Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracey Stevie Wilson. We're gonna
Speaker 1: do a quick little bit of housekeeping right out of
Speaker 1: the gate. So first of all, big excitement because we
Speaker 1: are going to Paris, France, uh, and you are listeners
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to come with us. So if you
Speaker 1: would like to take the French Revolution tour that we
Speaker 1: were doing in June of this year, you can go
Speaker 1: check that out at our website Missed in History dot com.
Speaker 1: And then if at the top of the menu bar,
Speaker 1: there is a little option that says Paris trip with
Speaker 1: an exclamation point because we are excited, and that will
Speaker 1: take you through to all of the information and you
Speaker 1: two can join us as we run around Paris and
Speaker 1: go to Versailles. And I I'm gonna cry a lot,
Speaker 1: So if you'd like to watch me cry, now's your shot. Uh.
Speaker 1: The other thing that we have is just in case
Speaker 1: you didn't know, or maybe you knew and forgot, we
Speaker 1: have a tea public store where you can get all
Speaker 1: kinds of goodies. You can get various designs related to
Speaker 1: things that have come up on the podcast, on shirts
Speaker 1: and on mugs and on stickers and all kinds of
Speaker 1: other things. If you would like to check any of
Speaker 1: that out, please do that. You can also go to
Speaker 1: our website missed in history dot com. Click on in
Speaker 1: that same menu, bar the words store, and it will
Speaker 1: take you right there, and then you can browse and explore.
Speaker 1: We recently had one related to our our ballet episodes
Speaker 1: that I think is quite a cute design. I didn't
Speaker 1: do it, so I feel comfortable seeing it. We also
Speaker 1: have a lunar beaver's T shirt, which we said we
Speaker 1: wanted years ago when we recorded the Hoax episode. I
Speaker 1: actually had a funny moment recently while I was wearing
Speaker 1: that shirt. This is true. While I was traveling this weekend.
Speaker 1: I had that shirt on and I was at the airport,
Speaker 1: and I was at the airport bar waiting on my flight,
Speaker 1: getting a couple of cocktails, and this man leaned over
Speaker 1: and said, you have to explain what lunar beavers are
Speaker 1: to me. It's like, okay, where do I start. I
Speaker 1: have a podcast. There's also so um okay, so uh,
Speaker 1: they're beavers on the moon. Wait, no, like contextualizing that
Speaker 1: quickly becomes tricky. So if you buy one, prepare yourself
Speaker 1: a sound bite when weird random strangers ask you what
Speaker 1: it is. I also had a friend asked me about it,
Speaker 1: but that was easier. She knows about the show. Yes, Uh,
Speaker 1: so weird now that we were done with housekeeping. That
Speaker 1: is the sound of me wiping my hands from housekeeping work. Uh.
Speaker 1: We can jump right into today's podcast. So today's episode
Speaker 1: was suggested by our listener Edward Uh and he became
Speaker 1: intrigued with this story when he was watching a fictional
Speaker 1: version of it. That was a film called The Wind
Speaker 1: and the Lion that was made in nine. It stars
Speaker 1: Sean Connery and Candice Bergen and Brian Keith and John Houston.
Speaker 1: It is a very fun watch, but it plays with
Speaker 1: reality a little bit to make it more compelling. For example,
Speaker 1: the character played by Candice Bergen was in fact not
Speaker 1: a woman, um, but she's added in to create some
Speaker 1: potential romance. So without any embellishment or gender swap ing
Speaker 1: of figures to create weird romance subplots, this story is
Speaker 1: fascinating all on its own, and it happened in Morocco.
Speaker 1: In the early twentieth century, but it impacted American history significantly,
Speaker 1: and it is the story of a famous kidnapping. And
Speaker 1: to begin, we will first give some background on the
Speaker 1: man for whom this whole affair is named Eon Perdicaris.
Speaker 1: It doesn't entirely surprise me that a fictional romantic subplot
Speaker 1: was totally made up to make this into a movie,
Speaker 1: because that's the kind of thing that happens. But it's
Speaker 1: one of those stories where you didn't need to do that.
Speaker 1: It was plenty full of action on its own. Yes,
Speaker 1: So Eon Perdicaris has a surprisingly scant biography for a
Speaker 1: man who had the wealth and importance that he did.
