The women who reclaimed the night

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We hear from the women who started "Reclaim the Night" marches in the north of England in 1977 - a time when a serial killer nicknamed the Yorkshire Ripper was murdering women. The women felt police were policing their behaviour rather than that of men by instructing them to stay home at night. We speak to Hallie Rubenhold author of The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper for a comparison of the treatment and expectations of women in the 19th and 20th century. Plus we go to Mexico and the neuropsychologist who met and discovered the motivations behind the country's first female serial killer - a famous woman wrestler - who strangled old women. It's 30 years since the Russian city of Leningrad voted to abandon the name of the leader of the Russian revolution - Vladimir Lenin - and to return to its historic name of St Petersburg and we hear the famous British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough remembering his first visit to the tropics of West Africa. Finally, we bring you the remarkable story behind the discovery of the jet stream –the high speed air currents which profoundly affect our environment all-round the globe.

Photo: women taking part in a Reclaim the Night march. Credit: BBC

Photo:women taking part in a Reclaim the Night march. Credit: BBC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and Welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson and the Witness History team.
0:06.4	This week we've got serial killers from the UK and Mexico,
0:10.3	the discovery of the jet stream and David Attenborough.
0:14.0	Investigations into events from the past with Alex, Mike and Louise.
0:18.0	Hi Max.
0:19.0	Hello.
0:20.0	And Alex, what have you been up to?
0:21.0	Well, as promised, I'm back with the story of the discovery of the jet stream,
0:25.7	the high-speed air currents that help determine our climate.
0:29.2	And trust me, it's stranger than you think.
0:31.6	Mike? A little bit of a darker story, a disturbing story of a
0:35.9	former female wrestler who became Mexico's most prolific serial killer and Louise.
0:42.0	Well Max this week I've had the absolute Lifficerex serial killer and Louise.
0:43.0	Well, Max, this week I've had the absolute pleasure of listening back through the BBC Archives
0:47.0	to early recordings of the naturalist Sir David Attenborough and his first ever natural history
0:52.2	broadcast. Okay, well that's all to look forward to, but and his first ever natural history broadcasts.
0:53.0	Okay, well that's all to look forward to, but we begin this week by delving into a particularly dark episode in British criminal history.
1:01.0	In the late 1970s, a series of murders carried out in the north of England in which all the victims were women led to the hunt for a killer dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper.
1:10.0	The women of the area responded by deciding to confront the threat even though the police had told them to stay indoors after dark.
1:17.0	Rebecca Kessby has been hearing from Al-Garthwaite, one of the organizers of Britain's first Reclaim the Night March.
1:23.6	Men off the streets.
1:26.6	Man off the streets.
	...

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