Baby Farming, Victorian Crimes & Wives for Sale: Strange Victorian History

0:00 Speaker 1: Hey, they're Strange History lovers. Welcome back to another episode

0:05 Speaker 1: of the Strange History Podcast, where we dig into the bizarre,

0:09 Speaker 1: the macabre, and the downright odd corners of history. I'm

0:13 Speaker 1: your host, Amy, and today, well, we're going to take

0:16 Speaker 1: a long, dark, and slightly creepy stroll through Victorian England,

0:21 Speaker 1: a time where society's love for innovation met a deep,

0:25 Speaker 1: sometimes disturbing sense of personal gain. Think of it as

0:29 Speaker 1: the Victorian eras version of keeping up with the Joneses,

0:33 Speaker 1: but with more babies, asylums, wife auctions, and a touch

0:37 Speaker 1: of questionable family values. We're going to be talking about

0:41 Speaker 1: baby farming. Yes, you heard me right, baby farming, a

0:44 Speaker 1: rather unfortunate business venture, and a few other little tidbits

0:48 Speaker 1: that are let's just say strange. Oh and as a

0:52 Speaker 1: special treat today, we'll also dive into some chilling true

0:55 Speaker 1: crime stories, including the case of Maria Derux and Frederick

0:59 Speaker 1: George Manning, one of the most shocking Victorian murder cases.

1:04 Speaker 1: But first, let's set the stage for a truly strange world,

1:07 Speaker 1: shall we.

1:09 Speaker 2: The shady business of baby farming.

1:13 Speaker 1: So you've just had a baby, maybe you're struggling with

1:16 Speaker 1: your finances, or perhaps you found yourself, let's say, in

1:20 Speaker 1: an unfortunate situation, what do you do? Well? In the

1:25 Speaker 1: Victorian era, you could always call up a baby farmer. Now,

1:29 Speaker 1: baby farming wasn't as cute as it sounds. This wasn't

1:32 Speaker 1: like sending your little one off to a charming farm

1:34 Speaker 1: to live out a happy, free range life. Oh no,

1:37 Speaker 1: my friends. Baby farming was a sinister practice where women

1:41 Speaker 1: sometimes men, would take in babies from unwed mothers, often

1:46 Speaker 1: in exchange for a little cash, and look after them.

1:50 Speaker 1: But here's where it gets dark. A lot of those

1:53 Speaker 1: babies ended up dead under mysterious circumstances. Sounds like a

1:58 Speaker 1: gruesome Victorian version of a petting zoo, doesn't it. One

2:01 Speaker 1: of the most notorious baby farmers was Amelia Dyer, a

2:05 Speaker 1: woman whose business was well, horribly profitable. She would take

2:10 Speaker 1: in babies for a fee, promise to raise them, and

2:14 Speaker 1: then well, let's just say, the babies didn't always get

2:18 Speaker 1: the love and care you might hope for. Some were suffocated,

2:22 Speaker 1: some were simply abandoned. Amelia Dyer allegedly took in hundreds

2:26 Speaker 1: of babies over her career. But as we all know,

2:29 Speaker 1: the more you do something the more likely it is

2:32 Speaker 1: that you're going to get caught. And when she was caught,

2:35 Speaker 1: it was a sensation. She was dubbed the Ogress of reading.

2:40 Speaker 1: A charming nickname, don't you think. And while that's one

2:43 Speaker 1: of the most extreme examples, baby farming was unfortunately a

2:48 Speaker 1: widespread practice. So you know, next time you're in the

2:52 Speaker 1: middle of some big life decision, like whether or not

2:55 Speaker 1: to get a pet or start a new hobby, just

2:57 Speaker 1: remember the Victorians were all about fire finding a market

3:00 Speaker 1: for anything, even babies.

3:04 Speaker 2: I'm committed. The lurid story of Victorian asylums.

