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0:43

Hey everyone, Sebastian here. I just wanted to

0:45

give everyone listening a heads up that today's

0:47

episode is going to be dealing

0:49

with some fairly frank discussions of

0:52

racially motivated violence and sexual

0:54

assault. If that's something you do

0:56

not want to listen to or do not

0:58

want young people in your life to be listening to,

1:01

then please be advised. For

1:03

everyone else, please enjoy the show.

1:13

Everyone, we need to talk

1:15

about Batman. Yes,

1:18

the Batman. The Caped Crusader.

1:21

The Dark Knight. The Gotham Guardian. Batsy.

1:24

You know who I'm talking about.

1:26

The Bat is undoubtedly on

1:28

the shortlist of the most iconic,

1:31

most recognizable, most beloved

1:33

superheroes of all time.

1:35

Since his first appearance in Detective Comics

1:38

No. 27 in May of 1939, Batman has had many moments

1:44

when he has transcended his role

1:46

as a comic book character and stood

1:49

right in the center of the zeitgeist.

1:53

This might be because the character

1:55

has proven to be incredibly malleable.

1:58

Batman defines campy

2:01

1960s TV, sliding

2:03

down the bat pole with Robin chatting

2:05

with the Commissioner on the big red phone and

2:08

dancing the Batussi at a swinging

2:10

go-go club. But

2:12

amazingly, the same character

2:15

seemed a natural fit for some of the

2:17

darkest superhero stories to

2:19

exist in the mainstream. Frank

2:23

Miller's Batman comic miniseries

2:26

The Dark Knight Returns is

2:28

considered by many as a definitive example

2:31

of the gritty shift in tone

2:33

that characterized 80s comics.

2:36

Tim Burton's truly massive 1989

2:38

and 1992 movies were some of the strangest and darkest pieces

2:45

of entertainment ever to be marketed

2:48

on McDonald's collectible cups. This

2:51

is to say nothing of the very mature

2:53

trilogy of Batman films by Christopher

2:55

Nolan and the positively pitch-black

2:58

take on the character that appeared in the recent

3:00

Matt Reeves film starring Robert Pattison.

3:04

For decades, Batman, and

3:06

by extension his rogue's gallery

3:08

of villains, has been so ubiquitous

3:12

that I saw some of my follow on Twitter

3:15

joke that in a few hundred years we

3:17

will probably have historians writing

3:20

seriously about whether or not

3:22

there was a historical joker. And

3:25

to be honest, that kind of sounded

3:28

like he was sub-tweeting this podcast.

3:31

But the point was well taken. The

3:34

question of why this

3:36

character has resonated so deeply

3:38

and for so long can be difficult to

3:41

answer. Perhaps

3:43

it's the look, the cape and

3:45

the cowl, the pointy ears, the

3:47

badass silhouette. Perhaps

3:50

it's the gear, the utility belt

3:52

decked out with gizmos, the cool car.

3:56

Or perhaps it has more to do with the

3:58

character's biography. A man

4:01

living a double life on the

4:03

surface, Bruce Wayne appears

4:06

to be a spoiled millionaire playboy

4:08

with few cares. But in reality,

4:11

he's a tireless nocturnal detective

4:13

haunted by the traumatic death of his parents,

4:16

driven to bring justice to

4:18

the streets of Gotham City. The

4:22

man long considered the creator

4:24

of Batman, Bob Kane, once

4:27

speculated in 1995 that, quote, Batman

4:31

is associated more with the average

4:33

man than Superman. He doesn't

4:36

have superpowers, but that's part

4:38

of the longevity of him. He's

4:40

Mr. Average Guy. He

4:42

could bleed and die. And

4:45

it's so eye-catching, couple

4:47

that with the fact that he fights for the oppressed.

4:50

He battles for everybody,

4:52

end quote.

4:53

These are good insights. But

4:56

it's worth noting that everything Bob

4:58

Kane mentioned in that quote was

5:01

also true of many earlier

5:03

heroes to emerge from the world

5:05

of pulp fiction. Batman

5:08

certainly had a distinctive look, but

5:10

almost everything else about his

5:12

character was borrowed from popular

5:15

action heroes that preceded him. It's

5:18

been noted by comic book aficionados

5:21

that the first Batman story that appeared

5:23

in detective comics in 1939

5:26

is remarkably similar to a story

5:29

that had been published a few months earlier,

5:32

starring the pulp hero known as The

5:34

Shadow. But

5:36

Bob Kane wasn't just borrowing, some

5:38

might say plagiarizing, plot points

5:41

from other successful pieces of fiction.

5:44

Essential parts of what we think of as the

5:47

Batman mythos were lifted

5:49

wholesale from another popular

5:52

character, the old California

5:55

Avenger, Zorro. appeared

6:00

in 1919 in the novel

6:03

The Curse of Capistrano by

6:05

the American adventure writer Johnston

6:08

McCully. The novel,

6:10

which ran as a serial in the pulp

6:12

magazine All Story Weekly,

6:15

was an immediate hit. Readers

6:18

loved the tale of Don

6:20

Diego de la Vega, a rich

6:23

dandy living in California when

6:25

it was still a part of Mexico. But

6:28

what no one knows is that the

6:30

seemingly superficial and aloof Don

6:33

Diego is secretly the

6:35

masked bandit Zorro,

6:38

which is Spanish for the

6:40

fox. Zorro

6:43

is a master swordsman who uses

6:45

his unmatched fighting skills and

6:47

sharp intellect to fight against corrupt

6:49

army officers and government officials

6:52

oppressing the good people of California.

6:56

The serialized novel was such a hit

6:58

that the very next year it was adapted

7:00

into the silent film The Mark

7:03

of Zorro, starring one of Hollywood's

7:05

first bona fide action stars,

7:07

Douglas Fairbanks. The

7:10

Mark of Zorro was a huge

7:12

success that has gone down as

7:15

a genre-defining adventure film.

7:18

You could also make the case that without Douglas

7:21

Fairbanks and 1920's Mark of Zorro, we

7:24

might not have the modern superhero.

