Paws and Order: 1920s Dog On Trial

to throw you out of my house. But that's why I started a podcast, so I could tell random people, strangers, fans, people who like history about some of my special interests and then relating that to something that happened in history. So there was a reason I told you. But I have become quite fascinated by this politician, not because he aligns with my value or seems like a good person or is attractive, but because he is absolutely insane to me.

He is a Republican, and I do think this is something that we could agree on on both sides of the aisle, that Republicans sometimes seem to be playing cartoon versions of themselves, you know, like they seem like a caricature of what an actual Republican is. They're just crazy, kind of like Trump obviously, Marjorie Taylor Green. But the guy that I've been thinking about a lot, his name

is Jim Justice. And already the name sounds like a soap opera character or someone who's in the Marvel Cinematic universe. But Jim Justice. He is the governor of West Virginia. And he's quite a large guy in width and in height, and he goes by Big Jim, or as we politically correct liberals like to call him, plus size James. And

he's done some shady stuff as a politician. Like I was talking to one of my friends about him, and she used to work at the Southern Poverty Law Center and she was like, oh, yeah, we had to deal with that guy a lot. Some things he did is that when he ran for governor, he ran as a Democrat, but then once he was in office, he was like, psych actually I'm still a Republican. He was a billionaire emphasis on was no longer and in a very Trumpian style, he's refused to pay his vendors or his taxes. He

owns this really gaudy resort. His family owns another one hundred businesses and also several coal mines. Remember this is West Virginia. But it's not even him who I'm super obsessed with, because to make him even more cartoonish, Big Jim has a sidekick, specifically a dog who he brings to almost all of his public appearances. And that dog's name is Baby Dog, or as Jim Justice calls her, Baby Dog. But anyway, Baby Dog is a sixty pound bulldog,

overweight and in bread, just like Big Jim. And here's how Big Jim has described Baby Dog a little rascal who looks like a brown watermelon that loves everybody. Now, if anyone ever calls you a brown watermelon, run baby Dog. Sorry, are you guys not obsessed with Baby Go look at Wikipedia right now. She's got a Wikipedia page. And yes, she's a bulldog and a woman. Women can do it all.

But truly, Baby Dog has become a fixture in West Virginian politics, and according to her Wikipedia, she loves Wendy's Chicken nuggets and hates Celery. She also loves Israel but hates the Jews. I added that part though I do imagine Big Jim taught her to bark at gay people or something. But anyway, don't worry Jim justice he did. He is no longer going to be the governor West Virginia. Don't worry. He got elected as a US senator, so even better for us. Also, this is crazy. Baby Dog

is actually Trump's backup nomination for Attorney General. Sorry, I'm having too much fun, but yes, Big Jim and Baby Dog. Doesn't that sound like characters in a chapter book series for kids? Like it's two fun loving outlaws who weirdly love the police. They have a slogan that's we don't get even we get evangelical. There's a recurring character named Jerry, short for jerry Mandering the Adventures a Big GYM and

Baby Dog. I feel like these books would have titles like Big Jim and Baby Dog punch a liberal in the throat, but yell free speech afterwards. So it's fine, Big Jim and Baby Dog revoke your green card even though you're a US citizen. And yes, these are the books that are replacing the gay ones at the school libraries.

This is the last book title. Big Jim and Baby Dog sell Big Jim's cold mind to the Russians, and the Russians are like, well, these aren't actually that profitable, so then they forced Jim to buy them back at a five hundred million dollar loss. That's actually not a book title, that just actually happened. But I don't want to just shit on Big Jim and Baby Dog. Big Jim has done some good things, like during the COVID nineteen pandemic, he encouraged people to get vaccinated and the

slogan was do it for Baby Dog. Because Big Jim's smart. He knows that in this country we won't get vaccinated for other people, screw them, But for a dog, we'll do just about anything. And I'm sorry if it comes off that I'm criticizing Baby Dog. You know it's not her fault that her tax evating former billionaire owner is a maga loving freak. She's not a bad dog, but she is a bad bitch, if you know what I'm saying. But there have been a lot of bad dogs throughout history. Wow,

look at that. The historical connection of my interest to history, so it's relevant to the pod. And one dog was so bad that he went on trial in California in nineteen twenty one for murder. Cue the theme song, This is American filth and I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you a filthy story from American history. This week's episode bad Dog, or, as Big Jim would say it, by your dog. I think I'm manic right now. That's fine. Every once in a while, it's a treat you guys,

