Episode 2: The Golden Ticket

Summary

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Royal Swindle – Episode 2: The Golden Ticket

Released: July 23, 2026
Host: Becky Milligan
A Blanchard House production for USG Audio, in partnership with Exactly Right Media

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Episode Overview

This captivating episode of “Royal Swindle” delves into the audacious exploits of Evelyn and Lila, two Australian women who, after arriving in London in the mid-90s, ingratiate themselves with British high society and the horse-loving elite. Evelyn masterminds a fraudulent investment scheme, targeting wealthy men and even gaining access to the royal inner circle—with Queen Elizabeth II herself falling under their orbit. Through in-depth interviews, exclusive audio cassettes from the late Evelyn, and Lila's colorful recollections, host Becky Milligan crafts a riveting narrative of deception, greed, love, and the intoxicating lure of glamour.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Evelyn’s Origins and Aspirations

[00:06-02:32]

• Becky opens with Evelyn's impoverished, crime-adjacent upbringing in 1950s Melbourne, painting the formative influence of a royal visit on her young psyche.

• Evelyn is captivated by the glamour of Queen Elizabeth II’s tour, sowing a lifelong ambition for opulence and recognition:

  "That image, that feeling, will stay with Evelyn forever... she thinks, I want a piece of that."
  — Becky Milligan [02:32]

2. Meeting Lila: First Impressions and Present Day

[04:20-06:42]

• Becky visits Lila, now in her late 70s, describing her as unassuming but with a “hint of the past.”

• Lila positions herself as an innocent bystander (“Little Miss Tag Along”) who merely spent money, insisting she didn’t know of any wrongdoing:

  "All I know is I used to tag along. I watched. Little Miss Tag Along."
  — Lila [06:55]

3. Evelyn’s Confessions: Cassette Tape Revelations

[08:20-11:19]

• Becky discovers Evelyn’s old cassette tapes, intended for an unfinished autobiography, with frank admissions about the scams.

• Evelyn details the investment con: soliciting large sums from wealthy men for nonexistent international banking trades, promising 25% monthly returns.

  "So I had decided to take investments off people in London... businessmen with lots of money. Men that would probably not even chase me for it."
  — Evelyn [08:39]

  "The returns on this money were incredible. Something like 25% a month."
  — Evelyn [10:04]

• Evelyn is strikingly self-aware—she later describes her marks as unwilling to report being "robbed by a woman":

  "They're going to laugh about getting jibbed by a woman... they're not going to want to go to the police."
  — Evelyn [11:19]

4. The Robin Hood Paradox & Victim Perceptions

[13:16-13:47]

• Lila rationalizes targeting the elite, suggesting it’s their greed that made them vulnerable:

  "I just can't understand that grown men with big businesses would talk to a lady like her and trust her enough... I think a lot of these people were extremely greedy."
  — Lila [13:16]

• Evelyn notes that societal underestimation of women was a ‘secret weapon’:

  "Because the thing I did discover here in England was that women are second class citizens... not supposed to make money."
  — Evelyn [14:00]

5. The Barclay Hotel Scam & Growing Infamy

[15:08-19:17]

• Lila and Evelyn run up a $100,000+ bill at the exclusive Barclay Hotel, which ultimately throws them out, withholding their belongings.

• Hotels begin warning each other, and the pair shift to other opulent venues, repeating the pattern.

  "They just rang everybody up and said, watch out, because there's these two Australian con women who are going to, you know, try and get in there and not pay."
  — Lila [19:07]

6. Early Signs of Swindling: Evelyn’s Milk Bar Tactics

[20:09-22:25]

• Anecdotes reveal Evelyn’s early penchant for deception, writing bad checks as a child to win favor with peers.

  "Evelyn continued to do this and continued to have a checkbook and used to do naughty things with it. She was terrible."
  — Lila [21:10]

• Lila surmises that Evelyn learned young that “if you had money, you were not a failure.”

