1
00:00:15,316 --> 00:00:26,956
Speaker 1: Pushkin. Mary Jane Kelly is hiding. A man from her

2
00:00:26,956 --> 00:00:30,756
Speaker 1: troubled past has come looking for her. Stalking the dark

3
00:00:30,796 --> 00:00:35,076
Speaker 1: and miserable neighborhood she calls home, asking after her in

4
00:00:35,116 --> 00:00:39,676
Speaker 1: its dingy pubs, making sinister inquiries among the young women

5
00:00:39,756 --> 00:00:43,836
Speaker 1: who work these streets by the dogs. This middle aged

6
00:00:43,876 --> 00:00:48,916
Speaker 1: man seems determined to find Mary Jane. He tells people

7
00:00:49,036 --> 00:00:53,916
Speaker 1: he is her father. Whoever he really is, his presence

8
00:00:53,996 --> 00:00:59,116
Speaker 1: means danger for the young woman. Hiding is familiar to

9
00:00:59,156 --> 00:01:03,196
Speaker 1: Mary Jane, and she's good at it. Whenever acquaintances and

10
00:01:03,276 --> 00:01:06,796
Speaker 1: companions ask her for her life story, she offers up

11
00:01:06,956 --> 00:01:11,476
Speaker 1: misty half truths. Even her friends and lovers don't really

12
00:01:11,556 --> 00:01:16,396
Speaker 1: know her. The enigmatic Mary Jane holds her cards close

13
00:01:16,476 --> 00:01:21,116
Speaker 1: to her chest, and for good reason. She may be young,

14
00:01:21,556 --> 00:01:24,796
Speaker 1: but in her twenty three or so years, she's made

15
00:01:24,836 --> 00:01:29,876
Speaker 1: some fearsome enemies. Perhaps the sudden presence of this unwelcome

16
00:01:29,916 --> 00:01:33,196
Speaker 1: pursuer prompts her to move on. For Mary Jane soon

17
00:01:33,236 --> 00:01:37,236
Speaker 1: packs her bags and heads to a new address, each

18
00:01:37,276 --> 00:01:42,436
Speaker 1: move taking her closer and closer to Whitechapel and closer

19
00:01:42,796 --> 00:01:54,436
Speaker 1: and closer to her murderer. I'm Hallie rubin Holt, you're

20
00:01:54,516 --> 00:01:59,356
Speaker 1: listening to bad women. The Ripper retold a series about

21
00:01:59,396 --> 00:02:02,276
Speaker 1: the real lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper,

22
00:02:02,916 --> 00:02:08,356
Speaker 1: and how we got their stories so wrong. One side

23
00:02:08,396 --> 00:02:18,356
Speaker 1: mane plenty, and friends too by the score. Then fortune

24
00:02:18,396 --> 00:02:30,396
Speaker 1: smilder upon me. I now one pass my door alone,

25
00:02:31,916 --> 00:02:44,676
Speaker 1: and not to have Harne seems to lonely. I'm compliever broken.

26
00:02:55,476 --> 00:02:59,316
Speaker 1: By the eighteen eighties, a discreet sort of party was

27
00:02:59,356 --> 00:03:05,036
Speaker 1: becoming fashionable in certain rich London circles. Wealthy gentlemen would

28
00:03:05,076 --> 00:03:08,796
Speaker 1: clamor to receive an invitation to a private ball, health

29
00:03:08,836 --> 00:03:13,716
Speaker 1: and smart function rooms in the city's affluent west End. There,

30
00:03:14,396 --> 00:03:20,156
Speaker 1: forty men would meet forty women. The men alone would

31
00:03:20,156 --> 00:03:22,556
Speaker 1: be charged an admission fee to cover the cost of

32
00:03:22,596 --> 00:03:25,996
Speaker 1: the room, higher the band and the supper. To the

33
00:03:26,036 --> 00:03:30,116
Speaker 1: casual observer, this gathering of gentlemen in top hats in

34
00:03:30,276 --> 00:03:34,076
Speaker 1: evening dress and beautiful young women in ballgowns and jewels

35
00:03:34,276 --> 00:03:38,036
Speaker 1: would have hinted at nothing untoward. In fact, as an

36
00:03:38,076 --> 00:03:42,836
Speaker 1: anonymous sexual adventurer known only as Walter wrote in his memoirs,

37
00:03:43,156 --> 00:03:45,956
Speaker 1: there was little about this type of hall that might

38
00:03:45,996 --> 00:03:51,556
Speaker 1: be described as immodest or irregular, except that no introductions

39
00:03:51,556 --> 00:03:55,596
Speaker 1: were needed, and men asked any woman to dance, and

40
00:03:55,756 --> 00:03:59,916
Speaker 1: women did not hesitate to ask men to dance. However,

41
00:04:00,356 --> 00:04:05,596
Speaker 1: following supper the tone changed. The men kissed the women's

42
00:04:05,636 --> 00:04:09,716
Speaker 1: shoulders as they waltzed. One or two couples would even

43
00:04:09,836 --> 00:04:16,876
Speaker 1: dance a boardy poker. The dancing became romping, and concupissance

44
00:04:16,916 --> 00:04:21,436
Speaker 1: asserted itself. Suggest of talk was now the order of

45
00:04:21,436 --> 00:04:26,556
Speaker 1: the night. Eventually, the evening came to an end. Couples

46
00:04:26,596 --> 00:04:30,876
Speaker 1: peeled off and departed in their carriages, only to continue

47
00:04:30,916 --> 00:04:33,556
Speaker 1: their rebels and private at the women's lodgings in the

48
00:04:33,636 --> 00:04:38,516
Speaker 1: city's leafy suburbs. This was the face of high class

49
00:04:38,676 --> 00:04:44,876
Speaker 1: vice in London. Mary Jane Kelly, or a woman calling

50
00:04:44,876 --> 00:04:49,156
Speaker 1: herself Mary Jane Kelly, entered this demimonde of silk dresses,

51
00:04:49,516 --> 00:04:53,036
Speaker 1: champagne and oysters at some point between eighteen eighty three

52
00:04:53,196 --> 00:04:57,716
Speaker 1: and eighteen eighty four. The luxuries of this existence may

53
00:04:57,716 --> 00:05:01,556
Speaker 1: have been familiar to her, but then again they may not.

54
00:05:03,076 --> 00:05:06,316
Speaker 1: According to one version of Mary Jane's tail, she was

55
00:05:06,356 --> 00:05:09,596
Speaker 1: born in the West of Ireland in around eighteen six three.

