37. Madame Rachel - Beauty Scammer

Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley

BBC

Personal Journals, True Crime, History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 908 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this new series Lucy Worsley switches her attention from Lady Killers to Lady Swindlers - con women, thieves and hustlers.

This is where true crime meets history - with a twist. Lucy and her team of all female detectives travels back more than a hundred years to revisit the audacious and surprising crimes of women trying to make it in a world made for men.

This time Lucy is in London telling the story of Madame Rachel - Sarah Rachel Russell - an utterly ruthless Victorian beauty scammer and blackmailer who promises her clients she will make them ‘beautiful for ever’.

Madame Rachel’s exotic salon in Bond Street attracts the rich, and the posh, and – so she claims – the royal family. Her beauty products sell for outlandish prices. But when she turns to extortion and blackmail the full extent of her swindles are revealed.

With Lucy to explore Madame Rachel’s story is the journalist and beauty editor Anita Bhagwandas, author of Ugly: Giving us back our beauty standards . They discover how Madame Rachel preys on the insecurities of women to sell her products, and how her notoriety fuels debates in Victorian England about the immorality of cosmetics and how much control women should have over their finances.

Lucy is also joined by historian Professor Rosalind Crone. They visit the site of Madame Rachel’s salon in Bond Street, and London’s Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, where Madame Rachel’s career ended in disgrace – and where the truth about what was actually in her beauty products was finally revealed.

Lucy wants to know: is Madame Rachel a pioneering Victorian businesswoman or is she the biggest beauty scammer of her day? And why are women today still in thrall to the beauty industry selling them promises of youth and beauty?

Producer: Jane Greenwood Readers: Clare Corbett and Jonathan Keeble Singer: Olivia Bloore Sound Design: Chris Maclean Executive producer: Kirsty Hunter

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4.

If you're in the UK, listen to the newest episodes of Lady Killers first on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/3M2pT0K

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.5	I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.2	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.0	relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.
0:22.4	So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,
0:28.3	and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.
0:33.6	So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:39.4	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:46.1	Welcome to Lady Swindlers with me, Lucy Worsley, where true crime meets history with a twist.
0:58.7	Music true crime meets history with a twist. Join me and my all-female team of detectives for this new series where we travel back
1:03.6	through time to revisit the audacious crimes of swindlers, hustlers and women on the
1:09.9	make, women who are trying to make it in a world made for men.
1:14.5	And we like to ask, what might their lives and crimes tell us about other women in the past, and how different is it for women today?
1:25.0	Now, how far would you go in search of flawless, youthful skin?
1:31.7	Might you be tempted by a beautician who promised that she could make you beautiful forever?
1:39.8	Beautiful women, Madam Rachel's peach blossom cream, pearl white powder for the complexion,
1:47.2	and magnetic rock dew water from the Sahara, render the hair, teeth and complexion.
1:54.0	Beautiful beyond comparison.
1:56.9	Someone so persuasive, you'd be willing to hand over everything you own to secure her services.
2:03.6	She said it was necessary. I should be made beautiful forever. So I could be married to the rich
2:10.5	and good man she had introduced to me. This would cost £1,000. I sold all my stocks to raise the money.
2:19.8	Today, I'll be investigating the extraordinary career of a very enterprising and utterly roofless woman, known as Madam Rachel of Bond Street.
	...

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