7. Escalation: Horsey High Society & The Royal Connection

[23:07-29:45]

• The con shifts to country estates and the world of elite horse breeding. Evelyn raises over a million dollars from new victims and chases legitimacy by sponsoring the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

• Evelyn signs a check for £175,000 to gain access to the royal enclosure—a brazen move aimed at cementing her status.

  "Evelyn announced that she would like to sponsor the whole show."
  — Becky Milligan [31:33]

8. The Golden Ticket: Meeting the Queen

[29:58-35:27]

• Lila and Evelyn enter the royal enclosure at Windsor, mingling with nobility and finally meeting Queen Elizabeth II, who reminisces about Evelyn’s purported new home.

  "The Queen knows the very house that Evelyn is telling everyone she wants to buy. The ultimate validation."
  — Becky Milligan [35:17]

• Lila describes the (tense) thrill and the Queen’s interest in horses—Evelyn’s supposed passion.

9. Exposure and Consequences

[35:27-38:45]

• Their notoriety brings scrutiny. The £175,000 check bounces, and suspicion grows among their elite victims.

  "By this time now, we are actually thinking this is the biggest scam of all time."
  — Frances, member of horsey elite [37:34]

• Sopwell House Hotel finally retaliates—setting off the fire alarm as a legal pretense to confront them.

  "He sets off the fire alarm. And that, thanks to a quirk of English law, is going to change everything. And I mean everything."
  — Becky Milligan [38:45]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Deceiving the Rich:

"They were all so greedy, they couldn't wait to get their money in."
— Evelyn [10:38]

On Gender Stereotypes:

"Women are second class citizens... not supposed to make money. They're not smart enough for that."
— Evelyn [14:00]

On Early Criminality:

"Evelyn continued to do this and continued to have a checkbook and used to do naughty things with it. She was terrible."
— Lila [21:10]

On Seeking Approval:

"For Evelyn, it will mean she's finally left that second rate childhood among all those small time crooks behind. It will mean she's made it, really made it. She's hit the big time."
— Becky Milligan [32:40]

The Meeting with the Queen:

"She was just standing there with handbag in hand... I sort of curtsied... I was polite."
— Lila [34:08]

Victims Waking Up:

"My husband turned around and said, we don't believe a word you're saying. It's all a load of nonsense. We either get that money or we're going to expose you for what you are."
— Frances [37:50]

On Risk and Denial:

"You talked too much. Just couldn't keep her mouth shut... Just, you know, we're just two ordinary little lesbians."
— Lila [28:05]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:06-02:32: Evelyn’s formative encounter with Royalty in 1954
• 04:20-06:42: Becky’s first impressions of Lila
• 08:20-11:19: Evelyn’s cassette tape admissions: The investment con, manipulation of victims
• 15:08-19:17: The Barclay Hotel scam and growing infamy
• 20:09-22:25: Evelyn’s early swindling at the milk bar
• 23:07-29:45: Deeper infiltration into the horsey set, raising money and seeking legitimacy
• 29:58-35:27: Meeting the Queen at the Royal Windsor Horse Show
• 35:27-38:45: Bounce of the £175,000 check, social fallout, and hotel manager’s retaliation

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Tone & Language

The episode is rich in narrative detail, alternating between Becky's investigative, often slyly humorous perspective and Lila’s disarming, performative charm. Evelyn (via tapes) comes across as both calculating and oddly self-justifying, relishing the artifice with a dash of childlike bravado.

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Summary

"The Golden Ticket" masterfully tells the story of two women who conned the British elite while seeking love, status, and a place among the royal set—an audacious pursuit that ultimately courts disaster. Through revealing interviews and exclusive archival tapes, the episode lays bare the psychological intricacies of fraud, the seductions of class aspiration, and the limits of denial and audacity.

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Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

This is exactly right.

[Becky Milligan]

A quick WARNING this story contains adult themes and strong language. I want to tell you a story about Evelyn. She'd come from nowhere. She grew up poor in a tough, grim, working class suburb of Melbourne, surrounded by low life, small time crooks. Kids there had very few prospects. But then, one day, for a brief, very special moment in that harsh, colorless

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

world, Victoria gives Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh one of the mightiest receptions of the Royal tour.