7:28

Or at the very least, modern superheroes

7:30

might look very different. The

7:33

co-creator of Superman, Jerry

7:36

Siegel, used Douglas Fairbanks'

7:38

physique and some of his iconic hands-on-hips

7:42

poses as a model for

7:44

early Superman comics. Bob

7:47

Kane went even further. As

7:50

a youngster, he'd been enamored with

7:52

Zorro. Kane would later

7:54

recall that as a kid in the Bronx, he

7:56

and a group of neighborhood boys would run around

7:59

with homemade Kane. tapes and masks, calling

8:01

themselves the Zoros. He

8:05

never lost his love of that character,

8:07

and when he was creating Batman, Kane

8:10

borrowed liberally from the Fairbanks

8:12

version of Zorro. Now,

8:15

to be fair, Bob Kane was fairly

8:17

open about all of this. Decades

8:20

after the creation of Batman, he would say

8:22

in an interview, quote, Zorro

8:24

had a major influence on me in the creation

8:27

of Batman in 1939. When

8:30

I was 13 years old, I saw the mark

8:33

of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks. He

8:35

was the most swashbuckling, daring-do

8:38

superhero I've ever, ever

8:40

seen in my life, and he left a lasting

8:43

impression on me. And, of

8:45

course, later when I created Batman,

8:48

it gave me the dual identity,

8:50

because Zorro had a dual identity.

8:53

During the day, he played a foppish count,

8:56

Don Diego, a bored playboy,

8:58

and at night, he became Zorro.

9:01

He wore a mask, and he strapped his trusty

9:04

sword around his waist. He came

9:06

out of a cave, which I made into

9:08

a bat cave, and he rode a black

9:10

horse called Tornado, and I

9:12

later had the Batmobile. So

9:15

Zorro was a major influence on my

9:18

creation of Batman, end

9:20

quote. The double

9:22

life, the black cape, the

9:24

cave as a hideout. It

9:27

all came from Zorro. Even

9:30

the trope of having a trusty butler

9:32

helping out behind the scenes was

9:34

taken from Zorro's stories. Now,

9:38

it's notable that Bob Kane was

9:40

so open about the influence Zorro

9:42

had on Batman, because

9:45

Bob Kane was not always great

9:48

about giving credit where credit was

9:50

due. In fact, for

9:52

most of his life, Kane refused to

9:54

acknowledge the contributions of other artists

9:57

in the creation of Batman. In

10:00

particular, the comic writer

10:03

Bill Finger, who worked as a ghost

10:05

writer and artist for Bob Kane, came

10:07

up with many of the signature aspects

10:10

of Batman, including the

10:12

distinctive cape and cowl with

10:14

pointed ears. Bob Kane

10:17

had originally conceived of the character wearing

10:19

red tights, a small domino

10:22

mask, and stiff bat wings.

10:26

Bill Finger may have even suggested

10:28

the character name Bruce Wayne. In

10:31

the end, he was instrumental in transforming

10:33

the character into more of a detective

10:36

than simply a swashbuckling

10:38

Avenger. He was key to

10:41

imagining the setting of Gotham City and

10:43

made essential contributions to the creation

10:45

of Robin the Boy Wonder and

10:48

The Joker. But for decades,

10:51

Bill Finger was never properly

10:53

credited for his work. Bob

10:56

Kane made a fortune as the creator

10:58

of Batman, whereas Bill

11:00

Finger struggled financially his

11:02

whole life. Kane

11:05

only started speaking about Finger's

11:07

contributions in the 90s,

11:10

long after his former collaborator

11:12

had passed away. It wasn't

11:14

until 2015, after a long

11:16

campaign by Finger's biographers

11:19

and surviving heirs, that Bill Finger

11:21

was finally given a co-creator

11:23

credit on the character of Batman.

11:28

If we believe Bill Finger's defenders, then

11:30

Bob Kane's big idea

11:32

was, what if Zorro

11:35

had bat wings? Anything

11:37

that wasn't directly taken from Zorro

11:40

came from Bill Finger. In

11:43

recent years, Bob Kane's legacy

11:46

has undergone a serious re-evaluation

11:49

in light of what we now know about Bill Finger

11:51

and the all-too-common exploitation

11:54

of ghostwriters and artists during

11:56

the so-called Golden Age of comic

11:58

books. But to

12:00

be fair to Kane, we should understand

12:03

his use of tropes from Zorro in

12:05

its proper context. At

12:08

the time, it was incredibly common

12:10

for comic creators and the authors of

12:12

pulp novels to crib from earlier

12:15

works, use existing characters

12:17

as models, and rearrange or

12:19

simply reproduce plot elements

12:22

that were known to work. While

12:24

the ethics of that was debatable,

12:27

Bob Kane was not the only person doing

12:30

this in the 1930s. At

12:32

the time, these writers were churning

12:34

out a cheaply produced product

12:37

that was considered disposable. This

12:39

was not thought of as great art. This

12:42

was quick and dirty entertainment

12:44

for the masses. Being a

12:46

hack kind of came with the territory.

12:51

Even the character of Zorro was not

12:53

a perfectly original creation

12:55

that sprang from the imagination of Johnston

12:58

McCully. McCully

13:01

clearly borrowed from existing literary

13:03

characters when he created his California

13:06

Avenger. Zorro

13:08

shares much in common with the Scarlet

13:11

Pimpernel, the titular character

13:13

from the 1908 novel. The

13:16

Pimpernel is a foppish aristocrat

13:18

who leads a double life as a sword-wielding

13:21

master of disguise during the French

13:23

Revolution. Zorro

13:25

is also remarkably similar

13:27

to the English character of Spring-Heeled

13:30

Jack, as he appeared in the cheaply

13:32

produced Penny Dreadful novels

13:34

of the late 19th century. In

13:37

that tradition, the Spring-Heeled Jack

13:40

is secretly a nobleman who has created

13:42

a masked alter ego to

13:44

fight injustice. In

13:47

some of these Penny Dreadfuls, the Spring-Heeled

13:49

Jack even uses a carved

13:52

letter S in the wall as

13:54

a calling card. This

13:57

is so close to Zorro's carved

13:59

letter Z. that it seems

14:01

unlikely it's a coincidence. Johnston

14:05

McCully was just as happy to borrow

14:08

from established characters in 1919

14:11

as Bob Kane would be 20 years

14:13

later. But

14:16

the secret sauce for the Zorro

14:18

character may have been the historical

14:21

inspirations for Don Diego.

14:25

By setting his story in early

14:27

19th century California, McCully

14:30

was able to draw on a rich history

14:33

of real-life California

14:35

Banditos. The

14:38

exploits of figures like the legendary

14:40

Joaquin Murrieta were

14:43

clearly an influence on the author

14:45

of Zorro. But

14:48

the legendary Joaquin Murrieta

14:50

lived at a more tumultuous moment

14:53

in history than the fictional Zorro.

