Fellow Ridiculous Historians. One of the time honored aspects of US culture is to always make fun of people in power.
Yes, of course, especially in podcasting, especially.
In podcasting, sketch comedy, in cafes the nation round. There is a guy named William Walker. We would love to introduce you to him if you haven't heard our classic episode from twenty eighteen in his Halcyon days. You know he was an American hero because he was seen like some kind of military version of Rocky or what's that football film, Rudy Rudy.
Yes, of course, the underdog. Always root for the underdog.
Yeah, William Walker keeps trying to invade different parts of Mexico and Nicarock and keeps failing.
Oh yeah, you got to fail a bunch to become an underdog. I suppose did he ever rise above underdog status? Well?
Uh no, not really.
Okay, Well, why don't you hear more about that in this classic episode.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Going to open today with a question, and I don't know the most diplomatic way to phrase this, but what's the ballsiest thing you ever did?
Well, Ben, Today's episode's all about diplomacy. You really set the tone properly, asking the audience asking me.
I'm asking the audience and I'm asking you.
No ballsiest thing I ever did?
And super producer Casey Pegram feel free to chime in again. For the three of us, it might be a little bit different because we have a caveat. We're saying the ballsiest thing we ever did that we're willing to admit on air.
Mmm. That narrows the pool a little bit, my friend, I don't know. I once gosh when you put it like that, Ben, I just don't have a good answer, and it really makes me feel like I've squandered my life.
No way, No, We're living lives full of strange and ridiculous adventure. Although it always does feel weird to say ridiculous on this show, a little on the nose. But the reason that we were thinking about this off air is that today's episode is about a very very let's say, self confident guy full of chutzpah who played an instrumental
role in American history. When we say America, we mean the continents South American and North American history and It's a guy that a lot of people don't know about. I didn't know about him.
I know about I mean, I know, I knew. I knew of his his type. Oh, his type, Yeah, you know, imperialist swine.
Right, yeah, expansionist soldiers of fortune.
Yeah, because who knew there apparently was a time where you could just kind of take it upon yourself to, you know, go forth and conquer other countries. Yeah, with nothing but a you know, a wish and a dream.
And a posseum like minded reprobates exactly. Yeah. I was thinking about that too. So imagine if you would have you ever been on vacation somewhere and thought, you know what, I'm just gonna take a flag of another country, post it in the ground here and declare myself in charge. Have you ever thought about that? I've never seriously thought about it.
No, doesn't seem like those rules apply anymore. I think there's a little more paperwork.
Yeah, yeah, but back in the time of William Walker, there wasn't. Really. That's the subject of today's show, William Walker. Could you give us a little introduction to this guy, Noel.
Yeah, he grew up in a pretty affluent family in your neck of the woods, beIN in Nashville, Tennessee, or as they say around those ways, Nashville, Is that right, yeah? Yeah, And he did everything from like he studied fencing, I want to say, and he went to the University of Nashville where he graduated at the top of his class by the age of fourteen, which is nuts. And then he earned a degree in medicine. And then he also had a as if that wasn't enough, he got a
law degree. And he was technically, no, not technically, in actual facts, both a lawyer and a doctor, a law doctor. Mom and dad were proud, let's just put it that way.
Right, And he did, as I think we may have mentioned, come from a prestigious family. One of his uncles was John Norvill, a senator from Michigan, founder of the Philadelphia Enquirer. He had sort of a silver spoon life, but he was also a very smart guy. And the thing was
he was very self assured. He practiced law, but not for a very long time because after he was practicing law in Philadelphia, he quit and he moved to New Orleans, where he became the editor and co owner of an outfit called the New Orleans Crescent, a paper of note, and then that still wasn't enough, so he moved to San Francisco, and in San Francisco he was a journalist, and his fencing also came into play. Is that right, Well sort of. I'm pretty sure he shot people, but he wasn't three duels.
Oh that's right. Oh, that's right, because he was a bit of a notorious track talker, wasn't he. Yes, he wrote these columns and there were a few notable figures who he got into some pretty serious beefs with, isn't that right?
Yeah? Yeah. He was quite a bantam figure because he was only five feet two inches tall, but apparently he would fill a room. One of his duels that gained national attention. The first time he really broke out in the public sphere was when he had a duel with a guy named William Hicks Graham on January twelfth, eighteen fifty one, in San France.
