Listen to the episode here.

Angie and Theresa bring you another set of bizarrely wonderful stories to prove that yet again, people are unpredictable.

Angie shares the wildly unhinged tale of the Emu War, or that time Australian farmers waged war against birds, and lost so so badly. It’s hard to imagine pitting a machine gun against a flock of birds and losing, but here we are.

Refusing to leave well enough alone, Theresa shares the story of Willaim Riker, not the one from Star Trek, but the one who founded the Holy City cult in the mountains near Santa Cruz, California.

This episode pairs well with:

The Pig War
The Ghost Buster Ruling

Transcript

Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhand History Podcast, the podcast where two friends join forces every single week and share the history stories that we’ve recently learned and have polluted our search results with I’m Postal 1, I’m Teresa, and Matt. 

Angie: I’m Angie. I’m Angie. That is host 2. 

Theresa: Yeah. And we’ve kind of like gotten into this weird thing for the last several, basically last month where we’ve been doing single stories, which is that’s unique for us when I’m honest. We typically don’t do single story episodes. Normally we share the wealth and allow each other to tell. 

Angie: I promise to share the wealth today. 

Theresa: I’m glad you’re sharing because you’re going first. Damn it! Again? I know it happens every other time. I’m weird. I know. It’s because I tortured you last week when I told you the story of the poison squad. 

Angie: You know what? I still haven’t had milk. Oh, it’s not entirely true. I made pesto the other day, so I made Alfredo pesto. So there was milk. That’s the only milk I’ve had. And I cooked it to be clear. 

Theresa: You’d have to. You’d have to, especially after that. Yeah. Yeah. I was grossed out. Okay. 

Angie: So here’s the thing. I am fully, fully back on my BS again and there’s no way I can very lead for you today. So I thought, what a better way to celebrate the being fully back on my BS than with a cookie animal story disguised as a military blender or a military blender wrapped up in a cookie animal story. 

Theresa: Are you ready? You have my undefended attention. 

Angie: Okay. The Great Emu War. Yes! When Australians lost to Flightless Birds, that’s an article by Greg Beyer from The Collector. It’s from September of 23. There’s a history hit article by Kyle Hoekstra called The Great Emu War, How Flightless Birds Beat the Australian Army. That is also from 23. It’s from March though. And then a brilliant National Geographic article by Rebecca Toy from December of this last year called The Bizarre Story of When Australia Went To War With the Emus and Lost. 

And the National Museum of Australia is also one of my sources. Okay. So I had this like big old write up. I don’t know. It was like a page long note of to get you where we need to go. 

But I decided that it’d be funner to just give you the, the, I don’t know, drive the version of it without all the giant words. So basically, this is what you need to know. Late 1800s, early 1900s, the Australian government, it has this idea like, okay, so they have, they’ve tried this multiple times, but they believe that hardworking farming communities are super good for their society. They believe these communities, they’re not only good for like obvious the production of food, right? But building strong, stable, like ingrained in land communities, you know, in the unruly Australian outback because that seems like that’s going to be a great farming community. 

I don’t know much about farming, but I know you have to have good soil and I’m not so sure on the soil here. At the time, this idea was called quote, the yeelmin ideal. This boils down to the belief that independent farmers are going to be the backbone of the country. Now, during World War I, this image or idea of this proud hardworking farmer blends with the idea of the brave and patriotic soldier, right? So the results are this new ideal figure called the soldier settler. People see these returned soldiers as perfect citizens who could farm the land, help the economy and keep the country strong. Now, I’m not going to go into it, but the Australians, when they first come back from World War I, are initially not given any sort of, I don’t want to say like a tigricate parade sort of thing, but they’re not, they’re not treated for like their PTSD. They’re just assumed to get back into the workforce and go for it. Right. 

Theresa: Welcome back home. We’re done here. You’ve got us to play in what more do you want from us? We paid you. 

Angie: Basically, and there’s this backlash from the people of Australia as a whole because in World War I, Australians, like the people group themselves suffer massive casualties in a battle called Galopoli that was against the Ottomans. And they come back with like horror story after horror story after horror story. There’s only 5 million people in Australia at this point and they lose like, I want to say, let me see if I can give you the exact number, they lose a significant portion of their population. 210,000 casualties, 61,000 of them are killed or die from their wounds. So they are either massively wounded or have come back in less than a live turd. 

Theresa: Wait, real quick. You said there’s 6 million or 5 million people in country? As a whole. Yes. Okay. How many went to war? 