14:56

The so-called Bandit King

14:58

Murrieta started his career

15:00

as an outlaw during the California Gold

15:03

Rush in the tense aftermath

15:05

of the Mexican-American War. This

15:08

was a time when many Spanish-speaking

15:11

Californios were being violently

15:13

dispossessed, attacked, and

15:15

disenfranchised by newly

15:18

arrived Anglo-Americans. In

15:21

this climate, Mexican-born outlaws

15:23

like Joaquin Murrieta were transformed

15:27

into symbols of resistance. But

15:30

how much of his story can actually

15:33

be called history? Primary

15:35

sources about the Bandit and his gang

15:38

are very few, and the first proper

15:40

biography written of Joaquin Murrieta

15:43

is now considered to be something more like

15:45

a piece of historical fiction. Joaquin

15:48

Murrieta may have inspired Zorro

15:51

and by extension Batman, but

15:54

is his story any more real

15:56

than those fictional characters?

15:59

Let's

15:59

Let's find out today on Our

16:02

Fake History. Episode

16:32

number one, who is the

16:34

real Zora?

16:36

Heart won. Hello

16:42

and welcome to Our Fake History. My

16:44

name is Sebastian Major, and this is the podcast

16:47

where we explore historical myths and

16:49

try to determine what's fact, what's

16:51

fiction, and what is such a good story

16:53

that it simply must be told.

16:57

Before we get going this week, I just want to

16:59

remind everyone listening that an ad-free

17:02

version of this podcast is available through

17:04

Patreon. Start supporting at $5 or more

17:06

every month, and you

17:08

can get access to an ad-free feed and

17:10

a ton of extra episodes. Speaking

17:13

of which, I just dropped a surprise

17:16

extra episode for everyone supporting at $3

17:18

or more. The

17:21

new extra is based on the keynote address I

17:23

recently gave at the Intelligent Speech Conference.

17:26

The talk was called, No Contingencies,

17:29

Myths and Misdirections from Historical

17:31

Figures with No Backup Plan. So,

17:34

if you missed Intelligent Speech and you

17:36

are curious what I had to say, then

17:39

consider signing up for Patreon. You

17:41

will also get to vote in our very

17:44

tightly contested poll for

17:46

what our next patrons-only show should

17:48

be on. At the time of

17:50

recording, the poll is tied.

17:53

I've never seen this before. It's tied

17:55

between the two front runners, Merlin

17:58

the Wizard and... the Nazca

18:00

Lines of Peru. I

18:03

am leaving the poll open for another

18:05

two weeks to give the stragglers

18:08

a chance to vote. Hopefully

18:10

that will break the tie and I can

18:12

announce the topic on the next episode.

18:15

So patrons, go to patreon.com

18:18

slash our fake history and

18:21

vote. This

18:23

week, we are turning our attention to

18:26

California in the mid 19th

18:28

century, when the map of the region

18:30

was being redrawn in the aftermath

18:32

of the Mexican-American War. It

18:36

was in these years that coincided

18:38

with the famous California Gold Rush

18:41

that a handful of Spanish-speaking bandits

18:43

became the stuff of legend. These

18:47

legends originally found expression in

18:49

pulpy dime store novels, cheaply

18:52

produced plays, and popular

18:54

Mexican ballads known as Corridos.

18:58

The figures celebrated in these myths

19:00

were transformed from mere criminals

19:03

into important symbols of resistance for

19:06

Mexican-Americans and other Latinx

19:08

people. The

19:11

author behind Zorro, who I

19:13

mentioned in the introduction, Johnston McCulley,

19:16

was clearly fascinated by the history

19:18

of these figures. But

19:21

being a bookish Anglo-American originally

19:23

from Illinois, he was less

19:26

invested in those outlaws

19:28

as symbols of Latin perseverance

19:31

in America. The real

19:33

men who acted as the inspiration

19:36

for Zorro lived during a

19:38

time of racially motivated violence

19:41

and the large-scale dispossession of

19:43

Spanish speakers of all stripes in

19:45

California. This group

19:47

included long-time landowning

19:50

residents known as Californios and

19:53

newly arrived Mexican and South American

19:55

immigrants. The most famous

19:58

Spanish-speaking bandits in California

20:00

history became legendary

20:03

partially because their crimes were

20:05

seen as a form of resistance against

20:08

the new and often oppressive Anglo-American

20:11

powers-at-be. But

20:13

when Johnston McCully wrote Zorro,

20:16

he chose to set his story further

20:18

back in history, in the early 1800s, when

20:22

California was still a province of Mexico.

20:25

His masked Avenger, Zorro,

20:28

didn't fight against racially motivated

20:30

violence or the aggression of newly

20:33

empowered Anglo-Americans, he

20:35

fought against the corrupt ruling class

20:38

of Mexico. In the world

20:40

of Zorro, the common people who

20:42

the hero champions were oppressed

20:45

by power-hungry Mexican army

20:47

officers and greedy Mexican

20:49

government officials. Now,

20:52

don't get me wrong. In the history of

20:55

American entertainment, Zorro

20:57

was still an important and groundbreaking

21:00

character. It wasn't nothing

21:02

that one of Hollywood's first true action

21:05

heroes was a Latino character.

21:08

We know that kind of representation is

21:11

important.

21:12

And yet,

21:13

in the Zorro stories, the

21:15

villain is still kinda

21:18

Mexico personified. In

21:22

this way, McCully's character was made

21:24

more palatable to a white American

21:26

audience. The famous California

21:29

Banditos of the 1840s and

21:32

1850s, who likely inspired elements

21:34

of Zorro, were more subversive.

21:38

Among the Mexican-American community, they

21:40

were remembered specifically as fighting

21:43

against Anglo-America.

21:46

Or at least, that's what the legend

21:49

would have us believe. Take,

21:51

for instance, the outlaw I want

21:54

to focus on in this series, the

21:56

Bandit leader, Joaquin Murrieta. In

22:00

the 1960s, the Chicano

22:02

movement, or El Muvmiento, gained

22:05

traction in the United States. Along

22:09

with a long list of political goals,

22:12

El Muvmiento sought to empower

22:14

Mexican-American and other Spanish-speaking

22:16

people in the United States through

22:19

the articulation of what they called the

22:21

Chicano or Chicana identity.

