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See full terms at MintMobile.com. Hello and welcome to My Favorite Murder. That's Georgia Hardstark.
00:01:57
That's Karen Kilkereth. This is all new. It's as if it's day one. It feels new every time.
00:02:04
Doesn't it feel fresh and new? I just spit at you. I'm sorry. Did you? Yeah. Did you land all the way over here in my weird spot?
00:02:10
I think it's going away. It is going away. Let's pretend that spot is not because you've spilled something on yourself, but because I spit towards you.
00:02:18
Because you spit all the way across the podcast at me. Gleek. Remember gleeking?
00:02:23
There were boys in my high school that were so frighteningly accurate at gleeking.
00:02:28
If you don't know, gleeking is what we used to call in the 80s, very specifically directed spitting.
00:02:35
But it was like from under your tongue. It happens to me all the time in the fucking dentist chair.
00:02:40
And it's so embarrassing. I can, I gleek more than most people, never on purpose.
00:02:45
It's so embarrassing. There were boys in my high school that, of course, were like seniors when I was a freshman or whatever,
00:02:50
that could do it across a classroom at you. If I had that power? It's incredible.
00:02:56
Where would I be today if I had that kind of... You'd be Kenny Scalmanini living your dream.
00:03:01
I would have an OnlyFans, gleeking OnlyFans. Oh my God, people would pay top dollar.
00:03:07
Gleeking and feet. That's what I got. Those are your two big pluses. That's my OnlyFans.
00:03:12
I can whistle and be negative. Those are mine. That's my OnlyFans. I can't whistle,
00:03:19
so that's actually pretty impressive. Stop it. Show off. You're showing off now.
00:03:25
You're mocking me. Queet whoo. Oh, remember the whoet whoo? That's where that came from.
00:03:33
Yeah. I think Nicole's talking about re-releasing some whoet whoo whistles. Oh, that's right.
00:03:37
We don't want to look gross. We're going to re-release some whistles and have people buy them and we donate the money.
00:03:42
Yeah, guys. Get with it. God damn it. Stop gleeking all over our fucking parade.
00:03:49
Oh, all right. How's it going? Good. I didn't. This was a weekend where because I didn't have to go anywhere, travel, do anything.
00:04:00
I literally did not do one thing. Just rotted, but not in a negative way. No, I love rotting.
00:04:06
I do too. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. No. Like if I have a cat on me, like everything is fine.
00:04:14
Yeah. You know? Cat. I had a dog in a cone for a little while. So Blossom had an eye infection.
00:04:20
A dog, a cat, a book would be great. I'm reading a book called The Husbands where this woman has this attic
00:04:27
that just creates new husbands every time she sends the other one back up. Oh. So she has an infinite amount of husbands
00:04:33
and she's just trying to finally fucking pick one. But they all suck in some kind of way.
00:04:38
And she's all like, maybe the next one. Yeah. So she's had hundreds of husbands.
00:04:42
That's funny. It's so good. It's like perfect sci-fi because it's just this, I love when like just,
00:04:47
Oh, this little hole opened up in the world. Nothing big. Yes. And this is just how it's affecting my day to day.
00:04:52
Right. Husbands. Yeah. Called the husbands. That's funny. I can't put it down. What are you watching?
00:04:58
Anything interesting? Listen, I don't want to be negative. I try to. Don't you? Yes, you do.
00:05:03
Well, it's my skill. I don't want to be negative for free. A whistle. Yeah. You have to go into my OnlyFans for that.
00:05:10
But I will just keep a general and say that I try to get into like the things that are
00:05:15
popular and being like marketed right now. And I skimmed through many of them over the weekend.
00:05:22
And I was just like, what am I doing? What could it be? Say it. Fine. It's the new Game of Thrones
00:05:28
prequel spinoff with the very large man. Because you know, I'm a fan of giants of any kind. Really?
00:05:35
A big man is I'm always oversize though, or just like regular big, you like oversized as big as
00:05:42
possible. Robert Wadlow, the world's tallest man. Like whether it's mass, whether it's, you know,
00:05:51
just pure height whether it a personality You almost like want it to be like on the like On that circus tip Yeah I didn want to say it but like like shockingly So I just hold my attention
00:06:06
It's fun. I didn't know that. Yeah. And I love that. I'm always like, what's happening over here?
00:06:12
I can't look away. So that guy's, you know, cute and great or whatever. But I you don't want to be a sequel or a prequel to a show like Game of Thrones.
00:06:22
I don't I'm not going to watch it. How does that's like having like a crazy hot older sister.
00:06:27
And then you're like, and there's me like there's that vibe. I feel like where you're very critical of a show that like meant the world to everybody.
00:06:37
I remember when I was in my Game of Thrones phase when I was binging it like years later.
00:06:43
That's right. And you were just like, what's up with this family? I'm not having this conversation with you.
00:06:48
Can we talk about like been 10 fucking years? did you watch begonia no what's that
00:06:56
the new movie that's like with Jesse Plemons and love that guy and what's her name
00:07:01
Emma Stone Emma Stone thank you you haven't watched that no oh my god nor heard of it
00:07:06
it's like nominated for all these things except Jesse Plemons fucking got completely
00:07:11
what's it called when they don't ignored yeah but what's it what are they snubbed
00:07:15
snubbed thank you Molly coming in hot she's like god damn it this is easy snubbed so hard
00:07:21
it's such a good fucking movie. I can't believe you haven't watched it. It's like so you.
00:07:25
You'd love it. You'll love it. Okay. Begonia. Okay, I'll watch it. Not like The Flower, but like this other thing.
00:07:31
Okay. Yeah, that was great. Did you go to the movie theater? Absolutely not. I was going to say.
00:07:36
No, it's on TV. Okay. All right. I'll look that up. If I had legs, I'd kick you.
00:07:41
Did you watch that one? I feel like you mentioned that to me. With Rose Byrne? Yeah, maybe.
00:07:45
Okay. Excellent. Will you text those to me? No, I'll forget. Come on. Because I'll forget.
00:07:52
Okay, I'll do it. The phase I'm in right now, whatever it is. And maybe I just need to get on current movie TikTok and that'll help me.
00:08:00
Because I haven't heard of anything except for apparently there's a guy that made his own horror movie that he released on YouTube and it got hugely popular.
00:08:09
And now it has like theater distribution. It's not the one from the dog's point of view, is it?
00:08:14
I don't think so. I want to watch that one. Is it new? I think it's newish, yeah.
00:08:19
Oh, I could be wrong. It's a horror movie? Yeah, it's a scary movie, but I don't think it's from YouTube.
00:08:25
Okay. This one is a guy and dogs weren't mentioned in the one TikTok I saw about it, but it was like, this guy's changing this system or whatever.
00:08:33
Yeah, you're so movie oriented. Although I guess you're movie theater oriented more than...
00:08:37
You know what I am? Popcorn oriented. That's what it is. Any excuse. It's good that you can admit that, though.
00:08:44
Yeah, I'm real honest about it. That's the first step. please be honest about how you're using the movie theater for popcorn only yeah i watch anything
00:08:53
with popcorn big old tub like you know you can get it delivered to your house i think i did get
00:08:59
it delivered to my house in covid that sounds right i think but it's not it's certainly not
00:09:05
the same no you need a really angry teenager to serve it to you i do um speaking of angry teenagers
00:09:14
There we go. We have a podcast network. That's true. It's called Exactly Right Media.
