Dark History - 92: Filthy Rich: Dirty Secrets of the World’s First Billionaire | Dark History with Bailey Sarian

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Welcome to the Dark History podcast. Today we’re discussing the world’s first ever billionaire- John D. Rockefeller. This guy was money obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED. We’re talking manifestation, threatening people, destroying families, and just generally doing whatever it took. John’s life was quite a unique one, and this episode left me wondering: was he smart, or was he just a sleaze bag? Either way, he changed the world forever. Episode Advertisers Include: StitchFix, HelloFresh, Babble, & Manscaped. Learn more during the podcast about special offers!

When I say the word Rockefeller, you probably think of Jay-Z. But he picked that name because it belongs to a man who achieved insane wealth and power like America had never seen before. I'm talking about the world's first billionaire. Raised by a dad who was a gifted con man, this guy was a cutthroat, money-obsessed businessman who did not care if he destroyed families to get what he wanted. Hmm, this is a story of John D. Rockefeller. [♪ music playing in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-a-feeller's voice in background, sounds of a rock-feeller's voice My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Now this is a chance to tell a story like it is and to share the history of stuff we would never think about. So all you have to do is sit back, relax, and let's talk about that hot, juicy history gas. So when we did our gilded age episode, there was a name that like kept coming up. And it was weird because I knew him, you know, but I didn't know him, you know?

It's sort of like how we all don't want to stand in front of the microwave for some reason. I don't remember anyone telling me not to, but I know I'm not supposed to. Anyway, today we're talking about the Rockefeller's sound familiar at all. Hmm? The Rockefellers, if you don't know, were one of those big, famous American families that had huge success in the Guilded Age, and they left behind an even bigger legacy. I mean, it's so big that most of us have probably heard their name at some point in our lives, or at least walk past a building with their name on it.

But how did they get their billions, you know? What are the skeletons in the family closet? I want to know. And why do I have that same microwave feeling that I shouldn't get too close to them? Well, we're about to find out. I've got answers, Joan. You look great. Now, the name that most people are familiar with, if they've heard of the Rockefeller family family is John D Rockefeller. Because he's like the daddy war bucks of America. I hope you know who that is. You do, right?

Okay, great. Honestly, he kind of reminds me of William Hurst. Yeah. Both of them were extremely ambitious, come politely obsessed with money, and just willing to do anything to get it. And just like, Hurst, to really understand who John was and like, what motivated him, we've got to talk about the man that raised him, you know, go back to the source. And that guy's name was William Rockefeller.

Now, William, Daddy William, was a real interesting guy. He was born into privilege in 1810 to a family that owned a plantation in a whole bunch of land in New York. And as a young lad, William was living off his daddy's coin. You know, just footloose and fancy free, just doing whatever he wanted. He's been described by journalists as, quote, a man in whom strength, fearlessness, and joy in life, unbothered by education or love of decency, ran riot. The type who hunts, fishes, gambles, races, horses, and carouses,

aka parties, in low and mean ways. He had no trade. Indeed, he had all the vices except one. He never drank. End quote, that was a long quote. Indeed, he had all the vices except one. He never drank. End quote. That was a long quote. Wow. Thank you. But anyways, I was like, oh my god, he sounds just like hers, huh?

Basically, William hated working and just wanted to party, gamble, and shoot the shit. He was a certified bad boy, I guess you could say. Honestly, William Rockefeller reminds me of those kids on gossip grow. You know, just throwing around their parents credit card, going to clubs, and then like sitting on those museum steps. Get a job, Chuck! Now it's not clear when or why, but at a certain point, William's dad decides enough is enough and cuts him off financially.

Ooh! You know, that's gonna make him a little upset. So Williams like shit, I need to get a little creative. Because, you know, he's got an expensive lifestyle to maintain. Williams wasn't well educated, so he didn't have a ton of options, but this didn't stop him. I mean, because he wasn't necessarily interested in playing life by the rules. So he goes from town to town, calling himself an herbal jock juror

and selling medicine from this big jug that he would carry around with him. He said it just so happened to be the cure for every problem people asked him about. And for the right price, William was also the guy that you would go to for, quote, unquote, abortive herbs, which were herbs that could induce an abortion. Now, because William always made a point to dress in a sharp suit,

and know exactly the right thing to say, people just believed him. I mean, I know. I would have. He's in a suit. He must be serious, right? So he was making some cash, you know, being this little doctor. But the problem was his status as a doctor, all of the herbs, his jug of medicine, or whatever the fuck.

None of it was real. It was all fake. It was just one big giant con. Again, William was uneducated and unemployed, but he wasn't gonna let that stop him. He was a confident white man. Hello, a confident white man in a suit. The world was his oyster. Oyster Rockefeller, if you will. Another one of William's ventures was to loan money to local farmers at insanely high interest rates. He would intentionally do this to poor farmers who

probably wouldn't be able to make their payments so that he could like eventually just take their farm land from them. Like he knew that they probably weren't going to pay and then he could come in and like just snatch their land. Yeah. What a shit. And this is like when William Rockefeller develops a reputation for being a quote unquote unquote, famous trickster. Or like we like to say, con artist. It's worth mentioning that people usually trusted William Rockefeller right away. All thanks to, you know, his extreme efforts to look well dressed and wealthy, even if

he was broke as a joke. William was known to be completely obsessed with his appearance and leaving people with a good first impression was really important to him. But all his shiasty business moves and fake-ass medicine slinging, it starts to catch up with him, which is how he ends up with the nickname Devil Bill. Honestly, kind of a badass name. Devil Bill? Okay. Sounds like a cowboy that I don't want to fuck with. But this Devil Bill was always one step ahead of the haters, okay?

