Speaker 1: Welcomed unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky.
Speaker 1: Theodore Bryant knew where his bread was buttered and who
Speaker 1: would butter it. He was a member of a prominent
Speaker 1: Quaker family who had risen to prestige as successful London grocers.
Speaker 1: The law cut off Quakers from much of British life.
Speaker 1: They couldn't serve in the military, they couldn't practice law
Speaker 1: or medicine. But what they could do was by and sell,
Speaker 1: and like many others, the Bryant family took to the
Speaker 1: market with enthusiasm. Starting with the small grocery, their business
Speaker 1: grew and flourished and expanded, and one of the things
Speaker 1: their grocery sold like hot cakes, was the indispensable tool
Speaker 1: and light source of every Victorian household, the humble match.
Speaker 1: Whether you were lighting a stove, a pipe of fireplace,
Speaker 1: a candle or a gas lamp, the match was in
Speaker 1: demand and the Bryants were ready to supply. Theodore Bryant
Speaker 1: had seen as family's grocery become profitable, and then, what's
Speaker 1: more powerful, they went from selling to manufacturing. After all,
Speaker 1: it was the industrial Age. By two of the Bryant's
Speaker 1: had a factory in London's East End, employing more than
Speaker 1: five thousand workers in a time when many Quakers still
Speaker 1: found themselves on the outside of the law looking in.
Speaker 1: The Bryant's had risen so high they even had the
Speaker 1: ear of Britain's Liberal Party. So it should be no
Speaker 1: surprise that Theodore Bryant's had a bright idea. Here's historian
Speaker 1: Louise raw So Brian and may As I said to
Speaker 1: we very well in with the Liberal Party. And Gladstone
Speaker 1: was always being Prime Minister Jenes period is Prime Minster
Speaker 1: for several different terms. So the ultimate act of sucking
Speaker 1: up my goodness took about ass kissing Brant. And they
Speaker 1: just said they will build a statue of William Gladstone,
Speaker 1: and they will build it on the Bow Road. And
Speaker 1: it's actually gesturing with the right hand towards their fact
Speaker 1: three such humidlity. You know, this is Fladstone saying you
Speaker 1: look at this wonderful factory. So they decided to build it.
Speaker 1: They could have paid for themselves. They could have paid
Speaker 1: for a thousand statues themselves, I'm sure very easily. But again,
Speaker 1: why would you when you can make your work is
Speaker 1: pay That's right, Bryant followed one bright idea with another.
Speaker 1: To pay for his statue celebrating William Gladstone, Titan of
Speaker 1: the Liberal Party, Bryant took money out of his workers pay,
Speaker 1: and of course, on the day of the Statues unveiling,
Speaker 1: he shut down the factory. Bryant said he was giving
Speaker 1: them a holiday. What he wasn't giving them, though, was
Speaker 1: their day's wage. And to add insult to injury, attendance
Speaker 1: at the Statues unveiling was mandatory. All the women who
Speaker 1: worked in Theodore Bryant's factory were required to be there
Speaker 1: a dressed to the nines. The streets certainly had the
Speaker 1: atmosphere that Bryant had hoped for. A crowd of thirty
Speaker 1: thousands surrounded the monument. The Bow Road was lined with
Speaker 1: Venetian masts and a profusion of bunting, while the railroad
Speaker 1: bridge that crossed the road was draped with red banners
Speaker 1: proclaiming England's greatest statesman, Gladstone. Leading dignitaries and politicians attended.
Speaker 1: Gladstone's wife and children, the chairman of the London School Board,
Speaker 1: and members of Parliament. That even attracted a clutch of
Speaker 1: lords who served in Gladstone's cabinets or on the Crowns
Speaker 1: Privy Council. It was precisely the gala for Britain's ruling
Speaker 1: Liberal Party that Theodore Bryant's had planned. What he didn't
Speaker 1: plan was the response from the women who worked in
Speaker 1: his factory. They did come in their best clothes, but
Speaker 1: some of them also had rocks and bricks clutched in
Speaker 1: their fists. The newspapers would later politely whitewash over the
Speaker 1: friction by calling it unbounded enthusiasm, but looking back, we
Speaker 1: know that many of those women hoped their stones and
Speaker 1: bricks would make some impression on Mr Bryant's conscience. Whatever
Speaker 1: their intentions, they were outnumbered by the crowd. But once
Speaker 1: the politicians and peerage were done glad handing and proclaiming
Speaker 1: each other a great statesman, they cleared out, leaving the
Speaker 1: neighborhood to its residence. And that's when the working women
Speaker 1: surrounded the statue. Their effort had paid for it, after all,
Speaker 1: their lives, their work, their blood. In a moment of anger,
Speaker 1: some of the women cut themselves and smeared their blood
Speaker 1: on the monuments. Later, when the blood had dried and faded,
Speaker 1: they came back with red paint and splashed it over
Speaker 1: the statues outstretched hand. In London's East End, myths were
Speaker 1: praised and greatness was celebrated. But like the women around
Speaker 1: Gladstone Statue, east Enders understood something else. That their work
Speaker 1: had lifted the Empire and its loyal bagman to the
Speaker 1: heights of imperial power. That price was paid right where
Speaker 1: they lived in the East End, and it was paid
Speaker 1: with the ultimate sacrifice their blood. This is unobscured. I'm
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky. However, they chose to vent their anger over
Speaker 1: lost wages. The match women still went back to work.
