Do Go On - 417 - The Plot to Steal Abraham Lincoln's Body

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

In 1875 an audacious plot to steal President Abraham Lincoln's body was hatched by a rag tag gang of criminals - it's fair to say things didn't go plan! This is the 7th most voted for topic in this ye...ar's Block festival, enjoy!This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 00:07:09 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSupport the show on Apple podcasts and get bonus episodes in the app: http://apple.co/dogoon Live show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/ Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.americanheritage.com/plot-steal-lincolns-bodyhttps://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0029.107/--stealing-lincolns-body?rgn=main;view=fulltexthttps://americanhistory.si.edu/lincoln/funeral-procession Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenjai Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.
Starting point is 00:00:17 Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. And welcome to another episode of DoGo One. My name is Dave Warnocky, and as always, I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins.
Starting point is 00:00:54 Sup, you turds. Oh, hello. Jeez, some sort of energy to bring to the show, but great to see you again, Jess Perkins and Dave Warnocky. And to you. And to everyone at home, hello. Oh, man, everyone at home, week three, a block. Can you believe it? We're right in a thicker block now.
Starting point is 00:01:13 We're waist deep. Oh, things are getting serious. Yeah. It feels right. We're waiting further and further into Block. Into Muck. And by the end of November, we are going to be up to our freaking eyeballs and the stuff. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:01:27 Maybe even worse. And then we've got to get out. Yeah. Which is lucky because December drops a poll in and brings us all back to safety. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm following. Dave, explain what Block is for new listeners. Blockbuster Tober.
Starting point is 00:01:44 aka block Tofa Grace period is Do Go On's month of months. And I do mean months because it used to be October. Now it's November as well. It's been annexed as Blovember. And basically it's the time of year where we do our biggest, our bestest, our blockbuster-iest topics. Matt put together a huge poll of our most requested topics and said, hey, what do you want to hear about?
Starting point is 00:02:08 You can pick as many as you like. Thousands of people voted on this poll. And only nine competitors were left standing. We've already ticked off two of those. This is the seventh most voted for topic of Blockbuster October 2023. And as always, we do a report on a topic, and that's going to be the topic this week. It's number seven. It's Matt's turn to report on the topic.
Starting point is 00:02:28 We always start with a question, Matthew. Any questions coming to mind? Yeah. This one, I think you might find this one tricky, but let's see. This episode is kind of a sequel to episode 69. Nice. Do you remember what topic was covered way back then? Of course.
Starting point is 00:02:43 Yep. And do you want to say it out loud? No, I don't. Okay. But I remember it. I remember it. I remember it and I plead the fifth. Episode 69.
Starting point is 00:02:52 I'm pleading the 69th, which is a way sexier response in court. Oh, no. Cleopatra. All right. Dave's had his guest. Jess, I'll give you a clue. Yep. It was about a world leader meeting his untimely demise.
Starting point is 00:03:08 Cleopatra. A world leader. That wasn't, no, I don't know. Can I have a second crack here? Yeah. Abraham Lincoln. That's right. But the topic, of course, that time was his killer.
Starting point is 00:03:24 Oh, yes. I can't remember the name either. William H. Macy. John H. Macy. Stad. John Wilkes-Boothe. That's right. That was episode 69.
Starting point is 00:03:35 I didn't realize it was so far back, but it was back at the original Stupid Old Studios, I reckon. No, it wasn't. It was the second one, I reckon. Doesn't matter. Incredible. Although I would also would have said it was a bit more recent than that, but there you go. Yeah. Anyway, this week's topic, as voted on by more than 27% of voters, block voters.
Starting point is 00:03:55 And there was thousands of votes. Thousands of voters. So more than one in four of those voters wanted this topic. The plot to steal Abraham Lincoln's body. I forgot that that was one of the options. Oh, my gosh. So this has been suggested by a few people, including Lynn, from Washington, Aaron Wolfe from Daytona Beach, Megan Chivasios Frazier from Pennsylvania,
Starting point is 00:04:20 Jason Frey from Orlando, Florida, Carl Haggedy from Wabash, Indiana in the United States, John Percy from Grand Rapids, Michigan in the U.S. and Allison Bede from Lahi, Utah. Alison Biday. Biday? Biday. Like a Biday? Allison Biday. No, Alison Biddle.
Starting point is 00:04:41 And the middle initial B. Allison's B-day? Alison B-day. She don't be night. She don't be cray, she'd be day. Yeah. So I think that's, that'd be one of the rare times where every suggestor is American. Yeah, wow.
Starting point is 00:04:56 Because I'd never heard of this story. That's because no one else cares about Lincoln. Whoa. No one else cares. Whoa. Speak for yourself. I am. No one cares.
Starting point is 00:05:09 Did you, either of you know that? Honos Abe's body was once subject of a plot to... No. No, and I'd love to know, and you're going to tell us, obviously, but at a guess, I'm imagining it's way back then, but imagine if it was like five years ago. Yeah. Broke into his crypt to whatever he is.
Starting point is 00:05:26 He's mostly dust, but we're going to see what we can get. I got him. I got the beard dust. They go in with a dust buster, a little vacuum. Got him. They suck him up. They sucked up a president. Beautiful tribute.
Starting point is 00:05:41 To a beautiful man. Beautiful man. Beautiful man. Beautiful beard. As we went, was it on this show or who knew it with Matt Stewart, that he is inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame. Oh, that's right. Oh, yeah. We were on the episode, were we?
Starting point is 00:05:55 Because he did some wrestling before he became president. Yeah, he was like almost unbeatable as a wrestler. But he was tall and skinny, right? Yeah. Wow. Was he 9 foot 10 or something? It's huge. Was he 9 foot 10?
Starting point is 00:06:07 I think he might have been 9 foot 10, 9 foot 11. But that was his build height. They always exaggerated in the WW. He's probably like 9-8. They counted the top hat. Yeah. He can wrestle in the top hat. He can barely move because he's balancing a hat at all time.
Starting point is 00:06:21 Yeah, it's funny. This is our second topic that looks at him in either his last days or after his last days. We still haven't talked about his life. No, who cares? No one. Could we do? We could maybe one day finish the triptych with the prequel. A lot of my watch.
Starting point is 00:06:39 Flashback. The life. and times of honest Abe. Nah, not on my watch. Make sure that's one when I'm away, boys. Not bloody interested. I'll stop you right there. I don't know where this has come from, but I'm enjoying it.
Starting point is 00:06:57 I don't care about Abraham Lincoln. That is canon now. One day Matt asks the question for his next topic. Which president? If it's Lincoln, you can fuck off. If it's Lincoln, I'm leaving right now, mate. Lincoln, I'm living. Yeah, I mean, in a lot of ways, I also don't care.
Starting point is 00:07:14 See how he tries to piggyback? See how he always does this? I refuse to piggyback. He's got very strong legs. Imagine me trying to piggyback on Dave. He'd collapse. You wouldn't make it. I don't piggyback.
Starting point is 00:07:25 I love Lincoln. You're a Lincoln lover. Yep. See, at least he can form his own opinion, though. Hold on us, Abe. What? Wait, and what, do we like that? And do we like that about Dave?
Starting point is 00:07:39 What do we think of Dave? So I can't remember if I mention this on episode 69, but hours before Lincoln was assassinated, he signed the legislation that founded the Secret Service. Does that ring any bells? I didn't ring my bells. No, but it feels like he probably could have got him in a little sooner. Because their job is to protect the president, right? It is now, but at the time, the agency's original purpose was to combat the widespread counterfeiting of US currency. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:08:07 And to restore public confidence in the money. Right, but did they pivot? when they saw their president. Three hours later, it was shot there. Actually, maybe currency shouldn't be our main focus. The real gap in the market over here. Yeah, I think it was after maybe another president got knocked off that they finally went, hang on.
Starting point is 00:08:25 Yeah, the money's nothing without the president. Which was beautiful for them. That's actually so true, though, isn't it? So true, so beautiful. So poignant. Beautiful. But that's, when I think a secret service, I think secrets, I think, whispers. Yes.
Starting point is 00:08:40 I think, you know, stolen glances from across the room. No, now you're thinking romance. I think romance. Unrequited love. Yes. Forbidden fruit. Bananas. Really big ones.
Starting point is 00:08:59 Really big bananas. Anyway, in the 1860s, the Secret Service was required because counterfeiting money was big business. It's believed that as much as half the US. currency in circulation at the time was dodgy. Half. Some said a third half, but like a lot of the money was fake money. When I was in grade six, they had this program every year at my primary school. I think it was called earn and learn.
Starting point is 00:09:25 Did you ever have this? So basically, you picked a business that you wanted to start. And then there was currency given out at the start. And then you literally go out on Friday afternoons. And like, I think I did a milkshake place where I had ice cream, had a milkshake maker. and then for five of the fake dollars, I'd do that, but then I'd go down the end of the street
Starting point is 00:09:44 and then, you know, on the basketball court and there's a kid selling plants and you could put a plant on your desk, all this kind of stuff. And it worked great until one kid, uh, got a photocopier.
Starting point is 00:09:54 And, uh, all the money was on colored, like blue for fives, green for tens or whatever, and just photocopied like tens of thousands of dollars of fake money. You're going to go to the wheelbarrow. All of a sudden inflation's out of control. Ruin the whole program.
Starting point is 00:10:09 They had to shut the whole program. thing down because suddenly... Was that his stall, the photocopier? Yeah. But that's the lesson. Totally. I mean, that's life for you. So they put him in Erdalen, Jail.
Starting point is 00:10:21 They put him in the stocks. White color. Wow. And what's that kid doing now? Probably some sort of multi-billionaire. Yeah. Yeah. Not for long.
Starting point is 00:10:30 Obviously, he will be in prison any day now, but... It's fine. He's going to live. He's going to live in a great life. He's got a Lambigending for a while. What was his name? Maybe just first. name? Jason. So the Jason of the day in the 1860s was this guy called Ben Boyd. And he made these
Starting point is 00:10:48 plates for fake money to be printed off, but he made the best in the business. According to Peggy Robertson, writing for American Heritage, Boyd was regarded by crooks and cops alike as the very finest of engravers and was the prime source of unauthorized money. One of his $5 plates was so perfect that over the 300,000 bills were known to have been printed from it and passed without mishap by one gang alone. Wow. 300,000 notes. Yeah. That's amazing.
Starting point is 00:11:17 So you can understand how quickly the whole country would be flooded with this. And this one of the house costs 18 cents. Easy. He bought the whole country. And he's made $300,000.5 notes. That's an untold sum. Yeah. Math hasn't even got to the stage record answer that.
Starting point is 00:11:35 No. It's like pie. The number that just keeps going. Aguses? Aguses. What do you call those things? Abacuses. Abacuses don't even count that high.
Starting point is 00:11:44 Even Abacuses. The highest form of counting. Abacuses. Abacuses. So, yeah, he's the guru of it. And that's one gang. So the system was kind of like you'd have on the ground, they were called passes. So you'd have the, you know, they were the front line.
Starting point is 00:12:00 And they'd go in and put a couple of notes in at a time into their buying, into shops and stuff. I'll buy, you know, I'll buy. I'll buy that house. I'll buy that house. He's a couple of others. He's your change. Can I get, I'll get, you know what, the whole top shelf of houses, I'll have those. No, no.
Starting point is 00:12:20 Where's my change? You can have a garage for change. Yeah, and then, so these are individual gangs, but they are in different cities. So he's printing money out and they're going out to all these different gangs filtering out into the community. But he's making heaps and heaps of these notes. The Treasury of the United States ultimately realized these notes were so close to the real thing that they recalled their genuine $5 bills from circulation to combat it. They're like, basically we can't compete with them, so we're just going to kill off that note as it is.
Starting point is 00:12:52 There's no more five. Yeah, I guess they changed it or whatever, but it's high praise. Wow. One of Boyd's collaborators, or perhaps his boss, depending on who you're reading, was a guy called Big Jim Canali, but I'll just call him Big Jim. Big Jim had previously been done for passing a dodgy note, which apparently led to him serving a five-year term at the Illinois State Penitentiary. So I'll crack him down on it pretty hard. And do you get one year per dollar?
Starting point is 00:13:20 Yeah. Well, when you think about it, it's like stealing 500,000 houses. That's a lot, Dave. Yeah, for five years to 500,000 houses, that's a good deal. I'd say five years for 500,000 houses. Would you? Yeah. So I could serve one day to get one house
Starting point is 00:13:38 I'd prefer that Okay, all right I'd drive a hard bargain I'd do a week Yeah, for seven houses Yeah Can I choose where the houses are? Yeah, you can also choose
Starting point is 00:13:49 Which week you do And you do the time in your houses Yeah, it's all house arrest Oh, okay That sounds too bad That sounds quite nice Where would I have my houses Obviously one in the city
Starting point is 00:14:01 I went on the top shelf I thought they were Oh, then Where would the houses be? Oh, you buy the house. Yes, and you put it down somewhere. Could I get that house to go? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:13 Yeah, yeah. And they deliver or you just chuck it in a bag? I don't know. Do you want me to wrap it? Is it a present or is it for you? Do you need a gift receipt just in case you don't like it? Just in case you don't like this house. Not the right size house.
Starting point is 00:14:26 You don't fit this house? So he's trying to stay out of trouble after getting out of the clink. He's done a five-year stretch, Big Jim's out. He wants to stay out of trouble. So he sort of, he tidies himself up a little bit, and he no longer is on the ground level. Instead, he hits the straight and arrow by being a counterfeit money wholesaler.
Starting point is 00:14:48 Oh, right. Practically. Yeah. Not even legal. Yeah. So he sells the notes made by Boyd's plates, those perfect plates. He sells them in bulk through his network out to the gangs who then pass them out on the streets. Unfortunately though, for Big Jim, Boyd was arrested in 1875 and sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
Starting point is 00:15:11 And this is his, this is golden goose basically. He's the guy makes it all possible. He's the genius. I feel like he should be doing 1.5 million years. Yeah. At least. Yeah, the some turn out up, do they? You get one note, oh, you're five years.
Starting point is 00:15:24 You've done all the notes, uh, 10 years. What's the system here? We don't have abacuses that go that high, okay? We've got two numbers. at this stage. This is the 1870s, Goddammit. We got five or ten. According to Robertson, this left Big Jim and his network of printers, wholesalers and passes virtually jobless. The prime Midwestern wholesaler of all those perfect counterfeit bills now had nothing to sell. You'd probably figure out why they call them passers. I think it's, I don't, I didn't really look it up,
Starting point is 00:15:55 but I assume it's because they'd pass the notes. It's an interesting assumption you've made. Okay. Well, I mean, what would you? I assume they're all, some somebody's hall pass. Oh, yeah. I just heard, I think you're saying pastor. Pastors. There you go. Fuzzelli.
Starting point is 00:16:12 So never assume we're thinking the same as you. Because I can almost guarantee we're not. Hi, we're Jess and Dave. And we're idiots. So Big Jim decided he somehow had to come up with a plan to get his man boyed out of prison. It's like, what I've got to do? How do you think he would have gone about it?
