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Speaker 1: Pushkin. Benjamin Marshall is working alone in the wreckage of

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Speaker 1: Vauxhall Baptist Chapel. This area of South London was badly

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Speaker 1: bombed earlier in the Blitz, and the church is now unusable.

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Speaker 1: A strange fire had then caused further damage, and now

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Speaker 1: Marshall is part of the demolition squad tasked with clearing

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Speaker 1: the charred debris. The July heat is already building, but

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Speaker 1: the fifty year old continues shoveling dirt and rubble in

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Speaker 1: this airless basement. Spotting a stone slab leaning up against

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Speaker 1: a wall, Marshall decides to move it.

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Speaker 2: I was mismeorized.

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Speaker 1: Beneath the slab is the body of a women, naked,

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Speaker 1: dismembered incomplete. Marshall carefully lifts these pitiful human remains with

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Speaker 1: a shovel and calls out to his former It's been

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Speaker 1: decades since the last burial here, and this corpse doesn't

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Speaker 1: appear to have come from a disturbed grave. Could it

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Speaker 1: then be the body of a victim of the Blitz,

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Speaker 1: killed in the air raid that blasted the chapel and

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Speaker 1: lain undiscovered ever since. That's the conclusion. The woman's killer

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Speaker 1: seems to have hoped people would draw. In the chaos

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Speaker 1: and carnage of war. Some men assume their crimes will

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Speaker 1: go undetected and unpunished. But looking at the mutilated form

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Speaker 1: of this woman, it's clear that this is not the

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Speaker 1: work of a bomb. The efforts made to disfigure her

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Speaker 1: and disguise her identity tell police immediately that this was murder.

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Speaker 1: This is the seldom told story of women in World

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Speaker 1: War Two who were killed not by the enemy, but

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Speaker 1: my husbands, lovers, and strangers, wearing the uniform of their

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Speaker 1: own side. It's also the tale of a particular string

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Speaker 1: of murder victims that history has swept from view.

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Speaker 3: I'm Halle Rubinholt and I'm Alice Fines, and you're listening

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Speaker 3: to bad Women the Blackout River. Polly Dubinski is not

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Speaker 3: the first to come to this little brick house in

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Speaker 3: London's gritty East End in search of answers. Madame Nerva

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Speaker 3: is expecting her.

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Speaker 4: Did you bring what I need?

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Speaker 3: Polly holds out a scarf and sweater.

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Speaker 2: Here you are.

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Speaker 3: They belong to her sister, Rachel Dobkin, who's been missing

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Speaker 3: for three days. The clairvoyant ushers Polly inside and then

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Speaker 3: takes hold of these items of clothing. They will be

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Speaker 3: key to her work, for she practices psychometry. She claims

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Speaker 3: that she can read these objects and thereby untangle the

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Speaker 3: mystery of Rachel's disappearance. Polly had come to seventeen Underwood

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Speaker 3: Road the day before frantically seeking help, but Hilda Nerva

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Speaker 3: had been too busy cooking Sunday dinner to go into

46
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Speaker 3: a psychic trance. Today, however, she is ready. Perhaps her

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Speaker 3: breathing now grows deep and labored, for she is communing

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Speaker 3: with another world.

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Speaker 5: I see you fall in the countryside.

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Speaker 4: I see missus Dobkin, and she looks, said.

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Speaker 1: Then Madame Nerva feels a blow.

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Speaker 3: To her head and a choking sensation, as though something

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Speaker 3: is tightening about her throat, squeezing, crushing. Oh, she gasps

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Speaker 3: for air.

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Speaker 2: Oh.

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Speaker 3: The vision is clearly not a hopeful one. But Madame

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Speaker 3: Nerva isn't working totally blind. She knows the missing woman well.

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Speaker 3: Rachel Dobkin is convinced of the psychic's powers, and she

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Speaker 3: calls her home regularly. In fact, Rachel came here just

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Speaker 3: days ago, asking Madame Nerva to read a piece of

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Speaker 3: her jewelry. She was meeting the man who gave it

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Speaker 3: to her, and she wanted advice. Sensing great sorrow in

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Speaker 3: the gold band, the clairvoyant warned Rachel of grave danger.

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Speaker 5: Will you promise me you won't go.

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Speaker 3: Rachel pledged that she would not see the man. This

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Speaker 3: isn't a story about the Blackout Ripper, to which we'll

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Speaker 3: return next episode. Rachel Dobkin wasn't in the habit of

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Speaker 3: frequenting Western nightclubs, but she faced a danger no less.

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Speaker 3: Chilling in Madame Nerva's hand was her wedding ring, and

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Speaker 3: the man she'd promised to avoid was her own husband.

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Speaker 1: In the spring of eighteen eighty one, Russia's Czar Alexander

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Speaker 1: the Second was returning from a military parade to the

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Speaker 1: Winter Palace, taking his customary route, when revolutionaries at the

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Speaker 1: roadside threw a bomb under his carriage. The Russian monarch's

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Speaker 1: step down from seeming unhurt, only for a second explosion

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Speaker 1: to tear through the Royal party and its bodyguards. The

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Speaker 1: assassinations sparked a series of vicious anti Jewish riots pogroms.

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Speaker 6: The Christians attacked the houses and shops of the Jews

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Speaker 6: indiscriminately by smashing doors and breaking windows.

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Speaker 1: Only one of the ten convicted plotters was actually Jewish,

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Speaker 1: but the Jewish people as a whole were blamed. They

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Speaker 1: were made to pay with their businesses and homes and

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Speaker 1: in blood.

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Speaker 6: One hundred houses were pinached, a quantity of furniture being

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Speaker 6: thrown out into the street. Two hundred people were injured

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Speaker 6: during the riots.

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Speaker 1: Rachel Dobkins's parents, Barnet and Sarah Dubinski, were in the

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Speaker 1: eye of the storm. Their province in what is now Ukraine,

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Speaker 1: saw brutal violence, and in the decade that followed the situation,

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Speaker 1: situation only grew worse. Imperial Russia imposed both petty restrictions

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Speaker 1: and serious hardships on the Jewish population. For example, businesses

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Speaker 1: could refuse to employ Jews, so many eked out of poultry,

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Speaker 1: living in the poorest paying trades. Given the violence and

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Speaker 1: economic hardships, its little wonder that by eighteen ninety two,

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Speaker 1: Barnet and Sarah had joined the millions of Jews seeking

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Speaker 1: a new life abroad.

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Speaker 3: The refugees traveled overland, at first, mostly boarding and disembarking

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Speaker 3: steam locomotives that puffed and shrieked their way west. At

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Speaker 3: the German frontier. Some travelers were packed onto special sealed trains.

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Speaker 3: Fearing the polluting influence of the migrant Jewish duch Underer,

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Speaker 3: the Prussian authorities sought to limit their contact with the

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Speaker 3: German population and assuade them from settling. Conditions on the

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Speaker 3: journey could be abominable. Travelers were treated like prisoners and

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Speaker 3: deprived of access to adequate food and water.

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Speaker 2: It was very hot and close and altogether.

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Speaker 3: Uncomfortable, said one voyager.

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Speaker 7: I cannot see even now how the officers could allow

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Speaker 7: such a thing.

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Speaker 2: It was really dangerous.

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Speaker 3: But eventually the travelers would have reached Germany's coast, where

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Speaker 3: the train doors would have opened. Sarah and Barnet would

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Speaker 3: then have bordered a steamship to cross the North Sea

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Speaker 3: to Britain.

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Speaker 1: When Barnet and Sarah arrived in London, they settled in

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Speaker 1: the already bustling Jewish community of Whitechapel. According to social

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Speaker 1: researcher Charles Booth, some ninety percent of London's Jewish population

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Speaker 1: resided in the city's grim East End, and Yiddish was

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Speaker 1: spoken on the streets. The quarter was also a reputed

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Speaker 1: sink of misery and degeneracy. Filthy, overcrowded, and stinking of

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Speaker 1: rot and refuse. Whitechapel was also notorious for the recent

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Speaker 1: string of savage murders that had been perpetrated on its

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Speaker 1: dingy narrow streets. In the time since Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman,

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddos and Mary jen Kelly had been

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Speaker 1: killed here, some of the most depressing slums had been

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Speaker 1: cleared and change was under way, but the East End

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Speaker 1: remained of grave concern to politicians and reformers. Studying the

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Speaker 1: Jewish community in particular, Charles Booth noted that these immigrants formed.

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Speaker 8: A permanent layer of poverty, verging on destitution.

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Speaker 1: East End Jews worked in trades such as tailoring and

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Speaker 1: boot making, but regular employment was hard to come by,

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Speaker 1: and many of those who laboured in the garment industry,

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Speaker 1: like catmaker Barnet, carried out peace work at home, were

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Speaker 1: toiled and cramped workshops under terrible conditions and for little pay.