Angie: I don’t know the exact number of how many went to war but they suffer total between deaths and injuries 210,000 casualties. 

Angie: I think people that, it’s a huge, yes, right? Like it’s a huge percent of their population as a whole. And so the Australian people are like, we have to take care of our veterans. 

Angie: They thought a battle that could be compared to the film and we need to care for them. So 1916 politicians at the time are kind of looking back on their more recent Australian history and they’re like, oh, we have an idea. So they start creating these programs or what they call schemes. And that is to give returning soldiers the chance to start this new life as a farmer. 

Each state in Australia sets up its own version of this program. The basic just is they are offering land to these thousands of former soldiers. Whether they can farm it or not, the idea is like whether you have the skill sets to farm, they just assume you can do it. Here’s your land, go grow stuff. 

Theresa: I mean, this is the equivalent of very undermining the skill set of firefighters. It’s you put the wet stuff on the red stuff. Yeah, but for this, it’s you put the wet stuff on the seeds, on the seeds. 

Angie: Right. And so there’s there’s all sorts of these little communities from Queensland to South Australia. They start popping up in Western Australia alone. Over 5000 soldiers, including some that had served with the British Army were given farms. By 1929, only about 3500 of them are still farming. Many have left. Oh, that’s that’s good. 

Right. Well, a lot of these soldiers, they’re struggling and they’re failing and the government wants to understand why. So in 1929, a judge named Justice Pike, he investigates it and he finds like three main problems. The soldiers don’t have enough money or good enough land to actually farm on. Like they don’t have the finances to make the land farmable. Anyways, many aren’t suited for farming. Like they don’t have the skills because that’s not what I was before I was a soldier. 

I don’t know how to do this job or they just lack interest. Additionally, the prices for farm products had dropped. So even if they could farm, they’re not making money off of it. Not to mention this undelivered government subsidies that never arrives. So like their promised things and they never show up. 

So that’s the gist of where we’re where we start with this. What the investigation doesn’t say is that a good chunk of this region, it’s got like these incredibly harsh conditions and it provides it proves to be incredibly difficult to have a farm like I mentioned earlier, poor soil and super inconsistent rainfall. 1932 rolls around and there is a severe drought. This drought drives nearly 20,000 emus into the farming area. They’re searching for food and while they search for food, these flightless birds are trampling crops and breaking fences. Now once they start breaking the fences, this allows smaller pests like rabbits in and for the farmers, this is kind of the final nail in the coffin. Like the emus alone are a problem but when you bring in like the emus and this creates a bigger issue because now not only are there crops being trampled but what’s left is also being torn apart by these other creatures that are coming in looking for food, right? 

Right. HistoryHit.com has this great quote about this saying quote, wildlife fences proved effective at keeping out rabbits, dingos, as well as emu but only so long as they were maintained. By late 1932, they were permeated by holes. As a result, there was nothing to prevent 20,000 emus breaching the perimeter of the wheat growing region around Campion and Waldoin in Western Australia. When I read that, I laughed so hard because breaching the perimeter, I am sure it’s not what the emus are thinking. No, they’re thinking, hey look, food. 

Right. One of the things I learned is that typically emus are, I don’t want to say solitary characters, but they tend to travel in much smaller groups. However, when there is a natural disaster or something like the drought, when there’s an overall problem that’s affecting all of them, they will join up and form these massive herds. Just, I don’t know if they just, it’s their survival instinct. 

I’m unclear on why that is, but this is one of those times. So, most of these farmers, having been former soldiers, know all about how to make a call for reinforcements in the capacity of machine guns. So, that’s what they requested. The Minister of Defense, a man called Sir George Pierce, hears this and on November 2, 1932, three soldiers from the Royal Australian Artillery, I have their names if you’re so inclined to hear them. 

I mean, please, we’re here. Okay. Sergeant S. McMurray, Gunner J. O’Holloran and their commander, Major G. P. W. Meredith. 

Okay. So, these cells arrive at what is called the wheat belt, which is this area that extends to the northeast and south of Perth. So, these three soldiers show up with two Lewis light machine guns. Their mission, per the Minister of Defense, eliminate the e-moods and protect the crops. National Geographic says this is where everything, quote, quickly descends into chaos. 