Starting point is 00:16:36 I was thinking maybe like bribing a judge, audacious jail, but break. I'm thinking, uh, jackhammer. Yeah. Just straight through the wall. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For a while. Yep.
Starting point is 00:16:50 He's got to break through the whole wall. Oh, yeah, yeah, great. And then. I thought you were clearing your throat. You're really working yourself up for this. That's what I've been. What are you thinking, Dave? I reckon probably like a fake heart attack.
Starting point is 00:17:02 Oh. Get in the ambulance. Get to the infirmary. Yeah. They're about to load you. They're about to cremate you. Bang, you're out. So Big Jim fakes the heart attack from outside of prison?
Starting point is 00:17:13 Oh, he lets Boyd know inside the prison to fake heart attack. Yeah, yeah. And then Big Jim also affects the heart attack. They're in the same ward together. Oh, yeah. They're in the heart attack ward. And you go, Big Jim, he doesn't sound that healthy. He's probably going to have another heart.
Starting point is 00:17:25 The heart attack ward. Yeah. Perfect crime. So have we nailed it? No. Your ideas were ridiculous. Big Jim's. plan was to steal Abraham Lincoln's decaying corpse and use it as leverage to trade for Boyd's
Starting point is 00:17:39 freedom. Oh my God. So it's like, it was like the topic of the report today. It's also one of the most simple idea. You know, sometimes the idea is so simple you wouldn't even consider it. Yeah. You know, it's too simple, but actually. Still the ex-president's body and hold it as a ransom. Yeah. Oh my God. Of course. Yeah. But that's, that's so many people have probably done that. You wouldn't even bother. You know what I mean? It's a hack. Yeah. That's the, how many bit had they done it back then? I don't think they had. There you go.
Starting point is 00:18:07 That's the genius of it. Since then, every president's body's been stolen, so it means nothing to us anymore. It's become hack now. Yeah. But back then. It was quite clever. Yeah. He was decades ahead of his time.
Starting point is 00:18:19 Well, let's go back to Abraham Lincoln and his death. So it was the 16th U.S. president, and he was assassinated around 10 years prior to this on April the 14th, 1865. So they're not stealing something. some recent mint condition president body. He's not going to be, he's going to be a little sloppy, I think. Although he, apparently he was one of the first to pioneer embalming. He was like happy to be embalmed and stuff.
Starting point is 00:18:48 Right. So that's why they chose him maybe. Maybe they picked him. He was also nearby, I think. Proximity. And yeah, he was, he was a big star. He was like a pretty famous president. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:59 Even then. Even then, when there hadn't been as many. Yeah. Now there's been fucking heaps of him. And he's still, is he the most famous one? He'd still be up there. Yeah. For thinking of a president.
Starting point is 00:19:09 Name of president, Dave. Name one now. Name one. Quick. Of America. Ronald Reagan. Oh. Jess, name a president.
Starting point is 00:19:16 Obama. Okay. Quick, Matt. Name a president. Seven. Okay. President. Who's the seventh president?
Starting point is 00:19:23 Jim. Jim Sinson. Jim Belushi. Jim Belushi was the seventh president. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:31 Wow. Of the Writers' Guild. Oh, okay. Or something, maybe. I couldn't think of any presidents of anything. Andrew Plinton. He was the Saints president in the 90s. So the president, Andrew Jackson.
Starting point is 00:19:44 He's a famous one. And you called him Jim. He was the guy I loved to Jewel. He was, I think it was in your episode of World's Worst Jewels, wasn't he? He was. You're absolutely right. And he's on the $10 note, and he looks like Australian comedian Wayne Hope. I'm thinking of the rocker.
Starting point is 00:20:00 Oh, wow. So you know quite a lot about Andrew Jackson. Just not his name. Or where he came in the scheme of things. Number seven, did you say? Number seven. Beautiful number. Anyway, so Lincoln assassinated in 1865.
Starting point is 00:20:16 We talked about this in quite a lot of detail in episode 69. So what happened to his body after that, according to the National Museum of American History, on April the 19th, 1865, so we're talking five days later, an estimated 25 million Americans. attended memorial services for Lincoln in Washington and around the country. 25 million. That's so many.
Starting point is 00:20:39 That's about around the current population of Australia. The US population at the time was 31 million. Whoa! Everyone. Yeah. But they didn't have much on back then. Imagine what, the six million who just stayed at home or went to the shops must have had the best day. Well, yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:55 They could have to go to park anywhere. Oh, you'd have everything to yourself. Yeah. I'd go straight to the water park. Oh, yeah. No rides. so those slides. No rides for those slides.
Starting point is 00:21:05 No rides for those slides. Am I right? Go to high five someone? No one's there. No rides for those fives. I'm losing it. We never had it, but yeah, we are losing it early. No rides for those slides.
Starting point is 00:21:24 Do you say it's so gone. I know. Because in my head I was like, I can't believe I'm coming up with this. This is amazing. It rhymes and makes sense. What are the odds? And then you pause and look at me like I said,
Starting point is 00:21:35 I was like, that's right. I did the wrong. I'm that good. Huh, okay. There you go. I fucked up. The article on the National Museum of American History continues. Lincoln's body lay in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda
Starting point is 00:21:50 and then traveled on a funeral train that retraces route to Washington in 1861. Root. Route to Washington. Root to Washington. I've seen that one. And it was 1,700 miles. long. That's a long route. Is that all? So they just chuck the body on a train and take it around and stop every day and then for people to have a look. Exactly. Basically, they took it on a farewell tour.
Starting point is 00:22:18 That's so good. You know, we talk about it a bit on this show that in the olden days, they'd go out and see a train. But this makes some more sense. I'm not necessarily myself going to see a body. No. But we, not too long ago, that line to see the queen's body. Yeah, but was this an open casket train. Could you see anything? Or were you looking at a train knowing he's in there somewhere? They brought, I think they brought the body off the train at a bunch of stops. Imagine being the people loading him in and out.
Starting point is 00:22:47 Yeah, apparently in 10 cities, his casket was removed from the train for elaborate memorial services and public viewings. Wow. And newspapers publish the train schedule so that citizens could pay their last respects as it passed. So if you went from one of the big towns, you go by the row. railway line and just go, bye, Link. That's what his close friends might have called him.
Starting point is 00:23:11 Thank you, Luke. His close friends probably weren't standing by the train tracks. The nine car funeral train carried 300 guests. What? As well as the casket, obviously, to Springfield, Illinois. The funeral procession in New York lasted four hours and included an estimated 120,000 marches. That's a lot of marches. And that's long parade.
Starting point is 00:23:33 Too long. Is anyone watching? Everyone's in the parade. This is one person waving it as 120,000 people walk past. Yeah, you're all the lucky guy on that day going, oh, everyone's at these memorials. Where am I going to go watch that parade? And then on May the 3rd, 1865,
Starting point is 00:23:53 the train reached its final destination in Springfield. And the following day, Lincoln's body was placed in its tomb. Apparently, the city, of Springfield was keen to have the body right in the middle of town so that for tourism and stuff but his wife's like no I don't want him in the middle of town I want him on the edge of town and they're like started pushing for it and she's like I'll take the body all together if you want the body it's on the edge of town and like all right put it on the edge of town put the coffin down it's okay hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey let's look good
Starting point is 00:24:30 Shish, shh, shh. Hey, yeah, let's think about this. Hey, hey, sugar cube. I think she's a horse. The pat on her big face. Big long face. Hey, shh, shh, shh, there's a good girl. Who's a beautiful girl?
Starting point is 00:24:43 So I guess he was, yeah, there must be a reason why he was taken there. Because he wasn't born there. He was born in a sinking spring farm in Kentucky. Well, we know why he's not buried there. That's no longer there. It's sunk. It's gone. Why?
Starting point is 00:25:02 The spring has taken it. Buried in Springfield. There's a lot of Springfields in America as well, aren't it? Yeah. Although, this is according to Abraham Lincoln Online.org. I trust this website. Abraham. Abraham.
Starting point is 00:25:18 Although Lincoln was born in Kentucky, grew up in Indiana and served the nation in Washington, he was buried in Illinois where he had developed strong community ties. Two years before his assassination, he wrote, Springfield is my home and there more than elsewhere are my lifelong friends. Oh, well, that's nice. So they're nice that's nice that they ended up putting him there. But didn't want to be in the centre of town. Well, his wife didn't want to be in the centre of town.
Starting point is 00:25:41 I guess he didn't want to make it a circus, you know. She didn't want to have to struggle to get a park every time she wanted to visit him. Yeah, yeah. That's a nightmare. They're like, we could just bury him on a roundabout. And then you wouldn't have to park. Yeah, you could just go around around him. A couple of laps.
Starting point is 00:25:54 Do he laps. Laps of eight. But they don't like roundabouts. They're like four-way stops. Could they put his body in the middle of a four-way stop? When you say they, who are you talking about? I think Americans. Americans are like roundabouts?
Starting point is 00:26:06 They think that they often have four-way. Isn't that a thing? I don't know. You've got to work out who gives way to who. They're anti-circles? What? America. They should bloody visit Canberra.
Starting point is 00:26:17 Am I right? One big bloody roundabout. Bloody roundabout city up there. More like clown about. I learn about circles from Sesame Street. I feel like I've been sold a lot here. I learned how to count to 12. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
Starting point is 00:26:38 Well, let's learn some more from... Do do, do, do, do... From bridal vehicle leasing.com.uk. Today is estimated that there are 9,000 modern roundabouts in the US. Even though this is much more than they had in the 1990s, the UK has nearly three times as many, despite being 40 times smaller. Right, okay. So compared to the UK, but they're circle lovers over there.
Starting point is 00:26:58 And sorry, that was on a bridal car, website. Bridal Vehicleleasing.gov. It is hard to think of content. How do we get them in? Well, here I am. They're the number one thing on Google and you Google USA Roundabouts.
Starting point is 00:27:17 We're up to episode 416 and we're going okay. They're already down a roundabout. How many episodes are they up to on bridle.com? You've Googled like, what did you Google? Roundabouts. And it's come up with the UK site. Yeah, giving them a bit of sats. For bridal vehicle.
Starting point is 00:27:37 Their website is so big. We have great internet here at the studio. It's been loading their homepage for about two minutes. Wow. That's how many blog, they've covered every. It's not B-R-I-D-A-L. Oh, what is it? Oh, it's just a company.
Starting point is 00:27:53 It's just a company. Oh, I thought it was a wedding company. Is it not? No, that would be B-R-I-D-L. Oh, you're right. It's spelled like a horse's bridle. Oh, okay. Man, I remember all that laughing I was just doing? I take it all back.
Starting point is 00:28:10 Still feels a little bit irrelevant. It's a bit irrelevant. It was even more relevant when it was, you know, wedding cars. Dave, don't turn your computer around again, mate. Yeah. Don't you ever do that to me again. That was so fun. Let just dream. Let me dream.
Starting point is 00:28:24 Let me have fun. People run a website hiring out cars to brides. Just brides. And also giving facts about other countries. Well, it says that they only got their first modern roundabout in 1990. Is that possible? Well, modern roundabout. Maybe they don't see 80s roundabouts as being modern.
Starting point is 00:28:44 You know, depends on what they mean by that. First grunge roundabout. Yeah. It came through. Seattle. Anyway. Bridal. I didn't even notice.
Starting point is 00:28:55 Love it. So Lincoln's now on the edge of town in Springfield, Illinois. That's where his friends were, and that's now where his corpse is. And it was from this final resting place that Big Jim would aim to steal the presidential remains. Condon Robertson, it isn't surprising that he came up with his plan at the time body snatching was endemic in rural America, with local resurrectionists digging up recently interred bodies for surreptitious sale to medical schools. And because of this, the bereaved frequently stood guard at the graveside for weeks after a burial.
Starting point is 00:29:31 For weeks. Not normally for 10 years. I think you do it for weeks until you're like, they're pretty gross in there. Yeah. No one wants this. No one wants to cut this up. I know they want to steal freshy. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:42 But imagine you're at medical school doing sort of like, you know, learning about stuff and then you're like doing an autopsy and you're like, is that Abraham Lincoln? I think that looks like Abraham Lincoln. I can't tell without the hat. Quick, put the hat on. Get a hat. Get a hat. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:29:57 Oh my God. But to be fair, if I put the hat on this other dead body. That looks like a... The Lincoln. We've got two Lincoln's. What are the odds of that? In our little establishment? Wow.
Starting point is 00:30:08 And now that place is called two Lincoln's cadavered workshop. Dot Orge. And you can visit it. So Big Jim said about putting together a ragtag team of misfits and ne'er-do-wells for the job. I love a rag-tag bunch. In early 1876, he organised Ben Sheridan, or if you read a different article, Thomas Sharp, anyway. He organized some guy, and one of his, who was one of his counterfeiting agents, to lead the team. Appropriately, Sheridan was from nearby Lincoln, Illinois.
Starting point is 00:30:44 The plan was to snatch Lincoln's body from its tomb in Springfield, then hide it south of Lincoln until a ransom of $200,000 was paid and Boyd was released from prison. So they've up the end. We want Boyd out, but while we're here, might as well. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Big Jim paid for Sheridan and four of his gang members to head to Springfield a few weeks prior to prepare.
Starting point is 00:31:10 Apparently, they were meant to be setting up a saloon bar in a building Big Jim had rented as a base. I didn't fully follow the logic there. But it sounds like a lot of the preparation ended up being the gang just getting on the drink. And perhaps unsurprisingly, this led to some issues. According to Robertson, they planned to move on the night of July 3rd, just the night before. July 4th. And I think maybe that was part of the plan. Everyone's distracted.
Starting point is 00:31:38 We hit them then. Was the fourth of July already a thing in the 1870s? I mean, you're saying that to us. Definitely. That date existed in the 1870s. Okay, good. I can't remember when July was invented. I think it was the, I remember it's like the 1840s.
Starting point is 00:31:53 So it was new, but it was definitely. It was already a thing, yeah. Great. Well, 1870, sorry, 1776. So it's almost the 100 year anniversary of. Did they celebrate the 99 year anniversary? I wonder. I was going to read some more and I thought,
Starting point is 00:32:12 oh, this is boring. What are you going to read? So it's funny that July, this is from PBS, History of Independence Day, July 8, 1776 was the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence, held in Philadelphia's Independence Square. Sorry, I fell asleep.
Starting point is 00:32:31 I'm feeling wide awake, Dave. I'm energized. I have my own opinion on this one. Yes, Dave? Do you go on? Oh, I've poured myself over here. I was going to say, one year later, well, it's not one year later.