Before anyone had time to like, catch onto his scams or like, track him down for a refund, he'd be on his way to another town. Kind of like your dad just poof. Gone. In 1834, William moves to Richford, New York. And you know when he moved to a new place or start out like a new school and you're like, I'm gonna change things up. I'm gonna be someone different.

So you have people calling you by a different nickname or maybe you're dressing different. Well, William moved to Richford and started telling people that he was, I'm not lying, he was telling people that he was deaf and dumb, as in, like, he couldn't speak or even here. Yeah, that's what he chose. And for a while, everyone in town was writing things out for William on a chalkboard that

he carried around his neck. People think that William did this because he had, quote, a desire to hear things which would hardly be talked about before a stranger with good ears, end quote. So basically pretty much he liked eavesdropping, okay? Because people would talk in front of him, not knowing that he could actually hear them,

and then he would hear what they were saying. I had a lot of Red Bull today, just let me live. Anyways, that's right, he was a professional eavesdropper. And it's kind of brilliant, honestly. Wow, and bizarrely enough, it really worked out for him in the dating world. I don't know. So one day in 1837, William showed on the doorstep of like some wealthy farmer. And mind you, he has a chalkboard sign around his neck that says, I am deaf and dumb.

Yeah, and then he just shows up to people's houses or something. I don't know, but he does. Okay. And somehow he still managed to charm the lady that answered the door. It was the farmer's daughter, Eliza Davidson. I guess Eliza was quite smitten with him, and she was quoted to say, I'd marry that man if he wasn't deaf and dumb. Yeah, so, okay, but listen, right? But listen to this, because William, he hears this. He's like, what?

She would be into me. So then he decides that he's just going to drop the whole act on the freaking spot. And he comes clean to Eliza. He's like, yeah, I'm actually not deaf or dumb. And honestly, I was like, yeah, that should be it. That's a red flag girl. I don't know about that.

What maybe pass? Shut the door. Go on with your life. But she didn't, that's fine. We all make choices. William drops his whole act, right? Now, many have speculated that maybe he was just tired of like scamming people, right?

Or maybe he most likely heard a little rumor that was going around that Eliza's dad, he was gonna like cut her a fat check when she got married. Yeah, she had money coming her way and William was like, what's that? What? So William decides to drop the whole act and he decides that he needs to lock down Eliza. He needs to keep that shit around because she has money coming in, right? Girl, what are you?

Yeah, I don't know. That shit around because she has money coming in, right? Girl, what are you? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. If a man came up to you with a sign that says I am deaf and dumb, and then was like, LOL, JK, you would stay. I don't have anything to follow that with, but okay, good for you. So the two of them go on to Wed two years later, and then on July 8th, 1839, they have their first baby boy. John D. Rockefeller

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And you'll get 25% off when you keep everything in your fix. That's stitchfix.com slash dark history for 25% off to you keep everything in your fix. That's stitchfix.com slash dark history for 25% off today, baby. Stitchfix.com slash dark history. So John, the baby, right? He was just one of six kids that William and Eliza had. Yeah, she pushed a lot out. Now you'll never believe this

after everything I've told you about William, but he wasn't a great father, you know? He would do trust fall exercises with his kids, but at the last second, he would step back and just let them fall flat on their faces. Thanks, Dad. Okay, so this was apparently an exercise that was going to help like teach the kids how to trust people, but William did it backwards because he stepped away. So the moral of the story was that William was teaching his kids never to trust anyone, never to trust anyone, not even him.

That's pretty brutal. And his wife Eliza must have learned this same lesson because not long after they were married and started having children together, freaking William started having an affair. Of course he did. So he started having a affair to make matters worse with his live-in housekeeper.

Her name was Nancy Brown. That's like the widest name I've ever heard. Nancy Brown. Wow. Okay, so he's having a fair with his housekeeper who lives there. And girl, let me tell you, look, some major information I uncovered about William

and this Nancy woman, you were not ready. So Nancy wasn't just the other woman, oh, Nene, because as it turns out, William had been in love with Nancy before he even married Eliza. I guess he ultimately chose obviously to marry Eliza, but mainly because her dad was rich and Nancy, she didn't have anything to her name. So naturally, William has to make a choice, you know,

and he went with Eliza. But just a couple of weeks after they had gotten married, you know, getting settled down, whatever, William ends up going to Nancy's house, knocks on her door, and he's asking if she'll move in with the family as like they're made, I guess she agrees. So their little love affair just kept,

it kept on going. Even though he had, um, what's that word? How's shit? Oh, wife, he had a wife. Yeah, so... So, a little John. Baby John was growing up.

