Latest / Ridiculous History / CLASSIC: How Santa Anna Lost His Leg Twice, and Held a Funeral for It

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CLASSIC: How Santa Anna Lost His Leg Twice, and Held a Funeral for It · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to our classic episode for this week, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Now,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Santa Anna was a lot of things to a lot
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of people. Is larger than life. He was a legend,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a general in exile. He was also a guy who
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: was very bad at keeping his legs with him. I
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: stole Sanny Annie's leg.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I just looked at the hashtags are the keywords for
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: this episode, and King of the Hill is definitely on there,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: so I know we talk about Cotton Hill and his
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: leg shenanigans in this episode.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite episodes of television.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Santa Anna, the real life guy not lost his leg
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: not just once, but twice. And then this classic episode.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: We don't even want to spoil it. Let's just get
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: this wit a ride.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Uh huh. Right along with us, fellow ridiculous historians. Ridiculous
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Friends and neighbors. As you can tell from the background
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: music playing gently behind us, we are Texas bound. In
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: today's episode, I'm.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Ben loping along on our ponies, get along, little dog,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: all that stuff.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I know, and we're riding on the range today. We
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: are we're riding around the great American West points North
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and South. We are joined in spirit with our super
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegram, who is still away in France. Man,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I bet he's living it up, you know.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: And no, I know he is, or at least doing
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Casey's version of living it up, because I was texting
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: with him the other day and I was like, Man,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: you having a blast?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: He goes, yeah, Man, I just saw a ten hour
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: film that does sound like him. Yeah. When I was
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: talking to him, I always have to check to see
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: if this is going to be the trip where he
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: decides to stay in France. So do us a favor,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: write to him, let him know that he has to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: come back at some voice, because it's just not the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: same without him. Yeah, it's kind of like when a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: band gets back together but they have a different lead singer.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Have you ever been to a concert like that? No,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: but I do remember.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: The thing that always comes to mind is when Ozzie
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: left Black Sabbath and was replaced by Ronnie James Dio.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: That just seemed that seemed like heresy, which I guess
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: is in character for a band called Black Sabbath.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Sure, and that's a good point. But before we go
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: too far off the rails of this. I gotta say
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: it's no dan On Doo nor On Osborne to say
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that they they're just not comparable.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: No, I mean, Dio has rocked for a long long time,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: but now it's time for him to pass the torch
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: back to Ozzie.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And both both of these performers are legends. And speaking
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: of fantastic segues, today's episode is about allegend.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: We got there, you did it man, a legend, allegedly allegedly,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: allegedly a leggy legend. My girlfriend this morning called me
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the the king of dad jokes.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: She did not mean it as a compliment. I don't
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: think there's anything wrong with doing.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: It's a niche man, you know, one which we squarely occupied.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I'm proud of it. Most I think most people make
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: dad jokes. In fact, we're unfairly impinging upon dad's I agree,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: dad bod dad joke. It's like a term of abuse.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: It's a very weird anti Dade thing that goes on.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: You know what, though, being a dad is the only
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: thing that got us a producer in the studio today,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: because today we are joined with our guest super producer,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Eden Brown, Okay, I.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: See where you're going with that, and thank you eating
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: for saving the show. So who's this alleged hero of
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: today's story. Yes, this allegedly leggie legend better known as
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. That is a mouthful, allegedly
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: leggy legend, A man we could do. We could do
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: another leg of that, I think big time. So this
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: guy say it to Anna. You may have heard of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: him before. He was born on February twenty first, seventeen
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: ninety four, and he was a tremendously influential politician. In general.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: We wouldn't call him a war lord, but he knew
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: his way around a battlefield. Over the course of his life,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: he would rule Mexico eleven different times. Yeah.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: World class legalomaniac. Yeah, you're gonna keep this rolling, Sure