56
00:05:10,476 --> 00:05:13,196
Speaker 1: Her father took the family across the Irish Sea to

57
00:05:13,196 --> 00:05:16,676
Speaker 1: settle in Wales when she was very young. She claimed

58
00:05:16,676 --> 00:05:20,796
Speaker 1: to have been one of nine children. At sixteen, she

59
00:05:20,916 --> 00:05:23,676
Speaker 1: said she'd married a coal miner that he died a

60
00:05:23,756 --> 00:05:27,076
Speaker 1: year or two later in an explosion. Such a tale

61
00:05:27,076 --> 00:05:30,236
Speaker 1: would have been readily believed, since mining disasters took an

62
00:05:30,236 --> 00:05:34,356
Speaker 1: awful toll un Welsh pit villages. One blast in the

63
00:05:34,356 --> 00:05:37,876
Speaker 1: summer of eighteen eighty killed every single worker at the

64
00:05:37,956 --> 00:05:42,156
Speaker 1: New Risker Colliery in an instant. The shockwave claimed the

65
00:05:42,196 --> 00:05:46,196
Speaker 1: lives of around one hundred and twenty colliers, woodworkers and masons,

66
00:05:46,436 --> 00:05:49,116
Speaker 1: even the thirteen year old boys who sat alone in

67
00:05:49,156 --> 00:05:54,116
Speaker 1: the dark opening and closing the pit's many doors. The

68
00:05:54,156 --> 00:05:57,996
Speaker 1: explosion tore off the men's clothes and ripped apart the

69
00:05:58,196 --> 00:06:05,956
Speaker 1: dozens of pit ponies that worked alongside them. Widowed, Mary

70
00:06:06,036 --> 00:06:09,116
Speaker 1: Jane went to the city of Cardiff, where she had family.

71
00:06:09,636 --> 00:06:12,116
Speaker 1: She stated that she fell in with a female cousin

72
00:06:12,276 --> 00:06:16,516
Speaker 1: who followed a bad life. Only then came her move

73
00:06:16,596 --> 00:06:21,556
Speaker 1: to London. Sometimes, though Mary Jane offered a variation on

74
00:06:21,636 --> 00:06:25,276
Speaker 1: this origin story, she was Welsh and her parents, who

75
00:06:25,276 --> 00:06:29,476
Speaker 1: had discarded her, still resided at Cardiff. To confuse matters Further,

76
00:06:29,916 --> 00:06:32,396
Speaker 1: some of those who knew Mary Jane said that she

77
00:06:32,516 --> 00:06:35,476
Speaker 1: was originally from a well to do family. One of

78
00:06:35,476 --> 00:06:39,156
Speaker 1: her neighbors believed she had a female relation in London.

79
00:06:39,196 --> 00:06:42,956
Speaker 1: It was on the stage. Mary Jane also told acquaintances

80
00:06:43,116 --> 00:06:45,316
Speaker 1: that she had a two year old child who would

81
00:06:45,356 --> 00:06:48,436
Speaker 1: have been born around eighteen eighty three, when she was

82
00:06:48,476 --> 00:06:51,396
Speaker 1: also supposed to have spent eight or nine months in

83
00:06:51,436 --> 00:06:55,156
Speaker 1: an infirmary in Cardiff. No trace of this child has

84
00:06:55,196 --> 00:06:58,356
Speaker 1: ever been found, nor is there any record of its fate.

85
00:06:59,076 --> 00:07:02,636
Speaker 1: An extended stay at a publicly funded general hospital was

86
00:07:02,756 --> 00:07:06,196
Speaker 1: highly unlikely at this time, so if Mary Jane did

87
00:07:06,236 --> 00:07:10,636
Speaker 1: indeed spend several months in an infirmary Indiff, this probably

88
00:07:10,676 --> 00:07:14,396
Speaker 1: would have been at a private establishment, perhaps reformatory for

89
00:07:14,476 --> 00:07:17,676
Speaker 1: fallen women or an asylum, which would have been the

90
00:07:17,716 --> 00:07:21,716
Speaker 1: appropriate recourse for a middle class daughter who had transgressed

91
00:07:21,756 --> 00:07:28,836
Speaker 1: the social norm by engaging in sex outside marriage. Mary

92
00:07:28,916 --> 00:07:32,196
Speaker 1: Jane's life before her arrival in London amounts to a

93
00:07:32,276 --> 00:07:37,236
Speaker 1: collection of disconnected snapshots, none of which has ever been verified.

94
00:07:37,876 --> 00:07:41,756
Speaker 1: No Kelly's or Mary Jane's matchup in censuses or parish

95
00:07:41,756 --> 00:07:45,996
Speaker 1: records in Wales or in Ireland, nor has any record

96
00:07:46,036 --> 00:07:50,316
Speaker 1: of her minor husband ever been found. The only conclusion

97
00:07:50,356 --> 00:07:53,236
Speaker 1: that might be drawn is that the tales of Mary

98
00:07:53,276 --> 00:07:59,316
Speaker 1: Jane Kelly's life, even her name, were fabrications. She may

99
00:07:59,356 --> 00:08:03,236
Speaker 1: have borrowed real components of her identity from someone she knew,

100
00:08:03,876 --> 00:08:08,196
Speaker 1: or even dreamt them up entirely herself. This phenomena was

101
00:08:08,316 --> 00:08:13,036
Speaker 1: fairly common for women who practiced her profession sex work.

102
00:08:13,316 --> 00:08:16,396
Speaker 1: It's so easy for people to hide and to completely

103
00:08:16,396 --> 00:08:20,236
Speaker 1: reinvent themselves in this period. It's before official identity documents,

104
00:08:20,236 --> 00:08:24,596
Speaker 1: it's before any kind of state surveillance. Really, Julia Late

105
00:08:24,756 --> 00:08:28,116
Speaker 1: is an expert on the Victorian sex trade, and it's

106
00:08:28,196 --> 00:08:31,916
Speaker 1: incredibly easy to change your identity. People picked up names

107
00:08:31,956 --> 00:08:35,116
Speaker 1: and took them back off like clothes. This might be

108
00:08:35,156 --> 00:08:38,076
Speaker 1: aided by a move to another town and an alteration

109
00:08:38,156 --> 00:08:41,796
Speaker 1: in dress and manners, but certain features of one's history

110
00:08:41,996 --> 00:08:45,876
Speaker 1: were more difficult to conceal. A higher quality of education,

111
00:08:45,996 --> 00:08:51,676
Speaker 1: for instance, left an indelible mark an individual. Schooling came

112
00:08:51,716 --> 00:08:54,756
Speaker 1: across not only in their ability to read and write,

113
00:08:55,156 --> 00:08:59,356
Speaker 1: but in their speech, they're bearing their interests, and often

114
00:08:59,436 --> 00:09:03,396
Speaker 1: in their artistic or musical accomplishments. While the poor had

115
00:09:03,436 --> 00:09:07,636
Speaker 1: access only to the most basic instruction. The rising middle

116
00:09:07,676 --> 00:09:11,756
Speaker 1: classes sought to distinguished themselves socially by investing in the

117
00:09:11,916 --> 00:09:15,556
Speaker 1: education of their children so that their progeny might bear

118
00:09:15,596 --> 00:09:20,116
Speaker 1: the stamp of respectability. According to those who knew her,

119
00:09:20,476 --> 00:09:24,036
Speaker 1: this distinction seems to have made itself apparent in Mary Jane.

120
00:09:24,516 --> 00:09:27,676
Speaker 1: One of her landladies in London remarked on her high

121
00:09:27,796 --> 00:09:31,116
Speaker 1: level of scholarship, while also commenting that she was a

122
00:09:31,156 --> 00:09:35,916
Speaker 1: capable artist. At this time, training and drawing was only

123
00:09:35,956 --> 00:09:39,836
Speaker 1: given to girls at fashionable young ladies schools, lending weight

124
00:09:39,876 --> 00:09:43,436
Speaker 1: to the idea that Mary Jane hailed from a respectable,

125
00:09:43,716 --> 00:09:48,716
Speaker 1: well to do family. More interesting, still, no one who

126
00:09:48,836 --> 00:09:52,476
Speaker 1: knew Mary Jane noted any regional accent, possibly as a

127
00:09:52,516 --> 00:09:56,236
Speaker 1: result of elocution lessons, and those who inquired about her

128
00:09:56,276 --> 00:09:59,916
Speaker 1: origins had to be told she was Welsh or Irish.

