28. Alice Mitchell - Forbidden Love

Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley

BBC

Personal Journals, True Crime, History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 908 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lucy Worsley travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.

In this episode Lucy is joined by Cameron Esposito, stand-up comic, actor, writer and host of the hit podcast Queery. They investigate the case of 19-year-old Alice Mitchell who killed 17-year-old Freda Ward in Memphis, Tennessee in 1892 after a stormy and illicit relationship.

Alice and Freda plan to marry and move to St Louis, but when Freda’s family discover their relationship, she comes under enormous pressure to end it.

Alice Mitchell’s subsequent actions caused a nationwide sensation and influenced the way lesbians were perceived by the press and the public for decades.

Lucy is also joined by the historian Alexis Coe, author of Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis, who helps Lucy uncover exactly what drove Alice to kill the woman she loved.

Lucy wants to know what this case tells us about women’s lives in the southern states of America at the end of the 19th century, particularly the lives of LGBTQ+ women, and what it tells us about queer women’s lives in America now.

Today in Tennessee the LGBTQ+ community feels under increasing threat with legislation banning books in schools which portray gay or trans people and bans on drag acts. Lucy asks the drag artist and activist Magical Miss Mothie to find out more from members of the community during their annual Pride festival in the city.

The story of Alice and Freda is complex and disturbing, and it culminates in the destruction of two young lives. But it reminds us that queer people have always been there and always will be; in the teeth of opposition from everyone around her Alice refused to see why she should not live her life with the woman she loved.

Produced in partnership with the Open University

Producer: Jane Greenwood Readers: Clare Corbett, Bill Hope and Laurel Lefkow Sound design: Chris Maclean Series Producer: Julia Hayball Executive Producer: Kirsty Hunter

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4

New episodes will be released on Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Lady Killers first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds - Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley - Available Episodes: http://bbc.in/3M2pT0K

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
0:05.0	My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.
0:08.0	It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, moments and movements,
0:14.7	stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
0:19.1	And the BBC's position at the heart of British music means we can tell those stories like no one else.
0:24.6	We were, are and always will be right there at the center of the narrative.
0:28.6	So whether you want an insightful take on music right now or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and
0:34.4	infamous moments in music check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:38.6	BBC Sounds music radio podcasts.
0:44.0	Welcome to Lady Killers with me, Lucy Worsley from BBC Radio 4.
0:52.0	I'm joined by an amazing team of female detectives to investigate
0:58.8	some infamous female criminals from the past. We're traveling back in time and around the world
1:05.5	to Britain, Australia and America to look at the misdeeds of murderers from the
1:10.6	19th and 20th centuries.
1:13.0	What can their crimes and the times in which they lived
1:17.4	teach us about women's lives today?
1:20.8	This episode contains material you might well find distressing.
1:25.0	It's 1892 and it's a cold January afternoon in Memphis, Tennessee. Passengers are picking their way across the
1:35.4	mud and ice on the key to board a Mississippi steamer that's about to depart.
1:40.6	A 19-year- old girl, Alice Mitchell, forces her way through the crowd. Her eyes
1:47.2	are fixed on the person she loves most in the world, her former lover, and she's wielding a cutthroat razor. This is the
1:58.6	culmination of a passionate, stormy and illicit relationship, riven with infidelity and jealousy from the very beginning.
	...

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