QAA Podcast - Masonic Hit Squads Part II: The 1826 Morgan/Miller Affair (377)

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

In part two, Travis takes us back in time to Western New York State during the beginning of the Jacksonian era. The plans of 50-year-old William Morgan to publish Masonic secrets turned into one of America’s first nationwide true-crime media frenzies. After Morgan and printer David C. Miller threatened to expose the inner workings of Freemasonry, local Masons responded with lawsuits, surveillance, sabotage, armed mobs, bogus warrants, arson attempts, kidnapping, and possibly Morgan’s murder in the Niagara River.  This episode follows the story from Batavia taverns and print shops to the Ontario County jail, the road to Rochester, the failed Canadian handoff, and the grim stone powder magazine at Old Fort Niagara where Morgan was last known to be held. We also dig into the forgotten role of David C. Miller, the “Masonic spy” Daniel Johns, the propaganda war between Masons and Anti-Masons, and how the scandal helped create the first major third party in American politics. Brad: https://x.com/LoveAndSaucers https://www.instagram.com/bradwtf/ Julian: https://superstructurepodcast.com/ https://www.instagram.com/superstructurepodcast/ Cursed Media: https://www.instagram.com/cursedmediadotnet/ https://www.cursedmedia.net/ Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes: www.patreon.com/qaa Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm ). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com ) https://qaapodcast.com QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast. The Hoop Pole Knights Abridged version of a 19th Century Anti-Masonic Song Some poets sing in epic strains, Of warriors and their fates, And some that rise and some that fall, Of kingdoms and of states; But hark ! the while in loftier song, And more sublimely grand, I sing to all the listening world The brave Masonic Band. The world was still, and wonders rare, Save now and then a dream Of railroads, and of side canals, And guns that go by steam; When Morgan swore a mighty oath, In spite of friends or foes, That he, for cash or conscience' sake, Would Masonry disclose And Miller swore to print the tale, And spread it far and near, That all the blind on earth might see, And all the deaf might hear; That from the greatest to the least, By Scripture rule, forsooth, That all should come to knowledge of The hidden light of truth. Then hell broke loose, and all the host Of Masons circled round, To kidnap both, destroy the book, Or burn Batavia down; And fury seized on many a brain, And vengeance seemed to start, In room of Love and Charity, From many a Mason's heart. And then the General Hoop-pole Knight, Renowned for chivalry, Began to feel that feather grow, Called popularity ; And how if he succeeded well By prowess in the fight, That he should be a Senator, As well as leading Knight: "And cried, ' Arise my friends, arise ! With pistols, swords, and dirks, Hoop-poles and knives, and cudgels strong, Prepared for bloody works; Without regard to powers that be, Or laws that men devise, On Miller, seize, and seize the book-- Succeed, or sacrifice.' On foot, on horse, in wagons stored, They marched ten miles or more, To guard their victim of revenge, And triumph in his gore; The while the people rose in strength, With blood at boiling heat, And sent him back to printing books, And made the band retreat. Nay, since the days of Don Quixote, When windmills were his foe, There has not been a scene like this, Unless in shades below; And even Don would laugh, and shake His sides till in distress, Had he but seen the Yankee Knights Attack a Printing Press.

A podcast episode 377, Sonic Hit Squads Part 2, the 1826 Morgan Miller Affair. As always, we are your host, Jake Rakitansky, Julian Field, Brad Abraham's, and Travis View. In the dark pre-dawn of September 11, 2025, I stood at the corner of Center and Main Street in the town of Batavia, New York. I loitered there for hours until about 9 a.m., staring across the four-lane road as the sun rose. taking photographs, chatting with my wife who accompanied me on my trip, and occasionally checking emails and social media. There's not a whole lot to see where I was looking at. There's two banks in brick and stone buildings behind some shrubs,

and a tree planted along the sidewalk. A beautiful Bank of America building as the only building in sight in your photo. Yeah, this looks like it could be the corner of every street of any town in America. Pretty mundane. Where is this, like, geographically in New York? It's a western New York State. Yeah. Okay.

But I spent that morning there, 3,000 miles from home, because of a lesser-known anniversary of September 11th. Two centuries earlier, that was the location of a tavern owned by a man named David Danylds. Back then, Danels Tavern was one of five taverns that provided food, drink, lodging, and a meeting place to visitors to Batavia, and it's roughly 1,400 residents. The largest being the three-story Eagle Tavern built in 1823. But despite the competition, back then, Dannell's Tavern was a big. busy hub of activity, partly because David Danyls was a Freemason, and the masons who lived and passed

through the area preferred doing business with a fellow brother. That was one of the perks of being initiated into the order. People would help you, and you'd always find people you wanted to help. Daniels Tavern is where, in the year 1826, 199 years before I visited his former location, to the day and to the hour, William Morgan was detained, loaded into a stage coach, and driven away to an ultimately unknown fate. Now, we've talked about William Morgan. a few times on the podcast before. So the condensed version of the story is that after William Morgan threatened

to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry, a network of Freemasons in western New York State weaponized the legal system to harass him and imprison him. Then they snatched him away from his wife and two young children he was never seen again. The public was outraged at the scandal

and demanded justice. Five years of legal investigation and prosecution on the matter resulted in 20 grand juries and 15 trials. Of the 54 Freemasons indicted by a grand jury further involvement in the kidnapping, only 39 came to trial and only 10 convicted. None were convicted of murder. And the kidnapping charge wasn't very serious because at the time, kidnapping

was just a misdemeanor. Incredible. Yeah. The New York legislature made kidnapping a felony in 1827 directly in response to the Morgan affair. Wow. But did you, did you, like, I'm assuming you coordinated to be there on this day, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was part of a longer trip. But it was just really curious what, you know, what the temperature was like, what the air smelled like, what the color of the sky was at the moment that happened. I was just, you know, just wanted to get the vibe. I love a good, like, Masonic kidnapping vibe. Especially when it's just a misdemeanor. Yeah. Especially, yeah, especially when I know, I'm not going to get in that much trouble. Travis just standing there yearning for the past. I'm like, man, can't even

kidnap no more. Just like playing like the Patriot Games music in his head, like imagining like Morgan being thrown into the stagecoachers like, do-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Many citizens felt that the Freemasons got away with killing a man. Freemasons and their defenders insisted that Morgan was not murdered. He was simply a drunken, troublemaking drifter who was run out of town. Some dismissively called the whole brouhaha-ha-ha-the-Morgan excitement. Dues of Morgan's kidnapping by Masons gave birth to the anti-Masonic party.

the very first third party in the United States. Anti-Masonic politicians went on to become members of Congress and governors and won presidential candidate who won Vermont's electoral votes before the party was essentially dissolved and absorbed into the Whig Party in the late 1830s. Crazy you could just be like run out of town back then. Yeah, it was like, you know, like I could say, it was probably like early, early form of like frontier justice where it's like all the head of the legal system was like kind of loose.

So, you know, just like if you were just a prominent member of the town, You can sort of institute your own particular version of justice. Shit, I'd love to just be run out of my apartment so I can get out there a little more and stop fucking bed rotting. Yeah, you know, like if you were somebody back then, if you were a group of people, in fact, that had long, pointy objects,

like, you could effectively, like, run somebody right out of town just by kind of walking towards them slowly. My visit to the former site of Dandall's Tavern was part of a 10-day trip around New York State, in order to gather research materials for a book that's been rattling around in my head for years. I'm not just interested in the Morgan Affair. I'm more interested in the bigger story of the origin of how American politics is practiced. The political operatives who strategize messaging behind the scenes and enforced party discipline,

the sensational media that keeps voters engaged year-round, the constant scandal and conspiracy-mongering. These concepts had to be invented by someone in some place, and that someplace is west of the Finger Lakes. The trip took me to libraries in some of the major urban centers like Rochester and Manhattan. I also made stops of some of the lesser-known towns like Stafford, Leroy, and Batavia. I think Batavia is a neat town, but it is not a tourist destination. One security guard and an establishment there after noticing my California driver's license asked if I was in town to see family. The subtext being that there would be no possible reason that someone would travel across the entire country to visit Patavia. He was visibly confused after I told him no.

He's like, poor, poor bastard Did you tell him you were there to investigate a murder? For your podcast? I like the idea that everyone's trying to run people into town now Nobody comes here anymore. Hey, hey, hey, you with the ponytail, got no sharp sticks here, come on in. The sticks are away, the sticks are, we've shaved them into pool cues.

Come on in, play around. The Morgan Affair was the first nationwide true crime media sensation in the United States. That interest has not carried over into the 21st century. In Batavia, I asked some locals at coffee shops and bars about the Morgan Affair, and they were either not aware of the story at all or vaguely aware of it. In fact, I remember I remember telling my wife asking, I was like, oh, I wonder if, like, anyone else is going to, like, be at that location on September 11th, because I was reading about it.

I was also reading about, like, how people used to be so obsessed with it. And of course, I was the only person with my wife there in that corner on that morning. I'm comfortable in being alone in my special interest, but I still think it was reasonable to assume that some other people would be this obsessed with the Morgan affair. Americans throughout the 19th century were absolutely fixated on it, even long after the anti-Masonic party died. In September of 1882, 56 years after Morgan was abducted, and the organization called the National Christian Association unveiled a monument to William Morgan in the book.

Batavia Cemetery. It is a 37-foot, nine-inch-tall granite spire topped with a larger-than-life statue of Morgan. And, yeah, it has a picture to hear. It's like, it is just massive. Do you want to note that, like, the statue doesn't actually represent what Morgan looked like. He never had, like, a portrait of him taking while he was alive. It's actually based on a painting that was produced shortly during the excitement after Morgan disappeared. It was designed to make him, like, kind of, like, scholarly and kind of, like, copy paintings of Benjamin Franklin. It's very strange having him 37 feet up in the air like that because you just can't see it. Yeah, he looks from this angle, he looks like he's standing on top of like a stone giant's penis.

It's actually a statue of what he wished he had back then to be out of reach. But he does, he very Ben Franklin-esque, I was going to say. I have some close-up photos and he's like holding a scroll and he's looked like he has his hand in his coat, like Napoleon. He's stepping forward very grand. And like the statue was like over seven feet tall. And I'm told one account says that the actual William Morgan was five, six. Yeah. Well, I mean, that was pretty tall for the time, right?

Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty standard. But they were like, yes, a pristine young man as opposed to like tobacco stained, like a drunk, like probably so drunk. Like just, you know, a little poop in the pants. Like, you know, people did not smell good back then. Wait, why poop in the pants, Jake? Well, just because wiping, you know, wiping, like, techniques had it evolved. That's what I'm always thinking about, too, yeah.

I'm just saying he probably had more. I'm trying the average 18-100s guy probably had more dump stains than your, you know, normal, you know, your person living today. Dump stains. You are horrifying. I would love to put you in a closet. This is an idealized version, that's what I'm saying. An idealized version.

For the statue, they're going to go with the idealized version. Jake sees every statue. He just goes to the back of it. He's like, not enough poop stains. Not realistic. He's peeking up the butt of the statue of David. I don't see anything. Not realistic.

We've killed Jake. He's losing it. Yeah, he's falling off screen. Yeah. He's fully shaking and laughing. Oh, my God. We've cornered him, folks. All it takes is a little bit of examination of why he thinks the way he thinks.

We know. We know it's a beautiful thing. The Morgan Monuments Construction was made possible because of the donations of thousands of people in the United States and Canada, who raised about $2,500 or roughly $85,000 today, and arguably more depending on how you calculate it. And when I visited the Morgan Monument, I was flabbergasted by how much it towers over every bit of stone in the cemetery. And he isn't even buried there. We don't know where Morgan's fate is, but it's just this massive, this towers over everything. A more modest headstone there reads, Addy, created free by God, enslaved by humans, 1807 to 1857.

The convention in which the Morgan monument was unveiled was attended by about a thousand people. The hotel rooms in Batavia were so overbooked that some had to sleep in the local opera house. The base of the monument reads this. Sacred to the memory of William Morgan, a native of Virginia, a captain in the war of 1812, a respectable citizen of Batavia, and a martyr to the freedom of writing, printing, and speaking the truth. He was abducted from near this spot in the year 1826 by Freemasons and murdered for revealing the secrets of their order. Again, this was 56 years after Morgan disappeared. Most of the people involved in the incident were dead.

And the handful of witnesses who were still alive at the time spoke to a massive crowd who were still outraged about what had happened to him. Oh, my God. We can't even remember what happened like three weeks ago. This must be the only exciting thing that happened in their entire lifetimes. Now, students of history may scoff that this particular kidnapping caused such a huge reaction. After all, 1826 was before the Civil War. Slavery was an entrenched institution in the southern states, and even in the supposedly free northern states like New York, black people were frequently kidnapped so that they could be sold in slavery.