Yeah. I think Graham was known as something of a gun slinger.
Yeah. Yeah. So at the time Walker was the editor of the San Francisco Harold Graham was technically, for his day job, a clerk employed by Judge Rn Morrison and The thing is, as you said, Noel Graham was also a notorious gunslinger, which you could do that back in these days. You could be in the eighteen fifties both a clerk for a judge and a well known gunsman. Gunsman is a word I just made. I'm into it, Bennet, I support that. So what happened with this?
So Walker, as the editor of said newspaper of note, was talking some trash about this judge Arren Morrison and dueling. This is you gotta remember, this is the time of like the California gold Rush and like you know, deadwood and stuff like that.
Right, yeah, you know this is also I mean it says it explicitly in books that we checked out for the show, like Age of the Gunfighter. At the time, dueling was a popular means of settling disputes in California.
Though not technically legal, right, I mean, we're pretty far out west at this time. That's true, that's true. But so this is the funny part. It was such a popular thing that the judge actually had his clerks draw straws to see who would duel on his behalf to you know, defend his honor. They were beefed up. Yeah, that just seems real cowardly. But I guess you know, I wouldn't do that for my boss.
No, I don't, but I don't think We're in a very pro dueling environment.
Well, and again, Hicks was a you know, he was fond of this pastime, right, Yeah.
William Hicks. Graham had already taken part in numerous duels in the time of the Old and Wild West, and Walker had had some duels before, but the kind of duels he had were duels where you use a single shot revolver, and so you can if you just want to defend your honor but not hurt someone. Not going to say where this phrase is popular from. I don't want to spoil the musical for everyone, but you can just throw away your shot shoot in the air with
a single shot firearm. But this fight was a little bit different because it was waged with revolvers colts specifically.
Yeah, and they had five and all of them were fired. And Walker took a bullet through. I don't think it actually injured him, but it went through the leg as this has this book describes through the leg of his pantaloons. And then he also got one. Oh, he did get one in the thigh. And the funny thing is is that Graham got charged with aggravated assault because this was in fact an illegal activity.
Yeah, he was later found not guilty in no small part, I think, because while Walker was shot, he was not seriously injured. Right, That's what That's what I found. Also, he from what I understand, Graham walked away without a scratch, like he he got two shots off, and Walker didn't even manage to fire a shot at Graham. And so when he was wounded, Walker eventually conceded and as you said,
Noel Graham was arrested but found not guilty. And one of the strangest things about this research, maybe want to trace the life of William Hicks Graham because in the books we're reading about this duel, Graham goes on to fight other duels pretty much like immediately after he gets the not guilty verdict.
Oh yeah, he's thirsty for these these gunfights, and it sort of shows the kind of attitude this dude had about going out and conquering stuff, you know what I mean? Hm?
Oh, And I want to correct myself there because I said he wasn't seriously wounded, but I found conflicting reports. Reports of the time described it as a trifling wound, but later historical reports described as very serious wound. I've always assumed a gunshot is a serious wound. I would assume so well assumption. Decide. One thing that is great about this duel is despite the fact that he lost the duel, William Walker, as we said, becomes known in
the public sphere. He's in the paper, you know what I mean, Lawyer Dulis William Walker not walking for a while.
That's a cute man.
It's they were very cute papers at the time. So this is just some backgrounds about this guy. He's well off, he's a hot head. He's also not shy about his opinions, both his opinions on slavery, he's very much in favor of it, his opinions on the expansion of the United States, and his opinion on how to apply his patriotism.
Yeah, and he got a little bit of inspiration from some stuff that was going on in Cuba. There was a dude named Narcisco Lopez who was born in Venezuela, and this was in eighteen fifty, by the way, and he gathered up a band of mercenaries to basically try to conquer part of.
Cuba and then make it part of the US.
Make it part of the US is annexing And what is that.
That that would be annexing it if it were an authorized state action.
That's the thing. This guy has kind of took it upon himself, Yeah, to do it, and Walker like the cut of his particular jib and said, huh, interesting, I want to try something like that.
And this was known as filibustering for a lot of a lot of us listening in the US right now today, twenty eighteen, as we record this in case you happened to be listening three thousand years in the future. For a lot of US, philibustering today only describes the political practice wherein a congress person will try to put off certain voting actions by just talking forever.
