March 29, 2025 • 36 mins
In April of 1870, a shocking court case captivated Victorian England: Fanny and Stella, also known as Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton, were arrested after attending a play at The Strand (in what was then considered inappropriate dress) and held on suspicion of violating the moral codes of the time. Listen in to learn more about the absurd legal war England waged against these two twenty-somethings, and the consequences of this ill-informed crusade.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fellow ridiculous historians, thank you for tuning in for this
week's classic episode. We're going back to Victorian England, I'll
just say it, with the benefit of retrospect, a very weird,
specific and self contradicting time, oh big.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Time, as evidenced in our recent episode on flirting, which.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Was wasn't that Victorian? Yes, Victorian flirting really really very very.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Very very interesting. Thanks to our research associate Wren for
that one. But this takes us back to April of
eighteen seventy when a court case OJ Simpson style captivated
the people of Victorian England. Fanny and Stella aka Frederick
Park and Ernest Boulton were arrested after attending a play
(00:47):
for their refusal to dress according to their assigned gender.
Let us say, and it caused a moral panic, a.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Court case that rocked the land entire We can't wait
for you to hear this episode if you haven't yet,
because you know, these kind of these kinds of moral
panics still continue in the modern day, so there's a
lot we can learn from this one.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh, not to mention all of the crazy stuff going
on in Washington right now with you know, trans erasure
and just like really horrible revisionist history for a group
of people who very much exists and very much fought
for the right to be treated like human beings. And
I think this is a great example of a precedent
setting case.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So let's roll the tape.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. We're opening today's
(02:08):
episode with an excerpt from a letter written on November
twenty first, around probably eighteen sixty nine. My dearest Arthur,
how very kind of you to think of me on
my birthday. I had no idea that you would do,
so it was very good of you to write, and
I am really very grateful for it. I require no
(02:28):
remembrances of my sister's husband, as the many kindnesses he
has bestowed upon me will make me remember him for
many a year, and the birthday present he is so
kind as to promise me, will only be one addition
to the heap of little favors. I already treasure up
and we'll cut it there and go to the signature
and says, believe me, your affectionate sister in law, Fanny
(02:51):
Winifred Park and Fanny Winniford Park in this letter is
writing to a fellow named Lord Arthur Clinton.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Ah, that's right, We'll get to the circle back to
this part of the story. Welcome to the Ridiculous History.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah. Who are you? Okay? And
I'm Bet and you are still Ben.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes, and that's what they call me in this part
of the world. And we are of course joined as
always with our super producer, Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What do they call you elsewhere in the world? Ben,
Do you have a knighthood that we don't know about?
Are you a sir or a lord?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I don't know if it is something you could pronounce.
Oh okay, cool, not just you specifically, I mean the
human tongue. Yeah, got it. It's kind of weird, but
you know how it is. You get in situations, you travel, Yeah,
whichy stuff happens? Yeah, you make deals whatever. Boy, we
got off the We got off the rails really quickly
on this one. Shaking my head, shaking his head.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So the Fanny in question who is writing to Lord
Clinton is someone known as missus Fanny Graham like Graham.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Cracker, right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And this she is referring to is someone named miss
Stella Bolton or occasionally she will sign things as Stella Clinton, that's.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Right, and they refer to each other constantly as sisters.
But in fact, these two quite theatrical individuals were, in
fact their Christian names were Ernest Bolton and William Park,
and they were in fact men who were widely known
in the London theater community as being very successful cross dressers.
(04:30):
And I just want to point out right up front, yeah,
I thought that term was antiquated. I wasn't sure if
that was like the okay thing to say, but I
did look it up on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation website which has a media section, and.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Cross dresser is the preferred term.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It does not imply that either individual is gay, but
it's just specifically referring to someone of a gender that
likes to dress like a member of another gender.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And that was the case with Fanny and Stella Rights.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
So Stella were also known as Ernest was born in
eighteen forty seven, the child of a stockbroker, and Park
was born in eighteen forty six, the child of a barrister,
so a legal official.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And Stella's mother encouraged him from an early age to
kind of follow that impulse to wear clothing of the
opposite sex, which.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Was kind of common in Victorian era, or less uncommon
than it is now.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's right, because women for a long time were not
allowed to act in the theater sos. Female parts were
played by men in drag.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Right, and this was an old tradition, And these two
people were talented actors. Bolton in particular was known for
having a wonderful soprano voice, and they both regularly played
female parts in legitimate theaters. And then also at this time,
some theatrical productions would go to country.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Houses, private homes.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, private event now of like let's say philanthropists of
the arts. They would have a salon at that house
and like host some sort of event where there would
be a play put on and a collection of various
wealthy individuals from the community would go there and check
it out.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Like Lord Ravingham Putin on the Ritz, Lord Pilkington of Ebsworth.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, Lord Webbyto's hand time, Okay, you know of the
do what you got to do of the old Northern
English hand time dynasty. No, but we are The point
is true, and it's important thing to mention they were
playing these female parts in theatrical productions. But they were
(06:50):
also wearing clothing that Victorian society said should only be
worn by women off stage.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, like in public, like walking around town, and just
just to paint you a picture here, they were not
necessarily professional actors. It was something they liked to do
in their free time, but in their day jobs, their
day lives. Ernest who was twenty two, and Frederick who
was twenty three. Yeah, just a year old, that's right.
Frederick was a law student, and I believe Ernest was
(07:18):
a clerk at a law firm, and I think he
ended up working at a bank as well at some point.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And let's examine their lives a little in a little
more detail. So these are famous friends. They refer to
each other as sisters. They have this really strong bond
and you know, they're in their early twenties. What a
time to be alive, right, glory days. They also do
not shy away from public attention or controversy. The dresses
(07:49):
of the time For anybody who's interested in the history
of fashion. We'd also like to recommend our peer podcast
Dressed available now wherever you find your favorite shows. But
their clothing that they would wear was incredibly complicated, at
least to me, unlike a slacks and a dress shirt guy.
But it's important to note that they also dressed as
(08:11):
what would stereotypically be considered men two and they would
stroll back and forth what's called the derby. This is
from a great article on Indiana dot edu off the pedestal.
