A Victorian Mystery: Was Arthur Orton the Tichborne Claimant?

doesn't come with butchery violence literally, just a vocation. Like You're gonna meet three men sort of Arthur Orton, Thomas Castro, and Sir Roger Tichbourne. And we're going to start with the man named Arthur Orton. So there's actually nothing particularly noteworthy or interesting about Arthur. He was born in March of eighteen thirty four in London, and he was the son of a London butcher, and he did as he

grew up, learned his father's trade. Arthur, in his young adulthood, spent some time at sea and a year in South America, mostly in Chile. By the middle to late eighteen fifties, though Arthur was living in Australia. It was around the same time in eighteen fifty four that a twenty five year old man named Sir Roger Tichbourne was lost at sea. So a little bit of a spoiler alert here, but

he is the man that the center of this whole affair. Indeed, so let's talk about the baronet Sir Roger for a minute. He was born into a wealthy London family. He was raised in Paris and he was given a first class education.

Actually he was just given a first class everything. Uh. He was in love with his cousin Catherine, but the families wouldn't allow the marriage, and perhaps to take his mind off of not being able to be with the when he had fallen in love with a brave Sir Roger decided to join the sixth Dragoon Guards in Dublin when he was twenty, and that regiment had a fairly prestigious history, reaching back to six five when it was formed as the Queen Dowager's Horse, which is a great name.

But Roger did not stick with this. He sold his commission, which was for a long time the way you would actually gain a promotion intolitary uh. And he sold his commission just a few years after he had entered in eighteen fifty two. In eighteen three he became the heir to the Titchborne title and fortunes. At this point we know Sir Roger was a wealthy, well educated young man from a good family. I mean he was practically at

this time a model of an eligible bachelor. Right, everyone would have wanted to marry him, because not only was he worldly, insophisticated, but also title and money. Yeah, he was mented. But even before he had inherited that family fortune and taken on his title, and with no marriage plans in sight in eighteen fifty three, prior to that news, Roger had decided to live in the sunshine, swim the sea,

and drink the wild air. Okay, So Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that not Roger, but Sir Roger is the one who actually did those things. In April of eighteen fifty four, Sir Roger, upon completing a tour of South America, boarded a ship called the Bella, and the Bella was headed for Jamaica, although there are some accounts of the destination that are other locations. But just four days after departing, the Bella was reported missing, and subsequently its wreckage was

found off the Brazilian coast. No survivors were found, and Roger was declared dead in eighteen fifty five. Distraught Lady Tisborne, who was Roger's mother, refused to believe that her son had drowned, and courage by a Claravoyne's assurance her son was alive, she began running notices seeking news about his whereabouts. In the Times, she shared that he had set sail on a ship called the Bella, but there had been a shipwreck, and her son, named Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichbourne,

was presumed lost at sea. She wrote that she would offer, and I'm going to quote this most liberal reward for any information that may definitely point out his fate. There had been rumors that some of the passengers and crew had survived that shipwreck and had been rescued by the crew on a ship called the Osprey, which was headed for Melbourne, Australia. Lady Titchbourne heard these rumors, and of course they naturally buoyed her hopes that her son might

still be alive. So she contacted a man named Arthur Cubit of the Missing Friends Office in Sydney to place notices on her behalf in the press in Australia, and it was agreed upon, and the notices gave the tales of the Bella's final voyage. Sir Roger was described as quote of a delicate constitution, rather tall, with very light

brown hair and blue eyes. Just less than three months later, Lady Titchborne's advertisements did begin to appear in Australia asking for any information about her son, Sir Roger Tichborne, whose ship disappeared at sea off South America in eighteen fifty four. She never actually had to reply though, until May sixty, shortly after the notices were published, a butcher named Thomas

Castro revealed some compelling information during a bankruptcy examination. So that's a lot to process, yes, But as it is, he had opened his own butcher's shop, but that did not work out well. He apparently was not great at business and went broke. While he was going through this bankruptcy discussion, he talked about how he had once survived a shipwreck and that he actually the owned large properties

in England. And if anyone were observing closely, they would notice that Castro smoked a pipe engraved with Sir Roger's initials. So this pipe had the letters RCT engraved on it. That's when in November and Australian solicitor named William Gibbs wrote to Lady Titchborne about a man who claimed to be the long lost Baronet. It was at this point when Castro and Lady Tichborne began a correspondence. But here there's another oddity. His correspondence was full of misspellings and

grammatical errors. And what makes that odd is that Sir Roger, if you recall, had been a very well educated man. So we're going to take a break for a word from a sponsor. Was Arthur Orton, also known as Thomas Castro. We're going to find out when we come back. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about what's known as the titch Pin claimant. The story can get a little confusing.