[Becky Milligan]

A burst of real excitement, real glamour. It's February 1954. Evelyn's 11 years old. She's standing in a crowd of a million people in the centre of Melbourne. The next day's newspapers will call it the greatest day in the city's history.

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

Many of the people who crowd the 10 mile route spent the night on

[Becky Milligan]

the pavements to make sure little Evelyn's been standing for hours in the scorching heat, waiting with her mum.

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

Now, in truly royal weather, they drive to the Town hall to receive Victoria's official greeting.

[Becky Milligan]

Then the motorcade approaches and it happens.

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

Confetti flutters down upon the royal visitors, adding further gaiety to the colorful scene.

[Becky Milligan]

In an open top car, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth comes into sight. The crowd goes crazy. The Queen is young, just 28, and she's radiant.

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

The Queen, who wears a tailored silk beige coat with a black hat and

[Becky Milligan]

black accessories, in the car with her, her incredibly handsome husband, Prince Philip. Time slows down and Evelyn takes it in.

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

A little girl presents a bouquet of wild orchids and roses to the Queen before Her Majesty leaves the Town hall to continue her triumphant drive.

[Becky Milligan]

Within seconds, the Queen is out of sight. The crowd starts to drift away. Life goes back to normal.

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

Her Majesty said how greatly touched she and her husband had been by the demonstration of loyalty and goodwill.

[Becky Milligan]

But that image, that feeling, will stay with Evelyn forever. And she sees that glamour, that lavish lifestyle and she thinks, I want a piece of that. Back then, she wouldn't have ever dared to imagine that she could actually meet the Queen. I mean, the Queen was a global superstar. But 43 years later, in May 1997, she has a small chance, a possibility. The only thing is, meeting the Queen would come with a risk. A huge risk. One which could jeopardize everything. From usg audio, blanchard house and exactly right media this is royal swindle. I'm becky milligan. Episode 2 the Golden Ticket Evil they were bad.

[Lila]

Bad people.

[Becky Milligan]

And as bad as evil. Yes, definitely. Wow. That's how Marjorie, one of Evelyn's marks, describes Evelyn and Lila and those are the words which keep going round and round in my head as I arrive at Lila's apartment block in Melbourne for the very first time. I've read lots about swindlers and con artists, but it's very rare to actually meet one in person. If they're not in prison or dead, I'm the last person they want to talk to. A journalist. And I've got so many questions to ask Lila. The only thing is, am I actually going to get any straight answers? And I mean evil. That's a pretty strong word, and it's making me nervous.

[Lila]

Hello, darling. Hello.

[Becky Milligan]

Lila is at the end of the corridor with her dogs. She's in her late 70s now, and smaller than I expected. If you saw her out and about, you just think she's a sweet old lady who's led a blameless life. You'd never in a million years guess who she really is. Gone is the vivid red hair. It's now silver. Her eyes are bright. Her smile seems genuine, but there's a hint of the past. Her nails are painted.

[Lila]

I would call it crimson, wouldn't you?

[Becky Milligan]

Blood red.

[Lila]

Blood red.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yes.

[Lila]

I guess so.

[Becky Milligan]

Yeah. She comes across as perfectly charming, and she welcomes me into her small, extremely modest apartment. Lila sits in a large black leather recliner chair. There's another matching chair next to it. Empty. The apartment is crammed full of stuff. And if Lila is evil, she certainly hides it well. Her chihuahua, Bambi, on the other hand.

[Lila]

Bambi?

[Becky Milligan]

Bambi hides nothing. My God, I feel like she might jump at me in a minute and grab me by the throat.

[Lila]

But, yes, she will grab you by the throat and eat your face.

[Becky Milligan]

Oh, good. Lila is a performer and she can tell a great story. Her claim? She knew nothing about any swindle.

[Lila]

All I know is I used to tag along. I watched Little Miss Tag Along.

[Becky Milligan]

As she tells it, the only role she played in the whole thing was spending the money. Lila didn't get involved in anything illicit, so she says. As far as she was concerned, it was all above board.

