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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 is never far away.

The other residents of her building on Gosfield Street are used to hearing crashes and cries in the dead of night. Margaret sells sex in her flat, and with the coming of war that’s an increasingly dangerous business. But when her clients turn violent, “The Lady” can’t turn to the police and her neighbours seldom lift a finger to help.

One night the man she brings the up stairs to her door is… the Blackout Ripper.

Sources: 

  • Laite, Julia. Common Prostitutes and Ordinary Citizens: Commercial Sex in London, 1885 – 1960 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
  • Laite, Julia. The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A True Story of Sex, Crime and the Meaning of Justice (London: Profile Books, 2021).
  • Philips, Jock. ‘History of Immigration – Depression: 1885 – 1900’, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  • Philips, Jock. ‘History of Immigration – The Great Migration: 1871 – 1885’, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  • Philips, Jock. ‘History of Immigration – Migration: 1900 to 1914’, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

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…