22:25

This included a type of cultural revitalization

22:28

that sought to revive the memory of Spanish

22:30

and indigenous people who could be

22:32

promoted as cultural icons

22:35

who had resisted assimilation. This

22:39

inspired the creation of one of

22:41

the movement's best-remembered works

22:43

of art. This

22:45

was Chicano leader Rodolfo

22:48

Corqui Gonzalez' epic poem,

22:50

Yo soy Joaquin, or

22:53

I Am Joaquin, named

22:55

in honor of the California outlaw

22:57

Joaquin Murrieta. The

23:00

poem is a powerful, impressionistic

23:03

journey through the highs and lows

23:06

of Latin American history, where

23:08

the author, writing in the first person, inhabits

23:11

the historical personas of a number

23:13

of figures he perceives as essential

23:16

to understanding Chicano identity.

23:19

It's a heavy read. The

23:23

poet reckons with a complex

23:25

and often dark past, while

23:27

also consciously refashioning

23:30

history into myth. It's

23:33

exactly the kind of thing I'm obsessed

23:35

with. I think it's worth reading

23:38

a short excerpt to give you a feel

23:40

for this, because I think it's a really affecting

23:42

work of art. Inhabiting

23:45

the persona of the last

23:47

emperor of the Aztecs, Gonzalez

23:50

writes, quote, I am Koa

23:53

Hatemak, proud and noble,

23:55

leader of men, king of an empire,

23:57

civilized beyond the dreams the

24:00

Gachupin Cortes, who also

24:02

is the blood and image of

24:05

myself." He

24:08

later continues, "...I

24:10

toiled on my earth and gave my Indian

24:13

sweat and blood for the Spanish masters

24:15

who ruled with tyranny over man

24:17

and beast and all that he could trample.

24:20

But the ground was mine. I

24:23

was both tyrant and

24:26

slave."

24:30

That's heavy. I

24:32

can't help but be moved by an artist

24:35

reckoning with an identity that is

24:37

both Kawa Hautemach

24:39

Aztec emperor and Hernan

24:41

Cortes Spanish conquistador.

24:45

But González chose to call

24:47

this poem, I Am Joaquin. It's

24:50

Joaquin Murrieta who's the figure

24:52

that anchors this entire

24:55

epic. He begins

24:57

with the lines, "...I

24:59

am Joaquin, lost in a world

25:01

of confusion, caught up in the

25:03

world of a gringo society."

25:07

Much later he continues, "...all

25:10

men feared the guns of Joaquin

25:12

Murrieta. I killed those

25:14

men who dared to steal my mind,

25:17

who raped and killed my love, my

25:19

wife. Then I killed to stay

25:22

alive."

25:25

In that last excerpt we get the

25:27

Joaquin Murrieta myth boiled

25:30

down to its essence. We're

25:32

told that he was a man driven

25:35

to a life of murder and crime after

25:38

his gold claim was jumped by a group

25:40

of Anglo-Americans and his wife

25:42

was savagely assaulted and then killed

25:45

in front of his eyes. But

25:48

throughout the poem the details of

25:50

Joaquin's biography are less important

25:53

than what he means as a symbol.

25:56

The phrase, I am Joaquin, which

25:58

serves as both the title and the title. and a refrain

26:01

throughout the poem is borrowed

26:03

from the Mexican Corridos or folk

26:06

ballads that told the tale of Joaquin

26:09

Murrieta. Those

26:11

songs used I am Joaquin,

26:13

a quote taken from one of the more

26:16

colorful Joaquin Murrieta stories, as

26:19

a type of chorus. And

26:21

don't worry, I promise I will tell you that

26:23

story. But in the

26:25

songs, the words I am Joaquin

26:28

transcend the anecdote that they're pulled

26:30

from and instead signify defiance,

26:33

bravery, and a refusal to hide.

26:36

That's what

26:38

Corky Gonzalez was tapping into

26:40

when he invoked the name Joaquin

26:43

Murrieta. There's

26:45

no doubt that the legend of Joaquin

26:48

remains a powerful totem. But

26:51

the question I have, and to be

26:54

honest it's the question I always

26:56

have, is whether or not the legend

26:58

is backed up by verifiable

27:01

historical facts. Was

27:04

Joaquin Murrieta the antagonized

27:06

Avenger of mistreated Mexicans

27:09

celebrated in Corrido ballads and

27:11

lionized in the poetry of Corky Gonzalez?

27:14

Or is the real story a bit

27:17

more slippery? Well

27:20

to answer that we need to start by

27:22

examining the history of California

27:25

in the aftermath of the Mexican-American

27:27

War.

27:28

So

27:29

let's head back to the 19th century and

27:32

dive in. Today's

28:03

episode of Our Fake History is being

28:05

brought to you by Masterclass. So

28:08

I recently signed up for a class that

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was created by Annie Clark, the

28:12

artist you might know better as Saint Vincent.

28:15

And she made this amazing point that

28:17

every great song contains

28:20

an epiphany or a moment

28:22

that challenges you to think differently

28:25

about what you're hearing. I loved

28:27

that insight because it reminded me what

28:30

I want to do with my podcast. When

28:32

Our Fake History is good, I hope

28:35

it inspires an epiphany. And

28:38

that is just one of many amazing insights

28:40

and practical lessons that I got with

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taught by some of the coolest people

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new classes added every month. For

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instance, I've been absorbing a class

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created by documentary filmmaker

29:09

Ken Burns, which has helped me think

29:12

about telling stories from the past

29:14

in a whole new way. So

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off right now at masterclass.com

29:30

slash our fake history masterclass.com

29:34

slash our fake history. In 1848,

29:46

the map of North America

29:49

was redrawn in ways that we're still

29:51

grappling with today. In

29:54

that year, the conflict known as the

29:56

Mexican American War was concluded

29:58

with the signing of the Treaty of of Guadalupe

30:01

Hidalgo. The war

30:03

had been a short but bloody

30:05

conflict that ultimately saw the

30:07

United States score a decisive

30:09

victory over Mexico. At

30:12

the negotiation table, the Americans

30:15

had the upper hand. The

30:17

leaders of Mexico felt like they had little choice

30:20

but to sign a treaty that conceded 55 percent

30:24

of Mexican territory to the United

30:26

States. That was 525,000 square miles

30:31

or nearly 1.4 million

30:33

square kilometers. This

30:36

included the present-day states of

30:38

California, Nevada, Utah,

30:41

New Mexico, most of Arizona

30:43

and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma,

30:46

Kansas, and Wyoming. Mexico

30:49

also relinquished all its claims

30:51

to Texas, which had been on its own

30:53

wild ride towards US statehood.

