WEBVTT - Why Charles Augustus Howell Was Called the Worst Man in Victorian London 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.559 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:08.280 with iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:18.320 Described by some as a quote charming rogue. Charles Augustus 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:23.400 Howell was a dodgy figure in Victorian London's art circles. 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:28.280 There was deception, there was extortion, there was forgery, and 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:34.559 just a whole lot of unsavory bits. Howell was an 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.479 art dealer by trade who was also known to manipulate 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:39.920 those around him so he could acquire works that would 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:45.920 establish and increase his reputation and his financial security. When 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.680 that didn't work. In the words of biographer Humphrey Hare, quote, 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:54.080 Howell did not hesitate to blackmail. So let's get to 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:58.600 know this charming yet unsavory character. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.320 Maria Trumurky and I'm Holly Frye. Howell was a flamboyant 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.920 fellow who charmed his way into the pre Raphaelite art movement. 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.319 The pre Raphaelites were a secret society, a brotherhood is 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.360 what they called themselves, of seven young artists who were 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:19.200 disenchanted with the contemporary painting scene in London at the time. Instead, 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.520 these artists were inspired by Italian art of the fourteenth 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.000 and fifteenth centuries, and they emulated the art of late 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.680 Medieval and early Renaissance Europe through the time when Italian 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.920 High Renaissance painter Rafaelo Sanzio da Urbino, known as raphael 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:39.160 became popular, hence the name pre Raphaelites. Their intent was 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:43.440 to create a new British art movement, and although short lived, 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:48.240 they did this new movement. Their Brotherhood is characterized by 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.760 vivid detail and bright luminous colors, tight brushstrokes, and a 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.600 focus on small details. When it came to subject matter, 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:02.560 Naturalism was key. Was formed in London in eighteen forty 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.800 eight by three Royal Academy of Arts students. These principal 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.000 members were Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a poet as 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.560 well as a painter, painter William Holman Hunt and painter 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:18.679 John Everett Malay, painter James Collinson, art critic Frederick George Stevens, 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.600 sculptor Thomas Woolmer, and writer William Michael Rossetti, who was 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:27.079 Dante's brother, were also invited to join. All were under 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:31.200 the age of twenty five. Two additional painters, William Dyce 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.520 and Ford Maddox Brown were also associated with the movement 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.400 more as mentors really and also came to paint in 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:39.600 the pre Raphaelite style. 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.720 There were critics, of course, and among them was famous 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:48.160 novelist Charles Dickens. These critics denounced the pre Raphaelites for 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:52.360 their disregard for the then academic ideal of beauty, but 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.120 also for what they considered an irreverence toward religious themes. 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.000 Not everyone felt that way, though, One leading art critics, 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:04.800 the polymath John Ruskin, defended their art, and primarily because 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.600 of Ruskin's support, the artists did not lack for patrons. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.840 Five years after it started, the Brotherhood disbanded. John Malay, 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.120 who began as a child prodigy and was considered the 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.840 most technically gifted painter of the society, went on to 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:25.280 become an academic success. Of the original seven members, only 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.360 Hunt continued to pursue the style throughout most of his career, 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.640 and he remained true to the pre Raphaelite principles. The 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.119 style lived on through the eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties, 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.040 famously with painters Edward Burne, Jones and William Morris. 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.880 Howell was not himself an artist. He was an agent 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.640 and probably also a fixer. He was born in a Porto, Portugal. 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:56.400 Probably his father was an Englishman and his mother was Portuguese. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:00.600 In fact, Howell claimed to have aristocratic Portuguese ancestry, and 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:02.640 he was known to where the red sash of the 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.920 Portuguese Order of Christ, of which he would be happy 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:10.200 to tell you was an inherited family order. He was 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.240 very concerned about status. The Howells moved to Britain when 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.080 Charles was young, and in some stories of his life 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.840 it's reported that throughout his adulthood he would sometimes make 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.760 up news stories about where he came from. 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:28.000 In London, Howell officially and firmly entered the pre Raphaelite 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.479 circle when Ruskin employed him as his private secretary, a 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.840 position that trusted him with quote affairs needing delicate handling 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.640 at a wise discretion. As we get further into the 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:43.560 life of Charles Howell, though discretion may not be the 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.840 appropriate word to associate with him, but let's keep on going. 