Oh What A Time... - #47 Criminals (Part 2)

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

This is Part 2! For Part 1, check the feed from yesterday! It’s time to take a look at some of the most infamous criminals history has to offer; the story of Bonnie and Clyde, the infamous Al Capon...e and American crime boss Arnold ‘The Brain’ Rothstein. Also.. What were you doing during the great storms of the past? If you’ve got anything on that or anything at all! Do send us an email at: hello@ohwhatatime.com If you're impatient and want both parts in one lovely go next time plus a whole lot more(!), why not treat yourself and become an Oh What A Time: FULL TIMER? In exchange for your £4.99 per month to support the show, you'll get: - two bonus episodes every month! - ad-free listening - episodes a week ahead of everyone else - And first dibs on any live show tickets Subscriptions are available via AnotherSlice, Apple and Spotify. For all the links head to: ohwhatatime.com You can also follow us on:  X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepod And Instagram at @ohwhatatimepod Aaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice? Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk). Chris, Elis and Tom x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:05 Let's crack on. All right, I'm here to tell you about notorious gangster Al Capone. He came up a little bit in our Alcatraz episodes, Great Escapes, because he was once a prisoner at Alcatraz. But let's give you the backstory now. Born Alphonse Gabriel Capone, born the 17th of January 1899 in Brooklyn. His parents came from just outside Naples. His father was a barber.
Starting point is 00:01:41 His mother a seamstress. The older Capones, they arrived in New York in 1893 and they settled in Navy Street. And that is where Al grew up. And when he was 11 years old, they moved to the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, which is now one of New York's most desirable neighbourhoods. He must have looked great. If his father was a barber and his mother was a seamstress, he must have looked great. That's a great point.
Starting point is 00:02:01 Amazing clothes, fantastic hair. Well, funnily enough, he was known for dressing really well. Oh, really? His nickname was Snorky, and he was known for being sharply dressed. Of course, his other nickname was Scarface, which referred to his facial scars that he got from being slashed with a knife. But that was the nickname he hated. If you get in your one-day time machine, you meet Al Capone,
Starting point is 00:02:25 do not call him Scarface. That is the nickname he doesn. If you get in your one-day time machine, you meet Al Capone, do not call him Scarface. That is the nickname he doesn't like. Call him Alan. Alan! Alan, so good to see you, Alan. Alan Capone. It completely changes it, doesn't it, Alan? What does Alan Capone sound like?
Starting point is 00:02:42 Hello, Alan Capone. I'm an independent financial advisor. I've been an IFA for about 20 years now. And I love it. It's just I'm not affiliated with anyone, so I don't take commission. I just give good, honest advice. And the thing is, the amount of exams an IFA's got to sit these days, it's like I never left school, honestly.
Starting point is 00:03:02 This is my wife, Karen Capone. She's a lovely girl. We've been together since we were 12. This is my wife, Karen Capone. She's a lovely... And we've been together since we were 17. Oh, Alan. Little Al Capone. He was a member of some small street gangs growing up in the city of New York. His membership included a membership of the Bowery Boys, the Brooklyn Rippers, and the Five Points Gang.