You might feel like you need a flow chart, so to revisit and review, we're going to jump back to Arthur, who we mentioned at the top of the show for a moment. And if you're thinking there might be a direct connection between Arthur and Thomas the Butcher, you're right. They spoiled it, I know, I mean two butchers both in Australia, got some confusion. Can't have that. It's not that there was only one butcher ever in the Greater Sydney area. Presumably there were more meat needs than that.

But in this case the same person, So Arthur at this time was actually delving in Australia and had also around this time started using a new name, Thomas Castro, and Castro was employed as a butcher in Wagga Waga. So one thing that was a little strange in our research efforts here that we both hunted for and never found any real solid evidence around. We couldn't find any real reason that Arthur might have taken on this new identity.

There's plenty of speculation. I saw one article speculate that he owed some debts and was just trying to dodge them too. And that's very possible, you know, I mean, it makes logical sense. But we literally have nothing other than a guest to back that up. So we can only speculate why he started using a new name or why he chose this particular name. We just don't know this part of the story. Who knows. We could do an entire show on speculating we can make up so

many I have so many theories. Um, When Castro saw Lady Titchburn's notice in a local paper, saw opportunity. Castro claimed to be Sir Roger Tichborne, who had been declared lost at sea. Wagga Wagga and Riverina residents, though knew who Thomas Castro was before his claim to the Titchbourne estate. For instance, the Honorable James Gormley first met Castro in Danilla Quim, where Castro was working as a butcher at

the time. Other people met him after he relocated to Hey, which is also in New South Wales, and he worked in a slaughterhouse for a man who went by the name Parramatta Jack Ward. Claiming to be Sir Roger Tichbourne was a bold move for Castro. I'm going to speculate here that maybe it's possible that Arthur began using the Castro identity around the time that he decided to claim the Titchborne estate. But maybe not like Hollywood saying we actually have no idea, I just like making up theories.

We do need to point out that there were a few very noticeable differences between these two men. So while Castro was described as stout and boorish. Sir Roger, who we described earlier, was quite slender, he only weighed about a hundred and twenty six pounds, who was very thin, and we found this great quote while researching that he was all narrowness, which is how I'm going to refer to anyone who is tall and lean going forward. I

love that quote, all narrowness. He had a long, pale face, and he notably had a tattoo on his left arm. That might seem straighty to you, but tattooing in England in the nineteenth century actually became popular among the wealthy in general. By the late eighteen eighties, tattoos were often literally a mark of wealth in European aristocracy. Their physicality between these two men was not the only difference. Castro could not speak or understand a single word of French.

But Roger, if you recall we mentioned at the very beginning of the episode, grew up in Paris. He was fluent, fluent fluent. He had lived in Paris for almost all of his childhood and his adolescence, and was so ingrained in Parisian language that he actually spoke English with a French accent. Lady Tichborne sent for Castro, who traveled under the Titchborne name, and at the urging of William Gibbs, Castro wrote a will before he left. Well, there's nothing

odd about writing your will. Some of the contents of Castro's will did seem actually a bit wrong, just wrong. So let's do two examples of what was wrong. Um One he mentioned family properties that did not exist, and two he referred to his mother as Hannah Francis when actually Lady Tichborne's name was Henrietta. So here are things get curiouser and curious er. He did arrive in London, that was in December of eighteen sixty six. When he got to England, Lady Tichborne actually was not there. She

was away in Paris at the time. So at that point Castro traveled to East London in search of the Orton family. But he found out when he got there that they had moved. And when a neighbor asked after his business, he claimed that he was an old friend of Arthur, who happened to now be one of the richest men in all of Australia. And we know that was a big fib not to brag or anything. He's the richest butcher in aust That's why I was having

a bankruptcy meeting. Um So after this trip to see or not see the Orton family, Castro met, I mean he's air quotes around this one his mother and he appeared it said to have a round face, fair wavy hair, and that he weighed actually more than a hundred pounds than Sir Roger when he was last seen, and curiously, he did not have a tattoo on his left arm. Castro claimed that his traumatic experience of the shipwreck explained the way any of the discrepancies and facts he couldn't