3:09 Speaker 1: Speaking of dark corners of society, let's talk about Victorian

3:12 Speaker 1: lunatic asylums. AH asylums the place where you could find

3:17 Speaker 1: people committed for anything from legitimate mental illness to the

3:20 Speaker 1: fact that they weren't very good at knitting, or in

3:24 Speaker 1: some cases, for just being in the way of someone's

3:26 Speaker 1: inheritance for example. Did you know that during the Victorian

3:30 Speaker 1: era it wasn't too hard for someone to get committed

3:33 Speaker 1: to an asylum if you were a wife and your

3:36 Speaker 1: husband wasn't so fond of you anymore. All he needed

3:39 Speaker 1: was a letter to a physician and poof you were

3:43 Speaker 1: sent off to an asylum. Yes, there were definitely people

3:47 Speaker 1: with actual mental health issues locked away in these institutions,

3:51 Speaker 1: but there were also the poor, unfortunate souls who were

3:54 Speaker 1: sent to asylums as a form of social control, like

3:58 Speaker 1: the wife who just wouldn't shut up about the mud. Take,

4:01 Speaker 1: for instance, the case of Lydia Joyce, a woman whose

4:04 Speaker 1: husband wanted to inherit her fortune. One evening, he made

4:08 Speaker 1: a quick call to the doctor, claiming she was hysterical.

4:12 Speaker 1: A quick examination later, Lydia found herself in an asylum

4:17 Speaker 1: and he well, he found himself much richer. It's a

4:20 Speaker 1: real get rid of the wife and you get her

4:23 Speaker 1: assets kind of plot. The Victorians were real experts in

4:27 Speaker 1: the fine art of murder by paperwork.

4:30 Speaker 2: Wife auctions Victorian marital misadventures.

4:36 Speaker 1: All right, let's dive into another strange and I mean

4:39 Speaker 1: strange practice, husband's auctioning off their wives. Now you might

4:44 Speaker 1: be thinking, what kind of sick auction is this? And

4:48 Speaker 1: you'd be right to ask that. In the Victorian era,

4:51 Speaker 1: men were not only free to divorce their wives, a

4:54 Speaker 1: luxury that the wives didn't exactly have, but in certain

4:58 Speaker 1: instances they also had the option of selling them. Yes,

5:02 Speaker 1: it sounds like something out of a very dark comedy,

5:05 Speaker 1: but it was a thing. One of the most famous

5:08 Speaker 1: cases was that of John Green in eighteen sixty four, Green,

5:12 Speaker 1: a farmer from Nottinghamshire, became so fed up with his

5:15 Speaker 1: wife that he decided to auction her off like cattle

5:18 Speaker 1: at a public sale. According to the reports, he went

5:21 Speaker 1: so far as to advertise in local papers to be

5:24 Speaker 1: sold a wife age thirty, good for washing, cooking and

5:30 Speaker 1: making the home presentable, no guarantees about personality. He auctioned

5:36 Speaker 1: her off to the highest bidder for the sum of

5:38 Speaker 1: five pounds, which was just a little more than a

5:41 Speaker 1: week's wages for many men at the time. This wasn't

5:45 Speaker 1: entirely out of the ordinary. If a wife was truly

5:49 Speaker 1: unruly according to the husband's standards, it was not completely

5:54 Speaker 1: unheard of for her to be sold or traded away,

5:57 Speaker 1: sometimes in exchange for a debt or as part of

6:00 Speaker 1: some bizarre marital arrangement. The most infamous auction, though, was

6:04 Speaker 1: probably that of Elizabeth Taylor. Not that Elizabeth Taylor, mind you,