Starting point is 00:03:19 In 1919, Al Capone moved from New York to Chicago, where he was employed as an enforcer for the local boss, Big Jim Colosimo. That is a good name. That is a great name. And as part of his duties, Capone served as a brothel bouncer. But Capone was heavily involved in the bootlegging business. This is the era, of course, of Prohibition. And he worked alongside his mentor john torio john torio is
Starting point is 00:03:45 very he's a very interesting character i'm going to talk about talk about him in a second so john to road deaf and this this chicago gangster of the 1920s i can categorically state was not a judge and master chef um yeah john torio he was kind of of the mentor of Al Capone and Al Capone worked under John Torrio. Al Capone had also had legitimate business dealings in Chicago. He was a boxing promoter as well. Torrio took over Big Jim Colosimo's empire in 1920 when the latter was murdered. Big Jim Colosimo murdered probably on the orders of Al Capone. Wow. By 1925, five years after Colosmo was executed,
Starting point is 00:04:30 Capone had risen to the top. But this is the interesting thing about John Torrio, his mentor. In January that year, John Torrio was shot and almost assassinated and he fled to New York to recuperate. And while he was in New York, he decided, I'm done with being a criminal, I'm done with being a gangster. He handed over the reins to al capone and he famously said these words it's all yours al me i'm quitting it's europe for me he handed over to al capone an empire worth about 70 million dollars a year
Starting point is 00:04:57 which is the equivalent today of 1.3 billion dollars per year no that is the scale of the chicago crime outfit that al capone inherited so let me tell you i had no idea it was that sort of think about it bootlegging in prohibition that alone like you basically own all of the booze brands. Wow. So he's like mortgage free, isn't he? You can always tell. Tom's dream of becoming mortgage free. Whenever we discuss anything fantastical, it's bubbling under the surface. Was Al Capone mortgage
Starting point is 00:05:37 free? Rothschild, was he mortgage free? It's the main reason I dreamed of being a footballer when I was a teenager was it one day I'd get to be mortgage free Alexander Selkirk
Starting point is 00:05:49 the guy that based Robinson Crusoe was he mortgage free I suppose well he was free if you're living on a desert island you are free of a mortgage
Starting point is 00:05:56 I suppose so let me go back to John Torrio so he was shot nearly assassinated and he just decided do you know what I don't want to be
Starting point is 00:06:05 a gangster anymore and he's such an interesting character because so how rarely do you hear a story of a gangster and they actually kind of make it out of being a criminal scot-free John Torrio was described by the US Treasury official called Elmer Irie as being the biggest gangster in America and he wrote this US treasury official he was the smartest and I dare say the best of all the hoodlums best referring to talents not morals Torrio when he decided I'm done with crime he left the US with his wife and mother in 1925 to Italy but when in 1928 Mussolini started going after the mafia, he came back to the US. And in 1929, he decided,
Starting point is 00:06:48 I'm going to create a national body to prevent huge inter-gang wars amongst the big American mafia crime families. And it was his idea to create the National Crime Syndicate. He actually came up with that idea and he implemented it. How interesting. But one thing I thought is, why are you calling it the National Crime Syndicate?
Starting point is 00:07:08 You know, like, if that does go to trial. Also, how hard is it going to be to book somewhere for Christmas under that name? Exactly. Call it, I don't know, call it the Chocolate Raisin Consortium or something, just to really put people off the scent. I think people are going to become really interested as to what that is that is if anything's gonna draw in fascinated eyes if people go have you heard they've set up something called the chocolate chocolate covered raisins are are nice it's one of the
Starting point is 00:07:35 best foods um i think you're right though chris what's interesting about that very briefly is i assume you couldn't really leave no organized crime that way. I thought he was just in. So he creates a national crime syndicate in 1929. In his whole career, he got one conviction, which was, like Capone, for income tax evasion in 1939. He served two years, got out, lived until he was 75 years old, and he died having a heart attack in a barber's chair waiting for a haircut. So he kind of made it out. Wow.
Starting point is 00:08:04 And that haircut was from al capone's father is that the link is that what you're saying oh no i've got i've got also taking you back a couple of minutes elmer that's a name you don't hear yeah anymore isn't it fudge really killed off really ruined that for everyone back to capone once in charge he was notoriously ruthless any business that tried to avoid dealing with him was soon blown up protection rackets uh brothels gambling prohibition he's involved with everything um many of Chicago's brothels were uh were down to Capone's activities in May 1926 the Chicago Daily Worker reported there was an entire village where gangsters rule and Scarface Al Capone was absolutely in charge.