I just love that for me. So, at this point, I should tell you that the operation has already been pushed back, like it was supposed to happen in October, but the rain scattered the e-moods across a much wider area. So, they kind of had to wait for it to calm down a little bit. So, November 2 shows up. Our friends from the Royal Australian Artillery Unit, they arrive. 

Locals have sort of tried to corral or like heard the e-moods towards an ambush location, but the group of e-moods splits into smaller groups and disperses. They said in the first three days, do you care to guess how many they got in the first few days? 

Theresa: I know it’s ridiculously small. 30. That’s it, 30. 

Angie: Because the e-moods have a sense of self-preservation. So, instead of saying in large herds, they scatter, and this makes them rather challenging targets. On November 4, at a watering hole where literally thousands of e-moods are, the article, I can’t remember if it’s the National Geographic article, but one of them uses the term loitering. It’s like, it’s a literal, it’s the perfect kill box, but one of the machine gun jams. So, the collector, one of the articles that I used has this to say, two days later, Major Meredith and his team had painstakingly prepared an ambush at a nearby dam. The gunners waited in silence as if the Italian of around a thousand e-moods approached the water. At virtually point blank range, the Australians opened fire, but after a few rounds, the only a handful of casualties. I just wish I could have been a war correspondent for this. At one point around November 8, the Minister of Defense withdraws his men from the front lines in a very embarrassing tactical withdrawal, but that doesn’t last long. 

They’re back by November 13 at the continued request of the farmers. Of these events that happens around this time, an Australian bird expert, an ornithologist called DL Cervantes says, quote, the machine gunner dreams of point blank fire into surread masses of emus were soon dissipated. The emu command had an evidently ordered guerrilla tactics and its unwieldy army soon split up in a numeral small unit that paid use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crest fallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month. 

Theresa: I just, I really love how they anthropomorphize these emus so much. 

Angie: Oh my god, I love it. It makes me laugh so hard. So news starts to spread of this quote war and the public is fascinated. People were delighted, I’ll say, by the cheeky survivors. So they would form what can only be called units that include lookouts to help evade capture. In fact, according to Kyle Hoekstra, who is the author of the history hit article, he says quote, an army observer noted of the emu that each pack seems to have seems to have its own leader now, a big black plumed bird which stands fully six feet high and keeps watch while his mates carry out their work of destruction and warns them of any approach. 

I love it. Truck drivers would try and eventually, like they would try to herd the emus towards the gunners, said that the birds could sprint over uneven ground at speeds of 55 miles an hour. In one instance, a truck was crashed while it hopes of pursuit. The troops commander, Major Meredith said that they were so tough that quote, emus could face machine guns with in with the vulnerability of tanks. It’s pretty evident that he also had mad respect for his enemy because he also applauded them. The emus that is for their ability to withstand gunfire saying quote, if we had a military division with the bullet carrying capacity of these birds, it would face any army in the world. Again, they can face the machine guns with the vulnerability of tanks. 

Theresa: To be fair, it really sounds like the Australians have the same target, the same ability as like stormtroopers. Like I just don’t see a lot of 

Angie: like, just I feel like the emus were out to win this one and they did the work, you know, when you only send in three soldiers and you’ve got additional farmers who have rifles that are not meant for emu hunting, like they’re unprepared, no matter what, yeah, stormtroopers, they’re unprepared. So these soldiers, they would try to travel to locations where they had heard emus had been spotted in an effort to do this. In what I can guess to be a more efficient way, Major Meredith mounts one of the machine guns on a truck, thus enabling the firing to continue while moving. But this plan is just as ineffective as the ambush is because the truck’s too slow and the terrain too rough and uneven, the gunner couldn’t fire it anyways. By day 45 of the campaign, they had killed 25 to possibly 3000. 

This is only about 12% of the population of emus and it really didn’t help the farmers much at all. On December 10th, Meredith and his men are recalled and the operation is over. Now the commander claims that 986 were killed, 986 were killed with 900, excuse me, 9,860 rounds used. That’s 10 bullets for every one kill. 

Okay. With a further 2,500 dying of injury, now this seems an unlikely number to really gauge because as they said, like a lot of the time the emu, if it was injured, would run off. So I personally find it hard to believe that someone’s actually out there checking all 2,500 injuries to see if they died or not. But that’s probably why these numbers are highly disputed and why it’s likely very inflated. Either way, the cost of the ammo alone didn’t match which could have, what could have been gained in the wheat fields. 

