WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.419 Welcome to the Deep Dive. We are taking a close 00:00:03.419 --> 00:00:06.299 look at a single highly fascinating Wikipedia 00:00:06.299 --> 00:00:09.279 source we've been poring over today. It details 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:11.820 the life of a man who lived in existence just 00:00:11.820 --> 00:00:15.820 filled with espionage, danger, high stakes infiltration. 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.539 Absolute zealotry. Yeah, absolute zealotry. But 00:00:18.539 --> 00:00:21.460 here is the kicker for you. He wasn't doing all 00:00:21.460 --> 00:00:25.260 of this for national security or wartime intelligence. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.649 He was doing it to ban alcohol. It really is 00:00:28.649 --> 00:00:31.730 a trajectory that reads a lot more like a serialized 00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:34.530 thriller than your conventional history of temperance. 00:00:34.590 --> 00:00:36.549 I mean, we are looking at someone who effectively 00:00:36.549 --> 00:00:39.429 built a shadow career out of subterfuge. We are 00:00:39.429 --> 00:00:41.390 talking about William Eugene Johnson. I know 00:00:41.390 --> 00:00:43.090 he was operating right at the turn of the 20th 00:00:43.090 --> 00:00:45.509 century. But before we get into the wild tactics 00:00:45.509 --> 00:00:47.710 and the literal bounties placed on his head, 00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:50.229 what did the landscape actually look like when 00:00:50.229 --> 00:00:52.329 he was coming up? OK, let's unpack this, because 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:54.289 the sheer intensity of his life is something 00:00:54.289 --> 00:00:56.070 you really have to hear to believe. Right. It's 00:00:56.070 --> 00:00:58.359 intense. And just to be completely clear right 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:01.140 up front, our goal with this deep dive is to 00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:04.599 take a strictly impartial look at his life and 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:06.980 the extreme tactics used in pressure politics. 00:01:07.659 --> 00:01:10.599 We are not taking any kind of stance on prohibition 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:13.379 itself. We are just looking objectively at the 00:01:13.379 --> 00:01:16.500 incredible and frankly shocking lengths this 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:19.319 one man went to for his cause. What's fascinating 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:21.900 here is how Johnson essentially combined the 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:24.239 skill sets of an investigative journalist, an 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:27.400 undercover spy, and an armed federal agent to 00:01:27.400 --> 00:01:30.219 push a singular moral crusade. So he was born 00:01:30.219 --> 00:01:33.299 in 1862 in Coventry, New York, but he actually 00:01:33.299 --> 00:01:35.700 built his early career out west. Out west, okay. 00:01:35.859 --> 00:01:37.980 Yeah, he received his education at the University 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:41.120 of Nebraska and decided to stay in Lincoln. That 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:43.140 is where he really cut his teeth. He started 00:01:43.140 --> 00:01:44.879 at the Lincoln Daily News and eventually worked 00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:46.680 his way up to become the manager of the Nebraska 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:49.519 News Bureau. He also married his first wife, 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:52.739 Lily M. Trevitt, there in 1886. So he's building 00:01:52.739 --> 00:01:55.640 a solid, normal life. Exactly. But when you read 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:57.280 through the source material regarding these early 00:01:57.280 --> 00:01:59.140 years, you start to see a career forming that 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:01.519 constantly blurs the lines between reporting 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:04.159 facts and weaponizing information. I want you 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:06.159 to put yourself in the shoes of a modern activist 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:09.800 for a second. You don't just protest. You infiltrate 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:12.500 the opposition so deeply that corporate syndicates 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:15.500 put a literal cash bounty on your head. That 