Starting point is 00:08:49 They wrote, this Caponeville was home to a notorious resort known as the Stockade. Despite his notoriety in the newspaper, this is what blows my mind about Capone. He's got all this notoriety, but people still wanted to be his friend he had many kind of mates who were legitimate businessmen and he said he was quite a public facing individual and said i'm giving the people what they want i'm satisfying a public demand in the wake of the wall street crash and the onset of depression he opened up soup kitchens and provided a degree of charity to the unemployed as well if you're if you're making 1.4 billion a year you could be up you could be opening lobster kitchens it doesn't need to be soup. You can
Starting point is 00:09:25 really properly give the people what they want. A little insight into what Tom would be doing. The lobster kitchens open. It would be absolutely lovely. You come down, choose your own lobster. It'd be great. I'd have some sides as well by the way. It wouldn't just be lobster. And that's in a restaurant that is mortgage
Starting point is 00:09:41 free. Really puts it into perspective, doesn't it? He was also mates, famously, with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, John Steege. Capone had his hands in labour unions as well, including many of the Chicago branches of the American Federation of Labour. He was also big political allies with the Republican mayor of the city, William Hale Thompson. And Capone actually gave him a quarter of a million dollars for Thompson's mayoral run in 1927, which almost certainly pushed him over the line to win that one. But the big turning point for Capone came
Starting point is 00:10:15 in 1929 when he set in motion the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Do we know about this? Not really, no. I do know about this. I know about this and the fact that he died of syphilis. They are the two Capone facts that I think everyone knows. Yeah. The method of the St Valentine's Day Massacre sticks in my mind so vividly. So what he did is he had a rival gang, the North Side Gang, who rivals it for bootlegging booze, obviously. And what he did is he figured out where the HQ was, he stalked it for a bit, and he arranged that people in his crew,
Starting point is 00:10:50 dressed as police officers, fake raided them and got them all to line up against a wall, at which point they queued in gunmen who mowed them all down with machine gun fire and shotguns. Oh, wow. That is brutal. So he completely mowed them all down.
Starting point is 00:11:05 And it was the public outcry which followed that, which meant Capone had real eyes on him. And it was a real pressure to be investigated. Wow. Alan Capone would not do that. There's no way Alan Capone would do anything as awful as that. Al, though. That's the thing about American gangsterism
Starting point is 00:11:22 that sticks in the mind the most, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The fact it was that they thought they were getting raided by police, turn away and face the war and then they're getting gunned down. Blimey. Brutal. President Herbert Hoover set in motion the successful federal efforts to imprison Capone for his crimes. But famously, the other big thing on top of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, it is that they got him on tax evasion. He had hundreds and hundreds of other crimes that he would have committed and people really knew about,
Starting point is 00:11:51 from murder to traffic violations. 5,000 violations of prohibition laws are on his list as well. But they got him on tax evasion. And at his medical examination following his incarceration at Atlanta Penitentiary in 1932, it was discovered that he was absolutely riddled with sexually transmitted diseases.
Starting point is 00:12:13 Most notably syphilis. Really? As Ellis says. Well, well, well. Did you know this? That once he was inside, he started suffering from the effects of cocaine withdrawal as well. His body was a husk of a thing by the time he went to Alcatraz in 1934. And he remained in Alcatraz until 1939,
Starting point is 00:12:32 where he was allowed to play a banjo and he was allowed to compose songs. And that made me think, if you were locked in Alcatraz with a banjo, do either of you believe you could come up with a half-decent EP? Not with my dick sore from syphilis. That's a title track, isn't it? All of my songs would be about cream. I think I could... This probably might sound a bit arrogant.
Starting point is 00:13:01 Write one of the most important albums of the last century. Yeah. To answer your question, yeah. Ever since I read in Q Magazine that Bon Iver composed that album forever, forever ago, he locked himself in a hut for a winter and wrote that whole album. It's a great album. Well, he spent a whole year doing it, didn't he? Yeah, he locked away in a wood cabin writing.
Starting point is 00:13:19 So I think about that all the time. But Capone had that opportunity, but alas, he didn't create something that was going to go to bed. We're just doing the podcast version aren't we? I'm in my attic right now making the great light-hearted crime podcast. Al Capone livid at you Ellis he's your podcasting at half ten
Starting point is 00:13:38 at night and he wants to go to bed. Stop podcasting. They got him on tax evasion and he had syphilis yeah i suppose is that because it's something you can more easily follow there's a trail to tax evasion whereas i suppose with murder and all sorts of stuff it's just other people saying that's nothing to do with me but clearly the money yes i suppose maybe it's an easier thing to to sort of get someone on possibly because the evidence is there yeah i think you're you're right. You could just, I mean,
Starting point is 00:14:05 how much money was he making? What was it again? $1.3 billion a year. He didn't, yeah, also this is crucial. He didn't need to be avoiding his tax if you're making 1.3 billion. Just pay the tax. You've got enough left over.
Starting point is 00:14:19 He's got to be on 50% tax rate by then, isn't he? Super tax. But that's okay. £515 million pounds a year whatever you're left with is enough to be going i'm fine with that yeah exactly um so he was released from prison in 1939 and that's when he began formal treatment for his syphilis which was by now advanced and his mental capacities were according to medical records significantly reduced um his final days were spent at Miami Beach.