Speaker 1: He was born in eighteen forty. His father, Gregory Perdicarius,
Speaker 1: was Greek and was a naturalized US citizen. He had
Speaker 1: married into a wealthy Southern family in South Carolina. Gregory
Speaker 1: Perdicaris taught at Harvard as a fessor of Greek language
Speaker 1: and lived in Trenton, New Jersey. He made a nice
Speaker 1: fortune for himself in the gaslight industry and eventually became
Speaker 1: the U. S consul to Greece. Ion. His son went
Speaker 1: to Harvard, but only briefly it appears that he enrolled
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty, but he decided to study abroad during
Speaker 1: his sophomore year, and this of course coincides with the
Speaker 1: beginning of the U s Civil War. It is unclear
Speaker 1: what eon stance on the conflict was, as his parents,
Speaker 1: according to the press of the day, were split on
Speaker 1: the issue. So according to reports that circulated during the kidnapping,
Speaker 1: press coverage that we're going to contextualize the kidnapping later,
Speaker 1: but these things came up. Gregory EON's father supported the
Speaker 1: Union and his mother was a Confederate supporter. So during
Speaker 1: the Civil war years, Ion was sometimes at home in Trenton,
Speaker 1: but also spent long periods of time in England and Morocco.
Speaker 1: Also worked writing articles for magazines, and by the mid
Speaker 1: eighteen eighties he was living primarily into Hanjier and a
Speaker 1: whome that he had started building in eighteen seventy seven.
Speaker 1: That residence, known as Villa Idonia, was also called the
Speaker 1: Place of the Nightingales, and it sits on hills overlooking
Speaker 1: the city and in Tangier. Perdicaris became a well known
Speaker 1: member of the expatriate community. He threw extravagant dinners, and
Speaker 1: he lived a fairly free life in the way that
Speaker 1: an independently wealthy man of the day did, enjoying time
Speaker 1: with his family and occasionally writing a book or article.
Speaker 1: He was very engaged in the community, though, and he
Speaker 1: lobbied against diplomatic corruption in the mid eighteen eighties, a
Speaker 1: matter which made him fairly well known to members of
Speaker 1: the U S government. That particular case had involved a
Speaker 1: Moroccan woman who had accused a consular protege of sexual assault,
Speaker 1: and Jan Perdicaris wanted the man prosecuted outside of a
Speaker 1: consular court. This refusal to give the woman any sort
Speaker 1: of justice led to him writing a pamphlet called American
Speaker 1: Claims and Protection of Native Subjects in Morocco. He published
Speaker 1: the pamphlet himself and had it distributed in London to
Speaker 1: try to get the attention of the European press. While
Speaker 1: the American consul who had protected the accused man was
Speaker 1: ultimately fired from his position, it was really only after
Speaker 1: the consul's office had waged this personal war on part
Speaker 1: Carris for this embarrassment that they felt he had caused,
Speaker 1: which included fines and arrests and just general harassment yeah.
Speaker 1: He was basically like, if you try him in consular court,
Speaker 1: nothing's going to happen to this guy. This woman really
Speaker 1: deserves better than this. Could we actually try this as
Speaker 1: a trial, but they were not interested in doing that.
Speaker 1: By the early nineteen hundreds, Pretty Caress was a fixture
Speaker 1: in Tangier, and while he often traveled to Europe and
Speaker 1: the US, Morocco was really his home. But Morocco was
Speaker 1: not the most stable place. The events that unfold in
Speaker 1: this episode start a month after an agreement had been
Speaker 1: struck between England and France regarding the handling of both
Speaker 1: Egypt and Morocco. This entent cordial basically recognized France's power
Speaker 1: in Morocco and Britain's power in Egypt. It was sort
Speaker 1: of divvying up the power in other countries. This augmented
Speaker 1: existing conflict on a couple of fronts. So, for one,
Speaker 1: as the Scramble of Africa had been developing, Germany had
Speaker 1: set its sights on Morocco for itself. So among the
Speaker 1: European countries that were trying to seize power on the
Speaker 1: African continent, there was tension, particularly because two of those countries,
Speaker 1: Great Britain and France had just kind of decided between
Speaker 1: themselves to this plan, even though other countries had interests
Speaker 1: in both Morocco and Egypt, including Spain, which we've talked
Speaker 1: about in our Francisco Franco episode. Yes, within Morocco also,
Speaker 1: there was plenty of resentment toward Europeans just strolling in
Speaker 1: and claiming things, not only because that was a jerk move,
Speaker 1: but because their own Moroccan Sultan of Dela Zies was
Speaker 1: really making this matter worse. Of Delazes had been sultan
Speaker 1: for ten years in nineteen o four, having succeeded his father,
Speaker 1: Hassan the First, and he was only sixteen when he
Speaker 1: rose to power, and Morocco had been ruled by a
Speaker 1: regent for six years before Abdelaziz came into his own
Speaker 1: as a ruler, which happened when the regent died, and
Speaker 1: surprisingly that could be its own whole story and podcast
Speaker 1: that is not the scope of this particular day's discussion.