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:18.860 was Johnson's reality. And you mentioned his 00:02:18.860 --> 00:02:21.219 newsroom background earlier. How does a local 00:02:21.219 --> 00:02:23.900 newspaper manager suddenly pivot into this world 00:02:23.900 --> 00:02:26.379 of undercover infiltration? Well, it happens 00:02:26.379 --> 00:02:29.879 during a highly volatile moment in 1889. Nebraska 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:33.199 was embroiled in this massive statewide debate 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:35.719 over prohibition. And instead of just writing 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:38.060 standard editorial pieces about the virtues of 00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:40.039 temperance from the safety of his desk. Like 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:42.419 a normal journalist would. Right, exactly. Instead 00:02:42.419 --> 00:02:44.360 of doing that, Johnson took a much more deceptive 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:46.759 approach. He went completely undercover. He posed 00:02:46.759 --> 00:02:49.259 as an anti -prohibitionist. Wait, he just walked 00:02:49.259 --> 00:02:51.379 into the opposition's camp and pretended to be 00:02:51.379 --> 00:02:53.699 one of them. Think about the logistics of that 00:02:53.699 --> 00:02:56.229 in a tight -knit political land. I mean, how 00:02:56.229 --> 00:02:58.189 did he pull that off without getting exposed 00:02:58.189 --> 00:03:00.830 immediately? He used his journalistic training 00:03:00.830 --> 00:03:03.409 to his advantage. As a reporter, you learn how 00:03:03.409 --> 00:03:05.969 to ask the right questions right. You learn how 00:03:05.969 --> 00:03:08.550 to gain trust and how to uncover hidden facts. 00:03:08.909 --> 00:03:11.569 He infiltrated the ranks of the brewery and saloon 00:03:11.569 --> 00:03:14.360 owners. actively pretending to be on their side. 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:17.340 He got them to spill their organizational secrets, 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:19.960 their strategies, and their internal communications. 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:23.020 And once he had extracted all of that inside 00:03:23.020 --> 00:03:26.360 information, he published it. He dealt a massive, 00:03:26.419 --> 00:03:28.960 highly public blow to the anti -prohibition cause. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:31.479 He essentially learned to lie for the truth. 00:03:31.580 --> 00:03:34.460 He used the opposition's trust completely against 00:03:34.460 --> 00:03:37.159 them. And by doing so, he set a precedent right 00:03:37.159 --> 00:03:40.520 there in 1889 for his entire career. He proved 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:43.009 to himself that using deliberate deceit to champion 00:03:43.009 --> 00:03:46.030 his moral cause was highly effective. He crossed 00:03:46.030 --> 00:03:48.050 the line from reporting the news to actively 00:03:48.050 --> 00:03:50.669 manipulating the political landscape. He operated 00:03:50.669 --> 00:03:52.509 on the belief that the truth of his cause was 00:03:52.509 --> 00:03:54.789 so important that lying to the opposition was 00:03:54.789 --> 00:03:57.629 completely justified. That kind of tactical success 00:03:57.629 --> 00:04:00.069 definitely gets you noticed. And it didn't just 00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:02.610 get him noticed by local politicians. He ended 00:04:02.610 --> 00:04:04.229 up catching the eye of the highest levels of 00:04:04.229 --> 00:04:06.930 the federal government. But how exactly does 00:04:06.930 --> 00:04:09.689 a deceptive journalist become an armed federal 00:04:09.689 --> 00:04:12.879 enforcer? His reputation as a highly effective, 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:16.600 if unorthodox, prohibitionist led to an appointment 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:19.839 in 1906. He was brought on as a special agent 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:21.740 of the Department of the Interior. A special 00:04:21.740 --> 00:04:25.279 agent. Yes. His specific jurisdiction was enforcing 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:28.300 laws in the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. From 00:04:28.300 --> 00:04:32.139 July 1908 until September 1911, he actually served 00:04:32.139 --> 00:04:34.459 as the chief agent of the United States Indian 00:04:34.459 --> 00:04:36.459 Service. Let's talk about that jurisdiction for 00:04:36.459 --> 00:04:38.639 a second. When we say the Indian Territory in 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:41.079 1906, we are talking... about a highly complex, 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:44.019 volatile frontier. Federal law was constantly 00:04:44.019 --> 00:04:46.480 clashing with deeply entrenched local bootlegging 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.139 syndicates. This wasn't a desk job. Not at all. 00:04:49.300 --> 00:04:51.480 He was actively hunting out illegal liquor operations 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:53.500 in a place where people did not want to be found. 