Speaker 1: After all, if they were furious over a single day's
Speaker 1: loss wage, how would they afford to lose it all Two.
Speaker 1: The Bryant and May match factory employed more women in
Speaker 1: the East End than any other company. They were putting
Speaker 1: other match manufacturers out of business or gobbling them up.
Speaker 1: They poured money into advertising campaigns, and in order to
Speaker 1: keep them operating, the Liberal government massaged manufacturing laws to
Speaker 1: make sure that match boxes kept marching out their factory doors,
Speaker 1: whether it was the Gladstone statue or all the behind
Speaker 1: the scenes glad handing that Theodore and his brothers. Their
Speaker 1: relationship to govering officials paid off in many ways big
Speaker 1: and small. Their factory in the East End had started
Speaker 1: when a Swedish match factory closed down and the family
Speaker 1: of grocers lost their foreign source of cheap matches. Bryant's
Speaker 1: decided to bring the operation home and run it themselves
Speaker 1: from a neighborhood teaming with life and laborers. So they
Speaker 1: moved into the old home of the British Sperm Candle Company.
Speaker 1: It was a sign of the changing times. Here's Louise
Speaker 1: raw once again. Everything really changes with industrialization. People come
Speaker 1: in from the countryside from working in you perhaps on
Speaker 1: farms or working in a by feudal set up really
Speaker 1: perhaps the lord of the manner in some capacity. They
Speaker 1: come flooding into the new towns and cities in especially London,
Speaker 1: to work in the new factories. Nothing's ready for them,
Speaker 1: nothing's prepared, so they just come crowding into London and
Speaker 1: the rich get the hell out as soon as they can,
Speaker 1: and steam trains, of course make that possible. Suddenly we
Speaker 1: have new suburbs, so you can get out, you can
Speaker 1: come back into London for work and then you can
Speaker 1: get away from all the dirt and the dust and
Speaker 1: the disorder of industrialization, and you know, it's a pretty
Speaker 1: stinky process. Industrialization, particularly in the East En where we
Speaker 1: had a lot of slaughter houses as well, at absolutely
Speaker 1: stuck on some days so they could get out and
Speaker 1: they left the poor, particularly in the East End, just
Speaker 1: to get the hell on with it, and get on
Speaker 1: with it they did. But like the matchwomen, Londoners were
Speaker 1: daily confronted with the fact that they were living at
Speaker 1: the heart of a powerful empire, an empire that made
Speaker 1: its rulers incredibly rich. But close beside the splendid homes
Speaker 1: of the bankers and bureaucrats of London's financial center, men
Speaker 1: and women in the East End, we're working themselves to death.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the match women who looked at
Speaker 1: their skimpy wages and thought that something was wrong with
Speaker 1: that picture. If some gatherings, like the dedication of the
Speaker 1: Gladstone Statue brought honor to the government's heavyweights, other meetings
Speaker 1: were not so flattering, especially when times got hard. Eight
Speaker 1: eighty four saw Britain in a deep depression. Families like
Speaker 1: the Bryant's may have enjoyed the friendship of the governing powers,
Speaker 1: but not every working family enjoyed the same attention, and
Speaker 1: that was bound to end in unrest. Take for instance,
Speaker 1: a gathering that was organized on a cold February Monday
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighties six by the London United Workers Committee.
Speaker 1: They planned a meeting in Trafalgar Square to cast blame
Speaker 1: for massive unemployment on foreign businesses squeezing out Britain's sugar refineries.
Speaker 1: The London Police knew that there was some potential for
Speaker 1: a scuffle, so the Commissioner assigned five hundred officers to
Speaker 1: the gathering. Thousands of demonstrators arrived from the East End.
Speaker 1: Crowds of socialists, led by the likes of Eleanor Marx
Speaker 1: and William Morris, joined the crowd. They're more simple demand
Speaker 1: that the government provide work or bread had gathered crowds
Speaker 1: throughout London over the past few years. Bearing that a
Speaker 1: clash between the two groups would prove violent, police ordered
Speaker 1: the socialist to carry their red flags from Sir Falgar
Speaker 1: Square to Hyde Park, a mile to the west. They
Speaker 1: were only too happy to oblige. In their wake, ten
Speaker 1: thousand marchers took their hunger, their demands, and their pent
Speaker 1: up fury through the streets of Pall Mall, but they
Speaker 1: were met with scorn along the way. Here's Louise raw
Speaker 1: once again. The servants of the posh clubs and poal money.
Speaker 1: You know, the gentleman's clubs in Palma, come out on
Speaker 1: the door sorts and throw things at the poor who
Speaker 1: were marching past them. They throw heavy glass as tis.
Speaker 1: They throw shoes, you're cluding the gentleman's shoes and they
Speaker 1: gets the card where they throw them at the poor.