This practice was most famously portrayed in Solomon Northrop's memoir, 12 years of slave. Oh, but one white dude gets kidnapped and it's a national scandal. Of course. They're like, build a statue. you as high as we can make it. He suffered the misdemeanor of kidnapping. Some people at the time made a similar observation. One anonymous letter to the editor published in a newspaper after Morgan's kidnapping said this.

Julian, could you take this one? Oh, okay. Because it reminds me of you a little bit. The kidnapping is not an extraordinary case, for there is, especially in the southern states, a band of desperadoes who live and sometimes die and very justly too, by kidnapping defenseless, Negroes and selling them into bondage. So you had to include that aside about like how awesome it happened when a slave catchers died in the practice of what they are doing.

Correct. And it reminded me, correct. Yes, absolutely correct. But it reminded me there are Julians in every generation for those who are nice to see. Yeah, that's right. But the letter writer argued that William Morgan's kidnapping was still outrageous because they believe it suggested that the masons consider their own oaths more important than that democratically drafted laws.

and further, every citizen is at risk of being killed for violating the law of the masons. There is, among us, a mysterious order of individuals who are bound by laws of their own making, which laws they consider paramount to the laws of the land, to the Constitution which we have been so long taught to consider as the bulwarks of freedom. We have not only to be careful how we violate the known laws of our country, but to take care that we do not by any means disregard or disobey certain unknown and mysterious laws to which we may subject ourselves, and which goes so far beyond and civilized criminal code we have ever heard of,

as to punish with death in its most terrific forms a mere breach of confidence. A simple disclosure of a toothless secret. Sounds less like Julian. Yeah, it's a little less, yeah. The scandal was sparked by many issues that remain red-hot today, like free speech and the ways in which the law can be used to enforce the interests of a certain class of people rather than enforce justice. Despite that, there are a couple reasons why I suspect interest.

has waned over the generations. First of all, serious historians who are more interested in broader historical effects usually don't care to get into the nitty-gritty of the Morgan affair. This is why I've discovered that the most deeply researched accounts of the Morgan Fair through the past two centuries have been written by masons. 21st century Masonic scholars have warmed to the idea that Morgan was murdered, but even in earlier accounts that were clearly done by Masonic apologists in order to try and absolve the order. They actually do in the original interviews and they dig into the case and they reason and, you know, they unpack a lot of the facts, even if they try to steer the logic towards the conclusion that he wasn't murdered.

The first monograph on the anti-Masonic party published in 1901 contains this line about Morgan's kidnapping. To the student of political anti-Masonry who strives to relate the political effects of the incident and not to delve into the question itself, the Morgan episode is merely incidental. In the most famous essay on conspiracyism, that's the paranoid style in American politics from 1964, the Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter, after summarizing the Morgan Affair, handwaves in the way with this line. The details of the case need not detain us.

So this is, again, generations of historians were like, all, all right, this particular instance is just not that really that important. I think it's fascinating. This is, again, what historians were told? You're the only one? They're like, hmm, what do we know? What do we know? like a group of masons kidnapped him, took him away, never to be seen again, the details of the who can know, who can know?

Modern people aren't interested in the Morgan affair because it's just confusing. It's confusing because, as we'll soon see, the cast of characters involved is massive. It's confusing because the culture of the Jacksonian era is so alien to our own. On top of that, the story was the subject of massive propaganda campaigns. The stakes of what happened to Morgan and what should be done, about it were huge because Andrew Jackson was a Freemason, the rise of anti-Masonic sentiment was a serious threat to the power of the ascendant Democratic Party. It took some brilliant political maneuvers from Martin Van Buren to prevent the scandal from destroying the organization

he had spent years building. Massive efforts were made to slander Morgan and make anti-Mason seem like a bunch of loons and on the flip side to demonize Freemasonry and hold up William Morgan as a martyred saint. This muddled the historical record to the point that even basic facts about Morgan's life, like his birth year, is a matter of which source you choose to trust. And this propaganda often infects modern accounts. John W. Bizak, a Masonic scholar who has done a lot of excellent research on the Morgan affair, wrote this just last year. The multitude of conflicting statements about the life of William Morgan, his abduction by the Mason's in 1826 and subsequent disappearance, blurs the boundaries between fact and myth. The first 100 years of writing about the

1826 Morgan affair can aptly be characterized as a jigsaw puzzle, with many of the major parts missing. Grappling with these conflicting accounts while trying to piece together an objective version of events has been successfully achieved by very few writers in the 20th and 21st centuries so far. So for today's episode, I'm going to try to take my place among those very few writers. Think of my understanding of what happened in the counties of Genesee, Ontario, and Niagara in 1826. Let's go. Before I really get into it, I need to unpack the typical propaganda that finds its way into the narratives around Morgan. For example,

Masonic apologists point out that he loved to drink a lot and was often found at the tavern, which is true, and Mason's at the time were able to get Morgan in legal trouble because he skipped out on a bar tab. But it's misleading because Morgan's drinking was not a distinguishing feature for someone in this period of American history. Just about everyone drank heavily. Americans during the Jacksonian period drank more than Americans ever have or ever will. The most popular drinks were whiskey and rum, but what they drank was that. It was not like makers, Mark, and sailors jerrys. It was not like, there's not like a modern equivalent.

So modern liquor is normally 80 proof or about 40% alcohol. What they drank in the 1820s and 30s was usually 100 proof or sometimes even 120 proof if they got their hands on some like powerful Jamaican rum. Liquor that was consumed in that period, that was as strong as modern liquor, was then called underproof or weak whiskey. Dear God. Everyone must have reeked. Yeah.

This is what I'm trying to say. No. No, no, no, no, no. Yes, I just had a drink and I didn't shit my pets. This is Wicks stuff. You really think that they're putting extra care, extra care into that wipe. I don't. When they're three times as drunk as we've ever been.

What is wrong with you? I'm obsessed with poop particles. That's the problem. I think it's more likely with the diet back then. They probably weren't going to the bathroom like once a week max. Yeah, that's it. They're so constipated. And when they did, it was probably just like a hard as a rock.

Yeah, you had to spend like three hours on the toilet and then it was clean. No wipe. Like giving birth to like a dinosaur egg or something. Yeah. The average American in the year 1830, age 15 or older, consumed 7.1 gallons of pure alcohol within all the booze that they drink. That's what I'm saying. To give you an idea of how much that is. If someone in 1830 drank exclusively 100-proof whiskey and assuming that their bottles were the size of today's standard size of 750 milliliters, they would need to drink 70 bottles of whiskey over the course of the year to be drinking a little less than average.

And if someone limited themselves to just a bottle a week, then they were a model of moderation. Wow. There was no real tea drinking culture. There was no real coffee drinking culture. And on top of that, the farmers discovered that often that it was a lot more profitable to just distill their grains rather than sell it on the open market. And that drove down the cost of it. So people drank in the morning, they drink at work, and they drink at night. And life expectancy was 40 to 45.

Yeah. You were like an old, you were an old man at our age. On my death bed, yeah. Busy finishing out your life by drinking yourself to death. I'm sure there was like one guy. in the village who made a decent cup of Joe, you know. Ezekiel. Everybody knew you could go to him

after a night out at the pub that he had this other stuff that made you feel better after a night of drinking. It was dark, a dark brew. Ezekiel's brew. You've got to go up there and into the woods. But the coffee plantations were very far, and I'm sure that transportation

and cultivation were not better. There's no way that coffee wasn't also disgusting. Wrong. It also, it works like a video game. Collect the seeds somewhere, but I'm in the ground. Now, just to drive this point home, one of my favorite descriptions of American drinking comes from a British Royal Navy officer named Frederick Marriott.

The Royal Navy was a hard drinking culture. In fact, they even gave out a daily rum ration to all their sailors, but even Marriott was astounded by how much Americans love to drink. I always did consider that the English and the Swiss were the two nations who most indulged in potations, But on my arrival in the United States, I found that our descendants in this point, most assuredly, surpassed us all together.

I am sure the Americans can fix nothing without a drink. If you meet, you drink, if you part, you drink, if you make acquaintance, you drink, if you close a bargain, you drink, they quarrel in their drink, and they make it up with a drink. They drink because it's hot, they drink because it is cold.

If successful in elections, they drink and rejoice. If not, they drink and swear. They begin to drink early in the morning. they leave off late at night. They commence it early in life and they continue it until they soon drop into the grave. Wow. For a British person to be like

you guys drink too much is absolutely wild. Not just that. A British sailor. This guy's around sailors all the time. He's like, whoa, you guys are just too much. That's all you fucking do. It's good to know that we were always the laughing stock.

So William Morgan could have been drinking every single day and even be drunk every day and still be less indulgent than the average American of the time. Oh, man, it sounds kind of tight. It sounds kind of tight. I'm not going to lie. Drinking all the time. Well, because you're just like, then it's like, where am I going? It's like dirt road to the general store, dirt road to the bar. Spoken as someone who's never experienced alcoholism, I think. Yeah, very true. It's, I wake up by shake and I take my first drink. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, it was bad. It was bad. We've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've,

We have a horrible foundation that this country was built on. In so many ways. Shaky, very shaky. Rotten, just pus and blood and come and fucking 80, 120 proof. Oh, my Lord. What a slurry. Termites just eaten through the fucking rafters. Yeah, Cormac McCarthy is entirely correct in his assessment.

Support beams are gone. Everything is just a mud that can be hardly distinguished from blood. Anti-Masonic propaganda also infects modern accounts. You often see Morgan characterized as a one-time Freemason who retaliated against the order for spurning him and because he wanted to reveal Freemasonry's dark secrets. Even scholarly accounts do this. In 2024, Oxford University Press published a generally great biography of Martin Van Buren, but I was thrown off by two sentences about William Morgan.

The author said that Morgan was an active Freemason and sought membership in the Batavia order, and that after Morgan was denied because of snobbery of the masons, Morgan threatened to publish a book, quote, revealing the first three degrees of the Mason's secret rituals. He was going to reveal that it was all drinking. It's technically true that William Morgan was active in the Masonic Lodges, but what's left out of this description is the fact that he bluffed his way into the Masonic Lodges. Normally, a budding Freemason is initiated through three ritual stages of ceremony and instruction called degrees.

The so-called Blue Lodge degrees are the Interd Apprentice Fellows. Craft and Master Mason. There's no evidence Morgan went through this process. The only degree that Morgan received was an advanced degree called the Royal Arch. Do you know if that one's before or after the Scottish right, the 33? Oh, so this is distinct. So this is part of a not the Scottish right. It's part of the York rights.

It's a different, different right. Okay. Of course. I got the Royal Arch from McDonald's a couple weeks ago. It was not very good. Great Facebook humor. Jake. I can see the rolling

like rolling laughing emojis. I didn't realize. I didn't know how bad these jokes are getting. Now the description in the Van Buren book also glosses over the fact that Morgan's primary motivation for writing the book wasn't to like, you know, cast light on dark secrets or to strike back

on the masons who snubbed him. It was clearly money. He was broke and middle age and he had a family to care for and he hoped that publishing the book would earn him a fortune. Now, that doesn't justify kidnapping, but the idea that Morgan had some sort of, like, more noble calling is obviously anti-Masonic spin. Man, it's so perfect. I would have just written, like, a whole book, and then at the end, just like, kidnap a guy,

and then publish the book, and it's about the kidnapping of the guy. It's perfect. Make your own topic. And on top of that, just as a factual matter, Morgan didn't threaten to reveal the first three degrees. By this point in history, there were already published books explaining the rights of the degrees of what they call craft masonry. The masons were peeved at Morgan because, one, again, he claimed to be a free mason, despite not going through the normal route.

Number two, he threatened to publish the fourth through seventh degrees of York-Right masonry, which are known as the capitular degrees, in addition to the first three degrees. No, the very fact that this whole incident is called the Morgan Affair, and all the focus has placed on what happened to Morgan is itself the product of propaganda in the media of the day. Morgan's partner, David C. Miller, was just as necessary to the publishing of the book, arguably more necessary, It was also kidnapped by Masons the day after Morgan was. Yeah, but that's a misdemeanor. Yeah, he returned. That's the big problem. Yeah, like David C. Miller, he bad to escape.