00:04:53.699 --> 00:04:56.420 And that specific environment is exactly what 00:04:56.420 --> 00:04:59.639 birthed his famous moniker. The newspapers in 00:04:59.639 --> 00:05:02.079 Muskogee, Oklahoma, began tracking his raids, 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:04.759 and they coined a term for him that stuck for 00:05:04.759 --> 00:05:06.939 the rest of his life. They called him, quote, 00:05:07.100 --> 00:05:10.240 the gent with the panther tread. The gent with 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:13.060 the panther tread. It paints a really vivid picture. 00:05:13.339 --> 00:05:16.279 And the source reveals the physical detail behind 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:18.800 that nickname. He wasn't just naturally quiet. 00:05:19.060 --> 00:05:22.480 He engineered his footwear for stealth. He became 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.360 universally known as Pussyfoot Johnson because 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:27.839 he specifically wore rubber heels on his shoes. 00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:30.160 Deliberately. Right. He did this deliberately 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.860 so he could sneak up on suspects gliding across 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:35.459 those wooden floorboards and dirt paths without 00:05:35.459 --> 00:05:37.730 making a single sound. It highlights a level 00:05:37.730 --> 00:05:40.009 of theatricality and intense dedication to the 00:05:40.009 --> 00:05:42.350 craft of law enforcement. He wasn't relying on 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:43.889 the brute force of kicking the front door down 00:05:43.889 --> 00:05:46.689 with a squad of deputies. He was observing, creeping 00:05:46.689 --> 00:05:48.410 through the shadows, and catching his targets 00:05:48.410 --> 00:05:51.170 completely off guard. Here's where it gets really 00:05:51.170 --> 00:05:53.389 interesting, the sheer volume of his operations. 00:05:53.449 --> 00:05:55.889 We aren't talking about a few dozen busts. No. 00:05:55.990 --> 00:05:57.670 The source notes that during his time as chief 00:05:57.670 --> 00:06:00.670 agent, he secured more than 4 ,400 convictions. 00:06:01.149 --> 00:06:05.529 Over 4 ,400 convictions. Think about the relentless 00:06:05.529 --> 00:06:07.930 pace required to hit that number over just a 00:06:07.930 --> 00:06:11.370 few years. Sweeping into gambling saloons, infiltrating 00:06:11.370 --> 00:06:14.149 disorderly places, constantly dismantling the 00:06:14.149 --> 00:06:16.569 illegal liquor trade piece by piece. When you 00:06:16.569 --> 00:06:18.370 disrupt a lucrative industry to that degree, 00:06:18.430 --> 00:06:21.529 making thousands of arrests, the financial blowback 00:06:21.529 --> 00:06:23.769 has to be immense. The blowback was immediate 00:06:23.769 --> 00:06:26.529 and it was severe. The saloon keepers and liquor 00:06:26.529 --> 00:06:28.910 syndicates affected by his relentless raids realized 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:31.110 that standard legal defense just wasn't working. 00:06:31.310 --> 00:06:33.889 So they banded together, pooled their financial 00:06:33.889 --> 00:06:37.430 resources, and put a $3 ,000 bounty on his head. 00:06:37.550 --> 00:06:41.029 They offered a reward for his death. A $3 ,000 00:06:41.029 --> 00:06:43.209 bounty at the turn of the century is a staggering 00:06:43.209 --> 00:06:45.870 amount of money. It is a clear message that this 00:06:45.870 --> 00:06:47.970 is no longer a standard law enforcement operation. 00:06:48.329 --> 00:06:51.019 It's a fight for survival. If you find out an 00:06:51.019 --> 00:06:52.860 organized syndicate has put a price tag on your 00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:55.079 life, the standard human reaction is to back 00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:57.959 down, request to transfer, or just resign. If 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:00.160 we connect this to the bigger picture, it tells 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.439 us so much about the high -stakes nature of the 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:05.240 frontier temperance movement. This was a shadow 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:08.019 war. And Johnson's reaction to the bounty is 00:07:08.019 --> 00:07:10.779 highly revealing of his character. Upon learning 00:07:10.779 --> 00:07:12.980 of the reward for his death, he didn't retreat. 