The Best Worst Imposter: Edgar Laplante

the bony eared ass fish. Would you call me the bony eared ass fish? Now? In case you're wondering, and I know you how curious you are about things named as fish. This is a form of eel to cusk eel. And that's it. Is a three point seven five centimeter long little fish. And uh, that's it. That is the smallest brain to body weight. So there you go a little ridiculousness. I like that. That is ridiculous. You want

to know what else is ridiculous? What I'm here for building your entire career on a false identity, That's ridiculous. This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons It's always murder free, right, yes and ridiculous. All right, to begin my lecture cultural identity subject, it's weird. It's a weird thing. Well, we have groups that were born into and then ones that sort of claim us the ones that we claim right back, Like, let's keep

let me give you an example. I like to say that my ethnicity is Californians, very fitting for you, right, Like any other cultural or ethnic ties that I have are so far removed that they don't really have an impact on how people see me or how I see myself. Interesting. Yeah, so like I don't have it, I can't touch it. Like you know, if you go back far enough, I'm a fifth generation Californian. Oh, then you're definitely not completely Californian.

It's my history, it's my culture, my cuisine, my perspective, my very state of being. People choke. You were joking the other day about how most red hot Chili pepper songs about California in some way, shape or form. Yes, I did you know what I'm here for it? I get it. Anthony keats share of zero California that not the rest of us know about. We don't see the purity of vision you have and I'm sorry, Yeah, we're

the ones missing out, not Anthony Keatis exactly. But that's said, there are cultures to which I feel a great kinship. Well though, I feel really comfortable in Italy. I love it. It feels right, not just the like like the architectures, everything everything. I'm fascinated by the culture, history, art, cuisine, just the soul of the place, the people are. If you want to try and lump all of Italy into a monolith, which is very difficult, but I'm with you,

really a collection of city states. Do you have any feelings like that? Communities that I feel a certain kinship. Yeah, I would say that the Scandinavian like berserker Viking thing for whatever reason, if I see anything about that and I and I do have on my mother's side some Swedish heritage, but I don't know why it's so loud in me. So I feel that it's probably more of an affinity that I have, and it's not like my ethnic heritage bubbling up. But anytime I see a Viking,

I'm like, yeah, that's my people. Yeah, you feel it makes sense, you know, the same thing for pirates, but that's more of an occupation you could Yeah, it's a multicultural occupation. Okay, So for my love of Italian culture, say, I'd never go around and tell people that I'm Italian. No, no, no, I wouldn't give myself a fake name and concoct a backstory. Um, I wouldn't pretend to speak for all Italians or with

the bad Italian accent. No U house of Gucci. Ye that Yeah, that's a whole other episode of ridiculousness, and it's a crime. I wouldn't play into any preconceived notions about Italians and like base my false identity on my poorly understood and unresearched ideas about Italians. You would never run a foul of the Italian American community. No, wouldn't dress as a caricature nic a little like a plumber, cartoon plumber as part of my fake identity. But you

know what, that's exactly what Edgar la Plant did. Just not Italians. He was born in the US to a French Canadian family with zero ties to the First Nations, the indigenous. Yeah, but one day Edgar decided that he was Native and American. He just woke up one day and deep in his bones and then he ran that con completely off the rails. So that's Edgar the plant. He was born in Okay, time get just put yourself in the time and place in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Shout out to produce Big Dave Kisten, Rhode Island. What are the few affordable places to live anymore in the greater Providence area? Oh, good to know Central Falls. I'm sure it's lovely how founders be worn So Edgar. When he's fourteen years old, he got caught scamming change from local businesses and was sent to reform school. Now, I'm sure that he learned all sorts of stuff there. It's a great education, reform school. But he also, you know, he did learn to sing when he was there, Like

you're not using okay, he became a rat. He really learned to sing. Johnny No, he could carry a tune. When he was in his early twenties, he moved to New York. So turn of the century by he was working at Coney Island as a ballyho man Saren Webster's Dictionary defiance bally who as a noisy, attention getting demonstration or talk, flamboyant, exaggerated or sensational promotion or publicity or

excited commotion. Thank you for the Webster definance. When I was teaching college English, there were two ways to make me completely lose it when grading essays. If you started an introductory paragraph with in Today's Society, or if you used Webster's Dictionary defiance fill in the plank as anywhere in the paper, I had an automatic ten point deduction on essays. If any of those popped up students knew it, it wasn't and they still did it in Today's Society. Oh,

I would just get hot on that one. I wonder what they were thinking when they were typing nothing, this is a winning opening. They were thinking nothing. It's lazy writing, lazy brained. So this Bally who this would be the same as like a barker, right, like the person. Yeah exactly. Thank you for bringing me back on topic. So, Edgar ballyhu Man, Coney Island, nineteen Coney Island in nineteen ten is such an incredible place. Oh yeah, it was Atlantic

