Best of the History Guy: Weird Crime

Thomas Fitzpatrick lived in Carlstadt New Jersey but on the night of September 29 1956 he was visiting the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan where he had used to live he'd come back to his old stomping grounds to enjoy a bachelor party for one of his friends and after that was over had decided to have a few quiet drinks at a local bar near where he used to live called Joe's at 191st and Saint Nicholas Avenue For Old Times Sake the 26 year old was described as a Husky six foot tall blonde and his friends called him Tommy Fitz a childhood acquaintance recalled that he had a crazy side and ran with a Wild Bunch he had enlisted in the New York State guard at the age of 13 by lying about his age and then enlisted with the Marine Corps at the age of 15. when his age was discovered he secured his parents consent and was able to stay spent two years in China with the corps where among other things he'd learned to fly a reconnaissance plane he was honorably discharged from the Marines in 1947 but then enlisted with the Army in 1949 at just 20 years of age he was already a veteran of the United States Marines the United States Army and the New York State guard stationed in Japan he was scheduled to return home when what at the time was called the Korean emergency occurred in June of 1950. he was among the first Americans to be sent to the conflict a Corporal with the 8051st quartermaster Battalion on July 22 1950 he was in charge of a Detachment bringing fuel to the front when a shell landed near a foxhole where he had taken shelter he woke up in a hospital in Tokyo having suffered a severe concussion and several shrapnel wounds he was the first person from New York City to be wounded in the Korean conflict and was awarded the Purple Heart as a silver lining because of his wound he was granted leaves that allowed him to make it home for his mother's birthday in August she told the New York daily news it was the nicest she ever had after recovering from his wounds he became a boxer and was an Army heavyweight boxing champion he served as a military policeman patrolling Times Square before being discharged in 1951. after being discharged from the Army he became a pipefitter with local number 638 of New York and a part-time airplane mechanic at the Curtis Wright Factory in Caldwell New Jersey he became a licensed pilot studied at the Teterboro school of aeronautics at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey there is some controversy as to exactly what happened early morning of September 30th Tommy Fitz claimed that Upon returning home he simply just had an urge to fly he took an airplane from the Teterboro school of aeronautics a red and cream Cessna 120 a small one engine two-seat aircraft that he claimed to have permission to fly and at approximately 3 A.M made what the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described as a breathlessly Perfect Landing on Saint Nicholas Avenue taxing to the same bar where he had previously been drinking in time to have one last drink before the 3am last call he told police that he had told the part owner of the plane David Van Dyke Jr that he wanted to borrow the plane and he would settle up the cost in the morning and had gone flying but while over Manhattan he developed engine trouble was forced to land his Landing was actually quite remarkable a spokesman for the New York City Police Department Aviation Department described it as a 100 000 to one shot and almost impossible Saint Nicholas Avenue was a busy thoroughfare but it was nearly deserted in the early morning hour when Tommy fits skillfully nested his plane between five and six story apartment buildings a friend drove Fitzpatrick back to Teterboro to recover his car and he told the owner what had happened to the plane the owner however disputed Fitzpatrick's assertion that he had permission to take the plane and when he returned to where the plane was still parked police arrested him for the charge of suspected grand larceny the Press larger took a comic view of the stunt but the police less so as the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester New Jersey noted Riley the city frowns on the practice of Landing aircraft on its congested streets and the spokesman for the police Aviation Bureau said a great many terrible things could have happened in fact his story fell apart rather quickly as police could find no evidence of the engine failure that supposedly forced him to land instead the police asserted that he probably did it as the result of a bat a deduction that the New York daily news explained as considering that the same Gin Mill was involved in both the takeoff and The Landing in fact years later Tommy Fitz admitted that it came as a result of a bad a friend of bet him that he could not get from New Jersey to Washington Heights in 15 minutes reportedly he had intended to land at the local High School's football field but as it wasn't lighted at night he decided to use Saint Nicholas Avenue instead Fitzpatrick was originally held on a five thousand dollar bond for a suspicion of grand larceny violating city code and flying in an outdated civil aviation Administration medical certificate as he had not had a physical in two years magistrate Edward J Chapman explained the surprisingly High bail as a deterrent to other foolish young men who get drunk and fly a plane the plane had to be dismantled or at least have the wings removed to return it to New Jersey but it appears he smoothed things over with the airplane's owners and the Teterboro school of aeronautics because they refused to press the charge of Grant larceny and in the end he only paid a hundred dollar fine essentially for illegal parking and had his pilot's license suspended and it's fine certainly made a good story maybe too good because reportedly the night of October 3rd 1958 Fitzpatrick was in another bar on the Washington Heights area when he told the story to a man from Connecticut who didn't believe him at approximately 1am on the 4th 30-year-old New York City bus driver Harvey Roff was in his boss at 191st and Amsterdam when he heard what sounded like a large fan a Cessna 120 airplane hit the street next to him bounced up about 20 feet and then landed taxing down the street Ralph recalled that first he hit the deck for fear he might get hit by flying glass and then was thinking what the hell could you ever say if they pulled you into a safety hearing for having a collision with an airplane roof ran down the street but by the time he got to the plane the pilot was gone another motorist 30 year old carpenter John Johnson apparently had to slam on his brakes to avoid being hit as to find literally bounced over the top of his car he ran down the street to see a six foot tall 200 pound man in a gray suit running away from the airplane it didn't take police long to connect that description to the stunt that Tommy Fitzpatrick had played just two years earlier Fitzpatrick at first denied having piloted the plane but finally admitted to police that the man from Connecticut had driven him to Teterboro Airport where he determined to prove his exploits to the skeptic it was another nearly miraculous Landing when witness recalled to the New York Times in 2013 that I thought maybe they had trucked