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:16.360 He escalated. How do you escalate when there's 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:18.620 already a hit out on you? By changing your rules 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:21.339 of engagement. He shifted to nighttime raids. 00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:23.740 And instead of just arresting the patrons and 00:07:23.740 --> 00:07:26.860 proprietors, he started outright destroying the 00:07:26.860 --> 00:07:29.379 raided establishments. He met the threat of violence 00:07:29.379 --> 00:07:32.139 with an equal and opposite force, dismantling 00:07:32.139 --> 00:07:34.100 the physical infrastructure of the saloons themselves. 00:07:34.540 --> 00:07:37.579 The threat to his life seemed to only fuel his 00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:40.879 zealotry. So you threaten his life, and he responds 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:43.079 by coming back in the dead of night to smash 00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:45.600 your entire livelihood to splinters. It is a 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.279 brutal cycle of retaliation. But eventually he 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:50.720 does leave the federal service. He doesn't retire, 00:07:50.819 --> 00:07:53.180 though. He simply shifts his battleground, moving 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:55.620 to Kansas and joining forces with the Anti -Saloon 00:07:55.620 --> 00:07:57.959 League. This transition marks a major evolution 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:01.199 in his methodology. He recognized that kicking 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:04.000 down doors in Oklahoma was ultimately just brute 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.660 force. When he moved to Kansas and joined the 00:08:06.660 --> 00:08:09.339 league, his tactics became purely psychological. 00:08:09.740 --> 00:08:11.939 The tactics he developed there are absolutely 00:08:11.939 --> 00:08:14.959 wild to read about. He became an early pioneer 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:17.720 of what we would now call political trolling. 00:08:17.899 --> 00:08:19.819 He would sit down and write letters directly 00:08:19.819 --> 00:08:22.259 to the leaders of the anti -prohibition movement. 00:08:22.379 --> 00:08:24.240 But he wouldn't write as William E. Johnson, 00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:26.819 former federal agent. He would falsely claim 00:08:26.819 --> 00:08:29.439 to be a brewer himself. He essentially resurrected 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:33.360 his 1889 undercover persona, but adapted it for 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:36.019 the Postal Service. Exactly. He would write these 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:38.720 letters asking for their expert advice on how 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:41.080 to defeat temperance activists pretending to 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:43.419 be desperate for their strategic guidance. And 00:08:43.419 --> 00:08:45.690 the opposition leaders actually wrote back. They 00:08:45.690 --> 00:08:47.649 detailed all their private strategies, their 00:08:47.649 --> 00:08:50.090 lobbying efforts, and their secret plans to stop 00:08:50.090 --> 00:08:51.990 the prohibition movement. And once he possessed 00:08:51.990 --> 00:08:54.250 their private correspondence, he published them 00:08:54.250 --> 00:08:56.730 for the entire world to see. He used their own 00:08:56.730 --> 00:08:59.769 words to embarrass, expose, and completely discredit 00:08:59.769 --> 00:09:03.509 them. It is such a calculated trap. To change 00:09:03.509 --> 00:09:06.529 laws on a national scale, he knew he had to win 00:09:06.529 --> 00:09:08.789 the war of public opinion. And he had an incredible 00:09:08.789 --> 00:09:12.100 platform to do just that. The scale of his influence 00:09:12.100 --> 00:09:14.899 during this period is massive. Between 1912 and 00:09:14.899 --> 00:09:17.799 1926, the source notes he served as the managing 00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:20.899 editor for 35 different anti -Saloon League publications. 