And that wound up not making him very useful to either the people attacking or defending Freemasonry. The 2012 dissertation, Jacksonian Volcano Anteasecritism and Secretism in 19th century American culture makes this observation. Miller has traditionally been largely omitted from the histories of Morgan's murder, as his story is inconvenient for both sides. As a living witness to Masonic directed mob violence against anti-Masons in the city, Miller's story did not serve the needs of Masonic historians. As a failed businessman who saw no more personal success after

Morgan's death than before, he was a much less useful hero and martyr than the dead Morgan for anti-Masonic writers and political leaders elsewhere. So the worst thing that Miller did for his notoriety and reputation was failed to disappear as Morgan did. I'm going to try and like restore Miller's place in anti-Masonic history through telling little known facts about his run-in with the masons of New York. Excellent. Another thing that makes it difficult for modern audiences to understand Morgan is that Freemasonry had a much different place in culture during the early Republic. Nowadays, assuming you're not a conspiracist, you might think of Freemasons as a afterwork club for dudes who talk about self-development, do local charity work and happen to perform esoteric initiation ceremonies while wearing regalia. It's not for me, but who am I to discourage men from joining a fraternal organization in the midst of this male loneliness epidemic.

So true. It'd be on Discord now, though. But yeah, but Freemasonry was a much bigger deal from the 1790s to the 1820s, even offering material benefits. It provided networking opportunities. You could be a humble laborer, but if he joined a Masonic lodge, you were rubbing elbows with lawyers and merchants every week. It was a mutual aid network. If you fell on hard times, you could count on your brothers to give you a hand while he got back on your feet. and allow the early male citizens of the United States

to join an organization with structure, ritual, and a sense of deep history without all the baggage of aristocracy and royalty. There's this great book called Revolutionary Brotherhood Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, which goes in more detail about how masonry helps shape American culture.

Yeah, I popped in the discord after the last episode on the Athenora Fair, and a lot of people were talking about their family members who had joined lodges and were active in the lodges, and it was almost always they joined. because of like doing charity, you know, or the social club aspect. Like, and they really like downplayed the any kind of like secret society aspect of it. And that the Athenorefair in modern times is like, is such an aberration.

Oh, sure. And then someone commented, that's exactly what a Mason would say. Exactly. With all that background in mind, who exactly was this William Morgan? The Life of William Morgan. William Morgan was born sometime between 1774 and 1776 and raised in Culpeper County, Virginia. As a young man, he left his home to apprentice for his cousin as a stone mason in Madison County. He was what we call an operative mason, as in someone who actually does masonry work, as opposed to what they call the speculative masonry, a free masonry.

In 1795, when he was about 19 or 20, he worked for a few years in Lexington, Kentucky before returning to Virginia. There are some questions about whether or not Morgan served in the army. I think it's reasonable to think that after the war of 1812 broke out, he served and never rose above the rank of private, though. Later in life, Morgan exaggerated the extent of his service, telling his fellow tavern patrons that he achieved the rank of captain and even served under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. No evidence for this, though?

No, no, no. There would be much better documentation if he became an officer and, like, served in the Battle of New Orleans. So this is him just being a bit of a braggart. You know, just tavern tales, you know. On October 7th, 1819, when William Morgan was in his mid-40s, he married his wife Lucinda Pendleton, the eldest daughter of a Baptist minister. This is what might euphemistically be called a problematic age gap relationship.

Euphemistically. Yeah. Lucinda was just 16 years old at the time. But one reliable Masonic source is that Lucinda's parents didn't approve of her marriage, and in fact, it caused an estrangement that lasted their entire lives, which suggests that Lucinda wasn't forced into the marriage, or the very least,

that the prospect of marrying Morgan sounded more appealing than continuing to live at home for some reason. Not saying much. No. This is crazy, though, because if Morgan was, like, in his mid-40s, he was basically, like, one foot in the grave, in this point. Yeah. One last wife before I

go. But he was a moderate drinker. He was only drinking 70 bottles of whiskey. Well, well, folks, I've begun the back. He's like, I'm playing the last whole. Time to get myself a teenage bride. As one did back then. Have you not smelled your future husband's poopie?

He smells awful. Lucinda, how could you? He came over here the other day, reeking of poop particles. All right. All right. That's enough. It's been took in too far. Took in too far.

I'm sorry, you guys. My AC has been out all weekend, and we're having like a heat wave in the search list. I'm absolutely serious. I'm just talking about myself. I keep going into the bathroom to try to clean myself, but there's always more. It's just...

You're not even sweating, though, Jake. Well, because I don't sweat. Oh, more Jake. I'm like one of those horrible people where the sweat just stays inside. I have no way to get cool. He's a dog. He's a dog. He has to stick out his tongue.

Morgan lived in Canada around 1820 and 1821, bouncing around from Toronto to York before settling into a job on a large farm. After this, he worked at a brewery. Several sources claimed that he owned a brewery that burned down, but there exists no record of such ownership or of any brewery burning down during this time. He returned to the United States in 1822, and the following year he moved to Rochester to continue his work as a stonemason. There, William and Lucinda Morgan had their first child, a daughter named Harriet who tragically died two years later.

Also in 1822, Morgan worked for a man named Mr. Warren, who happened to be a freemason. Morgan claimed to warn that he was a freemason. claim to warn that he was a Freemason too, but he was initiated in Canada where the ceremony was different. You wouldn't know it. It's a classic Canadian girlfriend story. Yes, it truly is. This is a 200-year-old trick.

Morgan's employer vouched for him at the local lodge, and that was good enough for him to start becoming a regular visitor at many lodges in the area. Now, back then, membership at a lodge was about 50 cents per year, plus an additional 25 cents per meeting to cover food and drink expenses, but these expenses could be informally waived for a visiting Mason, which would essentially allow Morgan to eat and drink for free. Soon after he ingratiated himself with Rochester Masons, he convinced a Mason named Dr. Blanchard Powers to educate him on the Masonic rights. From this, he was able to travel around to several lodges in the reason where he got along well with Masons because he helped out, he was a good singer, and he

was initially very charming. This is from a description by Rob Morris, who wrote books defending Freemasonry and attacking William Morgan. Morgan became a regular visitor and soon picked up a superficial acquaintance with the ceremonies of the order. Traveling from place to place in his vocations as journeyman Bricklayer, he timed his stay at each place to cover the regular and called meetings of the lodges. The lodges soon found use for a brother whose voice was loud and sonorous, who displayed an easy manner as one who had mixed much with mankind, who could sit up all night if need to be,

finished the work in hand and who at the festive board could sing his song with the best offer his toast and alas drink his glass with the merriest so it's like most canadian people he's like fun to hang out with he's like easy to get along with and he could sing yeah like a lot of con artists you're fun at first fun yeah yeah enjoyable life of the party yeah he even got so knowledgeable about freemasonry he helped instruct some up-and-coming masons which allowed him to like earn some money as like a tutor. This is part of what like pissed off the mason. So it was not just a bullshit.

He like claimed to be like really deep knowledge and like helping other masons. I felt like who's corrupting. He was what they called at the time a bright mason, which is like just a name they gave to a guy who seemed to really know all the kind of like Masonic lore.

In 1824, the Morgans had a daughter named after her mother, little Lucinda Wesley Morgan. The one Masonic degree that Morgan did acquire, he received in Leroy, New York on May 31st, 1820, for which Morgan paid $12. This is the Royal Arch degree.

He was able to get this degree, despite the fact that he didn't have any of the prerequisite degrees because he was vouched for by a prominent Freemason in the area named James Ganssen. James Ganssen was a former state legislator, former sheriff of Genesee County, and a tavern owner. He would also go on to become one of the key conspirators in William Morgan's kidnapping. In fact, several Freemasons eventually gathered at Ganson's tavern in order to discuss and strategize about what to do about William Morgan. The Gathering Storm Against William Morgan. The final rupture between the Masons and William Morgan happened in early 1826.

The Royal Archmasons of Batavia thought that they were numerous enough to apply to the grand chapter of New York to establish their own chapter in that village. The petition for this proposed Batavia Royal Arch Chapter was distributed and found its way to Morgan, who added his signature to the list of names. But there were some Royal Archmasons who were getting sick of Morgan and they didn't want his name on that. the petition. Because if his name was there, he would automatically be made a regular member of the chapter after it formed. So they destroyed his petition and circulated a new one, which they submitted without his

signature. From this, Royal Archmason's of Batavia received a charter, and Morgan was reportedly mortified to discover that his name was not included as a founding member. So they were just excluded. You know, the sting of being an outside, they're like all week.

I can't, I don't want to go to this fucking lodge. If fucking William Morgan is going to be there. Now, it's presumed that this insult motivated Morgan to write his book exposing Freemasonry. Now, that might have been a part of it, but I have to imagine a bigger motivation was related to the fact that his wife Lucinda was again pregnant and due in July of that year. He was about 50, getting too old for strenuous stone mason work, the money he got for masons was drying up and he needed to find a way to provide for his wife, his toddler daughter,

in a soon-to-be infant son. And so he figured reasonably that his best shot at doing right for his growing family was by cashing in on his Masonic knowledge by writing a book. Were people like making a ton of money from books back then, no? No, no. This is, yeah, I mean, it's like, you know, book writing has always been a rough business. But like, even then where the literacy rate was growing, but it wasn't great. Right, yeah.

This is the kind of guy, though, that would be like after his, like, buddies, like, kicked him out, He'd be like, you know what, I'm going to fucking make a movie about this. I'm going to be rich and famous. Like, that is kind of, it seems like, sort of in line with his, his vibes. Mm-hmm. After Morgan decided to write the book, he received help and investment from his friend Russell Dyer. But they had to find a publisher. At first, Dyer went to the newspaper, the Rochester Telegraph, but got rejected because

his co-owner was a Mason. But they found a willing publisher shortly afterwards. Three days after being rejected, Dyer and Morgan and a third partner in the Enterprise named John David entered into agreement with David C. Miller, the publisher of the newspaper, the Batavia Republican Advocate. David C. Miller was a good fit to publish the book because he had his own beef with the Freemasons. Years earlier, while Miller lived in Saratoga, Miller had planned to republish the old Masonic expose Jackin and Boaz. The local masons heard about it and decided to invite Miller to join the order instead publishing the book, and it became an entered

apprentice. Miller never published a book, but he also never climbed higher than that entry-level degree. Miller was also having money problems, partly because he was still financially recovering from a fire that burned his printing press in records in 1821, and because in 1825, a rival paper called the People's Press, which happened to be run by his former business partner and backed by Mason's, was stealing some of his advertising revenue. On March 13th, Morgan made his three partners sign an oath of secrecy. Of course, news about the plans for the book immediately started circulating. This was at least partly Morgan's own fault. When he drank in taverns, he loved boasting about how he could give more information

about Freemasonry for $1 than they could give for $15. Soon, Freemasons from all over Genesee County had heard about the book. An ex-Mason named Samuel Green later wrote that he attended a meeting of Mason's in July of 1826 in which the attendees passionately discuss what to do about Morgan. He wrote that some of them suggested that Morgan should literally suffer the symbolic penalties that are part of the Masonic oaths. In Masonic initiation, Richard, the candidate says that they will suffer some kind of like bodily harm if they violate the oaths. But these aren't actual enforced punishments. They're more in the vein of saying like, and if I'm lying, may I be struck down with a bolt of lightning where I stand?

No one thinks you're actually telling other people to electrocute you if you're lying. In the case of the Royal Archbason degree, the symbolic penalty for violating the oath is, Have my skull smote off and my brains exposed to the scorching rays of the meridian sun? Yeah, that's even more visceral than the opening quote from the last step. Yeah, yeah. I think they get more creative and gory, the higher you get up. It's clearly hyperbolic, but according to Green, some Freemasons suggest that this penalty should literally be enforced.

At this meeting, there was a great amount of violent talk in a roundabout and half-enigmatical way. Morgan was declared to be a wicked and perjured wretch, who ought to receive upon himself the penalties of the oaths which he had taken and broken. and it was said that all honest masons would see that they were executed. Although no one in particular said he would do it himself, yet one rich man did say that he would find whips and cords as long as others would use them.