Like, this was such a travesty of economics failure. So in an attempt to help the farmers, they offer bounties to the farmers instead. And even with rifles that were outmatched by the birds, the farmers were able to get at least 57,000 of them over a six month period in 1934. 

Angie: So there’s 7,000. 

Angie: Yeah. This campaign was riddled with errors and definitely not a success, but media coverage even in 1953 was the real winner here in my opinion. The Sunday Herald said, quote, the incongruity of the whole thing even had the effect for wants of arousing public sympathy for the emus. Basically, one of the reasons that the military was called off was because people in, you know, your average populace of Australia were like, hey, isn’t there a better way to deal with this than just all out murdering them? 

Like, isn’t there a way we can help conserve this animal without putting it in a kill box? And so it was starting to look, people had a lot of questions, right? And so I thought that was pretty funny. In 1999, though no emus were present, one could say that the Australians and the emu finally come to a truce when the emu are declared a protected species. 

And in case you’re curious, because I was, on what actually worked, like ended up working to help the farmers, it was maintained barrier fences. Yeah, no kidding. You have learned this, right? I’m thinking that our Australian command did not look back on more recent events in American territories and just thought to themselves, well, we do have these two Lewis machine guns just chilling here in the corner. Like, I guess we could give the lads a day or so, you know, yeah, wait, wait, not whatnot. Exactly. So that’s the story of the emu war. And it’s kind of one of my favorite things right now. I can’t stop laughing. 

Theresa: I mean, everything you said, there’s a reason for it. So I’m honestly, yes. Okay, I’m going to take us on a very different setup. So buckle up, because my sources, I’m actually going to tell you the story of William Riker and Holy City. 

Angie: When you say William Riker, 

Theresa: I think you’re thinking the next generation. 

Angie: Okay, I’m glad that you knew that. 

Theresa: Yep, carry on. Okay. My sources, lost gotten the strange saga of Holy City by Allen Feinberg, SF Gate, the unholy history of Holy City, the Bay Area’s most racist tourist trap by Katie Dowd, find a grave, William Edward Riker, Santa Cruz trains, curiosities, Holy City. Okay. I am thrilled by this. So this story was shared with me by someone I’m connected with on LinkedIn, who I was mid doing notes on another story. And he says, Hey, check out this article. I love this. 

And I about faced. So William Riker, he’s born in Oakdale, California. You should know exactly where that is. This is 1873. 

And when he becomes a young man, he moved to San Francisco. Get out of my backyard, right? I mean, I couldn’t help it. I had a feeling that you were not going to do the story. And this is the story that needs to be told. 

Okay, I’m here for it. So Riker becomes a street hawker in San Francisco. And then he realizes he has this unique skill in proselytizing. Oh, now in his mid 30s, after claiming he had a divine revelation, he begins referring to himself as the Comforter. 

That’s not creepy. And he starts recruiting gullible followers as his religious disciples. And of course, he’s making his ends meet as he’s like selling stuff out on the streets. But he loves proselytizing. This is his bread and butter. And he’s going to preach to anybody who’s going to listen. And then he’s going to preach to plenty who don’t. 

This checks. So he turns to recruiting financially struggling, partially educated, middle-aged, Midwesterners who had found themselves in California to be his disciples. That’s a very specific group. I mean, look, you figure out what works and you double down. And he did. 

And this scheme starts to take off. So three years later, it’s now 1915, he found it alongside two other humans named Urban Fisher and Anna Schram. Humans as opposed to what? I mean, people, I don’t know. Like, I mean, people is the same. Like, just, you know what, knock it off. 

Angie: Okay, listen, just listen, I have Anthem for more for more. Oh, my God. 

Theresa: He was trying to say he names this foundation that he sets up. Perfect Christian Divine Way, Inc. Okay. And it is in a house on Hay Street. And this is the face of his new religious enterprise. 

And then almost immediately, things get weird. Shocking. Because he’s living with seven married women in his house, whom he’d convinced to abandon their families. 

And it’s where he’s charged but never convicted of running a sex cult. Oh, okay. One of the members is a woman named Frida Schwartz. 

She’s a married mother of eight. Oh, in 1921, what? I said, okay. 

Yeah, I can understand wanting to maybe leave the house. 1921, there’s allegations made by the Swarges that are fit spark to federal investigation to the cult. Riker was charged with grand larceny, conspiracy against public morals and child endangerment. 

Angie: Conspiracy against public morals is a thing you can be charged with? 