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: we can, Okay.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: He was often described as the Napoleon of the West
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: by himself.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Yep, also a world class manufacturer of lore pertaining to
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: his favorite guy, General Santa Ana himself.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: He is probably most famous, at least in the United
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: States today, for his activity during the Texas Revolution from
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five to eighteen thirty six. Notorious sacker of
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the Alamo.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Right, there were some Texan rebels because as we know,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Texas was ruled by Mexico, and Texas didn't want to
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: do that anymore. They wanted there to be their own thing,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: and so this a very small group of Texan rebels
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: posted up at the Alamo, which was an old Franciscan monastery,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I believe, and they were able to fend off Santa
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Anna and his armies for something like thirteen days, I want.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: To say, right, and they earned this defense with blood.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: There were about one hundred Texans that were garrisoned at
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the Alamo, and the Texas force grew a little bit
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: with the reinforcements led by commanders James Bowie and William Travis.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: But wasn't Daniel Boone there too? Yeah, there were a
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: lot of It was like a Wu Tang clan posse track.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was a war and apparently we're supposed
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: to remember it, and by gosh, we do.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Right, right, And that's why you'll hear the battle cry,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: remember Goliad, remember the Alamo on I think it was
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: first recorded on the twenty first of April in eighteen
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: thirty six. During the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Ana's
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: forces killed one hundred and eighty nine Texans and then
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: later executed more than three hundred and forty prisoners. Yikes.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Not a popular fellow in Texas history, as we will
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: come to discover right there in this episode, right.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Right, not a popular fellow, but he got stuff done.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: It's true. He is sort of remembered similarly to Napoleon
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: in that ultimately he ended up losing a lot of
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the stuff that he gained through this kind of thirst
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: for conquest. Right Yeah, And there's an interesting part about
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: that that it'll come into play later. I'll remember to
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: bring it up before we end the episode. So before
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: we get to one of my favorite wars of this episode, Nol,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: why don't you tell us a little bit about the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: events that occurred after the album. Well, just briefly, all
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: those those Alamo centric atrocities you mentioned probably really got
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the Texan rebels fired up, and they ultimately won their
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: independence when they defeated Santa Anna's forces during the Battle
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: of Sanja Sinto on April twenty first of eighteen thirty six.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Santa Anna and his forces were defeated and he signed
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: a treaty to give Texas their independence. From Mexico right
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and again that is where famous the famous call to
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: arms or the famous rallying cry. I remember the Alamo originates.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Santa Ana was held captive in Texas and he eventually
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: managed to return to Mexico in eighteen thirty seven after
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: he met with US President Andrew Jackson. So he lived
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: in exile. He traveled back to Mexico a defeated man,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and he needed a win, nol. He needed something to
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: change the winds of fortune. In eighteen thirty eight, he
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: found a chance. But it was it was a very
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: strange thing. It's one of my favorite names in today's show.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: He became involved in something called the Pastry War.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: That's right after he sort of was able to more
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: or less free himself from exile. He posted up in
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: a pretty cushy oacienda in Vera Cruz where he more
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: or less retired and he was kind of just kicking
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: it there, doing his thing, and then this thing called
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: the pastry War flared up. What's the pastry War?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Ben? That sounds delicious. I'm glad you asked. So there's
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: another geopolitical thing going on here. France is super unhappy
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: with the Mexican government at this time, because they have
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: unpaid debts that they had incurred during the Texas Revolution
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of eighteen thirty six, and these were quite significant debts.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: We're talking about six hundred thousand pesos. So when a
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: baker living near Mexico City, a little bit outside of it,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: a French baker, a French baker, yes, when he claims
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that the Mexican army ransacked his bakery, and he demands
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: compensation to the tune of what was it, sixty thousand pesos?
