In the late 1860s, gentleman bank robber George L. Leslie arrived in New York and started working for Fredericka Mandelbaum, one of the city’s most notorious crime bosses. Leslie always claimed to have studied architecture in college and drew on his training to mastermind some of the most daring heists of the century, earning the nickname of “King of Bank Robbers.” His reign would prove short-lived, however, after a robbery went bad in 1878.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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In 1817, Italian-born painter Francesco Mezzara had a spat with his patron, New York attorney Aaron Palmer. As the feud escalated, Mezzara painted an insulting picture of Palmer and put it up for auction. Mezzara was giddy when the picture fetched $40—but not for long. Soon, he stood accused of criminal libel on account of the offensive portrait.

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Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

In 1823, John Thurtell murdered the gambler William Weare while the two were riding in a horse-drawn gig. Cashing in on public fascination with the case, the Surrey Theatre staged The Gamblers, a play that recreated the murder and incorporated the actual horse-drawn gig in which the crime took place. The Gamblers became one of the most explosive melodramas of the nineteenth century and came back to haunt Madame Tussaud more than two decades later. 

For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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A surprising number of crime stories from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction take place in wax museums. Today, we're joined by Caroline Crampton, host and creator of Shedunnit, a podcast that unravels the mysteries behind classic detective stories, to talk about why the wax museum has fueled the imagination of so many crime writers.

Link to "Waxworks" by Ethel Lina White: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47480274/4608076. 

Spoiled Stories:

"Waxworks" by Ethel Lina White

Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

It Walks by Night by John Dickson Carr

"The Abominable History of the Man With Copper Fingers" by Dorothy L. Sayers

"The Empty House" by Arthur Conan Doyle

"Poison in the Garden Suburb" by G.D.H. and Margaret Cole

For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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Beaumarchais’s madcap comedy, The Marriage of Figaro, smashed box-office records when it opened in Paris in 1784. The following year, a team of real-life con artists drew inspiration from a crucial scene in the play as they planned—and pulled off—the swindle of the century.

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In 1849, George and Maria Manning murdered a guest in their London home and fled the British capital . A dramatic hunt for the killers ensued. After the law caught up with the Mannings, the glamorous Maria achieved near-celebrity status as she made her way through the justice system. A staggering thirty thousand spectators gathered to watch her and George's public execution, triggering a ferocious debate about the ethics of capital punishment. When renowned wax modeler Madame Tussaud unveiled a likeness of Maria in the Chamber of Horrors, a showroom in her wax museum that exhibited effigies of notorious criminals, Tussaud met with perhaps the fiercest criticism she had ever faced in her career.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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After more than three decades of touring the provinces, Madame Tussaud made the unexpected decision to settle down in London in 1835. Within a matter of years, Tussaud was running the metropolis’s number-one tourist destination, and she updated the Chamber of Horrors more frequently than ever before. In 1838, she unveiled an effigy of Sir William Courtenay, a charismatic cult leader who committed a murder that led to a government massacre of his followers.

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For more than three decades, Madame Tussaud toured England, Scotland, and Ireland, winning nationwide acclaim. Over the years, her enterprise morphed into a family business, with both her sons dedicating their lives to the wax museum. In 1829, Madame Tussaud and Sons scored one of their biggest hits of the ’20s with controversial effigies of Burke and Hare, Edinburgh-based murderers who sold their victims' cadavers to anatomists for dissection. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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From 1803 to 1808, Madame Tussaud toured Scotland and Ireland, exhibiting her handiwork in major cities. During this time, she took drastic measures to win her freedom from her exploitative business partner, Paul Philipstahl. Tussaud went years without creating new figures related to crime, but in 1828 she introduced a likeness of William Corder, perpetrator of the infamous Red Barn Murder. This brutal homicide sparked a cultural phenomenon that lasted for the rest of the nineteenth century and beyond, inspiring books, broadsides, murder ballads, peepshows, plays, and even movies.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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After marrying and starting a family, Madame Tussaud accepted an offer to partner with another showman and exhibit her handiwork in London. To her dismay, she soon realized that she had teamed up with a snake. Despite a rough start in the British capital, Tussaud scored a major hit with a wax effigy of Colonel Edward Marcus Despard, a convicted traitor who was hanged, drawn, and quartered in February 1803.