Theresa: Look, I mean, you could be charged with a disreputable house. I guess that’s true. That’s true. Okay. The Swarges tale is so salacious, papers could only hint at some of the particulars. Oh. Now, Frida ends up testifying that her husband Alexander was gifted to new women as wives. 

Angie: So, you take these two, but I’m going to take yours? Pretty much. Okay. 

Theresa: This is like, I want to get one. I’ll swap my Doritos for your lace potato chips. I’d rather have the Doritos. I don’t disagree with you. These are great choices. Now, their eight children are whisked away and raised by members of the cult, and it was done to the Swarges under the guise of getting their family into heaven. Oh, okay. Frida ends up saying on the stand, I was not even allowed to mention my children’s name again. If I did, they abused me. Which is pretty sad. Now, her husband testified the children were beaten and tied to trees to be stretched by other cult members, whatever that means. 

And as part of the investigation for children, including Riker’s son, were taken from the colony by the juvenile court. Okay. So, the government’s stepping in and trying to help out. Now, life under Riker, surprise, surprise, was living hell for the women. Shocking. She claimed that Riker forced female members to have sex with him, and when she and another woman became pregnant, he ordered them to obtain abortions. Frida said they did. Now after years in the court system, all 

Angie: charges- What do they think was going to happen? I’m sorry. What do they think was going to happen? 

Theresa: You know, we don’t really get into the things he told his therapist. Okay. Like, I don’t… HIPAA violations and the like, assuming he did go to therapy. I’m thinking he didn’t. 

Probably not. But don’t worry. We’re going to come up out of this thing. It’s going to, you know, just maintain. 

Maintain. It’ll get weird and wacky here shortly. I’m here for it. After years in the court system, all charges against Riker are eventually dismissed and the children are returned to the family. Now, even though the case is dismissed, there’s a few unsettling lines in the census, Len Credence to… There’s a few unsettling lines in the census that Len Credence to sorts the story. So in the 1920 census, Riker was running a house in San Francisco. There’s seven boarders, all female cult members, and all without their husbands. 

So we have the ability to go through and find that paper trail. Now, Riker’s not an idiot. After this, he wants to leave the city because he wants to have better control over his converts. 

So he gathers funds from his disciples and he purchases 142 acres of land. In Oakdale. No, no. He left Oakdale because Harris-Discoe. I know. I just assumed he was coming back. Oh, no. 

I mean, I don’t know why you’d think that because, you know, a lot of those places are black holes that suck you right back. Yeah. So about this time, he has around 300 followers from what I can understand and he persuades them to sign over their possessions and properties so that they could free themselves of worldly concerns. 

Angie: Oh, how nice of him. 

Theresa: That’s very considerate. He’s a giver. Riker left the city and used the proceeds to purchase the land on Glendale Highway, the only paved road at the time between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Okay. 

And it’s here he establishes the headquarters of the world’s most perfect government. Okay. I think there’s a lot of gilding the lily on this one. Now, despite creating this religion based on celibacy, temperance, white supremacy and racism, he knew these features aren’t going to sell the cult to the public. 

Shocking. So he built up this whole front. He created a town that reveled in vice. The initial buildings in his town were common features to any roadside settlement at the time. He’s got a service station, a restaurant, a dance hall, an observatory. It’s decorated in these really bizarre religious signs and a row of larger than life Santa Claus statues. Why? Why not? 

Angie: Santa’s not the first thought that was going to come to my mind. 

Theresa: Nothing about the rest of this is going to be the first thought that came to your mind. Fantastic. There was a soda fountain that served carbonated alcohol beverages and this is during prohibition That’s awesome. I mean, I could use some of that right now. 

There’s a small zoo with monkeys and this is to appeal to families with children. Of course. Which makes sense to me. 

There is also a Peep Show stereoscopic machine or multiple of them. So, okay. Okay. 

I’m just, I’m imagining it’s almost like one of those, those things where you slide that down. And what is so strange about that is even though his religion is based on all of these things, like ECU. Okay. So those machines directly contradict the doctrine on celibacy and then he also wants to keep the sex is celebrated. But it kind of underlined his belief that kind of it said that women are subservient to men. So at least he’s got that bit of consistency. Yeah, you know. 

He also ran a print shop from that town and rather than publishing books, it has focused exclusively on pamphlets, brochures and propaganda newsletters. Shocking. Didn’t see that coming. 