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:53.560 Though Howell increasingly argued for control over all of Ruskin's finances, 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:58.599 His work usually had him managing Ruskin's charitable donations. He 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.080 quickly became a close friend and an agent to a 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:06.280 succession of leading artists, including Dante, Gabriel Rossetti, Frederick Sands, 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:11.159 edwardburn Jones, George Frederick Watts, and American born artist James 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:15.599 McNeil Whistler. Whistler, who is considered the first contemporary artist, 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.440 was a significant figure in the Esthetic movement, a late 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.080 nineteenth century art movement that emphasized the idea of art 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:28.240 for art's sake. Whistler and Howell ran in similar circles. 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.520 Some consider Howell to have been his unofficial agent. Whistler 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.880 called Howell quote the creature of top boots and plumes, 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:37.920 splendidly flamboyant. 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.560 So far, it seems like Charles Augustus Howell wasn't such 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.919 a bad guy. But we need to pause here for 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.240 a break and a word from our sponsors, and when 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.000 we return we will talk about how he became known 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.960 as a blackmailer and why his friends and business partners 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.120 all considered him a liar. 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.680 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's start talking about why people 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:20.960 used words like skilled, amusing, and unscrupulous to describe Howell. 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:23.880 At first, it seems there were a lot of good 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.440 things to say about this guy. He could get you work, 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.359 and he could sell it, he could manage money, he 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:31.560 could apparently tell a good story, and he was a 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:36.080 snappy dresser, so what's not to like. William Michael Rossetti 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.479 once commented on Howell's sharp sense of business and knowledge 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.000 of the artist world, stating he had quote quick and 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.960 accurate discernment of the merits of works of art and 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:50.799 decoration of many various kinds, along with extensive practical knowledge 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.599 of their market value. He continued that Howell was a 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.880 quote speculator and dealer in the works of many kinds, 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:02.359 and a skillful salesman with his open manner, his winning address, 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:06.320 with his exhaustless gift of amusing talk, not innocent of 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:11.800 high coloring and actual blague, Howell was unsurpassable, and it's 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:16.160 true he had secured many commissions for many artists. But 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.760 there were cracks in Howell's character, and William also noted 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.960 that Howell had quote the ability to exploit people's hobbies 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:24.960 and weaknesses. 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:31.080 Painter Ford Maddox Brown described him similarly as quote second 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.920 to no One in England and his intimate knowledge of 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:39.360 ancient and oriental furniture, china tapestries, but he also called 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.680 him quote one of the biggest liars in existence. 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:48.640 Eventually, Edward Burne Jones convinced Ruskin to sever his connections 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.080 with Howell. The pre Raphaelite circle began to find him 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.360 less and less charming and more to faced and corrupt. 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.640 He could get things done for you, but he could 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:00.680 also get things done against you. 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:07.120 There are many stories of unethical, dishonest, and shameless things 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.880 Howell did, but we chose this one because it just 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:16.320 may be tops. As a master manipulator. Howell once convinced 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.440 Dante Rosetti to exhume the body of his wife, Elizabeth 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.400 Lizzie Siddle, to retrieve a book of poems he had 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:26.360 buried with her, because Howell, as Rosetti's agent, thought he 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.680 could make some money from them. Lizzie Siddle was an 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.280 artist and a model, and she was both Rosetti's wife 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.920 and his muse. She modeled for several artists in the 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.839 pre Raphaelite brotherhood, and she became one of the most 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.640 famous faces in Victorian England when she died of a 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.800 laudanum overdose just two years into their marriage in eighteen 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.480 sixty two. Rossetti placed in her coffin a journal containing 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:54.480 the only copies of many of his poems. Seven years 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:58.320 after her death, Howell somehow convinced Rossetti to dig up 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.200 the grave and retrieve that a. 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.520 Rosetti at this time in his life was broke and 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.640 he was struggling with both grief and with alcohol misuse, 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.520 a problem that he had developed after Lizzie's death. These 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.280 were facts that Howell knew and that he took advantage 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:17.960 of for his own financial gain. This was not to 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:22.480 help a friend in need. At Howell's insistence and persistence, 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:27.000 Rosetti got permission from Home Secretary Henry A. Bruce to 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:31.000 have the coffin exhumed and to remove the book from inside. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.320 That event took place on October fifth, eighteen sixty nine, 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:36.559 and it was done at night, so as to avoid 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.839 causing any offense and to avoid causing anyone to think 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:45.000 they were illegal body snatchers. Rosetti did not attend. London 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.920 Solicitor Henry Virtue Tebbs accompanied Howell at the grave site, 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.199 acting in illegal capacity as witness to the items taken 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:57.040 from the coffin. Doctor Llewellen Williams also attended. His role 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:01.800 was disinfecting the book. According to Howell's version of the event, 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.320 after seven years, Lizzie had remained perfectly preserved, and he 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.360 described her coffin to be full of her flowing hair. 