City before Atlantic City, right seaside, neighborhood in Brooklyn. Amusement, parks, attractions, just general entertainable. Oh yeah, but like cotton Candy, Oh yeah, the attractions, the sin of cotton candy. Thousands of people are there just walking around eating ice cream, riding rides, playing Carney games, looking at EMUs. I don't know if I'm not mistaken. Ice cream is a new thing at that time too. This is like a new taste. Everything

is new and penny candy. Um yeah, so everything's new, exciting, smells great, smells sweet. Yeah. Um no it doesn't. Uh So anyway back to and the ballyhu Man. So that summer, Edgar was hired as a Native American impersonator by the W. H. Long's Big Indian and Medicine Concert Company, very nineteen ten kind of outfit, right, Edgar toured with them. He did

tours three acts to night. What was his act, you asked, curious. Well, he called himself Chief white Oak, and he just impersonated a Native American and that was he doing, like the grunts and the Howe and all that. So he's on a medicine show. So they're basically doing patent medicine. So they're already trying to hoodwink the audience and to get the audience to come and see the show. They have a fake Native American prison going. Here's the snake. Yeah,

he's so bad, so painful. So he mixes up concoctions with them. He sells them under the promise that their ancient Native American cures for whatever happens to ail a person with cash in their pocket. You can relieve you of the cash and pocket disease. Just will hear you of having money, So I don't forget. He learned how to sing and reform school. So he performed on vaudeville stages across the country, which in nineteen ten, you know,

we're you know that was the thing. Yeah. Um, when he was performing in Key West, opening for a young George Burns. Yes, he started calling himself Chief Harry Johnson. You gotta give me a war, and I'm sorry I've blindsided you with it. Doesn't make Yeah. By late nineteen sixteen, now, um, he's in Arizona and an army training camp near the Mexican border. I was about as when he did in the war. Yeah, he said that he was Tom Longboat.

He just keeps changing his native That's a famous Onondaga distance runner from the Six Nations Reserve, Brantford, Ontario and the Olympian War Hero. He was bouncing around the like standing out Longboat. These are very different actual person though. He's not just saying Chief Harry Johnson or Chief White Elk. He's like, I'm Tom Longboat. He's not an Olympian in real life Edgar, but he was athletic and he won a one mile foot race against the other soldiers. So

they're like, oh, well he must be. He looked nothing like Tom Longboat. Let me put that out there too. But at the time it's like, you can't just go look at us. His word is gold. So he travels around the American West. He collects fees for speaking and singing. March nineteen seventeen, he's still posing his Longboat. He's in San Jose, California, and he gives a speech at the first Baptist church there, and he told them he was

basically a doctor pretty much. He went, he said, he went, he went to med school in Chicago, and then he said he spoke a bunch of different languages because he traveled all over the world. He said he worked as a medic in the battlefields in France, Okay. And then he also said that he as Longboat played on the then famous Carlisle Indian Industrial Schools football team that upset Harvard November nine eleven. He said he was on that team. It's like, yeah, I was there. It's cool again, he

doesn't look like Tom Longboat. People didn't notice. They didn't care. He loved story. Yeah, and they're like the the Associative Fame. Oh guess who I got to meet. He enlisted the Naval Reserve and he says, quote, my people have buried the tomahawk and hatchet and war paint, but they are ready to go to war with you boys to protect our own star spangled banner if necessary. This story is gonna I'm worried about my eyes. They're rolling so far back in my head. I'm going to bruise them. They

made detached. I mean you wow, Well you know he was a tomahawk of my people? Who I mean, like, come on, bro. So we also said that he, as Tom Longboat, had been severely injured by a bayonet and yet still meddled in the Olympics. So back we could be funnier as if he was bayonetted in the in

the Olympics and still meddled. Still did it a Please note that there were people journalists and law enforcement that did catch onto him at this point, and they would warn the journalists, would warn the officials or journalists yeah in the next town who he was or where he had just been. So sometimes that became public, and oftentimes it's because he was like getting in trouble with authorities and they start to suspect him and then he blows.

So he gets to San Diego and the San Jose Evening News called him out with his impersonation as fake. But he's already gone, and you know, you'd have to get the paper. So it's like, oh, that guy who just left it. Yeah, one way or another, he's able to get out of all these situations. Usually he just denies it and leaves town. Now, after San Diego, he goes to l A and he calls himself Chief Harry Johnson when he's there, to Harry john I just felt right.

And he disguised himself in a long black wig, just dicking around. Love a long black wig, love a wig anyway, a pale head bag, moccasin's buckskin pants with beads on him and then around his shoulder. He wears the striped Native American blanket. Oh, he's just a melange of different cultures. So he's like a walking cigar store in stat Yes, that's his whole, that's his vibe. So then he goes to the Midwest and then he changes his name. He's

chief to Wuana naturally. Sometimes he says he's Cherokee. Sometimes he says he's Sue, but he's chief to Wana. Now. Difference Like it's like if I wanted to pull off a fake Italian thing, and sometimes I say him from Luca and sometimes I say I'm from Naples. Are two very different things. I would go further and say it's more like saying sometimes I say I'm from Portugal and sometimes I say I'm from Poland. That's a different nations. Yeah,

different nations and on the same continent. But weighed everything. Different languages, different cultures, different environments, different regions, but hey throw them all together. Continent. So he is swirling all over the country and these things. Nineteen seventeen, in the summertime, he makes it to New York City, Big Apple. Do you know they call it that. I've heard this. Yeah. He goes to the labor employment section because I guess he didn't have a job, and so one of the

officers there had seen his act before. He's so honored Tom Longboat, you need a job you're here. Edgar was like, well sure, So they get him a job as a seaman on the s s Antilles, and that's bringing US troops to France. Yeah, I figures guessing everything going that way at that time. W W one. Um. Through this, he winds up getting a certificate of identification under the name Tom Longboat. So he's now got US government. I

D say, it's hard to just say tong Longboat, Tom. Yeah, it's hard out there for me that emin and they want to switch, you know, Tom Longboat will just keep saying. So. While he's at sea, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle discovers that there are two men calling themselves Tom Longboat. Um, they think that Edgar was the real one. And then the news caused enough of a dispute that when he gets back to the States, he's brought in for questioning by

the newspaper or for the police. By the police, he admits, look, I'm not Tom Longboat. UM, my real name is Thomas Tajuanna. He's like to wanna get out of here. It most have been funny. You didn't have as much I D not just the Google. But like when you didn't even really have ideas, you're it's like, oh yeah, you infuse me with another dude. Um So, there's like too much heat on him, too much attention. He blows town. He goes up to upstate New York. That's not a good move.

