1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcomed unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 2 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:13,119 Speaker 1: The police held on to the letter. If what they 3 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 1: said at the Central News Agency was true, it took 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 1: them a few days to decide what to do with 5 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:20,880 Speaker 1: the Dear Boss letter. Then maybe it makes sense that 6 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,799 Speaker 1: Scotland Yard didn't take immediate action when the letter reached 7 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,280 Speaker 1: Donald Swanson's desk, And honestly it's hard to blame him 8 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:30,400 Speaker 1: because letters and suggestions and tips had been coming in 9 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,320 Speaker 1: from across England. It was the kind of thing that 10 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: Donald had managed to sort out when he was on 11 00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: the trail of the Brighton Railway killer. That may even 12 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: have been the reason that Charles Warren thought he was 13 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 1: the right man to handle the things. But this was 14 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:46,760 Speaker 1: something different, and from our point of view today, some 15 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:50,200 Speaker 1: of the ideas that reached the police are truly baffling. 16 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: Take the suggestion. On septem the week after Annie Chapman 17 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: was killed, The Star said that police had received a 18 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: request to photograph the retin as of the dead women. 19 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: They were hoping that an image of the murderer had 20 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:08,679 Speaker 1: been imprinted on Annie Chapman's eyeball. Could a camera properly calibrated, 21 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: take an imprint of that image and reveal the face 22 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:15,120 Speaker 1: of the killer. That was just one of the desperate 23 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:19,280 Speaker 1: suggestions made to the police that September. There's no way 24 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:21,959 Speaker 1: that the police could take action on every whim and 25 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: scheme that reached them, let alone take them at face value. 26 00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:28,640 Speaker 1: The city waited in terror for the killer to be captured, 27 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:32,120 Speaker 1: or for another woman to be murdered. The city waited, 28 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: but Donald Swanson could not. He had work to do. 29 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: Here's historian Adam would. At this time, Swanson and his 30 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:43,959 Speaker 1: family were living in South London. I would imagine, knowing 31 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: that route, it would have been probably a cop right 32 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: in each day and each evening. And he does actually 33 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 1: describe his working day in between September December. It's quite 34 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,000 Speaker 1: a heavy workload, he said. I had to be at 35 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: the office at half past night in the morning, then 36 00:01:57,360 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: I had to reach for all the papers that had 37 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: come in which took me in who we live in 38 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: PM and sometimes between one and two in the morning, 39 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: then I had to go to watch chaplains through the officers, 40 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: genuinely getting home between two and three, I am so, 41 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:11,400 Speaker 1: you know, you can you imagine that there's there's something 42 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: like about fourteen hours minimum of just literally just reading 43 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: the reports and statements which are coming each day. That's 44 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:21,919 Speaker 1: an enormous amount of work for one officer to do. 45 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: And as the days stretched on, with Polly Nichols and 46 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: Annie Chapman's inquests both still open, with interviews and evidence 47 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: being reported in the papers, well it wasn't like anyone 48 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: was holding their breath. No, the panic in London was 49 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: what you might call vocal. One letter to the editor 50 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,639 Speaker 1: at the start put things in stark terms. The detectives 51 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 1: were clearly inefficient. In fact, they were so ignorant of 52 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: London that their policing was a joke. And the writer 53 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: thought that he knew why a police force dependent on 54 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: taking men from the military rather than recruiting them from 55 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: London neighborhoods. In fact, Londoners who might be able to 56 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,639 Speaker 1: actually or of the community, Well, they weren't even allowed 57 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:05,680 Speaker 1: into the Metropolitan Force because they didn't meet the standards 58 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,960 Speaker 1: of Army service, standards that were hardly appropriate for the 59 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 1: very work of policing a city. At least that's what 60 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 1: the letter argued. Under the present system, it said, men 61 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: are kept out not for want of skill or knowledge, 62 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,600 Speaker 1: but because they are below the standard five ft nine inches. 63 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:26,960 Speaker 1: Today the public are made to pay for height and 64 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:31,400 Speaker 1: not for brains. But that question of whether the police 65 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: should recruit from the military, and whether London crime could 66 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 1: be addressed by people who weren't London born, well that 67 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 1: was nothing new. In fact, those had been common complaints 68 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 1: about the London Police for a very long time. How long, well, 69 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: right from the beginning, since about eighteen nine. That's when 70 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: a reform bill was passed under the Home Secretary Robert Peel, 71 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:56,880 Speaker 1: the Act for Improving the Police in and Near the 72 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: Metropolis it was called. But almost exty years had passed 73 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,160 Speaker 1: since Peel had organized the London Police. So when he 74 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: was put in charge of supervising the investigation of the 75 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:11,480 Speaker 1: White Chapel murders in Donald Swanson, wasn't just sorting through 76 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:15,840 Speaker 1: mountains of official reports from East End constables and thousands 77 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: of rabbit trails suggested by British citizens. It was also 78 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:24,480 Speaker 1: navigating Robert Peel's legacy, and not all of it was good. 79 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:54,880 Speaker 1: This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Manky. A lot had changed 80 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:58,919 Speaker 1: before Robert Peel remade the London Police. According to his 81 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 1: modern plan. The city was patrolled by a patchwork of 82 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:06,960 Speaker 1: parish beatles, elected constables, deputies, and night watchmen. The roots 83 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:09,039 Speaker 1: went back to a time when tenant farmers took on 84 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: the task of what was referred to as controlling and 85 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:17,120 Speaker 1: reforming the ungodly. Early parish policing wasn't so much about 86 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: enforcing crown law. That was the work of sheriffs. Instead, 87 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 1: it was about things like enforcing church attendance. What did 88 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:27,400 Speaker 1: that mean for these predecessors of the police, Well, in 89 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,159 Speaker 1: one significant way, it meant that some of these jobs 90 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: were unpaid. Punishing people for swearing, drunkenness and vagrancy was 91 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:38,159 Speaker 1: a service to God, after all, and people shouldn't expect 92 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:41,720 Speaker 1: to be paid for that right. Other policing roles, while 93 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: less connected to the church, were no less burdensome. For 94 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: a while, there was even a market in what we're 95 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,919 Speaker 1: called Tiburn tickets, the rewards that were given out for 96 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,799 Speaker 1: prosecuting someone with a felony. If that person was convicted 97 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: and executed, a Tiburn ticket was awarded to the person 98 00:05:57,440 --> 00:05:59,799 Speaker 1: who had made the arrest, and then the ticket holder 99 00:05:59,880 --> 00:06:02,760 Speaker 1: was exempt from future duties in the parish. As you 100 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:07,039 Speaker 1: can imagine that made those tickets quite valuable to get 101 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,039 Speaker 1: out of the job. Wealthy Londoners would pay handsomely for 102 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,040 Speaker 1: a ticket that someone else had earned, and the ticket 103 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 1: holders knew they had something valuable on their hands. They 104 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:19,680 Speaker 1: would even advertise them in the papers. In eighteen eighteen one, 105 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:23,800 Speaker 1: tickets sold in Manchester for two pounds. By one estimate, 106 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: that's roughly twenty five thousand pounds today, and the get 107 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:30,680 Speaker 1: out of work tickets weren't the only things for sale 108 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:34,440 Speaker 1: in London. The Nightly Watch in particular, earned themselves a 109 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:37,560 Speaker 1: reputation for being in the pockets of anyone wanting to 110 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:40,640 Speaker 1: get away with something nefarious under the cover of darkness. 111 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:45,440 Speaker 1: Some even spent their nighttime hours avoiding dangerous situations entirely 112 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:49,080 Speaker 1: so when it came to protecting the property of the wealthy, 113 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,000 Speaker 1: there was really no police force to rely on. That 114 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:55,240 Speaker 1: led to even more armed forces popping up in the city. 115 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:58,159 Speaker 1: For instance, along the banks of the River Thames, rich 116 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:01,479 Speaker 1: merchants would organize their own security forces to protect the 117 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:06,360 Speaker 1: merchandise in their ships and warehouses. So much for preventing crime, 118 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 1: but when it came to solving London crying before the 119 00:07:08,839 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, while there were the Bow Street Runners. They 120 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,640 Speaker 1: were a professional group of detectives originally formed by the 121 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:19,160 Speaker 1: parish magistrate to guard against highwaymen on the main roads 122 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: into London. They made their money chasing rewards for crime solved, 123 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:25,560 Speaker 1: but in the early years of the New century they 124 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:30,960 Speaker 1: were also caught collecting rewards for crimes they committed. Clearly, 125 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 1: there was something deeply wrong with the way the city 126 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:36,960 Speaker 1: was patrolled and crime was managed. With London growing, all 127 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:40,200 Speaker 1: those mercenaries riding out from bow Streets and the parish 128 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:44,360 Speaker 1: constables marching their neighborhoods made a muddle of either preventing 129 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:48,600 Speaker 1: or solving crime. But Robert Peel's ideas were battle tested. 130 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,200 Speaker 1: After all, he developed his system for controlling a population 131 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:55,520 Speaker 1: with police just next door. In the decade before he 132 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:57,920 Speaker 1: got his reform passed, he was honing it to a 133 00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:03,280 Speaker 1: sharp point in Ireland. That's where the traditional authorities the 134 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,800 Speaker 1: landed gentry, had been failing to control the world poor. 135 00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: A seventeen eighty nine rebellion had shocked the British aristocracy. 136 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 1: It was caused by a deep depression and the collapse 137 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:17,560 Speaker 1: of prices for farm products. Before the rural poor had 138 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:19,920 Speaker 1: not owned their land, but now they didn't even have 139 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: a way to make a living. But the British government 140 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:25,640 Speaker 1: decided that rather than address the problem's root cause, they 141 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:28,880 Speaker 1: needed new means of social control, so they gave the 142 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:33,040 Speaker 1: job to Robert Peel. His diagnosis was brimming with the 143 00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:38,079 Speaker 1: typical condescending prejudice. Rather than seeing an island of dispossessed people, 144 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: he instead saw the irishman's natural predilection for outrage and 145 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:46,319 Speaker 1: lawless life. So he created what he called a peace 146 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: preservation force to discipline what he called the morally depraved 147 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:53,440 Speaker 1: of the lower orders. What a pedestal you must have 148 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:57,679 Speaker 1: placed himself on. When they marched out into Ireland, Robert 149 00:08:57,679 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: Peel's constables were mocked using his name aim The Irish 150 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 1: residents called his forces bobbies after Roberts and Peelers. That 151 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:08,960 Speaker 1: makes sense. Those names stuck too, and came back to London. 152 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,400 Speaker 1: When Peel's model for cudgeling the Irish poor was returned 153 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: to England, he came home to find that from his 154 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,000 Speaker 1: perch it looked like there were lower orders in London 155 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 1: as well as in Ireland. When Robert Peel's bill passed 156 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,040 Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty nine. It created a unified, centralized force 157 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,640 Speaker 1: of policemen, all gathered in London under his command. Their 158 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:32,600 Speaker 1: orders were to prevent crime, but they weren't very well 159 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:35,720 Speaker 1: received by some Londoners from the beginning. One of the 160 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:38,840 Speaker 1: complaints against them was that they were outsiders, pushing out 161 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:42,560 Speaker 1: the old neighborhood watchman and replacing him with unfamiliar oaths 162 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:45,720 Speaker 1: and bullies. One east Ender said in disgust that his 163 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:49,040 Speaker 1: hatred for the Bobby's was because they were and my quote, 164 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:54,040 Speaker 1: red hot Irishman just imported they were strangers, They didn't 165 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 1: know the city they brought their clubs down upon. There 166 00:09:57,920 --> 00:09:59,920 Speaker 1: may have been some element of truth to that too. 167 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:02,800 Speaker 1: Even towards the end of the eighteen hundreds, only one 168 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:05,439 Speaker 1: out of every six police in London had been born 169 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:09,080 Speaker 1: in this city, and that included Chief Inspector Donald Swanson. 