it in as a practical joke because there was no way a man had landed in that Narrow Street for his second offense Judge John a Mullins gave a stiffer sentence six months in jail for carrying stolen goods across the state line telling Fitzpatrick had you been properly jolted in 1956 it is possible this would not have occurred a second time and you're not going to make an airstrip out of a New York City street Fitzpatrick responded it's the lousy drink in 1959 he pled guilty to a second charge of flying while intoxicated on a suspended license he'd never renewed it after the 1956 suspension it was again sentenced to six months in jail although the sentences were served concurrently Thomas Fitzpatrick whom the New York daily news described as a local wrong way Corrigan who found air Landing strips where the Port Authority had never built any died in September of 2009 of cancer the age of 79. according to his obituary he had been married to his wife Helen for 51 years was survived by Helen Three Sons his brother and sister and many nieces and nephews in 1913 a young man presented himself to New York society as they newly appointed Consular agent to point to Aubrey a small country south of Morocco the introduction got him into some of the nicest restaurants in town where he met many of The Luminaries of the city it was only as he started to run up tabs at some of those restaurants that someone thought to check his story and found out that Not only was he not appointed Consular agent to point to Aubrey but that point Aubrey didn't even exist the man was Stanley Jacob Weinberg a clerk from Brooklyn who simply decided that being a clerk in Brooklyn was dull and that he would prefer to be somebody else he spent time in jail for fraud but that did not seem to dampen that desire to be somebody else while he was born Stanley Jacob Weinberg he would by many names the Press called him the fabulous frog from Brooklyn or The Great Deceiver although later in life he preferred Stanley Clifford weyman he was clever and confident in his masquerades able to fool even Secret Service agents yet he never made an effort to alter his appearance and was usually caught because someone in the press or police recognized him he was for the most part not motivated by financial gain and notably passed up opportunities where he could have gotten far more money from his impersonations he was remarkable and that he impersonated for impersonation's sake and simply enjoyed being someone other than himself doctors diagnosed him with various psychological ailments but of his obsession he said one man's life is a boring thing I lived many lives I'm never bored for example in 1925 he read in the newspaper that there was to be a conference of Physicians of every sort to be held at the Middlesex College of Medicine and surgery in Cambridge Massachusetts he put on a stylish suit carried a bag of the short that a doctor would carry and rode the train to Cambridge there he presented himself as Dr Alan Stanley Wyman of the New York State lunacy Commission he chatted with other doctors about his ideas for improvements in psychiatric treatment in prisons and on that score he could easily pass himself off as well informed as he had spent nearly a third of his adult life in prisons and asylums serving time for his various frauds in Cambridge he was so convincing that it was asked to speak at the evening banquet his speech was said to be well received and vigorously applauded when he hopped back on the train for Brooklyn the attendees of the conference had no idea that they had been had he was according to an article in the New Yorker only discovered when he was picked up Weeks Later by police on the charge of impersonating a lawyer and police found the newspaper article about the conference in his case and asked him about it while he was often broke he did do legitimate work and when he had money he would spend that on his vast wardrobe which he would then use in his various impersonations on one occasion he stabbed himself an Envoy from Romania wearing a fantastic Naval outfit covered with gold braid and an admiral's hat he telegraphed the Navy that the queen of Romania had asked that he sent the Navy her greetings via an inspection of a Navy ship he was picked up by a launch and given every courtesy as he toured the battleship USS Wyoming Overjoyed with his visit he invited the officers of the ship to a Gala reception at the hotel Astor he told the hotel to send the bill to him at the Romanian consulate the dinner was somewhat spoiled however as advanced publicity for the event had alerted the FBI who came and arrested him he spent two years in jail for the stunt he masqueraded as a French naval officer named Lieutenant sincere and in that guys was invited to a stag party thrown by U.S vice president Thomas R Marshall he dressed as a Navy Admiral and showed up at an army review at the Brooklyn Armory the major general was about to take him on an inspection of the troops when a detective had been seeking him for another crime arrested him when he read in the paper that a princess from Afghanistan was in New York and was frustrated in her attempt to meet the president he showed up at her door claiming to be the U.S under Secretary of State there to arrange her visit in Washington he managed to Bluff his way in to introduce the princess and her sons first to Secretary of State Charles Evan Hughes and then to see President Warren G Harding the events caused a minor international incident as the British been trying to prevent Harding from meeting with Afghan officials when film star Rudolph Valentino died in 1926 Wayman read in the paper about his devastated fiancee actress Polo negri he grabbed his doctor bag and showed up at a hotel claiming to be Valentino's personal physician and said Rudy would have wanted me to take care of you he escorted The Grieving actress to the funeral when police revealed him as an imposter she refused to press charges saying that she had never gotten better Medical Care when Queen Marie of Romania visited America in 1926 the Press was clamoring for an interview but no one could get in knowing his legendary skills the newspaper of the evening graphic hired Wayman who presenting himself as an under Secretary of State gained access to the queen and got the interview while his impersonations were usually harmless and sometimes quite humorous he was arrested for two charges that hurt his reputation with the public during the second world war he was apparently running a school to try to teach young men how to avoid the draft by faking illnesses when the FBI broke in the door of his classroom he was heard to say class dismissed it was a serious charge during wartime and he was sent to prison for seven years in 1954 he was convicted of trying to obtain a home improvement loan on a home that didn't exist such pedestrian larceny just seen beneath him but in the extraordinary life of the man who spent so much time being anyone other than himself perhaps the most shocking story was the Final Chapter in August 1960 Stanley being no one other than himself was the night clerk at the Dunwoody Hotel in New York City two armed men entered and demanded that the 70 year old clerk hand over the money box he could have given it to them no one would have blamed him but he refused