Starting point is 00:32:51 It's July 4th, 1777. It's like four days shy of a year since it was bred. Philadelphia marked Independence Day by adjourning Congress and celebrating with bonfires, bells and fireworks. So I guess it was adopted, or adopted rather, on the 4th of July, they read it on July the 8th and nearly a year later they're like all right let's have
Starting point is 00:33:10 oh right that's interesting i assumed something happened on that date and something did they decided to start having the fourth of july yeah so it's set up some fireworks so yeah so it was it had been a thing for quite a while at this point then so the plan was for it to happen on july third but with just two weeks ago sheridan succumbed to temptation touring springfield's brothels he confided in one of his hostesses that his little band was going to quote steal old Lincoln's bones, collect a ransom and spend the proceeds in the ladies' establishment. She told the sheriff, and the next morning, through a monumental hangover, Sheridan learned of his indiscretion. You idiot.
Starting point is 00:33:50 Big Jim Canealy washed his hands of the gang, and Ben Sheridan was professionally disgraced. So I think he might have found it hard to get work in the underground after that. So he's kind of gone into it thinking that, like, Like doctors, sex workers had a confidentiality. Oh, yes. Doctor-patient. And they don't. Like a lawyer.
Starting point is 00:34:15 They can fucking tattle all they like. Back then especially. Does psychologists have that? I think psychologists are doctors, aren't they? No. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Is my psychologist telling everybody about me?
Starting point is 00:34:28 Yeah. Oh, my God. That doesn't need to. They're broadcasting it. That would imply that it was interesting. The things I've heard on your psychologist podcast about, about you. What?
Starting point is 00:34:37 Wow. Well, it's mainly about me and Dave, and it's not good. Yet you refuse to change. You've heard how I feel, and yet you do nothing. Man, I'm trying. Not very hard at me. Not hard at all. So, yeah, so the first plan came unstuck before it even really began.
Starting point is 00:35:00 Just keep your fucking mouth shut. Yeah. No, sorry, that was to you. Okay. But it always happens. We've had so many stories where they've gotten drunk and told someone. I mean, when you have a great idea, it's hard to keep it to yourself. It's sort of like when you buy somebody a great gift and you can't, you're really excited to get it to them.
Starting point is 00:35:20 Oh, I got you a great gift. Yeah, you just can't. You're like, oh, I want to tell you what it is. But it is. It's funny as well because it's like, I'm going to get a lot of money. I'm going to spend it here. Yeah. You're about to get some money from me.
Starting point is 00:35:30 And she's like, I'm going to go tell the sheriff. After you do what? Yeah. still a 10-year-old deceased president That sounds pretty full-on, dude And then he'd be like No, the president wasn't 10-year-old
Starting point is 00:35:45 You've said that funny And she went, well, you know what I mean The president wasn't 10 years old But he's been dead for 10 years old And his body is 10 years old And he goes, well, agree to disagree And it was that sort of sass To push her over the edge
Starting point is 00:35:59 She was like, you know what, fuck this guy I'm going to the sheriff I don't need you on bony money Yeah And then she went I went to the bedroom, one bedroom across where the sheriff was and said, Sheriff, got some news. I hope you don't mind me interrupting. It is important.
Starting point is 00:36:12 I've got to interrupt this bone with news of Lincoln's bones. That would be a great name for a brothel. Lincoln's Bones? No, I wouldn't. Or we interrupt this bone. We interrupt this bone? I mean, that's what you just said. That almost works on one level, almost.
Starting point is 00:36:30 Lincoln's Bones. Lincoln's Bones. I think it's classy. I think it, you know, it subtly suggests what it's up to. Lincoln's bones. Lincoln's moans. Oh. But now it doesn't have bones in it.
Starting point is 00:36:45 I think it should be moans and bones. Oh, moans and bones. Cut the Lincoln. Presidential moans and bones? Yeah. Because I think it's the president. The Lincoln's alluding to the president. Happy birthday, Mr. President, moans and bones.
Starting point is 00:36:56 Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. All right. They also said cake. Are we going into business? I think yes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:37:04 Fantastic. And let me tell you, we're going to be rich. So the plan came unstuck, but Big Jim was not deterred. He still had dreams of stealing. It's the only way to get my friend out of prison. I will not consider any other alternative. I will not hire a good lawyer. I will continue to try and steal the president's bones.
Starting point is 00:37:29 It's such a, like, it's so indirect as well. Even if you're able to get the body. then you've got to somehow make this exchange? Yeah. What are the odds that you can do that without them figuring out it was you? Yeah. And Boyd, like, do they go, yeah, all right, we'll swap. Boy, that's exonerated, no worries.
Starting point is 00:37:48 Yeah, we promise, once your guy's out, we won't touch him. Yeah, like, and they think he's just going to go back to being able to print money for you? Do you also think they care that much? About. Lincoln's bones? Oh, yeah, they care. Okay. Oh, they care.
Starting point is 00:38:03 That's why they leave him basically unprotected at his tomb. On the outskirts of town. Yeah. In a little of nowhere. They're much better protected these days. I'll tell you that. Imagine being the Secret Service and your job is just to like hang out at a grave. Oh, does every president have Secret Service agents at their graveside at all times?
Starting point is 00:38:24 Oh, I wonder. Yes. Surely not. Well, it's a secret. I can't say. Yeah, it's Secret Service. Okay. But they have Secret Service.
Starting point is 00:38:33 us forever. Yeah, that's true. And forever it goes beyond death, so. Yeah. You know, they're not allowed to drive on the road after they are president? Really? Where can they drive in the paddocks? Well, apparently George W. Bush, Jr.
Starting point is 00:38:47 Has big... Got him. Sorry, I'm nerding out over here, so I didn't hear anything he said. George W. Bush takes a, like, he goes full driving on his, like, his ranch in Texas, because it's not, you know, it's not a private road. But whenever they're on the road, they're on the road, they've, they've got the Secret Service stunt driver, you know, in case they come under attack and do evasive maneuvering and things like that. So you can't even just drive yourself to the shops. You can't do
Starting point is 00:39:11 that anymore. You give that up. I thought that was just because U.S. presidents are always really old. And I probably probably shouldn't be driving. I'm sorry, sir. We're taking your keys. Give him like little fake toy keys like for kids. There you go. Hey, hey. Get in the passenger seat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, you're driving from the left hand side. Yeah, good job. I mean the right hand side? Yeah, it's got one of those little fake. The Simpsons Maggie saw. That's nice.
Starting point is 00:39:39 So he's not deterred. Still drayman of the body snatch. And Big Jim starts heading out to Chicago, commuting out there to have meetings with some of his counterfeiters in the windy city. They had a branch office in a bar called The Hub on West Madison Street. So, yeah, he's just got little branch. ranches everywhere. Well, having a little office, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:40:05 Isn't it funny at a pub that had their own room in there, their headquarters? Very strange. It was a real dive bar, though, and was run by a 27-year-old name Terence Mullin. He's one of the key players here. And the other notable guy who comes up throughout the rest of the stories was a regular name Jack Hughes. Huesian Mullen. Jack Hughes.
Starting point is 00:40:26 They become a bit of a dynamic duo. Mac. Jacquesus. Jacus. Is that a French verb something? Is that like accuse? I accuse. Jacquesus.
Starting point is 00:40:40 His name. Oh my God. That's very good. If I knew French, I would have got it. I just thought you said the name again. I said Jacquesus. Two terms of lessons get you, baby. God, he's good.
Starting point is 00:40:52 You are so good. Of Jacquesus, Robinson writes, he was an outstanding passer of phony bills. thoroughly honest looking man, respectfully bearded and always well-dressed. He spent his working day going from store to store making one small purchase at each and paying for it with a crisply persuasive counterfeit bill. If his currency was ever questioned and the police were called, no case could be made because he had never had more than one bad bill in his possession. His working supply trailed along a full block behind him, usually in the form of a small boy whose
Starting point is 00:41:27 pockets were stuffed with bogus cash. After each stop, he would sidle up and slip hughes another bill. Wow. He had a really good system got there. A little cash boy from you. Come on, cash boy. And if the cash boy got done, ten years in the slag. He's like, here you are, sir.
Starting point is 00:41:44 I know the five are for you, sir. He's ten bob for you, sir. It sounds like his, so his greatest skill in being good at this was that he just looked respectable. Okay. So you guys couldn't do it. Oh, hang on. Well, back then I said he had a beard. Back then, beards were respectable.
Starting point is 00:42:01 No, what did he say about the beard? Respectably bearded. There you go. Oh, it's a very specific kind of beard. You are not respectably bearded. I've got to get a trim. You are fucking... I'm going to go to a barbers and say...
Starting point is 00:42:12 Bush Ranger bearded, you are. Can you make me respectable, son? Yeah. And they'll say, I'm not a fucking magician. That's intimidating. And Dave over here is, you know, teenage boy pub bearded. There's nothing more respectable than a teenage... Pubeboard
Starting point is 00:42:28 We could be the duo You could be trailing me behind with the $5. I'm all likely to be dodgy notes And then what happens So you go to the milk bar I hand you $5 and you go in and buy
Starting point is 00:42:40 like one pack of juicy fruit or something Get some change You can't really buy that much So yeah is that the point of it To like get the change Get the legit money? Yeah I guess you're trying to buy things
Starting point is 00:42:50 That are value as well And you could sell them or whatever For real money? I don't know But the odds are you'd be Getting paid and dodgy money as well back Yeah, and also just like, you just have money now. If they're passing...
Starting point is 00:43:02 Yeah, that's right, if they're so good. Just use the money. But the only problem is you can, like, you can say, oh, you've got like deniability. Yeah. You go, I was given this, I didn't know. But if you've got only dodgy notes and they find it, then you're... You get done. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, that dodgy kid out there gave it to me.
Starting point is 00:43:19 That's why he's got the cash boy. Arrest the cash boy. I mean... I rest that cash boy, which is the term I've only just come up with. I've never met that cash boy before in my life. So he was really good at it, but apparently sometime in September 1874, in Washington Heights, Illinois, something went wrong and Hughes was arrested by Secret Service agents and indicted for passing five counterfeit bills. So his system fell apart. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:43:43 And he went to the clink. But, yeah, it's funny to think about the Secret Service back then. That was what they were doing, just trying to catch, like, these petty criminals, basically. So anyway, as we meet him now at the hub, he's out on bail. This is, you know, a year and a half later, something like that. And this is where Big Jim starts to pull together his second crew of body snatches into the second half of 1876. Big Jim, Mullen the bartender and Hughes the counterfeit passer. They're the main three, and they regularly met at the hub to develop a plan.
Starting point is 00:44:20 And according to Robertson, this is how the plan went down, or how it was planned to go down. This was the plan. This was the plan. Oh my God, you are eloquent. Look at out the middle plan there. Quote, they would meet in Springfield, steal Lincoln's body. Bang bang. No explanation on how they do that bit, but that's cool.
Starting point is 00:44:44 Don't worry about it. But a bing, but a bang. Whatever. Then they'd load it onto a wagon and using a relay of horses, speed it some 200 miles to the sand dunes bordering the southern tip of Lake Michigan, just southeast of Chicago. go. There they would bury the body, carefully triangulating the site against permanent landmarks so that they could find it again in the ever-shifting sands and then wait for the
Starting point is 00:45:07 government to meet their demands. How good is this plan? They're putting it in sand dunes and they're just going, okay, so like there's a tree, four steps away from that tree, done. They're going, all right, there's a bit of sand here. So next to the sand and next to that other bit sand. So just remember between these two bits of sand. Yeah, the sand in the middle of these two bits of sand. Not two bits, they're triangulating. I think that's three bits of sand.
Starting point is 00:45:31 It's a third bit of sand. I don't think, I don't, I hope they're not counting sand as a permanent landmark. But these cars were bozos, I've got to say. So I wouldn't put it past them. Also, they're permanently shifting sands. That sounds like a thing that wouldn't be a good place to bury something. Yep. If the sands are shifting off the top.
Starting point is 00:45:51 How deep do you have to go? Yeah. Probably just to the Earth's core. Yeah, yeah. It's a few hundred kilometres. Yeah. Here's another ingenious part of the plan. Inside the tomb, they would leave behind a piece of paper torn from the front of the Catholic Union and Times, which was published in England.
Starting point is 00:46:11 This newspaper was so rare in Chicago that the police would surely file it away as a clue. The rest of the front page would be hidden at the hub. It would be used to identify Big Jim and Company as the genuine kidnappers, when the time came to announce their demands. $200,000 in cash and the release of Ben Boyd. That's pretty cool. That's pretty clever. It's funny, it's like going,
Starting point is 00:46:36 you're hoping that the cops go. Oh, we'll take, we'll keep this as a, when I read it at first, I thought that were, they were framing up someone. Yeah. Must have been someone from England. Framing themselves, yeah. But yeah, they were, they were, I was going to put like something in his pocket.
Starting point is 00:46:53 like they say prove you all the kidnapper check his pocket there's a couple of dice in there but they've got the body right oh yeah who they prove wait hang on wait wait how do the police
Starting point is 00:47:06 yeah hang on because I thought the police were going to find the body and then they were going to prove that it was like but if they find the body they don't need to pay them anything no they're not finding the body they're finding their paper they left behind in the tomb so they left a bit of newspaper behind the tomb oh I thought it was inside the coffin
Starting point is 00:47:20 same same same but in my head and I guess your head When the police find the body, then they'll know we stole it. And to thank us, they'll give us our tour. And if they give us the money and release, Ben, then we'll give them back the body they've just found. But you can't have just put anything in the tomb like I'm saying. Like you just put like a red bus, a red ball and then say, yeah, it's us. What do we leave?
Starting point is 00:47:43 We left a red ball. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I don't know. What does it smell like in there? I'm glad you qualified that. I get anxious. I get anxious when I'm. stealing president's bodies.
Starting point is 00:47:55 So apparently Big Jim and Hughes, Jacques, were happy with Boyd's release in the cash. They're like, that's all we need. But Marlon apparently got obsessed with the idea that body snatching, the body snatching would also win the criminals, quote, the respect of the American people. Wow. Okay.
Starting point is 00:48:15 Like, we can, we've got a good shot at the cash and maybe even releasing our friend from jail. Respect is a little bit. harder to... We're going to hold the body until you respect us. No, I want to genuinely feel it. You're all putting it on. Don't just say you respect me. Show me.
Starting point is 00:48:38 Show me. Go on. Do a little dance. Yes, a respectful dance. That's ridiculous. One problem they faced was that none of them had any experience in the general art of stealing bodies. But as luck would have it,
Starting point is 00:48:53 A new regular at the bar named Lewis Swaggles did. Swaggles. He came in and he's like, you're talking about somebody? And because at the time, grave robbery was pretty common. So he's like, yeah, I've got a heaps experience grave robbing. You need a grave robber. Come to Swuggles. And again, last time it all went wrong because they told an outsider about the plan
Starting point is 00:49:15 who then went and told the cops. Again, some guy walks into the bar, they're like, hey, we're planning on stealing Abraham Lincoln's body. Can you help? He be, I think he came in, he was coming in as a bit of a regular for a while before. They started a warm to him and then. Oh, he's absolutely a grass, this guy. Undercover.