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.640 Howell and Rosetti did get the journal, and once the 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:19.839 poems were transcribed, Rossetti had the original manuscript destroyed. The poems, though, 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.280 hit the wrong notes with critics. On top of poor 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.120 reviews and poor sales. Rosetti had said never got over 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.720 the night his wife's body was disinterred. 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.400 Admission of what they did that night in October of 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.840 eighteen sixty nine did not become public until after Dante's 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:41.199 death in eighteen eighty two. British writer Sir Thomas Henry Halkan, 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.559 commonly known as Halcane, later recalled that his friend Dante 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:50.640 regretted going through with the disinterment, citing this quote weakness 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.640 of yielding to the importunity of friends and the impulse 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:59.360 of literary ambition of Howell. Halcane had little good to say, 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:03.760 and referred to him as a quote soldier of fortune. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:08.160 There's no clear evidence that Howell blackmail Dante Gabrielle Rossetti 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.320 into digging up the book, but historians tend to err 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:15.280 on the side of yes he used blackmail, as Howell 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.080 had a reputation of using that tactic wherever and whenever 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:23.160 he could to get whatever he wanted. However, it is 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.800 also plausible that Howell skipped the blackmail and simply took 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:31.520 advantage of a suffering man. After the exhumation of Lizzie 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:36.040 Siddall's grave, Dante's brother William Rosetti insisted that the entire 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:37.480 incident be kept quiet. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.000 We're going to take a break for a word from 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.640 our sponsors. When we're back, we will talk about forgery, 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:59.880 more blackmail, and where Howell's character lives on today. 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:07.000 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about Howell's involvement with 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.920 forgery and how he exploited the pre Raphaelite artists. 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:16.720 Charles Augustus Howell's tendency for manipulation in blackmail often ended 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:21.280 his relationships, as any of us may imagine, but there 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:25.959 was a charm factor at play. Even after he'd pressured 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:30.000 Dante Rossetti to exhume Lizzie's coffin, his relationship with Rosetti 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:34.199 didn't end. That usually didn't happen until after he persuaded 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:38.280 his lover Rosa Cord to create forgeries of Rosetti's art. 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.760 Rosa Francis Cord was Howell's mistress. He had a wife, 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.120 and she wasn't it. Corter studied art, and for a 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.080 time she had a studio at Newmarket where she painted 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:54.559 racehorses and also portraits. Because of Howell's influence and insistence, 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.160 she began to make copies of the eighteenth century portraits 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:03.000 and erotic drawings of Henryfuse. Her name then became associated 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.240 with forgeries of Rosetti's works, as well as works by 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:10.160 John Malay. In her set of four drawings called the 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.600 Story of Saint George Slaying the Dragon, which is based 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.560 on stained glass windows by Dante Gabrielle Rosetti, the head 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:20.400 of Saint George is said to have been modeled on 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:25.400 Charles Augustus Howell behind the scenes of that particular work 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.680 of art. In a letter dated March twenty second, eighteen 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:33.480 seventy six, Dante wrote to Howell stating, quote, you borrowed 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.959 a set of drawings of Saint George and the Dragon 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:40.800 to copy for your own use only, please return them 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:45.800 at once. Howell clearly didn't respect that whole for your 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:49.120 own use part and Corter's forgery of Saint George Slaying 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.640 the Dragon was later presented to the Birmingham Museums and 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.160 Art Gallery by an anonymous donor through the National Art 0:13:56.160 --> 0:14:01.520 Collection's Fund in nineteen oh five. Corter's originals remain there today. 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.199 For a time, Howell's wit and charm secured him a 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.960 favored spot in several artists' lives, despite the awareness of 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.640 his lies and manipulation in their tight circle. For instance, 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.480 years after Dante Rosetti became convinced that Howell was profiting 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:23.280 off of selling forgeries of his art, he still allegedly 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.640 was endeared to how entertaining of a person Howell could be. 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:29.920 Howell didn't do much to hide his true nature, though 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.320 in addition to selling quarters forgeries, he very likely embezzled 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.520 funds from Ruskin, and he made shady side deals while 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.160 acting as agent for both Dante Rosetti and Edward Burne Jones. 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:48.440 Burne Jones scathingly described Howell as quote a base, treacherous, unscrupulous, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:53.320 and malignant fellow. Years later, Edward's wife, Georgiana burn Jones 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.120 described him as someone who had quote come against us 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.480 in friend's clothing, but inwardly he was a stra to 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:01.680 all that our life meant. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.800 Howell also worked as an agent to those who were 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.840 not in the pre Raphaelite circle, such as with Whistler. 