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Sixty thousand, that's right, which was an exorbitant inflation of
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: what the bakery was valued at, which was more in
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: line with like a thousand pesos.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, actually a little bit us right. And the chef
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: whose name today we know him only as Remonteille, he
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: found some very sympathetic ears in the French government because
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: he took the case directly to the king of the time,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Louis Philippe, and Louis said, they gave this ultimatum with
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: this pretext for the conflict, for the pastry war. They
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: gave this ultimatum to Mexico and they said, all right,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: give us six hundred thousand pesos that includes the sixty
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: thousand for this guy's pastry shop. The Mexican Congress said
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: their version of heck noo, are you crazy? And so
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: in the spring of eighteen thirty eight, the French Navy
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: began a blockade of seaports along the Gulf of Mexico,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: all over up one French bakery. It must have been
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: a great bakery, maybe, Yeah, I guess it was just
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: kind of like the straw that broke the French ponies back.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: It was the use that they used. Yeah, it was
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the the string that dropped the guillotine exactly.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: It's very, very very interesting the way these kind of
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: powder kegs can be set off by a single event,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: like the assassination of a single Archduke Frans Ferdinand, setting
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: off you know, all of the events that with multiple
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: players that led you know that were World War One.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: That were already seeding. Yeah, but that's the thing.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: It's so interesting throughout history you see these little kind
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: of flashpoint moments that taken on their own, you wouldn't
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: think would be that big a deal, but they can
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: set off this chain reaction that becomes.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Quite a kerfuffle, right, And just like the case with
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: World War One and Frans Ferdinand. There's the question of
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: whether it had to be these specific flashpoint events or
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: would it have inevitably been something else Because France was
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: ready to go. It takes a while to get ships
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: across the Atlantic.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were steamed about that cash, you know, because
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: they're like, hey, we helped you out and you failed.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, ultimately in.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Your endeavor to you know, quash these rebels and now
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: pay up.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: And the US, by the way, also piled onto Mexico.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: They sent a schooner to assist in the blockade. This
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: stalemate drags on and on until November twenty seventh, and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the French warships start bombarding island fortresses. Mexico officially declares
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: war on France, and within days French marines are raiding
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the city and they captured nearly the entire Mexican navy.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Desperate to get these monsters out of their fair city
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: and out of their country, Mexico turned to Santa Anna.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: There's a great article on history dot com that goes
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: through some of the chronology of this and they refer
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: to Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna as being.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: A grizzled warrior.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I love that acause at this point, you know, he's
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: had his day, his heyday. He's already ruled like what
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: four times at this point, I don't know, I lose track.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: He keeps going into retirement, coming out of retirement, going back,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: they keep pulling him.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Back in, like in like the Godfather movies or whatever.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so like me at a buffet, of course,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the buffet you want to like get your pill, ben people.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: I don't think we as a species are emotionally equipped
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: to handle buffets. You gotta keep going back to the trough.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, otherwise it's a it's a sunken cost kind
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: of situation.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, So back to this great description by Christopher Kleine, Right,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: they're writing there for history.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Santa Anna was was quite a big fan of
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Santa Anna and fancied himself sort of a ruler of
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: the people. So he was all too ready to jump
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: back into the fray. And you know, he really had
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: a thirst for like being the guy that was gonna
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: hop back in and save Mexico's.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: But and people were into it too, of course, so
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: he raises his own army. He comes out and says
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: something along the lines of I am Santa Anna. Help
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: me defend the city from these French savages exactly. And
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: they're all about it. So they're able to drive Santa
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Anna's army that he forms are able to drive French
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: forces away from the city and at least back to
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: their ships. And picture this. This is one of those
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: flashpoint moments in history. Santa Anna is on horseback, he's
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: literally chasing these guys out of town when a cannon
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: fires and the shot from the cannon knocks his horse
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: out from under him and gets him in the leg.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: It's like, what do they call it? Grape shot?
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is kind of like when you think of
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: buckshot shotgun shells loaded with like these tiny little ball bearings.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: I guess that just kind of like.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Spray everywhere, right, but probably larger if it's coming from
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: a cannon.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a massive small metal I mean,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: buckshot's a great description. It's not a good one, a
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: pleasant way to go and often bound in canvas. Oh okay,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: so yeah, it's it's ugly.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: It would almost be like a pipe bomb going off,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: you know, that's just spraying shrapnel everywhere.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: And it also stink. The timing of it stinks because
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: he pretty much won. Yeah, and there's that parting shot
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: sort of like in The Lord of the Rings where
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: spoiler alert, Gandolf manages to stop the bow rog and
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: then at the very end that that crazy lava whip
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Yeap grabs him ye pulls him down into the abyss.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: There you go, ganed off the Santa Anna of Lord
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: of the Rings. I like that also very into himself,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: now that I think about it, it's true, but you know,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: with good reason. He earned it, I think so too.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: So what happens, what happens next? They got him out
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: of there, right, Yeah, they got him out. But you know,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: we said his leg was wounded, but how how wounded
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: was it? Very?
