# Stealing the Stone of Scone: A Christmas Story

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 24 Dec 2024, 54 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/6f48867b-c5fe-42b2-9a37-b24f0180a923/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

One Christmas night, four proud brave Scots break into Westminster Abbey to steal back the Stone of Scone AKA the Stone of Destiny for the glory and pride of Scotland. It was a Christmas miracle... of crime! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Hey, Hey, how you doing?
[0:06] Speaker 3: Thought? I just stumbled in here and I saw these
[0:07] Speaker 3: mics and then there you were sitting here in the dark.
[0:09] Speaker 2: You know it's ridiculous.
[0:10] Speaker 3: Yeah, I do the fact that you're sitting here in
[0:13] Speaker 3: the dark. But do you know what's ridiculous. I do what.
[0:17] Speaker 2: I'm sitting here in the dark because I'm hiding from
[0:21] Speaker 2: who I'm being cyber bullied?
[0:24] Speaker 3: Am cyber bullying you?
[0:27] Speaker 2: The three oh five m VP? Wait a minute, professional wrestler, Yes, rapper, grappler,
[0:33] Speaker 2: totally badass. You know, he's a he's a man, he's
[0:36] Speaker 2: a gentleman, he's a scholar.
[0:38] Speaker 3: Totally. But yeah, he's so you told me he's cyber
[0:41] Speaker 3: bullying you. You need me to go cyber bully him,
[0:43] Speaker 3: the cyber beat him up.
[0:44] Speaker 2: Well, you'll probably agree with you.
[0:45] Speaker 3: Cyber wrestle them. Really.
[0:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, he's upset. No, he's like, he's poking at me
[0:52] Speaker 2: because I don't like Steely Dan and it's sort of
[0:57] Speaker 2: like Gauntlet Throne. He's been sending stick. He sent a
[1:01] Speaker 2: clip from the Yacht Rock documentary to us and was like,
[1:06] Speaker 2: take that, Elizabeth, and I saw it and I was like, yeah,
[1:10] Speaker 2: I'll debate you. And then I was like, I can't
[1:12] Speaker 2: debate this.
[1:12] Speaker 3: Man, Like did you say a time?
[1:15] Speaker 2: Well no, because here's the thing, like my anti Steely
[1:17] Speaker 2: Dan stuff. Sure that opinion is based only on vibes.
[1:22] Speaker 3: Oh really, you've held this opinion for a long time.
[1:24] Speaker 3: Just all on. Yeah.
[1:25] Speaker 2: But I mean they're amazing musicians. Sure they write apparently
[1:29] Speaker 2: great songs. Oh yeah, I just my vibes don't click,
[1:33] Speaker 2: and that's not my fault, and that's no reason to
[1:35] Speaker 2: cyberbully me. Three oh five MVP.
[1:37] Speaker 3: They are a bit intense in their love of themselves.
[1:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, but I would think someone, you know, Antonio Montelle.
[1:44] Speaker 2: If you create something like the song still Ballin' and
[1:48] Speaker 2: then you turn around and you tout Steely Dan, I
[1:51] Speaker 2: got problems. But anyway, I don't I don't want to fight.
[1:54] Speaker 2: I don't want to debate. I just want to stop
[1:57] Speaker 2: being cyberbullied.
[1:59] Speaker 3: I do kind of agree with him what I'm saying.
[2:02] Speaker 2: All right, turn the lights back off, I gotta hide more.
[2:05] Speaker 3: Well, I got a question for you. Wait while we
[2:06] Speaker 3: got the lights on. Yeah, do you know what else
[2:08] Speaker 3: is ridiculous?
[2:08] Speaker 2: I do.
[2:11] Speaker 3: What a Christmas story I.
[2:13] Speaker 2: Have for you Christmas.
[2:14] Speaker 3: Yeah. It's ridiculous and criminal and set in Scotland. Yeah, Elizabeth,
[2:19] Speaker 3: Merry Christmas to you.
[2:20] Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
[2:21] Speaker 3: Now you know more about this land than I do, right,
[2:24] Speaker 3: and you know more about like where this story occurred
[2:26] Speaker 3: than I do. You went to school there. But still
[2:28] Speaker 3: as this holiday treat, I want to tell you, Elizabeth
[2:31] Speaker 3: about the theft of the Stone of Scone, the Stone
[2:36] Speaker 3: of Destiny.
[2:37] Speaker 4: Nice.
[2:58] Speaker 3: This is ridicul It was crime a podcast about absurd
[3:02] Speaker 3: and outrageous capers. Heisand CODs. It's always ninety nine percent
[3:07] Speaker 3: urder free and it's one hundred percent ridiculous.
[3:11] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah it is.
[3:13] Speaker 3: What do you know about the Stone of Scone?
[3:16] Speaker 2: It's not an actual Scone?
[3:18] Speaker 3: Yes, I can't eat it, No more stone than Scone.
[3:23] Speaker 2: It's you know, I really don't know that much. I've
[3:26] Speaker 2: heard of it. I know that. Don't you have to
[3:29] Speaker 2: park your rear on there to get crowned.
[3:31] Speaker 3: The King of Air Queen of England.
[3:33] Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, you gotta put it under your tutor.
[3:37] Speaker 3: Yeah, you gotta t e r spread the cheeks on
[3:40] Speaker 3: the stone and then that's when make sure the king
[3:42] Speaker 3: or Queen t u.
[3:43] Speaker 2: D Yeah, yeah, exactly. You gotta spread cheek.
[3:46] Speaker 3: Yeah. See, personally, I thought it was the ancestral spot
[3:48] Speaker 3: where they celebrated the delicious of baked goods, the scone.
[3:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, and some people make scones that are like a
[3:54] Speaker 2: stone stone heart.
[3:55] Speaker 3: Yeah, that's where I got confused. That's what it turns
[3:58] Speaker 3: out I was wrong. It's actually one super important and
[4:01] Speaker 3: symbolically valuable hunk of sandstone. Yeah. The thing is yellow,
[4:05] Speaker 3: it's rectangular. Its dimensions are if you want to picture it,
[4:08] Speaker 3: twenty six inches long, sixteen inches high, and eleven inches deep. Okay,
[4:14] Speaker 3: so two feet by a foot and a third and
[4:16] Speaker 3: about a foot deep. Okay, right now, it's heavy. The
[4:19] Speaker 3: same weighs like three hundred and thirty five pounds day. Yeah.
[4:21] Speaker 3: It has a Latin cross cut into it as an inscription,
[4:24] Speaker 3: the only decoration. Oh now, Elizabeth, there's some debate where
[4:26] Speaker 3: this rock comes from, where it was quarried. And I
[4:30] Speaker 3: looked into it, and there's this great Celtic legend that
[4:32] Speaker 3: the stone is from the Holy Land. WHOA, Yeah, since
[4:35] Speaker 3: this is a Christmas time story, let's check in on
[4:37] Speaker 3: this biblical connection always is.
[4:39] Speaker 2: It turns out what according to the legend.
[4:43] Speaker 3: The Stone of Scone was a famous stone way back then,
[4:46] Speaker 3: back in the land of the Biblical patriarchs. The stone
[4:48] Speaker 3: was super super important, right, got God had a hand
[4:51] Speaker 3: in its revelation.
[4:52] Speaker 2: Well, God has a hand in everything here.
[4:54] Speaker 3: Well yeah, but technically this one they put extra finger
[4:56] Speaker 3: marks on. Now, specifically, back then, this holy rock was
[4:59] Speaker 3: called Jake Bob's pillar. Oh you ever heard of that? No?
[5:02] Speaker 3: Started out is Jacob's pillow? Look, I know it's confusing
[5:06] Speaker 3: and where to stick with me? So who is this
[5:08] Speaker 3: cat Jacob? And why does his pillar and or pillow
[5:11] Speaker 3: even better? Well, Elizabeth, as you may or may not
[5:13] Speaker 3: recall from your time in Catholic school, Jacob is a
[5:16] Speaker 3: biblical patriarch from the Book of Genesis, son of Isaac
[5:19] Speaker 3: and Rebecca, which makes him the grandson of Abraham. Now
[5:22] Speaker 3: Jacob is his man, who later changed his name to Israel,
[5:24] Speaker 3: giving the nation state its name. Jacob had a brother
[5:28] Speaker 3: named esau Right now, he's older of the two twin brothers.
[5:31] Speaker 3: Jacob pulls this con move right, he engineers it so
[5:34] Speaker 3: he wins his father's blessing instead of his older twin
[5:37] Speaker 3: brother esauw, which was as customs since hees the older son. Yeah,
[5:40] Speaker 3: even though they're just twins. Yeah. Anyway, there's this crazy
[5:43] Speaker 3: tragic drought. He and his family they leave the land
[5:46] Speaker 3: of Canaan, and then then Jacob migrates to Egypt, where
[5:48] Speaker 3: his son Joseph of the Mini Colored Coat fame. Oh right, Yeah,
[5:53] Speaker 3: he's becoming totally he's setting the trends down there, and
[5:56] Speaker 3: he's become a confidant of the Pharaoh. So his folks
[5:59] Speaker 3: are well come in Egypt, and that's where Jacob dies
[6:02] Speaker 3: at the ripe old age of one hundred and forty seven.
[6:05] Speaker 2: With his ladder.
[6:06] Speaker 3: Yeah, now I know how you.
[6:08] Speaker 2: Yeah, I love I love the ages in the Oh
[6:10] Speaker 2: my god, like it was nine hundred something years well.
[6:13] Speaker 3: Totally Methuselah like whatever, eight forty seven.
[6:15] Speaker 2: My grandma had a cat. Well, she's had two cats.
[6:19] Speaker 2: That one was named Methuselah because it's just she got
[6:22] Speaker 2: it and it already wouldn't die nine years old. The
[6:24] Speaker 2: other one was Nicodemus.
[6:25] Speaker 3: Oh, that's great, great cat names. Also, Lazarus, I think
[6:28] Speaker 3: would be a good cat name.
[6:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I know Laus, what.
[6:32] Speaker 3: I just dropped on you may have felt like a
[6:33] Speaker 3: Sunday school lesson. Well, but Jacob was this important patriarch
[6:36] Speaker 3: right as far as the biblical stories go. And I
[6:38] Speaker 3: wanted you to understand that he's the same dude gives
[6:41] Speaker 3: us Jacob's Ladder, right, Not the movie Jacob's Ladder. Oh
[6:44] Speaker 3: have you seen that one?
[6:45] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[6:46] Speaker 3: Go, oh my god, one of the scariest movies I've
[6:48] Speaker 3: ever seen. Like the headshaking and then the people in
[6:50] Speaker 3: the subway, their faces. I can close my eyes and
[6:52] Speaker 3: still see those images.
