meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Murder Mile UK True Crime

#198 - The Soho Strangler - Part Two 'The Murder of French Fifi' (Soho, UK)

Murder Mile UK True Crime

Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast

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

0.00 Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2023

⏱️ 71 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is Part Two of Ten of The Soho Strangler.


Having discovered the body of 41-year-old prostitute 'French Fifi' in her bedroom, the police surgeon had determined that that her death was "most probably a suicide" given all the evidence placed before him. But what it a suicide, or was this the first fledgling killing by The Soho Strangler.

  • Date: Monday 4th November 1935 between 2am and 4am
  • Location: Flat 1, 3rd Floor, 3-4 Archer Street, Soho, London, UK, W1
  • Victim: 1 (Josephine Mechanique/Martin, alias 'French Fifi')
  • This is Britain / London'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

Picture this, static cars, idling engines, angry horns, now picture you, zooming past

0:12.4

it all, light and breezy, ah, the sweet feeling of whizzing past traffic, book your train

0:21.6

journey via AvantiWestcoast.co.uk, AvantiWestcoast, feel good travel.

0:30.0

The Suicide of French VV was a shock, but not shocking. There was no rush and no fuss, just sadness.

1:00.5

Felicity would state, I made a cup of tea and took it to the bedroom. The door was half open.

1:09.2

I saw Madame on her back with her feet on the floor and with one she was stocking off.

1:16.8

I said, Madame, here's your tea. A touch to hand, she was dead and cold.

1:30.2

Descend into the globe club on the first floor. In broken English, Felicity stammered, Madame dead.

1:41.9

As hysterical as anyone who had found their friend a 15 years, deceased.

1:49.7

Seeing her distress, Charles Bulver manager, Joseph Phillips the doorkeeper,

1:55.3

a Lance Georgian actor entered the bedroom, a flat one on the third floor of three to four

2:01.5

archestreet and saw her body at peace on the bed.

2:13.5

With soho being a place synonymous with sex, the suicide of a prostitute was not an uncommon

2:21.0

sight, given the stresses of their lives. Charles Bulver alerted a constable.

2:29.6

PC Hill secured the scene and summoned a doctor. Dr. Rhea Frith Street pronounced life as

2:36.0

extinct, and as her cause of death had to be determined, a suicide was still a criminal offence.

2:43.2

The CID of Vine Street were called in.

2:50.3

With the investigation headed up by divisional detective Inspector John Edwards and chief

2:55.5

superintendent Walter Hamburg, the crime scene was assessed methodically.

3:05.7

The door to flat one was examined by a locksmith who determined there was no tampering,

3:14.1

no damage and no signs of a break in. The flooded three keys, one for Fethi, one for a mate,

3:23.4

and one for the landlady, all of which were accounted for, with Fethi's found in a hamburger

...

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.