00:09:18
Yep. And so here are some quick highlights. Well, for example, we just launched Two-Faced John of God, which is our newest limited series
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podcast, and it's out right now in both English and Spanish. Very exciting. It's about a Brazilian spiritual healer and his fall from grace.
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We made it with a company called Adande Media. Martina Castro is the host. We love her.
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if you are looking for the Spanish-speaking version, the title is Dos Caras, One de Dios.
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Great job. Thank you. I'm working on it. Please follow and subscribe or whatever the hell.
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It really helps the network and the podcast. Appreciate you. That's right. And did you know that you can now watch podcasts on Netflix?
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I can't even cry not on cue. I mean, but what if that was the way you could cry?
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That's a good idea. Also, if you're not on Netflix for some reason or you're outside the United States,
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For full offer details, visit BoostMobile.com. That's that. That's the business.
00:13:18
Yeah, you're first. I'm going to go first. Okay. And I am going to present my story in honor of Black History Month.
00:13:26
Love it. Which goes with, listener, a gesture of look at me. Oh. Look at me. I'm doing this.
00:13:34
Love it. We begin in New Orleans, Louisiana, the morning of Monday, November 14th, 1960,
00:13:41
as a six-year-old girl gets ready for her first day at her new school, the William France Elementary School.
00:13:48
right down the street from her house. She wears a white shirt and a blue dress, and she's got a big white bow in her hair.
00:13:58
But when she walks out the door that morning with her mother beside her, she has no idea how difficult or transformative
00:14:04
her first day of school will be. She'll later say, quote, there were barricades and people shouting and policemen everywhere.
00:14:12
I thought maybe it was Mardi Gras. First grade, six years old. Little baby. except the atmosphere is not festive or light like Mardi Gras.
00:14:21
It's hostile, it's violent, and it's all directed right at her. As this crowd screams threats and slurs and throws things,
00:14:29
she keeps walking. Four men in suits escort her, two in the front and two in the rear,
00:14:34
into the building. And as she passes through those front doors of William France Elementary,
00:14:40
she not only becomes the first black student ever to attend, but she becomes a symbol for progress and bravery in the face of racist hate.
00:14:47
This is the true story of Ruby Bridges. Amazing. Amazing. I just shake my head like that.
00:14:55
This child was a baby when she had to do this. A baby. So much to put on a little kid and pressure.
00:15:04
And then imagine being such a horrible person that you hate a child. Yeah. And feel justified in this sneering group of white assholes that are just like...
00:15:15
A six-year-old child. Like, what is wrong with you? Grab a hold of yourself. So sources used in today's research are Ruby Bridges' autobiography, Through My Eyes, and a 2022 episode of The Slight Change of Plans podcast entitled A Six-Year-Old Changes History, which is actually from Pushkin, our friends over at Pushkin and iHeart, and a PBS American Experience article entitled Ruby Bridges and the Integration of New Orleans Schools.
00:15:42
And the rest of the sources are in our show notes. So Ruby Bridges is born in Tyler Town, Mississippi on September 8th, 1954. That's a small town in the south central part of the state. It's not far from the border with Louisiana. And Ruby's parents and grandparents were both sharecroppers there. Ruby's mother is named Lucille and her father's name is Aban. And he's also a Korean War vet. And Ruby is their first child.
00:16:08
So when she's four years old, her family leaves Tyler Town and moves to New Orleans, and they land in the Upper Ninth Ward, which is a historically black working class neighborhood where Aban starts working as a mechanic.
00:16:20
And Lucille takes care of Ruby and her siblings during the day, but she also does domestic work at night to keep the household afloat.
00:16:27
One of the bridge's main motivators for moving to New Orleans was for, of course, better paying work for Aban and Lucille, but also better educations for their children.
00:16:38
Lucille had to drop out in the eighth grade to work in the fields alongside her parents.
00:16:43
And Ruby will later describe her mom as, quote, very determined. And she took education very seriously.
00:16:49
I think it was because it was something that neither her nor my father were allowed to have.
00:16:54
And ultimately, that's what she wanted for her kids, a better life for them, end quote.
00:17:00
So here's some important context. The year that Ruby Bridges is born, 1954, is when the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision is handed down by the Supreme Court.
00:17:11
And in it, the court's nine justices unanimously determined that racial segregation in American public schools is unconstitutional.
00:17:19
But that does not result in the quick integration of public schools, of course, especially in the southern United States.
00:17:26
White people do everything they can to maintain the segregated status quo, either by ignoring the court's decision or by intimidation tactics or just by making it impossible for black students to enroll at their white only schools.
00:17:41
So despite the court's decision, many schools remain racially segregated for years after that law is passed.
00:17:47
This is the case in Ruby new hometown of New Orleans where in 1960 six years after the Brown v Board decision public schools have yet to integrate So a federal judge named Skelly Wright finally orders them to do so And if they refuse he threatens to shut down every public school in the city
00:18:08
Wow. So the New Orleans School Board agrees to integrate two schools, starting with children entering
00:18:14
the first grade classes there. But they set out to make it very tough for black children to enroll by requiring them
00:18:20
to take an entrance exam that the white children do not have to take. A scholar named Joseph Dewey writes, quote, the test was difficult designed, critics said, to legally maintain the state's longstanding segregated education system, end quote.
00:18:35
So it's essentially similar to the Jim Crow era literacy tests that were explicitly designed to prevent black Americans from registering to vote.
00:18:44
But this time it's aimed at five and six year olds. The numbers vary across sources, but around 150 black children in New Orleans take this test.
00:18:55
Only six of them pass. Because you haven't let them. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Well, because it's a scam.
00:19:03
It's a setup. Like so many things, like sharecropping, like so many things. It's a setup.
00:19:09
So only six children pass. Ruby Bridges is one of those children. Wow. She has now cleared the first hurdle that's meant to prevent her from enrolling in this white school.
00:19:20
But she's too young to really understand any of that. What she knows is that her parents are so proud of her for passing this test.
00:19:28
Of course, her parents disagree about what to do next. Ruby's dad is hesitant about sending his little girl to a white school.
00:19:36
He knows she will not be welcomed at all, much less with open arms, and that she could likely experience physical harm at the hands of racists.
00:19:44
Ruby later writes in her autobiography, quote, My father didn't want any part of school integration.
00:19:50
He was a gentle man and he feared the angry segregationists that might hurt his family.
00:19:55
Having fought in the Korean War, he experienced segregation on the battlefield where he risked his life for his country.
00:20:02
He didn't think things would ever change. He didn't think I would ever be treated as an equal, end quote.
00:20:07
But Ruby's mom, Lucille, is armed with her conviction about the power of education.
00:20:12
She is dedicated to this idea. She also knows that a historically white school will have more resources and better facilities than Ruby's current school.
00:20:23
So she eventually is able to convince her husband enrolling Ruby is the right choice.
00:20:28
So of the six black children who pass their entrance exams, only four total, including Ruby, actually enroll in these all-white schools.
00:20:39
The other three children are all also little girls, just like Ruby. Their names are Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost.
00:20:48
And they're assigned to the McDonough 19 Elementary School, which is in the lower ninth ward.
00:20:53
So they're sometimes referred to now as the McDonough 3. Basically, these four little brave girls are responsible for a historical moment in the fight to integrate Southern schools.