His dad was just screwing the housekeeper like right under the same roof. Now, William and Nancy, they would even have two illegitimate children together. And I'm just imagining all of this was maybe a little awkward for Miss Eliza, right? Like to say the least. What do you do? I think it's safe to say that Eliza really got the shit end of the stick. I mean, shit.

She's like, I'm marrying like this nice, sweet, fake death man. And then it turns out, you know, he's actually a piece of shit. I wish I could have seen the signs. So that's actually funny. Because he's wearing a sign. Yeah, it was right there, Eliza. So he's wearing a sign. Yeah. It was right there, Liza. So it's around this time that William decides to kick the whole fake doctor act up a notch.

He decides he's going to start living a double life and just take on a completely fake identity. I guess like while he was on his, uh, quote, quote, business trips, he would go by the name Dr. Levingston and pretend to be a legit eye and ear doctor. And it's under the name Dr. Levingston that he actually marries a totally different woman. This guy's busy. Yeah, one mistress wasn't enough and either was a wife. He wanted more, okay? So in 1855, William actually committed bigamy, which is the crime of being married to multiple people, because he ended up marrying a Canadian woman named Margaret Allen. According to journalist Allison McNairy,

William actually met Margaret when she was a 17 year old teenager. Yeah, not even like an adult. There was a 24 year age gap between them, but you know, it's the early days of America. It's not like it's changed much. I mean, there was no internet, you know? You could literally be whoever you wanted. You could say you're a doctor,

you could sell juices and potions, you could put on a suit and be deaf and blind and... America. Land of the free goddammit. And honestly, when you think about it, it's kind of beautiful. It was so free. Despite Eliza's family money, I guess the Rockefeller family struggled financially.

William, he had eight mouths defeated this point. Well, 11, if you include his housekeeper slash lover and their two children. And also, if you count his teenage wife in Canada, so I guess that's 12. But I mean, shit, none of that noise bothered him. You know, William always made sure to still present himself in a certain way. He continued to always be well groomed and would dress in a way that made people assume he was rich. Money! Plus, he was also known for carrying around a thousand dollars cash. I guess on him at all times. Again, this was all for looks like to show off to people that he's rich. He sounds like a fictional character, huh? So William would actually like get the stack of money and just start counting it right in front of his kid's face.

Like, yeah, daddy's got money. Just to make them jealous, I guess. Yeah, his own kids. Yeah. And then he would like trick them into making, quote, bad business deals with him. It was all to teach them the same lesson about trusting no one.

I mean, these freaking poor kids, I mean, they were really going through it, especially John. And I think many of us can maybe see why John preferred his mother over his shithead dad. Eliza raised John in all of his siblings to be backtisk, just like her. And for the rest of his life, John was a very deeply religious guy. And on top of that, he was extremely hard working.

So the whole family, that huge ass family moved to Ohio when John was 14 years old. And while there, when he wasn't in school, he was hustling, picking up like every odd job in town he could. John dug potatoes for a local farmer. He sold candy. He raised turkeys and other animals. Basically, if he could make a buck, he was down to do the work. You know, like that true American way, bootstraps or whatever the fuck. Polo is bootstraps. Up high, he did that. Now this was the first time John was making his own money. And thanks to his dad,

little John became obsessed with making more of it. And then one day John has a come to Jesus moment. Oh. You know, he's thinking and he's like, hey shit, you know what, I could probably make more money by using my own money to make me money. He's probably smoke in the devil's lettuce if you know what I mean. I guess John said, quote, I soon learned that I could get as much interest for $50 loaned at 7% as I could by digging potatoes for 10 days.

End quote. Yeah, he was doing math. Essentially, without lifting a finger, John could be making money just by having money. And he decides his two goals in life are to live to be a hundred and make a hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, he like put that on a vision board. So in 1855, at just 16 years old, John, he wasn't focused on normal teenager stuff like

ripen heaters or go into the dairy queen. He's got plants. He's got goals. It was his first white collar gig. John was hired as an office clerk in Cleveland doing administrative stuff for something called a commission firm, which essentially buys and sells products for clients. Stuff like grain and coal. Sounds boring, right? I know. I know. Okay, whatever. We use it. Grain and coal, we need it. So John started this job on September 26, 1855. And we know this exact day because it was a very special day to him. He even called this date his job day. And he treated it like it was a birthday, being born into the world of business. I guess he would put it on the calendar and celebrate it almost every year, even as an adult.

Yeah, he was really proud. I don't know. I like, did he buy himself a birthday cake? You know, he's like, yay! Link, okay, I think a lot of us probably would roll their eyes if someone at the office was like, hey guys, it's my job birthday. We're gonna celebrate everyone by me gifts. I'm gonna fire you, which honestly sounds like a good idea because I would love gifts. Birthday, job day.

