Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. It was the best of times,
Speaker 1: it was the worst of times. Hello, and welcome to
Speaker 1: another episode of Criminalia. This season, we're exploring the lives
Speaker 1: and motivations of some of the most notorious stalkers throughout history.
Speaker 1: I'm Maria tram Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. So you
Speaker 1: probably recognize that quote that Maria kicked things off with.
Speaker 1: And if it sounds familiar but you can't quite place it,
Speaker 1: I will help you out. It's from A Tale of
Speaker 1: Two Cities, which was written by Charles Dickens. And of
Speaker 1: course Dickens is considered one of the best known fiction
Speaker 1: writers ever, certainly in the Western world, and with each
Speaker 1: passing century he continues to be regarded as perhaps the
Speaker 1: greatest novelist of the Victorian era, certainly probably the most famous,
Speaker 1: at least for school children here in the US. He
Speaker 1: is responsible for classic novels. You're going to know all
Speaker 1: these names. Oliver Twist, a Christmas carol which everybody knows
Speaker 1: because it inundates us from November through December, maybe October sometimes,
Speaker 1: David Copperfield, a Tale of Two Cities, as we just mentioned,
Speaker 1: and Great Expectations, among many other writings. And it's accurate
Speaker 1: to say that because of this high level of output
Speaker 1: and success over the years, Dickens attracted more than a
Speaker 1: super fan or two. So it actually wasn't uncommon during
Speaker 1: this time for writers to begin their careers as journalists,
Speaker 1: and that's what Dickens did. He worked at The Mirror
Speaker 1: of Parliament and The True Son until three and it
Speaker 1: was because of his experiences as a journalist and the
Speaker 1: number of influential people that he was able to meet
Speaker 1: through those journals, that Dickens was able to do something
Speaker 1: he really wanted to do as a writer, which was
Speaker 1: published a book. He's climbing that ladder exactly. He did
Speaker 1: get to publish his book, which happened in eighteen thirty three,
Speaker 1: that was titled Sketches by Bass, and it was published
Speaker 1: under the pseudonym Bass, that was his childhood nickname. And
Speaker 1: we may know him best for his huge list of
Speaker 1: novels that he wrote, but Dickens did a lot of
Speaker 1: other work. He edited weekly periodicals, he wrote travel books,
Speaker 1: and he was very involved with charitable organizations. Just three
Speaker 1: years after the publication of sketches by Boss, so this
Speaker 1: puts us in eighty six. Twenty four year old Dickens
Speaker 1: married the twenty one year old daughter of a man
Speaker 1: named George Hogarth, who was someone that Dickens had previous
Speaker 1: business dealings with. They had worked quite closely, and that
Speaker 1: woman was Catherine Hogarth, and she and Charles Dickens went
Speaker 1: on to have a twenty two year marriage which produced
Speaker 1: ten children. So the same month that he and Catherine married,
Speaker 1: the first installment of The Pickwick Papers was published. Now,
Speaker 1: this is one of the most pular novels of all
Speaker 1: time in the Western world. This collection of loosely related
Speaker 1: adventures was published in serial format, so came out a
Speaker 1: little bit of a time between eighteen thirty six and
Speaker 1: eight thirty seven, and it was wildly successful. And from
Speaker 1: that point on there was really no looking back for
Speaker 1: the famously private Dickens. Speaking of that marriage, yes, let's
Speaker 1: talk about those children for just a moment. It is
Speaker 1: pretty widely reported that Dickens really enjoyed being a father,
Speaker 1: specifically to a young brood of children, and he wrote
Speaker 1: and produced plays and other fairly elaborate holiday productions at
Speaker 1: their home to entertain friends. And guests such as the
Speaker 1: Tennyson's and the Thackeray's, also famous writers of the time.
Speaker 1: This of course involved all those kids, right we have
Speaker 1: a whole players group, right I have. I have a
Speaker 1: stock cast of ten I could work with. But as
Speaker 1: his kids got a little bit older, though, it said
Speaker 1: that Dickens became much less interested in them. They kind
Speaker 1: of aged out of the magic window for his his fascination.
Speaker 1: Nobody wanted to do those little plays anymore. The second
Speaker 1: they've become rebellious. I picture him being like, you're out
Speaker 1: of the play exactly. They hit that age, and he's like, out,
Speaker 1: your voice is changed. You cannot do this anymore. We're
Speaker 1: going to cast your younger sister. So I am going
Speaker 1: to actually keep talking about these kids for just another minute,
Speaker 1: because there is something we should really address about their
Speaker 1: names and their nicknames that their father gave to them.
Speaker 1: And as you're about to hear, how could we not
Speaker 1: talk about this? So Dickens is known for his unique
Speaker 1: and often kind of hilarious character names in his novels.
