CLASSIC: History's Coolest (Non-Human) Political Candidates, Part I

Summary

Ridiculous History: CLASSIC: History's Coolest (Non-Human) Political Candidates, Part I

Released on June 5, 2025, by iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In this special classic episode of Ridiculous History, hosts Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown delve into the fascinating and often absurd world of non-human political candidates. Joined by returning guest Christopher Haciotes, the trio explores a series of unconventional and whimsical attempts by animals and even inanimate objects to gain political office. This episode offers a humorous yet insightful look into how these candidates reflect broader societal sentiments and protest movements.

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Segment 1: Pigasus the Immortal Pig ([10:22]–[16:37])

The episode kicks off with the story of Pigasus the Immortal, a pig nominated by the Youth International Party (Yippies) during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Led by Abby Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, the Yippies aimed to use Pigasus’s candidacy as a form of political satire and protest against the establishment.

• Key Points:

  • Nomination and Purpose: Pigasus was intended to symbolize the absurdity of the political process, with the Yippies stating, “We nominate a president and he eats the people.”
  • Public Reaction: The stunt garnered significant attention, leading to Pigasus being "arrested" alongside his human companions when pulled over in a station wagon.
  • Legal Aftermath: The incident resulted in charges of animal cruelty and obstruction, with Pigasus eventually being taken to the Humane Society.

• Notable Quote:

  • Christopher Haciotes ([12:11]): “Can you disprove that they levitated the Pentagon? Absolutely not. You certainly can't.”

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Segment 2: Pulvapies Foot Powder as Mayor ([21:05]–[26:18])

Next, the hosts explore the bizarre case of Pulvapies Foot Powder winning the mayoral election in Pico Aza, Ecuador, in 1967. This promotional campaign by the foot powder company blurred the lines between advertising and political participation.

• Key Points:

  • Campaign Strategy: Pulvapies distributed ballots resembling actual election ballots with their foot powder mascot, leading to confusion among voters.
  • Election Outcome: Although reports claimed Pulvapies won the mayoral race, it was likely a case of ballot misplacement, resulting in their victory being nullified.
  • Impact: The incident highlighted issues of ballot design and voter confusion, emphasizing the power of marketing in politics.

• Notable Quote:

  • Ben Bowlin ([21:55]): “People were having a laugh saying, these people are so dumb, they voted for a foot powder.”

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Segment 3: Clay Henry the Goat – The Drunken Mayor ([32:38]–[37:28])

In Lajitas, West Texas, the story of Clay Henry, a goat elected as mayor in 1986, showcases how local politics can embrace eccentricity. Organized by Houston businessman Walter Misher, Clay Henry’s tenure was marked by his notorious drinking habits.

• Key Points:

  • Campaign and Election: Clay Henry was marketed as a friendly and approachable “mayor,” famous for consuming large quantities of beer and interacting directly with constituents.
  • Heritage and Succession: The popularity of Clay Henry led to his offspring, Clay Henry Jr. and Clay Henry III, also being elected as mayors, establishing a unique political dynasty.
  • Challenges: Clay Henry III faced altercations resulting in the loss of a testicle, underscoring the chaotic and unconventional nature of his mayoral role.

• Notable Quote:

  • Noel Brown ([35:55]): “He was known for walking around the Trading Post and other places in town, and if someone didn't hand him a beer, he would just find someone and take it.”

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Segment 4: Kakareko the Rhinoceros ([58:14]–[61:55])

The tale of Kakareko, a female black rhinoceros, presents a profound example of using non-human candidates as a means of political protest. In São Paulo, Brazil, Kakareko was voted into office in 1958 as a statement against rampant political corruption.

• Key Points:

  • Motivation: Citizens, frustrated with political corruption, chose Kakareko to represent their discontent and as a form of civil disobedience.
  • Ballot Manipulation: Over 200,000 ballots were printed with Kakareko’s name, leading to her landslide victory.
  • Legacy: Although Kakareko passed away in 1962, her election inspired the Rhinoceros Party of Canada and the term “voto kakareko” (kakareko vote) became synonymous with protest voting.

• Notable Quote:

  • Christopher Haciotes ([60:32]): “This was a way for people to say our choices are so poor, we would rather have not just a rhinoceros, but a dumb as beans rhinoceros.”

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Segment 5: Dustin the Turkey ([49:34]–[56:37])

Finally, Dustin the Turkey, a beloved puppet from Ireland, exemplifies the intersection of pop culture and politics. Initially gaining fame on the show The Den, Dustin’s foray into politics during the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest showcased his unique appeal.

• Key Points:

  • Eurovision Participation: In 2008, Dustin represented Ireland with the song “Ireland, Deuce Point,” blending humor and satire in his performance.
  • Political Campaigns: Beyond Eurovision, Dustin attempted to run for President of Ireland, though his campaigns did not yield significant electoral success.
  • Cultural Impact: Dustin remains a cultural icon, participating in various charitable endeavors and maintaining a strong fan base.

• Notable Quote:

  • Christopher Haciotes ([52:25]): “Dustin the Turkey is truly a puppet, a political puppet.”

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Conclusion

Through these eclectic stories, Ridiculous History highlights how non-human candidates often serve as powerful symbols of protest, satire, and cultural commentary. Whether it’s a pig, a foot powder, a goat, or a puppet turkey, these candidates underscore the lengths to which people will go to express their dissatisfaction or inject humor into the political arena.

• Final Thoughts:

  • Symbolism and Protest: Non-human candidates frequently represent broader societal frustrations and serve as tools for political expression.
  • Cultural Reflection: These episodes reflect the unique ways different cultures engage with politics, blending tradition with absurdity.

• Notable Quote:

  • Ben Bowlin ([36:33]): “We found one of the very first examples of this, which I think, Noel, you had looked into.”

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Stay Connected

For more outrageous and fascinating tales from history, follow Ridiculous History on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Share your favorite non-human political candidates and join the conversation with fellow ridiculous historians.

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Produced by Casey Pegram, with research assistance from Eve Jeffcoat. Special thanks to guest Christopher Haciotes for his insightful contributions.

Transcript

[Ben]

Fellow ridiculous historians, we are so excited that you have looked around all the candidates for podcasting and you have voted to join us for today's classic episode. This is a special one for us, man, because somebody else joined the show.

[Noel]

That's right, Christopher Oiotes is here, not only in spirit, but in the flesh, corporeally, to talk about history's coolest non human political candidates. Part one of two.

[Ben]

Yeah, we got super into this one. And you know what? I wish we could do an update, but no spoilers. We'll see if we get to it.

[Noel]

Absolutely, man.

[Ben]

Yeah. So tune in and let us know some of your favorite non human political candidates.

[Christopher Haciotes]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Noel]

Horsepower 0 to 60 times. These are among the benchmarks when considering a new vehicle. But Lexus believes there are some things, immeasurable things, that matter more.

[Jake Hanrahan]

Awe.

[Noel]

Exhilaration.

[Jake Hanrahan]

Joy.

[Noel]

How a cabin feels like it was.

[Ben]

Crafted with you in mind. The way an engine note resonates with your soul.

[Noel]

Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. That's the standard of amazing Lexus experience. Amazing.

[Holly Fry]

Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremerki, Hunter, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the Highwayman suggests men dominated the field, but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrars, known as the wicked lady who terrorized England in the mid-1600s. Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Hanrahan]

I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Away Days is my new project reporting on countercultures on the fringes of society all across the world. Live from the underground, you'll discover no rules fighting, Japanese street racing, Brazilian favela life, and much more. All real, completely uncensored. Listen to the Away Days podcast. Reporting from the underbelly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dexter Thomas]

Are there any pictures of you online? Then you could already be in a massive police database without even knowing it.

[Unknown]

Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts.

[Dexter Thomas]

I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, a podcast about how living in the future is affecting us right now.

[Unknown]

Police. They are trusting the software with this magical ability to lead them to the right suspect.

[Dexter Thomas]

In this episode, we dive into how cops are using AI and facial recognition and sometimes getting it wrong and putting innocent people behind bars.

[Unknown]

So if you're a cute user is this algorithm, but you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works.

