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Some names are praised in textbooks, museums, and even national holidays, but later evidence paints a much darker picture. Join us as we explore the shocking moments when celebrated historical figures were reexamined and revealed to have done terrible things. From famous explorers and doctors to artists, presidents, and innovators, these legacies are far more controversial than you might think.
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00:00Your codename is now Westminster.
00:04You will need to travel to Madrid and meet with Churchill.
00:08Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're exploring the infamous moments when celebrated historical
00:12figures turned out to have done horrible things due to later discoveries or recent resurfacings,
00:17morphing them into history's villains.
00:19You would think he is the most helpful lover.
00:22I don't think it really captures what he put women through.
00:26Christopher Columbus
00:27For decades, Columbus Day has been celebrated in the U.S. as a federal holiday.
00:32After all, Columbus apparently discovered the Americas, which was news to those already
00:36living there.
00:37You can't claim us, we live here.
00:40500 million of us.
00:42Do you have a flag?
00:43As society has progressed and more evidence has come to light, the actions of the Italian
00:48explorer have been heavily criticized.
00:50For starters, during his first voyage to the Americas and the Caribbean, he quickly took
00:54indigenous people hostage and demanded they show him where they got their gold from.
00:58There was only one problem.
01:00They didn't have any.
01:01You!
01:02Gold!
01:03Now!
01:03Oh, I want to help, but what is gold?
01:08This infuriated Columbus, and soon he and his crew began to slaughter them.
01:13In some accounts, Columbus enslaved and maimed members of the native populations.
01:18Other alleged crimes include assaulting women and being complicit in genocides, including
01:23the destruction of the Taino indigenous people.
01:25As such, Columbus's name is far more controversial today.
01:29He didn't discover America, and he didn't prove the earth was round.
01:32He just bounced around the Caribbean, slaughtered a bunch of innocent people, and died thinking
01:37he had made it to India.
01:39Henry Heimlich
01:40Nowadays, some groups are calling for the life-saving method to be named abdominal thrusts.
01:45Previously, the procedure to dislodge obstacles blocking the upper airways was known as the
01:50Heimlich Maneuver.
01:51And you make a fist.
01:52You take the thumb side of that fist, and you place it against the abdomen, just above
01:58the belly button, and below the rib cage.
02:00Right, below that floating rib.
02:01Then, you press into the abdomen with a quick upward thrust.
02:06Invented by the thoracic surgeon Heimlich, he was celebrated as a medical legend.
02:10However, one of his sons, Peter, has been vocal in criticizing his father's methods,
02:15even claiming he stole the maneuver from someone else.
02:17He was such a gifted marketer, he could teach P.T. Barnum a few tricks.
02:21Heimlich also promoted his method to help drowning victims.
02:24However, other medical professionals have criticized the danger of that.
02:27Heimlich was a prominent supporter of the pseudoscience malariotherapy.
02:31He believed infecting someone with malaria could cure cancer, HIV, and other such diseases,
02:36which is heavily disputed.
02:38Heimlich stated he had success in trials, but refused to share the details.
02:42It's scientifically certainly unsound, and I think it would be ethically questionable.
02:47As one of the world's leading researchers on AIDS, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes
02:52of Health says Dr. Heimlich's theory about malaria therapy has been thoroughly debunked
02:58by medical science.
02:59J. Marion Sims.
03:00Labeled the father of gynecology, Sims, with a focus on repairing fistulas, helped transform
03:06the field of medicine.
03:07Yet in 2017, when statues of controversial people were being removed from the U.S., his
03:13dark experiments resurfaced.
03:14Sims losing his choice perch at 103rd and 5th Avenue after Mayor de Blasio's Monuments
03:20Commission determined the good that he did.
03:22He was known as the father of gynecology.
03:24The inventor of the speculum for female exams was outweighed by the bad.
03:29Sims notoriously practiced his surgical methods on enslaved black women, which he began in 1845.
03:35While anesthesia was newly introduced at the time, Sims didn't use it on any of the women
03:40in the early days.
03:41His practices echoed one of the most prevalent and dangerous beliefs in medicine at the time,
03:45that black people did not feel pain or anxiety.
03:48This book from 1851, titled The Natural History of Human Species, claimed the American dark races
03:55bear with indifference, tortures insupportable to a white man.
03:59When word spread about the experiments, white women soon signed up for the procedure, only
04:04for most to be unable to cope with the pain.
04:06One of the enslaved women Sims experimented on was Anarka Westcott, who was believed to
04:11have been a minor at the time.
04:13It was not acceptable back then.
04:14We just did not hear from the people who protested against it.
04:18Thomas Jefferson.
