Beautiful For Ever!: The Extraordinary Life and Trial of Madame Rachel (Dressed Classic)

Summary

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Dressed: The History of Fashion

Episode: Beautiful For Ever!: The Extraordinary Life and Trial of Madame Rachel

Release Date: August 20, 2025
Hosts: Cassidy Zachary & April Callahan

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Overview

This episode of Dressed dives into the extraordinary and scandalous story of Madame Rachel—a 19th-century London beauty entrepreneur dubbed “the esthetician of Bond Street,” who became infamous for her fraudulent beauty empire and a sensational court case that captivated the Victorian public. The hosts explore Madame Rachel’s rise, her con artistry, her notorious “Beautiful For Ever” promise, and the tragic saga of her most famous victim, Mary Tucker Borradale. Blending fashion history with true crime, the episode exposes Victorian anxieties around beauty, gender, class, and women’s roles as both business owners and consumers.

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Main Discussion Points

1. Fashion, Beauty, and True Crime Intersect ([01:44]–[02:50])

• Hosts set the stage, comparing Madame Rachel’s story to modern “con artist” tales like Netflix’s Tinder Swindler and Bad Vegan:

  "This may very well be the 1860s version of the recent Netflix documentaries Tinder Swindler... People were simply captivated." [01:55 – Cassidy Zachary]

• The Madame Rachel case dominated headlines in 1868, even reaching New Zealand.

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2. The Dangerous Allure of "Enameling" and Cosmetic Arts ([02:50]–[06:45])

• April recounts discovering Madame Rachel through research into 19th-century makeup practices, particularly "enameling"—using toxic white pastes to achieve a flawless complexion.
• Quotes Eileen Ribeiro on the process:

  "...wrinkles and marks on the skin were filled in with lead or arsenic paste and then the face and neck were painted and powdered." [03:31 – Cassidy Zachary reading Ribeiro]

• The best visual example? John Singer Sargent’s painting Madame X, cited as showcasing the enameled look ([04:30–04:59]).
• April explains only upper-class women used this technique (because you couldn’t move your face: perfect for sitting for portraits!).

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3. The Making of Madame Rachel ([07:15]–[10:17])

• Born Sarah Rachel Russell (c.1806), she endured widowhood, remarriage, possible stints in debtors’ prison, and a criminal record for procuring prostitutes.
• Pivoted to beauty entrepreneurship with her pamphlet “Beautiful For Ever” (1863).
• Relied on the buzz of advertisements and claimed miracle remedies rooted in "the East"—an Orientalist marketing ploy ([11:11]).

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4. The Borradale Affair: Seduction, Fraud, and False Promises ([11:43]–[20:13])

• Targeted widow Mary Tucker Borradale—financially independent, but not ultra-rich.
• Mary spent what would be $14,000 today without visible results, and was pressed for ever-larger payments for “beauty” ([13:39]).
• Cassidy:

  "The beauty treatment sold by Madame Rachel retailed for somewhere in the range of what would be 65 to $125 today. So not inexpensive... Sultana's Beauty Wash and Arab Bloom Powder..." [10:17]

• Madame Rachel orchestrated an elaborate “courtship” between Mary and a supposed aristocrat, "Lord Ran Law," with fabricated love letters and staged encounters.
• Mary liquidated her assets—totaling over $400,333 in today’s money ([27:00]), including her late husband’s pension, jewelry, and even real estate.

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5. The Scandal and the Courtroom Drama ([17:16]–[28:39])

• Mary’s family attempted to intervene, and Lord Ran Law testified he was not involved.
• Madame Rachel’s angle: exploiting loneliness, love, and the hope of "aristocratic marriage" for gullible clientele.
• Showed how Mary, victimized and isolated, was manipulated into giving away her life savings for false promises of love and beauty.
• Notable moment from Lord Ran Law’s testimony:

  "I never had the slightest intention to marry her. I do not know the person so frequently alluded to here by the name of William. And I never gave Rachel any advice or information about William. Every single word in the letters read in this case so far as I am concerned, is false." [19:16]

• Ultimately, Mary spent time in debtors' prison at Madame Rachel’s behest; Rachel only bailed her out to extort the last of her income ([28:09]).

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6. The Great Beauty Scam Revealed ([30:36]–[31:14])

• "Arabian baths" and “magnetic dew” turned out to be water and bran, or toxic mixtures (lead, starch, clay).
• Rachel’s products were as fraudulent as her matchmaking.

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7. Gender, Class, and the Culture of Consumption ([33:05]–[35:28])

• The trial reflected deep anxieties about women’s agency, spending, and commercial ambition in Victorian England.
• Notable quote from scholar Tammy Whitlock:

  “Rachel was arrested for defrauding Borodell of her money on the premise of arranging a marriage… but… she was also on trial for her participation in the retail trade… Rachel's exceptional business success fueled anxiety about the demoralizing effects of women's participation in the commercial world...” [33:05]

• Mary's own morality was scrutinized as much as Rachel's business ethics.