[Dexter Thomas]

Listen to Kill Switch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartrad. Welcome to the show, Ridiculous Historians, and hopefully fellow animal lovers. This episode is going to maybe knock your socks off. Or at least maybe you'll take your socks off while you're listening to the podcast.

[Noel]

Ben, are you. What kind of animal person are you?

[Ben]

I'm pretty much every animal person.

[Noel]

Really.

[Ben]

Yeah. Except for the tales of rats and possums. Bother me.

[Noel]

Well, as they should. They're kind of disgusting.

[Ben]

Yeah. But other than that, I'm super into pretty much every animal.

[Noel]

So you're a bit of a Dr. Dolittle figure.

[Ben]

Yes, yes. But I've been thinking about life lately, Noel, and maybe I should be a doctor. Do more.

[Noel]

Yeah.

[Ben]

So I don't get sued.

[Noel]

Ben, that's very good. That's very good. I like what you did there. I'm a cat person, I guess. A fair weather cat. They kind of just. They sort of drift around my periphery. They don't really bother me too much. There's the occasional meow. I'm an indoor outdoor cat person, so not as much of a do little as you. But I really do appreciate your. Your commitment to the animal kingdom.

[Ben]

Oh, man. Where would we be without animals? As a matter of fact, where would we be without our super producer, Casey Pegram, who, if ever an animal, is probably only a party animal?

[Noel]

He is. He is. He's like Animal from the Muppet Show. He plays drums about as aggressively. This is true. Casey is an incredible drummer.

[Ben]

Yes, this is true. We actually have a lot of very talented percussionists here at how stuff works. Maybe we can get a drum circle going on one day. However, today is not that day.

[Noel]

No, unfortunately, but, you know, fortunately for other reasons.

[Ben]

Right, right. Today is another kind of very special day, as you can tell from whatever. We end up writing the title of this episode as we are exploring a very particular type of candidate. Political candidate. One thing that's great about this country, almost anybody can run for some sort of office. And one thing that's great about this podcast is Noel and I are not launching out on this endeavor alone. We are joined by our returning guest, longtime friend of the show, fellow ridiculous historians, give it up. For Christopher Haciotes.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Hey, good afternoon, good evening. If you're listening in the evening, good morning. If we're waking you up and if you are sleeping to this podcast, just keep on sleeping. No, wake up, Wake up.

[Noel]

I don't think this is a good sleeping podcast because it's a little too frenetic. Yeah, we're too high energy.

[Christopher Haciotes]

A little ridiculous.

[Ben]

Yeah, wake up. We could do an asmr. You know, lower the voice, quiet stab.

[Christopher Haciotes]

You want to talk about some animals? Cats.

[Noel]

You know what I discovered the other day? Podcast. It's called Sleep With Me. Have you heard of this?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Oh, yeah. Is that just a text you got?

[Noel]

No, no, no. It's a podcast. It's a guy who plays this character named the. The Divine Scooter or something like that, and he just tells weird non sequitur stories in this very relaxing kind of an unplaceable accent. And it's just a delight. So if you. If you're looking for a podcast to sleep to, I recommend Sleep With Me from American Public Media.

[Ben]

But not this podcast.

[Noel]

No, definitely not this podcast.

[Ben]

So, Christopher, earlier you had given us this amazing idea. You gave us a choice between two possible topics to explore, and the one we ended up going with was the idea of non human political candidates.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, that's right. There are a lot of ways that people around the world choose their leaders. And one of the most popular in. If you're going to accept the pun, one of the most popular ways is to vote. Right. We put folks in office that we as a whole decide will best represent the majority and best uphold the needs of the minority sometimes. I wanted to talk about non human electoral candidates after we dug into the story of Hartlepool. Now, ridiculous historians, you will remember that this was the story of the monkey, perhaps, that washed ashore in Hartlepool, England. The Hartlepool monkey inspired, or the story inspired Hengist the monkey. And Hengist the monkey was the mascot of the town, the soccer team, and ended up becoming the mayor of Hartlepool. Now, you guys talked about this a couple weeks ago, and that got me thinking. Let's dive into more of these weird, strange, ridiculous stories of things, of animals, of ideas that somehow made it on the ballot and got into office.

[Ben]

Okay, so our rules of engagement then would be ideally, non humans of some sort that successfully ran for office.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. That successfully. Were part of a campaign. Yes, let's stick with that, because not all of these were winners. But that doesn't mean they're not worth talking about because there's some really weird, ridiculous stuff that we can get into now.

[Noel]

I don't know if mine were necessarily successful or not. I didn't realize we had this criteria.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Well, they were successfully candidates, right?

[Noel]

They were put forth.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, exactly.

[Noel]

Is that good enough?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Oh, yeah. If they didn't win, probably we're all better off for it.

[Noel]

Yes, I think that's fair.

[Ben]

So we each on our own, went out and found a couple of great candidates and we'd like to share some of these with you today. I love this idea, but the sad part is when we set off, we're not going to be able to cover all of the non human candidates because there are surprisingly a ton of them.

[Noel]

Yeah, I mean, it's funny, we were talking about doing this topic and I'm like, surely not. Surely there's not enough to fill an entire podcast with this. But yes, in fact, we've been able to do it and we have leftovers on the cutting room floor. Maybe we'll do a part two.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Christopher Haciotes]

You, you. You underestimate the ridiculousness of human history and how seriously or not we're willing to take our political process.

[Ben]

That's true. And we found one of the very first examples of this, which I think, Noel, you had looked into.

[Noel]

Oh, I get to go first.

[Ben]

Oh, please.

[Noel]

You're nominating me? Okay, well, I mean, I think.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Wait, should we.

[Ben]

Should we.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Should we vote?

[Noel]

I guess we should. Let's do the. Let's. Let's hold true to the political process.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Okay. I just. Really quickly. Let me just. Okay, here's a ballot. I made the ballot. I'm going to check my box. Check.

[Ben]

Ok, I'm going to voting for Noel. I already did that.

[Noel]

And I will vote for myself.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Perfect.

[Noel]

Okay. Are we in agreement?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. No wins the vote.

[Ben]

Casey, what's up?

[Christopher Haciotes]

I hereby declare it shall be. No.

[Noel]

That'S been Casey on the.

[Ben]

Casey on the case.

[Noel]

Literally. He made a judgment there.

[Ben]

He did.

[Noel]

He made a ruling. Okay, I like this one, guys. Have you guys ever heard of Pegasus, the immortal pig? Yeah, Pegasus, the immortal.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Did you say Pegasus?

[Noel]

No, Pigasus, my friend. Pigasus.

[Christopher Haciotes]

P. I g. I think, I think I see where you're going with this.

[Noel]

It's a bit of a pun, you see, because Pegasus. Pegasus was a unicorn, an alicorn. I'm not sure what the terminology is, but a winged horse is a Pegasus. And then I think Pegasus was the name of a particular winged horse from Greek mythology. Pegasus, on the other hand, was an actual pig, a spotted pig that was obtained in the country outside of the city of Chicago during the Democratic national convention of 1968 by a little group you may have heard of called the Youth International Party, AKA the Yippees. Yep, yep, yep. You know these guys, Ben?

[Ben]

I am not terribly familiar with the Yippees.

[Noel]

Well, they're pretty neat. They were kind of a fringy sort of a band of merry pranksters during the 60s that would do sit ins, but mainly their whole bag, as they might have said, was kind of political theater. Right. So they would stage these events that were almost like a combination of protests and performance art. Right. So one big one they did was during the march on the pentagon on in 1967 in Washington D.C. the Yippies kind of connected with a bunch of different people, including kind of fringe weirdo filmmaker Kenneth Anger. They were led by Abby Hoffman, who you may know of. He was in Forrest Gump. He's a Forrest Gump. Fame. They hung out. He always wore like an American flag T shirt. He wrote a book called Steal this Book. You know, Proponent of Free Love.

[Ben]

I have a copy of that book.

[Noel]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Did you?

[Ben]

I did.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Did you?

[Noel]

Did you?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Noel]

Well, it says it.