when one tried to grab the box he held on it is difficult to know what was running through the mind of a person like Stanley weyman maybe some content he saw the chance to actually be one of the heroes he had so often impersonated his bullet riddled body was found the next day the New York daily news reported that The Great Deceiver ended his career dramatically as a genuine hero in 1985 there was a small Splash in National newspapers about a fugitive turning himself into Federal authorities it wasn't a lot of press given that he had been a federal fugitive one of the most Wanted men in the nation for 40 years but was most surprising was not just that he was able to avoid an FBI Manhunt for four decades what was really most surprising about the man named Georg Gardner was his crime your Gartner was an escaped German prisoner of war and the story of his life on the lamb is history that deserves to be remembered your Gartner was born in the town of schweinitz in what was then the Prussian province of Lower Silesia in 1920. schweidnitz was a town of about 35 000 in a relatively rural remote part of the post-world war one Weimar Republic perhaps best known as the childhood home of the famous fighter pilot Ace Manfred Von richtoven the son of a railroad official Gartner was an accomplished athlete who had won local championships and tennis and skiing and a proficient student who dreamed of becoming an architect however a near fatal bout of dip Theory at the age of 15 prevented his graduating over real Shula essentially High School by 1940 Germany was engrossed in war with few prospects outside of War he volunteered to join the Army there he faced more health issues first ammonia and then a training injury and it was nearly two years before he could get a combat assignment he was not able to apply directly to be an officer because his failure to graduate over real Shula but distinguished himself enough to be promoted to KOB designation meaning War officer candidate he attended officer preparatory school and then was sent to a combat unit as a sergeant after serving enough time in combat he could be called back to finish officer training and become an officer finally ready for service in 1942 he saw a poster calling for volunteers for the Africa Corps commanded by Field Marshal Irwin Rommel Nazi propaganda had portrayed the Africa Corps as ever Victorious Heroes and Rumble as an undefeatable Legend Gardner from rural Silesia was excited about the prospect of Adventure of travel of certain Glory with the vaunted Africa Corps and of course of warm weather having been a skiing champion and even having instructed German troops in cross-country skiing he had a very real chance of being assigned to the brutal Eastern front so volunteering for service in Africa seemed the best alternative Gartner arrived in Libya in January of 1943 only to find that the military situation did not match the propaganda after their defeat the previous November at the hands of the British 8th Army in the Second Battle of El Alamein the Africa Corps was in headlong retreat Gartner's first dose of reality came when the Airfield at which he landed was shelled by British artillery less than an hour after he arrived and three days later that Airfield was an Allied hands Gartner a sergeant in an artillery unit of the 15th Panzer Division had arrived just in time to participate in a grueling hopeless desert battle in which the Africa Corps was retreating as much as 50 miles a day Rumble was called back to Germany the Africa Corps was cornered and the following May the young Sergeant became one of some 220 000 German and Italian soldiers of the African campaign forced to surrender only the week before he had received his orders to return to Germany complete his officer's training but of course by then Escape was impossible in his Memoir he recalled upon being taken to an American Camp how well-equipped the Americans were noting the nonchalance which which they let their engines idle without any concern for a shortage of fuel he concluded at that moment I realized that we would lose the war most of the prisoners captured in North Africa were taken to prisoner of war camps in the United States there were many reasons to ship the prisoners to the U.S the Geneva Convention of 1929 required that prisoners be kept safe and fad that was relatively easy to do in the U.S but nearly impossible in North Africa keeping prisoners near the war zones in France would mean that escaped prisoners had a reasonable chance of returning to their own lines and rejoining the fight that was much harder to do from New Jersey or New Mexico Britain was facing a significant housing shortage and so it asked the U.S for assistance enlisted prisoners of War could be compelled to work although according to the rules of the Geneva Convention they had to be compensated and the U.S had need of extra labor particularly Farm labor with so many of its own fighting in the war finally Germany and Italy would eventually hold nearly a hundred thousand U.S pows during the war while they were also Bound by and generally followed the rules of the Geneva Convention the Germans held in the U.S were essentially a guarantee of good care for Allied prisoners held by the axis U.S Liberty ships were arriving daily with supplies and reinforcements so prisoners were simply put on the ships for their return Voyage although that placed them at risk of sinking by their own U-boats dear Gartner was now off on another adventure taking on one of those Liberty ships in June the man from a small town in Silesia where most people would never see more than 50 miles from home was now on his way to the United States he did have an advantage over most of his fellow pows in school he had studied English and spoke the language passively German pows in the United States have been called nearly forgotten history eventually some 450 000 Germans and 51 000 Italian prisoners of War were kept in the United States there were over 700 POW camps in 46 States still Americans were largely unaware of the camps which by rule were kept away from urban areas and Industrial centers for security purposes and there was an imperative to build the camps in areas where the climate was mild to reduce construction costs so many of the camps were in the South Gartner was moved between camps in Texas and New Mexico eventually winding up at a camp outside the small town of Deming New Mexico German pows in the United States were treated well Gardner noted that the food was not just better than they'd had in the German Army but generally better than what the American public was getting in the time of rationing Camp suffered Athletics books movies and college courses and even occasionally alcohol or beer at the camp canteen paid in the script that prisoners got for work Gardner mentioned that there were risks of confrontation with the guards but a larger risk of confrontation with a few hardcore Nazis in the camp and in Texas and New Mexico an occasional risk of running into rattlesnakes the largest problem he recalled was boredom while German pows did occasionally Escape as many as a couple thousand over the course of the war they're almost always caught within the first 24 hours generally non-political and happy to be out of the war jorg was not the type of prisoner who