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8. The Outcome and Madame Rachel’s Legacy ([36:12]–[39:35])

• After a first hung jury, Rachel was convicted on the second trial after only 15 minutes’ deliberation.
• Sentenced to five years hard labor, a severe penalty for a non-violent offense and an indicator of gendered double standards.
• Released early, but soon reoffended—defrauding another client with the same approach. Died in prison in 1880.
• Ironic detail: Madame Rachel, who claimed to be 80 to support her claims, was really only about 60—likely the only case of a woman lying to make herself older! ([38:31])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This is the point in my research where the technique of enameling kind of took a backseat to the story that I uncovered. Because the story is strange, it's bizarre, has lots of twists and turns.”
  —April Callahan [05:31]
• “The amount of money freed up by the stock sale more than paid for both fees. So the rest, you know, the remainder was unaccounted for.”
  —Cassidy Zachary [17:40]
• "It now became important that Mrs. Borradell should be acted upon so as to produce her money... so Lord Ranelagh would marry her."
  —Cassidy Zachary quoting the trial [15:11]
• “Arabian bath treatment... Simply a combination of water and bran.”
  —April Callahan [30:36]
• “Rachel was exceptionally successful. But in the eyes of the Victorian public and press, her biggest crime may have been a woman making money from beauty and female consumers.”
  —Paraphrased summary of Tammy Whitlock [33:05–34:24]

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Timeline & Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:44] – Cross-genre true crime/fashion history episode introduced
• [03:31] – Explanation of enameling and 19th-century dangerous cosmetics
• [07:15] – Madame Rachel’s backstory and rise to fame
• [11:11] – The marketing of “exotic” cosmetics and claims of miraculous cures
• [13:39] – Mary Borradale’s spending and vulnerability
• [17:16] – The fabricated courtship and wave of financial losses
• [19:16] – Lord Ran Law’s testimony and the unraveling of the scam
• [28:09] – Borradale’s stints in debtors’ prison; Rachel’s extortion
• [30:36] – The exposure of fraudulent beauty products
• [33:05] – The gendered nature and public perception of the trial
• [36:12] – Rachel’s conviction and final years

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Analysis & Reflections

• Social Commentary: The case illustrates deeply entrenched beliefs about women’s roles as naive consumers, dangers of commercial advertising, and male anxieties about female independence.
• Parallel to Modern True Crime: The story’s psychological elements mirror today’s headlines about financial manipulation via romance and beauty.
• Why it Resonated: The public fascinated over the trial for its blend of scandal, victim-blaming, and the high price of beauty—a dramatic narrative still relevant today.

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Conclusion

The episode brilliantly marries the allure of fashion history with the twists of a Victorian true crime saga, exposing the social dynamics and dangers faced by women as both business owners and consumers. Madame Rachel’s promise to make her clients “Beautiful For Ever!” becomes a cautionary tale—about beauty, vulnerability, and the price women have been willing to pay, then and now.

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For further exploration and resources:

• Visit @dressedpodcast on Instagram
• Sign up for the Dressed newsletter and online courses at DressedHistory.com
• Check out their Bookshop.org bookshelf for more on fashion history

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Transcript

[April Callahan]

Mama.

[Unclear/Non-primary speaker]

Papa. Mi cuerpo crece a un ridmo alarmante. Il arro Pamela podria adaptar sel pre sudiana. Hello, Miami. Vivies paraviajar con tus amigos. Vivimos parofres paquetes de hulo. Yo tel Pormenos expedia. Vivimos paraviajar, dress listeners.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Bonjour from Paris.

[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

Yes, we are currently on our annual summer hiatus from the show as we conduct our summer fashion history tours of the City of Lights. But worry not, we will be back with brand new content dedicated to all of the exciting fashion history exhibitions and other behind the scenes experiences we have encountered while here.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Until then, please enjoy this episode from the Dressed archive of over 500 past shows.

[April Callahan]

With over 7 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Welcome to Dressed, the History of Fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts.

[April Callahan]

Cassidy Zachary and April Callahan. Okay, get ready, dress listeners, because today we are about to go cross genre.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

That is right for some of you. Today's episode might just combine two of your favorite types of podcasts, and that is fashion history, of course. And April, we are officially entering the true crime marketplace. Yep, April stumbled across this story we are about to share today, dress listeners. And she just immediately started sending me text messages. Messages about how this may very well be the 1860s version of the recent Netflix documentaries Tinder Swindlers, and then the docu series Bad Vegan, which, of course, if you're not familiar, are about con artists and how they extorted people for basically millions of dollars. So the trial of Madame Rachel in London, 1868, was front page news at the time, and coverage of the scandal reached as far as New Zealand. People were simply captivated.

