Murder in the Name of Love: Alice & Freda Part 2

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

True Crime, Society & Culture, Science

4.1 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The trial of teenage murderer Alice Mitchell was an all out spectacle. After killing her former lover Freda Ward in a crime of passion, no one seemed to believe her motivation –least of all her own defense team. She’d end up pleading present insanity under the counsel of men who couldn’t even begin to comprehend any deviation from the sexual and gendered norms of the late 19th century. In the second half of our pride series on Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward, we’ll cover what happened to Alice in the wake of Freda’s murder and how their story got warped by the time and place in which they lived.

"Strange and Unexplained" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab & Three Goose Entertainment and is a journey into the uncomfortable and the unknowable that will leave you both laughing and sleeping with the lights on. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be
0:06.8	wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain
0:13.0	that'll soak you to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching
0:18.7	their peak in the afternoon.
0:23.0	Not in the mood for miserable weather?
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0:34.2	You can't rely on blind faith to get the pregnancy support you deserve.
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0:46.4	folate, biotin, and vitamin D during pregnancy. Get 25% off when you visit ritual.com slash clinical. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Hey, strangers, this is part two of murder in the name of love, Alison Frida. This originally aired June 23rd, 2022. Enjoy. What could drive a person to murder?
1:16.7	Is there anything more crazy than killing for love?
1:20.3	And if you kill someone in a crime of passion, can you really call that love?
1:25.5	Or is it something else?
1:27.2	Something closer to obsession or even
1:29.9	desperation? Or am I just doing what everyone else did to Alice Mitchell by dismissing her own
1:36.5	declaration that she loved Frida Ward and that it was for love that she killed her?
1:42.6	Welcome to Strange and Unexplained with me, Daisy Egan. I'm a writer and
1:46.9	an actor who thinks we should believe women, even when they've done something terrible and are
1:51.8	trying to tell us why they did it. I mean, we certainly shouldn't gaslight them into thinking
1:57.7	they don't understand their own motivations. But that is exactly what everyone did
2:02.6	to Alice Mitchell after she killed her former lover, Frida Ward. Despite Alice being like,
2:08.3	this is why I did it. The men around her were like, tut tut, young lady, leave it to the men to
	...

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