Yeah, like we do on this podcast.
We're good at we get to the point.
Yeah, we know what we do, but we're we're But I feel like I could be accomplishing so much stuff if I wasn't always just talking into a microphone.
I mean, you could say that about anything. Think how many hours a day we spend sleeping fair, let's take a third of your life.
Wow, you put it like that.
But these weird statistics aside, and these strange definitions aside. Filibustering at the time described this specific practice illegally going into a foreign country or land and taking it over by force with a usually with aposse mercenaries or like minded people native to the region, and then declaring that land part of the United States. One of the big
inspirations for this is the state of Texas. They had broken off from Mexico a few years before, and they were held up as an example of the practice of Americans going out taking over an area and then later making it a state, and filibustering, although illegal in the US, had wide popular support because we have to remember, this is full on expansion, this mode.
You know what I mean?
See the Shining Sea?
Oh yeah, I mean manifest that destiny, right, young man?
So where did where did Walker go?
Yeah? So Walker set his sights down Mexico away, specifically a couple of states, one of which was Baja California, which was actually in Mexico and Sonora, and there weren't a ton of folks living there at the time, so he gathered a posse of I think around fifty men, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, and just you know, marched his way on in there, and he was able to take Lapause, which is the capital of Baja and he raised his own flag that he had designed himself, which I think had like three
parallel stripes on it, and yeah, and you know he is, like you said earlier, you sort of put down his.
Flag and say this is mine. Now the chutzpah alone. Yeah, he named he renamed the area of the Republic of Lower California, declared himself president, and then said the new legal system will be well, we're just going to use the laws of the state of Louisiana. Unless you think he is some sort of Indiana Jones type lovable rogue character, we should mention that there's a reason he wanted to use the laws of the state of Louisiana. Wanted to
use those laws because they included legalized slavery. He was again very pro slavery, and words spread in the US. Just imagine people saying, you know, remember that editor, that hot headed editor from San Francisco who disappeared for a while. Well it turns out he took over Baja California for the US and he had this massive wave of public support. People would read about this story and then go volunteer to join him a member of his military force in
the Republic of Lower California. And this is where he got a really weird nickname. I'm talking about the gray eyed Man of Destiny. Yeah, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue.
I think it's great. I would love people called me that, the gray eyed Man of Destiny.
It's a lot to say. It feels like it's good to read it in print.
I just said it twice, and I love the way it sounds. So I respectfully disagree with you, Ben. Of course, of course, to each their own and noted. Now, I don't think his vice president got a nickname. That was his former law partner, Henry P. Watkins.
We should also mention that when he was filibustering in Mexico, he didn't just try to take over the Baja California territory. He took over another sparsely populated area, the Sonora State.
Yeah, and I do want to say, speaking of diplomacy, he did start off this whole thing by asking the Mexican government to let him make a colony in these areas that were kind of sparsely populated, and he referred to it, according to this article from History as Now magazine, that he wanted to create a buffer zone between Native American and American territories. So Mexico said no, and he decided to go forth with his wild plan.
And like Gregor McGregor from our earlier show, he funded his project by selling script that was redeemable in the state of Sonora. Oh wow, that he would create so even.
More ballsy, seriously seriously. So yeah. He stated his claim in La Pause and also in Baha and also in Sonora.
And it didn't all go smoothly, obviously. He moved his headquarters twice over the next ninety days or something, once to Cabo San Lucas and then once a little further north to Ensnata, because he knew that it would be a really close fight if the Mexican government was able to raise forces to attack. And he actually didn't get
control of Sonora. He just sort of started saying that the Republic of Lower California was part of the larger Republic of Sonora, even though he didn't actually control it. It's kind of like It's like, imagine if we declared ourselves the emperors of Birmingham, Alabama, despite the fact that we're not in Birmingham, Alabama. That's kind of what happened.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
And there was a notable series of attacks that he lost, which further adds noal to the one of the themes in this guy's life, which is talking a big game and then getting his keys handed to him. One of those relocations he took was a consequence of him losing a skirmish to General Manuel Marquez de Leon, and so he was eventually forced to retreat from Mexico entirely.