[April Callahan]

But before we get to the infamous Madame Rachel, I'd actually like to share how I came across her story, because this connects back to a past episode of Dressed. Some of you might recall in our episode with Ilise Carter entitled Red How Lipstick Changed the Face of American History, she and I briefly chatted about this makeup practice known as enameling. It was somewhat of an odd phenomenon, and it was practiced in a very specific time period during the late 19th century, and women would essentially enamel them cells with thick white paint in the quest for perfect, unblemished skin.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Does not sound quite comfortable, does it?

[April Callahan]

No.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

In her book Facing Beauty, Painted Women and Cosmetic Art, fashion historian Eileen Ribeiro describes this process, and she writes, quote, whereby wrinkles and marks on the Skin were filled in with lead or arsenic paste and then the face and neck were painted and powdered. The first references date from the 1770s and it became popular beauty technique in the fashionable and stage world. To emphasize the transparency of the skin, especially on formal occasions, women might paint their veins and this included their eyelids with blue paste of chalk tinted with indigo or Prussian blue, one of the earliest synthetic dyes. End quote.

[April Callahan]

Oh, my. You might proclaim. And you would be absolutely right. At the time, writers commented on the frozen mask like effect that the technique produced and joked that women's faces were, quote, crusted over with plaster of Paris. End quote.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Do you have pictures of this, by the way?

[April Callahan]

So when Ilise and I chatted, she said that the best example of it is John Singer Sargent's portrait of Madame X, which is Virginie Gauffre and she's been enameled in that painting.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Interesting.

[April Callahan]

Yeah. And she even points out that part of the practice was to leave the tips of the ears and the fingertips unenameled, so they appeared pink. So it was this juxtaposition. So she said, that is the best. That is the best example of it.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

So then it was actually quite effective then if upper class women were doing it, because in my mind, I'm like, this is grotesque and these women's faces are falling off. But if the upper class echelons were doing it in their portraits, perhaps it actually looked. Yeah. Real.

[April Callahan]

Yeah. Well, and Eiles points out that it was mainly originally upper class women that were doing it because it could literally crack. You had to be in a certain kind of sphere, a setting for this to work. So sitting for a portrait makes perfect sense because you're not moving.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

That does make sense. Okay.

[April Callahan]

I was fascinated when Ilise and I first started talking about it, so I started pulling this thread a little bit further, as I promised in that episode. And what I found out is that one of the most well known practitioners of this cosmetic art was a London based cosmetics maven professionally known as Madame Rachel. And this is the point right here in my research, where the technique of enameling kind of took a backseat to the story that I uncovered. Because the story is strange, it's bizarre, has lots of twists and turns. And all of the information that I used to piece this tale together came from primary sources. It came from court records from the Old Bailey in London. And this is maybe the third time that court records from the Old Bailey in London has come up on our show. So it is this really rich resource there. And then also there was this very meaty booklet or kind of a book that was published in 1868, explaining all the ins and outs of the case. And the case itself actually happened in 1868. So it came out immediately after kind of summarizing what had gone down. And it was available for purchase for one shilling after the trial ended. That. That just speaks to the fact of how obsessed people were with this case at that time.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah, it's a gossip brag, right? You can't put it down. The People magazine of the day. So this trial held September 22nd through the 25th of 1868, and it was the topic of that publication, but it was actually the second trial for Madame Rachel, as the first one ended in a mistrial or a hung jury. So why that happened, it's not exactly clear. But what the booklet does make clear are the details of the case of Mary Tucker Borradale against her esthetician, Madame Rachel.

[April Callahan]

Born in 1806, Sarah Rachel Russell was born into a respectable working class family in either London or perhaps Ireland. That is a little bit unclear. And Rachel's first husband, Jacob Moses, died at sea on the return voyage home from Australia in 1859. So Rachel would have been about 53 when her husband passed away. After that, she married Philip Levison or Philip Leverson. There are sources that use either one or both spellings of the. Of the last name. And how Rachel came to the profession of beauty may or may not be a procliful. According to her, sometime around 1860, quote, she and her family were stricken down by the most fearful fever, which compelled her and them to seek relief at that hospital where she lived nearby when it was found necessary that her head should be shaved. And Cass, I don't know, I'm not exactly sure why a fever requires you to shave your head, but that's what she was telling people at the time.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

No, and actually, I do know. I do know this brain fever disease, not really a real disease, but was a real disease to medical professionals in the 19th century. But they would, of course, you know, leeching is the end all be all to medicine, right? So they would shave their heads and put leeches and various other medicines on their head to try and cure this fever. So perhaps that's what they thought she had. Yeah, Yikes. Yeah. Gotta love modern medicine of the 19th century. So in continuing to spin this tale, Rachel will continue explaining that one of the doctors caring for her provided her with a treatment to regrow her hair that was so miraculous that she asked for the recipe. And it's at this point where she, quote, unquote, commenced coloring gray, removing wrinkles, cheating old age out of its rights and making women, quote, unquote, beautiful Forever, which happened to also be the title of a 24 page pamphlet she published in 1863. And this pamphlet brought great attention to her shop on the fashionable new Bond Street.