129
00:10:00,276 --> 00:10:02,156
Speaker 1: You would not have supposed, if you had met her

130
00:10:02,156 --> 00:10:04,916
Speaker 1: on the street, that she belonged to the miserable class

131
00:10:04,956 --> 00:10:07,716
Speaker 1: as she did, remarked a missionary who knew her in

132
00:10:07,836 --> 00:10:12,556
Speaker 1: East London. Was always neatly and decently dressed, and looked

133
00:10:12,636 --> 00:10:16,036
Speaker 1: quite nice and respectable. Of all the holes in Mary

134
00:10:16,116 --> 00:10:19,716
Speaker 1: Jane's account none is so gaping as that which explains

135
00:10:19,796 --> 00:10:22,636
Speaker 1: how or why she left Cardiff to join the sex

136
00:10:22,676 --> 00:10:26,716
Speaker 1: trade in London's West End. At roughly twenty one years old.

137
00:10:27,636 --> 00:10:30,596
Speaker 1: The sex trade was present in most parts of the metropolis,

138
00:10:30,756 --> 00:10:33,916
Speaker 1: and by the early eighteen eighties it also began to

139
00:10:33,956 --> 00:10:38,396
Speaker 1: move nearer to train stations, areas with transient populations and

140
00:10:38,476 --> 00:10:42,556
Speaker 1: lodging houses. But the West End comprised the highest concentration

141
00:10:42,596 --> 00:10:46,276
Speaker 1: of commercial sex in London, which was also entangled with

142
00:10:46,356 --> 00:10:51,796
Speaker 1: a growing entertainment industry. London's theater land was located here, too.

143
00:10:52,236 --> 00:10:57,796
Speaker 1: Newly illuminated by twinkling electric lights, people from all walks

144
00:10:57,836 --> 00:11:01,236
Speaker 1: would come to enjoy nightlife in the West End, making

145
00:11:01,236 --> 00:11:06,156
Speaker 1: it a popular circuit for soliciting. As a newcomer, it

146
00:11:06,196 --> 00:11:08,956
Speaker 1: would have proven difficult for Mary Jane to negotiate an

147
00:11:09,116 --> 00:11:12,036
Speaker 1: immediate entry into the upper ranks of the sex trade

148
00:11:12,236 --> 00:11:16,316
Speaker 1: without the help of personal contacts, but perhaps a friend

149
00:11:16,436 --> 00:11:19,316
Speaker 1: gave Mary Jane the name of a madam, because she

150
00:11:19,396 --> 00:11:22,796
Speaker 1: was soon working under the auspices of a French landlady

151
00:11:23,076 --> 00:11:26,556
Speaker 1: whose boarders were offered opportunities to make the acquaintance of

152
00:11:26,716 --> 00:11:30,996
Speaker 1: middle and upper class gentlemen. These lodgings were in the

153
00:11:31,076 --> 00:11:34,476
Speaker 1: chicest part of town, which had acquired a reputation as

154
00:11:34,476 --> 00:11:38,156
Speaker 1: a haven for the so called artistic set, who indulged

155
00:11:38,236 --> 00:11:44,756
Speaker 1: in sin discreetly behind shutters and dark velvet drapery. Assignations

156
00:11:44,876 --> 00:11:49,436
Speaker 1: might occur by chance meeting. On one occasion, the anonymous

157
00:11:49,436 --> 00:11:54,156
Speaker 1: memoiist Walter gained an introduction to a discreet London brothel

158
00:11:54,476 --> 00:11:59,076
Speaker 1: by exchanging classes with its madam while on train. After

159
00:11:59,156 --> 00:12:02,436
Speaker 1: he struck up conversation, she informed him that she was

160
00:12:02,476 --> 00:12:06,436
Speaker 1: a dressmaker and employed only the prettiest girls at her

161
00:12:06,476 --> 00:12:10,836
Speaker 1: place of business. Before disembarking, she handed him a card

162
00:12:10,916 --> 00:12:14,676
Speaker 1: for her dress shop and invited him to call and

163
00:12:15,436 --> 00:12:20,436
Speaker 1: try on like gloves. Walter was certain that she drummed

164
00:12:20,516 --> 00:12:23,076
Speaker 1: up a good amount of trade by approaching men in

165
00:12:23,196 --> 00:12:27,996
Speaker 1: railway carriages and on public transport. Other meetings might be

166
00:12:28,116 --> 00:12:31,876
Speaker 1: arranged through an exchange of letters. A very rich man

167
00:12:31,956 --> 00:12:34,636
Speaker 1: would write to the brothel madam. A lot of these

168
00:12:34,636 --> 00:12:39,436
Speaker 1: brothels catered to what was called flagellation, so what we

169
00:12:39,436 --> 00:12:42,276
Speaker 1: would today call s and m. There was this real

170
00:12:42,396 --> 00:12:46,676
Speaker 1: trend in England that posh Englishmen really liked flagellation, and

171
00:12:46,836 --> 00:12:49,556
Speaker 1: women made quite a lot of money doing it. Mary

172
00:12:49,636 --> 00:12:52,996
Speaker 1: Jane would likely have had a high class clientele. As

173
00:12:53,036 --> 00:12:56,196
Speaker 1: a young woman in her twenties, with blue eyes and long,

174
00:12:56,356 --> 00:12:59,636
Speaker 1: luxuriant hair, she would have found no obstacle to making

175
00:12:59,716 --> 00:13:02,556
Speaker 1: a good living in the center of town. There's a

176
00:13:02,676 --> 00:13:05,236
Speaker 1: range of things she could have been doing, but she

177
00:13:05,356 --> 00:13:09,236
Speaker 1: definitely would have been making a fair amount of money. Then,

178
00:13:09,236 --> 00:13:11,796
Speaker 1: who sought the company of women like Mary Jane through

179
00:13:11,836 --> 00:13:15,196
Speaker 1: a landlady procurus would have expected to commit to an

180
00:13:15,276 --> 00:13:20,076
Speaker 1: evening of entertainment in addition to receiving sex. A client

181
00:13:20,116 --> 00:13:22,516
Speaker 1: would have paid the sum of five pounds up front

182
00:13:22,956 --> 00:13:26,196
Speaker 1: and then taken her to dinner the following evening. Compared

183
00:13:26,196 --> 00:13:29,396
Speaker 1: to the wages of the time, five pounds would translate

184
00:13:29,436 --> 00:13:34,316
Speaker 1: to over three thousand dollars today. At venues like Saint

185
00:13:34,356 --> 00:13:38,236
Speaker 1: James's restaurant known as Jimmy's or the Cafe Deller Europe,

186
00:13:38,676 --> 00:13:41,996
Speaker 1: women and their male companions sat down to dine in

187
00:13:42,196 --> 00:13:46,396
Speaker 1: smoke filled, mirrored and palm fronded rooms where they were

188
00:13:46,476 --> 00:13:50,116
Speaker 1: tended by French and Italian waiters who were noted for

189
00:13:50,156 --> 00:13:55,716
Speaker 1: their discretion. After gorging on oysters, deviled kidneys, and roast beef,

190
00:13:55,916 --> 00:13:59,756
Speaker 1: all washed down with champagne. Mary Jane and her client

191
00:13:59,956 --> 00:14:03,436
Speaker 1: would have traveled by hackney cap or carriage, either to

192
00:14:03,556 --> 00:14:07,516
Speaker 1: an equally discreet hotel or back to her own bed.