30:57

The Rio Grande River was recognized

30:59

as the new border between the two

31:01

nations. The result

31:04

was that the United States of America

31:06

was now occupying what had once been

31:08

half of Mexico. The

31:11

treaty also guaranteed that all 80,000

31:15

Mexican people living in those

31:17

occupied territories would be granted

31:19

the full rights of American citizens.

31:23

However, in the aftermath of the war,

31:26

the lands and after 1849

31:29

gold mines owned by these

31:31

former Mexicans were coveted

31:33

by an influx of largely Anglo-American

31:37

arrivals. Through

31:39

a combination of violence, intimidation,

31:42

and litigation aided by discriminatory

31:45

government policies, many

31:47

Mexicans were forced off the

31:50

land that they had occupied for generations.

31:53

For instance, the California Land

31:56

Act of 1851 had

31:58

the effect of nullifying the property rights

32:00

of many Mexican residents that

32:03

had been guaranteed under the Treaty of

32:05

Guadalupe Hidalgo. In

32:07

California, people with titles

32:10

issued by the Mexican and Spanish

32:12

governments needed to have them validated

32:15

by a new public lands commission.

32:18

This commission often rejected those

32:20

titles, usually leading to long

32:23

and expensive fights in court. According

32:26

to the historian Lizbeth Haas, the

32:28

Mexican Californians, known as Californios,

32:31

had lost the, quote, vast majority

32:34

of their land by the 1860s. Similarly,

32:38

in places like southwest Texas,

32:41

the proportion of rural Mexican farm

32:43

owners declined from roughly one-third

32:46

of the total to only about 16 percent.

32:51

The incorporation of the residents of

32:53

these ceded territories into

32:55

the body politic was also deeply

32:57

affected by the racial politics of

32:59

antebellum America. By

33:02

granting these Mexicans full citizenship,

33:05

the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

33:08

had essentially declared them to be

33:10

white. This was significant

33:13

because at the time, only quote,

33:15

unquote, white Americans could

33:17

fully participate as citizens. This

33:21

was a de facto condition

33:23

until the infamous Dred Scott

33:25

Supreme Court case ruled unequivocally

33:28

that black Americans, whether they be free

33:31

or enslaved, were not U.S.

33:34

citizens. The treaty

33:36

had initially put Mexicans

33:39

on the white side of

33:41

that racial binary, but

33:44

many Mexicans soon discovered that

33:47

their bona fides as white people

33:49

were being questioned, especially

33:51

by Anglo-Americans interested

33:54

in their land. If they weren't

33:56

white, then they didn't have

33:59

rights. in

36:00

gold mine. No one

36:02

was immune from this, but

36:05

those who were less likely to

36:07

be protected by the law were

36:09

especially vulnerable. It

36:12

should come as no surprise that the

36:14

gold rush coincided with one of

36:16

the most brutal waves of violence against

36:18

indigenous people in American history.

36:21

It sometimes gets called the California

36:24

genocide. Chinese

36:26

and Mexican people also discovered

36:28

that they had few recourses if

36:31

they were attacked or if their claim

36:33

was jumped. One

36:35

California from the period once

36:38

warned his fellow Spanish speakers,

36:40

quote, don't go to

36:42

the mines on any account. They

36:45

are loaded to the muzzle with vagabonds

36:47

from every quarter of the globe, scoundrels

36:50

from nowhere, and assassins

36:53

manufactured in hell for the express

36:55

purpose of converting highways and

36:57

byways into theaters of blood,

37:00

end quote.

37:03

As this quote attests, the gold

37:05

fields had become especially dangerous for

37:07

Spanish speakers. The influx

37:09

of Mexican and South American gold miners

37:12

meant that for many Anglo-Americans competing

37:15

for the same gold claims, the

37:17

distinction between native-born Californios

37:20

and recently arrived Mexicans or Chileans

37:23

became meaningless. Spanish

37:25

speakers of all different stripes were

37:28

often lumped together and stereotyped

37:30

as, quote, unquote, dangerous

37:33

foreigners. This

37:36

is the very specific time and

37:38

place that gives us the legend

37:40

of Joaquin Murrieta, the

37:43

supposed hero of these persecuted

37:46

and oppressed Spanish speakers. As

37:49

best as we can figure, Murrieta

37:51

was one of those Mexican immigrants who

37:54

came to California as a gold

37:56

hunter not long after the new border

37:58

was established between the United States

38:00

and Mexico. He was,

38:03

most likely, originally from

38:05

Mexico's Sonora region. But

38:09

as you may have noticed, I'm choosing my words

38:12

very carefully here because so

38:15

little can be said for sure about

38:17

the early life of Joaquin Murrieta.

38:20

In fact, very little can be said for

38:23

sure about the entire life

38:25

of Joaquin Murrieta, if

38:28

there even was a man named

38:31

Joaquin Murrieta. What

38:34

we know for certain is that by

38:36

the early 1850s, a few

38:39

different groups of Spanish-speaking

38:41

bandits were at large in

38:43

California's gold mining country. Reports

38:47

of armed robberies, horse

38:49

thefts, camp ransackings,

38:52

assaults, and murders carried

38:54

out by these gangs were all over

38:57

the California papers at the time.

39:01

The leader of these bandits was usually

39:03

identified in the papers simply as

39:06

Joaquin, with no last

39:08

name given. Now,

39:11

in the past, it was assumed that all

39:13

these crimes were carried out by one

39:16

organized gang of bandits, and

39:19

that the Joaquin who led them was

39:21

Joaquin Murrieta. But

39:25

many historians have pointed out that this assumption

39:27

isn't necessarily supported by

39:30

the surviving documents. There

39:33

was clearly someone out there

39:35

named or codenamed Joaquin,

39:38

who was stealing horses and robbing

39:41

gold in the early 1850s. But

39:44

what's not clear is if all the crimes

39:46

attributed to Joaquin by the

39:49

papers were actually carried

39:51

out by the same man. In

39:54

fact, in response to

39:56

this crime wave in 1853, the California state

40:00

legislature officially created

40:02

the California State Rangers

40:05

empowering 20 veterans of the

40:07

Mexican-American War to hunt down

40:09

who they called the five Joaquin's.

