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. Bishop Joseph lan Ye was told that something terrible would happened, but he didn't find out until it was too late. He had been sitting at his desk going over some letters when he spotted one standing out from the rest. The envelope was black around its edges, and it was sealed in black wax.
The Archduke's royal seal pressed into it. Joseph knew who had sent it immediately he tore it open and read its contents. The letter he held was a premonition from an old friend. This friend was concerned that he and his wife would be killed in a political assassination traveling in Sara Jevo. The letter had come from Archduke Frantz Ferdinand himself and was dated June at three thirty a
m Also tucked into the envelope was a photograph. It depicted a crowd gathered near the Archduke and his wife Sophie, who were seated in the back of their car. Across from them sat a general while the driver and another officer occupied the front seat. Two men with guns had stepped forward from the crowd and fired into the car, killing the Archduke and his wife, and then Joseph woke up. The whole thing had been a dream. There had been no letter, no photograph, but it had all seemed so
real to him he was even crying. He looked at the clock, which read three thirty a m. Leaping out of bed, he ran to his desk and recorded everything that had happened in his dream, followed by hours reciting his rosary. His servants found him just before six am and asked if he was okay. He was not okay. Joseph told the servants to find his mother and the house guests that had been staying with him, and for everyone to meet him in the chapel. He would hold
mass for their royal highnesses. After mass, he sat down and sketched the scene from his dream. He drew the street, the crowds, and the car, paying close attention to the people inside and how they had been positioned in the photograph. He then sent the sketch, along with his story of the dream, to his brother. For the rest of the day, he watched the clock in fear, wondering waiting. A knock on his door startled him. He opened it to find
a messenger holding a telegram from Vienna. Joseph looked at the clock again. It was half past three in the afternoon. The telegram brought the news that he had feared the most. Upon entering their car, which had been specifically built just for them, someone threw a grenade at the Archduke and Sophie. It flew over the vehicle and exploded, injuring royal staff behind them. The couple, however, had not been harmed. Ferdinand and Sophie laid at the Governor's residence in Sara Jevo
before venturing back out. They wanted to visit those who had been hurt in the blast before they left the city, but their instructions hadn't been given to the drivers in their caravan. Realizing their mistake, the chauffeur's backtrack to a side street and stopped. They've been blocked from moving any further. A young Serbian nationalist of only nineteen had been sitting in a cafe across the street and recognized the famous couple.
This was his chance. He got up and walked over to the car, where he pulled out a pistol and fired at the Archduke and his wife. Ferdinand died within minutes, Sophie passed away before the driver could reach the hospital. The scene was almost exactly how Joseph had envisioned it in his dream. Ferdinand and Sophie had been seated together in the car, which had stalled on a narrow street.
The only difference had been the lack of a second shooter during the real life attack, Joseph was questioned about his premonition, as were his brother Edward, a Jesuit priest, and other witnesses. He told everyone confirmed that they learned of the dream hours before the actual murder took place. The sketch only added to the mystery. Ferdinand's death hit Joseph pretty hard. Not only had he been a supporter of the archdukes, but Ferdinand had been a student of
his as a young boy. The bullets that had killed the royal couple had been heard around the world, and in many ways were the first shots of World War One, and Bishop Joseph Lanny had heard them before anyone else. Put on a uniform, act like you own the place, and you'd be surprised how many people rushed to fall in line. Famously, the Milgram experiments tested a subject's willingness to follow an authority figures instructions, even if it meant
harming someone else. At Stanford University in nineteen seventies, a prison experiment was set up where one group pretended to be officers and others acted as prisoners. The exercise quickly turned sour, and the student guards became authoritarian tyrants, abusing the student prisoners, who accepted their abuse willingly. Con Artist Friedrich Wilhelm Voit also knew the effect the uniform would
have on certain people. In nineteen o six, Voit had just been kicked out of Berlin after serving fifteen years in prison four attempt at burglary. He tried to make an honest living working for a local shoemaker once he was released, but his criminal record made him an unwanted entity in town. The local police forced him out. What they didn't know was that his supposed honest living hadn't
been so honest. While he'd been employed by the shoemaker, Voit was also working on a new scheme he'd been scouring used clothing shops, buying and assembling pieces from different captains uniforms to make one for himself. Just a week after leaving his job with a shoemaker, Voit donned his make shift uniform and headed to a local army barracks. Though his uniform was comprised of pieces of other uniforms, it was convincing enough, made more so by Void's confidence.
Wearing it, he convinced a sergeant and four other soldiers to follow him, which they did before he told the sergeant to leave and the soldiers to stay. Voits then recruited another six soldiers from the shooting range. All the while no one ever asked why they simply followed orders, voits uniform held immense power over them. He commanded the soldiers to accompany him by train to Copennick, a small town that was part of the southeastern portion of Berlin.
It was here where his elaborate plan would finally be set in motion. He took the soldiers to Copenick City Hall and had them cover all the exits. The local police were brought in and instructed to arrest both the town's treasurer von Waldburg as well as Mayor gay Or Glander Hunts. Void charged them with corruption of the town's
financial records. Longer Hunts demanded to see the warrant for us of rest, Voit pointed at his soldiers and said, these are my authority before continuing on with his plan. He collected over four thousand marks as evidence, then told his soldiers to take the two town officials to a separate facility for interrogation. Meanwhile, Voits and the money left town in two carriages. He boarded a train and changed
out of his captain's uniform into regular clothing. Having gotten away with one of the most elaborate and fearless heists in history, but Voids had made a grave mistake in his planning. After the details of the incident came to light, a reward was posted for information leading to his capture. Voits had inadvertently spilled the details of his heist to his former prison cell mate, who was only too happy
to claim the reward for himself. Wilhelm Voight was arrested a few days later and charged with forgery, wrongful imprisonment, and impersonating an officer. Surprisingly, these were all lesser crimes than the one that he had committed fifteen years earlier. As a result, he was sentenced to only four years in prison. The press and the public found themselves amused
by his antics, calling him the Captain of Kopenick. German Kaiser Wilhelm the Second pardon him after only two years, presumably because Voits had proven that the German military was a force to be respected and obeyed no matter what. British papers found it laughable that all the authoritarian German stereotypes have been proven to be true, and Voids himself finally managed to turn his life around and make an honest living. He became a kind of celebrity all over Germany.
Playwrights put on shows about his caper which he attended, and signed autographs for the audience. He wrote a memoir detailing his account of the heist as well. Voits eventually settled in Luxembourg, where he once again resumed work as a shoemaker. With the help of a wealthy dowager, he managed to buy a house for himself and retire before
passing away in nine two. Since then, Voit has become a folk legend of sorts, a reminder of the power that someone in uniform has over people and why the old adage still holds today but absolute power corrupts absolutely. 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. Yeah,