193
00:14:08,716 --> 00:14:11,756
Speaker 1: Such liaisons might also involve a trip to the theater,

194
00:14:12,036 --> 00:14:17,836
Speaker 1: music hall, or races. In exchange for the pleasure of

195
00:14:17,876 --> 00:14:21,716
Speaker 1: Mary Jane's company, her client would expect to be billed accordingly.

196
00:14:22,196 --> 00:14:26,676
Speaker 1: The price generally involved the purchase of trinkets as well

197
00:14:26,716 --> 00:14:30,716
Speaker 1: as cash. Women also made themselves known to potential clients

198
00:14:30,756 --> 00:14:34,276
Speaker 1: through public display. They would appear in the galleries of

199
00:14:34,316 --> 00:14:38,316
Speaker 1: certain music halls and theaters, in addition to promenading in

200
00:14:38,316 --> 00:14:43,156
Speaker 1: the streets. The Alhambra Theater catered to every rank of

201
00:14:43,196 --> 00:14:46,716
Speaker 1: women in the sex trade. On any given night, there

202
00:14:46,796 --> 00:14:50,556
Speaker 1: might be over a thousand women present. Access to the

203
00:14:50,556 --> 00:14:54,756
Speaker 1: promenade encircling the ground floor of the auditorium cost a shilling.

204
00:14:55,236 --> 00:14:57,956
Speaker 1: It cost more to get closer to the stage, but

205
00:14:57,996 --> 00:15:02,636
Speaker 1: according to one visiting American author, catching the performance wasn't

206
00:15:02,636 --> 00:15:06,716
Speaker 1: the prime attraction, for the space was choked, with men

207
00:15:06,716 --> 00:15:10,556
Speaker 1: and women walking past each other, looking the stage, drinking

208
00:15:10,556 --> 00:15:13,556
Speaker 1: of the bars, chafing each other in a rough way,

209
00:15:13,556 --> 00:15:18,796
Speaker 1: and laughing loudly. He ventured into the other sections of

210
00:15:18,796 --> 00:15:23,076
Speaker 1: the theater, too, rising higher and higher until he reached

211
00:15:23,116 --> 00:15:27,196
Speaker 1: the cheapest seats far above the stage. When a woman

212
00:15:27,316 --> 00:15:30,876
Speaker 1: goes to the sixpenny gallery in the Alhambra, she is

213
00:15:30,916 --> 00:15:36,316
Speaker 1: indeed lost, beyond all hope of rescue. I came down, disgusted.

214
00:15:37,716 --> 00:15:41,516
Speaker 1: The sixpenny gallery was not for Mary Jane, who referred

215
00:15:41,516 --> 00:15:46,836
Speaker 1: to herself as Marie Jeannette and accumulated numerous expensive dresses,

216
00:15:47,476 --> 00:15:50,556
Speaker 1: she would have been accustomed to elegant gentlemen making her

217
00:15:50,556 --> 00:15:55,196
Speaker 1: proposals and promises, buying her gloves and jewelry, and spoiling

218
00:15:55,196 --> 00:15:59,636
Speaker 1: her with fine food and drink. The savviest women in

219
00:15:59,636 --> 00:16:03,796
Speaker 1: the sex trade understood that their youthful allure was fleeting,

220
00:16:04,276 --> 00:16:07,116
Speaker 1: and that in order to capitalize on their worth, it

221
00:16:07,236 --> 00:16:12,036
Speaker 1: was essential to seize every opportunity put before them. So

222
00:16:12,156 --> 00:16:16,236
Speaker 1: when a mysterious gentleman offered to take Mary Jane to Paris,

223
00:16:16,276 --> 00:16:21,956
Speaker 1: she agreed. Unfortunately, this visit to France would turn out

224
00:16:21,956 --> 00:16:27,916
Speaker 1: to be no vacation. The ripper retold, will be back

225
00:16:27,916 --> 00:16:40,316
Speaker 1: in just a moment. Victorian travelers sent their lugger John separately,

226
00:16:40,836 --> 00:16:44,556
Speaker 1: so Mary Jane packed most of her expensive wardrobe into

227
00:16:44,556 --> 00:16:47,996
Speaker 1: a trunk, expecting it to be forwarded to her new

228
00:16:47,996 --> 00:16:53,236
Speaker 1: address in Paris. But the baggage was never sent, and

229
00:16:53,356 --> 00:16:56,676
Speaker 1: perhaps its failure to arrive alerted Mary Jane to the

230
00:16:56,716 --> 00:17:01,796
Speaker 1: possibility that she had been deceived. The trafficking of women

231
00:17:01,916 --> 00:17:06,356
Speaker 1: between Britain and continental Europe was a lucrative enterprise, aided

232
00:17:06,396 --> 00:17:09,836
Speaker 1: by the expansion of the rail and shipping networks. Just

233
00:17:09,956 --> 00:17:13,076
Speaker 1: as London became a receiving hub for young women from France,

234
00:17:13,116 --> 00:17:16,836
Speaker 1: Belgium and Germany to meet a domestic appetite for variety,

235
00:17:17,156 --> 00:17:21,556
Speaker 1: so English girls were shipped out to brothels abroad. Those

236
00:17:21,596 --> 00:17:26,596
Speaker 1: involved in international sex trafficking worked discreetly and carefully, so

237
00:17:26,636 --> 00:17:30,156
Speaker 1: that a woman destined for overseas trade would not guess

238
00:17:30,196 --> 00:17:34,996
Speaker 1: what awaited her. It's probable that Mary Jane's French landlady

239
00:17:35,076 --> 00:17:37,716
Speaker 1: had some role in sending her to Paris, and that

240
00:17:37,796 --> 00:17:40,876
Speaker 1: she colluded with the mysterious gentleman to place her in

241
00:17:40,876 --> 00:17:45,036
Speaker 1: a brothel. Fare whatever the scenario, she seemed certain enough

242
00:17:45,196 --> 00:17:47,596
Speaker 1: that Mary Jane would have no need for her trunk

243
00:17:47,636 --> 00:17:51,156
Speaker 1: of pretty gowns when she arrived at her destination, likely

244
00:17:51,196 --> 00:17:56,716
Speaker 1: a state sanctioned brothel or meison close. Some women were

245
00:17:56,796 --> 00:18:00,196
Speaker 1: duped into foreign prostitution, but others who were already in

246
00:18:00,196 --> 00:18:02,916
Speaker 1: the sex trade and looking for a change, went abroad

247
00:18:02,956 --> 00:18:07,556
Speaker 1: to such establishments willingly. However, once at a maison close,

248
00:18:07,716 --> 00:18:11,196
Speaker 1: a woman's own belonging might be taken away and replaced

249
00:18:11,196 --> 00:18:14,716
Speaker 1: with new silk dresses and other finery, adding to an

250
00:18:14,716 --> 00:18:21,156
Speaker 1: impossible debt she now owed her employer. Such ruses had

251
00:18:21,156 --> 00:18:24,236
Speaker 1: been common practice in brothels for centuries and would just

252
00:18:24,396 --> 00:18:27,596
Speaker 1: as likely to catch seasoned sex laborers off guard as

253
00:18:27,636 --> 00:18:30,516
Speaker 1: they were to entrap the novice. They would get their room,

254
00:18:30,556 --> 00:18:32,996
Speaker 1: they would get their clothes, they would potentially get their

255
00:18:32,996 --> 00:18:35,636
Speaker 1: ticket to Paris. But it was all money's owing, and

256
00:18:35,716 --> 00:18:38,236
Speaker 1: that debt could be manipulated to be greater than what

257
00:18:38,316 --> 00:18:42,596
Speaker 1: it originally was. These forms of debt bondage affected migrant

258
00:18:42,636 --> 00:18:44,956
Speaker 1: people all over the world in the late nineteenth century,

259
00:18:45,156 --> 00:18:48,116
Speaker 1: who would have to pay migration agents, pay the steamship

260
00:18:48,116 --> 00:18:50,596
Speaker 1: ticket off, pay off the person who found them their job.

