The Bones & Bobbins Podcast, Season 2, Episode 04: Black Crape and Black Widows

Listen:

The Bones & Bobbins Podcast, Season 2, Episode 04: Black Crape and Black Widows

Support the show:

If you like what we’re doing, please rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice! Ratings tell the internet gremlins that you like us, which means our podcast will show up in more people’s recommendations!

Show Notes:

Here are links to the sources and resources we used while researching this episode:

Links to research materials: 

Mourning Attire and Timelines: 

• A Guide to the Stages of Mourning, from Art of Mourning: https://artofmourning.com/2014/11/24/a-guide-to-the-stages-of-mourning/
• What widows wore: Victorian fashions for mourning: https://youtu.be/PFbyzRkvfOE 
• Wearing a 19th-Century Mourning Veil Could Result in — Twist — Death: https://www.racked.com/2018/3/29/17156818/19th-century-mourning-veil 
• Manners of Modern Society: Being a Book of Etiquette, by Eliza Cheadle (1872): https://books.google.com/books?id=07iCeuzDTU8C&hl=en 
• Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/death-becomes-her 
• Victorian Mourning from Sew Historically: http://www.sewhistorically.com/victorian-mourning/ 
• The History of Mourning Dress and Attire in the West, by Tracey Wallace: https://eterneva.com/resources/mourning-dress 
• House of Mourning – Victorian Mourning & Funeral Customs in the 1890s, from Victoriana Magazine: http://www.victoriana.com/VictorianPeriod/mourning.htm 

Black Widows: 

• The Original Black Widow Serial Killer Haunted 19th Century Britain from the History Collection: https://historycollection.com/original-black-widow-mary-ann-cotton-prolific-female-serial-killer-britain/
• Britannica Biography: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Ann-Cotton
• Huff Post Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mary-ann-cotton-englands_b_8339314
• Unseen Letter’s from Mary: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/letters-britains-first-serial-killer-8868493
• The Strange Murders of Tillie Klimek: https://heathermonroe.medium.com/the-strange-murders-of-tillie-klimek-effa70912b5b
• Wikipedia for Tillie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillie_Klimek
• Chicago Sun Times Article: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/11/19/21563154/this-week-in-history-tillie-klimek-chicago-serial-killer 

Further Reading:

• Widow’s Weeds and Weeping Veils: Mourning Rituals in 19th Century America, by Bernadette Loeffel-Atkins: https://amzn.to/2NvSX4o (affiliate link)
• Honorable Mention Black Widow  Leonarda Cianciulli
  •  BBC Article “Sodium: Getting rid of dirt – and murder victims”: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27257822
  • Wikipedia Entry for her: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonarda_Cianciulli