[6:53] Speaker 4: Really.
[6:54] Speaker 3: Yeah. Anyway, the story of the talk about biblical Jacob's
[6:56] Speaker 3: Ladder directly related to the Stone of Scone. Oh really,
[7:01] Speaker 3: the Stone of Destiny. So the story of Jacob's latter
[7:04] Speaker 3: is from Genesis, chapter twenty.
[7:05] Speaker 2: Eight Genesis, not the band, thank you. Yes, the book
[7:09] Speaker 2: of the Bible.
[7:10] Speaker 3: Says nothing to do with Phil Collins. Now, the story goes,
[7:12] Speaker 3: Jacob is on the move in the desert, right, and
[7:14] Speaker 3: he's in need of a place to sleep, so to
[7:16] Speaker 3: lay his head for the night. He finds this rock
[7:19] Speaker 3: or in Bible terms, and I quote, and Jacob went
[7:22] Speaker 3: out from Borthsheba and went toward heron, and he lighted
[7:25] Speaker 3: upon the place and tarried there all night because the
[7:29] Speaker 3: sun was set, and he took one of the stones
[7:31] Speaker 3: of the place and put it under his head and
[7:33] Speaker 3: lay down in that place to sleep. Bible terms, all right,
[7:37] Speaker 3: you know that, didn't Bob Marley do that too? Yes,
[7:42] Speaker 3: stone sound for a fella's rostas they'd take all their
[7:46] Speaker 3: ideas from the Bible assent. Oh yeah, especially old Testament. Yeah,
[7:50] Speaker 3: you're gonna say something, Elizabeth.
[7:51] Speaker 2: I was to say that is it's so desperate, Like,
[7:53] Speaker 2: how desperate do you have to be to use a
[7:56] Speaker 2: rock as a.
[7:56] Speaker 3: Pillow better than dirt?
[7:58] Speaker 2: No, it's not. There's dirt. Yes, if there's dirt, why
[8:03] Speaker 2: would you make a pile of dirt?
[8:05] Speaker 3: Oh God, that sucks. Breathe it in.
[8:07] Speaker 2: No, he's just you sleep on your back or on
[8:09] Speaker 2: your side. The ants come and massage you.
[8:13] Speaker 3: You don't sleep on the ground much, do you never? Yeah, No,
[8:16] Speaker 3: that's one. You gotta worry about dew and stuff and
[8:18] Speaker 3: in the desert that's not a problem. But the rock,
[8:20] Speaker 3: it's for your neck and everything else. It's I would
[8:23] Speaker 3: not like a round hard rock, But if he get
[8:25] Speaker 3: a flat rock, that's gonna be better. But you can
[8:27] Speaker 3: put your arm down and lay your head on your arm.
[8:29] Speaker 2: Find like a musk rat.
[8:31] Speaker 3: Anyway, Jacob he lies down takes a long snooze with
[8:34] Speaker 3: his head on this rock as his pillow. And Jacob
[8:37] Speaker 3: he has visions because it's the Bible and everything's pretty
[8:39] Speaker 3: much psychedelic, so he dreams of angels and this tremendous
[8:42] Speaker 3: ladder that stretches from the earth to the heavens. On
[8:45] Speaker 3: this ladder, he sees angels using it like a two
[8:47] Speaker 3: way escalator. They're going up and down right, and things
[8:49] Speaker 3: get extra trippy because out of the heavens he hears
[8:52] Speaker 3: the voice of God. Right, the architect of the universe
[8:55] Speaker 3: says unto Jacob, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham,
[8:59] Speaker 3: the Ifo, and the God of Isaac. The land whereupon
[9:03] Speaker 3: thou liest to thee will I give it and to
[9:06] Speaker 3: thy seed. So this is like where we get like
[9:09] Speaker 3: the promises of land and right now. But God's not done, Elizabeth,
[9:13] Speaker 3: He's got more to lay in the lap of this
[9:14] Speaker 3: cat Chiacob. So the all knowing One, he says to Jacob,
[9:17] Speaker 3: and thy seed shall be as the dust of earth,
[9:20] Speaker 3: and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to
[9:24] Speaker 3: the east, and to the north and to the south,
[9:26] Speaker 3: and in THEE, and in thy seed shall all the
[9:30] Speaker 3: families of the earth be blessed. Right, nice covenant. Right,
[9:34] Speaker 3: So it did like a hell of a blessing all
[9:35] Speaker 3: of us. Apparently, great nap. I mean, you're gonna take
[9:38] Speaker 3: a nap and get a blessing for everybody. Yeah, he
[9:41] Speaker 3: didn't even have to crucify himself. He just had to
[9:43] Speaker 3: sleep with the hat on a pillow. Now you're starting
[9:45] Speaker 3: to get the rock. And it had a whole mess
[9:47] Speaker 3: of holy math to drop in this dude's path. Right,
[9:49] Speaker 3: he's just got this wand he's just a wandering desert patriarch,
[9:52] Speaker 3: and he's got God telling them all this stuff. He's
[9:53] Speaker 3: got two way escalator. And God's not done with the blessings, Elizabeth,
[9:58] Speaker 3: because the Alpha of the Omega. He lays the new
[10:00] Speaker 3: rap on Jacob. He says, and behold, I am with THEE,
[10:03] Speaker 3: and we'll keep THEE worthever thou goest, and we'll bring
[10:07] Speaker 3: THEE back into this land. And for I will not
[10:10] Speaker 3: leave THEE until I have done that which I have
[10:13] Speaker 3: spoken to THEE of. So like God's like, man, I
[10:16] Speaker 3: ain't gonna split on you till you do that thing
[10:18] Speaker 3: we talked about right. Hey, come on, man, you know
[10:20] Speaker 3: what the guy now, boom, It's all said and done.
[10:23] Speaker 3: Jacob pops back awake. Right. He looks around the desert
[10:25] Speaker 3: and he's like, whoa, that was mad trippy man, it
[10:27] Speaker 3: was some biblical stuff. Now, God was talking to me,
[10:29] Speaker 3: little old me. I can't believe this is like God's
[10:32] Speaker 3: elevator lobby. This place is legit. I gotta mark this
[10:35] Speaker 3: right so or as he put it in the Bible,
[10:37] Speaker 3: how full of awe is this place? This is none
[10:40] Speaker 3: other than the House of God. And this is the
[10:42] Speaker 3: gate of heaven. So he decides, I'm gonna mark the
[10:45] Speaker 3: gate of heaven. So he's also he's on the whole
[10:47] Speaker 3: new energy at this point. So he says to himself
[10:49] Speaker 3: and to God, bet you got a deal, son, and
[10:52] Speaker 3: you know what to mark this illustrious moment. I'm gonna
[10:54] Speaker 3: build you a town God. So he gets up, makes
[10:57] Speaker 3: himself some desert biscuits or whatever. He gets to work.
[11:00] Speaker 3: He starts with that stone that he laid his head
[11:02] Speaker 3: on his pillow, if you will, right, and he pulls
[11:05] Speaker 3: out some poetic license and he decides to hew the
[11:08] Speaker 3: rock from the earth and direct it as a pillar
[11:11] Speaker 3: pillow to pillar.
[11:13] Speaker 2: Because if you say pillar, yes exactly, it sounds like
[11:17] Speaker 2: you're from the South California. Pillow and pillar Californians. Yeah,
[11:23] Speaker 2: they were just lazy mountain. But pillar could also be
[11:26] Speaker 2: like an Australian pillar.
[11:28] Speaker 3: It's a pillar, So my pillar, pillar, my pillar.
[11:32] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[11:33] Speaker 3: So he anoints his pillar with oil, right, and he
[11:36] Speaker 3: names the place of the holy pillar the town of
[11:39] Speaker 3: Bethel or Bethelhem. So that's how Jacob's pillow becomes Jacob's
[11:43] Speaker 3: pillar and why the rock is so darn special. Also,
[11:46] Speaker 3: it's related up to say, told you Jacob's ladder, so
[11:48] Speaker 3: blessings all humanity and thus it becomes known as the
[11:52] Speaker 3: Stone of destinies?
[11:53] Speaker 2: Is that the Rock of Ages?
[11:55] Speaker 3: No different rocket? Now when did this holy rock become
[11:58] Speaker 3: the Stone of Scone? According to religious scholars, the stone
[12:01] Speaker 3: traveled around the Holy Island for a little while, gets
[12:04] Speaker 3: taken to Egypt, later to Sicily, then on to Spain,
[12:07] Speaker 3: where it eventually gets taken to Ireland around like we're
[12:09] Speaker 3: now seven hundred BCE.
[12:11] Speaker 2: Wait, yes, so this is not Romans.
[12:17] Speaker 3: Yeah. So it was said to be a gift from
[12:19] Speaker 3: the people of Judah to the old Celts of Ireland,
[12:22] Speaker 3: and they were cool like that.
[12:23] Speaker 2: They're like, we're not short on rocks here, We'll take it.
[12:27] Speaker 2: It looks the.
[12:28] Speaker 3: Story I found is the biblical prophet Jeremiah brought to
[12:32] Speaker 3: Tephi or Tepi, the daughter of the king Zedekiah, to
[12:35] Speaker 3: Ireland to marry the celt king who was there, and
[12:38] Speaker 3: to merge them into the lion of the House of
[12:40] Speaker 3: Judah and Zerite, right, the royal line of Israel at
[12:43] Speaker 3: the time. So the stone gets brought to mark this
[12:46] Speaker 3: marriage of the two cultures. Jacob's pillar is erected high
[12:49] Speaker 3: on the Hill of Tera in Ireland, like you know,
[12:52] Speaker 3: that's where they where they crowned their kings. The ancient
[12:55] Speaker 3: kings of Ireland are all crowned there, sure, right, Ireland
[12:58] Speaker 3: used to be called the Land of ar Yeah. Right, So, Elizabeth,
[13:02] Speaker 3: none of what I just told you about the stone's
[13:03] Speaker 3: journey is accepted. Fact.
[13:05] Speaker 2: I thought you were going to say none of it's true,
[13:06] Speaker 2: But it's not accepted.
[13:07] Speaker 3: No, it's that's the legend I thought you were No,
[13:11] Speaker 3: I couldn't make that up.
[13:12] Speaker 2: That's too legend.