get a manic episode. All right. It's the nineteen twenties, nineteen twenty one. We're in San Francisco, California, in the neighborhood of Ingleside Terrace. It was a peaceful neighborhood. These San Franciscans who lived here had nice, middle class houses, probably wholesome values, and families that included purebred cats and dogs. They ain't got none of that mutt filth in Ingleside Terrace. Oh no. But as we all know, it's sometimes the purest breeds that get led astray. So we're going to

the home of the mcmillans. The head of the household was Eaed McMillan. He was an automobile man, which I think is a fancy way for the newspapers to say that he fixed cars. He also liked to play golf. What an interesting guy. Most of the newspaper articles don't mention if he had a wife, or a child. Apparently these details weren't interesting enough to the newspapers, but the family member who was interesting to them was Dormy. Dormy was a dog, specifically an Airdale Terrier. This is the

largest of the terriers. These doggies have lean, poodle like bodies with the coloring of a German shepherd, but they have a distinctive terrier snout with a scruffy little beard. They kind of look like they're gonna man's plain, IPA's or cryptocurrency to you. And these dogs can get pretty big, up to fifty five pounds, almost as heavy as baby dog, but they're leaner and in this case a little bit meaner.

Dormy doesn't get a shit if you get vaccinated. Airdale Terriers have been used as war dogs, police dogs, but they're my merry trade is that they are hunting dogs. And there I there's the rub. Dormy was a hunter, and not just any hunter. He was also described as having a nervous temperament, and a nervous hunter that's the worst kind. If a nervous hunter gets riled up, who knows what he'll be capable of. He's gonna get overcome by emotion controlled by instinct and attack everything in sight.

As someone with a nervous temperament, That makes sense. You never know when I'm gonna go off. But some people in the Ingleside terrorist neighborhood went even further. They said, yeah, Dormy has this nervous temperament, but he's also an Airdale Terrier, which are morally corrupt racists. They were born and bred to hate cats. An ingle Side terrist. There is a a woman named Missus Ingles and she had a cat

called Sunbeam. Now, Sunbeam was a Persian. These Persian felines are fancy, sassy, flat faced, with long hair and sometimes snotty noses. And Sunbeam she was eight years old, which was pretty young for most Persian cats. A lot of Persian cats lived to be nineteen years old. But Sunbeam's life, in fact, all nine of her lives, were cut short because on December second, nineteen twenty one, Sunbeam was found dead in a vacant lot in the neighborhood. It was

a grizzly scene. She had obviously met her end with violence. Missus Ingles, I'm sure was devastated, but she wasn't the only devastated person. In that neighborhood, there was another family, the Woods, and they also had had a cat who

had been brutally murdered in the street. In total, fourteen cats had recently died, and the neighborhood bonded together and said their deaths were caused by none other than that airedale terrier Dormy, and somebody in that neighborhood, probably one of the people in the Wood family called the police saying, mister eaton McMillan, car and golfer man, he doesn't have control of his dog. Come arrest his ass and they did, but he was livid. He was like, I'm a guy

who fixes cars and plays golf. I have all the confidence in the world. This isn't my frickin' problem. But the neighborhood people were like, it is your problem. That's your frickin' dog. But McMillan was like, I ain't gonna do nothing about it. Then the neighborhood got even more mad and they actually filed a lawsuit against him. He received a notice that started the people of the state

of California to eaton McMillan. He and Dormy had been indicted, Dormy for being a public nuisance and murderer and McMillan for not doing nothing about it. McMillan refused to back down. He hired a criminal lawyer named James Brennan. A couple weeks later, McMillan and Brennan headed to the police court

and the courtroom was slammed. The room wasn't physically filled to the brim, but emotionally it was first with probably the ghostly bodies of cats floating around, and also with the anger of nine women, nine cat ladies specifically, The San Francisco Examiner reported that the room was filled with nine angry women, residents of Ingleside Terrace, who came prepared to swear that the defendant canine known as Dormy, had been responsible for a grand total of fourteen feline executions.

