Duke of Hazzard

too late. Those who have been wrongfully convicted can't get back that time, and the ones who are executed, well, it's not like they get a do over. At the turn of the century, before forensic science became a standard part of police procedure, a man named will West was sent to Leavenworth Prison in New York. But clerk checking him in took a series of measurements and checked them against his current lineup of prisoners. He found a match,

a man named William West. The only problem was that the William West on record was already serving a life sentence for murder for the past two years. The will West in front of him, whose measurements equaled those of the other Mr West, almost exactly had never been convicted of a crime before. The clerk checked his data again, examining will West's bone structure, how far apart his eyes were, the shape of his mouth, everything down to the last detail,

and this man was practically the convicted murderers twin. As far as the clerk could tell, they were the same person. The confusion wouldn't be sorted out for another few years, when fingerprint analysis would prove the two will Wests to be two completely different people. But perhaps the strangest case of mistaken identity occurred much earlier. During the Napoleonic Wars, happened off the coast of Hartlepool, a small town in northeastern England. A French ship was sinking and the people

of Hartlepool were unsure of what to do. After all, that ship could have been a decoy or a kind of trojan horse waiting to be accepted onto English shores. But the locals didn't really have to worry about much. Only one survivor washed up on the beach, still clad in his military uniform. He was found, but rather than giving him the help he needed, the residents took him in as a prisoner of war. They had never seen a Frenchman before, and used the satirical cartoons they had

read about to guide their identification. Those cartoons often depicted the French as furry creatures with sharp claws and long tails. In a way, they looked a bit like monkeys, which was bad news for the castaway who washed ashore because he was a monkey. He'd been dressed as one of the soldiers, probably to amuse the crew on the ship, but the locals had no idea the animal had been entertainment. To them, he must have been a French spy sent to obtain information about their town. So they did the

only logical thing they could think of. They put the monkey on trial, since it couldn't answer any of the questions or defend itself in any way. It was eventually found guilty of being a spy, and the townsfolk didn't waste any time doling out justice to the interloper. They took it to the town square and fitted it for a noose, hanging the animal for all to see. At least that's the legend according to modern day residents of the town. That is, there's an alternate version of the

story that's much darker. Cannons on military ships were often primed with gunpowder by adolescent boys called powder monkeys. It's possible that one of the boys had made it off the ship only to find himself at the center of an international conspiracy. But it's not like the town is eager to own up to the more macabre version of the tail. They're sticking with the monkey, And if you attend to Hartlepool United football match, you'll probably hear the

crowd chant who hung the monkey. The team's mascot is even a monkey named Angus. In fact, the town is so dedicated to the legend that Stuart Drummond, a two thousand two candidate for mayor of town, dressed up as Angus the Monkey and promised free bananas for school children as part of his platform, and the voters liked him enough to elect him to office not once but three times. Sadly, though,

the children never got their free bananas. John Montague, the second Duke of Montagu, accomplished a lot in his short forty years on this earth. During the early seventeen hundreds, he governed the islands of St. Vincent and St. Lucia. He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and he helped build the Foundling Hospital, a first combination medical center and children's home in London. He was also father to five children, three of whom died quite young.

In fact, he outlived all of them, which might explain Montague's peculiar quirk. He kind of let his inner child run his life. You see, Montague love to be entertained. More than that, he loved to entertain, to joke around with friends and family. He was known to playfully lure people into his garden and then squirt them with water, or to invite guests to stay in his home only to put itching powder in their beds. Whether that was more entertaining for him than the people staying with him,

well that remains to be seen. But he wanted more. He wanted to be enthralled by something he'd never seen before, something astounding he'd heard of. A man called the bottle conjuror a performer who could do things most people only dreamt about. For example, if someone was wearing a mask during the show, the bottle conjurer could name them without hesitation, even if he had never met them before. He would then ask an audience member to name someone they knew

who had passed away. For the next several minutes, he would become the deceased person, talking with that audience member as if he was their loved one and had returned from the dead. The Bottle Conjurer was a wonder. He could look at someone and tell them their deepest, darkest secrets from a past life. He could take a walking stick from a random person in the crowd and play it like any musical instrument, all while singing perfectly at the same time. And then there was the reason for

his name. His most impressive feet would always come later in the evening, when he would present a simple wine bottle to the audience. Someone would be invited on stage to examine the bottle to make sure there was nothing funny or strange about it, and once it was confirmed to be a normal tavern bottle, the Conjurer would place it on a table in the middle of the stage, lean in, squeeze his entire body inside of it, and

then sing for the crowd. And Lord Montague wanted to see this for himself, and he wanted as many people as possible to see it with him, so he put an advertisement in the local newspaper on the night of January seventeen forty nine, the Bottle Conjurer would appear at the theater in the Haymarket and perform all the amazing feats described. The show sold out. The theater was packed that night as people waited for the Conjurer button. By showtime,

he still hadn't appeared. Minutes passed and the crowd grew increasingly agitated. Ushers and management assured the audience that if the Conjuror didn't begin soon, they would all be refunded their money, but that didn't help. Everyone had come to see a show unlike anything they could have imagined. Eventually, someone in the audience, who felt that they had waited long enough, shouted for double the prices the Conjurer will go into to a pint size bottle, and that did it.

Everyone leapt to their feet and anger. They knew that they had been had and no refund was going to satisfy them. Spectators started pulling down curtains and ripping their seats out of the floor. They tossed everything into a giant bonfire outside the theater and watched it all burn. One audience member managed to get away with the ticket receipts, so no one was able to get their money back.

In the end, however, despite their protests and rage, no one could figure out who had placed the ad or why. Some names were floated around as possible perpetrators, but all of them denied it until one day when it was revealed that it had all been John Montague, who had promised everyone a show featuring the bottle conjuror apparently it had all started been the Duke, talking with another nobleman,

had made a bet. He wagered that if he advertised an impossible spectacle for the public to witness, it would draw and I quote, enough fools in London to fill a playhouse. That nobleman took him up on that bet and lost, and the Duke of Montague turned the English into a punchline for years to come, much to their dismay. And I guess that means the old saying really is true. Some people just can't take a joke. 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.