6:08 Speaker 1: the Victorian one. In eighteen seventy two, her husband, after

6:13 Speaker 1: growing tired of her nagging decided to auction her off

6:17 Speaker 1: in front of a crowd, selling her to the highest bidder,

6:20 Speaker 1: who was a local businessman. Interestingly, she didn't seem to

6:24 Speaker 1: mind too much. She ended up enjoying the new life

6:27 Speaker 1: she found with her new owner, who, by the way,

6:30 Speaker 1: was rumored to have offered her much more comfort than

6:33 Speaker 1: her previous husband. As awful as it sounds, wife auctions

6:38 Speaker 1: were bizarrely seen as a legal form of divorce for

6:41 Speaker 1: some couples in the Victorian era. Thankfully, the practice fell

6:45 Speaker 1: out of favor as the concept of marriage and women's

6:48 Speaker 1: rights started to evolve. But hey, if you think your

6:51 Speaker 1: relationship is on the rocks, at least you don't have

6:54 Speaker 1: to go through the hassle of auctioning yourself off. It's

6:57 Speaker 1: almost like the Victorian version of eBay, but for wives.

7:03 Speaker 2: Maria Deru and Frederick George Manning a Victorian tragedy.

7:08 Speaker 1: Speaking of chilling true crime, let's turn to a shocking

7:12 Speaker 1: Victorian murder case that still sends shivers down your spine.

7:16 Speaker 1: It's the story of Maria Derux and Frederick George Manning,

7:20 Speaker 1: a tragic tale that involves love, betrayal, and a murder

7:23 Speaker 1: so brutal it became a sensation in the London press.

7:27 Speaker 1: In eighteen forty nine, Maria Derux, a young woman who

7:31 Speaker 1: had previously been in a relationship with a man named

7:34 Speaker 1: Frederick George Manning, was found dead in her apartment under

7:38 Speaker 1: horrific circumstances. She had been brutally murdered by none other

7:43 Speaker 1: than Frederick himself, along with his wife, Susan Manning. But

7:47 Speaker 1: the plot thickens. It wasn't just a crime of passion.

7:51 Speaker 1: This murder was part of a conspiracy. Maria had been

7:55 Speaker 1: a wealthy woman, and Frederick and his wife had, it seems,

7:59 Speaker 1: planned to kill her in order to get their hands

8:01 Speaker 1: on her money. But here's the kicker. Not only did

8:04 Speaker 1: Frederick and Susan Manning murder Maria, they buried her body

8:08 Speaker 1: under their floorboards. Yes, you heard that right. They went

8:12 Speaker 1: full Victorian horror story with this one. What makes the

8:15 Speaker 1: story even darker is how the crime was discovered. Frederick

8:19 Speaker 1: and Susan Manning's attempt to cover up the murder fell

8:22 Speaker 1: apart when rumors spread and they were eventually arrested. The

8:26 Speaker 1: press had a field day with the gruesome details, and

8:29 Speaker 1: it became one of the most sensational trials of the time.

8:33 Speaker 1: At their trial, Frederick George Manning was found guilty and

8:37 Speaker 1: sentenced to hang, while his wife Susan was also convicted.

8:42 Speaker 1: It was a shocking example of Victorian crime and how

8:46 Speaker 1: a tale of betrayal and greed could lead to such

8:49 Speaker 1: tragic ends.

8:52 Speaker 2: The Tickborne claimant a case of mistaken identity? Or was it?

8:58 Speaker 1: Now? We all know the Victorians loved a good case

9:01 Speaker 1: of mistaken identity, but the story of Sir Roger Titchborne

9:04 Speaker 1: takes the cake, and probably a few tea biscuits too.

9:08 Speaker 1: In the eighteen fifties, Sir Roger Tickburn, an English baronet,

9:12 Speaker 1: went missing at sea. His family mourned, and life went

9:16 Speaker 1: on until in eighteen sixty six a man named Arthur

9:20 Speaker 1: Orton showed up claiming to be Sir Roger himself. Orton,

9:24 Speaker 1: a butcher from Australia, said he had been shipwrecked and

9:27 Speaker 1: had amnesia. Naturally, he didn't remember the small detail of

9:31 Speaker 1: being a butcher, and the family didn't seem to notice

9:34 Speaker 1: that their long lost baronet now looked like he'd been

9:38 Speaker 1: eating a little too much butcher's meat. But Orton's claim

9:41 Speaker 1: gained traction. He was remarkably good at convincing people, and

9:45 Speaker 1: for a while he lived the high life as the

9:47 Speaker 1: Tichborn heir until the truth came out. It turned out

9:51 Speaker 1: that he wasn't Roger Titchborne at all. Who would have thought.

