How Murder Went Viral
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What sparked the cultural obsession with true crime?
It's late at night. You've had a long day at work. You're exhausted. You finally turn out all the lights and go to bed. But, of course, you get a notification on your phone. You have to check it, right? You're not sleeping yet, so you take a quick look. And that's when you see that it's about that story that you've been following all week. The international manhunt that's basically the next smash-hit true crime docuseries in the making in real time. and updates are coming in rapid fire. You sit bolt upright, take a deep breath, and begin scrolling. For the next two hours, you devour every delicious detail about the grisly crime, the search for a fugitive, and the mindless commentary that goes along with it.
Our collective obsession with true crime stories has, of course, exploded in the last several years, and movies, books, podcasts, social media, daily news stories, they all feed this obsession constantly. it's pretty easy to think that this is a relatively new thing. But of course, it's not. And while it may be difficult to pinpoint a single moment in history when this cultural phenomenon began, there is one story which may be the very reason why you're up late at night doom-scrolling. One story about a brutal murder, the heart-pounding pursuit of the killer, and a revolutionary new technology which sparked a cultural obsession that we still can't get enough of. History always has a twist. A single, unexpected, and often forgotten moment that changes everything that comes after it. In this series, each week, you'll hear a riveting story about a twist that you've probably never heard of. But it's these stories that have shaped the very world we now live in. On today's episode, how murder went viral. This is A Twist of History.
It's July 9th, 1910 in London, England. A 16-year-old boy flies down four flights of stairs of a concrete office building and steps out onto Borough High Street on the south bank of the River Thames. The noise hits him immediately. People rushing down the sidewalk, the road filled with a mix of horse-drawn buggies and rattling automobiles. The street is so crowded it overwhelms the boy.
What significant event occurred on July 9th, 1910 in London?
He quickly pulls his hat down further to partially cover his face and starts weaving his way through the foot traffic. He darts his eyes back and forth, convinced that someone is going to recognize him. He can feel his heartbeat all the way up in his ears. He keeps rushing and scanning the street, but nobody pays any attention to him, so the boy finally relaxes a little. He slows down to a normal walk and makes his way to the entrance of a nearby London underground station. A few minutes later, the boy sees his father coming towards him, holding a single small suitcase. The boy greets his father, and they run down the steps together in the underground, just in time to catch the next train. The boy watches the train doors close and the mass of passengers exiting.
He looks around to make sure that he still hasn't been recognized by anyone and follows his father on board. As the train car continues to fill up, the boy and his dad lower their heads, avoiding eye contact with their fellow passengers. And finally, the train starts to roll down the underground tracks, and the boy and his father exhale. Their escape from England has begun. Four days later. It's July 13th, 1910, in the office of newspaper magnate Alfred Harmsworth on Fleet Street in London. 44-year-old Alfred sits at his massive leather-lined desk, looking over the recent editions of the two most popular newspapers he owns, runs, and publishes, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. Both papers are huge in London. In fact, they're two of the best-selling newspapers in all of England.
But Alfred isn't satisfied. He knows he can always sell more. He flips through the pages of the mirror and shakes his head. The writing's fine and he loves the layout, but there's no hook, no story to keep people's attention day after day. He tosses the paper aside, stands up, and comes face to face with a bust of Napoleon that he displays on the windowsill nearby.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What sparked the cultural obsession with true crime?
0:01–2:31
2
What significant event occurred on July 9th, 1910 in London?
2:31–12:05
3
Who was Alfred Harmsworth and what was his role in the media?
12:05–18:36
4
What was the gruesome discovery related to Cora Crippen?
18:36–27:26
5
How did the Daily Mirror engage the public with the Crippen case?
27:26–31:45