170 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: His family, you see, it was from Scotland, and there 171 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:15,640 Speaker 1: were plenty of Scots in London's Metropolitan Police. But there 172 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:19,520 Speaker 1: were things that made Swanson unique as well. Here's Adam Wood. 173 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:25,880 Speaker 1: Once again, Swanson nothing perhaps uniquely among policemen of that time. 174 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,360 Speaker 1: A lot of what comfortables joined the police were from 175 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:31,760 Speaker 1: out of London laborers or farm workers, and came looking 176 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:34,040 Speaker 1: for a regular work, which the police obviously was at 177 00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:37,920 Speaker 1: that time. But Swanson was born to a brewing family. Eventually, 178 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: by Tommy was sixteen, he became a second master at 179 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:43,320 Speaker 1: the Miller Institute, which is the school he was in, 180 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: assisting the head teacher, and it looked as though he 181 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:49,520 Speaker 1: had a career marked out in education. I don't know whether, 182 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:51,680 Speaker 1: as I said, Donald just gave up turned his back 183 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:55,800 Speaker 1: on a educational career, or he went to London to 184 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:59,079 Speaker 1: support the family, which I suspect may have been the case. 185 00:10:59,679 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 1: He got a job quite quickly in the offices of 186 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: the City Clock, just as a general clock, nothing too 187 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:09,040 Speaker 1: strain uous, but again some degree of intelligence was required. 188 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:12,960 Speaker 1: Swanson put that intelligence to work when the company he 189 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 1: was clerking for closed down. That's when he picked up 190 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:19,040 Speaker 1: the paper and browsed the job advertisements, and a position 191 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:22,480 Speaker 1: in the Metropolitan Police caught his eye. You see, Donald's 192 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:25,200 Speaker 1: oldest brother had served on the City of London Police 193 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:27,520 Speaker 1: force for a time before moving back to Scotland to 194 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: do the same in Edinburgh, and for him policing became 195 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:34,160 Speaker 1: a profitable career, so Donald decided to follow in his 196 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:37,920 Speaker 1: brother's footsteps. He wrote in an answer to the advertisements, 197 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: after passing an examination with flying colors, he had three 198 00:11:41,559 --> 00:11:45,200 Speaker 1: weeks of drill training and that's all it took. In 199 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:49,000 Speaker 1: less than a month. Donald Swanson was a London Bobby. 200 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:57,000 Speaker 1: If we peel back the layers, there's a lot to criticize, 201 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,240 Speaker 1: because right from the beginning the new unified police force 202 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: didn't quite live up to the neats and tidy plan. 203 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,840 Speaker 1: They were supposed to reform and replace a group of 204 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:08,560 Speaker 1: bullies who were easily paid off, But right out the 205 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:13,280 Speaker 1: gates the Bobbies earned themselves a bad reputation. First there 206 00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:16,440 Speaker 1: were the arrests on flimsy evidence. It's true that a 207 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: lot of the new policemen were brought in from outside 208 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:21,360 Speaker 1: the city and they took to nabbing people on the 209 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:23,920 Speaker 1: streets just for being near the scene of a crime. 210 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: Then there was the slow realization that these new policemen, well, 211 00:12:28,040 --> 00:12:32,200 Speaker 1: they developed a bad habit of abusing that power. After 212 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:35,320 Speaker 1: one constable was caught stealing mutton from a neighborhood butcher, 213 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,440 Speaker 1: patrolman across the city were met with mocking cries of 214 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:41,800 Speaker 1: who stole the Mutton. After all, the bobbies were supposed 215 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:45,320 Speaker 1: to prevent crime, not perpetrated. But it wasn't just a 216 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:48,559 Speaker 1: leg of lamb that uniform bullies felt themselves entitled to. 217 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:51,760 Speaker 1: There was also their relationship to London's world of vice. 218 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:56,320 Speaker 1: Although under most circumstances prostitution was not actually illegal for 219 00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:58,760 Speaker 1: most of the century, there were still plenty of ways 220 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:01,960 Speaker 1: that the new constables could make life hell for sex workers. 221 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:04,679 Speaker 1: Only a few of the stories filtered up to London's 222 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,480 Speaker 1: reading public before the end of the century, though, and 223 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,000 Speaker 1: at the time it was clear most of the wealthy 224 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:13,000 Speaker 1: and middle class London liked it that way. They were 225 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:15,520 Speaker 1: okay with their new bobbies bringing the club down on 226 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:18,160 Speaker 1: the London poor as long as they could look the 227 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:20,960 Speaker 1: other way, as long as it kept them in their place. 228 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:25,200 Speaker 1: There aren't stories of Swanson indulging in the worst of 229 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:28,480 Speaker 1: these excesses. The worst reprimand he received in his days 230 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:31,160 Speaker 1: as a constable was for drinking on the job, but 231 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 1: there's no doubt that he was part of the effort 232 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 1: to clean up the West End. He had been on 233 00:13:35,679 --> 00:13:38,240 Speaker 1: the force for three years when he and Aberline made 234 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,960 Speaker 1: their undercover raid on the illegal theater in eighteen seventy one. 235 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,920 Speaker 1: It was part of police operations that would push most 236 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:49,440 Speaker 1: sex workers out of haymarkets by eighteen seventy four, and 237 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:52,439 Speaker 1: it was the kind of operation that made Swanson's intelligence 238 00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:55,280 Speaker 1: stand out from the pack. He was only a constable, 239 00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 1: but his plain clothes work didn't go unnoticed. It made 240 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,200 Speaker 1: him material to be lifted from ranks of peelers on 241 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:04,760 Speaker 1: the streets into the hallowed rooms at Whitehall, where professional 242 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:07,160 Speaker 1: sleuths took up the mantle of crime serving from the 243 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:10,920 Speaker 1: Bow Street runners in the early eighteen forties. But the 244 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:13,680 Speaker 1: decade when Swanson joined the detectives is one that would 245 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:16,000 Speaker 1: give them quite a bad name. You see, they had 246 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: more power than the Bobby's naturally, and in eighteen seventy 247 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: seven word got out that they had been using that 248 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:24,200 Speaker 1: power for evil in what became known as the turf 249 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:28,360 Speaker 1: Fraud scandal. Here's Adam Wood once again. Well. The turf 250 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:30,880 Speaker 1: Fraud was a long running scam in which a London 251 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:33,400 Speaker 1: gang committed a fraud on a rich French widow that 252 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:36,840 Speaker 1: Superintendent Frederick Williamson of the Detective Department sent his best 253 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:39,680 Speaker 1: men to investigate. But for some reason, the gang always 254 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,320 Speaker 1: seemed to be one step ahead and avoided arrest. They're 255 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:44,480 Speaker 1: eventually captured and sent to prison, but one of them 256 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:46,480 Speaker 1: then wrote to the government revealing the reason that had 257 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:49,080 Speaker 1: been so difficult to arrest was that the detectives had 258 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 1: been bribed to warn them when the police were getting close. 