9:54 Speaker 1: The trial was a sensation, a mix of slapstick comedy

9:58 Speaker 1: and courtroom drama. The public debated whether or not this

10:01 Speaker 1: man was a fraud. Spoiler alert, he was in fact

10:05 Speaker 1: a fraud. Arthur Orton was eventually convicted of perjury, and

10:09 Speaker 1: the real Tickborne's identity was never conclusively confirmed. In the end,

10:14 Speaker 1: it's probably safe to say never trust a butcher claiming

10:18 Speaker 1: to be a baronet. Just a little Victorian wisdom for you.

10:22 Speaker 2: Victorian punishments for crimes more than just a trip to

10:26 Speaker 2: the stocks.

10:28 Speaker 1: Now, no discussion of Victorian oddities would be complete without

10:32 Speaker 1: taking a look at some of the truly creative ways

10:34 Speaker 1: that criminals were punished Back then. The Victorians had some

10:38 Speaker 1: wild ideas when it came to justice. There was the traditional,

10:43 Speaker 1: of course, the stocks, public hangings and all that, but

10:46 Speaker 1: there were also new and innovative ways to punish wrongdoers.

10:50 Speaker 1: For example, if you were caught stealing, you might be

10:53 Speaker 1: forced to wear a Scolds bridle. This was basically a

10:56 Speaker 1: metal mask that covered your face, complete with a spy

11:00 Speaker 1: that would sit in your mouth to prevent you from speaking.

11:03 Speaker 1: It was like the world's most terrifying dental device. Got

11:06 Speaker 1: a lot to say, Too bad was the sentiment, and

11:10 Speaker 1: if you were particularly unlucky, you could be sent to

11:13 Speaker 1: the infamous Newgate Prison, where the rich and poor mingled,

11:16 Speaker 1: only the poor came out much worse off. There was

11:19 Speaker 1: also transportation, which sounds like an option you'd pick on

11:23 Speaker 1: a flight, but no transportation in the Victorian era was

11:29 Speaker 1: actually sending criminals to places like Australia where they could

11:33 Speaker 1: spend years building roads or being subjected to the lovely

11:37 Speaker 1: heat of the Australian outback. Victorian punishments, much like their fashions,

11:42 Speaker 1: were full of flare, a little over the top, and

11:45 Speaker 1: definitely not something you'd want to experience. Well, there you

11:50 Speaker 1: have it, folks, another stroll through the strange, dark and

11:53 Speaker 1: sometimes absurd world of the Victorians. Baby farmers, mistaken identities,

12:00 Speaker 1: wife auctions, and true crime tales of betrayal and horror. Truly,

12:05 Speaker 1: the Victorian era was a time when things were complicated.

12:09 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's strange journey, and as always,

12:13 Speaker 1: if you ever find yourself in need of a business idea,

12:17 Speaker 1: I suggest sticking with something a little less sinister than

12:20 Speaker 1: baby farming. Maybe knitting. I hear it's a good hobby.

12:25 Speaker 1: Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review. Tell your friends, family,

12:29 Speaker 1: and coworker so they too can learn a lot of

12:31 Speaker 1: weird history that may or may not help them out

12:34 Speaker 1: in trivia games or as awkward conversation starters at parties.

12:39 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time, where

12:42 Speaker 1: we'll dig into another bizarre tale from history. Until then,

12:46 Speaker 1: stay strange. I'm committed the lurid story of Victorian asylums.