Of course. What's new, rich people? Yet the rich guy's like, I'll supply the weapons. You do the crime. You do the crime. The first plan to deal with the Morgan problem was to take advantage of his debts. Back then, unpaid debts for as little as six cents,

could land you in jail. In early July, he was sued in New York Supreme Court because he owed a man named Thomas McCulley $43. But Morgan avoided jail because two masons who were friends of his paid the bail. Now, perhaps these masons didn't know the publishing of the book or they didn't care, but this would be the last bit of help he would receive from any Freemason. On July 25th, Morgan was arrested by a sheriff because he owed money to a man named Nathan Follett. David C. Miller got Morgan released by offering what little money he had as a guarantee that Morgan would, not leave Batavia until Fallet was paid. On August

5th, Morgan wanted some guarantee that he would actually be paid for his work on the book. So he and his partners drew up a bond for $500,000, which Morgan was to receive for the manuscript. This was clearly deluding. Like ludicrous. Like half a million dollars in 1826 translates to roughly

$15 million in consumer buying power today. No one in the early 19th century made that kind of money from writing a book. He was he was thinking big, eyes towards the future. But it also just does illustrate that Morgan, like, seem to genuinely believe he would make a fortune from the book. A few days later, a newspaper in Canada Dwega published a notice

warning all local citizens, especially Mason's, about Morgan. It ended with these lines. Morgan is considered a swindler and a dangerous man. There are people in the village who would be happy to see this Captain Morgan. I just realized this drunk was called Captain Morgan, if you believed his own fake stories about service. Yeah. Yeah. Christ.

This Jim B must repay me. Oh, it sounds like this was mostly the fault of a one William Morgan and the kind of guy that he was. Yeah. A real pain in the ass and a liability is what he shows like. Yeah, yeah. He swindled his way into the Masonic Lodge, took advantage of their free food and, you know, like, you know, pretend to be their friends. And then when they were like, oh, this guy's so fucking annoying. He's always singing and he's like, oh, he's pretenses.

He's so popular. When they kicked him out, he's like, I'm going to write a book and expose all of them. I mean, it's a very 2026 kind of story. This is America. Around this time, David C. Miller started to believe that the threats against him, Morgan, and the publishing of the book were getting serious. So he decided to get armed. The total arsenal Miller assembled in his office included several pistols, 15 to 20 muskets,

and two swivel guns. Wait, what is this swivel gun? Oh, you're about to, you're about to explain that. I'm glad you asked. Because, yes, I was shocked by this too. I dug into this. So swivel guns were these small rotating cannons that weighed one to 200 pounds.

This man thought he was going to like wage a land war in his office. Yeah. It's like, I don't know if you've ever played was Assassin's Creed Black Flag. You may be somewhat familiar with a swivel gun. You shoot one in that one. So they were typically mounted on ships and used as short-range weapons that could like, for example, blow the leg off of a raiding pirate or provide covering fire for landing parties. Now, Swivel's anti-personnel ammunition were a grape shot or canister, which fired a cluster of small iron balls that spread after leaving the muzzle like a shotgun blast.

Yeah, like these weapons, they're not normally used to protect the doorway of like a newspaper shop. That's so awesome. just pointing two of those at the entrance from two angles. Yeah, he was like ready to shred anybody who came in. It was likely he would just destroy his own officer. They're boarding the print shop. They're boarding the print shop. Everybody to your stations.

Yeah, he would have likely blown out the entire front of his shop, you know, to defend it, which is admirable. All of this damage was done from the inside. But as Miller himself soon discovered, this was a reasonable amount of firepower, given the size and aggressiveness of the masons. Wow. The plot to eliminate Morgan and Miller.

On August 11th, a chapter of the Royal Archmasons in the town of Lockport, New York, appointed what they called a vigilance committee. The duties of this committee included, To act in cases of emergency, to guard the institution from imposition and to amend as far as possible any infraction of the laws of our institution.

The committee consisted of three men, two of which Jared Darrow and Eli Bruce were later indicted for the role in the conspiracy against William Morgan and David C. Miller, so we don't have any details of what exactly went down in Lockport, but it's pretty clear that this committee was primarily responsible for taking care of the William Morgan problem. We can also presume the rough nature of their plans based on what happened next. The plot was to seize all the manuscripts that Morgan and Miller were working on, destroy Miller's print shop, capture both Miller and Morgan and use horse-drawn stagecoaches to transport them towards the northeast. Morgan was to be taken to the abandoned military base old Fort Niagara, where the New York

Masons were to transfer him over to some Canadian Masons, who would then transport him to a small farm outside the modern Canadian city of Hamilton. There, Morgan would be given $500, told to never return, and then arrangements would be made to transport Morgan's wife and children to him so that they could join him in exile. What exactly they plan to do with Miller is less clear because Miller manager, escape after being abducted, but causing the whole plan to fall apart. Wow, this is crazy. This was seemingly their plot. They just wanted to run these two troublemakers out of town and destroy any evidence that they were working on the book. It was a very dumb plan. And instead of

they wanted to protect Freemasonry and like save themselves embarrassment, instead it led to like criminal charges. And then it wound up essentially destroying Freemasonry for about the generations. After the Morgan affair and the rise to anti-masonry, the number of lodges in the United States sort of like plummeted. The New York Mason sounds like a really down and out kind of like ball team. You know, like a farm league or, you know, just a team that really can't get it together. On August 14th, David C. Miller traveled to Utica in order to file for a copyright of the book. Miller got the sense that he was being followed, so he took measures to evade his pursuers.

He was traveling via boat on the Erie Canal, but instead of disembarking on the boat's destination, at Rochester, he got off on another stop, eight miles east and arranged for other means of travel. Classic. Smart man. Yeah, yeah, he shook a tail. Speaking of shaking a tail. Yeah.

Take him away. Miller later wrote that a mysterious man tried to find him in this baggage on the boat shortly afterwards. The boat had passed but a few miles after I had left it. When the captain was hailed from the banks of the canal by a well-dressed individual who inquired, has not Mr. Miller been on board that boat?

And on being answered in the affirmative, demanded my baggage, by authority, as he alleged, of a written order from me. But being unable to designate what my baggage was, he was forled in the attempt to become possessed of certain property that was then supposed to be in my charge. Yeah, so like some Mason somehow knew that he was traveling on this boat and, like, spoke to, I guess, the captain or someone on board

and said, like, hey, like David C. Miller told me that I was, supposed to take care of his back. Could you give them to me? And he's like, no, what, what, whatever Miller's baggage just look like? He said, I don't know. This is where this plan fell apart. Oh, man, he must have been, uh, foiled at the last second. Sure, could you describe the luggage to me, please? He's like, ah, brown. So having, uh, been foiled on the taking of Miller's documents while he was traveling, the Freemasons escalated their tactics by calling on help from a fixer. That brings me to what I think is the most interesting conspirator in the plot and which some sources refer to as a Masonic spy, a man named Daniel Johns. Daniel Johns traveled from his

home country of Canada and arrived in Batavia on August 15th. When he checked into a hotel, he told the clerk that he was a fur trader in his home country. That was not exactly true, but what was true was that Daniel Johns was a member of a high-ranking free Masonic organization called the Knights Templar, which is named after the medieval order. In fact, Johns was paid by the encampment of the Knights Templar in Rochester to come to America and stop the publication of the book. The involvement of Daniel Johns and actually a couple other masons is what makes this a true international Masonic conspiracy. Daniel John's strategy for infiltrating the printing operation of David C. Miller was simple. He would pose as someone who had heard about the book Miller was publishing and offer his money and labor to invest in the venture.

Daniel Johns went to Miller's print office and offered him $40 cash on the spot and claimed that he could bring thousands of dollars more where that came from. Miller bought it and Daniel Johns went to work helping with printing other books and supposedly protecting the print office. Miller later wrote this. His story being plain, plausible and connected, he was unhesitatingly permitted to become a participator. He hated all he could, apparently, in the printing and folding of Masonic books and became an active guard against Cowans and eavesdrovers. as well as more prominent enemies. Yeah, I thought this was a funny detail because he's already paranoid.

He's like building up an arsenal in his office. He knows he's like being followed while he's traveling. But as soon as a guy comes up, I have money and want to invest in your venture. He's like, yeah, come on in, come on in. He was that hard up. Yeah, or Daniel Johns was just that good of a spy. Yeah, maybe he was charming.

As most Canadians are. Rung! Meanwhile, the Masons continue to use the legal systems who harassed William Morgan for his debts. During this time, Morgan was writing his manuscript in the upstairs room of the home of one of his investors, John Davids. So there's John Davids and Daniel Johns? Yeah, yeah, all first name. There's a lot of people. On August 19th, one Constable Daniel H. Dana traveled to where Morgan was working to arrest him, yet again for an unpaid debt. Constable Dana was accompanied by three Freemasons named Johnson Goodwill, Kelsey

Stone, and John Wilson. Constable Dana knocked on the door and asked the person who answered if the house's owner was in. When the answer came back, no, he knew that Morgan was alone. They rushed up into Morgan's temporary office and the constable placed Morgan into custody. The three masons then gathered the papers he was working on as Morgan was marched off to jail. This was Saturday afternoon, which meant that if he couldn't be bailed out that day, then he would spend the Sabbath in jail because sheriffs don't work on the Sabbath, and the earliest Morgan could be free was the following Monday.

With Morgan safely locked away for the weekend, the Masons took an opportunity to look for more documents that might contain Masonic secrets. On the evening of the same Saturday that Morgan was arrested, Constable Dana, accompanied by Morgan's debt holder Thomas McCauley and the Masonic muscle Johnson Goodwill, arrived at the house that Morgan was renting with his wife. The posse asked Lucinda Morgan if they were in possession of anything that could satisfy the debt. She said they didn't have anything. In truth, the Mason's claim to be looking for valuables was just a pretext.

In fact, Morgan's incarceration satisfied the debt in the eyes of the law, making this a very much illegal search. Really, the crew was searching the property for even more documents from the manuscript that Morgan was working on. Is there any documentation that the constable was also a Mason? Yeah, yeah, this one, most of the constables, this is the big thing that also outrage people, is that the Masonic plot corrupted essentially police officers who were involved in it. The journalist William Leit Stone, who was himself a Freemason, but became a critic of Freemasonry after the Morgan affair, wrote about what happened next. Goodwill, pretending not to be satisfied, commenced to General's search, tumbling over trunks and boxes, and examining whatever papers and letters came their way. Finding one small trunk containing a few papers, they seized upon and carried it off, assuring Mrs. Morgan that should they find any papers therein of consequence to her husband, they would be returned.

Yeah, so this was obviously a lie. Again, they were just using the cover of law to seize everything they could and execute their plot. It was like those days' equivalent of like taking the hard drive, you know? If you were in a room and you saw a sealed trunk, I mean, you know, that's where the good stuff probably was. That's where he's keeping the manuscript. Based on Assassin's Creed. Yeah, based on, you know, media I've consumed about that era. Ah, the icon of the treasure chest has gone gray.

We've found what we need. William Morgan was bailed out of jail the following Monday by some unnamed friends. After Mason's used the force of the law to get documents from Morgan, Daniel Jaws continued to deploy espionage on David C. Miller. Miller wrote about how Daniel Johns lived with him for weeks before the Knight Templar made off with part of his manuscript. He slept in the printing room with me, with pistols at the head of his bed, and often expressed his astonishment that I did not sleep. I now can see the villain with his snaky head raised from the pillow inquiring what position I lay in.

He uniformly found me perusing a book or a newspaper. I used to apologize for disturbing his slumbers by a burning candle, assuring him that there was no danger to be apprehended from it. I had become wakeful and watchful, but not from suspicion of him. Thus, time passed smoothly on for about 12 or 14 days, enlivened now and then by some remarks at the expense of our enemies. During all this time, however, Johns was extremely anxious of perusing the manuscript. script in the upper degrees of masonry. He was accordingly presented with the Mark Masters,

or fourth, degree. This was on the evening of the 8th of September. The next day at noon, he was missing. He was seen last to go into the post office of this village, and although immediately sought for and inquired after, was nowhere to be found. So they were both just like sort of sleeping next to each other in the office? Yeah. This is incredible. Life used to be so awesome back then. Are you kidding? They were doing the lighthouse with each other. neither of them sleeping. Yeah. They got these two fucking, like, swivel pistols.

Oh, my God. Incredible. So, yeah, he just lived with him for weeks. And then it's like, I can't believe he even didn't get suspicious. We're like, hey, hey, can I see that document? You're the fourth degree, huh? You think maybe I could, like, take a look? It's like, at that point he didn't get suspicious.

But, yeah, eventually he just disappeared with, with that manuscript. And, you know, like, just was gone. Thank God. It's like the, you know, the person you're dating with, you know, all sorts of red flags, like they finally just like walk off with your wallet one day. And you, you know, you start seeing charges at the liquor shop. You go, oh, well, I deserved this. I knew it was coming.

That's why you never trust a firsty-firsty. Mm-hmm. Now, through these efforts, the masons were able to successfully take off with the drafts explaining the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh degrees of York Wright Freemasonry. And so Miller eventually decided he couldn't actually publish the book as originally planned. This is an aspect of the story that is not touched on in most accounts. The Masonic plot, at least immediately, was mostly successful. Miller later decided to press on with publishing the information of the first three degrees, which was published a few months after Morgan's disappearance.