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: As it turns out, had they couldn't save the leg.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: They could not save the leg ben it had to
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: come off.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Yeh. So he had his leg removed and he had
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: a prosthetic built. But he was still he was still
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: in the game. And this this is one of the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: craziest parts of this story. This isn't the craziest craziest part,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: but this is a strange one. So picture this. He
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: has he has driven the French out of town, but
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: he has not yet won the war. He's one leg down.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: He has a prosthetic and he has his amputated leg
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: which has been with him through thick and thin. The
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: real leg when it was connected to his body, the
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: og leg got it. And pay attention to that leg
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: because that's going to come into play later. So right
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: now we have two legs. One is prosthetic, one is
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: his old original leg not attached to him. What happens
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: with the pastry war because he drives frants out, but
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the conflict isn't resolved, and they I think they need
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: some help from British diplomat.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they help out in broker an agreement in which
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Mexican government has to pay that six hundred thousand pays
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: demand that the French insisted upon, including the cost of
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: the pastry shop in question.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Because that guy's still that's the thing that gets me.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: That guy still lives there.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: He still lives there. Yeah, I don't know. It seems
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: like it would be a stretch. But the French forces
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: take off and everything for the most part goes back
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: to normal. But these guys are going to come to
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: heads again later down the line, Like I think in
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: the mid eighteen hundreds, there's another conflict that's a.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Story for another day.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Santa Ana has his og leg buried at his hacienda
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: in Vera Cruz.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: But there's more, Yes, there absolutely is. So now he's
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: a war hero again, and he is. You know, when
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: people first have a kid, every conversation inevitably turned into
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: something about their baby. The leg he lost in the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Pastry War is like this baby he just had, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: he's constantly reminding everyone in Mexico who will listen, that
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: he sacrificed his leg. Yeah.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Apparently he would hold his prosthetic leg over his head
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: during military parades to remind people of the sacrifice that
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: he made for his beloved country. But so he essentially
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: returns back to retirement after this pastry War. He did
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: his duty, he came back out, fought the good fight,
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: lost a leg.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so he would take it slow after this, Right,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: most people would consider that a warning sign or you know,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a notification from the universe that perhaps your battle days
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: are done. In eighteen forty two, Santana is once again
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the president of Mexico because, as we said, he comes
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: in and out several times.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, according to his autobiography, Ana, his autobiography, which
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: is just rife with hyperbole. It's a lot of fun.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: It's called the Eagle. It was only sixty two days
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: after he lost the leg that General Guadalupe Victoria asked
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: him at the behest of the government to come back
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: to the capitol and said that there was a revolution
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: brooding and that the government wanted him to take the
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: current president, Anastasio Bustamante's place as a temporary president during
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: this difficult time.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: And this quote just.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Really speaks to the megalomania of this gentleman. How well
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: the people knew me. They knew I would never desert
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: my principles and would always be on hand when my
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: country needed me. I was carried to the capital on
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: a litter, like one of those things with the sticks
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: in the chair. Right, is that what palaqui? Yeah, exactly,
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: like some sort of like returning Greek hero or something
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: like that. Right, carried to the capital on a litter.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Although my trip was made with extreme care, the hardships
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: of the journey and the change of climate weakened me. However,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: despite my poor health, poor guy, I assumed the office
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: of president immediately.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he assumed the office of president. He also there's
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: some speculation that we have to engage in here. Noel,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: he also enjoys the uh, enjoys the pop culture status
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: he is acquiring in Mexico. Now he is not only
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: a lauded general, he's not only the president. He's also
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: a very much a celebrity. And so soon after Santa
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Anna really leans into this celebrity status, he has his
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: original his physical leg. Dug up, just take it exhumed yeah,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: from his estate. Uh huh and reburied, but this time
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: buried with full military honors. Wait for a yeah, just
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the like, just the leg. Okay. But it was a
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: really classy event. No. They had they had orations, they
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: had you know, honor guards, they had cannons firing, and
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: they had poetry performed written exclusively for this event. In fact,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: ridiculous historians. We have a couple of examples of this. Oh, man, Ben,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: are you gonna do a dramatic reading?