Speaker 1: There's Paul Sweedlepipe, I believe, Lord Lancaster still Stalking and
Speaker 1: the pork and hams um All a favorite all come
Speaker 1: to mind, and uh, things weren't really all that different
Speaker 1: with his kids. So some of the children were actually
Speaker 1: named for famous writers such as Alfred Tennyson Dickens and
Speaker 1: Henry Fielding Dickens. But it wasn't just their real names, right,
Speaker 1: they had nicknames. They all had nicknames. And you can tell,
Speaker 1: like as he that he really did love having a
Speaker 1: young group of children. Right. So there were nine living
Speaker 1: children because their daughter Dora had died in infancy. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about each of these children, and they're
Speaker 1: hilarious and adorable, question mark nicknames. It's going to take
Speaker 1: a minute, though, because it's nine children. So first of all, Charlie,
Speaker 1: who was the oldest son, was nicknamed the snodg ering blee.
Speaker 1: It just what you want your dad to call you,
Speaker 1: for sure, you're like dad, how kind You're not in
Speaker 1: front of my friends. His eldest daughter, Mary was known
Speaker 1: mostly as Many, but she also had a nickname, uh,
Speaker 1: the mild Gloster. His son Henry was known as Harry
Speaker 1: or just h most of the time, but he also
Speaker 1: answered to a couple of other names, including the comic
Speaker 1: Countryman and sometimes the jolly post Boy. There was also
Speaker 1: Francis chicken Stalker Dickens Um, and the name honors a
Speaker 1: character from a Dickens novel, which actually almost all of
Speaker 1: these nicknames do. Right, then we have Walter young Skull Dickens.
Speaker 1: I would kind of love if that's what my family
Speaker 1: called me, young Skull. We can start calling you young
Speaker 1: Sandwich is already young skull. Please come inside. That's how
Speaker 1: I'll introduce you from now. This is young Skull. People
Speaker 1: be like that skull is not young. Let's move on. Um.
Speaker 1: Alfred Tennyson, he was known as Skittles, not the candy.
Speaker 1: I know, I have questions. I'm like their connection betwixt
Speaker 1: the two. Sydney Dickens had two nicknames. One was the
Speaker 1: Ocean Specter, which sounds sort of dramatic and actually feel
Speaker 1: like that one somehow related to Skittles because through me,
Speaker 1: Skittles makes me think of like a little crab, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of running around. Well. The other nickname that Sydney
Speaker 1: had was also maritime in nature. It was the Admiral
Speaker 1: Oh Yes. And then there was Kate, who was one
Speaker 1: of the youngest children in the family, and Dickens gave
Speaker 1: her her specific nickname because of her hot temper, Kate
Speaker 1: was known as Lucifer Box. I just back away from
Speaker 1: that one. And then there was the baby, which is
Speaker 1: one of the nicknames I think most most large families
Speaker 1: will sometimes called the youngest child the baby. Ye right,
Speaker 1: do you have the baby? Even I, as an adult human,
Speaker 1: people would be like, oh, you're the baby, and I'm like, sure, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: the baby. That was his son, Edward. But Edward didn't
Speaker 1: continue to be called the baby throughout his life because
Speaker 1: he grew into a new nickname which stuck with him
Speaker 1: for the rest of his life, and that was Plorn,
Speaker 1: which actually began as Mr Plournish maroon teagooner. These are
Speaker 1: like the things you would call a pet, right. I
Speaker 1: was just thinking they're great like cat names. Who bless
Speaker 1: Edward for putting up with that and somehow negotiating it
Speaker 1: down to Plorn and now Ran he's like dropped the Mr. Please.
Speaker 1: That's a long list of really great and funny nicknames.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to take us to uh Dickens his
Speaker 1: own childhood and life for a minute. And this is
Speaker 1: before he became famous. So he was born in eighteen
Speaker 1: twelve and it was into kind of a lower middle
Speaker 1: class family and neighborhood. His father was a clerk in
Speaker 1: the Navy payoffice, but ultimately he was sent to debtors prison,
Speaker 1: and at age twelve, Dickens supported his family by taking
Speaker 1: a factory job where he pasted labels on shoe polish bottles.
Speaker 1: His novel David Copperfield is actually considered largely autobiographical, especially
Speaker 1: this time, and it is also believed that Dickens likely
Speaker 1: lived with epilepsy. Modern doctors have noted that the way
Speaker 1: that Dickens described what he called quote the falling sickness
Speaker 1: as it was known in the Victorian era, bears striking
Speaker 1: medical accuracy when you compare it to descriptions of epilepsy,
Speaker 1: and throughout his works, several of Dickens's fictional characters, including
Speaker 1: monks in Oliver Twists, are described as also having symptoms
Speaker 1: of what we today would diagnose his epilepsy. As an adult,
Speaker 1: Dickens really liked being active. He was known to go
Speaker 1: horseback riding. He was not going on a probably long
Speaker 1: distance like twenty mile hikes. He frequently entertained his friends,
Speaker 1: and it turns out he really enjoyed playing practical jokes.