Speaker 1: You know, go home, what are you doing here? Get
Speaker 1: out of here. Met with violence and told that this
Speaker 1: part of London was not theirs to occupy. The marchers
Speaker 1: were to earned the greeting in kind. They smashed the
Speaker 1: windows of the Gentlemen's club. They broke into shops and
Speaker 1: loaded themselves with the clothes on display for London's upwardly mobile.
Speaker 1: When they reached Hyde Park, the crowd milled for three hours.
Speaker 1: Some even tried on their new attire, stripping in the
Speaker 1: open air. At least a thousand destitute Londoners weren't done.
Speaker 1: They knew where the money was. They marched on jewelers, stores,
Speaker 1: China's shops and wine merchants, tailors weren't exempt either, nor
Speaker 1: were perfumers and art shops. But despite all this, the
Speaker 1: police were nowhere to be seen. In their wake, the
Speaker 1: crowd left a trail of smashed carriages, emptied businesses, and
Speaker 1: respectable ladies lightened of their jewels. The wealthy residents of
Speaker 1: West London were horrified and outraged. In the days of
Speaker 1: dense fog that followed, rumors spread that gangs were assembling
Speaker 1: on the outskirts of the city to march in. Once again,
Speaker 1: the doors of upscale London were locked. The city was
Speaker 1: a ghost town. The Times of London called it a
Speaker 1: disaster and shame such as London has not known within
Speaker 1: living memory. Queen Victoria wrote to her Prime Minister, none
Speaker 1: other than William Gladstone, that's if steps and very strong
Speaker 1: ones are not speedily taken to put these proceedings down,
Speaker 1: the government will suffer severely. The effect abroad is already
Speaker 1: humiliating the country. The city's leadership, in other words, was disgraced,
Speaker 1: and much of that blame ultimately landed on the shoulders
Speaker 1: of London's Commissioner of Police. In the shattered remains of
Speaker 1: the neighborhood, he resigned his post. But the Home Office
Speaker 1: and the city leaders knew that the London poor would
Speaker 1: not resign their fight. They were still without work and bread.
Speaker 1: Then the marchers and match women were bound to take
Speaker 1: the streets again. So it was decided that London needed
Speaker 1: a police commissioner who would know what to do when
Speaker 1: the locals got restless. They looked for a gladstone of
Speaker 1: the battlefield who would understand the way that the Police
Speaker 1: of London had an effect abroad, someone who would bring
Speaker 1: the order of the Empire to its tempestuous hearts. They
Speaker 1: looked for a hero, and they landed on a man,
Speaker 1: Charles Warren. He was a soldier, He was an engineer.
Speaker 1: He was a man who had already made his mark
Speaker 1: on history by going underground. His father, a major general
Speaker 1: in the British Army, made sure that young Charles had
Speaker 1: a way into the force. After all, Warren's father and
Speaker 1: older brother were both wounded during the Crimean War of
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty four, when Britain tangled with Russia over control
Speaker 1: of the Ottoman Empire, including the Holy Land. The Warren's
Speaker 1: shed blood for the sake of the Empire. It was
Speaker 1: their family way. Charles, though had a penchant for calculations,
Speaker 1: so when he was just seventeen, he was selected to
Speaker 1: join the Royal Engineers. His first orders were weighty ones too.
Speaker 1: He was sent to Gibraltar to join the survey of
Speaker 1: that strategic shrine at the mouth of the Mediterranean, and
Speaker 1: Charles shown his detailed mapping of the rock of Gibraltar
Speaker 1: and his design of new cannons for its towering height,
Speaker 1: secured the Crown's grasp over the sea, just as a
Speaker 1: flood of new ships flowed through the Suez Canal. Making
Speaker 1: your mark on Gibraltar was one thing. It was an
Speaker 1: achievement that made Warren fit to serve as an instructor
Speaker 1: at School of Military Engineering. When the Palestine Exploration Fund
Speaker 1: came calling and requested that the War Office provide engineers
Speaker 1: for their work, Charles was their man, and it was
Speaker 1: the digging that followed which would make Charles Warren more
Speaker 1: than just another servant of the Crown. In fact, in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven, still in his twenties, Charles had drawn
Speaker 1: praise from the pillars of British society because he was
Speaker 1: the man who offered the Crown a new look at
Speaker 1: one of the most coveted and contested places in world history. Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: the city had been a place where Christian, Muslim, and
Speaker 1: Jewish pilgrim him had climbed the hills to a holy place.
Speaker 1: But Charles Warren took a different approach. He went under it.
Speaker 1: Charles had been sent to the Holy Land with the
Speaker 1: heavy task. Yes, he was mapping geography and taking notes
Speaker 1: on culture and history, but there were bishops and archbishops
Speaker 1: in the Palestine Exploration Fund who made it clear that
Speaker 1: Charles Warren's duty was to show the unbelieving world that
Speaker 1: the Bible was true. He was sent to locate the
Speaker 1: tombs of King David and King Solomon, to find the
Speaker 1: ancient city walls, to map the foundations and features of
Speaker 1: the Temple Mount, in short, to vindicate the trust that
Speaker 1: the British public had placed in an ancient faith. He
Speaker 1: and his team of two military engineers took their orders
Speaker 1: and set out to match the terrain to the biblical text.