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I think you are too. All right, I'll play, I'll
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: play you go first. You wanna play these reindeer games?
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Of course? Here is the English translation of a poem
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: titled sonnet, and we'll just is it a sonnet or
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: a poem? The name of this piece is son. I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: like it? Yeah, such complete triumph. What victory, admirable Santa Anna,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: you have attained politics management, all has changed, Valiant liberal
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: for your glory, tremble Scottish rite and enter the dross.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Consume yourself where all you have lost. Do not dare
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: look upon the illustrious hero, be off, We want no
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: memory of you. Come, Holy liberty, Come and wrest from
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: your toils. What do you have to fear from the tyrants?
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: If the free man gives his life for you to God,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: we have sworn his brothers that those that have oppressed you,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: we Mexicans, must wake war upon him.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: All right, Ben, you've ticked the poetry box beautifully.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Might I add I'm going to give.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: You sort of a little soliloquy, I guess, kind of
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: just almost a oration a eulogy ode, yes, exactly, a
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: eulogy to the leg Why should anyone criticize if a
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: funeral performed for the foot, arm, or hair of an
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: illustrious general passions always tarnish merit with malevolence, and really
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: do not wish true merit celebrated. So answer quickly and
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: with confidence. Why should we not honor merit in the
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: lifeless limb of a great and heroic causio, which was
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: the Spanish word for a military hero or official. Why
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: should anyone criticize to make this fitting obloquy to a
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: sacrificed limb, not to the man, but to what he
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: has given fearlessly for the fatherland. It would be unjust, ungrateful, foolish,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: and disloyal to claim it is not lawful or right
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: that a lone foot have a tomb or mausoleum, that
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: a funeral is performed. I'm gonna skip to the last line.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Well quick at rejection obliqui is a public criticism or
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: verbal abuse. So I' saying it's ridiculous for people to
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: say anything bad about this foot. Ah, why would you this?
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's obviously earned it. But I'm in this moment.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna skip a little bit.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: The last line is what I think is really really
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: what sews it up. Did Artemisia not hide the ashes
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: of Masilus in her breast? Mausillus being a ruler in
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: the fourth century who basically created the notion of a
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: mausoleum or a giant or a tomb that he had
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: erected for himself, but I shall continue.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: And believe this the only remedy.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Here's where it gets good. She did her duty. So
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: today Mexico erects a tomb reaching to the sky, covering
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: with ardent hope, a jewel of history and giving glory
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: to the foot, arm or hair.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: We can go ahead and do the polite open mic
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: poetry slam fingerclap, which is just snapping your fingers. So, yes,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: it's true. He buried his leg. It reburied it. Rather,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: it was in a crystal vase, tremendously ornate event, and
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: people were into it. The thing about it being the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: top dog, however, is that when you're in this king
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: of the Hills situation, you don't have a lot of stability.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: In eighteen forty four, public opinion turned against the president.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: People tore down the statues of him. They dug his
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: leg up again. Yeah, and then let drag it through
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the streets chanting with the death to the cripple, Oh,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: which is ugly.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: What did he do to.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Earn that kind of public iire? Well, it appears that
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: he ruled in a much more dictorial style. Imagine that, Yeah,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the Napoleon of the West. So they jailed dissidents to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: suppress opposition. You know, there's not a free press. He
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: led some unpopular campaigns. He wasn't able to control the
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: elections of eighteen forty two, and a lot of the
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: folks who were elected at that time were vigorously against
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the kind of policies he was pursuing. He also raised taxes.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: It's always a dicey move if you were at the
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: levers of power. Several Mexican states just stopped dealing with
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the central government. They declared themselves independent. So eventually he
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: tries to flee the country in December of eighteen forty four,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: but he is unsuccessful. He is apprehended near Zeko Vera, Cruz,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and he is imprisoned. He is exiled to Cuba. When
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: is this It's January of eighteen forty five when he's caught.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, So I think what happened was when the
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: tied public opinion turned against him. It was basically a
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: full rebellion, and he did his damnedas to squash this rebellion,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: but it obviously did not work out for him, and
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: he ended up being exiled. Correct, Yeah, yeah, okay. But
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: during this time, there's a quote from his autobiography that
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I just love, he says this. Speaking of criticism or
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: mockery of his fake leg, he says, stop, I don't
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: wish to hear any more, Almighty God, a member of
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: my body lost in the service of my country, dragged
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: from the funeral urn, broken into bits to be made
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: sport of in such a barbaric manner.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Boy, you're laying it on thick there. Yeah, that's the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: benefit of writing from retrospect. And of course everybody is