Speaker 1: As Sultan Adlazis looked to Europe for inspiration and advice,
Speaker 1: he wanted to modernize Morocco and its infrastructure, and he
Speaker 1: wanted to change the way the tax system worked. This
Speaker 1: entire ideology though did not go over well. Initially there
Speaker 1: was support for his reform ideas, but the execution of
Speaker 1: them was really poor. There just wasn't a system or
Speaker 1: administrators in place to handle all the kind of changes
Speaker 1: that he was trying to make, so his standing as
Speaker 1: a ruler started to look very weak to a majority
Speaker 1: of the people, especially the people in positions of power.
Speaker 1: Some of them felt like the Sultan was trying to
Speaker 1: sell his own country to Europe and to make matters
Speaker 1: where he had driven up the country's debt with some
Speaker 1: very frivolous spending on wild collections of things like bicycles
Speaker 1: and grand pianos and cars, and he was borrowing money
Speaker 1: from European countries to pay for all of this, particularly France.
Speaker 1: So when Britain and France enacted their Entente Cordial, it
Speaker 1: really looked a lot to people like France was just
Speaker 1: taking possession of Morocco. Not surprisingly, the state of affairs
Speaker 1: led to a lot of conflict within the country. Not
Speaker 1: only had France suddenly gained a whole lot of power,
Speaker 1: but an ally great Britain had just handed it over.
Speaker 1: So there was a deep sense of betrayal by the
Speaker 1: government which had been working with British interests at various
Speaker 1: levels for a number of years. There was also a
Speaker 1: very real sense that a rebellion could erupt at any time,
Speaker 1: as numerous tribes and governmental factions were all jockeying for power.
Speaker 1: And we are about to get into the kidnapping itself,
Speaker 1: but before we do, let's take a quick break to
Speaker 1: hear from a sponsor. It was dinner time May eighteen,
Speaker 1: nineteen o four when the kidnapping took place. There were
Speaker 1: shouts heard from the kitchen, but this did not initially
Speaker 1: alarm Perdicaris too much. Two of his staff, his French
Speaker 1: chef and his German housekeeper, commonly got into a lot
Speaker 1: of loud arguments which Perdicaris had to break up. So
Speaker 1: after hearing all of this ruckus, he got up from
Speaker 1: his dinner and he went to handle what he believed
Speaker 1: to be a minor skirmish between two staff members in
Speaker 1: the kitchen, and his family followed behind him to see
Speaker 1: just what had set this whole thing off. He did
Speaker 1: not find the housekeeper and the chef like he expected.
Speaker 1: He found men with rifles. Initially, the part of Carresses
Speaker 1: thought these men were their own hired guards, but they
Speaker 1: were not. The men cut the phone lines to the
Speaker 1: house and used their gunstocks to beat the servants. Ellen
Speaker 1: Pert Carris, who was Ion's wife, resisted these men but
Speaker 1: was not to the floor, and her son Romwell Varley,
Speaker 1: who was her son from a previous marriage, was beaten.
Speaker 1: The men or a group of brigands led by Ahmed
Speaker 1: el Rasuli, and he told them so, announcing loudly, I
Speaker 1: am Rasuli, z Rasuli, and this was not an unknown person. Also,
Speaker 1: I am probably butchering that name. My apologies to anyone
Speaker 1: who is horrified by it. Rosalie was infamous in the
Speaker 1: area as a leader of a group of very active raiders.
Speaker 1: Rasuli had been in conflict with the Sultan of Morocco
Speaker 1: of del Aziz, who he challenged for power in the region.
Speaker 1: Pretty much as soon as he determined the Sultan was weak,
Speaker 1: Rasulie directed his men to saddle horses from the Perdicaris
Speaker 1: stable and to take Mr. Perdicaris and his steps on away,
Speaker 1: and with a gunshot to signal their exit, he and
Speaker 1: his men set off into the night, headed toward the
Speaker 1: Atlas Mountains, away from the main road, with the men
Speaker 1: they had kidnapped and before she was dragged away and
Speaker 1: the phone line was cut, the housekeeper had managed to
Speaker 1: get ahold of a telephone operator and asked for help.