[13:14] Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's important to understand just how heavy this
[13:16] Speaker 3: rock is weighted with meaning symbolism so forth. But what
[13:19] Speaker 3: do we actually factually know to be true about the
[13:21] Speaker 3: Stone of Destiny? According to modern science, the stone of
[13:25] Speaker 3: Scone is from Scotland. We know that because it's a sandstone,
[13:28] Speaker 3: and if it was Jacob's pillow slash Pella, it would
[13:31] Speaker 3: be limestone.
[13:32] Speaker 2: Okay, Because I was wondering, like you know, with what's
[13:36] Speaker 2: it called Stonehenge, they've done, like they analyzed the rock
[13:39] Speaker 2: to figure from where it came from. So I figured
[13:42] Speaker 2: they must have done that with the old Stone.
[13:46] Speaker 3: Exactly as best as they did. They figured out that
[13:48] Speaker 3: they know what type of stone it is. They do
[13:51] Speaker 3: not know where it was Qurey they still do not know,
[13:52] Speaker 3: but they do know what type of stone it was.
[13:54] Speaker 3: They go, if it was this one, it had to
[13:55] Speaker 3: be limestone. So clearly it's not. It's a very simple
[13:58] Speaker 3: fail say test.
[13:58] Speaker 2: They should look into that or tell them I did.
[14:02] Speaker 3: And and in fact, you know, Elizabeth, what do I
[14:05] Speaker 3: know about rocks? I'm like my girl Barbar Streisan in
[14:08] Speaker 3: what's up?
[14:09] Speaker 4: Dog?
[14:10] Speaker 3: Like, I couldn't tell you an igneous rock formation from
[14:13] Speaker 3: a metamorphic or a sedimentary rock formation.
[14:16] Speaker 2: I feel like you could, though.
[14:17] Speaker 3: As my girl Barb says, and I quote, I can
[14:20] Speaker 3: take the Igneus rocks to leave them. I relate primarily
[14:23] Speaker 3: to MICUs quartz feldspar you can keep your pyro scenes,
[14:27] Speaker 3: magnetites and corp plutonics as far as I'm concerned. So anyway,
[14:31] Speaker 3: great film. What's up, doc, You gotta check it. It's
[14:33] Speaker 3: a classic. I recommend it to everybody, Elizabeth. You know
[14:36] Speaker 3: who should listen to? British archaeologist David Breese. Oh totally, yeah,
[14:40] Speaker 3: my man, easy breeze. He co authored the book The
[14:43] Speaker 3: Stone of Destiny, Artifact and Icon, and he pointed out
[14:47] Speaker 3: that the bedrock fun fact about the stone that it's
[14:49] Speaker 3: had to be limestone if it was in the Holy
[14:51] Speaker 3: Land since it's sandstone. Not that right.
[14:53] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[14:54] Speaker 3: So anyway, actually this rock of Jacob's abuses a pillar
[14:57] Speaker 3: must still be there, who knows. But what do we
[15:00] Speaker 3: know about the Stone of Destiny. Well, around eight forty CE,
[15:03] Speaker 3: a cat named Kenneth McAlpin do you know him, Yeah,
[15:07] Speaker 3: conquered the Picks, the ancient tribe in Ireland, Scotland. He
[15:10] Speaker 3: seizes the stone from an abbey in Iona, It's an
[15:13] Speaker 3: island in the Hebrides. He takes it as his prize,
[15:15] Speaker 3: carries it off to the village of Scone and what
[15:18] Speaker 3: we would think of as Scotland, but it didn't exist yet,
[15:20] Speaker 3: because this dude basically founded Scotland. Yes, that's why the
[15:24] Speaker 3: Stone of Scone is so key to Scottish identity. And
[15:26] Speaker 3: the first kings bring it. They coronate themselves or crown
[15:29] Speaker 3: themselves rather there on this stone. Right. So, as the
[15:32] Speaker 3: conqueror of the picks the first king of Scotland, this dude,
[15:34] Speaker 3: Kenneth McAlpin, he goes on, He fights the Britons, he
[15:37] Speaker 3: battles the Vikings, the Danes, builds this legend for himself. Right. Meanwhile,
[15:41] Speaker 3: his kingdom becomes known as the Kingdom of Scone or Sconiana,
[15:46] Speaker 3: and later on Scotland. So according to Walter Scott, Sir
[15:51] Speaker 3: Walter Scott, there was a piece of metal attached to
[15:54] Speaker 3: the stone that held a prophecy.
[15:56] Speaker 2: Yeah that I have a vague recollection of it.
[15:58] Speaker 3: Yeah, the prophecy is, and I quote, unless the fates
[16:02] Speaker 3: be faulty, grown and prophet's voice be vain, where er
[16:06] Speaker 3: has found this sacred stone, the Scottish race shall rain
[16:10] Speaker 3: all right, right, But as you probably know, you can't
[16:12] Speaker 3: trust everything you read on an ancient rock.
[16:14] Speaker 2: Well, I mean, come on though, nine times out of.
[16:17] Speaker 3: Ten, nine times, well, twelve ninety six. This English dude,
[16:20] Speaker 3: a king comes up to Scotland, kicks all kinds of
[16:22] Speaker 3: brave heart ass. He tortures, kills his way to victory,
[16:25] Speaker 3: celebrates by stealing the Stone of Scone. Yeah, that dude,
[16:28] Speaker 3: the Englishman, King Edward long shanks. Yeah, he beats the
[16:32] Speaker 3: beat up mel gifts in real bad.
[16:33] Speaker 2: His shanks were so long, the.
[16:35] Speaker 3: Longest you'd ever seen, like long. Yeah. People, they attached
[16:38] Speaker 3: it to his name.
[16:39] Speaker 2: They're like, you've seen that man shinks his shanks like
[16:41] Speaker 2: does That's like.
[16:42] Speaker 3: There's eighty long shanks.
[16:44] Speaker 2: There's something wrong with him.
[16:46] Speaker 3: So long they never really stopped growing. No, So King
[16:49] Speaker 3: Edward he has his man cart the Stone of Scone
[16:51] Speaker 3: back to England and he's like, hey, cute rock. Think
[16:53] Speaker 3: it would be perfect from my butt now?
[16:55] Speaker 2: And they're like, you're a medical oddity, because how are
[16:58] Speaker 2: we going to put your shanks.
[16:59] Speaker 3: On this for so long? We need a longer rock.
[17:01] Speaker 2: This is gone way down the road. We're talking like
[17:04] Speaker 2: twenty thirty meters.
[17:05] Speaker 3: Seriously, I think this could be a good seat for
[17:07] Speaker 3: my shanks, So Elizabeth, they called seats for king's thrones,
[17:11] Speaker 3: as you know. So that's what they did. They turned
[17:13] Speaker 3: the Stone of Scone into a throne fit for a
[17:15] Speaker 3: long shanked king. And they called this the coronation chair.
[17:19] Speaker 2: Okay, there it is, and they.
[17:20] Speaker 3: Kept it at Westminster Abbey. It's this high backed chair
[17:22] Speaker 3: built of twisted oak. The seat is built to rest
[17:25] Speaker 3: upon the Stone of Scone. That way the king can
[17:27] Speaker 3: sit us behind on top of the holy sky Rock.
[17:31] Speaker 2: Gotta pitch Cooper.
[17:32] Speaker 3: He may not realize, but if you saw the Stone
[17:34] Speaker 3: of Scone and the coronation chair recently, you did. Yeah.
[17:37] Speaker 3: Remember when King Charles the Third succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth,
[17:41] Speaker 3: and he was named the new King of Great Britain.
[17:43] Speaker 3: Well they put him in that special tent right like
[17:45] Speaker 3: they use it as track they put.
[17:47] Speaker 2: Horses down great Yeah, or like at a football game,
[17:51] Speaker 2: we want to show this guy crazy tramadol and yeah,
[17:55] Speaker 2: I don't want anyone to know what we're doing to
[17:57] Speaker 2: this poor fellow. And he loops in and then they're
[17:59] Speaker 2: like and then he comes out and he's like, I
[18:02] Speaker 2: feel good them.
[18:03] Speaker 3: The Roger Goodell sauce exactly. There's DVDs of airbud in
[18:07] Speaker 3: there is what they go in. They're like, I need
[18:09] Speaker 3: to boosted up.
[18:10] Speaker 2: But didn't it the coronation of Charles, didn't they like
[18:13] Speaker 2: make him take his clothes off.
[18:14] Speaker 3: Yeah, they go and that's what he do and they
[18:16] Speaker 3: anointed him with oil. That's part of the process.
[18:18] Speaker 2: Of I watched the ceremony and I was like wondering
[18:21] Speaker 2: if camera angles would catch now like a little like
[18:25] Speaker 2: split between the fabric and might have to like see
[18:28] Speaker 2: his pastiness.
[18:29] Speaker 5: It's like.
[18:32] Speaker 3: It's just all back then, leg So he was sitting
[18:35] Speaker 3: there on the top of the Stone of Destiny when
[18:37] Speaker 3: he got crowned. That's the coronation share now, as you know,
[18:40] Speaker 3: dating back to the og Queen Elizabeth the first, Yeah,
[18:44] Speaker 3: she died with no heir, so the crown went to
[18:46] Speaker 3: King James the sixth of Scotland. He became King James
[18:49] Speaker 3: the First of England, or you would say King of
[18:51] Speaker 3: Great Britain. Possibly, it doesn't matter either way. He was
[18:54] Speaker 3: crowned on the Stone of Scone, just like King Charles
[18:57] Speaker 3: was right. So that's how the prophecy stayed true. Because
[19:00] Speaker 3: the current royal family is Scottish and so it has
[19:03] Speaker 3: been for centuries. Well essentially, it's true. Now, none of
[19:10] Speaker 3: this stopped a bunch of Scots from deciding that they
[19:12] Speaker 3: needed to drive down to England steal back the Stone
[19:16] Speaker 3: of Scone for Scotland. And so that's what they did
[19:19] Speaker 3: one Christmas Day that let's take a little break after
[19:23] Speaker 3: these messages. Elizabeth, we're gonna go lift that Stone of Scone. Yes, Elizabeth, Yeah,
[19:47] Speaker 3: we're back. You want to learn more about the Stone
[19:50] Speaker 3: of Destiny? I do, Okay, you're also ready to stick
[19:53] Speaker 3: it to the English always because it's time to steal
[19:56] Speaker 3: back the Stone of Scone. I don't mean us, but
[19:59] Speaker 3: I mean like it is four righteous Scotts who did
[20:02] Speaker 3: actually do it.
[20:03] Speaker 2: I love the Scots, I know you do, so I.
[20:06] Speaker 3: Wanted to tell you this.
[20:06] Speaker 2: Whatever they want, Merry Christmas, thank you.