261
00:18:50,996 --> 00:18:53,796
Speaker 1: This was a kind of exploitative system in which many

262
00:18:53,836 --> 00:18:56,756
Speaker 1: many people were caught, including women who were selling sex

263
00:18:57,556 --> 00:19:01,276
Speaker 1: life at a maison close was tightly regulated in order

264
00:19:01,316 --> 00:19:04,356
Speaker 1: to keep the streets free of the evils of prostitution.

265
00:19:04,836 --> 00:19:08,076
Speaker 1: The law restricted women's movements in and out of the

266
00:19:08,116 --> 00:19:11,876
Speaker 1: brothels where they worked. They were only permitted in public

267
00:19:11,996 --> 00:19:15,116
Speaker 1: during certain hours. Even then, they were not allowed to

268
00:19:15,156 --> 00:19:18,756
Speaker 1: congregate in groups, loiter near their doors, or even make

269
00:19:18,796 --> 00:19:22,956
Speaker 1: themselves visible through their windows, which were to remain shuttered.

270
00:19:23,956 --> 00:19:27,316
Speaker 1: What's more, all new recruits were expected to register with

271
00:19:27,396 --> 00:19:31,516
Speaker 1: the police demur or Morality Police, and to submit to

272
00:19:31,596 --> 00:19:36,636
Speaker 1: twice weekly examinations for venereal disease. If indebtedness for a

273
00:19:36,636 --> 00:19:39,396
Speaker 1: brothel was not enough to break a traffic to woman's will,

274
00:19:39,796 --> 00:19:43,596
Speaker 1: the strict laws governing her personal freedom would complete the process.

275
00:19:44,596 --> 00:19:48,236
Speaker 1: Once caught within the rigid jaws of a foreign maison close,

276
00:19:48,556 --> 00:19:51,756
Speaker 1: a woman on her own, without friends, and unable to

277
00:19:51,756 --> 00:19:55,716
Speaker 1: communicate in French would have had little hope of escape.

278
00:19:58,996 --> 00:20:01,956
Speaker 1: By Mary Jane Kelly's day, the trafficking of women had

279
00:20:01,996 --> 00:20:06,636
Speaker 1: become something of a cause celeb However, only certain victims

280
00:20:06,636 --> 00:20:10,556
Speaker 1: were deemed deserving of sympathy and of protection under the law.

281
00:20:11,036 --> 00:20:13,676
Speaker 1: The idea that innocent women were being compelled into the

282
00:20:13,796 --> 00:20:18,716
Speaker 1: sex trade and forcibly shipped overseas, gripped the public imagination,

283
00:20:18,956 --> 00:20:24,076
Speaker 1: and was extravagantly sensationalized in the press. Adeline Tanner was

284
00:20:24,276 --> 00:20:28,356
Speaker 1: in some ways the original victim of trafficking, in that

285
00:20:28,636 --> 00:20:31,836
Speaker 1: it was her story that launched the whole thing. In

286
00:20:31,876 --> 00:20:35,916
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eighteen eighty, nineteen year old Adeline was a

287
00:20:35,996 --> 00:20:40,756
Speaker 1: recently unemployed domestic servant when a respectably dressed man struck

288
00:20:40,836 --> 00:20:43,636
Speaker 1: up a conversation with her in a railway waiting room.

289
00:20:43,956 --> 00:20:46,676
Speaker 1: He plied her with drink and introduced her to a

290
00:20:46,796 --> 00:20:52,476
Speaker 1: man named Eduard Roger. After a short conversation, Roget told

291
00:20:52,516 --> 00:20:55,556
Speaker 1: her he had taken a great fancy to me, that

292
00:20:55,636 --> 00:20:57,996
Speaker 1: he would like to take me to Paris, and if,

293
00:20:58,476 --> 00:21:00,756
Speaker 1: after seeing his grand house I would like to be

294
00:21:00,836 --> 00:21:04,676
Speaker 1: his wife, he would marry me. A more experienced young

295
00:21:04,716 --> 00:21:07,876
Speaker 1: woman might possibly have sensed the direction of travel, but

296
00:21:08,036 --> 00:21:11,836
Speaker 1: nineteen year old Ada Lene was a virgin and sheltered one.

297
00:21:12,636 --> 00:21:19,076
Speaker 1: Dazzled and intoxicated, she enthusiastically agreed. Of course, Adeline had

298
00:21:19,076 --> 00:21:23,156
Speaker 1: been tricked. Roget wouldn't be her husband, but her pimp.

299
00:21:24,196 --> 00:21:27,036
Speaker 1: She was not destined for Paris, but for a brothel

300
00:21:27,076 --> 00:21:30,876
Speaker 1: in Brussels. Before departing England, she was issued with a

301
00:21:30,956 --> 00:21:35,036
Speaker 1: false identity. Upon her arrival in Belgium, she was informed

302
00:21:35,076 --> 00:21:37,836
Speaker 1: that her papers were in fact illegal and she would

303
00:21:37,876 --> 00:21:42,356
Speaker 1: be immediately arrested if she attempted to flee. Adeline eventually

304
00:21:42,516 --> 00:21:46,316
Speaker 1: escaped her traffickers and spoke about her experiences as part

305
00:21:46,316 --> 00:21:50,956
Speaker 1: of an investigation into this illicit trade. And it's really

306
00:21:50,996 --> 00:21:54,796
Speaker 1: interesting reading her testimony in which she does appear as

307
00:21:54,796 --> 00:21:58,756
Speaker 1: a very innocent victim and she is being asked by

308
00:21:58,796 --> 00:22:03,396
Speaker 1: a panel of men to narrate her abuse and victimization

309
00:22:03,836 --> 00:22:07,316
Speaker 1: for the sake of proving that it existed. They craft

310
00:22:07,356 --> 00:22:10,116
Speaker 1: her story and encouraged her to craft a story as

311
00:22:10,156 --> 00:22:14,396
Speaker 1: this kind of performance of ideal victimhood, ignorance and innocence

312
00:22:14,676 --> 00:22:20,156
Speaker 1: and vulnerability and guilelessness and naivete. The controversial journalist W. T. Stead,

313
00:22:20,436 --> 00:22:24,516
Speaker 1: whose Crusading newspaper we've mentioned often in this series, published

314
00:22:24,516 --> 00:22:29,276
Speaker 1: a powerful investigation into the commercial exploitation of children for sex.