Speaker 1: He was a magician, and he practiced hypnotism, and it
Speaker 1: said that he would hypnotize Catherine to help alleviate her headaches.
Speaker 1: Although he read gularly practiced it on others, he always
Speaker 1: refused to be put into a trance himself. Dickens also
Speaker 1: loved and we got to repeat this, he loved all
Speaker 1: things paranormal. He was at least allegedly a member of
Speaker 1: London's famous Ghost Club. That's a group that investigates reported
Speaker 1: ghosts and hauntings. We're using present tents because that club
Speaker 1: is still around today, although if you look at its history,
Speaker 1: some indicate that, like after Dickens died, it fell off
Speaker 1: for a while but then was revived. But you can
Speaker 1: look it up today. If you're just you know, looking
Speaker 1: to join a paranormal investigation and research organization and you
Speaker 1: happen to be in London, absolutely maybe Dickens behaunt you
Speaker 1: fingers crossed, right. Yeah, So let's take a break for
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsor right now, and when we
Speaker 1: return we'll talk about Dickens Mania. Welcome back to Criminalia.
Speaker 1: Dickens's career and life changed significantly when he went on tour.
Speaker 1: It was in eighteen sixty seven that Dickens kicked off
Speaker 1: a seventies six date tour across America which has since
Speaker 1: been described as the Victorian version of the British Invasion,
Speaker 1: including the arrival of the Beatles at John F. Kennedy
Speaker 1: Airport in New York City in the nineteen sixties. Dickens
Speaker 1: had toured the US once before, in two and his
Speaker 1: fans gave him a very warm welcome, literally trying to
Speaker 1: tear the shirt off his back to get themselves a souvenir.
Speaker 1: I marvel at these things, but I know I marvel
Speaker 1: at these things. That's the kind of behavior I think
Speaker 1: people think of as very modern fair mania. But it
Speaker 1: was going on them between Dickens and Liz Domenia, like
Speaker 1: there was a lot in terms of being a fan
Speaker 1: of someone in the nineteenth century. Dickens, by the end
Speaker 1: of the tour described his experience as primarily disenchanting. He complained,
Speaker 1: we quote, I can't drink a glass of water without
Speaker 1: having one hundred people looking down my throat when I
Speaker 1: opened my mouth to swallow. So this type of celebrity
Speaker 1: or rock star status is pretty commonplace today, and that's
Speaker 1: certainly augmented by the connectivity that we've achieved, but in
Speaker 1: the mid eighteen hundreds it most certainly was not. And
Speaker 1: he just was not prepared for this level of constant
Speaker 1: gaze upon him. Absolutely not, And as we can see,
Speaker 1: he had a really hard time adjusting to it as
Speaker 1: most of us really, honestly it might And his quote
Speaker 1: is how queer it is that I should be perpetually
Speaker 1: having things happen to me with regard to people that
Speaker 1: nobody else in the world can be made to believe.
Speaker 1: So between the first and second tours he made of
Speaker 1: North America, and despite the twenty two years and ten
Speaker 1: children together, Charles and Catherine ended the relationship in eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight. Dickens is on record stating that he was
Speaker 1: quote totally incompatible with his wife. You would think he
Speaker 1: might have figured that out more than two decades later,
Speaker 1: but but he did. The pair separated, but they did
Speaker 1: not ever divorce because at that point in time in
Speaker 1: Victorian society, divorce would have been quite scandalous because of
Speaker 1: how famous Dickens had become. Like if TMZ had existed them,
Speaker 1: they would have been all over this. They would have
Speaker 1: been following him. There would have been paparazzi in the bushes,
Speaker 1: outside of his hotel, cameras everywhere. But the thing was,
Speaker 1: he didn't really treat the situation with care. He slandered
Speaker 1: his wife's name publicly. After ten children and some postpartum
Speaker 1: issues that she had. He thought that she had grown fat, tired,
Speaker 1: and dull. Um. I came up with a new use
Speaker 1: for the time travel machine and it might need to deliver. Uh.
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of violence, but I would want
Speaker 1: to perhaps just you know, jab him with a sharp
Speaker 1: stick and be like, what is wrong with you? Um?
Speaker 1: He also just just once? He also it does count.