259 00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:54,880 Speaker 1: Free detectives from the department and one corrupt solicitor were 260 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,360 Speaker 1: put on China found guilty as you say in eighteen 261 00:14:57,400 --> 00:14:59,680 Speaker 1: seventy seven, and the result was that the Detective Department 262 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:02,880 Speaker 1: of School and Joad was completely disbanded and replaced by 263 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:06,240 Speaker 1: a new system called the Criminal Investigation Department or the CID. 264 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:08,840 Speaker 1: All of the detectives who had served in the old 265 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:12,400 Speaker 1: department that not being arrested replaced on Freemont's proviation, had 266 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:16,080 Speaker 1: to prove they could be trusted. Luckily, for Donald, he'd 267 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:18,920 Speaker 1: only been appointed to detectives two weeks before the discovery 268 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:21,160 Speaker 1: of the turf fraud, so he cannot have been evolved 269 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:24,480 Speaker 1: in the cover up by the corrupt detectives. Needless to say, 270 00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:27,560 Speaker 1: it was a massive disgrace for the detectives, and make 271 00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 1: no mistake about it, it was noticed by all of London. 272 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:33,160 Speaker 1: After all, it had begun in the papers as a 273 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:37,040 Speaker 1: fraudulent advertisement. That's what lured in the French Widow along 274 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,960 Speaker 1: with other Parisians. Now the papers said things like the 275 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:44,080 Speaker 1: detective service has broken down and is no longer to 276 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,200 Speaker 1: be relied upon. The call came from all sides to 277 00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:50,320 Speaker 1: overhaul the force, which included the new c I D 278 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:53,920 Speaker 1: in eight seventy eight, just ten years before the Whitechapel 279 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,080 Speaker 1: murders began, and Donald Spanson would be one of the 280 00:15:57,080 --> 00:16:00,280 Speaker 1: men responsible for that work. But if London was a 281 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 1: place where established people like Donald could remake themselves into 282 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:08,200 Speaker 1: something new, it wasn't that easy for everyone. But sometimes 283 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:19,640 Speaker 1: even newcomers needed a shot at remaking London. The police 284 00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:23,320 Speaker 1: were called missionaries. They were bringing the gospel of British 285 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:27,040 Speaker 1: middle class refinements to the undisciplined mass of London's poor. 286 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:30,480 Speaker 1: At least that was the idea. If we think about 287 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:33,360 Speaker 1: the legacy of violence and corruption that the early Bobbies 288 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: or the turf fraud scandal left behind, then that kind 289 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 1: of praise might sound contrived. But then there's the equally 290 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:42,680 Speaker 1: ironic fact that when it came to London, missionaries, perhaps 291 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,680 Speaker 1: the most famous group called themselves an army and in 292 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:50,040 Speaker 1: August of eight seventy eight, William and Catherine Booth summoned 293 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:52,360 Speaker 1: them to a war congress in the East End to 294 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:56,120 Speaker 1: plan his campaign. That's when they founded the Salvation Army 295 00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:01,480 Speaker 1: right there in Whitechapel. Here's Dr Drew Gray. If we're 296 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:05,119 Speaker 1: sending missionaries out to Africa, you know, we're sending the 297 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,840 Speaker 1: likes of Stanley and Livingstone. There's kind of explorers come 298 00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:13,320 Speaker 1: missionaries to bring the word of It's not just the 299 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,359 Speaker 1: word of God, is it. It's the word of white 300 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 1: civilization two so called uncivilized African tribes in that terribly 301 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:26,040 Speaker 1: imperialistic way that was such a feature of the nineteenth century. 302 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:28,840 Speaker 1: But if you're going to do that in Africa, then 303 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:32,639 Speaker 1: surely you need missionaries to go out to White Chapel 304 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:36,200 Speaker 1: and Spittlefields, and then down below the river south of 305 00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:39,679 Speaker 1: the River into the Borough and Southolk Burman's in places 306 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 1: that way. Similarly, it looks like the world has been neglected. 307 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:46,679 Speaker 1: It looks like Christ is not permeating into those parts 308 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:51,800 Speaker 1: of the empire. Like the detectives at the New c I. D. 309 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:55,080 Speaker 1: William and Catherine Booth had ten years to transform the 310 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:58,200 Speaker 1: neighborhood before it's the darkest chapter would begin. Of course, 311 00:17:58,240 --> 00:17:59,879 Speaker 1: there was no way for him to know that at 312 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:01,879 Speaker 1: the time. But if you told William Booth that a 313 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:04,880 Speaker 1: remorseless killer would soon be carrying out his brutal plan 314 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:08,960 Speaker 1: in Whitechapel, William wouldn't have been surprised. In fact, he 315 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,879 Speaker 1: did know London well. He arrived in the city in 316 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:15,240 Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, and together William and Catherine had been 317 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,719 Speaker 1: preaching hell, fire and damnation in East London since eighteen 318 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,000 Speaker 1: sixty five, when they founded the East London Christian Mission. 