would even consider Escape but that changed in 1945 the war in Europe ended in May and the pows began to wonder at how they would be repatriated cam conditions declined as the US pows were coming home and the US no longer had to worry about their treatment of German pows to guarantee the treatment of Allied pows two the guards have become more hostile as concentration camps are becoming liberated in Europe and the extent of the horrors of the Holocaust were coming clear according to Gartner most of the pows were shocked and repelled as the Americans but the guards became more openly hostile as a result worst of all the pows found out in the summer of 1945. the U.S planned to eventually repatriate them directly to their hometowns that hope to be released in the American Zone in Germany a daunting enough Prospect given the devastation and shortages following the war but for pows like Gartner being directly repatriated meant sending them to territories now occupied by the Soviet Union where Gartner suspected he would not be treated as well as he had been in the United States what's more your Gartner simply wanted Freedom he had gone from the regimented Society of Germany to the German Army to the Pow Camp the age of 24 he wanted for the first time in his life to feel free to make his own choices he became determined to escape when he had attended officers Preparatory School in Germany they had done an exercise where the students had pretended to be escaped prisoners their instructors dropped them off on one side of town and they had to make it to the other side without being caught by their instructors while the other students came up with elaborate plans sneaking through sewers or cross rooftops Gardner had chosen a simple and direct approach he simply pretended to be a normal citizen caught A Streetcar and was across town ahead of his instructors he was the only student to successfully make it his plan on September 24th 1945 was also simple he could see a train track from the camp he studied the schedule and one night when the rest of the camp was watching a movie he waited for a break in the searchlights called under two sets of wire and ran for the train he hopped on and rode in a freight car the same way many people rode at the time and the train took him to San Pedro California the train turned out to be a stroke of luck as soon as he was found missing at bed check there was a massive search the Army interrogated the other prisoners but he hadn't revealed his plans to any of them the Army guessed that he would lie low in the area and concentrated their search in New Mexico it does not seem to occur to them that he might have ridden off on the train as another Stroke of Luck the FBI considered his escape to be the Army's problem and it was another year before they started a nationwide manhunt by that time he'd improved his English and learned to part his hair and hold his Fork like an American in the booming Multicultural California that followed the second world war he was able to blend in lay low and learn how to become an American at first he traveled with migrant Farm Workers itinerant jobs where a few questions were asked he claimed to be a Norwegian immigrant named Peter Peterson he later took the name Dennis Wiles derived from the names of a migrant Farm worker family he had met he was eventually able to acquire a social security card and then a driver's license under that name he worked as a Salesman as a ski instructor and as a tennis pro at one point he played tennis doubles with actor Lloyd Bridges and piled around at a ski lodge with Robert Stack when the passenger train city of San Francisco was trapped in an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada mountains in January 1952 as the head of the ski patrol for a local ski area he was the first to reach the train a blurry photo of him ran in papers Nationwide even while another photo of him unwanted posters hung in post offices Nationwide after repatriation only 15 of the nearly 450 000 German pows in the United States were unaccounted for one by one that had all been found after a merchant Seaman named Kurt Richard Westfall was found in West Germany in 1964. Gardner was the last missing German POW the FBI had run out of leads they were reduced to searching phone books to find names close to Georg Gardner one way that Dennis Wiles managed to avoid capture for four decades was that he never shared his secret with anyone in 1964 he married a divorcee named Gene Clark after 18 years of marriage she still did not know his real name in the end it was his wife that convinced him to come clean she had finally become exasperated with his unwillingness to talk about his past and when he refused to travel with her internationally and wouldn't say why in reality he didn't have a birth certificate so he couldn't get a passport she decided it was time to leave him she'd packed her bags and called a cab and it was in that moment that he realized they had to tell her the truth the first person to which he had told his terrible Secret in 37 years his wife then took control of the situation she found a historian named Arnold Kramer who had authored a book on German pows in the United States and Kramer agreed to co-author a book detailing Gartner's story it is called Hitler's last soldier in America she then hired an attorney to manage his turning himself over to authorities he concluded his book saying how lucky I am to have her after searching for him for nearly 40 years the FBI decided they weren't interested anymore as a matter of fact it wasn't even clear he committed a crime since his Escape had come technically after the war had ended similarly the Immigration and Naturalization Service decided to pursue no charges since he had been brought to the United States against his will as a prisoner of war he hadn't entered the country illegally and having been married to a U.S citizen for 18 years Gene could petition for his citizenship after his book was finally published in 1985 he went on the Today Show September 11 1985 and officially surrendered to Bryant Gumbel the United Press International headline for the day was World War II finally came to an end today he later found out that his sister was still alive in Germany and had managed to immigrate from East Germany to West Germany and was able to go visit her because of bureaucratic delays he didn't become a naturalized citizen until 2009. York Gartner or Dennis Wiles whichever name you prefer passed away in 2013. the age of 92. [Music] the legal defense of Not Guilty by reason of insanity is actually used very rarely in the United States argued in less than one to three percent of cases is successful in less than one percent of cases although certain high profile cases are its treatment on television and in film seems to exaggerate the use of that defense the defense is actually quite old it's described in the Code of Hammurabi nearly 4 000 years ago but it developed slowly in the United States and in the middle of the 19th century offered quite the sensation because the first argument in the United States Court of Defense by reason of temporary insanity occurred in a case involving the United States congressman and some of the most important political figures of the day it was a sensation at the time but caught up in