There's a lot of native populations and kind of exactly. But he starts calling himself Chief White Elk again, takes a back full circle. He says, again he's telling people I was on that Carlisle football team. He said he had been wounded now in the Battle of Verdun. But yes, World War One. He continues traveling around the country. He like gathers himself. He's like, okay, I'm just going to stick with the white Elk thing. He sings, He gives speeches.

Sometimes he gives speeches about his experience in the war. This man did not go He didn't even I guess he did get on a boat, yeah, and then dropped a bunch of guys off. He was like sea uber And he talks about the importance of enlisting, even though he hadn't enlisted. Um so, yeah, that's what he's doing. December nineteen seventeen he's in Laramie, Wyoming. He's caught by

the authorities and arrested for do we knowbody's impersonating? Oh, he's a fraud, not just for defrauding all these people. So a month later they realize we don't have enough evidence to prosecute him. He's released under the promise to quote quit posing as a hero more stolen valor for you, exactly do you think that he quit posing as a hero. I'm guessing now this is just an educated yes, but I'm guessing no. Well, when we get back from this

ad break, I'll let you know. Okay, we're back. Uh. When we went to the break, Edgar La Plant was posing as a any variety of Native American. Yeah, chief right, Sorry, I forgot. I left out his appellation sprinkling a fine dusting of stolen valor over the top of it, now now frosted with stolen valor. I asked you if you thought he would obey the lawmen of Laramie, Wyoming who told him to quit posing as a hero. And if I remember correctly, I did the map and let me

check my answer. No, you're correct, you're correct. Instead, early nineteen eighteen, he goes to Pueblo, Colorado, good military towne. He says he's the Cherokee Chief Clyde White elkide throw that in there, and then he says he speaks six languages and fourteen Native American dialects. Did he name the languages or just kind of say that, No one could testimony. He's like, guess what, I went to medical school in Chicago to He's they, Yeah, So he keeps talking about

being multi lingual. He keeps saying that he went to med school in Chicago. Those are his like through lines in his cons He tours around selling war stamps and liberty bonds for the government or for the government. Yeah. No, at first I'm thinking like, okay, he did this and yeah, they'll pass this land. No, he was legitimately selling war stamps and liberty bonds, and as you know, war bonds basically loans that citizens give to the government to fund

military efforts in times of war. Uh. Taking that money out of circulation also controls inflation, as you know, not telling you anything new, just talking to myself. Um, you can buy them in a bunch of different denominations. There's a low yield, but like it became really popular and easy to access for people. Because of the multiple denomination, you could do small amounts and still feel like you're contributing. So he's collecting him in all these different amounts. He

would talk to service clubs, community groups. He'd urge all these white folks to enlist at the same rate as Native Americans. That was his thing Natives. He said that Native Americans were out pacing everybody else a capital basis. It's more of my people are and the great father. It is said that he sold one point eight million dollars in bonds in San Francisco in a single week. That can't be right. It is said. People are saying

that passed the fact check. People are saying that he brought in five hundred thousand dollars in war bonds in Oakland during a single lunch engagement. These numbers can't be right. Back then, how are you getting that? I don't even know. If you wouldn't like mugged all of the rich people, you could get this much money. Maybe it's two day's dollars. He's good at his work. The guy's charming and it's

quite the charlate. So but I mean, that's the thing, like I'm imagining that he's getting speakers fees for this stuff. But he's raising money for the war efforts. But he told that he's got rotarians out there giving out big chunks of money. I'm imagining, and people like that these social clubs. Okay. March nineteen eighteen, he's in Salt Lake City. He's calling himself Chief white Elk. Do we know which first name at this? Probably Clyde, you know, Chief white Olk,

but you can call me Clyde, my favorite Clyde. Um. He meets a thirty one year old woman named Auson one time as a k a. Bertha Thomas. So did he give her this name? No? She was born in Eureka, California. Her mother was Uruk and her father was white. Okay, I thought she was also running her own scamp. That's what I thought too, And I had to be like stop the presses. Everything screeched to a halt, and I was like, wait, please tell me is this favorite? No,

she's a real deal. Um. She was a trained nurse, but she was also a singer and actress like most trained nurses. I know. She was a favorite model of this photographer, Emma Bell Freeman. And I found a really cool picture of her taken by Freeman. I'll put it on the Instagram and tacking at my front door. Edgar and Bertha meat and they're dating within twenty four hours back then does that mean something different? Like they met at six o'clock on a Wednesday and six o'clock Thursday.

He's like, um, you want to be like boyfriend girlfriend? But can I pin you? And she's like, my, es, you're kind of cool. Should we make it telegraph official? And they did? They Yeah, they posted pictures of themselves in telegram and then they walked around holding hands and everyone was like, oh, I think they're together. They're so cute, you guys. Um hours two days after that, he asked her to marry him. Wow. He's like, my name Chief white Elk would like to marry you Asha. So yeah,

zaren Oh romance, I love a young love. I want you to close your eyes. Oh god, my eyes. They're rushing to quote. I want you to picture it. March thirteenth, nine, Salt Lake, Sit, m h F from Clean it is. The street. Cars are packed on this crisp afternoon. Cars are clogging the streets, crowds. They're all heading to the Capitol Building. You, Saren and five thousand other people cram into the grounds around the Capitol building. So me and

my entourage. A thirty one piece band plays patriotic tunes as spectators gather for a rally that will include sales of war bonds and enlistening tables. The capital is dolled up, flags, bunting, potted palms, the works. Four pm. Salt Lake City Mayor w Mont Ferry climbs the steps. Beside him a very tall man wearing a large feathered war bonnet. He wears a whole beaded buckskin tuxedo head to toe. He's got on blue moccasin's with American flag beat it onto the front.