[Lila]

Well, it was called investments to me. I didn't say swindling, and I didn't even think swindling. And so, no, it wasn't swindling. It was investing.

[Becky Milligan]

That's Lila's story, and she's sticking to it. Which presents me with a problem. How on earth do I find out what was really going on? Ask Evelyn, you say. Well, I would do that, except that other recliner chair, that was Evelyn's. She died six years ago, but in actual Fact, we can hear from Evelyn thanks to a discovery at Lila's apartment. As Bambi continues trying to bite my face off.

[Lila]

There are still stacks of boxes I've

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

got to go through.

[Becky Milligan]

Okay, there's a box down here. We discover a bunch of old cassette tapes. Cassettes that Evelyn recorded with material for an autobiography. We press play on the tape machine

[Evelyn]

and I'm going to get my ass into gear and see if I can finish this book. I'm not sure where I got up to.

[Becky Milligan]

The book never happened. But guess what? These cassettes, they're very revealing. She talks all about her so called business.

[Evelyn]

So I had decided to take investments off people in London with money, businessmen with lots of money. Men that would probably not even chase me for it. I assumed that if I took money off people that had plenty, then I wouldn't have a problem because I thought they can well afford it.

[Becky Milligan]

Now, as we understand it, Evelyn would tell people that she had another big deal coming up with a minimum investment of 30 million. But this time, for one time only, she was happy to set up a syndicate, giving smaller investors a chance. On the cassette, Evelyn explains the nuts and bolts. First of all, she asks the investors to give her $150,000. She explains that the money will pay for the insurance on corporate bonds.

[Evelyn]

The bank was to lend $8.5 billion against the 10 million bonds. And that $8.5 billion was to be traded in the international banking trade.

[Becky Milligan]

Now, listening to this, something strikes me for a moment. Evelyn sounds like she truly believes all this stuff. She's in pitch mode. That's her default. And she's very convincing.

[Evelyn]

The returns on this money were incredible. Something like 25% a month.

[Becky Milligan]

25% a month.

[Evelyn]

They were going to be making something like 2 to 3 million a month. They were going to be making now over a 12 month period. That was a lot of money.

[Becky Milligan]

Again, listen to that, she says they were going to be making.

[Evelyn]

And this was the deal.

[Becky Milligan]

This was the deal, she says. And it seems the promise of those 25% returns was just utterly intoxicating.

[Evelyn]

Well, I tell you, they couldn't wait to give me their money. They were almost stuffing it in my pockets when I was talking to them. And all of a sudden I had this huge long queue of people that wanted to invest. They were all so greedy, they couldn't wait to get their money in.

[Becky Milligan]

So it all sounds completely real, as if those returns were a genuine prospect, totally legit. But then the confession. Evelyn talks about the businessman she's luring in and in this section she makes it very clear the real nature of her enterprise.

[Evelyn]

They're going to laugh about getting jibbed by a woman. And they're not going to want to go to the police and say, hey, listen, I've been robbed by a woman.

[Becky Milligan]

There you have it. Duped, she says. Robbed. So all that stuff about 25% returns, it's rubbish. Nonsense. There was no deal. There were no banks, there were no bonds. There were no investments. And there would be no returns. Evelyn was taking people's money. And spending was theft, fraud, pure and simple. And as we've heard, Lila says she knew absolutely nothing whatsoever about it. But I'll be honest with you. I'm really not convinced. Lila and Evelyn were very, very close. Is it really likely that Evelyn never told Lila what she was up to? Or did Evelyn just not tell Lila to protect her, Give her deniability? That second option is possible. They were very, very much in love, as we know. Anyway, you'll make your own mind up as our story unfolds. And there's something else. When Evelyn speaks, she talks as if there's an element of Robin Hood about this whole thing. And I suppose there is if Robin Hood had stolen from the rich and then well spent the money on Rolls Royces. But basically, Lila thinks the victims of Evelyn's scam. Rich, supposedly smart businessman for whom a few hundred grand was just a drop in the ocean. Well, she thinks they were fair game.

