meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Murder Mile UK True Crime

#197 - The Soho Strangler - Part One 'The Suicide of French Fifi'

Murder Mile UK True Crime

Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast

History, Society & Culture, True-crime, London, English, Uk, British, Murder, True Crime, Killer, Crime, Documentary

0.00 Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2023

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is Part One of Ten of The Soho Strangler.


On Monday 4th November 1935, at roughly noon, the body of 41—year-old Josephine Martin, a Soho prostitute known as ‘French Fifi’ was found by her maid in her own bed, having asphyxiated herself using her own stocking. Wracked with debts and depression, her death was noted as “possibly a suicide”… when in fact, it was the first killing by The Soho Strangler.

  • Date: Monday 4th November 1935 between 2am and 4am
  • Location: Flat 1, 3rd Floor, 3-4 Archer Street, Soho, W1
  • Victim: 1 (Josephine Mechanique/Martin, alias 'French Fifi')
  • Britain's unknown and long forgotten serial killer


Blog - https://www.murdermiletours.com/blog/murder-mile-uk-true-crime-podcast-200-the-soho-strangler-part-four-the-ordinary-murder-by-a-lodger


Murder Mile is researched, written and performed by Michael of Murder Mile Walks with the main musical themes written and performed by Erik Stein and Jon Boux of Cult With No Name and additional music, as used under the Creative Commons License 4.0. A full listing of tracks used and a full transcript for each episode is listed here and a legal disclaimer.


For LINKS CLICK HERE

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/murdermile.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Extra extra! Read over the body! Chat the rhythm of the battle's calling your order!

0:24.0

1888, White Chapel, home to East London's sex trade.

0:36.0

The sinister shadow stalked its dark brooding alleys, brutally slaying a slew of so-called

0:42.0

fallen women in a vicious spree over just a few streets, fleeing unseen and leaving

0:51.1

no clues. The mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity and motive fueled a burgeoning tabloid

0:58.4

media being for blood and print, making his killings as infamous today as they were back then.

1:06.6

Jack the Ripper was the first re-killer of his kind, but he wasn't the last.

1:20.6

1935, Soho, almost 50 years later, in 3 miles west, an unseen slayer stalked the

1:44.6

fog-reathed streets of West London's Red Light District. For women, all poor, all foreign,

1:54.0

all into the sex trade, and all unnervingly similar in life and looks, were strangled alone in

2:01.6

their beds with escalating ferocity. Dub the Soho Strangler, this lone maniac terrified these

2:13.0

few streets, leaving women in fear, the police at a loss, and with no witnesses or clues.

2:22.0

Even today, all four murders remained unsolved.

2:29.9

Sendicated worldwide, newspapers from London to Lisbon, Chicago to Karachi,

2:36.6

fed off the fever of his killings free. It made Soho a byword for terror.

2:43.6

The Strangler assayed his to re-theored, and it bestowed a notoriety on his four unfortunate victims.

2:51.9

French Fifi, Marie Coden, Dutch Lair, and French Marie.

2:56.9

The Soho Strangler was the Jack the Ripper of his era.

3:09.6

But with the fascists on the rise, Natty sees in power, and a real horror looming on the horizon.

3:18.5

Death would soon come, not to a few, but to hundreds and soho and millions across the world.

3:27.1

And although both cases were strangely similar,

3:32.3

one remained infamous, as the other was entirely forgotten.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.