Speaker 1: But Charles Warren wasn't one to make assumptions or to
Speaker 1: blindly follow orders. In a letter, he wrote, we must
Speaker 1: go on the principle that we know nothing until it
Speaker 1: is fully established. Ever ready to acquire idea yas and
Speaker 1: to suspend judgment. We are busy collecting facts and have
Speaker 1: no time for speculation, so long as we can apply
Speaker 1: to the ground for information. It was the kind of
Speaker 1: attention to detail and suspension of judgment that allowed him
Speaker 1: to make headway. In fact, his work was a revelation.
Speaker 1: Over the next three years on the Temple Mount, Warren
Speaker 1: sent home a stream of discoveries, beginning with the news
Speaker 1: that the boundaries of ancient Jerusalem lay beyond the medieval
Speaker 1: walls that contained the modern city. In fact, the ancient
Speaker 1: dwellings were buried under one hundred and thirty feet of
Speaker 1: rubble and dust. The only way to reach the ancient
Speaker 1: world was to dig a series of tunnels straight down
Speaker 1: into the earth. As local officials watched Warren and his
Speaker 1: team of hired workers disappear into the earth, they worried
Speaker 1: that he was opening underground passages for the British Army.
Speaker 1: They started calling Charles the Mole, but it didn't stop
Speaker 1: him from digging. With torch in hand, Warren brought to
Speaker 1: light the actual streets of the city and opened up
Speaker 1: a complicated network of drains and reservoirs. Eventually it became
Speaker 1: clear he had carved into the tunnels that the ancient
Speaker 1: city used to draw water during times of siege. One
Speaker 1: member of the Palestine Exploration Fund proudly proclaimed the extent
Speaker 1: of Warren's achievement when he wrote that Charles and I
Speaker 1: quote restored the ancient city to the world, stripped the
Speaker 1: rubbish from the rocks, and showed the glorious temple standing
Speaker 1: within its walls, opened the secret passages, the aqueducts, the
Speaker 1: bridge connecting the temple and town. Today, the ancient water
Speaker 1: system he uncovered for Victorian Britain still carries his name
Speaker 1: Warren's Shaft, and it was far from the last time
Speaker 1: Warren would be praised in the British press or by
Speaker 1: the government. The British bishops were delighted by his work
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, but his later campaigns would be even more
Speaker 1: influential in earning praise from the monarchy. Nothing connected temple
Speaker 1: and town or church and Crown like praising Charles war
Speaker 1: He was given his knighthood in eighteen eighty three. A
Speaker 1: year later he was made a member of the Royal Society.
Speaker 1: So when the Home Secretary Huge Shoulders needed a military
Speaker 1: man to wade into the rubble and chaos left in
Speaker 1: the wake of the eighteen eighties six riots. I hope
Speaker 1: you can see why he chose Charles Warren. Here's historian
Speaker 1: Adam Wood. Warren had enjoyed a hugely successful military career,
Speaker 1: and he was a skilled surveyor and archaeologist. He had
Speaker 1: served in Gibralt, to the Palestine, South Africa and in
Speaker 1: and was in Egypt when Home Secretary who Huge Shilders
Speaker 1: wrote to him offering the position of Commissioner of the met.
Speaker 1: He was wanted to take the place of the existing commissioners,
Speaker 1: Redmond Henderson, who had been popular since his appointment in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight, but in recent years had grown out
Speaker 1: of touch with the growing force in his own men.
Speaker 1: When a riot took place in eighty six and the
Speaker 1: bandly bungled its response, Henderson was forced to resign, and Shilders,
Speaker 1: had met Warren four years was obviously impressed. He was
Speaker 1: no nonsense attitude. It was exactly the man. The Childer's
Speaker 1: fault was needy to restore public ordering a tomb of
Speaker 1: ross and to bring them back into shape. Of course,
Speaker 1: life is never as simple as that. Pleasing the Church
Speaker 1: and the Crown was one thing. Policing London would be
Speaker 1: something else entirely. The aqueducts of the ancient world suited
Speaker 1: a man with Charles Warren's calculating mind, but mapping the
Speaker 1: city of London would require an understanding of a very
Speaker 1: different infrastructure. Because while the Kings of Jerusalem designed its
Speaker 1: tunnels and waterways for the demands of conflict, the builders
Speaker 1: of modern London built their temples not with stone but
Speaker 1: with steel. There was another empire advancing inside the first.
Speaker 1: It was a technological lace work that drew Brittain's hubs
Speaker 1: of manufacturing closer than ever to its bustling ports and
Speaker 1: beating financial core. It was the circulatory system of the
Speaker 1: imperial heart, the British Railway. Even as it carved open fields, towns,
Speaker 1: mountains and cities, the railroad became ever more a place
Speaker 1: where all human life played out. Too many it seemed
Speaker 1: like advanced industry and order, the straight line drawn through
Speaker 1: the rolling chaos of a landscape civilization made manifest in
Speaker 1: whirling wheels and richly appointed cars. But the fantasy of
Speaker 1: the rail as a sign of Britain's advancement beyond human
Speaker 1: tragedies was shattered in a bloody crime in one. In
Speaker 1: July of that year, a London police surgeon by the
Speaker 1: name of Dr Thomas Bond found himself on his way south.
