SHOW NOTES — for — MINISODE 37 (Season 5)

(May 3, 2026)

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• 00:01: HANGED TODAY IN HISTORY (April 3): One of the most notorious men to ever serve as a public executioner in England got that way by engaging in a shocking murder himself … that would be John “Jack Ketch” Price, launched into eternity at Tyburn On This Day 308 years ago!
• 08:45: SWEENEY TODD, THE BARBER OF FLEET-STREET, Chapters 101-102: The boat with Todd and Mrs. Lovett in the stern makes great headway down the Thames. When it gets to London Bridge — the old bridge, with the narrow abutments that choked the river down to a roaring cataract at ebb tides — both passengers insist on being ferried through rather than getting out on the upstream side. While they are shooting the rapid, Todd knocks Mrs. Lovett overboard with a heavy blow to the head. … is this curtains for Mrs. Lovett? Will Sweeney Todd get away with this? We shall see.
• 37:00: HORRID BROADSIDE: “Account of the TRIAL AND EXECUTION of JOHN AUSTIN Convicted at the OLD BAILEY on Saturday, Nov. 1st, 1783, of a Cruel Highway Robbery on JOHN SPICER, a Poor Man.” (1850s) The headline about covers it — but Mr. Austin played an unusually long game in setting his mark up for this dreadful crime, which he executed with an accomplice and a cutlass.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• SHARKS: Lawyers.
• TOPPING COVES: Hangmen.
• KNIGHTS OF THE WOODEN RUFF: Prisoners serving a sentence in the pillory.
• RUM BEAKS: Judges and magistrates who can be bought off.
• RESURRECTION MEN: Body snatchers — fellows who dig up fresh-buried corpses to sell for a few guineas at the nearest medical college as cadavers.
• TIP OUR RAGS A GALLOP: Run away as fast as we can.
• GRABS: Law enforcement personnel.
• TOUCH, or PUT THE TOUCH ON: To arrest.
• HELL CATS: Dangerous ladies who frequent the “hells” (gambling dens).
• BLACKLEGS: Professional gamblers who cheat to win.
• SPICE ISLANDERS: Swindlers. A double pun: Mace is a spice; a mace-man is a swindler; so a Spice Islander is, as it were, a resident of Swindle Island.
• SPEELING-CRIB: A “hell” (gambling den).
• COVENT GARDEN: London neighbourhood that was, in the Regency and early Victorian, famous as a place where bloods, bucks and choice spirits went to sport their blunt. Upscale gambling hells and brothels were conveniently close by the Royal Opera and Drury-lane Theatre.