# Teleported

An episode of [Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1396546917), 21 Apr 2026, 11 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/e062c374-9a39-42fa-888f-ae2c007b3c85/9a038896-e2b6-4211-b520-b432012f11de/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=f0f95fe5-d5de-4abe-ada4-ae2c007b3c8e

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## Transcript

[0:04] Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
[0:07] Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
[0:12] Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
[0:17] Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
[0:20] Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
[0:25] Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. In fifteen ninety three,
[0:37] Speaker 2: Mexico City was somehow both old and new at the
[0:40] Speaker 2: same time. Built over the Aztec city Tenochtitlan, it was
[0:45] Speaker 2: the seat of power for what was known as New Spain,
[0:48] Speaker 2: the area encompassing much of North America. Back then, there
[0:52] Speaker 2: was no such country as the United States nor Mexico.
[0:56] Speaker 2: It was all an extension of the Spanish Empire into
[0:59] Speaker 2: the New World. At the center of Mexico City Lady
[1:03] Speaker 2: Plaza Mayor, a wide open plaza where the Viceroy's palace sat,
[1:08] Speaker 2: and on October twenty sixth, fifteen ninety three, palace guards
[1:12] Speaker 2: noticed an odd man wandering the plaza.
[1:15] Speaker 1: He looked dazed and uncertain. More oddly than that, though
[1:18] Speaker 1: he was wearing some kind of uniform, but not won
[1:21] Speaker 1: anyone in Mexico City recognized. The guards approached this man,
[1:25] Speaker 1: asking him who he was and where he came from.
[1:28] Speaker 1: The man introduced himself as gil Perez. He asked the
[1:32] Speaker 1: guards where he was, and they told him that he
[1:34] Speaker 1: was in Mexico City, and he seemed completely incredulous over
[1:38] Speaker 1: that news. When pressed to tell them where he came from,
[1:41] Speaker 1: all he would say is this. He was a guard
[1:44] Speaker 1: at the Governor's palace in Manila. He had dozed off
[1:48] Speaker 1: at his post, and when he opened his eyes, he
[1:50] Speaker 1: was here in Mexico City. The guards were stunned. Manila
[1:55] Speaker 1: was in the Philippines. This man had to be lying.
[1:58] Speaker 1: There was no way that he could have traveled across
[2:00] Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean, almost nine thousand miles to reach them there,
[2:05] Speaker 1: all while unconscious. They seized him immediately and brought him
[2:09] Speaker 1: before the local officials of the Spanish Inquisition. And I
[2:12] Speaker 1: bet you weren't expecting that little turn of events, were you,
[2:16] Speaker 1: Because no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. And as you'd expect,
[2:20] Speaker 1: our friend gil Perez was interrogated, but he held fast
[2:23] Speaker 1: to his story. The more they questioned him, the more
[2:26] Speaker 1: he revealed about his duties back home in Manila. He
[2:29] Speaker 1: even told them that the day before his miraculous appearance
[2:32] Speaker 1: in Mexico City. The governor of the Philippines himself, Gomez
[2:36] Speaker 1: Perez Das Mouranus, had been killed by pirates at sea.
[2:40] Speaker 1: They were merely watching his palace until a new governor
[2:44] Speaker 1: could be appointed. Of course, this story didn't buy him
[2:47] Speaker 1: any credibility with the Viceroy of Mexico City. They had
[2:50] Speaker 1: heard no such story of the slain Philippine governor. He
[2:54] Speaker 1: was held in custody, presumed to be a deserter or
[2:57] Speaker 1: even a spy. But then something miraculous happened. In early
[3:02] Speaker 1: fifteen ninety four, several months after the man's unexpected appearance,
[3:06] Speaker 1: a galleon arrived in Mexico from the Philippines. The men
[3:11] Speaker 1: on board told the viceroy that the governor had been
[3:13] Speaker 1: killed back in October, the very same day that gil
[3:17] Speaker 1: Perez said he had. Even more fortunate for Perez, one
[3:21] Speaker 1: of the sailors said that he recognized the guard, having
[3:23] Speaker 1: seen him by the governor's palace on October twenty third.