Starting point is 00:49:32 I think that he might be an arc. What? Sweggles. That is not a real name. Swiggles. A narc. I've heard it all. You freaking narc, swiggles.
Starting point is 00:49:43 Hughes and Mullen, they like the cut of his jibb. In part because of his exploits as a grave rob. They're like, we don't understand that. So it'd be good to have someone who knew what they were doing, which feels like maybe one of the first things. Yeah. If big Jim's putting together a team of grave robbers. Maybe get a grave robber.
Starting point is 00:50:00 I'd reckon get a grave robber. He's got a crack team. I've got a guy. I've got a bartender. You can pour drinks. So the after party is sorted. It's got a guy who can pass fake notes. Huh?
Starting point is 00:50:13 Huh? Oh, we've got cash boy. Yeah. We got cash boy. They could come in handy. And I'm big gym. I'm not going to go there in person. but I wish you all the best.
Starting point is 00:50:24 So, yeah, they like Swagels because obviously he filled a need for them. But also they're impressed by his connections to better known crooks of the day. He would drop names into the conversation like, oh, if you're in with these guys, he must be pretty good. By November, Swaggles was such a key member of the crew that they were now meeting at his house. Unfortunately for Big Jim and the Boys, Swiggles wasn't who he said. You're kidding me. A month earlier, the Secret Service had received a tip-off about the plot,
Starting point is 00:50:55 and Chicago Bureau Chief Patrick D. Tyrell then recruited Swegles to infiltrate the gang. Real name. And he swiftly did that. Swiggles is a real name, I believe. And when they're meeting at his real house? Yeah. And so he really was a grave robber? No, no.
Starting point is 00:51:10 So they knew that they need. Yeah. They're going to rob a grave. Go in. Order a whiskey and then loudly say, yep. Oh, just knocking off after a hard day of stealing bodies. I'm an expert
Starting point is 00:51:22 As I know all the crooks Let me tell you Robin Graves is not an easy job Well it is for me I'm very very good at it But boy oh boy For people who don't know what they're doing It is pretty tough
Starting point is 00:51:35 But I've got a big gap in my schedule Coming up It's good to have a bit of down time But I guess if there was some work to come up I wouldn't say no I'm supposed to do a big job A big presidential job Anyway, another whiskey.
Starting point is 00:51:53 Oh, what are you guys up to? How much going on? Sorry, were you guys, Eves drop it on me just then? How rude. That's a bit rude, anyway. Swaggles the name. Grave Robbins, the game. Yeah, real name.
Starting point is 00:52:06 You want to come around for a cupper at my place? Yeah. Gardner-Robinson, contemporary accounts vary wildly, but Swuggles apparently had been a seaman, then probably... Sorry. We all have. Yeah, it's like, all right.
Starting point is 00:52:25 All right, man, we've all been a seaman. You're definitely patting out your resume if you're writing that down there. You've gone back a bit further. Before that, I was a glint to my father's eye. The list goes up. I've also done a bit of bookwork. People putting their primary school captain on their resume.
Starting point is 00:52:43 You're a grown adult. Oh, yeah. Not talking to anyone in particular. Well, note to self, I have to remove mine as well. So, yeah, it was a seaman, then probably a petty crook. But by 1876, he was well launched on a career as a professional informer or roper for the Secret Service. Wow. He was professionally undercover.
Starting point is 00:53:05 Yeah. Wow. Just full time. So they'd pay him by the job. Yeah. Roper. Roper is fun. Roper seaman.
Starting point is 00:53:13 He was, I guess, in some ways. Robertson goes on Swegel started hanging out at the hub and he would report to the Secret Service so the things we know about this story is because he's like on the phone every day or going in and telling him what's happened
Starting point is 00:53:34 and he later said I got myself up in their minds not by praising myself but my friends Frenchie the burglar Bill Ray and others I had a letter from Frenchie who is in Michigan City Penitentiary. They thought I was a first-class man or I would not be known to such men.
Starting point is 00:53:52 So I was convinced by a letter. He's a letter. He's a letter of recommendation for my friend Frenchie the burglar. It's so funny. Yeah, so Swagles would report daily to Tyrell and then Tyrell passed the information onto the chief at the Secret Service. Based on Swagles Intel, on the 5th of November,
Starting point is 00:54:11 Tyrell told his boss that the gang feels, quote, confident of success saying that if they do get caught, it is only one year in jail, but if they succeed, Ben will be liberated. And this is true. I think grave robbing at the time was just a one year penalty, which is so funny when one of them has done five years for dodgy notes.
Starting point is 00:54:29 Yeah. Stealing a president. Fine. You get one year. I guess, yeah. Maybe it's like stealing a regular body, a normy body. Yeah, okay. A president.
Starting point is 00:54:38 It should be like 18 months. 18 months, yeah. Yeah. You got a, what, a 50%? Yeah. Fee on top. Yeah. Presidential loading.
Starting point is 00:54:46 President. Prison tax. Yeah. Loading made more sense. Robertson continues the next day, Tyrell reported to Washington that Swiggles had told them that the attempt to steal the body would be made the following night. November 7, election day. So, again, they're doing it on a day that they know is going to be busy with celebrations and whatnot,
Starting point is 00:55:06 which they called the criminals, Mullen and Jacques. They called a damn. Damned elegant time to do it. According to the thieves, they're Irish Americans. I don't know what I'm doing an English accent, but anyway, just feels right. Damned elegant. Okay. According to Thomas R. Turner writing for the Abraham Lincoln Association,
Starting point is 00:55:27 they liked Election Day as, quote, liquor would be flowing freely. There would be crowds of farmers with wagons. And one more wagon with a package on the back would not attract undue attention. It's just another wagon with a package on the back. Just another U. driving off a cliff. The plan's gone right.
Starting point is 00:55:50 There's a top hat sticking out the top, though. Normally, wagons don't have a top hat on the back. That is weird. That's weird. That's weird, but it's the election day. Yeah, crazy things will happen on election day. Yeah. Wagons like to dress up.
Starting point is 00:56:03 I respect. The horses are also wearing top hats. Everybody looks quite dapper. Well, they look damned elegant, to be honest. Terrell then met with Robert Lincoln. Yes, a relation to the preemptive. president. It's his son and Elma Washburn. And they, Washburn was previously the chief of the Secret Service. The current president had sacked him the week before because he thought he was,
Starting point is 00:56:27 wasn't to be trusted. Wow. Right, because all he's doing is protecting the old president's body. What about my body? Yeah. I'm still here. Come on. Come on. So, uh, they chatted and decided that Tirole probably needed a bit of help in foiling the plot. So extra men were recruited for the cause. Cornel Robertson. Tyrell and Washburn called on Alan Pinkerton, head of the famed Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Have you heard of this?
Starting point is 00:56:54 Yeah. I hadn't, but apparently they're quite a famous detective agency, and they hired two of their operatives, John C. McGinn and George Hay. And during the afternoon, they enlisted two more helpers. John McDonald, a detective from the Illinois Humane Society, and John English, who had been Washburn's private secretary when he headed the Secret Service.
Starting point is 00:57:15 Wow, Johnny English. He's put together his own rag tag band. It feels like now you just be like, all right, we'll have some of the officers from our department. But there he had to like, he just put his own band together. Of the Pinkerton's, Kyle Haggerty, one of the topic suggestors, he said,
Starting point is 00:57:35 these guys were involved in saving President Lincoln and providing Lincoln with bodyguards. So this while he was still alive. They were also, they also warded with Jesse James and guarded the coffin of Marilyn Monroe. At one point, they were larger than the US army. They were also spies and they hired the first female detective. Oh, and one last thing, their founder became a detective by accident. Anyway, that sounds like a great topic in itself. I was almost going to do a side report in the middle there and then I'm like, that sounds like enough
Starting point is 00:58:05 for a full report. Yeah. So someone remind me of that. Great instinct there. Maybe you, Kyle Haggerty. I'm just saying, I was looking at the middle distance for a second there, Kyle. But if my gaze met yours, then so be it. Then so be it. If my gaze met yours. Anyway, at 9pm on the 6th of November, two separate groups boarded the train from Chicago, windy city, to Springfield. One was Agent Tyrell with his lawman, and in another carriage sat Hughes, Mullen, Swagels, and a recruit named Billy Brown, who was going to drive the getaway wagon. I love the getaway wagon,
Starting point is 00:58:47 fun. But it's so funny that, like, they're going, we're going to do these great crimes, it's going to be so good. And the guys are just, like, following them literally on the same train. Yeah. We're going to meet them there to stop them doing it. It's easy. Which they obviously could have done at any point, but I think they wanted to catch them in the act. It makes, you know, it's hard to deny when you're caught. Makes charging him easier. Yeah, yeah. Jeez, you help me put sentences in a few words. I help you get through the fucking day. Yeah, that's what I was, you'd be an absolute mess without me. I mean, I am still. I call him at 7 a.m. I say, I'm, okay, Matt, get out of bed, one foot at a time, mate. Okay, off to the shower, you know,
Starting point is 00:59:27 like he just can't do anything. I say to Jess, how do I put my pants on again? And you say, just like everyone else does, one leg at a time. Yeah, he still fucks it up. Yeah, I jump in. Two legs in a one hole. He's a mess. nightmare. So, so yeah, they're on the same train, separate carriages. That's good. Privacy. And their getaway driver, Billy Brown. He was recruited by Sweggles. Ah. And so the supposed criminal getaway driver, Billy Brown, was actually Sweggles's non-criminal friend, Bill Neely. Bill Neely. Bill Neely. Billy Neely. Billy Neilly. That's a beautiful name. That is really nice.
Starting point is 01:00:11 Billy Nilly. Billy Neely. I love it. I love it too. I love it more. Amazing. It's actually blown my mind. Yeah, Dave, we lost Dave for a bit. Yeah. He was looking into the middle distance and then his gaze met mine by coincidence. Willy Nilly. Billy Nilly. Wow. That's good stuff. According to Robertson, the train arrived at Springfield at 6am on election day and Tyrell and his aides checked into the St. Nicholas Hotel. At 8.30, Swaggle showed up to inform Tyrell that Mullen and Hughes, that's Jacques Hughes, were registered at the nearby cafe, that's not right, at the nearby St Charles Hotel and I left a call for 1030am. I'm hungry.
Starting point is 01:00:54 They've registered for a croissant and a small coffee. That's what they used to call ordering. That was nowhere near the word cafe there, sent. St. Sint. Cafe. Oh. Oh.
Starting point is 01:01:07 While the plot is slept, the detectives checked out the monument accompanied by the president of the Lincoln Monument Association and the monument custodian, a man named J.C. Power, which is a fantastic name. Jesus Christ, Power. It does feel like the name of one of those real American-style preachers. Yeah. E.C. Power. Come see J.C. Power.
Starting point is 01:01:31 In mid-afternoon, Swaggles and Jack Hughes also inspected the tomb and worked out last-minute details of the upcoming night's work. Mullen had worried that it might be impossible to break into the heavy sarcophagus But Hughes came away bubbling with optimism saying Why, I could kick it open I could fall against it and open it He's just like, this thing's, it's paper mashet in there How does he know?
Starting point is 01:01:54 He had to look at it and sort of done a bit of Yeah, I think just done a few taps Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's pye wood That's nothing Yep, yep, yep, yep Such a bit of cloth Yeah, what he got here? What's that?
Starting point is 01:02:04 Yeah, he's under some sort of timber He's under a sheet easy he's in a ziploc bag yeah but mullin like they came out of it with the total opposite feeling so jacques the guy going yeah i'm into it i'm easy too good mullin the guy's like i'm mainly in this to win america's respect he's like the opposite he's going
Starting point is 01:02:25 it's too hard this isn't going to work we're going to need more tools and he's like we need an axe so we went and stole an axe okay just go bunnings well where do you think you stole the the axe from. Oh, you wanted to buy an axe? Yeah. What was some sort of fake currency?
Starting point is 01:02:43 Yeah. Where's the cash boy? It'll cost you 18 cents. Well, I guess that's the problem. Boyd's gone away, so their supply of notes is probably running out if it hasn't already. And yeah, like I said, we know all these intimate details because Sweggles, they're saying that, Sweggles hearing it, then he's going to report it. And so they get like these, you'd never hear these things from a high school.
Starting point is 01:03:06 like this. Yeah. But we're hearing, like, direct quotes, well, I could kick it open. We could fall against it and it would open, which is great. Imagine we didn't have that. Maybe Jacques Hughes just was really into martial arts. Had a very powerful kick. Yes.
Starting point is 01:03:21 Yeah. You know. And a very powerful fall. I could kick something open. Yeah. Can of Pringles. Well, you said to me, as, well, Dave was in the John or something, you came and he said, what would you do if I'd kick this door down?
Starting point is 01:03:35 Yeah. So it's something you think about often. Constantly. You're always thinking about kicking things down. Yeah. The patriarchy mostly. I was thinking the same. It's so good.
Starting point is 01:03:46 You are. And you do. Yeah. Every day. Every day. It's just my existence. Which is so exhausting when I have to put it back up again. Every day I have to reassemble the patriarchy because Jess has kicked it down again. As a feminist, I just think fair's fair.
Starting point is 01:04:04 Yeah. We don't want to. take the patriarchy down in that way? So Robertson's still talking here and I appreciate it. This article or this story written by Robertson is older than you two. She wrote it in 1982. Wow. Not older than me.
Starting point is 01:04:25 I was born in the Middle Ages. Yeah. Or whenever it was. The wind. You're as old as the wind. I'm as old as Chicago, the windy city. About 4.45 p.m. Swaggles managed once again to slip away to bring Tyrol up to date on the counterfeiter's activities.
Starting point is 01:04:42 At six o'clock, Swiggles left to meet his fellow grave robbers, and to assure them that he'd just seen Billy Brown, the very real getaway driver he organised. And he said, yep, all's going to plan. Billy's good to go. Billy's good to go. He'll be there in your spot. The horses are full of unleaded.
Starting point is 01:04:58 He cleans the windscreen wipers on the horses. He's like, he's starting to get, he's like, oh, bring it down. His brain's going, bring it down, mate. Bring it down, please. Chill out. Chill out. You're doing well? Just play cool.
Starting point is 01:05:11 Play cool. But in truth, Billy Brown, okay, Billy Nilly, never even made it to Springfield. After being introduced to the gang on the train, he slipped off just outside of Chicago. It's like, yeah, I'm real. We'll see you there. I'm going to go have a nap, I guess, in the other carriage.
Starting point is 01:05:27 He just jumped off. And they, I don't understand how they didn't notice that. Why introduce him at all then? Just to prove that he's real. Okay. Sure. I guess you want to meet somebody that you're going to work with on a big heist. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:43 That's fair enough. You never need to see him again, but you want to meet him once. Yeah, it feels like you'd just get, you'd take him with you for the journey. Yeah. Maybe he'd charge by the hour. He had other places to do it. It was in hot demand. Soon after nightfall, Tyrell and the other lawman arrived at the memorial.