Speaker 1: The housekeeper at the time, though believed that the house
Speaker 1: was being robbed, she did not know at that point
Speaker 1: that a kidnapping was underway. But that telephone operator in
Speaker 1: turn called the United States Consul General Samuel R. Gumer
Speaker 1: to tell him that the home of an expatriot U
Speaker 1: S citizen outside of Tangier was under attack. Gumare, who
Speaker 1: had been in the middle of his own dinner, immediately
Speaker 1: went to the place of Nightingales to investigate. He set
Speaker 1: up a guard team to cover the house and did
Speaker 1: what he could to try to reassure the members of
Speaker 1: the household who were still there. And then he sought
Speaker 1: the counsel of his British counterpart in Morocco, Sir Arthur Nicholson.
Speaker 1: They agreed that the situation in Morocco, including the issues
Speaker 1: that had arisen after Britain and France had reached their
Speaker 1: agreement about who controlled each country, had been pretty tenuous.
Speaker 1: It made sense that Razalie would makes this kind of
Speaker 1: a move in the middle of all that. An essence
Speaker 1: insulting the Sultan as weak and as unable to protect
Speaker 1: the wealthy foreign expatriots who were living in Morocco. Gumare
Speaker 1: next telegraphed the U. S. State Department to convey the
Speaker 1: seriousness of the situation and to request military assistance. And
Speaker 1: in a way this was welcome news. We will explain
Speaker 1: why because at this point US President Theodore Roosevelt was
Speaker 1: serving his first term and he was campaigning for a
Speaker 1: second term. So he took immediate and decisive action in
Speaker 1: the part of Carres kidnapping by immediately ordering a naval
Speaker 1: squadron to Morocco. This was the entire South Atlantic squadron.
Speaker 1: That naval squadron was headed up by Admiral French Answer Chadwick,
Speaker 1: a West Virginia born man who had been outspoken on
Speaker 1: the matter of naval reform in the United States after
Speaker 1: the Civil War ended. Chadwick and Roosevelt were a men
Speaker 1: with similar outlooks and a lot of regards and most importantly,
Speaker 1: the willingness to use naval force to try to achieve
Speaker 1: their objectives. The U. S. Consul Gumare received a response
Speaker 1: via telegraph that said warships will be sent to Tangier
Speaker 1: as soon as possible, and that message also indicated though
Speaker 1: that it could take several days for them to get there.
Speaker 1: This was really not an ideal response. It was easy
Speaker 1: to think that Perdic Harris might not live that long,
Speaker 1: so no matter how many ships were coming, Gamare was
Speaker 1: afraid they wouldn't make it in time to save the
Speaker 1: kidnapped men. Rasuli was known to be brutal, gamare spears
Speaker 1: were really justified. For one thing, Rasuli had kidnapped foreigners
Speaker 1: living in Morocco before. A reporter for The London Times
Speaker 1: had been taken hostage in nineteen oh three, and he
Speaker 1: was released in exchange for several of Rasulie's men being
Speaker 1: released from prison, but that was an unusually good outcome.
Speaker 1: Rasulie had been in a long standing war, for example,
Speaker 1: with the local governor, and he had been known to
Speaker 1: capture the governor's men and send back their bodies in pieces.
Speaker 1: To try to avoid a similar end for Pertic Harris
Speaker 1: and Varley, the next step that Gama took, along with
Speaker 1: the British minister at Tangier, Nicholson, was to reach out
Speaker 1: to the Selta and the government and to ask them
Speaker 1: to acquiesce to any demands that Razzalie and his agents made.
Speaker 1: Gamare was genuinely afraid that any kind of delay in
Speaker 1: responding to these kidnappers would directly lead to the death
Speaker 1: of these two men. But communicating with the government and
Speaker 1: the Sultan proved to be a whole other tricky problem
Speaker 1: as well. The Moroccan foreign minister was in Tangier, but
Speaker 1: the Sultan was in Fez, almost two hundred fifty miles.
Speaker 1: It's about four hundred kilometers away, and today that's a
Speaker 1: distance easily traversed by car in just a few hours,
Speaker 1: but in nineteen o four that meant several days on camelback.
Speaker 1: So Gumar and Nicholson spoke first with the Foreign Minister,
Speaker 1: Mohammed Taurus, and each man sent a member of his
Speaker 1: staff to Fez to make their case to the Sultan.