They would attract attention because they would wear a male dress,
but they would also wear makeup, which was normally associated
(08:33):
with women at the time.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
There were several accounts of folks who knew them around
town who said that they thought that they were two
gay women wearing men's clothing, and there were accounts of
folks who when seeing them wearing women's clothing, thought they
were two gay men wearing women's clothing. So they, like,
the gender identity is extra kind of muddled up here
(08:58):
in a really interesting way. The thing about it is
too theaters, in particular in London were kind of a
hotbed for this sort of underground gay world, right it
was certainly not accepted in the mainstream. These theaters would
be a way for folks in this scene to connect
with one another. Obviously, before you know Facebook and tender
(09:21):
and scruff and things like that.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
They had to have a way and also to kind
of keep it secret.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, there was another thing that occurred called a molly house.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Do you hear about this?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
No, So, a molly house was a term that was
used in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to describe a
meeting place. This kind of meeting place, particularly in England.
They were generally taverns, bars, essentially coffee houses, or sometimes
private rooms. And the thing about it is, at this
(09:52):
time any kind of same sex activity was considered illegal
and remained a capital offence until the eighteen sixties.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Capital offense meaning the death penalty, and sodomy. The act
of sodomy carried that sentence, as sodomy being a pretty
loaded term. Absolutely, and in this context that word refers
to a particular type of penetrative sex act. Yes, that
is correct. And it's a very important point that we're
making here because this need for secrecy was not some
(10:29):
kind of like oh fun marketing thing.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Oh no, like those fake speakeasy bars that are so
common in the US these days. This was necessary to
protect these people's lives.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Well, and it just goes to show how bold Fanny
and Stella were in kind of flouting this and just
you know, doing their thing and going to these very
public places, wearing these outfits and flirting with very powerful men.
In fact, the letter Ben that you read at the
very top of the show was written to one of
(11:03):
these powerful men who plays a very important part in
this story.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yes, yes, we should set them up before we dive in.
Good call. Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton was an English aristocrat
born in eighteen forty and he was, you know, krem
de la creme of society at the time.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
He went to Eton. He was in the Royal Navy,
He was in the Crimean War. He was in Parliament
for three years.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
He was in Parliament, he had a personal connection with
the Prime Minister, who was the godson of William Gladstone's.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
This guy had what we call the juice.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
He had connects, Yeah, absolutely, And he had a relationship
in eighteen seventy with Stella or Ernest Bolton. And at
the time he was technically considered a naval officer, but
he was retired and he was formerly at one time
(11:59):
he had been a man of great wealth means, but
a few years before eighteen seventy he had to declare
bankruptcy to the tune of like about seventy thousand pounds
back then, so a little bit of inflation calculation casey,
I don't know if we have a sound cue for that.
(12:23):
That amounts almost six million pounds today.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So he was in deep.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
He had a lot of problems, but he had found
love with Stella or Ernest Bolton.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And we should take this time to mention the fact
that Stella, between Stella and Fanny, was considered the more
feminine looking one, And if you see pictures of them,
of which there is one with Lord Arthur and both
of them, Stella is as much more feminine features and
Fanny doesn't even really look like a female in this picture.
Looks is wearing some kind of a sweater and has
(12:55):
more of a cropped haircut. And it's very interesting mentioned
in several of these articles we've been looking at. One
in particular on The Guardian mentions the fact that when
you look at pictures of the two of them and
you see Fanny, you might wonder, by today's standards, how
people may have been confused about the gender of this person.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
See Yeah, that's a great article by Catherine Hughes. Fanny
and Stella The Young Men who Shocked Victorian England. It's
a review of a book by Neil McKenna, who does
some great research here. I think we've set the scene right.
They're pushing these social boundaries in a way that probably
has several of their friends and loved ones saying be careful,
(13:37):
watch out.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well we should also just one last thing is that
Stella presented herself as the wife of Lord Love, Lord Clinton,
Lord Clinton.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And that's yeah, and that's why in the excerpt of
the letter we read from Fanny, that's why you hear
them saying things, but sister in law, sister in law,
and they took this relationship very seriously. It wasn't just
like some in joke. And when you read these letters,
it's crazy, especially some of the short the shorter ones, the.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Kind of dicey ones where like they're kind of like
feuding a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, it's like, hey, don't take what Stella said personally.
She was drinking and yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Or there's one where where Stella's saying to Lord Clinton,
how dare you be so rude to me? Yes, you know,
it's very like, you know, terse kind of lover's spat
kind of stuff. So we have set the scene, Ben
and now the year is eighteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yes, the year is eighteen sixty nine. You see, it
wasn't just civilians taking notice of the adventures of Fanny
and Stella around town. Know, the local law enforcement took
notice as well, and they started following the pair, monitoring
their movements for like a year. Yeah, an intensive year.
(14:53):
Was there real crime that they could have been addressing. Yeah,
absolutely did they. London was a very dangerous place in
those days, and so they follow him for a year.
And let's fast forward to a Thursday on April twenty eighth,
(15:16):
eighteen seventy.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
That's right, the pair is attending a performance at the
Strand Theater in London with a mutual friend of theirs, right,
Hugh Alexander Mundel.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And as per usual when they're going out of a
night to the theater, they are dressed to the nines,
wearing evening frocks with all of the accoutremont gloves, bodices,
everything that would go along with it, lace, all of
that half thing, Yeah, the whole nine. And they actually
have a private box.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
They're the detective who was following them saw the meat
to other people. But as they were leaving, as you said,
no police superintendent and a police sergeant had joined with
the detective while the group was watching the show, and
they arrested Bolton Park and this other person, Hugh Alexander
(16:10):
Mundel as they attempted to leave. The others escaped. The
three arrested individuals were then subjected to.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
A humiliating battery of examinations.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, that's a perfect way to say it. Yeah, to
establish whether they had in fact had that like, had
experienced that sexual act right that they were specifically looking for.
And then they were brought to the magistrate at the
Bow Street Magistrates Court the next day and they were
(16:45):
not allowed to change, They were not given the option
to change into different clothing. They were just kept overnight
and then hauled out, which to me seems like another
purposeful act of humiliation.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I mean they were forced to stay in the jail
set wearing their wigs and everything. And there's a great
quote in this review of the Neil McKenna book from
Catherine Hughes that describes the scene as such, after a
night in the cells with wigs slipping and stubble poking
through it, was pretty clear to the packed and panting
courtroom that the two tarts were actually young men. Very
(17:19):
strange way of putting it. I feel like this is
old who would write like that? Why would they call
them tarts? That seems really offensive.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
It's still a British term that there is, but tart
is an archaic term.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
That's fair. Okay, I'll go on. Their names, according to
the Charred Sheet, were Ernest Bolton and Frederick Park. To
their friends, they were Stella and Fanny, and in the
newspapers they now became front page fixtures known as the funny.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
He shee ladies, tremendously offensive. This is when it officially
becomes what's called the Bolton and Park scandal. So at
this time there is a minor law that they could
be considered breaking, which is called personation of a one. Yeah,
so I think it was a misdemeanor. Yeah, it's like
(18:03):
it's a lower charge. It's definitely not a capital offense.