[Ben]

I kind of stole it. It was. A friend of mine was like, this book is awesome. You should borrow it. Oh, you just borrowed it And I never gave it back. So what's the statute of limitations? When does borrowing become stealing? That's a whole nother bag of badgers. That really, really is back to picasus.

[Noel]

So yeah, Abby Hoffman, you know, very influential, kind of hippie revolutionary, I don't know what you want to call him and his partner, a guy named Jerry Rubin, they co founded the Yippies together. And when they did this event in dc, they attempted to levitate the Pentagon. So they all sat around the Pentagon and put their fingers underneath the foundation and they claimed that they levitated it like an inch or something or like a couple of centimeters. But again, it was all just like this kind of charade for the purposes of like making a big fuss and getting some attention and riling up the squares.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I will say. Can you disprove that they levitated the Pentagon?

[Noel]

Absolutely not.

[Christopher Haciotes]

You can't prove they didn't.

[Noel]

No, you certainly can't. And that's sort of the beautiful thing about it. I actually first heard about this from a really cool. It was just like a kind of a broadside, like the creative Loafing type thing, like a, like a free paper called Arthur magazine. It was out of San Francisco and they actually had a really cool Music festival years ago. That's discontinued. I think the paper is too. But there was a cover story about this whole Yippee movement and the levitating of the Pentagon.

[Ben]

Yeah, okay. Now I remember the Yippies in further detail. But I still have a question with Pigasus.

[Noel]

Oh, yeah, Well, I mean, I haven't even, like, delved into that one yet. So Pigasus again, like I said, they obtained this pig from a farmer outside of Chicago. And they said it wasn't super easy. Hoffman and some of his compatriots wandered around looking for a pig farm. And they had to kind of, like, get directions to find one. And they finally found one. And they decided they had this pig that they named Pigasus for the purposes of nominating it for the presidency during the Democratic National Convention. Because this is how they put it. This is their campaign pledge. Quote, they nominate a president and he eats the people. We nominate a president and the people eat him. And they also justify that if, you know, the nomination didn't work out, they could just eat the pig for breakfast. So the Democratic nominee was a guy by the name of Hubert H. Humphries. And he was, of course, running against Richard Nixon. And the Yippees put forth a nominee for their party, whatever that. The Yippee Party, I guess, which was Pigasus the Immortal. And here's a quote from Jerry Rubin about the whole thing. He says, we wanna give you a chance to talk to our candidate to restate our demand that Pigasus be given Secret Service protection and he be brought to the White House for his foreign policy briefing. So, you know, they had some demands, but here's the thing. It really didn't go over super well. Jerry Rubin was actually about to give this speech in front of the statue of Picass in what is today called Daley Plaza in Chicago. And no sooner did he get up there, they actually paraded the pig through the streets. They. I think they brought it in in, like, a station wagon of some kind. And then they brought it out and had it on a leash. They were arrested. And for all intents and purposes, they arrested the pig. Or at the very least, confiscated it. Right? So that. That's pretty silly. And it was August 23rd of 1968. And the pigs came in, busted in, arrested the pig, the actual pig, along with a folk singer by the name of Phil Oakes, a guy named Stuart Albert and Reuben himself. And they were hauled off to the clink. And the pig was actually taken to the Humane Society. And there was a Whole court case surrounding this where they were kind of trying to get them on charges of animal cruelty and obstructing a right of way of some kind with this vehicle that they paraded it in with. And supposedly, according to Jerry Rubin, one of the cops came in when they were in lockup, and they said, all right, boys, you guys are going away for a long time because the pigs squealed on you.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Of course they did. Of course. No. What I want to know about Pegasus, though, and I've been wondering this the whole time we're talking. Did Pigasus have wings?

[Noel]

Absolutely not.

[Christopher Haciotes]

What?

[Ben]

Sorry, Christopher.

[Christopher Haciotes]

That's an outrage.

[Noel]

Here's the thing, though. It was sort of a pun on, again, pig and Pegasus, but also the old adage, you know, when pigs fly.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Oh, gotcha. That makes sense. This whole time I've been thinking of. I don't know if you guys know the back cover of Prince's first album. We're gonna take a little musical digression here, but, you know, this is the podcast, and there's a naked prince sitting astride a glorious white pegasus, all in a really soft focus. And this whole time, I've been thinking about Prince sitting atop a pig with wings.

[Ben]

That's great.

[Noel]

Pretty incredible.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I'm sorry, I know you've been giving us really good information, but all I've been thinking about is Prince on top.

[Noel]

Of a p. Well, that, you know, that just shows where your mind is, and it's a. It's a dirty mind.

[Ben]

I think it's. I think it's a beautiful mind. Great place. Also, I don't know if we pointed out Pigasus was not a tiny boy.

[Noel]

No, no, no, no. There's a picture of the cops wrangling this. This boy, and he's, you know, he's about the size of a. Of a. Of a human boy.

[Ben]

He's like 140something pounds.

[Noel]

Yeah, for sure.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Noel]

Well, I don't know.

[Christopher Haciotes]

He's probably. I mean, pigs are pretty dense, I think height a lot more.

[Noel]

That's very true.

[Ben]

He packs a lot of substance in there.

[Noel]

Yeah. In this picture with the cops, they're laughing about it, as is evidenced by this comment about the pig squealing.

[Ben]

Yeah, they seem like fun cops.

[Noel]

They seem like fun cops.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I mean, I guess if it's 1968 and we're in Chicago, a lot worse things happen than people wrapping up a pig and booking him. The cops kind of crack down at that convention.

[Noel]

Well, that's the thing. Exactly. So just as for a little bit of Background before we move on to some more ridiculous non human candidates. Yeah, this was a big year because of all of the anti war protesting, all the protesting around Vietnam. There were like something in the neighborhood of 12,000 police deployed, 6,000 National Guard and over 7,000 somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,500 army troops there to kind of help deal with all this chaos because people were coming and descending on this city and this convention to let the powers that be know that they were not going to stand for this aggression.

[Ben]

Oink, oink, oink indeed.

[Noel]

So this was a nice kind of tongue in cheek way for the yippies to poke a little fun at this without you know, getting into a shooting match with the, with the fuzz.

[Ben]

And what's interesting here, a common thread that I think will be discuss discovering as we continue. What's interesting is that often these candidates exist as a form of protest almost exclusively. It's very rare for someone to, or a group of people to seriously elect an animal or a thing and expect it to do the job. But I think it's such a powerful form of protest.

[Noel]

That's true. And my other one, just for a little tease is sort of a combination of protest but it's more of a.

[Ben]

Form of humiliation and craziness. Right?

[Noel]

Absolutely, yeah.

[Ben]

Because that's, I was setting you up for that. I think that's one of the earliest ones but let's, let's pause on that one and let's turn to you Christopher. I think Noel and I mainly have animals but you've got a couple of inanimate objects.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I do. Well, we're gonna start with one inanimate one. The next one is animate but not alive. We'll explain what that means when we get to it. But Noel, since you have us in the mid to late 60s, let's stick there. We're gonna go to 1967. So a little bit before Pegasus had his day in, I don't know, like in the frying pan before his bacon got booked. Sure, I like it. So let's go back a year. It's 1967. We're going south of the equator to South America. We're in Ecuador. There's a small town called Pico Aza. Now Pico Aza is on the, is close to the pacific coast of Ecuador. It's a small town, there's just 4,000 people. They've got an election coming up. They really want to put someone in place who's going to represent everybody in town and all of a sudden these News reports showed up after the election in the United States. And the winner of the mayoral election, according to these reports, in the U.S. pico Aza in Ecuador elected a foot powder as mayor.

[Ben]

Hold on. Whoa, whoa. Rewind that. Will you say that again?

[Christopher Haciotes]

A foot powder. A talc. A talcum. A nice white, powdery substance to absorb the moisture in your feet. You know, whatever. I guess you can use it in other sweaty parts of your body to reduce chafing that you might have. In fact, the.

[Noel]

It's like a gold bond situation.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, sort of like that.

[Noel]

Was there a brand associated with this candidate, or is this. Okay. Okay, good.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, there's a specific brand. It's called Pulvapies. Talco. Pulvapies means foot powder. Powder of the feet. Yeah.

