The Black Widows of Liverpool: Sisters Catherine Flannagan and Margaret Higgins

Criminalia

Shondaland Audio and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

When Catherine Flannagan and her younger sister Margaret moved to Liverpool from Ireland in the late 1800s, they were among the tens of thousands of poverty-stricken Irish laborers and their families who left Ireland during the potato famine to find work in Britain during the Industrial Revolution. To make their money, Catherine and Margaret established and ran a boarding house. In short time, the house was filled to capacity with lodgers. But there was one problem: guests were dying in suspiciously similar circumstances.

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0:00.0	Hello everyone. I'm Maria Tremarki. And I'm Holly Fry. And we want to tell you that we have heard
0:06.6	and read all of your requests for a written version of the cocktails and mocktails that you hear about on the
0:12.3	podcast. And we have exciting news. Our book, Killer Cocktails, Dangerous Drinks Inspired by History's
0:18.7	Most Nefarious Crimin criminals, is available now.
0:22.5	And it's a mix of stories from the podcast and completely new stories.
0:27.2	Killer Cocktails is available in print, digital, and audiobook formats wherever you buy books.
0:34.1	Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with IHeartRadio.
0:45.4	When Catherine Flanagan and her younger sister Margaret, known to friends as Caddy and Maggie, moved to Liverpool from Ireland in the late 1800s. They were among
0:55.2	the tens of thousands of poverty-stricken Irish laborers and their families who left Ireland
1:01.1	during the potato famine to find work in Britain during the Industrial Revolution. To make
1:06.2	their money, Catherine and Margaret established and ran a boarding house. In 1880, they were living in a small
1:12.7	terraced home, also known as a back-to-back house, at five scurving street. Catherine was
1:19.1	proprietress of the premises, and Margaret was charlady. And in case you're not familiar with that
1:24.7	term, it's someone who cleans. In short time, the house was filled the capacity with borders.
1:30.5	But there was one problem.
1:33.4	Guests were dying in suspiciously similar circumstances.
1:38.5	Welcome to criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarky.
1:41.7	And I'm Holly Fry.
1:43.6	The first lodger to move in at Five Skirving Street was Catherine's 22-year-old son, John Flanagan.
1:50.9	Catherine was a widow, and John and Margaret were her only close family.
1:55.8	Next, there was lodger Thomas Higgins, a hod carrier.
1:59.8	That's another job title that might not be familiar,
	...

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