315
00:22:29,836 --> 00:22:34,396
Speaker 1: All those who are squeamish and all those who are prudish,

316
00:22:34,436 --> 00:22:37,156
Speaker 1: and all those who prefer to live in a fool's

317
00:22:37,196 --> 00:22:41,396
Speaker 1: paradise of imaginary innocence and purity will do well not

318
00:22:41,636 --> 00:22:44,916
Speaker 1: to read the Powell mal Gazette of Monday and the

319
00:22:45,036 --> 00:22:49,916
Speaker 1: three following days. This series of articles was entitled The

320
00:22:50,116 --> 00:22:55,836
Speaker 1: Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. Stead invoked hyperbolic subheadings like

321
00:22:56,316 --> 00:23:01,076
Speaker 1: the violation of Virgins and how girls are bought and ruined.

322
00:23:01,756 --> 00:23:05,876
Speaker 1: These virgins are mostly of tender age, being too young

323
00:23:05,916 --> 00:23:08,516
Speaker 1: in fact, to understand the nature of the crime of

324
00:23:08,556 --> 00:23:13,556
Speaker 1: which they are the unwilling victims. These outrages are constantly

325
00:23:13,596 --> 00:23:19,116
Speaker 1: perpetrated with almost absolute impunity. Instead, wanted to show how

326
00:23:19,156 --> 00:23:22,476
Speaker 1: young girls could be bought from their parents and dispatched

327
00:23:22,476 --> 00:23:27,276
Speaker 1: to brothels, so he staged just such a transaction himself.

328
00:23:27,836 --> 00:23:32,996
Speaker 1: He orchestrated the purchase of a thirteen year old virgin

329
00:23:33,436 --> 00:23:37,996
Speaker 1: girl named Eliza Armstrong, who he called Lily in his

330
00:23:38,076 --> 00:23:41,996
Speaker 1: newspaper expose. Because he was always one for heavy handed metaphors,

331
00:23:42,516 --> 00:23:47,796
Speaker 1: and he used the story of Lily or Eliza Armstrong

332
00:23:47,996 --> 00:23:51,236
Speaker 1: to prove this buying and selling of young virgin girls

333
00:23:51,276 --> 00:23:54,956
Speaker 1: in Britain was rife and very possible. But then, for

334
00:23:54,996 --> 00:23:58,836
Speaker 1: the sake of his metaphor, he insisted on having Lily

335
00:23:58,996 --> 00:24:01,476
Speaker 1: or Eliza, I should say he insisted on having Eliza

336
00:24:01,596 --> 00:24:06,236
Speaker 1: forcibly inspected for virginity. He arranged her assault in the

337
00:24:06,396 --> 00:24:11,596
Speaker 1: name of protecting girls, and it makes me so angry

338
00:24:12,036 --> 00:24:15,036
Speaker 1: whenever I think about it. When it came to light

339
00:24:15,156 --> 00:24:18,356
Speaker 1: at rather than just reporting on a tragic case, Stead

340
00:24:18,396 --> 00:24:22,836
Speaker 1: had actually arranged for the purchase of Eliza, rival newspapers

341
00:24:22,956 --> 00:24:26,556
Speaker 1: called for his head. He was found guilty of abduction

342
00:24:26,636 --> 00:24:30,356
Speaker 1: and procurement and sentenced to three months in prison. Even

343
00:24:30,356 --> 00:24:36,116
Speaker 1: though Lily's story was pure fabrication, Stead's articles proved incredibly popular,

344
00:24:36,716 --> 00:24:39,876
Speaker 1: stirring a moral panic that British girls were being sold

345
00:24:39,916 --> 00:24:45,076
Speaker 1: into so called white slavery. But by English law, women

346
00:24:45,156 --> 00:24:47,756
Speaker 1: like Mary jen Kelly were not to be classed as

347
00:24:47,836 --> 00:24:51,316
Speaker 1: victims of trafficking. Only women and girls who had previously

348
00:24:51,316 --> 00:24:56,796
Speaker 1: been ignorant of sex could hold the identity of victim.

349
00:24:56,916 --> 00:25:00,036
Speaker 1: I fully believe that she was defrauded to Paris, that

350
00:25:00,116 --> 00:25:03,676
Speaker 1: she ran into a very coercevie, potentially even abusive situation

351
00:25:03,756 --> 00:25:06,196
Speaker 1: when she arrived, and that she found it difficult to

352
00:25:06,236 --> 00:25:10,076
Speaker 1: get out. This is, by any definition, what would call trafficking.

353
00:25:10,476 --> 00:25:13,236
Speaker 1: For the law to say that it was impossible to

354
00:25:13,236 --> 00:25:16,596
Speaker 1: traffic a woman who was already a prostitute rendered the

355
00:25:16,676 --> 00:25:20,316
Speaker 1: law itself practically obsolete. But it also tells us again

356
00:25:20,436 --> 00:25:23,476
Speaker 1: a great deal about who gets to be an ideal

357
00:25:23,556 --> 00:25:26,076
Speaker 1: victim and who doesn't get to be a victim at all.

358
00:25:29,076 --> 00:25:32,756
Speaker 1: Mary Jane somehow managed to wriggle free from the snare

359
00:25:32,796 --> 00:25:35,036
Speaker 1: that had been laid for her, and spent no more

360
00:25:35,036 --> 00:25:38,236
Speaker 1: than a fortnight in Paris. If she was well educated,

361
00:25:38,316 --> 00:25:41,356
Speaker 1: as has been suggested, she would have possessed at least

362
00:25:41,356 --> 00:25:45,036
Speaker 1: a basic grasp of French, enough perhaps to communicate with

363
00:25:45,076 --> 00:25:50,116
Speaker 1: an amenable client or with the police. According to French statute,

364
00:25:50,196 --> 00:25:54,116
Speaker 1: any customer who suspected illegal trafficking might make an appeal

365
00:25:54,156 --> 00:25:57,396
Speaker 1: to the police Demurs, who were bound by law to

366
00:25:57,516 --> 00:26:00,876
Speaker 1: release any English girl detained an abroadl against her will,

367
00:26:01,436 --> 00:26:05,596
Speaker 1: even if she has not paid her debt. Setbacks such

368
00:26:05,636 --> 00:26:08,276
Speaker 1: as this would not have been taken lightly by the

369
00:26:08,276 --> 00:26:13,156
Speaker 1: traffickers who lost money when their so called human parcels escaped,

370
00:26:13,956 --> 00:26:16,876
Speaker 1: nor would they have liked knowing a young woman was

371
00:26:16,916 --> 00:26:20,716
Speaker 1: at large who could attest to their crimes. Pimps and

372
00:26:20,796 --> 00:26:24,636
Speaker 1: trafficking gangs were not people with whom to trifle. They

373
00:26:24,636 --> 00:26:28,716
Speaker 1: felt no compunction at removing and inconvenient witness if it

374
00:26:28,796 --> 00:26:33,236
Speaker 1: helped them escape the law. Mary Jane had somehow outrun

375
00:26:33,276 --> 00:26:36,756
Speaker 1: her captors in Paris, but her new life in London

376
00:26:37,196 --> 00:26:45,156
Speaker 1: would be neither tranquil nor safe. The rippery told would

377
00:26:45,196 --> 00:26:57,116
Speaker 1: be back in just a moment. At first glance, the

378
00:26:57,236 --> 00:27:02,556
Speaker 1: Ratcliffe Highway, close to London's docks, offered an innocent mercantile impression.