40:14

These men were identified by the legislature

40:16

as quote Joaquin Muriati,

40:19

Joaquin Oco Moriena, Joaquin

40:22

Valenzuela, Joaquin Botelier,

40:26

and Joaquin Carrillo. End

40:29

quote. Were these five

40:31

men all literally named

40:33

Joaquin or were they all just

40:35

using the name Joaquin as

40:38

an alias? I am Spartacus

40:41

style. Was

40:43

Murieta or Muriati

40:45

the leader of this group or was

40:48

he one among equals? Were

40:51

the five Joaquin's a centrally

40:54

organized gang or a loose

40:56

confederation of bandits on horseback

40:59

or did they have nothing to do with each other at

41:01

all? The surviving primary

41:04

sources aren't particularly clear.

41:08

Now there is a source from the 1850s

41:11

that helpfully fills in the blanks

41:14

of the story but that source

41:16

needs to be handled with care. This

41:19

is the book titled The Life

41:21

and Adventures of Joaquin Muriati,

41:24

the celebrated California bandit that

41:26

was first published in 1854, just one

41:29

year after the presumed death of

41:32

Muriati himself. The

41:35

book was authored by a man named John

41:37

Roland Ridge who also went by

41:39

the name Yellow Bird. John

41:42

Roland Ridge was Cherokee on

41:44

his father's side and originally from Georgia.

41:47

Now he

41:49

is a fascinating character. He

41:52

worked most of his life as a journalist

41:55

and newspaper editor before publishing

41:57

his work on Murieta. Most

42:00

historians agree that the publication

42:02

of the Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murrieta

42:05

in 1854 made

42:07

Ridge the first published

42:10

Native American novelist. This

42:13

is a notable achievement, but I

42:15

should point out that John Yellowbird

42:18

Rollenridge has a complicated

42:20

and contentious reputation among

42:23

indigenous folks. I'll

42:25

be unpacking that a bit more in the next

42:27

episode, but for now I

42:30

want to focus on why I described

42:32

him as a novelist and not

42:34

a historian. Now

42:37

to give credit where credit's due, Ridge's

42:39

biography of Murrieta seems

42:41

to have been researched. The

42:44

author went to great pains to gather

42:46

together all the information on

42:48

Joaquin Murrieta from the newspapers

42:51

of the day. But

42:53

Rollenridge's book was aiming

42:56

to entertain, so he

42:58

took liberties. The book

43:01

is filled with dramatic scenes rendered

43:03

in painstaking detail that the author

43:06

clearly imagined. He invented

43:08

entire conversations between characters.

43:11

Most significantly, he made the scraps

43:14

of information available about the bandit

43:16

Joaquin into a coherent

43:19

story. He filled in the

43:21

blanks, and in the process,

43:23

he made Joaquin Murrieta into

43:26

a character that readers of cheap

43:28

19th century Western lit would

43:31

find familiar. In other words,

43:34

his biography is best described

43:36

as a novel. The

43:39

book he wrote sat comfortably beside

43:41

other cheaply produced sensationalist

43:43

literature loosely based on the

43:46

exploits of lawmen and outlaws

43:48

living in the American West. And

43:51

honestly, this is something particularly

43:53

remarkable about the American West.

43:56

It's a place that wrote its own

43:58

mythology. while it was happening.

44:02

Often it takes like a generation for

44:05

history to be transformed into legend.

44:08

In the case of the American West, it

44:10

seems like it happened in real time. I

44:13

also noticed this when I was researching Billy

44:15

the Kid a few seasons back. Fictionalized

44:18

takes on the kid's life appeared

44:21

on shelves before he had even died. Now

44:24

to be fair, I am shooting from the hip here. I'm

44:26

sure the experts can add more nuance

44:29

to this hot take. But

44:32

John Roland Ridge's novelized

44:34

biography of Joaquin Murrieta could

44:36

be seen as an example of this. The

44:40

literary trope of the Wild

44:42

West outlaw was already established

44:45

by the 1850s, and the book

44:47

follows many of the beats familiar

44:50

to readers of crime literature. But

44:54

because Ridge's book was the only

44:56

coherent telling of Joaquin's life

44:59

story, it became the

45:01

definitive text. Within

45:03

a year, it had been plagiarized by

45:05

the California Police Gazette,

45:08

a true crime tabloid, that

45:10

published the story of Joaquin as

45:13

a serial. Ridge's

45:15

book also inspired a number of European

45:17

plagiarists who reproduced the book with

45:20

few changes in a number of different languages.

45:23

The book even served as a primary

45:26

source for later writers who

45:28

attempted a more sober look at Murrieta's

45:31

life. In 1932,

45:33

the famous American chronicler of

45:36

Western legend Walter

45:38

Noble Burns published The

45:40

Robin Hood of El Dorado, the

45:43

saga of Joaquin Murrieta, the

45:45

famous outlaw of California's

45:47

age of gold. For

45:50

this historical drama, Burns

45:52

did some of the most in-depth research

45:54

into Murrieta's life since the 1850s. But

45:58

despite that, he...

45:59

often cited Yellowbird as

46:02

a primary source for many of

46:04

his facts. The

46:06

brazen repetition of John

46:09

Rolenridge's fictionalized biography

46:12

gave it the feel of authenticity.

46:16

The fake history became the

46:18

only history, at least until

46:20

the 1980s when historians

46:23

seriously reappraised the myth

46:25

of the so-called Robin Hood

46:27

of El Dorado. So

46:31

with all that context in place,

46:34

let's dive into the fake history of

46:36

Joaquin Murrieta, starting

46:39

with his tragic origin story.

47:11

Today's episode of Our Fake History is

47:13

being brought to you by Progressive. Most

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49:57

One of the first things that often gets mentioned

49:59

when modern readers are assessing John

50:02

Roland Ridge's The Life and Adventures

50:04

of Joaquin Murrieta is

50:06

that the author seems sympathetic

50:09

to the Mexican outlaw. And

50:11

this is true to a point.

50:15

Ridge depicts the young Joaquin Murrieta

50:18

as an idealistic, hard-working,

50:20

and warm-hearted person from

50:23

a good family in Sonora, Mexico.

50:26

The author even goes out of his way to

50:28

depict Murrieta as being

50:31

notably pro-American.

50:34

We're told that Joaquin Murrieta was

50:36

drawn to the United States not just

50:39

because of the possibility of striking

50:41

it rich as a prospector, but

50:43

because he admired the American

50:46

character. These

50:49

little flourishes seem tailored for

50:51

Roland Ridge's intended audience.

50:55

If Joaquin loves America,

50:57

then he's all the more sympathetic

51:00

and his fate all the more tragic.