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Speaker 1: The medical journal The Lancet investigated.

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Speaker 6: The condition of Jewish tailors in the East End of London.

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Speaker 1: Its findings carried anti Semitic overtones, attitudes not uncommon at

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Speaker 1: the time.

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Speaker 6: Our commissioners found them working in unwholesome, over crowded houses.

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Speaker 6: Such people were wanting in even the more elementary habits

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Speaker 6: of cleanliness, which are possessed by the poorest of English people.

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Speaker 1: The Dubinskis themselves lived in a house were home life

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Speaker 1: and work life melded. The building was divided into tailoring workshops.

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Speaker 1: It was here, in August eighteen ninety two, amid rolls

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Speaker 1: of cloth and spindles of thread, that Sarah gave birth

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Speaker 1: to a baby girl. For Jewish women newly arrived in

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Speaker 1: a foreign land and separated from the support of their families,

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Speaker 1: childbirth could be a lonely and frightening experience. Sarah might

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Speaker 1: have been attended by a bobba or a handywoman, a

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Speaker 1: local not formally trained in midwifery, but who would have

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Speaker 1: been trusted by the community. Nonetheless, the couple named their

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Speaker 1: new arrival Rachel. More Dubinski children followed, and by the

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Speaker 1: time she was nine, Rachel had four younger siblings. Although

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Speaker 1: some decried the standards of sanitation and Jewish homes, others

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Speaker 1: remarked that the children of Jewish immigrants were generally in

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Speaker 1: better health than their gentile counterparts. One school board president

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Speaker 1: thought that.

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Speaker 8: The improved morality of Jewish parents and the care which

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Speaker 8: their religion demanded as to food, was largely the cause

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Speaker 8: of their superiority over English children.

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Speaker 1: The disease rickets, which left many working class children with

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Speaker 1: weak and deformed bones, was less common in Jewish homes.

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Speaker 1: Medical experts suggested that this was because of diet. Jewish

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Speaker 1: women often banded together to bulk by fish at the

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Speaker 1: local market, herring in particular, a source of protein and

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Speaker 1: bone strengthening vitamin D. Other observers noted the self sacrificing

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Speaker 1: care and devotion that Jewish parents showed to their children,

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Speaker 1: but illness could still devastate family life, and April nineteen

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Speaker 1: o one, baby Hannah Dubinski contracted whooping cough. The sound

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Speaker 1: of her gasping breath would have rung through their cramped dwelling.

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Speaker 1: Starved of oxygen, her tiny body would have at first

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Speaker 1: convulsed and then fallen still as her rattling breaths ceased.

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Speaker 3: All together, Immigrant fortunes could rise and fall. A worker

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Speaker 3: might switch back and forth between the roles of employee

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Speaker 3: and employer over a lifetime, flush one year, bankrupt the next,

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Speaker 3: but despite the hardships and tragedies they suffered. The Dubinski

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Speaker 3: family moved on the whole upwards. They were among the

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Speaker 3: deserving poor, granted a home in the Leylan Buildings, a

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Speaker 3: new housing development that had risen on the ruins of

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Speaker 3: an infamous slum. The red brick tenement complex radiated out

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Speaker 3: from a central park and was intended to accommodate policemen, nurses, teachers,

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Speaker 3: and other workers of good moral character. There were even shops, schools,

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Speaker 3: and laundries on site. The Dubinskis and their lodger, A

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Speaker 3: bram Vogel, took up residents in three rooms. Their quarters

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Speaker 3: would have been compact for seven people, to say the least,

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Speaker 3: but they would all the same have felt pleased with

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Speaker 3: their new home. Rachel grew into a petite young woman

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Speaker 3: with dark hair and a thoughtful, arresting gaze. She was

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Speaker 3: quiet and anxious on occasion. By eighteen, she was working

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Speaker 3: in the cat making trade, most likely alongside her father. Then,

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Speaker 3: when she was twenty eight years old, she was introduced

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Speaker 3: to Harry Dobkin. This match was arranged through a Jewish

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Speaker 3: marriage broker. As summer turned to autumn in nineteen twenty,

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Speaker 3: Rachel and Harry wed at bethnal Green Great Synagogue.

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Speaker 7: The place is perfectly good. I don't see what's wrong

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Speaker 7: with it.

196
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Speaker 9: I can't do anything more exactly.

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Speaker 2: Hurry.

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Speaker 3: Their union, however, was not a happy one. According to Harry,

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Speaker 3: the couple argued bitterly from the start.

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Speaker 6: I quarreled with my wife over at the inconvenience of

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Speaker 6: the lodgings we were in and told her I had

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Speaker 6: rooms were week ago. She refused to go there on

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Speaker 6: a left. The marriage has been a failure from the outset.

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Speaker 3: This separation came just three days after their nuptials. Historian

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Speaker 3: doctor Ginger Frost doubts that disagreements about accommodation alone would

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Speaker 3: have caused such a split.

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Speaker 9: That's really fast. There's something they're not saying about what

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Speaker 9: happened there is what I thought. I don't know what

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Speaker 9: it was, but something that bad within a few days

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Speaker 9: could have been sexual incompatibility. Maybe there was just instant

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Speaker 9: dislike that's possible.

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Speaker 3: Perhaps Harry Dobkin was violent in those first few days.

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Speaker 3: Perhaps two sex was an unpleasant, even traumatic experience for

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Speaker 3: rachel Girls and young women generally received little by way

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Speaker 3: of sex education, to the point that a pregnant woman

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Speaker 3: might have no idea how the baby growing inside her

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Speaker 3: would actually leave her body. Harry was gone, but the

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Speaker 3: couple had been together long enough for Rachel to conceive

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00:16:12,756 --> 00:16:16,636
Speaker 3: a child nine months after they wed and then separated.

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Speaker 3: Baby Stanley was born at the City of London Maternity

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Speaker 3: Hospital under the eye of medical professionals. Such care was

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00:16:25,076 --> 00:16:28,436
Speaker 3: a luxury beyond the means of many women, so when

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00:16:28,516 --> 00:16:31,996
Speaker 3: Rachel was admitted, it was probably through a charitable scheme.

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Speaker 8: Single women who are sufficiently recommended.

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Speaker 5: Said the hospital rules, and are.

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Speaker 8: Found to be deserving of the benefits of the hospital's

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00:16:40,236 --> 00:16:44,436
Speaker 8: charity will be eligible for admission for their first confinement.

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Speaker 3: On Stanley's birth certificate, Rachel wrote that both she and

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Speaker 3: Harry were residing at the same address, but her husband

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00:16:53,036 --> 00:16:56,556
Speaker 3: was who knows where, for he'd gone to see as

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Speaker 3: a third class steward on an ocean liner. The couple

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00:17:00,676 --> 00:17:04,556
Speaker 3: may have separated, but their lives remain knotted together. Their

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00:17:04,596 --> 00:17:08,996
Speaker 3: meetings would become ever more acrimonious, and in the coming years,

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Speaker 3: Harry Dobkin would wage an awful campaign of threats and

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Speaker 3: violence against his ever more fragile wife. Bad Women, the

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Speaker 3: Blackout ripper will be back after this short break.

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Speaker 8: State your full name for the record.

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Speaker 1: Harry Dobkin had clearly not been providing for his family

239
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Speaker 1: and was summoned to the imposing Old Street Police Court,

240
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Speaker 1: where he was ordered to pay the sum of one

241
00:17:47,156 --> 00:17:50,956
Speaker 1: pound per week to his wife and child, a considerable

242
00:17:50,996 --> 00:17:55,996
Speaker 1: portion of his earnings. Divorce was expensive, difficult to obtain,

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Speaker 1: and carry the stigma, so the pair chose to remain married.

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Speaker 1: According to Ginger Frost, such messy separations often crippled both parties.

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Speaker 9: Usually separations come, it's usually years of marriage. The woman

246
00:18:11,236 --> 00:18:13,716
Speaker 9: will do a lot to avoid it because the separation

247
00:18:13,836 --> 00:18:16,796
Speaker 9: payments you get are not the same as having a breadwinner.

248
00:18:16,916 --> 00:18:19,356
Speaker 9: They're not enough really to keep you in any children.

249
00:18:19,476 --> 00:18:20,996
Speaker 9: So she has to work. That means somebody has to

250
00:18:21,036 --> 00:18:22,996
Speaker 9: take care of the kids. It just doesn't work.