Now later in life, John is quoted as saying, all my future seemed to hinge on that day. And I often tremble when I ask myself the question, what if I had not got the job? I know, he's a little dramatic, but I'll tell you what, the course of American history would look a hell of a lot different if he didn't get that job So okay about two years into his new job John was already itching for more

He got into a little tiff with his boss about his salary I guess John wanted a bump to $800 per year and the boss was like hmm Interesting, interesting. Okay, how about? No. And John, he was like, fuck you, I quit. And he goes looking for a better opportunity somewhere else. That's because in 1859, a man struck oil

for the first time in America and a town called Titusville, Pennsylvania. Honestly, I thought it was Titzville, but it's Titusville, Pennsylvania. Honestly, I thought it was Titzville, but it's Titusville, Pennsylvania. But Titzville sounds way more fun. This episode and your easy breezy summer dinners are brought to you by HelloFresh. Ooh, I love HelloFresh.

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free meals plus free shipping. Hello fresh America's number one meal kit. Now in Titsville, just kidding. So in Titusville, there was a man who dug a well and was looking for salt. And he's doing this, right? And he accidentally came across some kind of black sludge. So this man, he gets a sample of the substance

and he sends it to a chemist at Yale University to see like, what is this? Is it of any value, really? So the chemists, they end up running some tests on it and they were like, this is the shit! I mean, it was great a high-quality oil, okay? So they pass on the word to this guy, maybe on a phone. I don't know, but I'm assuming a phone. And word spread fast at this guy had struck black gold. This had often oil oil boom in Northwestern, Pennsylvania. At the time, everything was powered by oil.

Cars didn't exist yet, but people needed it for things like street lights, wagons, perfume, medicine, blip blop blop blop blop, scuba do, you know? I mean, oil was part of everyone's life, and that meant that there was money to be made. So, and, you know, people got word about this oil. Ooh, they flock to Pennsylvania and hopes of striking oil and getting rich themselves.

So, John's over in Cleveland, and he's hearing about all this oil production happening in Pennsylvania. Drills and wells are popping up left and right, and he gets to think in. I mean, he's got like a six cents whenever there's an opportunity to make some money. And that six cents was like tingling, okay?

Which, you know, must have been like really exciting to him because his friends at the time reported that he would say, I'm bound to be rich, bound to be rich, bound to be rich. He was really into like manifestation, I think. He literally believes that it was the duty, duty of every man to get and keep all the money they could. I mean, really right from the jump, John was the total opposite of his dad.

His dad was all about spending and being a shithead, and John was all about saving and not being his dad. Now, John's father was a major show off, and John was notorious for living on a typed budget. So combining his business marks with his obsession for wealth, John puts himself one step ahead of all those oil producers. You see, he does his homework, and he learns that when someone draws oil, they get what is called crude oil. Crude as in raw or unprocessed. I mean, that's what comes out of the earth. And John

knows that crude oil ain't worth jack, squaddily, shit unless someone can process it or refine it and turn it into like the useful stuff people and companies will buy like lubricants for machines or maybe like Paraphen wax. He has a little light bulb moment, you know, and this light bulb moment, John has ends up changing not just America, but the world forever. cut, but the world forever. Do you imagine having that kind of influence? I couldn't imagine. So in 1863, John partnered with a businessman and a chemist.

So all three of them pooled their money and connections in order to build an oil refinery near Cleveland. And he chose this spot because, one, it was a sweet location. Two, a bunch of railroads were recently finished that connected the city to both the oil fields in Pennsylvania and to New York. And there was also the Erie Canal, which gave John another option when it came to transportation. Now, this was all important because after you refine oil, you need to sell and like ship it. because after you refine oil, you need to sell and ship it. You got it? Good.

Boom. Business 101. So in 1865, just two years after opening, John's oil refinery operation was the largest in the area in terms of the number of barrels of oil he was putting out. Now at this point, John was about 26 years old. 26 years old and he's seeing that there's real money in this.

26. Could you imagine me in 26 and like being like this guy? Ah, ah, ah, what? So John's like oil, money. Hey, why don't I just focus on this? You know, he has another wipe-o moment, come to Jesus' moment, something, because he decides that he's going to dedicate all of his time to just oil. And it's at

this point, John did something that would become his trademark move. You see, John knew that the only way to keep the money flowing and oil refining was to make the company as big as possible. And there were two ways to do that. He could build more refineries, which would take a ton of work and time. Or he could just buy out his competitors who have already done the hard work of building the refineries for him. work of building the refineries for him. So John is doing all this and he's honestly pissing a lot of people off. John was rich and powerful and there was really nothing they could do. Pretty soon he begins his crusade of aggressive expansion all across America. He buys out a local Cleveland competitor for $72,500 and folded that business under his own corporate umbrella.

And tadaa! Overnight, John's business essentially doubles in size. Damn, I wish I was born in 1860-something so I could find oil and be like the Beverly Hillbillies. I love that show. That's what this kind of sounds like. Then in 1867, he teams up with a partner who was just as ambitious as John was.

The two of them together, they had a taste for world domination, okay? And they were hungry. So using money that they received from a silent partner, they expanded their refinery business even more. By the next year, John's company was the largest refinery in the entire damn world. But at this time, the oil market was really competitive. So John had to get creative in order to stand out.