51:04

According to Ridge, Murrieta

51:06

wasn't born bad but was rather,

51:08

quote, a product of the social

51:11

and moral condition of the country

51:13

in which he lived,

51:15

end quote.

51:16

In Ridge's version of events, if

51:18

Joaquin was evil, then

51:20

it was America that made him that

51:23

way. We're

51:25

told that in Sonora Joaquin

51:28

fell in love with a beautiful young woman named

51:30

Rosita. In other

51:33

versions of the story, she's sometimes named

51:35

as Rosa. Sometimes she

51:37

gets called Carmella and

51:39

other times Carmen. In

51:42

later accounts, she usually gets identified

51:45

as Joaquin's wife, but

51:47

according to John Roland Ridge, the

51:50

two were never officially married. In

51:53

fact, he writes that Rosita's

51:55

father nearly killed Joaquin

51:58

when he caught the two, quote, loving,

52:01

natural, and Greek," to

52:04

use the author's ridiculous

52:07

turn of phrase. In

52:09

the aftermath of this scandal, Rosita

52:11

decided to run away with Joaquin,

52:14

who had recently received a letter from his

52:16

half-brother who had already immigrated

52:18

to California. The

52:21

half-brother had encouraged Joaquin

52:23

to come to America and

52:26

try his luck as a gold miner.

52:29

So, Joaquin and Rosita

52:31

rode off together to seek their

52:33

fortune in California. Now,

52:36

the later Murietta researcher Frank

52:39

Latta would challenge this lone

52:41

wolf immigration story. His

52:44

research demonstrated that there was

52:46

indeed a Murietta family

52:49

in Sonora, and that many members

52:51

of the Murietta clan from Sonora

52:54

traveled to California together

52:56

in 1850. Many

52:59

Sonorans immigrated in large

53:01

caravans, as it was the safest

53:03

way to travel at the time, and

53:06

the Murietta's were likely no different.

53:09

Now, what's tricky is that Latta's

53:11

research also demonstrated that Murietta

53:14

was a very common surname

53:16

in Sonora at the time. So

53:19

while Latta was able to prove

53:21

that some Murietta's immigrated

53:23

to California in the early 1850s,

53:26

connecting that with the

53:28

legend of Joaquin is still

53:31

a little hard to do. But

53:34

the story goes that not long after arriving

53:37

in California, a series of dark

53:39

events unfolded that transformed

53:41

Joaquin from an idealistic

53:43

and gentle youth into a hardened

53:46

killer. Now,

53:49

this is where the story changes

53:51

depending on who the teller is.

53:55

By the late 1800s, the

53:57

legend of Joaquin had developed

54:00

to incorporate what were known as

54:02

the Three Bitter Blows.

54:06

One dime-store novel from 1881 took

54:09

the title Joaquin the Terrible,

54:11

the true history of the Three Bitter

54:14

Blows that changed an honest

54:16

man into a merciless demon.

54:18

It seems like

54:20

after that book most future Joaquin

54:23

stories included the Three

54:25

Bitter Blows or three

54:28

dark misfortunes that changed

54:30

the character of Joaquin Murrieta. But

54:34

it's worth noting that only two

54:36

of the Three Bitter Blows appear

54:38

in the work by John Rolenridge. And

54:41

in some cases the crimes against

54:44

Joaquin Murrieta are less brutal

54:47

than they would become in later tellings.

54:50

Now if we go with the post-1881 tradition,

54:54

the first of the bitter blows occurred

54:57

not long after Joaquin and his wife

54:59

rendezvoused with his half-brother

55:02

in San Francisco. The

55:04

story goes that Joaquin left his wife

55:06

in a boarding house and accompanied his half-brother

55:09

to a claim that he had staked in

55:11

the gold country just south of

55:13

Sacramento. One night

55:16

while staying in a small mining town

55:18

near the claim Joaquin was startled

55:20

awake by the roar of an angry crowd.

55:23

He rushed out into the street to see that

55:25

his half-brother and one of his friends

55:28

had been lynched by a racist mob,

55:31

angry that a Mexican was trying to make

55:33

good on his claim. The

55:35

shocking death of Joaquin's brother

55:38

was the first bitter blow. But

55:43

this story does not appear in John

55:45

Rolenridge's novel. Now

55:48

that's not necessarily disqualifying

55:50

for all the reasons we've already discussed, but

55:53

of all the bitter blows this one

55:55

has the sketchiest provenance. As

55:59

you'll hear this first bitter blow

56:01

seems very similar to the

56:04

third bitter blow. It's

56:07

very likely that this story was concocted

56:09

to give the legend of Joaquin a

56:12

more poetic structure. The

56:14

number three is often used as an organizing

56:17

principle. There's an idea

56:19

in comedy that gags work best

56:22

in a series of three. On

56:24

the other side, I'm sure you've heard the old superstition

56:27

that bad things come in threes.

56:29

It seems likely that

56:31

this rule of three was imposed

56:34

on the story of Joaquin by

56:36

later writers. The

56:39

first of the bitter blows mentioned by

56:41

John Rollenridge is often

56:44

cited as the true inciting

56:46

incident for Joaquin's banditry.

56:50

The story goes that after arriving

56:52

in California or in some traditions

56:55

after the lynching of his half-brother,

56:57

Joaquin and Rosita

56:59

started panning for gold along the

57:02

Stanislaw River. There

57:05

they staked a claim and built a modest

57:07

shack. Life was peaceful

57:10

until one day a group of menacing

57:13

Anglo-American miners appeared

57:16

outside their door. When

57:18

the gang demanded to know what Murietta and

57:20

his wife were doing there, Joaquin responded

57:23

that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

57:25

had given him the right to be there, and

57:28

further he considered himself to be

57:30

an American citizen. He was honestly

57:33

searching for gold just like everyone else in

57:35

California. According

57:38

to John Rollenridge, one

57:40

of the party declared, quote, well

57:42

sir, we allow no Mexicans

57:45

to work in this region, and you have got

57:47

to leave this claim, end

57:48

quote.

57:50

With that, a fight broke out. Ridge

57:53

tells us that Joaquin would have

57:55

stabbed one of the men with a large knife

57:58

had he not been stopped by Rosita. Rosita, who

58:00

did not want to see her husband become

58:03

a killer. The gang

58:05

was able to overpower the couple. They

58:08

beat Joaquin, tied him up, and

58:10

then, according to Rollenridge,

58:14

quote, lying in that

58:16

condition, he saw the cherished companion

58:18

of his bosom deliberately violated,

58:21

end

58:22

quote.