So it's eighteen fifty four and the Gray Eyed Man of Destiny has sort of rallied some troops to support him. He actually was able to get around two hundred Mexicans to back him up, along with another couple hundred folks from San Francisco, who thought this scheme of his, you know, had had legs. But you know, as megalomaniacs often do,
he didn't really plan this thing out very well. They didn't have enough supplies, and you know, the folks that were helping him started getting restless and the Mexican government wasn't having it, and they were able to really make things pretty uncomfortable for the occupying forces there in La Pause Rights.
So at the same time, this is getting domestic support in the US, with hundreds of people wanting to join the expedition, raising the flag of the Republic of Sonora in different streets in the US. Things are getting increasingly hairy for Walker and co. Down there in Baja California. And know you mentioned earlier that the supplies were an issue, right,
There's a strange thing that happens. He has a ship named the Caroline that is supposed to wait on shore or bring him the AMMO and the food stuffs he needs to continue surviving the conflict, and this ship sails away with most of his supplies. And then when two hundred more recruits arrived from San Francisco, his supplies are already so low. He can't feed them, he can't arm them.
Wait, so they just bailed on him with his stuff. The ship just left, so it was like they were deserting. Basically, they were like this is this is it. We're done, and we're taking your ship and your supplies and you know, go af yourself.
So the most diplomatic way I found it was in an article from the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco by Fanny Judah that says, for some unknown reason, his vessel the Caroline, sailed away with the greater part of his supplies. So when these people show up, he sends a group of them toward Toto Santos Bay on a foraging expedition, and he says, you know, find us some food to eat, find us some cattle, et cetera.
They get in a fight with the natives. This band does because those people don't want to give up their stuff in return for script again the fake money that you can redeem in Sonora, which he does not control. And since they were running low on food, they couldn't get their plundering done successfully. The men began to desert. Walker starts to rest them. He shoots two of them.
He has two others publicly flogged, and this makes him even less popular, so much so that he only had one hundred men when he started walking for Snorra or moving on Snorra, and by the time they reached the Colorado River there were only thirty five people with him. He's hemorrhaging supports that.
You're just dropping like flies, man, and not a good look. Not a good look for a leader and a conqueror, right.
Which is why you know, I think Gray Eye Man in Destiny is a good nickname. I just don't think he deserves it.
Here's the thing, though, Ben, I didn't realize this. I mean, we're talking about how the laws were different, and how it was a little bit easier just to kind of like, you know, go forth and conquer, but it was in fact illegal, just like dueling. It was widely done, and I guess, you know, it was just kind of like
if you don't get caught, but filibustering was illegal. And after this debacle and he returned back to San Francisco, he and his remaining ten dudes or whatever got arrested by the Army.
Right for violation of US neutrality laws. Exactly. So how did this how did this trial actually go? I wonder if he was able to represent himself. He was a lawyer, right, there's a doctor, lawyer, duellist.
Lawyer, dualist, imperialist, conkerer man. His business card must have been extra long.
Do you think it was? Bone k yeah, bone line. So The thing is, yes, he is arrested, he's tried for these multiple violations of US neutrality laws. But in the US the population is still supportive of him. The trial goes to a jury, they list all the charges, prosecution makes the argument, defense makes an argument to your point, nol, I would be fascinated to know whether he represented himself, and the jury leaves to deliberate. They come back eight
minutes later, and what do you think happened? They let him go, right, Yeah, he's acquitted of all charges. He's a true America.
Do you think it's because of the chutzvah keep talking about Vin? You think the people were just like, you know, this guy is a real American, and why would we put him away for just doing what Americans do, which is, you know, going out and conquering the wilds.
I think it was, you know, I think there's something to it, honestly, because I believe that the public support for manifest destiny and expansionism was at such a fever pitch that people were maybe having conversations where they said, well, there's a difference between what's right and what's legal sometimes right And so after he gets away unscathed through this adventure attempting to capture Baja California and Sonora. He says, you know what, I'm going to go back to practicing
law a little bit. They've got a reputation. Maybe I'll just go be a lawyer. And that lasts a little less than a year.
Oh, I'm sorry, I just want to interject really quick. Man, I remembered something. The reason we don't hear about him practicing medicine is because as a right out of medical school, he saw his mother die. Oh wow, very horribly.
So he's traumatized.
He was traumatized and turned away from ever practicing medicine. So that's why the whole doctor lawyer thing didn't didn't work out. He didn't really he couldn't really do the combo. There.