[April Callahan]

However, this was not Rachel's first attempt to enter the beauty trade. A previous incarnation of the business ended in a bankruptcy in 1861, and she served some time in White Cross street debtors prison after this, which might also not have been her first stint in prison because she also has a criminal record for procurement, which means that she actually put the Madam and Madame Rachel because she had been previously convicted for procuring prostitutes for gentlemen clients. But with this publication, Beautiful Forever, this pamphlet and also the ads that she placed in popular newspapers, Rachel reinvented herself. And as scholar Tammy Whitlock has noted, quote, with a business built on successful advertisements, Madame Rachel was already famous as the best known cosmetics retailer in England when her fraud case went to trial in 1868.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

So what was she selling, you might be asking? The beauty treatment sold by Madame Rachel retailed for somewhere in the range of what would be 65 to $125 today. So not inexpensive. And they included products such as Sultana's Beauty Wash and Arab Bloom Powder. And of course, the exotic nature of the titles of her products are, of course, a reflection of the Orientalism of this period. So, you know, this fantasy of this far and exotic imagined east that would really only continue to pervade mass production and consumption in the age of imperialism and well into the 20th century. But Rachel did go as far as to validate and support her titles with a claim that she worked with a Moroccan doctor to purchase, quote, an enormous outlay from the government of Morocco, the exclusive right to import for her products like the magnetic dew of Sahara and Jordan water.

[April Callahan]

Madame Rachel claimed that with her products, the desired look produced by enameling could be achieved, quote, not by using dangerous cosmetics, but by the use of Arabian baths composed of pure extracts of the liquids of flowers, choice and rare herbs and other preparations equally harmless and efficacious. She informs us that almost all of our cosmetics except our own are composed of deadly leads and other injurious matters. But her preparations are made up of the purest, rarest and most fragrant productions of the East End quote.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Of course they are. And these Arabian baths were but one of the treatments Madame Rachel recommended for her client, Miss, is Borradelle A widow whose former husband had served in India, where they had lived for six years. And now, back in London, she was surviving off the pension left to her by her husband. So Mary might be said to be in somewhat of an unusual financial situation, as her husband had left the estate solely to his wife, which made her financially independent in a period where it was really not that common for a husband to, you know, leave his wife this money. Typically they would leave it to a male relative to handle on behalf of the widowed wife. And this is actually, actually a really important plot point that we're going to come back to time and time again in the story.

[April Callahan]

Court documents from the period estimate that Mary Bordale's total worth was in the general arena of what would be about $400,000 today. So she wasn't poor, but also she wasn't ultra, ultra wealthy. What she was was a sitting duck from Madame Rachel. The two first met in 1864 or 1865, depending on the source, when somehow or another, Rachel ascertained the widow's net wor in Mary's own words at the trial. Quote, I spent 170 pounds with the prisoner in 1864 and 1865 and only got for it some soap and powder. In May 1866, she asked me to spend some more money with her, but I told her I expected her to do something for my skin for the 170 pounds I had already laid out in her shop, end quote. Now, £170 doesn't seem like a ton of money today, but that was in money back then in the 1860s. So, Cass, using a historic currency converter that was created by the British National Archives, I converted that to what it would be in today's dollars, and it's just under a whopping $14,000. That is a ton of money that she spent.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah, that is a lot of money and not the last that Madam Rachel would request from Mary upon this rejection, to spend more money with her, quote, Madam Rachel suggested a mode by which she could be made beautiful forever, asking for the thousand pounds for making her so. And April, using the same converter from the National Archives, this would be a whopping $62,000 today.

[April Callahan]

Mm. Well, once again, Mary declined these services. And it's around this time that Madame Rachel mentioned, just in passing, that this aristocratic gentleman had seen Mary in her shop and had become, quote, enamored of her. End quote. Rachel suggested that Mary return to the shop. And when Mary did so, she found Lord Thomas Read ran law there, conversing with Madame Rachel and her daughter, and according to Mary, Madam Rachel introduced them. Lord Ran Law gave Mary his card which was printed with his name. Mary then says she returned the card to Lord Ranlaw, that she did not keep it. And Cass, we have already done an episode on etiquette of calling calling on friends and visitors which involves a lot of talk about calling cards. Which leads me to believe that this whole interaction between Mary and Lord Ran Law was a bit odd. It would highly unusual for an aristocratic man to give his card to a middle class widow like this in this manner in public. And even more unusual that if he did so that she would give it back to him, that she would return it. It's all strange.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah, it all, it is all strange. I mean, I'm used to calling card culture existing within the home, so it's also super interesting that it would be in this shop consumer setting. But the plot thickens. So after two more quote unquote chance encounters with Lord Ranlough and Madame Rachel shop, the esthetician revealed to mar that quote, his Lordship had intimated from time to time that he had never seen any woman besides Mrs. Borradell who would be such an honor and credit to his name. It now became important that Mrs. Borradell should be acted upon so as to produce her money from the first occasion when she had been told she could be made beautiful forever. And that is so Lord Ranelagh would marry her. End quote. Rachel then let Mary know that his Lordship wished to carry out their courtship by way of letters and that he had requested for Rachel to be their intermediary.

