Fanny and Stella arrested - April 28, 1870

On this day in 1870, performers Fanny and Stella were arrested for "public mischief" for cross-dressing.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Greetings everyone, welcome to This Day in History Class,
where we bring you a new tidbit from history. Every day.
Today is at The day was a eight seventy Stella

(00:28):
Clinton and Fanny Winifred Park were arrested as they left
a performance at the Strand Theater in London. The pair,
along with Hugh Alexander Mundale, were taken to the Bow
Street police station. The next day, Fanny and Stella were
charged with quote conspiring and inciting persons to commit an

(00:48):
unnatural offense. Fannie and Stella, also known as Frederick William
Park and Ernest Bolton, respectively, we're cross. Jesser's dressing as
a woman is not a crime at the time, but
sodomi was against the law, and police had been surveilling
Stella and Fanny for a year. Later. Hearings and the

(01:09):
trial that Bolton and Park went through in eighteen seventy
one were highly publicized and attracted a considerable amount of attention.
Bolton and Park were both born in the late eighteen forties.
Bolton was a bank clerk and Park was a law student.
Since he was a child, Bolton showed a fondness for
dressing and clothing typically considered feminine, and using the name Stella.

(01:33):
By the eighteen sixties, Bolton and Park had become close.
They began touring together, performing in theaters as Stella and Fannie.
As performers, they were popular, but they also dressed in
women's clothing outside of the theater and war makeup when
dressed as men. As they hung out at the Strand,
Lyceum and Surrey Theaters, they picked up men one of

(01:56):
their bows. Hugh Mundale said he thought they were too
gay women dressed as men. They had already been kicked
out of establishments like the Alhambra Theater and Burlington Arcade
on more than one occasion. For nearly a year, the
police had spies observed Bolton in Park at thirteen Wakefield Street,

(02:16):
where they rented a room for changing and where their
landlady Martha Stacy, ran a so called house of accommodation.
When their apartments were searched, love letters from John Stafford
Fisk were found. On April eighteen seventy, Stella and Fanny
were at the Strand Theater with a party of men.
They were wearing women's clothing and they were reportedly seen

(02:39):
flirting with some of the men. Around eleven o'clock that night, Stella, Fanny,
and Hugh Mundale were arrested. Initially, Stella and Fanny were
arrested for public mischief, a charge that was often given
to people who cross dressed. While at the police station,
a police surgeon performed an intrusive examination in on the

(03:00):
two of them to check for signs of sodomy. The
next day, when they went to Magistrates Court, they were
still wearing women's clothing. Crowds gathered outside the court and
newspapers covered the proceedings. Stella and Fanny were charged with
conspiracy to commit sodomy and to quote disguise themselves as women,

(03:21):
and to frequent places of public resort so disguised, and
to thereby openly and scandalously outraged public decency and corrupt
public morals. Outraging public decency was a misdemeanor, but buggery
carried a charge of penal servitude for life. Bolton and
Park stayed in jail for months before they were released

(03:44):
on May nine one. The trial began at the Court
of Queen's Bench with a special jury, Lord Chief Justice
Sir Alexander Cockburn presided over the case. The court also
indicted other people who were in the party, including Louis
Hurt and John Fisk, but many of the men who
were indicted had absconded. Lord Arthur Clinton, Bolton's lover and

(04:09):
a son of the Duke of Newcastle, died before he
could go to court, purportedly of scarlet fever, though he
was rumored to have committed suicide. In court, Stella and
Fanny's dresses, jewelry and makeup were presented. The prosecution had
at least six doctors examined Fanny and Stella. More than

(04:30):
thirty witnesses were called for the prosecution. A whole day
in court was dedicated to reading the letters the defendants
had written and received. Bolton's mother testified that her son's
lifestyle was no secret. In the end, no conclusive evidence
had been presented and there was no proof of conspiracy
to commit a felony. The jury found Fanny and Stella

(04:53):
not guilty after deliberating for only fifty three minutes. All
the other defendants were acquitted. To Cockburn said the following
the act of the police surgeon in examining the person
of the prisoner as he did without any legal authority
was wholly unjustifiable. He had no more right to do

(05:14):
it than he would have to inflict such an indignity
on any person in custody or any person he met
in the street. The seizure of the letters of the
other defendants also appears to have been without any legal
warrant or authority. Bolton soon left England, began using the
last name Fine, and found moderate success performing in New York.

(05:37):
Park also went to New York, but he died around
the age of thirty three. Bolton died decades later, in
nineteen o four. I'm Eve Steff Coo and hopefully you
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
Keep up with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at

(05:57):
t D i HC podcast. Thanks for listening, and we'll
see you again tomorrow. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.