00:21:06
Four little six-year-old girls. Amazing. Wild. Yeah. But while the McDonough Three will be attending school in the Lower Ninth Ward together, Ruby Bridges is all alone in the Upper Ninth as the first and only black child in a student body made up of 500 white kids.
00:21:24
Wow. So Ruby's given a start date in August of 1960, which is the beginning of the school year.
00:21:30
But there's so much resistance to her going to this school and the integration of schools in general.
00:21:36
Her start date keeps getting pushed until it finally lands on November 14th, 1960.
00:21:42
Yeah. So the good news about all of this, and I never knew this, is that she at the time kind of didn't know what was going on.
00:21:49
I feel like six is still young enough to kind of not be aware. But like the Mardi Gras, maybe it was Mardi Gras.
00:21:56
Yes. It's like so heartbreaking, but also like a blessing in disguise, maybe. Yes, exactly.
00:22:03
So essentially, Aban and Lucille have deliberately sheltered their daughter from the racism and the violence and the hostility around this school integration.
00:22:13
and Ruby now talks about this in interviews that it was a well-intended decision by her parents
00:22:20
but also maybe a misguided one because as this is happening, Ruby just truly is in the dark
00:22:27
about the situation as a whole. All she knows is that her loved ones all seem very excited about her new school
00:22:34
and that Monday, November 14th is her first day of first grade and that morning feels like a holiday
00:22:40
at the Bridges house. It's noticeably different from Ruby's first day of kindergarten a year earlier.
00:22:46
And years later, she'll say, quote, it was totally different. Neighbors were coming over.
00:22:51
My mother's friends were coming to dress me for school. I had all these beautiful new things to wear.
00:22:57
Oh, everyone's so happy for her. Yeah. And they're also just like, you're going to, we're all going to put in on this together.
00:23:03
And we're all freaked out, but we're going to make this a celebration. Yeah. I'm sure they were terrified.
00:23:08
And then she says, did I feel special? Yes, I did feel very special. As a matter of fact, in my tiny six-year-old mind, remembering the test I had taken and how excited everyone was about that, I really thought I was going straight to college.
00:23:24
Yes, it's so cute. That's exactly the kind of getting it wrong that we need to do more of.
00:23:30
I just thought it was so good I'm going straight to college. Hell yeah. Sorry, we're still in the quote.
00:23:34
I thought everybody was so excited because they had never seen a six-year-old go to college.
00:23:40
It's so cute. that they're federal marshals who have been sent to escort Ruby to her new school.
00:24:05
So even though William Franz Elementary is only a couple blocks from the Bridges house,
00:24:10
Ruby and Lucille climb into a car with these four officers and make the short drive together.
00:24:15
Ruby remembers looking out the rear window and seeing her neighbors walking behind the car in a show of support.
00:24:22
Oh my God. Community. That little face. I know. She assumes it's because they're excited about her going to college.
00:24:31
I love it. God damn it. That's so sweet. So the car comes to a stop. They've arrived at school.
00:24:37
And for a split second, it really does feel like Mardi Gras to Ruby. There are barricades set up, police on horseback, countless people shouting and doing what Ruby thinks is waving their hands in excitement.
00:24:48
What she doesn't realize is they're actually throwing things and waving angry fists in the air.
00:24:54
at a child because a family wants their child to be educated. Like fucking check yourself. Like ask
00:25:04
your motivations, what they are. How do you get away with that in your brain? Because you're raised in it. Because it's taught to you. It's normalized to you. And it feels it
00:25:15
makes the bad part of what's going on inside you feel better by pushing it towards somebody else.
00:25:21
Right. Yeah. Absolutely not an excuse. No, no, no. But. Yeah. You don't question anyone.
00:25:28
You just accept things the way they come. Yeah. Yeah. Don't do that. So Lucille is with Ruby the entire time.
00:25:35
So the girl and her mother are quickly ushered into the school. Those marshals lead them straight to the principal's office where Ruby is sat down and they wait to see which classroom she's going to join.
00:25:47
and she watches through the office glass window looking out onto the school's hallway as white
00:25:54
adults constantly come and go and as they leave they're often dragging a child with them again
00:26:01
ruby will eventually learn these are the white parents yanking their kids out of class after
00:26:05
watching her enter the school because they cannot have or fathom the idea of a black child being
00:26:11
taught alongside their kids also all of the teachers at this grammar school leave in protest
00:26:16
which is a heartbreaking sentence to read it's just like wow even the fucking teachers yeah
00:26:23
hours pass ruby and lucille are sitting in the principal's office because all the teachers have
00:26:29
left no one's there to instruct ruby with no teacher there's also no classroom the principal
00:26:34
is left trying to figure out what to do so essentially it's like they pass this law
00:26:38
the government threatened them they had to do it and then they were just like but we don't
00:26:43
actually have to do it. There's nothing here. So the four marshals continue guarding the door.
00:26:48
Ruby and Lucille sit there until the end of the day. Bell rings at 3 p.m. Wow. And she is dismissed. Ruby remembers thinking, quote, wow, college is easy.
00:27:00
Later that evening, when Ruby's dad asks her how it all went, she tells him she had a good first
00:27:05
day. When the national news comes on that night, the protective wall her parents have built around
00:27:10
her begins to crack because there is a story about her and her first day of school on that
00:27:16
broadcast. Oh, my God. It's unclear how much of the story Ruby actually watches, but she remembers her mom looking
00:27:21
at the TV and saying out loud, oh, my God, what have I done? Because, of course, you're in it, right?
00:27:28
You don't understand the scope and the bigness and the symbolism of all of it. Totally.
00:27:35
So the next morning, Ruby gets up and gets ready for her second day of first grade.
00:27:41
And those same four marshals meet her and her mother at the front door. And they all ride to school together.
00:27:47
And the marshals escort them back into the elementary school. What's different today is that there are noticeably more angry white people set up outside that school.
00:27:58
They're even more aggressive. They're throwing tomatoes and eggs at Ruby, Lucille and the marshals.
00:28:05
but mostly at a little tiny girl. They also are yelling racial slurs and death threats,
00:28:12
saying they'll hang Ruby or they'll poison her food. Oh, my God. Ruby will say that later she blocked out a lot of what was happening in that moment.
00:28:21
She did not realize that mob was threatening her until years later when she watches news footage.
00:28:28
And essentially, it all allowed Ruby to maintain this lovely little innocent idea
00:28:33
that she's going to college and everybody's excited for her. Her mother and the marshals, of course, take those threats very seriously.
00:28:42
Ruby will not be allowed to eat anything from the school for the entire year. Lucille packs her daughter's lunch every single day, of course.
00:28:49
I mean, that's a detail I've never heard before. And that is just so horrific and heartbreaking.
00:28:57
To feel surrounded by this majority of people who are like, Like we only like we're going to threaten you in every way possible.
00:29:04
But I'm going to ignore it and I'm going to fucking still and I'm still going to make sure my daughter gets the education she deserves.
00:29:11
Like that woman is so brave. Yeah. She knew the threats. And, you know, Ruby didn't.
00:29:17
But she and her husband did. And they said we're still moving forward. Like it's so brave.
00:29:23
It's so brave in the face of absolute insanity. Yeah. Just insanity. So after pushing past this angry mob again, Ruby and her mother and the marshals enter the school.
00:29:34
But unlike day one, Ruby won't spend the entirety of the day in the principal's office.
