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The Bowery Boys: New York City History

#312 Has Jack the Ripper Come to Town? A Gilded Age Hysteria

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.73.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

EPISODE 312 The Whitechapel murders of 1888 -- perpetrated by the killer known as Jack the Ripper -- inspired one of the greatest cultural hysterias of the Victorian era. The idea that the Ripper could appear anywhere -- even in New York City.  The usual vicious crimes of gang members and roughs on the Bowery were not only compared to those of the Ripper, they were often framed as though they were the Ripper himself, an omnipresent specter of evil. The sordid misdeeds of other criminals were elevated by the press in comparisons to Jack the Ripper.  But then, in April of 1891, a crime was committed on the East River waterfront that was so brutal, so garish, that comparisons to the London killer were inevitable. The victim was named Carrie Brown. But people along the waterfront knew her by her nickname Shakespeare (or Old Shakespeare). This is also the story of a man named Ameer Ben Ali, an Algerian immigrant who also became a victim -- of one of the greatest instances of criminal injustice in New York City history. This is a tale of an infamous crime, a controversial detective and an unjust conviction. And hovering over it all -- a devil, a specter of fear and violence. Who killed Old Shakespeare? Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi there listeners. Before we start the show, we just wanted to jump in for a moment to make a very special announcement.

0:07.7

Yes, hello listeners. First of all, we hope that you're doing well, that you're very safe, comfortable, and healthy.

0:14.3

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected pretty much everyone listening to this and even us.

0:20.5

Yep. It may sound like we're sitting across the table from each other, but actually, Tom and I are both recording from our separate homes.

0:29.4

Ah, through the magic of podcasting. It is sad not to be in the same room right now, but at least we can keep putting the show out.

0:38.3

So we are working at home and chances are that many of you out there listening are also working from home.

0:46.6

Or correction, or you're trying to work from home. Case in point, I just, before we start recording, put my two-year-old son down for a little nap and then ran in here to record this with you Greg.

0:59.0

We actually had an Elmo dance party this morning. Definitely, I would say not part of my normal morning work schedule.

1:08.2

I am sorry to say that I missed that, that I'm not around. You can have your own Elmo dance party.

1:12.8

Oh, I can't. Well, actually, over here in my apartment in Brooklyn, my dog is in the room with me.

1:19.4

This is actually the closest I've ever recorded with an animal with the exception of maybe your cat.

1:25.4

But anyway, so hopefully she won't bark during this session here.

1:29.0

No, but that gives you an idea listener of where we are quite literally right now.

1:34.6

Although Tom, I have to say you were even in some crazier circumstances, but a couple days ago.

1:39.6

That's true. And as patrons will know who listened to our last takeout episode, after taping our last show two weeks ago on the short-waisted uprising of 1909,

1:51.6

my family took off for France for a long planned vacation, which obviously did not go as anticipated.

1:59.3

It was cut very short. Things changed very quickly and we spent several days trying to get home from Paris.

2:05.6

But we did succeed, obviously, in snagging in Air France flight home this past Monday.

2:12.0

So we are very happy to be home.

2:14.2

But while Tom was in France and we were talking as this whole crisis was unfolding very quickly, we decided that we wanted to try something out, something interesting once he returned.

2:26.0

We thought that rather than continuing to simply produce one show every two weeks, we might do something a little bit more frequent.

2:35.3

That's right. So we're going to test out producing the Bowery Boys a few times a week.

...

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