[Lila]

Surely they would have thought about it and said, no, no, it can't possibly be right. How do you do it? How do you do? What do you do? Why do you want to do it? I just can't understand that grown men with big businesses would talk to a lady like her and trust her enough to give her these enormous amounts of money. I think a lot of these people were extremely greedy.

[Becky Milligan]

Greedy? Well, that's Lila's view. But there was also a vulnerability that Evelyn exploited. These well to do Englishmen made particular assumptions about women.

[Evelyn]

Because the thing I did discover here in England was that women are second class citizens. They're not supposed to have a brain. They're not supposed to make money. They're not smart enough for that.

[Becky Milligan]

And that by Evelyn's telling, is their secret weapon. That if people underestimate you as a woman, you can get away with a lot. You might even say you can get away with daylight robbery.

[Narrator/Announcer]

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[Becky Milligan]

November 1996. It's a cold and foggy morning in London. Remember? While Lila and Evelyn are closing the deal on their stately home, they're staying at the exclusive Barclay Hotel. They've been here for two months now.

[Lila]

We were having breakfast in the room.

[Becky Milligan]

Toast, cereal, coffee, eggs and bacon. And one thing you don't normally have in an English breakfast, pink donuts. Service, as usual, is impeccable.

[Lila]

And we were halfway through

[Becky Milligan]

when they have surprise guests.

[Lila]

The manager came up with a few

[Becky Milligan]

other guys, an unexpected pleasure or not,

[Lila]

and they said, Ms. Burton, you'll have to leave.

[Becky Milligan]

Evelyn and Lila's time at the Barclay is over and so is the impeccable service.

[Lila]

They were particularly rude. They said some horrible things to us like silly Australian riffraff and the riffraff.

[Becky Milligan]

They're out. The hotel manager has a carefully choreographed exit plan for our couple.

[Lila]

We will put you into the cab and we will say goodbye, Ms. Burton. Goodbye, Ms. Andres. It's been lovely having you here. And you will go. They didn't let us have our luggage, so we didn't have any clothes at all. But what we were wearing. They wouldn't even let me take my real jewelry or my mother's wedding ring. And that's all I had of my mother.

[Becky Milligan]

They're escorted out through the sumptuous reception.

[Lila]

When as we were going out through the hotel, we were saying bye bye to all the people we knew. Bye bye. Bye bye.

[Becky Milligan]

And with no ceremony, our duo are pushed straight into the back of a London taxi. Lila turns to Evelyn.

[Lila]

Why are we leaving? What's a story?

[Becky Milligan]

But Lila suspects everyone hasn't been paying the bill because it's happened before, but never on this scale. They've run up a bill of over a hundred thousand US dollars in today's money and not a penny of that has been paid. Now, when I first heard this story, I thought, really, I mean, how could Evelyn get away with it? But I started to ask around and it seems that back then, hotel guests didn't always have to present a credit card at check in. And Evelyn paid at least a chunk of the cash up front, which seems to have reassured the Barclay. Then she kept telling them that she was Waiting for some money to be wired over from the us and they trusted her. But as the weeks went by and the bill got bigger and the money never materialized, Evelyn just kept spinning the same old story until finally the hotel realized something. They'd been had. Why they didn't call the cops is anyone's guess. Maybe they thought it would just be too embarrassing. We did ask them for their side of the story. They told us they had no record of the incident and didn't wish to comment. Anyway, if you believe Lila, the long and short of it is our duo got away with it. So they head off to another smart hotel and guess what they plan to do. But there's a hitch. According to Lila, it turns out that the Barclay have taken some action.

[Lila]

They just rang everybody up and said, watch out, because there's these two Australian con women who are going to, you know, try and get in there and not pay.

[Becky Milligan]

So words getting around. Lila and Evelyn are being noticed, attracting unwelcome attention. They're on a watch list, but London has a lot of hotels, so if they're turned away from one, they simply try another, rinse and repeat until they get lucky. When Evelyn decides what she wants, she's a master at working out how to get it without paying for it. She's been refining her technique for years. And she started young.

[Lila]

I think she got on very, very early.