But if you read the conclusion of Morgan's book, you would read this. A more full explanation of the signs, scripts, words, etc. will be given at the conclusion of the second part of this work, which will comprise of the following degree. Mark Master, present or past master, most excellent master, and the Royal Arch, to which will also be added, several of the degrees in the order of knighthood. End of part first. Part first. Part first. Yeah, since the author had disappeared, there wasn't a part second.

In fact, the additional degrees weren't published until 1829 when Reverend David Bernard, a former Freemason, took Morgan's book and added more information about Masonic history, philosophy, and symbolism. So, yeah, I mean, it's like their goal was to, you know, destroy the manuscripts and get rid of Morgan and prevent the publication of the book. And by those metrics, it was successful for about two years. But even after the Mason successfully stole the manuscripts from Morgan and Miller, they weren't done. They wanted to make sure that they wouldn't have to deal with these two ever again. We confer from what happened next that the Masonic leaders decided that the next part of the plan required manpower. They wanted to destroy Miller's print shop, and that required a mob of dozens of men. On October 8th, a high-ranking mason named Colonel Edward Sawyer, and somewhere between 40 and 50

masons gathered for supper at the tavern of James Gansom, about six miles from Batavia. The masons had come from all over, including from Buffalo 60 miles away and even more men from Canada. So this is a crazy part. It's like, there was a call went out, where they got the word that they were going to deal with this Morgan Miller problem, and they traveled. They must have been a couple days of travel to go 60 miles in the 1826. And so they were just guys who just had nothing better to do than like join this gang.

After they ate late at night, Sawyer led the mob toward Batavia. After they got to town, but before they reached Miller's office, they were informed by a local that David C. Miller was well armed and prepared for an attack. Realizing that they were outgunned, the mob dispersed in the early hours of the morning. So this part, by kind of like assuming what happened here, this isn't said in the affidavits on the matter, but reading between the lines, I assume that these dozens of men had a lot to drink with their meal at Gansons Tavern. At Gansons, of course. Yes. And full of drunken anger, they all set off to Batavia.

However, they must have sobered up a little bit during the six-mile hike towards Miller's office. And sobriety dampened their anger and bravery enough for them to realize that what they were doing was not a good idea. Incredible. Yeah. They just weren't as well armed. No, they weren't. And it's funny. It's like, Miller never fired off his massive arsenal in protecting his office.

But the fact that he just had it, at least prevented like a couple attacks like this. Yeah. When you have like Willie at the front and they're like, how many more miles? And he's like, oh, I'm sure mile more fellas, nothing more. And then they're walking for like two hours, three hours. Like, yeah, you start to kind of lose your guster a little bit. matters continue to escalate. Sometime between two or three o'clock in the morning on September 10th, 1826, while David C. Miller

was working in his print office, he was apparently a bit of an insomniac. He was startled by someone shouting fire. He says he didn't notice the fire at first because his curtains were drawn and the inside of his office was illuminated by candlelight. As was later discovered, someone had soaked cotton balls with turpentine and tempted to set the outside stairs of the two-story building on fire. Now, Miller's office was on the second floor, which means that if the flames consume the stairs, the only hope for Miller and the 16 people sleeping in the printing office would be to risk

injury by leaping to the ground. And that doesn't even consider the families that lived on the first floor of the building. Yeah, I mean, kidnapping's a misdemeanor, but causing the deaths of like 20 people? Yeah, this is a cowardly fire. This was insane escalation. Because, like, yeah, fire was like, obviously arson is no joke in any time, but like it could caused just massive damage. They didn't have the infrastructure to put out fires quickly like we do now. However, that fire was put out quickly by sheer luck. A couple of Teamsters had arrived the evening

before, and they arrived too late to get a hotel room. And so they parked their stagecoach in a location close to the printing office and camped until morning. When the flames ignited, the Teamsters were started awake and had enough time to put out the small fire with some nearby water barrels. Wow. Divine intervention. Yeah, lucky break. The topic of who was actually responsible for the fire was the subject of a media narrative war for months afterwards. The following year, the Masons of Batavia started a newspaper called the Masonic Intelligencer that broadcast their own take on the Morgan Affair. Now, I was blessedly able to see like fragile and yellow copies of this rare publication by visiting the Livingston Masonic Library

of Grand Lodge in Manhattan. So this is a private library as such they have every right to not waste their time with me. But despite that, the librarian was very helpful in my research. Ah, yes, limited hangout. He was brought in and shown just the right documents. One issue of a Masonic intelligents serve says that a day or two before the fire, quote, several barrels of water had been placed by Miller's men in a very convenient position to extinguish the fire, insinuating that the fire was set by Miller himself and the barrels were also there so that it could be put out. Miller was essentially being accused of orchestrating a false flag operation against his own office. Okay, all right. To counter the narratives of the Masonic Intelligence, sir, Miller started his own specialty publication called The Morgan Investigator. Okay.

The competing YouTube channel. This is an even rarer publication. The Morgan Investigator ran for only 26 issues, and the Livingston Library has three of them. Issues number 4, 16, and the last issue, number 26. But they didn't have issue number one. I had to see issue number one of the Morgan Investigator by visiting the New York State Archives in Albany. The remaining 22 issues of this are probably lost forever, a fact that will haunt me until I die. Damn.

That can be the book part two, is you've grown your hair out even longer, and your beard is even scragglier, and you're more obsessed. And you go on like an archaeology, sort of like a field trip to find the missing pages of the, of the, magazine. You would only need about 70 bottles of liquor a year for that. Yeah. I know. I sometimes think it's like God, we've, like, weft, like, there's like a complete collection, like rotting in some attic

in rural western New York, you know. Folks, if you're listening and you do have a relative that is hoarding a box of, you know, mid-1800 zines, please do contact Travis

at QAnonananonymous. You can even write it yourself and then burn the edges like children do and kind of yellow the document. Maybe put it in like a washing machine. Please, please. Better yet, if you would like to forge these documents and make Travis research something, you know, make him read like 10 pages until you get to like your butt, you know, to let him know that it was all a big prank. Feel free to do that as well.

Like that one time I tricked Travis into thinking there was like a post about being haunted by homosexual urges for Travis. So the first issue of the Morgan Investigator contains a letter by a man named John Waldo who happened to be living with his family in the first floor of the building of Miller's office. Where was he? He was living in the first floor of the

building of Miller's print office. Are you sure he was there? Are you sure he was there? I think I might see him in the midst of that bundle of seals on the shore over there. Oh, no, no, no, just his hat. Folks, he fell for it immediately.

There was not even hesitation. And John Waldo pressed back against these false flag accusations by saying that the barrel in question was placed by him and not Miller. So it was a 25-gallon wine barrel that he was using to collect rainwater. I thought this was interesting because with a name like the Morgan Investigator,

I thought it would be used to be promoting conspiratorial anti-mastolic narratives. And it did a bit, but it was also used to debunk conspiratorial narratives that were being promoted by the masons, which, you know, complicates the way the anti-Masonry of the period

has been portrayed as a kooky conspiratorial movement. Yeah, on top of that, there is a huge amount of reason behind investigating the masons and being a conspiracy. They're literally trying to fucking, like, kill him, deport him,

burn his place down. Yeah. Yeah, there are a lot of heads going in on this. I mean, yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, it's always, been kind of like difficult. The betrayal of the anti-Masonic protesters and party as a group of paranoid cooks was the norm until the 1960s and 70s. The historian's Ronald P. Formasano and Kathleen Smith Kudelowski re-examine the movement and found that at least initially the anti-Masons were

motivated by small R. Republican ideals. They weren't like the no-nothing party from later in the 19th century, which was motivated by xenophobia and conspiracy theories about the Catholics. The initial anti-Masonic protests could be seen as reasonable given how insane and extensive this plot against Morgan and Miller was. The kidnapping of William Morgan. On September 10th, yet another warrant was issued for William Morgan's arrest. But by now, they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel. The warrant secured by Nicholas Cheeseboro, Master of Ontario Masters Lodge in Cannesuega.

Naturally? Yeah, Cheeseboro. I know, it's crazy name. I know, but it's like, that's kind of a common American last name. I feel like this isn't the first or last time. I've heard Cheeseboro in the mix. Cheeseboro claimed that Morgan stole a shirt and cravat from a tavern keeper five months earlier. In truth, the evidence suggests that Morgan just borrowed the cravat willingly,

and then they used this pretext to arrest him. To execute this warrant, they secured help from one Constable Hayward, who was in this instance not a Mason and naively thought he was just doing his job. Constable Hayward, Cheeseboro, and the four other masons made their way through Batavia, and they made three stops to pick up three additional masons. So the traveling course... You think the constable would slowly... he realized that he was at the head of a fucking Masonic lynch mob.

He's like, there's more and more of them. Strange, they keep picking up new homies at every stop. So these nine masons arrived at Gansons' tavern for supper. And at Gansus tavern, they recruited another mason to ride ahead to Batavia to deliver a message to William Seaver, the master of Batavia Lodge, and let them know that the arrest party was coming. After William Seaver was told about the crew, Seaver told the messenger to turn a around with a message communicating that it would be a bad idea to roll into town with a nine-man posse to pick up one 50-year-old man. Seaver's exact warning was,

They should not bring such a large party as it would excite suspicion. So the messenger intercepted the posse as they were already traveling in about two miles east of Batavia. So the original six-man posse proceeded on foot while the other three men took the carriage back to Stafford. I don't know, six men is, I think, still a lot. The six-men arrived at the Batavia in the evening where they slept in rooms at Donald's Tavern. Nice. The next morning, Morgan woke up early before six in the morning to browse the goods at a grocery store owned by one Jonas S. Billings, and it was there that the gospel nabbed him. The gospel took him over to Danels Tavern. Nicholas Cheeseboro hired Sagecoach driver Francis Hopkins to transport Morgan to

Ken and Dwega. But after they had breakfast and walked out to load Morgan into the carriage, who should they find but David C. Miller? More short on sleep than usual after extinguishing the arson attempt on his print office the night before. Oh my God. All this is just happening like all at once in the same area is crazy. Yeah. Miller tried telling the crew that they couldn't leave the county with Morgan because Morgan was out on bond, a bond that Miller secured with the little money that he had.

He's like, oh God, it's going to fuck my credit. But that didn't convince the constable. He's like looking back and forth, six guys, one guy. We're going to go with a big gang Here's how Nicholas Cheeseboro later recalled that encounter As you can hear, he is not very fair in his recollections Breakfast being ended

David C. Miller entered And in the coarse brutal manner of a man half drunk Forbade our taking Morgan Off the jail limits stating that he was one of Morgan's securities And would not suffer it I'd been told that this fellow was a sheister Negligent of business

embarrassed with debts, dissipated and addicted to gambling, that James Ganson had assured me that Dave Miller had no more religion than a snake, was a regular infidel, and it was the wonder of the fraternity how the lodge at Albany ever gave him the first degree. Having myself unbounded contempt for that class of men, specimens of whom had wormed themselves into our lodges, I simply turned my back on him and left him to Constable Hayward. The officer made short work of his protest declaring that he had Morgan and would have him

and defied Miller to interfere with the execution of the state warrant. Several other persons came in, but no man saved, Miller took the least interest in the affair. As we got into the coach, Miller hung on to the steps and began to talk noisely as if to excite a crowd. Miller later testified when he looked at Morgan's face in the back of the carriage, it was pale and ashy and his eye set and glassy. Oh man, they were like, he's crying. Wow. Another example of them just, wow, things were so much more exciting back then.

See, when you don't have the internet and stuff and just, you know, an insane amount of booze, most people just end up sounding like, what? Like big chickens clucking. Like, what? It went, it's got ampas, scurfroon him in. And it's just like, you know, just really clucking it up. I think that you failed to consider you'd be the guy in the back. Who would I be at this time? I really don't know.

Julian, any ideas? What kind of guy would I be back in 1839? No, no, I don't, no. You would be, I don't think they believe Jews existed in this era. Oh, I'd be that kind of guy. Or in jail. Yeah, they definitely weren't allowed to be Mason's, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah.

But were Jews allowed in America around this time? Sure. Certainly. Well, maybe, but not Western New York. 1800s. Hmm. Where were we then? I'm going to look it up.

