March 22, 2024 • 47 mins
This week on twisted Britain we hear about the savage and unessesary murder of Irene Munro, killed for nothing more than her holiday money.
This is the first of 2 episodes set in the crumbles area of Eastbourne
Marks for listening
This is the first of 2 episodes set in the crumbles area of Eastbourne
Marks for listening
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:32):
Hello and welcome to Twister Britain,a podcast. I'm true crime in Britain
with a sprinkling of the weird thana cab and your hosts are me Bob
Dale and me Ali Downey. Hello, Alastair Downey? How are you?
I am fabulous. It's lovely tobe back up in Scotland to record.
We're literally a meter apart. Thatmakes a slight difference the last time we
recorded. Yeah, we were manymeters five hundred miles apart, and then
you walked another five hundred just tobe the man that fell down at my
(00:56):
podcast door. I have fallen outat your door more than once. That's
very true. So you have fallendown. You've fallen out of my door
many a time as well as true. I felt out. Well, we've
talked about me falling down the stepsto your front door a few times before.
We'll look go down that one again, you will. I am fabulous.
Just returned from a trip. Yes, I was in Ireland. No
you want you're in Northern Ireland there, don't do it, honestly, we'll
(01:21):
get letters to a po box,don't. What is a peel box office
box? Is it really like it'sa physical thing. It's an address that
isn't your house, isn't your house. It's fucking weird. I don't like
it. I can't imagine who weneed them drug dealers. Apart from drug
dealers, we don't need one.No, we don't get any mail.
(01:42):
No. If you said as aletter, send it to the settle in.
We used to get mail. Didwe actually get mail? Yeah?
Once we go a few times.Actually once we got No, we did
for a few times from a listenerwho that created a horror zine used to
send it to us. Don't getthem anymore. And we got some teddies
ent to us that wasn't not ina creepy way. They were actually quite
(02:02):
nice teddies. It was a sockmonkey called Marshmallow. Wow. Yeah,
I love him. We still gothim. Yeah yeah. Man's Isac Scottan
in his room. Of course Marshmallow. He likes what is? He likes
loads of stuff. It's unlike histag. He likes Marty. Obviously he
likes marshmallows because it's his name.Yeah. Ah, I'm gonna look at
the tag and I'll send you apicture of it. Do it. I'll
(02:24):
post it as well. I'm surewe posted on the socials before, but
we'll do it again. Who cares? Yeah, that was back when I
didn't pay any attention to them.So when you didn't know what a podcast
was, I knew what they werein the same way that existentially, I
know what time and space are,but I wasn't super aware of them.
I'm going to go with you probablyknew the time better than a podcast.
(02:46):
Yeah, just ever so slightly better. Yeah, but that's just because the
speaking clock was still a thing.Oh yeah, what was I watching the
other day? I was watching thison the Netflix where the guy pretended to
phone his mum and phone the speakingclock instead, and I was like,
that's nineties? Was that one day? That's what it's called? Filmed in
Edinburgh? I enjoyed it anyway,House Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland was incredible.
(03:08):
I visited the Crumblin Jail while Iwas there, which was a fantastic
day out. Pictures look good,Yeah, it's really good. I put
them up on Facebook. I've broughta tiny twisted back from it, or
did I was going to ask you, did you find anything that was podcast
worthy? One? There? I'vebrought a tiny twisted tail back which I'll
be recording soon. Any teaser,Yes, it's more than Irish. No,
(03:30):
it is an escape from the jailon nice where the inmate escapes and
escapes to Glasgow. Okay, inGlasgow for a while before recapture. And
where was Jalen Belfast? Yeah,just outside of Belfast? Okay. I
look forward to it. It's agood one. Are you going to do
it in the pub? Yes?On your new microphones. Yes, on
the new microphones, which are reallyreally cool. I'll be cool anyway.
(03:52):
Listeners may have heard them on ourrecord with Mike from Murder Mile. That's
truly the video that went out inthe Facy book. Yeah, and a
tiny bit of it went out inthe old Tickest of the talkst Oh,
that's right, because apparently we ticktalk now well twisted talk. We're twisted
talks. I've always threatened that Ithink Jock that works in here Leslie's dad.
(04:15):
I wanted to start Jock's Talks asa channel. I reckon I'd be
a millionaire by now if I had. You have so many more listeners than
us, Absolutely would do this evening. However, but a funny one this
week you'd written two tiny twisteds thatwere linked by location, and that's it.
Yes, location and time period.Yeah, they were both in the
(04:39):
nineteen twenties. But as you tendto do, you wrote too much.
Yeah, this is a constant problemfor me. So instead of doing them
as tiny twisteds, we've recorded parttwo already, which we did last week
when you were in Bournemouth and Iwas in the settling, and we're going
(04:59):
to call part one this week.However, I didn't write it. You
wrote it, but I'm going totell you the tale of it. Yeah,
so if halfway through we switch who'stelling the story, it's because I've
really messed it up, I think. Yeah, it's almost a cold read
for you, except you've had acouple of days to familiarize yourself with it.
It's not fully cold read because I'veread it through and I've had a
(05:21):
read about the case. I actuallylistened to it's called Dad and Daughter,
the podcast. They did an episodeon it, so I listened to them
on the walk up the road thisevening. So it's not cold, but
it's not warm, shall we say? So I'm going to dive in,
let's hear it, and I wantyou for the sake of podcast fantasy to
(05:43):
pringe. You've never heard this before, Alistair, I'll try do your best
rather than just mouth along with me. I also wrote both these tiny twisteds
before I really started going down theteacup rabbit hole, so I've forgotten a
lot of it. Oh well,that will help me out, I feel
here we are so, as Isay, this was supposed to be a
tiny twist but it has its grownarms and legs. And this is the
(06:08):
first of the two cases that we'lltalk about called the Crumble murders, and
the Crumbles is an area between Eastbourneand Pezancy Bay, which, as I
say, is known as the Crumbles. It's kind of a shingly stony Aiad
Beach exactly as you said already.These are unconnected murders from the nineteen twenties,
(06:29):
but they're kind of lump together.And actually, if you look up
the Crumbles murders as a as atopic Wikipedia, like literally, it's one
page for the two of them.Yeah, which I find I find quite
sad because these are in like yousaid, these are individual cases, and
these are individual murders of individual women. So why they've been lumped together by
geographic location and that's it. Yeah. So the first murder that we will
(06:54):
be talking about before you hear nextweek's episode is the incredibly savage bludgeoning to
death of seventeen year old Irene MonroeIrene Violet Monroe. Her body was found
in a shallow graves on a singleHer body was found in a shallow grave
on a Shingle beach, Shingle.I'm struggling with this evening, Shinger.
Yes. She was found by athirteen year old boy and his mother on
(07:15):
the twentieth of August nineteen twenty.Irene was born in Brighton in nineteen o
three. Early in her childhood,the family moved to South Kensington in London,
where Iron grew up into a happy, outgoing, ebulliant young woman,
much loved by family and friends alike. In nineteen twenty, irone was working
in Oxford Street in London as atypist for a chartered accountant firm. Now
(07:38):
every year the family traveled to Scotlandfor their holiday. They went to Edra,
they went to Portvillo Beach every yearand what I found quite interesting was
they tended to go by sea.They would sail from the South coast of
England up to Scotland, which Iwas like, it's pretty cool journey actually,
and it would say you going overland, which would take infinitesimally longer.
(08:00):
Anyway, However, this year,in nineteen twenty, Ian decided she did
not want to travel with her familyand she wanted to go on a vacation
of her own, which at seventeenyear old, I was thinking about this
on the walk up the road.At seventeen, is that too young to
be going entirely on her own?Yeah? I would have said so different
(08:20):
time frame, I suppose that we'retalking about, I know, my first
holiday abroad on my own, butwith friends. I was about eighteen or
nineteen. That was a cluster.Oh that was yeah. One of those
has got sunstroke. One of usgot robbed in an alleyway trying to buy
weed. I went and bought triedto buy skins at the chippy and the
(08:43):
man put over the tannoy skins andfags for a joint, which was an
interesting evening. But nonetheless I wasn'tseventeen year old girl on my own.
No, And I still find eventhough it was the nineteen twenties, that
to be young to be away,but either way, her mother agreed that
it would be all right that shewould go to the seaside town of Eastbourne
(09:05):
in the South Downs countryside. Soon the sixteenth of August, Iron Monroe
made the journey by train herself tothe South Coast. She found a place
to stay pretty quickly for the twoweeks that she planned to stay there,
and without any issues. She renteda room at three nine three Seaside,
which was owned by missus Ada Winniett. Nice respectable guest house just a mile
(09:28):
from the town center and a shortwalk from the beach. So I find
it quite interesting that I'm just goingto add in my bits that I felt
as I read your script. We'llgo on later to talk about the castle
area and in when the castle wasbuilt. It was originally the South coast,
but it is now in the nineteentwenties about a mile inland because that
(09:54):
is reclaimed land, essentially. Theother interesting fact about the beach that she
was near that I found is it'swhere William the Conqueror landed before he made
his march to the Battle of Hastings, is it. Yeah, I didn't
know that. There you go,Well, that's a good fact. There
you go. I thought you'd likethat one. I really did. Yeah.
Missus Winnie at that owned the guesthouse, was quite impressed with the
well mannered and polite young girl whohad come to stay, and told Irene
(10:16):
of local landmarks and bus routes tonearby towns such as Pevensey Bay. As
soon as Irene had arranged her lodgings, she wrote to her mother, who
was off to Scotland at this point. Her mother left two days later to
go to Scotland on their normal holiday, and she just wrote her letter basically
to say I'm here, I'm safe. Everything's going well. For the first
few days, Irene mon Rolle walkedto the local beaches and explored the town.