For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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As the French Revolution ran its course, the monarchy crumbled, and the nation descended into wanton violence. During the Reign of Terror, thousands of French citizens went to the guillotine, and Tussaud made waxen replicas of important revolutionaries’ severed heads, including that of Maximilien Robespierre. In 1793, she also created a wax tableau inspired by perhaps the most notorious crime of this period: the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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In this special Halloween episode, we explore an urban legend that emerged from the trial of Levi Weeks. After the verdict came down, a vengeful Catherine Ring is said to have cursed Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and Justice John Lansing, causing all three to die lamentable deaths.

Show notes available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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On July 12, 1789, a crowd of protestors furious over King Louis XVI’s policies swarmed Madame Tussaud and Philippe Curitus’s wax museum, demanding busts of prominent political figures. This episode led to bloodshed that same afternoon. Two days later, a mob stormed the Bastille, a medieval prison, marking the outbreak of the French Revolution. Soon after, the Den of Illustrious Thieves exhibited objects associated with the Bastille, including an effigy of the notorious Comte de Lorges, a prisoner who supposedly languished there for three decades. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Born in 1761, Madame Tussaud studied the art of wax modeling under Philippe Curtius, owner of the most famous wax museum in pre-revolutionary Paris. Sometime around 1780, Curtius opened a special exhibit in his establishment called The Den of Illustrious Thieves, in which he displayed wax effigies of notorious murderers. He had an early hit with a sculpture of double poisoner Antoine Francois Desrues, a struggling grocer who wanted to live the life of an aristocrat whether he could afford to or not.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Introducing Queen of Crime: Madame Tussaud and the Chamber of Horrors

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Today, I'm sharing an episode of the delightful art history podcast, Who ARTed?, hosted by Kyle Wood. This episode is all about the Stockholm art heist of the year 2000. Find out what extraordinary paintings were stolen from the National Gallery--and how they were recovered. We're back next week with another installment in Queen of Crime: Madame Tussaud and the Chamber of Horrors.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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The Perseus of Benvenuto Cellini is justly considered a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture. Believe it or not, this statue almost never existed. From start to finish, sculpting the Perseus proved a Herculean labor, as dogged opposition from Cellini's own patron, life-threatening illness, and the sheer enormity of the artist's ambitions conspired against him.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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In 1910, four Abyssinian royals toured the H.M.S. Dreadnought, the most technologically advanced ship in the British Royal Navy. Afterward, however, it leaked to the press that the captain and crew of the vessel had been duped: they had given a tour not to foreign dinitaries but British citizens. The Dreadnought affair caused a minor scandal, and what started as a practical joke threatened to end in legal repercussions for the hoaxers.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Today, we're joined by Austin Harvey, co-host of History Uncovered, a podcast that explores the natural world and the world past. First, we'll hear a History Uncovered episode about the mysterious disappearance of indigenous art collector Michael Rockefeller in 1961. Afterward, Austin chats with Gavin about the process of making the episode and offers additional insight on a few key points.

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Back in the spring, I was interviewed on the true crime podcast, Crawlspace, and I wanted to share that interview with you. Hope you enjoy! We'll be back with original Art of Crime content in December, and season 3 will start in earnest in January 2024.

If you'd like more Art of Crime content now, however, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

There, you can listen to a sneak peak at season 3, and we're coming out with two new episodes related to the theme of assassins in the coming days.

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions!

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast. 

In 1990, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman created Assassins, a musical about the nine men and women who have attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents, from John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald. In this special episode, we're joined by three Sondheim buffs to talk about why the musical has remained popular--and controversial--since it opened.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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If you like this episode, make sure to check out Kyle Marshall's Putting it Together, the podcast dedicated to discussing every musical by Stephen Sondheim, song by song and lyric by lyric.