379
00:27:03,316 --> 00:27:06,396
Speaker 1: The first stretches of the street were stuffed with every

380
00:27:06,436 --> 00:27:12,116
Speaker 1: shop and outfitter a mariner might wire. However, further down

381
00:27:12,156 --> 00:27:17,076
Speaker 1: the highway, its truer character was revealed. Cheap lodging houses,

382
00:27:17,436 --> 00:27:21,356
Speaker 1: music halls, pubs, and opium dens replaced the ship's chandlers,

383
00:27:21,596 --> 00:27:25,516
Speaker 1: and the thrumming sound of sin grew ever more audible.

384
00:27:26,356 --> 00:27:29,996
Speaker 1: The Ratcliffe Highway had its own identity and economy, driven

385
00:27:30,036 --> 00:27:33,116
Speaker 1: by the steady influx of sailors who stalked at streets

386
00:27:33,116 --> 00:27:37,276
Speaker 1: in search of drink and sex. Rousing polka melodies hung

387
00:27:37,276 --> 00:27:41,956
Speaker 1: in the air, punctuated by the smashing of glass and jaws.

388
00:27:42,716 --> 00:27:46,636
Speaker 1: The spilling of drink and blood were regular occurrences among

389
00:27:46,636 --> 00:27:51,516
Speaker 1: its salty visitors. It was in this neighborhood that Mary

390
00:27:51,596 --> 00:27:54,596
Speaker 1: Jane washed up, had it been safe for her to

391
00:27:54,676 --> 00:27:57,316
Speaker 1: return to the West End to show her face in

392
00:27:57,396 --> 00:28:00,916
Speaker 1: Piccadilly or the Haymarket, she might simply have continued in

393
00:28:00,956 --> 00:28:06,116
Speaker 1: her previous luxurious existence. Instead, she had little choice but

394
00:28:06,236 --> 00:28:09,836
Speaker 1: to turn eastward. Luckily for her or the east ends

395
00:28:09,836 --> 00:28:13,396
Speaker 1: of London, the Ratcliffe Highway and the Haymarket were just

396
00:28:13,596 --> 00:28:16,676
Speaker 1: universes away from each other at this time. If Mary

397
00:28:16,756 --> 00:28:19,996
Speaker 1: Jane was hiding from her traffickers, they were unlikely to

398
00:28:20,036 --> 00:28:23,796
Speaker 1: start looking for her. In this grim and desolate district.

399
00:28:24,316 --> 00:28:26,956
Speaker 1: She took up lodgings in the house of Elizabeth Bocou,

400
00:28:27,356 --> 00:28:30,956
Speaker 1: who rented rooms to women who sold sex. How much

401
00:28:30,996 --> 00:28:34,036
Speaker 1: of her past she revealed to her new madam is unknown,

402
00:28:34,596 --> 00:28:38,196
Speaker 1: but if Kelly was not Mary Jane's real surname, then

403
00:28:38,236 --> 00:28:40,956
Speaker 1: it may have been at this point that she adopted it.

404
00:28:41,556 --> 00:28:44,996
Speaker 1: If her pursuers were hunting for a welshwoman, it might

405
00:28:45,036 --> 00:28:49,116
Speaker 1: have been sensible to assume a common Irish name for

406
00:28:49,276 --> 00:28:53,156
Speaker 1: Mary Jane. The clientele and practices on the Ratcliffe Highway

407
00:28:53,396 --> 00:28:55,996
Speaker 1: would have been rather different to those she had been

408
00:28:56,036 --> 00:29:00,436
Speaker 1: accustomed to in the West End. One social reformer observed

409
00:29:00,476 --> 00:29:03,996
Speaker 1: the particular protocols of the area when a ship arrives

410
00:29:03,996 --> 00:29:07,036
Speaker 1: in the docks, so many of the women as are disengaged,

411
00:29:07,356 --> 00:29:10,636
Speaker 1: go down to the entrance and there and then endeavor

412
00:29:10,676 --> 00:29:14,476
Speaker 1: to invague or the seamen. These attachments would last for days.

413
00:29:14,956 --> 00:29:18,236
Speaker 1: A sailor's chosen girl would accompany him hither and thither,

414
00:29:18,596 --> 00:29:23,516
Speaker 1: always in the neighborhood, carousing by night and sleeping by day.

415
00:29:24,116 --> 00:29:27,076
Speaker 1: When a seafarer's purse was empty or his shore leaf

416
00:29:27,076 --> 00:29:30,156
Speaker 1: had ended, there was always the next shipload to greet,

417
00:29:30,516 --> 00:29:32,956
Speaker 1: unless a replacement could be found in a pub or

418
00:29:33,036 --> 00:29:36,076
Speaker 1: on the street. More of this noted that women from

419
00:29:36,116 --> 00:29:39,476
Speaker 1: the Ratcliffe Highway appeared to tout for trade more brazenly

420
00:29:39,556 --> 00:29:41,756
Speaker 1: than those in the West End or other parts of

421
00:29:41,796 --> 00:29:46,316
Speaker 1: the city. The demand for commercial sex quite literally swelled

422
00:29:46,316 --> 00:29:48,996
Speaker 1: with the tide, so that even the police found it

423
00:29:49,036 --> 00:29:53,316
Speaker 1: difficult to regulate prostitution. Women who sold sex walked the

424
00:29:53,356 --> 00:29:59,196
Speaker 1: streets openly without much fear of the authorities. Mary Jane

425
00:29:59,236 --> 00:30:01,916
Speaker 1: may well have spent her evenings in the public singing

426
00:30:01,996 --> 00:30:05,836
Speaker 1: rooms in order to drawn seafaring custom. Most of these

427
00:30:05,836 --> 00:30:09,396
Speaker 1: smoke filled drinking dens were decorated with a nautical theme,

428
00:30:09,716 --> 00:30:14,316
Speaker 1: their walls dauged with crude seascapes, anchors and mermaids. As

429
00:30:14,396 --> 00:30:19,356
Speaker 1: singer's belted out tunes about lovely lasses left ashore. Most

430
00:30:19,396 --> 00:30:23,636
Speaker 1: of the audience spoke Swedish, Danish, German, Portuguese, Spanish or

431
00:30:23,676 --> 00:30:28,196
Speaker 1: French and didn't understand a word of what was being sung. Still,

432
00:30:28,476 --> 00:30:31,756
Speaker 1: they were happy to slump on the wooden benches, drink

433
00:30:31,796 --> 00:30:35,676
Speaker 1: the bar dry, and fondle their girls until a fight

434
00:30:35,756 --> 00:30:49,436
Speaker 1: broke out. Perhaps desperate for money, Mary Jane seems to

435
00:30:49,436 --> 00:30:53,276
Speaker 1: have enlisted missus Boku to help her reclaim that missing

436
00:30:53,276 --> 00:30:56,636
Speaker 1: trunk of expensive dresses, which had failed to follow her

437
00:30:56,676 --> 00:31:00,796
Speaker 1: to Paris. Mary Jane could not have felt easy about

438
00:31:00,796 --> 00:31:03,316
Speaker 1: returning to a part of town where she was known,

439
00:31:03,836 --> 00:31:06,556
Speaker 1: and a sense of trepidation must have gnawed at her

440
00:31:06,596 --> 00:31:11,396
Speaker 1: as she traveled west with her new procurus for support.