Starting point is 01:06:00 One of the men, John English, a fantastic name. Do you think Johnny English, the character was based on him? Absolutely. So Johnny English had the job of notifying Tyrell as soon as he heard the robbers making noise in the burial chamber. So they positioned him, apparently when they got there, the custodian of the tomb took them all in like an elephant file, or whatever you call it, holding hands through the darkness of the tomb
Starting point is 01:06:25 till he took them to a spot where like, all right, we can put a light on in here and they won't be able to see us from outside. And then they positioned John English just behind this wall, so he could hear. He had to sit there quietly and then the rest of the the lawman
Starting point is 01:06:42 went to a spot a bit further away from the action took off their shoes and laid in weight. I think they took off their shoes out of respect. Out of respect.
Starting point is 01:06:51 Yeah, yeah. Was Lincoln wearing shoes? Yeah. Didn't think so. He's famous for a top hat, not a bottom shoe. No. Their foot.
Starting point is 01:06:58 If you look down, he's wearing a six-foot shoe. He's not a very tall man at all. Yeah, it's all symmetrical. He's all shoe. The man's all shoe. He's a hat sandwich that man I'm sorry guys
Starting point is 01:07:16 if they took the shoes off to they'd be quiet when they when they charged in much like when you get home at 4 a.m. Yeah, yeah and you're going to charge in the bed. No worry. I'll sneak in.
Starting point is 01:07:27 They'll never hear me. Yeah. Got no shoes on but I have punched on the wall and kicked to the door in. Sneaking in. So they were waiting on two signals, one from English, to say that they were in the term they were making noise. As soon as he heard any noise in there, he was meant to get done. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:07:53 If you hear any ghosts, anything cool like that, let us know. Let us know. Flash your light, that'll be sick. We're mainly here to arrest them, but we've also got a team from Ghost Snatchers. That's a Foxdale show, and they're going to come in and try and see what we can get. If there's any orbs of light or anything like that. Yeah. So yes, so that was one signal. The other signal they were waiting for was Swaggles was going to go out
Starting point is 01:08:15 and apparently light up a cigar. And that would signal to them that they were in and they're actually opening the coffin itself, I think. They're about to break in and say, sorry, guys, I just got to go out the front with a celebratory cigar. I'll leave you to it. This is one of the, this is just an old tradition. You know, as you know, I like coffin snatch all the time.
Starting point is 01:08:33 It's all the time. This is just a thing I do for luck. Yeah. Have a cigar midway through. I was like, you want me to do this. If I don't do this, who knows what will happen. Obviously, as the most experienced, coffin snatcher here, I don't want to get on the tools.
Starting point is 01:08:46 I'm more of an overseer. Yeah, exactly. My days of being on the tools are over. Yeah. I'm more of a manager now. That's right. I'm a consultant. So, yeah, basically just to make the conviction easier,
Starting point is 01:08:59 they wanted to catch them right in the middle of the act. So over two hours of waiting, sitting there quietly. With that shoes on. Without shoes. They wait and they wait And then around 9pm Jacques Hughes, Mullen and Sueggles
Starting point is 01:09:13 arrived ready to snatch a president Which one? Oh, specifically Lincoln. Okay, but they would have taken whatever They could get it. I know this is the Lincoln Memorial or whatever.
Starting point is 01:09:24 If Thomas Jefferson walked past, they would have grabbed him. We'll take him. We'll take whoever the current one is, whatever. Cordonneauvin, that's Jacques Hughes. And Mullen began to,
Starting point is 01:09:35 and I like this, it's not, but I like, to think Chris Mullen, the flat-topped three-point specialist from the Golden State Warriors in the 90s. That's why I'm picturing. Sure. I don't think he looked like that. But that's who's in your head. In my head, he's that. Jacques Hughes is a concept. Okay. He's kind of just a blob. Yeah. But they're actually, you know, just old olden days looking bearded men. So Hughes and Mullen, they start cutting through the padlock on the door to the burial chamber. Luckily, they'd brought a professional burglar saw, which is obviously something he had a bunnings.
Starting point is 01:10:10 But, Mullen, who had no experience with it, broke it immediately. Good. So instead, he had to slowly wear away the lock with a small file. Luckily, he had a nail file on him. Oh, take forever. I think he'd slowly wear it away with his teeth. Yeah. Sorry, Matt, so we just heard one of the thousand noises.
Starting point is 01:10:32 Sorry, we've got a number that. What was that one? Which one was it? It was... Sometimes I do them without thinking. With a nail file. Yeah, small nail file on a presidential tomb's lock. Yeah, that's 3-33.
Starting point is 01:10:46 Wow. Wow. Can we actually hear? What was the big professionals saw that broke? What did that sound like? Such a shame because it happens so much way more quicker. It goes... Way more quicker.
Starting point is 01:10:57 Jess, can you put that in English? Johnny English. Quicker. It happened quicker. Three words. You turn three and a one. Yeah. That's why my reports go for an hour.
Starting point is 01:11:08 Yeah, yeah. You also go for six. So the big professional. And the other reason is you two make me dance like a monkey. And when you try to do that to me, I say, no. No. Moving on. You say, we don't have time for that.
Starting point is 01:11:25 And that's the lesson. Yeah, the professional one very quickly. It happens. It goes, so it's just one, one and done. Wow. That's a powerful sore. It's quite a difference, yeah.
Starting point is 01:11:36 Powerful sore, yeah. But you'd be furious, wouldn't you? Yeah. Especially if you were Jacques Hughes, stand next and going, how do you break a saw? Yeah. It's a professional grade burglar saw. How'd you break it so easy?
Starting point is 01:11:49 Don't worry. I've got a Swiss Army knife. There's a small little file on it. Just give us about three weeks. I'll get through this thing. It should be fine. Fine. And in the meantime, Johnny English is there.
Starting point is 01:11:59 He's ear against the wall. And he's listening to it all. And apparently he reports. ordered back to the others saying they're in there. I can hear the sounds of filing and also muffled but heartfelt cursing. That's such a beautifully described. You're like, you know exactly muffled but heartfelt cursing is so good. If you hear your dad making that noise in the shed, you do not approach.
Starting point is 01:12:35 I imagine it's He's so like Gollum. I haven't seen that, but. So they've got one of the signals. They got the one from Johnny English, but they haven't got the one from Swaggles. It's the longest cigar of his life. He's like, well, the problem is,
Starting point is 01:13:08 that's the main one they're waiting for because that means they've broken in the sarcophagus, and that was when they're going to arrest him. but unfortunately once he got in and he was working with them the other two are like we need you to hold the lantern he's like oh okay oh i don't know what the plan was otherwise they would come through it in the dust why would you just be like guys i'm desperate for a piss oh yeah hang on one sec i'm just going to pop outside and they'll be like just piss here piss here piss on the president um and i can't i get stage fright yeah in front of presidents so i've got to
Starting point is 01:13:39 go outside to piss won't be long that's what i'd do man you could have what you do for me, you could have done for Swiggles. Yeah. You've got to make life a lot easier for so many people. Swaggles got to stand up for himself. Yeah. Hold this. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 01:13:53 Come on, Swuggles. So he felt like he was stuck there, holding the lantern. Also a lantern, just leaning against the wall. Yeah. Oh, you know, man. Anyway, Robinson says, this is how she describes their process of getting into the psychophagus. They lifted off the ornamental marble cover and gingerly leaned it against the crypt in the back wall.
Starting point is 01:14:16 But the inner lid wouldn't budge. Mullen snatched up a sledgehammer and was about to swing it when Sweggles grabbed his arm and said, man, the custodium might be around. We can't just start smacking through. So he luckily brought it down because Swagles was also like, I don't want you to actually break this, the president's coffin. Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? Breaking the president's coffin?
Starting point is 01:14:39 Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That might be loud. Do it in a quiet way. Get the file out again. Yeah, that's why. That's my problem. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:47 The noise. Noise. Noise. Then they discovered that the inner lid was secured by several copper dows, which they quickly removed. Then they balanced it cross wires across the foot of the sarcophagus, removed the piece at its head, and slid Lincoln's cedar covered lead coffin partway out. Now it was time for Sweggles to bring up the wagon that Mullen and Hughes still believed
Starting point is 01:15:10 was waiting at the foot of the monument hill, which obviously it wasn't. So he's like, I've got to go make, I've got to go do the signal to the, to the bad guys, not the good guys. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, why would I be doing a signal to, and I would don't even think of the cops as good, you know. The cops are the bad guys. Yeah. So yeah, I'm going to do the signal to the good guys. Us.
Starting point is 01:15:30 Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Billy, Billy, Billy Brown. Billy Brown. Billy Brown. Yeah. Okay, bye. Okay, bye. Also, I'm going to have a little puff on this cigar on the way down. So, he's about to leave.
Starting point is 01:15:43 And Marlon. said, wait, before you go, I love you. I love you. I know you're a cop, but I love you. Gives him on the cheek. I can't believe you do this to me, but I love you. He said, when you get back, give the whistle. Otherwise, you're liable to get hurt.
Starting point is 01:16:01 We might fire at you thinking it was somebody else. We're not going to let anyone come monkeying around here. Oh, wow. So if they storm in, all hell will break. Yeah. Shit. Shit. Yes.
Starting point is 01:16:16 What whistle? Imagine me you couldn't whistle. It's got to be a whisper whistle. Yeah. Because if you can't just loudly whistle. And you were doing it there, but Dave Ridley talked over you. What's a whisper whistle? A lot of inhale.
Starting point is 01:16:32 Yeah, it's mainly in. It's like in guitar, it's like up picking. Yeah. It's the same for whistling. In sucking. I suppose out sucking. Yeah. Whistle is all about suck and blow.
Starting point is 01:16:45 I really hate to have to have to. to dumb it down for you guys, but Swiggles was already meant to have given the signal to Tyrell, but he got stuck unexpectedly, couldn't get out to light a cigar, but now he had his chance. So he's like, oh, down down to the wagon, and then once he got in the darkness, he doubled back to signal to Tyrell that it was go time.
Starting point is 01:17:12 And did he signal with a cigar? I would say reports differ. Oh, okay, okay. But he got the signal. One of them, it sounds like he went and he just literally went up to him and said, yeah. It's now. Go, go, go, go. And they're like, we're waiting for the signal.
Starting point is 01:17:26 We're waiting for the signal. Where's the cigar? Treat yourself. You've done so good. So, finally, having received the signal, Tyrell and the other shoeless men drew their guns and ran for the tomb. Unfortunately, though, one of the men, depending on who you read, Cordonor Robertson, it was Detective McGinn.
Starting point is 01:17:48 According to Turner, it was George. George Hay, two of the Pinkerton detectives. Either way, one of the men had an old-fashioned gun that went off accidentally, breaking the nighttime silence. And also their surprise was gone because there's a gun going off. Back to Robertson. Wait, wait, it's okay. It might just be a horse backfiring. Just wait. Could be fireworks.
Starting point is 01:18:15 That could be Billy Brown's horse backfiring. It's okay. Wait, is Billy Brown's horse rocket power? Maybe he's just lit the gnass or the Noss. Hit the Noss on the horse. The horse Noss. Horse Noss. That was just putting coke up the horse's nostril.
Starting point is 01:18:33 I have a go with that. I have a go on that. And then to slow the horse down, you injected heroin. That's how it got the name horse. Back to Robinson. Afraid of the noise. Afraid the noise had alerted the robbers, Tyrell burst into the pitch dark burial chamber alone
Starting point is 01:18:53 and revolver in hand called for the thieves to surrender. He couldn't see, but he's like, Oi, heads up, you're busted. So he's the one that's been waiting this whole time. Yes, he's the leader of the... Wow. He's like, I've heard a gun go off, fuck it. Everyone, on the ground!
Starting point is 01:19:08 Yes. There's no answer. He can't see anything? He can't see anything. So he strikes a match. He can see the sarcophagus is still there, broken but still there, but he was dismayed to find that, quote, No fiend was there.
Starting point is 01:19:22 It was empty. He dashed back to Memorial Hall and told the custodian, JC Power, to bring lanterns. Pausing only to put on his shoes, he ran to the southwest stairs of the terrace, thinking that the thieves might have gone up there to await the wagon. The moon was about to rise and seeing the outlines of two men on the northwest corner of the terrace, some 70 feet away, he opened fire. So he sees him 70 feet away. and start shooting
Starting point is 01:19:47 when you say no fiend was there as in the criminals aren't there but was the body still intact body was still there they hadn't got all the way in through the suck off again it was partially broken made a break for it kind of thing
Starting point is 01:20:00 yep they heard the gunshot but he sees them and he starts or he sees their silhouette starts firing at them the targets fire back as they continue to dash Tyrell ran to the southeast corner where he and the two men
Starting point is 01:20:15 exchange shots. Then all three ran back to their original corners. Tyrol shouted down to Washburn. Chief, we have the devils up here and called for his men to come up as backup. From across the dark terror someone called Tyrol, is that you? Tyrol ignored it for he knew that one of the crooks, Jacques, knew his voice. The same man called again. Tyrol, for God's sake, answer, is that you shooting us?
Starting point is 01:20:39 This time Tyrell recognised the voice as Detective McGins. Three of the lawmen had been shooting at each other. Oh no. Oh, no. Yep. Okay. No one really comes out looking good. You think you'd say, Tyrell is that you? It's McGins. Yeah, yeah. It's me.
Starting point is 01:20:57 Yeah. Megins. Certainly not the criminal. Yeah, good try. They all know my name. No, seriously, is it you? Oh, fuck. Yeah, it's pretty embarrassing. In the meantime, Hughes and Mullen had already made their escape.
Starting point is 01:21:13 Wow. Connor Robinson, they had gone to wait. for the wagon under a small oak tree, a hundred and a hundred feet away. This is even before that gunshot rang out. They're like, we're going to, I guess wait, wait for the wagon. Then the four of them go up and carry the, the coffin down. When the detectives rounded the corner, so they start charging in, the gunshot goes off. Hughes and Mullen had already started walking forward, thinking that the two men were Swagels and Billy Brown. But then they got within 30 feet and realized they were not looking at two men, but a small crowd.
Starting point is 01:21:47 Then they overheard enough to convince them that the figures were lawmen. Then they turned and fled. They had already cleared the cemetery grounds when the sound of shots reached them. Whoa. So it was a bad night for Tyrell. Not only had the thieves escaped, but only great good fortune had kept his men from killing one another. That would have been the only thing.
Starting point is 01:22:07 Like, it's pretty shambolic as it was. Yeah. And embarrassing, but it would have been a disaster if he'd gone up and, his crew killed each other. Yeah. Imagine if they all, yeah. Yeah. He later said
Starting point is 01:22:21 it was one of the most unfortunate nights I've ever experienced, yet God protected us in doing right. J.C. Power, the Monuments Custodian, later wrote that in his view, it had all turned out for the best, the fact that they'd already fled.