[20:08] Speaker 3: The year was nineteen fifty and as I told you,
[20:10] Speaker 3: it was Christmas time, perfect time for a right year.
[20:13] Speaker 2: Oh great, I turned like seventy that years cool?
[20:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's about right. Sixty nine. Actually, the
[20:19] Speaker 3: four proud Scots were a twenty five year old Glasgow, Glasgow, Glasgow, Glasgow,
[20:24] Speaker 3: I always say it wrong, Glasgow student Glasgow University student
[20:28] Speaker 3: my alma mater.
[20:29] Speaker 2: Yes, as long as you don't say Glascow.
[20:33] Speaker 3: Why would I say that. I'm not say it though,
[20:35] Speaker 3: do they? They're worse than me? Wow, I didn't think
[20:38] Speaker 3: it was possible. Yes, yeah, Ian Hamilton. He's a twenty
[20:42] Speaker 3: five year old Glasgow Glasgow University student and his three
[20:45] Speaker 3: compatriots are a thirty seven year old school teacher Kay Matheson,
[20:49] Speaker 3: twenty five year old university student Gavin Vernon, and twenty
[20:52] Speaker 3: year old the university student Alan Stuart.
[20:55] Speaker 2: University of Glasgow is so beautiful, by the way.
[20:57] Speaker 3: You've told me about this, right, great medieval looking kind
[21:00] Speaker 3: of like studying in like a castle courtyard.
[21:02] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[21:04] Speaker 3: So I guess they got to talking at that beautiful
[21:06] Speaker 3: university and they decided they'd had it with those English
[21:08] Speaker 3: kings and queens sitting there behinds down on the stone
[21:11] Speaker 3: a scone. It was high time someone did something about it.
[21:14] Speaker 3: And it was meant to be a strike for Scottish
[21:16] Speaker 3: nationalism that right, And since it was Christmas time they
[21:20] Speaker 3: had some time off. Nice so they also had a
[21:22] Speaker 3: pair of old Ford cars, so I thought you'd like
[21:25] Speaker 3: that too. The model was called the Anglia for England, yeah,
[21:32] Speaker 3: or the UK. So Alan borrowed one of the cars
[21:34] Speaker 3: from his mom and they loaded up in the two
[21:36] Speaker 3: Ford Anglias and they headed down to England. They planned
[21:39] Speaker 3: to sneak into Westminster Abbey right before closing time, maybe
[21:42] Speaker 3: hide in a darkened corner and then pop out, and
[21:44] Speaker 3: then when everyone was gone church, pop out. Yes, the
[21:48] Speaker 3: plan failed because the night watchmen caught them before they
[21:51] Speaker 3: could pop out. They stained ignorance when they end and drunkenness, right,
[21:56] Speaker 3: and they just played on the Scottish stereotypes from the English.
[21:58] Speaker 3: They're like, no, no, we're just drunk college students and
[22:01] Speaker 3: so who've been locked inside. We're also kind of daft
[22:03] Speaker 3: and you know, looking for a way out and the guys, oh,
[22:05] Speaker 3: it's right over here. So the night watchman, he goes
[22:08] Speaker 3: for their story, shows them the way out. Okay, you
[22:10] Speaker 3: know generally he kicks them out in some ways. I
[22:12] Speaker 3: heard it. I don't know how nice he was about it,
[22:14] Speaker 3: but it got removed right. So now that may they
[22:17] Speaker 3: may have lost their first battle, Elizabeth, but being Scots,
[22:21] Speaker 3: they were prepared for the long fight exactly, Elizabeth. Would
[22:24] Speaker 3: you say that the Scottish culture ambuse a stubbornness in
[22:27] Speaker 3: the people.
[22:27] Speaker 2: Oh heavens, yes, because I know it's been reading this story.
[22:32] Speaker 3: They just kept creeping up from what people said, like
[22:34] Speaker 3: the commentary and then just their comments and then yes,
[22:37] Speaker 3: the Scottish leaders later on.
[22:39] Speaker 2: I mean, you sort of have to be if you
[22:41] Speaker 2: look at like the culture.
[22:42] Speaker 3: Like the weather is what I was looking at, Yeah,
[22:44] Speaker 3: and the weather.
[22:45] Speaker 2: You have to be tough and you have to be
[22:46] Speaker 2: stubborn because I mean, I'm not talking about it. Even
[22:49] Speaker 2: the Highlands is like ridiculous magnified version, but it's it's
[22:53] Speaker 2: on the same parallel as Moscow, and so it's like
[22:57] Speaker 2: gets it's in the wintertime, it gets very dark. That's
[23:00] Speaker 2: why everybody drinks because just like what else are you
[23:04] Speaker 2: going to do? And it's cold, the sun is forgotten.
[23:07] Speaker 2: But also they've been kind of they've been so like
[23:09] Speaker 2: pushed around, and there is there's a stubbornness to it
[23:13] Speaker 2: because you know what, the Romans they never made it
[23:15] Speaker 2: all the way up there, forget Scott's heel the line
[23:19] Speaker 2: and so but they're also some of the funniest.
[23:23] Speaker 3: Part of the stubborn culture is the humor of like
[23:26] Speaker 3: we're going to get along by laughing.
[23:28] Speaker 2: Like so clever and so funny and so just like
[23:30] Speaker 2: different than the Irish but completely completely a lot of
[23:35] Speaker 2: like wordplay. But also it's like Glasgow in particular has
[23:40] Speaker 2: a reputation for being so rough and violent and at
[23:43] Speaker 2: the same time and yeah, I mean there is, but like,
[23:46] Speaker 2: come on, I'm from Oakland. It didn't shake me, like
[23:49] Speaker 2: the people just I was just overwhelmed the whole time
[23:52] Speaker 2: with just how really lovely people were that I met.
[23:54] Speaker 3: Interesting, Well, these four Scots.
[23:57] Speaker 2: This this is like this kind of feistiness and like
[24:00] Speaker 2: the stubbornness, the feistiness of it and the like rascalism.
[24:04] Speaker 3: That's why am I thought you'd appreciate this. So the
[24:06] Speaker 3: next night, these stubborn Scott's, four proud Scotts, they go
[24:09] Speaker 3: back to Westminster Abbey. Let's try it again. So this
[24:12] Speaker 3: next night, it's Christmas Eve, So the thieves they wait
[24:15] Speaker 3: till like three thirty am, so that the night watchman
[24:18] Speaker 3: is drowsy, possibly napping, you know, maybe a little eggnog drunk.
[24:22] Speaker 3: This also means, you know, because it's early Christmas morning
[24:24] Speaker 3: when the thieves struck that hopefully no one else will
[24:26] Speaker 3: be out. Yeah, it'll just be silent.
[24:28] Speaker 2: So but aren't they prepping for like masks?
[24:32] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they would be, I mean, but not
[24:34] Speaker 3: at this at thirty in the morning. Yeah, come like
[24:37] Speaker 3: five am.
[24:37] Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, people are going to be in there.
[24:39] Speaker 3: They'll be showing up exactly, you know, exactly getting out
[24:42] Speaker 3: the rags on the on those handles for the doors.
[24:45] Speaker 3: Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon, Alan Stewart right, sneak into Poets
[24:49] Speaker 3: Corner in Westminster Abbey if you know it. Meanwhile, k
[24:51] Speaker 3: Mathieson stays behind in one of the cars in the
[24:54] Speaker 3: palace yard parked in the it's like a lane behind
[24:57] Speaker 3: Westminster Abbey, right. The other car was parked kind of
[24:59] Speaker 3: near by, So the three guys they break down the
[25:02] Speaker 3: door to get into Westminster Abbey. The sound is so
[25:04] Speaker 3: much louder than anyone expects. In fact, Kate could hear
[25:07] Speaker 3: it in the car where she was parked, so she
[25:10] Speaker 3: grips the wheel, hoping like hell that they are all
[25:12] Speaker 3: about to ruin their young lives. Sure, but no one,
[25:15] Speaker 3: no guard, no watchman comes running. Nothing happens, and then
[25:17] Speaker 3: the quiet of the night returns. So the three guys
[25:20] Speaker 3: they sneak into the Chapel of Edward the Confessor, right,
[25:23] Speaker 3: and this is an English king who predated Edward the
[25:26] Speaker 3: First by a couple of centuries. I had to look
[25:27] Speaker 3: this all up.
[25:28] Speaker 2: So Edward the First really wasn't the first exactly.
[25:31] Speaker 3: This is my point, Elizabeth englishmen, he's like the other.
[25:35] Speaker 2: I have something to confess. I actually Edward whatever.
[25:39] Speaker 3: I had to give it up though, to all my
[25:42] Speaker 3: friends who are English who I realized that they know
[25:44] Speaker 3: all these kings and queens by line. They know like
[25:47] Speaker 3: a thousand years.
[25:49] Speaker 2: It is so aggressive. Yeah, how they know all of
[25:52] Speaker 2: the royal lineage? Yes, and then it kind of makes
[25:55] Speaker 2: me think about how like all these other countries they
[25:58] Speaker 2: have all this deep knowledge. They all speak multiple languages.
[26:02] Speaker 3: Oh my god, we're here.
[26:03] Speaker 2: We're like, who's my governor?
[26:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, they couldn't tell you who with the
[26:07] Speaker 3: president in eighteen eighty No.
[26:09] Speaker 2: No, So the three anyway.
[26:11] Speaker 3: These three well educated cushman they're they're in there in
[26:15] Speaker 3: the chapel of Edward the Confessor. And it turns out
[26:18] Speaker 3: the Edward the First, as one of I told you earlier,
[26:21] Speaker 3: he's also in this place. He's there, Edward Long, he's dead,
[26:24] Speaker 3: he's dead, but he's buried. His tomb is there with
[26:27] Speaker 3: Edward the Confessor's chapel, right, just to make things more amazing.
[26:31] Speaker 2: For me, bigger for his shanks. Of course, it's an
[26:33] Speaker 2: extra long long it's a separate shank.
[26:38] Speaker 3: So they sneak past his extra long tomb and they
[26:41] Speaker 3: make it over to the coronation chair. And to get
[26:44] Speaker 3: to the stone of scumb they were going to have
[26:46] Speaker 3: to break through the coronation chair, which they do. What
[26:50] Speaker 3: they managed to get to the stone. And keep in
[26:52] Speaker 3: mind the stone weighs three hundred and thirty five pounds,
[26:55] Speaker 3: So to put that in perspective, Elizabeth in his prime,
[26:57] Speaker 3: Shaquille O'Neil weighed three hundred and twenty five pounds. These
[27:00] Speaker 3: guys are trying to move a full size to kill
[27:03] Speaker 3: O'Neal plus ten pounds.