[Noel]

Very clever.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Foot powder. Yeah. So what happened is this foot powder, Pulvapies, they put out ads, and they kind of. You know, there's an election coming up. You see this today when the presidential election is coming up, and Coca Cola and Pepsi might have some sort of fake campaign ad saying, vote for Pepsi. We're the choice of whatever you want it to be. And I'm sorry, I don't want to toss out their slogans, but. And same thing happened 50 years ago. So Pulva pies, this talcum powder put out ads to kind of take advantage of the political spirit of the time. And they had a slogan that said, vote for any candidate, but if you want well being and hygiene, vote for Pulvapies. And people did.

[Ben]

People did. Okay.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Wow. Well, here's the thing. Okay, so the day before the election, Pulvapies, talcum powder, put out a flyer. They distributed it around town. And the flyer was made to look like one of the ballots that would indicate the choice in tomorrow's election. And I really, really, really encourage anyone listening to this podcast to go look up this ballot. We'll post a link to it on the ridiculous historians Facebook group. But this ballot, it has this visage of a. Of a creepy, terrifying foot. Right. Okay, so imagine a big, yellow foot.

[Noel]

Yeah. Is it like a cartoon rendering?

[Christopher Haciotes]

It's a cartoon foot, but the foot is. What's the bottom of your foot called? The palm of your foot.

[Ben]

The soul.

[Christopher Haciotes]

The sole. Exactly. So imagine the sole of your foot looking right at you. There are eyes on the sole, a nose, a mouth. The toes are kind of hanging forward over the front of the sole of the foot like long bangs.

[Noel]

Nightmare fuel.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Christopher Haciotes]

He's wearing a suit and a bow tie, giant foot head. And he's got two hands, two arms. You know, he's a kind of anthropomorphic foot.

[Ben]

It's weird that he has arms and.

[Christopher Haciotes]

One hand is giving the thumbs up, the other hand is giving the V for victory sign. So covering all the bases for winning. And he's cut off at the waist. So I don't know if the foot has a foot has two feet is a mystery. I don't want to know the answer to this mystery.

[Ben]

It's just technically speaking, what, a cephalopod?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. I mean, yeah, he's actually a cephalopod. Or I'm guessing, though, in place of feet, he has two little heads. Two little people heads that he's wearing.

[Ben]

This is cool.

[Christopher Haciotes]

This is the stuff of nightmares.

[Noel]

Was this like a publicity stunt by the foot powder manufacturer ad campaign?

[Christopher Haciotes]

It was basically just a promotional stunt. But I think what you run into is a little bit of American mid century narcissism, looking at foreign countries as a little exotic, a little behind the times, and kind of having the journalists here in the States having a little bit of a laugh at the folks there. Because what was reported is that this foot powder won the election. And basically people were having a laugh saying, these people are so dumb, they voted for a foot powder. Or this foot powder is so much better than these other candidates that people actually believed the slogan and went for it. Turns out, what is likely to have happened. First of all, it wasn't actually a vote for mayor, it was a vote for a municipal councilman. So slight difference there. And the pamphlets, the brochures that Pulvo PS distributed did in fact look like the ballots. And so what people theorize is that when they had to turn in the ballots, people grabbed the wrong one and put them in the ballot box. And people weren't actually voting for a foot powder. And when the votes were tallied, yeah, there were a lot of these foot powder ballots in there, but they were tossed out.

[Noel]

Wait a minute. That's like some Russian meddling in the election right there, my friend. I mean, did they not get like in trouble with the government for doing this?

[Christopher Haciotes]

So I actually looked into it and there's not a lot more out there, especially not in English. There's not a lot in Spanish. I tried to dig into some. Some Spanish language newspapers and couldn't find much. And I actually emailed the city of.

[Ben]

That's great.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Of course, yeah, I emailed Pico as a. Got no response. The municipal website, it actually goes into a good amount of detail on the town, but omits a certain incident in 1967 for which I would think they're most well known.

[Ben]

I would either hire, promote the person behind that ad campaign or have them kicked out of the country. That's just. I mean, you can't mess with the vote that way. But that's brilliant.

[Christopher Haciotes]

But kicked out with a nice, dry, hygienic foot, indeed.

[Ben]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Noel]

Because clearly the stuff spread like wildfire after this thing, right?

[Ben]

You got to powder your feet, man.

[Noel]

I want to know what their market share became after this incident.

[Ben]

I want to know if they'll sponsor us.

[Noel]

I wouldn't.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty humid here in Atlanta, too.

[Ben]

That's true. That's true. That's amazing, though. Okay, so we've got foot powder for president.

[Christopher Haciotes]

We've got mayor, municipal, municipal councilman.

[Ben]

Yes. Excuse me, sorry.

[Christopher Haciotes]

The story is mayor. Not so true. Kind of true, but still ridiculous.

[Ben]

Pig for president, foot powder for mayor.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Sure. Let's just say mayor.

[Ben]

Mayor. Ish. Mayor.

[Noel]

Esque so far, Ben, who are you voting for, pig or foot powder?

[Ben]

Foot powder.

[Noel]

Cool.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. Sp.

[Ben]

So I'm just. I also like that it's an idea that it's not just one particular box or tube of foot powder. It's the concept of foot powder, which is pretty neat to vote for something that abstract.

[Holly Fry]

Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremarchi, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the highwayman suggests men dominated the field. But tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrars, known as the wicked lady who terrorized England in the mid-1600s. Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Hear the story of the gentleman robber, the romantic darling of the ladies, and a tale about a wager over a sack of potatoes. But you'll have to tune in to learn who won that one. Some highwaymen were well mannered or faked it. People were concerned about the romanticism of robbers, but most were just thugs. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Call them robbers or bandits. Some are legendary figures. Listen to stories about historical crimes on Criminalia now. Plus the cocktails and mocktails inspired by each. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Hanrahan]

I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Away Days is my new project reporting on countercultures on the fringes of society all across the world. Live from the underground, you you'll discover no rules fighting, Japanese street racing, Brazilian favela life, and much more. All real Completely uncensored. This is unique access with straightforward on the ground reporting. We're taking you deep into the dirt without the usual airs and graces of legacy media. A way that showcases what the mainstream cannot access. Real underground reporting with real people. No excuses. For the past decade, I've been going to places I shouldn't be, meeting people I shouldn't know. Now you can come along, too. Listen to the Away Days podcast, reporting from the underbelly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dexter Thomas]

Are there any pictures of you online? I'm not just talking about Google. I'm talking anywhere.

[Unknown]

Clear View scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts.

[Dexter Thomas]

That database is now being used by police departments all across the country to match criminal suspect photos. And sometimes it makes mistakes.

[Unknown]

So in this one case, two of their search results that I think were in the top 10 of the search results were Michael Jordan, just a picture of Michael Jordan.

[Dexter Thomas]

But cops are still using it to make arrests.

[Unknown]

Police, they are trusting this software to lead them to the right suspect. But you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works.

[Dexter Thomas]

This is not Minority Report. This is happening right now. People are getting arrested and doing actual time in jail after being picked out by a computer. I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, where every Wednesday we explain the right now of living in the future. You can turn off the computer, but do not let the computer turn you off. Listen to Kill switch in the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Paul Holes]

A murder happens, the case goes cold. Then over 100 years later, we take a second look. I'm Paul Holes, a retired cold case investigator.

[Ben]

And I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a journalist and historian.

[Paul Holes]

On our podcast Buried Bones, we re examine historical true crime cases using modern forensic techniques.

[Ben]

We dig into what the original investigators may have missed.

[Holly Fry]

Growing up on a farm, when I.

[Ben]

Heard a gunshot, I did not immediately think murder. Murder.

[Paul Holes]

Unless this person went out to shoot squirrels, they're not choosing a 22 to go hunting out there.

[Ben]

These cases may be old, but the questions are still relevant and often chilling.

[Paul Holes]

I know this chauffeur is not of concern. You know, it's like, well, he's the last one who saw her life. So how did they eliminate him?

[Ben]

Join us as we take you back to the cold cases that haunt us to this day.