[April Callahan]

What now commences over the course of the next three months is a wild matter of debate. But what is certain is that the letters were written and exchanged. Who wrote the letters and for whom the letters were intended? That's where things get unclear. According to Mary, Rachel told her that Lord Ran Law wished their correspondence to be clandestine because his family did not agree with him marrying a woman without a title to this effect. Mary says that she was instructed by Rachel to address the letters to William, not Lord Ran Law. And I just want to be very, very clear here that Lord Ran Law's first name was actually Thomas. It wasn't William. Okay. Mary also maintains that every single letter she wrote to her intended, her beloved, her fiance, was dictated to her by Rachel, that she didn't compose any of the contents of the letters herself. She also said that each time a letter would be written, Rachel would have Mary list her own place of residence. So Mary's place of Residence as a different address. And this becomes an important point in Madam Rachel's defense later.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

So while the correspondence commences, Mary has now undertaken this process, this very expensive process of becoming beautiful forever under Madam Rachel's direction, largely by way of taking somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred Arabian bats. And the 62,000 fee had been paid to the beauty consultant after she connected Mary with her own personal lawyer, Mr. Haynes, who actually assisted Mary dressed listeners in liquidating stocks which were part of the pension left to her by her husband.

[April Callahan]

Shady.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

So shady. Why? Why did she do this? So according to Mary, she never saw any of the money. It went straight to Rachel and paid the lawyer fees. And we're not going to get into the detailed accounting of this, but let's just say that the court records point out that the amount of money freed up by the stock sale more than paid for both fees. So the rest, you know, the remainder was unaccounted for.

[April Callahan]

In addition to serving as Mary's beauty consultant, Madame Rachel now stepped in to assist her client in preparation for the wedding and future nuptial bliss, instructing her to buy what would now today be a hundred thousand dollars of lace and diamonds for her future life as an aristocratic lad. Liquidating real estate at this time. That's how Mary paid for these items, which were delivered into Rachel's care. And Mary claims that she never had physical possession of any of these goods that Rachel had her purchase, quote, unquote, for her wedding. That the only physical goods that she ever had in her possession were the beauty products that she bought from Madame Rachel. Meanwhile, Mary's correspondence with quote, unquote, William continues.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

So just to be clear, she gave Rachel this money to purchase the products, right? But never actually saw the products. So she just gives. Giving Rachel more and more money because she trusts this woman.

[April Callahan]

Obviously, this is also somewhat of a matter of debate because there was apparently some connection at some point with the person that she purchased the diamonds from. It's all very confusing, but the money went out. That's all that's important.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah, it's very. I mean, I guess it's becoming increasingly clear that she trusts this woman and she's giving her a ton of money to ensure, as you said, her nuptial bliss with this man who she's met maybe a handful of times, but has been conducting this love affair with, essentially through letters. So noted in the court records is the fact that the letters delivered to Mary by Rachel from, you know, this William all bore different handwriting, a fact conveniently overlooked by Mary perhaps. I mean, she was blinded by love. Lord Ran Law himself attended and also testified at the trial that quote, I remember seeing Mrs. Borradell on two occasions, once at Rachel's where I was introduced to her by the prisoner. I never had the slightest intention to marry her. I do not know the person so frequently alluded to here by the name of William. And I never gave Rachel any advice or information about William. Every single word in the letters read in this case so far as I am concerned, is false.

[April Callahan]

The question then becomes to whom was Mary writing and who was writing her back? More on this after a brief sponsor break.

[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

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[April Callahan]

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[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

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[Cassidy Zachary]

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[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

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[Cassidy Zachary]

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[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

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[Cassidy Zachary]

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[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

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[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

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[April Callahan]

Welcome back. I am sure by now that you have all figured out that the love letters Mary was receiving were actually the work of Madame Rachel. The multiple handwriting on the letters was on account of the fact that Madam Rachel did not actually know how to write. Her daughter often took dictation, as did the shop boys that worked for Madame Rachel. And Mary confirmed that she also took dictation from Rachel in composing the letters that she wrote to William, and that each and every one of these letters were actually Rachel's words, not her own. And this also becomes a sticking point in the trial because many of Mary's letters, which were used as evidence by the defense, were incredibly intimate and personal. And they had all these details in them that just kind of make you know that these two people know each other really well. How did the defense obtain Mary's letters, you might wonder? Well, Rachel claimed that they had been returned to her by, quote, unquote, William for her use in the trial.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

So given the fact that Mary testified that she had only seen lord rand law three times in Rachel's shop, the defense pointed out time and again this intimate nature of Mary's letters. So, for instance, in one of them, she writes, quote, your sister ought to see that your stockings are mended. I cannot see why she cannot mend them herself. And put some buttons on your shirt. End quote. And when the defense lawyer read from one letter to William, I am surprised to find that your flannel should be worn out through you have not had them more than six weeks. The audience of the trial broke out in laughter at Mary's assertion that these letters were written to a man she barely knew.