the events of the United States at the time it's nearly forgotten today and still The Curious Case of Daniel sickle's murder of Philip Barton key II deserves to be remembered in many ways Daniel Edgar sickles was the Prototype of a 19th century politician handsome well-spoken and herbane he was part of the powerful New York Democratic Tammany Hall political machine in the era of the notorious William Boss Tweed born the son of a New York politician in 1819 sickles was the beneficiary of political patronage from a young age studying for the bar under former U.S attorney general Benjamin Butler representing the enduring political loyalty of the era Dan was quickly set along the path of a political career being elected to the New York State Assembly in 1847. the machine of which Dan was a member was quite powerful when an electoral opponent of a Tammany candidate tried to mail the circular to New York State voters in 1852 Dan rallied a mob of Tammany supporters forcibly occupied the Broadway post office and burned the Flyers now normally interfering with a male would lead to arrest an imprisonment and at least the end of a political career but Dan's Tammany Hall Associates made sure that the case never came to trial and if anything his political career was enhanced by his felony this was just one of many misdeeds of Dan sickles that would have destroyed the political career of a less well-connected individual in September of 1852 sickles married Teresa Dupont begioli the daughter of his friend and Mentor Antonio bajoli an Italian composer and music teacher living in New York sickles had known Teresa bejoli since she was a small child at the time of the marriage she was just 15 years old and he was 32. she was known for being especially bright and mature for her age speaking five languages both families opposed the marriage and they were married in a civil ceremony although they later held a church ceremony Teresa was universally held to be very attractive and charming and was very successful in society but among his other faults Daniel sickles was a womanizer while he may have lied to Teresa about it he was not shy about it in public when in 1853 he sailed to England to be part of the U.S delegation with newly appointed Ambassador James Buchanan Teresa was not able to come along because their daughter Laura was considered too young to make an Atlantic Crossing so instead Dan brought a famous New York prostitute named Fanny White with whom he had a long time connection with him to England to the court of Saint James where he even introduced her to the Queen of England when pressed by a friend over his indiscretions with women he wrote in a letter I have said to you before that I do not deem it a wise course nor approve of it nor recommend it to any friend but I have adopted it it is mine and I will follow it come what may sickles not only regularly kept with prostitutes but engaged in many affairs with both married and unmarried women after returning from London sickles served in the New York State Legislature his political responsibilities and his womanizing often kept him away from Teresa and Laura and letters from the time suggest that Teresa felt neglected but in 1856 sickles was elected to congress Teresa only 20 years old and described as young pretty and very stylish moved with him to Washington D.C it was in Washington DC at the 1857 inauguration of sickle's old friend James Buchanan as 15th president of the United States that the sickles became acquainted with another well-connected politician and lawyer named Philip Barton key II Key's father Francis Scott Key was also a lawyer and during the War of 1812 while negotiating a prisoner exchange with the British was briefly held aboard the British ship HMS tonnet during the Battle of Baltimore he had penned a brief poem about the Battle called defense of Fort McHenry set to music the poem better known today as The Star-Spangled Banner was quite popular in the United States in the 1850s but would not officially become the national anthem until 1931. Francis Scott Key had a long career in law including his United States Attorney for the District of Columbia in addition to his famous father Philip Barton key II who usually went by Barton was the nephew of Roger Taney who was Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1836 to 1864. in 1857 Barton key was the district attorney for Washington DC a widower with four children he was often described as the handsomest man in Washington Society by all accounts sickle took a liking to key quickly and helped to ensure that he held onto his position under the new Administration as sickles was still often too busy to accompany Teresa to all the events of Washington Society he apparently encouraged her to attend with his new friend Barton their relationship over time became intimate Barton key and Teresa sickle started to be seen together in Washington a lot so much so that people began to talk but distracted by his political responsibilities and his own sexual Affairs Daniel sickle seemed not to notice the affair became more Brazen after sickle's re-election in 1858 he rented a house under an assumed name where he and Teresa would meet reportedly some of Keith's Associates warned him of the danger of his affair and the lack of care in which he conducted it but apparently did not dissuade the lovers but the affair couldn't stay hidden Forever on February 24 1859 sickles was opening the daily correspondence on his desk and in there was a yellow envelope that included a letter that was signed only with the initials RPG the letter told him about his wife's Affair informed him about the house that he had rented and concluded sir I assure you he has as much use of your wife as you have sickles waited a day to have an associate check out the claim but on the night of the 26th he confronted Teresa and extracted confession from her the note went into embarrassing detail including the detail that Mr key would stand in the park outside the sickle's house and wave a handkerchief when he wanted to meet it was thus not opportune for Mr key who didn't know that the affair had been uncovered that the very next day Dan sickles looked out his window to see Mr key standing in the park looking at their house waving his hanky sickles came a key in a rage and shouted key you scoundrel you have Dishonored my house you must die sickles pulled a derringer from his coat and shot in drinkee's hand key stepped forward and the two struggled for a moment and sickles dropped the gun but sickle shook free and pulled out another pistol unarmed he cried out don't murder me and through the only item he had with him a pair of opera glasses at sickles sickles responded by shooting key in the thigh sickles was yelling now attracting Witnesses Keith stumbled and said I'm shot falling to the ground he shouted Don't Shoot Me murder murder sickles pulled the trigger again but the gun misfired sickles cocked it another time and shot key in the chest at close range he then pointed at Key's head and pulled the trigger one more time intending a coup de grass but the gun again misfired Witnesses finally pulled him away before he could try another shot this all occurred on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of Lafayette Square in broad daylight within sight of the White