The lawyer Brennan saw in that moment that Millan had no chance of winning in this courtroom, so he demanded this. He said, I demand that my client, I mean rather clients because of the dog, be granted a jury trial. So the trial was set for December twenty first, nineteen twenty one. In the meantime, Brennan started canvassing for dog

people to be character witnesses for Dormy. And then on the other side, the cat people were banding together to fight for their felines lives so that they could rid Ingleside terrace of this bad dog once and for all. McMillan was up against a misdemeanor charge, but Dormy, well, he could be sentenced to permanent muzzling or death. Honestly, the stakes couldn't be higher. Be right back after these soothing advertisements, Now, is it odd for an animal to be on try well, Why, yes it is. We don't

do that anymore. But back then, in nineteen twenty one, it wasn't unprecedented. There had been many cases in the United States where animals had been put on trial. Of course, their human counterparts were also on trial, but they'd have animals in the courtroom, and sometimes they would be sentenced to death. For example, in seventeenth century Connecticut, a female pig a sal was put on trial and was accused

of killing a child. The pig was found guilty and sentenced to death, and at that point the authorities were like animals can be held accountable for criminal actions much like humans. Then in the nineteenth century there was the monkey trial where this monkey was accused of theft. And around that same time, in seventeen ninety one, a horse was put on trial in New Jersey after it was accused of causing a fatal accident. And just a few years before this case against Dormy, there was actual a

cat that was put on trial. This was in nineteen sixteen, where a cat was tried for allegedly causing destruction by killing valuable livestock. At this point in the twentieth century, people weren't really taken animal trial seriously. It was more of a humorous event, and that was the same tone as the Dormy case. It was humorous, it was a joke.

And some people think the reason the media covered this trial so much is because it was a response to the coverage of this other trial that had been going on. This one was very serious, very sad, very salacious. This actor, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, was charged with raping and killing Virginia rap during a party in San Francisco. This was covered everywhere, NonStop, all the time, and when Dormy started making headlines a couple months later, this was like comic relief, and boy

were the journalists having a great time covering this. Before the trial started, two of the experts who are going to be called to the stand wrote editorials for the San Francisco Examiner. There was the president of the San Francisco Cat Club and the president of the Pacific Coast Dog Fanciers Association. The president of the dog Association wanted to dispel the prevailing myth that airdales are evil hunting dogs. He wrote, we deny that airdales, individually or as a breed,

have an intent to injure cats. Their history is filled with chivalrous acts toward weaker animals. Cats In particular, this expert cited the case of jane An Airdale, who adopted an orphan kitten, also another dog named Rowdy, who would guard his owner's kitten and make sure their owner brought them food on time. See Airdale's Love Cats. The cat

expert was very diplomatic in her editorial. She said that whether Dormy was responsible for the tragic death of Sunbeam is a question for the jury to decide, But the expert did say that she didn't see how Dormy could claim something like self defense as Persian cats are quote intelligent and lovable and mark this well, they only fight when cornered. Of course, the cat expert did not want to implicate Sunbeam as the cause of her own death, but the expert did write, Persian cats often die through

their passionate love of cleanliness. In licking their beautiful coats, they sometimes swallow long hairs, which may cause death. The only remedy is to eat green grass with Sunbeam on the night of her alleged murder searching for green grass. Let the jury decide. Know what this is making me think the real guilty party is not a dog, not a cat, but in fact humans. Our hubris led us to breed flat faced, fluffy cats for our own pleasure, and that is what has led to the death of

even more cats than Dormy ever allegedly killed. We're the enemy, can you believe it? And before we get to the trial, I don't want you guys to think that I am biased against Dormy because he's a dog. I want you to know that I am biased against him because I am always on the side of kitty cats. Despite evidence, rationale, logic, I will always be a loyalist to the kitty cats, to the felines. Honestly, sounds like you should put me on trial. But the day of the trial arrived December

twenty first, nineteen twenty one. And while this trial was stupid, there were some actual legal questions to consider. Can a dog and master be held jointly lible? Has a cat which has denied a license have any rights? Has a dog any rights under the law? And so much as the code of Man holds a dog to be of insufficient intellect to imply responsibility for any action, can he be punished for such action? Can a dog's general reputation be attacked? Or can he be declared a public nuisance?

All legal important questions. Anyway, the trial begins. That cat expert and that dog expert give their testimonies, and the prosecutor, John Orcutt He summoned an array of witnesses who tore Dormy's reputation to shreds. Several witnesses from the neighborhood testified that Dormy had killed Sunbeams specifically, but as more and more witnesses took the stand, they claimed that Dormy had also killed their cats, and more than that, he wasn't just a cat killer. Dormy was also a public nuisance.

One person on the stand was like, yeah, whenever I drive past where he lives, he tries to attack my car. This person said quote, we tried to run him over and sorry we didn't. With all these witnesses, it was looking pretty bleak for Dormy. But Brennan McMillan, and Dormy's lawyer, was really good at his job and also at pooling antics. When it was his turn, he was like, all of these character assassinations are unfair. I think we should bring Dormy into the courtroom and see what he has to say.