No. The pamphlets and brochures, they talk about the merits of joining the religious community while attacking the government and other religions. But the town is really known for these giant placards which are lining the roadway and they extol the virtues of his non-profit, the perfect divine Christian way or the perfect Christian divine way. 

And the majority of them are anti-government, vehemently sexist or blatantly white supremacist and some of them even showing distasteful depictions of his rhetoric. Okay. So this is like any of those times you pass by those bizarre billboards inside the road that are clearly ran by one person. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

This town also acquired a post office in 1927 and it kind of basically just kind of resurrected a former post office that was in the town of Patchen. So he goes all out. He ends up building even a tiny airport and this is a hope to draw in more people. But it didn’t really sell the town, it just kind of established it. Okay. 

The town eventually gets its own radio station and it has these very questionable call letters, KFQU. Hmm. Okay. Okay. 

Now, he becomes notorious for drifting away from his assigned frequency and ultimately resulting in it being shut down in April of 1931 for its irregularities. Oh. I just drifted away. 

Angie: Just drifted away. Just drifted away. Yeah. All right. 

Theresa: Now, he also, I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but he had this observatory, it had a telescope where people could view the moon at night and the whole, basically everything’s just this hodge podge and it just continues to underscore how bizarre this whole place is. Yeah, it sounds like it. 

Angie: Now, some of the- My god forbid a man have a hobby, you know? This is a bit more than a hobby. 

Theresa: It’s a full on town. That’s his hobby. You know how it’s telling you about the placards that line the roads? Hmm. Some of the ones that he had were, are California belongs only to the white race man? And then- So weird use of words, but okay. I mean, you get what he’s saying, but again, it’s just like every, like as I was reading this, it was like, I have seen modern recreations of these billboards. Yeah. 

Um, another one was, it must be purged, this deadly polluting oriental disease. So- So that’s nice. That’s beautiful. Boy, I’m glad the Chinese Exclusion Act was alive and kicking. Fully functioning. 

Mm-hmm. Now, Riker himself is also kind of a draw. People will stop just to see him. 

And he dressed in a white suit and sometimes has his little small dog at his side and he would walk around the town shouting at tourists. Get off my lawn. No, more like, fight me and my religious ideals. I’m a hundred percent right. 

Angie: Oh, I like to get off my lawn better. 

Theresa: I mean, 1935, Riker wrote to President Roosevelt, letting him know that he could end the Great Depression and make kings and queens out of all the same-minded white people. Oh, okay. You know Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap Bottles? Yeah, yeah. Have you ever tried reading the sides of it? 

No. I recommend it because it’s a lot of like, wait, what? Wait, what? 

What? It’s like the ravings of a lunatic. I like it. 

Okay. And that’s kind of what I thought about the entire time I was looking all this up. So under Riker’s direction, he’s telling Roosevelt that the country would be turned into paradise on short notice. Surprisingly, FDR doesn’t take him up on his offer. So he turns attention to another government. Got an idea? 

Angie: I don’t know why, but I really want it to be the Austrian government. The net. That’s probably a little too far away. Oh, I was close. 

Theresa: You were. Now, he, again, a vowed white supremacist, so he starts writing a series of letters to Adolf Hitler, addressing him as your Excellency and offering to help him become the greatest character that ever lived since the time of Jesus Christ. 

Angie: This man has really high expectations of himself and Hitler. Yeah. 

Theresa: He goes on to say, you will not only succeed in whipping all of your enemies, but you will cause yourself and millions of other people to experience happiness far greater than words can explain. 

Angie: Please tell me that Hitler also polite past on this guy. 

Theresa: I don’t get the hint that he wrote back. They didn’t become pen pals. Okay. So I mean, Friker’s made absolutely no secret on what he believes. Dude has zero chill. And so there ends up at a time there’s a group of soldiers that visit Holy City and they do it just for kicks and giggles in the 40s and he approaches them and he asked them to abandon their fight against Hitler. And then goes on to say that they should allow Germany to take over Europe and focus on defeating the threat of the non-white Japanese military and he even hands them pamphlets to distribute at their base. 

Angie: And what did they do? Well, he goes, I’ll get on to that in a second. 

Theresa: He goes on to say, Hitler has adopted some of my ideas. But that’s a selling point. 

Angie: That’s, yeah, that’s exactly who I want adopting my ideas. 