That's a tragedy.
Please go on.
Well, I'm setting you up to tell one of the strangest turns in the story. Right, he got away unscathed from his ill fated adventures in Baja California and Snorra, and he says, you know what, I'm going to go practice law again. And that lasts for about a year, and then he gets that itch, he gets that conquering itch. Yes, he gets that filibuster rich.
Oh, he needs to be filibustering every day, philibuster, and so he sets his sights on Nicaragua. Weird. It's really really far, far, far far away from San Francisco, you know, Mexico made sense, you know, on the on the border.
And it's sparsely populated. He also, by the way, he gets a lot of public support because he's saying that he's setting up this buffer colony to protect people from the Apache.
That's right. That's right, because it was during the gold Rush and there was a lot of like these little settlements there and Indian attacks and the like, but not the case with Nicaragua. For this, this was purely exploitative on his part because Nicaragua was having some serious problems. They were like in the absolute throes of a horrible civil war, and there were these factions that were trying to control the government of the country, and they were
the Leonese and the Grenadins. The Leonese were more liberal and the Grenadins were more conservative. And if I butcher that pronunciation, I don't know, you know, you got it. I just don't even care anymore. Ben, you did it.
You did it.
Good. I just don't care. Hey up man, No, no, I'm good. I just I just really, you know, pronunciations be damned well.
Also, English is a living language.
That's just that's just a thing dumb people say they mispronounced words.
Are you accusing?
No? No, yeah, you're just trying to make me feel better.
No, no, it is. It is a living language. I mean, look, when's the last time you heard filibustering described in this way? That's a very good word.
Has changed over I have never heard it actually, because we I mean, it's not even in the Webster's definition.
We're yeah, we got to break it back. I'm going to start filibustering places like our local bar across the street.
Where you hang out for early long time.
I think I think the main thing is I need a flag. It seems like flags are really key here. I need I need it. So if you were a good vexologist, which is the fancy word for flag lover, vexologist, that's right, vexillologist. If you are a vexillologist one who is very familiar with the study of history, symbolism, and usage of flags, then hit us up and let us know what kind of flags we should have. I'm open to ideas. Are you on board with this? I don't want a pigeonhole, you know.
No, man, pigeonhole away. Okay, I'm malleable. I will bend to your whims.
You're a gray eyed man of destiny.
No, that's you, buddy. I would I will follow you to the ends of the earth.
I would much prefer that you take the nickname gray Eyed Manadestiny over this Walker character.
Oh that's very kind, member. You can be the power behind the gray eyed throne. Man.
I just want a filibuster, which sounds like we haven't learned our lesson. We're mostly joking, except you know, let us know if you have a good idea for a flag. So Walker is aware of this situation that Noel you just described in Nicaragua. The Granada faction, the more conservative faction, is at the time winning winning so hard, like winning to the nth degree, and the Leonese seem set for defeat.
Walker sees an opportunity in this chaos. And this is again we have to remember, these are the days before the Panama Canal. So a lot of shipping went through Nicaragua. It was a it was a tremendously important crossroads for trade.
Wasn't the kind of masterminded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was like the railroad tycoon.
That trade position.
Well, I think he sort of had the idea of building this canal and he wanted to connect you know, the Caribbean with the Pacific Ocean. And so Walker, knowing this, saw what a strategic stronghold economically the Nicaragua was and decided to roll the dice and offered his assistance to the Leonese.
Right, yes, he offered his assistance, and he did it with very sketchy support from the US government. So he says, I'm going to get down there. I'm going to get with the Leonese, use them to augment my fighting forces. We're going to take over Nicaragua for America. Who's with me? Who's with me? Kind of like that scene in Half Baked.
How many were with him? Then?
Sixty sixty people said, well, I'll do it.
Is not enough.
That's not enough.
I'm not so you know, master of war. But that seems a little on the light side.