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.800 He became a business advisor and personal secretary to English 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:17.120 poet and critic Algernon Swinburne, an arrangement described as quote 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.280 not only his man of business, but also the partner 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:25.880 of his amusements and the recipient of his confidences. But 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.200 after some of Swinburne's letters passed through Howell to a 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:34.520 publisher named George Redway without Swinburne's permission, Swinburne was of 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.520 course outraged, and he demanded the return of those letters. 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.880 Many versions of this story suggest the letters contained quote 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:47.840 indecent content of some sort, but regardless, he then faced 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.680 blackmail from Redway. He was expected to give up the 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.160 copyright of the manuscript a word for the Navy or 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:59.560 the Saucy Letters would be published. Swinburne gave in, and 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:04.040 he blame Howell for the whole sordid affair. After Howell's death, 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.200 Swinburne wrote that he hoped Howell was quote in that 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:11.320 particular circle of malbouge, where the coding of eternal excrement 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.560 makes it impossible to see whether the damn dog's head 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.000 is or is not tonsured. It's safe to say that 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.760 Swinburne was not going to eulogize him. 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.920 Though Howells considered to have been a well known blackmailer. 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.960 We would be remiss if we didn't mention how Biographer 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.240 Helen Rosetti Angelie has added to his legend that she 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:36.360 has found actually nothing to support those accusations. Angelie, the 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:41.160 daughter of William Michael Rosetti, doesn't defend Howell, but suggests 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:46.240 that specific idea perhaps rose from extrapolations and assumptions related 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:50.040 to the blackmail incident involving Swinburne and Redway, but not 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.760 from Howell himself. What we know from the artists he 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.800 worked with is that it's certain he couldn't be trusted. 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.600 Like his birth, Howell's death at age five fifty is 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.760 equally shadowy. Some reports suggest he probably died of tuberculosis, 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.280 but in the more colorful and popular versions of the 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.080 story of his death, it's reported that he was found 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.520 murdered outside of Chelsea Public House, with his throat slit, 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.520 and in some cases it's said that a coin was 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.480 placed between his teeth, perhaps in a nod to the 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:25.320 custom in Greek mythology paying the ferryman who carried the 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.960 dead across the River Styx in the underworld. 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.320 In the art world, Howell lives on as a two 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.720 faced and morally bankrupt character, and such is also true 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.360 in the literary world. Howell was the inspiration for British 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.959 author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's antagonist in the Sherlock Holmes 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:47.840 story The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, published in nineteen 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:52.359 oh four. Doyle, a contemporary of Howell, writes the character 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.200 of Charles Augustus Milverton as quote, the king of Blackmailers, 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.479 and critics point out that Milverton inspires in Sherlock Holmes 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.680 a revulsion that's far greater than any of the murderers 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:10.040 he encounters in his albeit fictional career. While Swinburne once 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.399 described the real Howel as quote the violist wretch I 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.960 ever came across, the fictional Holmes described the fictional Milverton 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:22.359 as the worst man in London. Do you want to 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.560 talk a little bit about coercion and coercion concoction? 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:33.560 I Do you want to talk about coercion concoctions. When 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:37.680 I was first looking at your notes on this, one 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:44.399 particular alcohol immediately jumped to my mind in thinking about Howell, 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:52.440 and that was Furnet Bronca. Now, just in case our 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:56.680 listeners don't know about furnet bronca, it is a very 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:02.400 bitter Italian liqueur. It's usually classify it as in amorrow. 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:07.160 Some people would argue that it's actually its own subcategory, 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:10.560 but there's a whole funny side of it where it's 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.840 also nicknamed the bartender's handshake because bartenders like to do 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.960 shots of it. It is not delicious to everyone's palate. 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:18.680 I'll put it back. 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:20.320 I don't think we have used it before. 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:24.240 We have none. Because it is not delicious to everyone's 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:31.159 palat people often describe it as something reminiscent of like 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.119 a Jaegermeister, but without the sweetness. It's got some bite. 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:37.840 So I thought we would put that in a drink 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.159 and see if we could make it delightful in its 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:42.399 own way. I will say this is a drink that 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.760 not everyone's gonna love, not only because it has fer 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.040 net bronca, but because it is almost all alcohol. It's 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:50.840 a heavy hitter. Sure, so even if you do love it, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:52.080 maybe just drink one. 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:52.520 Yeah. 