On January 2, 1800, a group of New Yorkers discovered the body of a missing local in the disused Manhattan Well. The Manhattan Well Murder, as the crime came to be known, led to a sensational trial, in which two of America’s Founding Fathers participated. Given the intense public interest in the homicide, publishers raced to print the first—and fullest—account of the proceedings, spawning a new genre of crime writing.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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Thanks to the efforts of renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, Leon Trotsky gained political asylum in Mexico. In early 1937, the Russian revolutionary moved in with the painter and his wife, Frida Kahlo, at the Blue House on the outskirts of the Mexican capital. A torrid drama ensued, in which Trotsky betrayed his benefactor, at great risk to his own safety.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

 If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast. 

In 1858, actor-manager Laura Keene bought exclusive rights to Tom Taylor's comedy, Our American Cousin, which became the smash hit of the decade. On April 14, 1865, Keene was performing the play at Ford's Theatre when John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln. As the assassin fled and the playhouse descended into pandemonium, Keene endeavored to manage the crisis. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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The first in a series of bonus episodes related to the theme of assassins will drop on Wednesday, September 13. To tide you over until then, I'm pleased to present two episodes of the History Daily podcast. History Daily generously featured an episode of The Art of Crime a few weeks back, so I wanted to return the favor. This History Daily episode is about the Antwerp diamond heist of 2003, one of the largest heists of all time.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

The first in a series of bonus episodes related to the theme of assassins will drop on Wednesday, September 13. To tide you over until then, I'm pleased to present two episodes of the History Daily podcast. History Daily generously featured an episode of The Art of Crime a few weeks back, so I wanted to return the favor. This episode is about the mystery of D.B. Cooper. On November 24, 1971, an unidentified criminal known by that name hijacks a Boeing 727, extorts $200,000 in ransom money, and parachutes to an uncertain fate.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

In this episode, we look back on the crimes we covered this season and consider what we've learned about the nature of assassination, especially when artists are in the picture.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. John Wilkes Booth shot him in the middle of the show and escaped from the playhouse, after which a dramatic manhunt ensued. His crime would not only cost him his life but forever tarnish the name of Booth, which had previously belonged to the nation’s most celebrated theatrical dynasty.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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John Wilkes Booth hailed from America’s most celebrated theatrical dynasty. At the height of his powers, his father, Junius, ranked as the greatest Shakespearean in the country, and John’s older brothers, Junius and Edwin, also achieved fame. After an unpromising professional debut, John lived up to the family name, rising to stardom. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, however, he eventually left acting and plotted a conspiracy to aid the Confederacy by treasonous means.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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Apart from creating exquisite music, goldwork, and statuary under the patronage of Pope Clement VII, among other notables, sixteenth-century Renaissance man Benvenuto Cellini had a special talent for making enemies. One professional rivalry even ended in murder, in the middle of a busy street. After getting imprisoned for a crime he never committed, Cellini found himself the target of a brazen assassination attempt.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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In 1949, a man claiming to be a doctor walked into a Tokyo bank. By the time he walked out, he had stolen 160,000 yen and left ten people dead or dying inside. Given the speed and sophistication of the killings, police assumed they were looking for a trained assassin. Instead, their investigation led to an unassuming landscape painter named Sadamichi Hirasawa. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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After serving in WWI, German painter Otto Dix rose to fame in the 1920s partly through his unflinching portrayal of modern warfare and the toll it took on the human body. However, these themes landed him on the blacklist following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. After a no-name carpenter masterminded—and nearly pulled off—a daring attempt on Hitler’s life in 1939, the Nazis came knocking at Dix’s door, suspecting that he aided the would-be assassin. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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This season, we explore crimes that only could have happened in the Big Apple.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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After the assassination of his mother, Agrippina, Nero threw himself into the performing arts like never before, training to become both a musician and a tragic actor. He even toured Greece to compete in its famous sports and arts festivals. As Nero’s megalomania and abuses of office grew more outrageous, however, a group of conspirators plotted his assassination.  

