William Demont was a traitor in much the same way that Benedict Arnold was, but Washington chose to keep this story a little quieter, largely for morale reasons.

So how does he make it into an episode of Scooby Doo?

It’s worth remembering that as we approached the Bicentennial, America was absolutely immersed in the whole Spirit of ’76 and showed great interest in that era. (Frankly it’s sort of what we were hoping would happen again when we first came up with this show. Anyway.) The American Colonial Era was a constant focus in media, from Philadelphia turning into a major tourist location to Red, White and Blue everything everywhere. So the fact that a Scooby Doo episode offered up a history lesson didn’t really seem out of place. Here’s what happened in the story:

Mystery, Inc. visits Washington DC but the weather turns rainy and they duck into the Splitsonian Institute. Oddly, the museum has practically no visitors and a guard explains that it’s empty because it’s haunted. Then the guard reminds them that it’s nearly closing time.

Shaggy sees a tableau with a sign in front of it: “Traitors of American History”, with wax figures of Benedict Arnold, William Demont and Major André. (Demont is the only one wearing civilian clothes, even though he was in the Continental Army.) As everyone moves on, Scooby sniffs at Demont’s statue but is pushed away by its leg.

Hijinks ensue, etc etc and the gang eventually reveal that Major André isn’t a ghost but an accomplice of the other two men. William Demont is unmasked and turns out to be Mr. Wilit, an employee who actually sleeps in the museum. And Benedict Arnold winds up actually being one of the guards. The three men replaced the wax dummies with themselves; their plan was to use a drill to cut through the basement wall to the US Mint next door, so they could steal the money therein. What they didn’t know is that the money they were going to steal had no treasury seal, no serial numbers and no signature printed on them yet, so they were worthless.

See? History lesson and a little bit of civics/economics to boot.

Also, for what it’s worth, John Stephenson voiced all three of the “ghost” characters and two others besides in this episode. However, Frank Welker (who also voices Fred) provided the voice for Mr. Wilit, the man in the Demont mask.

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