Death in Eden

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1:01to fall, only at Starbucks.

1:06Before they even left, Frederick decided to yank out all of his teeth and have them replaced by a set of steel dentures. In the late 1920s, a German doctor named Frederick Ritter decided to leave the country. He said he wanted to leave modern society altogether. He was a veteran of World War I. He suffered quite a bit of trauma on the battlefield there, came out with severe lung damage, and afterward went into holistic healing and believed in the healing powers of water and also believed in the powers of the mind and was into philosophy. He was into Nietzsche and various, you know, philosophers and fancied himself to be a philosopher.

1:49This is author Abbott Kaler. And so he decided that civilization had nothing more to offer him and he had nothing more to offer it. and began dreaming of escaping civilization and going somewhere to a remote island where he would be able to test his theories and write his philosophy and sort of, I guess, develop a new world order that people might want to follow. Frederick Ritter believed it was possible to live to be 150 years old. Abbott says he didn't trust manufactured clothing, especially, quote, the civilized shoe. He made his own shoes. He called society a monster forging ever-new chains with which to shackle the free development of its members.

2:35Abbott says he was also unpredictable. Frederick was somebody who was quite violent when he came home from the war. There's one anecdote where he sort of lost his mind for a moment and shot his sister's dogs, then turns around and says that he is so against violence that he won't even eat potatoes because they have to be yanked from the earth by force. He told people he was a strict vegetarian. He worked as a doctor at the Hydrotherapeutic Institute in Berlin, and one of his patients was a young woman named Dori Strauch. So Dori was a few years younger than Frederick Ritter. She was in her 20s when she became a patient at his hospital in Berlin.

3:17Dori was suffering from multiple sclerosis, and every other doctor told her, you know, you are incurable. Your condition cannot be cured. Frederick, however, said that she was choosing to be sick, that her mind had told her she wanted to be sick. And if she could just train her mind to give her a different message, she would not suffer from multiple sclerosis at all. Instead of, you know, telling Frederick this was crazy or she was annoyed or, you know, whatever, stomping out of the room, Dory started to think maybe he was on to something. She was at first terrified of him, but then she became very enamored with Frederick.

3:52I think partly because she had been married to an older family friend and was very unsatisfied in this marriage. In her memoir, she actually talks about how bad the sex was in her marriage, which is kind of an orthodox thing for women to have been writing about back at that time, to be so candid. But she learned of his dream of abandoning civilization and decided that it was her role in life to accompany him on this journey and be instrumental in spreading his ideas and philosophies throughout the world, and she begged to go with him. At first, Frederick said no. He said, I cannot have a lovesick woman full of romantic notions trailing after me in the wilderness.

4:33But eventually, he gave in, even though they were both married to other people. They decided to go to the Galapagos Islands. How did they pick the Galapagos? Well, it's interesting. You know, when you think about the Galapagos, I think most people who have never been there or don't know much about it think of, you know, sandy beaches and waving palm trees and a lush tropical vegetation. But the Galapagos, of course, were formed by volcanic eruptions. They're covered in lava rock. Many of the islands don't have any freshwater source. They're barren. They're incapable of growing anything. And I think Frederick liked this challenge.

5:12He wanted to prove that he could go to a difficult place like the Galapagos and not only survive but thrive. And they picked an island called Floriana, which is in the southern part of the islands. And Floriana's saving grace was that it does have one freshwater spring. So if they were able to tap into that, they would at least be able to have a chance of cultivating a garden and sustaining themselves. How big was Floriana? It's not large at all. It is one of the smaller islands. And at that time, it was completely uninhabited. It had been, in the past, a very popular transient point for pirates and people on the trade routes.

5:50It was more of a place where people came and went rather than stayed there, although people tried and failed. Before they left, Frederick and Dory started preparing for their new life. That's when Frederick decided to have all of his teeth removed and get a set of steel dentures to replace them. You know, he was anticipating dental problems on the island, and he just, I guess, wanted to, you know, stop that from even happening in the beginning. Of course, he did not account for the fact that his gums would shrink. Which meant the dentures sometimes fell out. But Frederick had a backup plan. Frederick also wanted to test gums.