12:53 Speaker 1: Speaking of dark corners of society, let's talk about Victorian

12:57 Speaker 1: lunatic asylums. A asylums the place where you could find

13:03 Speaker 1: people committed for anything from legitimate mental illness to the

13:06 Speaker 1: fact that they weren't very good at knitting, or in

13:10 Speaker 1: some cases, for just being in the way of someone's inheritance.

13:14 Speaker 1: For example, did you know that during the Victorian era

13:18 Speaker 1: it wasn't too hard for someone to get committed to

13:21 Speaker 1: an asylum if you were a wife and your husband

13:24 Speaker 1: wasn't so fond of you anymore. All he needed was

13:27 Speaker 1: a letter to a physician, and poof, you were sent

13:30 Speaker 1: off to an asylum. Yes, there were definitely people with

13:33 Speaker 1: actual mental health issues locked away in these institutions, but

13:36 Speaker 1: there were also the poor, unfortunate souls who were sent

13:40 Speaker 1: to asylums as a form of social control, like the

13:44 Speaker 1: wife who just wouldn't shut up about the money. Take,

13:47 Speaker 1: for instance, the case of Lydia Joyce, a woman whose

13:51 Speaker 1: husband wanted to inherit her fortune. One evening, he made

13:55 Speaker 1: a quick call to the doctor, claiming she was hysterical

14:00 Speaker 1: bick examination. Later, Lydia found herself in an asylum and he, well,

14:05 Speaker 1: he found himself much richer. It's a real get rid

14:08 Speaker 1: of the wife and you get her assets kind of plot.

14:12 Speaker 1: The Victorians were real experts in the fine art of

14:15 Speaker 1: murder by paperwork. Wife auctions Victorian marital misadventures. All right,

14:22 Speaker 1: let's dive into another strange and I mean strange practice,

14:25 Speaker 1: husband's auctioning off their wives. Now you might be thinking,

14:29 Speaker 1: what kind of sick auction is this? And you'd be

14:32 Speaker 1: right to ask that. In the Victorian era, men were

14:36 Speaker 1: not only free to divorce, their wives, a luxury that

14:39 Speaker 1: the wives didn't exactly have, but in certain instances they

14:43 Speaker 1: also had the option of selling them. Yes, it sounds

14:46 Speaker 1: like something out of a very dark comedy, but it

14:49 Speaker 1: was a thing. One of the most famous cases was

14:52 Speaker 1: that of John Green in eighteen sixty four, Green, a

14:57 Speaker 1: farmer from Nottinghamshire, became so fed up with his wife

15:00 Speaker 1: that he decided to auction her off like cattle at

15:03 Speaker 1: a public sale. According to the reports, he went so

15:07 Speaker 1: far as to advertise in local papers to be sold

15:11 Speaker 1: a wife aged thirty, good for washing, cooking and making

15:16 Speaker 1: the home presentable, no guarantees about personality. He auctioned her

15:22 Speaker 1: off to the highest bidder for the sum of five pounds,

15:25 Speaker 1: which was just a little more than a week's wages

15:27 Speaker 1: for many men at the time. This wasn't entirely out

15:31 Speaker 1: of the ordinary. If a wife was truly unruly according

15:35 Speaker 1: to the husband's standards, it was not completely unheard of

15:38 Speaker 1: for her to be sold or traded away, sometimes in

15:41 Speaker 1: exchange for a debt or as part of some bizarre

15:45 Speaker 1: marital arrangement. The most infamous auction, though, was probably that

15:50 Speaker 1: of Elizabeth Taylor. Not that Elizabeth Taylor mind you, the

15:53 Speaker 1: Victorian one. In eighteen seventy two, her husband, after growing