So Brennan gave a cue and Dormy, along with twenty other dogs, came into the courtroom. Everyone was gasping and shrieking. Everyone rose to their feet and were like, what the heck is going on? Twenty dogs, some of them Ayredale's, some not just Roman free, some of them were even in the precipice of getting into dogfights. The prosecutor Orcut was like, what the hell are you doing? You gotta stop this menagerie. The witness on the stand at this

moment was miss Ingles herself. Remember Sunbeam was her cat. When all the dogs ran in, she was like, ugh, is the dog here, and that's when Brennan got her because amongst all of these dogs, she couldn't identify which was the one that had supposedly allegedly killed her cat. Brennan's point was made. He was like, look, all of these witnesses, they don't even know which one Dormy is. Ergo, how can you accuse that specific dog of killing all

these cats? And then Brennan also defending McMillan, Remember, he was like, that guy can't be guilty. He can't be punished for the action of a dog. That's unconstitutional. McMillan doesn't know the intent of his dog. He can't read his dogs. Mind, you, guys are insane even trying to prosecute this man. Another argument that Brennan made was that Dormy was a dog, and dogs in the city of San Francisco get licenses. Dogs are registered with the city government.

Cats at that time they did not get registered. And the point that Brendan was trying to make was like, look, because cats don't get registered and dogs do, that means cats matter less than dogs. Ergo, the rights of a dog supersede the rights of a cat. A cat is not even an entity. According to the government, So what does it matter that a dog kills one. Brennan then turned to the jurors and he said to them, you know, we gotta be pro dog here. Dogs have always had

affection for mankind. Cats they don't give a shit about it. Yes, they're evil, they hate us. Why would we be on their side? Yes, I hate this man right now, But it's fine. Brennan did a good job. He's a good lawyer. I'll give him that, though he does piss me off. All that shit he was talking about cats, very rude, but he did a good job. Because the jurors recessed for about twenty minutes, that was all the time they needed to decide. Dormy and McMillan were found not guilty.

And while this trial was like frivolous and silly and pretty dumb, it did set some legal precedents on the rights of doggies. One thing that this court case did is it said the president that a dog can have a trial by jury. Another one is that a dog can claim discrimination, a dog can summon witnesses. And also, because cats aren't licensed pets, they are the ones who are not allowed to roam freely. Dogs because they are registered.

Because they do have a license, they can roam around a neighborhood and attack cats at will because cats are less than dogs. What the court decided was that cats are kind of asking for it if they're outside. And Sunbeam's death, well, it was her own damn fault. When the verdict was read, Dormy was in the courtroom wagging his tail, and after the announcement, Dormy was released by a policeman. Dormy then tore across the room into the embrace of Eaton McMillan's two year old son Jack. What

happened to Dormy afterwards, we don't really know. Did he keep terrorizing his neighborhood. Did the mcmillans be like, maybe we shouldn't let him out without a leash? Did he kill more cats? Today? You won't find a doggie in the courtroom unless, of course, someone accuses Jim Justice of something. I'm sure baby dog, baby dog would come to the courtroom, but hopefully she doesn't if he did something really bad, because you know he'd get off if she was there.

And usually humans they are the ones who are held accountable for their animals' actions. You know, for example, if your pet attacks a person or another animal, there's gonna be legal proceedings determine whether or not the owner is liable for paying for damages or even sometimes have to get the dog, the animal, the cat euthanized. And let's just say there's a lot more trials about bad dogs than there are about bad cats. Is a cat lover, I'm just gonna say that. I'm just gonna put that

out there. Every week we learn a lesson on American felt and I feel like the lesson we learn here is that Americans are pro dog. It's a doggy dog world. They don't give a shit about cats, and honest, that makes me mad. I think I have that toxoplasmosis thing where like you get like the thing in your brain from the cats scratching you, and then you just love them. I definitely have that for sure. I'm just like Robert F. Kennedy, but instead of a worm in my brain, it's just

a cat, a cat parasite, all right? You The credits. American Filth is a production of School of Humans and My Heart podcast. This episode was written and hosted and produced by me Gabby Watts, our executive producers, our Virginia Prescott, Elsie Crowley and Brandon barr Our. Theme song is by

Jesse Nye Wanger. You can follow the pod online at American filth Pod on Instagram, and also you can leave it a review, give it some stars, share it around, tell your friends to listen, tell your enemies to listen, tell your cats to listen. But if I'm being honest, I don't give a shit if your dog listens to it. This is the Cat Supremacy Podcast. We'll be back next week. Mark bark meaw Meal, Goodbye, School of Humans