[3:27] Speaker 1: As a result, the Spanish Inquisition had no choice but
[3:30] Speaker 1: to release Perez, who returned home to resume his position
[3:34] Speaker 1: under a new governor. We know little else about his
[3:37] Speaker 1: life after this, but his story has a life of
[3:41] Speaker 1: its own. The earliest version of this legend comes from
[3:44] Speaker 1: sixteen ninety eight in a historical account of the Spanish
[3:47] Speaker 1: conquest of the Philippines. Although the writer does not name
[3:51] Speaker 1: the guard, his version says that some form of witchcraft
[3:54] Speaker 1: teleported the man, But as the story has gotten told
[3:58] Speaker 1: and retold over time, it was opened up to more
[4:00] Speaker 1: possible interpretations, and the name of the guard himself, Gil Perez,
[4:05] Speaker 1: comes from a nineteen oh eight Harper's Magazine version of
[4:08] Speaker 1: the story. In the century plus since Folklora's, spiritualists and
[4:13] Speaker 1: hobbyists have all put forward their own theories for the
[4:16] Speaker 1: transported Spaniard. Everyone agrees, though, that Perez did not have
[4:20] Speaker 1: control over this ability himself. If he had been a
[4:24] Speaker 1: witch or sorcerer who transported himself, he probably wouldn't have
[4:28] Speaker 1: done it while dressed conspicuously in his work uniform. Never
[4:32] Speaker 1: mind the fact that if he did have control over
[4:34] Speaker 1: the ability, then he could have teleported himself out of
[4:37] Speaker 1: prison once he was caught in Mexico City. A recent
[4:40] Speaker 1: theory is that he fell through a rip in space time,
[4:43] Speaker 1: or maybe he was even abducted by a Ufo, as
[4:46] Speaker 1: many Ufo abductees claimed to have lost large patches of
[4:50] Speaker 1: time and then wound up in wildly different places than
[4:53] Speaker 1: where they began from. Both of these theories rely on
[4:56] Speaker 1: wild speculation rather than any facts about the story, but
[5:00] Speaker 1: by this point most assumed that the story of gil Perez,
[5:03] Speaker 1: however intriguing it might be, is just an urban legend
[5:07] Speaker 1: rather than a fact. But one thing is for sure,
[5:10] Speaker 1: whoever this unlucky man was, if he existed at all,
[5:14] Speaker 1: he probably never fell asleep on the job ever. Again,
[5:31] Speaker 1: although they were brothers, Ada Hualpa and Wascar felt no
[5:35] Speaker 1: love for one another. Compassion wasn't exactly encouraged within the
[5:38] Speaker 1: Incan Empire, a brutal warrior led society that spanned half
[5:43] Speaker 1: of the west coast of South America. Ada Hulpa and
[5:47] Speaker 1: Wascar were princes, which made their father the king. But
[5:50] Speaker 1: the thing about the Inca line of succession was that
[5:53] Speaker 1: there was at one a king could pick whoever he
[5:56] Speaker 1: wanted to follow him after his rule, and even stranger.
[6:00] Speaker 1: Inca nobles were expected to marry their sisters to keep
[6:03] Speaker 1: the bloodline pure, but at the same time were allowed
[6:06] Speaker 1: to have concubines with whom they could sire many children,
[6:09] Speaker 1: and so the king had over two hundred children with
[6:12] Speaker 1: as many as fifty wives. Wascar was born of a
[6:16] Speaker 1: sister wife, but Adawalpa's mother was likely a woman outside
[6:19] Speaker 1: of the family, and this alone was enough to create
[6:22] Speaker 1: animosity between the two men, and to make matters worse,
[6:26] Speaker 1: the king chose one of his other brothers as his successor.
[6:30] Speaker 1: As a consolation prize, he put Wascar in charge of Cusco,
[6:34] Speaker 1: the Inca capital, and he put Adawalpa in charge of
[6:37] Speaker 1: the army. This worked to keep the peace for a time.
[6:40] Speaker 1: Wascar became beloved by the people of Cuzco and learned
[6:44] Speaker 1: administration in the process, while Adawalpa earned the love of
[6:48] Speaker 1: the Inca generals and learned how to conduct a war. However,
[6:52] Speaker 1: tragedy struck in fifteen twenty seven when a strange plague
[6:56] Speaker 1: spread across the empire. The disease killed both the king
[6:59] Speaker 1: and his chosen successor, and this was the worst possible
[7:03] Speaker 1: outcome because now there was no clear indication of who
[7:06] Speaker 1: should inherit the throne. So it wasn't a surprise when
[7:10] Speaker 1: Wascar sent the troops under his command at Cusco north
[7:13] Speaker 1: to attack Ottawalpa, where he was stationed in the region
[7:16] Speaker 1: of Quito. But these troops were no match for Otdawalpa
[7:20] Speaker 1: and his generals. They routed the opposing army with ease,
[7:23] Speaker 1: and then Adawalpa sent his general self to conquer Cusco.