00:09:21.399 --> 00:09:24.440 35 different publications. That is an empire 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:26.440 of print. He wasn't just writing articles. He 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:28.779 was controlling the narrative across a massive 00:09:28.779 --> 00:09:31.159 array of media. It is essentially the birth of 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:33.700 modern syndication and the creation of an ideological 00:09:33.700 --> 00:09:37.279 echo chamber. He utilized the journalistic skills 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:40.019 he honed back in Nebraska, combined them with 00:09:40.019 --> 00:09:41.980 the root ruthlessness he developed in the Oklahoma 00:09:41.980 --> 00:09:45.059 territory and built a propaganda machine. By 00:09:45.059 --> 00:09:47.360 controlling 35 publications, he could ensure 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:49.580 that the exposed letters and the pro -temperance 00:09:49.580 --> 00:09:51.740 messaging reached every corner of the country 00:09:51.740 --> 00:09:54.360 simultaneously. But his ambitions didn't stop 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.820 at the borders of the United States. Once you 00:09:56.820 --> 00:09:58.840 have a machine that powerful, you want to see 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:01.440 how far it can reach. He ended up taking his 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:04.279 crusade global, rising to the position of manager 00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:06.539 and then director of the London office of the 00:10:06.539 --> 00:10:10.139 World League against alcoholism. He was actively 00:10:10.139 --> 00:10:12.340 attempting to take the American temperance movement 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:15.379 strategies and export them to Europe and beyond. 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:18.220 The source places him at major international 00:10:18.220 --> 00:10:20.679 events. He was a member of the International 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:23.320 Temperance Committee of 50 in Paris in 1919. 00:10:23.879 --> 00:10:26.860 He was a delegate to the International Anti -Alcoholic 00:10:26.860 --> 00:10:29.879 Congress in Milan in 1913 and later attended 00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:33.419 the Congress in Tartu in 1926. He was touring 00:10:33.419 --> 00:10:36.330 relentlessly. But trying to impose those same 00:10:36.330 --> 00:10:38.950 moral standards on European cultures, cultures 00:10:38.950 --> 00:10:41.289 with deeply ingrained centuries -old traditions 00:10:41.289 --> 00:10:43.710 of brewing and distilling, was bound to cause 00:10:43.710 --> 00:10:46.190 friction. He was walking into environments where 00:10:46.190 --> 00:10:48.269 the local population viewed him not just as a 00:10:48.269 --> 00:10:50.590 nuisance but as a foreign agitator trying to 00:10:50.590 --> 00:10:52.960 destroy their way of life. And that cultural 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:56.059 friction resulted in extreme physical backlash. 00:10:56.679 --> 00:10:59.600 The source details a truly horrific event that 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:03.000 took place on November 13th, 1919. Johnson was 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:05.240 in London for a speaking engagement at Essex 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:07.559 Hall. While he was there, he was captured by 00:11:07.559 --> 00:11:10.259 a mob of medical students. This wasn't a standard 00:11:10.259 --> 00:11:12.559 protest with picket signs. It was an abduction 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:15.340 in the middle of a major city. They grabbed him, 00:11:15.419 --> 00:11:18.179 forced him onto a stretcher, and physically paraded 00:11:18.179 --> 00:11:20.240 him through the streets of London. The historical 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:23.240 text refers to this event as a ragging, which 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:26.159 was a term commonly used for boisterous, organized 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:29.259 hazing or mob harassment by university students. 