59: Worse Than Murder

Lauren Layfield introduces Worse than Murder on the series recommendation show, Your Next Podcast. In the winter of 1969, Muriel McKay, the wife of Rupert Murdoch's deputy chairman at News Limited, was abducted from her home in Wimbledon, Southwest London. The kidnap was a shocking case of mistaken identity – the kidnappers claimed "We tried to get Rupert Murdoch's wife [Anna]. We couldn't get her, so we took [Muriel] instead". Sadly, Muriel was never seen again. ‘Intrigue: Worse Than Murder’ is a new podcast from BBC Radio 4 which tells the story of what happened the night Muriel was taken, and in the days, months and years that followed. It was an unprecedented case that obsessed the nation, baffled a police force, and led to the biggest manhunt of its day as the Metropolitan police raced against the clock to find Muriel. But the kidnapping of Muriel McKay was something else too: a story that helped make the British tabloid press into the kind of beast we know today. Using intimate testimony from members of the McKay family and previously un-broadcast recordings of telephone conversations with the kidnappers, Worse Than Murder sensitively explores the impact the abduction has had on Muriel’s family for 54 long years, and what it tells us about the tabloid press at a pivotal moment in its history. Search for Intrigue: Worser than Murder wherever you're reading this.

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