May 17, 2025 • 42 mins
In today's Classic episode, Ben, Noel, Casey In Spirit and Max explore a bizarrely American story. The adventurer and filibuster William Walker was, in his heyday, lauded as an American hero for his repeated failed invasions of areas of Mexico and Nicaragua. But what led this man on a fanatical mission to invade these regions? Perhaps more importantly, why did so many folks in the US support his various strange escapades?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fellow Ridiculous Historians. One of the time honored aspects of
US culture is to always make fun of people in power.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yes, of course, especially in podcasting, especially.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
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
(00:38):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes, of course, the underdog. Always root for the underdog.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, William Walker keeps trying to invade different parts of
Mexico and Nicarock and keeps failing.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Oh yeah, you got to fail a bunch to become
an underdog. I suppose did he ever rise above underdog status? Well?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Uh no, not really.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Okay, Well, why don't you hear more about that in
this classic episode.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show,
(01:48):
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?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, Ben, Today's episode's all about diplomacy. You really set
the tone properly, asking the audience asking me.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I'm asking the audience and I'm asking you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
No ballsiest thing I ever did?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
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.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
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
(03:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I know about I mean, I know, I knew. I
knew of his his type. Oh, his type, Yeah, you know,
imperialist swine.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Right, yeah, expansionist soldiers of fortune.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
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
(04:01):
about it.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
No, doesn't seem like those rules apply anymore. I think
there's a little more paperwork.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
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
(04:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
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
(05:22):
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,
(05:46):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
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?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
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
(06:31):
fifty one, in San France.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah. I think Graham was known as something of a
gun slinger.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
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
(06:59):
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?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
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,
(07:59):
that just seems real cowardly. But I guess you know,
I wouldn't do that for my boss.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
No, I don't, but I don't think We're in a
very pro dueling environment.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, and again, Hicks was a you know, he was
fond of this pastime, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
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
(08:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
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
(09:22):
in fact an illegal activity.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
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
(09:47):
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
(10:07):
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.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
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?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
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
(10:50):
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.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That's a cute man.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
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
(11:27):
of it, his opinions on the expansion of the United States,
and his opinion on how to apply his patriotism.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Cuba and then make it part of the US.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Make it part of the US is annexing And what
is that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That that would be annexing it if it were an
authorized state action.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
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.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
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
(12:44):
certain voting actions by just talking forever.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, like we do on this podcast.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
We're good at we get to the point.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
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.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
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.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Wow, you put it like that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
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
(13:28):
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
(13:50):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
See the Shining Sea?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh yeah, I mean manifest that destiny, right, young man?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
So where did where did Walker go?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
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,
(14:32):
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,
(14:52):
like you said earlier, you sort of put down his.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
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,
(15:21):
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.
(15:45):
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
(16:05):
got a really weird nickname. I'm talking about the gray
eyed Man of Destiny. Yeah, it doesn't quite roll off
the tongue.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I think it's great. I would love people called me that,
the gray eyed Man of Destiny.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
It's a lot to say. It feels like it's good
to read it in print.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
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
(17:10):
American and American territories. So Mexico said no, and he
decided to go forth with his wild plan.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
More ballsy, seriously seriously. So yeah. He stated his claim
in La Pause and also in Baha and also in Sonora.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
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
(18:12):
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
(18:34):
ourselves the emperors of Birmingham, Alabama, despite the fact that
we're not in Birmingham, Alabama. That's kind of what happened.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
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
(19:10):
he was eventually forced to retreat from Mexico entirely.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
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,
(19:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
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,
(20:24):
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
(20:47):
hundred more recruits arrived from San Francisco, his supplies are
already so low. He can't feed them, he can't arm them.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
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.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
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
(21:29):
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.
(21:50):
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
(22:13):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
You're just dropping like flies, man, and not a good look.
Not a good look for a leader and a conqueror, right.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Which is why you know, I think Gray Eye Man
in Destiny is a good nickname. I just don't think
he deserves it.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
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,
(22:55):
he and his remaining ten dudes or whatever got arrested
by the Army.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
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.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Lawyer, dualist, imperialist, conkerer man. His business card must have
been extra long.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
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,
(23:40):
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.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
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.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
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
(24:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So he's traumatized.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
That's a tragedy.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Please go on.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
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.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
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.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
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
(26:22):
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.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You did it.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Also, English is a living language.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
That's just that's just a thing dumb people say they
mispronounced words.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Are you accusing?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
No? No, yeah, you're just trying to make me feel better.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Has changed over I have never heard it actually, because
we I mean, it's not even in the Webster's definition.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
We're yeah, we got to break it back. I'm going
to start filibustering places like our local bar across the street.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Where you hang out for early long time.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
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
(27:42):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
No, man, pigeonhole away. Okay, I'm malleable. I will bend
to your whims.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
You're a gray eyed man of destiny.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
No, that's you, buddy. I would I will follow you
to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I would much prefer that you take the nickname gray
Eyed Manadestiny over this Walker character.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Oh that's very kind, member. You can be the power
behind the gray eyed throne. Man.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
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
(28:36):
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.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Wasn't the kind of masterminded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was
like the railroad tycoon.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
That trade position.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
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
(29:29):
the Leonese.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
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.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
How many were with him? Then?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Sixty sixty people said, well, I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Is not enough.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
That's not enough.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I'm not so you know, master of war. But that
seems a little on the light side.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
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
(30:26):
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
(30:47):
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
(31:07):
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
(31:29):
didn't come from impoverished means or anything.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I just think he was obsessed and driven and like
just like kind of to a completely self destructive level. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
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
(32:00):
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?