And what the court system is trying to do in
the preceding legal arguments here is they're trying to prove
not that these people were quote unquote personating a woman,
but that they were engaged in unlawful sexual relations.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
I mean it seems to me like they were trying
very desperately to make an example of the two in
a really horrific way that I believe stretched up to
someone of the neighborhood of fourteen hearings, and it became
a total media circus because you know, the public wanted
to get a look at them, because they had this like,
you know, horribly offensive title now that was, you know,
(18:49):
took the public's imagination by storm, the funny he shee ladies.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So it became this total ship show of a.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Trial, right, and the details of the law under which
they would have been prosecuted, perhaps persecuted is a better
word here, required the court to have a witness, someone
who could say, I know, and I saw this thing
happening with these two people that I can conclusively identify.
(19:21):
The problem was that despite the terrible media atmosphere of
the time and the national attention focused on it, the
prosecution was unable to find the witness. They were unable
to prove that anything happened.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
That's right, But do you know what one of the
most galling pieces of evidence to the prosecution was ben
It was the fact that Stella, while attending this performance
at the Strand Theater, had apparently had the audacity to
use the women's laboratory.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
That was one of the huge things they were. I
think they were already planning to arrest them, yes that night, absolutely,
but yeah, that was That was is one of the
things that the broadsheets, the newspapers of the time really
latched onto.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
That's right, the penny papers.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And here is a pretty interesting and telling quote from
the way this is all kind of portrayed to the public.
There is one peculiar trait in the evidence that stands
out in bold and audacious relief, and too plainly shows
the base and prurient nature which these misguided youths, for
they are but little more, must possess. We refer to
(20:30):
the entrance of Park into the retiring room, which is
set apart for ladies at the Strand Theater, who had
the unblushing impudence to apply to the female attendant to
fasten up the gathers of his skirt, which he alleged
had come unfastened.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And the character we had mentioned, the husband of Stella,
also returns to this story in a tragic way.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
He is implicated.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, but he is unable to testify because he had
passed away officially on paper from scarlet fever, but many
whispers implying that he had taken his own life.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That was on June the eighteenth, literally the day after
he received his subpoena for the trial. Yeah, so circumstances
strongly point to him taking his own life. And then
at the time there was speculation, however, that before he
had done this, either died of scarlet fever or committed
suicide for the blow his reputation would take right from
(21:37):
being implicated in this, there's pretty solid speculation that he
had used those existing connections to fake his death.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Pretty interesting stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Ah, Ben, And not to muddy the waters here, we'll
get back to the conclusion of Fanny and Stella story,
But there's another bit of implication that after he supposedly
either died or disappeared, another woman woman identifying as male
in dress, impersonated him and used his name to defraud
(22:15):
other wealthy individuals of money.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah. Mary Jane Fair, No, that's that's her given name,
and she was claiming to be Lord Arthur Clinton and
to double mundy this or to money it further, while,
while pretending to be Lord Arthur Clinton, Mary would also
sometimes dress as a woman, so dressing as Clinton, dressing
(22:41):
as a woman, arguing that it was to throw people
off the trail.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Complicated.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, yeah, lad, But you know, we kind of already
spilled the beans that there's a happy ending to this
story in that they were acquitted or that he did
not convict.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yes, they were finally acquitted, and the problem here is that,
I mean, we could talk about how they were acquitted.
So the prosecution was not able to prove that there
was any offense committed under the laws of the time.
And they also, despite the personation of a woman misdemeanor charge,
(23:26):
they weren't able to get that to stick either. After
the Lord Chief Justice presiding, a guy named Sir Alexander Cockburn,
summed up the prosecution's case. He said that the prosecution's
case was garbage juice and that the police were acting unprofessionally.
And then the jury took about fifty three minutes to
(23:48):
deliberate they found both individuals not guilty. So imagine the
emotional roller coaster, right, And.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
It's pretty cool because one account that I read says
that when that non guilty verdict was rendered. Everyone in
the gallery exclaimed with shouts of bravo. So you know,
they were well liked in the community, and they were known,
and it seems as though at least the people in
(24:16):
the courtroom that were there to support them were kind
of in their corner.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, And this leads us to a larger social context
here too. One thing I really appreciated about Catherine Hughes's
article was noting the great changes in society that were
occurring at the time. Right in eighteen seventy, the Republican
movement was reaching a tipping point, the work of Charles
(24:44):
Darwin was propagating out through the world. Paris had quote
become a commune, and there was this cultural ecosystem in
which this trial occurred. This finding had later consequences all
on the world of English law, especially when it comes to.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Gender identity.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
That's right, It's something we haven't mentioned, But at this
point they did not make distinctions of gay people. It
was more distinctions of acts, right, So no one would
have referred to Fanny and Stella as gay. No, that
didn't come until much later, several decades later, in fact,
with a case involving someone I believe who you know, well,
(25:29):
Ben Oscar Wilde.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, I am Oscar wild about him, but we have
never met. I am a big fan. Yes, legendary writer, poet,
author of The Picture of Dory and Gray. Oscar Wilde
was born in eighteen fifty four, who was alive while
these things were happening. Not that much not that much
(25:52):
younger than Fanny and Stella. So he was also eventually
and to trial because his sexual identity became a problem
for the government of the day.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, and that's the thing, Ben, We're talking about some
of these changes that maybe were happening in the public consciousness,
but as we know, the gears of justice and the
legal system grind pretty slowly, so they certainly were not
caught up to any of these kind of like awakenings.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yeah, it's we see a similar thing with cultural change
and technological change. The world of legislation takes a while
to catch up even at the best of times. Oscar,
(26:42):
much like Stella, was dressed in what would be considered
feminine attire for much of his early life because his
mother had expected and wished for a girl.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Ben, how would you describe the way he dressed later
in life when he was a much more known figure.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
He certainly didn't dress.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
He dressed in men's clothing, but not the typical kind
of men's clothes that the gentry would wear.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
He had expensive tastes, you know what I mean. He
was going for sophisticated fabrics. He have very particular concerns
about dress. He liked what we would call the good life.