Starting point is 00:14:46 And it was there in January 1947 that he suffered a debilitating stroke. And the following day, he had a heart attack. And at 7.25, he died on the 25th of January 1947. But yes, I go back to the central point of this. At his peak, he oversaw a crime empire that was generating $1.3 dollars in today's terms per year incredible it's a new day how can you make the most of it with your membership rewards points
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Starting point is 00:15:58 From football to basketball and hockey to baseball, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 or older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca. Arnold Rothstein is a man better known by names invented by someone else. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, he was called Mayor Wolfsheim, and to Damon Runyon, he was Nathan Detroit, or simply The Brain.
Starting point is 00:16:33 Now, Rothstein, have you read The Great Gatsby? I haven't, actually, no. I mean, everyone says it's incredible. Oh, yeah, I haven't. The great works, isn't it? But for some reason, I've just never been drawn to it. Do you know what? I read The Great Gatsby when I was younger
Starting point is 00:16:47 and didn't really get it. And then I read it when I was about 35 and really, really got it. Really? And it's interesting when that happens sometimes. I remember I read The Catcher in the Rye when I was about 16, which is really when you're meant to read it
Starting point is 00:17:00 and really loved it. And I read it when I was 28 and got a completely different thing out of it and then read it when i was 28 and got a completely different thing out of it and then read it again about 10 years after that it's quite interesting how obviously the text remains the same but you're the person who's changing that is really interesting i in general i'm drawn to books about hardship and people struggling i don't know why i think it was like the struggling gatsby or something that, I might read it but there's something about this opulence and success, I'm not normally drawn
Starting point is 00:17:28 to those characters The Road is one of my favourite books I love those sort of books, I find those fascinating It's a great novel about regret though The Great Gatsby when you tap into the regret of it I think that is
Starting point is 00:17:43 by the time you're older and you've got regrets in your life. The regretful Gatsby. That's what I should call it, then I'd be in. Call it the regretful Gatsby and I'd buy a copy. Yeah, Tom, do you extrapolate what an entire book's about purely from its title? Yes, yes, yeah, that's all. Give me a book and I'll tell you what it's about.
Starting point is 00:17:59 Yeah, because Tom does judge a book by its cover. Give me any book, give me a title. The Moby Dick. No, let's not get into that one. Anyway, back to the history. Rothstein was born into a respectable Jewish family in Manhattan in 1882. His older brother went on to train as a rabbi. Normal parents, mother called Esther, father was called Abraham.
Starting point is 00:18:20 So from this background, there's no inkling of a criminal life. Certainly not the criminal life that was to come. So Abraham, his old man, was in fact a legitimate businessman, very upright, upstanding character. He served as chairman of the board at New York's Beth Israel Hospital. The one-time Democratic presidential candidate and New York governor, Al Smith, called the older Rothstein Abe the Just. So at the moment, you're thinking, he's going to be a good guy.
Starting point is 00:18:46 He's going to be an upstanding guy. That's what it seems to be hinting at. But Arnold had other ideas. He flunked out of school and instead he turned to gambling. As he said later, I always did it. I can't remember when I didn't. I think I gambled because I loved the excitement. Nothing else mattered.
Starting point is 00:19:03 Now eventually he turned gambling into a career. In 1910, aged 28, Rothstein opened a casino in the heart of Manhattan's red-light district, Tenderloin. He also ran a corrupt race course in Maryland. By 1912, aged 30, he was a millionaire. Tom, he was mortgage-free. It's just, it's written in the stars for you. All you need to do is open a casino and a corrupt race course
Starting point is 00:19:27 and you too could be mortgage free. You don't need to be making podcasts and writing jokes for other people. Dear listeners, it's been lovely spending this time with you, but I'm now... I'm off to run a corrupt race course. I need to work out, what's that game First to 21? That's quite a good one, isn't it? That with the cards.