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the main character of their own story, right.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: So that's kind of where we lose track of the
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: real leg. But this is sort of just the beginning
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: of the story of the fake leg. This is the
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: that was the first leg of the episode. This is
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: the second leg of the episode. Ben, Yeah, thank you
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: for bringing it back.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Here we are. So he would die, one would imagine
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: in exile in Cuba. However, that is not what happened.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: You see, the United States declared war against Mexico in
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: eighteen forty six, and this famous one legged general is
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: called back to serve his country in the Mexican American War.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: It is keep pulling him back, yeah, And so during
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the Battle of Cerro Gordo, in eighteen forty seven, another
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: leg related incident occurs, and Noel, you wanted to explore
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: this historical event through the use of a clip an
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: excerpt from a show that you say is very important
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: and personally close to you. That is King of the Hill. Yeah.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: King of the Hill is my happy place show. I'm
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: really sad that it's not on any of the streaming
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: services anymore. But I was able to dig this up
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: from a DVD that I have of this particular season.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: The episode is called the Final shin Salt and it
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: opens with Peggy Hill as a substitute teacher because as
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: we know, that's what Peggy Hill does of her son
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Bobby's history class, Texas history. And they're doing a little
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: play that sums up this very event.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: So you just play it, right, Yeah, let's do it now.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: In preparation for our field trip, your classmates are going
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: to act out a little known episode of Mexican American history.
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: The year is eighteen forty seven.
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: General Santa Anna I led the Mexican army at the
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: Almo where we defeated Texas. We are at the Battle
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: of Sarah Gordo eleven years later, and we are hungry sir,
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: I will hold your artificial leg while.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: You eat chicken.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Attack.
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: Look out, it's the Illinois Volunteer Infantry up on.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: General.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: I stole your fake leg.
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: Oh well, that was beautiful. That was just inspired.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, need we say more? I guess not.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: So there's a little artistic license with that particular clip.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: But the way I've read it is that Santa Ana
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: knew that the Illinois soldiers were approaching, and he hastily retreated,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: leaving his carriage abandoned, complete with.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: His half eaten roasted chicken, about eighteen thousand dollars in
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: gold in gold, and one more thing, yep, his fake leg.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: So this prosthetic leg becomes a trophy piece. People were
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: flocking to county fairs to pay a little bit of
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: money to get a peek at this relic, and eventually
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: it fell into the possession of the Illinois State Military Museum.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I guess they were the ones that the
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: soldiers from Illinois were the ones what got it. It
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: seems a little odd though, that it would end up
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: in Illinois, considering that Texas had much more of a
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: close connection with General Santa Anna and his memorabilia.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Right, right, and in the recent years, even unto the
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: modern day, this possession of Santa Anna's leg has become controversial.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: So in Texas in the modern day, several groups of
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: people are petitioning Illinois to return the leg, the prosthetic
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: leg of Santa Ana to Texas. You can read about
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: this in the Chicago Tribune. You can read about this
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: in the museum site itself. But it does seem unusual,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: doesn't it that it would end up in Illinois, of
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: all places, simply because the people who originally captured the
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: leg were themselves from Illinois. It's true, it's actually.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: This is a museum in Texas called the Sanya Sinto
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Museum of History that has tons of Santa Ana memorabilia.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: They have like a glove, and they have like silverware
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: that he left behind during the Battle of Sanya Sinto, plates,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: all kinds of things related to this historical figure. But
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: what they don't have and would very much like to have,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: is that fake leg. But Illinois is not giving it
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: up anytime soon.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: No, unfortunately for the people wish to see it returned.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: The directors the management of both the museum and the
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Illinois Department of Military Affairs are not budging. Colonel Brad Layton,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: the public affairs director of the Illinois Department of Military
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Affairs as recently as two thousand and sixteen, said when
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: asked if they would ever return this leg to Texas,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: he said, the answer is no. We paid for that
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: leg with Illinois blood, and so Nola. There's another quote
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: that you found from the same King of the Hill episode,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the Final shin Salt, and in this clip we can see.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: This clip's a little bit different because they're taking a
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: sort of an alternative universe approach, but we can see
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: how many people would react to the mention of Santa Anna's.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Leg, especially a grizzled Texas war hero like Grandpa Hill Cotton,
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: one of my favorite characters in the show.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Here we go, h Hank.