We have never in fact purposely filibustered, but just ballparking, that seems Yeah, that seems low. So here's the thing though, here's what the sketchy support was. He's got these sixty people and says, Okay, we're gonna set sail. It's eighteen fifty five by this time, and the United States Marshall tries to prevent Walker and his men from leaving, but the federal officials who earlier tacitly supported him in his quest to take over parts of Mexico, they're still on
his side. In fact, before he sets sail, Walker meets with a guy named General Wool who is the military commander of the Pacific Coast. And Wool had special powers granted from the President to suppress all filibustering expeditions. But this guy, this guy meets with Walker. Walker says, yeah, I'm gonna go take over Nicaragua for America. I'm gonna make it like its own thing first, but then I'm
gonna hand it off to the US. And the General hears this plan and he says, you know what, not only am I not going to interfere, but break a leg, buddy, I wish you well, Yeah, totally. I got a question for you, man. In all of this, how is he benefiting like he is? He cashing in on all of these exploits. Like, is he just totally power mad and just wants to like be the king of a country. Yeah, it's tough for us to ascribe motive. We know he didn't come from impoverished means or anything.
I just think he was obsessed and driven and like just like kind of to a completely self destructive level. Yeah.
I think he just really dug power. So I think you are right, Noel, I think you're right. I think it was about the power for him. It was about the drive to conquer and to rule. As soon as they land in San Juan del Sur, he's starts to flex his muscles. He's got his sixty people with him, and he's got those Leonese troops and he starts fighting the Granada faction at the Battle of Rivas. And because he wins the day for the Leonese, he gets another title. Isn't he gets the other? Yeah?
Well not a nickname, say, this is almost an official title. And he's a white man. He's from from Nashville, right right. I mentioned it's so crazy how he found himself in this situation. I just don't understand like the impulse to do that maybe I'm just my brain doesn't work like this. But yeah, so he's General Lisimo now, and he declares himself to be the new president of Nicaragua.
HUTSPA for days. Yeah, and the population in the US hears about this, and they love it, and soon pro slavery advocates begin trying to recruit more people to help with this cause. In Nicaragua, large southern cities host public meetings and fundraisers, and Walker begins to really settle in and make himself comfortable. And this is where he makes a powerful enemy. And Nolan's so glad you mentioned this guy earlier. We had a little foreshadowing.
Yeah, this Vanderbilt character does not play because I believe that General Lissimo l Presidente Walker did not allow his ships to travel through like we were saying before. He saw the strategic power of controlling Nicaragua. So I guess, yeah, there was money he was getting he was I mean, come on, he had to have been cashing in on this, no question about it, because he had such power that he was actually able to revoke the deal with Vanderbilt's company.
Yeah, the Vanderbilt steamship company.
That's right to allow them to travel through that very important region for getting from the Caribbean the Pacific Ocean. This is before the Panama Canal, right.
Yes, yeah, this is before the Panama Canal. And Dad insult to injury. Walker gives that right of transit to a guy named Edmund Randolph, the competitor of Vanderbilts, for a term of twenty five years. And then as soon as he's consolidating his power, he reverses the anti slavery laws that Nicaragua had had for the last thirty two years. And because this guy is essentially reinstituting slavery, revolts begin to break out. Also, there's a there's a puppeteer helping
strengthen and augment these acts of revolt. It's Vanderbilt, the owner of the steamship company. This has become a proxy war for him, dang making waves he is he is, and Costa Rica declares war against Walker as well. Things just go to go to pot They go pear shaped pretty quickly. And you know, it's not hard to see why if somebody came in and took over a US state and reinstituted slavery right and then angered the largest
corporations in the area. Of course, things would be incredibly unsustainable. And so after about two years, as a result of these various conflicts, in May of eighteen fifty seven, Walker has to surrender. He has to leave Nicaragua. Until that is, he convinces people to join him on his second Nicaragua campaign. So he's in Mobile, Alabama, and he organizes the second Nicaragua expedition.
Well, how do you get to Mobile? Where'd that come into play? It's when he left Nicaragua, he belined it for Mobile.
He went back to the States. He was forced by Central American Armies and the government of Costa Rica to surrender to US Navy Commander Charles Henry Davis. And so he was taken back to New York City. And then when he got to New York, at first there was fanfare, you know, imagine the confetti, the applause. People are like, this guy's a real American hero. But then the public turned against him when he said, the only reason I lost is because of the US Navy. Also, he was
using very dirty tactics in the war. He was purposely contaminating water wells with corpses. Yeah, he's waging biological war. It's awful, caused a cholera epidemic. What a guy, What a guy? And so now the US public has starting to turn against him. He goes from New York, makes his way down to Mobile, Alabama, starts his second Nicaragua expedition, and then he gets arrested by the US Navy under
the command of a guy named Commodore Hiram. Paulding gets returned to the US again, writes a book War in Nicaragua, published in eighteen sixty, and then he goes back, but this time he says, you know what, if Nicaragua didn't work, if Baja California didn't work, there's another place I can try. It was trild Honduras, old old.