(10:39):
And although Irene was a from whatwe can understand, a fairly independent
woman, young woman going off onholiday on her own, she still had
a very good relationship to her mother. So she wrote her another letter so
we know in the eighteenth everything wasokay. She informed her mother in this
letter of what she'd been doing.She'd been to see the chalk cliffs at
Beachy Head the day before, andshe finished writing the letter with these words,
(11:01):
goodbye for the present. Please givemy love to Granny, Auntie,
Jesse and everyone. You're affectionate Reeniex x x x Irene Reeney. I'd
never put that together until i'd readthis, by the way, Yeah,
I'd never like we were talking aboutthis the other night, like Elizabeth becomes
Betty Andrew becomes Drew. But thereare ones that I go, how's that?
(11:22):
And it's Alexander becomes Sandy. Didn'tever think of that one. Yep,
there you go, or Alec inyour father's case, Yep, there
you go. Renee Irene was ayoung lady on vocation by herself the first
time. Following the initial excitement ofthe first few days, however, she
started to feel a wee bit lonely, and she told missus Winniatt on the
(11:43):
evening of the eighteenth. The followingmorning, Thursday, the nineteenth of August,
iron ate breakfast and then told thatMissus Winniatt that she was going for
a walk along the beach. Andas the morning turned into the afternoon and
then into the early evening, Irenestill hadn't returned. Missus Winniott believed that
the young women must have met someother people of her own age and was
probably out somewhere enjoying the beautiful weather, as it was a hot sunny day
(12:07):
and the sun didn't set till aroundabout eight pm at this time of year.
The next morning, however, IreneMonroe still hadn't come back to the
guesthouse and missus Winniot was growing concerned, which I find a wonderful thing for
a guesthouse owner to care that much. Yeah. The afternoon of the twentieth
and a thirteen year old boy namedWalter Weller was walking on the beach with
his mother when he tripped over somethingsticking out of the sand and pebbles of
(12:31):
the Crumbles Beach. What he foundwhen he looked down shocked him and his
mother quite considerably, as it wasa human foot sticking out of the loose
sand and rock. Not really knowingwhat he'd found, Walter shouts over to
his mother and she instantly understood whatwas under the rest of the pebbles.
She quickly rushed with Walter back totheir guesthouse and returned to the spot with
(12:54):
the owner of mister Lamb. Whenmister Lamb arrived at the place where Walter
had his macabre discovery, which wasabout seven hundred yards from the sea on
an embankment beside a light railway trackused for the transportation of gravel. That
embankment, I think from the mildreading I have done, is man made
(13:15):
to hold the sea back to allowthe reclaimed land beyond that I mentioned earlier.
Yeah, to be there the daughterand Dad and Daughter podcast I listened
to. They had found this casebecause they his grandparents lived in the area
and he remembers walking to the beachand the ice cream and gift shop being
(13:35):
at the bottom of the steps thatyou had to walk up to to get
to the beach, and that tome is a brain fun. When you
have to go up steps to getto a beach, you're obviously lower than
sea level. But yeah, Soafter they traversity the embankment, they get
to the beach area and they clearaway the stones from around the foot and
reveal a shallow grave which contains thebody of a young woman. The police
were on the scene not long after, with officers from Eastbourne and Hailsome at
(13:58):
tent. A large bloodstained rock wasfound about two yards away from the grave
site, as well as two rustyshovels. The young woman was lying on
her left side with a right armacross her chest, her left arm and
her right arm was stretched out withleg tucked under her right leg. The
grave was, as we said earlier, on shallow. It was somewhere around
(14:20):
about four foot deep, and thepebbles and gravels that had been chucked on
top of her were pretty loose.It was a quick job, yes,
absolutely. As the body was recovered, it was taken to the mortuary and
Eastbourne for examination, and the nextday a special investigator, George Mercer,
was sent from Scotland Yard to leadthe investigation. Not bad. I had
(14:43):
Percy Savage. You had Percy Savage. I get George Mercer. You will
hear about Percy Savage in the nextepisode. Two decent names. I'll get
you that. I might be wrongand I will have to go back and
have a look. But I thinkwe've come across George Mercer with and I
think it might have been the bodyon the train tracks, because that's the
(15:05):
South coast there as well about thesame time. I don't know, but
something's tickling in my head that we'vecome across George Marsher before. It wouldn't
surprise me if we had no Well, we talked about that recently. We
were going to talk about it onthe podcasting Around Table, which you can
find on YouTube, or in anepisode that we just released. We were
going to ask about the best namesthat other people have found. But actually,
(15:28):
because their podcasts are quite not lesswide ranging than ours, I would
say that's an unfair question anyway.So George Moore Mercer is sent up from
Scotland the yard to lead the investigation. The press have a lovely field day
with this, as you can imagine. Yeah, stories front page news,
(15:50):
and when missus Winniett sees the headlinesand Irene is still missing, she goes
to the police and identifies the bodyof that of the young woman had been
staying in her guesthouse. Irone's auntwould formerly identify the body. On the
twenty second of August, The postModern concluded that Irone Monroe had died roughly
(16:11):
twenty four hours before the discovery ofher body. There were no signs of
sexual assault, but she had beensavagely beaten. Irone's upper and lower jaw
were both fractured, and she wasmissing several teeth. She also had a
fracture that extended from her left cheekall the way up to her left temple.
Most of the wounds seemed to befrom an instrument like a walking stick,
and the first blow to her lefttemple would have rendered her senseless,
(16:34):
if not totally unconscious. This firststrike would have been fatal from the result
of a brain injury if subsequent blowshadn't been delivered. Irone's right temple was
elacerated and bludgeoned, most likely withthe blood stained rock found by her grave
side. There's a fucking hard paragraphto read there, Alistair. It's not
(16:56):
easy. She was savagely beaten witha blo instrument and then finished off with
a rock. Sounds like there mighthave been two people involved in this one
mm spoiler alert that I can't evensay spoiler alert tonight. Not there was
first pint as well. Geez oh, we've a whole other episode. The
(17:21):
investigation into Irene Monroe's murder began,and many witnesses came forward who had seen
her in the company of two youngmen in the early afternoon of the nineteenth
of August. The authorities you willnot be surprised to hear, because mainly
you wrote this, but also,you wouldn't be surprised anyway. Focused on
finding the two men and started canvassingthe guest house, hotels and the local
(17:41):
area because the two men had recentlymaybe and quite quickly checked out to escape
the area. Cheesed it. Yeah, they'd officially cheesed it. When the
police got to the album, mildhotel barmaids told them about a pair of
less than reputable young men local tothe area known as Jack and Billy.
(18:02):
They occasionally drank in the hotel.Jack and Bill, I hear they went
up a hill fetch a pale war. Yep, Well, it's not them
that had a cracked crown. Thisevening alistair and that is the horriblest JOKEUL
make tonight. I'm afraid Jack andBilly occasionally drank in the hotel and they
were known to be airshols. Yeah, they were known to place for petty
(18:27):
crimes for the past couple of years. On the night of the nineteenth these
two men arrived at the hotel dressedfar smarter than usual, with far more
money to spend than they usually had. A local gentleman called Frederick Wells also
told Inspector Mercer they had seen ironymanRow walking with two men in the direction
of Pennantcy Bay. Mister Wells hadseen the two men frequently about the town
(18:51):
and noted that the younger of thepair always had a yellow walking stick with
distinctive dog head handle on the top. George Mercer now does some good old
fashioned police work. Since mister Wellshad seen these two men often about town,
he went with Inspector Mercer into Eastbournein case they saw the pair again.
It wasn't very long before mister Wellsspotted the pair, and sure enough,
(19:14):
one of the men did indeed havea yellow walking stick with a dog
head handle. Inspector Marcer immediately approachedthe men and asked them to identify themselves.
They were Jack and Billy, nineteenyear old Jack Alfred Field and twenty
nine year old William Thomas Gray.The two men were detained on the spot
for questioning and I give a tipmy hat to Inspector Mercer. So only
(19:40):
been four days since the discovery ofIron Monroe's body and the police have two
suspects in custody. Jackfield and WilliamGray both denied being with William Blah Blah.
Jackfield and William Gray both denied beingwith irone on the day of a
murder, and unfortunately, when putin police line up, none of the
witnesses except Frederick Wells, could positivefor identify the two men, so Inspector
(20:02):
Marcier was forced to release the twomen from custody, despite being pretty sure
that they were with Irene on theday and probably responsible for her murder.
But he's got no, he's gotnothing to go on other than he's pretty
sure. He doesn't even have acircumstanceal evidence. No, there's nothing other
than he's got a walking stick.He's got one person who's identified them.
(20:22):
It was Jack that had the walkingstick, wasn't it. And he was
the younger of the two, thenineteen year old. But it eh just
a fashion statement, yeah yeah,or something to beat victims with, or
something to beat young seventeen year oldwomen with. But no, he had
it with him all the time.That's it's a sort of fashion statement.
Dog's head handles are strong. Theywere both ex army. Yeah, okay,
(20:48):
it could have been an injury.William would have served in the First
World War. We're talking nineteen twentyhere. Jack was nineteen. He probably
didn't serve in the the war though, well, probably not, and not
unless he signed up when he wassixteen, which was not uncommon. That's
true. Actually, yeah, it'simpossible. There's a possibility that he would
have served a year or thereabouts,So, yes, it could have been.
(21:11):
There could have been a medical reasonfor it. But a yellow stick
with a doghead handle is a quitedistinctive look. Yeah, they did both
serve, and I didn't look uptheir war records. Why give them any
justice? Exactly? Surprise surprise,spoiler alert. I think we know who
did it. Anyway, as wesay, Inspector Marcia had had to let
(21:36):
them go because he had no reasonto detain them any longer. The investigations
continued, and the police soon learnedthat Jack and William had taken a bus
on the morning of the murder andgot off at the Archery Tavern. The
conductor of the bus was questioned aman by a man by the name of
George Blackman, and he told themthat the pair were frequent passengers on his
bus that day. They had gottenoff at the Archery Tavern and they'd met
(21:57):
a young lady there who was wearinga green dress and a black hat.