[27:04] Speaker 2: Wish you would have put it into Bojackson.
[27:06] Speaker 3: I was going to, but it would have been one
[27:07] Speaker 3: and a half Bojackson.
[27:08] Speaker 2: Oh what okay, So that's it's always easier for me
[27:11] Speaker 2: to midd go one and half Bojacks. So one and
[27:13] Speaker 2: a half and then once full sized, full sized shack.
[27:15] Speaker 3: Yeah plus ten pounds. Yeah. Yeah. So they managed to
[27:19] Speaker 3: get this up and out of the coronation.
[27:21] Speaker 2: Kill plus simone biles. She's ten pounds. It's a tiny So.
[27:26] Speaker 3: One of the thieves Ian he places his jacket on
[27:29] Speaker 3: the ground and they put the Stone of Destiny on
[27:30] Speaker 3: top of it to sort of like slide it out
[27:32] Speaker 3: of Westminster. Rabbit right, super smart. But the stone of
[27:35] Speaker 3: Stone is chained in place, so the guys have to
[27:37] Speaker 3: yank hard to break the chain, and they managed to
[27:40] Speaker 3: snap the chain, but the stone drops and breaks.
[27:43] Speaker 2: They broke.
[27:44] Speaker 3: They broke the Stone of Destiny.
[27:46] Speaker 2: They lifted it.
[27:47] Speaker 3: Yeah, well they broke into I guess they lift it
[27:50] Speaker 3: and they're fighting with it, and then when they drop it,
[27:52] Speaker 3: it breaks into two pieces. So now there's two stones
[27:55] Speaker 3: of Destiny.
[27:56] Speaker 2: Right down where the butt crack would go.
[27:58] Speaker 3: Yeah, the butt did it. So everyone's freaked out by
[28:01] Speaker 3: this because ye know, what are you gonna do with
[28:02] Speaker 3: a stone of Scone and a stone of destiny? Carry
[28:05] Speaker 3: totally Ian calmness of the three. He remembered that a
[28:08] Speaker 3: tour guide said that the Stone of Scone had once
[28:10] Speaker 3: been damaged by bombing by a suffragette, so he figures
[28:14] Speaker 3: that's why it shattered it too so easily, so he
[28:16] Speaker 3: keeps his calm, right, He's like, okay, what are we
[28:17] Speaker 3: gonna do now? Well, for one, you know, as you
[28:19] Speaker 3: pointed out, two stones are easier and more manageable, like
[28:22] Speaker 3: two smaller stones and one big one, yeah, and one
[28:25] Speaker 3: that's awkward to carry, so there's at least that. So
[28:27] Speaker 3: Ian he scoops up the smaller piece of the Stone
[28:29] Speaker 3: of Destiny, weighs about ninety pounds, and he just takes
[28:32] Speaker 3: off running gon nice. The other two are like, oh, way,
[28:34] Speaker 3: where's he going? Right, So, as he's cradling it like
[28:37] Speaker 3: a rugby ball, that's what it asked how he described it,
[28:40] Speaker 3: makes his dash through the door, boom out the door.
[28:42] Speaker 3: The other two, Gavin and Allen, are like hmm. Now
[28:46] Speaker 3: they're looking at the heavier piece. They're looking at each other,
[28:48] Speaker 3: they look at stone, they look at each other all right,
[28:51] Speaker 3: and they don't know what to do, so they just leave.
[28:54] Speaker 3: It is like they left. Yeah, they're over at Elizabeth.
[28:57] Speaker 3: So they break out of Westminster Abbey and and yeah.
[29:01] Speaker 2: So he took like a third of Shaquille O'Neill and
[29:03] Speaker 2: ran and then they left the torso in the leg
[29:06] Speaker 2: a third of.
[29:07] Speaker 3: Bo Jackson really because two forty at bo Jackson. Ye
[29:09] Speaker 3: a little more.
[29:11] Speaker 2: Than yeah third, Yeah, Okay.
[29:13] Speaker 3: So these guys at this point, they all still need
[29:15] Speaker 3: to get away no matter what they're doing. And as
[29:17] Speaker 3: we've seen in time and time again, that's the harder part.
[29:19] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[29:20] Speaker 3: So Ian running like a like a rugby wing back.
[29:23] Speaker 3: He makes it to k Mathison at where she's parked
[29:25] Speaker 3: and waiting in the car. He opens the trunk of
[29:27] Speaker 3: the Ford Anglia and he drops in the ninety pounds stone,
[29:31] Speaker 3: the half of the Stone of Destiny. But he's not
[29:33] Speaker 3: safe yet because trouble is about to walk right up
[29:36] Speaker 3: on him like bad weather, like a London fog. Right,
[29:38] Speaker 3: I'd take you there, Elizabeth. I'd like you to close
[29:40] Speaker 3: your eyes.
[29:41] Speaker 2: My eyes a closed, and.
[29:42] Speaker 3: I'd like you to picture it. It's around three thirty
[29:47] Speaker 3: am on Christmas morning. Their air is cold against your cheeks.
[29:51] Speaker 3: The wind is a breeze that helps chill your skin.
[29:54] Speaker 3: But yet all is quiet and still. At the moment.
[29:57] Speaker 3: You are a British beat cop, one who must have
[30:00] Speaker 3: off as a signing commander because you're walking the bead
[30:02] Speaker 3: on Christmas morning, and then you hear a trunk close.
[30:05] Speaker 3: That's odd. You walk towards the direction of the noise,
[30:09] Speaker 3: and when you push into a clearing that gives you
[30:11] Speaker 3: a clear vantage, you spot the reason for your police presence.
[30:14] Speaker 3: There's a car parked close to Westminster Abbey, which alone
[30:18] Speaker 3: is suspicious. It's even more suspicious because you spot movement
[30:22] Speaker 3: in the car. You walk over to see what all
[30:24] Speaker 3: the commotion is about at this strange hour on Christmas morning.
[30:28] Speaker 3: What you don't see is what's going on inside the car.
[30:32] Speaker 3: What you can't see is the young colleged age couple
[30:35] Speaker 3: in the car. But they have seen you, and they
[30:38] Speaker 3: work to secret away a small section of the broken
[30:40] Speaker 3: stone of Scone. Ian Hamilton reaches back and drapes a
[30:44] Speaker 3: blanket over the stone of Destiny. Then he turns back
[30:46] Speaker 3: to Kay in whispers he has a plan kiss me.
[30:50] Speaker 3: By the time you reach the park car, the windows
[30:53] Speaker 3: are begun to steam over, but inside you can see
[30:55] Speaker 3: a young couple and they are in the heat of passion.
[30:57] Speaker 3: Their neck and like kids, would you pull out your
[31:00] Speaker 3: billy club and tap the glass? The couple is startled.
[31:03] Speaker 3: The man turns, rolls down his passenger side window. He
[31:07] Speaker 3: greets you and asks what the trouble is. His Scottish
[31:09] Speaker 3: accent sticks out to your English ears. The couple is nervous,
[31:14] Speaker 3: but you're used to people being nervous in your presence.
[31:16] Speaker 3: It's an occupational hazard of being a bobby. You even
[31:19] Speaker 3: make your neighbors nervous. When you come home. You ask
[31:22] Speaker 3: the couple what they're doing parked in a car near
[31:24] Speaker 3: Westminster Abbey in the middle of the night on Christmas morning.
[31:27] Speaker 3: I mean, besides the obvious, this elicits a nervous laugh
[31:30] Speaker 3: from the kids. The canoodling couple explains to you that
[31:33] Speaker 3: they drove down for Scotland for the holidays. Now bored
[31:37] Speaker 3: and lonesome as you are walking the beat, you chat
[31:39] Speaker 3: up the kids a moment. You ask how they're enjoying London.
[31:42] Speaker 3: After a polite little exchange with the kids, you tell
[31:45] Speaker 3: the couple they can't stay there and they need to
[31:47] Speaker 3: find a new place to rest before sun up. They agree,
[31:50] Speaker 3: and you walk off, satisfied you've done your job, with
[31:53] Speaker 3: no winkling that you just spoke with two of the
[31:55] Speaker 3: amateur criminals who just stole the stone of destiny. As
[31:58] Speaker 3: you stroll away whistling to yourself, Kay starts the car.
[32:02] Speaker 3: You hear the engine turn over. Good, they're leaving. What
[32:05] Speaker 3: you don't hear is Ian telling her to wait a moment.
[32:08] Speaker 3: He feels around and finds he's lost the key to
[32:10] Speaker 3: the other car. He must have dropped them back inside
[32:13] Speaker 3: Westminster Abbey. Ian tells Kay he'll go back, but she
[32:17] Speaker 3: should drive off and safeguard the smaller section of the
[32:20] Speaker 3: broken Stone of Destiny. Ian pops open his car door,
[32:23] Speaker 3: steps out, and shuts it behind him as quietly as
[32:25] Speaker 3: he can. Kay barely waits for it to close before
[32:29] Speaker 3: she hits the accelerator and drives her Ford Anglia away
[32:32] Speaker 3: from the scene of the crime. Meanwhile, Ian Hamilton hot
[32:35] Speaker 3: foots it back to Westminster Abbey as Christmas morning is
[32:37] Speaker 3: about to dawn over the land.
[32:40] Speaker 2: Can I just say thank you for giving me such
[32:42] Speaker 2: a delightful picture it?
[32:44] Speaker 3: Oh, you're welcome, and.
[32:45] Speaker 2: It's not your It seems like you've gone off list.
[32:50] Speaker 3: I found I owed you a nice one. Yeah. You
[32:53] Speaker 3: weren't a creature or an impulse a demonic forces. Yeah.
[32:59] Speaker 3: I didn't make you do anything terrible this time or
[33:02] Speaker 3: picture anything terrible. In fact, you were kind even in
[33:04] Speaker 3: the present.
[33:05] Speaker 2: Love that, Yeah, I love that.
[33:06] Speaker 3: So at this point, Kay, she escapes the scene right
[33:08] Speaker 3: with the smaller chunk of the Stone of Destiny. She
[33:10] Speaker 3: drives off. This leaves Ian, Gavin and Allen at the
[33:12] Speaker 3: scene of the crime. After Ian had he took off
[33:15] Speaker 3: like a rugby halfback his friends and comrades. They assumed
[33:18] Speaker 3: he ditched them, right, he's oh that guy. But they're
[33:21] Speaker 3: stuck with that heavier section to carry, and they're growing
[33:23] Speaker 3: convinced that they're now about to get caught, and they
[33:25] Speaker 3: don't know quite what to do because they don't have
[33:27] Speaker 3: the keys to the car. The other two decided and
[33:29] Speaker 3: I told you to leave the stone as going behind.