00:29:39
She now has a classroom assignment. So as they move through the mostly empty school, there's an eerie silence.
00:29:47
And Ruby will later say, quote, you could hear a pin drop when I walked up the stairs.
00:29:51
Our footsteps echoed in the hallways, end quote. So they get to a classroom but there no students in it But there is a white woman standing there It Ruby new teacher Barbara Henry And she has immediate warmth and kindness about her
00:30:07
And as a New England native and a recent transplant to Louisiana, she also has a charming Boston accent.
00:30:14
Again, no one explains anything to Ruby like why she's the only student in this class or why her mother is sticking around for the entire school day or why the U.S. Marshals are still outside the classroom.
00:30:25
And, of course, no one tells Ruby that the reason Mrs. Henry is here today is because she's the one white teacher in all of New Orleans willing to instruct a black student.
00:30:36
I mean. Shame, shame, shame. So much shame on us. Instead, Ruby simply assumes this is how college works.
00:30:44
I love it. She's like, when do I get to go to the dorms? That's the best. This is college.
00:30:50
You get a one-on-one. And she instantly takes to Mrs. Henry. Ruby remembers thinking, quote, she made me feel safe.
00:30:56
She made school fun for me. I knew once I passed the crowd and got inside the building, I was going to have a great day because of her.
00:31:03
She showed me her heart and I knew that she was different. Even though she looked like the people outside, she was different.
00:31:10
Jesus Christ. End quote. Okay. So over the school year, Mrs. Henry creates a magical classroom experience for Ruby.
00:31:19
And incredibly, Ruby absolutely loves going to school because of her. It's amazing.
00:31:24
So beautiful. So basically when they can hear the racist chants and threats inside the classroom from outside.
00:31:32
So those people stayed outside. They didn't have their kids in there. They pulled their kids out and then stood outside screaming at the school.
00:31:41
Every day showing up to scream at a school. Wow. To scream against progress. Yeah.
00:31:46
So when that happens and they can hear the mob outside, Mrs. Henry simply tells Ruby, quote, we're going to have music today and then puts on music to drown out the noise.
00:31:57
So it's not that Ruby is kept safe from the horrors of this situation. And in fact, she does remember seeing people carrying a child's coffin with a black doll inside of it.
00:32:09
Oh, my God. At one point. I've never heard that either. Yeah. As a six-year-old.
00:32:14
And it gives her recurring nightmares, of course. My God. But her mother, Lucille, who never leaves her side, tells Ruby, quote, don't worry about those people.
00:32:22
They're crazy. They need praying for. End quote. Which is very true. As time passes, a small handful of white students trickle back into William France Elementary.
00:32:33
Some families support integrating William France, but others re-enroll their children begrudgingly.
00:32:38
Just they had nowhere else to go. So at first, Ruby never sees these children by design.
00:32:43
the school's administrators try to keep her away from them, prompting Mrs. Henry to step in and confront the principal.
00:32:50
Mrs. Henry even threatens to report the school to the federal government for continuing to disobey integration orders,
00:32:56
which results in Ruby finally being allowed to share certain spaces like play areas.
00:33:01
So she could basically go outside at the same time as other kids. But then Ruby has an interaction with one of these children when they're outside together.
00:33:10
she sees a little boy. She asks him if he'd like to play with her because she can sense that he
00:33:16
wants to, but he tells her his mom won't let him play with a black child, but he doesn't say black
00:33:22
child. He uses a racial slur. And this is the moment where it all clicks into place. Ruby will
00:33:28
later say, quote, for months, I'd been trying to piece it together to figure out why the school was
00:33:33
empty, why there are no kids that show up, why I can't just have lunch in the cafeteria. And this
00:33:38
little boy looked at me and told me. I then realized it's not Mardi Gras. This is not college.
00:33:43
It's about me. This is obviously devastating for Ruby, but she does have a support system around
00:33:50
her like her devoted and courageous mom, Lucille, but also a Harvard educated child psychologist
00:33:56
named Dr. Robert Coles, who is so disgusted by reports of Ruby being harassed as she walks into
00:34:02
school that he reaches out and offers counseling for her and her family. Wow. He provides weekly sessions with them for that entire year.
00:34:11
Wow. So he just steps in and is like, okay, let's get through this. And of course, there's Ruby's teacher, Mrs. Barbara Henry.
00:34:20
In fact, to this day, Ruby and Mrs. Henry, 20 years her senior, are still very close.
00:34:25
Ruby has said, quote, the beauty of it all is that I made a friend at six years old that
00:34:30
I am still friends with today. stop. She's still my best friend. Oh my God. End quote. Just think about that part. Ruby Bridges
00:34:37
is still alive and she's in, I believe, her early 70s. Yeah. Very young woman. Yeah. Who went through
00:34:45
this. Yeah. This is not the past. Yeah. The distant past that, oh, we've come so far. It's like,
00:34:51
this just happened to this woman. Yeah. So when Ruby returns to William France Elementary for
00:34:57
second grade, things are different because now there are eight other black students in the first
00:35:02
grade. But Ruby, who's now seven, arrives expecting the same setup as the year before,
00:35:07
a one-on-one classroom led by Mrs. Henry. Instead, she's in an all-white class and her new teacher
00:35:14
is one of the teachers who quit in protest the year before. And this teacher constantly belittles
00:35:20
and embarrasses Ruby, particularly when she pronounces certain words with a tinge of Mrs.
00:35:25
Henry's Boston accent. Ruby described her second grade experience as being, quote, almost like
00:35:32
somebody clapped their hands and the carriage was gone and it turned into a pumpkin. Dude.
00:35:38
And she's there all by herself. Yeah. Everything Ruby has experienced is isolating and traumatizing,
00:35:44
but she doesn't feel like she has many people she can talk to about it. Dr. Coles has since
00:35:49
moved away from Louisiana and Ruby parents are experiencing aversion of the fallout themselves Abonne and Lucille lose their jobs amidst all the coverage and the uproar around Ruby going to William France School And even her sharecropper grandparents are evicted off
00:36:08
their land in Mississippi because of it. The NAACP steps in to support the Bridges family,
00:36:15
but it all puts such a huge strain on Abonne and Lucille's marriage that they eventually separate.
00:36:20
And on top of everything else, Ruby feels further isolated by the total lack of recognition by the city about what's happened to her and her family.
00:36:28
She will later say, quote, The city didn't want to talk about it or deal with it.
00:36:32
The whole country had watched how adults behaved in front of a six-year-old. Nobody wanted to relive that.
00:36:38
Wow. End quote. So life just goes on. The days pass. Ruby gets older. and without any outside acknowledgement or validation of her own experience,
00:36:47
this becomes very difficult for Ruby to fully process everything that's happened.
00:36:52
She's one of the first children to integrate New Orleans schools, but she starts to see this as a very personal thing,
00:36:59
not something that has real significance in the world beyond her neighborhood in New Orleans.
00:37:06
Fast forward to the early 70s, Ruby's about 17 years old. And around this time, a journalist approaches her and asks for an interview because of a recently published painting by the famous artist Norman Rockwell.
00:37:20
It's just run as a centerfold in Look magazine. It's titled, quote, The Problem We All Live With.
00:37:27
And here is that painting if you've never seen it. Yeah. Oh. I mean, it's, yeah.
00:37:35
And there she is. It just gives you chills. The tomato thrown against the wall. I mean, it's just.