04:18As a founding father and the third U.S. president, Jefferson is often celebrated as a key figure
04:24in building the country.
04:25He was well known for publicly being against the slave trade.
04:28I tell you, the rights of human nature are deeply wounded by this infamous practice.
04:35And see to your own wounds, Mr. Jefferson, for you are a practitioner, are you not?
04:40Behind the scenes, it was indeed a different story.
04:43After all, at Monticello, his private residence, it is believed he had over 620 slaves over his
04:49life on his plantation.
04:51And modern DNA evidence has suggested Jefferson's misdeeds went beyond human ownership.
04:56We, as Americans, don't address some of the more complex issues of slavery, of sex, of
05:02power, of ownership.
05:03And that is what is really interesting about Sally Hemings and her story.
05:06Between 1787 and 1789, the recently widowed Jefferson went to Paris, France, taking his
05:13daughter and slaves, including Sally Hemings.
05:15During this time, it's believed that Jefferson, who was 30 years older than Hemings, fathered children
05:21with the minor.
05:22Even after Jefferson's death in 1826, Hemings wasn't formally released as a slave.
05:27He wrote some of the most trenchant criticisms of slavery of anyone.
05:32And so he knew that he was victimizing people.
05:34So we can't, you know, take the position of protecting him at the expense of the people
05:41who he knew he was doing harm to.
05:43John B. Watson famously claimed that if he were to be given a dozen healthy infants,
05:50he could shape them into anything.
05:52As one of the trailblazers of behaviorism in psychology, Watson's work has been invaluable
05:57in understanding development.
05:59His most famous study was the Little Albert experiment.
06:02Conducted in 1920, Watson used classical conditioning methods to make an infant frightened of animals
06:07by clanging an iron rod when Albert met them.
06:10Shockingly, Watson didn't uncondition the boy.
06:13Weeks later, Albert showed distress towards any furry object, showing that his conditioning
06:19had not only been sustained, but also generalized.
06:22In 2009, researchers examined what happened to Little Albert.
06:26Hall P. Beck and Sharman Levinson believed he was Douglas Morit, who passed away a few years
06:31after the experiment due to complications from a possible disability.
06:34However, in 2014, other researchers claimed the child was Albert Barger, who had passed away
06:40in 2007.
06:41According to his family, Barger was frightened of animals his whole life.
06:45They are needy.
06:46They are jumpy.
06:48And you can't tell what they are thinking.
06:50And that scares me a little bit.
06:52Hans Asperger.
06:53Known for his work in autism, which even resulted in a now defunct syndrome related to autism
06:58being named after him.
06:59Asperger was an Austrian doctor.
07:01He often claimed he was persecuted by Germany during World War II.
07:05Yet in 2018, researchers uncovered documents that provided evidence to the contrary.
07:10So this is a talk he gave that was republished in the Munich Medical Weekly, a prestigious
07:16journal, saying that, quote, for all difficult cases, only a long and continuous observation
07:21as proper, like those carried out in his own clinic or the reformatory Spiegelgrund.
07:27During the war, Asperger was involved in Germany's Aktion Tifia program, which forced euthanasia
07:33on people with disabilities and mental illnesses.
07:35Documents showed he selected patients to send to Vienna's infamous Amspiegelgrund
07:39clinic for Aktion Tifia.
07:40Asperger, it seems, was playing this very complicated game of appearing to be anti-Nazi,
07:46but meanwhile signing a couple of death warrants.
07:48Nearly 790 people lost their lives at the clinic.
07:52Heinrich Gross, who was the lead psychiatrist at Amspiegelgrund, was deemed unfit to stand
07:57trial when his crimes were discovered in the 90s, while Asperger died in 1980.
08:02I would speak with colleagues that would almost minimize, I think, what he was doing.
08:10So Asperger was transferring people to Spiegelgrund.
08:12He wasn't directly involved with murder.
08:16To me, it's completely, if you transfer someone to Auschwitz, you know what you're doing, right?
08:20Pablo Picasso.
08:21With his storied work in art, especially when it came to cubism, Picasso developed into one
08:26of the most influential artists in the modern era.
08:29Some people even compared him to a saint.
08:31Yet over the years since his passing in 1973, more evidence began emerging that he was incredibly
08:37un-saint-like.
08:38I love the way he depicted women.
08:39I don't feel cruelty in the paintings.
08:41I don't feel sadism.
08:43If we're going to look at his life, that's where all the problems come in.
08:47He obviously was a cad.
08:48He was a raging chauvinist.
08:50On top of having many affairs, typically with far younger women, Picasso's exes have often
08:55described his behavior as abusive.
08:57Dora Marr spoke about times he forced her to physically fight with other prospective partners
09:01of his.