When mister Blackman was shown a pictureof Irone Monroe, he confirmed that that
was indeed the young lady that theyhad met. William Putman, a sailor
who had been on leave on thenineteenth of August, had also seen Jack
and William with Irone Monroe. Whenhe came to tell the police what he
(22:19):
had seen, he was questioned byInspector Mercer. Mister Putman gave such a
detailed description of the two men thatGeorge Mercer asked him to come with him
into town, just like he haddone with mister Wells earlier. This is
just how Mercer catches people. Itjust takes other folk with him. Yeah.
Do you know what, it's nota bad point out the bad man,
just you with me, Yeah,point at Baddie's. Will not surprise
(22:47):
you once again because you wrote thisthat mister Putman quickly spotted two men and
identified them as Jack and Billy,and they were indeed the men that he
scene with Irene that day. Thankspretty much to George Mercer's investigations, the
authorities now had multiple positive IDs placingthe two suspects with Irene on the beach
(23:11):
of the nineteenth September on the nineteenthof August Sorry this was enough to warrant
searching the men's houses. The searchof their houses turned up a number of
items of clothing that many witnesses hadidentified as being worn by the men who
were with Irene. Police also seizedthe yellow walking stick from jack He then
fell over yeah instantly and he hadto walk and George Mercier shouted timber as
(23:36):
he fell. Jackfield and William Graywere both unemployed former army regulars who,
following their discharge from the Army,had never happily reintegrated back into civilian life.
They were well known to the policeas petty criminals and thieves, and
both men had previous convictions for minorcrimes over the preceding two years. It's
(23:56):
believed the motive for this horrific killingwas pul robbery. Irene would have most
probably had most of our money forher two week holiday on her person,
as there was no safe or strongbox in Missus Winniot's guest house. That
I find upsetting because I, havingnever met Missus Winniat, would have been
happy to leave my money in ourguest house. She seemed the amount of
(24:18):
care that she showed to this youngwoman. Yeah, that's true, but
I get it. She probably hadlike a bum bag on or one of
those one of those things that youwear around your neck when you go swimming
and keep all your money in it. They'll be plastic tubes. No,
no, no, okay, Iwant one. No, I'm going on
holiday Cypressly in the year I hatedthose. You put all the loose,
(24:41):
tiny little change from your holiday init, and then you jumped in the
water and you sank like stone.You just put a weight around your neck.
I made swimming so much more difficult. I think that says something about
your level of swimming intellect than itdoes about the actual article of money carrying.
Maybe. On the fourth of September, William Gray and Jackfield were officially
(25:07):
arrested and charged with the murder ofIrony Monroe. The trial takes place a
couple months later, on the thirteenthof December nineteen twenty, with both men
appearing at the Loose Assizes before misterJustice Avery and pleading not guilty. It
was a five day trial, whichwe're not going to go into cover in
full detail because it doesn't necessitate it. No, it's not pertinent their defense.
(25:34):
Castle at J. D. Castlesdid his best. Basically, he
spent his time trying to get themoff with it by just going. Really
he muddied the water and obfisticated,obvious, sad, ob fiscidated, no
more parts for you. No,maybe not like to It's been a long
(25:56):
day to day already help your runningaround like an arsehole all day. None,
that don't work. I just runaround of the canastle. Basically,
he tried to just go. Allyou have is witnesses on the day.
You have no actual evidence of acrime. This is true as well.
They could never match the dog's headwalking stick to the wounds on the back
(26:21):
of iron Monroe forensically. Actually,I suppose that's probably down to the fact
that it is just we're not talkingabout an imprint or a burn mark,
or it is literally a blunt objecttrauma. Yeah, and the dog's head
handle had a dog's head on oneend of sort of a almost crooked handle,
(26:44):
and the forensic pathologist to look ather I only just remember this now
thought that she was struck with theback of the handle have left a distinctive
mark, so it would have beenkind of bulbous, rather than with detail
on it like the back. Yeahexactly, Yeah, I see what you
mean. So it have actually actedas a club, yes, and it's
rather than a I don't want tosay like acts in a way, but
(27:07):
you know what I mean act.Yeahh So that would just leaven in a
far less distinctive mark. It couldhave been any blunt thing. Definitely a
blunt thing roughly the same diameter asthe stick. But they couldn't prove that
it was that stick. We callthem that fully circumstantial then that that this
could have done it. Yeah,it is circumstanced, but we can't prove
(27:30):
that this is the It could havealso been done by his walking stick,
or that stick over there, oractually just anything exactly. And we were
a bit too early for a fingerprintand else is to be nearly sophisticated enough
to pull prints off a rock.Yeah, fair enough, because that takes
more, you know, clean surfaces. We talked about the Juna and Vadavany
(27:51):
case when they got twenty prints offa glass bottle. Yeah, and that's
fine because it's glass, and that'sI mean, that's still twenty eight nine,
early fifties. So then maybe thirtyyears later. Yeah, where was
I sorry? So basically, yeah, as we say, you can't get
with evidence of fingerprints of bloodstained closingbecause they didn't find any of that,
(28:15):
and it's very difficult to prove thatthis was the object that was the murder
weapon. G. D. Castle'sbasically said, there is no hard evidence
to prove that these two men wereguilty of the crime. Yeah. The
case for the prosecution was led byCharles Gill and it was conducted very well,
considering that almost all of the evidenceagainst the two men was circumstantial.
(28:38):
As we say, Charles Gill wasas well as proving that Jack and William
were with Ironman Row on the dayof her murder. Also, Sean also
showed beyond doubt that the two menhad tried to bribe a local servant girl
by the name of Hilda Moud ModeMaud Maud had tried to bribe a local
(29:00):
servant girl by the name of HildaMulde Baxter to establish a false alibi.
It also came to light that onthe twenty first of August, two days
after the murder, both of theaccused men tried to re enlist into the
army. Is that is that theultimate wiping of your tracks, just jumping
the army and fuck off. Notthe British Army. Yeah, if you
(29:22):
were jumping on board the French foreignLeader, foreign legion or something, maybe
yeah, yeah, but you couldn'tjust join the British Army. By this
point they were one of the fewpeople who had sort of extensive fingerprint records.
Amongst other things, the identities ofsoldiers were known. Oh. We
talked about it again in the Junivannycase about the use of army records because
(29:42):
it was an easy way of provingwho was were exactly. That's true,
whereas if you'd fucked off to theFrench Legion or the Indian Army or the
Gurkhas or something, that they'd hadno idea who you are exactly. But
these two men weren't very clever,Alice. Now, they weren't the smartest.
The trial itself concluded on the seventeenthof December. The jury deliberated for
(30:06):
just little over an hour. Theywere given instructions by the judge, if
you may, if I may,yep, let me just find it.
I meant to have this open.Sorry, Judge Avery gave directions to the
jury before they were sent out.The direction he gave them was, I
(30:29):
warn you only to bring in averdict of guilty if satisfied beyond all reasonable
doubt as to the guilt. Ifind it quite an interesting statement because we've
we've talked about judges giving directions tojuries before basically saying come back with I
can't remember the case, but wetalked about it just recently the last couple
of months, where the judge basicallysaid come back with a guilty verdict.
(30:55):
Yes, we looked at more thanone case. Is I find this an
interesting one because I believe that thejudge thought these two men were guilty,
but he also was weighing up thefact that all they have is there was
no hard eavens and the instruction thatyou have to only come back with a
(31:17):
guilty verdict if you're satisfied beyond allreasonable doubt as to the guilt. But
I just like that would hang inyour head as you go out of the
door to sit down and have yourtea and biscuit and think about what you've
just heard over the five days.Sorry, I just thought that was worth
putting in there because it, tome says that the judge if he wasn't
(31:37):
convinced, he had to know thatthe jury were before he sentenced, because
the sentence, as you will notbe surprised to know, came back as
guilty. After only an hour ofdeliberation. Both Jackfield and William Gray were
found guilty of the murder of IreneMonroe. The interesting thing was they did
(32:00):
say that they had no way ofproving who was the murderer who. It's
a murder on the Orient Express job. You couldn't tell who actually delivered the
killing blow, or which the Romansactually killed Caesar. Yeah, indeed there
were about twelve of them, atleast. They all went working straight in
(32:22):
there. Yeah, literally stopped.There was another thing I read earlier that
I can't I can't find quickly tohand to read it to you, But
basically it was the judge surmising thecase that says both of them were essentially
found guilty of being accomplices to oneanother, so that the blame of the
(32:46):
murder wasn't put on one of them. It was saying, if he did
it, you were an accomplice tomurder. If you did it, he
was an accomplice to murder. Soit at no point was one man found
guilty of the murder of Irene Monroe, which actually bubbles me a little bit,
like we know it was Jack andWilliam, Yes, we know that.
(33:07):
We don't know whether it was Jackor William. I think it was
Jack that did it and then madeWilliam partake because he was the one with
the stick and then the cane,and that's the most obvious murder weapon in
my head. I don't think you'vegone into it here. The attack was
(33:31):
with the cane rattle, and thenhe's turned around and gone, William do
something to almost make him a partof the crime. Yep, without being
too simplified on that too simplified atall, I expect the initial attack was
with the cane and then after notjust one, maybe three or four clubs
(33:54):
with the cane because she was missingteeth. Yeah, her jaw bone was
broken and as we said earlier thatthe first blow would have been enough to
kill her. It would have beenenough to kill her without medical attention.