00:37:40
Yeah, I'll read this for the listeners who aren't watching. Rockwell's painting depicts a young black girl in pigtails clutching her school books, surrounded by four U.S. marshals that tower over her.
00:37:52
A tomato has been hurled at the wall behind them. Its blood red juices drip down to the sidewalk and a slur is written on the wall.
00:37:59
But the little girl continues marching forward, her head held high. When the reporter insists that this is Norman Rockwell's depiction of her, Ruby Bridges, Ruby can't believe it.
00:38:11
Here's what she said about that whole situation. Up until that moment, I didn't think anyone remembered or cared or that it even mattered.
00:38:18
I wasn't aware that it was important enough for this very famous artist to paint an amazing painting about it.
00:38:24
I did not realize that my walk, my story, was a part of a much bigger family, the civil rights family, the civil rights movement.
00:38:32
I didn't realize it until that moment. That idea that it's basically she has her whole education arc, basically.
00:38:44
She's about to graduate from high school when this painting comes out and this all happens.
00:38:50
And that's when she realizes it's so like life. Yeah. Where like you go through this really hard, horrible thing and like, yeah, life just goes on because that's kind of how it works.
00:39:01
Right. And sometimes people are there to kind of help you through the hard thing, but ultimately you are on your own and you kind of march on.
00:39:09
Right. And you don't realize the gravity of the important things that happen to you until you're past them.
00:39:13
And maybe that's for the best because it's so hard to, you know. To be processing that.
00:39:19
Yeah. In real time. But then someone is like, hey, this is an unbelievable thing that actually happened.
00:39:25
Do you want it? Let's all look at it. Yeah. Yeah. Incredible. So Ruby graduates from high school.
00:39:29
She takes a job as a travel agent, and then she goes and sees the world. Oh, my God.
00:39:34
She then gets married. She has four children. And then in the 1990s, when she's in her 40s, her old child psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Coles,
00:39:42
publishes a children's book about her entitled The Story of Ruby Bridges. Wow. It introduces countless more people to her historic tenure at William France Elementary.
00:39:53
And what follows is a Disney biopic in 1998 for which Ruby is a consultant. and then President Clinton awards her the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001.
00:40:05
Wow, I didn't know that. I didn't either. And then when President Barack Obama was in office,
00:40:11
he invites her to come to the Oval Office so that they can meet. Ruby has talked about how nervous she was when she met him, saying, quote,
00:40:18
he walked over to me and I extended my hand and said, it's such an honor to meet you.
00:40:22
And when I did this, he put both hands on his hips and looked at me and said, are you kidding me?
00:40:27
I'm getting a hug. and he threw his arms around me and said, I cannot begin to tell you what an honor it is to welcome you into this White House.
00:40:37
Bring it back. Come on. I mean, did it ever happen? Over the years, Ruby has written several books
00:40:44
and even established her own organization, the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which sets out to, quote,
00:40:48
offer programs and resources to guide and support younger generations on their pathway toward a more peaceful and harmonious future, end quote.
00:40:57
Every year, they help organize commemorative walk to school days across the United States,
00:41:01
which honor her historic first steps into William France Elementary and keep the history of hard-fought school integration alive.
00:41:09
Ruby's mom, Lucille, dies of cancer in 2020. She lived a good long life. She was 86 years old.
00:41:17
She was a fierce advocate for education throughout her life, telling children to, quote,
00:41:22
study, listen to what their teachers tell them and their mothers and their fathers.
00:41:26
after they get their education they can be any person they want to be doctors lawyers or anything
00:41:32
but you have to have that education and i would love for them to just listen to my story so they
00:41:38
can know how hard it was for my kids to go to school yeah wow like don't take it for granted
00:41:43
yeah have some sort of appreciation yeah ruby meanwhile is now in her early 70s after lucille's
00:41:50
She wrote a statement saying quote Brave progressive a champion for change She helped alter the course of so many lives by setting me out on my path as a six little girl Our nation lost a mother of the civil rights movement today and I lost my mom
00:42:08
I love you, and I'm grateful for you. May you rest in peace. And that's the story of Ruby Bridges, whose bravery and intelligence changed history in America.
00:42:19
Holy shit. Can we see the picture of her? Oh my god she's so tiny She's a tiny Tiny little girl
00:42:28
Look at those little shoes and socks And her little face Also I would love to know
00:42:37
What those men are fucking thinking I was totally wondering the same thing How do you stand around a little girl
00:42:42
That's having that kind of Hatred aimed and then go These are the reasonable people
00:42:48
Right Or not have some compassion if you hadn't had any before for what she's going through.
00:42:54
Yeah, I mean, they would have to. Yeah, you'd hope. Amazing. Oh, my God. Great job.
00:42:59
Isn't that insane? That's insane. I'm so glad you did that for Black History Month.
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00:44:41
As we do. This isn't that at all. No, nor should it be. And it won't be. It can't be.
00:44:46
It's two different stories every time. That's right. What we do is we're like lemon lime.
00:44:52
We come in. We're like, do you like this flavor? We're changing the flavor. Keep it fresh.
00:44:57
We're for everybody. We try to make sure we're for everybody. Right. And by doing so, alienate most of those people.
00:45:05
That's our specialty. That's not true. If you don't like us, it's okay. You don't know because you're not here.
00:45:11
Good point. Right? Unless you're my mom who started fucking. Oh, Janet. Listen. Being on Netflix has made her finally able to listen to the podcast.
00:45:18
Like that's the only way she's been able to understand podcasts. That's the only way she can access it.
00:45:23
Yes. Now she has notes. Probably. Yeah. She said something. I love the way you, I don't remember.
00:45:28
Can I read you the text? Yeah. Is it backhanded? I don't know. You tell me. I don't think so.
00:45:34
Okay. She said, I finished watching your first episode. It was great. You and Karen have a gift of making the audience feel a personal part of the conversation.
00:45:44
Relaxed, fun, open, and honest. Oh, and then so you put Mimi down? My condolences.
00:45:52
I have not put Mimi down. That was a great parental text about, oh. Totally. Yeah, she's fine.
00:45:59
Yeah, she can get in there sometimes with the hardcore mothering. She can say the words correctly for sure.
00:46:05
She knows those lines. Yeah. For sure. That was really nice. Yeah, it was. Fun, fun.
00:46:12
Oh. Sorry, your cat's dead. Wait, that isn't true, though. No, Mimi's still alive.
00:46:19
Jesus. I don't know how much longer, but with pure spite and anger at the dog and cats, she's
00:46:24
fucking living. Okay. Yeah. All right. Today's story I actually found out about from some listeners named Gavin and Anna who wrote
00:46:32
in a really great email, but it gives a whole story away, so I'm not going to read it.
00:46:36
Okay. But one of them, I can't tell which, is a jazz historian who studies the music of the
00:46:42
1920s, and so that's how they know about the story. I had never heard about it, even though this person that I'm going to tell you about today, in a lot of ways, had a bigger racket going than even Al Capone.
00:46:54
Oh. But I haven't heard of him before. He was a character in the second season of Boardwalk Empire.
00:46:59
Mm-hmm. And I wonder if you know who it is, because this is a very large human being played by Glenn Fleschler, who was, I don't want to spoil, I don't want to spoil a true detective from fucking eight seasons ago.
00:47:12
Oh, yes. He was the main guy. Yes. Yeah. And he plays like that perfect, like bad guy.