Speaker 1: He was headed for the railway in at Balcom. A
Speaker 1: body had been carried there, and although the local authorities
Speaker 1: were examining it, they had called for backup. They wanted
Speaker 1: someone with experience piecing together the torn flesh of wounds
Speaker 1: into the evidence required to convict a criminal assailant, so
Speaker 1: they called Thomas Bond. Doctor Bond was Fellow of the
Speaker 1: Royal College of Surgeons and a lecturer on forensic medicine
Speaker 1: at Westminster Hospital. But since eighteen sixty seven he'd been
Speaker 1: in a particularly important line of work. He wasn't just
Speaker 1: wielding his scalpel in the service of London's pain public.
Speaker 1: For years. He had been using his sharp mind in
Speaker 1: the service of Scotland Yard, and he had a storied
Speaker 1: past as an excellent diagnetician. Here's Adam Wood once again.
Speaker 1: Dr Thomas Bond was a divisional surgeon attached to a
Speaker 1: division of Scotland Yard. He'd been involved in so many
Speaker 1: howe profile cases since been appointed in eighteen sixty seven.
Speaker 1: He was cooled down to Brighton to examine the body
Speaker 1: of a man found on the tracks in a railway
Speaker 1: arch and it was not initially clear with the cause
Speaker 1: of death was that he'd been hit by a train
Speaker 1: or falling from a carriage. The body had been discovered
Speaker 1: on the tracks of the railway tunnel by a plate
Speaker 1: layer who ventured inside. What he saw was terrible. The
Speaker 1: light of his gas lamp revealed the body of a
Speaker 1: heavy set man, clearly in his latter years, and he
Speaker 1: was riddled with injuries. When Dr Bond examined the body,
Speaker 1: he noted that the skull was badly fractured. There were
Speaker 1: brakes that could have happened when the man fell from
Speaker 1: the train violent contact with the ground, Bond wrote, and
Speaker 1: there was also a jagged, penetrating wound on the left leg,
Speaker 1: exposing the bone all smeared with black grease. Bond would
Speaker 1: later say it could have been from contact with the
Speaker 1: wheel of an engine, but as he looked more closely
Speaker 1: at the body, it was obvious that it was no
Speaker 1: mere accident. Bond reported that a small bullet had been
Speaker 1: fired into the man's head. It punched in just under
Speaker 1: the ear and lodged at the spine. A man's hand
Speaker 1: and face had also been cut deeply with a knife,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't all. There were a total of fourteen
Speaker 1: bone deep knife wounds on the man's body. Dr Bond
Speaker 1: would go on to say that the wounds on the
Speaker 1: face must have been inflicted by a right hand attacker
Speaker 1: swinging for the throat. All told, it was a terrible
Speaker 1: litany of violence. The man, Mr Friederick Gold, had been
Speaker 1: on bold the tray and from from the carriage as
Speaker 1: it passed through the tunnel. It was just the second
Speaker 1: ever murder to occur on a British train. When the
Speaker 1: victim's body was found on the ground, one arm was
Speaker 1: draped over the face. The remnants of a gold watch
Speaker 1: chain still hung from the neck. Following That chain was
Speaker 1: crucial to the investigation that came next. Other passengers on
Speaker 1: the train filled in fragments of what happened. One man,
Speaker 1: a chemist, said that he heard four explosions from the
Speaker 1: back of the train as it traveled from London to Brighton.
Speaker 1: The sounds had terrified his son as the train passed
Speaker 1: through a tunnel's darkness. Of course, once Dr Bond found
Speaker 1: the bullet in the old man's head, it was clear
Speaker 1: those explosions were the sound of gunfire. The train car
Speaker 1: itself had its own story to tell. When it had
Speaker 1: arrived at its destination, the seats, the floor, and the
Speaker 1: walls were covered in blood. There was blood on the
Speaker 1: train's footboard, and not just a splash, but a bloody handprint.
Speaker 1: And fallen to the blood soaked floor of the car
Speaker 1: were two bright coins Hanoverian sovereigns, the poker chips of
Speaker 1: the day. And crucially, there was a man who exited
Speaker 1: the bloody car when it stopped at the station a
Speaker 1: mile from Brighton. His name was le Froy, and he
Speaker 1: stepped from the train calling for help. Like the car,
Speaker 1: he was also covered in blood. It was on his clothes,
Speaker 1: on his face and neck, and on his hands. The
Speaker 1: ticket collectors at the station rushed to help and he
Speaker 1: told them what happened. While on the train from London.
Speaker 1: He had been attacked by two men, an elderly fellow
Speaker 1: and a back country bruiser with broad shoulders and a
Speaker 1: thick beard to match. He was taken to Brighton by
Speaker 1: the station master and on the way he described the assault.