Yes, so she was probably unconsciousbut alive, yes, at the point
of the strike happening. However,the influence of the rock and subsequent blows
(34:19):
is what killed her. In thatmoment on that beach exactly either way,
both of them were found guilty ofthe murder of Irene Violet Monroe. When
Justice Sorry. When Justice Avery donnedhis black cap and delivered the sentence,
it was with the words Jack AlfredField and William Thomas Gray, you have
(34:43):
been found guilty of a foul andbrutal murder, and the defense you have
both concocted has been demonstrated to beuntrue. My duty is now to pass
upon you the sentence of the law. That sentence is that you be taken
hints to a lawful prison, andthence to a place of execution, and
that you be hanged by the neckuntil you be dead, and that your
body is to be afterward buried withinthe precincts of the prison wherein you shall
(35:07):
have been last confined before your execution. I direct that this sentence be carried
out at Wandsworth Prison. And maythe Lord have ah fuck, and may
the Lord have mercy on your souls. The sentence was appealed by both men,
trying to blame each other for thecrime, but both appeals were refused
(35:28):
by the Lord Chief Justice. Soon the eighteenth of January nineteen twenty one,
at eight am, Jack Alfred Fieldand William Thomas Gray went unassisted to
the gallows at Wandsworth Prison where theywere hanged for the murder of Irene Monroe.
The executioner was our old friend ThomasPierre Point, and they were both
(35:51):
hanged by long drop and buried inthe walls of Wansworth Prison. I did
look this up because Wandsworth is aplace that I I know where it is.
I've obviously never been inside it,thankfully I hope to never go inside
it. It's actually there's a remotecontrolled aircraft field behind Wadsworth Prison that you're
(36:13):
allowed to go and test drone flightsand all that kind of stuff off.
So I know the walls of Wandsworthreasonably well because I've flown drones around it
outside was I also find amazing thatyou're allowed to fly drones that close to
a prison. And reading this andhaving spoken about it a lot recently,
taken from here to a place whereyou will be prisoned, and thence taken
(36:35):
to a place of execution so theywill maintain into a public gallows, and
then brought back to where they havebeen imprisoned to bury is the point of
that that you then can't go tothe grave. Yes, is that it?
Because I just I was running throughthis stre in my mind earlier on
today. Well, I was sittingeating my sandwich at lunch time today and
I'm like, what is the purposeof that? Is it to stop it
(36:57):
being a I hate I don't usethe pilgrimage point, but it is to
stop it being an attraction. No, there's there's two reasons. First,
as the obvious point, in anunmarked grave, nobody's gonna know where your
remains are, so nobody can comeand visit your remains. Ever. Yeah,
(37:19):
but these unmarked grades were also unconsecrated. Okay, So if you were
Catholic at least and you were buriedin an unmarked prison grave, you weren't
going to heaven you think you werea mark or all you want. You
were buried in an unconsecrated grad,so your sins aren't forgiven at the point
of death you are at Okay.It's interesting, isn't it, Because it's
(37:43):
I only asked this because we've talkedto recently about crime scenes almost being public
showings and places that were people gatheredto. So one of the fantastic things
I learned at the Crumbled Prison inIreland was the etymology of the phrase hangover,
oh do go on? It comesfrom when public executions and hangings were
(38:07):
such public affairs that everybody was there, that there was there, got drunk
and the next day they had ahang over from the hanging. That's I
feel like. Having done one hundredand odd episodes of Twisted Britain and had
(38:27):
many a hangover, more than onehundred hangovers, I feel I should have
known that that was brilliant, welldone Crumbles Prison tour guide for telling me
that Crumbles we're doing the Crumbles murdersand you went to the Crumbles Prison,
Crumbles Prison. Yeah that's good.I like that. No, so that
was the tour guide that told youthat. Yeah, oh, hats off
to him. Fabulous to anybody outsideof Belfast. It's a great visit for
(38:52):
the kids and adults. Good.I intend to go this year if I
can. And you were staying withmutual friends of ours, in fact that
we've known for thirty years or so, so yeah, I'll be over at
their house at some point this year, and I'm going to make a point
I won't make them go because they'vebeen maybe me and Isaacle go, but
yeah, we'll do that. Andback to this case, however, the
(39:17):
motivation for it seems to just beplaying robbery. Yes, from memory,
all of the money, as yousay, was taken from her. A
gold ring was taken from her finger, and nine carrot gold ring was taken
from her finger, and like washer hat not taken because she was seen
to be, Yes, her hatwas missing when they found the body.
Anyway, she was seen to beby these two men, not upper class
(39:44):
but like moreps, way more upperclass than them. I certainly step up
in society. That she was onholiday in a guesthouse and spending money and
spending money, and they were unemployed, and she was criminals. Yeah,
and she was a lonely woman whohad just been taking her first foray into
adult life, shall we say,without signing too floral and wanky about it.
(40:08):
And she'd been seeing arm in armwith this man, not just like
cutting about with them. No,arm in arm with Jack, younger of
the two, who was only twoyears older than her, and William was
twelve years older than her. Icall creep on that, but it's so
unnecessary that that was my takeaway fromthis entire thing, it's so unnecessary,
(40:30):
absolutely unnecessary killing. I know,I feel like and I mean, this
is one hundred years of hindsight speculation. I reckon if Jack and William had
said to her, you're buying thedrinks, she'd have bought the fucking drinks.
Probably, they'd probably she'd probably havegiven them the money if it said
(40:52):
give us the money or I'll killyou. But I suspect it was a
cowardly attack. Yeah, the firstblow being struck to the left, temperate,
could easily have come from behind.Yeah, yeah, absolutely, It's
one of these. Do you knowwhat. I'm glad you wrote it for
us to tell it. I wishi'd found it because when I was reading
(41:15):
your your script and then I've donemy own little bit, so there's wee
bits and pieces that I did tryto get as much of the wee bits
and pieces as I could in there. But I was like, this is
one that it's correct me if I'mwrong, it's you probably gave me this
one because you thought of the two, because we've done them both now,
even though this is the first one, I feel this is the one you'd
have gone Bob would like to tellthis story more than then Part two,
(41:38):
which we will get you you willget to next week last week, but
people listening to this will get toit next week for no other reason.
The magic of podcasts, the magicpust Guesday for no other reason, Like
there's no reason for us to dothem in this order. It's just how
we have chronologically. Chronologically is howit's sorted. The crumbles area. So
(42:00):
we didn't get on too And Ithought I was going to interject a bit
about the castle. So the nightthat Irene Monroe had left the guest house
with Missus Winniots, she told hershe was going to Pevensey Castle. Yes,
and at no point was she everseen in Pevncy Castle. And I
(42:22):
don't know which of the two witnessesit was that we talked about. One
of them accounted for having seen herwith Jack and William at the time frame
where she should have been at PevancyCastle if she'd gone on the bus from
the guesthouse in the Teneca Town Greenarea in Eastbourne, So she had I
(42:45):
don't know, Like I get thisfeeling that she was covering her tracks anyway.
I think she probably knew these twoboys were wrongins, but she probably
quite liked hanging out with them yeta bit of excitement the seventeen go to
the pub. I feel, Ihonestly, I feel fucking terrible for her.
(43:05):
It's a really horrible one. Veryunnecessary. That's it. It's one
hundred percent unnecessary. It would andI do genuinely think if they'd said to
Irene, give us all your moneyand then fuck off, that she probably
would have. Yeah, and she'dwritten another letter. She would have written
another letter to her mother saying I'vemade some bad choices. I'm going home.
Yeah, and she'd have lived tillfucking the nineteen eighties or something like
(43:30):
that. Very well. Could havemad really a life cut short for no
reason, for not even for alot of money. Really no, because
it like I wouldn't because although shewas a step in society above them,
she wasn't upper class. She wasworking as a typist. Yeah, you
know, she's know. And althoughI said earlier her family got the boat
(43:52):
up to Scotland, that's not anextravagant That's how people traveled, you know,
it would have been it would havebeen costly if they did it every
year. It wasn't extravagance that theydid it for at all, another one
I don't like. I do youknow what? I think I've done a
one hundred and fourteen episodes that Idon't like. Now you're not going to
like. We'll get the Teacup Murderconclusion to come. We thought we did,
(44:19):
but we don't. Yeah, Bobthought that it was going to be
a conclusion because I had been callingit the Teacup trilogy. Yeah. Yeah,
So once you get past this episodeand the second Crumbles Murder, where
you'll get onto the Teacup trilogy,that is now quadrology, a quadrology which
I actually enjoy more as a word, if I'm going to be honest,
Thank you for writing that. It'sa pleasure as always. Thank you for
(44:43):
reading it. No, you're Ihope. I hoped you listening to me
telling your tale with my bits wasas good as me writing I think it
was. I should always do this, You should just write and I'll just
read it to you. Yeah,this is great. I mean, I'm
not that fussed with that. It'sright. Everything I have. No,
(45:04):
I have one. I have onefor you in a couple of weeks time,
when you're up next, because it'sone. We'll maybe do it over
the internet. We'll see what happens. But I've got one that you'll never
have heard of. I've got I'vegot I've got a left wing one for
you, and we'll get to that. Aida is the only word I'm going
to give you for it. Itwas the woman's name. If you've enjoyed
(45:25):
it's a bit of a shorter episodethis week because it was halfway through between
a twisted, tiny twisted and atwisted. But it's too long really to
do as a tiny twisted, sosaid me just do it, So this
is a medium twisted. Thank youvery much for listening to medium Twisted this
evening. If you enjoyed it.There are one hundred odd episodes out there.
We've done a lot of weird kindof bone to see bits and pieces
(45:49):
recently that have been really good fun. Do keep a lookout on our socials.
If you're not on their Facebook,Instagram, going to give it to
you, it's going to give itto you. Hopefully we'll be doing a
bit more. We did the roundtable with Paul and Mike and Adam recently,
which was actually really really good fun, very fun. I really enjoyed
(46:10):
it. I drank a lot ofgrasshoppers, Yes you did. You were
smashed. By the end of it. I could tell by your eyes we
were five hundred miles apart, andI could tell you a gassed this is
cocktails. And then I went tothe pop quiz after that. Jack three
beers during that record, and theywent to the quiz. It was fucking
mad man. But we'll hope,we'll hope to do that again, and
possibly we'll do some other bits andpieces. I've got nothing else this evening.