00:47:17
He just looks like a fucking old school gangster. He does. And I think he was doing the kind of dead eye thing.
00:47:24
Yeah. Where he was very scary. Yeah. Everything he's been in, like he's been in Joker.
00:47:29
He's been in everything he's been in is like dark. Yeah. You know what I mean? God forbid I say the name Kevin Spacey, but it's like he's that new kind of like, yeah,
00:47:39
I'm the character actor that you think a real guy walked on set and started asking questions.
00:47:44
And the moment you see me on screen, you know I'm fucking I'm here for trouble. Some shit's going down.
00:47:49
OK, so that is who I'm telling you about today. This is a story about a 1920s bootlegger named George Remus, the so-called king of bootleggers.
00:47:58
Oh, yeah. And an eventual... murder that he committed. Okay. So the main sources I used for this story are reporting
00:48:05
from the Chicago Tribune and an article from American Heritage Magazine by Bob Batchelor.
00:48:09
The rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. Okay. So most of these stories start with
00:48:14
a guy being born into tough circumstances and embracing crime early on. But that's not exactly
00:48:20
how it seems to go for our George. Though his family doesn't have much money, he does start
00:48:25
out mostly on the straight and narrow. He's born in 1876 in Germany. The family immigrates to the
00:48:32
United States when George is still pretty young and they move around for a few years and then
00:48:36
they settle in Chicago. And so when George is a teenager, his father gets sick. So George starts
00:48:41
to support the family by working at his uncle's pharmacy. Eventually, he becomes a pharmacist
00:48:46
himself. But in his early 20s, he decides to become a lawyer. So I feel like these things
00:48:53
were probably easier to become back then. I mean, I want to be a pharmacist. I want to be a lawyer.
00:48:58
It sounds a little bit like people, kids playing at a birthday party or something where it's like.
00:49:03
Or like one of those like, like mail in for your certificate of authenticity of being a pharmacist.
00:49:10
You know what I mean? To like one of those like schools. For the lawyer one, you just have to keep on mailing in over and over.
00:49:16
It's like where Saul Goodman went to law school. Essentially. It's harder now, I think.
00:49:21
Draw this turtle. You're a lawyer. Exactly. Yes. He graduates from law school around the time he's 24 and he becomes a criminal defense attorney.
00:49:31
In a lot of contemporary discussions about George, he's presented as a respected defense attorney.
00:49:37
But if you delve into some of the news stories from when he was practicing, it seems like he used tactics that other lawyers considered unethical, if not straight up illegal.
00:49:48
So he wasn't the good guy that all lawyers usually are. If you're a lawyer that's like, I'm not that into the law, then yeah, there's some problems.
00:49:58
Right. So in 1914, when George is in his mid 30s, he gains nationwide fame by becoming the first lawyer ever to use a defense of, quote, transitory insanity, which in today's money.
00:50:12
Temporary insanity. That's right. So he's the first fucking dude to do that. Who knew?
00:50:16
That case involves the murder of a woman by her husband allegedly over an affair.
00:50:22
George claims his client named W.C. Ellis did kill his wife, but has no memory of the event.
00:50:28
And the defense actually works. Ellis is acquitted. So that same case involves some level of unethical conduct.
00:50:35
Before a verdict is reached, George claims that his client had been offered a bribe from his wife's family.
00:50:41
It's just a bunch of bullshit that he uses in court. And we don't really know what's true and what's not true, if he's stretching the truth or not.
00:50:49
He probably is. regardless George is known around the Chicago courthouse as crying Remus because he's known
00:50:55
for his impassioned speeches wild stories and his flair for the dramatic that's all you need to be a
00:51:00
lawyer right yeah I think it's mostly acting yeah and theater major then go to uh what's it called
00:51:07
law school go to law school I mean you could do it you'd cry on cue thank you yeah you could do it
00:51:12
since that's my thing thank you that's all you need I love school so much yeah you love school
00:51:17
in homework and crying on cue. So the other lawyers don't like it, but juries eat it up.
00:51:24
So in 1899, back when he was about 23, he had married a woman named Lillian Clough. They have
00:51:30
two daughters and actually one of the daughters named Romella, she becomes a child actress in
00:51:36
silent films and plays Dorothy in the silent version of The Wizard of Oz. Total aside.
00:51:41
That was Romella Clough? I love her work. That was George Ramis' daughter? Who knew?
00:51:47
Rumella is one of the worst young names I've ever heard. Rumella. It sounds like a fucking.
00:51:53
Something you get inoculated from. That's wild. Rumella. Rumella. Yeah. R-O-M-R-U.
00:52:00
R-O-M-O-L-A. Rumella. Yeah. Rumella. Oh. Still sucks. Not great. No. Okay. By early 1919, George is in his early.
00:52:08
Here come the emails. I know. Right. Now they're from Netflix too. Like not just.
00:52:13
They're like, I'm over here in wherever that name would be from. This is Romella Smith.
00:52:18
How dare you? How dare you? It's a family name. Why? Everyone likes this name. I won best name three years in a row.
00:52:28
Where? Okay. By early 1919, George is in his early 40s and he's extremely well known in Chicago.
00:52:35
One night in Evanston, the suburb just north of Chicago, a plumber, okay, this is weird.
00:52:40
A plumber named Herbert Young goes to the house of a divorced woman named Augusta Imogene Holmes.
00:52:47
Great names. Who mostly, she goes by Imogene. Imogene's teenage daughter, Ruth, has lost her watch.
00:52:54
And Imogene has said she'll give a reward to whoever finds it. And so Herbert the plumber finds it.
00:53:00
But once he's there, he and Imogene get into an argument about how much the reward should be.
00:53:04
And this turns into a physical altercation with the man who was there with Imogene.
00:53:08
and this man turns out to be George Remus. Basically, this whole episode makes the papers
00:53:13
and reveals that George, who again is pretty famous, is having an affair with Imogene
00:53:19
and has been for the past five years. Wait, so she gets into a fight so bad with this guy
00:53:25
not giving him the reward because he found her daughter's watch. That it makes the papers.
00:53:30
It makes the fucking papers. And his wife sees in the papers, like, what are you doing at this woman's house?
00:53:35
And he's a lawyer, but he is not able to get her to stop that fight or handle it.
00:53:41
Yeah. Okay. His wife, Lillian, goes to visit Imogene and gets her to admit to the unfair.
00:53:46
So Lillian's like, fuck this shit, and says to the Chicago Tribune, quote, I told her I didn't want him.
00:53:53
You may keep the rubbish. Ooh End quote Snap snap snap snap snap Have my fucking leftovers bitch Bye and enjoy Yeah So they get divorced and George remarries Imogene So this brings us to 1920 when the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act prohibit the production
00:54:10
importation, transportation and sale of alcohol in the U.S. Yeah. Cheers. Pretty much as soon as prohibition goes into effect, George starts representing clients
00:54:21
who are being charged with the illegal production, transportation and sale of alcohol.
00:54:26
He's just like... He gets right into that business. Yeah. He's like, let's do this.
00:54:29
He immediately notices how much money these people he is defending are making. And it has to be a very impressive sum because as a lawyer,
00:54:37
George had been making about $500,000 a year in 1920s money. What? Half a million a year in 1920 money is how much and to date.
00:54:49
So it's like over 100 years ago. Yeah. Half a million dollars. Yeah. So would he be now making $30 million a year?