[Paul Holes]

New episodes every Wednesday on the exclusive exactly right network. Listen to Buried bones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben]

I have something I thought you guys would be very interested in. It is a story that comes to us from West Texas, a little town called Lajitas. And in Lajitas, this is an area about the size of almost Connecticut, right, with maybe 10,000 people, and it's very small. In the 70s, if you walked by the Lajitas trading post, you would tend to see a lot of the same people, a lot of the same conversations occur. How's the weather? Did you see the game? Stuff like that.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. Small town. Everyone knows each other. Did you hear the news about Ecuador? They elected the foot powder.

[Ben]

Yes. Ha ha ha. Yes. That's ex. So you were there. You were there, Christopher.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I've been to Texas.

[Ben]

You've been to Texas. But they also had their own versions of local celebrities, and one of them was a fellow named Clay Henry. Clay Henry? I. Clay Henry hung around at the Lajita's trading post for years and years, and in 1986, he entered politics. His qualifications included a love of alcohol, and the race for mayor was organized by a man named Walter Misher, who was a Houston businessman. And he thought it would be a good promo thing. Good pr, right?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. So Clay Henry's getting involved in politics. It's a good name. It's a good, solid kind of political name.

[Ben]

I think it is a great political name. You're right about that, Christopher. But he was perhaps best known, this goat, for his consumption of booze, upwards of 40 beers a day.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I'm sorry, Ben, can we rewind a bit? Did you say goat?

[Ben]

Yes. Oh, did I not mention that part?

[Noel]

As in greatest of all time.

[Ben]

Well, at least in Texas, there's a couple of different levels. Yeah, he's a goat.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Clay Henry. Wait a minute. All right, you buried the lead here, man.

[Ben]

Clay Henry is a drunk, belligerent goat, okay? His qualifications include drinking a cartoonish amount of beer, and I quote, headbutting constituents without provocation. Not only is he famous in this town, but he was famous in the region. People would come to see, you know, to have a beer with the mayor. And he was known for walking around the Trading Post and other places in town, and if someone didn't hand him a beer, he would just find someone and take it, find their drink and take it. And there's a great article in the Houstonia by Peter Holly that describes the experience with the first Clay Henry in 1992, because he was mayor for essentially the rest of his life. I never actually witnessed Clay Henry drink a beer. I did see him slam them, guzzle them, and ferociously ingest them at a rate capable of incapacitating a full grown man in minutes. To see it in person was nothing short of incredible.

[Noel]

Do you think he shotgunned them or funneled them too?

[Ben]

Yes.

[Noel]

Really?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I could see a goat just. Just eating the whole can. Just a full canopy, or just chomp, chomp, chomp.

[Noel]

So not only is he a physical goat, he is also a goat greatest of all time.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Noel]

When it comes to being a goat that drinks, greatest of all Texas. There you go there.

[Ben]

There we go. We got there. Yeah. So one of the questions you would have is, how does he drink without thumbs? There are two answers. The first, there's a holster that they affix to in his office that, you know, he could put a bottle in it like a water feeder for a hamster cage. And then sometimes he would just go up to people and bug them until they got him a Lone Star. Because, of course, it's a Lone Star beer. That's what he drinks. And he would polish off a 12 ounce bottle in 10 seconds or less. And here's the thing. This guy was so popular that one of his offspring was elected mayor later. Clay Henry Jr. And then Clay Henry Jr. Was so popular that they elected a third goat mayor, Clay Henry iii. Clay Henry III unfortunately was involved in an altercation wherein a local who had probably been drinking or we don't know if they had an argument because all three Clay Henrys are pretty heavy drinkers. Clay Henry III was attacked.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Ouch.

[Ben]

One of his testicles was cut off.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Ooh.

[Noel]

Ay.

[Ben]

He stayed in office.

[Noel]

Of course he did. Well, you know, you don't need both.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Testicles to stay in office, especially if you're a goat.

[Noel]

Yeah, right.

[Christopher Haciotes]

You get all the headbutting done in your early days.

[Noel]

Yeah. I mean, you know, surely one goat testicle is like the equivalent of several human testicles. I don't know why I think that, but putting it out there.

[Ben]

You mean in terms of like the hustle, fortitude.

[Noel]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And just the sheer gumption that a go. Goats are very stubborn and they eat like everything. And this goat surely was no different.

[Ben]

Also, goats have those weird snake, octopus like eyes.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Oh, terrifying.

[Ben]

Yeah. Favorite goat. I don't know about you guys, but my favorite goat. Sorry, Clay Henry, my favorite goat is and will always be Black Philip from the Witch.

[Christopher Haciotes]

That's a good one. I thought maybe you were gonna go with Gregory the hungry goat there's a spot up in North Georgia called Goats on the Roof. Have you guys been there?

[Ben]

No.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Goats on the Roof.

[Noel]

No. But there is a place around here where you can rent a goat to mow your lawn.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, it's a good business.

[Ben]

Yeah. My pal Scott Benjamin is actually a huge fan of those guys. Perfect. Okay, so we have a successful line of goat mares.

[Christopher Haciotes]

The Goat Dynasty.

[Ben]

The Goat Dynasty. We have the foot powder Candidate. Not elected. And we have the pig president. Not elected. But we have more to find.

[Noel]

I want to see a runoff between the drunk goat and the. And Pegasus.

[Ben]

I don't know, man. That goat has like. Has the political game locked down.

[Noel]

You think so?

[Ben]

Yeah, they know how to play it.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Was there an election? Every time I'm picturing a goat on a deathbed, you know, kind of wheezing its last breaths. And as it says goodbye to this mortal coil, passing along the mayoral responsibilities to the next goat in line.

[Ben]

Well, here's the thing. The mayor. The position of mayor in this small town contains no actual duties or responsibilities. I think the original Clay signed one thing with a hoof. But essentially their mayor is just there to drink.

[Christopher Haciotes]

To drink beer.

[Ben]

To drink beer.

[Christopher Haciotes]

You know what? I'm sure there are a number of towns around the country that would think something similar about their own mayor.

[Ben]

That's true. That's true. So what's next? What's our next animal?

[Noel]

Oh, boy. Next one we get to talk about my favorite Roman orgy, connoisseur, Psychopathic emperor. That kind of rhymed. Connoisseur and emperor. Sure, I got there with the rhyme scheme by the name of Caligula. Also one of my favorite fully pornographic yet artistically rendered films.

[Christopher Haciotes]

The one in Esperanto.

[Noel]

Uh huh.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah.

[Noel]

Wait, is it. Is there a version of it in Esperanto?

[Christopher Haciotes]

I think it's Topa in Esperanto. Isn't it? Starring William Shatner.

[Noel]

No, no, no, I'm talking about the one with Malcolm McDowell. That was the one that was produced by, like, the publisher of Penthouse. I'm just kidding. It's not really my favorite. But it is, in fact a pretty epic film with a giant budget that depicts the life and times of the Roman emperor Caligula, who had many predilections, including fondness for coupling with his sisters. Basically just a total hedonist. There's some stuff in the film that I don't know if it actually happened, but there's a part where he's buried his enemies up to their necks in the sand and then has this Crazy like threshing lawnmower head cutting machine that just like goes over them and cuts all their heads off. I would.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I'm going to interrupt you real quick. No. And I just want the listeners to know you are making some amazing hand motions right now.

[Noel]

Sweeping back and forth.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. Sort of like. I wish everyone could see this.

[Noel]

I know.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Maybe I should do some sort of like a. Like a. A gif or a boomerang, maybe social media.

[Noel]

You know, we need to get better at that. We need to do more like real time podcast studio hijinks.

[Ben]

Sure.

[Noel]

Talking about Caligula, sweeping my arms back and forth.

[Ben]

Why don't we just somebody in here to film us while we're recording this?

[Noel]

We mean, we could recruit somebody from our social.

[Ben]

I'll have to put on pants. But you know what? That's a.

[Noel]

No, it's fine, Ben. It's a. It's a sort of a waist up view.

[Ben]

That's a hill I'm willing to die on for the good of the show.