251
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Speaker 1: Harry paid the sum for a few weeks perhaps, but

252
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Speaker 1: then fell into arrears. He was again holed up at

253
00:18:31,036 --> 00:18:35,676
Speaker 1: court and sentenced to six weeks in prison. This measure

254
00:18:35,796 --> 00:18:40,436
Speaker 1: was ultimately intended to discourage nonpayment, but of course while

255
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Speaker 1: Harry was in prison, his income was halted.

256
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Speaker 9: I'm going to jow that happens all the time. Men

257
00:18:46,516 --> 00:18:49,036
Speaker 9: can never make these payments because you can't keep two

258
00:18:49,036 --> 00:18:51,316
Speaker 9: households on that. She can't keep her household on that,

259
00:18:51,356 --> 00:18:52,676
Speaker 9: and he can't keep his on that. You got to

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00:18:52,716 --> 00:18:55,476
Speaker 9: live with somebody else. He didn't appear to want another relationship,

261
00:18:55,516 --> 00:18:57,476
Speaker 9: but if he ever wanted to have another one, he

262
00:18:57,476 --> 00:18:59,476
Speaker 9: couldn't afford it because he was paying so much of

263
00:18:59,476 --> 00:19:03,996
Speaker 9: his pay to her. So conflict on that really common.

264
00:19:04,636 --> 00:19:07,556
Speaker 1: When Harry left prison, he took a job aboard the

265
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Speaker 1: s S. Pittsburgh of the White Star Line, sailed away

266
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Speaker 1: and did not return for ten years.

267
00:19:21,636 --> 00:19:25,916
Speaker 3: How Rachel made ends meet in Harry's absence is unclear.

268
00:19:26,596 --> 00:19:31,636
Speaker 3: It's doubtful he sent money back. When Harry Dobkin finally

269
00:19:31,716 --> 00:19:35,316
Speaker 3: returned from c he says relatives tried to engineer a

270
00:19:35,436 --> 00:19:38,396
Speaker 3: rapprochemund to bring the husband and wife back together again.

271
00:19:38,996 --> 00:19:41,716
Speaker 3: He even claimed he was offered money to reunite with

272
00:19:41,796 --> 00:19:49,436
Speaker 3: Rachel eight pounds, So the unhappy pair lived together briefly

273
00:19:50,716 --> 00:19:53,956
Speaker 3: for According to Harry, the arguments erupted again.

274
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Speaker 6: And then discovered that all my seamen's discharge papers were

275
00:19:58,996 --> 00:20:02,036
Speaker 6: missing and accused my wife of taking them. She accused

276
00:20:02,076 --> 00:20:03,796
Speaker 6: me of taking a broach belonging to her.

277
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Speaker 7: Go on, tell me where you put it. I've got

278
00:20:06,996 --> 00:20:07,796
Speaker 7: right to the police.

279
00:20:07,876 --> 00:20:11,396
Speaker 6: I was arrested and charged stealing. The following day, I

280
00:20:11,396 --> 00:20:14,516
Speaker 6: appeared at Old Street police call, but a case was dismissed.

281
00:20:15,436 --> 00:20:18,836
Speaker 3: The apartment was rented in Harry's name, but he said

282
00:20:18,876 --> 00:20:21,036
Speaker 3: that he left and moved back in with his parents.

283
00:20:21,756 --> 00:20:26,356
Speaker 3: He bemoaned that thereafter Rachel continually reported him for non

284
00:20:26,436 --> 00:20:29,956
Speaker 3: payment of their maintenance agreement, and he spent several short

285
00:20:29,996 --> 00:20:37,116
Speaker 3: spells behind bars. By Harry's account, Rachel was an exasperating nuisance.

286
00:20:37,516 --> 00:20:39,916
Speaker 3: His sister Annie described how she would turn up at

287
00:20:39,916 --> 00:20:41,396
Speaker 3: her home causing trouble.

288
00:20:41,556 --> 00:20:43,836
Speaker 5: She called at all hours and kicked up a row.

289
00:20:44,636 --> 00:20:48,716
Speaker 3: There is, however, another side to this story. In January

290
00:20:48,756 --> 00:20:52,076
Speaker 3: nineteen thirty five, someone tried to set a fire on

291
00:20:52,156 --> 00:20:55,996
Speaker 3: Rachel's doorstep at five am. An employee of the housing

292
00:20:56,036 --> 00:20:59,036
Speaker 3: block was sent to survey the considerable.

293
00:20:58,356 --> 00:21:03,396
Speaker 8: Damage from the lockdownwards. The door had been burned almost through.

294
00:21:04,076 --> 00:21:06,556
Speaker 8: It looked as though someone had put some oily rag

295
00:21:06,596 --> 00:21:08,996
Speaker 8: and paper against the door and had set light to him.

296
00:21:09,436 --> 00:21:13,236
Speaker 3: Terrified, Rachel was convinced that Harry was behind the arsen attack.

297
00:21:14,396 --> 00:21:17,756
Speaker 3: Perhaps it was an attempt to merely intimidate her, or

298
00:21:18,156 --> 00:21:21,396
Speaker 3: perhaps it was a bid to end the union permanently.

299
00:21:22,596 --> 00:21:25,876
Speaker 3: Rachel didn't pursue her husband through the courts, and no

300
00:21:26,116 --> 00:21:30,436
Speaker 3: charges were laid against him.

301
00:21:30,956 --> 00:21:35,796
Speaker 1: The residents of Whitechapel erected barricades and readied themselves to

302
00:21:35,876 --> 00:21:41,316
Speaker 1: repel the invaders. In almost medieval scenes, cobbles and paving

303
00:21:41,396 --> 00:21:45,916
Speaker 1: stones were lifted in preparation to pelt the approaching enemy,

304
00:21:46,436 --> 00:21:50,436
Speaker 1: and those in upstairs windows boiled water to rain down

305
00:21:50,476 --> 00:21:55,036
Speaker 1: on their foes. Mounted police charged the locals of this

306
00:21:55,156 --> 00:21:59,036
Speaker 1: Jewish neighborhood, hoping the blows from their truncheons would clear

307
00:21:59,076 --> 00:22:03,076
Speaker 1: a path through. The thousands assembled, a path that would

308
00:22:03,076 --> 00:22:07,316
Speaker 1: allow Sir Oswald Moseley and his black shirted British fascists

309
00:22:07,556 --> 00:22:11,956
Speaker 1: to stage a provocative months the police could make a

310
00:22:12,036 --> 00:22:17,036
Speaker 1: little headway, the barriers were too numerous, the crowds too enraged,

311
00:22:17,356 --> 00:22:21,796
Speaker 1: the hail of stones too thick. The fascist procession would

312
00:22:21,836 --> 00:22:26,436
Speaker 1: have to take another wart. We are through street, complained

313
00:22:26,436 --> 00:22:29,436
Speaker 1: the Blackshirts when they were denied the chance to struck

314
00:22:29,476 --> 00:22:34,196
Speaker 1: past synagogues, Jewish homes and Jewish businesses, raising their stiff

315
00:22:34,316 --> 00:22:38,956
Speaker 1: armed Nazi salutes. The black Shirt leader topped openly of

316
00:22:38,996 --> 00:22:43,916
Speaker 1: expelling Jews from the country, and amongst his rabble rousing accusations,

317
00:22:44,156 --> 00:22:47,636
Speaker 1: he blamed the Jewish garment workshops of Whitechapel for the

318
00:22:47,676 --> 00:22:57,716
Speaker 1: woes of an industry hit by the Great Depression. Bloodied

319
00:22:57,756 --> 00:23:02,916
Speaker 1: and bested, the Blackshirts at last retreated and marched away

320
00:23:03,036 --> 00:23:07,876
Speaker 1: from the East End. Moseley had humiliatingly lost the Battle

321
00:23:07,916 --> 00:23:11,236
Speaker 1: of Cable Street and went to Berlin to lick his wounds,

322
00:23:11,716 --> 00:23:15,756
Speaker 1: where he also found time to marry his fiancee. Under

323
00:23:15,796 --> 00:23:19,076
Speaker 1: the gaze of Hitler himself.

324
00:23:23,996 --> 00:23:28,356
Speaker 3: The doctor examined the bruising on Rachel Dobkins's arms and face.

325
00:23:29,796 --> 00:23:34,956
Speaker 3: What caused this, he asked his patient, my husband, she replied,

326
00:23:35,596 --> 00:23:39,196
Speaker 3: When Rachel returned with a black eye, Doctor Murphy made

327
00:23:39,196 --> 00:23:40,356
Speaker 3: a record of the assault.

328
00:23:41,316 --> 00:23:43,716
Speaker 2: My sister's husband has been very cruel to her.

329
00:23:44,076 --> 00:23:47,356
Speaker 3: Polly Dubinsky was eleven years younger than Rachel, but she

330
00:23:47,436 --> 00:23:49,476
Speaker 3: kept a protective eye on her older sister.