441
00:31:11,916 --> 00:31:16,116
Speaker 1: It's unlikely that this risky trip paid off. In all probability,

442
00:31:16,516 --> 00:31:19,236
Speaker 1: mary Jane's trunk would have been sold off long ago.

443
00:31:19,836 --> 00:31:24,356
Speaker 1: Worse still, the visit seems to have attracted unwanted attention,

444
00:31:24,996 --> 00:31:28,916
Speaker 1: for shortly afterwards, a man pitched up on the Ratcliffe Highway,

445
00:31:29,116 --> 00:31:33,476
Speaker 1: seeking Mary Jane and claiming to be her father. Although

446
00:31:33,516 --> 00:31:37,796
Speaker 1: they were almost certainly not related. She seems to have

447
00:31:37,796 --> 00:31:41,636
Speaker 1: avoided him successfully, but his presence must still have been

448
00:31:41,676 --> 00:31:46,476
Speaker 1: a source of intense anxiety. Adding to this strain, Mary

449
00:31:46,556 --> 00:31:51,596
Speaker 1: Jane began quarreling with her landlady the dispute mary Jane's

450
00:31:51,676 --> 00:31:56,956
Speaker 1: drinking habits, as in the more expensive West End, an

451
00:31:56,956 --> 00:32:01,836
Speaker 1: evening's entertainment along the Ratcliffe Highway revolved around drink. However,

452
00:32:01,996 --> 00:32:04,636
Speaker 1: savvy women in the sex trade would tipple with care.

453
00:32:05,596 --> 00:32:09,756
Speaker 1: Unfamiliar customers could be dangerous. To fill one with booze

454
00:32:09,876 --> 00:32:13,556
Speaker 1: was like playing Russian roulette. A woman could never predict

455
00:32:13,716 --> 00:32:17,196
Speaker 1: what sort of client a man would be once intoxicated.

456
00:32:17,836 --> 00:32:21,156
Speaker 1: If she was fortunate, he might slip into a stupor.

457
00:32:21,196 --> 00:32:25,476
Speaker 1: If she was less so, he might beat her senseless.

458
00:32:25,476 --> 00:32:29,236
Speaker 1: Her best defense was to remain as sober as possible.

459
00:32:30,116 --> 00:32:34,036
Speaker 1: But drink also offered a convenient escape from a miserable existence.

460
00:32:34,556 --> 00:32:37,556
Speaker 1: It obliterated the horrors of intimacy with a man who

461
00:32:37,636 --> 00:32:41,956
Speaker 1: was physically repellent, and it quieted, even for a short time,

462
00:32:42,196 --> 00:32:47,356
Speaker 1: feelings of self loathing, guilt, pain, and traumatic memories of violence.

463
00:32:49,756 --> 00:32:52,556
Speaker 1: Mary Jane was likely to have drunk throughout her career

464
00:32:52,596 --> 00:32:55,916
Speaker 1: in the sex trade, but after her return from France,

465
00:32:56,316 --> 00:33:01,076
Speaker 1: her usage became problematic. Missus Bocu's sister in law said

466
00:33:01,156 --> 00:33:04,716
Speaker 1: Mary Jane was one of the most decent and nicest

467
00:33:04,796 --> 00:33:09,516
Speaker 1: girls when sober, but she became very quarrelsomilar, you see

468
00:33:09,596 --> 00:33:13,036
Speaker 1: when in toxic head. Missus Boku would have been accustomed

469
00:33:13,076 --> 00:33:18,156
Speaker 1: to drinkers. Even so, Mary Jane's indulgence in intoxicance soon

470
00:33:18,236 --> 00:33:23,916
Speaker 1: made her an unwelcome friend. Mary Jane left, however, she

471
00:33:23,996 --> 00:33:30,396
Speaker 1: did not go very far. McCarthy's, a nearby establishment, was

472
00:33:30,516 --> 00:33:34,836
Speaker 1: almost identical to missus Bocu's concern, except that its offer

473
00:33:34,876 --> 00:33:37,636
Speaker 1: of a legal drink and female company was used to

474
00:33:37,756 --> 00:33:45,636
Speaker 1: lure in unwary sailors and rob them. Sometime between late

475
00:33:45,716 --> 00:33:49,756
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty six and early eighteen eighty seven, a plasterer

476
00:33:49,796 --> 00:33:54,076
Speaker 1: called Joseph Fleming fell in love with Mary Jane. A

477
00:33:54,196 --> 00:33:57,276
Speaker 1: construction worker, was no match for the rich gentleman who

478
00:33:57,316 --> 00:34:00,756
Speaker 1: so recently must have swooned for her, but she seems

479
00:34:00,796 --> 00:34:05,236
Speaker 1: to have returned Fleming's affections. Marriage might even have been discussed.

480
00:34:06,156 --> 00:34:09,156
Speaker 1: At any rate, Mary Jane left the environs of the

481
00:34:09,236 --> 00:34:13,996
Speaker 1: docks and moved in with him, but Fleming's powerful protestations

482
00:34:14,036 --> 00:34:17,716
Speaker 1: of love were no assurance of his kindness. It is

483
00:34:17,756 --> 00:34:21,956
Speaker 1: said he ill used Mary Jane, prompting her to uproot

484
00:34:22,076 --> 00:34:26,916
Speaker 1: once again. But where to go. Nearby was a neighborhood

485
00:34:26,996 --> 00:34:30,716
Speaker 1: full of cheap housing and densely populated with people who

486
00:34:30,836 --> 00:34:36,036
Speaker 1: didn't pry into anyone's past that closely. So packing up

487
00:34:36,076 --> 00:34:41,356
Speaker 1: the tatters of her once fine wardrobe, Mary Jane moved

488
00:34:41,396 --> 00:34:47,236
Speaker 1: to the edge of Whitechapel. Surely there she might hide

489
00:34:48,076 --> 00:34:57,996
Speaker 1: safe from any pursuers with murder in mind. Bad women.

490
00:34:58,036 --> 00:35:00,756
Speaker 1: The Rippery Told is brought to you by Pushkin Industries

491
00:35:00,796 --> 00:35:03,236
Speaker 1: and me Hallie Rubinhold, and is based on my book

492
00:35:03,316 --> 00:35:06,236
Speaker 1: The Five. It was produced and co written by Ryan

493
00:35:06,316 --> 00:35:09,636
Speaker 1: Dilley and Alice Fines, with help from Pete Norton. Pascal

494
00:35:09,716 --> 00:35:12,476
Speaker 1: Wise Sound designed and mixed the show and composed all

495
00:35:12,516 --> 00:35:16,196
Speaker 1: the original music. You also heard the voice talents of Bencrow,

496
00:35:16,516 --> 00:35:20,516
Speaker 1: Melanie Gutridge, Gemma Saunders and Rufus Wright. The show also

497
00:35:20,596 --> 00:35:23,516
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been possible without the work of miel La Belle,

498
00:35:23,756 --> 00:35:29,956
Speaker 1: Jacob Weisberg, Jenguerra Heather Fane, Carla mcgliori, Maggie Taylor, Nikolemarino,

499
00:35:30,236 --> 00:35:34,116
Speaker 1: The Tal Mullard, Eric Sandler, and Daniella La Khan. With

500
00:35:34,236 --> 00:35:37,436
Speaker 1: special thanks to my agents Sarah Ballard and Ellie Karn