319 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,080 Speaker 1: When they rebranded their work as the Salvation Army in 320 00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:28,560 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight. There were ways that they reinforced middle 321 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:31,439 Speaker 1: class values. They wanted the London poor to look a 322 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:34,280 Speaker 1: lot more like the sober and orderly families of those 323 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:36,720 Speaker 1: with money. But they also knew what it took to 324 00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:39,400 Speaker 1: reach East London with their message, and that meant they 325 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,720 Speaker 1: sometimes offended the middle class notions of what was proper 326 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:47,120 Speaker 1: and respectable. First of all, there were the Hallelujah lasses 327 00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: that was the nickname for Salvation Army women, and starting 328 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:53,639 Speaker 1: with Catherine Booth, they were out there preaching right alongside 329 00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:56,439 Speaker 1: the men. Then there was the music, the thing for 330 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:58,879 Speaker 1: which the Salvation Army would become best known in the 331 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:02,199 Speaker 1: East End. They were singing religious songs, for sure, but 332 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:04,760 Speaker 1: those songs were set to the tunes of the popular 333 00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: music that match women out on the town would have 334 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:10,640 Speaker 1: heard in London's music halls. Even the advertisements for their 335 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:15,280 Speaker 1: gatherings borrowed designs from circus posters and newspaper advertisements, and 336 00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:18,159 Speaker 1: they were posted up in places like pubs, music halls 337 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:22,320 Speaker 1: and coffee shops, anywhere that dock workers, costermongers and bookies 338 00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:25,359 Speaker 1: taking bets would likely see them. So by the eighteen 339 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:28,680 Speaker 1: eighties the Salvation Army had something of a bad reputation 340 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:32,520 Speaker 1: among wealthy Christians, who thought that Christianity was only true 341 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:35,920 Speaker 1: if it was suitably reverent and refined. But they took 342 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,720 Speaker 1: criticism from other directions too. Years more from Dr Drew 343 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:44,240 Speaker 1: Gray and then they were former Methodists, and they wanted 344 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:48,639 Speaker 1: to bring religion and abstinence from alcohol to the people 345 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:52,359 Speaker 1: of the East End. They operated by holding large public 346 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:57,760 Speaker 1: meetings and organizing marches true communities. These marches are accompanied 347 00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:01,640 Speaker 1: by brass bands made up of members. There's a military 348 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:05,160 Speaker 1: system of organizations, so General Booth is at the head, 349 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:08,280 Speaker 1: and they have soldiers, and of course they distribute their 350 00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:12,280 Speaker 1: weekly newspaper, the War Cry, on the streets and by 351 00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:15,040 Speaker 1: going into public houses. And they brought their kind of 352 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: brand of religious further into communities like Whitechapel, which often 353 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:21,480 Speaker 1: drew down quite a lot of abuse and ridicule from 354 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,280 Speaker 1: the locals, and they might not have listened to the 355 00:20:24,359 --> 00:20:27,920 Speaker 1: rhetoric that they were putting out their Christian vision. And 356 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:33,239 Speaker 1: you quite often find Salvationists being brought before magistrates by 357 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,679 Speaker 1: the police for causing a nistance, not causing an obstruction. 358 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:40,400 Speaker 1: But they're clearly people who were driven by a very 359 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:45,200 Speaker 1: strong religious beliefs to affect change in the communities they 360 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:50,480 Speaker 1: see that are so blighted by alcohol and poverty, crime 361 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:55,240 Speaker 1: and homelessness. So the Salvation Army had a complicated relationship 362 00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:58,480 Speaker 1: with their Eastern neighbors. There's no question they were motivated 363 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,119 Speaker 1: to help with the misery and suff weren of desperate people, 364 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:04,680 Speaker 1: and we can easily share the compassion that reformers felt 365 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:07,520 Speaker 1: for people whose homes had been smashed to make way 366 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,240 Speaker 1: for London's new buildings, or who had come in from 367 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:12,920 Speaker 1: the countryside looking for jobs only to find that many 368 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 1: of the city's businesses just wanted to chew them up 369 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 1: and spit them out for the benefit of London Banks, 370 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:22,040 Speaker 1: And as we explored in the last episode, there was 371 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:24,639 Speaker 1: a lot of confusion about the difference between a working 372 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:28,000 Speaker 1: woman and a working woman and whatever they were actually 373 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 1: preaching in their sermons. The message that came through from 374 00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:33,480 Speaker 1: the Salvation Army was that the way to raise yourself 375 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:36,480 Speaker 1: out of poverty was to first transform your inner life, 376 00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,320 Speaker 1: to remake yourself. But if part of what a woman 377 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,000 Speaker 1: in the East End was supposed to do was stopped working, 378 00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 1: how could they have any life to speak of? Now? 379 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:48,160 Speaker 1: Some East End women, like the matchwoman Mary Driscoll, had 380 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,320 Speaker 1: what you might call an interesting relationship with anti vice 381 00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:54,680 Speaker 1: campaigners like the Salvation Army. Even if she didn't love 382 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:57,399 Speaker 1: working for Bryant and May in their match factory, that 383 00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 1: didn't mean she would fully embrace the message of the 384 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:02,320 Speaker 1: angelists in her neighborhood who were telling her to quit 385 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:05,879 Speaker 1: working for a living, let alone, to abandon her Catholic faith. 386 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:08,919 Speaker 1: Like many of the match women, Mary Driscoll was an 387 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:12,480 Speaker 1: Irish Catholic, but that didn't mean she rejected everything about 388 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 1: their ministry. In East London. Here's Dr Louise ra There 389 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,080 Speaker 1: were no flies on marriage. She was a very clever 390 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:22,439 Speaker 1: woman and like all Eastern moms, she did whatever she 391 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,760 Speaker 1: had to do to survive. And the Salvation Army, the 392 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,479 Speaker 1: Sally Anne was some of the people that would do 393 00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:33,440 Speaker 1: good work amongst the poor and crucially ran soup kitchens 394 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 1: and would give out soup and give out free food 395 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:40,720 Speaker 1: and mary. But only if you were, you know, a 396 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:42,960 Speaker 1: good Protestant. They were not in the business of giving 397 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 1: it out to Jewish people of Catholic people. So Mary 398 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:52,560 Speaker 1: trained all her children to sing Salvation Army hymns and 399 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,720 Speaker 1: they would go along to these soup kitchens sing these hymns, 400 00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:58,520 Speaker 1: you know, passionately pretend to be religious. A Salvation Army 401 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:01,919 Speaker 1: would be terribly impressed and they would get their free shoop, 402 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:04,880 Speaker 1: no doubt. Some mothers across the East End who were 403 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:07,560 Speaker 1: making do with low wage work were grateful for some 404 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,720 Speaker 1: help feeding their children, even if they didn't appreciate being 405 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,400 Speaker 1: thought of as sinful prostitutes just for working outside their home. 406 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:17,359 Speaker 1: But what about the women who were sex workers. Some 407 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,440 Speaker 1: of them did follow the Salvation Army's call and trying 408 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:23,600 Speaker 1: to change their lives the way the new Evangelistic movement taught. 