The Murderous Mannings & The Bermondsey Horror

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2025

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the summer of 1849, Patrick O’Connor, a prosperous London customs officer, vanished without warning. His trail ended in a quiet Bermondsey house, home to Frederick and Maria Manning—a married couple bound to him by secrets and suspicion. When O’Connor’s body was found buried beneath their kitchen floor, whispers of greed, betrayal, and hidden passions spread across London. SOURCES Buckley, Angela(2024) The Bermondsey Murder: Scotland Yard’s First Great Challenge and Dickens’ Inspiration. Pen & Sword, Barnsley, UK. Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper (1849) Murder In Bermondsey. Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, Sun 19 Aug 1849, p12. London, UK. The Sun (1849) An Account Of The Alleged Murderer And His Wife, And Their Antecedents. The Sun, Mon 20 Aug 1849, p8. London, UK. Newcastle Guardian & Tyne Mercury (1849) Trial of the Mannings. Newcastle Guardian & Tyne Mercury, Sat 27 Oct 1849, p8. Newcastle, UK. The Tipperary Vindicator (1849) Trial Conviction And Passing Of Sentence Of The Mannings For The Murder Of Mr O’Connor. The Tipperary Vindicator, Wed 31 Oct 1849, p1. Tipperary, Ireland. John Bull (1849) Execution Of The Mannings. John Bull, Mon 19 Nov 1849, p13. London, UK. John Bull (1849) Confession Of Frederick Manning. John Bull, Sat 17 Nov 1849, p13. London, UK. ------ For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at ⁠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 The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: ⁠http://author.to/darkhistories⁠ Dark Histories merch is available here: ⁠https://bit.ly/3GChjk9⁠ 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/cmGcBFf⁠ The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you to join me on the voyages
0:10.1	and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and
0:15.0	captivating stories of Vigelin, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not-so-famous
0:20.7	adventures from throughout history.
0:22.8	Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app.
0:27.0	That's the Explorers Podcast.
0:29.9	This is Jen and Jenny from Ancient History Fan Girl, and we're here to tell you about Jenny's scorching historical romantasy based on
0:38.6	Alaric of the Bissigoths, enemy of my dreams. Amanda Boucher, best-selling author of the Kingmaker
0:44.6	Chronicle, says, quote, this book has everything, high stakes action, grit, ferocity,
0:51.0	and blazing passion. Julia and Alaric are colliding storms against a backdrop of the brutal dangers of ancient Rome.
0:58.4	They'll do anything to carve their peace out of this treacherous world and not just survive, but rule.
1:04.7	Enemy of my dreams is available wherever books are sold.
1:09.0	In the summer of 1849, Patrick O'Connor, a prosperous London customs officer, vanished without
1:16.0	warning.
1:17.3	His trail ended in a quiet Bermansey house, home to Frederick and Maria Manning, a married
1:23.5	couple bound to him by secrets and suspicion.
1:27.3	When O'Connor's body was found buried beneath their kitchen floor,
1:31.0	whispers of greed, betrayal and hidden passions spread across London.
1:35.5	This is Dark Histories, where the facts are worse than fiction.
1:43.9	Hello and welcome to Dark History's season nine, episode 11, I believe, back from the summer break.
1:51.1	It's been a busy couple of weeks actually.
1:52.9	I managed to attend three birthdays and a funeral, which was a lot less actually, a lot less Richard Curtis than it might sound.
	...

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