00:54:58
$8 million. God damn it. I know. I'm sorry. I always go way over. It's impossible.
00:55:03
It's a personality flaw. It's what it is. How about the jazz historians would now?
00:55:07
Just like, ha ha, we knew and you didn't. And so George realizes that he's uniquely suited to a career in bootlegging for two reasons.
00:55:15
The first is that he's a lawyer, is very comfortable finding loopholes, right? Even ones that are a little bit in the gray area.
00:55:23
And the second is that his first career was as a pharmacist. And he's already found one such loophole allowing the sale of liquor for medicinal purposes.
00:55:34
Did you know that? No. Yeah. During Prohibition, you could buy alcohol from your pharmacist if a doctor had prescribed it for you.
00:55:43
Yeah. But like good alcohol, too, because it had to be pure strength. It couldn't be bathtub gin.
00:55:48
They got it from actual distilleries. So like. Wow. Do you remember the first time you went to a weed doctor to get your weed card?
00:55:55
I was so terrified that the SWAT team was going to come in. I actually didn't go inside.
00:56:00
I stood on the outside and I made somebody else go in. You didn't get your own? No.
00:56:05
I was scared to death. No, I can't prove it. I didn't do anything. I was terrified.
00:56:10
Yes, it was horrifying. So funny. It was very like when you grow up under that thing of like, this is the thing, this is how bad it is, or this is how whatever.
00:56:21
And then you're just like, oh, yeah, drugs. And then it's like nowadays it's like weed.
00:56:26
Yeah. It's like basically smoking. No one cares. Nobody cares. But it was so scary.
00:56:31
And I didn't even like smoke weed. I just kind of wanted some gummies. I don't know.
00:56:35
Just want to be a part of things. I really did want to go into a weed store, too, because you can't go in one or you couldn't go in one without the card.
00:56:41
I was so curious about what it looked like inside. I know. Everyone I knew was like, how do you get a card?
00:56:46
And then I remember when I had my seizures, my neurologist was like, oh, that's actually good for that.
00:56:53
Yeah. Like I can recommend it where I'm just like, oh, my name will be on the list.
00:56:58
I was so afraid to be in trouble with the government. And look at us now. Look at it now.
00:57:05
Can you imagine? No. Being worried about that list? That's not the list. we need to be worried about.
00:57:12
Jesus Christ. Blah, blah, blah. Da, da, da, da, da. The Gamergate was absolutely fabricated
00:57:17
by Steve Bannon. It just fucking made the whole thing up. Pizzagate, too. Pizzagate.
00:57:22
Everything. QAnon. I mean, obviously, but... They ate humans. It didn't... Isn't it real?
00:57:28
So George and Imogene moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, for the practical reason that the vast majority of the whiskey produced in the U.S.
00:57:35
is produced within 300 miles of Cincinnati. Did you know that? No. Cincinnati. I hardly knew you. So he starts buying distilleries and legally provides what's called bonded whiskey, meaning that it has government stamp of approval that it's not going to fucking make you go blind. It's not.
00:57:52
That's not so smart. I know. It's not diluted or adulterated in any way. So that's what should be sold for medicinal purposes. Needless to say, because of that, George's product is very popular. But there is an issue of him only being able to sell it for medicinal use.
00:58:07
So George is supposed to be wholesaling this liquor to other pharmacists, but that's a much smaller market than leisure drinkers.
00:58:15
So he's like, fuck all y'all. Yeah. He gets around that by basically like getting his whiskey stolen by his employees and then like confiscated by the police, both of which he pays off.
00:58:29
I don't know. He basically launders the liquor. Yes. Yeah, exactly. In just a year or two, he's running a massive operation with 3,000 employees.
00:58:39
And he's the source of one seventh of the whiskey sold in the United States under prohibition.
00:58:44
Oh, my God. Within the first three years of being in business, George makes about $40 million.
00:58:50
Dang. Which in today's money. Fucking A. So we were at half a million back then, and that was $8 million.
00:58:58
So $40 million. $31 million. It sucks, man. I'm like, I just don't know how to tell you, but $648 million.
00:59:05
Wait, I said less than what you said. Go again. I did that. I did that on stage, remember?
00:59:13
And everyone laughed and laughed. Because you start, what it is, is you start getting obsessed with the number.
00:59:18
Like, I have to pick a good number. Yeah, but you can't. You don't really listen.
00:59:25
$648 million is what he's making off of this enterprise. enterprise. He's basically the 20s kind of Elon Musk type of guy. That's right. Going into the
00:59:36
you don't need that much money area. Totally. And actually, they use that money, George and Imogen,
00:59:42
who's like younger and pretty than, you know, she's like, actually, I have a photo of her.
00:59:47
Oh, she's very glamorous. She looks like the woman from the show with the weed. She sold the weed.
00:59:53
Oh yeah Mary Louise Parker Thank you Mary Louise Parker doesn she Like a young Mary I can see it So she young and glamorous and beautiful Here a funny thing is so this is from like 1920
01:00:07
They basically have her in a three quarter turn away from the camera. Yeah. What's up with the other side of her face?
01:00:12
What's happening or the outfit or anything? It's just like, is this back before photographers understood?
01:00:18
Like you could see everything in the picture. Maybe they're like, she had the most beautiful profile west of the, this is, I don't know
01:00:24
it's west of the Mississippi, but, you know, so he kind of got himself some arm candy.
01:00:31
Yeah. Because, you know, she's younger. And they move into a beautiful mansion. I have to stop you.
01:00:36
Do you know that thing where it's like, is this an old woman or a young woman? That's literally exactly what she looks like, especially because I don't have my glasses on.
01:00:43
Yeah, is it an old hag or is it a young beauty? Because she has something on her chin and then there's that feather.
01:00:48
It's very distracting. Like, is this the blank space or is this the blank space?
01:00:52
Exactly. Is it a rabbit or a duck? I can't tell. Send in drawing of it to get your law degree.
01:01:00
Law degree. Okay, so they throw these like lavish parties at their beautiful mansion in Cincinnati.
01:01:06
They throw this huge party New Year's Eve when it's about to be 1922. They dedicate their brand new indoor swimming pool in the basement of their mansion.
01:01:17
So they're fucking totally Elon Musk-ing it up. They have money to burn. Yeah. And Imogene wears a scandalous bathing suit, which is like crazy for back then.
01:01:26
It was to the knee. Yeah, covered only half her face. Waitresses dressed in all white pass around champagne and whiskey.
01:01:33
And at the end of the night as a party favor. So it's said that each woman leaves with a pair of diamond earrings and every man leaves with a diamond pin.
01:01:40
There's also rumors that it was actually a diamond necklace or a watch. And then there are some rumors that each party guest leaves with a car.
01:01:49
in the early 20s. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. But they are very generous with their friends
01:01:55
who probably don't need the fucking money anyways. And it's said that George is one of the bootleggers
01:01:59
who inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby. That makes sense. It's obvious as to why, right?
01:02:07
Yeah. But the good times don't last. Between 1922 and 1925, George is arrested multiple times
01:02:12
and is convicted of tax evasion. He doesn't get any long prison sentences, probably because he bribes the authorities.
01:02:20
But that comes to an end in 1925 when he's convicted of thousands of violations of the Volstead Act.
