Introducing Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley

02/15/24 • 28 min

1 Listener

Join Lucy Worsley as she travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.

In this episode Lucy is joined by Evy Poumpouras, former special agent with the Secret Service, where she protected five US presidents as part of the Presidential Protective Division.

Lucy and Evy investigate the case of Mary Surratt, a 42 year-old widow, mother and pious Catholic who was arrested in April 1865 for conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. He had been shot by former actor John Wilkes Booth while watching a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. One of the most sensational trials in US history followed, with prosecutors pushing for death sentences for everyone involved in the murder.

Lucy and Evy want to find out why the authorities were so sure that Surratt was involved in the assassination. They want to know what her story tells us about the lives of women at the close of the American Civil War. And they ask what happens when women step outside the domestic sphere and dare to get involved in protest and politics?

To find out more about the background to the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, Lucy asks Dr Nikki M Taylor, Professor of History at Howard University Washington DC, to go to Ford’s Theatre and to the Surratt House Museum, formerly Mary’s Surratt’s tavern in Maryland. Mary Surratt, she discovers, was a slave-holder and, like John Wilkes Booth, was horrified by Lincoln’s intention to end slavery and enfranchise African Americans.

Mary Surratt is an elusive and divisive woman. Lucy wants to know if she was a devoted mother attempting to make her way in the world - or a hard-hearted conspirator, a slave-holder and fanatical Confederate trying to reignite the civil war.

Produced in partnership with the Open University

Producer: Jane Greenwood Readers: Bill Hope, Jonathan Keeble and Laurel Lefkow Sound design: Chris Maclean Series Producer: Julia Hayball

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4

You can hear all episodes of Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley on BBC Sounds - Available Episodes: http://bbc.in/3M2pT0K

Join Lucy Worsley as she travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.

In this episode Lucy is joined by Evy Poumpouras, former special agent with the Secret Service, where she protected five US presidents as part of the Presidential Protective Division.

Produced in partnership with the Open University

Producer: Jane Greenwood Readers: Bill Hope, Jonathan Keeble and Laurel Lefkow Sound design: Chris Maclean Series Producer: Julia Hayball

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4

You can hear all episodes of Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley on BBC Sounds - Available Episodes: http://bbc.in/3M2pT0K

Previous Episode

History's Secret Heroes: Series 1: Arslan Rezniqi and the Besa Code

Albania was one of the few European countries to have a larger Jewish population at the end of the war than it had at the beginning. What role did Arslan Rezniqi, a Kosovan Albanian merchant, play in this?

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.

A BBC Studios Podcast production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Amie Liebowitz Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann

Next Episode

History's Secret Heroes: Series 2: Trailer

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for tales of deception, resistance and courage in History's Secret Heroes Series 2.