That's right, you know, And unfortunately he had to end
up in court attempting to defend his own sexual identity.
The first case, actually, the first trial, occurs when he
(27:28):
sues someone for libel.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
He sued a gentleman whose names gives me at the moment,
who actually left his personal calling card for Wild. I
guess I'm imagining a front desk situation at a gentleman's
club called the Albmire, and on it he accused him
of being a quote sodomite.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Right, and Wild received some mixed advice or conflicting advice
from his friends and then from some other people, and
they some people said a lot of them said just
let it go, don't worry about that guy. And then
he decided that he would initiate a private prosecution for libel,
(28:12):
since the note amounted to a public accusation that Wild
he committed what was considered a crime. So this guy,
the Marquis Queensberry, is arrested and the charge of criminal
libel at the time carries a potential two years in prison.
But here's the thing. Under the Libel Act of eighteen
(28:35):
forty three, Queensberry could have avoided this prison sentence if
he demonstrated that what he said was true.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Wild kind of put himself in the crosshairs there, didn't He.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
He did and against the advice of his friends, And
it also exposed his private life to the public, and
people started to learn details about the people that he
associated with, right, the people that he had romantic relationships with,
(29:07):
a team of private detectives started diving into what'd you
call it, like the Victorian underground.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Yeah, exactly, which was which was absolutely th And by
the way, at this point we're in early Edwardian times.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
And the press and the public is in a state
of just almost rabid hysteria by the time the trial
opens in eighteen ninety five, in April. And the problem
was Wild started to know this wasn't going to go
his way, so he dropped the prosecution. Queensberry was found
not guilty, and the court said that the accusation was
(29:46):
true in substance and in fact. And this, this ruling
also left Wild on the financial hook for the legal
cost of the person who had insulted him. And then, yeah,
and it made him go bankrupt.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
And we should say that the reason the Marquess of
Queensberry had such a problem with Wild is because he
purportedly Wild had had a relationship with his son, Lord Alfred.
But it wasn't this trial that did Wild in the
way that we know he ultimately got done, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
There was another trial that occurred. So after Fanny and
Stella's famous trial, fast forward a few years and we
arrive at something called the Criminal Law Amendment Act of
eighteen eighty five that said any sort of same sex
(30:42):
act of any type was against the law. And Wild,
after he had left this, you know, he had left
this other trial, right, this libel trial, dropped the prosecution.
There was a warrant for his arrest put out on
the charges of sodomy and gross indecency, and people gave
(31:02):
him conflicting advice again, some people said go to Dover
and hop on a boat for France.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
As soon as he curiously.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And then his mom said no, stay and fight this
and Wild was arrested on April sixth, and then the
events moved quickly. He was convicted along with Alfred Taylor
on May twenty fifth of eighteen ninety five and sentenced
to two years hard labor.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
But what is what is that? Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
You would think it would be something functional like we
think of today where they have inmates like pressing delighting
stuff for pressing vice. But in those days, it was
like these bizarre menial tasks of like unraveling rope for
hours and hours at a time.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Things like that, just like psychological torture. Really strange. Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And he was incarcerated from May eighteen ninety five to
eighteen ninety seven or eighteenth of May eighteen ninety seven.
As soon as he was a free man, he sailed
immediately for France. He never returned to the UK and
they lost one of the greatest literary minds of that generation.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And I just want to mention that unraveling rope apparently
is kind of functional because it's old rope and you
unravel it so that you can recycle it. I guess
to make oh new rope, okay, And they would also
make like calking compound, you know, for like construction.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
So it's when I first read it, I thought it
was just some sort of bizarre, tedious task to make
them go insane.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
So it's not like the thing that you hear about
in the military where someone makes you dig a hole
and then fill it back in right and to get again.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, Or listened to like Black Sabbath with headphones on
at like insane volume.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I thought you were about to say it.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Or listen to podcasts, Yeah, that can be tough too,
but hopefully this one wasn't tough. And I know we
went a little farther into the Oscar wild thing. It
wasn't really the main topic of this episode, but it's
a really important full circle. And he did in fact
end up getting incarcerated, and when he was incarcerated, he
has this amazing quote that I think is so prescient.
It's really really important. The idea of the love dare
(33:01):
not speak its name, And I think we should maybe
end on this, and he refers to this as being
in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may
be described as the love that dare not speak its name.
And on account of it, I'm placed where I am now.
It is beautiful, it is fine. It is the noblest
form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It
(33:23):
is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and
a younger man, when the elder man has intellect and
the younger man has all the joy, hope, and glamour
of life before him. That it should be. So the
world does not understand. The world mocks at it and
sometimes puts one in the pillory for it. And what
he's doing is basically just describing any kind of same
(33:43):
I mean, he's talking about this intellectual bond between an
older and a younger man, but I think what he's
really describing is any kind of same sex attraction or affection.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yes, well said, well said little and Oscar wild. This
guy's work is just rife with these amazing quotes. You know,
one of my favorites was always be yourself everyone else
has already taken.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
It's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
That's pretty good, hey, and that really applies to Fanny
and Stella.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, Hey, we got there.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
We did.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
So we want to thank you all so much for
tuning in. Of course, thanks to our super producer Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Thanks to Eves Jeffcoat, who helped us with the research
for this episode. I thought this one was pretty wonderful,
you know. And what happened with Oscar a while that
he didn't die in prison, did he?
Speaker 3 (34:31):
No, he did not die in prison. Good because that
would have been a bummer.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Oh I'm I'm laughing, just because he went out like
he's just such a cool dude.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
So he died bedridden in November of nineteen hundred, specifically
November thirtieth, and apparently the whole time he was there,
he was complaining about the way that like the room
was decorated, and that's why reputedly his very last words,
(35:00):
the one that most people who attribute to him is
this wallpaper is terrible.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
One of us will have to go. And then he
passed away. I hope that's real.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I hope it is too. He's got such style, you know.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
And ask for a Fanny and Stella.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I couldn't find really anything about what happened to them
at the end of their lives.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Because you've been no, no, you got a little bit murky.
But you can understand how they would want to retire
from public life.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Absolutely, but what that's the trial of the century.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
So we can only hope that they were able to
find some privacy and some dignity that the press apparently
could not afford them at the time.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Right, and we added in some more stuff. Mid thank you.