Speaker 1: He also characterized his wife as weak minded and by
Speaker 1: and large embarrassing to him, and he also said that
Speaker 1: she was an unloving mother. So clearly that divorce was
Speaker 1: all bad blood. There was not much amicable about it. No, no,
Speaker 1: And it's also around this time that Dickens, who was
Speaker 1: then began an affair with an eighteen year old actress
Speaker 1: who was named Ellen or Nellie turn in Um. It's
Speaker 1: it's really not known if that relationship began before or
Speaker 1: after he and Catherine separated, but it's known that he
Speaker 1: did do his best to hide his new relationship. He
Speaker 1: always maintained though, that Nelly was not his mistress and
Speaker 1: they weren't having an affair, but everyone modern day knows
Speaker 1: that that was just a lie, And because he feared
Speaker 1: the press would discu cover them, he didn't really travel
Speaker 1: with her at all, and he did not allow her
Speaker 1: to accompany him on his second tour. And that second
Speaker 1: tour was very big news because while the first tour
Speaker 1: had been pretty intense, the second tour created one of
Speaker 1: the first modern mass media celebrities. He inspired what's often
Speaker 1: called Dickens Mania. So there's this wonderful description of how
Speaker 1: Dickens looked while he was walking around Boston, which I
Speaker 1: believe his tour began to either New York of Boston's.
Speaker 1: This is fairly early on. And if ever there was
Speaker 1: a great way to describe the style of what could
Speaker 1: be a Victorian rock star, this might be it. So Dickens,
Speaker 1: we quote, who had a gleefully gaudy fashion sense that
Speaker 1: attracted attention and some revulsion, was a particularly striking celebrity
Speaker 1: to encounter. He had fans who tore it his fur
Speaker 1: coat and one took an impression of his money bootprint
Speaker 1: from the gravel was really quite a scene. It's funny
Speaker 1: because I didn't know until way late in life that
Speaker 1: Dickens had been sort of this like crazy dandy Me too,
Speaker 1: I think, because I associate him with his works, which
Speaker 1: are by and large about you know, like I think
Speaker 1: of Bob Cratchett, is like he's standing in that story
Speaker 1: and somebody who's very you know, kind of clothed in
Speaker 1: like these dark tattered No, that wasn't him at all,
Speaker 1: not at all. And I had no idea. And you know,
Speaker 1: when I when I was going through school, he certainly
Speaker 1: didn't learn anything otherwise but that that description of him.
Speaker 1: So I was telling Holly when I first saw that
Speaker 1: description of him that he reminds me of a Victorian
Speaker 1: age Keith Richards because he's very flamboyant and he's got
Speaker 1: like what at the time was it was considered this
Speaker 1: utterly cool sense of style. And yet you look at
Speaker 1: it and you're like, none of that works, but it
Speaker 1: totally all works. Yeah, Yeah, they don't teach you that,
Speaker 1: and still you don't know nowhere in it, nowhere in
Speaker 1: any of my my history or lit books was it
Speaker 1: like he is a fancy pants He had a lot
Speaker 1: of scarves hanging in his closet right, So that, of
Speaker 1: course was reported in the press, and so were a
Speaker 1: lot of other things because the American press fixated on
Speaker 1: reporting things like his personal habits. Uh. They printed that
Speaker 1: he did not use mustard in a particular restaurant in
Speaker 1: New York City, as though that was newsworthy. We don't
Speaker 1: know which restaurant, but in case you're wondering for our
Speaker 1: New Yorker's uh, cats As Deli, which is famous for
Speaker 1: its handmade mustard, did not open its doors until so
Speaker 1: we know it. It was not that one, and he
Speaker 1: was not slaighting cats right. He was about twenty years
Speaker 1: too early for that one. Maybe it's because of him
Speaker 1: that they were like, we gotta make our own mustard.
Speaker 1: There you go, there's our next theory. So this tour,
Speaker 1: the second tour to the U S. Dickens was a
Speaker 1: hot ticket on the literary tour circuit here and there
Speaker 1: was a I'm actually when Dickens considered a stage career
Speaker 1: rather than a writing career, and it really showed in
Speaker 1: his readings on tour and his readings anywhere. He was
Speaker 1: known as a gifted performer, and he did tours. He
Speaker 1: did public readings, and every time he would, he would
Speaker 1: act out passages from his books as if he was
Speaker 1: on stage. And as a writer too, he would act
Speaker 1: out his characters before writing them into his novels. He
Speaker 1: wrote plays, he performed before Queen Victoria, and uh from
Speaker 1: time to time he also accepted rules in in amateur plays. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so those cute little plays he was putting on with
Speaker 1: the kids back home for his friends were not his
Speaker 1: only theatrical moments. He wanted to do it for himself, right.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. He was a hot ticket like
Speaker 1: people wanted to see him when he toured because he
Speaker 1: was excellent at it. He was the master of ceremonies
Speaker 1: that you would always hope to see. He has been
Speaker 1: described as dynamic, quick and observant and just having an
Speaker 1: amazing zest for life that kind of pulled his audience
Speaker 1: right along with him. And maybe he just hypnotized them all.
