
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: even the man accused of stealing it, knows where it is.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: The job of a United States president is one fraught
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: with difficult tasks and hard choices. They must be aware
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of the threats to their country and way, the consequences
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of their actions on the rest of the world, and
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: on top of all of that, they have to be
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: careful whenever they interact with the public. Even with twenty
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: four hour secret service, a president's life is in constant jeopardy.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: The most famous incident of this was, of course, the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: assassination of A. Braham Lincoln On April fourteenth of eighteen
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: sixty five, John Wilkes Booth shot the sixteenth President while
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: he was watching a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: d c. But Lincoln's life was actually in grave danger
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: before that, and his savior was someone no one saw coming.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: It started five years earlier. In Springfield, Illinois. Word of
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Lincoln's victory was received around two am the day after
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: election day, on November six of eighteen sixty It was
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a joyous occasion, at least to the newly elected president
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and his supporters. Meanwhile, in the South, what had started
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: as idle rumblings quickly snowballed into a full blown movement.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Pretty soon, Lincoln was receiving hateful letters on his desk
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: from people who saw his opposition to slavery's expansion as
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: a threat. Lincoln, however, didn't believe that he was in
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: much danger. He didn't think that anyone would go so
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: far as to come after a president of the United States,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: despite the warnings he'd received from friends, and so he
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: began to prepare for his in our curation in March
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty one, without the protection of a military escort.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Little did he know, secessionists were also making plans to
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: greet him. Lincoln's journey by rail would take him from Springfield, Illinois,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: to Washington, d C. By way of Maryland, one of
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the more dangerous states at the time as the secessionist
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: movement gained steam. Maryland was a border state caught between
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the North and the South. It was a hotbed of
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: pro slavery activity and was liable to join the South
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: at any moment. There were talks of plans to damage
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the rail line in Maryland in advance of Lincoln's arrival
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: in order to prevent his swearing in, plans that quickly
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: turned to something more sinister assassination. Meanwhile, Lincoln released a
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: list of the stops he would make on his way
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: to Washington, where he would meet and shake hands with
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: his constituents along the way. At one of those stops,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: on February three, which was a Saturday, his train would
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: stop at Calvert Street Station in Baltimore around twelve thirty
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon. Lincoln would then leave at three pm
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: from nearby Camden Street Station for the last leg of
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: his trip. Members of the movement gossiped and strategized on
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: how to get someone close enough to the president to
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: kill him. The man behind it all was one Captain
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Cipriano Ferandini. He was a barber from Corsica, Italy, who
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: had organized a group of extremists to assassinate the president
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: elect once he had reached Baltimore. And the plan was simple,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: create a disturbance that distracted the police at the station.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: While they were attending to the commotion, One of Ferandini's
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: men would step forward and stab Mr. Lincoln to death.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: But word got back to Lincoln's team and they thought
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: of ways to avoid the murderous plot. One idea was
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to have his train passed through Baltimore earlier than expected
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and catch the secessionists off guard. Through a combination of
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: ruses and slight of hand, Lincoln was whisked from one
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: train to the next late in the nights. He was
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: forced to ride on passenger rails as news of his
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: private train showing up in Baltimore might read to Ferandini
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and his crew. He arrived in Philadelphia on February just
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: before eleven pm, where a Baltimore bound train was waiting
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: for him. But how was he supposed to make it
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: on board safely among all the other travelers, with help
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: from his sister, of course, who helped usher him into
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the sleeping car through a rear door. Lincoln wore a
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: hat and a shawl to disguise himself during the transfer.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: From there, it was smooth sailing to Baltimore, where the
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: President elect arrived at three thirty a m. Nine hours
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: before he was scheduled to appear. He was hurried to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: another train and whisked off to Washington to be sworn
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: in as the sixteenth President of the United States. And
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: that sister who had helped him she was a woman
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: named Kate Warren, the first female detective in the United States.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: She worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which had been
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: contracted by the president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Railroad to aid in Lincoln's safe passage. Along the way,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Warren had to bribe the conductors to secure the sleeping
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: car for him, while Alan Pinkerton himself orchestrated the cutting
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of telegraph lines, hoping to stop communication between Ferrandini and
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: his followers. Warren went on to serve as a spy
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: for the Union during the Civil War, gathering intelligence for
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the North by going undercover in the South. After the war,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: she helped solve numerous high profile cases involving grand larceny, poisoning,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: and even murder, and she wasn't ever afraid to get
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: her hands dirty or use a disguise when necessary. Her
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: involvement in Lincoln's inauguration was key to saving the life
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: of a man who, unbeknownst to anyone at the time,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: would go on to change the future of the country.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: And they couldn't have done it all without help from
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Kate Warren, detective spy an American hero. I hope you've
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast asked dot com. The show
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,