Speaker 1: Because France was so heavily involved in Morocco's affairs, the
Speaker 1: French minister was also concerned once he received word of
Speaker 1: this kidnapping. It wasn't necessarily as magnanimous as Gamare's concern,
Speaker 1: which seemed to be for the safe return of these abductees. France,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, was trying to kind of casually
Speaker 1: take control of things in Morocco and had approached their
Speaker 1: position there by keeping a pretty low profile to try
Speaker 1: to avoid stirring up trouble. Yeah, they had reached this
Speaker 1: agreement with Britain and then they were just kind of
Speaker 1: trying to subtly get a little more ingrained in government
Speaker 1: bit by bit, and they did not want a big
Speaker 1: event that made it apparent that they were trying to
Speaker 1: throw their weight into the region. So having a member
Speaker 1: of the foreign community kidnapped created a whole pot of
Speaker 1: problems for French Minister George Saint Rene Talandier, and he
Speaker 1: couldn't let people get panicked, and he also didn't want
Speaker 1: to bring in the military and upset this very delicate
Speaker 1: balance that he had been trying to maintain. So he
Speaker 1: too asked the Moroccan government to just please give in
Speaker 1: to whatever Rasuli wanted so everyone could put the whole
Speaker 1: affair behind them as quickly as possible, and he also
Speaker 1: sent his own people to negotiate directly with the kidnappers.
Speaker 1: Kamar and Nicholson even assaulted Walter Harris, who was the
Speaker 1: reporter who had been captured by Rasulie the year before.
Speaker 1: They wanted to see if he knew anything that might
Speaker 1: help them. Gamera was rapidly losing hope. He wrote in
Speaker 1: his journal, quote, I cannot conceal from myself and the
Speaker 1: department that only by extremely delicate negotiations can we hope
Speaker 1: to escape from the most terrible consequences. Yeah. By that
Speaker 1: point he was thinking like, we maybe have like single
Speaker 1: digit chance of success of getting these men back. And
Speaker 1: one of the worst aspects was that the Sultan had
Speaker 1: already been trying to stop the activities of Rasulie for
Speaker 1: literal years with no success. So even if the Sultan
Speaker 1: got on board and was willing to take action, there
Speaker 1: was every likelihood that things were still going to fall apart.
Speaker 1: Four days after the kidnapping, Raisulie's terms were relayed. What
Speaker 1: he wanted was a ransom and exchanged for the return
Speaker 1: of yon Pert to Carris. He demanded seventy thousand Spanish
Speaker 1: silver dollars, but that was not all. He also wanted
Speaker 1: the region known as the to be cleared of all
Speaker 1: government and military personnel, and he wanted the government officials
Speaker 1: who had wronged him to be either dismissed or in prisoned. Further,
Speaker 1: he wanted to be made governor of two districts, which
Speaker 1: would essentially be completely free of taxation and the law
Speaker 1: of the Moroccan government, and he wanted his men to
Speaker 1: always be promised safe passage wherever they traveled in the country.
Speaker 1: This list was far more than any of the European
Speaker 1: or US people involved had expected. They had kind of
Speaker 1: expected the ransom, but all of these political demands and
Speaker 1: demands for power were a little bit of a surprise,
Speaker 1: and there was literally no way that these demands could
Speaker 1: be met without hurdling Morocco even deeper into chaos. Frantic
Speaker 1: telegrams were being sent to the U. S State Department
Speaker 1: to inquire about exactly when those promised warships might arrive.
Speaker 1: An additional demand was also sent out by Restily. He
Speaker 1: wanted both the US and the British to guarantee that
Speaker 1: Morocco would fulfill the terms. So all three of these
Speaker 1: countries had to be basically give him everything he was
Speaker 1: asking for, and he was asking for a lot. No
Speaker 1: countries government wanted to be on the hook for another
Speaker 1: country giving a violent terrorist everything he wanted. Was cable
Speaker 1: was sent to Washington, d C. Explaining this whole new development.
Speaker 1: And of course this story did not stay quiet, and
Speaker 1: newspapers around the globe picked it up and were reporting
Speaker 1: the incident. But the reporting tended to romanticize the whole thing.
Speaker 1: So a rich expatriot, a dangerous bandit, the U. S.