And the first way he did that was by using a strategy called vertical integration. Which I thought was like... I don't know, like you want to love her standing up, doing a 69, you know, vertical integration. Kind of sounds sexual, but I'm just a perv. So no, nothing sexual. This is when a company owns every stage of its operation. We talked about this in our Coca-Cola episode, but essentially companies can cut costs by

owning all parts of the business. And it also means every dollar a company earns goes back into the owner's pockets. They don't have to pay any contractors or suppliers. John was his own supplier. John owned it all. And he kind of seemed to get off on this. He is quoted as saying, pay a profit to nobody. And quote, I know what a line. Pay a profit to nobody.

Okay. If you need a summary, he's pretty much saying that no one else but John should make a scent on his oil. He was possessed by this idea. Just more, more, more, more, more. John and his partner built high-quality, huge refineries using the best materials possible. And it was all in the details. You know, they built their own barrels, and instead of dumping the waste created by the refining process, they found a way to package it and sell it. Yeah, one of those waste products would soon be rebranded as Vaseline. You know her. Transportation was

also streamlined. They had 20 wagons for short-distance shipping, warehouses in New York, holding tanks, fleets of tanker cars on trains, and their own boats to ship their products from New York to the rest of the freaking world, baby. Nothing was going to stop John, no, he was determined. I don't know what he wants though, you know, it's like bro chill. What do you want, I just chill. Anyway, after 1870, John was established as a wealthy and powerful man.

He and his business partner incorporate their scrappy organization and give it a brand new name. Standard oil. Very basic, okay. And by 1872, Standard Oil was responsible for 10% of the whole oil market in America. And it was only gonna get bigger, so just hold on. See, at this time, it was cheap and easy for like startup refinaries to get into the oil game. See, at this time it was cheap and easy to pour like startup refineries

to get into the oil game. Like I guess a smaller refinerie could be built, start to finish for just $10,000. According to John, quote, all sorts of people went into it. The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker began to refine oil, end quote. And because of this, you know,

it's not looking good for John's profits. John's kind of looking around Cleveland. He's like, you know, would be nice. I don't tell anyone, but like, wouldn't it be nice if like these were fineries? Didn't it exist anymore? Wouldn't that be cute? So remember when I mentioned John's trademark move was to acquire his competitors? No, well I just reminded you, you're welcome. Well, John starts rubbing his oily palms together and decides to take his strategy to a shockingly shady level.

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Hello. Now today, if you want to acquire a company, it takes lawyers and negotiations. More lawyers. More negotiations. And lawyers, more negotiations, and before you know it months have passed, okay? I mean, it's not an easy thing to do, but in the span of just two months, in 1872, John bought 22 of the 26 refineries in Cleveland,

22 of the 26th, so if you do the math, that's like almost all of them. He was even able to pocket six of them over the course of two days. He, yeah, six companies in two days. Anyways, after all was said and done, John owned pretty much every refinery in the area. And I mean, how did he pull this off you ask? That's a great question. You see, he threatened them. Mm-hmm. John and his other friends in oil negotiated a special discount with the owners of the major railroads. So John agreed to like toss them a bunch of business. In other words, like ship his oil on their trains in exchange for very cheap shipping costs. But to make it for the discount that they're giving John, the railroads would have to charge the small companies up the butt

pretty much. And these costs would pretty much guarantee these smaller companies would lose tons of money or even just go out of business. Now here's the thing, the sneaky alliance never actually happened. But it didn't matter, because word of this potential agreement had already leaked, and when the smaller finderies heard about John's deal with the railroads, they pretty much like crap their pants. I mean, they knew there was no way in hell,

they could afford all those high shipping costs. So in a panic, they agreed to cash out and sell their business to John. These three months became known as the Cleveland Massacre, which sounds like horrible, right? Well, it was named this because John essentially murdered every one of his competitors' businesses. Yeah. By 1879, John owned 90% of the refining business in the United States. Remember

when I said 10% not that long ago? Yeah, now it's 90%. That's almost all of it. And when a company owns this much of one industry, it's what people call a monopoly. And soon enough, whispers about John having too much power, they start to become pretty loud. And just a reminder, this is before cars were invented, but once they are, Standard Oil was perfectly positioned to make an insane amount of money. But it's easy to forget that what he was doing for his own profit was affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. But lots of those people got payouts. I mean, some thought he was just a smart business man

who had more power than them, but also a whole lot of people also thought that he was just an asshole, honestly. Okay, he was. Really, John didn't care about his business decisions coming back to bite him in the ass. And he wasn't thinking about that. He was moving forward.

That is, Until one little girl whose family got screwed over by John Rockefeller grew up and decided to get her revenge. Love to see it, you go girl. So that little girl didn't just want revenge for herself, but for everyone in America, John had ruined. Her name was Ida Tarbel. Now Ida, she was born in 1857 in Hatchalo, Pennsylvania, in the middle of oil country. And her early years were spent in a quiet, humble environment. You know, she had a peaceful childhood.