remember or didn't know right. We've all heard of instances where someone gets conked on the noggin and they lose some of their language capabilities or they forget certain details of their lives. It doesn't really explain where the tattoo went. However, it is not I was in a shipwreck at my tattoo fell out. It just fell off. It's not like you could easily have them removed. And you know, eighteen

sixty lots of sand and rubbing. Uh so, yes, it's certainly possible that a sea voyage and then a shipwreck could change a person's appearance a bit right, maybe some weight gain or weight loss. Uh, maybe he'd contract scurvy. But Castro's appearance was really such a drastic transformation from

that of Sir Roger. But ultimately none of this matter at all, though, despite the obvious discrepancies between the men, when Lady Tichbourne reunited with her son, she immediately said he looks like his father and his ears look like his uncle's before everybody piles on Lady Titchbourne. It is really easy, as an outsider with no stake in this situation, to think that she was being just ridiculously foolish in so readily accepting Thomas Castro's claim that he was in

fact her son Sir Roger. But do keep in mind, this is a mother who had lost her son and had been left without any definitive proof of his passing.

So when you think about it in those terms, especially that she had been wondering what had ultimately happened to him for decade at that point, who can blame her for clinging to hope or the idea that she could in fact be reunited with the person she told was a lost loved one, right right, Um, Just because Thomas Castro claimed to be the missing baronet and Lady Tichborne was elated to have him back, that actually didn't mean

that everyone else blindly believed who this was. There's even an account that the blacksmith in town didn't believe Castro was Sir Roger and told him frankly and we quote, if you are Sir Roger, you've changed from a racehorse to a cart horse couch. Pretty Much the entire Titchborne family, except for Lady Titchborne, also believed Castro was a fraud. So when she died in eighteen sixty eight, Castro lost not just his only advocate, he also lost the Titchborne

family support, which had included a helf D monthly allowance. Yeah, it kind of seems like the family just played along while Lady Titchborne was still alive, had brought her comfort, but when that was over, it was over. So with those in the Titchborne family who were not convinced Castro was Sir Roger learned through a hired contact that they had made in Australia that Thomas Castro was not even

actually Thomas Castro. This is when they learned that he was Arthur Orton, a man who had been born in London and made his way to Australia by ship years earlier. Whether or not Arthur Orton's slash Miss Castro was or was not Sir Roger, this story and the trials that follow captivated Victorian society. The press was ravenous and published daily reports of the trials progress. And the way that Titchborne case played out turned an impostor into the celebrity.

Arthur was honored at shooting parties and other gatherings and then and then he went to prison. That's sort of fascination and celebrity reminds me a little bit of Princess Caribou, who they're like, yeah, yeah, we know you're fake, but this is kind of fun. But you're fun. We are going to take another break for a word from a sponsor, and then we're going to talk about the trials. And yes I did say that as a plural on purpose.

Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's start talking about the civil and criminal trials, right, So there were actually two trials for Mr Orton slash Castro. The purpose of the first trial, which was a civil trial that began in May of one was for Thomas Castro to prove his claim that he was Sir Roger Tichbourne because he asked to be given something which he thought he should be entitled to legally.

He was now referred to as the claimant, or in this case, as the Titchborn claimant, which is kind of a name that's stuck through the years, and that's because he was officially claiming the Titchborne estate. Castro dodged any and all questions about his relationship with Arthur Orton, and he denied he and Arthur were actually the same person. So in response to that, the prosecution threatened to call more than two hundred witnesses, which is crazy, uh to

the stand to prove otherwise. There was one big thing, though, that Castro did not know about. When the investigators hired by the Titchborns were examining his life in Australia, they discovered plenty of people who knew Thomas Castro, but they knew him as a man named Arthur Orton, a butcher

originally from London. It's gotta be a terrifying whamo when you're like no about that person that like really look, we have literally a building full of people willing to testify, otherwise two hundred people and probably a couple of folders of information. But the threat of the two hundred people was really not the big problem here. In the end, the problem of that magically disappearing tattoo was what was

the sticking point for the jury. So the first trial ended here, and it ended with the jury rejecting his suit. A criminal trial was now needed to determine if the claimant was guilty of perjury. This was a bit more involved. That trial was held between eighteen seventy three and eighteen seventy four, and it became the longest trial ever in English court at the time. It lasted one eighty eight

court days. As an assign because you're probably wondering too, that record was eventually overtaken by a much more recent case, which came to be known as the Mick libel case. Legally, that started out as the McDonald's operation versus Steele and Morris. Further down the rabbit hole. That case began with the defendants producing a leaflet title What's Wrong with McDonald's, which resulted in them being found guilty of libel and fine