409 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,800 Speaker 1: But there were others who made new lives for themselves, 410 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:30,040 Speaker 1: not by abandoning sex work, but by using it as 411 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:34,280 Speaker 1: a tool to better themselves to climb the social letter. 412 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,160 Speaker 1: Sarah Tanner left us a few traces of her life. 413 00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:44,040 Speaker 1: They come to us mostly because she was an acquaintance 414 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,919 Speaker 1: of the writer Arthur Munby. He tells us that when 415 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,480 Speaker 1: he first met Sarah in the eighteen fifties, she was 416 00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 1: a maid working for an Oxford shopkeeper. When he met 417 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,080 Speaker 1: her a couple of years later, her situation was entirely different. 418 00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:59,920 Speaker 1: She was on the street in what he called gorgeous apparel. 419 00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:02,920 Speaker 1: In fact, she was doing business along Regent Street as 420 00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,680 Speaker 1: a sex worker. When he asked her why, she said 421 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,560 Speaker 1: she had chosen it herself. She enjoyed it, and she 422 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:12,320 Speaker 1: told him she found it profitable. A few years later 423 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,240 Speaker 1: he ran into her again. His first impression was of 424 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,719 Speaker 1: how truly well she seemed, hail and hardy. When they 425 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,600 Speaker 1: fell into conversation, she told him she had raised enough 426 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,359 Speaker 1: money to employ tutors who were teaching her writing and 427 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:28,199 Speaker 1: the other accomplishments of her day. In fact, to his 428 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:32,040 Speaker 1: surprise he found her and I quote respectable. To his 429 00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:34,840 Speaker 1: even greater surprise, he found she had saved enough money 430 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: after three years of sex work to open a new business, 431 00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:40,879 Speaker 1: her own coffee shop. When he visited the shop, he 432 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 1: asked a local policeman about its reputation. Respectable was again 433 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:49,000 Speaker 1: the answer, and Sarah Tanner it wasn't the only one 434 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,919 Speaker 1: to follow that path. Take Elizabeth Gustuf's daughter. She was 435 00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:55,520 Speaker 1: born in Sweden. As you might have guessed by her name, 436 00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:59,399 Speaker 1: her father, Gustuff, was a farmer. Elizabeth was the second 437 00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:03,679 Speaker 1: of fortu Dren and her family was devoutly religious. The 438 00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,040 Speaker 1: parish records from her village north of the port of 439 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,640 Speaker 1: Gothenburg showed that she was taught in the church there 440 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,959 Speaker 1: until she was sixteen, that's when she was confirmed, and 441 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 1: in the records of her move to the city on 442 00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,840 Speaker 1: the coast, notes say that she was well behaved, but 443 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,000 Speaker 1: even said that she was well versed in the Bible. 444 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,000 Speaker 1: For a few years, we know that she worked in 445 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,080 Speaker 1: the city as a maid for the Olifson family. Maybe 446 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: that would have sustained an intelligent country girl, but a 447 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:31,960 Speaker 1: series of tragedies struck. First, her mother died then the 448 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,920 Speaker 1: next month she found out she was pregnant. Six months 449 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:37,560 Speaker 1: after that, she was in the hospital being treated for 450 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:41,520 Speaker 1: an incurable venereal disease, and within two weeks she lost 451 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,639 Speaker 1: the baby. By the end of the year, she was 452 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,600 Speaker 1: registered with the police as a sex worker and fighting 453 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:51,679 Speaker 1: to survive life with syphilis. But Elizabeth did survive. She 454 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:54,720 Speaker 1: picked herself up, found work as a maid once again, 455 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 1: and was discharged from the government roles of sex workers. 456 00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,920 Speaker 1: It seems that she was a fighter. It took almost 457 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,000 Speaker 1: three years, but eventually Elizabeth inherited some money from her 458 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:08,160 Speaker 1: mother's estate, and she used that money to buy passage 459 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: to London. In her new home, she remade herself yet again. 460 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:14,560 Speaker 1: She even took on a new name and came to 461 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:19,159 Speaker 1: be known as Liz Stride. Here's historian Paul Beg this 462 00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:25,800 Speaker 1: Stride was registered as a prostitute in Sweden, but how 463 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:30,080 Speaker 1: and why isn't certainly known. She managed to gain some 464 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:34,080 Speaker 1: decent employment in Sweden and she was taken off the 465 00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:38,080 Speaker 1: prostitute's register, and then a small inheritance enabled her to 466 00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:43,000 Speaker 1: emigrate to London. She worked here and then married and 467 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,520 Speaker 1: even ran a small coffee shop with her husband. Like 468 00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:50,440 Speaker 1: Liz Stride, coffee itself was born elsewhere, but made itself 469 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 1: at home in London. In fact, it came into British 470 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:57,040 Speaker 1: society from even farther afield, borrowed from Turkish culture when 471 00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,920 Speaker 1: the English and Ottoman empires were trading more than blows coffee, 472 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,960 Speaker 1: and the coffee houses were a London fashion for a century. 473 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:07,159 Speaker 1: In sixteen fifty, the very first British coffee house was 474 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,480 Speaker 1: opened by a Jewish businessman in Oxford. Soon enough, the 475 00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,320 Speaker 1: city's coffee houses were filled with scholars as well as 476 00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:17,719 Speaker 1: their books and their conversation. In fact, across the seventeen hundreds, 477 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,840 Speaker 1: they were the haunts of high society. Early London coffee 478 00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,919 Speaker 1: houses where places where news was read and discussed. They 479 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:27,720 Speaker 1: even garnered the nickname penny universities because a patron could 480 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:29,879 Speaker 1: pay a penny at the door and step into a 481 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:34,240 Speaker 1: world of culture and conversation. Coffee was served alongside other 482 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:38,200 Speaker 1: exotic beverages like tea and drinking chocolates, and they were 483 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,880 Speaker 1: full of smoke from another new leaf tobacco, all gathered 484 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:46,040 Speaker 1: from the reaches of the Empire. Tea had overtaken coffee 485 00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:48,800 Speaker 1: as the drink of polite society by the eighteen hundreds, 486 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,199 Speaker 1: but there was still enough buzz around the idea of 487 