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Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

The Night of the Mugger

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Pushkin Industries

History, Society & Culture

4.76.4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Winston Trew has just been arrested for mugging. It's 1972 and the crime has recently made its way to Britain from the United States. Dangerous thugs, replicating their American counterparts, have made the city of London their hunting ground - so Winston's eventual conviction is a win for the police, and for the press.

The problem is, 22-year-old Winston is completely innocent.

Do you have a question for Tim Harford and Rachel Botsman about trust? Please send it in to tales@pushkin.fm.

For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, and to welcome the new year, my podcast, The Happiness Lab,

0:04.6

is releasing a series of happiness how-to guides to help you in 2025.

0:09.1

I'll distill the wisdom of world-class experts into easy to digest actionable tips.

0:13.7

Struggling with tough emotions, we have a how-to guide.

0:16.6

Worried that you're not enough, we got you.

0:19.0

Self-obsessed and want to get over yourself,

0:21.2

there's a guide for that too. The Happiness Labs' how-to season starts January 1st.

0:26.0

Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Pushkin.

0:44.6

Derek Ridgwell moves through the London Underground with the easy swagger of a man who knows his star is on the rise.

0:53.6

Confident and charismatic, the 27-year-old is a detective

0:57.1

in the British Transport Police, and he's well liked by his colleagues. He's even enjoyed

1:02.2

some minor celebrity. A few years ago, he gave a television interview about his decision

1:07.8

to leave the Rhodesian police force in 1965.

1:12.8

Ridgwell had served for several years,

1:15.4

but in his words, the force was a military organisation

1:19.7

designed to suppress the Africans.

1:23.2

And he quit, on account of what he called,

1:26.2

its sickening racism.

1:28.6

The young officer now leads a special squad of plainclothes police

1:33.6

who patrol the tube, London subway system.

1:37.4

It's accepted that mugging is on the rise in London

1:40.9

and the most dangerous thugs favour the shadowy network of tunnels beneath the

...

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