Speaker 1: Uh So, mainly what people saw was what Holly just described.
Speaker 1: But there was a flip to that though, and he
Speaker 1: he has also been described as being high strung, impatient,
Speaker 1: and also prone to depression, commonly two sides of the
Speaker 1: same coin for sure. So it was on this second
Speaker 1: American tour. When Charles Dickens met the Big Allows, he
Speaker 1: was staying at the Parker House hotel in Boston. He
Speaker 1: usually dined there, he spent his evenings playing games like
Speaker 1: charades there with his manager and his publisher, as well
Speaker 1: as this couple, the Big Glows, who were visiting from
Speaker 1: New York City, and they were also staying at Parker House.
Speaker 1: So I'm actually going to interject something here right now.
Speaker 1: This is the same Parker House that is famous for
Speaker 1: Parker House roles, and they were invented in eighteen seventies,
Speaker 1: so he missed those as well. But this is also
Speaker 1: the part of the story where we don't talk about
Speaker 1: delicious baked goods, but instead we move on to the
Speaker 1: stokery portion of the story. So the Bigelows we have
Speaker 1: Jane and John. And when Jane Tunis Poultney met the
Speaker 1: author and attorney John Bigelow, they met in eighteen fifty
Speaker 1: and he was immediately smitten by her. Four months later
Speaker 1: they married and they went on to have nine children.
Speaker 1: John Bigelow edited and co owned with the New York
Speaker 1: Evening Post from eighteen forty nine to eighteen sixty one.
Speaker 1: That was before he became involved in a career of
Speaker 1: international diplomacy. In eighteen sixty one, so that is when
Speaker 1: his his New York Evening post time ends, he was
Speaker 1: appointed by Abraham Lincoln to the American consul in Paris,
Speaker 1: And at this point his career really took off, because
Speaker 1: from there he became Charge d'affaire before becoming Envoy Extraordinary
Speaker 1: and Minister planet Potentiary. And in eighteen sixty five, so
Speaker 1: just four years into this diplomatic career, he moved into
Speaker 1: the position of American Ambassador to France. He became very
Speaker 1: influential in France, in Napoleon the Third Court, in particular,
Speaker 1: he was so influential that he is credited for helping
Speaker 1: the Union win in the American Civil War by convincing
Speaker 1: France not to provide aid to the Confederate States. And
Speaker 1: then there's Jane. Jane Bigelow was known as Jenny to
Speaker 1: her close friends, and she seems to have had a
Speaker 1: profound impact on her distinguished husband. He wrote of her,
Speaker 1: and we quote she was a woman of notable beauty
Speaker 1: and social charm. Her family deemed our courtship rather brief,
Speaker 1: but there seemed to be no occasion on my part,
Speaker 1: at least for prolonging it. Years after her death, he wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: without her, my career in the world would not only
Speaker 1: have been very different from what it was, but far
Speaker 1: less satisfactory to myself and to others. Okay, so let's
Speaker 1: get real. John may have been a very influential diplo meant,
Speaker 1: and he may have credited Jenny with his success, but
Speaker 1: his wife was actually not exactly what most people would
Speaker 1: have expected of the spouse of someone in his position.
Speaker 1: There is a story at one point of her slapping
Speaker 1: the Prince of Wales on the back. I'm sure he
Speaker 1: was surprised by that, a silly gesture, but at the
Speaker 1: time that but I mean even now that would be horrifying.
Speaker 1: So subtract a hundred and sixty years off of it,
Speaker 1: and it's really horrifying. There are a lot of other
Speaker 1: similar stories of poor or inappropriate behavior on her part,
Speaker 1: and it was actually rumored that John's career was really
Speaker 1: stifled because of her behavior, and that he lost out
Speaker 1: on the coveted position as American Minister to London because
Speaker 1: not everyone adored her as he did. So Jane, I'm
Speaker 1: going to call her Jane not Jenny, we're not friends. UM.
Speaker 1: Jane to socialite in Baltimore. UM. And she was about
Speaker 1: forty years old at the time she met Dickens, who
Speaker 1: was probably also in his maybe his late forties at
Speaker 1: this point. UM. She was well known in political circles
Speaker 1: because of what her husband did as his career, and yes,
Speaker 1: also because of that whole slap thing. UM. So she
Speaker 1: was also really well known in both New York's social
Speaker 1: and literary circles. And that's because of her patronage to
Speaker 1: emerging writers and artists. She quite literally opened her home
Speaker 1: to important and influential writers when they were in New
Speaker 1: York City. For instance, several times she hosted Oscar Wilde.