01:02:27
And he's sentenced to two years in prison. Want some pictures? Oh, yeah. He has his back to the camera,
01:02:32
just fully turned around. Oh, there he is. There's the profile, though. Actually, that actor looks so much like him.
01:02:39
Totally. He has, like, light eyes like that. Yeah. And he's very scary in that show.
01:02:43
He plays him on Boardwalk Empire. You can see why. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? this guy takes no shit
01:02:49
oh my god don't come near him with your shit no no he's none for him you think he's sharing custody with his wife
01:02:58
his first wife with the kids taking them to like you know the carnival on the weekends
01:03:04
no no I guarantee you he's not taking his kids miniature golfing like my dad did
01:03:09
no he would hire like two goons would take the kids miniature golfing totally Yeah.
01:03:17
That guy's serious. Yeah. Don't get on his bad side. I kind of can't stop staring at him, though.
01:03:21
I know. Don't get on his bad side, except someone does. While he's serving his sentence of two years in prison, another inmate befriends him.
01:03:29
And George eventually tells this man that his wife, Imogene, is in control of his still very vast fortune.
01:03:36
And it turns out that that inmate is actually an undercover agent from the attorney general's office named Franklin Dodge.
01:03:43
You must, like when people talk to you in prison, it must be such a, just a whirlwind of emotions.
01:03:50
Yeah. Because you're like, it'd be great to have someone to talk to. I trust this dude who's been around here.
01:03:55
He told me what he did. I'll tell him what I did. You were sharesies, sharesies.
01:03:59
Yeah. And now it's like, you use me. Keep your mouth shut. Zip it. Nothing's real.
01:04:04
There's no real friendship in prison. That's right. Except for those, when they bring in those dogs.
01:04:10
Or the cats too. Don't forget the cats when they have the prisoners rehabilitate the dogs and cats and then they get adopted.
01:04:16
It is so beautiful. If you have an ex-prison rehabilitated dog or cat, please write us in and tell us everything.
01:04:23
Oh, my God. Right? That's such a good idea. My favorite murder at Gmail. We need to know about that.
01:04:28
That's a weird fucking request. Okay. It is. So Franklin Dodge, instead of going to his boss with the information he gets from George, he resigns from his position and fucking woos and begins having an affair with Imogene.
01:04:42
Oh. So I don't have a photo of him, but he must have been sexy as fuck. And bold.
01:04:47
And bold. Brave. He's like, instead of my job, I'm going to go. Fuck your wife. Fuck your wife.
01:04:53
While George is in prison, Imogene sells off almost his entire empire, including the house, and gives George $100 of the proceeds.
01:05:03
Once he's released from prison, Imogene attempts to have him murdered by a hitman.
01:05:09
But the hitman worries about going against George, who, of course, has a lot of connections in the underworld.
01:05:14
So he instead tells George about the plot. Good. Well. Oh. In the fall of 1927, Imogene files for divorce from George.
01:05:24
And on his way to the courthouse to finalize the divorce, George has his driver chase Imogene's car, which she's in with riding in with her daughter, Ruth, the watch chick from before.
01:05:36
Right. And eventually George jumps out of the car and Imogene takes off running.
01:05:43
And in the street with onlookers watching in shock, George shoots Imogene in the stomach and she dies at the hospital.
01:05:50
Oh, my God. Yeah. George immediately goes to the police station. He gets in another car and he goes straight to the police station and turns himself in And he charged with Imogene murder And the case goes to trial in December of that same year George represents himself with the assistance of another lawyer
01:06:06
The trial is... He is a lawyer. That's right. Yeah. So I forgot. The trial is, as you would guess, a massive sensation and the courthouse is packed.
01:06:15
George's first wife and daughter testify on his behalf while his stepdaughter, Ruth, who had been at the scene, testifies against him.
01:06:23
George's defense, temporary insanity. God. It's like he was setting it up that whole time so he could use it.
01:06:31
Yeah. He delivers his own defense with his trademark histrionics. Men are so emotional.
01:06:36
You know what I mean? They can't handle anything. God. He tells his dramatic retelling of the story.
01:06:43
It's basically the same kind of song and dance he did to get his clients off. And it works for George, too.
01:06:51
after only 19 minutes of deliberation, the jury finds him not guilty for reasons of insanity.
01:06:58
Wow. This means that George will have to go to a psychiatric hospital where prosecutors try to make him stay.
01:07:04
Like, they try to get him to stay there a long time because they're like, this guy tried to kill his wife.
01:07:08
Like, let's get him stuck here. But here's what's so crazy. They had gone to such great lengths to prove that he wasn't insane
01:07:14
that they couldn't then prove he was and make him stay. Yeah. Isn't that like that seems like a double entendre.
01:07:22
What's the thing? Double indemnity or whatever? Yeah. I mean, like, that seems ironic.
01:07:28
Yeah. But also it seems like that should be if you get off on that like technicality or whatever.
01:07:36
There should be a sentence. Yeah, because it's the prosecution's job to try to make it prove that he wasn't crazy.
01:07:42
So then what it's like, then you're like, you should have never brought that up.
01:07:46
Right. It's like this isn't a family fight at Christmas. Totally. And then like also that doesn't mean that he's like cured and you can just let him go and he won't do it again.
01:07:54
Right. And so George is released from the psychiatric hospital after only seven months.
01:07:58
Sorry, we also have to remind everybody he has all the money in the world. Yeah.
01:08:04
So that's probably has a lot to do with it, too. Yeah. He's like, I'm not going to be staying here. I have money.
01:08:09
Once he's released, George marries his longtime secretary, a woman named Blanche Watson.
01:08:15
Great name. They move across the Ohio River to Covington, Kentucky, and George lives a quiet life there, running a small contracting business, which he runs until 1950 when he suffers a stroke and he dies two years later at the age of 66.
01:08:32
And that is the story of the king of bootleggers, George Remus. God damn. Have you ever heard of this guy?
01:08:40
Never heard of him. And he had like six different jobs and ends as a contractor.
01:08:44
What does that mean? Like, what was he really? A builder. But like. I know, but like, do you think.
01:08:49
Oh, I think he's just a boss. I think he's good at bossing people around. Right.
01:08:52
So it was probably just like, get five guys and we'll figure out a way to build this house.
01:08:56
Wow. That's me fully guessing. I'm shedding something and it's worrying me. Where do you think it's coming off of you?
01:09:04
That's, there's, I mean. I mean. Therein lies the. What color is it? It's white.
01:09:10
Oh. That could be blossom. Yeah, just do a little dandruff test and see what comes off of there.
01:09:15
I think this is just how it is. Yeah. All right. Oh, yeah. No, it's my arm. That's why you have to spill your Diet Coke.
01:09:22
Look. Do you have arm makeup on? No. You're just like big, long, white streaks. It's really gross.
01:09:31
My full body makeup's coming off. I don't know why. It's Netflix, baby. I got to wear full body makeup now.
01:09:37
We've gone absolutely insane. We truly have. For Netflix. Well, thanks for listening, everyone.
01:09:42
Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching our podcast. And listening to our video.
01:09:47
Yeah. We're with you. We are. We appreciate you. Thank you guys for tuning in here.
01:09:52
Yeah. Thanks for tuning in and stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie?
01:10:08
This has been an Exactly Right production. Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer is Tessa Hughes.
01:10:14
Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squalachi. Our researchers are Maren McGlashan and Allie Elkin.
01:10:21
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