[7:27] Speaker 1: As they went, they massacred much of the population that
[7:30] Speaker 1: was loyal to Wascar. When they arrived at Cusco, they
[7:33] Speaker 1: stormed the city and took Wascar prisoner. Adawalpa was very
[7:37] Speaker 1: pleased with himself. He had proven once and for all
[7:40] Speaker 1: that he was the strongest brother. But the deranged military
[7:43] Speaker 1: king was about to find himself on the receiving end
[7:46] Speaker 1: of some cosmic justice. That mysterious plague that had killed
[7:50] Speaker 1: his father was smallpox, and it was spread by the
[7:53] Speaker 1: Spanish conquistadors making their way across South America. When they
[7:57] Speaker 1: arrived in the Inca Empire, they wasted no time in
[8:00] Speaker 1: taking Adawalpa prisoner. This was easy to do. They simply
[8:03] Speaker 1: surrounded Atdawalpa's army encampment and sent emissaries to speak with
[8:07] Speaker 1: him under the banner of peace. When Adawalpa refused to
[8:11] Speaker 1: accept the authority of the Spanish crown and the Catholic Church.
[8:14] Speaker 1: They ambushed his camp and killed his men. Adawalpa then
[8:18] Speaker 1: tried to bribe the Spanish. While he was in captivity.
[8:21] Speaker 1: He sent his generals to collect all the silver and
[8:24] Speaker 1: gold they could from the empire to trade for his release.
[8:27] Speaker 1: He also gave one last horrible order. He commanded that
[8:31] Speaker 1: his general's murder Wascar, who was still being held prisoner
[8:34] Speaker 1: in Cusco, and they carried out his order with glee.
[8:38] Speaker 1: Wascar and every one of his wives and descendants were slaughtered.
[8:42] Speaker 1: The streets of Cuzco were filled with the screams of
[8:45] Speaker 1: the victims. It was cruel, but Adawalpa didn't want to
[8:49] Speaker 1: leave any chance for the Spanish to find and free
[8:51] Speaker 1: his brother. He wanted to make sure that he was
[8:54] Speaker 1: the only Inca king that they could negotiate with. And meanwhile,
[8:57] Speaker 1: his generals were doing everything they could to round up
[9:00] Speaker 1: enough gold and silver for his ransom. They confiscated and
[9:04] Speaker 1: melted down every piece available in the empire. But all
[9:08] Speaker 1: of this mass mobilization made the Spanish nervous. They saw
[9:11] Speaker 1: how many generals were loyal to Adawalpa and how big
[9:14] Speaker 1: their armies were. If they were capable of collecting all
[9:17] Speaker 1: the gold and silver in the empire, what else were
[9:20] Speaker 1: they capable of speaking with some of the native peoples.
[9:23] Speaker 1: They learned of Adawalpa's conquests and how he had massacred
[9:27] Speaker 1: all who opposed him. They thought that it was only
[9:29] Speaker 1: a matter of time before the Inca armies would march
[9:32] Speaker 1: to free their king. Not even giving them the chance,
[9:35] Speaker 1: the Spanish abruptly executed Adawalpa in fifteen thirty three. His
[9:40] Speaker 1: remaining generals immediately rebelled, trying to salvage the empire and
[9:44] Speaker 1: keep it out of Spanish hands, but they were fragmented
[9:47] Speaker 1: without a leader. The Spanish marched on Cuzco and took
[9:51] Speaker 1: the gold and silver for themselves. They easily defeated any
[9:54] Speaker 1: resistance that was left within the empire. It was a
[9:58] Speaker 1: curious case of a quarrel between two brothers leading to
[10:01] Speaker 1: neither of them getting what they wanted. Perhaps the empire
[10:04] Speaker 1: was doomed regardless, but also perhaps if the two brothers
[10:08] Speaker 1: could have learned to rule together, they might have saved
[10:11] Speaker 1: an entire kingdom. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour
[10:18] Speaker 1: through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by
[10:21] Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and
[10:26] Speaker 1: written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by
[10:28] Speaker 1: Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people
[10:31] Speaker 1: who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities.
[10:35] Speaker 1: You'll also find a link to the official cabinet of
[10:38] Speaker 1: Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
[10:42] Speaker 1: as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an
[10:45] Speaker 1: ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the
[10:48] Speaker 1: same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee.
[10:52] Speaker 1: Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com
[10:55] Speaker 1: slash grimand Mild, and until next time, stay Curious.
[11:00] Speaker 2: Two

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