286: George Hearst w/ Matthew Bernstein - A True Crime History Podcast

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Erik Rivenes

True Crime, History, Education

4.7 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the third season of the acclaimed HBO series Deadwood, one of the most villainous characters in a show full of villains was introduced. Ruthless mining magnate George Hearst arrived, eager to seize control of the richest mine in town - no matter what the cost. But was he really as rotten as the show suggested he was?

My guest is Matthew Bernstein, author of "George Hearst: Silver King of the Gilded Age". He talks about the rise and fall and rise again of a man who made millions sniffing out gold, silver and copper mines across the country, and who fathered one of the most controversial characters of his era, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.

More about the author and his book here: https://www.oupress.com/author/matthew-bernstein/

Go here to download the Zocdoc app for free to find a top-rated doctor (and support the show) https://www.zocdoc.com/most

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome everyone to another episode of the most notorious podcast,
0:29.9	I'm Eric Rivenes, no small talk, chit chat on this show. Let's get straight to the
0:36.8	interview as always. I'm very pleased to introduce my guest today, Matthew Bernstein.
0:43.4	He is an adjunct professor of English at Los Angeles City College. He also
0:50.7	teaches at Matrix for Success Academy and is a frequent magazine contributor. In the
0:57.9	book, which he is here to talk about today, of course, is called George Hurst, Silver King
1:05.2	of the Guild at age. Thank you so much for coming on. Welcome.
1:08.5	Great to be here.
1:11.7	So George Hurst, I know him and a lot of other people listening, might have been introduced
1:16.9	to him through the television show, Deadwood. He was played by Gerald McRainey and he was
1:23.1	one of the primary villains in the show. How did you first learn about George Hurst?
1:29.5	Well, the first time I came across George was actually through Deadwood, but I wasn't
1:36.0	immediately intrigued in his life story that I started researching it. But I got to
1:41.8	tell you, I loved Deadwood. At that time, that was my very favorite show and I still consider
1:50.0	it my favorite Western TV show. Now happily, a friend of mine actually works on NCISLA,
1:57.8	where Gerald McRainey plays a part. And so after the George Hurst book came out, I gave
2:04.2	the book to my friend who gave it to McRainey. I gave him a signed copy. And she would report
2:10.4	to me that McRainey would be, he was very enthusiastic and she would see him reading it
2:15.8	on set. So I was pleased by that. Oh, great story. Glad you liked it. What motivated you
2:23.5	to write a book about him? Well, I was between classes at Victor Valley College where I was
2:32.7	teaching at the time and I was in their library and I happened across a book called Citizen
2:39.2	Hurst and it was about William Randolph Hurst, George Hurst's son. And I started flipping
	...

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