He has total Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow level of accessories. He's got ribbons, feathers, fors bells, a bone necklace. Yes, he's maybe he's wearing eyeliner. Let's say he's holding a tomahawk in one hand and a peace pipe in the other. He's full party city right now. What we have here is Chief White Elk standing next to the mayor. Then all of a sudden, the band strikes up again. They play long greens the bridal chorus, also known as here

comes the broad So and her Bertha. She's decked out in all white dress, shells, beads, head dress, moccasins mean it's her wedding day. The Mayor conducts the wedding ceremony for all five thousand plus strangers in attendance. The Governor signs their marriage. Oh yeah, and they present the governor with bow and arrow as I thank you a great times had by all um. It's not really known at that point how much Bertha knew about Edgar's true identity. Okay, okay,

remember with you. She had to have known he was full of it. I'm guessing there's no way he's not the only one who she didn't know when she married him after knowing him for three days. Then like she found out though, because the marriage was a lousy one surprise around this time, like they get married, Edgar develops an alcohol and drug habit. Hello, he's doing He's doing morphine and cocaine. Yeah, he's doing coke. Yeah, that that's

a serious drug. Probably he had this guy that was like a friend of his that supplied it with him, And there were rumors and innuendos about his relationship with that guy. We're just going to leave that to the side. A World War One veteran, he's going for the full vet experience. Um, this is obviously tough for Bertha. So he continues to have these close calls with authorities. Summer of nineteen nineteen and don't forget. So they got married in nineteen eighteen. So a year later, I was there

a beautiful ceremony, the governor is there you. I still get choked up when I think about beautiful it was do you need a second? The buckskin he was wearing. Did you feel You're like, I'm in the presence of Chief White O Clyde. What's up? I'm pretty much just standing on the pages of history right now. That's beautiful. I'm so happy for you. He's having close calls. A

year later, he joins a lecture tour of Canada. This time he's calling himself Doctor to Juana, which at this point Bertha has got to be like, look, dude, settle on a name. Now. I know you're full of it. I don't know what to call you when I want to get your tent to Jenner, he says, as doctor Tijuana, he's a survivor of the sinking of the Antilles. He's

a Carlisle grad college football star, Cherokee chief. He's going back to Cherokee and he's an Olympic long distance runner, so he's using longboat mythology, but he's saying that he's Doctor Tijuana. Edgar and Bertha they work together on various speaking and entertainment circuits um but by late nineteen the relationship is really strained. Around that time, they also adopted a fifteen month old Native American baby that they named ethel Lolita white Elk. Was that a dare the ethel

Lolita white Elk? And that's like, all of that is a lie. Bertha can't cope. She's like, you're a junkie. I can't do this. Ta Yeah. So she stops touring with him, separates, takes Ethel Lolita and off they go. And is Edgar bothered by this? I'm guessing no, not really. So by late nineteen two, he's calling himself Dr Ray Tajuana. This is probably my new favorite name of his Doctor Ray. He takes a French Canadian lover and goes to England. You know, as you do, you've done that? Uh what

I call spring break. Reporters are on hand for his arrival in England. I'm sure he wired and he was like, guess what. He gets there and he requests a meeting with King George the Five. He's like, hey, Cherokee Royalty in the house, busy chief, I want to talk to the king. Yeah, He's like, what are you doing on Friday? He did not get a meeting. Listener, he did not get a meeting. I'll wear my formal headwear. You wear your formal headwear? Oh my gosh. Yeah. They there's a

couple of kings having fun. Beautiful. So he performs around England just as he had in the state. He's not getting war bonds obviously, but he's like, you know, giving tales of his people. But they had a war effort. Well doesn't matter. Yeah, I don't care about them. Uh. In Man in Chester in April ofree he met the unmarried thirty seven year old Ethel Holmes, who had a seven year old son named Leslie, and within three months they were married fast on the job with this one.

On their marriage certificate, Ethel called herself a widow, which was not true, and Edgar used the name Ray Tijuana and said he was a doctor of medicine and that his father's name was Chief Waltrobe. Just just you know, he's like looking around, he sees something like a tin of suspects. So September twenty three, the three of them, uh was? He called himself ray to Wuana wa Ethel

and then Leslie. They go to France and Belgium and Edgar is now giving lectures back under the name Chief white elk and he's always got these ladies with him. We're like, yeah, go ahead, how easy it was to scam people? Yeah, this is my well. He gets to Paris and Paramount Pictures contacts him because they're like, we have this movie coming out, the Covered Wagon. So they ring them up, ring ring, like hey, Chief white elk Um, can you help us promote the film? Can you go

to Nice and promote the Covered Wagon? He's like, no problems, goes to Nice. In the spring of he gets an actual Native American head dress, because at this point I think he's using party city stuff. He gets the head dress from an American doctor living in Nice, and it was supposed to be a loan of the head dress. The doctor never saw it again. But while he's there, he meets twenty seven year old Contessa Antoinette Kevin Hooler Metsch. She's known as Ada her friends than because I couldn't

do that again. So twenty seven year old Ada. She gives Edgar three francs and says this is to tend to the knees of Indian orphans, and then invites him to dinner in Monte Carlo with her and her stepmother, Which how great is that? Once in my life, For once in my life, I want to be able to like, you know what, hey, come to dinner in Monte Carlo. Yeah, come with me and my aunt, the contessa or my mother thent why not? Why? Why? Why not me? That's what I'm trying to stay here. Um, so come with

me and my stepmom. Sixty three year old widowed contessa Milania Kevin Cooler Metch, come on, let's go to Monte Carlo. And he's like Austria. You know, we wouldn't be Austro Hungarian. So they're like former royalty at this point. I don't know, well, I think after World, for one, he had all those people going around scam and saying, oh, yes, I'm the the viscount of this, they're really a contessa of something. Yeah.