58:24

The rape of Rosita is a brutal

58:26

story, but believe it or not,

58:29

it became worse in later tellings. In

58:32

later versions of the Joaquin legend, his

58:34

wife was murdered after the ordeal.

58:38

This is the version of the myth that would find

58:40

its way into the epic poem by

58:42

Corky Gonzalez. Again,

58:45

I can see why the later

58:47

storytellers did this. It's

58:50

a cleaner story if Joaquin

58:52

has lost everyone he loves and,

58:54

as a result, dedicates himself

58:57

wholly to revenge. But

59:00

in John Rollenridge's account, Rosita

59:03

survives and remains

59:05

a moderating force in Joaquin's

59:08

life. Ridge tells

59:10

us that Joaquin would have started

59:13

his quest for revenge right then and

59:15

there, but he stopped

59:17

by Rosita, who convinces

59:19

him to leave their claim and,

59:22

quote, live for her, end

59:24

quote.

59:27

And that's exactly what he did before

59:30

the final bitter blow turned

59:32

him forever. According

59:36

to John Rollenridge, Joaquin tried

59:38

mining again at a different, less

59:41

profitable spot, only

59:43

to be run off a second time by

59:45

another group of prejudiced Anglos.

59:50

So he and Rosita relocated

59:52

to the town of Murphy's Diggings,

59:55

where Joaquin started making a living dealing

59:58

the card game Monty.

1:02:01

According to John Rollenridge,

1:02:04

this was the final straw.

1:02:07

This was the bitter blow

1:02:09

that finally transformed Joaquin

1:02:12

into the man who would become known as

1:02:15

the Bandit King. In

1:02:19

later versions of the story, the family

1:02:21

member who's lynched by this mob is

1:02:23

sometimes changed to better

1:02:25

fit with the logic of the three bitter

1:02:27

blows. If the author has already

1:02:30

described the death of the half-brother, they

1:02:33

may make this second victim a cousin

1:02:36

or a brother-in-law or a close

1:02:38

friend. But the

1:02:40

effect is always the

1:02:43

same. Now of

1:02:45

course, the bigger question

1:02:48

is, did any of this happen

1:02:50

at all? Well, to

1:02:53

answer that question, we have to ask if

1:02:56

any of these so-called bitter

1:02:58

blows are attested to in any

1:03:00

contemporary sources outside

1:03:02

of John Rollenridge's novel. What

1:03:06

we have is a newspaper article

1:03:09

that appeared in the San Francisco Herald

1:03:11

in April of 1853, just a few months before Murietta's

1:03:16

presumed death. In

1:03:18

it, an unnamed rancher who

1:03:21

claimed that he had spoken directly to

1:03:23

Joaquin Murietta reported

1:03:26

that the outlaw had told him that

1:03:28

he had vowed vengeance after his

1:03:30

claim had been jumped, he had been

1:03:33

flogged, and $40,000 worth of gold had

1:03:35

been taken from him.

1:03:39

So the claim jump story

1:03:42

has the most to it, in

1:03:44

that it probably wasn't entirely

1:03:47

invented by John Rollenridge.

1:03:50

But

1:03:52

a secondhand story from an unnamed

1:03:54

rancher reported by an unattributed

1:03:57

journalist. I mean, this

1:03:59

isn't exactly- what we would call a rock-solid

1:04:02

historical fact. It

1:04:04

only shows that the story predates

1:04:07

its appearance in John Roland Ridge's

1:04:09

novel. But

1:04:12

what Ridge does give us is

1:04:15

a darkly poetic description of

1:04:17

Murietta's final transformation.

1:04:21

At Joaquin's lowest moment,

1:04:24

the author tells us, quote, he

1:04:27

cast a look of unutterable

1:04:29

scorn and scowling hate upon

1:04:31

his torturers, and measured

1:04:34

them from head to foot, as though

1:04:36

he would imprint their likeness upon

1:04:38

his memory forever. In

1:04:41

grim silence he received their

1:04:43

blows, distaining to utter

1:04:45

a groan. The deed being

1:04:47

over and his hands unbound,

1:04:50

he resumed the garb which had been

1:04:52

stripped from his shoulders, and was left

1:04:55

alone with his dead brother. Who

1:04:58

can tell the piercing grief

1:05:00

of his now desolate heart, and

1:05:02

the tempest of mingled wrath

1:05:04

and woe which swept over him as

1:05:06

he lowered the dead form of his brother,

1:05:09

and with the few friends who came to

1:05:11

his assistance, proceeded to pay

1:05:14

him the last sad rites of

1:05:16

a rude and humble sepulcher.

1:05:20

Standing over the grave of his

1:05:22

last and dearest relative, he

1:05:24

swore an oath of the most awful

1:05:27

solemnity, that his soul

1:05:29

should never know peace until his hands

1:05:32

were dyed deep in the blood of his

1:05:34

enemies. Fearfully

1:05:36

did he keep that oath,

1:05:39

end quote.

1:05:42

I love that image. Murietta

1:05:45

standing over his brother's grave, swearing

1:05:48

a bloody revenge. It

1:05:51

looks like we're tracing the origins of

1:05:53

the historical joker after

1:05:56

all.

1:05:59

Hey, that's all for this week. Join

1:06:02

us again in two weeks time when

1:06:04

we will continue our look at Joaquin

1:06:07

Murrieta. Before

1:06:10

we go this week, I need to give a few shout outs.

1:06:12

First, I want to give a shout out to

1:06:14

the OFH listener who goes by

1:06:16

False Alaska for

1:06:19

making the Donald Glover

1:06:21

meme about the Salem Witch

1:06:24

Trials. I put a call out after

1:06:26

the last episode and False Alaska

1:06:29

answered the call. Thanks for being cool. Thanks

1:06:31

for having an awesome sense of humor. Thanks for loving

1:06:33

the show community as much as I do. You rule.

1:06:37

All right, I'm going to give a big ups to the following

1:06:39

people as well. Big ups

1:06:41

to Blaze Henderson, to

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Peter Friedman, to

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Cheryl Murri, to Joseph

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Sant, to

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to Justin Reed, to

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people have decided to support the show at $5 or

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Thanks to everyone who supports the show in

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Don't feel bad. Just think about

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or some of the other stuff. cool

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If you ever want to get in touch with me you can always

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the other music you heard on the show today was written

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and recorded by me my

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because it didn't happen doesn't mean

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it isn't real

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and then afterward there's always some more of it wild

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