331
00:23:49,676 --> 00:23:52,596
Speaker 7: She has received severe blows from him at different times.

332
00:23:53,276 --> 00:23:57,796
Speaker 3: Friend Sadie Zimbler also saw Rachel's black eyes and purple bruises.

333
00:23:58,316 --> 00:24:01,516
Speaker 5: She told me that he was a violent man. And

334
00:24:01,636 --> 00:24:03,716
Speaker 5: I advised her to keep away from him.

335
00:24:04,436 --> 00:24:08,836
Speaker 3: Although they lived apart, Rachel's meetings with Harry could still

336
00:24:09,156 --> 00:24:12,756
Speaker 3: flare into disagreement, and Harry would try to win these

337
00:24:12,796 --> 00:24:18,036
Speaker 3: disputes with his fists. The abuse inflicted such trauma that

338
00:24:18,196 --> 00:24:22,676
Speaker 3: Rachel became unable to work. It seems that Harry's attempts

339
00:24:22,716 --> 00:24:26,716
Speaker 3: to silence his wife only made her even more reliant

340
00:24:26,876 --> 00:24:28,356
Speaker 3: on his maintenance payments.

341
00:24:29,996 --> 00:24:30,316
Speaker 2: Harry.

342
00:24:30,876 --> 00:24:35,316
Speaker 3: In nineteen thirty seven, Rachel in the street so hard

343
00:24:35,516 --> 00:24:39,596
Speaker 3: that she suffered a so called mental lapse. Unbeknownst to

344
00:24:39,676 --> 00:24:42,796
Speaker 3: her family, she was sent to an observation board in

345
00:24:42,876 --> 00:24:50,516
Speaker 3: nearby Saint Clement's Hospital. The treatment of mental illness was changing.

346
00:24:50,996 --> 00:24:55,156
Speaker 3: Lunatics were now patience and no longer insane, but of

347
00:24:55,276 --> 00:24:59,516
Speaker 3: unsound mind. Mental ill health was an ailment, and hopefully

348
00:24:59,556 --> 00:25:04,316
Speaker 3: a temporary one, rather than an identity. Previously, doctors waited

349
00:25:04,396 --> 00:25:06,996
Speaker 3: until people were so ill that they could be certified

350
00:25:06,996 --> 00:25:10,756
Speaker 3: insane and sent to an asylum. But now observation wards

351
00:25:10,796 --> 00:25:14,116
Speaker 3: welcomed patients like Rachel and then decided whether they needed

352
00:25:14,116 --> 00:25:18,076
Speaker 3: more intensive treatment a period of convalescence, or had recovered

353
00:25:18,076 --> 00:25:25,316
Speaker 3: sufficiently to be discharged. When Rachel's siblings, Polly, Mary and Nathan,

354
00:25:25,596 --> 00:25:27,956
Speaker 3: marched through the doors of the hospital two days later

355
00:25:28,076 --> 00:25:31,076
Speaker 3: to retrieve her. They were adamant that their sister was

356
00:25:31,156 --> 00:25:34,756
Speaker 3: quite well enough to leave. Rachel was said to be frightened.

357
00:25:35,476 --> 00:25:37,996
Speaker 2: I'm not sure I'm quite well, and.

358
00:25:37,916 --> 00:25:42,476
Speaker 3: She described fiery feelings on the crown of her head giddiness.

359
00:25:43,796 --> 00:25:47,236
Speaker 3: Though her time in hospital was short, the suggestion that

360
00:25:47,356 --> 00:25:50,436
Speaker 3: Rachel was of unsound mind would haunt her in the

361
00:25:50,436 --> 00:25:55,436
Speaker 3: coming years, prompting some to discount her growing concerns about

362
00:25:55,436 --> 00:25:56,836
Speaker 3: her abusive husband.

363
00:25:59,956 --> 00:26:03,236
Speaker 8: So that's one Russian tea will be wanting something to

364
00:26:03,316 --> 00:26:03,996
Speaker 8: eat as well.

365
00:26:04,956 --> 00:26:08,476
Speaker 1: Maud Air didn't know the agitated man ordering food at

366
00:26:08,476 --> 00:26:12,236
Speaker 1: her son's case on an August day in nineteen thirty nine.

367
00:26:12,996 --> 00:26:18,716
Speaker 1: The customer, Harry Dobkin, talked to waiting staff, then approached Maud.

368
00:26:19,556 --> 00:26:22,836
Speaker 6: My wife is pregnant. She's threatened to have an illegal operation.

369
00:26:23,916 --> 00:26:25,796
Speaker 6: Will you come and have a talk with her and

370
00:26:25,996 --> 00:26:26,796
Speaker 6: persuade her not.

371
00:26:26,796 --> 00:26:27,236
Speaker 2: To do it.

372
00:26:27,556 --> 00:26:31,876
Speaker 1: Maud followed Harry Dobkin back to his nearby rented room.

373
00:26:32,276 --> 00:26:35,556
Speaker 1: He was earning a living making and selling aprons, and

374
00:26:35,636 --> 00:26:41,276
Speaker 1: the space was both home and workshop. Inside, she found Rachel.

375
00:26:42,436 --> 00:26:46,356
Speaker 5: She then said, I'm pregnant. I have a boy of

376
00:26:46,436 --> 00:26:49,316
Speaker 5: eighteen and I don't want to go through with another one.

377
00:26:49,996 --> 00:26:52,236
Speaker 5: I've paid the money and I'm going to have an

378
00:26:52,236 --> 00:26:53,916
Speaker 5: illegal operation tomorrow.

379
00:26:54,596 --> 00:26:59,716
Speaker 1: Maud explained to the englishwoman that the procedure would be dangerous.

380
00:27:00,276 --> 00:27:02,836
Speaker 5: I told her not to be silly and go through

381
00:27:02,876 --> 00:27:03,796
Speaker 5: and have the child.

382
00:27:04,596 --> 00:27:07,476
Speaker 1: Rachel, who admitted that she had already tried to end

383
00:27:07,476 --> 00:27:12,116
Speaker 1: the pregnancy by swallowing anti malarial drug, seemed to listen

384
00:27:12,196 --> 00:27:12,996
Speaker 1: to this advice.

385
00:27:13,636 --> 00:27:15,836
Speaker 2: I will not have it done. Will you speak to

386
00:27:15,836 --> 00:27:16,436
Speaker 2: my husband.

387
00:27:17,236 --> 00:27:21,876
Speaker 1: Rachel's husband, however, had already left. He'd gone to report

388
00:27:21,876 --> 00:27:27,396
Speaker 1: her to the police. Interviewed by officers, Rachel described how

389
00:27:27,436 --> 00:27:30,956
Speaker 1: Harry's abuse had escalated during one of her visits to

390
00:27:31,036 --> 00:27:33,556
Speaker 1: seek her overdue alimony.

391
00:27:33,636 --> 00:27:35,196
Speaker 2: About a fortnight ago.

392
00:27:35,516 --> 00:27:39,716
Speaker 7: My husband forced himself for me and had intercourse, although

393
00:27:40,036 --> 00:27:40,996
Speaker 7: I did not wish it.

394
00:27:41,796 --> 00:27:46,236
Speaker 1: This accusation of rape, denied by Harry, seems not to

395
00:27:46,316 --> 00:27:50,556
Speaker 1: have interested the police. A wife couldn't deny her husband's sex,

396
00:27:50,796 --> 00:27:54,836
Speaker 1: said the law, but seeking an abortion was an offense.

397
00:27:54,956 --> 00:28:01,916
Speaker 1: They'd happily investigate. Husband and wife disagreed about who'd insisted

398
00:28:01,916 --> 00:28:05,916
Speaker 1: on the termination, but Rachel was not, in fact pregnant.

399
00:28:06,836 --> 00:28:09,436
Speaker 1: A doctor who examined her at the behesse of the

400
00:28:09,476 --> 00:28:13,196
Speaker 1: police concluded that she was going through the menopause and

401
00:28:13,276 --> 00:28:19,316
Speaker 1: suffering from menopausal neurosis that made her a borderline mental case.

402
00:28:20,676 --> 00:28:24,876
Speaker 1: In their final report, police noted that Rachel was unreliable,

403
00:28:25,276 --> 00:28:31,956
Speaker 1: rambling and suffering from bad nerves. Despite Rachel's accusations of violence,

404
00:28:32,356 --> 00:28:36,036
Speaker 1: the police decided that Harry and Rachel were essentially as

405
00:28:36,316 --> 00:28:37,476
Speaker 1: bad as one another.

406
00:28:38,116 --> 00:28:42,116
Speaker 8: Both mister and missus Dobkins are very vindictive towards each other.