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:53,720 Speaker 1: a coffee house for it to mean something when Sarah 488 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,560 Speaker 1: Tanner opened the doors of her own. But while Tanner's 489 00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:59,520 Speaker 1: respectability as the owner of a business is the last 490 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:02,959 Speaker 1: thing our ther Munby writes about her, Elizabeth story goes on, 491 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:07,359 Speaker 1: and it takes a darker, more tragic turn, because, like 492 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:11,040 Speaker 1: any Chapman, Liz Stride drank heavily. It seems that for 493 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:13,160 Speaker 1: a while she was still able to run the business 494 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,879 Speaker 1: with her husband. They even moved their coffee shop to 495 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,560 Speaker 1: Poplar High Street for a while, but by one her 496 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,479 Speaker 1: marriage had collapsed. In December of that year she was 497 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:26,320 Speaker 1: in the White Chapel Workhouse infirmary, and it seems that 498 00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:28,520 Speaker 1: for the rest of her life after that she was 499 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:31,640 Speaker 1: scratching out a living in the East End. Here's Paul 500 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:37,000 Speaker 1: beg once again. She took to pleading, apparently meaning mainly 501 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,520 Speaker 1: for the Jews, and it was said that she could 502 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:46,240 Speaker 1: speak Yiddish. But her life spiraled downward. Her drinking landed 503 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,600 Speaker 1: her in court on charges of being drunken, disorderly and 504 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:54,840 Speaker 1: using obscene language on several occasions. A fellow Loggio, where 505 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: she stayed from time to time, told a journalist you 506 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,360 Speaker 1: said when she should when she could get no work, 507 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:04,600 Speaker 1: she had to do the best she could for a living, 508 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:08,200 Speaker 1: and that was in relation to being a prostitute. But 509 00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 1: he was defending the said that she was a nice 510 00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,120 Speaker 1: and clean old woman you couldn't wish to meet, like 511 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 1: Annie Chapman. Liz also met a man who would be 512 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:20,200 Speaker 1: her partner in Whitechapel life, but their partnership was a 513 00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:22,840 Speaker 1: troubled one. By all accounts, the man she lived with 514 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:26,680 Speaker 1: was violent. In seven she lodged a complaint against him 515 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: with a local magistrate, and she continued drinking. There were 516 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:32,920 Speaker 1: times when she would leave her partner for weeks on end, 517 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,920 Speaker 1: and honestly, who could blame her. On the night after 518 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,120 Speaker 1: Martha Tabron was murdered, Elizabeth Stride was in court. She 519 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:42,920 Speaker 1: had been dragged in for a drunkenness and for using 520 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:46,560 Speaker 1: obscene language. She was told that she would be locked 521 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,000 Speaker 1: up for five days or she could pay a five 522 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,320 Speaker 1: shilling fine. At the time, Liz Stride had the money, 523 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,360 Speaker 1: so she paid the fine and walked away. And it 524 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,080 Speaker 1: wasn't the first time she had been fined two shillings 525 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,440 Speaker 1: and sixpence on Valentine's Day year before, when she was 526 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,720 Speaker 1: arrested on the same charges. By now, though, I'm sure 527 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:08,080 Speaker 1: you know where Liz Stride story goes, because in the 528 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:13,400 Speaker 1: early morning hours of September, Liz Stride found herself doing 529 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,280 Speaker 1: something few people had the courage to do that autumn, 530 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:25,000 Speaker 1: walking alone through the dark of Whitechapel. It was almost 531 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:28,760 Speaker 1: one in the morning. Israel Schwartz was walking on Berner Street. 532 00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:31,240 Speaker 1: He was just one turn away from his home on 533 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,040 Speaker 1: Ellen Street. One might say that he lived just around 534 00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,040 Speaker 1: the corner, but Israel might not have felt like he 535 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,040 Speaker 1: was close to home as he walked along the street 536 00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:41,920 Speaker 1: that night. You see, like so many other East Enders, 537 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:45,000 Speaker 1: Israel was new to England, so knew in fact that 538 00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,680 Speaker 1: he couldn't even speak English. That didn't mean he was 539 00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:51,800 Speaker 1: alone though, after all, he was Jewish and he lived 540 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:55,080 Speaker 1: in Whitechapel. Here's Paul Beg to give us some context 541 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:59,760 Speaker 1: about that. The Eastern Jewish community was largely consisted of 542 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:05,000 Speaker 1: Eastern immigrants fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. They formed tight 543 00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,760 Speaker 1: knit communities, often built around people who had come across 544 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,000 Speaker 1: from the same village, so whole streets could be taken 545 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,680 Speaker 1: over by people who fled from the same village abroad 546 00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:19,360 Speaker 1: in Eastern Europe, and they had their own little places 547 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,920 Speaker 1: of worship, and of course they were looking for kosher food. 548 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,520 Speaker 1: They would only be eating food provided in the main 549 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:30,960 Speaker 1: by their own community. That made for a lively neighborhood 550 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:33,480 Speaker 1: like the one around Berner Street, a sense of home 551 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,520 Speaker 1: away from home. But of course, as we know, there 552 00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,520 Speaker 1: were real resentments that simmered in London against men like 553 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 1: Israel Schwartz. Some of them had long histories, to others 554 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,719 Speaker 1: were more about the neighborhood itself and how it was changing. 555 00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:51,320 Speaker 1: Immigrants coming from Eastern Europe were content to take a 556 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:53,840 Speaker 1: room with the whole family living in a room, and 557 00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:58,160 Speaker 1: so these properties, many of these properties could be let 558 00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:03,200 Speaker 1: to lots of people instead of one person. So the 559 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,360 Speaker 1: single tenants were finding it very hard to find somewhere 560 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,320 Speaker 1: to live. And so there's a lot of ill feeling 561 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:14,200 Speaker 1: about these people, which basically boils down to the difficulty 562 00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:18,720 Speaker 1: that we have in being able to distinguish between hostility 563 00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:22,959 Speaker 1: towards people because they were Jewish or just because there 564 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:27,400 Speaker 1: were foreigners. So yes, even though he was close to home. 565 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:30,240 Speaker 1: There were reasons that Israel may have tightened his color 566 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:32,960 Speaker 1: and kept his eyes down as he walked. There were 567 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: reasons he may have felt uncomfortable in the darkness of 568 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:38,960 Speaker 1: his own street. But Israel didn't know just how bad 569 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,440 Speaker 1: life in the neighborhood was going to get, because that night, 570 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,880 Speaker 1: Burner Street is where he saw someone die. You see, 571 00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:49,560 Speaker 1: he turned onto Burner Street from the larger thoroughfare commercial Road, 572 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,640 Speaker 1: and he saw that he wasn't alone. Ahead of him, 573 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:54,760 Speaker 1: he saw a man stop and speak with a woman 574 00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:58,160 Speaker 1: who was standing in a gateway. The pair was standing 575 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,280 Speaker 1: in the walkway that opened into the core called Dutfield's Yard. 576 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:05,400 Speaker 1: But what he saw wasn't just polite conversation, even at 577 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:08,000 Speaker 1: such a late hour, and it began when he saw 578 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,560 Speaker 1: the man grab her and try to pull her into 579 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:15,320 Speaker 1: the street. It seems like maybe she resisted, she was 580 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:17,760 Speaker 1: going to be pulled away from where she stood, but 581 00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:21,040 Speaker 1: that didn't stop the violence. Israel saw the man spin 582 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:23,960 Speaker 1: her around and throw her down the footway, and he 583 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:27,200 Speaker 1: heard her give a low scream, and then another, and 584 00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,640 Speaker 1: then a third. In the darkness of that early hour, 585 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:33,960 Speaker 1: Israel Schwartz avoided the scuffle by crossing over to the 586 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:36,440 Speaker 1: other side of the street to pass by, but he 587 00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:39,920 Speaker 1: realized he was walking right toward another man, one who 588 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,400 Speaker 1: was standing still and lighting a pipe. That's when a 589 00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:45,760 Speaker 1: call rang out from the darkness of the Dutfield Yard 590 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:49,920 Speaker 1: gateway across the street. The voice shouted Lipsky. It was 591 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:53,320 Speaker 1: a name that Israel knew. Even though he couldn't speak English, 592 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:55,680 Speaker 1: he would no doubt have been familiar with the racial 593 00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:59,479 Speaker 1: slurs being thrown against Jews in East London. If Israel 594 00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:01,960 Speaker 1: already didn't want to get involved in any of it, well, 595 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,000 Speaker 1: now he was sure he had to leave and quickly. 596 00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:07,880 Speaker 1: So he walked on. But as he did, he heard 597 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,120 Speaker 1: footsteps behind him. In fact, the second man, the one 598 00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:14,319 Speaker 1: with the pipe, it started to follow Israel down the road, 599 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,960 Speaker 1: so he took off running. He didn't stop until he 600 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,760 Speaker 1: had passed under a railway arch. When he turned around, 601 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:24,240 Speaker 1: his pursuer had vanished. It had barely taken any time 602 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,440 Speaker 1: at all, a few quick looks, a few screams, a 603 00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,800 Speaker 1: short chase down a darkened street. But we can imagine 604 00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:33,200 Speaker 1: that those few moments would stay with Israel for the 605 00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:36,520 Speaker 1: rest of his life, because if his account is true, 606 00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:40,959 Speaker 1: then he saw the attack that killed Liz Stride. That question, though, 607 00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:44,279 Speaker 1: of whether Israel Schwartz gave a true account, is a 608 00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:47,239 Speaker 1: tricky one. What we do have is the story as 609 00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:49,719 Speaker 1: he told it, the story as it's written down and 610 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,799 Speaker 1: entered into the police record, written down, of course, by 611 00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:57,560 Speaker 1: Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, and it would make Israel Schwartz 612 00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:01,560 Speaker 1: the most significant witness in the White chap murders because 613 00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,200 Speaker 1: he had done something no one else had managed to 614 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:08,520 Speaker 1: do so far. He had laid eyes on the killer. 615 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:16,760 Speaker 1: That's it for this week's episode of Unobscured. Stick around 616 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:20,040 Speaker 1: after this short sponsor break for a preview of what's 617 00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:26,239 Speaker 1: in store for next week. When Martha Tabram had been 618 00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:28,920 Speaker 1: killed in George Yard, nothing was found in the neighborhood 619 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,280 Speaker 1: around her that would help the police identify the killer. 620 00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:34,640 Speaker 1: When Polly Nichols was killed on Buck's Row, the sweep 621 00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:37,600 Speaker 1: led to the discovery of her identity, but nothing else. 622 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,080 Speaker 1: And when Annie Chapman was killed behind twenty nine Hanbury Street, 623 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:43,640 Speaker 1: the discovery of the leather apron in the yard beside 624 00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:47,759 Speaker 1: her gave fodder for racist speculation, but little more. And 625 00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,840 Speaker 1: even as Catherine Etto's body was found in Miter Square. 626 00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,359 Speaker 1: Police were still searching for clues around Dutfield Yard, where 627 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,359 Speaker 1: Liz Stride had been killed just an hour before. They 628 00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,600 Speaker 1: also found nothing to put them on the trail of 629 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:02,520 Speaker 1: the murder. Things would be different in the case of 630 00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:05,680 Speaker 1: Katherine ETOs, though, because when police fanned out from the 631 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,279 Speaker 1: place where her body lay, some of them went back 632 00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:12,000 Speaker 1: toward Whitechappel. Previous searches around the body of the victims 633 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:15,360 Speaker 1: had come up empty handed. This time what they found 634 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:18,960 Speaker 1: would become the very center of the hunt for the killer. 635 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:38,440 Speaker 1: Unobscured was created by me Aaron Manky and produced by 636 00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:42,160 Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Josh Thane in partnership with 637 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,400 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Research and writing for this season is 638 00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:48,000 Speaker 1: all the work of my right hand man Carl Nellis 639 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:51,120 Speaker 1: and the brilliant Chad Lawson composed the brand new soundtrack. 640 00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:55,560 Speaker 1: Learn more about our contributing historians, source material and links 641 00:36:55,600 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: to our other shows over at History Unobscured dot com, 642 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:10,759 Speaker 1: and until next time, thanks for listening. Unobscured is a 643 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,120 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Menkey. For more 644 00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:15,399 Speaker 1: podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit I heart radio, app, 645 00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:17,960 Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 646 00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:22,560 Speaker 1: H