6:30He thought that gums could become, quote, horny enough to substitute for teeth. He and Dory sailed from Amsterdam on July 3, 1929. They brought mosquito netting, gardening tools, and philosophy and Latin books. Frederick wrote to a friend, I feel as if I am dying in one world in order to be reborn in another. At the end of the month, they arrived in Guayaquil, on the coast of Ecuador. Frederick didn't like it there. He said he noticed a, quote, completely intolerable cult having to do with shoes. He didn't like that there were shoeshiners everywhere. From there, they took another boat to Floriana.

7:14Once they got there, they found a place to sleep in some caves. They were known as the island's pirate caves. A pirate named Patrick Watkins had lived in them decades earlier. So they stayed in his cave, and this was something that did not sit well with Dory. She later described feeling something sinister and frightening in the air on the island. She began believing that if they did not behave themselves on Floriana, if they did not yield to the will of the island, Floriana would come to hurt them in the long run. Almost immediately after they arrived, it became clear that life on the island was going to be harder than they imagined.

7:54The lava rocks are very sharp. They had pretty thin shoes. And Dory, of course, you know, suffering from multiple sclerosis, had a bad leg that pained her quite a bit. And Frederick, he could be a very cold person and sort of got frustrated with Dory whenever she would express that her leg was bothering her. And there was tension that started to brew with him pretty much right away. You know, Frederick would tell her to, quote, you know, erect a defense psychology around herself, and that would protect her from the pain. And, you know, of course, Dory would just get, you know, annoyed that he couldn't show a little bit more care and concern.

8:30Frederick and Dory also had to deal with all of the wild animals that lived on the island. There were wild cattle, boars, and donkeys, and a lot of insects. Not long after they arrived, Dory's feet became very swollen. She and Frederick discovered that a kind of sand flea had burrowed beneath her skin to lay eggs. Frederick cut Dory's feet open to remove them. He found 32 in all. Then he told Dory that she should develop a defense psychology around her feet. At one point, Dory's teeth started rotting from eating too much sugar cane, which Frederick scolded her for. But he did agree to share his steel dentures with her.

9:13For a while, she'd only talk and smile when she was wearing them. Frederick and Dory built a small home for themselves. They called it Frito, a combination of their names and also a reference to the German word for peace. There were bananas, pineapples, oranges, and papayas growing on the island. And they were also able to grow their own food. Tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers. So Frederick, for all of his faults, did build a really ingenious contraption. He was able to sort of rig a shower and a water source and piping from the spring that delivered water to their area. Their garden flourished. They had wonderful fruits.

9:57Dory wrote quite lovingly about these fruits, that they were bigger than baby's heads and anything, much better than anything she had ever seen in Europe. And then, a few months after they arrived, they started getting unexpected visitors. In the 1930s, you know, after everybody was suffering from the Great Depression, the stock market had crashed, people were really just desperate. Anybody with money decided to, you know, I'm going to build a yacht and go on oceanic exploration. And it sort of became an escape from, you know, the hell that had been, you know, descending upon the world after the storm market crashed.

10:35In January of 1930, a wealthy American arrived on Floriana. He had no idea Frederick and Dory were there. He had gone just to search of treasure and to, you know, gather some exotic animals and flora and fauna to bring back to the United States. And was quite shocked, you know, when he came upon Dory and Frederick. He, you know, gave them some tools. He gave them ammunition. He gave them a gun. He gave them dynamite to blast away the wild boars that were eating their fruits and vegetables. And he even gave Frederick some steel polish. And when he went back to America and gave a press conference, you know, he joked that he didn't know what Frederick was going to do with steel polish unless it was to polish his teeth.

11:16But he called them the modern-day Adam and Eve, and everybody immediately became fascinated by the idea that these two, you know, had it figured out. These two actually escaped civilization when civilization was falling apart, and it almost became sort of an aspirational thing. You know, wow, wouldn't it be great if I could just get away to a remote island and get away from all of my problems? newspapers reported on the German Robinson Crusoe. A reporter for the Austin Statesman wrote their story was, quote, liable to make one wonder when the next boat leaves for the South Seas and how much a ticket costs.