in the trial began. But then the long part is that they filed an appeal, which was Steele and Morris versus the United Kingdom, claiming that they had had an unfair trial that was not resolved until the year two thousand. So uh, that judgment was eventually found for Steele and Morris that they had had an unfair trial. But even so, it ousted the Titchborne case by more than a decade in terms of its length, a decade in court, like I got stuff to do, so okay, taking his back

to the trial of Thomas Castro. During the trial, Castro had significant recall problems. Among other things, he couldn't remember anything about the boarding school that he went to, including its name, nor was he able to recognize his own father's handwriting. There was testimony from a handwriting expert we know now today like this is kind of a dodgy area and not all people would admit this in a court, but in this instance, his opinion was that the handwriting

of Sir Roger Tichborne and Thomas Castro did not match. However, this handwriting expert determined that Castro's handwriting did match the handwriting of Arthur Orton another problematic bit of evidence. I could keep going on. There was in fact a real ship called the Osprey, and it did arrive in Australia. Finally, something about the claim of story that checks out right.

The wanna be Titchborn couldn't name any of the crew members though he couldn't remember the captain, and there was no mention in the ship's logs about rescuing survivors of a shipwreck, which seems like a pretty significant event that you might put my log right. Yeah, he did just enough homeworked to get himself into trouble, but not enough to sail him through. There was more than enough evidence to the court that Arthur Orton slashed Thomas Castro had

in fact perjured himself. But during the trial there's this weird little factory that I sort of love. Arthur Orton drew cartoons, not just doodles. He spent his time sitting there drawing just elaborate cartoons, right when he wasn't paying attention at the trial apparently, But to like Arthur Orton drawing cartoons this time. In this trial, the man named Arthur Orton was found guilty. It took the jury about thirty minutes to come to their verdict, and he was convicted.

He ended up serving ten years of a fourteen year prison sentence, and in some sources I read it was hard labor, but I'm not certain about that. So his sentence. On April tenth, the London Times published the following quote. Shortly before two o'clock yesterday, the grand jury came into court and presented a true bill which they had found against Thomas Castro, otherwise known as Sir Roger Charles Doughty

Titchborne Baronet, and otherwise Arthur Orton for perjury. So all three men, well one man into not yeah anyway, you know, to a K A S. I put down my flow chart. I can throughout this whole tale. Thomas Castro slash Roger Tichborne slash Arthur Orton didn't admit just one time that he was Arthur Orton. But that's because he got paid to say so, and once he had that money in hand,

he retracted the whole statement. So from that point on he continued to maintain his lie, even though he no longer would legally have any claim to any Titchborne money or properties. So we're going to go straight now to the end of Arthur's life. So Arthur died in poverty on April Fool's Day, So April one in London. And I kind of love that an impostor died on April Fool's Day. It's pretty perfect. It's a little on the nose, right, it's it's just a little too much for me. I

have to love it. Uh. The New York Times printed a short obituary for him, including this quote. Arthur Orton, who sought to acquire the two million dollars state belonging to Sir Roger Tichbourne, died of syncope on April one in London. So today syncope would kind of be considered a symptom rather than a cause of death. You've heard of it before, but probably under the word fainting. Right.

It's known to happen if you stand up too quickly because your blood pressure drops suddenly, to quote John Hopkins Medicine quote. For most people, syncope occurs once in a great while, if ever, and is not a sign of serious illness. However, in other syncope can be the first and only warning sign prior to an episode of sudden cardiac death. So while it's generally an unlikely sign of

impending death. It is a possible sign that Arthur Orton may have had some form of undiagnosed heart disease, although we don't at all know that for certain. We're just kind of doing some back of the envelope maths regarding his health and his cause of death. Right, And it's one of those conditions or symptoms where it could be nothing, but it could it could be everything. Right. It's also sometimes associated with strokes, but that was the only link that I found that was kind of a direct Like

sudden onset death is usually a heart disease issue. I found the same thing. Yeah. Um, so there's also actually another odd twist to Arthur's already odd story. It checks out, But it's hard to believe that Titchborne family had a plaque engraved as Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne placed in Orton's coffin after he died. Strange a little. They either had like a very good humor or they wanted to cover their odds in case they had all been wrong.