(46:34):
No, this is a fantastic episode. Thanks for reading that, Bob,
thanks for writing it. And Iwill leave you, as always with
a thank you, love you bye, and I thank you, love you
bye. Thanka your few Bye.I can hear yourself, Thanka you bye. No
Hello and welcome to Twister Britain,a podcast. I'm true crime in Britain
with a sprinkling of the weird thana cab and your hosts are me Bob
Dale and me Ali Downey. Hello, Alastair Downey? How are you?
I am fabulous. It's lovely tobe back up in Scotland to record.
We're literally a meter apart. Thatmakes a slight difference the last time we
recorded. Yeah, we were manymeters five hundred miles apart, and then
you walked another five hundred just tobe the man that fell down at my
(00:56):
podcast door. I have fallen outat your door more than once. That's
very true. So you have fallendown. You've fallen out of my door
many a time as well as true. I felt out. Well, we've
talked about me falling down the stepsto your front door a few times before.
We'll look go down that one again, you will. I am fabulous.
Just returned from a trip. Yes, I was in Ireland. No
you want you're in Northern Ireland there, don't do it, honestly, we'll
(01:21):
get letters to a po box,don't. What is a peel box office
box? Is it really like it'sa physical thing. It's an address that
isn't your house, isn't your house. It's fucking weird. I don't like
it. I can't imagine who weneed them drug dealers. Apart from drug
dealers, we don't need one.No, we don't get any mail.
(01:42):
No. If you said as aletter, send it to the settle in.
We used to get mail. Didwe actually get mail? Yeah?
Once we go a few times.Actually once we got No, we did
for a few times from a listenerwho that created a horror zine used to
send it to us. Don't getthem anymore. And we got some teddies
ent to us that wasn't not ina creepy way. They were actually quite
(02:02):
nice teddies. It was a sockmonkey called Marshmallow. Wow. Yeah,
I love him. We still gothim. Yeah yeah. Man's Isac Scottan
in his room. Of course Marshmallow. He likes what is? He likes
loads of stuff. It's unlike histag. He likes Marty. Obviously he
likes marshmallows because it's his name.Yeah. Ah, I'm gonna look at
the tag and I'll send you apicture of it. Do it. I'll
(02:24):
post it as well. I'm surewe posted on the socials before, but
we'll do it again. Who cares? Yeah, that was back when I
didn't pay any attention to them.So when you didn't know what a podcast
was, I knew what they werein the same way that existentially, I
know what time and space are,but I wasn't super aware of them.
I'm going to go with you probablyknew the time better than a podcast.
(02:46):
Yeah, just ever so slightly better. Yeah, but that's just because the
speaking clock was still a thing.Oh yeah, what was I watching the
other day? I was watching thison the Netflix where the guy pretended to
phone his mum and phone the speakingclock instead, and I was like,
that's nineties? Was that one day? That's what it's called? Filmed in
Edinburgh? I enjoyed it anyway,House Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland was incredible.
(03:08):
I visited the Crumblin Jail while Iwas there, which was a fantastic
day out. Pictures look good,Yeah, it's really good. I put
them up on Facebook. I've broughta tiny twisted back from it, or
did I was going to ask you, did you find anything that was podcast
worthy? One? There? I'vebrought a tiny twisted tail back which I'll
be recording soon. Any teaser,Yes, it's more than Irish. No,
(03:30):
it is an escape from the jailon nice where the inmate escapes and
escapes to Glasgow. Okay, inGlasgow for a while before recapture. And
where was Jalen Belfast? Yeah,just outside of Belfast? Okay. I
look forward to it. It's agood one. Are you going to do
it in the pub? Yes?On your new microphones. Yes, on
the new microphones, which are reallyreally cool. I'll be cool anyway.
(03:52):
Listeners may have heard them on ourrecord with Mike from Murder Mile. That's
truly the video that went out inthe Facy book. Yeah, and a
tiny bit of it went out inthe old Tickest of the talkst Oh,
that's right, because apparently we ticktalk now well twisted talk. We're twisted
talks. I've always threatened that Ithink Jock that works in here Leslie's dad.
(04:15):
I wanted to start Jock's Talks asa channel. I reckon I'd be
a millionaire by now if I had. You have so many more listeners than
us, Absolutely would do this evening. However, but a funny one this
week you'd written two tiny twisteds thatwere linked by location, and that's it.
Yes, location and time period.Yeah, they were both in the
(04:39):
nineteen twenties. But as you tendto do, you wrote too much.
Yeah, this is a constant problemfor me. So instead of doing them
as tiny twisteds, we've recorded parttwo already, which we did last week
when you were in Bournemouth and Iwas in the settling, and we're going
(04:59):
to call part one this week.However, I didn't write it. You
wrote it, but I'm going totell you the tale of it. Yeah,
so if halfway through we switch who'stelling the story, it's because I've
really messed it up, I think. Yeah, it's almost a cold read
for you, except you've had acouple of days to familiarize yourself with it.
It's not fully cold read because I'veread it through and I've had a
(05:21):
read about the case. I actuallylistened to it's called Dad and Daughter,
the podcast. They did an episodeon it, so I listened to them
on the walk up the road thisevening. So it's not cold, but
it's not warm, shall we say? So I'm going to dive in,
let's hear it, and I wantyou for the sake of podcast fantasy to
(05:43):
pringe. You've never heard this before, Alistair, I'll try do your best
rather than just mouth along with me. I also wrote both these tiny twisteds
before I really started going down theteacup rabbit hole, so I've forgotten a
lot of it. Oh well,that will help me out, I feel
here we are so, as Isay, this was supposed to be a
tiny twist but it has its grownarms and legs. And this is the
(06:08):
first of the two cases that we'lltalk about called the Crumble murders, and
the Crumbles is an area between Eastbourneand Pezancy Bay, which, as I
say, is known as the Crumbles. It's kind of a shingly stony Aiad
Beach exactly as you said already.These are unconnected murders from the nineteen twenties,
(06:29):
but they're kind of lump together.And actually, if you look up
the Crumbles murders as a as atopic Wikipedia, like literally, it's one
page for the two of them.Yeah, which I find I find quite
sad because these are in like yousaid, these are individual cases, and
these are individual murders of individual women. So why they've been lumped together by
geographic location and that's it. Yeah. So the first murder that we will
(06:54):
be talking about before you hear nextweek's episode is the incredibly savage bludgeoning to
death of seventeen year old Irene MonroeIrene Violet Monroe. Her body was found
in a shallow graves on a singleHer body was found in a shallow grave
on a Shingle beach, Shingle.I'm struggling with this evening, Shinger.
Yes. She was found by athirteen year old boy and his mother on
(07:15):
the twentieth of August nineteen twenty.Irene was born in Brighton in nineteen o
three. Early in her childhood,the family moved to South Kensington in London,
where Iron grew up into a happy, outgoing, ebulliant young woman,
much loved by family and friends alike. In nineteen twenty, irone was working
in Oxford Street in London as atypist for a chartered accountant firm. Now
(07:38):
every year the family traveled to Scotlandfor their holiday. They went to Edra,
they went to Portvillo Beach every yearand what I found quite interesting was
they tended to go by sea.They would sail from the South coast of
England up to Scotland, which Iwas like, it's pretty cool journey actually,
and it would say you going overland, which would take infinitesimally longer.
(08:00):
Anyway, However, this year,in nineteen twenty, Ian decided she did
not want to travel with her familyand she wanted to go on a vacation
of her own, which at seventeenyear old, I was thinking about this
on the walk up the road.At seventeen, is that too young to
be going entirely on her own?Yeah? I would have said so different
(08:20):
time frame, I suppose that we'retalking about, I know, my first
holiday abroad on my own, butwith friends. I was about eighteen or
nineteen. That was a cluster.Oh that was yeah. One of those
has got sunstroke. One of usgot robbed in an alleyway trying to buy
weed. I went and bought triedto buy skins at the chippy and the
(08:43):
man put over the tannoy skins andfags for a joint, which was an
interesting evening. But nonetheless I wasn'tseventeen year old girl on my own.
No, And I still find eventhough it was the nineteen twenties, that
to be young to be away,but either way, her mother agreed that
it would be all right that shewould go to the seaside town of Eastbourne
(09:05):
in the South Downs countryside. Soon the sixteenth of August, Iron Monroe
made the journey by train herself tothe South Coast. She found a place
to stay pretty quickly for the twoweeks that she planned to stay there,
and without any issues. She renteda room at three nine three Seaside,
which was owned by missus Ada Winniett. Nice respectable guest house just a mile
(09:28):
from the town center and a shortwalk from the beach. So I find
it quite interesting that I'm just goingto add in my bits that I felt
as I read your script. We'llgo on later to talk about the castle
area and in when the castle wasbuilt. It was originally the South coast,
but it is now in the nineteentwenties about a mile inland because that
(09:54):
is reclaimed land, essentially. Theother interesting fact about the beach that she
was near that I found is it'swhere William the Conqueror landed before he made
his march to the Battle of Hastings, is it. Yeah, I didn't
know that. There you go,Well, that's a good fact. There
you go. I thought you'd likethat one. I really did. Yeah.
Missus Winnie at that owned the guesthouse, was quite impressed with the
well mannered and polite young girl whohad come to stay, and told Irene
(10:16):
of local landmarks and bus routes tonearby towns such as Pevensey Bay. As
soon as Irene had arranged her lodgings, she wrote to her mother, who
was off to Scotland at this point. Her mother left two days later to
go to Scotland on their normal holiday, and she just wrote her letter basically
to say I'm here, I'm safe. Everything's going well. For the first
few days, Irene mon Rolle walkedto the local beaches and explored the town.