Let's let's get to it right right.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yes, yes, of course.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Find us on Instagram, find us on Twitter, find us
on Facebook. Hang out with us on our community page,
Ridiculous Historians, where you can meet your fellow audience members.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
And thanks to Alex Williams for composing our theme, and
most importantly to you for tuning in to another episode.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Of Ridiculous History.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Fellow ridiculous historians, thank you for tuning in for this
week's classic episode. We're going back to Victorian England, I'll
just say it, with the benefit of retrospect, a very weird,
specific and self contradicting time, oh big.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Time, as evidenced in our recent episode on flirting, which.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Was wasn't that Victorian? Yes, Victorian flirting really really very very.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Very very interesting. Thanks to our research associate Wren for
that one. But this takes us back to April of
eighteen seventy when a court case OJ Simpson style captivated
the people of Victorian England. Fanny and Stella aka Frederick
Park and Ernest Boulton were arrested after attending a play
(00:47):
for their refusal to dress according to their assigned gender.
Let us say, and it caused a moral panic, a.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Court case that rocked the land entire We can't wait
for you to hear this episode if you haven't yet,
because you know, these kind of these kinds of moral
panics still continue in the modern day, so there's a
lot we can learn from this one.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh, not to mention all of the crazy stuff going
on in Washington right now with you know, trans erasure
and just like really horrible revisionist history for a group
of people who very much exists and very much fought
for the right to be treated like human beings. And
I think this is a great example of a precedent
setting case.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So let's roll the tape.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. We're opening today's
(02:08):
episode with an excerpt from a letter written on November
twenty first, around probably eighteen sixty nine. My dearest Arthur,
how very kind of you to think of me on
my birthday. I had no idea that you would do,
so it was very good of you to write, and
I am really very grateful for it. I require no
(02:28):
remembrances of my sister's husband, as the many kindnesses he
has bestowed upon me will make me remember him for
many a year, and the birthday present he is so
kind as to promise me, will only be one addition
to the heap of little favors. I already treasure up
and we'll cut it there and go to the signature
and says, believe me, your affectionate sister in law, Fanny
(02:51):
Winifred Park and Fanny Winniford Park in this letter is
writing to a fellow named Lord Arthur Clinton.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Ah, that's right, We'll get to the circle back to
this part of the story. Welcome to the Ridiculous History.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah. Who are you? Okay? And
I'm Bet and you are still Ben.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes, and that's what they call me in this part
of the world. And we are of course joined as
always with our super producer, Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What do they call you elsewhere in the world? Ben,
Do you have a knighthood that we don't know about?
Are you a sir or a lord?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I don't know if it is something you could pronounce.
Oh okay, cool, not just you specifically, I mean the
human tongue. Yeah, got it. It's kind of weird, but
you know how it is. You get in situations, you travel, Yeah,
whichy stuff happens? Yeah, you make deals whatever. Boy, we
got off the We got off the rails really quickly
on this one. Shaking my head, shaking his head.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So the Fanny in question who is writing to Lord
Clinton is someone known as missus Fanny Graham like Graham.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Cracker, right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And this she is referring to is someone named miss
Stella Bolton or occasionally she will sign things as Stella Clinton, that's.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Right, and they refer to each other constantly as sisters.
But in fact, these two quite theatrical individuals were, in
fact their Christian names were Ernest Bolton and William Park,
and they were in fact men who were widely known
in the London theater community as being very successful cross dressers.
(04:30):
And I just want to point out right up front, yeah,
I thought that term was antiquated. I wasn't sure if
that was like the okay thing to say, but I
did look it up on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation website which has a media section, and.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Cross dresser is the preferred term.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It does not imply that either individual is gay, but
it's just specifically referring to someone of a gender that
likes to dress like a member of another gender.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And that was the case with Fanny and Stella Rights.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
So Stella were also known as Ernest was born in
eighteen forty seven, the child of a stockbroker, and Park
was born in eighteen forty six, the child of a barrister,
so a legal official.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And Stella's mother encouraged him from an early age to
kind of follow that impulse to wear clothing of the
opposite sex, which.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Was kind of common in Victorian era, or less uncommon
than it is now.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's right, because women for a long time were not
allowed to act in the theater sos. Female parts were
played by men in drag.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Right, and this was an old tradition, And these two
people were talented actors. Bolton in particular was known for
having a wonderful soprano voice, and they both regularly played
female parts in legitimate theaters. And then also at this time,
some theatrical productions would go to country.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Houses, private homes.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, private event now of like let's say philanthropists of
the arts. They would have a salon at that house
and like host some sort of event where there would
be a play put on and a collection of various
wealthy individuals from the community would go there and check
it out.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Like Lord Ravingham Putin on the Ritz, Lord Pilkington of Ebsworth.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, Lord Webbyto's hand time, Okay, you know of the
do what you got to do of the old Northern
English hand time dynasty. No, but we are The point
is true, and it's important thing to mention they were
playing these female parts in theatrical productions. But they were
(06:50):
also wearing clothing that Victorian society said should only be
worn by women off stage.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, like in public, like walking around town, and just
just to paint you a picture here, they were not
necessarily professional actors. It was something they liked to do
in their free time, but in their day jobs, their
day lives. Ernest who was twenty two, and Frederick who
was twenty three. Yeah, just a year old, that's right.
Frederick was a law student, and I believe Ernest was
(07:18):
a clerk at a law firm, and I think he
ended up working at a bank as well at some point.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And let's examine their lives a little in a little
more detail. So these are famous friends. They refer to
each other as sisters. They have this really strong bond
and you know, they're in their early twenties. What a
time to be alive, right, glory days. They also do
not shy away from public attention or controversy. The dresses
(07:49):
of the time For anybody who's interested in the history
of fashion. We'd also like to recommend our peer podcast
Dressed available now wherever you find your favorite shows. But
their clothing that they would wear was incredibly complicated, at
least to me, unlike a slacks and a dress shirt guy.
But it's important to note that they also dressed as
(08:11):
what would stereotypically be considered men two and they would
stroll back and forth what's called the derby. This is
from a great article on Indiana dot edu off the pedestal.
They would attract attention because they would wear a male dress,
but they would also wear makeup, which was normally associated
(08:33):
with women at the time.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
There were several accounts of folks who knew them around
town who said that they thought that they were two
gay women wearing men's clothing, and there were accounts of
folks who when seeing them wearing women's clothing, thought they
were two gay men wearing women's clothing. So they, like,
the gender identity is extra kind of muddled up here
(08:58):
in a really interesting way. The thing about it is
too theaters, in particular in London were kind of a
hotbed for this sort of underground gay world, right it
was certainly not accepted in the mainstream. These theaters would
be a way for folks in this scene to connect
with one another. Obviously, before you know Facebook and tender
(09:21):
and scruff and things like that.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
They had to have a way and also to kind
of keep it secret.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, there was another thing that occurred called a molly house.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Do you hear about this?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
No, So, a molly house was a term that was
used in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to describe a
meeting place. This kind of meeting place, particularly in England.