So they go to Monte Carlo. At the dinner, Milannia gives Edgar five thousand francs that she won at the casino. This is like straight out of like a Bond film. Um. And she says this is a gift for Native American children because they're all concerned, feeling like they're a bunch of orphans. Um. He tells the contessas that he was actually also an oil baron and in addition to being Cherokee royalty. So he's like, I'm I'm Cherokee Royalty, I'm King of the Cherokee, and I'm an oil baron, and

I also own a ton of land in Canada. That's that's me. I should have told you this. Let me tell you a little about me, uh, he explains. Though, he's like, here's the problem. Though, gals gather around. British bureaucracy is temporarily holding my money. Because it's all very complicated. I can't get into it. It's very confusing. So I don't want to confuse you ladies. Um. I just need like a little loan because the Brits are holding all

my money. He basically, did the Spanish prisoner scam for himself. Yes, He's like, if you can free me, I will gladly repay you with He's like, I will pay you back, but just I need a little I need a temporary loan. And then he tells Melania, well, the loans that you're giving me are going to be secured by sources and governments. And also you know I have Bourbon lineage, so not up to somehow I'm French royalty and Cherokee royalty. Don't ask.

Let's just say kings recognized kings. Thank you. He says, my father, what do you think his dad's name is? Now? Oh, I don't know. Pierre blanc elk. He's getting he's getting like less and less creative, and it's more and more like I feel like he's looking around the room, Chief yellow robe. He's looking chief pretty lamp in chief yellow robe,

chief shiny shoes. He says that, so that when they're saying, well how is it the Tierra Cherokee and a Bourbon French royalty, Well, see Chief yellow Robe married my mother, who's the daughter of Prince Ludovic Mario of Bourbon. That's I don't think it's a real person he himself had owned. Edgar was like, here's how I can tell you I'm legit. I once loaned the Empress of the Austrio Hungarian Empire

a million lira after she was ousted from her throne. Okay, so that's like when I go around scamming people and be like you, guys, it's totally cool. Because one time I loaned Bill Gates like seven million dollars. Yeah, he just needed it because like the particular didn't matter to me. Very confusing. I just want to make this easier for you.

Don't worry your head about these details. Uh So at this point, his second wife Ethel and the stepson Leslie, they had moved back to Manchester because like they're still following him around. But now he's like and Tom too, because she's lying. So Edgar goes back for a little bit to Manchester, like please please, baby, and you must forgive me, and she's like lining alone. Um, but then he goes back to visit Milannia. Remember this is the sixty year old step mom Contesa Contesa, Yeah, Adda is

the one he's younger. Um, he goes to see Milannia because guess what Milannia caught feelings for Edgar? Oh, and he could just detect it with his like spider scamsen. I think she put a little slipped a little note in his suitcase that said do you like me? Check yes or no? Here's my hotel room. And she's she's like, oh, you want to be a boyfriend and girlfriend. This happens a lot for Edgar, over and over and over again. She's like, do you want to take a spin a

promenade around the square holding hands and varsity letter? Yes, that's exacting. Well, he was on the cars. So apparently he wired a goodbye no to his stepson that read, dear leslie, your father must leave and never come back. Stop. That's like the worst letter to get from you. Spring. Edgar's in Italy with Milania, and uh, things kind of start heating up, as in the law no with his lifestyle. Let's take a break and when we come back, I'm going to tell you how Edgar took it to the

next level. All right, Saron, Hey, what's up? You got more from the White Elk for you better believe it. So remember when we left off, Edgar still going by Chief White Elk, not by chief Harry Johnson. Which that's a rude dude. Oh that's right, Billie Idol's a drug buddy, Harry Johnson. That name has a real energy to dude rude dudes. I don't think that Edgar la Plant has earned the title rude dude. Oh no, definitely not pretend. He's just rude. So he in rude fashion. He wires

his stepson, Leslie back in Manchester. Dear Leslie, your father must leave and never come back. And isn't he the stepfather? So it's like, is he talking about like my dad? And then remember the wife said she was a widow, so it's like, your dead dad must leave. And then he's like rub it in, why don't you so? Edgar now spring of he's in Italy with Milannia. They go on a huge shopping spree. Of course you're at the Contessa. He buys him gold watches. Yeah, multiple, He's got like

three on each arm. He's like Swatch watches. I had two Swatch watches. Don't don't worry about it. Going to judge custom tailored suits to Swatch watches and Benetton sweaters, I'm judging a little okay, um he she bought him this expensive car for him to give to her five year old stepson. When they met. George. His name is g e O R g Oh. It's friends without the Art. Sure, isn't that the name for the von Trapp family? The dad is gay Organ? Okay, so gay Org, Right, I'm

gonna go with what you're saying. The sound of music, Dad, that's all I know. Okay, I think I've seen that movie. I have a sister, I've seen it long ago. Um. So, Melania has a twenty five year old stepson named Georg and she's like, Edgar, you're gonna love him, but you have to give a present when you meet him. And Edgar is looking around the room, he's like a yellow road. She's like, no, he has this like souped up car. So she keeps giving Edgar cash. Um. He comes up

with all these excuses of why he needs more. She buys into him. I've got a hole in my pockets. Life. He goes on a tour of Italy paid for by Millennia, and he's greeted by these huge crowds. What does he do when he meets the crowds? Something racist? Now he made it rain baby, He handed out cash to these people. Is he wearing the head dress like handing out cash? He's totally. He's like, guess what, chief fight elks here

and it's time to party. He's making it rain with like Indians like yeah, I'm royalty, take it, and people are of course, these crowds are being attracted the hell. Yeah, this guy is handing out money. He's living it up on the riviera, so he gets like super tan and so it's really helping the costume game. He's just all greased up in tan um. This guy, Paul Willits wrote a book called King Khan, The Bizarre Adventures of the Jazz Age's Greatest impostor the book on this cat um.