Speaker 2 (32:19):
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.
(32:40):
But yeah, so he's General Lisimo now, and he declares
himself to be the new president of Nicaragua.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
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
(33:08):
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.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
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,
(33:43):
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.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, the Vanderbilt steamship company.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
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.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
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
(34:26):
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
(34:46):
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
(35:07):
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
(35:27):
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.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Well, how do you get to Mobile? Where'd that come
into play? It's when he left Nicaragua, he belined it
for Mobile.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
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,
(36:10):
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.
(36:33):
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
(36:53):
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.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
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,
(37:35):
very interesting character.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Doesn't seem like he was doing much to institute sustainable
government after he took over.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
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
(38:21):
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
(38:43):
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,
(39:03):
Walker met a different thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
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
(39:27):
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
(39:48):
make this joke, Ben. They were using musket balls you
live by the balls you die.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
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
(40:13):
know if we mentioned this. Do you know how old
he was when that firing squad got him? No?
Speaker 2 (40:17):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
I didn't see that here, thirty six years old. He
did all these terrible things in thirty six years.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Can I just turned thirty five? I know, man, I've
never conquered a country even half successfully.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Hey, you know what, neither is he?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
That's true? Do you know he was half successful?
Speaker 1 (40:34):
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.
(40:55):
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.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Hangers, the Hartlepool monkey or why Hartlepoodlians are known as
monkey hangars. That's happening. That's happening with a vengeance, my friend.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
It is inevitable.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Yeah, we like jokes. Your Nol and Ben, that's Casey,
that's us.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
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.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Oh man, oh last thing. Please know we're serious. Send
us flag designs if you have one.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Yeah, see you soon for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Fellow Ridiculous Historians. One of the time honored aspects of
US culture is to always make fun of people in power.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yes, of course, especially in podcasting, especially.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
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
(00:38):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes, of course, the underdog. Always root for the underdog.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, William Walker keeps trying to invade different parts of
Mexico and Nicarock and keeps failing.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Oh yeah, you got to fail a bunch to become
an underdog. I suppose did he ever rise above underdog status? Well?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Uh no, not really.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Okay, Well, why don't you hear more about that in
this classic episode.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show,
(01:48):
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?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, Ben, Today's episode's all about diplomacy. You really set
the tone properly, asking the audience asking me.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I'm asking the audience and I'm asking you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
No ballsiest thing I ever did?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
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.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
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
(03:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I know about I mean, I know, I knew. I
knew of his his type. Oh, his type, Yeah, you know,
imperialist swine.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Right, yeah, expansionist soldiers of fortune.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
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
(04:01):
about it.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
No, doesn't seem like those rules apply anymore. I think
there's a little more paperwork.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
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
(04:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
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
(05:22):
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,
(05:46):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
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?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
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
(06:31):
fifty one, in San France.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah. I think Graham was known as something of a
gun slinger.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
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
(06:59):
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?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
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,
(07:59):
that just seems real cowardly. But I guess you know,
I wouldn't do that for my boss.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
No, I don't, but I don't think We're in a
very pro dueling environment.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, and again, Hicks was a you know, he was
fond of this pastime, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
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
(08:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
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
(09:22):
in fact an illegal activity.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
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
(09:47):
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
(10:07):
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.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
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?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
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
(10:50):
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.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That's a cute man.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
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
(11:27):
of it, his opinions on the expansion of the United States,
and his opinion on how to apply his patriotism.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Cuba and then make it part of the US.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Make it part of the US is annexing And what
is that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That that would be annexing it if it were an
authorized state action.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
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.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
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
(12:44):
certain voting actions by just talking forever.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, like we do on this podcast.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
We're good at we get to the point.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
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.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
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.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Wow, you put it like that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
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
(13:28):
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
(13:50):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
See the Shining Sea?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh yeah, I mean manifest that destiny, right, young man?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
So where did where did Walker go?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
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,
(14:32):
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,
(14:52):
like you said earlier, you sort of put down his.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
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,
(15:21):
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.