[33:31] Speaker 3: They just walk away. So Gavin and Allen split, and
[33:34] Speaker 3: if they would have made it to the other car,
[33:36] Speaker 3: they would have discovered that neither of them had the keys,
[33:38] Speaker 3: because they're fairly certain, but they aren't exactly sartin. They
[33:41] Speaker 3: just want to cut right, so they leave before they
[33:42] Speaker 3: know if they have the keys or not, and if
[33:44] Speaker 3: they get to the car they'd find out they do not. Anyway,
[33:46] Speaker 3: doesn't matter, because Ian is on the spot. He rushes
[33:49] Speaker 3: back inside Westminster Abbey. He makes it back without getting
[33:52] Speaker 3: caught or spotted by the night watchman. He gropes in
[33:55] Speaker 3: the dark for the keys. He lights matches like hoping
[33:57] Speaker 3: to spot them. Nothing. Then he's like, darn it, it's
[34:00] Speaker 3: on his way out. He steps on something sharp and
[34:03] Speaker 3: he's like, what the you guessed Elizabeth? The keys? He
[34:06] Speaker 3: steps on the car keys. So now he has the keys.
[34:08] Speaker 3: He's like, well, should I go back for the Stone
[34:10] Speaker 3: of Destiny?
[34:11] Speaker 2: Yes?
[34:11] Speaker 3: The dude has no quid in him, stubborn as a goat.
[34:15] Speaker 3: Right love this, So this is his move. Using his jacket,
[34:19] Speaker 3: Ian Hamilton grabs both arms and he tries to drag
[34:22] Speaker 3: the now two hundred and forty five pound chunk of
[34:24] Speaker 3: the Stone of Scone out of Westminster Abby by himself. Yes,
[34:29] Speaker 3: and somehow he muscles this stone to the door. Then
[34:32] Speaker 3: he muscles it up and heps it up onto his
[34:34] Speaker 3: shoulder because he carries it to the second car that's
[34:37] Speaker 3: parked nearby pounds by himself.
[34:40] Speaker 2: This is like some Highland games.
[34:42] Speaker 3: See this is what I'm telling you. He then drops
[34:44] Speaker 3: the second half of the stone into the trunk. Ian's alone.
[34:47] Speaker 3: He's done, and he's got the keys. This crew of
[34:49] Speaker 3: amateur thieves have just successfully stolen both halves of the
[34:53] Speaker 3: Stone of Destiny from the British royal family. Ian sticks
[34:56] Speaker 3: the keys in the car ignition and the car does
[34:59] Speaker 3: start right up. He pilots his ride away from Westminster
[35:03] Speaker 3: Abbey just as the purple light of dawn breaks on
[35:06] Speaker 3: Christmas morning. And who does he spot walking along Old
[35:10] Speaker 3: Kent Road? Allan and Gavin. Remember I said no one's out,
[35:15] Speaker 3: it's his buddies.
[35:16] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[35:16] Speaker 3: Ian pulls over, Hey, boys, you need a ride. And
[35:19] Speaker 3: one problem with that though the stone scone is doesn't
[35:21] Speaker 3: allow them enough room for all three of them to
[35:23] Speaker 3: be in the old angler, right, So Ian designs Allan
[35:26] Speaker 3: you come with me, Gavin you stay behind, arrange your
[35:28] Speaker 3: own ride home. Gavin's like, all right, makes man, so
[35:30] Speaker 3: he agrees to it. Right. So they decide, well, we'll
[35:33] Speaker 3: get going, but we can't cross the border because as
[35:35] Speaker 3: soon as news breaks are gonna look for Scott's they
[35:37] Speaker 3: to know that Scott's who did it. So they decide
[35:39] Speaker 3: they'll take the stolen Royal rock and they pull over
[35:42] Speaker 3: in Kent and they in a nearby town called Rochester
[35:44] Speaker 3: and there they bury it, right, they draw map bury
[35:47] Speaker 3: it where Yeah, they've draw mapp to where they hit
[35:50] Speaker 3: it like a pirate's treasure bat.
[35:52] Speaker 2: And where's an old girl with the she's gone.
[35:56] Speaker 3: I'll tell you where she was in a.
[35:57] Speaker 2: Second, because I was saying, like, they need a gorilla
[35:59] Speaker 2: glue it together before they do anything more.
[36:02] Speaker 3: Yes, totally. Well, at this point they take the heavy
[36:05] Speaker 3: half and they they draw the map of where they
[36:07] Speaker 3: hit it, and then they send that map two friends
[36:10] Speaker 3: college friends in Glasgow. So now they drive home to
[36:13] Speaker 3: Scotland without the Stone of scone. Meanwhile, k took the
[36:16] Speaker 3: other piece to a friend's house in Birmingham. You know
[36:18] Speaker 3: peky blinders, right, So she hides it in a garage there.
[36:21] Speaker 3: Then she drives back over the border to Scotland. Ye, now, Elizabeth.
[36:25] Speaker 3: When the night watchman finally discovers the break in and
[36:27] Speaker 3: alerts others, the press goes nuts. This is like it
[36:32] Speaker 3: was like stealing the Constitution practically right, So like a
[36:35] Speaker 3: blazing fire of media attentions let off Christmas morning for
[36:39] Speaker 3: the first time in over four hundred years, they close
[36:41] Speaker 3: the border between Scotland and England.
[36:43] Speaker 2: The first order of Baby immediately show people.
[36:46] Speaker 3: Who take it. They're like, this isn't the French. So
[36:49] Speaker 3: Scotland Yard goes to work. The Flying Squad is called
[36:53] Speaker 3: in the Metropolitan Police of London. They field detectives as
[36:56] Speaker 3: do the Scottish police are like, look, it's not us,
[36:59] Speaker 3: but we'll look.
[37:00] Speaker 2: Like you know how when when they all pretend to
[37:02] Speaker 2: look for something.
[37:04] Speaker 3: Exactly so that meanwhile the thieves they hide, they lay
[37:08] Speaker 3: low the feurer ERPs in the headlines. They're reading the papers,
[37:11] Speaker 3: chatting and laughing to each other. But Ian Hamilton is
[37:14] Speaker 3: worried about the Stone of scone like actual stone, what
[37:17] Speaker 3: about getting caught. He's worried about the stone because they
[37:20] Speaker 3: buried in the earth in the bleak midwinter, as one.
[37:23] Speaker 2: Might say that easy.
[37:24] Speaker 3: And Ian is concerned that the stone, which hadn't been
[37:27] Speaker 3: exposed to elements for like six hundred years, would be
[37:30] Speaker 3: compromised by being shoved into freezing cold earth. So a
[37:33] Speaker 3: week later New Year's Eve, Ian and Alan Stewart they
[37:35] Speaker 3: drive back down to where they hid the Stone of
[37:37] Speaker 3: Destiny in Kent, and they plan to dig it up
[37:40] Speaker 3: and move it. But when they get there there's a
[37:42] Speaker 3: camp site, as in a whole community like a caravans
[37:45] Speaker 3: traveler community. They were just camping right on top of
[37:47] Speaker 3: the Stone.
[37:48] Speaker 2: Of stone Stow winter camping exactly.
[37:51] Speaker 3: Oh, you're in on top of it. That'll come right off.
[37:54] Speaker 3: So they get a read of the travelers and they decide,
[37:57] Speaker 3: what the hell, what did they care about the queen? Right,
[37:59] Speaker 3: So they decided to dig up the Stone of Scone
[38:01] Speaker 3: right in front of them, and then they ask a
[38:02] Speaker 3: few of the travelers to help them carry it over
[38:04] Speaker 3: across the rough earth to their car.
[38:06] Speaker 2: The travelers traveler, yeah.
[38:09] Speaker 3: The travelers like, yeah, totally will help you. So for
[38:12] Speaker 3: a little bit of a quid there, yeah, they're on it.
[38:13] Speaker 3: They ship the Stone of Scone in the trunk. They
[38:15] Speaker 3: thank the travelers and off they go. Now they've stolen
[38:18] Speaker 3: the Stone of Destiny twice and so they get it
[38:21] Speaker 3: over the border. This time they take it to a
[38:23] Speaker 3: friend in Glasgow. They also arrange for k to bring
[38:26] Speaker 3: the other half to the same friend. These amateurs manage
[38:28] Speaker 3: all this sneaking and subterfuge without getting caught. The two
[38:31] Speaker 3: halves of the Stone of Scone are reunited and the
[38:34] Speaker 3: friend Elizabeth. His name is Bailey Robert Gray. Now he's
[38:38] Speaker 3: better known as Barty, but Barty as a stone mason.
[38:41] Speaker 3: So he's about to perform a magic trick and marry
[38:44] Speaker 3: the two halves of the Stone of Scone back together.
[38:46] Speaker 3: No gorilla glue, no gorilla groo. Wow, let's take a
[38:49] Speaker 3: little break and after these superstony ads, man, I'll tell
[38:51] Speaker 3: you how this crazy Christmas tale ends. All right, Elizabeth,
[39:15] Speaker 3: we're back.
[39:15] Speaker 2: We are back.
[39:16] Speaker 3: So where were we?
[39:18] Speaker 2: Okay? So you were going to tell me about how
[39:20] Speaker 2: this man magically reconnects a.
[39:24] Speaker 3: Broken married stone.
[39:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sandstone?
[39:27] Speaker 3: You sandstone? So that's yeah, it's an easier stone to
[39:30] Speaker 3: work with, right, but it's also difficult because it starts
[39:32] Speaker 3: to erode. I mean, like you can crumble it. So
[39:34] Speaker 3: then how you're gonna fuse those pieces together? Now you
[39:36] Speaker 3: gotta you get the idea Scottish magic. So, Elizabeth, do
[39:39] Speaker 3: you miss Glasgow sometimes they do? What do you miss
[39:42] Speaker 3: most about it?
[39:45] Speaker 2: I think I just I miss the the culture of
[39:49] Speaker 2: the city. Then you know, the activities that you can do,
[39:53] Speaker 2: the arts and stuff.
[39:55] Speaker 3: Is it cool? At Christmas time?
[39:56] Speaker 2: Everything shuts down for like two oh right.
[39:59] Speaker 3: You're telling me that, and then they you learned it
[40:00] Speaker 3: the hard way.
[40:01] Speaker 2: That I did. Well, someone told me like, hey, heads up, yeah,
[40:04] Speaker 2: be closed. So I went to the supermarket and I
[40:06] Speaker 2: got some stuff and then I was just hold up
[40:10] Speaker 2: in my flat the whole time, like watching a lot
[40:12] Speaker 2: of weird BBC Christmas program Do.