I'll get back to you. The innkeeper David Danyl got involved, grabbing Miller and physically shoving him out of the way. Over Miller's loud protests, the stagecoach left Donald's Tavern and Patavia around 9 a.m. But just two or three minutes later, after they traveled around a quarter mile, the stagecoach driver stopped.

The driver became worried that he was getting wrapped up in some violent business. They then traveled the same. six miles to Ganssen's tavern were James Gansson, who happened to be a personal friend of the driver, convinced him to continue driving the stagecoach to Canandwega. And so they rode on, making the 50-mile journey by sundown. I looked up what were Jews doing in the 1850s, Eastern European Jews, and it says, predominantly located in the Russian Empire, Poland, and Galicia, were navigating intense pressures of state-sponsored oppression, economic shifts in early modernization. So I guess, I don't know. I guess I wouldn't be really a part of this story.

No, yeah. The kidnapping of David Cade Miller. Immediately after, the party transporting Morgan passed through Gansons' tavern to Leroy, at about 10 a.m. on that day, a special meeting of the Leroy-Masons was called. No one will ever know what they discussed, but it's reasonable to infer, based on what happened next, that the Masons were convinced that they had finally secured the manuscripts and were the middle of the plan to whisk Morgan out of the country for good. So they discussed the plan to tie off the last loose end by taking care of David K. Miller.

On the morning of September 12th, Mason's in the near Batavia received a notice of exactly how they would do that. When the church bell rang at 12 noon, they would gather at the east end of the village. And when the church bell rang at 1 o'clock, they would march as one body to Miller's printing office, scatter his collection of movable type into the dirt road, secure any other manuscripts they see, and detain David C. Miller. Were they not afraid of his arsenal anymore? That's a good question. I don't know why they continued to do this. Again, I'm pretty sure they were just wasted.

Just that they were wasted before. And now they're not, they don't have to do a two, three mile hike to his office. So they don't get the chance to sober up. Exactly. They're like, fellas, make sure to stamp on it once it's in the dirt road. Yeah, Samuel D. Green, Mason at the time, helped tip off David C. Miller about the plan. to destroy his office by sending him a note stating, Be on your guard.

Between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock at the ring of the bell, your offices are to be destroyed. The party will consolidate their forces under a hill east of the village, an approach in a solid column. Damn, that's good intel. Yeah, he actually also used an intermediary, so the note could be traced to him at the time. It was very good spycraft.

Miller showed the note to a few of his associates and was about to start working on a handbill, that he wanted to print immediately and warned the whole town about the plot. So this guy was a printer. He's in trouble. I got to print something. He wanted to post.

I thought this was a funny thing because like the printing a handbill took about like if you were super fast like one or two hours to set the type. So it's like, it's like, all right. Yeah, yeah, just set it super fast. Then I don't know. He just like start spreading the message around. David C. Miller would have loved Twitter. The idea that you could write something and publish it immediately would blow his mind. But Miller's friends thought it was a little hard.

believe that a gang of men would work as a mob to tear down a building in the middle of the day. Now, the masons who were told to gather at noon caught wind that Miller was expecting him, so they rallied at Daniel's tavern instead. Damn, again, Daniel provided the scene. Yeah, he's doing the best out of anyone financially here. Yes, yeah, right. Yeah, that's right. The guy who's getting the army's drunk before they attack.

So that plan being forwarded, the Masons fell back on their tried and true tactic, corrupting the justice system by securing a bogus warrant and getting a compromised constable to execute it. This time, the warrant was for $40 that David C. Miller had supposedly stolen from Daniel Johns. Of course, the $40 wasn't stolen. It was presented by Johns to Miller as an investment in Morgan's book. Right. So to execute this transparently nonsense warrant, the Masons secured constable David French. French went to David C. Miller's office and told the printer that there was a criminal warrant for his arrest.

French then grabbed Miller by his collar or his neck depending on which account you want to believe and then pulled him violently down the stairs. So he's being manhandled a lot right now. But all accounts say down the stairs? Yeah. Miller was taken over to Danyl's Tavern and as he was hustled over, Miller noted. I need to see. It probably doesn't exist.

You probably would have gone on your trip if it had. Right. As he was hustled over, Miller noticed a group of strangers in the street all staring at him and armed with clubs. The main street of this village was darkened by a cloud of menacing countenances, collected and collecting from every point of the compass, some in carriage and some on horseback, each armed with a newly cut cudgel. So they're just masons littering the street, staring him down. What's interesting is that Miller very legitimately understood he was, in fact, being gangstocked by basins from all over the county.

Now, those cudgels carried by masons, who are menacing Miller, were cut from hoop poles used in barrel making. So back then, they did have like metal hoops that could be used to wrap around barrels, but they are expensive. More often they used links of these straight green pieces of like hickory or white oak sapling. Farmers would cut greenwoods so that they were about an inch or an inch and a half in diameter and up to eight feet long. And they were hauled out to the barrel makers or coopers who would cut two to five hoops from a single pole to wrap. tight around the barrels. But these masons, apparently needing a bunch of weapons quickly, took some of these raw hoop poles and cut them so they were about three or three and a half feet long, which effectively gave them like an inch thick club. And because the wood was green

and full of moisture, it was a little springy. So he could bludgeon someone with it repeatedly without becoming like brittle and breaking. I appreciate the detail there. Yeah, Kudgeltech. Yeah. They need something to threaten these people with quickly. their solution was to cut these hoop poles. So old-timey. The fact that these masons were using cut hoop pulls its weapons was a subject of a satirical 19th century song called The Hoop Pull Knights, which tells the story of Miller's kidnapping in verse form.

I commissioned Jake to record, as far as I know, the only extant's recording of the song on Earth. And so we're going to play that for the auto cue. Miller also wrote that he saw about 15 of his friends, in the street, alerted by the commotion. He called out to his friends, telling them to guard his office. He was sure that while he was detained, the masons would use the opportunity to loot his print shop.

Miller was detained in the tavern, which was also full of arms masons, for about two hours in the back room. When Miller asked the name of the justice who issued the warrant, he was told it was none of his business. He did know that he would have to get the matter resolved with a magistrate in Leroy, because, by a strange coincidence, every magistrate in Batavia had been called out of town to serve as witnesses in other cases. But he wasn't taken directly to Leroy.

Instead, Miller was shoved into a carriage and taken to a three-story stone building in Stafford. I visited that stone building on my trip, and it still stands. It's used by the Stafford Fire Department now. Wow. Yeah, this is a photo that we're being presented with of Travis in the Wild looking up at this building.

Yeah, you look very thoughtful from behind there, stroking your chin. Well, yeah. Or you're covering your mouth mid-burp, maybe? Maybe, possibly. Or choking back tears, maybe? Completely warrantless. I love it.

Miller later testified that 40 to 60 of those masons from Danels walked with the carriage as an escort, some walking ahead and some following behind. Now, the third story of the stone building was used as a lodge room for the masons, and there he was detained and guarded by a few of them and their hoop pole clubs. Wow, so up these kind of like iron stairs here,

basically on that third story of this. That's a more recent edition. But yes, up to that third story. Pretty clearly not construction of that. They took the elevator up. Yeah, they used those two air conditioning units so they can see in the photo. Well, I just assumed somebody stood over this

with a hammer and upgraded it to metal. But at one point, I imagine that this staircase was mostly stone. Yeah, possibly. That's all I was saying. Julian is looking out into the corner of his room. Like, all right, I'll stop making video game reference. I'll stop making specifically survival crafting video game references until the next episode.

In Stafford, one of the men guarding Miller told him he actually wasn't going to Leroy. You are not going there. You are not to be tried by an ordinary tribunal. You will not stop at Leroy. You are going where Morgan is gone. When Miller asked, where is Morgan? The unknown man answered. You will see.

By this point, Miller came to believe that the masons weren't merely trying to temporarily detain him so that they could loot his office. They were trying to imprison him indefinitely or worse. In the stone building, none other than Daniel Johns entered, brandishing a drawn sword. Miller responded by attempting to sympathize and reason with him. Johns, I do not know that I can in my heart blame you for the deceptions practiced upon me. You came to accomplish what you did. You undoubtedly thought you were doing your duty.

You deceived me and gained applause. But Johns, in the present undertaking, you are going too far. In this, you will not succeed. I mean, come on, they were bunking together for weeks on the floor. Yeah. Yeah. To which Daniel Johns responded in a faltering voice. Miller, I'm only doing what I am ordered to do. Miller argued back.

But Johns, you have undoubtedly been employed in consequence of your skill and adroitness. It is presumed by your employers that you will not overact by undertaking that which you must inevitably fail in accomplishing. Beware, or you will lose all the credit that you have gained. Daniel Johns made no reply and left the room. Miller was in a dire situation, but fortunately he had the support of some of the citizens of Batavia, who followed him to Stafford and stood outside the building. And they also helped transport David C. Miller's lawyer, Theodore F. Talbot, Talbot to the stone building so that he could figure out what was going on.

Talbot told Constable Jesse French that he was Miller's counsel and therefore he was entitled to speak to him. Talbot asked Miller what he was arrested for, and Miller said he didn't know. That led to something approximating this dialogue between Miller's lawyer T.F. Talbot and the gospel Jesse French, which I have recreated from Talbot's court testimony. Show me your warrants. I'm not obliged to. Will you read it to me?

I will not. Who is it from? Bartow Esquire. Well, all will be right. I know him. Why do you all have clubs with you? Miller had pistols. He has none here.

have a right to carry these walking sticks. At which point, French smacked the floor with his club and said, This is my walking stick. No, at this point, another conspirator named Wilcox smacked his club close to Talbot's toes and told him, This is my stick. And you may take it away if you feel able. Talbot not intimidated, took out his watch and showed French that it was four o'clock, and that he had better traveled to the magistrate.

LaRoy if he wanted to arrive before dark. When are you going on? To which French replied in a manner very similar to Daniel Johns. When we get orders. Where are these orders coming from? Yeah. These guys are literally going like, yeah, you want some of it. They're like cartoon villains,

so they're beating their sticks against the ground. After some delay, Miller was told to leave the stone building and instead go to a wagon outside. He did go to the wagon, but rather than departing immediately, Miller reports that he watched as they may sonic conspirators squabbled about what to do next. Here I remain some time at full liberty to witness such confused counseling by squads, such tossing and throwing and changing of place, position, and groups. Such admirable confusion, folly running mad, was a scene worth all that it cost me.

And I think it's like, watching these dipped shits, argue with each other and running around, made it worth being falsely imprisoned. That made it all worth it, he says. And potentially, like, heading to death. he's still such a cunt about it I love it After a few minutes of this Miller was told to exit the wagon

and go back to the stone building Miller told them if they wanted him to go back they would have to carry him by force They compromised and he instead waited in a bar room and enjoying building It's like everyone Everyone sets everything at the bar because they're all like Well we're all going to need drinks for what comes next

Obviously I think sobriety started To come on so I need my medicine If they're to make the 70 bubble quota. They got to work at it. During this time, French and the Masonic conspirators proved that they had no idea

what they are doing, as Miller writes of his experience. After a short period, I was again ordered into the wagon and again ordered out, and again ordered in, surrounded at all times by my faithful guard. Finally, French ordered the wagon to move,

but instead of directing them to drive directly to Leroy to see the magistrate and get this legal matter resolved, he told the driver to go to a tavern up the road for something. Okay, well, we're hungry at this point. Yeah, it's like... By this point, Miller's lawyer, T.F. Talbot, had fucking had it.

As Miller wrote, My attentive counsel followed on foot, and when the carriage stopped, advised me to get out and pass towards home, that he might see who dared thus illegally to detain me. So understandable advice giving the contact, but certainly unusual. Talbot basically said, well, as your lawyer is by stance that your arresting officer is full of shit, and you should escape his custody and make a break. for home so I can personally see if they try to stop you.

You know, given everything that I've heard just now, it's kind of hard to believe that any of these guys are capable of murdering William Morgan. I mean, unless by accident. Well, I mean, we'll see. I mean, it doesn't take a very smart guy to murder. In fact, the murder may be a byproduct of their end-net planning. So Miller got out, started walking towards home, inspiring French to chase after him again. and again, seizing him by the collar.

Talbot expressed outrage at French for abusing his official duties and demanded again to see the basis for the arrest. French still refused to show it, but did say that it was for what's called trespass on the case. This is what finally made Talbot snap because that is not an offense prosecuted by the state. Trespass on the case is a civil lawsuit by one private party against another. And the only way to justify an arrest in such a scenario is when the person being sued, is being unresponsive. But not only was Miller being responsive, he was begging to go see the magistrate so he could respond to it. So the lawyer, T.F. Talbot shouted this. Trespass on the case. Trestpass on

the case. And you all this time treated my client as the worst of criminals, detaining him for hours and hours from the magistrate, contrary to his and my repeated solicitation. So after French admitted that Miller wasn't charged with a criminal offense, Miller told him that he was instead going to go see the magistrate himself by using a carriage charted by his friends. Miller described what happened next. In as much as French had pronounced me no longer a criminal subject, I took the liberty of choosing my own conveyance to Leroy and invited him to get into the carriage with me if he felt any alarm for the safety of my person.