They were generally taverns, bars, essentially coffee houses, or sometimes
private rooms. And the thing about it is, at this
(09:52):
time any kind of same sex activity was considered illegal
and remained a capital offence until the eighteen sixties.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Capital offense meaning the death penalty, and sodomy. The act
of sodomy carried that sentence, as sodomy being a pretty
loaded term. Absolutely, and in this context that word refers
to a particular type of penetrative sex act. Yes, that
is correct. And it's a very important point that we're
making here because this need for secrecy was not some
(10:29):
kind of like oh fun marketing thing.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Oh no, like those fake speakeasy bars that are so
common in the US these days. This was necessary to
protect these people's lives.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Well, and it just goes to show how bold Fanny
and Stella were in kind of flouting this and just
you know, doing their thing and going to these very
public places, wearing these outfits and flirting with very powerful men.
In fact, the letter Ben that you read at the
very top of the show was written to one of
(11:03):
these powerful men who plays a very important part in
this story.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yes, yes, we should set them up before we dive in.
Good call. Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton was an English aristocrat
born in eighteen forty and he was, you know, krem
de la creme of society at the time.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
He went to Eton. He was in the Royal Navy,
He was in the Crimean War. He was in Parliament
for three years.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
He was in Parliament, he had a personal connection with
the Prime Minister, who was the godson of William Gladstone's.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
This guy had what we call the juice.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
He had connects, Yeah, absolutely, And he had a relationship
in eighteen seventy with Stella or Ernest Bolton. And at
the time he was technically considered a naval officer, but
he was retired and he was formerly at one time
(11:59):
he had been a man of great wealth means, but
a few years before eighteen seventy he had to declare
bankruptcy to the tune of like about seventy thousand pounds
back then, so a little bit of inflation calculation casey,
I don't know if we have a sound cue for that.
(12:23):
That amounts almost six million pounds today.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So he was in deep.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
He had a lot of problems, but he had found
love with Stella or Ernest Bolton.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And we should take this time to mention the fact
that Stella, between Stella and Fanny, was considered the more
feminine looking one, And if you see pictures of them,
of which there is one with Lord Arthur and both
of them, Stella is as much more feminine features and
Fanny doesn't even really look like a female in this picture.
Looks is wearing some kind of a sweater and has
(12:55):
more of a cropped haircut. And it's very interesting mentioned
in several of these articles we've been looking at. One
in particular on The Guardian mentions the fact that when
you look at pictures of the two of them and
you see Fanny, you might wonder, by today's standards, how
people may have been confused about the gender of this person.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
See Yeah, that's a great article by Catherine Hughes. Fanny
and Stella The Young Men who Shocked Victorian England. It's
a review of a book by Neil McKenna, who does
some great research here. I think we've set the scene right.
They're pushing these social boundaries in a way that probably
has several of their friends and loved ones saying be careful,
(13:37):
watch out.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well we should also just one last thing is that
Stella presented herself as the wife of Lord Love, Lord Clinton,
Lord Clinton.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And that's yeah, and that's why in the excerpt of
the letter we read from Fanny, that's why you hear
them saying things, but sister in law, sister in law,
and they took this relationship very seriously. It wasn't just
like some in joke. And when you read these letters,
it's crazy, especially some of the short the shorter ones, the.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Kind of dicey ones where like they're kind of like
feuding a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, it's like, hey, don't take what Stella said personally.
She was drinking and yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Or there's one where where Stella's saying to Lord Clinton,
how dare you be so rude to me? Yes, you know,
it's very like, you know, terse kind of lover's spat
kind of stuff. So we have set the scene, Ben
and now the year is eighteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yes, the year is eighteen sixty nine. You see, it
wasn't just civilians taking notice of the adventures of Fanny
and Stella around town. Know, the local law enforcement took
notice as well, and they started following the pair, monitoring
their movements for like a year. Yeah, an intensive year.
(14:53):
Was there real crime that they could have been addressing. Yeah,
absolutely did they. London was a very dangerous place in
those days, and so they follow him for a year.
And let's fast forward to a Thursday on April twenty eighth,
(15:16):
eighteen seventy.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
That's right, the pair is attending a performance at the
Strand Theater in London with a mutual friend of theirs, right,
Hugh Alexander Mundel.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And as per usual when they're going out of a
night to the theater, they are dressed to the nines,
wearing evening frocks with all of the accoutremont gloves, bodices,
everything that would go along with it, lace, all of
that half thing, Yeah, the whole nine. And they actually
have a private box.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
They're the detective who was following them saw the meat
to other people. But as they were leaving, as you said,
no police superintendent and a police sergeant had joined with
the detective while the group was watching the show, and
they arrested Bolton Park and this other person, Hugh Alexander
(16:10):
Mundel as they attempted to leave. The others escaped. The
three arrested individuals were then subjected to.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
A humiliating battery of examinations.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, that's a perfect way to say it. Yeah, to
establish whether they had in fact had that like, had
experienced that sexual act right that they were specifically looking for.
And then they were brought to the magistrate at the
Bow Street Magistrates Court the next day and they were
(16:45):
not allowed to change, They were not given the option
to change into different clothing. They were just kept overnight
and then hauled out, which to me seems like another
purposeful act of humiliation.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I mean they were forced to stay in the jail
set wearing their wigs and everything. And there's a great
quote in this review of the Neil McKenna book from
Catherine Hughes that describes the scene as such, after a
night in the cells with wigs slipping and stubble poking
through it, was pretty clear to the packed and panting
courtroom that the two tarts were actually young men. Very
(17:19):
strange way of putting it. I feel like this is
old who would write like that? Why would they call
them tarts? That seems really offensive.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
It's still a British term that there is, but tart
is an archaic term.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
That's fair. Okay, I'll go on. Their names, according to
the Charred Sheet, were Ernest Bolton and Frederick Park. To
their friends, they were Stella and Fanny, and in the
newspapers they now became front page fixtures known as the funny.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
He shee ladies, tremendously offensive. This is when it officially
becomes what's called the Bolton and Park scandal. So at
this time there is a minor law that they could
be considered breaking, which is called personation of a one. Yeah,
so I think it was a misdemeanor. Yeah, it's like
(18:03):
it's a lower charge. It's definitely not a capital offense.