Speaker 1: She also notably hosted Charles Dickens. And it's when she
Speaker 1: met Dickens that things really began to change for Jane.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna take a quick break here, but when
Speaker 1: we return, we will talk about what came to be
Speaker 1: known as the Bigelow terror. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about how someone might go from being stay insufferable
Speaker 1: company to being a stalker. So much of what we
Speaker 1: know about Jane's obsession with Dickens actually comes from the
Speaker 1: diary of another woman, that is Annie Fields, who was
Speaker 1: a Boston Society hostess and she was the wife of
Speaker 1: Dickens's publisher. Annie was present for many of the games
Speaker 1: and dinners that were held while Dickens was in town,
Speaker 1: so she witnessed a lot of things, and her descriptions
Speaker 1: are a good peek into how Jane went from quote
Speaker 1: obnoxious to stalker behavior. It's interesting that she quotes that tool.
Speaker 1: She very specifically calls her behavior stalker stalker ish. So
Speaker 1: Annie also described Jane and her behavior as the Bigelow terror,
Speaker 1: which I'm quoting because who could make that out um.
Speaker 1: Things really began to stour when Jane began to regard
Speaker 1: Dickens as sort of her own personal property. She began
Speaker 1: to threaten any woman who even vaguely expressed interest in him,
Speaker 1: and that was whether they were flirtatious or not. And
Speaker 1: she harassed anyone who used their connections as a way
Speaker 1: to meet him. And for the cherry on top, yes,
Speaker 1: it keeps going. She verbally and physically attacked an elderly
Speaker 1: widow named mus Hurts who had come to call on Dickens.
Speaker 1: She considered Dickens one of her favorite writers, and after
Speaker 1: his reading at the Westminster Hotel in New York City,
Speaker 1: wanted to meet him. So while Charles Dickens seemed to
Speaker 1: get along just fine with John Bigelow, he didn't really
Speaker 1: seem to enjoy Jane's company, surprisingly enough. Uh. Recorded by
Speaker 1: Annie in her diary, we quote, he has the deepest
Speaker 1: sympathy for men who are unfitly married and has really
Speaker 1: can a special fancy I think to John Bigelow because
Speaker 1: his wife is such an incubus. Uh, that's correct. She
Speaker 1: called Jane Bigelow an incubus. That probably should have been succubus, right,
Speaker 1: which is the female iteration of an incubator. But we
Speaker 1: know what she meant, right, But there's really no question
Speaker 1: about her intent in describing her this way, and it
Speaker 1: is certainly not exactly a favorable opinion of Mrs b. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: based on his experiences during his first American tour, I
Speaker 1: was the one in the eighteen forties, Dickens had already
Speaker 1: installed security guards outside his door seven to prevent fans
Speaker 1: from entering or just in general bothering him. Throughout his
Speaker 1: second tour, and after the Hurts situation, he didn't really
Speaker 1: change his security much except for one key thing. The
Speaker 1: security guards were to keep Jane Bigelow away from his
Speaker 1: room at all times. Yes, it's keep anyone who might
Speaker 1: want to come see me away, but especially this person.
Speaker 1: I have this image where he's like holding her picture up.
Speaker 1: He's like this, right. They all have a sketch of
Speaker 1: her in their right. Despite this obstacle of constant security
Speaker 1: trying to block the room from her, Jane continued to
Speaker 1: try to see Charles Dickens several times while he was
Speaker 1: in New York City. Each time she approached his room,
Speaker 1: she was as requested, whisked away by security. So, now
Speaker 1: banished from dickens social circle, she started to hang around
Speaker 1: the hotel just kind of hoping to bump into him
Speaker 1: or see him, like to orchestrate an accidental Oh you're here,
Speaker 1: I'm also here. In response, Dickens started to ask his
Speaker 1: friends to kind of run defense for him and give
Speaker 1: him a warning if they saw her anyway, so he
Speaker 1: could sense carry you down to the lobby, right. I know.
Speaker 1: She was persistent, uh so with his return across the pond. Actually,
Speaker 1: Dickens had little contact with Jane after the tour, but
Speaker 1: they found in her papers after she had passed away
Speaker 1: some correspondence with several prominent people. Among them was the
Speaker 1: writer Wilkie Collins and the poet William Cullen Bryant. Also
Speaker 1: long in that correspondence were political leaders, civil activists, and
Speaker 1: her mother. Uh. It doesn't appear though that Jane correspondent
Speaker 1: or otherwise interfered at all with Dickens once the tour
Speaker 1: ended and he went back to London. And we mentioned
Speaker 1: these papers because contained within those letters is a twist
Speaker 1: that kind of takes this story to another level. So
Speaker 1: William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and a playwright.