Speaker 1: Navy speeding to the rescue. It was all just too
Speaker 1: much for papers to resist, and they followed along with
Speaker 1: every step. When President Roosevelt got the cable about the
Speaker 1: additional demands that were being put on the United States
Speaker 1: and Britain, he decided to send the European Squadron of
Speaker 1: the Navy, under the command of Admiral Theodore F. Jewel,
Speaker 1: into the Bay of Tangier to try to back up
Speaker 1: the South Atlantic Squadron. The United States also made an
Speaker 1: official request of the French government to come assist in
Speaker 1: this matter. Yeah, even though the French government had been
Speaker 1: doing some things, they were acting independently for um. Britain
Speaker 1: in the US at that point, they were trying to
Speaker 1: clean up their own mess quietly. And at this point
Speaker 1: the US was like, hey, dude, can you please like
Speaker 1: step it up here? Um. And while papers in the
Speaker 1: US touted the Navy's power and boasted that if needed,
Speaker 1: they could go ashore and take rising Lee by force.
Speaker 1: Those on the ground in Morocco who were more familiar
Speaker 1: with the situation knew better first such an act would
Speaker 1: almost certainly lead to the deaths of both prisoners as
Speaker 1: well as Navy personnel. Like they knew that caution and
Speaker 1: care had to be used. Finally, on May four, twelve
Speaker 1: days after the kidnapping, the first of the U. S
Speaker 1: Navy ships finally arrived. Once his flagship, the Brooklyn had
Speaker 1: made its way into the harbor, Admiral Chadwick met with
Speaker 1: the Consule Gamare. The two of them contacted the Moroccan
Speaker 1: foreign minister, who was Mohammed Taurus, who met with them
Speaker 1: on the Brooklyn later that day. The foreign minister toward
Speaker 1: the ship and had a pretty cordial chat with the
Speaker 1: two men, but when the terms of Bresili's demands came up,
Speaker 1: he was crystal clear that the Moroccan government would not
Speaker 1: give up anything. So Chadwick and Gamar were left fretting
Speaker 1: about the life of a US citizen that they could
Speaker 1: not reach nor could they negotiate for. And we're about
Speaker 1: to get to a pretty solid twist in the story.
Speaker 1: So We're gonna pause here for a quick sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Just as things were getting very hand ringing on the
Speaker 1: part of the U. S officials in Tangier, the unique
Speaker 1: and surprising question arose as to whether Perdicaris was even
Speaker 1: a U. S citizen at all. So remember when we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier how Ion Perdicaris had left Harvard as a
Speaker 1: civil war broke out, and then he kind of tootled
Speaker 1: around Europe with seemingly no specific direction. So on June
Speaker 1: one of this year that everything is going down, that's
Speaker 1: four the U. S. State Department received a letter from
Speaker 1: a man in North Carolina named ah Sloca who claimed
Speaker 1: that he had run into Perdicarius in Athens, Greece in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, and that Perdicarius was there. He said
Speaker 1: to become a Greek citizen. Perdicarius, it seemed, had inherited
Speaker 1: property in South Carolina from his mother's family and it
Speaker 1: would be seized by the Confederacy if he was a U.
Speaker 1: S citizen. Slocum was very adamant as to the accuracy
Speaker 1: of his memory in the matter and this plan that
Speaker 1: they were switching his citizenship to keep his land safe
Speaker 1: and if Perdicarius was not a US citizen. This whole
Speaker 1: business surrounding his kidnapping and arrest was an entirely different
Speaker 1: mess than the one that President Roosevelt thought that he
Speaker 1: had gotten into. We should point out that there's some
Speaker 1: confusion here about whether claiming citizenship in Greece would have
Speaker 1: eradicated his U. S citizenship, whether he would have had
Speaker 1: a dual citizenship. It was what like fifty years later
Speaker 1: that that this Free Court even ruled on such a thing.
Speaker 1: When they ruled on and it was sort of like,
Speaker 1: this is how we've usually done it, even though it's right,
Speaker 1: but it did make things a little confusing and nuttie,
Speaker 1: for sure. And it does seem like if his whole
Speaker 1: idea was wanting to get around his property being seized,
Speaker 1: that regardless of what he was actually doing, his intent
Speaker 1: was to not be a citizen a U S crotect
Speaker 1: his Yeah. Yeah, So, after several days during which there
Speaker 1: was silence on this whole matter from the White House,
Speaker 1: the U. S. Minister resident in Athens was asked to
Speaker 1: perform a comprehensive search of the records available to see
Speaker 1: if there was any truth to this whole thing, and
Speaker 1: they did discover that on March nineteenth, eighteen sixty two,
Speaker 1: not eighteen sixty three, Jon Perdicaris had been naturalized as
Speaker 1: a Greek citizen. Despite this revelation, which was handled very discreetly,
Speaker 1: Roosevelt and Secretary of State John Hay decided to press
Speaker 1: on as things had already been planned. There were seven U. S.
