S2 E9: The Blackout Ripper on the Run
Greta Heywood is being strangled in a Piccadilly doorway when a passerby interrupts the Blackout Ripper, who disappears into the night. Greta survives the attack and the killer leaves vital…
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The streets of wartime London are pitch black and the darkness offers cover to a murderer every bit as terrible as Jack the Ripper. During one awful week in February 1942 he viciously attacks women night after night. But the victims of the so-called Blackout Ripper are now all but forgotten.
In this season of Bad Women, historian Hallie Rubenhold and criminologist Alice Fiennes share new details from the archives to tell the extraordinary and moving stories of the women who died and why their deaths were swept from view.
And don’t miss season one of Bad Women about a cold case like no other. In the fall of 1888, five women were brutally murdered in the slums of London. But everything you think you know about Jack the Ripper and those murdered women is wrong. Hallie reconstructs the lives of the five victims – revealing the appalling treatment they faced as women in the 1880s, and completely overturning the accepted Ripper story.
Most Recent Episode
S2 E9: The Blackout Ripper on the Run
Greta Heywood is being strangled in a Piccadilly doorway when a passerby interrupts the Blackout Ripper, who disappears into the night. Greta survives the attack and the killer leaves vital…
E8: Madam Nerva Sees Death
Rachel Dobkin has come to see her psychic advisor, Madam Nerva. After years of bitter disagreements and financial wranglings with her estranged and violent husband, Rachel wants to know what…
BONUS: Black GIs and their “Brown Babies”
Unlike white GIs, it was made virtually impossible for African-American servicemen to marry the women they met and fell in love with in the UK during World War Two. If…
E7: Shootout at the Dress Shop
Seamstress Doris Staples doesn't want to see Private John Waters any more... but the American soldier has other ideas. He goes to her workplace to make sure she doesn't "step…
E6: “The Lady” of Gosfield Street
Around Piccadilly she's known as "The Lady" - a quiet, rather remote figure. Widow Margaret Lowe tries to keep herself to herself and stay out of trouble - but trouble…
E5: ‘Men Dodge Bullets, Girls Dodge Men’
The Blackout Ripper wasn't the only serviceman attacking women in World War Two. In cities, towns and villages women were being harassed and abused by men in the military -…
E4: “Lita Ward” the Soho Girl
Though married to chicken farmer Harold, Evelyn Oatley has given up on rural life and returned to live in seedy Soho under her showgirl alias "Lita Ward". The coming of…
E3: The Butchers of Germany
Evelyn Oatley dreams of becoming a stage star in London's glamorous theaterland. It's a world away from her grim provincial upbringing. The daughter of a German immigrant, her troubled home…
E2: The Death of a Quiet Druggist
Evelyn Hamilton has annoyed her bosses in the male-dominated world of pharmacy - they find her quiet and independent nature mystifying and odd. After an unhappy stint at a druggist…
E1: Murders in a City Without Light
London's West End - once a glittering Mecca of nightlife - is pitch black. The lights are off to hide the city from waves of Nazi bombers - but in…
NEW SEASON: The Blackout Ripper coming Oct 11
London is pitch black. It's wartime and the lights are out to confuse Nazi bombers. But in this darkness a killer as warped and as violent as Jack the Ripper…
E15: The Madness of Jacob Levy
Families of Ripper victims often suppressed the memories of their murdered loved ones - fearing the stigma of being related to supposed "prostitutes". And descendants of men accused of being…
E14: The Monster Among Us
Children around the world are taught about Jack the Ripper and shown graphic images of his victims. Is that wise? Are we in danger of normalising his crimes and encouraging…
E13: The Bones of Marie Jeanette
Mary Jane Kelly was the final victim of Jack the Ripper. And the mutilation of her body was more horrendous than in any previous murder. But something also sets her…
E12: The Mystery of Mary Jane Kelly
Mary Jane Kelly’s life ended brutally in a small room in Whitechapel - but what journey brought her to East London? She sold sex in her final years - but…
E11: Chamber of Horrors
In October 1888, Jack the Ripper went to ground. Although the murders seemed to ceased, public interest in the killings remained intense. Entrepreneurs exploited this prurience for profit - even…
E10: In a Dark, Dark Corner
Kate Eddowes was murdered in a dark London square in the dead of the night. What had she been doing there? It seems improbable that she was selling sex... and…
E9: The Ballad of Kate Eddowes
Kate Eddowes rejected the drudgery of conventional working class life and left the factory and hearth to roam the open road. She travelled the country, performing and selling songs she…
E8: The Face of The Ripper
Elizabeth Stride was supposedly seen by several eyewitnesses in her final hours. They also saw a man with her. At last, Jack the Ripper had a face. These descriptions are…
E7: Public Woman 97
Swedish farmer’s daughter Elizabeth fell pregnant out of wedlock. The authorities considered her no better than a prostitute and subjected her to myriad physical and emotional humiliations. After she lost…
E6: The Gentlemen of the Press
Annie Chapman’s murder sparked fears that a crazed killer was on the loose in London, prompting the burgeoning newspaper industry to flood Whitechapel with reporters. Those journalists wrote the first…
E5: Dark Annie and the Demon Drink
Annie Chapman and her husband were making good on their ambitions to live a comfortable, respectable life. Only... Annie drank. Under pressure from her husband’s employer, Annie was sent away…
E4: Polly the “Prostitute”
Standing over the corpse of Polly Nichols, police officers decided that in life she had been a prostitute. Thereâs no evidence Polly ever sold sex, so why did the authorities…
Polly Walks Out
Polly Nichols had a husband, a young family and lived in a brand new home built by a philanthropic millionaire. Then she walked out on it all. Why?Surviving without a…
Welcome to Whitechapel
London on August 6th, 1888 is one of the greatest cities on Earth, but the Whitechapel neighborhood is a byword for poverty, violence, and vice. Jack the Ripper will slaughter…
The Ripper Myth
Jack the Ripper’s victims were prostitutes murdered while selling sex on the streets of Whitechapel - that’s what historian Hallie Rubenhold thought when she started researching the crimes. She was…
Bad Women: The Ripper Retold coming October 5
In late 1888, five women were brutally murdered in a slum neighborhood of London. The violent killer earned himself a nickname - Jack the Ripper. But everything you think you…
The Host
Hallie Rubenhold
Hallie Rubenhold is the host of Bad Women: The Ripper Retold. She is an award-winning historian, author, and consultant. Her research has centered on the often-neglected lives of women. Several of…