[Noel]

Yeah. Speaking of dying on hills, that probably happened a lot in Caligula's day in terms of his enemies because he was pretty brutal. And one of his main group of enemies was the Senate because he was constantly beefing with the Senate because he, you know, was basically like trying to be a complete and utter totalitarian ruler. And, you know, they still kind of had a semblance of a little thing called democracy or at least what was it like a republic right in Rome. So he was not fond of the Senate. And in fact, legend has it, this is a little unconfirmed, but there's a few historical accounts of this happening. He had a horse that he was quite fond of. A horse. This is a doozy of a name. Let me see if I can, like, if I can do this one. A horse by the name of Incitatus. It's actually not that hard, but yeah, when you look at it, you built it up.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I'm excited.

[Noel]

I'm so glad. There's more. So this is his favorite horse. He loved this horse. He loved it more than he loved probably any human person in his life. To the point where he. He got this horse, had it fashioned, a jeweled collar. He even like, had like a special, like, manger built out of ivory for it. He had a stall made out of marble. And supposedly some accounts say that he bought him his very own house. So that's a lot of stuff.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, you got it made if you're the emperor's.

[Noel]

Yeah.

[Ben]

I also heard he owned slaves Though the horse did, yeah, that's in one of the accounts.

[Noel]

Can a horse really own anything, though?

[Ben]

I mean, it's a great question.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, he owned Caligula's heart.

[Noel]

He did own Caligula's heart. And apparently he was fed with food, with the gold flakes built mixed in and stuff, you know, because gold is, is important to consume for, for animals.

[Ben]

Caligula was a big fan of consuming or at least bathing in gold himself. He's a very pro gold guy.

[Noel]

He is very pro excess. And a big part of this was he was constantly thumbing his nose at the poor and just like, you know, wanted to just be as decadent as possible, display it as openly as possible with as little shame. Zero shame as it turns out, as possible. And another thing he liked to do was humiliate the Senate because they were like his nemeses, you know, these, these senators, these puffy, you know, stuffed shirt senators. So supposedly he put forth incitatus to become a consul.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Like an official consul.

[Noel]

Uh huh. An official consul.

[Christopher Haciotes]

But he's a horse.

[Noel]

He's a horse. But it doesn't matter because it's a very special horse endowed now, you know, surely endowed with the same amount of wisdom that any of these, you know, know, lifelong politicians possess, at least according to Caligula. And a big part of this was obviously to kind of humiliate them and say, you know, a horse could do your job, you morons. And you're gonna like it, you're gonna take it and you're gonna, you're gonna, he's gonna live amongst you and he's gonna vote. He's gonna hold up his hoof, you know, that's how he's gonna vote, obviously. But apparently this did not go through because Caligula was, was just universally hated for obvious reasons.

[Ben]

Why?

[Noel]

He was just kind of a. He's kind of a bad guy, what with the thresher head chopping machines and the, the crazy Roman orgies with sisters and he just wasn't a. Wasn't a good look for this guy.

[Christopher Haciotes]

It's funny how that, that can turn people off, the chopping off of heads and such.

[Ben]

Yeah, you would think it was just a different time, but I like to think. I know this is not true, folks, but I like to think that the horse becoming consul was the last straw. I feel like the horse burn is what set everyone over the edge.

[Noel]

The horse burn.

[Ben]

Horse burn. I like that he elected a horse or he appointed a horse to burn his enemies. So it's a horse Burn.

[Noel]

Are you familiar with the move horse Bites the Corn?

[Ben]

No.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I am mystified.

[Noel]

It's when you take your slightly terrifying. It's when you take your hand and make it into a C shape. I'm doing it right now. And then you grab someone right above the knee and you go, horse bites the corn. The most annoying thing. Are you serious?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Is this a Brown family?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Noel]

No. Maybe. It's just my friend Tyler. It's a thing that he does to me all the time, and I hate it. I hate it, I hate it. And it gets the rise out of me every time.

[Ben]

Why do you. It's a very strange relationship.

[Noel]

It is a very strange relationship.

[Ben]

Maybe Google it and see if other people do it, because it sounds like he's just making up reasons to grab you.

[Noel]

Wow. You're right. It's not a thing. No, it is. It is. It is. It is. It is. Sure.

[Ben]

Well, okay.

[Noel]

Okay.

[Ben]

So, yeah.

[Noel]

What's it called when you squeeze just above someone's knee? It's called a horse bite or a horse bites corn.

[Ben]

That guy is making this up.

[Noel]

So, okay, horse bites aside, Caligula, super unpopular, he was assassinated. He died. And so the horse did not ascend to the consulate.

[Ben]

Right. It was before the horse was able to get in, which is a shame. We'll never know how history would have changed.

[Noel]

I would have liked to see the horse's fiscal policy, you know, play out in the. In the Senate.

[Ben]

I would like to see it bite some corn. You know, I'd like to see the horse out there pressing the flesh, kissing the babies, giving complicated speeches, having political intrigue. I'm getting carried away, Christopher. What's next?

[Christopher Haciotes]

We need to stick on the horse for one second more because I want to hear a horse put things up for a vote. I want to know if the horse is going to vote yay or nay.

[Ben]

Worth it.

[Noel]

Yeah, it was absolutely worth it.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Sorry we had to do it.

[Noel]

We were required, contractually, to do that.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Daddy. It's the reason I'm here.

[Noel]

And you are, in fact, a dad now, so you're allowed to. You're in the dad. You're in the exclusive camp of the dad joke elite.

[Christopher Haciotes]

It's the US Jokes. Yeah, exactly. And you know, people say politics these days are just a horse race. Yeah. All right, let's move on.

[Ben]

Let's quit horsing around.

[Christopher Haciotes]

All right.

[Holly Fry]

Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Trimurt, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the highwayman suggests men dominated the field, but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrers, known as the wicked lady who terrorized England in the mid-1600s. Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Hear the story of the Gentleman Robber, the romantic darling of the ladies, and a tale about a wager over a sack of potatoes. But you'll have to tune in to learn who won that one. Some highwaymen were well mannered or faked it. People were concerned about the romanticism of robbers, but most were just thugs. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Call them robbers or bandits. Some are legendary figures. Listen to stories about historical crimes on Criminalia now. Plus the cocktails and mocktails inspired by each. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Hanrahan]

I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Away Days is my new project reporting on countercultures on the fringes of society all across the world. Live from the underground, you'll discover no rules fighting, Japanese street racing, Brazilian favela life, and much more. All real, completely unstable, uncensored. This is unique access with straightforward on the ground reporting. We're taking you deep into the dirt without the usual airs and graces of legacy media, a way that showcases what the mainstream cannot access. Real underground reporting with real people. No excuses. For the past decade, I've been going to places I shouldn't be, meeting people I shouldn't know. Now you can come along too. Listen to the Away Days podcast, reporting from the underbelly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dexter Thomas]

Are there any pictures of you online? I'm not just talking about Google. I'm talking anywhere.

[Unknown]

Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts.

[Dexter Thomas]

That database is now being used by police departments all across the country to match criminal suspect photos. And sometimes it makes mistakes.

[Unknown]

So in this one case, two of their search results that I think were in the top 10 of their search results were Michael Jordan. Just a picture of Michael Jordan.

[Dexter Thomas]

But cops are still using it to make arrests.

[Unknown]

Police, they are trusting this software to lead them to the right suspect. But you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works.

[Dexter Thomas]

This is not Minority Report. This is happening right now. People are getting arrested and doing actual time in jail after being picked out by a computer. I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, where every Wednesday we explain the right now of living in the Future, you can turn off the computer, but do not let the computer turn you off. Listen to Kill switch in the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Paul Holes]

A murder happens. The case goes cold. Then. Then over a hundred years later, we take a second look. I'm Paul Holz, a retired cold case investigator.

[Ben]

And I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a journalist and historian.

[Paul Holes]

On our podcast Buried Bones, we re examine historical true crime cases using modern forensic techniques.

[Ben]

We dig into what the original investigators may have missed.

[Holly Fry]

Growing up on a farm, when I.

[Ben]

Heard a gunshot, I did not immediately think murder.

[Paul Holes]

Unless this person went out to shoot squirrels. They're not choosing a.22 to go hunting out there. There.

[Ben]

These cases may be old, but the questions are still relevant and often chilling.