11:53Frederick and Dory had no idea they had become famous. But a few months later, a boat delivered a large package of mail, dozens of letters in newspapers. All of the letters were from strangers, many writing that they also wanted to move to Floriana. Dory was devastated. She later wrote their piece was destroyed. Quote, She told Frederick,

12:29I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

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13:50Fall is here, and that means the pumpkin spice latte is back at Starbucks. It's the one we've been waiting for. So whether you're a fan of the original pumpkin spice latte, or ready to mix it up with an iced pumpkin cream chai, the new iced pumpkin cream matcha, or the new iced pumpkin cream shaken espresso. You can find your favorite taste of fall only at Starbucks. In a letter to a relative, Frederick Ritter wrote that people, quote, obviously believe that we are living an idle life like Adam and Eve in paradise, eating delicious fruits, swimming in the ocean, or walking about admiring the beautiful landscape.

14:28This is a pleasant delusion. On August 28, 1932, a new family arrived on Floriana. A man named Heinz Whitmer, a woman named Margaret Waldbrough, and Heinz's 12-year-old son, Harry. And by the time that they arrive on Floriana, Margaret is five months pregnant with Heinz's child. And they directly go to Frederick and Dory to pay their respects to the famous Dr. Ritter, as they called him. And it does not go well. You know, Frederick was kind of put upon and resentful. He's, you know, he's thinking, I left Berlin in a medical practice because I did not want to do this any longer. I didn't want to be responsible for a woman and her child and this delivery and they're going to impose upon me.

15:17Dory, for her part, was hopeful at first that she might have a woman friend on the island. But she and Margaret didn't hit it off either. You know, she looked at Margaret and thought, what kind of fool would want to give birth on a deserted island? and Margaret looked at Dory and says, what kind of fool quotes Nietzsche on a desert island? And they really, you know, didn't have anything in common. And so the two couples get off to a very bad start. I mean, you know what? I kind of get it. I kind of get how I would be kind of mad too if people showed up on my island. Yeah, and, you know, I think there were, this is where they start having differing accounts.

15:54You know, I should say that I, you know, had several sources I consulted for this story and Margaret and Dory have very different ideas of how things unfolded at different points. And this was one of them. You know, Dory, in her memoir, acts like she was very accommodating and offered to do anything she could. And Margaret basically wrote about how standoffish Dory was and how it was actually not a very friendly meeting. Margaret Hines and Harry settled several miles away from Dory and Frederick. They built a log cabin and planted a garden. Margaret spent a lot of time sewing baby clothes. She was due at the end of the year.

16:32And then in October, another group arrived on the island. There's a woman in Paris. Her name is Antonia, actually. Antonia Wagner von Wehrborn-Bosquette is her entire name. She's usually described as a self-proclaimed baroness or a so-called baroness. But she actually was an authentic baroness. She inherited the title from her grandfather. And she's in Paris with her two lovers. She has quite a reputation in Paris. She's known for throwing wild parties and orgies, seducing men and women alike. There are rumors that men have fought duels over her. There's rumors that she actually murdered somebody herself.

17:13And she declared that God himself ordered her to go to Floriana and conquer it and claim it for herself. So in 1932, she leaves Paris, brings her two lovers with her, shows up on Floriana with these two men, Robert and Rudolph, and a gun and a whip on her person, and decides that she is going to turn Floriana into Miami and build a luxury hotel that will cater to American millionaires. She wanted to call it Hacienda Paradiso. And of course, this really does not get over well with anybody. including Heinz Whitmer, Margaret, Frederick, and Dory. And the men she brought with her, Rudolph and Robert, what were they like?

17:58Well, Rudolph was blonde and pale and a little bit frail. And sort of, he had been friends with the Baroness, I think, for a longer period of time than Robert. She and Rudolph had been in business together. In Paris, they owned a trinket shop, a lingerie slash trinket shop. And there were also rumors that she had been cooking the books a bit on that. and that when they left, they were fleeing debtors. And Rudolf was quite, you know, despondent about this because he had claims later that she had cost him all of his money and his reputation as a good businessman. So in a way, I think he felt that he had no choice but to accompany her because there was really nothing left for him in Paris.