[April Callahan]

Yeah. In the pamphlet that was produced right after the trial ended in 1868, they note how many times within the trial that everyone burst out laughing about these letters because they're like, clearly there is something else going on here. And this. Clearly something else is going on here was also part of Madame Rachel's defense. Rachel tried to discredit Mary's reputation, claiming that she had been involved in extramarital relationships with at least one man, perhaps two, and that she had been staying in disreputable boarding houses. The return Addresses provided on the letters that Mary had written seemed to back up this fact because they backtracked and figured out where some of these places were. But Mary claims that the addresses were given to her by Rachel and that she knew nothing about the. These inappropriate lodging houses. She also claimed that before writing the letters, to quote unquote, William and later Tom, because William decided that he wanted to be called Tom. Now, Rachel gave her copious amounts of whiskey and that she does not recall. And I'm talking about Mary here. Mary says that she does not recall having written in her own handwriting one letter that says, quote, it is well known in Pembrokeshire that I have been living with you for some months, end quote. And when the defense attorney questioned Mary further on this, she says that she must have, quote, been a lunatic to write such a thing. Okay, I think we can all see now why the public was fascinated with this case. Right, Cass? It's got all the intrigue. What the heck is going on? Who do you believe? I don't know. Even after reading all of this, I feel like there's a lot more to the story that didn't come out in the trial. There's some, there's a. There's a puzzle piece that's missing, but they're both doing shady things.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Thanks. Yeah, I guess, because I've watched Tinder, Swindler and Bad Vegan and I know you have too. I literally just see Mary as the victim immediately because there's so many parallels between her relationship with Madame Rachel and those narratives. So dress listeners, if you haven't seen those, those shows, you probably want to check them out if you're intrigued by this. Because they're so fascinating.

[April Callahan]

No, for sure. And, and I, I definitely think she was definitely manipulated. She was definitely a victim. But I'm also wondering, because of reading everything and I wasn't able to include everything here, there was something else also happening. Not sure what.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yes, exactly. And I mean it should actually be noted again in relationship to these Netflix shows we're talking about, Madame Rachel was continuing to drain her clients bank accounts. An additional enameling procedure added to the Beautiful Forever beauty regimen brought in another $63,000 for Madame Rachel. And Mary was now liquidating her personal possessions, including her silver, to pay for the treatments. So in total, over the course of a three month period, court documents detail 5,300 pounds or 400, $333 in total paid to Madame Rachel by Mary. And this is more than the total value of her estate. And at one point, Rachel had Taken Mary to a dubious banker to take out a loan or loans.

[April Callahan]

Unable to pay the sums that she owed back, Mary ended up in debtors prison four separate times in 1867. And this is the very same debtors prison that Madame Rachel had been incarcerated in six years prior. And at least one of the times that Mary ended up in debtors prison was at the petition of Madame Rachel's claim for unpaid bills.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Wow.

[April Callahan]

Yeah, exactly. Eventually, it would be Rachel who bailed Mary out of debtors prison. And she did so by extorting her to sign over Mary's very last bit of financial resources, which was her husband's or her now deceased husband's $13,000 a year military pension. And that's in today's money. You know, Cass, this is complete insanity. This all goes down in the matter of three months. And all in theory, for the sake of beauty.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Beauty and love. I think it should not be understated. Like maybe she was super lonely. Right. And this guy gave her attention and Madame Rachel was giving her attention. I mean, the psychology of it all is super interesting.

[April Callahan]

And I think that pulls through to both the documentaries, the Netflix documentaries that we were talking about.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah, because in Bad Vegan, you're like, she keeps taking out millions of dollars and literally giving it to this person. Why? So that, you know, there's so many parallels. But if you're wondering why Mary's friends and family did not step in to prevent her financial ruin, they actually did. They tried. Mary's brother in law was a magistrate. He repeatedly tried to intervene in the clear case of fraud that was happening to his wife's sister. He even went so far as tracking down Lord Ran law to attempt to confirm their betrothal. And upon arriving at his Lordship's residence, the brother in law was turned away at the door, having given what was perceived to be a preposterous explanation for his presence. So that's the other question, right? Did Lord Randlaw, was he actually a part of this? Was he getting back in money from Madame Rachel or not? It's.

[April Callahan]

I mean, why was he just conveniently there a few times when Mary showed up?

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah. Or was she that genius at manipulating the situation?