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:32.860 But this incident escalated far beyond a mere 00:11:32.860 --> 00:11:35.700 prank. Way beyond. While they were parading him 00:11:35.700 --> 00:11:37.779 through the hostile crowds before the police 00:11:37.779 --> 00:11:40.080 could finally intervene and rescue him, an object 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:42.639 was thrown from the mob. It struck Johnson directly 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:45.299 in the face. The damage was catastrophic and 00:11:45.299 --> 00:11:47.620 physicians were completely unable to repair it. 00:11:47.950 --> 00:11:50.570 William Pussyfoot Johnson lost his right eye 00:11:50.570 --> 00:11:52.610 to that London mob. This raises an important 00:11:52.610 --> 00:11:54.690 question regarding the psychology of a movement 00:11:54.690 --> 00:11:57.710 leader. When you are willing to face down armed 00:11:57.710 --> 00:12:00.090 syndicates in Oklahoma who have put a bounty 00:12:00.090 --> 00:12:02.690 on your head and then you travel across the ocean 00:12:02.690 --> 00:12:04.830 only to be kidnapped by a mob and physically 00:12:04.830 --> 00:12:07.779 maimed. permanently losing an eye for your cause, 00:12:08.019 --> 00:12:10.820 what is driving you, it speaks to an immense, 00:12:11.019 --> 00:12:14.419 almost unfathomable level of dedication. Despite 00:12:14.419 --> 00:12:16.879 the loss of his eye, he didn't quit. He didn't 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:19.720 retreat to a quiet life. He just kept going. 00:12:19.899 --> 00:12:22.519 He really was unstoppable. Even after the severe 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:24.779 trauma in London, he was right back in the thick 00:12:24.779 --> 00:12:27.860 of it. The source highlights incidents in Canada 00:12:27.860 --> 00:12:30.299 just a couple of years later, in April 1921. 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.019 He traveled to Toronto to speak at Massey Hall, 00:12:33.220 --> 00:12:35.679 and the crowd was so incredibly loud and aggressive 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:38.120 that he was completely booed into silence. Couldn't 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:40.320 even deliver his speech. And from Toronto, he 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:42.379 moved on to an even more dangerous location, 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:45.759 downtown Windsor, Ontario. Which was the absolute 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:47.799 epicenter of the illegal liquor trade at the 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:50.860 time. Windsor was a major hub for rum runners 00:12:50.860 --> 00:12:53.360 smuggling across the river into the United States. 00:12:53.559 --> 00:12:56.179 He went right into the belly of the beast to 00:12:56.179 --> 00:12:58.419 campaign for tightening Ontario's prohibition 00:12:58.419 --> 00:13:01.340 laws. And the crowd in Windsor wasn't just loud, 00:13:01.539 --> 00:13:05.360 they were dangerous. The situation grew so hostile 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:07.460 that Johnson had to be completely surrounded 00:13:07.460 --> 00:13:10.299 by a police escort just to safely escape across 00:13:10.299 --> 00:13:13.169 the border to Detroit. He was literally running 00:13:13.169 --> 00:13:15.169 from the people who... Highly lucrative businesses. 00:13:15.669 --> 00:13:17.710 Exactly. Highly lucrative, illegal businesses 00:13:17.710 --> 00:13:19.970 he was trying to shut down. He deliberately placed 00:13:19.970 --> 00:13:22.250 himself at the center of the conflict time and 00:13:22.250 --> 00:13:24.490 time again. He understood the mechanics of visibility. 00:13:25.490 --> 00:13:28.450 Controversy generated press, and press advanced 00:13:28.450 --> 00:13:30.730 the cause, even if it put his own life in very 00:13:30.730 --> 00:13:33.029 real jeopardy. It's an exhausting, relentless 00:13:33.029 --> 00:13:36.330 way to live. But eventually, the timeline of 00:13:36.330 --> 00:13:38.889 his life does wind down. His first wife, Lily, 00:13:39.110 --> 00:13:43.129 passed away in 1927. The following year, in 1928, 00:13:43.370 --> 00:13:45.549 he married Mabee Stanley of Washington, D .C. 00:13:46.110 --> 00:13:49.409 Finally, in 1930, after decades of infiltration, 00:13:49.509 --> 00:13:52.169 raids, and international tours, he retired from 00:13:52.169 --> 00:13:54.570 public life. He moved back to his home state, 00:13:54.730 --> 00:13:57.009 settling on a family farm in Chenango County, 00:13:57.169 --> 00:13:59.450 New York, where he passed away on February 2, 00:13:59.629 --> 00:14:03.490 1945, at the age of 82. A remarkably quiet end 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:06.110 for a man who engineered such a loud, disruptive, 00:14:06.210 --> 00:14:08.830 and controversial existence. But before we completely 00:14:08.830 --> 00:14:11.740 wrap up his timeline, There is a final, delightful 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:14.220 irony tucked away in the source text that perfectly 00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:17.539 encapsulates his strange legacy. In 1920, right 00:14:17.539 --> 00:14:19.279 in the middle is his international crusading, 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:21.620 a bartender named Robert Vermeer at the Embassy 00:14:21.620 --> 00:14:23.919 Club in London. Wait, London? Yes, the exact 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.100 city where Johnson was mobbed and lost his eye. 00:14:26.220 --> 00:14:28.379 This bartender invented a drink in his honor. 