(10:39):
And although Irene was a from whatwe can understand, a fairly independent
woman, young woman going off onholiday on her own, she still had
a very good relationship to her mother. So she wrote her another letter so
we know in the eighteenth everything wasokay. She informed her mother in this
letter of what she'd been doing.She'd been to see the chalk cliffs at
Beachy Head the day before, andshe finished writing the letter with these words,
(11:01):
goodbye for the present. Please givemy love to Granny, Auntie,
Jesse and everyone. You're affectionate Reeniex x x x Irene Reeney. I'd
never put that together until i'd readthis, by the way, Yeah,
I'd never like we were talking aboutthis the other night, like Elizabeth becomes
Betty Andrew becomes Drew. But thereare ones that I go, how's that?
(11:22):
And it's Alexander becomes Sandy. Didn'tever think of that one. Yep,
there you go, or Alec inyour father's case, Yep, there
you go. Renee Irene was ayoung lady on vocation by herself the first
time. Following the initial excitement ofthe first few days, however, she
started to feel a wee bit lonely, and she told missus Winniatt on the
(11:43):
evening of the eighteenth. The followingmorning, Thursday, the nineteenth of August,
iron ate breakfast and then told thatMissus Winniatt that she was going for
a walk along the beach. Andas the morning turned into the afternoon and
then into the early evening, Irenestill hadn't returned. Missus Winniott believed that
the young women must have met someother people of her own age and was
probably out somewhere enjoying the beautiful weather, as it was a hot sunny day
(12:07):
and the sun didn't set till aroundabout eight pm at this time of year.
The next morning, however, IreneMonroe still hadn't come back to the
guesthouse and missus Winniot was growing concerned, which I find a wonderful thing for
a guesthouse owner to care that much. Yeah. The afternoon of the twentieth
and a thirteen year old boy namedWalter Weller was walking on the beach with
his mother when he tripped over somethingsticking out of the sand and pebbles of
(12:31):
the Crumbles Beach. What he foundwhen he looked down shocked him and his
mother quite considerably, as it wasa human foot sticking out of the loose
sand and rock. Not really knowingwhat he'd found, Walter shouts over to
his mother and she instantly understood whatwas under the rest of the pebbles.
She quickly rushed with Walter back totheir guesthouse and returned to the spot with
(12:54):
the owner of mister Lamb. Whenmister Lamb arrived at the place where Walter
had his macabre discovery, which wasabout seven hundred yards from the sea on
an embankment beside a light railway trackused for the transportation of gravel. That
embankment, I think from the mildreading I have done, is man made
(13:15):
to hold the sea back to allowthe reclaimed land beyond that I mentioned earlier.
Yeah, to be there the daughterand Dad and Daughter podcast I listened
to. They had found this casebecause they his grandparents lived in the area
and he remembers walking to the beachand the ice cream and gift shop being
(13:35):
at the bottom of the steps thatyou had to walk up to to get
to the beach, and that tome is a brain fun. When you
have to go up steps to getto a beach, you're obviously lower than
sea level. But yeah, Soafter they traversity the embankment, they get
to the beach area and they clearaway the stones from around the foot and
reveal a shallow grave which contains thebody of a young woman. The police
were on the scene not long after, with officers from Eastbourne and Hailsome at
(13:58):
tent. A large bloodstained rock wasfound about two yards away from the grave
site, as well as two rustyshovels. The young woman was lying on
her left side with a right armacross her chest, her left arm and
her right arm was stretched out withleg tucked under her right leg. The
grave was, as we said earlier, on shallow. It was somewhere around
(14:20):
about four foot deep, and thepebbles and gravels that had been chucked on
top of her were pretty loose.It was a quick job, yes,
absolutely. As the body was recovered, it was taken to the mortuary and
Eastbourne for examination, and the nextday a special investigator, George Mercer,
was sent from Scotland Yard to leadthe investigation. Not bad. I had
(14:43):
Percy Savage. You had Percy Savage. I get George Mercer. You will
hear about Percy Savage in the nextepisode. Two decent names. I'll get
you that. I might be wrongand I will have to go back and
have a look. But I thinkwe've come across George Mercer with and I
think it might have been the bodyon the train tracks, because that's the
(15:05):
South coast there as well about thesame time. I don't know, but
something's tickling in my head that we'vecome across George Marsher before. It wouldn't
surprise me if we had no Well, we talked about that recently. We
were going to talk about it onthe podcasting Around Table, which you can
find on YouTube, or in anepisode that we just released. We were
going to ask about the best namesthat other people have found. But actually,
(15:28):
because their podcasts are quite not lesswide ranging than ours, I would
say that's an unfair question anyway.So George Moore Mercer is sent up from
Scotland the yard to lead the investigation. The press have a lovely field day
with this, as you can imagine. Yeah, stories front page news,
(15:50):
and when missus Winniett sees the headlinesand Irene is still missing, she goes
to the police and identifies the bodyof that of the young woman had been
staying in her guesthouse. Irone's auntwould formerly identify the body. On the
twenty second of August, The postModern concluded that Irone Monroe had died roughly
(16:11):
twenty four hours before the discovery ofher body. There were no signs of
sexual assault, but she had beensavagely beaten. Irone's upper and lower jaw
were both fractured, and she wasmissing several teeth. She also had a
fracture that extended from her left cheekall the way up to her left temple.
Most of the wounds seemed to befrom an instrument like a walking stick,
and the first blow to her lefttemple would have rendered her senseless,
(16:34):
if not totally unconscious. This firststrike would have been fatal from the result
of a brain injury if subsequent blowshadn't been delivered. Irone's right temple was
elacerated and bludgeoned, most likely withthe blood stained rock found by her grave
side. There's a fucking hard paragraphto read there, Alistair. It's not
(16:56):
easy. She was savagely beaten witha blo instrument and then finished off with
a rock. Sounds like there mighthave been two people involved in this one
mm spoiler alert that I can't evensay spoiler alert tonight. Not there was
first pint as well. Geez oh, we've a whole other episode. The
(17:21):
investigation into Irene Monroe's murder began,and many witnesses came forward who had seen
her in the company of two youngmen in the early afternoon of the nineteenth
of August. The authorities you willnot be surprised to hear, because mainly
you wrote this, but also,you wouldn't be surprised anyway. Focused on
finding the two men and started canvassingthe guest house, hotels and the local
(17:41):
area because the two men had recentlymaybe and quite quickly checked out to escape
the area. Cheesed it. Yeah, they'd officially cheesed it. When the
police got to the album, mildhotel barmaids told them about a pair of
less than reputable young men local tothe area known as Jack and Billy.
(18:02):
They occasionally drank in the hotel.Jack and Bill, I hear they went
up a hill fetch a pale war. Yep, Well, it's not them
that had a cracked crown. Thisevening alistair and that is the horriblest JOKEUL
make tonight. I'm afraid Jack andBilly occasionally drank in the hotel and they
were known to be airshols. Yeah, they were known to place for petty
(18:27):
crimes for the past couple of years. On the night of the nineteenth these
two men arrived at the hotel dressedfar smarter than usual, with far more
money to spend than they usually had. A local gentleman called Frederick Wells also
told Inspector Mercer they had seen ironymanRow walking with two men in the direction
of Pennantcy Bay. Mister Wells hadseen the two men frequently about the town
(18:51):
and noted that the younger of thepair always had a yellow walking stick with
distinctive dog head handle on the top. George Mercer now does some good old
fashioned police work. Since mister Wellshad seen these two men often about town,
he went with Inspector Mercer into Eastbournein case they saw the pair again.
It wasn't very long before mister Wellsspotted the pair, and sure enough,
(19:14):
one of the men did indeed havea yellow walking stick with a dog
head handle. Inspector Marcer immediately approachedthe men and asked them to identify themselves.
They were Jack and Billy, nineteenyear old Jack Alfred Field and twenty
nine year old William Thomas Gray.The two men were detained on the spot
for questioning and I give a tipmy hat to Inspector Mercer. So only
(19:40):
been four days since the discovery ofIron Monroe's body and the police have two
suspects in custody. Jackfield and WilliamGray both denied being with William Blah Blah.
Jackfield and William Gray both denied beingwith irone on the day of a
murder, and unfortunately, when putin police line up, none of the
witnesses except Frederick Wells, could positivefor identify the two men, so Inspector
(20:02):
Marcier was forced to release the twomen from custody, despite being pretty sure
that they were with Irene on theday and probably responsible for her murder.
But he's got no, he's gotnothing to go on other than he's pretty
sure. He doesn't even have acircumstanceal evidence. No, there's nothing other
than he's got a walking stick.He's got one person who's identified them.
(20:22):
It was Jack that had the walkingstick, wasn't it. And he was
the younger of the two, thenineteen year old. But it eh just
a fashion statement, yeah yeah,or something to beat victims with, or
something to beat young seventeen year oldwomen with. But no, he had
it with him all the time.That's it's a sort of fashion statement.
Dog's head handles are strong. Theywere both ex army. Yeah, okay,
(20:48):
it could have been an injury.William would have served in the First
World War. We're talking nineteen twentyhere. Jack was nineteen. He probably
didn't serve in the the war though, well, probably not, and not
unless he signed up when he wassixteen, which was not uncommon. That's
true. Actually, yeah, it'simpossible. There's a possibility that he would
have served a year or thereabouts,So, yes, it could have been.
(21:11):
There could have been a medical reasonfor it. But a yellow stick
with a doghead handle is a quitedistinctive look. Yeah, they did both
serve, and I didn't look uptheir war records. Why give them any
justice? Exactly? Surprise surprise,spoiler alert. I think we know who
did it. Anyway, as wesay, Inspector Marcia had had to let
(21:36):
them go because he had no reasonto detain them any longer. The investigations
continued, and the police soon learnedthat Jack and William had taken a bus
on the morning of the murder andgot off at the Archery Tavern. The
conductor of the bus was questioned aman by a man by the name of
George Blackman, and he told themthat the pair were frequent passengers on his
bus that day. They had gottenoff at the Archery Tavern and they'd met
(21:57):
a young lady there who was wearinga green dress and a black hat.