Theresa: The soldiers, they turn everything over to the FBI who charged Riker with sedition. Oh, good. Okay. Thanks guys. Appreciate them. Now the trial ends up becoming like this absolute blockbuster. Think trial of the century kind of deal. His attorney is this guy who’s an up and coming Marvin Belly. He secures his acquittal, but Riker refuses to pay him and he ends up filing a defamation charge against his attorney because his attorney had referred to him repeatedly as a harmless crackpot during his defense. 

Angie: What’s the man? I got you acquitted. 

Theresa: I mean, you would think that because Belly like at some point says his efforts were pitiful and pathetic, but they were not seditious. 

Angie: Done. Thank you, sir. I’m going to go home now. 

Theresa: Now the court agrees and they acquit Riker on all counts of sedition and subversive acts. And then his victorious lawyer kind of reminds Riker about the remainder of his legal fees and Riker declines. Oh. Belly recalls him saying, my son, I shall reward you with a seat in my kingdom of heaven. And it’s far more in mullion than a paltry $5,000. 

Angie: You look, here’s the thing, like I have bills to pay today. 

Theresa: Yeah. Yeah. So Belly decides that he doesn’t necessarily want to grab that seat in heaven. And he sues Riker winning the case in 1943. Good. So Riker returns to Holy City. 

He’s a little bit quieter, a little bit more chastened. But in 42, he ran for governor. Of California. Of California. Okay. He doesn’t win. So he runs again in 1946. He doesn’t win. Okay. So he ran again in 1950. Cool. He didn’t win. Shocking. 

Angie: Now, my notes go on to say that Holy City never really thrives as a religious community. And only around like weird. I mean, like, so his find a grave is probably the most built out find a grave entry that I’ve seen. It says that he’s got 300 followers. But one of the articles I said that there were only really 30 that were devout in his belief system. 

But there’s another 250 that live in the surrounding area and frequent the town. Now he insists on celibacy just as a pillar of his religion. And this just if you’re going to like insist on celibacy and or abortion if things fail, you’re really not setting yourself up for longevity as religion. 

No. And so basically this cult was doomed from the very start. And he goes on to be surprised, increasingly delusional. He claims that he’s found a cure for cancer, heart failure and other elements. And he’s offering 10 grand to anybody who can find a flaw in my 100% arguments. 

Angie: Who determines who where the flaw is? 

Theresa: I’m assuming he does. He’s the one with the money. Yeah. 

Angie: No one’s going to get that 10 grand. 

Theresa: So Holy City falls into decline into the 40s when Highway 14 bypasses the town. Okay. And as the highway bypasses the town, the converts dry up because he doesn’t have a fresh supply coming in. 

Angie: Well, yeah, when celibacy and abortion are both rules. Yeah. It’s really hard to make new believers. 

Theresa: And it’s around this time that the remaining members move away because it’s the end of the Great Depression. We got more jobs popping up. And so people don’t necessarily have to live in this kind of commune. 

And so he’s deprived of the vital service of tourist traffic. The culture is strange allure. So people are kind of like, and the town just disappears, right? So hoping to restore the community, Riker sold the property to a minor Hollywood producer, Maurice Klein, in 56. But this ends up leading to legal battles that just kind of disincorporated Holy City in 59. And it was abandoned by the remaining perfect Christian Divine Way board the following year. 

Angie: Wow. They had a board. Okay. He had a board. 

Theresa: Now, kind of backing up a tiny bit. In 47, his son, William, found him badly beaten after the police followed a trail of blood from San Jose, San Jose’s tavern to a shanty where Williams living. He told police his severe back and chest injuries along with facial lacerations and a broken ankle were inflicted by cult members when he announced he was leaving. 

Angie: The cult leader. 

Theresa: The cult leader got it that kicked by his cult. When he wanted to leave. 

Angie: What do you have to do to piss that many people? I mean, I don’t believe that’s the truth, but I mean, 

Theresa: I mean, I think if everybody fully rallied around you and said, I wholeheartedly believe in this man and this man goes, yeah, I know I’m the Divine Comforter or whatever, but I’m more of a duvet and I’m going to be bouncing out of here. 

Then they’re going to be like, what? I gave you all of my money. I sold all of my property and get like, what do you mean you’re just leaving? Like, yeah, okay. All right. Ask Kagan it is. 

Yep. So the police believe Riker that he was fearing the wrath of his cult would never have reported the beating had officer niece not found him at the end of a trail of blood. His own, I presume. 

