Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Robert Burns put it best when he wrote, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. We prepare and we scheme, but inevitably it's not enough. We usually end up right back where we started. Guillaume le gentil knew about making plans.
Born in seventy five and Normandy, France. Guillaume's original plan had been to join the clergy. Then he looked up to the stars. One years earlier, Galileo Galilei had done the same and observed the Moon, the Milky Way, and much more. Through his own telescope. Geo managed to observe
dwarf galaxies and constellations. His discoveries gained him a reputation in the scientific community, which helped earn him a spot on a special astronomical project, the goal to measure the distance from the Earth to the Sun. It was commissioned by a Russian scientist named Mikhail Lomonosov and the French Academy of Sciences, Lomanesov figured out that by observing how Venus traveled between the Sun and a superior planet from different locations on Earth, it could be possible to measure
the distance to the Sun. This phenomenon was known as the Transit of Venus. Seventeen sixty one would be the date of the next transit, and Guillaume was tasked with viewing it from India. He knew of a French owned territory on the southeastern coast called Ponda Cherry that would be a perfect spot for watching the transit. Yom started out in Paris in March of seventeen sixty and traveled across the Indian Ocean to the Aisle de France four
months later. He would have liked to have begun the second leg of his trips soon after, but the rest of the world had other plans. As he reached Aisle de France, Britain and France started fighting in what would come to be known as the Seven Years War, so it wouldn't be until February of seventeen sixty one that Guillaume found passage on a military ship headed toward the
Indian coast. However, more complications presented themselves. The closer he got to June sixth, the date when the transit the Venus would occur, for one monsoon season was approaching. Strong winds set his ship adrift in the Indian Ocean for five weeks, and that's when the second obstacle came his way. By the time he finally reached India, he found out that the British had captured Ponda Cherry, preventing him from entering the town. Defeated, he stayed on the ship as
he returned to the Isle de France. The transit passed above right on schedule, but Guillaume and his instruments couldn't track it properly due to the rocking of the waves. But he had another idea. The next transit would occur eight years later, in June of seventeen sixty nine. Rather than try to complete his journey from scratch again, he decided to stay on the aisle close to the viewing spot. This time. How her, it was Manila that would provide
the best viewing angle of the transit. He set out on May Onet of seventeen sixty six and stepped foot in Manila three months later. His welcome there was less than hospitable. Though practically run out of town by the governor, he fled back to pond a cherry, which was once again under French control. He was greeted with a feast and the opportunity to choose the ideal spot from which to watch the transit. June was fast approaching. He set up making his makeshift observatory in the ruins of a
building lost during the war. The governor joined him on the night before the transit, and the two gazed up at a star filled sky. It was so clear they could see several of Jupiter's moons through the telescope. The transit wouldn't occur until the following day, when the sun was up, so he bid the governor good nights and went to sleep. Hours later, he awoke something was bothering him. The sun had yet to rise, but he could sense a problem with his plan. It wasn't the telescope, which
was working properly. Still, he had a feeling, despite the years away from home he had spent traveling for this one specific purpose, despite all the planning and the hardships that he had faced to witness Venus's migration across the sun. Guillaume le Gentil never accounted for the one thing that could prevent it all a cloudy day. A little bit
of hope can go a long way. People in poverty often hope for a way out, an act of God to pluck them from their situation and drop them into a more comfortable life, no more hardships, no more wondering where their next meal is going to come from. Oscar Hartzell wanted to make sure his fellow Iowans never had to struggle to pay their rent or their bills ever again. In he'd learned about a large sum of money owned
by the British government. It had been part of Sir Francis Drake's estates and had spent the last three hundred years collecting interest, bringing the total value of the unclaimed money to around one hundred billion dollars. Hertzel had an idea. He knew he could sue the British government to release the funds if enough of Drake's heirs came forward to collect the inheritance. He put out a call to anyone in Iowa with the last name of Drake in order
to get the money owed to them. However, they had to invest their own with Hertzel, who would act on their behalf in the lawsuits. He welcomed investments of all sizes, promising massive returns. For every one dollar invested, that person would get back another five hundred. He also promised the English city of Portsmouth as part of that package, yeah the entire city. Hope sprung eternal throughout Iowa as farmers, families, and folks from all walks of life dug into their savings.
It seemed everyone wanted a chance at a slice of that pie. Hertzel collected investments from tens of thousands of hard working Iowans. When the money started to dry up, he brought in his scope and invited people from other states to invest, even folks whose last names weren't Drake. With a tidy sum under his belt, Hartzel felt that he had enough to take to the British government and
claim what was due to his fellow Iowans. In nineteen four, he moved his whole operation to England, where he immediately got to work. Once he got there, though he ran into some hurdles. For one, the British Home Office claimed that there had never been any estate belonging to Sir Francis Drake, but Hartzel knew the real story. The money had been placed the name of one of Sir Francis's descendants, Drexel Drake, and Hartzel was well within his rights to
claim it. The more he fought, the more it cost him. Before he'd left Iowa, Hartzel had tasked a few people there to act as his collection agents. Whenever he'd ask for more money to cover his legal costs, they would solicit previous investors who were only too happy to oblige. The month dragged on, and Hartzel was up to his eyeballs in legal proceedings and paperwork. At least that's what
he told everyone back home. Instead, he was living the life of a wealthy man off everyone else's hard earned money. There had never been a government plot to keep the Drake estate from American hands, because there had never been any estate to begin with. The whole thing had been
a con. In fact, it wasn't even Hartzel's con. In nineteen fifteen, two men had approached him with the same scheme, asking him to invest six thousand dollars, which they would turn into six million once Sir Francis Drake's funds were released. Hartzel saw through their game and declined, but the experience did give him a bright idea, which he spun to his own advantage. What's more, even after news of his fraud came to light, there were still people back in
Iowa who continued to send him money. They refused to give up hope, even if it meant going bankrupt in the process. Hartzel was sent back to the United States in nineteen thirty three, where he was tried and convicted a fraud, his sixty eight thousand dollars in legal fees covered by donations from his faithful investors. He continued to run his scam from prison for the next ten years.
Hartzel died there in jail, but with the help of his agents on the outside, he managed to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars, all of it from folks just looking for a happy ending to their story, no matter what the cost. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works, I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.