Speaker 1: Naval warships at Tangier, with other countries also bringing their
Speaker 1: military aid to bear, so to go public with the
Speaker 1: news of Perdicariss citizenship status would have destabilized more than
Speaker 1: just Morocco. Additionally, uh Roosevelt felt like Rizal Lee thought
Speaker 1: that Perdicaris was a U. S. Citizen, so it just
Speaker 1: made sense to leave this new information alone. Finally, on
Speaker 1: June eight, Sultan of Dela Ziz gave it. He told
Speaker 1: the Moroccan government to give riz Lee whatever he wanted. France,
Speaker 1: which had been putting pressure on the Sultan to resolve
Speaker 1: this issue by meeting the ransom requests, loaned the Moroccan
Speaker 1: government sixty two point five million francs a few days later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: little little handshaky backscratchy situation there, But carrying out of
Speaker 1: Dela Ziz's orders to meet Rasuli's demands also proved to
Speaker 1: be difficult, and he was not going to give up
Speaker 1: the prisoners until all of those other promises were kept,
Speaker 1: so a standoff continued, with a Navy fleet parked in
Speaker 1: the waters off Tangier and Rizalie up in the mountains,
Speaker 1: awaiting all that he had requested. Negotiations continued in an
Speaker 1: effort to get the brigand to understand the difficulty in
Speaker 1: carrying out the specifics of his demand, but he was
Speaker 1: utterly stalwart in his position, and Rosalie's refusal to budge
Speaker 1: had backed multiple governments into a corner, and he made
Speaker 1: clear that if anyone were to try to harm him,
Speaker 1: his men would kill his attackers. Things started looking up
Speaker 1: on June nineteenth, Conso Gomer wired a message that our
Speaker 1: release had been negotiated for the twenty one, but then
Speaker 1: that deal was rescinded. On the twenty Things had reached
Speaker 1: a breaking point. In the United States, Britain, and France
Speaker 1: were all growing really frustrated with Morocco, which was promising
Speaker 1: to meet Rizzoli's demands but then failing to take action
Speaker 1: to actually do it. The US threatened to seize Moroccan customs,
Speaker 1: that the government did not act on all of its promises.
Speaker 1: And as this whole thing was dragging on, the Republican
Speaker 1: National Convention took place in the United States from June
Speaker 1: one to three, and Roosevelt was wildly popular and he
Speaker 1: was certain to get the nomination, but he left nothing
Speaker 1: to chance. He had no opposition, but he still took
Speaker 1: every step to ensure that things went smoothly at the convention,
Speaker 1: and as a consequence, the convention was actually considered a
Speaker 1: rather dull affair. On the twenty two a telegram which
Speaker 1: is now famously quoted as being Roosevelt's words, was sent
Speaker 1: out to the press and to Morocco at the same time,
Speaker 1: and it read quote this government wants Perdicaris alive or
Speaker 1: Risui dead. This was really Secretary of State John Hay
Speaker 1: who had sent this message. The version that went to
Speaker 1: Gomare and Morocco had an additional line that the version
Speaker 1: that was sent to the press did not have was
Speaker 1: quote do not land marines or sees customs without specific instructions.
Speaker 1: This was meant to galvanize the convention and get sentiments
Speaker 1: squarely behind Roosevelt. Yeah, it was almost like it wasn't
Speaker 1: good enough that he was going to get the nomination.
Speaker 1: He wanted everyone to really want him to have it.
Speaker 1: Uh So he thought that we would look very strong
Speaker 1: and that would that would get his support. It may
Speaker 1: have also made officials in Morocco feel as though decisive
Speaker 1: action was finally being taken if it were not for
Speaker 1: the fact that the release of Perdicaris and his stepson
Speaker 1: Varley had already been secured. By the time they got
Speaker 1: this message. They had been traded halfway down a mountain
Speaker 1: for a bag of Spanish silver dollars. After all the
Speaker 1: dust settled, Gamer was told about Perdicarius's citizenship status, and
Speaker 1: the Console got a written confession from him. Ion made
Speaker 1: the case that because he had been born a U.
Speaker 1: S citizen, he always felt that he was, and so
Speaker 1: he didn't seek out to reinstate his citizenship situation with
Speaker 1: his Greek citizenship was kept secret to try to protect Roosevelt,
Speaker 1: and it only came to light in a biography written
Speaker 1: about John Hay almost thirty years later in three Ion.