Honduras, with the same you know, the same designs in mind as he's had the whole time. This guy's just got like stars in his eyes about his conquering. I just I still want to know, like, how is he how is he benefiting from this? It sure seems like he's putting himself in harm's way. You know, I just think he maybe just got off on the on the chaos and the chaos. I guess, yeah, this is very interesting, very interesting character.
Doesn't seem like he was doing much to institute sustainable government after he took over.
Now, or even had any real plans on how to do it. He doesn't wanted to declare himself the president. He just wanted to be important, you know what I mean. But all this bad behavior finally caught up with him in the form of a firing squad.
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Mm hm. So after he's organized this other expedition, put it together New Orleans, set sail for Central America. He lands near Trouscillo in Honduras, and he's still thinking, you know what, eventually I'm going to get to Nicaragua. But his men, probably thinking we have heard this before, they desert him. So eventually, as he is probably trying to take over Nicaragua, he has to surrender himself to the captain of a British naval vessel
that was nearby off the coast. This guy, Commander Noel Salmon, who would later become Admiral Sir Noel Salmon, for reasons that aren't completely clear, decided that instead of returning Walker to the US, he was just going to deliver him to the authorities of Honduras along with his chief of staff, Colonel A. F. Rutler. Rudler was sentenced to four years hard labor in the mines Aaron Honduras, which shit in many ways, was a death sentence. But as he said, Walker met a different thing. Yeah.
And we've got a really good account of it from the New York Times, published in October fifth of eighteen sixty by John E. Norvil, And this is how he describes it. He marched from his cell to the place of execution with a steady step and unshaken mien. A chair had been placed for him, with his back toward the castle. Having taken his seat, he was blindfolded. Three soldiers stepped forward to within twenty feet of him and
discharge their muskets. The balls entered his body and he leaned a little forward, but it being observed that he was not dead, a fourth soldier mercifully advanced so close to the suffering man the muzzle of the musket almost touched his forehead, and being there, discharge scattered his brains and skull to the winds. Thus ends the life of the gray eyed man of Destiny. And I have to make this joke, Ben. They were using musket balls you live by the balls you die.
Oh that's so good. Were you planning on that? Just that just to screw had to, had to that's good to give it. Yeah, yeah, let it fly. And so this is the conclusion of the story of the Man, the Myth, the Monster, William Walker. Side note, I don't know if we mentioned this. Do you know how old he was when that firing squad got him? No?
I don't.
I didn't see that here, thirty six years old. He did all these terrible things in thirty six years.
Can I just turned thirty five? I know, man, I've never conquered a country even half successfully.
Hey, you know what, neither is he?
That's true? Do you know he was half successful?
I don't know. I think he just raised the rockets, okay, and then he was never legally recognized by another country. But you know what, we've still we've still got time to start countries of our own, maybe on the moon when SpaceX gets his stuff together. But that's a story for another day. Thank you so much for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed the tale of William Walker, and stay tuned for our next episode, when we break down the story of what are they know monkey.
Hangers, the Hartlepool monkey or why Hartlepoodlians are known as monkey hangars. That's happening. That's happening with a vengeance, my friend.
It is inevitable.
In the meantime, hit us up on the internet. We are ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com. You can join our Facebook group of ridiculous historians on the Facebook. All you gotta do is name one of our names. It's a pretty low bar. That's the magic entry question. And you know what, even if you don't know, or you say something clever, we'll still let you ends.
Yeah, we like jokes. Your Nol and Ben, that's Casey, that's us.
Yeah.
Oh and we want to thank Casey super producer, Casey Pegren. Want to thank Alex Williams who composed this track, our research associates, Christopher Hasiotis and Eve's Jeff cot.
And most importantly you out there in podcast land, specifically you and YouTube Ben Nol. Really you really carried me on this one, I gotta say, and I appreciate.
Oh man, oh last thing. Please know we're serious. Send us flag designs if you have one.
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