Then, when she was just a kid, someone in her hometown struck oil, and it essentially turned her hometown into the freaking gold rush. Aida's father was able to get in on all the jobs created because of this oil rush. He creates a way to store and keep tons of the oil in the area by creating special oil barrels, and this ended up being like super profitable. So Aida's humble family suddenly found themselves were profitable. So, Aida's humble family suddenly found themselves flush with cash and moved right in the middle of the oil craziness. Not long after they moved, there was a big explosion at one of the nearby oil wells which ended up killing like 19 people, including a family

friend of the tarbels. Now when this happened, Aida was only four years old, but she, she vividly remembered it because her mom took in people who were wounded and she cared for them in their own home. This wouldn't be the last time Ida had these traumatizing core memories because of the oil industry. So Ida's dad actually got into oil drilling himself. The oil industry kind of dominated Ida's life. She knew so many people and had so many family members who were a part of it, and it wasn't until she was 15 years old that something changed the direction of her life's calling forever. Something called the oil war of 1872. Eida witnessed families being destroyed by John's oil company. Neighbors were forced to sell or

go broke, and it was just total chaos and destroyed the town that she lived in. Ida describes this time in her childhood as when, quote, hate, suspicion, and fear in Gulf the community. And, quote, essentially, when John's guys came to the town, they started taking over the oil supply and said, look, take this buyout or go broke.

Bye. I mean, it wasn't just about the money for Ida's father. It was also his life's work. He wasn't gonna sell to some soulless corporation, you know? But sadly, everyone around him did end up selling to John. So Ida's father was really struggling to make ends meet and just really make a good living and provide for his family because of this. His life was like the complete opposite

of John's. Money was constantly a problem and it affected Aida's entire childhood. So even though her family seemed to be falling apart because of John Rockefeller. Aida points to this time in her life as the moment when she knew she needed to become a journalist. Aida got into one of the first colleges in the area to accept women and turns out she was the only woman in her freshman class. Hot. I guess they didn't even have dorm rooms for her

because it was just all dudes. I guess this experience was pre-scarhing for her because it was just all dudes. I guess this experience was pre-scarting for her because she vowed to never, ever marry anyone from a young age. Well, she was finally able to start her journalism career at a Methodist newspaper and pretty much kicked out of her immediately. She was really good at it. I mean, before she knew it, she was the managing editor in charge. She moved to France to become a researcher for a while, but then she moved back to New York in 1893, and she found out her family was seriously, financially struggling. Something called the panic of 1893 was happening. Hundreds of

businesses took out loans that their companies could no longer pay. Bankruptcies were like popping up all over the US, and over 15,000 businesses ended up shutting down. And these businesses were everything from banks to railroads to steel mills. I mean, in Michigan alone, the unemployment rate was at 43%. And like during all of this, Ida was making a name for herself as the go-to person for biographies. She wrote this book on Napoleon that won a bunch of awards and it ended up leading her to a bunch of great job opportunities. She kind of became a journalism star from that moment on. So one day, the editor at her magazine suggested

that they, I don't know, cover a story about John Rockefeller's standard oil company. She's like, hey, you wanna do this story? And Aida was like, ooh, bitch, I sure do. This story is mine. So Aida began writing her story, the history of the standard oil company, which sounds like a really innocent boring name. The goal of the story was to show the beginning of the oil industry and how oil came to be in such high demand.

It was supposed to be a hundred-page book, okay? Just hundred pages. What she came to discover was that there was a reason John was at the top of the oil game, and it wasn't just because he was lucky. John had been taking advantage of small town oil drillers like Ida's father. At the time, Ida was writing this story. Her father were struggling financially big time because of the slowdown in demand for small town oil. Everyone was buying oil from John instead because it was like easier to get. Ida's father refused to sell his oil company to standard oil and it just completely financially screwed him over. Ida's father's business partner, he was very distraught over his business family.

And I guess it like it bumped him out so bad that he ended up killing himself. I know, really sad. Ida's dad only was able to pay off some of his business debt by like, mortgaging his family's home. But despite all of that, Ida's father actually begged her to not do the story because he believed that Rockefellers would destroy her

reputation, which they most likely would because they have money and they are powerful, Ida, be careful. Be know what, Ida didn't give a shit. And I love her for it. She was like, I don't care. I don't care. So she dove into decades of court documents, confusing company laws, and the origins of just how the standard oil company became so powerful. And as soon as Ida scratched the surface of what was happening within the standard oil company, she knew a legal shit was going down. And it started to really make sense

to her why John was so secretive about his company and his life. So she made it her mission to expose all of it. So Ida, she interviewed dozens of standard oil employees, and she even visited the company headquarters. But I guess, you know, at this point, and she even visited the company headquarters. But I guess, you know, at this point, this wasn't new to Ida. She knew what she was doing, okay? She knew that explaining how illegal the oil practices were

wouldn't necessarily matter to the masses. It would only matter to like a certain few people who knew what she was talking about. I mean, the everyday person doesn't really care or understand standard oil practices. Like, nah, yeah. I didn't know what people really wanted. Like, what so many of us here want.