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Nero became emperor of Rome in 54 A.D., largely thanks to the scheming of his mother, Agrippina. The teenaged ruler showed promise early on, yet major flaws swiftly revealed themselves, including an obsession with becoming a musician. As his enemies multiplied, Nero retained power by brutal means. In 59, he ordered one of the most notorious assassinations of the century, inspired by a special effect he saw at the theater. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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When Valerie Solanas moved to New York in the early-to-mid 1960s, she wanted nothing more than to become a writer. Within a few years, she approached perhaps the most admired—and reviled—artist in the United States, Andy Warhol, proposing that he produce her pipe-bomb of a comedy, Up Your Ass. Though promising at first, their relationship went south, and in 1968, Solanas walked into Warhol’s studio with the intention of shooting him dead. As you can probably tell from this summary alone, this episode contains language that may offend some listeners. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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A diehard Communist, David Alfaro Siqueiros fought in the Mexican Revolution in the mid-1910s. Over the next several decades, he would revolutionize the theory and practice of muralism in Mexico and abroad, largely inspired by his radical politics. In 1940, his political convictions led to a less honorable enterprise when he spearheaded an assault on the home of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky as he and his family slept in their beds.   

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Season 2 of The Art of Crime explores a new theme. Listen to this trailer to find out what it is!

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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Thanks to everyone who submitted questions! Let me know if you'd like to hear more AMA episodes in the future at artofcrimepodcast@gmail.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast. 

Arthur Conan Doyle rose to fame as the inventor of Sherlock Holmes. Not unlike his literary creation, Doyle had a knack for making inferences about others based on observation alone and even brought that talent to bear on real-life criminal cases. He also weighed in on the Ripper killings, drawing curve-ball conclusions about how the murderer committed his crimes.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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In 1884, the Reverend Samuel Barnett and his wife, Henrietta, founded Toynbee Hall, a charitable institution meant to improve the lives of Whitechapel residents. From its inception, Toynbee Hall offered both arts education and programming. The Ripper’s victims died within walking distance of its doorstep, and Bruce Robinson believes that the Hall was essential to Michael Maybrick’s s plan to get away with murder.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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In 1913, Marie Belloc Lowndes published her novel, The Lodger, inspired by a story that painter Walter Sickert heard from his landlady. At one point, the heroine attends a farcical inquest, during which a witness offers bogus testimony. This fictional debacle resonates with one of the more bizarre episodes in the Whitechapel murders.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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In 1910, Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen poisoned his wife, Cora, and fled to Canada with his mistress in disguise. Detective Walter Dew, who cut his teeth on the force while hunting for the Ripper in 1888, donned a costume of his own as he pursued the fugitives. Like the Whitechapel murderer, Crippen is dubiously said to have procured his disguise from wigmaker and costume designer Willy Clarkson.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Today, I'm sharing an episode of the chart-topping podcast, History Daily. This episode is about the premiere of one of the greatest horror films ever made, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. What better way to kick off spooky season?

Next week, we're announcing the theme of season 4 of The Art of Crime, so watch this space!

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We look back at the artists we’ve covered this season and consider what we’ve learned about the Whitechapel murders and the theories they’ve inspired. Why are artists so popular as Ripper suspects?

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Singer and composer Michael Maybrick was the Victorian equivalent of a pop star in 1889 when his older brother, James, died under enigmatic circumstances. In 2015, writer and director Bruce Robinson nominated Michael as the Ripper, based on what he believes happened to James as well as Michael’s involvement in the Freemasons, one of the most secretive and talked-about fraternities in Victorian England.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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One of the most important painters of his generation, Walter Sickert gravitated toward scenes of low life and at times depicted women who appeared to be dead. In the 1970s, a man purporting to be Sickert’s illegitimate son implicated the painter in the Whitechapel homicides. Sickert has since become a favored Ripper candidate and has received more attention as a possible perpetrator than any other artist covered this season.

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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When the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, hired the brilliant James Kenneth Stephen to tutor his eldest son, Prince Eddy, Stephen and his student became fast friends. Some believe they were more than friends. After publishing two volumes of poetry, Stephen suffered a mental breakdown in 1891. Based on what happened next, Stephen’s tantalizing relationship with Eddy, and violent themes in his writing, several commentators have named the poet as the Ripper. 

Show notes and full transcript below.Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. 

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Lewis Carroll was teaching math at Oxford when he befriended Alice Liddell, a colleague’s daughter. Even though their friendship ended in scandal, it led to one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In 1996, psychotherapist Richard Wallace accused Carroll of committing the Whitechapel murders, claiming to have discovered compromising anagrams in Carroll’s writing. 

Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

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