The Curious Case of Not Townsend

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2019

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Getting away with murder has always been a difficult, and ultimately, unlikely affair, even in the 19th Century, before DNA analysis, fingerprint databases, or even any real, proper detective agencies, it was still a challenge that many criminals tried and failed. There were some however, that did manage to achieve the feat, whether it be through cool calculation, or dumb luck, there was always opportunity for the enthusiastic murderer willing to think outside the box. In Canada during the mid-19th Century, one man, William Turner managed to commit and get away with murder, either through dumb luck, due to an unlikely double being framed for the crime, or through an incredible talent for acting. After more than 150 years, the question has always remained, which was it? Luck, or the long game? To take part in the review drive mentioned in the show, send your screenshots to [email protected] Sources: Townsend The Murderer. (1857, June 10). The Montreal Gazette, p. 3. Stewart Wallace, W. (1931, April 15). The Townsend Case. Maclean’s, p. 19. The Alleged Murderer Townsend - The Singular Circumstances of the case - And the Proofs of his Identity. (1857, June 10). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2. The Alleged Murderer Townsend - The Singular Circumstances of the case - And the Proofs of his Identity. (1857, June 17). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2. The Townsend Excitement on the Wane! (1857, September 26). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2. Arraignment of McHenry alias Townsend. (1857, September 28). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2. Gault, Robert H. (1918) Journal of the American Institute of Law and Criminology Vol. IX. Chicago. Northwestern University Press. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone. Thanks so much for downloading Dark Histories. The podcast has been growing really well recently and that's thanks to all you good people who share it around with your friends and families.
0:12.0	Before we start, I just want to throw out a few ways that you can help to
0:15.3	support the show throughout the growth and keep it sustainable. We have a patron, an Amazon book list,
0:21.5	a coffee and an audible affiliate link.
0:23.4	So if you're interested in supporting, hopefully you can find a way to do so that suits you.
0:28.0	All of the links for those various things can be found on the website over at dark histories
0:33.0	dot com and of course just continuing to share it around with all your
0:36.7	friends and families is a huge help so thanks so much for your help with that
0:40.8	okay let's go on with the show.
0:48.4	Getting away with murder has always been a difficult and ultimately unlikely affair. Even in the 19th century, before DNA analysis,
0:57.2	fingerprint databases, or even any real proper detective agencies, it was still a challenge that many criminals tried and
1:04.7	failed. There were some however that did manage to achieve defeat, whether it be
1:10.5	through cool calculation or dumb luck, there was always opportunity for the enthusiastic murderer willing to think outside the box.
1:19.0	In Canada, during the mid-19th century, one man, William Turner, managed to commit and get away with murder,
1:27.0	either through dumb luck, due to an unlikely double being framed for the crime,
1:32.0	or through an incredible talent for acting.
1:35.0	After more than 150 years the question has always remained, which was it, luck or the long game. This is Dark History, where the facts are worse than fiction.
1:47.0	Hello, good evening, good morning, good afternoon, whichever it is with you and welcome to dark histories.
1:59.7	I'm Ben.
2:00.9	This is season 3 episode 11 I think. This week I've got a bit of a different
2:06.6	episode a bit of a quirky one. Put within quite a lot of murders quite a lot of
2:11.0	kind of kind of well obviously it's dark history so quite a lot of kind of, well obviously it's dark history, so quite a lot of kind of
	...

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