407
00:28:42,836 --> 00:28:46,116
Speaker 8: There is no doubt Harry Dobkins tries to avoid payment

408
00:28:46,156 --> 00:28:49,996
Speaker 8: of the maintenance order. She in turn molests him whenever possible.

409
00:28:50,716 --> 00:28:55,076
Speaker 1: Homicide expert Professor Jane Mounkton Smith is familiar with such

410
00:28:55,116 --> 00:28:57,196
Speaker 1: explanations of domestic violence.

411
00:28:57,876 --> 00:29:00,316
Speaker 10: The six of one half a dozen of the other

412
00:29:00,556 --> 00:29:05,316
Speaker 10: narrative I think is incredibly damaging to victims, especially of

413
00:29:05,316 --> 00:29:06,836
Speaker 10: control and abuse.

414
00:29:07,396 --> 00:29:10,276
Speaker 1: We sent Jane the files on Rachel DIDs and she

415
00:29:10,356 --> 00:29:13,596
Speaker 1: felt that the police were wrongly dismissive of Rachel's plight.

416
00:29:14,156 --> 00:29:16,836
Speaker 10: He wasn't living with her, so he's coming in from

417
00:29:16,876 --> 00:29:20,876
Speaker 10: outside and forcing himself on her and this woman is

418
00:29:21,076 --> 00:29:25,156
Speaker 10: left to deal with the consequences of his violence time

419
00:29:25,236 --> 00:29:28,716
Speaker 10: and time and time again. And you do not see

420
00:29:28,836 --> 00:29:32,236
Speaker 10: that being spoken about in any of the records. The

421
00:29:32,396 --> 00:29:35,516
Speaker 10: violence is almost spoken about as if well, they had

422
00:29:35,516 --> 00:29:37,916
Speaker 10: that kind of relationship. So that's what was going on,

423
00:29:38,236 --> 00:29:40,916
Speaker 10: and she was a bit crazy anyway. So poor guy.

424
00:29:41,516 --> 00:29:45,356
Speaker 10: She was on the road to losing her life, absolutely definitely,

425
00:29:45,476 --> 00:29:48,396
Speaker 10: and not a single person was on her side.

426
00:29:49,596 --> 00:29:52,836
Speaker 3: It wasn't long after this incident that Rachel started to

427
00:29:52,916 --> 00:29:59,076
Speaker 3: visit the medium Madame Nerva. Spiritualism was immensely popular. Practitioners

428
00:29:59,116 --> 00:30:02,276
Speaker 3: believed that the dead survived in another realm and could

429
00:30:02,316 --> 00:30:06,356
Speaker 3: commune with the living. Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan

430
00:30:06,396 --> 00:30:11,916
Speaker 3: Doyle had even been among spiritualisms celebrity proponents. For historian

431
00:30:11,996 --> 00:30:15,876
Speaker 3: Ginger Frost, its popularity is linked to the upheaval and

432
00:30:16,036 --> 00:30:19,796
Speaker 3: tragedy that unfolded in the first part of the twentieth century.

433
00:30:22,116 --> 00:30:24,236
Speaker 9: So many people died in World War One, and the

434
00:30:24,276 --> 00:30:27,516
Speaker 9: flu epidemic took out even more, and those two whammies

435
00:30:27,596 --> 00:30:29,356
Speaker 9: within a couple of three years of each other. It

436
00:30:29,436 --> 00:30:33,196
Speaker 9: was just disaster, and most people had lost multiple people

437
00:30:33,196 --> 00:30:35,156
Speaker 9: in their lives. They wanted to be able to connect

438
00:30:35,196 --> 00:30:37,316
Speaker 9: to them again. They wanted some hope that they were

439
00:30:37,356 --> 00:30:39,676
Speaker 9: still somewhere. And I can understand that.

440
00:30:40,076 --> 00:30:43,556
Speaker 3: And so seance circles and mediums proliferated.

441
00:30:44,076 --> 00:30:46,596
Speaker 9: Most of them had like a spirit guide who would

442
00:30:46,596 --> 00:30:48,916
Speaker 9: show up, and they'd speak in that guide's voice, and

443
00:30:48,956 --> 00:30:52,716
Speaker 9: the guide would answer questions. Some of them transported things,

444
00:30:53,276 --> 00:30:55,316
Speaker 9: of course, most of them are just concealed them on

445
00:30:55,356 --> 00:30:57,996
Speaker 9: their bodies, but they would just suddenly spout flowers, or

446
00:30:57,996 --> 00:31:00,796
Speaker 9: they would have a relic from another time that would

447
00:31:00,836 --> 00:31:03,036
Speaker 9: be in their hand, or they were seeing things from

448
00:31:03,076 --> 00:31:06,116
Speaker 9: other times. They were going other places without actually leaving

449
00:31:06,156 --> 00:31:09,116
Speaker 9: the room. There were all of these kinds of psychic.

450
00:31:08,796 --> 00:31:13,436
Speaker 3: Phenomen Hilda Nerva, a Polish emigray, told the Psychic News

451
00:31:13,476 --> 00:31:18,156
Speaker 3: that since childhood she'd possessed a strange power that enabled

452
00:31:18,156 --> 00:31:22,516
Speaker 3: her to help other girls with their problems. Rachel certainly

453
00:31:22,636 --> 00:31:25,996
Speaker 3: came burdened with problems, and her relationship with Madame Nerva

454
00:31:26,116 --> 00:31:30,196
Speaker 3: seems to have had a therapeutic quality. This wasn't uncommon.

455
00:31:30,276 --> 00:31:32,956
Speaker 9: You talk out things with them, they're comforting. It's just

456
00:31:32,996 --> 00:31:34,796
Speaker 9: if you think of it that way as kind of therapy.

457
00:31:34,876 --> 00:31:36,436
Speaker 9: It seems like a very healthy to have someone to

458
00:31:36,476 --> 00:31:38,036
Speaker 9: go to and talk to about the stuff and feel

459
00:31:38,036 --> 00:31:38,836
Speaker 9: better when you leave.

460
00:31:39,516 --> 00:31:42,516
Speaker 3: Rachel went to the Little Brick House every other Sunday,

461
00:31:42,996 --> 00:31:48,196
Speaker 3: but April eighth, nineteen forty one, was a Tuesday. Rachel Dobkin,

462
00:31:48,716 --> 00:31:51,636
Speaker 3: now forty eight years old, had a pressing question for

463
00:31:51,676 --> 00:31:52,396
Speaker 3: Madame Nerva.

464
00:31:53,036 --> 00:31:54,396
Speaker 2: Can you tell me something?

465
00:31:55,516 --> 00:31:58,956
Speaker 4: Give me an article and I'll try and get through

466
00:31:59,036 --> 00:31:59,396
Speaker 4: for you.

467
00:31:59,956 --> 00:32:03,756
Speaker 3: Rachel handed over the wedding ring and Madame Nerva entered

468
00:32:03,756 --> 00:32:04,836
Speaker 3: a semi trance.

469
00:32:05,516 --> 00:32:10,516
Speaker 4: You are worried and full of trouble. You are planning

470
00:32:10,556 --> 00:32:14,756
Speaker 4: to go in a few days on a journey to

471
00:32:14,836 --> 00:32:16,476
Speaker 4: meet someone.

472
00:32:16,756 --> 00:32:17,316
Speaker 5: Don't go.

473
00:32:18,516 --> 00:32:22,396
Speaker 4: Leave it to the spirit, friends, and stay where you are.

474
00:32:22,876 --> 00:32:26,516
Speaker 3: The psychic described a vision of Rachel entering a large

475
00:32:26,596 --> 00:32:28,996
Speaker 3: building where she knew there was money for her.

476
00:32:29,676 --> 00:32:33,956
Speaker 5: I see sadness for you. Will you promise not to go?

477
00:32:34,876 --> 00:32:39,076
Speaker 3: Rachel made the promise, but Madame Nerva's words seemed to

478
00:32:39,116 --> 00:32:44,756
Speaker 3: have weighed on her heavily. Bad women the Blackout Ripper

479
00:32:45,076 --> 00:32:47,236
Speaker 3: will be back after this shortbreak.

480
00:32:52,836 --> 00:32:56,716
Speaker 1: Two days after her meeting with Madame Nerva, Rachel called

481
00:32:56,716 --> 00:33:00,756
Speaker 1: at the home of a friend who said she was depressed, anxious,

482
00:33:01,316 --> 00:33:02,596
Speaker 1: and afraid of Harry.

483
00:33:03,076 --> 00:33:05,556
Speaker 7: She told me that her husband would get her sooner

484
00:33:05,636 --> 00:33:07,556
Speaker 7: or later, would finish her.