Starting point is 01:22:37 He said, if Tyrell had found them in the burial chamber, entering the door as he did, they could and would have seen him and shot him before he could have learned which of the dark corners they were in. So he couldn't see anything. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:22:47 So if he did actually disturb them, he probably would have been taken out. Yeah, immediately. Still, Tyrell had to put up with some very painful abuse in the nation's newspapers. Some suggested that the whole fiasco had been a phony drama enacted to get washburn enough publicity to secure him the job of Chicago police chief. So the conspiracy theories came out straight away. Others seem to think that Detective McGinn or Hay, depending on who you read, had set off the pistol on purpose to warn the thieves,
Starting point is 01:23:17 like the Pinkerton detective. Some were saying... It was an accidental shot. According to Turner, these sensational events did not gain immediate national attention as they would today. This was partially because no winner had been decided in the presidential contest.
Starting point is 01:23:34 And I still don't know who won this because I haven't heard of either of these guys. Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden. Any of those ringed? Yeah, Rutherford B. Hayes, I think. Oh, B. Hayes. Rutherford B. A. Oh, B. Hayes.
Starting point is 01:23:48 Yeah, 19th U.S. President, Rutherford, B.A.S. Sourcy, 19th. B. Hayes. 87 or 81? Yeah, there you go. Geez, you've got a good memory of American presidents. I only know the big ones. Bush.
Starting point is 01:24:06 Bush. Clinton. Lincoln. B. Johnson. Mm-hmm. Are there any others? Obama? Obama.
Starting point is 01:24:17 Trump? Trump. The current go. Actually, I've got a few. Yeah, look at you go. And Andrew Jackson. That's basically all. Samuel L. Jackson.
Starting point is 01:24:27 Yep. So, yeah, the news of the close election race meant that all other news was sort of forgotten about for a little while. Some accounts accuse Washburn of looking for a more important job for himself. That was like I saying, trying to, he set it up just to look good. And if that was the case, it backfired. How embarrassing. Others thought that the Democrats or Republicans had concocted the tale to help their candidate achieve victory, like either of them. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:25:01 Oh, this is clear, sort of dodginess from the Republicans or Democrats who were trying to get, what's the tactic there? If it's not clear which party it is. Yeah, I don't think it hasn't worked. There was also some criticism of the Secret Service for knowing about the plot and allowing Hughes and Mullen to escape the cemetery, which, yeah, I mean, that feels like that is pretty embarrassing. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:25:29 But, you know, things went wrong. That happens. They'll figure it out as they went. What, general public, you've never made mistakes? Yeah. You've never had a whoopsie? Oh, come on. Come on.
Starting point is 01:25:39 Come on. Guys, let's get together. Lose is my fucking boy It's really warm in here It is warm in here This is like the old school I know And you're wearing a sweater around your shoulders
Starting point is 01:25:53 Like you're from a fraternity Yeah Or like you're a polo club or something I'm a private school boy I've got Um boat shoes on too Oh my God Yeah
Starting point is 01:26:01 And daddy's credit card Yeah I'm I'm struggling to keep my eyes open Oh we're going close to the end here Don't worry about that I said it like that So I don't know either, but I loved it.
Starting point is 01:26:16 So yeah, it felt pretty embarrassing. Anyway, back to Robinson. Hughes and Mullen arrived at dawn at a farmhouse. So they've fled. They've got away. They're about seven miles northeast of Springfield. They asked anxiously to the farmer if any strange men had been noticed in the neighborhood
Starting point is 01:26:30 and the farmer said that he hadn't seen anyone. The pair bought breakfast from the farmer, then went to the farm of Hughes's father near Loda in Illinois, where Hughes stayed while Mullen returned to his familiar spot behind the bar at the hub. He just went straight back to work. Thinking, I guess. No one will think to look for me here.
Starting point is 01:26:48 Yeah. Swagles went back to the bar as well, telling Marlon that he also just narrowly escaped the lawman. Oh, that's a bit brave. Isn't that brazen, right? A week or so later, and he just, he went back to the, being a regular at the pub. So Marlon would have slowly been like, oh, I guess we, guess no harm, no fair. Week or so later, on November the 17th, Jacques Hughes came back to the bar also. So the gang's back together, including Swiggles, who they don't realize still is an informant.
Starting point is 01:27:22 Swegles continued to keep Tyrell abreast of the situation and a warrant was obtained by the Chicago police officer Dennis Sims. Corner Robertson, Sims along with Tyrell, McGinn and Washburn at last performed the satisfying task of arresting and handcuffing Hughes and Mullen and carting them off to Chicago's central police station. The next day they were taken to Springfield, where they were identified by several witnesses. Two days after that, on November the 20th, 1876, Hughes and Mullen were indicted. At that time, there was no law in Illinois to cover grave robbing, so the charge was that they, quote, did unlawfully and feloniously attempt to steal, take and carry away certain personal goods and property. To wit one casket, otherwise called a coffin, the personal goods and property of the National Lincoln Monument Association against the peace and dignity of the people of the state of Illinois. The value of the
Starting point is 01:28:17 coffin was $75.5. So they were, you know. Was that 75 years a sentence? So that's what, that's what Robertson said happened. But according to Turner, most accounts state that authorities discovered to their surprise that there was no law against grave robbing in Illinois. Therefore, they had to rely on conspiracy and theft charges. This was not true. And there was an Illinois law against grave robbing. The real issue was that grave robbery only carried a maximum one-year sentence, and the conspiracy charges provided for a longer prison term. The sentence would also be served at the state penitentiary
Starting point is 01:28:55 where the prisoners could be put to hard labour. So basically, he's saying, well, that's not actually true. They got done for different crimes because they could get a harsher penalty this way. Hughes and Mullen continued their bumbling ways during the trial. Several individuals, including Hughes's sister Bridget, came forward to put up a, quote, straw bail for their release. The practice of pledging property they did not own to make good on a bail default. So they're saying, oh, we'll put up that house. Yeah, that's one of my houses.
Starting point is 01:29:27 The one down the road, that's one of mine. Put that up. I'll put that up in a hoax. Yeah, I got heaps. One next door that, either side. Take them. Take them all. I got this whole suburb.
Starting point is 01:29:36 Yeah. So I'll put the suburb up if that'll do. If that helps. Apparently the sister and the number. number of other straw balers were arrested for doing so, and the duo also wrote letters to a friend requesting that he provide a false alibi. The letters were intercepted and read into the court record, creating a very negative impression with the jury. There is little wonder that the two men were convicted, although after the trial, the jury wrote a letter demanding the indictment of
Starting point is 01:30:02 Sweggles, suggesting that he should be sentenced to three years in prison, as they believe that he was the gang's ring leader, which is bizarre. Hang on, Swagels, the undercover cop. Yeah, the jury's like, we think he's... We think he's the worst. Yeah. Can they do that?
Starting point is 01:30:20 I don't think anything came of it. But it was the front... He wasn't on trial. If I was the judge, I'd be like... He's the only reason that we're... Yeah, if I was the judge, I'd be like, have you listened to anything that's happened? Do you know who that is?
Starting point is 01:30:32 I think maybe we need a new jury. These people are idiots. All right. Okay, yeah, no, thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you. Do you want to just out that door? So it's a pull. It's a pool door. Oh, I can't get out. So they both got done and they got that to do hard labor. And after that, Hughes apparently disappeared without a trace. Mullin, however, surfaced again on April of 21st, 1888, he was found guilty in Donna Anna County, New Mexico of conspiracy. in a land fraud case and was given three years in the New Mexico State Penitentiary and a fine of
Starting point is 01:31:13 $1,000 and he served that sentence in full. The mastermind behind the plot, Big Jim, he fell on hard times in 1880. So it seems like he sort of maybe, I'm not sure, but he wasn't there. He wasn't there, maybe, yeah. Or they did. Either way, he's dead now. But apparently he eventually broke his own rule against getting within touching distance of counterfeit money and was arrested in St. Louis, St. Louis or St. Louis? I always forget that. Louis. St. Louis for dealing in and being in possession of bogus $10 notes. After much legal delay, he was sentenced to serve one year in the Illinois State Penitentiary,
Starting point is 01:31:54 still the home of his old friend, Ben Boyd. So the whole point of it was to get him out. Oh, to get Ben Boyd and in the end they're serving time together. Well, that's nice. Ben. Yeah. Ben, I'm here to get you out. At least part of it was, you know, I want Ben back.
Starting point is 01:32:09 Yeah. No, you got Ben back. That's right. That's nice. Maybe that was his long game, long plan all along. Just want to be with Ben. You just want to be with Ben. That's nice.
Starting point is 01:32:18 I mean, as if we're ever going to steal a body successfully, I just want to be with Ben. Just want to be with Ben. And I knew that, you know, Ben wouldn't respect me unless I got in here for doing something big. You know, it's like an old romantic comedy. It's the big romantic gesture. Yeah. It's his version of holding the boom box above his head. That's right.
Starting point is 01:32:34 running out into the pitch. Yeah. Holding Abe's body above his head. I love you in the rain. I've always loved you. Finally, let's just talk about what ended up happening to Lincoln's body. Oh, yeah. So according to Turner, his family and friends after this wished to guard against future threats to Lincoln's coffin.
Starting point is 01:32:56 So in 1880, Lincoln was secretly reburied in the tomb's interior. They never know to look there in the same tomb. But I guess it's quite big. And it had to be moved several times due to the tomb's deterioration and high water table. So they had to move it around a bit. Wow. But there was this group of, I think they were locals and they all swore to secrecy on where it would be. And they kept that secret forever, the real secret service of these guys.
Starting point is 01:33:25 Then when Mary Lincoln, his wife died in 1882, she was also secretly buried beside her husband. In 1901, Robert Lincoln finally settled on a plan for the permanent re-barrel of his father. Robert, who had worked for the Pullman Company and ultimately became its president, was well aware of the extraordinary measures that had been taken by the Pullman family to secure the remains of George Pullman, the head of the Pullman Company, obviously. And they buried him very securely because they were worried about desecration by disgruntled employees. Oh, shit. you know that's a good place of work.
Starting point is 01:34:02 Yeah, beautiful culture. I don't want any of these employees to dig me up and shit on me. Okay, then maybe you can probably do something about that now while you're alive. So that's what basically Robert Lincoln copied what the Pullman family did, burying Lincoln, his dad in a huge deep grave, then adding a steel protector in place. and then pouring tons of concrete on top. So basically, in the end, he was buried like he was a mafia victim.
Starting point is 01:34:39 Yeah. A beautiful tribute. Yeah, that's true. They'll never be able to take you. Thus ends my report into the plot to steal Abraham Lincoln's body. Great work. Blockbuster tober. Approved.
Starting point is 01:34:56 Appropriate. Approved. So you're, you wait till the end of every block episode before you. you say whether or not the public was correct, don't you? No, no. It's just some topics like you go blockbuster tober, you hear it and you go, of course that's one. That's a big, how have we never covered that?
Starting point is 01:35:11 But this is a more obscure topic that I don't know of you guys. I'd never heard of it before. I never heard of it either. Then I go, yep, they chose good. Yeah, they did well. I couldn't imagine, I'm sure you'll post on the social media map, but the Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, I couldn't imagine what it looked like. It is quite big, but then I've noticed that they've got a face of Abraham Lincoln there.
Starting point is 01:35:29 And it's one of those things where people have clearly rubbed his nose for luck. so much. Yeah. But he's got this big honker that's like... Is that what happened to the sphinx? It's all shiny. Yeah, they rubbed it off for luck. So he's got this really funny look and nose.
Starting point is 01:35:40 Yeah, he looks like he's an Australian cricketer with a bit of zinc on his nose. Yeah, ready for summer. But yeah, incredible looking too. I can see how, yeah, you could be in there and not see someone else. Yeah, it was completely dark. Probably in the dark. It was a bit of a maze as well. But yeah, a lot of the families now buried in there as well.
Starting point is 01:35:57 Oh, how cool. And it's, even though the town really wanted in the center of town, Worryed that if it's on the outskirts, it wouldn't be as good for tourism. Apparently that is still the biggest tourist attraction. Yeah, fair. I remember how probably the town's expanded over time and now that is the middle of town. Yeah, yeah, that's how it tends to go, isn't it? And they wanted to put that on a roundabout.
Starting point is 01:36:16 It's about according to bridal vehicle. Bridal dresses, bridal party, car hire. Jeez. And I, I mean, I would, they'd be my phone a friend if I was everyone who wants to be a man. I agree. Quick, call the good people at bridal car hire. Eddie, put them on, put them on. Eddie, put them on.
Starting point is 01:36:36 Eddie, put them on. Eddie, come on. Are you calling them? And your dad never got to that point, did he? He was at, what, on the first question? No, he was in the hot seat edition with no phone of friends. No phone of friends. No phone of friends.
Starting point is 01:37:00 I mean? The real stuff. The real stuff. You know, there's new crap to get all the kids watching. Yes. Whatever. Let's get your dad on the classic version. Bring it back.
Starting point is 01:37:10 Bring it back. Phone a friend. Bridal car will be available. You've got to be the phone of friend for certain categories. I imagine that these days it's like, uh, hi, dad, yes, I'm just here on google.com. Can you just read the question out to me again? Nice and slow for me, please, sir? But you do it straight into a voice recognition thing.
Starting point is 01:37:29 Hello. The answer to the answer to the. question is. Yeah. Hello. And it says, Sorry, can you repeat? Man, I've been trying to get the,
Starting point is 01:37:40 my voice thing to play a cold chisel song and it just can't do it. Wow. Like play Bell of Versailles, like cold chisel. Playing bells will ring by Jiminy Crickets. What? No, Bella Versailles. How are you, like it exists. And then I say, play the album it's on.
Starting point is 01:38:00 And then I go, skip. track, skip track, skip track. At that point, just get, just do it yourself. Oh my God, I never thought of that. So, make your life so much easier. No, it's on one of those things that doesn't have, one of the things that's always listening and always planning to kill me. It's probably listening right now. That's me. Always listening, always plotting. Always plotting. Yeah, got her back. That feels good. Got her plotting, being slow. You are closer and closer to do. Well, I think, am I wrong in saying this? This brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show?
Starting point is 01:38:38 Yes. Okay, thank God. Didn't want to speak out of turn. This is where we thank some of our fantastic Patreon supporters. If you want to get involved, go to patreon.com. Do go on pod. Do go on pod. And you can sign up on all these different levels.
Starting point is 01:38:53 What are some of the levels, Bob? The levels are like the rewards, right? Yeah. So, you know, I can give you a level. You tell them what the reward is. Great. Arse prod. Level.
Starting point is 01:39:05 Ask prod. You can get a shout out. Dreamboat Cooper level. You can get three bonus episodes a month. Plus the back catalog. Like, let me have a, like, let me have a go. It's called giving you a hint. Do you not want one?
Starting point is 01:39:20 Am I not your phone a friend? No. What about, um, where am I doing it now? Yeah. I'm going for a snack, dear listener. I'm having a little lolly. Sorry, candy. What about the Sydney-Shaunberg level?