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.000 The inspiration for this, and the name of the drink 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.960 is Buried Poems because I wanted some thing that had 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:04.240 a very unique and bold flavor. Because you have to 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:09.320 be bold as hell to suggest to your friend that 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:14.399 they should dig up their deceased beloved because you want 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:15.600 something that's in the coffin. 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.119 That's just brazing, that's crazy, I know. 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:22.240 So I wanted a very bold flavor. So here we go. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:27.200 Buried Poems is go ahead and pre chill that martini 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.480 or cocktail glass. You want it cold, go ahead and 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.480 put in the fridge. You want an ounce and a 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:37.080 half of pomegranate liqueur, an ounce and a half of vodka. Now, 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:41.159 when we get to for net Bronca, this is poorer's 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:45.280 choice because these sound like minute amounts, but I'm telling 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.280 you they have a strong impact on it. If you 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.080 have never had it before and you're not sure that 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.480 you're going to be into it, just put in like 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.359 an eighth of an ounce, and if you're feeling a 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:58.199 little more brazen, go ahead and go up to a 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:00.760 quarter of an ounce. That's literally how little we're doing here. 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.840 And then I also added a quarter ounce of vanilla syrup. 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.040 Shake this until it is so cold with ice. This 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:12.000 is one of those spirits that like, the colder it is, 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.280 the better it is. Right, if you were to drink 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.080 warm for a net, you would be like, this is scorable. 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.399 I again, I cautioned be very judicious with your use 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.120 of it because it can start to taste like pomegranate 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:26.600 cough syrup and you don't want that. But you're just 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.280 gonna shake this, shake it, strain it into your pre 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:34.040 chilled glass. It's a really interesting sip, right, It does 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:38.680 have that like herbal medicinal note to it, but I 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.240 actually found like the pomegranate tempered that quite a bit 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:44.439 and made it something interesting to my palette. 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:48.359 Anyway, does the pomegranate make this drink red like his sash? 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.920 It's pinkish. It's not enough to make it red, but yeah, pinkish, pinkish. 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:55.960 It also depends on the pomegranate liqueur you get. Somemmer 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.159 are redder than others. Now, if you want to do 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.639 the mocktail, we're gonna do some stuff a little bit 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:03.240 different because you just kind of have to. 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:04.680 Yeah, this is a very strong drink. 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:08.720 It's all alcohol, right. What you're gonna do for the 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:12.320 mocktail is you're gonna do two and a half ounces 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:18.160 of pomegranate juice and one ounce of licorice tea. And 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.480 then I hope in your case you are not the 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:25.399 person who absolutely won't drink bitters because they have minute 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:27.720 amounts of alcohol in them, but because you need a 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.679 couple of dashes of angster of bitters here because it 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:33.760 it gives it that kind of edginess that the furnette 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:36.159 would have. It's not the same, nothing is quite. You 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:39.520 cannot replicate what fernet does in my opinion. But so 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:42.360 just two dashes of bitters, so it's super easy. Two 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:44.879 and a half ounces of pomegranate juice, one ounce of 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:48.600 licorice tea, two dashes of bitters, and then a quarter 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.160 ounce of vanilla syrup. And the reason we bump down 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:52.919 the syrup is because we're working with a juice, so 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:55.400 that's already sweet. Same thing, shaken up, pour it into 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:59.200 a pre chilled glass. Delicious in a different way, probably 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:03.159 more delic just to most palettes them the cocktail. But 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:07.200 the cocktail is really fun, and I think pretty. 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.040 Yummy should be tried. Got to try it. 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:13.160 Yeah, you gotta try it. Listen. That's how you discover 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:14.359 your favorite things. 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:14.680 Right. 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:17.080 You may not know what your favorite cocktail is yet 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:19.320 because you haven't sipped it. You got to go out 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:21.239 and try all the weird stuff because one of them 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:23.560 could be magical for you, and it might be for 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:26.679 net maybe somebody. I love it. I am not a 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:28.560 person who wants to do a shot of furnet, but 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:30.960 some people truly love it. But I do love a 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:37.480 shot of Yeager, So your mileage may vary. Right. That 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:41.680 is the Buried Poems, which kind of breaks my heart. 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.240 I feel like Rosetti is the one who just got 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:46.879 hung out to dry emotionally and all of this. What 0:23:47.000 --> 0:23:52.959 a guy, Howl, You're not cool man. We hope that 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:54.679 you have had a cool time hanging out with us 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:59.240 today and hearing about Howl's absolutely horrifying behavior, and that 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:02.120 you will come back and visit us again, because next 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:03.600 week we're going to be right back here with more 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:15.320 blackmail and another cocktail. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland 0:24:15.320 --> 0:24:20.040 Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:23.919 please visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:25.360 listen to your favorite shows.