15:59 Speaker 1: tired of her nagging, decided to auction her off in

16:02 Speaker 1: front of a crowd, selling her to the highest bidder,

16:06 Speaker 1: who was a local businessman. Interestingly, she didn't seem to

16:10 Speaker 1: mind too much. She ended up enjoying the new life

16:13 Speaker 1: she found with her new owner, who, by the way,

16:16 Speaker 1: was rumored to have offered her much more comfort than

16:18 Speaker 1: her previous husband. As awful as it sounds, wife auctions

16:23 Speaker 1: were bizarrely seen as a legal form of divorce for

16:26 Speaker 1: some couples in the Victorian era. Thankfully, the practice fell

16:30 Speaker 1: out of favor as the concept of marriage and women's

16:33 Speaker 1: rights started to evolve. But hey, if you think your

16:36 Speaker 1: relationship is on the rocks, at least you don't have

16:39 Speaker 1: to go through the hassle of auctioning yourself off. It's

16:43 Speaker 1: almost like the Victorian version of eBay, but for wives.

16:46 Speaker 1: Maria Deruz and Frederick George Manning a Victorian tragedy. Speaking

16:52 Speaker 1: of chilling true crime, let's turn to a shocking Victorian

16:56 Speaker 1: murder case that still sends shivers down your spine. It's

17:00 Speaker 1: the story of Maria Derux and Frederick George Manning, a

17:03 Speaker 1: tragic tale that involves love, betrayal and a murder so

17:07 Speaker 1: brutal it became a sensation in the London press. In

17:12 Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, Maria Derux, a young woman who had

17:15 Speaker 1: previously been in a relationship with a man named Frederick

17:18 Speaker 1: George Manning, was found dead in her apartment under horrific circumstances.

17:22 Speaker 1: She had been brutally murdered by none other than Frederick himself,

17:26 Speaker 1: along with his wife, Susan Manning. But the plot thickens.

17:31 Speaker 1: It wasn't just a crime of passion. This murder was

17:34 Speaker 1: part of a conspiracy. Maria had been a wealthy woman,

17:38 Speaker 1: and Frederick and his wife had, it seems, planned to

17:41 Speaker 1: kill her in order to get their hands on her money.

17:45 Speaker 1: But here's the kicker. Not only did Frederick and Susan

17:48 Speaker 1: Manning murder Maria, they buried her body under their floorboards. Yes,

17:53 Speaker 1: you heard that right. They went full Victorian horror story

17:57 Speaker 1: with this one. What makes the story even dark is

18:00 Speaker 1: how the crime was discovered. Frederick and Susan Manning's attempt

18:04 Speaker 1: to cover up the murder fell apart when rumors spread,

18:07 Speaker 1: and they were eventually arrested The press had a field

18:11 Speaker 1: day with the gruesome details, and it became one of

18:14 Speaker 1: the most sensational trials of the time. At their trial,

18:18 Speaker 1: Frederick George Manning was found guilty and sentenced to hang,

18:22 Speaker 1: while his wife Susan was also convicted. It was a

18:26 Speaker 1: shocking example of Victorian crime and how a tale of

18:29 Speaker 1: betrayal and greed could lead to such tragic ends. The

18:33 Speaker 1: Titchborne claimant a case of mistaken identity or was it?

18:39 Speaker 2: Now?

18:39 Speaker 1: We all know the Victorians loved a good case of

18:41 Speaker 1: mistaken identity, but the story of Sir Roger Titchborne takes

18:46 Speaker 1: the cake, and probably a few tea biscuits too. In

18:49 Speaker 1: the eighteen fifties, Sir Roger Titchborne, an English baronet, went

18:54 Speaker 1: missing at sea. His family mourned, and life went on

18:58 Speaker 1: until in eighteen sixty six a man named Arthur Orton

19:02 Speaker 1: showed up claiming to be Sir Roger himself. Orton, a

19:06 Speaker 1: butcher from Australia, said he had been shipwrecked and had amnesia. Naturally,