00:14:28.500 --> 00:14:30.220 A bartender inventing a drink for one of the 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:32.399 most famous prohibitionists in the world. But 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:35.279 it was a non -alcoholic drink, a noctil. And 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:38.139 Vermeer named it the Pussyfoot. So the man who 00:14:38.139 --> 00:14:40.620 spent his entire lives wearing rubber shoes to 00:14:40.620 --> 00:14:42.820 sneak up on saloons and destroy them actually 00:14:42.820 --> 00:14:45.659 had a bar drink named after his stealthy nickname. 00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:48.500 That is a perfect piece of historical irony. 00:14:49.129 --> 00:14:51.330 But looking back at the totality of his life, 00:14:51.429 --> 00:14:53.029 I think the real value of the source material 00:14:53.029 --> 00:14:55.070 is remembering to look at historical figures 00:14:55.070 --> 00:14:57.470 comprehensively. We often think of political 00:14:57.470 --> 00:14:59.929 activism, propaganda networks, or investigative 00:14:59.929 --> 00:15:02.730 reporting as entirely modern inventions. But 00:15:02.730 --> 00:15:05.110 understanding how Johnson operated, using undercover 00:15:05.110 --> 00:15:08.149 infiltration to extract opposition secrets, building 00:15:08.149 --> 00:15:11.070 an empire of 35 publications to control a narrative, 00:15:11.210 --> 00:15:13.370 and publishing private letters to shame political 00:15:13.370 --> 00:15:16.429 enemies publicly, it heavily mirrors the gotcha 00:15:16.429 --> 00:15:18.330 journalism and the intense pressure politics 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:21.279 we see in our own news feeds today. He was utilizing 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:23.860 19th and early 20th century tools to execute 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:26.960 21st century media strategies. It shows us that 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:29.159 the mechanics of ideological warfare haven't 00:15:29.159 --> 00:15:31.799 really changed. Only the technology has. So what 00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:33.980 does this all mean? We have followed the trajectory 00:15:33.980 --> 00:15:36.519 of a journalist who realized that simply reporting 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:39.320 the news wasn't enough to change the world. He 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:42.440 transformed himself into a stealthy, rubber -shoed 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:45.220 federal enforcer, an architect of mass media 00:15:45.220 --> 00:15:47.879 propaganda, and an international lightning rod 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:51.039 who literally sacrificed an eye for his deeply 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:54.460 held beliefs. But we want to leave you with a 00:15:54.460 --> 00:15:56.700 final thought to mull over long after you finish 00:15:56.700 --> 00:15:59.379 listening to this deep dive. Consider how history 00:15:59.379 --> 00:16:02.919 actually remembers fanaticism. We often celebrate 00:16:02.919 --> 00:16:05.399 the moderates, the politicians and diplomats 00:16:05.399 --> 00:16:07.720 who sit in quiet rooms to draft the laws and 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:10.000 sign the treaties. But when you look at the raw 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.639 mechanics of societal shifts, it is usually the 00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:14.620 zealots, the ones willing to permanently lose 00:16:14.620 --> 00:16:16.840 an eye, destroy a business or ruin a reputation, 00:16:17.059 --> 00:16:19.019 who actually force society to the negotiating 00:16:19.019 --> 00:16:21.759 table in the first place. So ask yourself, who 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:24.500 truly drives the arc of historical change? Is 00:16:24.500 --> 00:16:27.120 it the rational diplomat or is it always ultimately 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:29.840 the fanatic? That is a dynamic that shapes every 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:32.350 major movement in history. Thanks for joining 00:16:32.350 --> 00:16:34.429 us on this deep dive. Keep questioning, keep 00:16:34.429 --> 00:16:36.309 learning, and we will catch you next time.