It didn't sound like they had good humor. I mean, who would, I mean, they're up against this guy, so maybe you know, and I don't think I would be very good. Right. Over the many many years since Orton's trial, legal historians have at least pretty generally agreed that the claimant in this case was indeed Arthur Orton using the name Thomas Castro. However, some century historians and analysts have a tiny bit of uncertainty about that. They kind of feel like not all the facts are in will probably

not get them all. But although some modern historians have some doubts, it is generally pretty agreed upon that Orton remains the impostor, the impostor of Thomas Castro and of Sir Roger Tichborne. So while we don't have a lot of facts to complete the entire story, the thing that I think is maybe the most important is that we actually don't like Hollywood saying no the identity of the

claimant yet. Um perhaps if family members or descendants come forward for DNA testing, we might learn some more, but right now we're kind of just at that place. I definitely stumbled across some folks who believe to this day that he was the lost Titchborn. I saw that too, And have you even done like computer analysis of pictures of the I have this very thin man gained a hundred pounds over a decade. Here this is actually what he would look like. Um, you know, I don't know.

I think it's best if we never know. I almost don't want there to be DNA testing. I like the fry mystery to remain in town. On most of them, I do most of them. I would like to know. On this one, I kind of hope that, like the DNA doesn't come through. I think when we had our Stokers season, I was much more into you know, was this the person who's actually doing it? The imposters a little different for me, speak of a little different. It

was terrible. That was terrible. I can't believe I said that, Ryan, We're going to the mocktail, not the cocktail. Listen, not every transition is perfect. No, that was That's fine. You got us there. The road was bumpy, but you kept driving in here like a barely Um. So okay. In thinking about this one, there were a few different things that I thought about, but I kept thinking about what really happened on that boat to Jamaica, and so I came up with a mocktail that I am calling lost

at Sea. I'm repeating coconut two episode. It's in a row, so bear with me, but it's a different format. It starts with a half an ounce of coconut syrup. I like the really creamy white coconuts into this. I will explain exactly why in a moment, and then don't jump on me because I this has a coda, because I'm gonna say the name of a liqueur. But there's it's still a mocktail. Um. The next is one ounce of blue curos Ow, but you can get non alcoholic blue

curos ow. It's like a syrup essentially. I found mine in my local grocery store. My local liquor store also carries it, so it's not difficult to find. I found it, like literally right with where you would find the pre made simple syrup and your live syrup and all that. It's just in one of those little squeezy bottles. One ounce of a blue sports drink. I have a reason.

I'll explain it. And you're gonna take those three things and put them in a shaker and shake them together and pour them into like a rock's glass, and then out on top of it five ish ounces. You know, to taste of lemon lime soda. Okay, here's what happens. One like the waters of the ocean um to like the coconutty thing kind of you know. Hearkens to the Jamaican destination that was never reached the island vibe. Right.

So here's the cool thing though. For me sports drink, and I particularly like a low sugar sugar free sports drink it because of the electrolytes. It has this tiny little, you don't even really process it taste of salt, and so it gives this whole thing like a weird sense of salt water to me, but not like that gross taste of saltwater, but just like a like something in the back of your head goes am I tasting the ocean, Yes, a little bit. That is why this is called lost

at Sea. It is so sweet and yummy. It's like a punch I would love to make all the time, except it does tend to like separate if you let it sit for too long. Because I made several different versions and had to drink them all and see what was had to It's for science. If you want to make the adult beverage version is to use actual blue curus ow in place of the syrup, which and it's still a pretty light cocktail because it's just a liqueur. It's not something with a high alcohol by volume situation.

You can always add rum to it if you really want to, you know, get into your tropical vibe of cocktails. But it's very yummy. This is one that even the husband liked. I make a special check mark next to those. I'm like trying, right, that one's yummy. And the nice thing is because of the coconut syrup, and because you're doing the shaking, it also gets a little foamy on top, so you're getting like this c foamy situation going on,

seeummy and your tummy, and I bet it is. I originally was thinking that the lemon lime soda would be the sort of frothy mix for the ocean, but I see, I see, now, yes it's frothy before that even happens. But when you pour that in, it does bubble a little extra and you kind of get a nice sea foam effect, which I'm all about. Effects of course, of course, make a little theatrical. Thank you so much for hanging out with us this week and going over the Titchborne controversy.

There was actually a movie in the late nineteen nineties that I haven't watched. I think a British film. Um, so I'm curious. I want to look it up and and see if I can find it streaming somewhere so I can check it out. If you can, you should as well, but otherwise we will see you right back here next week with another impostor and another mocktail. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with

I heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I Heart Radio app podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.