Starting point is 01:39:36 Sydney-Sharmberg level, well, baby, at that point, you can vote on multiple episodes. Yeah. You vote on the topics. Heaps of them. But you can also be in the Facebook group. You get access to early tickets, all sorts of great stuff over on Patreon.com. A lot of those are just on any level. Yes.
Starting point is 01:39:59 So what a great place to be. It's an unreal system. So good. Patreon.com slash 2Gone pod. Now the first thing we like to do, for those who are signed up on the Sydney-Shaunberg level, we do a section that's called Fact Quote or Question. It has a little jingle go somewhere like this. Fact quote or question.
Starting point is 01:40:15 Ding. He always remembers the ding. She always remembers the sing. And the way this one works is people on the Sydney-Shaunberg level get to give me a or above, get to give me a fact, a quote, or a question, or a brag or a suggestion, or really whatever they like. And then I'll read them out for the first time on the show. They also get to give themselves a title.
Starting point is 01:40:31 The first one this week comes from Brett Wall, aka Lord Emperor of Average-sized toes, except for one, but I'll never tell which. That feels like a real Dave Warnocky type. I hope he's got a really big little toe. You'll never know. A really small big toe. The results may surprise you.
Starting point is 01:40:49 Brett Wall. I'm a finger toe man. I have toes like fingers, and that's why you'll never see me barefoot. They're all phalanjis, baby. They're all phalanjis. I love the langies. I do it for them.
Starting point is 01:41:05 I don't know what would you sound. But Brett Wall is offering us a break. Your fingers and toes are phalanjis. Oh. The same thing. Really? Yeah. So that's like mini limbs are phalanges.
Starting point is 01:41:18 That's just like from a skeletal system point of view. Right. So you've got, if your arms are limb, your fingers are like the limbs of your, if your arms, the torso, your fingers are like the, limbs of your arm. That's right. Yeah, I get you. He nailed it once again.
Starting point is 01:41:35 So, we've got a brag from Brett. And Brett's brag goes like this. You remember me? You remember me? Remember me? I was the biggest thing on the footy field. No, he says, you may remember me as the boy with a condom eating dog from nearly four years ago. I do remember you.
Starting point is 01:41:57 Your mum got me to do. Or you got me to do a cameo video about it. Oh. I think your mum got me to do it and mention that and also asked me to ask you to move out. Wow. If I'm remembering that right. Anyway. What a way to do it?
Starting point is 01:42:12 We've changed his diet and he's doing very well without all the latex. I think that makes sense to me. Yeah. I'm not a dog expert, but that seems to make sense. Seems like it's probably not good for them. The reason I had become a Patreon then was because my dog had thrown the Luby treat up in front of my mom on the floor and I wanted to embarrass her by having the host of our favorite podcast make fun of the incident that most certainly was not ribbed for her
Starting point is 01:42:39 pleasure. Last one, I promise. Oh my God. This show has been a way for the two of us to bond since nearly the beginning and I wanted to start by thanking the three of you for that. Sincerely thank you. Hey, Brett, no worries. Hey, you're welcome. Yeah, thanks, Brett. And hello to Brett's mom. Hey, Brett's mom. Hey, Brett's mom. Uh, my current favorite joke is calling her on the phone, sounding all panic saying, Mum, mom, I don't know what to do. I keep getting this letter in the mail from the IRS. I'm really scared.
Starting point is 01:43:10 What? What do you mean? What's it say? Then he says, it's asking what I'm doing for block. This joke has been a lot of fun for me. I also had a fun one with somebody following me around town, but I'm getting away from the point. my mum Lisa and I have shared this podcast hi Lisa and together for years I've used it to embarrass her and now I want to use it to congratulate her she was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer
Starting point is 01:43:40 nearly a year ago and after surgery a month of chemo and countless scans and tests we can now say she is 100% cancer free yeah Lisa all right Lisa my mom is truly my best friend and I'm so grateful that we're going to be able to continue listening to Do Go On Together. Thanks again for everything. Oh my God. That was a roller coaster, but freaking hell that is made me happy. Stop giving Lisa a heart attack. I've got a letter from the IRS.
Starting point is 01:44:08 I'm being followed. Anyway, how's the chemo going? Oh, my God. Come on, Brett. Come on, Brett. Grow the fuck up, Brett. I know. I mean, I'm sick of it.
Starting point is 01:44:18 I've had enough. You've stopped feeding your dog dingers, but I think there's more growth to be had from you, Brett. Yeah. But I love your work. I love a close family story like that. Beautiful. I love bringing the generations together. Stoke to hear, Lisa, is doing well.
Starting point is 01:44:33 So good. Best news. Thank you so much, Brett. Next one comes from Paul Meller, aka the wonderfully excited and very lucky Mr. Meller. That's so nice. That's so good. That's so nice.
Starting point is 01:44:47 I love that. That sounds like a, yeah, like a book that you might do on bookcheat. It does, doesn't it? And Paul's written, I'm not usually one to brag, but my 50th birthday trip to Australia has been booked, so I'm bragging to everyone. That's exciting. I'll be bringing my family over for three weeks over March and April next year.
Starting point is 01:45:06 So I'm looking forward to come to some time in Melbourne and then driving around the state of Victoria. I'll be keeping an eye on St. Kilda's fixtures and the Comedy Festival too. So hopefully I have timed it so we can catch both. Yeah, those saints will definitely be playing by them. and the Comedy Festival will be on. Yeah. I think you've nailed it. Looking forward to getting to see some countryside too.
Starting point is 01:45:31 Open 20 suggestions of things to do over the Easter period, if you have any. Well, that's a hectic long weekend here at all the sort of the classic. I know bright where I like to go. That is the busiest weekend. I think you can go up there. So if you like being in a beautiful place with too many people. Yeah. An average weather.
Starting point is 01:45:49 Yeah. Open 20 suggestions. Keep up the great work, guys. Loving the pod and all the content you create. Cheers, Paul. Paul. Paul. You're the loveliest Paul.
Starting point is 01:46:03 That's so exciting. So nice to have a big trip to look forward to. What are we thinking about comedy? I'm going to be on a split show, I think, with Serend Jiamana. Great. And we're not, we're still talking about whether or not we're going to do something at the festival, I think. Well, yeah. At the time we're recording.
Starting point is 01:46:18 We'll do something. Yeah, we'll do something. We'll do something. Yeah. We'll do something. Just trying to stop us, Paul. Although, if we don't, we could go to the footy with you. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:46:28 Definitely came on that too, Paul. Love you, Paul. Love you, Paul. The next one here comes from Nick Fidion, which one of the great names. Oh, my God. Following on from the very lucky Mr. Mella, Nick Fidion's called himself the luckiest man in the world. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 01:46:45 It's a luck off. It's a luck off. This is the third brag in a row. Can you believe it? Oh no, I've lost it. We have to get out of this hot room. Okay. Nick's brag rights.
Starting point is 01:47:05 My brag is that. Brackets assuming this has been time correctly, closed brackets. I've just got married. Woo! If this has been read out after the 28th of October, then I'm married to the wonderful Lucy. Oh, when is it? When is this episode coming out? I think it's before it.
Starting point is 01:47:20 I think it's just before. Congratulations on the upcoming nuptials. This one is going to come out. on the I hope it's on the wedding day oh yeah it comes out on the 18th 18th fantastic so consider this podcast your box party
Starting point is 01:47:38 my pants are off am I doing that right that's unrelated okay it's really hot in you it's quite warm uh goes on to say she's my best friend and I'm looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together
Starting point is 01:47:52 I won't gush too much here as I will be, or will have, be saving that for the speech. But I truly feel so lucky to know her and be able to call her my wife. My wife. Thank you for indulging me being very soppy, but I had to use this opportunity to brag about this. Nick, of course. Not at all soppy. You could have increased the sop.
Starting point is 01:48:14 Yeah. I'm feeling dry here. And I would like your next fact quarter question to be an update on how the wedding went. Yeah. Tell us the highlights. Have a so be soppy Love is beautiful I'd love some gossip
Starting point is 01:48:28 Maybe about Arnie Faye or something What will Arnie Faye get up to? Can she be trusted? A few too many shandies Yeah I love to hear that about Faye Hopefully Uncle Bill Behaved himself
Starting point is 01:48:39 You know he didn't He know he didn't He's a rat bag Of the highest order He's an absolute rat bag Final one this week Comes from Madeline Murray Baker And Matalyn Murray Baker
Starting point is 01:48:50 Is President of Purpuses with purposes. A bit of fun. One of you wasn't here for that. I was here for that. Jess was away. Okay. You were...
Starting point is 01:49:02 No, didn't you tell him how... Were we all in with my saying? I thought you told him that he didn't say porpoise properly. I think. When are you saying poipus? Yeah. You listen, but you weren't here. You were swimming with the piggies.
Starting point is 01:49:15 There you go. That's it. I would have listened. Yeah. Like the mafia swim with the fishes. You were swimming with the piggies. The piggies. Sounding cutier than I meant.
Starting point is 01:49:22 It made us sound menacing. No, but it was really cute. It was too cute. You're swimming with pigies. The Bahamas? Wow. Yeah. I can't wait.
Starting point is 01:49:30 You're going to do a report about that one day. Why are there pigs in the Bahamas? Anyway, the president of Opuses with Purpuses, Madeline Murray Baker, has a question. And the question is, what was your first email address? Oh. Mine was Dian Mudder 11 at Yahoo.com. It's German for.
Starting point is 01:49:52 your mother. I'm probably, I probably said it wrong then. And I thought it was very edgy. But also, it was already taken. So I had to add my lucky number at the end, because what's more lucky than being your mother? Love Hard emoji. That's true. My mom is lucky. To have you. To have me. I can't, I'm not sure if I remember this exactly, but I think it was, I think my first email address was probably also Yahoo and I think it was Matt Pride and I so I it's because I didn't understand emails but I was at a an underage local punk gig yeah and there was a sign up sheet and it was like your name and your email dress and I said I don't have one at them got you're old and the woman got you're old the woman was also like I was like 15 and she's like really okay um let's make you up one and
Starting point is 01:50:48 then you can sign it up when you get home. Such a weird. She should have just gone, whatever. Yeah. But anyway, she talked me through it. I said, how much they cost? They're free. So was she like a live random name generator?
Starting point is 01:51:00 Yes. She's like, all right, I'm thinking, Matt, pride. Yeah. At Yahoo. Dot com. Done. Sordid. You're welcome.
Starting point is 01:51:09 Can't wait to email you. Yeah, it's a pretty good story there. Wow. But yeah, it's funny that they even had email addresses all those centuries ago. What was yours, Dave? Well, I know this because I had a whole bit about it in my stand-up short at the comedy festival this year. My first ever email, no, what a lie was, Weiner at the beach at hotmail.com. That's good stuff.
Starting point is 01:51:30 Are people going to be able to see this show? Did you record the audio up in Brisbane? Yes, I haven't got a copy of it yet, though, so I wonder if I'll ever be able to release it. But, mate, you might be able to put it out online. Yeah, I hope so. I don't think I'll do it again, so that was the last time in Brisbane. That'd be cool. I love the idea of a comedy album.
Starting point is 01:51:47 Everyone's filming them these days. Nah. Yeah, and I put mine on vinyl. Yes. That's sick. I would buy that. That is cool. At a discount.
Starting point is 01:51:56 At cost price. Yeah, mate's rates, if you don't mind. Yeah, so weiner at the beach at hotmail.com, which I made in 2001 in grade five, I do not know what it means or why I pick that. Like, that's not a phrase that it doesn't relate to anything. I can think of no pop culture thing. Yeah. I just thought it was funny. Winner at the beach at hotmail.com.
Starting point is 01:52:14 Yeah. Weiner. Weiner. Do you mean it like? Weena dog? Weena dog. Or sausage. Or sausage or.
Starting point is 01:52:21 Penis. When you call someone a little weiner, hey, piss off, weiner. So that's a penis. Yeah. Is it? Is that? I think so. Like if you're a little geeky or a little weiner.
Starting point is 01:52:29 Yeah. Yeah, I reckon. I reckon. It's not sausage, is it? Hmm. What, sausage is closer to penis than like a wimp. Yeah. Whimp.
Starting point is 01:52:41 All right. Just while you're answering, I'm going to look up why does weena mean Whimp. And Jess, your email? One of my earliest ones was Jess the Great, like Alexander the Great. Oh, wow. You know what I mean? Because I'm pretty great.
Starting point is 01:52:58 Was there a Hotmail? It was underscore 16 at probably Hotmail, I think. I reckon. Yeah, that were the big ones. Hotmail and Yahoo. Yeah. And then AOL. Then Gmail came in.
Starting point is 01:53:10 And then parents got involved and got a big pond. Yes. At Telstra.com. Yep. Net space. Oh, yeah, net space? My parents were with net space. Calling a person a weiner, i.e. a wimp or dork, can be considered mildly offensive.
Starting point is 01:53:29 Okay, that doesn't really explain the origin, though, does it? Dictionary.com. So disappointing. More like weiner-shaneri. Got them. I'm absolutely destroyed them. Thank you so much for that question, Madeline. And to the braggers, Nick Paul and Brett.
Starting point is 01:53:47 I mean, doesn't that some things up? Madeline, ask a question, wants to know about us. The three fellas, brag, brag, brag. You know what I'm? Me, me, me. As a feminist, as a feminist, I need to stand up and point out what I see. Okay? And I'm sorry, that's right, I'm a cuck.
Starting point is 01:54:05 I'm a cuck. So I got a new one recently. What was it? Oh, someone called me online. I forget, but I got a new, yeah, version of that. recently, damn it. And they really let me have it. It was some newer version of cuck or whatever.
Starting point is 01:54:25 It's exciting. Soy boy, you know. Yeah. I'm glad that they're, I'm still connecting. The next thing we like to do is shout out to a few of our other great patron supporters. Bob,
Starting point is 01:54:35 you normally come up with a bit of game based on the topic at hand. Any thoughts this week? Whose grave are they robbing? No, probably not. Okay. Yep. Getaway vehicle. We've done that before, haven't we?
Starting point is 01:54:49 I don't like it though. Are we ever had a getaway horse before? This is fun. Yeah, getaway vehicle. Getaway vehicle. I like this. Getaway mode of transport. Okay, fantastic.
Starting point is 01:55:02 First up, if I can kick us off, I'm going to say thank you so much to this person from Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia, Nick Batley. Camoto Dragon. Oh, yeah. Getaway Dragon. Getaway Dragon. Getaway Commodo Dragon. No, not like that.
Starting point is 01:55:18 No, no, come back. I want to get away on you. Sorry, I was referring to you. Jesus is going to cause issues for Nick. This Camano Dragon's a fucking idiot. Why do I choose this? Idiot Dragon. This dragon is an...