Starting point is 00:19:46 Blackjack. Blackjack. Blackjack. That'll be the main one I do. God, I just had a vision then, Tom, of you turning up in Las Vegas going, can I play Count to 21, please? You don't sound like a natural. Let me tell you something. What I am actually doing, above the table, it'll say First to 21, and people
Starting point is 00:20:02 will go in and think, this casino has no idea what they're doing. Luring them into a false sense of security. They're parting with their money. Very good. Give it three weeks, I'm mortgage-free. Very, very nice. Now then, through his contacts, and now obviously he had deep pockets
Starting point is 00:20:18 because he was a millionaire, he was able to influence the direction of sport. His notoriety grew in 1919 when it was alleged that he caused the Black Sox scandal in baseball's World Series, paying members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the series
Starting point is 00:20:33 and allow the Cincinnati Reds to win. Rothstein had, of course, bet on the latter happening and so he made a fortune. Now, the 1919 Black Sox scandal is one of those things that if like any person was born in the uk you watch a lot of hollywood films growing up it crops up all the time yeah it still has such a massive impact on american culture i think the black sock scandal so what was you saying was this
Starting point is 00:21:00 the the final that was thrown? Yeah, the World Series. I mean, that is huge, isn't it? Yeah. Because what's interesting about that is you are asking athletes who have got to the pinnacle. This is the thing you've been working for. It's not just throwing a league game, which you can then maybe rectify in time. You've reached the World Series, and you are choosing to throw that. That's what's amazing.
Starting point is 00:21:27 It's massive. I mean, the Champions League final in football would be the equivalent, I suppose. Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the thing you've dreamed of your whole life and now you're going, well, I'll do that. And also there are names like Shoeless Joe Jackson. They're kind of, I don't know, I'm not a big baseball fan,
Starting point is 00:21:44 but I do know of Shoeless Joe Jackson. We just sound of, I don't know, I'm not a big baseball fan, but I do know of shoeless Joe Jackson. We just sound like he needed the money. To be fair to him. And next season he's new shoes Joe Jackson. Yeah, if he was shoeless Kevin De Bruyne he'd be like, fine. Shoeless Vinicius Jr.
Starting point is 00:22:06 It's Trouserless Steve I felt for. Take the money, Steve. Trouserless Joe. Trouserless Joe. Yeah. I'm coming round to this now. Now, Rothstein tried a similar thing with the Welsh box of Freddie Welsh,
Starting point is 00:22:25 offering large sums of money to the world champion to throw fights. But in this case, Welsh refused, which is incredible. Yeah. Bit of pride there, Al. Look at that. I love that. Yeah. He was a Welsh world champion.
Starting point is 00:22:38 He was born in Pont-a-Prix, made his fortune in America. And yeah, he was offered money by Al Rothstein, turned it down. I must admit, I've got an incredible amount of respect and admiration for that now with the advent of prohibition Rothstein turned his hand to bootlegging he bought up high quality alcohol in Britain Canada and the West Indies and he imported it into the United States paying bribes where necessary smuggling where he could get away with it. But Rothstein realised that every gangster was going to get in on booze, so he turned instead to narcotics. By the mid-1920s,
Starting point is 00:23:11 he was the leading drugs kingpin in the USA, specialising in heroin. As the US Attorney General Charles Tuttle said in 1927, the entire dope traffic in the United States is being directed from one source, Arnold Rothstein.
Starting point is 00:23:25 Wow. So the entire drug traffic? Certainly in heroin, yeah. That's incredible. Okay, yeah. So he had associates travel to Asia and Europe to buy supplies and ship them to America, where another set of associates would establish supply chains. No use of the word associates and not friends there. Difficult to be mates with someone who's in charge of that kind of stuff.
Starting point is 00:23:47 You're an associate, an acquaintance. Where another set of associates would establish supply chains, not only in New York, but also in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and beyond. So Al Capone's cocaine habit was at one time supplied by Rothstein's Enterprise. Wow. I mean, it's just the magnitude of it. Yeah. That's the incredible thing.
Starting point is 00:24:08 So, pen portraits describe a man who travelled around New York City in a Rolls Royce, dressed in the finest clothes, maintained his office at Lindy's restaurant on Broadway. Why would you maintain your office at a restaurant? Yeah. Get an office space that's got a canteen. It would be so annoying. The lack of privacy. Yeah. Get an office space that's got a canteen. It would be so annoying.