Speaker 1: One of the men had fired a pistol at him,
Speaker 1: the other had struck him on the head with the
Speaker 1: blunt weapon. Six gashes on his scalp showed the evidence.
Speaker 1: The police took his statements and had him patched up
Speaker 1: by the local surgeon, who remarked that the wounds could
Speaker 1: have come from an umbrella. If that seemed strange to
Speaker 1: the police, it didn't stop them from operating according to
Speaker 1: their normal procedure. Before they escorted him on a train
Speaker 1: back to London, they searched his belongings and showed him
Speaker 1: the sovereigns collected from the floor of the train car,
Speaker 1: despite having two or three of his own in his
Speaker 1: coat pockets. He denied they were his, but the station
Speaker 1: agents had noticed Lefroy carrying one other item, a gold watch.
Speaker 1: It caught their eye when they saw the straight end
Speaker 1: of a chain dangling from his boot. When the detectives
Speaker 1: escorting Lefroy home learned that the corpse had a snapped
Speaker 1: watch chain around its neck, they sat him down at
Speaker 1: his London boarding house and started asking questions. What was
Speaker 1: the number engraved on the back of the watch? They
Speaker 1: asked him, and he got the answer wrong. His whole
Speaker 1: story started to sound about as cheap as the worthless
Speaker 1: sovereigns in his pocket. So that night the Scotland Yard
Speaker 1: ordered surveillance on the house where he was staying. Their
Speaker 1: orders were to not let Lefroy out of their sight.
Speaker 1: They made a mistake, though, They left just one detective
Speaker 1: to watch a house with two doors. While the officer
Speaker 1: watched the front, Lefroy slipped out the back, disappearing into
Speaker 1: the night. The man hunt for the Brighton Railway murderer
Speaker 1: had begun. The first thing they needed, of course, was evidence,
Speaker 1: any traces left behind that could put Scotland Yard on
Speaker 1: the trail of the murderer, and in this case, that's
Speaker 1: what the coroner's inquest was all about. Representatives from the
Speaker 1: railway company and the victims family descended on Balcolm. They
Speaker 1: joined a slew of witnesses who would testify before the
Speaker 1: East Sussex Corner a lawyer named Winn Baxter. An accomplished solicitor,
Speaker 1: He had started his career in his hometown, where his
Speaker 1: grandfather's good reputation as printer of the local paper, The
Speaker 1: Success Express, made the Baxters well known. Since eighteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: Baxter had practiced law in London. But that wasn't all
Speaker 1: by the time the Brighton railway murder took place in
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty one, he had served as the under Sheriff
Speaker 1: of London and Middlesex and still managed to serve as
Speaker 1: his hometown's senior high Constable and mayor. It goes without
Speaker 1: saying that when Baxter was an ambitious man, he'd only
Speaker 1: been the coroner for Sussex for a year and a
Speaker 1: half when the train pulled in from London saturated with blood.
Speaker 1: We can only imagine that when the Chief Inspector of
Speaker 1: Scotland Yards strolled into the inquest coroner when Baxter must
Speaker 1: have seen that he could do far more with his
Speaker 1: questioning than just establish identity and cause of death for
Speaker 1: the man found on the tracks. He could also earn
Speaker 1: his way into the good graces of London's police detectives.
Speaker 1: The inquest jury under Baxter's command viewed the body of
Speaker 1: the dead man, who was identified as a retired London
Speaker 1: corn merchant. They viewed the horrors of the train car,
Speaker 1: they heard from the dead man's widow, and they were
Speaker 1: joined by Dr Thomas Bond, who described in excruciating medical
Speaker 1: detail the wounds they had seen with their own eyes.
Speaker 1: As the inquest stretched into to a second, third and
Speaker 1: fourth day. All the ticket takers and railway guards who
Speaker 1: ran into lea Freud described their encounters in minute detail.
Speaker 1: For the Corner and for Scotland Yard, no piece of
Speaker 1: evidence was too small, and those efforts produced just the
Speaker 1: verdict that Win Baxter expected. After deliberating for just twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: the jury made their decision the cause of the corn
Speaker 1: Merchant's death was willful murder. With the evidence collected at
Speaker 1: the inquest, detectives arrived at a composite picture of the
Speaker 1: man they were chasing, and that's more than a metaphor.
Speaker 1: In fact, they had artists sketched the man's likeness to
Speaker 1: guide their search. But when Baxter wasn't the only one
Speaker 1: who knew the power of the press. Soon enough, the
Speaker 1: portrait of the wanted man was published in London's Daily
Speaker 1: Telegraph and then picked up by papers across Britain, making
Speaker 1: history as what some have called the first composite drawing
Speaker 1: of a fugitive ever to be published in the papers.
Speaker 1: The details of the case were spread across the reading public.