House some bystanders carry key away to a nearby Tavern where a doctor would come running after hearing the shots examined him the bullet to the chest had punctured his liver and blood was filling his chest cavity he was drowning in his own blood the doctor F key if he had any last messages for his children but he was unable to respond he expired shortly thereafter Dan sickles went to the house of a friend a man named Jeremiah black who was the Attorney General of the United States and surrendered his pistol black summoned the police to take sickles to a magistrate at this point you might think things looked bad for Daniel sickles what with the murdering and unarmed Man In Cold Blood in front of witnesses and brought daylight a block from the White House that might even undo the career of a politically well-connected Congressman were it not for a Scottish woodturner named Daniel McNaughton in London in January of 1843 Mr McNaughton had shot a civil servant named Edward Drummond apparently thinking that he was the British prime minister Mr Robert peel it turns out that Mr McNaughton had delusions of persecution Mr McNaughton was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent the rest of his life in various asylums the standards created in his case became known as the McNaughton rules and were used as a precedent in many common-law countries including the United States they stipulate that every man is presumed to be sane and that to establish the defense on the ground of insanity it must be clearly proved that at the time of committing the act the party accused was laboring under such a defective reason from disease of the Mind as not to know the nature and quality of the ACT he was doing or if he did know it that he did not know what he was doing was wrong sickles hired multiple attorneys for his defense including Edwin Stanton a nationally renowned attorney and close associate of Attorney General black and of course the future U.S Secretary of War but Chief among sickle's legal team was James Topham Brady a renowned New York criminal attorney and part of the Tammany Hall Circle who had ever only lost one criminal case while much of the public was sympathetic to sickles the case was very challenging the defense team used a novel Twist of the insanity defense and the McNaughton rules that of temporary insanity arguing that sickles was so overcome by news of the affair that he temporarily was unable to distinguish right from wrong in fact the public opinion had turned in sickle's favor and Society reeled a Key's Behavior with a married woman and Teresa's moral turpitude ironic given sickle's history of womanizing the jury deliberated for just over an hour before declaring a verdict of not guilty the verdict met with wide National approval setting aside the relevance of the temporary insanity defense it's clear that sickles was treated differently throughout the process while he was in jail for example he was allowed to use the warden's office his meals were catered by a fine hotel and he was allowed open access to visitors which included for example the mayor of Washington DC and the U.S attorney general ironically sickles had killed the man who would usually prosecute the crime of murder in Washington DC the district attorney as it was a federal district his replacement was appointed by President Buchanan a political Ally and personal friend of Daniel sickles whom some claim had bribed a witness to the murder to leave town many argue the man he appointed as the new D.A Robert old was not up to the task of the prosecution for example it was very strange given the defense used that old failed to present evidence of sickle's own history of infidelity despite the initial public support for his acquittal sickles then did something that enraged the public he forgave Teresa and they remained buried until her death from tuberculosis in 1867. the public was angry because the entire defense argument had been that her actions were so unforgivable that Key's punishment was justified his reputation in tatters sickles decided not to run for re-election to Congress and once again a lesser man's career might have been destroyed but shortly thereafter in 1861 the U.S Civil War started and Daniel sickles would again rise to national attention this time as a major general in the Union Army one that unsurprisingly was surrounded by controversy The Saga of Daniel sickles would continue [Music] [Applause] [Music] I have sometimes been asked as the history guy why we remember bad people and bad actions I mean isn't there some history that doesn't deserve to be remembered to me the simple answer that it's history is enough but there are other reasons as well one of the primary reasons that we learn history is as a cautionary tale we remember bad people and bad actions because we don't we don't want to repeat them sometimes it's that a bad person is so good at being bad that it just makes you wonder what they might have done if they turned their life towards different Pursuits and sometimes it's just a good story a ripping yarn that reminds us that history does not have to be boring and I guess all of the above apply to the life of Jefferson Smith a scoundrel a very bad man and then a man whose history deserves to be remembered Jefferson Randolph Smith II was born in Georgia 1860. his father was a lawyer and his family was wealthy he developed the manners of a southern gentleman but the family wealth was lost in the Civil War and his alcoholic father struggled to support the family they moved around winding up in Texas in 1875. at just 16 Jeff Smith drove cattle down the Chisholm Trail to Abilene he was apparently quite capable but cattle drives are very hard work the end of one drive He Came Upon a man who was doing the shell game it's a simple game that uses three Walnut shells and a dried pea but the pee under one of the shells and move them around and the players bet on where the p is versions of the shell game go back at least to ancient Greece while it appears to be gambling it's actually a type of confidence trick or con the game operator called a sharp uses sight of hand to move the P the better always loses the game is not as simple as it appears normally these are careful play to not get caught but it depends upon the sharp earning the audience's confidence often distracting them with their speech sometimes conspirators are used to make the game appear real such people are called shills sometimes the sharp allows a player to win occasionally to make the game appear real sometimes the game itself is a distraction and the player's pocket is picked while they are distracted good sharps are skilled at getting players to choose wrong and goading them into betting more the man took all the Smith Trail money but instead of getting angry Smith cajoled him into teaching him the trade Smith was a good fit for a confidence man well not necessarily handsome his genteel Manor in southern accent were disarming and he had a silver tongue he had great dexterity and a sharp wit and he would come to master the trade the newspaper the San Francisco call would later save him there is not a trick known to confidence man in which Smith is not an expert he made an early living on the bread and butter of the trade the shell game a similar game called three-card