Starting point is 01:55:31 I saw Komoto Dragon on my recent holiday. Not in the wild. Where do you get your ideas from? I don't know. Where did you see one? At a... At Hartley's... It's like a wildlife park type thing
Starting point is 01:55:49 Cool Hartley's Crocodile and Adventures It's fucking sick What were the adventures you did You go on a little boat And it goes around this little man-made lake And they feed the crocs And you get to see the crocs up close
Starting point is 01:56:03 And it's really cool That's cool Yeah, it was awesome Was it a commode dragon moving around It was just sort of a line there In the sun looking cool Nice That's so cool
Starting point is 01:56:11 Anyway Check out Hartleys in far north Queensland. Is it maybe like, because they're like floppy? Is that why a weaner might be a whim? I think you've got to move on. But I choose not to. This is now my life's work.
Starting point is 01:56:30 Thank you so much to Nick. I'd also love to thank from, ooh, address unknown, can only assume from deep within the fortress of the moles. I'd love to thank Joanna Tona. Joanna Tona. Oh my God, that's a great name. I'm fun to say. Give it a go, Jess.
Starting point is 01:56:43 Joanna Tona. Joanna Tona. Joanna Toner getting away on... Joanna. Joanna Toner. Toner. Getaway vehicle is a bag of hot wheels cars glued together. Whoa!
Starting point is 01:56:53 Hopefully all wheels down. Otherwise, quite painful and not that helpful. But if they're all wheels down, that is sick. What if she's getting away down a snowy mountain? Then you want them probably upside down. Yeah, that's when you flip it. Flip it. It's flippable.
Starting point is 01:57:09 Joanna Toner. Joanna Toner. Hello, Joanna Toner. Joanna Toner. Hello, Joanna Tona's from, so we can't get the accent. So we've done all three accents. We've done the three big ones. De Meera, garage is just a place you pork your car.
Starting point is 01:57:25 Juina donor. This is my attempt at South African. Is that how you have to get into it? I think so, yeah. Someone said somewhere recently in a comment, I must have done South African accent. They said, we need more of that South African accent. So that was for you, whoever that was.
Starting point is 01:57:39 Oh, when I was in New York a couple months ago. Okay, Lardida. Oh, no, I'm a travel. whatever, in line on a bookshop and we get to the front and the lady goes, oh my, my, where are you from? And we said Australia, she goes, oh my God, I love Australians. I do a great Australian accent.
Starting point is 01:57:55 Listen, listen, listen. Oh my God, they never do. And then she goes, and this is, some of them do. These were her words to get into character. Like Matt just had his phrase there. Yeah, what's hers? She goes, razor blades.
Starting point is 01:58:06 That's good. Pizzeria. And then she goes, Gettoy. It wasn't too bad, but right. Riserblades. Riserbly. Pizzeria.
Starting point is 01:58:16 That was her get-in phrase. Because there is a, I think there's a trick where you read it out, you read out different words and it sounds like an Australian saying razorbleeds. Yeah. I can't remember what it was. Rise up lights. Rise up lights. Rise up lights.
Starting point is 01:58:29 But you know how we always say pizzeria. Pizzeria. We do say pizza. Oh, you over here at the Pizzeroria. Hey, oh, do you guys want to grab some grub? I'll meet you down at the Putsarua. The all you can eat, pizza hot, Poizzerria. I love it.
Starting point is 01:58:44 Oh, I'll tell you. cuisine down at the Putsarroia. Yeah, could I get Morn with the Lott, down at the Putsarua, get an egg on morn? That's Aussie style for some reason. Famous for our chicken eggs down here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Joanna Tona.
Starting point is 01:59:00 Joanna Tona. And finally, from Gulfview Heights in South Australia, it's Alicia Briggs. Alicia Briggs. Briggs. Getaway on a jet ski. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:59:15 That's being towed by a tugboat. Is there anything more badass than that? I can't think of something. I can't either. Well, then sorry to the next six people because the rest of these are going to be dog shit. Or not, they're not dogs. They're just not bad ass. They might be sleek.
Starting point is 01:59:30 They might be slender, but they're not bad ass. They could still be bad ath. Could I thank some people? Absolutely. I would love to thank from Alfredton in Victoria, Tessa Eichler. Tessa Eichler. Eichler. Getting away on.
Starting point is 01:59:46 Not razor blades, but roller blades. Roller blades. And also in those roller blades is Drozek from Heartbreak High. So you're getting a roller blade piggyback from Drazzick. And you know where they're heading? The Pizzeria. The Pizzeria. You're going to have a couple of spiders at the Pizzarra.
Starting point is 02:00:10 Thank you, Dessa. I would also like to thank from Address Unknown. so we can only assume deep within the fortress of the malls, Josh Peters. Josh Peters. Matt, you're due for one. He's looking at wiener stuff. I am. This is according to etymology online.
Starting point is 02:00:26 It comes from Vienna sausage, venerversed. And it means ineffectual person or a feminine young man originating in 1963, pejorative sense via penis shape, or perhaps from weeny in the sense of small. Oh, yeah, weenie, you're a little weenie. A little weenie. It's funny, like, oh, penis shape. Feminine. I don't know if I could quite connect the dots there, but...
Starting point is 02:00:53 And Josh is getting away on a... Weinermobile. Weanamobile. How does he get his ideas? It's baffling. I don't know how he works. He crashed it into a shop. This could have been antibody.
Starting point is 02:01:07 That guy's dressed like a hot dog. Oh, no. That's good stuff. I just saw him. He was a special guest at the Detroit Lions game this week, and he was so stoked to be there. What's his name again? Tim.
Starting point is 02:01:23 Tim. Tim Robinson. Tim Robinson. And we are talking about his show. La, da, da, la. I think you should do. Yes. But yeah, so he was there, and he's like, this is,
Starting point is 02:01:33 he just was so stoked to be on the sidelines, and they're like, how's it feel to be embraced by your team? He's like, it's, honestly, it's the best. He was so stoked. I love, I love watching it. be weirded out to see and be genuine. I know, it was fun. Love to see it.
Starting point is 02:01:48 Thank you to Josh. I would also finally like to thank from Princess Anne in Maryland, Jay Palmer. Jay Palmer. That's not a place. That's a woman. Princess Anne? You live in Princess Anne?
Starting point is 02:02:01 You can't live in Princess Anne. Unless you are you a fetus? It's a town in Maryland, Princess Anne. No, Jess. Now, you've fallen down the same trap. It's not a town. It's a person. It's Princess Anne in Maryland.
Starting point is 02:02:16 What is going on here? This is crazy. Princess Anne in Maryland. So what's Jay Palmer? Slide. A series of slides. Yes. That's good stuff.
Starting point is 02:02:26 Each, what, shorter than the last? You've got to keep going down. No, what he does is, who is it? Jay Palmer. What they do is they specifically rob places with slides. Right. McDonald's playground. Rob Surreal in Hobart in the 2000s, which had a slide inside.
Starting point is 02:02:48 So they'd rob the bar at the top. Yeah. They'd get a Midori shaker. And then they'd slide down to the bottom level where the wacky pool tables that were in different shapes were. And then they'd get out from there. That's good stuff. That's all that I can remember from that place. Dave, do you want to thank some people?
Starting point is 02:03:08 I'd love to thank. This person is from Brooklyn in New York. It is Isaac Kelten. Have you been to New York, Dave, recently? I have actually. Have you been to the borough of Brooklyn? I drove through there. You drove through New York.
Starting point is 02:03:24 Yes. Bloody hell. Locals don't do that or do do that. One of the two. Or either. And Isaac's getting away on... Mr. Sheffield's limo. Stuck in traffic, but in style.
Starting point is 02:03:38 Exactly. There's a bar back there and also a car phone. Wow. Imagine making a call in the car phone. call in the car. That's crazy. They had the coolest aerials those car phones. Little pigs. A little twirly air antennas. Why are they so twirly? Cute. Thanks, Isaac. And now a big shout out to The Fortress of the Malls. We can only imagine that's where this person's from because they haven't given us their address. They don't trust
Starting point is 02:04:00 us, but we trust them. Eddie Wilson. Whoa. Eddie Wilson. Hi, Eddie. Edie Wilson. Got away in a cruise ship. Oh, that's good. It was slow but luxurious. And also all food included. Yeah, all inclusive. Um, and it's a lot. It was entertainment. Kirsty Webeck was performing. One of those ones that has like a couple of different nightclubs in it.
Starting point is 02:04:17 Yeah. Actually, I just had a really good time. So good for Eddie. But was it the kiss cruise? Which only just discovered like every year did a kiss cruise. Yeah. Can you imagine that?
Starting point is 02:04:25 All kiss all the time. They've become relatively common. There's a punk, like a pop punk one, I think. And yeah, people spend huge dollars. Go on a, and then there's concerts through the day. I mean, could we get the podcast cruise happening? No, we're going to get, it's not a cruise. It's a barge.
Starting point is 02:04:41 Yeah. The podcast bar. I think we ever did it. If we ever wanted to make it, we could do a mini one on like one of those little Yarra River boats. They contacted me a couple of comedy festivals ago saying, you want to, you want a free ride to promote your show or something?
Starting point is 02:04:56 I'm like, yeah, that'd be great. And then I forgot to get back then. How does it get promoted? I don't, I don't know. Free ride, do you do like stand up while people are like trying to look at the sites? I guess they just hoped that I'd put it out to my huge following.
Starting point is 02:05:09 Oh my gosh. They couldn't afford Jess so they got you. Yeah, well, they said the same to Jess, but they said two boats. Yeah, I got two boats and I got to straddle. She's a straddle. She's a straddle of Van Damstar. Yeah, it was fucking sick, actually. Incredible.
Starting point is 02:05:23 So thanks Eddie Wilson. And finally from us, we'd like to thank this week, also from the fortress of the moles. Do you know this person? Their name is the muffin man. Oh. Dude, is the one down dreary lane? Mm-hmm. I believe that might be right.
Starting point is 02:05:36 But how would the muffin man get away? Um, gum drop buttons. Gun drop buttons. Gum drop buttons. The muffin man. Or riding a rat. A getaway rat. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:05:50 Yeah, I think it's getaway rat. The muffin man from address unknown does not want to be known. No. I know I respect the hell out of that. Me too. So thank you. But we take your muffin dollars and we say thank you. Yeah, we say thank you.
Starting point is 02:06:05 Thank you for those muffin dollars. The muffin man. Thank you so much to you. And Eddie, Isaac, J. Josh. Tessa, Alicia, Joanna and Nick. And the final thing we need to do is welcome a few people into our trip ditch club, which Jess explains so elegantly. Thank you.
Starting point is 02:06:21 And so concisely. Yeah. That's why I don't do it anymore. Look at me now. I'm just trying to throw it over to her and she would have done it by now. God, you just don't shut up. So what it is... And what I want you to do, Jess, is just as quick as you can because, you know, time is money.
Starting point is 02:06:36 Can you just please explain to the listeners what the trip ditch club is? It's a club for people who have supported us for three years. And I say triptitch, of course, but I know it's actually pronounced triptych. Dave gives a bumsteer, and I've not been able to get out of the habit. I actually don't think we need to correct ourselves, so I'm happy. It's our own thing. No one can copyright that because we created it. Anyway, Dave, Jess was trying to talk.
Starting point is 02:06:58 Sorry, Jess. I've already done it. I've explained what it is. And Dave, do you normally book a ban for the after party? You're never going to believe it. What? I book Hugh Jacks, but they don't get much bigger. This week, dropping by.
Starting point is 02:07:11 Lincoln Park Whoa Can you believe it It's funny Going through the hat Trying to find Everyone who suggested The topic
Starting point is 02:07:21 With the search term Lincoln And there's a lot of people From Lincoln Park And Lincoln Nebraska And other Lincoln's around America That I You know like The search
Starting point is 02:07:30 I'm like Whoa, what is this? Like 90 people have suggested it But so many of them were just addresses And they're suggesting something else Yeah What's one of Lincoln Park's big songs?
Starting point is 02:07:41 Crawling. In the end. Oh, yeah. Remember that one? Numb. And I'm about to break. Is that one of them? Well, that's probably in the end.
Starting point is 02:07:53 It doesn't matter. Doesn't even matter. It doesn't matter. Nothing does. So... Hang on. I've prepared some food. Oh, fantastic.
Starting point is 02:07:59 So I'm behind the bar. I've got drinks and food for you. I have prepared a selection of President Lincoln's favorite foods. Oh, wow. What do you think that... I mean, what do you know he liked? Well, he was fond of certain foods, especially apples. He was fond of dew.
Starting point is 02:08:17 So I have fruits, I'm just going to persevere, fruits, nuts, cheese and crackers. His favorite dishes were chicken fricassee, which is just like a stew, and biscuits, or with biscuits, and oyster stew. And for dessert, apple pie. He loves apples. I like apples. I really wanted to be apple pie, but the man loves his stew. What do you think he's titled apple pie? Stu.
Starting point is 02:08:40 Apple goo. Apple goo. Apple stew. There's only one inductee this week. And everyone's dying to hear the immortal band, because one of them's dead. Lincoln Park play. That's right. But in our club, it's possible.
Starting point is 02:08:55 They're all back together. That's right. This is in the land of make-believe. And that's what's one of the happiest places in the world, because anything's possible, as long as it's positive. And there's just one inductee this week. So I'm going to, I'm on the door. I'm going to lift up the velvet rope. If you hear your name, jog on in.
Starting point is 02:09:13 It's actually two names. And then Dave's going to hype you up on stage with some of his powerful wordplay. Jess is going to hype Dave up because he needs it. You know, he's a sensitive soul. And the crowd will go wild. And then we'll finish the show up. So please make welcome from Nuremberg in Deutschland. It's Anna and Lucas Spath.
Starting point is 02:09:34 They're just the tip of the Nernberg. Go on in. Join us in the Spath Bath. Like spa bath Anna and Lucas You did it The Spath Bath The Spath Bath
Starting point is 02:09:47 There's okay Just for listeners There's an omel out in both Nuremberg and Spath I hope I got close Anyway Love that you're listening From Beutchland
Starting point is 02:09:59 Big fan We're going to do a live show there soon Dave was telling me We're doing it in Berlin I don't know if we're booked a venue I might be jumping the gun here But just I think it's fine to make promises
Starting point is 02:10:10 Check local guides Check local guides. I haven't mentioned it to Jess, but who cares? Check your local guides. Just keep your eyes peeled and do yourselves a favour. Jess, anything we've got to tell people before we go? That we love them. If you would like to suggest a topic, you can do so at dogoonpod.com.
Starting point is 02:10:25 Or there's a link in the show notes. And you can find us on all social media on do go on pod. And wash your butt. Dave boot at home. Always wash your butt. Wise words there. Hey, blockbuster to-oble rolls on and rocks on. we are getting to the tip of the Nernberg.
Starting point is 02:10:44 Oh my God. If you know what I'm saying. We're so high. We're even losing Dave now. We're going to get some air conditioning. But thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with another episode. But until then, thank you so much and goodbye.
Starting point is 02:10:56 Later. Woohoo! Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never,
Starting point is 02:11:18 will never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree. Very, very easy. It means we know to come to you and you'll also know that we're coming to you.
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