And what the court system is trying to do in
the preceding legal arguments here is they're trying to prove
not that these people were quote unquote personating a woman,
but that they were engaged in unlawful sexual relations.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
I mean it seems to me like they were trying
very desperately to make an example of the two in
a really horrific way that I believe stretched up to
someone of the neighborhood of fourteen hearings, and it became
a total media circus because you know, the public wanted
to get a look at them, because they had this like,
you know, horribly offensive title now that was, you know,
(18:49):
took the public's imagination by storm, the funny he shee ladies.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So it became this total ship show of a.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Trial, right, and the details of the law under which
they would have been prosecuted, perhaps persecuted is a better
word here, required the court to have a witness, someone
who could say, I know, and I saw this thing
happening with these two people that I can conclusively identify.
(19:21):
The problem was that despite the terrible media atmosphere of
the time and the national attention focused on it, the
prosecution was unable to find the witness. They were unable
to prove that anything happened.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
That's right, But do you know what one of the
most galling pieces of evidence to the prosecution was ben
It was the fact that Stella, while attending this performance
at the Strand Theater, had apparently had the audacity to
use the women's laboratory.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
That was one of the huge things they were. I
think they were already planning to arrest them, yes that night, absolutely,
but yeah, that was That was is one of the
things that the broadsheets, the newspapers of the time really
latched onto.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
That's right, the penny papers.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
And here is a pretty interesting and telling quote from
the way this is all kind of portrayed to the public.
There is one peculiar trait in the evidence that stands
out in bold and audacious relief, and too plainly shows
the base and prurient nature which these misguided youths, for
they are but little more, must possess. We refer to
(20:30):
the entrance of Park into the retiring room, which is
set apart for ladies at the Strand Theater, who had
the unblushing impudence to apply to the female attendant to
fasten up the gathers of his skirt, which he alleged
had come unfastened.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And the character we had mentioned, the husband of Stella,
also returns to this story in a tragic way.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
He is implicated.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, but he is unable to testify because he had
passed away officially on paper from scarlet fever, but many
whispers implying that he had taken his own life.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That was on June the eighteenth, literally the day after
he received his subpoena for the trial. Yeah, so circumstances
strongly point to him taking his own life. And then
at the time there was speculation, however, that before he
had done this, either died of scarlet fever or committed
suicide for the blow his reputation would take right from
(21:37):
being implicated in this, there's pretty solid speculation that he
had used those existing connections to fake his death.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Pretty interesting stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Ah, Ben, And not to muddy the waters here, we'll
get back to the conclusion of Fanny and Stella story,
But there's another bit of implication that after he supposedly
either died or disappeared, another woman woman identifying as male
in dress, impersonated him and used his name to defraud
(22:15):
other wealthy individuals of money.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah. Mary Jane Fair, No, that's that's her given name,
and she was claiming to be Lord Arthur Clinton and
to double mundy this or to money it further, while,
while pretending to be Lord Arthur Clinton, Mary would also
sometimes dress as a woman, so dressing as Clinton, dressing
(22:41):
as a woman, arguing that it was to throw people
off the trail.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Complicated.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, yeah, lad, But you know, we kind of already
spilled the beans that there's a happy ending to this
story in that they were acquitted or that he did
not convict.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yes, they were finally acquitted, and the problem here is that,
I mean, we could talk about how they were acquitted.
So the prosecution was not able to prove that there
was any offense committed under the laws of the time.
And they also, despite the personation of a woman misdemeanor charge,
(23:26):
they weren't able to get that to stick either. After
the Lord Chief Justice presiding, a guy named Sir Alexander Cockburn,
summed up the prosecution's case. He said that the prosecution's
case was garbage juice and that the police were acting unprofessionally.
And then the jury took about fifty three minutes to
(23:48):
deliberate they found both individuals not guilty. So imagine the
emotional roller coaster, right, And.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
It's pretty cool because one account that I read says
that when that non guilty verdict was rendered. Everyone in
the gallery exclaimed with shouts of bravo. So you know,
they were well liked in the community, and they were known,
and it seems as though at least the people in
(24:16):
the courtroom that were there to support them were kind
of in their corner.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, And this leads us to a larger social context
here too. One thing I really appreciated about Catherine Hughes's
article was noting the great changes in society that were
occurring at the time. Right in eighteen seventy, the Republican
movement was reaching a tipping point, the work of Charles
(24:44):
Darwin was propagating out through the world. Paris had quote
become a commune, and there was this cultural ecosystem in
which this trial occurred. This finding had later consequences all
on the world of English law, especially when it comes to.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Gender identity.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
That's right, It's something we haven't mentioned, But at this
point they did not make distinctions of gay people. It
was more distinctions of acts, right, So no one would
have referred to Fanny and Stella as gay. No, that
didn't come until much later, several decades later, in fact,
with a case involving someone I believe who you know, well,
(25:29):
Ben Oscar Wilde.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, I am Oscar wild about him, but we have
never met. I am a big fan. Yes, legendary writer, poet,
author of The Picture of Dory and Gray. Oscar Wilde
was born in eighteen fifty four, who was alive while
these things were happening. Not that much not that much
(25:52):
younger than Fanny and Stella. So he was also eventually
and to trial because his sexual identity became a problem
for the government of the day.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, and that's the thing, Ben, We're talking about some
of these changes that maybe were happening in the public consciousness,
but as we know, the gears of justice and the
legal system grind pretty slowly, so they certainly were not
caught up to any of these kind of like awakenings.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yeah, it's we see a similar thing with cultural change
and technological change. The world of legislation takes a while
to catch up even at the best of times. Oscar,
(26:42):
much like Stella, was dressed in what would be considered
feminine attire for much of his early life because his
mother had expected and wished for a girl.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Ben, how would you describe the way he dressed later
in life when he was a much more known figure.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
He certainly didn't dress.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
He dressed in men's clothing, but not the typical kind
of men's clothes that the gentry would wear.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
He had expensive tastes, you know what I mean. He
was going for sophisticated fabrics. He have very particular concerns
about dress. He liked what we would call the good life.
That's right, you know, And unfortunately he had to end
up in court attempting to defend his own sexual identity.