Monty or just cheating at poker using marked cards he was good at it he would use shills accomplices to make the games look real and get people to up their bets but these kinds of cons called short cons meaning fast swindles had their limits confidence man had to move on quickly before locals became wise to their tricks or too angry at their losses it was an itinerant life Smith spent years moving from town to town mastering his trade but he found new opportunities in the Colorado town of Leadville when Jeff Smith arrived in Leadville around 1885 it was a busy silverbunning town Rough and Tumble Town had already attracted famous gamblers like Doc Holliday and Alice Ivers known as poker Alice being a Boom Town Leadville was a wild place that while not complete without Law and Order was largely Untamed the advantage of a town like Leadville is that it was always getting a new influx of minors seeking their Fortune a con man could find new suckers without having to leave town by some accounts it was in Leadville that Smith learned and then perfected the Khan for which he is most famous the soap swindle the game was fairly simple Smith offered passers-by a chance to buy soap at a very high price five dollars a bar claiming that he had put some money 50 or even 100 bills in the packaging of some of the bars a person can buy a bar of soap for five dollars with a Chance of striking it rich and if they don't find money at least they'll have soap this game works much like the shell game shills are used to make it appear real and once they see the money the suckers buy up all the soap at far more than its value Smith was so associated with that particular con that it earned him his nickname when he was finally arrested for the Swindle in Leadville the deputy sheriff who arrested him was so flustered by the crowd of angry people who had been swindled that he forgot to ask smithy's first name and so on the arrest warrant simply wrote soapy the nickname Soapy Smith stuck but the arrest marked the end of the scam in Leadville and soapy had to move on he became determined to find a place where a confidence man could operate without being constantly forced to move on his goal was not just to play the con but to build a network of fellow comms thugs bribed and course officers and officials that allowed him to operate without fear of arrest he found that place in Denver Colorado in Denver Smith built a gang that slowly took over the city's criminal element for all the scams both short and long half the money went to soapy he used the money not just to bribe police judges and elected officials by 1889 newspapers claimed he was brought in both the mayor and the chief of police but they also had people like Bankers on his payroll who would help him to identify wealthy targets for their scams his game did not just include a wide array of grifters but also people skilled at finding and steering potential victims to the various scams the steerers used a number of tools including so-called grip men grip men had through years of practice and research learned the hand signals of various lodges and secret orders that were common in America using those they could gain a person's trust and then send them off to a dishonest Casino or one of several businesses that were fronts for various scams a victim of such a man later described how one of Sophie's grip men Drew him into a scam where he lent money to a stranger I just entered the Knights of pythius one of the strangers on my pin and gave me the grip of the order I felt very brotherly the gang also kept Barbers on the payroll and Barbers not only played their own short con a bait and switch where they promised a cheap shave and cut and ran the prices up with extra amenities but they would also struck up conversations with new customers if they found out things suggesting the man had money to take they would cut a small notch in the back of their hair that soapy steers could recognize by some accounts this was the origin of using the term Mark to refer to the Target of a crime Sophie managed to keep the scams to a level that didn't draw too much attention he was always a supporter of Law and Order as long as it kept away all crime but his own he built Community Trust via donations to many causes and events and as his influence grew more gang members came to him he maintained their loyalty by providing his using his connections that they got arrested always paying their bail and attorney costs another bit of Smith's personality emerged he could be randomly generous donations to widows and orphans funds or to build churches may have been to build trust with Community to protect his rackets but if he ran into someone on the street it was down and out he might buy them a meal or a new coat one reporter would actually clash with Smith recalled seeing him in the street Smith noticed a man's hat was worn and bought him a new one when he asked why Sophie said that he had won some money gambling he was on his way to the bank to deposit it and was trying to spend as much as possible before he got there it might be that Sophie Smith was naturally generous or maybe he just hated to save money but author Stanley sourline speculated in his 2018 book one trick too many that it might have had to do with a Superstition that's common among confidence man and often attributed to the famous Riverboat swindler Canada Bill Jones if you help out someone who's truly in need the Superstition goes you will be rewarded 100 fold that Superstition is called Bill's luck while Smith was not generally an unpleasant man the Lancaster News of Lancaster South Carolina described him as a most genial and affable crook he also had a temper he was not afraid of violence he was known to have been involved in numerous fights and altercations with other gamblers or victims of his scams a November 1888 edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican reported on a near gunfight in Denver between Smith and a gambler named Pomeroy when Pomeroy drew a gun on Sophie the newspaper reported the latter did not appear to be frightened and pulled his gun from his Hip Pocket the newspaper concluded what might have happened had not bystanders seized the two men and disarmed them the danger of his temper was demonstrated in 1889 a newspaper editor named John arkins who had been a colonel during the Civil War began a crusade against Sophie's corruption Arkansas went so far as to point out where Smith's family resided and since soapy and a large gang member called banjo Parker attacked Arkansas at the Rocky Mountain news so if he beat the colonel nearly to death with a weighted cane Smith was charged with attempted murder but a friendly judge gave him an affordable bail of a thousand dollars so if he paid bail and skipped town the gang had gotten too Brazen reformers were starting to take over the government in Denver and so Smith moved his family to St Louis and laid low but without Sophie in charge the criminal element in Denver became more violent the reform wave subsided and he was quietly asked to come back when he returned Kim even more brazen so I want to explain that Smith's gambling establishments were so dishonest that when he was accused of building customers and contributing to the city's moral decline he replied that his operation so cheated people