18:36He had no money to start somewhere else. And part of him was still in love with the Baroness. And Robert, he was this sort of very, very good-looking, strapping, dark-haired, very muscular. She sort of was very openly sexual with him and was clearly her favorite. I mean, the things that she chooses to bring with her seem a little wild, a wild decision for a deserted island. Yeah, I mean, she brings, you know, bees with her. I remember one particular thing that she brought a bunch of bees. I think she was going to try to be a beekeeper and make honey. She brings various exotic clothing, lingerie, all kinds of skimpy outfits.

19:17I guess in her mind, you know, the idea that she was going to build this luxury hotel and sort of seduce American millionaires, the lingerie was a necessity for her, I suppose. Margaret was the first to meet the Baroness, who showed up outside her home riding on a donkey. Margaret noted that the Baroness immediately had Rudolph wash her feet in a freshwater spring that was also Margaret and Hines' drinking water. Then the Baroness went to visit Frederick and Dory. According to Dory, she extended her hand in a way that suggested she wanted them to kiss it. They didn't. They showed her around Frito, and Dory noticed that the Baroness kept Rudolph close at all times, constantly ordering him around.

20:06Dory thought he seemed very young, and later wrote that the Baroness, quote, must have caught him early. And then, not long after the Baroness arrived Frederick noticed some of his mail had been tampered with At one point, the Baroness offered to store some rice for Heinz But when he tried to retrieve it, she told him he had to pay I mean, it's kind of like this woman gets there And Friedrich and Heinz says, you can't What are you doing? And she said, I'm going to do whatever I want Yeah, you know, I remember when she was first deciding where to set up her hotel, she had been staying quite near Hines.

20:44And once Hines sort of realized that this woman was up to no good and had nefarious motives, he said, I don't want you anywhere near. He may, you know, go live somewhere else. And she taps her revolver in her, you know, waistband and says, I'm not going anywhere. I will stay where I like. She's not afraid to threaten anybody. And at the same time, she extends invitations to both Frederick and Hines to, in Margaret's words, visit her wigwam. So she was trying to seduce these men. At the same time, she was also threatening to kill them. On New Year's Day, 1933, Margaret had her baby. It's quite a harrowing scene.

21:22And she is alone. Hines and his teenage son had gone out somewhere. She doesn't know where anybody is. It's pitch black. She stumbles from her bed, trying to call out their names and sort of faints in pain. and all the wild animals are circling around her, the wild hogs, the goats, the pigs. And, you know, it's kind of terrifying. And it's in this, you know, this way she gives birth alone. It was a boy. They named him Ralph. This seems like kind of a hard place to have an infant. It was. You know, it's very difficult. She, you know, does the best she can and I think manages quite well. You know, when American explorers would go visit the new baby, they would remark about how well he looked and how chubby.

22:10And she depended on them quite often to bring milk. She wasn't able to nurse after a while. It sort of—her body stopped producing milk, and she had to depend on milk from them. And, of course, there was another problem when the baroness, it was discovered, had been stealing milk from Heinz and Margaret. When visitors came to the island, the baroness would often tell them to leave the milk with her, and she'd pass it along. But she kept it for herself. By this point, one of the men the baroness was living with, Rudolph, wasn't doing well. He started suffering from tuberculosis, is one of the diagnoses that he received.

22:51And at the same time, the baroness was kind of demoting him. You know, she, you know, always ordered these two men around, but she started giving Rudolph the more menial chores and also the more physically demanding chores. So his body would just wear out. He would collapse. And then every time he collapsed, she would berate him. And she began staging physical fights, actually, between Robert and Rudolph and sort of egging them on to beat each other. And Robert, the stronger man, was always the victor in these fights. And every time Rudolph would lose, she would just demote him further and make things worse for him.

23:25So there was a period of time where he just started visiting Margaret and Dory separately and complaining about the Baroness and saying, I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm getting desperate. I want to leave this island. I can't leave this island. I don't know what I'm going to do. And, you know, Margaret and Dory both just started worrying about how bad things were getting with the Baroness. And then, a couple of months after the baby was born, Heinz's canoe went missing. He asked the Baroness about it, and she lied and said Dory and Frederick had taken it. When Heinz and Frederick begin comparing notes, it becomes quite clear that the Baroness is their common enemy, and that's when they really try to band together and decide, what are we going to do about her?

24:07Because the Baroness seems to be able to charm whoever she's with. Frederick and Hines decided to try writing to the Ecuadorian authorities.