Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister

I cringe at all the misogynistic one star reviews this podcast is getting. They show how far we still have to go. This podcast is refreshing in showing so much in-depth research and respect for victims. Which is something you don’t often experience in true crime, which typically focuses on the perpetrator. Listening to this podcast has made me realize how biased we are and how easily we dismiss victims. Hearing the backstory on all these women is an interesting look at history and an intimate portrait of these women’s lives. Truly fascinating and engaging. Love the narration and all the music and sound effects.

I am so impressed with the production value of this podcast. From the research to the dramatization to the astounding background audio and sound effects. I am embarrassed to admit the number of times I have listened while walking my dog, doing dishes, etc. to literally jump at the sound of a scream or think one of my kids is crying out in their sleep, only to realize it’s just the podcast. I hope you continue to come up with great ideas for future seasons.

I’m a podcast junkie and this is a great podcast! An excellent combo of history and true crime. The story tellers are amazing, the subjects well researched and emphasis is given to compassion for the victims. All to often in true crime it’s about glorifying the perpetrators. Not here. And can’t say enough about this show. I hope there are more seasons!!

What a fascinating podcast! This is such deep and thorough insight into the women sadly memorialized in history by “Jack the Ripper.” We have always known everything about the killer, but all we know about the women are their names and the work they may have found themselves in to survive the poverty at this time. We have seen the gruesome pictures, but have never thought to learn more about those struggling in period of history. Charles Dickens wrote so much about the working class in England and the podcast almost feels like an extension of that scenery. We finally get to know the women’s personal lives and they are made into human beings, worthy for us to know so much more about them than only their senseless murders. It is such an intriguing approach, a very necessary one, given that we have been so enthralled by the killer and never once seemed to ask who the women were. Did they have families? Had they come from wealth but lost money? Did they have children? Could they sing? Excellent history, research, and narration.

When the podcast was announced, it seemed promising. I thought that Rubenhold was going to address some of the more problematic and vague details of The Five and make more of an attempt to flesh things out. What we got, though, was basically 15 episodes of a very smug and self-righteous Rubenhold lashing out at her critics and those who don’t agree with her, all the while doubling down on the claims she made in The Five. While she’s totally entitled to her opinion and her claims, it was the way she reacted to feedback about her work that is mostly the issue. Rubenhold was harassed by edgelords like Trevor Marriott and 4 or 5 other jerks, which should not have happened, and most Ripperologists condemned this. Most of her issue with the community is that they did not agree with her premise and they had questions about the work. Really, what disillusioned me is how she lashed out and bullied critics and reviewers on social media when the book was first released, and then used the podcast as another means of doing so. The way Rubenhold treated Patricia Cornwell, who had done nothing to her, was gross and uncalled for. But from what I have seen, this is Rubenhold’s pattern of behavior toward people who don’t agree with her or who don’t offer the feedback she prefers. At the end of the day, it’s not the work itself. It’s the way Rubenhold chose to treat people who didn’t agree on her, and this behavior only reflects upon her and shows the public who she is as a person. Hopefully she has reflected on this over the past year or so and has tried to do better. Time will tell.

The content is interesting but the story is so overly dramatized and editorialized that it’s hard to tell what’s true and what’s just assumption about what might have happened, been said, etc. It’s also very clear that Rubenhold is caught up in her own biases, the same way she accuses others of being, but she doesn’t seem to notice that. She spends a lot of time complaining about others’ criticisms of her. The Ripper story is certainly a story worth telling, but tell it and let it speak for itself. She’s so heavy-handed, it’s hard to take. Also, yeah, the fake accent (which disappears in her interactions with others) is bad. Tells me pretty much everything I need to know.