Starting point is 00:24:29 The lack of privacy. And also the smells, the constant smells from what's been cooked. I lived above a dominoes once. It was one of the worst years of my life. Yeah, I lived next door to a chip shop. And it just meant that I ate chips every day. Yeah, absolutely. No, I doubled in size, yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:45 He would be seen at the Astor or the waldorf with eminently prominent political figures it was said of him being seen mattered but it was also dangerous so on the 4th november 1928 at the park central hotel in manhattan rothstein was gunned down by a rival whom he never named and died a few days later apparently r Rothstein had gambled $320,000 and lost. He refused to pay and claimed that it was all a fix. He was murdered to prove a point. That's a big call, isn't it? Yeah. As one press account said of him, a lust for risk vibrated in every corpuscle of his blood, but he harnessed his emotions with nerves of steel wire. When others poured liquor down Wow. So the guy was cool, calm and collected.
Starting point is 00:25:43 Yeah. That's amazing, isn't it? Yeah. It's interesting what isn't it? Yeah. It's interesting what you're saying about the magnitude of it all. Like, aside from the immorality of it all and your moral compass being completely skewed, the skills as a business person are amazing. And as an administrator, yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:01 Exactly. To run something like that. I would not be good at being in charge of funneling all heroin into America. No. It doesn't feel like it's in my skill set. I would like to see you try. This sounds awful. I haven't got the attention span.
Starting point is 00:26:17 Yeah. I also don't know what heroin looks like, so it'd be the wrong thing. The amount of times I'd be like, fuck, heroin in St. Louis. I knew I was going to sort that out. Sorry. I tend to keep notes on my iPhone and I thought I'd backed it up to the cloud. Sorry.
Starting point is 00:26:36 I'm so sorry. Now, he was also likely to dine on vegetarian cuisine too as others tucked into red meat. So quite an oddly clean living bloke. But like Capone in Chicago, Rothstein nurtured political alliances, chiefly through the Tammany Hall organisation, which was closely linked to the New York Democratic Party. And his death led to the Hall's rapid downfall
Starting point is 00:26:57 on the reforming Republican mayoralty of Fiorello LaGuardia in the 1930s and 1940s. He also left behind another legacy. It was his efforts that transformed organised crime from gangland activity into a corporate world where money was at the heart of everything. And to make money, he learnt how to play both sides against each other until, of course, it all went wrong. So a remarkably shrewd bloke. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:27:21 I'd never heard of him. It's weird because, obviously, Al Capone. Everyone's heard of Al Capone. But I'd never heard of him, so it's weird Because obviously Al Capone, everyone's heard of Al Capone But I'd never heard of Arnold the Brain Rothstein Yeah, I had no idea I think that's what you want to be as a gangster, isn't it? You want to operate quietly in the background You don't want to be well-known
Starting point is 00:27:36 No, definitely not, yeah What's that movie, American Gangster? Is that what it's called? Yes Who's the lead in that? Denzel Washington. And he gets bought a very flashy coat, doesn't he? That's exactly what I'm thinking about, Chris.
Starting point is 00:27:51 And he breaks his cardinal rule of not wearing flashy clothes, and that leads to his downfall. So he's photographed. And I've ruined the film for anyone who hasn't seen it. Shaking the hands of other people. That's exactly it. That is exactly what I'm thinking of. Great movie. Check it out. If exactly what I'm thinking of. Great movie.
Starting point is 00:28:05 Check it out. If you are a massive supplier of heroin, you want to operate quietly in the background, possibly as a podcaster slash comedy writer. You don't want to wear anything flashy. I'd go as far to say I would avoid any flashy. I would be naked at all times. I don't want to wear anything that suggests any wealth.
Starting point is 00:28:24 Dressing gown. Shoeless Tom Crane. Pantless Tom Crane. Yeah, exactly. be naked at all times so that i'm not i don't want to wear anything that suggests any wealth pantless tom crane yeah exactly that suggests i haven't got millions of drug money if you're turning up in your underpants to a restaurant we'll go that guy's not there's no way he's running heroin through britain he's not where's he hiding it for a start so i've absolutely loved that episode guys what a fun one i really enjoyed that tempted by life of sort of of crime no it just seems so much hassle and obviously immoral. But the hassle would be so stressful. Well done for mopping that up. That's good. Just to make it clear that these are the views of historical criminals
Starting point is 00:29:15 and not the views of over-the-time. We do not share their stance. Before we say goodbye, I think it's only right as an exciting little new feature when I take or one of us takes back 10 subscribers
Starting point is 00:29:28 to the past in the one day time machine a little adventure shall we see where we're taking the subscribers this week you interested oh I can't wait
Starting point is 00:29:37 I can't wait I've taken them back to 480 BC ooh to the battle of Thermopylae do you Battle of Thermopylae. Do you know what Thermopylae is? No.