19:12 Speaker 1: he didn't remember the small detail of being a butcher,

19:15 Speaker 1: and the family didn't seem to notice that their long

19:18 Speaker 1: lost baronet now looked like he'd been eating a little

19:20 Speaker 1: too much butcher's meat, but Orton's claim gained traction. He

19:25 Speaker 1: was remarkably good at convincing people, and for a while

19:29 Speaker 1: he lived the high life as the tickborn heir until

19:32 Speaker 1: the truth came out. It turned out that he wasn't

19:35 Speaker 1: Roger Titchborne at all. Who would have thought? The trial

19:39 Speaker 1: was a sensation, a mix of slapstick comedy and courtroom

19:43 Speaker 1: drama as the public debated whether or not this man

19:46 Speaker 1: was a fraud. Spoiler alert, he was in fact a fraud.

19:51 Speaker 1: Arthur Orton was eventually convicted of perjury, and the real

19:54 Speaker 1: Titchborne's identity was never conclusively confirmed. In the end, it's

19:59 Speaker 1: probably safe to say never trust a butcher claiming to

20:03 Speaker 1: be a baronet. Just a little Victorian wisdom for you.

20:07 Speaker 1: Victorian punishments for crimes more than just a trip to

20:10 Speaker 1: the stocks. Now, no discussion of Victorian oddities would be

20:16 Speaker 1: complete without taking a look at some of the truly

20:19 Speaker 1: creative ways that criminals were punished Back then. The Victorians

20:24 Speaker 1: had some wild ideas when it came to justice. There

20:27 Speaker 1: was the traditional, of course, the stocks, public hangings and

20:30 Speaker 1: all that, but there were also new and innovative ways

20:34 Speaker 1: to punish wrongdoers. For example, if you were caught stealing,

20:38 Speaker 1: you might be forced to wear a skold's bridle. This

20:41 Speaker 1: was basically a metal mask that covered your face, complete

20:45 Speaker 1: with a spike that would sit in your mouth to

20:47 Speaker 1: prevent you from speaking. It was like the world's most

20:50 Speaker 1: terrifying dental device. Got a lot to say, Too bad

20:55 Speaker 1: was the sentiment, and if you were particularly unlucky, you

20:58 Speaker 1: could be sent to the infamous news Gate prison, where

21:01 Speaker 1: the rich and poor mingled, only the poor came out

21:03 Speaker 1: much worse off. There was also transportation, which sounds like

21:07 Speaker 1: an option you'd pick on a flight, but no transportation

21:12 Speaker 1: in the Victorian era was actually sending criminals to places

21:16 Speaker 1: like Australia, where they could spend years building roads or

21:20 Speaker 1: being subjected to the lovely heat of the Australian outback.

21:24 Speaker 1: Victorian punishments, much like their fashions, were full of flare,

21:29 Speaker 1: a little over the top, and definitely not something you'd

21:32 Speaker 1: want to experience. Well, there you have it, folks, another

21:36 Speaker 1: stroll through the strange, dark and sometimes absurd world of

21:40 Speaker 1: the Victorians. Baby farmers, mistaken identities, wife auctions, and true

21:46 Speaker 1: crime tales. Of betrayal and horror. Truly, the Victorian era

21:50 Speaker 1: was a time when things were complicated. I hope you

21:54 Speaker 1: enjoyed today's strange journey, and as always, if you ever

21:58 Speaker 1: find yourself in need of a business idea, I suggest

22:01 Speaker 1: sticking with something a little less sinister than baby farming.

22:04 Speaker 1: Maybe knitting. I hear it's a good hobby. Don't forget

22:08 Speaker 1: to subscribe, like leave a review. Tell your friends, family,

22:11 Speaker 1: and coworkers so they too can learn a lot of

22:14 Speaker 1: weird history that may or may not help them out

22:16 Speaker 1: in trivia games or as awkward conversation starters at parties.

22:21 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time, where

22:24 Speaker 1: we'll dig into another bizarre tale from history. Until then,

22:28 Speaker 1: stay strange.