This he refused and made several efforts to seize and drag me out. Several efforts. At this point, Talban advised Miller to just get out and go on by foot. And after Miller walked about a mile, he finally got back in a wagon to travel the rest of the way. Still followed by a convoy of both friends and enemies and carriages and on horseback. Some of the riders circled him as an intimidation tactic. Miller writes, Such racing, wheeling, turning, and menacing by the mounted part of that cavalcade.

Now in front, then along the side, now in the rear, was an unsurpassed exhibition of the savage and ludicrous. Wow, this is like the OG, uh, Like, cavalcade or what did they call themselves? The convoy. Yeah. I mean, it's just a crazy image of him, like, like, riding in the back of the carriage, watching as a literal dozen, a gang of Mason's dozen strong rode around him, circling him. Do you think they were wearing their Masonic hoods and roads?

Because that would be scarier. No, probably not, no. Just wearing, like, regular vests, probably. Yeah, yeah, just regular street clothes. Once they finally made it to Leroy, Miller's, started walking towards the magistrate's office, but Constable French tried grabbing him again to go to a local tavern. Oh, Joe on a trick?

Again. This is so... This is incredible. Oh, my God. We need to go to the tavern now. Miller managed to shake French off and arrived at the magistrates. Now, French left to try and find Daniel Johns, the other party in the lawsuit. But after waiting half an hour, the magistrate dismissed the case.

It's like, like, there's no evidence. All right, fuck, you can go home. is done. David C. Miller and his friends started walking to a pub, no doubt, to wash away the bizarre day with some whiskey. When Constable French and Daniel Johns appeared again and again tried to apprehend Miller. But with the assistance of Miller's friends, he shook them off one last time. Here's what Miller reported happened. On my way to a public house, distant about 80 rods in company with my friends, French suddenly made his appearance, vociferating, a rescue, a rescue, and attempted to seize me several times.

The Canadian Johns now took a prominent part, and in the frenzy of a zeal inquired, is there not a man here that dare aid the officer? He was soon made to know that there were men there, men too, who would neither suffer him nor his Masonic tools to inflict further wounds and outrages. On our arrival at the inn, French made another attempt to seize me,

alleging that he had a new warrant, but I was passed into a carriage and soon was safe in my own dwelling. Wow. Damn, that's crazy. What a night. I was seized, and then I was seized, and then I was seized, and then I was put in and out, and in and out, and then I walked, and then I fucking got back into the goddamn carriage. And by the time I arrived to the pub, I was mighty thirsty. I needed a good striff drink. I imagine that the shoulder of Miller's jacket must have had, you know, like fingerprints in it from how many times French tried to grab up by the collar.

You know, I just imagine he's grasping at him, and each time he slips away into a... carriage or, you know, into a crowd of people, kind of like an assassin's greed when you sort of mix into the crowd and turn silver. Yes, yes, yes. Turn silver into the carriage. And then I, well, and it's, like, once he was home, he wasn't worried about people showing up at his house and, like, kicking his door. And I guess not.

I think, like, at this point, what's interesting is, like, at this time, something that seems so definite, like, they're definitely going to get him, you know, they're going to keep chasing until they get him. It's like, no, people just got tired after a long day of drinking and eating. Yeah. It's kind of like a festival, you know, in its own way. Meanwhile, while all this was going on, William Morgan was enduring his own ordeal. The final journey of William Morgan.

Once in Ken and Dwega, Morgan was brought before Justice Jeffrey Chipman on the shirt and cravat larceny charge. The cravat larceny charge. They were like, the shirt's not enough. We better hit him with a cravat charge as well. Chipman acquitted him on lack of evidence. But Morgan was not released. Immediately after the larceny charge failed,

Constable Cheesboro initiate a second process, a civil debt claim for a $2. Tavern debt supposedly owed to a man named Aaron Ackley. So Morgan offered his coat as a security, but Constable Hayward refused it, and Morgan was committed to the Ontario County Jail. Unbelievable. Over two bucks. Morgan spent all.

the next day in prison, which he reportedly used to pass the time because he was given a bottle of whiskey. It's very kind. And about seven of the evening on Tuesday, September 12th, a mason named Loughton Lawson came to the jail and asked for the jailer, Israel Hall. Now, Israel Hall, was out for the evening, but the jailer's wife, Mary Hall, was in. That led to something approximating this dialogue adapted from Mary Hall's testimony. I would like to go into the room where Morgan is. You cannot. That's against the rules of the prison. I just wish to have a few moments of private conversation with Morgan.

You can't say anything to a prisoner that you can't say in front of me. Lawson then spoke to Morgan through the gates of the cell. I want to speak to you privately, but this woman won't let me. Who are you? Do you live in the village? Lawson made no reply, but Morgan, recognizing Lawson as a Mason for Batavia, responded, He is a neighbor. I've come to pay the debt for which you were committed. Would you go home with me? Morgan, yeah, he thought Lawson was actually interested in freeing him, resulted in Morgan answering. Yes, I'll take care of it when Mr. Hall comes back in.

I can wait until morning. No, I'd rather take you tonight. I've been running around all day for you, and I'm now so tired I can hardly stand on my feet. No, this was a lie. Lawson did live in the village. He actually only lived about two or three miles from the jail. Lawson then left to attempt to find Israel Hall himself. Lawson left for about half an hour, then returned, exasperated, telling Mary Hall, I've been to the hotel, conference room, and every other place Mr. Hall might be found.

Here, I'll give you the amount of the execution on which Morgan was committed so he could be discharged. I can't do that. I don't even know the amount. It's a small sum. I'll leave $5, which is more than sufficient. It's my understanding that Morgan is a rogue. I would not like to liberate a rogue. I'm afraid if Morgan is discharged, my husband will be blamed. No, he will not be blamed. Mr. Hall understands the situation perfectly. I'm even willing to pledge $50 or $100 on the proposition that your husband will not be blamed or injured in any way for the release of Morgan.

I cannot. Public opinion is more valuable than money. Would you discharge Morgan if Colonel Sawyer vouched that you could safely do it? I don't know Colonel Sawyer any better than I know you. Colonel Sawyer is not the plaintiff in the execution upon which Morgan was committed. Colonel Sawyer has nothing to do with this matter. Hold on. Allow me to get Colonel Sawyer. I thought it was funny.

It's like not listening. Obviously not listening. That's a funny little detail. So Lawson left to get Colonel Sawyer. And when Lawson and Sawyer arrived at jail, Mary Hall explained the exact same things that she had explained to Lawson earlier. Now, Morgan's case was assigned to gospel Cheeseboro,

so they quickly got him. Cheeseboro confirmed that Lawson could pay for Morgan to be released. Mary Hall, a little wary, but figuring everything was in order, unlocked Morgan's cell. Whereupon Lawson told Morgan, Get yourself ready to go with me.

Dress yourself quick. Lawson escorted Morgan out of the prison into the clear moonlit night and down the street, but they were soon joined by another man named Foster who grabbed Morgan's other arm. This is when Morgan realized the masons didn't have any real intention of letting him go free. Morgan screamed,

Murder, murder! Morgan struggled with all his strength and continued to scream until his shouts were silenced by a gag slipped over his mouth. Mary Hall testified that she watched Sawyer and Cheesboro standing passively and watching the whole scene unfold in front of them. One of the two men used a stick to hit the rim of a nearby watertub, which were typically placed along town streets for fire protection. That noise was a signal for the carriage driver, Heerham Hubbard, who had been waiting the entire time to move into position. Hubbard snapped the reins

of his gray horses, pulling his yellow carriage next to Morgan as he was being restrained by Lawson and Foster. They hustled him in with Cheesboro and Sawyer following closely behind. The carriage took off. This would begin William Morgan's 120-mile journey from the Canaan Dwega Jail to Old Fort Niagara. This journey used seven relays of horses, three different carriages, and five drivers. And how many stops at the tavern? It's a couple, yeah. One million. They can drink on the road if you brought enough with you. So Old Fort Niagara is an old abandoned French fort about 15 miles from Niagara Falls. It's very interesting. how they used it kind of like, yeah, just guard this bit of, you know, the corner of the river and the lake there.

Once near the fort, the conspirators didn't lock Morgan up immediately. So again, their first plan was to get him across the Niagara River into Canada where Canadian masons were supposed to receive him and place him on a farm. The whole plan is so ridiculous because what would stop him from coming back to America? Yeah, just leaving. Yeah. The conspirators, including Eli Bruce, woke Edward Giddings, the ferryman and lighthouse keeper at Fort Niagara. They loaded into a boat with Morgan across the Niagara River to the Canadian side at about 1230 a.m. on September 14th. Giddings later testified that there was a handkerchief over Morgan's eyes and that his hands were tied behind him.

While waiting on the Canadian side, Morgan complained that the bandage hurt him and pleaded that he was their prisoner and should be treated with Magnum Minutes. A pistol was allegedly pressed against him to silence him. Whoa. So that didn't work. The Canadians were reportedly not ready to receive him. No one knows exactly why this part of the plan failed. Either the Canadians didn't show up or they realized, no, we're not going to take responsibility for this man they kidnapped.

We don't know, but the plan fell apart. After the failed Canadian handoff, Morgan was taken back to old Fort Niagara and locked in a stone building called the Powder magazine. So this was a grim place to hold a man. It was designed to keep out all moisture. So there was like there's only one small, tiny window. And it was also designed to be very like dark and dense. So if there was like an explosion or something, it would do limited damage.

So I have a few pictures of me at the last place where William Morgan was seen. I've never seen you happier. These are the bizarre satisfactions that only Travis Futuple you understand. So in this second picture, you're in like a bare. It looks like a barrel room? You know, I'm inside. I'm inside what they call the powder magazine. It's a very small room.

And again, it's supposed to be, you know, very tight and dark. And so that it can be used to safely store explosive gunpowder. Wow. Later that morning, Giddings and John Jackson, a Lockport Mason, went to the magazine with food. They were armed. Morgan was understandably frightened and angry, and he used threatening language.

Giddings and Jackson's were afraid to open the door. Jackson allegedly shouted something like, Where is that pistol? Is it loaded? I'll shoot the damn rascal. Jackson then went to Lewiston where a major Masonic gathering was underway. The installation of a new Royal Arch chapter. Many Western New York Masons were present, including men already connected to the Morgan affair. Jackson found another conspirator named David Hay, who reportedly said that Morgan feared him as he fears the devil and that he would quiet him. But Hay could not quiet Morgan.

Morgan apparently feared that Hay was a doctor who had come to bleed him to death. Oh, no. God. Bleed him to death. Christ. Yeah. Hay then returned to Lewson for more help. Loughton Lawson, the man who had paid Morgan's debt and let him out of the Ken and Dwega jail, came down

to the fort. Lawson entered the magazine and quieted Morgan with rum. Morgan was apparently kept supplied with liquor. One of the conspirators said that if Morgan drank himself to death, quote, so much the better. They had to be giving him Sigs too, right? Well, they don't know. That's a fate worse than death. I don't know.

If you've got all that booze and you're locked in that gunpowder room but no siggies? Yeah. Have you thought of poisoning the booze? It would be so easy. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, like I'm saying, it sounds like they didn't really want to kill him, really. Yeah, because they knew they could get in trouble for that, whereas kidnapping continued to just be like a minor.

Yeah, I think they sort of, it seems like they sort of like, once the Canadians, like, got too drunk to show up. or whatever. Or like miss their alarm. I think they just kind of like, they were like, oh, fuck, well, what do we do with this guy? This is a really interesting part of our movie, Travis. Your book first, and then my movie. Jake, what would their alarm sound like?

Hmm, back then? Yeah. Cuckoo, coo. They had cuckoo clocks back then. You know what? I'll bet it's out of something like, what? Like, kind of just like a buzzing piece of wood and metal.