[Becky Milligan]

And Lila has this one story about Evelyn, but which is really telling. When Evelyn was a kid in Melbourne, there was a milk bar at the corner of her street, like a cafe, selling all kinds of tempting treats. And even at that tender age, Evelyn pretty quickly works out how to game the system.

[Lila]

She would take her checkbook to the milk bar and she would buy everybody a drink, or lollies, whatever, and she would use her checkbook and she would write out the amount of money in the checkbook, sign her little name and give the cheque to the owner.

[Becky Milligan]

And guess what happens next?

[Lila]

Two weeks later, he'd ring up and say, evelyn's check balanced.

[Becky Milligan]

Oh, so her mum has to go with her cheque book and pay for everything. And once Evelyn's got a taste of

[Lila]

it, Evelyn continued to do this and continued to have a checkbook and used to do naughty things with it. She was terrible.

[Becky Milligan]

Evelyn realizes you can have your cake and eat it. So she learned the art of the swindle.

[Lila]

Absolutely.

[Becky Milligan]

Very young.

[Lila]

Oh, absolutely.

[Becky Milligan]

But there's something else. Note that she's buying drinks and lollies for everyone, not just herself. Is she already learning about the art of manipulation too. That flashing the cash will win you friends and influence.

[Lila]

All the people around her all loved her. She always had a following. Always. Always.

[Becky Milligan]

For Lila, the milk bar story shows that to Evelyn, money, popularity and success were all interlinked.

[Lila]

She was learning that if you had money, you were not a failure. And if you could talk money. And that was very important for her to be able to talk it. So she used to, I think at that age, a very young age, she started talking money with people.

[Becky Milligan]

Over the years, Evelyn continues honing her swindling skills and takes pride in the art of the con. And while she knows full well it's all far from above board, she frames it all rather differently. What would she call it? Was it a swindler con or what was her wording?

[Lila]

Oh no, she wasn't a con. Goodness no. She was a businesswoman, right? No matter what she did, no matter how she did it, she was always a businesswoman. So that was Evelyn.

[Becky Milligan]

So back to 1996. And now of course it's not fizzy drinks and lollies. It's expensive wine and luxury hotel suites Evelyn's not paying for. And it turns out it's not just hotels she owes money to. Other creditors are getting restless too. It's December mid morning. A smart suited young man walks into the reception of Lila and Evelyn's latest hotel. The hotel of course have no idea who their guests really are. Smiling, the young man has a word with the receptionist.

[Debt Collector]

I was carrying flowers and I was directed to their room.

[Becky Milligan]

He gets in the lift and presses the button for Evelyn and Lila's floor. Who is he? Well he certainly isn't a friend. The flowers are cover. He's bearing gifts. But he's bearing something else too. A final demand. He's a debt collector. Wilkins Hope has been instructed to call in a debt for an exclusive clinic on London's uber posh Harley Street.

[Debt Collector]

When I knocked on the door and I said I'm here from the such and such clinic.

[Becky Milligan]

Evelyn takes one look at the flowers

[Debt Collector]

and they slammed the door and called security.

[Becky Milligan]

What happens? Did security come and find you?

[Debt Collector]

Yes, and escorted me out.

[Becky Milligan]

Wilkins doesn't get his money. But before too long the hotel management realize that Evelyn and Lila have stopped paying them too. And when they do, Lila and Evelyn are out. They're on the move yet again. Now the purchase of Evelyn and Lila's stately home is still going through. So they settle on a new hotel 20 miles out of London. A beautiful country property. Sopwell house, manicured lawns, Sweeping drive and impeccable service. Perfect. Just what Evelyn and Lila are used to. They're booked into a suite, just like always. They pay a bit of cash up front and of course they're planning not to pay a single penny more. Same old, same old. Now what amazes me about this is how Evelyn and Lila think they can just keep on doing this indefinitely. And how they can do it without the constant fear of being found out. But maybe the fear of it, the risk of it, is the thrill of it. And part of me, a tiny part of me kind of thinks go for it. But this whole hotel shtick, in truth, it's becoming harder and harder to sustain. It was easy at first, a calculated risk. They were two unknown Aussies, after all. But as word gets around, they're starting to become known, they're being pursued. I mean, all it would need is for one hotel manager to really take exception. And who knows what might happen. And Lila senses that things were sort of getting hot. And her instincts are right. In time, they'll come to regret ever checking in to Sopwell House Hotel. But for now, Lila and Evelyn are flying high. It's May 1997. They found their wonderful country house. All 15 household staff are on standby to move in. The best in the business. The stud farm has its first Arab horse and a prize breed. And Evelyn is luring in investors from across Europe and America. So far she's raised well over a million US dollars in today's money. And that figure is rising. But she spots an opportunity to take things to the next level. To give her operation remarkable prestige. Just like the whole hotel ploy though, it comes with a high level of risk and it could expose the whole operation. Now Evelyn's blase approach worries Lila. Worries her a lot.

