Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking, they change laws, change society, or even

earn the label, Crime of the Century. But the stories that made headlines and decades past

aren't necessarily remembered today.

I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show, I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.

This is Crimes of the Centuries.

The First World War had just ended. In Europe, no country escaped its devastation. The human toll, of course,

with about 20 million dead and 21 million wounded, was enough to put the world in mourning.

The economic toll, with many countries facing shocking dead and damage, was almost as heavy. Even as Europe staggered under the weight of grief and ruin, the political world refused to quiet. New nations were forming,

old empires crumbling, and unrest rose like smoke from the battlefield's ashes. A peevil was in the air.

Not the least among the changes were those seen by women,

who had taken on male responsibilities in the workforce and done just fine, thank you.

If there was any good that came out of the war,

it was that it proved a turning point for women,

energized about getting the vote and shaking off social mores that cast them as less than. But not all the post-war story

was one of progress. Some women had never been treated as less than, particularly those who

were rich, aristocratic, or royal. And by the 1920s,

they, along with their equally privileged brothers and cousins, were at the center of a very

different spectacle. This was just before things for that class began to truly fall apart. It was the 1920s when trouble was brewing

politically and economically, but not in the cafes and nightclubs of London, where a group dubbed

The Bright Young Things was busy showing everyone what youth, money, and an absence of purpose

look like.

These sons and daughters of the aristocracy were constantly in the spotlight,

...