Speaker 1: Along with some incentive, the Home Office got together with
Speaker 1: the Brighton and South Coast Railway to offer a reward
Speaker 1: of two hundred pounds, the equivalent of roughly twenty th
Speaker 1: u S dollars today. But if Scotland Yard thought this
Speaker 1: would bring the man hunt to a swift conclusion, they
Speaker 1: were mistaken. A flurry of tips on Lefroy's whereabouts buried
Speaker 1: the police forces across the nation. Suddenly le Froy seemed
Speaker 1: to be everywhere, and multiple arrests followed, but over and
Speaker 1: over all these leads were dead ends. In one case,
Speaker 1: a man waving a revolver stepped into the path of
Speaker 1: two women, screaming I am Lefroy, and fired toward them.
Speaker 1: The bullet cut the air between their heads, and the
Speaker 1: man was arrested for the attack, but it was easy
Speaker 1: enough for detectives to determine that his repeated claims to
Speaker 1: be the railway murderer were a drunken fantasy. He merely
Speaker 1: aspired to be the man who captured the attention of
Speaker 1: all of England. Even the relatives of the man coming
Speaker 1: forward didn't end the man hunt. The killer's real name,
Speaker 1: Percy Lefroy Mapleton, had come to light, so did his
Speaker 1: catalog of small time cons and desperate pawn broking schemes,
Speaker 1: but none of these small glimmers broke the case. It
Speaker 1: wasn't until a young law clerk walked into Scotland Yard
Speaker 1: with a lead for Inspector Donald Swanson that things started
Speaker 1: turning their way. The clerk offered what he knew to
Speaker 1: the inspector. Lefroy had gone into hiding in London's East End,
Speaker 1: where he was lodging with a family under a false name.
Speaker 1: This clerk had it on good authority, too, that the
Speaker 1: family thought their new lodger was acting incredibly suspicious boarded
Speaker 1: up in his rented room. Despite the storm of rumors,
Speaker 1: Inspector Swanson must have heard something that struck him as
Speaker 1: a note of truth. Together with another inspector, and adding
Speaker 1: a constable for extra muscle, Swanson hopped a cab for
Speaker 1: the East End and the address given by the informant
Speaker 1: thirty two Smith Street, Stephane. They arrived as evening fell.
Speaker 1: Perhaps slightly more clever than some of his colleagues, Swanson
Speaker 1: sent the constable to watch the back door. Then the
Speaker 1: two inspectors made for the front entrance, and when a
Speaker 1: woman answered the door, they described why they had come.
Speaker 1: She pointed to the stairs Lefroy's room was above them.
Speaker 1: The rest of it was quick. Inspector Swanson bolted up
Speaker 1: the stairs, leaving the second inspector on guard in the hall.
Speaker 1: He burst through Lefroy's door into darkness. But there wasn't
Speaker 1: a struggle. There was the fugitive, pale and thin, sitting
Speaker 1: in an armchair. I expected you, he said. When Swanson
Speaker 1: arrested him. Lefroy barely put up a fight, and when
Speaker 1: the two inspectors searched his room they found a locked drawer.
Speaker 1: Breaking it open revealed Lefroy's crumpled clothes, stained with blood,
Speaker 1: and a false mustache and beard tucked away among them.
Speaker 1: Lefroy's cons disguises and attacks had all come to an end.
Speaker 1: At the trial months later, Inspector Swanson would recall that
Speaker 1: as they rode back to the police station, Lefroy said
Speaker 1: to him, I'm glad you found me. I am sick
Speaker 1: of it. I could not be the exposure. When he
Speaker 1: was back at Scotland Yard, Inspector Swanson was greeted by
Speaker 1: the Director of Criminal Investigation Department, the Chief Constable, a
Speaker 1: round table of senior officials and journalists scribbling it all down.
Speaker 1: He had endeavored to the East End, applied his instincts
Speaker 1: and clever thinking, and had won England's Most Feared and
Speaker 1: Coveted prize. As a result, Inspector Swanson found his name
Speaker 1: in the papers, alongside others like the police surgeon Dr
Speaker 1: Thomas Bond and the Sussex corner Win Baxter, who had
Speaker 1: all worked to bring the killer to justice. Lefroy's trial
Speaker 1: saw Bond once again take the stand and recount the
Speaker 1: grizzly details of the dead man's wounds. The details of
Speaker 1: Lefroy's crime work piece together that he had entered the train,
Speaker 1: failed to kill his victim with the gunshots of the head,
Speaker 1: and then hacked at him with a knife. Finally, Lefroy
Speaker 1: grabbed the gold watch and pushed his victim's body from
Speaker 1: the moving train. It was a horrifying picture for those
Speaker 1: who before could barely have a mad and a railroad
Speaker 1: car as anything other than a sign of progress. A
Speaker 1: horror must have been somewhat relieved when Swanson recounted the
Speaker 1: details of the arrest. A verdict soon came back, condemning
Speaker 1: le Froy to death, and it wasn't the last showing
Speaker 1: for Sussex corner Win Baxter either because just as he
Speaker 1: had conducted the inquest for the victim, examining the body
Speaker 1: to determine time and cause of death, well, he would
Speaker 1: play the same role in wrapping up this case. After
Speaker 1: Lefroy's lifeless body was brought down from the gallows, the
Speaker 1: jail surgeon pronounced him dead. When the murderer's body was
Speaker 1: placed in its coffin, Win Baxter stepped forward with the
Speaker 1: jury and held an official, albeit brief in quest. The
Speaker 1: time and cause of Lefroy's death were obvious. The killer
Speaker 1: had been caught. The law clerk collected his two pound reward,
Speaker 1: The investigators earned their praise from the public, An order
Speaker 1: was restored, and the empire was set right. When it
Speaker 1: was all over, win back Exter summoned every ounce of
Speaker 1: his authority and set British hearts at rest. The law
Speaker 1: had one the day, but peace wouldn't be permanent. Darker
Speaker 1: things were coming for when Baxter and for Donald Swanson too.