485
00:33:08,236 --> 00:33:11,156
Speaker 1: Yet the following day day Rachel appears to have had

486
00:33:11,196 --> 00:33:14,716
Speaker 1: a change of heart. On Friday morning, she met with

487
00:33:14,796 --> 00:33:17,676
Speaker 1: her beloved son Stanley, and they arranged to go to

488
00:33:17,676 --> 00:33:21,956
Speaker 1: the cinema later that afternoon. At lunch time, she crossed

489
00:33:21,956 --> 00:33:24,996
Speaker 1: paths with Polly and told her that her husband had

490
00:33:25,036 --> 00:33:28,596
Speaker 1: offered her a pound of onions as a present, food

491
00:33:28,676 --> 00:33:31,316
Speaker 1: being scarce at this stage of the war, and she

492
00:33:31,716 --> 00:33:37,356
Speaker 1: was going to meet him. Harry Dobkins said he encountered

493
00:33:37,356 --> 00:33:40,276
Speaker 1: his wife on the street near his house. He was

494
00:33:40,316 --> 00:33:42,356
Speaker 1: on his way out to sell some aprons.

495
00:33:42,636 --> 00:33:44,996
Speaker 6: It was obvious she had been my infamy.

496
00:33:45,316 --> 00:33:48,076
Speaker 1: Rachel was always trying to lure him back to live

497
00:33:48,116 --> 00:33:51,396
Speaker 1: with her, he said, casting himself in the role of

498
00:33:51,436 --> 00:33:53,036
Speaker 1: the beleagued victim.

499
00:33:53,236 --> 00:33:55,596
Speaker 6: I said, please don't hang around here and cause trouble.

500
00:33:55,716 --> 00:33:56,956
Speaker 6: My mother is very ill.

501
00:33:57,716 --> 00:34:01,596
Speaker 1: They agreed to meet later at a local cafe. The

502
00:34:01,636 --> 00:34:05,796
Speaker 1: proprietors remembered them coming in. She'd seen them together before.

503
00:34:06,196 --> 00:34:09,476
Speaker 5: They sat at a corner table. The woman was very talkative.

504
00:34:09,996 --> 00:34:13,556
Speaker 5: The couple appeared quite friendly and they were not quarreling

505
00:34:13,676 --> 00:34:14,276
Speaker 5: or arguing.

506
00:34:14,956 --> 00:34:17,236
Speaker 1: But Harry told a different story.

507
00:34:17,756 --> 00:34:19,876
Speaker 6: She said, if you don't make peace with me, I'll

508
00:34:19,916 --> 00:34:22,956
Speaker 6: make trouble for you. She was talking in low tones,

509
00:34:22,996 --> 00:34:26,676
Speaker 6: but was a bit hysterical. After this threat, I said,

510
00:34:26,796 --> 00:34:29,636
Speaker 6: I'll consider peace if you will calm yourself and go home.

511
00:34:30,676 --> 00:34:32,316
Speaker 6: She drunk a cup of tea, and as we left

512
00:34:32,316 --> 00:34:34,756
Speaker 6: the tea shop, she said she didn't feel well and

513
00:34:34,796 --> 00:34:37,356
Speaker 6: she was going to her mother's to wear the wireless.

514
00:34:37,956 --> 00:34:41,156
Speaker 1: Harry said. She boarded the number twenty two bus and

515
00:34:41,236 --> 00:34:45,996
Speaker 1: he watched as it lurched away towards Shoredage.

516
00:34:47,956 --> 00:34:52,236
Speaker 3: That evening, Polly finished work and went home early. The

517
00:34:52,276 --> 00:34:55,516
Speaker 3: baby of the family, she hadn't followed her siblings into

518
00:34:55,516 --> 00:34:59,116
Speaker 3: the garment trade, and had instead learnt shorthand typing and

519
00:34:59,156 --> 00:35:03,436
Speaker 3: become a bookkeeper and clerk at a city office. Rachel

520
00:35:03,676 --> 00:35:06,596
Speaker 3: never appeared a flat to rest and listen to the wireless,

521
00:35:07,156 --> 00:35:10,556
Speaker 3: nor did she make it to the cinema with stat. Ordinarily,

522
00:35:10,636 --> 00:35:12,716
Speaker 3: she would call round in the evenings and eat dinner

523
00:35:12,756 --> 00:35:15,316
Speaker 3: with her family, but that night her place at the

524
00:35:15,356 --> 00:35:19,596
Speaker 3: table sat empty. The following morning, there was still no

525
00:35:19,636 --> 00:35:22,636
Speaker 3: sign of her, and Polly felt uneasy enough to let

526
00:35:22,636 --> 00:35:26,396
Speaker 3: herself into Rachel's flat with the spare key. When she

527
00:35:26,476 --> 00:35:29,756
Speaker 3: saw her sister's undisturbed bedsheets and realized that she hadn't

528
00:35:29,796 --> 00:35:34,196
Speaker 3: slept there, Polly felt sure that something terrible had happened.

529
00:35:39,396 --> 00:35:42,876
Speaker 3: At first, the flames licked at the old church ruins,

530
00:35:43,356 --> 00:35:47,876
Speaker 3: dancing across its floorboards and wood paneling. Then they curled

531
00:35:47,916 --> 00:35:51,636
Speaker 3: around what remained of the timber rafters, and soon the

532
00:35:51,756 --> 00:35:58,956
Speaker 3: orange blaze lit up the night skies. Harry Dogkins supplemented

533
00:35:58,996 --> 00:36:02,036
Speaker 3: his income as a part time firewatcher at the warehouse

534
00:36:02,116 --> 00:36:05,676
Speaker 3: next door. Aprons sails had been poor, so he spent

535
00:36:05,756 --> 00:36:09,076
Speaker 3: his nights protecting these premises from the ancendry bombs dropped

536
00:36:09,196 --> 00:36:12,676
Speaker 3: by the Germans. He greeted the police in firefighters when

537
00:36:12,676 --> 00:36:15,956
Speaker 3: they finally arrived, showing them the best route to reach

538
00:36:16,036 --> 00:36:18,596
Speaker 3: the fire that gripped the bombed out ruins of Fauxhall

539
00:36:18,636 --> 00:36:22,916
Speaker 3: Baptist Chapel. The stout little man in whose suit and

540
00:36:23,036 --> 00:36:26,556
Speaker 3: trilby hat, seemed excited and claimed to have tried to

541
00:36:26,716 --> 00:36:30,196
Speaker 3: extinguish the flames, though he hadn't raised the alarm. His

542
00:36:30,396 --> 00:36:34,636
Speaker 3: very role as a fire watcher. One witness recalled a

543
00:36:34,836 --> 00:36:37,836
Speaker 3: strange remark he made, I didn't do it.

544
00:36:43,836 --> 00:36:48,356
Speaker 1: Across town. The Dubinskis were worried sick about Rachel. They

545
00:36:48,396 --> 00:36:51,716
Speaker 1: hadn't seen her for over three days, and they'd alerted

546
00:36:51,756 --> 00:36:56,076
Speaker 1: the police. The only clue was Rachel's handbag that had

547
00:36:56,116 --> 00:36:59,436
Speaker 1: been found thirty miles from the city and which contained

548
00:36:59,516 --> 00:37:04,196
Speaker 1: vital documents such as haration book. Officers searched for the

549
00:37:04,276 --> 00:37:08,196
Speaker 1: missing woman had trained stations and in local hospitals, and

550
00:37:08,276 --> 00:37:11,876
Speaker 1: they wrote extent reports, but they did not take Polly's

551
00:37:11,876 --> 00:37:18,636
Speaker 1: suspicions or the prophecies of Madam Nerva particularly seriously. Instead,

552
00:37:19,156 --> 00:37:21,596
Speaker 1: they pointed to Rachel's mental health history.

553
00:37:22,356 --> 00:37:23,156
Speaker 2: The woman was.

554
00:37:23,356 --> 00:37:27,476
Speaker 1: Clearly troubled, and she'd probably gone and drowned herself, they thought.

555
00:37:28,276 --> 00:37:31,636
Speaker 1: But over the next year, Polly returned time and again

556
00:37:31,756 --> 00:37:35,476
Speaker 1: to the police, imploring them to act now.

557
00:37:35,556 --> 00:37:38,996
Speaker 7: In the character of her husband, I'm reporting this because

558
00:37:39,076 --> 00:37:42,716
Speaker 7: I feel he has had some hand in her disappearance.

559
00:37:43,316 --> 00:37:47,996
Speaker 1: Polly's unrelenting campaign for justice seems to have annoyed the detectives.

