Over a single week in February 1942, a sadistic killer murdered four women and attacked two more in London’s bomb-ravaged nightlife district, the West End. Today, the Blackout Ripper’s victims have largely been forgotten - so, in the latest season of Bad Women, historian Hallie Rubenhold and journalist Alice Fiennes reconstruct their lives. Using new research from police files, court transcripts and exhaustive genealogical studies, Hallie and Alice take an in-depth look at who these women were and how they ended up crossing paths with a depraved murderer.

But Bad Women uncovers the stories of other victims too, examining why the years of the Second World War were so perilous for so many women. The preview you’re about to hear tells the story of Rachel Dobkin - who disappeared after meeting up with her estranged husband. Police thought it preposterous that Harry Dobkin would have endured 20 years of arguments and financial disputes only to choose to kill Rachel now. And then a body was found in a bombed-out building…  

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