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: That reminds me we need some chaperones for Bobby's class trip.
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: We're kind of taking Bobby Vegas.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: There's a general and exhibit at the museum. We didn't
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: play about him in school, and I was one of
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: his privates.
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I know all about Santy Anny. We got
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: his walking law under glass. Neil Noise, I'm glad to.
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: Say, actually, Cotton, the leg is coming through Arlend America
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: is finally returning the leg to Mexico.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: What take it easy, Dad, Take it easy, you see, Bobby.
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: Your dadis generations giving away everything we fought them. Pennym
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: off the nail, Mexican legs. You people give back down
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: these papers that you have him.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: And while the real life prosthetic is not traveling to Mexico,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: or at least not as we record this, the clip
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: does a decent job of depicting the emotions involved. And
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: now the Lake Storre means in Illinois and the people
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: who could return it to Texas are categorically against it,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: so it looks set to stay there. Yeah. It's also
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Mexico wants it back.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: All the while Santa Ana, even during his life, was
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: petitioning to get it back, and Mexico has continued to
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: ask for it back. You can kind of see why
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Illinois would be so fond of the leg. They went
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: so far as to name one of their cities after
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: the Battle of Sarah Gordo, which took place in Mexico,
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Sarah Gordo, which means fat hill.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, and at this point I'm probably wondering what
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: happens to Santa Ana. After he has lost his leg
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: that he spends, you know, much of his later life
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: petitioning to have returned. From eighteen fifty five to eighteen
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: seventy four, he lived in exile in various parts of
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the world, in Cuba, Columbia, the United States, the island
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: of Saint Thomas. A lot of Napoleon analogs here right right,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: like Saint Helena and Elba. He had left. He being
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Santa Ana, had left Mexico due to his unpopularity. After
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: his defeat in eighteen forty eight. He participated in different
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: gambling businesses and other industries, hoping that he would become rich.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Oh we didn't even talk about his marriages, did you
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: know what? He had a habit of marrying wealthy teenage
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: women for the for the financial benefits, like heiresses. Kind
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: of yeah. And one of the one of the legends
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: is that during one of his weddings, he didn't show
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: up to the ceremonies. What a piece of work. I
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: guess he was busy. He could work it. I mean,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: you know, everybody knows scheduling is tough for anything. Well,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: so one of the things he did in his later
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: life in the eighteen fifty he brought the first shipment
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: of chickle to New York. Chickley is Gum. Yeah, we
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: helped introduce chewing gum to the United States. He originally
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: intended it to be used in tires, which makes sense,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: you know at the time. But he had hoped that
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: he could hang out with his friend, an inventor named
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Thomas Adams, and create a rubber substitute, which a lot
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: of people were looking for in this day and age,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: and unfortunately they could not use the chickle a in
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: that application. However, Adams figured out that if he added
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: flavorings and sweeteners to the plant, to the chickl he
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: could create quote rubber chewing gum, and the company that
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Adams started would become one of the largest in the
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: United States, rivaled only by that of William Wrigley Junior
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: of Wrigley Gum. A good juicy fruit Yeah, oddly enough,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know if we've mentioned it on this show,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: but you know, juicy fruit is an entirely manufactured flavor.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: It doesn't exist. Yeah. They made it up synthetically and
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: that's why it's not That's why it is not tied
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: to any specific fruit flavor.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's still you know, it has the waft
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: of a fruit like flavor. Right, yeah, last thing only
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: because we we skipped it.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: We probably should have brought this up earlier.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Apparently the Illinois Infantry, the fourth Illinois Infantry, actually captured
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: as an additional Santa Ana leg.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: That's true. Yes, yeah, we should mention that.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because the one that people think about and get
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: all worked up about is you know, the full Monty