The first case, actually, the first trial, occurs when he
(27:28):
sues someone for libel.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
He sued a gentleman whose names gives me at the moment,
who actually left his personal calling card for Wild. I
guess I'm imagining a front desk situation at a gentleman's
club called the Albmire, and on it he accused him
of being a quote sodomite.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Right, and Wild received some mixed advice or conflicting advice
from his friends and then from some other people, and
they some people said a lot of them said just
let it go, don't worry about that guy. And then
he decided that he would initiate a private prosecution for libel,
(28:12):
since the note amounted to a public accusation that Wild
he committed what was considered a crime. So this guy,
the Marquis Queensberry, is arrested and the charge of criminal
libel at the time carries a potential two years in prison.
But here's the thing. Under the Libel Act of eighteen
(28:35):
forty three, Queensberry could have avoided this prison sentence if
he demonstrated that what he said was true.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Wild kind of put himself in the crosshairs there, didn't He.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
He did and against the advice of his friends, And
it also exposed his private life to the public, and
people started to learn details about the people that he
associated with, right, the people that he had romantic relationships with,
(29:07):
a team of private detectives started diving into what'd you
call it, like the Victorian underground.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Yeah, exactly, which was which was absolutely th And by
the way, at this point we're in early Edwardian times.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
And the press and the public is in a state
of just almost rabid hysteria by the time the trial
opens in eighteen ninety five, in April. And the problem
was Wild started to know this wasn't going to go
his way, so he dropped the prosecution. Queensberry was found
not guilty, and the court said that the accusation was
(29:46):
true in substance and in fact. And this, this ruling
also left Wild on the financial hook for the legal
cost of the person who had insulted him. And then, yeah,
and it made him go bankrupt.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
And we should say that the reason the Marquess of
Queensberry had such a problem with Wild is because he
purportedly Wild had had a relationship with his son, Lord Alfred.
But it wasn't this trial that did Wild in the
way that we know he ultimately got done, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
There was another trial that occurred. So after Fanny and
Stella's famous trial, fast forward a few years and we
arrive at something called the Criminal Law Amendment Act of
eighteen eighty five that said any sort of same sex
(30:42):
act of any type was against the law. And Wild,
after he had left this, you know, he had left
this other trial, right, this libel trial, dropped the prosecution.
There was a warrant for his arrest put out on
the charges of sodomy and gross indecency, and people gave
(31:02):
him conflicting advice again, some people said go to Dover
and hop on a boat for France.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
As soon as he curiously.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And then his mom said no, stay and fight this
and Wild was arrested on April sixth, and then the
events moved quickly. He was convicted along with Alfred Taylor
on May twenty fifth of eighteen ninety five and sentenced
to two years hard labor.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
But what is what is that? Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
You would think it would be something functional like we
think of today where they have inmates like pressing delighting
stuff for pressing vice. But in those days, it was
like these bizarre menial tasks of like unraveling rope for
hours and hours at a time.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Things like that, just like psychological torture. Really strange. Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And he was incarcerated from May eighteen ninety five to
eighteen ninety seven or eighteenth of May eighteen ninety seven.
As soon as he was a free man, he sailed
immediately for France. He never returned to the UK and
they lost one of the greatest literary minds of that generation.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And I just want to mention that unraveling rope apparently
is kind of functional because it's old rope and you
unravel it so that you can recycle it. I guess
to make oh new rope, okay, And they would also
make like calking compound, you know, for like construction.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
So it's when I first read it, I thought it
was just some sort of bizarre, tedious task to make
them go insane.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
So it's not like the thing that you hear about
in the military where someone makes you dig a hole
and then fill it back in right and to get again.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, Or listened to like Black Sabbath with headphones on
at like insane volume.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I thought you were about to say it.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Or listen to podcasts, Yeah, that can be tough too,
but hopefully this one wasn't tough. And I know we
went a little farther into the Oscar wild thing. It
wasn't really the main topic of this episode, but it's
a really important full circle. And he did in fact
end up getting incarcerated, and when he was incarcerated, he
has this amazing quote that I think is so prescient.
It's really really important. The idea of the love dare
(33:01):
not speak its name, And I think we should maybe
end on this, and he refers to this as being
in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may
be described as the love that dare not speak its name.
And on account of it, I'm placed where I am now.
It is beautiful, it is fine. It is the noblest
form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It
(33:23):
is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and
a younger man, when the elder man has intellect and
the younger man has all the joy, hope, and glamour
of life before him. That it should be. So the
world does not understand. The world mocks at it and
sometimes puts one in the pillory for it. And what
he's doing is basically just describing any kind of same
(33:43):
I mean, he's talking about this intellectual bond between an
older and a younger man, but I think what he's
really describing is any kind of same sex attraction or affection.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yes, well said, well said little and Oscar wild. This
guy's work is just rife with these amazing quotes. You know,
one of my favorites was always be yourself everyone else
has already taken.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
It's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
That's pretty good, hey, and that really applies to Fanny
and Stella.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, Hey, we got there.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
We did.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
So we want to thank you all so much for
tuning in. Of course, thanks to our super producer Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Thanks to Eves Jeffcoat, who helped us with the research
for this episode. I thought this one was pretty wonderful,
you know. And what happened with Oscar a while that
he didn't die in prison, did he?
Speaker 3 (34:31):
No, he did not die in prison. Good because that
would have been a bummer.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Oh I'm I'm laughing, just because he went out like
he's just such a cool dude.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
So he died bedridden in November of nineteen hundred, specifically
November thirtieth, and apparently the whole time he was there,
he was complaining about the way that like the room
was decorated, and that's why reputedly his very last words,
(35:00):
the one that most people who attribute to him is
this wallpaper is terrible.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
One of us will have to go. And then he
passed away. I hope that's real.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I hope it is too. He's got such style, you know.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
And ask for a Fanny and Stella.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I couldn't find really anything about what happened to them
at the end of their lives.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Because you've been no, no, you got a little bit murky.
But you can understand how they would want to retire
from public life.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Absolutely, but what that's the trial of the century.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
So we can only hope that they were able to
find some privacy and some dignity that the press apparently
could not afford them at the time.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Right, and we added in some more stuff. Mid thank you.
Let's let's get to it right right.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yes, yes, of course.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Find us on Instagram, find us on Twitter, find us
on Facebook. Hang out with us on our community page,
Ridiculous Historians, where you can meet your fellow audience members.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
And thanks to Alex Williams for composing our theme, and
most importantly to you for tuning in to another episode.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Of Ridiculous History.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
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