[Lila]

I always said that to Evelyn from the very first day I met her. You talked too much. Just couldn't keep her mouth shut.

[Becky Milligan]

She wishes Evelyn would keep a low profile.

[Lila]

And I'm saying you shouldn't be doing these things. This is so stupid. Just, you know, pull your head in, keep quiet. Just, you know, we're just two ordinary little lesbians.

[Becky Milligan]

But Evelyn, well, it's just one more risk. And that's what makes the whole game worthwhile. So this next move, it's a gamble, a big one. But she thinks, lets play. Welcome to the royal set.

[Lila]

Royal Windsor Horseshoe was one of the

[Becky Milligan]

biggest shows in the equestrian calendar. And no one who's anyone in the horsey set ever misses it. Thousands of people swarm into the grounds of Windsor Castle as well as thousands of horses. The press are out in force. Royal reporters, hello, magazine, the Daily Mail, Tatler. Because guess who always attends. Yes, Queen Elizabeth. And can you see where this is going? Evelyn spots an opportunity. An opportunity to meet the Queen. And that would kill two birds with one stone. First, it would give her whole operation a real air of legitimacy, a royal seal of approval. The investors would be queuing round the

[Narrator/Scene Describer]

block, confetti flutters down upon.

[Becky Milligan]

But secondly, much more than that. Her mind flashes back to that day in 1954, when she saw the Queen and Prince Philip on their royal tour. When she was just a girl, standing in a crowd of a million people. When she was a nobody from a nowhere suburb surrounded by petty crooks. I mean, if Evelyn could actually meet the Queen, speak to the Queen, wouldn't that really be something? But there's a problem. Getting proper facetime with the Queen, that's not easy. Of course, regular ticket holders can enjoy most of the things the Royal Windsor has to offer. The gorgeous horses, the people watching, the champagne, the food. To get access to the royal enclosure, that's something else entirely. That's by invitation only. By royal invitation. But Evelyn knows how things work.

[Evelyn]

We had discovered in this country that particularly with royalty, anything to do with royalty always costs you money. You sort of invited places and then they say, oh well, look, bring your cheque book, it's for charity. So we had become the new royal set. Trophies.

[Becky Milligan]

So that's what she does. She does what she did as a kid in that milk bar in Australia all those years ago, she writes a cheque. Evelyn announced that she would like to sponsor the whole show. That's Marjorie Ramsey from the horsey set. So Evelyn signs a cheque for £175,000. Over half a million US dollars in today's money. Jaws drop. Large sponsorships are not easy to come by. Evelyn is being very generous, but let's face it, this is risky, really risky, because it's inevitably going to throw the spotlight on them. Questions, background checks, you name it. If I were in their shoes, I think I'd rather stay in the shadows. But I can see how with Evelyn's background, the prospect is just too tantalising. Because for Evelyn, it will mean she's finally left that second rate childhood among all those small time crooks behind. It will mean she's made it, really made it. She's hit the big time. And guess what? She pulls it off. The check does the trick. Evelyn gets the call. Her half million secures a golden ticket. A Chance to meet Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. This is it. It's actually happening. Lila and Evelyn enter the royal enclosure. Drinks on trays are offered by smart waiters.