Oh, yes, it's a jar that slowly loosens over. the night and the bee gets released. Yeah, it's just like, it's some kind of like device. Do you think they had like end tables and stuff back then? Like bedside tables, probably. I regret asking the question. Travis. Six men from the Lewis and Royal Arch Mason installation traveled to old Fort Niagara

to assess the situation. After visiting the magazine, the six men reportedly moved out toward a graveyard and continued their consultation in the moonlight. One of the men proposed that Morgan, be taken to the river and sunk with a stone. Another suggested drawing lost to select three men to do the deed. The idea that Morgan had deserved death for betraying masonry was allegedly voiced, but not all were willing to proceed.

There's such a bunch of cowards. Everyone wants to call for his death and no one wants to do it because they know they can get horribly arrested for that and slung in jail. It's incredible. I was like, yeah, somebody should shoot him, looking around the room. They returned to the magazine and told Morgan that they was sent east for instructions. Again, this is, again, they have no fucking clue what to do. It's like, it's like, what are you doing with me?

Where am I going? When am I going to get out of here? Ah, we're going to go. We're going to send for instructions. We'll let you know. We'll talk amongst the five families. In one of the most theatrical details, Morgan was allegedly asked what kind of death he preferred. And he answered, the death of a soldier, shoot me.

He was then told if he kept quiet, he would probably not be harmed and might eventually be placed on that farm in Canada. The conference broke up around 3 a.m. on September 15th without a final decision. By daylight, the matter was still unresolved. Various schemes were discussed, killing Morgan, releasing him, or otherwise getting rid of him without leaving clues. Giddings let her claim that he argued for releasing Morgan even offered to open the magazine. This caused a quarrel. According to that count, Giddings surrendered the key to another conspirator, Colonel Jewett.

See? Guys like Jake were there. Yeah, you said there were no Jews. Yeah, well, yeah. We had an Israel and we have a Jewett. Yeah. Colonel Jewett. Yeah, of course the two bad guys.

Giddings then left old Fort Niagara and he didn't return until the 21st. So everything that happened to Morgan after about the 15th is Berkey. What is known is that Morgan was out of the powder magazine by the morning of September 20th. A man named Elisha Adams went to the magazine, called Morleyer. organs named three times and received no answer. He went inside and found nothing but some loose items, like straw that appeared to have been slept on by a man, an ammunition box, a silk handkerchief, a pitcher, a decanter, and a broken plank.

And that is where the trail of evidence goes cold. It's so funny to be like, well, we are debating the different things that can happen to him, and it's all like kidnapping, killing, like, you know, and then he just disappears and it's like, we have no idea what happened next. The fate of William Morgan. No one can say with certainty exactly what happened to William Morgan. The dominant theory was that he was murdered, possibly by being wrapped with chains and tossed into the Niagara River.

That part of the river was trawled after these events and attempted to prove that, but nothing was found. James Ganson later privately told someone that he knew Morgan's fate but wasn't dead. If you could hang draw in court or gibbet the masons who had a hand in it, it would not fetch Morgan back. He is not dead. but he is put where he will stay put until God Almighty calls for him.

For many years afterwards, through all the chaos and the trials caused by Morgan's disappearance, there were rumors of Morgan sightings in many parts of the world. By the late 1820s, reports circulated nationally that Morgan had turned Turk and was live in Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire. Later, Masonic retellings embellished this into the claim that he lived under the name Mastafa and became a Muslim. Oh, wow. Beautiful.

Several sea captains even swore affidavits that they had spoken with Morgan there. Wow, he's like the real dread pirate Roberts. Yeah, in fact, there were also pirate Morgan stories. Naturally. Yeah, some versions had him fleeing to Cuba. Others said that he had become a pirate and was hanged in Tavana or by Spanish authorities. One especially melodramatic version made him a pirate, Gilliam Gilmore, supposedly executed in 1838. Then there are also stories that Morgan had become an Indian chief, sometimes even described as a celebrated Indian chief in Arizona.

Some later retellings placed him vaguely among Native Americans rather than a specific tribe or community. I mean, the point of these stories were to show, like, well, he left, he left proper Christian civilization and lived the life of a pirate. He's embedded. He's embedded himself. Or lived with a Muslim Turk or these kinds of things, like outside of like, you know, like white American. culture. They're like the ancient wonders of the east. Yeah, a lot of orientalism going on. So, in my view, I think the evidence is

consistent with the idea that William Morgan was murdered, but wasn't the victim of a vast murder plot. What? What the hell are you on about? We just explored a vast plot. It was. It was a vast kidnapping plot. Okay. Okay.

All right. Wow. You really are the dupe of these masons, my friend? I mean, again, this is This is consistent. Like, why would James Ganson? Again, privately tell a friend and associate, all right, he's not dead, but I know where he is. So no one gets blamed of murder?

Well, but no, but this is something he seemed to sincerely believe. Okay. And they didn't find any body or chains or anything? No, no, no, never found this body. I am going to be a William Morgan truther, and it will require the least amount of effort. Yeah. But Travis, didn't like somebody wash up on the shore

and like they thought that it was Morgan for a little bit? Yeah, they were so desperate. to believe this, yeah, that the body of a Canadian man named Timothy Monroe washed up on the shore and they claimed it was Morgan. They even got Lucinda to claim that was Morgan, but obviously his body was too decomposed for her to actually recognize. Covered in crabs. And so this man was actually momentarily, briefly buried in Batavia because his thought was really Morgan. But after it was established, after Timothy Monroe's wife came and positively identified the clothes that he had died in, they drowned in.

He was exhumed and returned to Canada. So, yeah, there was like, that was a whole thing. I mean, you're telling me that, like, they debated killing him at every turn openly. And then at the end, what happened wasn't just no one wants to take responsibility. Someone from above tells one person from below, you alone, get that key, get him out of there. We're killing him. Yeah, take him into the woods. That isn't the most likely, like, this is, you know, Occam's Razor?

And I think, no, I think the Occam's razor. I think that the masons at Old Fort Niagara had the mode of means and opportunity to kill him. And that's what I think that's what probably happened. We're all hundreds of masons, even Masonic leaders like knowingly doing this. I don't, I mean, that seems like, I think in my thing, I mean, in my view, what probably happened is that they were like, they were living in a stuck position. They were like, all, it's like, obviously, what are we going to do if we return with Morgan? We're fucked. And so like we just need to silence them.

And so they came up with a solution. I mean, it was a smaller murder plot at the end of this. Okay, so it wasn't a vast murder plot. It was a small murder plot. It was a small. You mean it like fucking narrowed right at the end after everybody conspired to like get him to a place, thought about killing him over and over. Higher ups kept getting phone to be like, hey, hey, bro, what are we doing with this guy? What do we do? Yeah, yeah.

Maybe they got him. Maybe they got him across the sea, you know? They got him into Canada. Mm-hmm. And then the Canadians killed him. I believe that this was the Mason's killed. William Mason, and I will be making t-shirts and protesting your book. I believe that, too.

I believe the Mason's killed William Morgan. But it's about, it's about the, I guess, the degree of the conspiracy and the degree of the premeditation is really our only dispute. Yeah. Okay. This is even more, more outlandish and ridiculous than the Athenore affair. You've outdone it. It is.

They're even more, like, more, like, useless at their, their nefarious. jobs than the Athenors school. A lot of bumbling. It is. It is this, yes. This is a lot of bumbling. Yeah. This is definitely, yeah, some like 19th century burn after reading. Some like, yeah, some like dipchits who because they're part of this club think they're super secret tough guys and like, you know, joined a plot because I thought it'd be fun to like,

you know, fuck with this guy that they hated. And like, you know, it's like, it's like, it's like, it also, I think this, this sort of like, really exposes just the ways in which a vast conspiracy can fall apart at multiple points. Like, you know, just the people you have to recruit, they get nervous and fucking, like many people testified. Giddings testified, like Samuel Green, former Mason testified. Lots of people involved with the plot said, I was like, I wanted nothing to do with this and then wound up telling everything they knew to the authorities. What, uh, what, what became of Lucinda, his wife? Did she spend the rest of her life trying to find him? You know, what,

happened to her basically once they were like, he's gone, case closed, these guys are charged for the kidnapping, that's it? Funny you should say that. So, no, Lucinda Morgan, I actually wound up being one of the brides of Joseph Smith. Oh, wow. What? That's such an insane ending. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is a little extra detail. Insane. Only on QAA is that like a footnote. I know. I did want to like, it was like this episode is already too long. It's like there's like you, what you happen to first be. married to like William Morgan, this band who was like, you know, kidnapped and became the fixation of people in the 19th. And then you go on to marry Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Latter-day Saints.

I just want to clarify really quickly. You do think that they killed Morgan, right? Yes. We don't disagree about that. How many? I said, I said yes many times. I said he was murdered. Yeah, got it.

You just don't think he was murdered in that spot. You think he was murdered later on by a different couple of guys. He was murdered non-conspiratorily. Jake, okay? It was by mistake. They murdered him by mistake. I was like, I'm thinking about like, it was like the 40 to 60 men who had gathered from all over at Ganssen's tavern to like intimidate Miller.

Did they think that they were part of a plot to murder Morgan? I don't think, no, I don't think so. I don't think they are informed of that. Morgan was in his 50s at this point, right? Yeah, yeah, he's about 50. I mean, who knows? He could have keeled over at any minute, you know? There's, I mean, that's end of life. I mean, he was basically They're taking it to Canada,

putting him right in hospice. You should be a Masonic lawyer. That's a good one. Yeah. Well, look, well, I know I follow my instincts and it's to defend the good guys.

So. Yeah, yeah, that's insane. Yeah, I know it's a, it's a crazy story. When I first read about like the anti-Masolic party or the anti-Masconic movement, it's like, okay,

it's just just cooks from the early 19th century. But then you read about this, I'm like, oh, all right. It's like maybe maybe the plot didn't extend to every Mason. Like there are lots of accusations that the governor of New York who happened to be a high-ranking Mason was involved in it. There's zero evidence of that. It did corrupt law enforcement. It did corrupt like these constables, but not the governor.

I'm like, but if you lived in this time and you heard all of this, like wouldn't it be like, oh, yeah, there's something deeply wrong here that all of these people were involved in this plot, including people who are supposed to protect the interests, like sheriffs. Well, yeah, there were people of power who were practicing Masons at the time. So it was a natural, you know, seems like an easy target anyways. The whole thing just got muddled because it immediately became a political football where, like, again, the like people, the anti-Masons, they created dozens of these anti-Masonic papers that sort of scandal-mongered and sort of claimed any wild conspiracy theory. That's like even beyond what we have, even the facts as wild as they are, they started making up crazier thing. And then on top of that, I guess, I guess this is what they would call shit coding nowadays. And then on top of that, the, again, the Democrats at the time, because Andrew Jackson was made him, were had had much interest. And they controlled a lot of papers in order to spread propaganda that there was nothing to see here.

Yeah. And it's also very clear that Talbot saved Miller because he's the only difference in both of these men's tails. And one of them got put in a tiny building with a miniature window. And the other guy somehow managed to escape. Yeah. It seems as though Miller had a lot more friends. He must have been well-connected as a publisher in the town. Yeah, it didn't seem like anyone liked Morgan.

Yeah, he was just a con. The unspoken sadness of this tale is that, like, Morgan, these guys were so incompetent. I'm sure at many, many steps along the way Morgan could have probably escaped or been saved or rescued and he wasn't. Yeah, if he was backed up by a lawyer as good as Talbot, he might have escaped. He just didn't know anyone that well who could have helped him like that.

In the end, the Joker always gets justice. Thanks for listening to another episode of the QAA podcast. You can go to patreon.com slash QAA. You can subscribe for $5 a month and get a whole second premium episode for every regular episode, plus access to our entire archive of premium episodes while you're on Patreon. really like QAA, especially like Julian, if you love Julian the most, and you've been waiting, you've been waiting for Julian to break free and be a little less inhibited. That's a show for you.

It's superstructurepodcast.com, right? That's right. It's about, yeah, the power of revolutionary struggles, political propaganda and repression. They've got tons of apps out already, folks. Go check it out if you're interested. And Brad, where can people find more of your stuff? Oh, yeah, just Instagram. Brad WTF or Twitter,

Love and Saucers. And you've got a documentary that is premiering at festivals? Yes, I can't yet say exactly which festival or the exact date, just that it's going to be in Austin. Very, very

exciting stuff. And folks, given also this episode, you can see why Travis could make an entire book out of this, so keep an eye out for that in the not too distant future. And then my movie following it about I'm going to be I'm going to make it like Lincoln we've already discussed it for months I hounded Travis I said you got to watch Lincoln you got to watch Lincoln because

that's what this reminds me of and I low-key love Lincoln and anyway so all that's coming in the near future from your faves listener until next week may the deep dish high key bless you and keep you we have auto-cuit content based on your preferences. Gore and wild...