560
00:37:48,636 --> 00:37:52,116
Speaker 1: One police file cast doubt on her mental health, saying

561
00:37:52,196 --> 00:37:55,916
Speaker 1: she buckled under the sorrow of Rachel's disappearance and was

562
00:37:55,996 --> 00:38:02,956
Speaker 1: experiencing her hallucinations. Officers did search the chapel, but hampered

563
00:38:02,956 --> 00:38:08,836
Speaker 1: by bomb and fire damage, found nothing, and ultimately it

564
00:38:08,956 --> 00:38:13,156
Speaker 1: was thought inconceivable that Harry Dubkin would have waited over

565
00:38:13,396 --> 00:38:15,596
Speaker 1: twenty years to kill Rachel.

566
00:38:17,036 --> 00:38:19,876
Speaker 8: There is not the slightest indication that Harry Dobkin has

567
00:38:19,996 --> 00:38:24,236
Speaker 8: murdered his wife, as suggested by the missing woman's relations, but.

568
00:38:24,396 --> 00:38:27,316
Speaker 1: Jane Monkton Smith says that to arrive at such a

569
00:38:27,356 --> 00:38:31,836
Speaker 1: conclusion is to totally misunderstand intimate partner violence.

570
00:38:32,196 --> 00:38:34,556
Speaker 10: One thing that we do know about this type of

571
00:38:34,756 --> 00:38:38,636
Speaker 10: homicide is that there's a level of planning in most

572
00:38:38,796 --> 00:38:41,636
Speaker 10: of them, and in some cases they will try and

573
00:38:41,716 --> 00:38:44,316
Speaker 10: make it look like there's been a car accident or

574
00:38:44,596 --> 00:38:48,436
Speaker 10: a strange fall, or even illness. Sometimes that goes on

575
00:38:48,516 --> 00:38:52,716
Speaker 10: a lot, So sometimes these things are never found out,

576
00:38:52,756 --> 00:38:55,596
Speaker 10: and sometimes, yeah, it can take a long time before

577
00:38:55,636 --> 00:38:56,356
Speaker 10: they're uncovered.

578
00:38:57,236 --> 00:39:01,836
Speaker 1: The police also tied themselves in knots to discredit accounts

579
00:39:01,916 --> 00:39:06,276
Speaker 1: of Harry's violence. For instance, Polly may have noticed Rachel's

580
00:39:06,276 --> 00:39:09,756
Speaker 1: bruises and been told how they've been caused, but officers

581
00:39:09,836 --> 00:39:13,196
Speaker 1: noted that Polly had never actually seen Harry strike her

582
00:39:13,276 --> 00:39:17,636
Speaker 1: sister or threaten her life in their questions to witnesses.

583
00:39:17,996 --> 00:39:21,476
Speaker 1: The police also seemed to have been particularly interested and

584
00:39:21,596 --> 00:39:25,276
Speaker 1: how often Rachel contacted Harry, as though this meant she

585
00:39:25,356 --> 00:39:28,196
Speaker 1: could not have seriously feared he would do her harm.

586
00:39:29,036 --> 00:39:31,836
Speaker 10: When I was reading the case notes for this, I

587
00:39:31,996 --> 00:39:38,436
Speaker 10: actually got quite angry because she suffered a significant injury,

588
00:39:38,636 --> 00:39:42,476
Speaker 10: which caused people to then be able to accuse her

589
00:39:43,196 --> 00:39:46,836
Speaker 10: of having mental health problems. This poor woman probably couldn't

590
00:39:46,876 --> 00:39:49,996
Speaker 10: open her mouth without somebody interpreting what she was saying

591
00:39:50,156 --> 00:39:54,956
Speaker 10: or doing is crazy, which then tends to protect him.

592
00:39:55,316 --> 00:40:00,916
Speaker 10: But he inflicted that injury, and then she's accused of

593
00:40:01,116 --> 00:40:04,716
Speaker 10: chasing him for money and him having to spend time

594
00:40:04,796 --> 00:40:07,756
Speaker 10: in prison because he hadn't paid the money. This is

595
00:40:07,836 --> 00:40:12,836
Speaker 10: a violent, nasty man. He was the architect of all

596
00:40:12,916 --> 00:40:17,396
Speaker 10: of the problems that she had, and there speaking about

597
00:40:17,516 --> 00:40:20,276
Speaker 10: him as if she's the problem. What did they think

598
00:40:20,396 --> 00:40:23,076
Speaker 10: she was going to do for money? She had no

599
00:40:23,356 --> 00:40:27,116
Speaker 10: means of supporting herself. She was of a status of

600
00:40:27,236 --> 00:40:31,196
Speaker 10: a single mother back then. Oh my goodness, that would

601
00:40:31,276 --> 00:40:32,876
Speaker 10: have been so hard.

602
00:40:33,676 --> 00:40:36,796
Speaker 1: As the months went by, there was still no sign

603
00:40:36,876 --> 00:40:41,436
Speaker 1: of Rachel. Twice Polly was called in to identify bodies,

604
00:40:42,316 --> 00:40:45,476
Speaker 1: neither of which turned out to be her sister. These

605
00:40:45,556 --> 00:40:51,156
Speaker 1: experiences proved so traumatic that Polly refused any further invitations

606
00:40:51,236 --> 00:40:56,156
Speaker 1: to the morgue. Harry Dobkin probably felt that he had

607
00:40:56,196 --> 00:41:00,676
Speaker 1: got away with Rachel's murder, but Harry Dobkin was wrong.

608
00:41:04,996 --> 00:41:08,636
Speaker 3: The forensic pathologists set to work examining the torso that

609
00:41:08,716 --> 00:41:11,636
Speaker 3: Benjamin Whien Marshall had discovered in the basement of the chapel.

610
00:41:12,236 --> 00:41:15,676
Speaker 3: It was so small and slight that at first he

611
00:41:15,756 --> 00:41:18,756
Speaker 3: thought it might have belonged to a young girl. The

612
00:41:18,916 --> 00:41:21,796
Speaker 3: hair and other parts of the body were missing, and

613
00:41:21,916 --> 00:41:24,796
Speaker 3: what remained had been mutilated and partially burned.

614
00:41:26,316 --> 00:41:28,436
Speaker 1: The perpetrator clearly thought.

615
00:41:28,316 --> 00:41:32,196
Speaker 3: His grisly handiwork would frustrate attempts to identify the dead woman,

616
00:41:33,356 --> 00:41:37,036
Speaker 3: but the murderer hadn't reckoned on the persistence and skill

617
00:41:37,196 --> 00:41:40,956
Speaker 3: of the pathology team. They raked and sibbed through tons

618
00:41:40,996 --> 00:41:43,876
Speaker 3: of rubble from the chapel looking for more clues, and

619
00:41:43,996 --> 00:41:46,356
Speaker 3: the X rayed and photographed the remains in a lab

620
00:41:46,436 --> 00:41:50,076
Speaker 3: at one of London's top hospitals, determined to find out

621
00:41:50,196 --> 00:41:55,796
Speaker 3: who the dead woman was. Finally, Abraham Kopkin was summoned.

622
00:41:56,596 --> 00:42:01,596
Speaker 3: He tended to teeth across the East End, fillings, extractions, dentches.

623
00:42:02,396 --> 00:42:05,476
Speaker 3: A surviving section of jaw was set before the dentist.

624
00:42:05,996 --> 00:42:09,116
Speaker 6: That's my patient, that's missus Dobbs.

625
00:42:11,316 --> 00:42:14,316
Speaker 3: In August nineteen forty two, the police went to question

626
00:42:14,516 --> 00:42:17,636
Speaker 3: Harry Dobkin. He was living with his aged parents in

627
00:42:17,716 --> 00:42:20,996
Speaker 3: the front room of their house. The space was furnished simply,

628
00:42:21,556 --> 00:42:24,356
Speaker 3: and there were boxes of leather and fabric straps everywhere.

629
00:42:24,716 --> 00:42:28,476
Speaker 8: There's been a development in respect to your wife. I

630
00:42:28,636 --> 00:42:30,996
Speaker 8: want you to accompany us to the police station for

631
00:42:31,116 --> 00:42:32,116
Speaker 8: further inquiries.

632
00:42:32,676 --> 00:42:35,996
Speaker 3: Harry protested that he knew nothing of any seller at

633
00:42:36,036 --> 00:42:39,756
Speaker 3: the chapel, had never once been down there. He grew agitated,

634
00:42:40,436 --> 00:42:42,796
Speaker 3: and then he took a bill from a leather merchant's

635
00:42:42,836 --> 00:42:45,436
Speaker 3: firm out of his pocket, sprawled a note on the back,

636
00:42:46,036 --> 00:42:48,956
Speaker 3: and handed it to a police officer. He was said

637
00:42:48,996 --> 00:42:51,236
Speaker 3: to be in the habit of writing down his thoughts

638
00:42:51,316 --> 00:42:52,276
Speaker 3: on scraps.