[Lila]

And I just worked the room. Hello, how are you? It's a lovely show.

[Becky Milligan]

Lila's not the only one working the room. Everyone in the royal enclosure is sizing everyone else up now. I sense that Lila knows all this attention could be dangerous. But she's here now. She needs to play the game.

[Lila]

Darling, how are you? What have you been doing? And who have you met lately?

[Becky Milligan]

The climax is imminent. Evelyn and Lila's turn to meet the Queen.

[Lila]

She was just standing there with handbag in hand.

[Becky Milligan]

The Queen opens the conversation as protocol demands.

[Lila]

She said hello. We said hello. I sort of curtsied. Don't know any of that sort of stuff, but I did curtsy. I was polite, I was courteous, I was kind.

[Becky Milligan]

And Lila goes along with it all. But the fact is, if anyone from the royal entourage has done digging on them, well, there's a lot of dirt to be found. The Queen launches into the chit chat.

[Lila]

She asked me, how did we get there? This morning, by car. Are you enjoying the show? Yes, please. Much. Asked me whether I liked horses. I said, I think you have to ask Evelyn that because she's a horsey lady.

[Becky Milligan]

So Evelyn talks to the Queen about horses. Then she talks about the huge property they're buying with that long drive and the stud farm and all those pretty cottages. And guess what? The Queen is very interested. She says, ah, I know that place.

[Lila]

My sister and I used to ride in carriage along that long carriageway. And so then we started talking about carriageways.

[Becky Milligan]

Evelyn can't quite believe it. The Queen knows the very house that Evelyn is telling everyone she wants to buy. The ultimate validation. But then that's it. It's over. The Queen and Prince Philip move on. Evelyn comes away starstruck. But now everyone knows Evelyn and Lila. They're well and truly in the spotlight. And when you're in the spotlight, you invite scrutiny. And for women in Lila and Evelyn's position, that's the last thing they need. Especially given what happens next. Because that check for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the prize money for the Royal Windsor Horse show, that check that had got them an audience with the most recognizable woman on earth. The woman who'd sat on the British throne for over four decades, who'd been served by every British Prime Minister since Churchill, and met 13 US presidents. That check. Well, it turns out that Lila and Evelyn don't have the funds to honour it. So that check bounces and their friends in the horsey set start to realize Evelyn and Lila aren't who they thought they were. It starts to dawn on them exactly what they've got themselves into and just how much they stand to lose. It's dawning on Frances. I remember my mother saying to me that the ramifications of this were huge. I was terrified. Absolutely terrified. It's dawning on Lucille and Larry.

[Frances]

By this time now, we are actually thinking this is the biggest scam of all time. And I think there are a couple of con artists.

[Becky Milligan]

And one by one, the horsey set all start to turn on Evelyn and Lila.

[Frances]

My husband turned around and said, we don't believe a word you're saying. It's all a load of nonsense. We either get that money or we're going to expose you for what you are.

[Becky Milligan]

What started as a yearning for the royal seal of approval has completely backfired. But their troubles don't end there. Remember Sopwell House? That's their latest hotel. And as usual, Lila and Evelyn haven't been paying their bills. Well, finally they've met their match. The hotel manager has decided enough is enough and he's going to call Evelyn and Lila's bluff. He's ditty determined to flush them out.

[Evelyn]

We're gonna get these buggers.

[Becky Milligan]

They're not gonna get away with this. So he does something rather surprising. He sets off the fire alarm. And that, thanks to a quirk of English law, is going to change everything. And I mean everything. You've been listening to. Royal Swindle A Blanchard House production for USG Audio in partnership with Exactly Right Media. Hosted by me, Becky Miller Milligan. It's written and produced by me, Becky Milligan and Seren Jones. Original music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nankmanel and Toby Matimal. Sound design and mix engineering is by Volkan Kiziltug, Toby Matimong and Daniel Lloyd Evans. Story development by Duncan Barber. The managing producer is Amica Shortino Nolan. Production support from Josh Lalonghi at USG Audio. The creative director at Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grizzell. Our executive producer from USG Audio is Josh Bloch.