Yeah, his own. Now the tale of William kind of ends here. Even though he is not listed as a relation as Father’s obituary, he had kind of like left. Oh, I take the back. The son William is one of you guys asked me not not the father. Oh, okay. 

Okay. God, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes a ton more sense. Now 1950 Riker’s wife, like fourth wife or whatever, she ends up dying of a stroke and in 61 Riker was removed as Holy City’s leader by the board. Okay. And a few years later, the Chronicle reported that he’d converted to Catholicism. 

Angie: Wait, do the board leave at one point like they up and like do this? The board abandoned like they kind of. Oh, the town. The town. Right. Okay. 

Theresa: That makes sense. Yeah. So it was still there. It’s just well, it’s still it still existed as an entity, but the town itself was discorporated. That makes sense. 

Angie: After all that, he becomes a Catholic. 

Theresa: Yeah. Now kind of right before he passes off at 94 years old, he says, I’ve been living a celibate life for 10 years. I was intelligently converted. 

Angie: What does that mean? I think he just gave up his own way and became Catholic. And then decided to give up sex. 

Theresa: I’m bringing more questions to answer. Yes, I don’t. You’re not wrong. No, not the last several years of his life, he still lives on the ground. He’s allowed to live on the property as long as he’s no longer in charge of it. 

Okay. Now, curious locals venture up every now and then, but there’s not a time to see. And the most Holy City burned down the late fifties, a local newspaper called the fires quote mysterious. Oh, didn’t see that coming. His grave is an unmarked location between his wife Lucille and his secretary Anna Shram who ended up helping him find the found the cult. 

Angie: Isn’t that every woman’s dream to have your husband’s grave between you and the secretary? 

Theresa: Yeah, I mean, you say dream, I say nightmare, 

Angie: but now there’s I might have been there might have been some sarcasm in my statement. Yeah, a little bit. 

Theresa: Now the Holy City, I’m not quite done talking about it. Developers purchased it in 1968 and at the time it was mostly populated with bag of odd hippies surprise surprise. They had plans to convert it to a campground, but that never took off. The location fell into decay after four decades until Grubb and Ellis purchased it in 2006. But the firm goes bankrupt in 2012 and they struggled to make any progress with the town and they’ve lowered the price many, many times to no avail. It’s purchased again in 2016 by Robert and Trish Dugan on behalf of the Church of Scientology. 

But its fate has yet to be determined. Now there’s only one substantial structure that really remains in Holy City from Riker’s time and it’s his large Victorian home. It’s now apparently a private home. The old post office had served as Holy City Art Glass for many years, but that close. 

One of the other features from Riker’s era is a stone fence wrapping around a redwood cathedral grove and that allegedly served as the religious center of the cult, but details are kind of scarce there. Access to the town is via Madrone Drive southbound or Redwood Estates Road northbound. Like those are the exits you take on Highway 17. So if you’re in the area, go check it out and you can follow either road to the west to Oneida Court, which becomes Holy City Road. And the old town site is where Holy City Road meets Santa Cruz Highway. That’s bananas. And that’s the story of Holy City and William Riker. 

Angie: That is bananas. People are so weird. I, when you were talking about the giant sequoia grove, it reminded me in that I’m drawing a blank on the name, but like that supposed secret society where like all the world’s powerful men. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. I couldn’t remember what it’s called. And I was like, wait, is this that? Is that where we’re going to head? But I like where we went instead. That was bananas. 

Theresa: Yeah. And I figured I should probably tell you a story from your own backyard. 

Angie: Thanks. Um, next time I’m on my way to Santa Cruz, I’ll try to remember to turn off Oneida and be like, Hey husband, we have a weird side quest. We’re going to go drive through a colt town right quick. All right kids, you’re up. 

Angie: We’re heading to our first colt. Did you pack snacks? Don’t buy anything at the post office. 

Angie: Or touch anything anywhere. Keep your hands in your pockets. Actually don’t get out of the car. It’s fine. That is hilarious. We went on a wild adventure today. We did. I’m here for it. 

Theresa: And my story next week is going to be even crazier. 

Angie: Love that. Love that for me. 

Theresa: So I’ve got that going. If you are wondering how this could get even crazier from sex cults to Angie telling us about emu wars, great review subscribe because next week for sure, we’re probably going to talk about World War II or spies and or syphilis or the overlap of all three. 

Angie: It’s a Venn diagram. It is. 

Theresa: The world is a Venn diagram of those three circles. And on that note, goodbye. 

Theresa: Bye.