He wrote quote his face had over recent weeks becau I'm quite bronzed, which chimed conveniently with his chosen identity. Bolstering this where his current clothes white suede pants, brightly hued appurtenances, an orange shirt, and a cloak embellished by a thick mink tail. His practice of wearing a feathered head dress, tucking a dagger into his belt, and puffing on a traditional long stemmed ceremonial pipe in between cigarettes also boosted his credibility, so too did his frequent talk

of the land he owned. So let's just I'm sorry, can we just stop for one second and put this vision in our heads of Captain white, suede pants, cooling chain, smoking white. He's like puffing on a cigarette. Then he takes a little toke, looking like George Hamilton's so amazing. Um. He becomes also in this frame, in this phase of his life, a favorite of Italian fascist officials. I was just about ask like, wait a minute, we're just post Marinetti,

the fascist future submerged, and now you have them. Yeah, and they're like, we love this. He's incredible. He doesn't argue, he's like I know, I'm um. In fact, he spreads some of that cash. He tosses cash at them. He donates money to party offices. And he gets the title of honorary corporal in the militia. So he's an honorary fascist. Yes, he's only one of three men in Italy to have that title. They give to a fake Native American. He's running around with a war bonnet on and he's like

hamming it up all over Italy. He hired, well, he hires a twenty three year old senior officer in the Fascist militia, to be his private secretary. And he also tried and then he failed to have a personal meeting with Mussolini in Rome in late August. There can only be one big hamm in curve. I'm not let anyone. He gets curved by King George the Fifth and Mussolini back in Manchester. Ethel not happy with the current arrangement, so she mails a letter to the contessa, both of them.

How did he know the contessa's address? And she was there in the beginning of it, and it's like Santi clause, you just write the old one. And then she draws like a rough sketch of her on the front of the I'm like, oh, yeah, that's Milannia. Um proves to her with the documents to prove to her that he didn't have the money he says he has. Now, how do you do the documents that prove a lack of money? I guess like an empty bank. I mean, I know

how I would believe I don't have any money. Um. Somehow, though, either Edgar intercepted the letter or she didn't properly address it and just drew a picture. Milannia never gets the letter. Neither does add a. Um. Milannia in order to finance him, she has to sell family property. What I mean finance and the she's sending him money, still giving Milannia is still giving Edgar money. What yeah, so she's still giving him. She's like, I gotta sell some property. Lady, what about Leslie?

You got a baby? Come on now, let's how do you say that guy's name George Organ. It's like this step son. He's like suspicious, Like okay, now you're selling property for this guy and you keep saying that he'll pay you back. Um, he has connections in Britain. I mistook it. Milani has selling property. I thought the wife she goes to wrap him out. The letter doesn't make it. That's okay, I'm not I I'm very confusing. So the fal Son now is catching one. Son's like, hold up,

I don't trust this guy. He starts an investigation, so he calls Britain people Baba. He sends a telegraph, but he knows how to address letters. He's like, let's get to the bottom of Chief white Elk. So Gay Org I can't say that. He attempts to withdraw three hundred thousand lira from his family's account money walking around money. But he finds out the accounts empty because of all of Millannia's withdrawals. Wow. So Milannia convinces ge Org that

Edgar was good for the loans. That's it's Edgar feels the heat, feels feels feels, feels the heat. He promises to repay the full loan, which is at this point is over a million lira, and by he says, I'm going to do that by December four, that's ten weeks from ben Okay, so he gives him a dead line. Yeah, but then he's like, hold on, hold on, hold on, how about January. Give me a little bit more time and I'll repay you. And you know what, plus six

percent interest. That's not a small amount. Now it's late November. The Italian press and the government finally learn Chief white Elk not Chief white Elk doesn't it. Finally catch up finally and they're like, guess what, buddy, you're out of here. They go to kick him out of the country o the fascist care They're like, we can't use this, not to our benefits. So he gets escorted by Italian police to the Swiss border on December, and he's then relocated

to a hospital in Belenzona. So we relocated like they. On the way there, he tripped a bunch and he had been injured somehow. I don't know if he tripped and fell on the dagger. If you're gonna take me to the border, I gotta go over to that hospital. So according to that book, King con Quote, Swiss journalists had not thus far recycled the skating press coverage of him in Italy, France and elsewhere, so there was no

obvious reason for skepticism. Even the hospital's director, Dr Emilio Sacci bought the line that Edgar was a prominent and very wealthy man who is also a physician. Talk of the prince generated flattering stories in the Swiss newspapers, and a parade of local worthies trooped to the hospital to pay homage to him. These visitors included numerous distinguished women, quite a few of whom seemed keen to bag him

as a husband. Less than a week ago, his life had been beset with problems, yet now it was ripe with encouraging possibilities. The con man's chorus, Yeah, so he's just laying in the hospital. Everyone's buying his game again, and then women are like, oh, I'll nurse you back to health, and he's well, thank god, because I got a loan to repay. So Contessa atta right, she paid the medical bills in Switzerland and then but at the same time she's like, I need to know for myself.

I'm going to England and doing my own investigation. But for whatever reason, she pays the bills. He recovers and he's like, I'm gonna start touring Switzerland on the road. Why not early January? If he's in French speaking Nucatel, Switzerland, he registers at the hotel there as Prince to Wuana Ray. So he switched to Way no longer a doctor, I haaded emotion, prince. But before he was ready to Juanna exactly doctor Ray Tajuana. Yeah, now he's Prince to Wuana Ray.

He says he's a diplomat and he has millions of dollars of Canadian assets. Give me a room, all right. He propositioned a lot of members of staff and like some some he was successful, others not. He gets kicked out a few days later without paying his bill. Turning out part of the staff. Exactly. He's made his way through the through the like laundry room. Uh, the owner of the hotel took all his stuff. They kicked him out and they're like, we're confiscating all your belongings. We're

going to pay your bill with your head dress. He well, he know, he gets kicked out onto the street with just his head dress, hat and a suit. The head dress, take the war bonnet and you're suit and you're out of here. Just offensiveness and get going to a chapstick and a dance belt. He's out of there. All I need is this paddle ball game. Ada, she gets back from her fact finding mission to the uk UM, she tells Melania, her step mom, what she discovered. What did

she discover? He's a madman and a con man, is what she's been told. He's got to get arrested, was what she says. So Ada goes to Switzerland to confront Edgar, but Milania super embarrassed that she fell for this scam and that she's like, please don't go to the police, So she sends out to go you confront him in person. But I'm not telling the fuzz on this one because it's going to make me look like a fool. So what's she gonna do with throw a drink in his face?

Just sit ho home and cry. I mean like the daughter when she goes to confront them, Like what's she gonna do like wave a bony finger and wave a bony finger, throw a drink like a scene walk out? Okay, well here, but then she's going to go find Edgar. Right, he's strung out in broke, cooling out in the hospital. Right. So I am happy to report that Edgar was arrested by Swiss police January. Now, during questioning, he did admit

to being Edgar la Plant from Rhode Island. Yeah, he comes clean, but he told so many otherwise that the Swiss police thought that that was yet another alias, like we can't believe anything he said. Several weeks go by, they continue their investigation. Okay, yes it is. Actually they realized, yes, this is Edgar a Plant from Rhode Island. Atta who thought Edgar still had a lot of the money that he'd taken from a family, and they thought maybe we can get it back. She paid off his Swiss debts,

like the hotel and everything. Um made sure he was well treated in jail, he still cast the spell over. The family gave him money for his defense, and so Um, Adda Milannia and the twenty five year old fail son, George Um, they go to visit him in jail. Dude, his Harry Johnson game must be amazing. Just off the charge. How was he pulling this? He promised he was going to repay the debt, and he says he's going to

pay them a hundred dollars a month. Now, it's estimated that in today's money, it's estimated that he gave away and spent as much as sixty five point four million dollars of their money. And so at that rate, it's gonna take him four hundred years to pay it back. He's like hundred bucks a month, Yeah, it would take him seven generations exactly. So by this time Adda and the family, they learned from Edgar's British wife, Ethel, that Edgar is not Native American. They get that confirmation. So

even though he's Edgar will Plant, he's also not Native American. Um. Ethel got that intel from the Canadian government, not First Nations. The family accused Edgar of defrauding them by quote, using his powers as a hypnotist and master of magic. Oh they busted out like the rescute and card on. He did abra cadabra? Or is my three year old nephew, says Bobby Cadaver, Bobby Caldaver. Magic. Um? She pressed charges. Finally, Milannia in Italy. Edgar reaches out to Ethel, the one

in England for help. Says, guess what, we'll get back together when all this is over. I'll come back to you. You can, me and Leslie. We're going to make a go of it. I was wrong. Well. Ethel starts writing letters of support for him and asking the US government for help. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna need a second. I mean, this is really disappointing. Really, I am so disappointed in so many I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed Ethel. He goes on trial in Switzerland. He his defense is

partial insanity. This a little bit. I'm half mad? Hey, which who among us isn't you know? Um? Here's an excerpt from his cross examination. Do you remember that you told the authorities that you had a medical diploma from Carlisle? I don't remember. Do you not often claim to have attended Carlisle. I just went there to play football. A letter from that college has just been received by the authorities. It states that they don't know you even as a

football player. The gallery erupts in laughter. Did you say that you owned a lot of land in Canada? Well, I certainly hope to own a lot of them. Don't hold him against me. He gets sentenced to one year in prison minus time served and a heavy fine which he cannot pay. He's released from the Swiss prison October immediately gets handed over to the Italians. Bring him over here. Um, he's going to go down trial for charges that the

Contessa has filed against him. So he's held in Trieste in turn for tin for about a year before the trial and then fall of the trial begins. Um, all of the Milannia crew testifies against him. Edgar gets sentenced to seven years, five months and fifteen days and a nine thousand lira fine and in order to repay one million over one million lira to Millannia. Yeah, good luck happened. So he's in prison. He works in a nitwear shop.

He hand embroidered and also operated a weaving machine, and he had a lot of cash though, when he's in prison because a wealthy female Belgian writer who believed in his cause, his self proclaimed cause as an Indian rights campaigner. He she's sending him money and he puts half in the commissary and he puts the other half to like habits of the special lunch is brought into him every day from a local restaurant. He really should have gone

into politics. He missed his mark. And the Belgian writer it's like, you know what, when you get out, you can be my chauffeur or my secretary. You can be my bodyguard when you get out, just pick one guard that body um. But he says, no, I can't because I don't want He says, quote, I'm not certain what i want to do with the rest of my life. I'm just finding myself. So he gets transferred to a prison near Rome and thanks to good behavior, paroled after

just two and a half years of his sentence. He couldn't leave for two months though, until he secured a ticket back to America. So he's got no money. So the US Consulate's like, all right, we got you a job as a mess stewart on an American cargo vessel to s s executive leaving mid August Edgar kisses American Soil September Brooklyn carrying nothing but quote, a dog eared copy of the transcript of his Italian trial reading fift dollar bills, and a wooden spoon used for the duration

of his imprisonment. No word on the war bonnet if he's still wearing, and what did he need the wooden spoon for the duration of his imprisonment? Is is like a poop knife, Like what is this? He's just you know, it's for like all the sundry thing, digging out of the cell, eating a scoop in your own eyeball out Goode's on the only clothes that he was wearing, a gray suit and a pair of tan oxfords, and um, there were reporters waiting for him when he did actually

because his PR team had the advanced work. So he tells the New York Times that he's given up his whole game and he would quote remain plane edgard la plant of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Look, he's even lying from there and go in for some ordinary job like umbrella fixing, a job. I don't know, but he says, that's you know, what I mean, just be an ordinary guy. Just hear every day umbrella fixing, nothing about work. So he's like,

I could be a ditch digger. He's like, I could be you, as like yellow Robed got a broken umbro I can fix that for a job. He said that during his time with the Contessas he realized that, you know, I'm not a Native American, but that quote as he felt sure anyone with a spark of romance may see. It was hard for him to disavow a tale that meant so much inattention and money. This part I believe that the first honest statement. It just felt too good.

He tells the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that he was part of the Tuscarora tribe and that he got his name Chief white Elk from a pr man, and that he was interpreting for the Native Americans acting in a film his imagining. He also told the reporter that Otta had thrown money and gifts at him and that the stepson got him arrested because he was jealous, and when talking about an Italian jail, he said, quote, all I ever had to eat was thin soup and half steamed spaghetti.

I used to starve myself, so that the doctor would order milk and eggs just to get off the diet for a few days. The only person to go to Italy and complain about the food. Chief white Elk March nine thirty. He's living in Boston, still trying to make it his Chief Winal and he's looking for two women to accompany him on a touring radio show. Strikes out on that one moves to Pawtucket to live with his cousin, so he does. Okay, he's not really lying now he

fa Yeah. He gets a job as Chief white Elk in a vaudeville venue and then starts touring the Northeast. He again goes back to using the name Chief Tajuana, but now he's Chief Louis Tajuanah. My god, I would love her somehoe in a shownee from like the upstate New York to come down to one of his shows and be like, brother, we just want to talk after the show. Yes. Two. Now he's in Oregon and he claimed he was a sixty five year old Native American

and former Olympian. He tried to convince locals to give him money so he could get to l A where the summer Summer Olympics were being held. Yeah. Five, it goes from l A to Berlin. We know that is to Berlin because Hitler a thirty five back in Pawtucket working as a church organist and an amateur umbrella repairman. You say the church is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

So late nineteen seventies, now in Montana, calling himself Dr Dylan white Elk Dylan part of an Alaskan delegation traveling to d C to quote protest illegal Japanese fishing in American territorial waters, shifting all over the place. Now, okay, uh not? Late thirty eight he gets hospitalized in Flint, Michigan, after having a heart attack. Now August thirty nine, he has another heart attack, this time in northern California. He

tells the hospital staff there that quote. Four years previously, he'd led a team of nine dog slits through the Alaskan wilderness, he said, as objective had been to reach the crashed air plane in which the columnist, broadcaster, and Hollywood star Will Rogers had been flying. The Associated Press wire service picked up Edgar's story, providing a conduit into newspapers up and down the West coast. Everyone loves a good story. And later in Oregon he says he's Dr

E Warren the Plant. So I gotta say, if you want to see the world, either join the military or become a con. Because one of the people are bouncing around Summer forty two, were kind a long way en. We started this journey part of the country right now, New Orleans. He has a third heart attack, and he makes some money for selling fake shares in non existent oil companies Solid Solid, and then he goes to Phoenix.

December forty three. He's calling himself Dr White Eagle. He says he's a native of the nearby town of Gila Bend and by implication of the Papago tribe, many of whom lived in the Gila River Indian Reservation. Okay, I just hope that some of them become into town. Catches pneumonia, bronchitis, dies from a heart attack. January death certificate list. His name is White Eagle. Doctor Indian mail gets it in the very end, lies to the end. What's your ridiculous

takeaway here? Oh man, If you're gonna be a Charlatan, go big. If you're going to pick an ethnicity. Pick one that apparently nobody knows anything about. It would never question because if you can just be native or been like, oh yeah, you got the head dressed, must be native, right, So I'm gonna go do that. I'm gonna see if I can get myself like I don't know a couple of them like Kaiser Wilhelm hats I look at the

spike in the top. I'm gonna tell people that I'm a German royalty and I'm perfect how far I can take this perfect? My takeaway since you asked, yeah, I'm sorry, but he's a Boso. That's my takeaway. Contessa is bosos. The only non Boso main characters Bertha and the adopted daughter, the rest, everyone's a Boso the end. That's it. I'm done. You can find us on Life Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter and Instagram. Bozos all of them. Got a tip for us about a ridiculous crime you want to hear about.

I want to confess to a ridiculous crime. Email us at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. The world is divided into bozos and rude dudes. Don't let the bozos get you down. Be a rude dude, tune in next time. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Vernett, produced and edited by indifferent Italian Consul General Dave Kuston. Research is by the savvy and undupable contested Marissa brown.

The theme song is by twelve time Olympian Thomas Lee and totally real and not fake medical doctor Travis Dutton. Executive producers are War Bonds salesman Ben Bollen and Noel Browne Say It One More Time Dequeous. Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio four more podcasts. My heart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.