Speaker 1: He was known for writing The Moonstone, that is widely
Speaker 1: considered to be the first modern English detective novel. And
Speaker 1: will Key was obsessed with Jane no way listen. Clearly
Speaker 1: she had something that certain people responded to positively. Her
Speaker 1: husband loved her. Her husband and Wilkie both thought she
Speaker 1: was amazing. And Jane and Wilkie corresponded and it was
Speaker 1: quite a flirtatious correspondence that actually went on for about
Speaker 1: two decades. Yeah, and um, we're not sure when it ended.
Speaker 1: It may have ended around the time of Dickens. It
Speaker 1: may have ended around the time that one of them
Speaker 1: just got older and sicker. But Jane did pass away
Speaker 1: in February nine after she had a long illness. In
Speaker 1: the New York Times they ran her obituary, and she
Speaker 1: was noted that even in her girlhood, I'm quoting for
Speaker 1: her bright and witty conversational powers and her charming manners,
Speaker 1: they didn't mention anything about the Prince of Wales like no,
Speaker 1: and some people could not stand her. Was not ever
Speaker 1: in an obituary. It never will be. Dickens passed away
Speaker 1: nearly twenty years before Jane did. Despite the scandalous age
Speaker 1: difference and timing of their affair, Nellie Dickens as much
Speaker 1: younger paramore. As you'll recall, She and Dickens remained together
Speaker 1: until he died of a stroke in eighteen seventy at
Speaker 1: the age of fifty eight, and when he died, the
Speaker 1: New York Times wrote, quote, death of the great novelist
Speaker 1: mourned by the people of two continents. So you may
Speaker 1: not recognize Dickens's influence in our contemporary lives unless you
Speaker 1: see a remake of, say, a Christmas Carol every year.
Speaker 1: But his stories aren't the only thing that we rehash,
Speaker 1: we we even get to see Dickens himself as a
Speaker 1: fictional character haunt the things that we watch and the
Speaker 1: things that we play, and some of these examples they
Speaker 1: may surprise you. Right, So Dickens shows up in the
Speaker 1: fictional worlds of our TV shows, movies, and novels as
Speaker 1: everything from a mesmerist to a character who himself stalks women.
Speaker 1: And he's also alive in video games. The Assassin Freed
Speaker 1: video games, for example, are influenced by him, including Charles
Speaker 1: Dickens's London stories missions. And it is not just his
Speaker 1: works that have lived on. His celebrity has to certainly, yes,
Speaker 1: and his style. Oh, Charles Dickens used zazzi zazzy thing.
Speaker 1: That's right. He knows how to work as security team
Speaker 1: let me tell you and pick out a cravat apparently. Yes,
Speaker 1: So you know Dickens had a bit of a chaser.
Speaker 1: Do you have one for us today? Yes? So the
Speaker 1: chaser on this is actually because while we were prepping
Speaker 1: this episode, Maria actually texted me and said, hey, did
Speaker 1: you know that he liked sweet alcoholic punches? And I
Speaker 1: did not, but I did some research. Not either. One
Speaker 1: of the things that he was particularly fond of, and
Speaker 1: it actually shows up in a Christmas Carol. It's part
Speaker 1: of a passage near the end when Ebenezer is a
Speaker 1: changed man and he mentions that they will discuss important
Speaker 1: matters over a smoking bishop. And that is a punch,
Speaker 1: a sweet alcoholic punch. That's a very wintertime treat. So
Speaker 1: of course I was like, how do you make a
Speaker 1: smoking bishop? I don't want to make a smoking bishop.
Speaker 1: It's just a prolonged as you're really into it, I
Speaker 1: could see where it might be fun, but it's one
Speaker 1: of those things like you gotta plan a couple of
Speaker 1: days ahead. This is a muld muld wine right right.
Speaker 1: You have to roast oranges that are you know, pierced
Speaker 1: with clothes, and then you have to boil red wine
Speaker 1: and then soak the clove pierced roasted oranges in it,
Speaker 1: and then you add ruby port. And I'm too lazy
Speaker 1: for all this business, says the woman who made the mushroom. Right.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, right, like, not only is it
Speaker 1: all of this effort, but then you have a terrain
Speaker 1: of like a drink that you may or may not like.
Speaker 1: And keep in mind, I will confess up from I'm
Speaker 1: not a big wine drinker. I'm definitely a spirits lady.