When mister Blackman was shown a pictureof Irone Monroe, he confirmed that that
was indeed the young lady that theyhad met. William Putman, a sailor
who had been on leave on thenineteenth of August, had also seen Jack
and William with Irone Monroe. Whenhe came to tell the police what he
(22:19):
had seen, he was questioned byInspector Mercer. Mister Putman gave such a
detailed description of the two men thatGeorge Mercer asked him to come with him
into town, just like he haddone with mister Wells earlier. This is
just how Mercer catches people. Itjust takes other folk with him. Yeah.
Do you know what, it's nota bad point out the bad man,
just you with me, Yeah,point at Baddie's. Will not surprise
(22:47):
you once again because you wrote thisthat mister Putman quickly spotted two men and
identified them as Jack and Billy,and they were indeed the men that he
scene with Irene that day. Thankspretty much to George Mercer's investigations, the
authorities now had multiple positive IDs placingthe two suspects with Irene on the beach
(23:11):
of the nineteenth September on the nineteenthof August Sorry this was enough to warrant
searching the men's houses. The searchof their houses turned up a number of
items of clothing that many witnesses hadidentified as being worn by the men who
were with Irene. Police also seizedthe yellow walking stick from jack He then
fell over yeah instantly and he hadto walk and George Mercier shouted timber as
(23:36):
he fell. Jackfield and William Graywere both unemployed former army regulars who,
following their discharge from the Army,had never happily reintegrated back into civilian life.
They were well known to the policeas petty criminals and thieves, and
both men had previous convictions for minorcrimes over the preceding two years. It's
(23:56):
believed the motive for this horrific killingwas pul robbery. Irene would have most
probably had most of our money forher two week holiday on her person,
as there was no safe or strongbox in Missus Winniot's guest house. That
I find upsetting because I, havingnever met Missus Winniat, would have been
happy to leave my money in ourguest house. She seemed the amount of
(24:18):
care that she showed to this youngwoman. Yeah, that's true, but
I get it. She probably hadlike a bum bag on or one of
those one of those things that youwear around your neck when you go swimming
and keep all your money in it. They'll be plastic tubes. No,
no, no, okay, Iwant one. No, I'm going on
holiday Cypressly in the year I hatedthose. You put all the loose,
(24:41):
tiny little change from your holiday init, and then you jumped in the
water and you sank like stone.You just put a weight around your neck.
I made swimming so much more difficult. I think that says something about
your level of swimming intellect than itdoes about the actual article of money carrying.
Maybe. On the fourth of September, William Gray and Jackfield were officially
(25:07):
arrested and charged with the murder ofIrony Monroe. The trial takes place a
couple months later, on the thirteenthof December nineteen twenty, with both men
appearing at the Loose Assizes before misterJustice Avery and pleading not guilty. It
was a five day trial, whichwe're not going to go into cover in
full detail because it doesn't necessitate it. No, it's not pertinent their defense.
(25:34):
Castle at J. D. Castlesdid his best. Basically, he
spent his time trying to get themoff with it by just going. Really
he muddied the water and obfisticated,obvious, sad, ob fiscidated, no
more parts for you. No,maybe not like to It's been a long
(25:56):
day to day already help your runningaround like an arsehole all day. None,
that don't work. I just runaround of the canastle. Basically,
he tried to just go. Allyou have is witnesses on the day.
You have no actual evidence of acrime. This is true as well.
They could never match the dog's headwalking stick to the wounds on the back
(26:21):
of iron Monroe forensically. Actually,I suppose that's probably down to the fact
that it is just we're not talkingabout an imprint or a burn mark,
or it is literally a blunt objecttrauma. Yeah, and the dog's head
handle had a dog's head on oneend of sort of a almost crooked handle,
(26:44):
and the forensic pathologist to look ather I only just remember this now
thought that she was struck with theback of the handle have left a distinctive
mark, so it would have beenkind of bulbous, rather than with detail
on it like the back. Yeahexactly, Yeah, I see what you
mean. So it have actually actedas a club, yes, and it's
rather than a I don't want tosay like acts in a way, but
(27:07):
you know what I mean act.Yeahh So that would just leaven in a
far less distinctive mark. It couldhave been any blunt thing. Definitely a
blunt thing roughly the same diameter asthe stick. But they couldn't prove that
it was that stick. We callthem that fully circumstantial then that that this
could have done it. Yeah,it is circumstanced, but we can't prove
(27:30):
that this is the It could havealso been done by his walking stick,
or that stick over there, oractually just anything exactly. And we were
a bit too early for a fingerprintand else is to be nearly sophisticated enough
to pull prints off a rock.Yeah, fair enough, because that takes
more, you know, clean surfaces. We talked about the Juna and Vadavany
(27:51):
case when they got twenty prints offa glass bottle. Yeah, and that's
fine because it's glass, and that'sI mean, that's still twenty eight nine,
early fifties. So then maybe thirtyyears later. Yeah, where was
I sorry? So basically, yeah, as we say, you can't get
with evidence of fingerprints of bloodstained closingbecause they didn't find any of that,
(28:15):
and it's very difficult to prove thatthis was the object that was the murder
weapon. G. D. Castle'sbasically said, there is no hard evidence
to prove that these two men wereguilty of the crime. Yeah. The
case for the prosecution was led byCharles Gill and it was conducted very well,
considering that almost all of the evidenceagainst the two men was circumstantial.
(28:38):
As we say, Charles Gill wasas well as proving that Jack and William
were with Ironman Row on the dayof her murder. Also, Sean also
showed beyond doubt that the two menhad tried to bribe a local servant girl
by the name of Hilda Moud ModeMaud Maud had tried to bribe a local
(29:00):
servant girl by the name of HildaMulde Baxter to establish a false alibi.
It also came to light that onthe twenty first of August, two days
after the murder, both of theaccused men tried to re enlist into the
army. Is that is that theultimate wiping of your tracks, just jumping
the army and fuck off. Notthe British Army. Yeah, if you
(29:22):
were jumping on board the French foreignLeader, foreign legion or something, maybe
yeah, yeah, but you couldn'tjust join the British Army. By this
point they were one of the fewpeople who had sort of extensive fingerprint records.
Amongst other things, the identities ofsoldiers were known. Oh. We
talked about it again in the Junivannycase about the use of army records because
(29:42):
it was an easy way of provingwho was were exactly. That's true,
whereas if you'd fucked off to theFrench Legion or the Indian Army or the
Gurkhas or something, that they'd hadno idea who you are exactly. But
these two men weren't very clever,Alice. Now, they weren't the smartest.
The trial itself concluded on the seventeenthof December. The jury deliberated for
(30:06):
just little over an hour. Theywere given instructions by the judge, if
you may, if I may,yep, let me just find it.
I meant to have this open.Sorry, Judge Avery gave directions to the
jury before they were sent out.The direction he gave them was, I
(30:29):
warn you only to bring in averdict of guilty if satisfied beyond all reasonable
doubt as to the guilt. Ifind it quite an interesting statement because we've
we've talked about judges giving directions tojuries before basically saying come back with I
can't remember the case, but wetalked about it just recently the last couple
of months, where the judge basicallysaid come back with a guilty verdict.
(30:55):
Yes, we looked at more thanone case. Is I find this an
interesting one because I believe that thejudge thought these two men were guilty,
but he also was weighing up thefact that all they have is there was
no hard eavens and the instruction thatyou have to only come back with a
(31:17):
guilty verdict if you're satisfied beyond allreasonable doubt as to the guilt. But
I just like that would hang inyour head as you go out of the
door to sit down and have yourtea and biscuit and think about what you've
just heard over the five days.Sorry, I just thought that was worth
putting in there because it, tome says that the judge if he wasn't
(31:37):
convinced, he had to know thatthe jury were before he sentenced, because
the sentence, as you will notbe surprised to know, came back as
guilty. After only an hour ofdeliberation. Both Jackfield and William Gray were
found guilty of the murder of IreneMonroe. The interesting thing was they did
(32:00):
say that they had no way ofproving who was the murderer who. It's
a murder on the Orient Express job. You couldn't tell who actually delivered the
killing blow, or which the Romansactually killed Caesar. Yeah, indeed there
were about twelve of them, atleast. They all went working straight in
(32:22):
there. Yeah, literally stopped.There was another thing I read earlier that
I can't I can't find quickly tohand to read it to you, But
basically it was the judge surmising thecase that says both of them were essentially
found guilty of being accomplices to oneanother, so that the blame of the
(32:46):
murder wasn't put on one of them. It was saying, if he did
it, you were an accomplice tomurder. If you did it, he
was an accomplice to murder. Soit at no point was one man found
guilty of the murder of Irene Monroe, which actually bubbles me a little bit,
like we know it was Jack andWilliam, Yes, we know that.
(33:07):
We don't know whether it was Jackor William. I think it was
Jack that did it and then madeWilliam partake because he was the one with
the stick and then the cane,and that's the most obvious murder weapon in
my head. I don't think you'vegone into it here. The attack was
(33:31):
with the cane rattle, and thenhe's turned around and gone, William do
something to almost make him a partof the crime. Yep, without being
too simplified on that too simplified atall, I expect the initial attack was
with the cane and then after notjust one, maybe three or four clubs
(33:54):
with the cane because she was missingteeth. Yeah, her jaw bone was
broken and as we said earlier thatthe first blow would have been enough to
kill her. It would have beenenough to kill her without medical attention.
Yes, so she was probably unconsciousbut alive, yes, at the point
of the strike happening. However,the influence of the rock and subsequent blows
(34:19):
is what killed her. In thatmoment on that beach exactly either way,
both of them were found guilty ofthe murder of Irene Violet Monroe. When
Justice Sorry. When Justice Avery donnedhis black cap and delivered the sentence,
it was with the words Jack AlfredField and William Thomas Gray, you have
(34:43):
been found guilty of a foul andbrutal murder, and the defense you have
both concocted has been demonstrated to beuntrue. My duty is now to pass
upon you the sentence of the law. That sentence is that you be taken
hints to a lawful prison, andthence to a place of execution, and
that you be hanged by the neckuntil you be dead, and that your
body is to be afterward buried withinthe precincts of the prison wherein you shall
(35:07):
have been last confined before your execution. I direct that this sentence be carried
out at Wandsworth Prison. And maythe Lord have ah fuck, and may
the Lord have mercy on your souls. The sentence was appealed by both men,
trying to blame each other for thecrime, but both appeals were refused
(35:28):
by the Lord Chief Justice. Soon the eighteenth of January nineteen twenty one,
at eight am, Jack Alfred Fieldand William Thomas Gray went unassisted to
the gallows at Wandsworth Prison where theywere hanged for the murder of Irene Monroe.