that it served as an educational tool to break them of their gambling habit anything that you see sopian is getting took advantage of a silver boom in the Colorado mountain town of creed using Lessons Learned in Denver he quickly took over the town's criminal element in April 1892 issue of the Sioux City Journal described soapy raising a gang to force some Sioux City gamblers from setting up a gambling establishment the confrontation led to a gunfight in the Sioux City crew quickly left town Sobe acted the leading citizen even bringing on his sister's husband a noted Texas Lawman is Town Marshall he brought the Lawless town to heal reducing Street violence while allowing Sophie and his band to scam the newcomers hoping to strike it rich for every dime they had in April 1892 edition of the Topeka newspaper Kansas farmer described how Creed worked Sophie Smith was a very bad man indeed and hired at least 12 men to lead the prospector with a little money or the Tinder photo had just arrived up to the numerous tables in his Gambling Saloon where they were robbed in various ways and so openly that they deserve to lose all that was taken from them as the Creed boom slowed Smith went back to Denver where he became involved in a fight between reformist Colorado governor Davis Hansen Waite and officials at the Denver fire and police boards when weight fired two of the board members in an attempt to overturn corruption and put it into illegal gambling it sparked a confrontation the disgruntled officials barricaded themselves in City Hall and wake deployed the state militia the matter was decided in the courts without Bloodshed but Smith had in the crisis managed to have been deputized as part of a special police force called up by the mayor of Denver to defend City Hall the reform-minded governor started shutting down Denver's illegal gambling but Smith managed to even benefit from that as a special Deputy he would raid his own underground gambling establishments forcing the customers to flee leaving the money that they had bet behind but there was another opportunity about to open up in 1896 gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory soapy saw the draw of minders the remote territory as a golden opportunity as the newspaper of the San Francisco call described it then he went to Alaska and from the moment of his arrival there his record was one of crime and violence sopian members of his gang moved to Skagway a muddy Boom Town port in Alaska that was one of the few gateways to the Klondike it was nearly Lawless in disputed Territory between the U.S and Canada and bustling with hordes of adventurers hoping to strike it rich all the men that Sophie and his gang hope to separate from their money he used all the tricks he'd learned in Denver he became a leading citizen befriended local businessman donated to Civic causes and was charitable to the poor even if he was the reason that they were poor newspapers branded him the uncrowned king of Skagway his game fleece the crowds with shell games and three-card Monty his steers met them at the Docks posing as ministers or grizzled veteran minors offering advice they lived in the Soapy's gambling parlor or one of his dishonest businesses once you got off the boat you could go to the telegraph office and for just five dollars Telegraph your family that you had made it there safely if you were willing to wait around for another five dollars you could wait and hear their reply which would sometimes ask for money for some sort of emergency at home and for a course a small fee you could wire money to the family it was all fake one of Sophie's scams the telegraph wires just ran into the bay Telegraph didn't actually reach Skagway until 1901. those who complained had little recourse the only long town was one U.S Marshal and he was on Soapy's payroll when a vigilance committee arose to threaten his operation he raised an even larger Law and Order society and intimidated them away when the Spanish-American War started he created a local militia with him at its head on July 4th 1898 he wrote at their head in the town parade but the confidence man's gang took a step too far when they robbed a minor named John Douglas Stewart three days later Stewart was one of the first of the Klondike miners to be heading back to the U.S having actually struck it rich the gang parted him from his sack of goal by tricking him into a game of three card Monty when he pulled at his sack of gold dust a gang member simply grabbed it and ran away this theft after so many upset the town for a specific reason robbing a successful Miner was different than taking some greenhorn's stake if word got out that miners who had found gold were being robbed in Skagway the men about to return home might choose a different route depriving Skagway of their business on the evening of July 8th when a group of Vigilantes met Sophie took a rifle and went to confront them he was denied entry by Frank H Reed the town surveyor the accounts differ as to what happened next neither man seems to have had deadly intent but after a short argument Smith shot read through the groin with his rifle and Reed shot Smith through the heart killing him instantly Smith's last words were reported to have been for God's sake don't shoot Reed died 12 days later he was treated like a hero by the people of Skagway who built a monument at his grave site as for Sophie Smith many people just want to Chuck his corpse in the bay they finally did hold a ceremony but the Methodist and Baptist Minister refused to officiate the town wouldn't even let him be buried in consecrated ground he's buried just outside the cemetery his gang was rounded up and either arrested or run out of town it was a stunning reversal of Fortune for the man who had led the Fourth of July parade just four days earlier both Reeds and Smith graves are now visited by tourists in Skagway the character of Sophie Smith has been in several films in the 1941 Clark Gable film Honky Tonk was based on a biography of Smith although the studio was not allowed to use his name as a surprising Legacy there is a charity costume ball had every year in Hollywood called the Soapy Smith party and if you want a real Legacy you can hire soapy Smith's great grandson Jeff Smith to give you a talk about his famous ancestor about whom he is an expert he's written a book and hopes to produce a feature film and then it's kind of hard to Define what kind of lesson we should take from the life of Sophie Smith well he was a complicated man he was also generally described as a scoundrel and a very bad man certainly his story is a ripping yarn it's just fun to hear and his violent death a cautionary tale about the inevitable consequences of a life of crime newspapers at the time said of him he died with his boots on perhaps for someone like Jefferson Smith that's exactly the Epitaph that he would have wanted I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide check out our community on the historyguyguild.locals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on Cameo and if you'd like more episodes of Forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 488,220

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: i9i9NS0sSnQ

Length: 56min 48sec (3408 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 06 2023