Speaker 1: Perdicaris moved to England soon after this incident ended, and
Speaker 1: he later wrote of Rasulie that he was quote one
Speaker 1: of the most interesting and kindly hearted native gentlemen, and
Speaker 1: that he and Varley had been treated kindly throughout their capture,
Speaker 1: and he also went on to advocate for Rasuli to
Speaker 1: be given control of northern Morocco because of his ongoing
Speaker 1: praise of the man who kidnapped him. Long after this
Speaker 1: whole incident was over, Perdicarius is often characterized as having
Speaker 1: had Stockholm syndrome, although that term was not actually coined
Speaker 1: until nineteen seventy three. He did continue to write about
Speaker 1: Morocco after he had left, giving his opinion on the
Speaker 1: politics and the cultural complexities of a country that was
Speaker 1: being ruled largely by outsiders. He died in London in
Speaker 1: and Rosalie was given the positions of power that he
Speaker 1: had asked for after this whole thing, and his people
Speaker 1: were freed from prison, but he was ousted in nineteen
Speaker 1: o six due to serious corruption. He was not any
Speaker 1: better at running things than the people that he had
Speaker 1: been trying to overthrow. Sultan of del Aziz was also
Speaker 1: deposed in nineteen o seven and was replaced by his
Speaker 1: older brother. A book of letters written to Ellen Perdicarius
Speaker 1: during the time that her husband and son were hostages
Speaker 1: as in the Tangier American Legation, which is now a
Speaker 1: museum and cultural center. Yeah, they're all things that are
Speaker 1: along the general lines of I saw the news, I
Speaker 1: am so sorry. Please, what can I do for you?
Speaker 1: But it's she has all of these amazing letters from
Speaker 1: really notable people, so it's kind of an interesting historical
Speaker 1: record of that moment. Do you also have some listener
Speaker 1: mail to take us out? I do, and I am
Speaker 1: so excited about this particular piece of listener mail. Um
Speaker 1: it is from our listener Carrie, and she writes, Dear
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy, I am a huge fan. You ladies
Speaker 1: keep me company during so many of my daily activities.
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for all the work you do.
Speaker 1: Last February, my daughter asked to go on a school
Speaker 1: field trip to the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh with a friend.
Speaker 1: To keep it short, it was amazing. We had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to hear two survivor stories, one from a daughter
Speaker 1: of a survivor and the other from a survivor himself,
Speaker 1: and both were incredible. The center also has a rotating
Speaker 1: exhibit and at the time was featuring Kutz Pau superheroes
Speaker 1: of the Holocaust, stories of upstanders, heroes and survivors told
Speaker 1: in the form of a comic book. One of the
Speaker 1: talented artists was there to talk with the kids, and
Speaker 1: it just so happened that I had met him a
Speaker 1: few years earlier during a girl Scout field trip at
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh's Tune e M. I was so enthralled by this concept.
Speaker 1: I wanted to share it with you both. Oh. She
Speaker 1: sent us a signed copy of the collection of comics,
Speaker 1: along with a little press release style print out from
Speaker 1: the center's website that goes into detail about what it is.
Speaker 1: These are so amazing. So again, this is the Holocaust
Speaker 1: Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, which put
Speaker 1: this whole thing together, and it is all of these
Speaker 1: artists telling the stories of all of these amazing people
Speaker 1: during the Holocaust. Again, it is called Kotz Pau so
Speaker 1: at c h u t z dash Pau pow Uh.
Speaker 1: And it is amazing and the art is really lovely.
Speaker 1: I really like the art styles in here, and these
Speaker 1: stories are very moving. It's a number of different arts
Speaker 1: styles because a lot of different artists worked on it.
Speaker 1: It's so fantastic. I hope everybody seeks it out because
Speaker 1: what a great way to examine history and and record it.
Speaker 1: Uh So, thank you, thank you, thank you to the
Speaker 1: very wonderful Carey for sharing this with us, because I
Speaker 1: had not heard about it and now I am in
Speaker 1: love with it because I love comics as well as history.
Speaker 1: Have you would like to write to us, you could
Speaker 1: do so at History Podcasts at housto works dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also find us everywhere on social media as
Speaker 1: Missed in History, and you can visit our website missed
Speaker 1: in History dot com, where we have show notes and
Speaker 1: uh episodes going all the way back to the beginning
Speaker 1: of the show, and things that you can click on,
Speaker 1: like that trip to Paris information and our our store.
Speaker 1: And we also hope that you subscribe to the podcast,
Speaker 1: which you can do on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. For
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
Speaker 1: staff works dot com.