13 – The medical student & the cruel murder of Hazel Mullen

Mens Rea: A true crime podcast

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True Crime, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2018

⏱️ 65 minutes

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Summary

Shan Mohangi arrived in Dublin in 1962 from South Africa. He was 21 years old and had left his home country due to the limited opportunities afforded by the apartheid regime to people of colour in his country at the time. Like many who travelled to Ireland from the African continent, he enrolled in medical school. He took up residence in 95 Harcourt Street and also worked in the restaurant housed in its basement, The Green Tureen. The next year, he met 15 year old Hazel Mullen and the two started going out together. The relationship was serious to Shan, but perhaps less so to Hazel. On the 12th of August 1963, Hazel was to have lunch with Shan in his flat, but he said she never turned up. Smoke was later seen billowing from the restaurant downstairs. After searching all weekend, Shan Mohangi finally told the awful truth. Hazel was dead, and he had tried to burn her up in the ovens of the restaurant. But would 1960’s Ireland provide a man of colour a fair trial for the murder of a teenaged girl? Find us on Facebook or Twitter! With thanks to our supporters on Patreon! If you would like to support the podcast, head on over to Patreon.com. Podcast Promos: Married to Murder Podcast, True Crime Fan Club Podcast, and brand new podcast Murder on the Mind! Theme Music: Quinn’s Song: The Dance Begins by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Sources: Irish Times, “Mother who forgave Shan Mohangi dies in Dublin” https://www.irishtimes.com/news/mother-who-forgave-shan-mohangi-dies-in-dublin-1.52348 15 March 1997 Bill Corcoran “ Shan Mohangi’s Dublin past comes back to haunt him”, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/shan-mohangi-s-dublin-past-comes-back-to-haunt-him-1.729751 25 march 2009 Frank White, “South African Politician and the brutal killing of Hazel Mullen in Dublin”, https://carlow-nationalist.ie/2015/03/20/the-south-african-politician-and-the-brutal-killing-of-hazel-mullen-in-dublin/ 18 March 2015 Kevin Higgins, Shan Mohangi: 95 Harcourt Street (Dublin: Equity Press, 2012) Purchase here

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the mens rea podcast and this is the story of 95 Harcourt Street and the murder of Hazel Mullen. Oh, Just a quick note before we get into the episode proper.
0:45.0	This week we're running a little bit longer than normal.
0:48.0	There was a lot of material to cover in this particular story.
0:51.0	So apologies to those who don't like the longer episodes. But frankly, I didn't
0:57.4	think our patron Dara could handle another two-part episode so quickly after the Catherine
1:01.8	Nevin story. So this one's for you, Dara. And now, onto our story. The swinging 60s. It evokes images of
1:11.3	psychedelic flower power, hippies, and go-go-girls, mini skirts, bikinis, and bell bottoms in neon colors and denim.
1:19.6	Long hair, big lashes, twiggy. The doors, the rolling stones, pot and LSD, but the 1960s in Dublin
1:29.3	was a very different place. Our primary colors seem to have been the muted tones of brown and gray.
1:36.1	The country as a whole was barely over a decade old and the strong ties to the Roman
1:40.9	Catholic Church were firmly in place.
1:43.6	It was a conservative, mainly agricultural country, and the capital city reflected that.
1:49.2	People lived modestly.
1:50.6	It was a pretty homogenous community. Everyone was pretty much the same. The population was mainly white and mainly Catholic,
1:57.0	and would remain so until the beginning of the Celtic Tiger economic boom in the mid-1990s.
2:05.1	Things weren't entirely dreary though.
2:09.7	Entertainment in the city consisted of going to the pictures, aka the movies,
2:15.0	and attending one of the many dance halls dotted throughout the city and country. Big bands traveled playing Hall to Hall and people came out to hear their favorite tunes,
2:19.0	have a bit of a dance, and a shandy.
2:22.0	The city of Dublin had changed little since the War of Independence in the early 20s.
2:27.5	It was filled with old buildings, some giant Georgian mansions and townhouses that
2:32.3	grace the main streets of the city and house businesses and some shadows of their former glory now decaying tenements.
	...

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