[40:14] Speaker 3: People go at Christmas caroling? Or they do like any
[40:16] Speaker 3: social public arts. It was interesting too.
[40:19] Speaker 2: Cold probably it was snowing that, you know when I
[40:21] Speaker 2: was here.
[40:22] Speaker 3: So that's the scene at this point, right, nobody's out,
[40:25] Speaker 3: nobody's doing anything. Everybody's locked up, and they're over there
[40:28] Speaker 3: hanging out with the stone Mason Birdie Gray. Yeah, right,
[40:30] Speaker 3: So what does he do to bring his magic to
[40:32] Speaker 3: this tale?
[40:34] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[40:35] Speaker 3: Well, Elizabeth, if you give a stone mason two pieces
[40:37] Speaker 3: of a legendary rock that you accidentally broke and you
[40:40] Speaker 3: don't want anyone to know it, and you go, can
[40:41] Speaker 3: you fix this, He's gonna look at you and he's
[40:43] Speaker 3: to say, yes, I can.
[40:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And he did.
[40:47] Speaker 3: He drilled a hole in each half of the Stone
[40:50] Speaker 3: of Destiny.
[40:50] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[40:51] Speaker 3: Then he drove a brass tube into the holes, and
[40:54] Speaker 3: then he used that to reunite the two halves, basically
[40:57] Speaker 3: screw tighten them back together. Sure, but the story goes
[41:00] Speaker 3: Bertie Gray secreted away a piece of paper inside the
[41:04] Speaker 3: brass too. What yes, So right, now there's some secret
[41:07] Speaker 3: like words only Bertie Gray knows because Bertie didn't tell
[41:12] Speaker 3: anyone what he wrote on the piece of paper, not
[41:13] Speaker 3: even Ian Hamilton, and like.
[41:15] Speaker 2: This is so divin she could totally and like a.
[41:18] Speaker 3: Real g he took the secret to his grave.
[41:20] Speaker 2: Wow.
[41:22] Speaker 3: So now the stone is Scone once again one stone.
[41:24] Speaker 3: The amateur thieves decide it's time for them to part
[41:26] Speaker 3: with the legendary rock, you know, so there are time's
[41:28] Speaker 3: over and done with this. We've done, We've made our
[41:30] Speaker 3: strike for Scottish nationalism. So they handed over to Scottish authorities,
[41:35] Speaker 3: but not the Scottish police. They handed over to the
[41:37] Speaker 3: Scottish Covenant Association, which is an organization working to establish
[41:41] Speaker 3: a Scottish Parliament as part of Scottish independence movement. Their
[41:45] Speaker 3: authorities and over to the guys.
[41:47] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[41:47] Speaker 3: So by this point the police they're kind of closing
[41:49] Speaker 3: in on Ian Hamilton.
[41:50] Speaker 2: Oh really?
[41:51] Speaker 3: Oh yeah. The Glasgow detective discovered that Ian had caught
[41:55] Speaker 3: a librarian's attention. Yes, because months prior to the break
[42:00] Speaker 3: and Ian took out every single book they had on
[42:03] Speaker 3: the Stone of Scone in the Mitchell Library. Yeah yeah, yeah,
[42:06] Speaker 3: so he went there and they were like it's a.
[42:08] Speaker 2: Little suss, yeah exactly.
[42:09] Speaker 3: So on the police. They never questioned Ian, though they
[42:12] Speaker 3: did end up questioning Gavin, but and he didn't break
[42:15] Speaker 3: He's like, I don't know anything, man, go kick rocks. Yes.
[42:18] Speaker 3: So at this point the Scottish Independence movement had moved
[42:21] Speaker 3: the Stone of Scone to an underneath the floorboards of
[42:23] Speaker 3: a local factory, right for safekeeping, in a town called
[42:26] Speaker 3: bonnie Bridge. So then it gets moved to I'm probably
[42:29] Speaker 3: gonna get this wrong, Cambus, Kenneth Abbey and a place
[42:32] Speaker 3: called Sterling.
[42:33] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, the Sterling is where the William Wallace
[42:38] Speaker 2: Ah stuff happened.
[42:39] Speaker 3: Okay, that makes a lot of sense. So the heat's
[42:41] Speaker 3: still on because you can't steal the throne of England
[42:44] Speaker 3: and think they'll be cool with it. Right, So the
[42:45] Speaker 3: counts of England and Scotland they're all over this theft,
[42:47] Speaker 3: but they still have no suspects and it's hard to
[42:49] Speaker 3: look bad. So the Scottish Covenant Association knows things are
[42:52] Speaker 3: gonna get worse. So but they're loving all this attention.
[42:55] Speaker 3: Right that the theft is brought to the Scottish independence
[42:57] Speaker 3: movement and the idea of home rule, because everybody's talking
[43:00] Speaker 3: about this is clearly about Scottish nationalism huzzah. And so
[43:04] Speaker 3: they feel there's at this point little left again. They
[43:06] Speaker 3: got the conversation going, so they return the Stone of Scone.
[43:09] Speaker 3: They secret away in the abbey at Arbroath. At Arbroath,
[43:14] Speaker 3: maybe not pronouncing it's arb Rath r Broth. I looked
[43:18] Speaker 3: up for for pronunciation. That's how it's us yeah Broth. Yeah.
[43:21] Speaker 3: So the great symbolism in that choice because back in
[43:24] Speaker 3: the days of your boy Eddie Longshanks in thirteen twenty
[43:27] Speaker 3: there have been a very famous statement of Scottish independence
[43:30] Speaker 3: made at this abbey, right, So they take it there
[43:33] Speaker 3: and they're like here, you go find it there and
[43:35] Speaker 3: they know that the symbolism will carry And so April
[43:37] Speaker 3: nineteen fifty one, a year and four months after they
[43:39] Speaker 3: first stole it, the stone gets recovered by authorities. It's
[43:43] Speaker 3: returned to Westminster Abbey, reinstalled in the coronation chair. The
[43:47] Speaker 3: chair is repaired just in time for Queen Elizabeth to
[43:50] Speaker 3: sit her behind down as the new Queen of Great Britain,
[43:53] Speaker 3: which takes place. Her coronation takes place in June of
[43:56] Speaker 3: fifty three. So whatever happened to our proud and Larcenouscottish patriots.
[44:00] Speaker 2: What happened to that?
[44:01] Speaker 3: Well, for one, as Gavin Vernon put it, he never
[44:04] Speaker 3: had to buy a beer again.
[44:05] Speaker 2: Of course his zero.
[44:09] Speaker 3: So the best news is that these four were never
[44:11] Speaker 3: charged with a single crime. Oh I love it so
[44:14] Speaker 3: Ky Mathieson continued to be a school teacher, working in
[44:16] Speaker 3: the West Highlands in Inversadale. She passes away in twenty thirteen.
[44:20] Speaker 3: Gavin Vernon becomes an electrical engineer and he migrates to Canada,
[44:23] Speaker 3: and this was in the nineteen sixties. Yeah, he enjoys
[44:26] Speaker 3: a good long life there. Passes away in two thousand
[44:28] Speaker 3: and four. Alan Stewart stayed around in Scotland. He went
[44:31] Speaker 3: into business in Glasgow and he passed away in twenty nineteen. Lastly,
[44:34] Speaker 3: Ian Hamilton went to work in criminal law. He continued
[44:38] Speaker 3: to fight to advance Scottish independence and when he passed
[44:41] Speaker 3: at the ripe old age of ninety seven in twenty
[44:43] Speaker 3: twenty two, the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, called
[44:47] Speaker 3: Ian Hamilton quote a legend of the independence movement, and
[44:50] Speaker 3: she added that he was quote one of the many
[44:52] Speaker 3: giants on whose shoulders the modern SMP stands nice. She
[44:56] Speaker 3: said that during her time as the leader of the
[44:58] Speaker 3: Scottish National Party, treasured Ian Hamilton's words of wisdom and
[45:02] Speaker 3: encouragement and support. So personally Elizabeth, as a non member
[45:05] Speaker 3: of the SNP but who supports certain dependence movement, I
[45:09] Speaker 3: love that these cats are so Scottish. They just went
[45:11] Speaker 3: and stole the scone back. It's stories like this that
[45:13] Speaker 3: make Appalachia make more sense.
[45:14] Speaker 2: To me, completely right.
[45:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, So ultimately the crown decides I told you not
[45:18] Speaker 3: to prosecute for a very simple reason. As Ian Hamilton
[45:21] Speaker 3: said in an interview, I found quote there was such
[45:23] Speaker 3: a reaction in Scotland. They were terrified the Scots would
[45:26] Speaker 3: have risen up if we had been sent to jail.
[45:28] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I was thinking that, Like my god. You know,
[45:31] Speaker 2: when you get these folk heroes who do what the
[45:34] Speaker 2: populace really wants, yes to happen.
[45:37] Speaker 3: Yes, and it may.
[45:38] Speaker 2: Be illegal in Suri, Yeah, but you gotta be careful
[45:41] Speaker 2: because if you.
[45:42] Speaker 3: Pole hero's last pol heroes are powerful. So this eventually,
[45:46] Speaker 3: as I said, the choice not to prosecute allows the
[45:48] Speaker 3: four proud Scotts to enjoy full lives, but also not
[45:50] Speaker 3: to become Joe House martyrs for the casts, right, because
[45:53] Speaker 3: they're stronger once they're locked up. Eventually, nineteen ninety six,
[45:56] Speaker 3: the Queen and Prime Minister, the Queen of England and
[45:58] Speaker 3: then separately Prime Minister John Major, they determined that the
[46:02] Speaker 3: Stone of Scone should be returned to Scotland. Oh real, yeah,
[46:05] Speaker 3: So on November thirtieth, nineteen ninety six, the Stone of
[46:07] Speaker 3: Scone is brought back to Edinburgh as ten thousand Scotts
[46:10] Speaker 3: gather along the path and cheer the return of the
[46:13] Speaker 3: stone after seven hundred years away. Of course, it remains
[46:16] Speaker 3: there until King Charles gets named the new King of
[46:18] Speaker 3: Great Britain and he's like, I need to put my
[46:20] Speaker 3: royal fanny on it to make it.
[46:22] Speaker 2: I got a slap dangler bring it down, so they get.