(15:45):
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
(16:05):
got a really weird nickname. I'm talking about the gray
eyed Man of Destiny. Yeah, it doesn't quite roll off
the tongue.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I think it's great. I would love people called me that,
the gray eyed Man of Destiny.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
It's a lot to say. It feels like it's good
to read it in print.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
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
(17:10):
American and American territories. So Mexico said no, and he
decided to go forth with his wild plan.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
More ballsy, seriously seriously. So yeah. He stated his claim
in La Pause and also in Baha and also in Sonora.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
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
(18:12):
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
(18:34):
ourselves the emperors of Birmingham, Alabama, despite the fact that
we're not in Birmingham, Alabama. That's kind of what happened.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
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
(19:10):
he was eventually forced to retreat from Mexico entirely.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
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,
(19:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
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,
(20:24):
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
(20:47):
hundred more recruits arrived from San Francisco, his supplies are
already so low. He can't feed them, he can't arm them.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
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.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
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
(21:29):
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.
(21:50):
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
(22:13):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
You're just dropping like flies, man, and not a good look.
Not a good look for a leader and a conqueror, right.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Which is why you know, I think Gray Eye Man
in Destiny is a good nickname. I just don't think
he deserves it.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
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,
(22:55):
he and his remaining ten dudes or whatever got arrested
by the Army.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
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.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Lawyer, dualist, imperialist, conkerer man. His business card must have
been extra long.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
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,
(23:40):
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.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
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.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
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
(24:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So he's traumatized.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
That's a tragedy.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Please go on.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
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.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
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.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
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
(26:22):
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.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You did it.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Also, English is a living language.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
That's just that's just a thing dumb people say they
mispronounced words.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Are you accusing?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
No? No, yeah, you're just trying to make me feel better.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Has changed over I have never heard it actually, because
we I mean, it's not even in the Webster's definition.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
We're yeah, we got to break it back. I'm going
to start filibustering places like our local bar across the street.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Where you hang out for early long time.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
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
(27:42):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
No, man, pigeonhole away. Okay, I'm malleable. I will bend
to your whims.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
You're a gray eyed man of destiny.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
No, that's you, buddy. I would I will follow you
to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I would much prefer that you take the nickname gray
Eyed Manadestiny over this Walker character.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Oh that's very kind, member. You can be the power
behind the gray eyed throne. Man.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
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
(28:36):
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.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Wasn't the kind of masterminded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was
like the railroad tycoon.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
That trade position.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
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
(29:29):
the Leonese.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
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.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
How many were with him? Then?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Sixty sixty people said, well, I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Is not enough.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
That's not enough.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I'm not so you know, master of war. But that
seems a little on the light side.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
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
(30:26):
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
(30:47):
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
(31:07):
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
(31:29):
didn't come from impoverished means or anything.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I just think he was obsessed and driven and like
just like kind of to a completely self destructive level. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
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
(32:00):
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?
Speaker 2 (32:19):
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.
(32:40):
But yeah, so he's General Lisimo now, and he declares
himself to be the new president of Nicaragua.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
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
(33:08):
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.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
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,
(33:43):
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.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, the Vanderbilt steamship company.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
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.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
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
(34:26):
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
(34:46):
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
(35:07):
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
(35:27):
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.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Well, how do you get to Mobile? Where'd that come
into play? It's when he left Nicaragua, he belined it
for Mobile.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
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,
(36:10):
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.
(36:33):
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
(36:53):
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.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
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,
(37:35):
very interesting character.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Doesn't seem like he was doing much to institute sustainable
government after he took over.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
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
(38:21):
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
(38:43):
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,
(39:03):
Walker met a different thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
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
(39:27):
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
(39:48):
make this joke, Ben. They were using musket balls you
live by the balls you die.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
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
(40:13):
know if we mentioned this. Do you know how old
he was when that firing squad got him? No?
Speaker 2 (40:17):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
I didn't see that here, thirty six years old. He
did all these terrible things in thirty six years.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Can I just turned thirty five? I know, man, I've
never conquered a country even half successfully.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Hey, you know what, neither is he?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
That's true? Do you know he was half successful?
Speaker 1 (40:34):
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.
(40:55):
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.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Hangers, the Hartlepool monkey or why Hartlepoodlians are known as
monkey hangars. That's happening. That's happening with a vengeance, my friend.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
It is inevitable.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Yeah, we like jokes. Your Nol and Ben, that's Casey,
that's us.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
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.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Oh man, oh last thing. Please know we're serious. Send
us flag designs if you have one.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Yeah, see you soon for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.