Speaker 1: So I thought it might be fun to try to
Speaker 1: come up with a cocktail that kind of is inspired
Speaker 1: by and too small extent mimics the Smoking Bishop, which
Speaker 1: I am calling the Sloppy Bishop. It's pretty easy, and
Speaker 1: it's surprised me in one of the aspects of it
Speaker 1: that I will tell you about. So the Sloppy Bishop
Speaker 1: is very easy. Um. It's three ounces of ruby port,
Speaker 1: two ounces of cranberry juice. UM. I use a low
Speaker 1: sugar cranberry juice because I don't like how sweet they
Speaker 1: can get, one ounce of triple Sex so you get
Speaker 1: that orange flavor in there, one ounce of gin Oh,
Speaker 1: a half ounce of black cherry puree, and then if
Speaker 1: you want just a dash of bitters. I like to
Speaker 1: use the Bidders that has some cinnamon in it for
Speaker 1: something like this and just give it a little stir.
Speaker 1: I also like most of these things to be chilled beforehand,
Speaker 1: so while the original one would be a warm punch,
Speaker 1: this is definitely not. I think we need to get
Speaker 1: to you a T shirt that says and if you
Speaker 1: want to add bitters, if you want to add bitters. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, bidders change the profile of your drink, so
Speaker 1: not everyone loves them. I didn't drink them for a
Speaker 1: long time. I mean I've really only gotten into bitters
Speaker 1: in the last six months to a year, and even
Speaker 1: so I'm like barely tiptoeing around them. But um, it
Speaker 1: didn't taste quite right to me without the bidders. It
Speaker 1: needed something to kind of like bring out some of
Speaker 1: the other flavors. Here was the part that surprised me.
Speaker 1: I made this without the gin at first, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, something isn't right, It's missing something, And
Speaker 1: my first thought was to put vodka in it. But then,
Speaker 1: for some reason, as I went to my stash and
Speaker 1: I was like, which vodka should I pick, I saw
Speaker 1: a bottle of gin and I was like, maybe gin
Speaker 1: would actually work in this, and so I made one
Speaker 1: that was with gin and one the was with vodka.
Speaker 1: Into my shock, I preferred the gin version because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a vodka girl. I know, I'm one not surprised
Speaker 1: that your first thought was vodka. That's your go too,
Speaker 1: but too. I actually, when you were reading off the ingredients,
Speaker 1: was really surprised to hear jin so I I like
Speaker 1: the little story of how it came to be. Yes,
Speaker 1: we love a little experiment. We love a little A
Speaker 1: b testing at our house where they're also has to
Speaker 1: be like very careful selection of the bar wear so
Speaker 1: that you don't get confused which has which in it? Right?
Speaker 1: So I have some bar where that has ghosts etched
Speaker 1: on it, and ghosts are for Gin because they both
Speaker 1: start with G. That's how I remembered that one. Whatever works,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to become confused to give out the
Speaker 1: wrong recipe. But that is the Sloppy Bishop, which to
Speaker 1: my surprise, I really really enjoyed. It's another one too.
Speaker 1: I know I always say this, but for anybody who
Speaker 1: likes to play around with these, but maybe finds any
Speaker 1: cocktail a little too much of the flavor too intense,
Speaker 1: you can always dilute that with your a sparkling water,
Speaker 1: a ginger ale, a lemon lime soda like a soft
Speaker 1: lemon lime soda. Anything in that space great to mix
Speaker 1: in and just s still yummy. It gets sometimes a
Speaker 1: little more crisp because of bubbles. You could throw some
Speaker 1: champagne in there and really take off. Um. I can
Speaker 1: see what you're gonna be doing this evening. You're like,
Speaker 1: I can throw in these five other and well there
Speaker 1: were there were. In researching the Smoking Bishop, I found
Speaker 1: out that there were other punches called like the Smoking
Speaker 1: Pope and other things, and I forget which one it
Speaker 1: was that did involve Champagne in it, and I was like, hmm,
Speaker 1: I will have to pursue that later. Uh, I feel
Speaker 1: like Jane might approve of that. She probably go with Champagne. Yeah, maybe,
Speaker 1: I bet she would have. She would have had a
Speaker 1: sloppy Bishop with me and started, you know, smacking high
Speaker 1: level royals on the back like they're old pub friends.
Speaker 1: Isn't that how it works? Later and Charlie, oh, I'd
Speaker 1: be terrified. I'm pretty brazen him. I would be terrified
Speaker 1: to do that. So we hope you are not terrified,
Speaker 1: and that this has been a fun little adventure and
Speaker 1: an eye opener regarding the nature of Charles Dickens and
Speaker 1: his us tors. And we hope we will see you
Speaker 1: right back here next week with Criminaliam. We'll have more
Speaker 1: stocking and Criminalia is a production of Shonda Land Audio
Speaker 1: in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: Shonda Land, audio, Please visit the I Heart Radio app,
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