[46:25] Speaker 3: When he find the guy his chance to be king,
[46:27] Speaker 3: the Stone of Destiny gets brought back to London from
[46:29] Speaker 3: Edinburgh Castle Elizabeth that carried the Stone of Scone in
[46:32] Speaker 3: this special Scottish oak carrier box. Nice yeah right. So
[46:36] Speaker 3: at this point, though, after he does his royal like
[46:38] Speaker 3: butt drop, the Stone of Destiny's return to Edinburgh Castle
[46:42] Speaker 3: in Scotland, where it now remains in the crown room
[46:44] Speaker 3: of the castle.
[46:45] Speaker 2: Oh interesting, my man.
[46:46] Speaker 3: He and Hamilton. He gave a few interviews in his time,
[46:48] Speaker 3: not a ton, but I found a few of them,
[46:49] Speaker 3: and he says, some stuff I wanted to share with you,
[46:51] Speaker 3: just to wrap this up, because I know you were
[46:52] Speaker 3: a fan of Scottish independence. So after his Christmas Day
[46:55] Speaker 3: miracle where he hefted the two hundred and forty pound
[46:58] Speaker 3: a half of the Stone of Scone to the trunk
[47:00] Speaker 3: of his Ford Anglia by himself and stole back the
[47:03] Speaker 3: great symbol of Scotland, Ian Hamilton, and he feeling that
[47:06] Speaker 3: the critical blow had been struck. He was speaking with
[47:09] Speaker 3: an outlet, the Sons of Scotland in two thousand and eight,
[47:11] Speaker 3: recalling the feelings, and he said, quote, the great thing
[47:14] Speaker 3: about the stone is that it transcends politics. Regardless of
[47:17] Speaker 3: our political views. Scott's recognized that there is something that
[47:20] Speaker 3: binds us together. So the stone binds like the two
[47:23] Speaker 3: pieces that were broken. Right now, thanks to the release
[47:26] Speaker 3: of a film, The Story of the Robin Hood Band
[47:28] Speaker 3: of Mary Thieves in two thousand and eight, it gets
[47:30] Speaker 3: brought back to life. Everyone's talking about him is Ian
[47:32] Speaker 3: Hamilton does some more interviews and he starts talking about
[47:35] Speaker 3: the enjoyment he got from seeing this story finally come
[47:39] Speaker 3: full circle because they had hidden out for most of
[47:41] Speaker 3: the years. So he said, and I quote, it's only
[47:44] Speaker 3: now that I'm in my eighties that I will talk
[47:46] Speaker 3: about the Stone of Destiny. It threw such a shadow
[47:49] Speaker 3: that I would have become an invisible person. People referred
[47:52] Speaker 3: to me for years as the Stone Man. No matter
[47:55] Speaker 3: what I was doing. I had to fight for my
[47:57] Speaker 3: own identity, and the only way to do it was
[48:00] Speaker 3: to refuse to speak about the Stone. I'm comfortable with
[48:03] Speaker 3: it now because I made a separate life for myself.
[48:06] Speaker 3: But it wasn't easy. We were trying to get the
[48:08] Speaker 3: Scottish people to recognize that a Scottish identity really did exist.
[48:13] Speaker 3: The fact that there is all this interest sixty years
[48:15] Speaker 3: later proves that we were right. So now, remember how
[48:19] Speaker 3: I said, he's a criminal defense lawyer. Yeah, well, what
[48:21] Speaker 3: would he have thought if he brought himself a client
[48:23] Speaker 3: like himself and said get him off? Right? He said,
[48:26] Speaker 3: and I quote, there's no way we were great criminals,
[48:28] Speaker 3: all right. When I look back now, I have to
[48:30] Speaker 3: laugh at the absurdity of it all. I've defended a
[48:32] Speaker 3: lot of daft people during thirty years as a criminal lawyer.
[48:35] Speaker 3: But I doubt very much if I've defended anyone who
[48:38] Speaker 3: was as daft as we were then. The jails are
[48:41] Speaker 3: full of daft people, but we got away with it now.
[48:44] Speaker 3: In the end, Ian Hamilton had the best view on
[48:46] Speaker 3: the matter. It's all give him the final word, he said,
[48:48] Speaker 3: and I quote. To do something for your country that
[48:50] Speaker 3: spills not a drop of blood is I think something
[48:54] Speaker 3: to be proud of.
[48:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
[48:56] Speaker 3: There you go, the great British Burglary of the Stone
[48:58] Speaker 3: of Scone and the independence Scottish Christmas Miracle in nineteen.
[49:02] Speaker 2: Fifty Very Christmas.
[49:04] Speaker 3: I love it. So it's a ridiculous takeaway.
[49:05] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think our takeaway is that, you know, when
[49:08] Speaker 2: you have a people who are kind of taken over.
[49:15] Speaker 2: There's a distinct culture in Scotland apart from English. Yes,
[49:19] Speaker 2: And you know when you try and carve things up
[49:22] Speaker 2: and not really pay attention to the people of it,
[49:25] Speaker 2: you know at some point they can't they will resist, yes,
[49:30] Speaker 2: and I do you know, I do support an independent Scotland,
[49:35] Speaker 2: you know, and it's just an incredible you know country
[49:40] Speaker 2: and incredible people. And they deserve. They deserve independence, you know,
[49:46] Speaker 2: much like Catalonia.
[49:48] Speaker 3: Well, my ridiculous takeaway, Elizabeth, thank you for asking me
[49:51] Speaker 3: go ahead. You know, when they broke the Stone of Scone,
[49:55] Speaker 3: I would have been like, well now there's two stones.
[49:56] Speaker 3: Never would have put it back together.
[49:58] Speaker 2: Oh you wouldn't know it.
[50:00] Speaker 3: Have been though. God works some mysterious ways. I don't
[50:02] Speaker 3: have to tell you. Stone of Destiny is now two destinies.
[50:05] Speaker 3: We are a cleaved people. Yeah, spoke, that's what I
[50:11] Speaker 3: have done.
[50:11] Speaker 2: I love that they used someone who had this this
[50:15] Speaker 2: old mastery as a stonemason, and you know, kind of
[50:19] Speaker 2: makes me think about like rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral, how
[50:23] Speaker 2: they pulled in all of these artisans worked exactly and
[50:27] Speaker 2: they made it exactly like it had been built the
[50:30] Speaker 2: first time. And so you I love the again. It's
[50:34] Speaker 2: that kind of Scottish rascalism of like I'm going to
[50:37] Speaker 2: put this little note and to have this incredible way
[50:40] Speaker 2: to bind the stone back together, have something in there.
[50:44] Speaker 3: And not tell anyone, not even your compatriots.
[50:45] Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're never going to break it open to
[50:47] Speaker 2: exact it out. I love that so much. And it's
[50:51] Speaker 2: just like that's the perseverance. Yes, and that's the that's
[50:54] Speaker 2: the the rye humor that I love it. I would
[50:57] Speaker 2: move back.
[50:58] Speaker 3: It's like a Scottish warlock cast a curse or some
[51:01] Speaker 3: kind of spell.
[51:02] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, I'd move back, but I need sunshine. As
[51:06] Speaker 2: a California girl, that was like, really the motivator for
[51:10] Speaker 2: me to move home was.
[51:12] Speaker 3: This, if only Scotland was off the coast of Spain.
[51:14] Speaker 2: Well, you know, global warming.
[51:16] Speaker 3: It doesn't work like that.
[51:17] Speaker 2: It may may eat up there and then you know,
[51:21] Speaker 2: who knows, but that's true.
[51:22] Speaker 3: You could bring the temperatures up. Yeah I did.
[51:24] Speaker 2: I did not see sun when I was there, like
[51:28] Speaker 2: and I became translucent and look at all the veins.
[51:33] Speaker 2: I know. So yeah, I do. I do need sun.
[51:36] Speaker 2: And you know it's hard enough here in the Bay
[51:38] Speaker 2: Area when it gets crazy for like a month, This.
[51:41] Speaker 3: Is enough for me. I'm like, oh my god, it's
[51:43] Speaker 3: been cloudy for days. You know, we also need a talkback.
[51:49] Speaker 3: Can you lighten up this air with a talkback? Yeah?
[51:52] Speaker 3: Speaking of cold weather.
[51:55] Speaker 2: Oh my god, I love jee.
[52:07] Speaker 5: I just finished listening to Crazy Mike and High Fine Ryan.
[52:10] Speaker 5: I live outside of Boston and about ten years ago
[52:13] Speaker 5: at the beginning of the year, we had over seven
[52:15] Speaker 5: feet of snow in a very short period of time,
[52:18] Speaker 5: and the Mayor of Boston had to go on the
[52:20] Speaker 5: local news and ask everybody to not jump off their
[52:24] Speaker 5: roofs or out their windows into the snow. And that's ridiculous.
[52:29] Speaker 2: That's totally You can see the appeal of doing it.
[52:32] Speaker 2: You can also see the absolute danger.
[52:35] Speaker 3: Yeah, and the whole Like your cousin from Boston.
[52:37] Speaker 2: Forgot that they're under there.
[52:40] Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's the thing people forget, Like the snow
[52:42] Speaker 3: is not going to forget, be very forgiving once you
[52:44] Speaker 3: hit whatever it's covering.
[52:45] Speaker 2: Huh, that is ridiculous.
[52:47] Speaker 3: That was good. Well. Oh ways, you can find us
[52:50] Speaker 3: online A Ridiculous Crime on social media's. We have our
[52:52] Speaker 3: website ridiculous Crime dot com. It is a triple award
[52:56] Speaker 3: winner for design. I think that's a four times James
[52:58] Speaker 3: Beard Award winner for the Best of Everything Everything award
[53:04] Speaker 3: in France. Now emails if you like, if you'd like
[53:07] Speaker 3: to talk about our design A Ridiculous Crime at gmail
[53:10] Speaker 3: dot com and please start it out. Dear producer d
[53:13] Speaker 3: thanks for listening. We will catch you next crime. Have
[53:16] Speaker 3: a happy Holidays. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton
[53:25] Speaker 3: and Zaron Burnett, produced and edited by Jacob's Pillow and
[53:28] Speaker 3: Mattress dealer Dave Coustin, and starring Annalis Rutger as Judith.
[53:33] Speaker 3: Research is by rare Ford Anglia automobile collector Marissa Brown.
[53:37] Speaker 3: Our theme song is by our house band, the Anti
[53:39] Speaker 3: Disestablishmentarianism Society aka Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. The host
[53:44] Speaker 3: wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred guest Haarn, makeup by
[53:48] Speaker 3: Sparkleshot and mister Andre. The executive producers are Ben the
[53:52] Speaker 3: Confessor Boland and Noel Brown the Elder.
[54:01] Speaker 5: Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Time Ridiquious Crime.
[54:08] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
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