09:02She and Francois Gillot have stated that Picasso was physically abusive towards them, too.
09:18With all the evidence emerging, Picasso's legacy makes it incredibly difficult to separate
09:23the art from the artist.
09:24So given all the discussion about who Picasso was as a man, has your view of him changed
09:32in any way, given the way-
09:34No, he's still an s**t.
09:35Artist, Nicolene Thomas.
09:38Has that affected your respect for him as an artist in any way?
09:41It's complicated.
09:42Grover Cleveland.
09:44Somehow, before he became the first U.S. president to serve non-consecutive terms, Cleveland managed
09:49to survive two scandals that, especially with further examination, should have destroyed his
09:54career.
09:54On July 21st, a potentially devastating story appeared in the Buffalo Evening Telegraph.
10:00Firstly, during the 1884 election, it emerged that he had fathered a child out of wedlock
10:06with Mariah Halpin and paid her money.
10:08Yet Halpin told reporters that she was assaulted by Cleveland, resulting in a pregnancy.
10:12When she sought his help, he had her committed to an asylum, and the child was adopted by another
10:17family.
10:18His staff told reporters that Cleveland, and indeed quite a number of other Buffalo businessmen,
10:23had enjoyed the affections of Mrs. Halpin, insinuating that she was essentially a sex
10:29worker.
10:29And that after she became pregnant, Cleveland, as the only bachelor among them, did the honorable
10:36thing.
10:36Seemingly to distract from this scandal, Cleveland then married Frances Folsom in 1886.
10:42Cleveland, who was 28 years older than her, met Folsom when she was a child, as he was
10:46friends with her father, Oscar, and was her unofficial guardian.
10:49He wouldn't remain a father figure for very long.
10:52In 1885, Cleveland proposed to the girl after she visited the White House.
10:55The two were married on June 2, 1886.
10:58And just like that, the 21-year-old Frances became America's youngest first lady.
11:02Coco Chanel.
11:03A trailblazer in women's fashion, Chanel is seen as one of the most important designers
11:07of the 1900s.
11:08While she passed away in 1971, her celebrated legacy would eventually degrade decades later.
11:14You must try this.
11:16This is one of my favorite champagnes.
11:22It is an honor to be invited as your guest.
11:26In 2011, journalist Hal Vaughn released a book that examined Chanel's actions during World
11:31War II.
11:32Thanks to declassified documents, Vaughn discovered strong evidence that the French designer was a
11:37spy for Germany, and worked with Walter Schellenberg, the head of foreign intelligence, who was
11:42later convicted of war crimes.
11:44She was number F-7124.
11:47Her code name, Westminster.
11:49On top of being involved in plans for Germany to take over Madrid, Spain, Chanel was also a
11:54cog in Operation Modelhut.
11:56This plan involved her using her connection to Winston Churchill to negotiate a ceasefire
12:00with select higher-ups in Germany.
12:02In success, history will remember.
12:07I will pay you more for this than for any dress you have ever made.
12:14This is your life's work.
12:25Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's album, Current, EDM Transformed.
12:31Check out the full track and album below.
12:47King Leopold II of Belgium
12:49In Belgium, Leopold is often referred to as the Builder King.
12:53However, to the rest of the world, especially in the modern-day Democratic Republic of the
12:57Congo, his legacy is nothing but terror.
12:59Due to the 2020 George Floyd protest, Leopold's crimes resurfaced.
13:04Leopold persuaded the U.S. and European powers to grant him ownership of the Congo, pledging to
13:10protect free trade in the region.
13:12And on May 29, 1885, a territory more than 80 times the size of Belgium and home to 20 million
13:19people was declared his own private colony by no one it actually belonged to.
13:25After taking control of the region, Leopold established the Congo Free State in 1885.
13:30He then enslaved the local population, forcing them to extract resources such as ivory and rubber.
13:36A worldwide boom in rubber meant that Leopold II could cash in big time.
13:39But tapping rubber from trees was back-breaking work.
13:42So to source enough labor, Leopold effectively turned all of the Congo into a slave plantation.
13:47Leopold instigated deplorable methods against the slaves, including kidnapping family members,
13:52maiming workers who didn't meet quotas, and executions.
13:55As a result of his rule, which ended in 1908 when the Belgian government took control,
14:01it's estimated that up to 15 million indigenous people lost their lives, around half the population.
14:06I wish to reaffirm my deepest regrets for these past wounds.
14:12Deep regrets, but no clear apology for the deadly plunder of this land's resources.
14:17The limbs and lives of millions of Congolese were brutally lost for the insatiable demands of King Leopold II.
14:24Are there any other historical figures who turned out to be villains that we missed from the video?
14:28Let us know in the comments.
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