They wanted that hot, juicy, history, goss. She wants that information, those details, the secrets. And in order to do that, she needed to get into the mind of the secretive John Rockefeller. Ida packed her bags and headed to his hometown. One of the few things people knew about John was that he was a church-going man. So Ida decided to go to his Baptist church. So when Ida gets to the town, she discovered that like John was a celebrity in the area,

not because of his oil reputation, but because he was very charitable. No matter how much money John made, he always made a point to donate money back to the church. I guess he would show up to church with just envelopes of money, and secretly hand them to those who seemed like they needed it the most. He would even send his kids to investigate who in town needed money so he could help them out.

You know, the parents are like, Billy, go rub some dirt on your face. You know, you need to look poor. Be sad. Go to your diet. SAH! During her time in his hometown, Ida interviewed over 300 people and took about 1,000 pages of notes on each interview. Aida was like, look, hi, I've been waiting for this moment, baby. Thank you. And she was so cut throughout in her questioning. At a certain point, people like kind of stopped talking to her because they thought that I don't know, she was maybe a spy from Rockefeller's company. And they were kind of scared of her. Still, no matter what threat she got, Aida just kept on keeping on.

Some were sorry to get out there about how just maybe. John and his company were, I don't know, a little too powerful. But now that Aida came with the receipts, people couldn't, they couldn't ignore it anymore. Eventually, Aida published her findings in a magazine, but it wasn't just one article, okay? It ended up being 19 installments because of all the juicy gossip

that she found on Standard Oil. 19 installments. And these articles were so successful, her publisher decided to turn it into a two book set, which was published in 1904, and this was a huge hit. In 1911, the federal government found John in standard oil to be in violation of a law called the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Essentially, this ruling said John's chokehold on the oil industry made it a

monopoly. Not the game. He was essentially controlling too much of the oil market and his giant company needed to be split apart into like 34 different companies. I don't know why it's complicated, but that's like the simplest way I could put it, okay? So this was with the mindset of like other people can get a chance at competing for the oil business too. It wouldn't just be one guy owning it all.

So the government thought that they were doing the world, you know, a favor by forcing standard oil to break apart. Their thinking was that more companies equaled more competition, which means better prices for consumers. And at that time, sure, it was the right thing to do. But what the federal government didn't realize was that John's DNA, you know,

like his entire ruthless attitude and essence and personality, were still part of every single one of those 34 companies that came out of Standard Oil. All of them were driven by the same thing John wanted to expand, to make as much money as possible, and to be great at it, which they were. They were very good at it. This episode and good grooming habits are brought to you by Manscaped.

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Choo-choo. Now with Ida's book out and the government on his ass, John broke his usual good guy act and he was fucking pissed. He was said that John called Ida a quote, poisonous woman and quote, oh shit. He's coming for her! And he ordered everyone not to say a word

about Ida's journalistic findings or about her as a journalist in general. He doesn't want to talk about Ida. Don't talk about her around me. And honestly, this seemed to be eating him alive, okay? The good name he had spent decades creating was now tarnished. His mysterious, powerful company? Ah!

The disrespect! One of Ida's more famous quotes about John became associated with his name for decades. She said, quote, our national life is on every side distinctly poorer, uglier, meaner for the kind of influence he exercises." End quote. When these personal Rockefeller stories came out, people were drinking the tea. Aida was actually one of the first investigative journalists ever.

And thanks to her, the truth about John's, Suss dad, devil Bill or William, was exposed. So you know all that tea that we had heard about him earlier? You know, you remember pertain to be deaf and dumb, letting his kids fall on their face like a psychopath? Well, we know all of that because of Ida. She was the windy Williams of their time. She really did the work. And this last little nugget Ida. She was the windy Williams of their time. She really did the work.

And this last little nugget Ida exposed would prove to be a PR nightmare for John's squeaky clean image. You see a bomb shell report revealed that William Rockefeller had even more skeletons in his closet. Ugh! I love to hear it! In 1849, William was indicted on charges of rape against a woman. The court records show that he had been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in his own home at gunpoint. I mean this is 1849, so imagine how difficult it must have been to be a woman in general, but also to come forward and accuse someone of rape. Not easy, especially someone like fucking William. Oh God.

But her accusations led to William being arrested, and William begged his father-in-law for bail money, and then once he got it, he was released, and he would just ended up straight up abandoning his own family. One newspaper king, Joseph Pulitzer, didn't want to just settle for stories about Devil Bill. He wanted to find him. In the early 1900s, Pulitzer went so far as to offer an $8,000 reward for anyone who

could reveal the location of John Rockefeller's mysterious father. In today's money, that's over $280,000. I'd be there like, hi, I'll help. I brought my binoculars. I'll just be out in the fields, looking for them $280,000. Could change a person's life. This was a story of a lifetime for some journalists. It even started a nationwide manhunt. I mean everyone wanted to be the person who located Devil Bill. So by the time journalists found him in 1906, he died. He'd already

died. Bomber, dead. Ah, that sucks. Reporters uncovered that he had continued the whole fake identity thing, and they also found that John and his brother, who both of them have never publicly acknowledged anything about their father, but John had been secretly sending him money for years. So, hmm, interesting. The expose on his business, the focus on his family life, and honestly just working himself to the bone for decades, just really started to take a toll on John. It was reported that he was suffering from some serious depression, and even started to have some scary, like, stomach problems.