[April Callahan]

Yeah, well, and also I will say that apparently it came out later that Lord Wrenlaw, of course, had this aristocratic title, but he was down on his luck, so that could very much be the case. Mary's friends and family eventually persuaded her of the fraudulent nature of her relationship with her esthetician. And Mary herself, in the court proceedings, admitted that she was not seeing the miraculous results from this copious number of beauty treatments that she was undergoing. And there is little wonder as to why, because later it came to light that this costly Arabian bath treatment that Mary was taking every single day was simply. Simply a combination of water and bran.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Oh, no.

[April Callahan]

I know. And also it came out that one of Madame Rachel's other face washes, which cost what would be about $65 today, was nothing more than, quote, carbonate of lead starch, fuller's earth, which is clay, hydrochloric acid and distilled water. End quote. And remember, originally at the beginning of the episode, we read that quote where she claimed. Claimed that all of her products were natural.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

I mean, there is no dearth of beauty products from the 19th and early 20th centuries that make all of these beauty claims and use all of these harmful products. It's so fascinating.

[April Callahan]

It was probably more common than it wasn't, I would argue.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah, exactly. Yes, exactly.

[Lindsay Holiday]

Throughout history, royals across the world were notorious for insects. They married their own relatives in order to consolidate power and keep their blood blue. But they were oblivious to the havoc all this inbreeding was having on the health of their offspring. From Egyptian pharaohs marrying their own sisters to the Habsburg's notoriously oversized lower jaws, I explore the most shocking, incestuous relationships and tragically inbred individuals in royal history. And that's just episode one on the History Teatime Podcast. I profile remarkable queens and LGBTQ royals, explore royal family trees, and delve into women's medical history and other fascinating topics. I'm Lindsay Holiday and I'm spilling the tea on history. Join me every Tuesday for new episodes of the History Teatime Podcast, wherever fine podcasts are enjoyed.

[Jen and Jenny]

This is Jen and Jenny from Ancient History Fangirl, and we're here to tell you about Jenny's scorching historical romantasy based on Alaric of the Visigoths. Enemy of My Dreams. Amanda Boucher, best selling author of the Kingmaker Chronicle, says, quote, this book has everything. High status stakes, action, grit, ferocity, and blazing passion. Julia and Alaric are colliding storms against a backdrop of the brutal dangers of ancient Rome. They'll do anything to carve their peace out of this treacherous world and not just survive, but rule.

[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

Enemy of My Dreams is available wherever books are sold.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

It was not actually the duplicitous nature of her products that landed Madame Rachel in trouble with the law. And as scholar Tammy Whitlock noted in her journal article entitled A Taint upon the Madame Rachel Case, Fraud and retail Trade in 19th Century England, which appeared in the Victorian Review in 1998. She says, quote, technically, Rachel was arrested for defrauding Borodell of her money on the premise of arranging a marriage to Lord Ranlaw. But in the eyes of the public, she was also on trial for her methods of business. Rachel was on trial as a perpetrator of fraud, but she was on, quote, unquote trial for her participation in the retail trade, a trade based on the puffery of exaggerated advertisements and the vending of adulterated cosmetics. Mary Borodell was on, quote, unquote, trial. And of course, this is in the trial of public opinion as a victim, her morality and respectability scrutinized to determine whether she should elicit the jury's sympathy. Borodell was also judged for her role as a buyer, a middle class woman selfishly wasting her dead husband's money on luxury goods. So, as is becoming increasingly clear, you know, there's this very gendered nature of this trial and that should not go unnoticed. We've have this long history of associating fashion and beauty with frivolity and women's weakness, right?

[April Callahan]

Yep, absolutely. They can't help themselves. Yes, the feeble minds, they can't help themselves. Whitlock does go on to say that even at the time, quote, commenters were outraged that Rachel's, quote, unquote, real crime of selling fraudulent products with false advertising remained untouched by the legal system. Rachel's exceptional business success fueled anxiety about the demoralizing effects of women's participation in the commercial world, a fear also linked to the growing phenomenon of middle class women's importance as consumers. Women like Mary Borradale freely spending their money at their own pleasure, end quote. And Cass freely spend. They did because. And especially on cosmetics, because the judge at the end of the trial remarked on Rachel's substantial wealth. He noted that her use of a private opera box when she went to the opera and her, quote, gaudily furnished house on Madox Street.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah. So not only is she participating in this not great trade, right, this beauty trade, but she also doesn't know how to spend her money or what to do with it.

[April Callahan]

And also he went to her house and saw how it was decorated. Question mark.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

Yeah. So, you know, Victorian anxiety surrounding women's agency and the public sphere are evidenced in the copious references to the trial in pop cultural production at the time. So we have playwright W.S. gilbert's reference to the scandal. Writing the following stanza into his play the Pretty Druidesse in 1869, he says avoid all so called beautifying dear. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear the things that men among themselves will say of some soi disant beauty of the day whose face when with cosmetics she has cloyed it it out. Rachel's Rachel. Pray you girls avoid it.

[April Callahan]

And there's more where that comes from. I just, I threw this one in. But there's, there's, there's more out there. You might be wondering how this all played out. So at the urging of her loved ones, Mary eventually attempts to recover her money, first by filing a civil lawsuit against Rachel. This flopped. Things did not go well. And subsequently Mrs. Bordale pressed criminal charges against Rachel after one jury failed to reach a verdict in August of 1868. A second trial began in September of the same year and apparently Cass the jury deliberated for only 15 minutes before they came back and returned with a guilty verdict against Rachel. And this time Mary was marginally successful in her claim. She was able to recover a little bit of her money. Basically, the court ordered that her husband's military pension, which Rachel had extorted from her while she was behind bars, this was ordered to be returned. Rachel received a sentence of five years hard labor in prison. And this was the maximum sentence that was allowed at the time. The judge talks about it specifically that he is going to sentence her to the max. And again, on her work on the trial, Whitlock notes that this is a particularly harsh sentence for a female convict for a non violent offense.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

And she was apparently released approximately 18 months early. And Madame Rachel actually went back and set up her cosmetics business again. She could not shake her old habits. In 1878 she was once again sentenced to five years hard labor after defrauding one of her daughter's friends, a Mrs. Purse, of all of her jewelry in exchange for making her, you guessed it, dress listeners beautiful forever. Much like the scam run on Mrs. Borradell, Mrs. Pierce was enticed into Madame Rachel's web with stories of the esthetician's aristocratic connections. This time she wasn't espousing her connections to a gentleman, but rather Lady Dudley, who Rachel claimed to have made Beautiful Forever in exchange for costly jewels. And Mrs. Pearl Purse followed suit with her own jewels. And when her husband discovered the scheme, Mr. Purse pressed charges and Rachel returned to prison where she supposedly died in 1880 at the age of 72 years old.

[April Callahan]

Yeah, and we say supposedly at the age of 72 dress listeners, because a rather interesting fact that we haven't mentioned yet. Is that during the scam run on Mary, Madame Rachel claimed to be 80 years old old, which evidence points to the fact that she was likely around 60. And this is hilarious, Cass, because this might be the only known case in history where a woman is going to voluntarily add an extra 20 years to her age. And obviously this was done to support her claims that she was able to halt the aging process in its tracks. Mary, at the time of trial stated her age to be 62, so the two were probably about exactly the same age. And whatever became of Mary, we're not exactly sure. She presumably lived out the rest of her days with additional financial support from her family. And at the very end of the trial, the judge intimated that because of everything that had happened and just a small amount of money that she ended up getting back, that she was probably gonna have to be supported by the rest of her life, by her family and by her daughter.

[Cassidy Zachary or April Callahan (likely Cassidy based on context)]

So dress listeners, that's the end of our story as we know it. That was a wild ride. We hope you enjoyed a little true crime with your dose of fashion and beauty history this week. Let us know if you want to hear more. We had fun kind of digging into this narrative in the past and until Thursday, dress listeners, may you consider the price of beauty next time you get dressed?

[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

Please head to restpodcast on Instagram or restpod Podcast without the underscore on Facebook to check out the visual content associated with each week's episodes.

[Cassidy Zachary]

And remember, we always love hearing from you, so if you'd like to write to us you can do so at. Hello DressedHistory.com DressedHistory.com is also our website where you can sign up for our monthly newsletter, our in person tours and online fashion history courses and you can check out whatever else we have up our finely tailored sleeves.

[April Callahan]

We get so many questions from you.

[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

All about our recommendations for fashion history books, so if you are interested you can always find a link in our show Notes to our Bookshop Bookshelf. So that address is bookshop.org shop dressed and there you can find over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles.

[Cassidy Zachary]

And do you love Dressed but want to skip the ads? You can now sign up for Ad free listening with any tier on our Dressed History Patreon where you can also chat with your fellow fashion history lovers and attend one of our live Q and as and so much more.

[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

We are also excited to now be.

[April Callahan]

Part of the Airwave Network and their.

[April Callahan or Cassidy Zachary (likely April based on context)]

Premium Ad Free History subscription Airwave History plus available on Apple Podcasts. The subscription brings dress and also 27 other popular history podcasts ad free for just five per month. More information on Patreon and Airwave is.

[April Callahan]

Available at the link in our bio.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Thank you as always for tuning in and more dressed coming your way very soon. Dress the History of Fashion is a production of Dressed Media.

[Brian]

Yeah. Film Vault. We are one of the original film podcasts. That can't be true. There was like two other film podcasts when we began. Brian, how long, how long are we doing this show? You and I first sat down and did a version of the show over 20 years ago. My God. Two episodes each week. One we review movies and the first episode the second one different top five every week. Movies that made you cry. Worst movie accents, most disturbing movies. All right, the Film Ball. Check it out wherever you find a fine podcasts. That's right, the Film vaults. Going on 20 plus years.