The executioner was our old friend ThomasPierre Point, and they were both
(35:51):
hanged by long drop and buried inthe walls of Wansworth Prison. I did
look this up because Wandsworth is aplace that I I know where it is.
I've obviously never been inside it,thankfully I hope to never go inside
it. It's actually there's a remotecontrolled aircraft field behind Wadsworth Prison that you're
(36:13):
allowed to go and test drone flightsand all that kind of stuff off.
So I know the walls of Wandsworthreasonably well because I've flown drones around it
outside was I also find amazing thatyou're allowed to fly drones that close to
a prison. And reading this andhaving spoken about it a lot recently,
taken from here to a place whereyou will be prisoned, and thence taken
(36:35):
to a place of execution so theywill maintain into a public gallows, and
then brought back to where they havebeen imprisoned to bury is the point of
that that you then can't go tothe grave. Yes, is that it?
Because I just I was running throughthis stre in my mind earlier on
today. Well, I was sittingeating my sandwich at lunch time today and
I'm like, what is the purposeof that? Is it to stop it
(36:57):
being a I hate I don't usethe pilgrimage point, but it is to
stop it being an attraction. No, there's there's two reasons. First,
as the obvious point, in anunmarked grave, nobody's gonna know where your
remains are, so nobody can comeand visit your remains. Ever. Yeah,
(37:19):
but these unmarked grades were also unconsecrated. Okay, So if you were
Catholic at least and you were buriedin an unmarked prison grave, you weren't
going to heaven you think you werea mark or all you want. You
were buried in an unconsecrated grad,so your sins aren't forgiven at the point
of death you are at Okay.It's interesting, isn't it, Because it's
(37:43):
I only asked this because we've talkedto recently about crime scenes almost being public
showings and places that were people gatheredto. So one of the fantastic things
I learned at the Crumbled Prison inIreland was the etymology of the phrase hangover,
oh do go on? It comesfrom when public executions and hangings were
(38:07):
such public affairs that everybody was there, that there was there, got drunk
and the next day they had ahang over from the hanging. That's I
feel like. Having done one hundredand odd episodes of Twisted Britain and had
(38:27):
many a hangover, more than onehundred hangovers, I feel I should have
known that that was brilliant, welldone Crumbles Prison tour guide for telling me
that Crumbles we're doing the Crumbles murdersand you went to the Crumbles Prison,
Crumbles Prison. Yeah that's good.I like that. No, so that
was the tour guide that told youthat. Yeah, oh, hats off
to him. Fabulous to anybody outsideof Belfast. It's a great visit for
(38:52):
the kids and adults. Good.I intend to go this year if I
can. And you were staying withmutual friends of ours, in fact that
we've known for thirty years or so, so yeah, I'll be over at
their house at some point this year, and I'm going to make a point
I won't make them go because they'vebeen maybe me and Isaacle go, but
yeah, we'll do that. Andback to this case, however, the
(39:17):
motivation for it seems to just beplaying robbery. Yes, from memory,
all of the money, as yousay, was taken from her. A
gold ring was taken from her finger, and nine carrot gold ring was taken
from her finger, and like washer hat not taken because she was seen
to be, Yes, her hatwas missing when they found the body.
Anyway, she was seen to beby these two men, not upper class
(39:44):
but like moreps, way more upperclass than them. I certainly step up
in society. That she was onholiday in a guesthouse and spending money and
spending money, and they were unemployed, and she was criminals. Yeah,
and she was a lonely woman whohad just been taking her first foray into
adult life, shall we say,without signing too floral and wanky about it.
(40:08):
And she'd been seeing arm in armwith this man, not just like
cutting about with them. No,arm in arm with Jack, younger of
the two, who was only twoyears older than her, and William was
twelve years older than her. Icall creep on that, but it's so
unnecessary that that was my takeaway fromthis entire thing, it's so unnecessary,
(40:30):
absolutely unnecessary killing. I know,I feel like and I mean, this
is one hundred years of hindsight speculation. I reckon if Jack and William had
said to her, you're buying thedrinks, she'd have bought the fucking drinks.
Probably, they'd probably she'd probably havegiven them the money if it said
(40:52):
give us the money or I'll killyou. But I suspect it was a
cowardly attack. Yeah, the firstblow being struck to the left, temperate,
could easily have come from behind.Yeah, yeah, absolutely, It's
one of these. Do you knowwhat. I'm glad you wrote it for
us to tell it. I wishi'd found it because when I was reading
(41:15):
your your script and then I've donemy own little bit, so there's wee
bits and pieces that I did tryto get as much of the wee bits
and pieces as I could in there. But I was like, this is
one that it's correct me if I'mwrong, it's you probably gave me this
one because you thought of the two, because we've done them both now,
even though this is the first one, I feel this is the one you'd
have gone Bob would like to tellthis story more than then Part two,
(41:38):
which we will get you you willget to next week last week, but
people listening to this will get toit next week for no other reason.
The magic of podcasts, the magicpust Guesday for no other reason, Like
there's no reason for us to dothem in this order. It's just how
we have chronologically. Chronologically is howit's sorted. The crumbles area. So
(42:00):
we didn't get on too And Ithought I was going to interject a bit
about the castle. So the nightthat Irene Monroe had left the guest house
with Missus Winniots, she told hershe was going to Pevensey Castle. Yes,
and at no point was she everseen in Pevncy Castle. And I
(42:22):
don't know which of the two witnessesit was that we talked about. One
of them accounted for having seen herwith Jack and William at the time frame
where she should have been at PevancyCastle if she'd gone on the bus from
the guesthouse in the Teneca Town Greenarea in Eastbourne, So she had I
(42:45):
don't know, Like I get thisfeeling that she was covering her tracks anyway.
I think she probably knew these twoboys were wrongins, but she probably
quite liked hanging out with them yeta bit of excitement the seventeen go to
the pub. I feel, Ihonestly, I feel fucking terrible for her.
(43:05):
It's a really horrible one. Veryunnecessary. That's it. It's one
hundred percent unnecessary. It would andI do genuinely think if they'd said to
Irene, give us all your moneyand then fuck off, that she probably
would have. Yeah, and she'dwritten another letter. She would have written
another letter to her mother saying I'vemade some bad choices. I'm going home.
Yeah, and she'd have lived tillfucking the nineteen eighties or something like
(43:30):
that. Very well. Could havemad really a life cut short for no
reason, for not even for alot of money. Really no, because
it like I wouldn't because although shewas a step in society above them,
she wasn't upper class. She wasworking as a typist. Yeah, you
know, she's know. And althoughI said earlier her family got the boat
(43:52):
up to Scotland, that's not anextravagant That's how people traveled, you know,
it would have been it would havebeen costly if they did it every
year. It wasn't extravagance that theydid it for at all, another one
I don't like. I do youknow what? I think I've done a
one hundred and fourteen episodes that Idon't like. Now you're not going to
like. We'll get the Teacup Murderconclusion to come. We thought we did,
(44:19):
but we don't. Yeah, Bobthought that it was going to be
a conclusion because I had been callingit the Teacup trilogy. Yeah. Yeah,
So once you get past this episodeand the second Crumbles Murder, where
you'll get onto the Teacup trilogy,that is now quadrology, a quadrology which
I actually enjoy more as a word, if I'm going to be honest,
Thank you for writing that. It'sa pleasure as always. Thank you for
(44:43):
reading it. No, you're Ihope. I hoped you listening to me
telling your tale with my bits wasas good as me writing I think it
was. I should always do this, You should just write and I'll just
read it to you. Yeah,this is great. I mean, I'm
not that fussed with that. It'sright. Everything I have. No,
(45:04):
I have one. I have onefor you in a couple of weeks time,
when you're up next, because it'sone. We'll maybe do it over
the internet. We'll see what happens. But I've got one that you'll never
have heard of. I've got I'vegot I've got a left wing one for
you, and we'll get to that. Aida is the only word I'm going
to give you for it. Itwas the woman's name. If you've enjoyed
(45:25):
it's a bit of a shorter episodethis week because it was halfway through between
a twisted, tiny twisted and atwisted. But it's too long really to
do as a tiny twisted, sosaid me just do it, So this
is a medium twisted. Thank youvery much for listening to medium Twisted this
evening. If you enjoyed it.There are one hundred odd episodes out there.
We've done a lot of weird kindof bone to see bits and pieces
(45:49):
recently that have been really good fun. Do keep a lookout on our socials.
If you're not on their Facebook,Instagram, going to give it to
you, it's going to give itto you. Hopefully we'll be doing a
bit more. We did the roundtable with Paul and Mike and Adam recently,
which was actually really really good fun, very fun. I really enjoyed
(46:10):
it. I drank a lot ofgrasshoppers, Yes you did. You were
smashed. By the end of it. I could tell by your eyes we
were five hundred miles apart, andI could tell you a gassed this is
cocktails. And then I went tothe pop quiz after that. Jack three
beers during that record, and theywent to the quiz. It was fucking
mad man. But we'll hope,we'll hope to do that again, and
possibly we'll do some other bits andpieces. I've got nothing else this evening.
(46:34):
No, this is a fantastic episode. Thanks for reading that, Bob,
thanks for writing it. And Iwill leave you, as always with
a thank you, love you bye, and I thank you, love you
bye. Thanka your few Bye.I can hear yourself, Thanka you bye. No
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com