[Paul Holes]

I know this chauffeur is not of concern. You know, it's like, well, he's the last one who saw her alive, so how did they eliminate him?

[Ben]

Join us as we take you back to the cold cases that haunt us to this day.

[Paul Holes]

New episodes every Wednesday on the exactly right network. Listen to Buried bones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Christopher Haciotes]

I'm gonna bring us from the Roman Empire back to modern times so we can debate how historical this is. But it's part of modern history. I want to tell you guys about Dustin.

[Noel]

Dustin the Wind.

[Christopher Haciotes]

No, Dustin the Turkey.

[Noel]

Ah, yes.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Dustin the Turkey is not actually even a turkey.

[Ben]

What?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Dustin the Turkey is a turkey vulture. But Dustin the Turkey is not even a turkey vulture. Dustin the Turkey is a puppet turkey vulture.

[Ben]

Whoa.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. So one of the fun things I think about traveling the world is you get to see pieces of pop culture that are so deeply enmeshed in other countries that you've never heard of.

[Ben]

Sure.

[Christopher Haciotes]

You know, folks come to the States and they're like, what is this purple dinosaur, Barney? Like, it's confusing. Go to Ireland. You'll be confronted with Dustin the Turkey. So Dustin the Turkey is. Is a character. He's a television presenter. He's a puppet who was on TV. He made his debut in 1989 on the show the Den. It was on RTE, which is kind of the Irish version of PBS here, the kind of publicly funded broadcasting. Dustin the Turkey was on the show until 2010. And I want to paint a picture for you of Dustin the Turkey. Imagine a cloth creature that looks like a mix of Gonzo from the Muppets with Bernie Sanders, kind of, you know, Statler and Waldorf, the two cranky guys also in the Muppets.

[Noel]

Yeah, the hecklers.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. Imagine Statler. He's the one with kind of the ring of hair around his head, that sort of Bernie Sanders Larry David hairstyle. Cross him with Gonzo the Muppets big weird beak and you get a cranky, strange, odd turkey puppet. Now, Dustin the turkey, he's a very specific kind of turkey. He's from Dublin and he spent a lot of time. He's kind of a roustabout. He's got a strong attitude and he loves his city so much. He speaks out specifically as an advocate for Dublin itself. He's got a very strong Dublin accent. And I think, Casey, if you could cue up the sound bite we've got from Dustin himself.

[Noel]

You brought a clip?

[Christopher Haciotes]

I brought a clip.

[Ben]

Well done, Kristen.

[Christopher Haciotes]

That's why I'm here.

[Noel]

Overachiever.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Not just joke.

[Jake Hanrahan]

There's nowhere that matches Dublin.

[Noel]

Sure. Don't we have the biggest rock and.

[Ben]

Roll band in the world?

[Noel]

Yeah. Aslan.

[Ben]

All right, you too.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Okay.

[Ben]

And we have James Joyce. Yeah, the bell. Jimmy Joyce.

[Noel]

Madser, but brilliant fun with it. Glen Hansard. Okay.

[Ben]

He mightn't watch, but listen, he did once.

[Christopher Haciotes]

And that's. That's Dustin the turkey.

[Noel]

Is he voiced by Colin Farrell.

[Christopher Haciotes]

He's a Dubliner through and through, but he's. He's deeply Irish. So much so that in 1997, Dustin ran for President of Ireland.

[Ben]

Oh, cool.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah.

[Ben]

How far did he get?

[Christopher Haciotes]

He did not get far at all. In fact, he had troubles with getting on the ballot because Dustin is a one named Guy. He's just Dustin the Turkey. And you've gotta have two names to get on a ballot.

[Ben]

That was what. That was the technicality.

[Christopher Haciotes]

He worked his way around it by listing himself as Dustin Hoffman.

[Ben]

Oh, great. So it wasn't that. Okay, so he was able to overcome that bureaucratic obstacle, and that was apparently more important than the fact that someone has their hand inside of him and is orchestrating his movements.

[Christopher Haciotes]

He is truly a puppet, a political puppet. But the thing is, Dustin went nowhere in 1997 with that candidacy, nor a subsequent one for president. However, in 2008. I've gotta ask you guys, are you guys familiar with the Eurovision Song Contest?

[Ben]

Yes, I am.

[Christopher Haciotes]

No. Is this a thing for you?

[Noel]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's sort of like America's Got Talent or something like that. Yeah.

[Christopher Haciotes]

But super huge, super popular. So Ireland is a country known for its song, its story, its oral tradition. You've got all this great music from Ireland. Ireland is actually the winningest country on the Eurovision Song contest.

[Ben]

Oh, cool.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. For decades, they've won seven times. Sweden is number two with six wins, but Ireland tops it with seven wins. One of those wins, however, was not in 2008. And this is where Dustin comes in. So the way the Eurovision Song Contest works is every country has its own kind of championship round where five or six songs from that country are voted on locally. All those. The winning songs from each country then go to the finals, wherever that is, every year. And then Europe as a whole and parts of North Africa and the Middle east vote on who the winning song is that year. In 2008, the champion in Ireland, the one who beat out actual musicians like Maya, like Donald Skehan, like Liam Geddes, was Dustin the Turkey.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Christopher Haciotes]

So in 2008, Dustin the Turkey was the Ireland representative in the Eurovision Song Contest. His song, Ireland, Deuce Point, it's a really dumb name that kind of is a Mispronunciation of Ireland. 12 points in French, which is the number of points needed to win the Eurovision Song Contest. So saying the name or the title of the song would sound like someone is saying that Ireland had won, but it didn't. Anyway, this competition, this election, is what Dustin the Turkey won. And you can actually go on YouTube, you can find his performance at. Eurovision did not win at all overall, but it's this weird, psychedelic nonsense song about the competition itself. It's sort of metatextual. Dustin the Turkey is sitting inside of a shopping cart with backup dancers painted in gold dancing next to him. There was some. Some confusion among the judges. Well, I would imagine there's a lot of confusion among the judges whether he should be disqualified because you're only supposed to have a certain number of people on stage for your performance. And did the puppeteer actually count as an extra person? And so did Dustin the Turkey actually violate the Eurovision Song Contest rules by having a man hidden under the cart with his hand up his butt? Something we all want to know.

[Noel]

Oh, yeah, puppet. I got him.

[Ben]

Sorry.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Right, yeah. As a picture.

[Ben]

So what happens to Dustin the Turkey later? Is he still around?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Dustin is still around. Dustin. He did not win the finals in the Eurovision Song Contest, but he did then go on to campaign that next year against the Lisbon Treaty, which was an EU policy treaty. So Dustin has been involved in political life. He went on to record with, release albums with artists like Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners, Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats. Yeah, and you can still use the hashtag votedustin. Look up what's going on with the poultry Party, which is Dustin's official group. Dustin also is taking things global. He became a UNICEF ambassador for Ireland. This ugly, foul mouthed, crass little puppet. And he went to South Africa, to the KwaZulu Natal region to learn about the plight of people with HIV and aids.

[Ben]

Wow. Positive change through comedy, I think.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. So he won an election, he lost an election. He's a weird puppet, but he's got the people behind him.

[Ben]

He's not even an animal. He's now officially my favorite turkey buzzard. Because I just. I said at the beginning I love animals, but those things freak me out.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Turkey buzzards?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Christopher Haciotes]

How about puppets? How do you feel about puppets?

[Ben]

Pro puppet?

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Noel]

Ben, you got a pet puppet, don't you?

[Christopher Haciotes]

You do.

[Ben]

I have a puppet? Yeah.

[Noel]

You don't call him a pet though. That sort of. Excuse me, that was insulting.

[Ben]

That's unfair to Steven. Companion, technically.

[Noel]

Steven. Still really formal with him now. I thought he was Steve.

[Ben]

He's earned that second syllable.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Ph or V. Ph. Okay.

[Ben]

There was a moment of tense silence between us just now. I hope we're still friends.

[Christopher Haciotes]

We are. And if you're out there listening, if you're a Stephen with a ph, if you're a Stephen with a V, we're happy to have all of you.