Speaker 1: More gruesome sights would soon fall under the eye of
Speaker 1: Dr Thomas Bond, and more impenetrable labyrinths lay waiting for
Speaker 1: Charles Warren to explore. There would also be more terrible
Speaker 1: violations against the women of the East End. In just
Speaker 1: a few short years, all of them would be confronted
Speaker 1: with a series of horrifying events that would come to
Speaker 1: be known by some as the Autumn of Terror. In
Speaker 1: this season of Unobscured, we will come face to face
Speaker 1: with one of the most enduring moments in the history
Speaker 1: of crime. Just like the statue of William Gladstone raised
Speaker 1: on the Bow Road, it is a legend and a
Speaker 1: legacy that was paid for with the blood of the
Speaker 1: East End women. And it also, like the statue, gave
Speaker 1: its cast of characters a podium on which to raise themselves.
Speaker 1: Like the Brighton Railway murder, it was a shocking series
Speaker 1: of events that forced the Victorian world to confront unsettling
Speaker 1: realities overlooked by the grand visions of a civilized and
Speaker 1: civilizing empire. And like that murder, these new events would
Speaker 1: send Scotland Yard on a man hunt that has never
Speaker 1: been forgotten, complicated and ridiculed at every turn by a
Speaker 1: sensationalist press. But just because something is remembered doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's understood. Understanding requires time, patience, and careful reflection. Everything
Speaker 1: that Donald Swanson brought to bear on his investigations. Through
Speaker 1: his eyes and the eyes of the Bryant and may
Speaker 1: Match women, we will follow the tale of violence at
Speaker 1: the hearts of their empire. In the largest city in
Speaker 1: the world. All the spoils of conquest and exploitation were
Speaker 1: piled up, and the most volatile elements of a rapidly
Speaker 1: transform industrial society were heaped in the shadows to smolder.
Speaker 1: We will walk into those darkened neighborhoods where history was
Speaker 1: made in the worst way possible. In this season of Unobscured,
Speaker 1: we will see the darkest corners of Victorian London in
Speaker 1: as they are lit by the blaze of the White
Speaker 1: Chapel murders and the killer at the center of it all,
Speaker 1: a killer that history has come to know as Jack
Speaker 1: the Ripper. That's it for this week's episode of Unobscured.
Speaker 1: Stick around after this short sponsor break for a preview
Speaker 1: of what's in store for next week. The inspector responsible
Speaker 1: for Whitechapel told the Deputy Corner that none of the
Speaker 1: soldiers were found with any blood on their clothes or weapons.
Speaker 1: He ended his statement with the plea that was published
Speaker 1: in the London Times on August if anyone had information
Speaker 1: about Martha's death, please let them know they had reached
Speaker 1: a dead end without The inspector responsible for investigating crime
Speaker 1: in Whitechapel moved on literally. He followed Win Baxter's example
Speaker 1: and left London on vacation. The next day, The East
Speaker 1: London Adviser responded with an article of their own. They
Speaker 1: saw the way that the East Ends reputation was looking,
Speaker 1: and they hoped to head it off. A murder in
Speaker 1: Whitechapel or anywhere in the East End was regarded differently
Speaker 1: from attacks elsewhere in London, say Regent's Park, for example,
Speaker 1: A murder there would get sympathy from a wide British readership.
Speaker 1: But let a poor man sin in the East End,
Speaker 1: they wrote, and it draws the finger of scorn alongside
Speaker 1: the gasp of horror. After all, fearful readers and the
Speaker 1: journalists who fed them stories truly believed east Enders were
Speaker 1: all Ruffians. It seemed the papers used every story to
Speaker 1: reinforce that prejudice too. If the editors of the East
Speaker 1: End Adviser thought Martha Tabram's murder was used to spoil
Speaker 1: their neighborhood's reputation, though they were completely unprepared for what
Speaker 1: was coming, and they had no idea just how bad
Speaker 1: things could get. Unobscured was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Josh Thane
Speaker 1: in partnership with I Heart Radio. Research and writing for
Speaker 1: this season is all the work of my right hand
Speaker 1: man Carl Nellis and the brilliant Chad Lawson composed the
Speaker 1: brand new soundtrack. Learn more about our contributing historians, source
Speaker 1: material and links to our other shows over at history
Speaker 1: unobscured dot com, and until next time, thanks for listening
Speaker 1: Unobscured as a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Benkey.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for My heart Radio, visit I heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.