116. The Pin-Up Extortion Plot

Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling

BBC

True Crime, Comedy

4.3 • 922 Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Laura looks at a series of extortion plots that targeted the most famous star in 1940s Hollywood: pin-up girl Betty Grable.

Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling is available twice a week on BBC Sounds. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode. Email us at lauraandiain@bbc.co.uk

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.5	The Most Haunted House in England, or a Victorian ghost hunters' elaborate hoax.
0:12.7	Witnesses to genuine poltergeist activity are at 1960s Yorkshire family with an overactive imagination.
0:20.6	Join me, Danny Robbins, and my team of paranormal experts
0:23.9	as we dig deep into the past, reopening classic cases
0:27.8	and searching for the truths they left behind.
0:32.1	Uncanny cold cases.
0:34.2	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:36.6	Let me take you to North Gower Street in Los Angeles. It's the 14th of March
0:41.4	1943. We're right in the heart of Old Hollywood.
0:45.4	The place hummed with energy with glamour, stardom and movie magic.
0:49.6	This is not a movie. This is an FBI sting.
0:53.6	A couple of days ago, Hollywood sweetheart, Betty Grable received
0:56.8	a threatening letter signed with a code name Snowy. About a month earlier, Betty had received a
1:02.2	different letter. This was signed from The Leopard. Both letters are from the same guy, and that's
1:07.9	the guy who the FBI are trying to capture today.
1:12.1	The most recent letter demanded that
1:12.7	Betty personally
1:13.5	deliver $5,000
1:14.8	to North Gower Street.
1:16.7	She's been told
1:17.2	to drop the money
	...

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