[Ben]

Yeah, thanks for hanging out. Maybe we can put a picture of the puppet on the social medias one day. This is interesting though, that you were talking about a political party, because this is not my second thing, but this reminds me of the Inanimate Objects Party. Did you guys hear about this? It's a party that is based in Troy, N.Y. and their main thing is that we should elect more inanimate objects in political office. Their main candidate is an inflatable whale named Arthur Galfe. And their other major candidate is an albino squirrel. Their formal symbol is a fork, but check them out.

[Christopher Haciotes]

But that squirrel is not an inanimate object. So I'm already seeing some flaws in their policy.

[Ben]

I think they're a fractured party, to be honest with you.

[Christopher Haciotes]

But wait, you're saying that it's not a serious thing that people who put forth inflatable whales are not taking this process seriously?

[Ben]

Seriously, perhaps. I'm saying comedy is in the eye of the beholder.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Fair enough.

[Ben]

God, I hope they take it really seriously. But this leads us to an example of when these animals or these non human candidates become a matter of very serious, important, non comedic stuff. And this story takes us to Brazil. It is the story of a female black rhinoceros named. Named Kakareko. Kakareko was. In 1958, she was residing at the Erdem Zoologico do Rio de Janeiro. I am not a Portuguese speaker, but you could be. Yeah. I just have to try harder. So Kakureco is the daughter of Britador and Terezina. And in 1958 she was loaned out to the Sao Paulo Zoo. People knew about this rhinoceros and they didn't say particularly kind things about her. In the case of the drunk goat mayor, people like the drunk goat.

[Christopher Haciotes]

They like the bit he hangs out. He has a beer, maybe a whiskey, I don't know, right?

[Ben]

Who knows? But in the case of Kakareko, people would say this rhino is dumb as a doornail, has the brains of a peanut and is still the best, still like the best possible political candidate. So in 1958, a group of students print over 200,000 ballots with Kakureko's name on them. And the ballots are all legitimately cast by voters. One person, because you could write in. This is a write in election. One person said, better to elect a rhino than an assignment. You see, this election was the result of serious and valid concerns about rampant corruption in the Brazilian political scene, especially in Sao Paulo. And not only did she end up winning, she won by a landslide. And it was one of the highest totals for a local candidate in Brazil's history to that date. Which is weird because we also have to point out people who are familiar with the way voting goes in the US will know that our country's notorious for a lot of people just not voting. It's way, way worse in Brazil, or it was at that time.

[Christopher Haciotes]

And so this was a way to get people engaged, or were they protesting the actual people who were on the ballot?

[Ben]

Both.

[Noel]

Both.

[Ben]

Brazil seemed at the time, according to some sociologists, to be on the threshold of revolt. It was seen as a general protest from people who had varying different objections to the way things were going. There were food shortages, the cost of living was going up, of course, political corruption, as we already meant. And some voters. There were actually multiple forms of protest. Some voters in the same election voted in local politics by putting black beans in the ballot envelope instead of the actual ballot.

[Christopher Haciotes]

So this is kind of a way for people to say our choices are so poor, we would rather have not just a rhinoceros, but a dumb as beans rhinoceros.

[Ben]

Right? Yes. And Kakareko dies in 1962, but her legacy lives on today. There's a widely used term that derives from her name. That I think you've heard about before. Voto kakareko, which means kakareko vote. It's kind of. It's almost like kangaroo clothes court, but it's a rhino vote. And she also inspired the formation of the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, whose members went on to appoint the Rhinoceros Cornelius I as their leader.

[Noel]

You know what a rhino is in American politics?

[Ben]

Republican in name only.

[Noel]

I love that.

[Ben]

It's not like the perfect acronym, but.

[Noel]

A. I'm just fond of acronyms in general, you know, that's about me.

[Christopher Haciotes]

And there's something about Brazil, I think, like, I think they have fun with their politics there too, because I think in the 80s or 90s, there was a monkey who ran for office. Macaco Chiao, who was a chimpanzee.

[Noel]

You know what? That was on one of the lists for this whole thing that we're doing, this crazy experiment. I think we really need a part two, guys.

[Ben]

I think we should cut back for part two because we did pretty well, but we only had a total of six and then maybe a couple of ancillary mentions.

[Noel]

Why do they call it Kangaroo Court?

[Ben]

Because in the early days of the formation of Australia, all judicial positions were occupied by kangaroos.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Of course, I don't believe they were wallabies.

[Ben]

They were wallabies. You're right. Nobody gives enough credit to the wallabies role in the creation of Australian government. But maybe we can in part two, if it actually happened. We can't just make up a wallaby story. Christopher, we want to thank you so much for coming back on the show. It's always a blast to have you over.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Hey, thanks for having me here, guys. And thank you everyone for listening. I really love digging into these weird, ridiculous facts and sharing them with everyone.

[Ben]

And we have not seen the Last of youf. Spoiler alert. If Kacey, Noel and I have our way, you will be returning to the show at some time sooner rather than later.

[Noel]

This could be like a recurring episode. I don't know. I like this. There were so many more that we got to. Or maybe we could just do other list episodes like this in the future.

[Ben]

I would like to get an animal and see if we can get it in office or at least in the running for a position in Atlanta.

[Noel]

Or maybe we could at the very least have one as a guest on the podcast.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah, see, I thought you just said, I would like to get an animal in the office. And I thought you were going to bring a rhinoceros here into the studio.

[Ben]

I'm also open to that.

[Christopher Haciotes]

At least an inflatable whale.

[Ben]

Yeah, at least in it. See, See, this is cut from the same cloth. Yeah, cut from the same. Same inflatable cloth. We hope that you enjoyed checking out this episode. Write to us and let us know if there is any notorious animal or at least non human politicians in your neck of the global woods. Thanks, of course, to our super producer, Casey Pegram.

[Noel]

Thanks to Alex Williams, who composed our theme, and Eve's Jeffcoat, who is not here, but is also an incredible research associate for this show, along with our illustrious guest, Christopher Haciotes, who I can thank for the first time and the first time I've thanked you for stuff, but in person, it's nice.

[Christopher Haciotes]

You're a.

[Noel]

A human touch.

[Christopher Haciotes]

Yeah. Thanks, Noel. Thanks, Ben. Thanks, Casey.

[Ben]

Of course. Of course. So find us on Instagram, find us on Facebook, find us on Twitter. Post your favorite pictures of non human politicians. These questions are becoming increasingly specific as we continue with the show.

[Noel]

I love it.

[Ben]

Love it. Yeah, post some. We'll see if we can get someone to start filming in the studio. Studio as we record. And stay tuned for our next episode, which is.

[Noel]

It's about a Napoleon thing.

[Ben]

It is. It's. We don't want to.

[Christopher Haciotes]

He's your man. He's your guy.

[Noel]

He really is.

[Ben]

He's done a lot for this show, you guys. I know he's not perfect, but he has done a heck of a lot for our show.

[Noel]

Agreed. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Holly Fry]

Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremarchi, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the highwayman suggests men dominated the field, but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrars, known as the wicked lady who terrorized England in the mid-1600s. Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Hanrahan]

I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Away Days is my new project reporting on countercultures on the fringes of society all across the world. Live from the underground, you'll discover no rules fighting, Japanese street racing, Brazilian favela life, and much more. All real, completely uncensored. Listen to the Away Days podcast, reporting from the underbelly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your.

[Dexter Thomas]

Podcasts, are there any pictures of you online? Then you could already be in a massive police database without even knowing it.

[Unknown]

Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts.

[Dexter Thomas]

I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, a podcast about how living in the future is affecting us right now.

[Unknown]

Police, they are trusting the software with this magical ability to lead them to the right suspect.

[Dexter Thomas]

In this episode, we dive into how cops are using AI and facial recognition and sometimes getting it wrong and putting innocent people behind bars.

[Unknown]

So if your accuser is this algorithm, but you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works.

[Dexter Thomas]

Listen to Kill Switch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Christopher Haciotes]

OpenAI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be an aberration, a symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm gonna tell you why on my show, Better Offline, the rudest show in the tech industry where we're breaking down why OpenAI, along with other AI companies, are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also gonna be be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you happen to get your podcasts, this is an iHeart podcast.