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: cork manufactured prosthetic. But that one would have been probably
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: a little more difficult to put on. So as a secondary,
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: as a backup, he also had something of a more
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: humble peg leg and apparently Lieutenant Abner double Day like
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: to use it as a baseball bat. And it's on
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: display right here in our town of Atlanta Decatur, in fact,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: at the former governor's mansion, Oglesby Mansion.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: So we should check that out. We should do a
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: field trip, and we should also bid adieu to Antonio
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Lopez de Santa Ana. What a winding and twisted story
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: this one was. Now there is a good dating, at
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: least on a personal level. In eighteen seventy four, under
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: the terms of a general amnesty, he was able to
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: return home to Mexico. His vision had deteriorated to a
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: extreme degree due to the development of cataracts. He was
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: largely dismissed or ignored by the government of the time,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: and he hadn't been in politics since eighteen fifty five. Eventually,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: he passed away at his home in Mexico City in
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six, at the age of eighty two. He
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: was buried in a glass coffin. That's cool, like snow white,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: and imagine, you know, for someone who lives a such
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: a violent life and war, it's it's kind of like
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: winning the lottery to die in peace at your own home.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: Not to mention at eighty two, Yeah, life expectancy back
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: in those days was was not not near that in
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: two have you know life expectancy for soldiers of course, yeah,
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: but just in general, right, I mean, you know, pretty
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: pretty impressive that he made it that far and had
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: gone through so much intense stuff.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: But yeah, that's not that's it's not a happy ending exactly,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: but it's it's a little dignity for this mavericky, complex
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: peacock of a man. Yeah, it's it's bittersweet, but it
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: is peaceful and that's the you know, there's nothing wrong
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: with that. You can't be angry at that. However, however,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: you can visit Illinois, you can visit Atlanta, and you
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: can see these legs in person if you would like
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: to check out, at least in the case of Illinois,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: a relic that traveled the United States as a tourist attraction.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: If you do happen to go there, please send us
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: some photos. I would like to see it, if you
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: could take a selfie in front of the leg. And
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: I know this brings us back to the earlier question
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: that we explored in the Corpses in the Diorama episode,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: which is about ownership and ethics in museum collections. What
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: do you think quotes? Should Illinois retain possession of this leg?
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Does it belong in Mexico? Does it belong in Texas?
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Does it belong somewhere else? And if so, why let
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: us know. You can find us on Instagram, You can
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: find us on Twitter. You can check out our Facebook
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: page Ridiculous Historians, where you can meet your fellow listeners,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: and you can also find myself. You can find cases.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: You can find nol jumping in commenting on some threads lurk.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: I still haven't posted. I still have and post a
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: response to his favorite historical jerk.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: And apparently we're going to get some glamour shots of
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: Casey during his lucrative child modeling career when he returns
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: from Fronts.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Which is a true story. I can't wait to see.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to see who his fake dad is.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Oh that's right, Yeah, he's got a thing. He was
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: telling us about that off air. So thank you as
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: always very much for listening. Thank you to our super
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegrim. Thank you to our guest producer Eaton Brown.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Give me a high five. Yeah that we'll fix it
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: in posts now, that's good. That was the sound of camaraderie.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: And of course thank you to Alex Williams who can
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: post our track. Thank you to our awesome researcher Christopher Hasi.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: Ortis, and thank you to you for being you and
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: being the best you that you could possibly be and
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: listening to ridiculous history. Join us next time where we
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: talk about a crime fighting gorilla in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: It's going to leave it right there, see you. Then
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: let's play out with some old home on the Range Music, A.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: Home on the Range, where Lady and the Apples. For
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.