639
00:42:51,916 --> 00:42:58,116
Speaker 6: Of paper, Divisional Inspector, Dear sir, It read, in respect

640
00:42:58,276 --> 00:43:00,716
Speaker 6: to what you say that my wife has been found

641
00:43:00,796 --> 00:43:04,116
Speaker 6: dead or murdered, and that you say I know something

642
00:43:04,236 --> 00:43:06,956
Speaker 6: that I am holding back from the police. I am

643
00:43:07,276 --> 00:43:10,316
Speaker 6: sorry to say that I cannot say anything different to

644
00:43:10,516 --> 00:43:11,636
Speaker 6: my previous statements.

645
00:43:13,436 --> 00:43:16,876
Speaker 3: But the police had said nothing about murder, nor had

646
00:43:16,876 --> 00:43:20,116
Speaker 3: they suggested he was holding information back from them. They

647
00:43:20,276 --> 00:43:24,436
Speaker 3: charged him, implying that Rachel had driven her husband to murder.

648
00:43:25,076 --> 00:43:27,436
Speaker 8: We suggest that Dobkin had reason to be rid of

649
00:43:27,516 --> 00:43:30,196
Speaker 8: his wife, as she had been a financial incumbrance to

650
00:43:30,276 --> 00:43:33,876
Speaker 8: him for many years. The maintenance order was a constant

651
00:43:33,996 --> 00:43:36,996
Speaker 8: drain on him. He'd been committed to prison several times

652
00:43:37,076 --> 00:43:40,196
Speaker 8: for its non payment. He has also said that she

653
00:43:40,356 --> 00:43:43,716
Speaker 8: pestered his parents, which did not improve matters.

654
00:43:44,476 --> 00:43:47,476
Speaker 3: Jane Monkton Smith thinks that such a reading of Harry

655
00:43:47,516 --> 00:43:50,796
Speaker 3: Dobkins's motive, one that paints Rachel as a shrew and

656
00:43:50,916 --> 00:43:54,196
Speaker 3: to blame for her own death, badly misses the mark.

657
00:43:54,636 --> 00:43:58,756
Speaker 10: That's the society we created for women. Men created for women,

658
00:43:58,836 --> 00:44:01,556
Speaker 10: a society where they would be reliant on them, and

659
00:44:01,636 --> 00:44:04,036
Speaker 10: they get annoyed about that when they don't want that

660
00:44:04,156 --> 00:44:06,756
Speaker 10: woman anymore. And he wanted rid of her. I really

661
00:44:06,956 --> 00:44:09,556
Speaker 10: believe that he wanted rid of her because he could

662
00:44:09,596 --> 00:44:12,636
Speaker 10: see himself going back into prison again for not giving

663
00:44:12,716 --> 00:44:16,876
Speaker 10: her money. How dare she? How dare she wreck his

664
00:44:17,196 --> 00:44:20,316
Speaker 10: life by trying to get money off him when he's

665
00:44:20,356 --> 00:44:22,236
Speaker 10: got other things to do and a life to lead,

666
00:44:22,596 --> 00:44:26,636
Speaker 10: with no thought for how he has wrecked her life,

667
00:44:26,916 --> 00:44:29,916
Speaker 10: and just expected that she would take it.

668
00:44:31,276 --> 00:44:35,316
Speaker 3: The jury deliberated for only twenty minutes and they were

669
00:44:35,436 --> 00:44:39,476
Speaker 3: unanimous on their verdict. Harry Dobkin had strangled his wife

670
00:44:39,516 --> 00:44:43,276
Speaker 3: to death with his bare hands and then concealed her

671
00:44:43,316 --> 00:44:46,916
Speaker 3: remains in the church cellar. He was hanged on a cold,

672
00:44:47,076 --> 00:44:56,876
Speaker 3: foggy morning at once Worth Prison in South London. After

673
00:44:56,956 --> 00:45:01,516
Speaker 3: the trial, a journalist visited the Dubinski family home. They

674
00:45:01,636 --> 00:45:04,156
Speaker 3: kept a photo of Rachel atop the piano, she noted,

675
00:45:04,716 --> 00:45:05,636
Speaker 3: and another over on.

676
00:45:05,676 --> 00:45:08,956
Speaker 5: The wall, and very beautiful she looked.

677
00:45:10,236 --> 00:45:13,676
Speaker 3: The reporter was intrigued by the role Madame Nerva and

678
00:45:13,796 --> 00:45:18,036
Speaker 3: spiritualism had played in the case. Then, Rachel's mother, Sarah

679
00:45:18,156 --> 00:45:21,076
Speaker 3: and her sister Mary confided that all the time that

680
00:45:21,196 --> 00:45:24,476
Speaker 3: her body had lain concealed in the church ruins, they'd

681
00:45:24,516 --> 00:45:27,556
Speaker 3: heard strange knocks at the door, only to find no

682
00:45:27,636 --> 00:45:31,076
Speaker 3: one waiting on the step, and then in the dead

683
00:45:31,076 --> 00:45:34,796
Speaker 3: of night, Sarah had repeatedly been woken by a voice

684
00:45:34,876 --> 00:45:42,956
Speaker 3: from the playground outside the voice of her missing daughter Rachel,

685
00:45:43,676 --> 00:45:47,836
Speaker 3: so tormented and ill served in life, now at least

686
00:45:47,956 --> 00:45:52,516
Speaker 3: rested in a proper grave. On the headstone, the Dubinskis

687
00:45:52,636 --> 00:45:56,116
Speaker 3: chose to end the heartfelt inscription with a wish.

688
00:45:57,316 --> 00:46:25,916
Speaker 2: Peace to her dear soul, Bad Women.

689
00:46:26,076 --> 00:46:29,516
Speaker 1: The Blackout Ripper is hosted by me Halle Rubinholt and

690
00:46:29,676 --> 00:46:32,756
Speaker 1: me Alice Fines. It was written and produced by Alice

691
00:46:32,796 --> 00:46:36,316
Speaker 1: Fines and Ryan Dilley, with additional support from Courtney Garino

692
00:46:36,476 --> 00:46:37,436
Speaker 1: and Arthur Gomberts.

693
00:46:38,076 --> 00:46:38,796
Speaker 5: Kate Healy of.

694
00:46:38,836 --> 00:46:41,916
Speaker 1: Oakwood Family Trees aided us with genealogical research.

695
00:46:42,556 --> 00:46:45,676
Speaker 3: Pascal Wise Sound designed and mixed the show and composed

696
00:46:45,756 --> 00:46:48,836
Speaker 3: all the original music. The show was recorded at Ordoor

697
00:46:48,916 --> 00:46:52,476
Speaker 3: Studios by David Smith and Tom Berry. You also heard

698
00:46:52,516 --> 00:46:56,316
Speaker 3: the voice talents of Ben Crow, David Glover, Melanie Gutridge,

699
00:46:56,556 --> 00:47:00,316
Speaker 3: Stella Harford, Gemma Saunders, and Rufus Wright. Much of the

700
00:47:00,396 --> 00:47:03,756
Speaker 3: music you heard was performed by Ed Gocken, Ross Hughes,

701
00:47:04,036 --> 00:47:07,316
Speaker 3: Christian Miller and Marcus Penrose. They were recorded by Nick

702
00:47:07,356 --> 00:47:11,876
Speaker 3: Taylor Porcupine Studios. Pushkin's Bend Holiday mixed the tracks and.

703
00:47:12,036 --> 00:47:16,196
Speaker 1: You heard additional piano playing by the Great Berry wise

704
00:47:16,876 --> 00:47:20,276
Speaker 1: Hi Berry. The show also wouldn't have been possible without

705
00:47:20,316 --> 00:47:24,876
Speaker 1: the work of Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fane, Carl Migliori, Maggie Taylor,

706
00:47:25,116 --> 00:47:29,836
Speaker 1: Nicole Morano, Eric Sandler, and Daniela Lukhan. We'd also like

707
00:47:29,916 --> 00:47:33,156
Speaker 1: to thank Michael Buchanan Dunn of the Murder Mile podcast,

708
00:47:33,676 --> 00:47:37,876
Speaker 1: Lizzie Mckerroll, Katherine Walker at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and

709
00:47:37,996 --> 00:47:42,036
Speaker 1: the Earbe Historical Society. Bad Women is a production of

710
00:47:42,116 --> 00:47:45,756
Speaker 1: Pushkin Industries. Please rate and review the show and spread

711
00:47:45,756 --> 00:47:48,356
Speaker 1: the word about what we do and thanks for listening.

712
00:48:23,516 --> 00:48:30,716
Speaker 9: And Hanny.

713
00:48:30,036 --> 00:49:44,796
Speaker 2: Had Ann

714
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Speaker 8: The