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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hey listeners, Ros Purcell here, host of Stolen Sister. I'm dropping by to share an episode of Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister with you. It's the tale of Elizabeth Plunkett, a 23-year-old woman from Dublin who was murdered by Ireland's first serial killers. I hope you enjoy this story, which was meticulously investigated by the RTE podcast team.
If you can't wait to find out what happens, binge episodes of Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister early and ad-free with a Pushkin Plus subscription. Find Pushkin Plus on the Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister show page in Apple Podcasts or pushkin.fm. It's July 2024 and two sisters are about to make a big decision. We are very quiet.
We would not in a million years want to make ourselves put out there for any way. They're building up the courage to send an email. I couldn't even sing a song if you asked me to in company. This is Bernie. We've talked long and hard about this. Bernie and her younger sister Kathleen feel like they're in a battle. A battle for their big sister Elizabeth. We had tried every avenue, everything.
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Chapter 2: What led to the investigation of Elizabeth Plunkett's case?
Kind regards, Bernadette Barry, Kathleen Nolan. You got back on to me and said, I've sent the email and I went, oh no, oh no, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And then she got back on to me, you won't believe it. I think 15, 20 minutes later I got a reply and he said, I'd be very interested to speak with you. And that's how we first came to meet Bernie and Kathleen.
Hello, how are you? I'm good.
Bernie and Kathleen are in their 60s. Kathleen works in healthcare and Bernie's retired. They are warm and clearly close sisters, finishing off each other's sentences, just like me and my sisters. Something you'll hear throughout the podcast. And the other voices you might hear throughout are producers Nicolene and Liam.
And one other thing I should tell you is that this story includes details of sexual violence. It could be difficult for some listeners, so please keep that in mind and take care.
The reason Bernie and Kathleen are finally speaking out is not just because of what happened to their sister Elizabeth.
but because of what didn't happen to the two men who confessed to brutally kidnapping, raping and murdering her. I thought all these things were taken care of. I never thought I'd see myself at 62 years of age dealing with this. Everything they thought they knew about what happened after Elizabeth's murder, they only recently found out it's all wrong.
When somebody's murdered, the only people they have to speak for them are their family. We're being denied any sort of justice. We're Elizabeth's voice now. I'm Ros Purcell, and from RTE Documentary on 1, this is Stolen Sister. Episode 1, Elizabeth. This is Pembroke Cottages now where we used to live, where Elizabeth lived. There's the house there.
This little street of terrace cottages is in Ringsend, on the banks of the Liffey in Dublin City, where the river meets the sea. Do you see the river wall? When we were kids, this is where we played. Ringsend is busy today, with traffic from the East Link toll bridge.
But back in the 1960s and 70s, when Elizabeth and her sisters were growing up here, Ringsend was a much quieter, tight-knit community, full of working families. Very few cars, so you could kick a ball and play tennis.
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Chapter 3: How did Elizabeth's family cope with her loss over the years?
Their parents slept on a pull-out bed in the living room. Eddie was the eldest boy in the family, Elizabeth's big brother, and he had to move out when the younger ones came up.
Pembroke Cottage was a small, tiny cottage. You couldn't all live there, so we all had to kind of get a move on, move out, you know. There wasn't a bob in Ring's End. If you don't know any difference, you think it's quite normal, you know.
And Thomas was Elizabeth's little brother.
I was the youngest boy, and ahead of me was Elizabeth, so we were quite close. She had a big personality. She could be quite bossy as well, actually, you know. To her younger brother, anyway.
The other siblings were Liam, Sean and Joan, the eldest sister and the first to get married when Elizabeth was 15. We have lovely pictures of us all at the wedding across the road there in the church. Bernie and I are flower girls, Liz's bridesmaid. She was the chief. She was like maid of honour. Very happy times.
If you look across the Irish Sea from Ringsend on a fine day, you might just make out the northwest of England. This is where the two men who would take Elizabeth's life came from. J.S. and G.E., as Elizabeth's sisters call them. They can't even say their names still. That's John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans. They're the men who came to Ireland in the mid-1970s and set out to murder one woman a week.
One of the most notorious crimes ever committed on these islands. Ireland's first serial killers. People will remember the name Sean Evans. It's as evocative here as Moira Hindley and Ian Brady are in the UK.
Two of the most evil, diabolical human beings that I ever came across.
As Elizabeth grew up in the safe surroundings of Ringsend, John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans racked up multiple convictions for burglary, assault, possession of heroin and attempted rape. In between prison sentences, Evans worked as a labourer and Shaw as a coal miner. They both married and had children. They actually only met each other in prison when they were serving time for robberies and assault.
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Chapter 4: What was Elizabeth's life like growing up in Ringsend?
At around 9.45pm, Damien was talking, laughing and joking with Liz. He put his arm around her and said, Ah, you're me little pet. She just got embarrassed and smiled.
Not far up the road from McDaniels, the two men, Shaw and Evans, finished off their drinks, as Evans explained.
It was dark when we come out.
I don't know what time it was, but we were a couple of hours in the pub. We drove down to British Bay.
By this stage, Shaw and Evans were on a mission. Knowing multiple rape charges and other serious offences were awaiting their extradition back to the UK, They were going to do exactly what they wanted to do while they were on the run. And a word of caution at this point. Because what we will tell you about these two men's actions could be difficult to hear for some people.
Because their intention was to kidnap, rape and kill at least one woman a week for as long as they could get away with it. It would make them Ireland's first serial killers. There must be something wrong with me. When we did this, I know it wrong, but I never thought it would finish up like it did.
Back inside McDaniel's pub, Elizabeth's boyfriend Damien was arguing with his friend Joe about that car they'd bought, as Damien later outlined to GardaĆ.
I sold the car without telling Joe about it. That night in the pub he drew up the subject and said it was a bad show on my behalf to sell the car without telling him. I told him not to be annoying me, but he kept on and on about it.
Joe's girlfriend Annette was talking to Elizabeth as all of this was going on.
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