Starting point is 00:29:47 Best known for its appearance in the film... 300? 300, exactly. Yes! Fire up the one-day time machine. We will. It's the one-day time machine. It's the one-day time machine.
Starting point is 00:29:57 It's the one-day time machine. It's the one-day time machine. It's the one day time machine. Okay, so the Spartans are fighting the Achaemenid Persian Empire. And I have thrown our subscribers into the heat of battle alongside the tiny Spartan army. So we'd like a little roll call of how our subscribers got on. Okay? Dominic Bailey didn't make it, unfortunately.
Starting point is 00:30:24 Died. Katie Dyer didn't make it. Didn't make it. Katie Dyer, I'm afraid, didn't make it unfortunately died Katie Dyer didn't make it didn't make it Katie Dyer I'm afraid didn't make it either Adrian Dalewood didn't make it
Starting point is 00:30:32 these are people who the question is who survived the battle Rob Easton didn't make it either didn't survive Gavin Duffy
Starting point is 00:30:40 he made it but only because he went to the he went to the wrong drop pin. So he ended up just eating some squid in a quite nice taverna, which is all right. So he actually had quite a nice time. That sounds fantastic, yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:53 Ellen Mainwood, did she make it or not make it? Did she survive this battle? She had a nice glass of rosé. And then she couldn't be bothered to have a main because she thought it was a backdoor. So she had a nice pudding and then she had her arm blown off. I'm afraid none of that didn't even make it to the restaurant. She just didn't make it at all. She was gone within seconds.
Starting point is 00:31:13 Luca Papaccio. Now, this is an interesting one because Luca, we thought that he'd made it, but then he started speaking Greek and we realised it was just someone who looked a bit like him. It wasn't Luca. Luca we found behind a bush and he hadn't made it him. It wasn't Luca. Luca we found behind a bush and he hadn't made it either. Charlie McCormack. Now this was a weird one. Charlie McCormack, he ran off, but then his loincloth
Starting point is 00:31:32 fell down, he tripped over, bumped his head and he didn't make it either. But in a way it felt like justice because he'd fled the battle. Can you see? Yeah. There was a feeling amongst the remaining group that that was probably for the best. I've just realised that everything I've said has involved gunfire and this is hundreds
Starting point is 00:31:49 of years before the gun was invented So I'd like to retract everything I've said I mean centuries before the gun was invented Sorry Ellen Mainwood, she I'm afraid didn't make it. Jessica Austin Now Jessica hid in a bush
Starting point is 00:32:05 and then she appeared and did this really sort of cool spinning sword chop thing but sadly she missed and just sort of swiped the thin air and Jessica didn't
Starting point is 00:32:13 make it either unfortunately so that's that if you're interested though I did make it would you like to know how I made it how did I survive
Starting point is 00:32:21 the battle against Sparta did you spend an hour in a urinal? If I'm in a battle in Sparta, I don't need a urinal. That's already done. I made it because I just stayed in the one-day time machine and I put the central locking on.
Starting point is 00:32:37 Just put the door on. You were last out. I called everybody out, everyone out. I closed the door last morning. Put it on Spotify just had a nice time drowned it out lovely
Starting point is 00:32:47 if you would like to be involved and taken back on a future one day time machine adventure by Ellis or Chris
Starting point is 00:33:01 or myself then become a subscriber it's another little benefit and we will take you back on an exciting journey sometime in the future. But there's a lot more benefits to being a subscriber,
Starting point is 00:33:11 aren't there, Al? What is there? Well, you get two bonus episodes a month. You also get ad-free episodes. You get episodes a week early. You just end up with a kind of general sense of cool. But actually, you can't really put a financial value general sense of cool. But actually, you can't
Starting point is 00:33:25 really put a financial value on. But if you had to, it'd be £4.99 a month. Oh yes, of course you can. £4.99 a month, yeah. And you can guarantee to yourself the respect of your peers and work colleagues. So yeah, it really, really is worth doing.
Starting point is 00:33:41 So go to owhwattatime.com And thank you so much. Whatever way you support the show, do email us. Anything you want to send in our direction, we love to read it. And we'll see you guys next week. Goodbye. Bye. Thank you.

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