He also lost pretty much all of his hair due to a condition called alopecia. John had a bunch of wigs in different lengths made so he could still keep up his public image, you know? The appearance of having luscious, growing hair. I mean, he was really going through it and he was losing all his hair, so wigs got a love on. But on the bright side, a huge thing happened on September 29th, 1916. Newspapers all over the country announced John made history by becoming the world's first billionaire. Billionaire in 1916, wow.

It's like, okay, so he became the world's first billionaire, but he was all secret and private and like lived in a humble home allegedly. So it's like, was he doing with all his money? Jacking off to it? I know we focus on a lot of the bullshit things that John and his family have done over the years, but to many people,

John isn't just known as the world's first billionaire. He's also known as one of the most charitable people in America. Yeah. You know, great. But where did that start? Well, as you can imagine, John was getting requests left and right and center for him to donate to people in need and people just coming up to him randomly or, you know, and it was becoming overwhelming. So he decides to use some of his wealth to hire people to do the charity work for him. Plus, his family's reputation needed a bit of a polish.

You know, it'd be good PR. So John and his son, John Jr. founded the now famous charity, the Rockefeller Foundation. Its aim was to quote, alleviate suffering worldwide. End quote. I know, I was like, wow, that." End quote. I know.

I was like, wow, that's so vague. All right, you know, here's an ad bill. We did it! What kind of suffering? Give me a little bit more to work with here. In the end, John Rockefeller died on May 23rd, 1937 at the age of 98. Damn.

Remember in the beginning, I said John had two goals. He had two goals in his life. One was to make over $100,000, and two to live to be a hundred years old. He failed. He even made it to a hundred. What a loser. The second one.

Between the billions of dollars and making it to 98, I guess, you know, he did all right. In fact, John invented that special class of people we talk about so much today, the 1%. John pocketed a ton of money, and during his life, he also gave $540 million away. And to his credit, the Rockefeller Foundation has done so much for America. They established several medical schools like Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Forever Changing Medical Research in America. They funded scientists who were able to develop the yellow fever vaccine, an epidemic that was killing millions of people around the world. The foundation has also poured hundreds of millions of dollars into education, scholarships,

and Korean schools, and, you know, rural places in America and like overseas. They're also known for giving millions to the arts. They even funded and continued to fund research into agriculture to contribute to the study of farming in countries like Africa, but with every good thing the Rockefeller Foundation did in the past, they seemed to do something shitty. For example, they'd open up a school in a low-income area, but then John Rockefeller Jr. would help fund the eugenics movement, which says who should and should not have kids. And then they were funneling money to the Nazi scientists, but once the atrocities at the Holocaust went global

And they decided to help rescue uh Jewish scholars from Germany. So yeah, it's like uh, they're playing both sides of history here They're really straddling that shit. The Rockefeller Foundation is still open today And so far has donated over 14 billion dollars in today's money, which is Great, I think yeah, right? Yeah, I don't know. Okay. And in 2021, the foundation's new president committed to focusing on equity and inclusion. Again, vague, but okay, we'll be here, I guess. Thanks. The Rockefeller family continues to have many charitable organizations and a few scandals here and there. And honestly it's like, what can we, I don't know.

Now remember back to when I said standard oil was forced to break into 34 smaller organizations by the federal government? Nope. Okay, when I just reminded you, well, there are some major global companies on the scene today that have DNA we can trace back to standard oil. As if they are descendants of John D. Rockefeller himself. A few examples of these companies. You might be familiar. ExxonMobil, Chev four companies combined brought in around 1.8 trillion dollars

in revenue. Wow. And I'm sure John would be so proud. Honestly, you should be proud, John, because you had a shithead dad and you really just ran the opposite direction and made something, I guess. I don't know. Okay, money, huh? Every single one of these companies would not exist if it wasn't for John D. Rockefeller. And every day, millions and millions of people have to give these companies their money so we can put gas in our cars or like heat our homes

or bleep-blop-loop. Even though John D. Rockefeller died in 1937, all those slick business deals he made, all the work he did, all the bamboozling affects you and I to this very day. It sure does. I'm not sure if I should thank him. Well, he's dead. Before I leave here, I didn't even get to mention the Rockefeller Christmas tree situation. I love that tree. Shout out to that Christmas tree. All right. Well, thank you for learning with me today. Remember don't be afraid to ask questions to get the whole

story because you deserve that. I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story, so make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can like see what you're saying and like like it. Also, you can join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs, and while you're there, also catch murder mystery and make up. I hope you have a great rest of your day. You make good choices, and I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye! Dark History is an audio boom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian High,

Junior McNeely from Three Arts, Kevin Grush, and Matt N. Lowe from Maiden Network. A big thank you to our writers, Joey Scavuzo, Katie Burris, Alison Floboz, and me, Bailey Sarion, writer's assistant, Casey Colton, production lead, Brian Jaggers. Research provided by the Dark History Researcher team,

a special thank you to our expert, Carl Shapiro. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian.