Oh What A Time... - #32 Escapes (Part 2)

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

This is Part 2! For Part 1, check the feed from yesterday! This week we'll be rattling through some of history's most cunning plans because in this episode we're discussing some great ESCAPES! We've got the story of Alice Tankerville, the first woman to escape from the dreaded Tower of London. The incredible escape from Stalag Luft III later immortalised as 'The Great Escape'. Plus the only successful escape from the world's most escape-proof prison, Alcatraz. And our bonus this week for the OWAT: Full Timers is - the incredible story of the Chilean miners escape of 2010. As you'll hear, there's lots to discuss this week: have you ever gone lips to teat? Who was the first person to go lips to teat? What animals are an undiscovered lips to teat treat? To get in contact about that or anything else, you know what to do: [e-mail] If you want both parts in one lovely go in future, why not become an Oh What A Time: FULL TIMER? In exchange for your £4.99 to support the show, you'll get: - the bonus 4th part of every episode and ad-free listening - episodes a week ahead of everyone else - a bonus episode every month - And first dibs on any live show tickets Subscriptions are available via AnotherSlice, Apple and Spotify. For all the links head to: ohwhatatime.com You can follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepod And Instagram at @ohwhatatimepod Aaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice? Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk). And thank you for listening! We’ll see you next week! Chris, Elis and Tom x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Part one was released yesterday, but if you want them all in one big juicy lump, subscribe to OhWhatATime.com and become an Oh What A Time full-timer. Right, well, I'm going to take you to Poland now, to Western Poland, in fact. Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe and prisoner of war camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied Air Force personnel. Design features at Starlight Glove 3 included raised barricades, installation of seismographs around the camp to detect underground movements. So the camp's location on weak soil was thought to mitigate against the construction of tunnels by would-be escapees.

Oh, wow. So it was generally designed to be inescapable. Amazing. So there were lots of prisoner of war camps, but Stalag Luft III was regarded as inescapable. And yet, two of the most famous breakouts of the Second World War both took place at Stalag Luft III. So the Wooden Horse of October 1943 and The Great Escape of March 1944,

both of which were immortalised in Hollywood films. So The Wooden Horse came out in 1950. I think that might be a British film, actually. And then The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, very, very famous film, came out in 1963. And The Great Escape, it was one of those films that when I was a kid, it was often on like bank holiday Mondays and stuff. I've watched that several times.

Not for a very long time, but I still think I would know that film like the back of my hand if it was on the telly. But the story behind the breakouts, I mean, they are extraordinary. So the first breakout was conceived by a group of British officers, Lieutenant Michael Codner and Flight Lieutenants Eric William and Oliver Philpott. And they used the cover of a gymnasium vaulting horse and gymnastics practice. They were saying that they were doing gym practice because the landing of people at gym practice was confusing the seismographs. Oh, that's brilliant.

It's incredible, isn't it? That's so clever. So Star Trek VIII is designed to be this highly escape-resistant camp. And the thing with tunnelling, not only was it difficult because of the nature of the soil, the perimeter fence was a long way from the huts so you had to build much longer tunnels and the soil changed color markedly when it was dry which means which means that sort of disposing of freshly dug tunnel soil was very difficult and you've got the bloody seismographs so at this stage i've given. I'm completely out of ideas.

This is my lot. It is. I just couldn't believe it when I looked into the details of this. So there were the three of them, and they registered their escape scheme with an escape or with the escape committee. So Philpott was the escape coordinator for the hut to which the three of them lived. The scheme was approved. So they were using bowls as shovels.

I'm assuming, by the way, that the escape committee is on the Allied side. Yeah. As opposed to you have to go and speak to some Nazi general and go just to let you know. Do you mind if we give this a go? Yeah. So they dug for three months, Strider, whilst the other camping mates vaulted continuously over the wooden horse in order to mask the vibration from the tunnelling.

Oh, my God. So the sand was then carried back inside the horse and it was dried in the attic of the camp canteen before being distributed in the compound. It's sort of, it's, I just, it blows my mind, right? So the three men... So the soil they dug up, they were then concealing inside this gym hall. Yes, yeah.

And then they were drying the soil out. That is incredible. I haven't got the patience for that. But would you, this is the thing about these ingenious escape attempts. Like if you were forced into that situation where all you can think about is pretty much escape, would you conjure that from within yourself? Do you know what I mean? Like with all that time, what else can you be thinking about?

I personally don't have the initiative. I know I don't. I just know I don't. And that's being completely honest, right? So on the evening of the 29th of October, 1943, the three men made their escape. And what they were doing, they were using wooden boards to cover the entrance. And over the course of three months, that's how long it took, they constructed their escape route.

Now, as I said, 29th of October 1943, they put the plan into action. They got out through the tunnel into the Polish countryside. And their aim was to go to Sweden and then from there, passage by ship back to Britain. And they managed it right so they were the only prisoners to have successfully escaped from stalagmite three's eastern compound now this encouraged other escapes obviously so encouraged by the successful escape of codner williams and philpot the pows who were imprisoned in the north compound led by squadron leader Roger Bushell, they planned something that was even more audacious. And this is the subject of The

Great Escape, the Steve McQueen film. So they built three tunnels, nicknamed Tom, Dick and Harry. Brilliant. And you couldn't use the word tunnel. You could only refer to them as tomtick and harry and they took that incredibly seriously right now this is this is just mind-blowing the three tunnels were dug to a depth of nine meters now just think about how high that's higher than my house wow and they were more than a hundred meters in length and they used metal repurposed from tin cans as implements and wooden slats taken from prison beds to hold up the tunnel walls and the roof. So each bed had about 20 slats, but they realised they only needed about eight slats for the beds to still work as beds.

So that's what they were using, the slats, as as uh to as pit props i suppose is what you would use and they were probably speaks to sort of like so much to such a level of patience it's like well this is going to take a time that that choice to go down to that depth it just got this is this will take time but if we're going to do this probably rather than going okay we'll just dig it one meter down and give it a go yeah so they were pumping air into it because it was a half a metre square space, but they had to pump air into it. So they'd fashion these sort of jerry-rigged mechanisms using knapsacks and hockey sticks.

Now, the usual method of disposing of sand from all the digging was to scatter it discreetly on the surface. So small pouches made of towels along underpants were attached inside the prisoners' trousers. And then as they walked around, this is a bit in the film, the sand could be scattered. And that happens in Shawshank as well. That's clearly where the idea has come from.

So sometimes they'd dump sand into the small gardens they had that they were allowed to tend. So as one prisoner turned the soil, another would release the sand while both appeared to be in conversation. Brilliant. And they would wear these big coats to conceal the bulges from the sand. And they were referred to as penguins because of their supposed resemblance. And in sunny months, the sand could be carried outside and scattered in blankets used for

sunbathing. Oh, brilliant. So they reckon that more than 200 prisoners made an estimated 25,000 trips. Now, eventually, the prisoners felt they couldn't dump sand above ground anymore because the Germans became efficient at catching them doing it. So after Dick, as in the tunnel, Dick's planned exit point was covered by a new camp expansion, the decision was made to start filling it up. So then, as the tunnel's entrance was very well hidden,

Dick, or the Dick Tunnel, was also used as a storage room for items such as maps and postage stamps and forged travel permits and compasses and clothings. Got you. Some guards apparently cooperated by supplying railway timetables and maps and official papers that they could be forged. And some genuine civilian clothes were obtained by bribing German staff with cigarettes or coffee or chocolate.

No. These were used by escaping prisoners to travel from the camp more easily, especially by train. Now, eventually... The risk in that as well. The risk in going to a Nazi guard and saying... Because they could blow it. Yeah, exactly.

So much confidence in it all. You know, the film obviously is... There's lots of fictionalised bits in the film to make it palatable to us, a Hollywood audience. But I'm going to read the book on The Great Escape now, because the more I read about it, it's the audacity of it. I just find absolutely remarkable. The complexity of it. Yeah, the audacity and the complexity. So the prisoners ran out of places to hide sand and then snow cover made it impractical to scatter it undetected.

So, you know, it was an absolute... The stress involved. Yeah. So slowly but surely, over a period of several months, the tunnels took shape. But the more focused they were, the more liable the scheme was to detection. So in the end, it was a visit from the Gestapo,

who insisted that the guards find what they knew was there, prompted the inmates to make their escape in March 1944. Now, everything that could hamper the escape that night did happen. So the first escapees found that the tunnel had come up slightly short. Oh, no. A little short. That's the heartbreaking thing about the great escape, isn't it?

When they realise it's short. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in, it's, it's a really famous scene in the film where they're a few metres short of this very dense forest cover.

You know, if they'd gone another few metres, the forest would have, would have prevented them from, from being found probably. And so the, so the rate of the passage through the external hatch had to be slowed down.

It was 10 people an hour, but even though they planned one a minute. Wow. So obviously that's slowing things down. On the night of the 24th, 25th of March, 1944, parts of the tunnel collapsed and had to be repaired, which was slowing things down even further. Because it's similar work to being a coal miner, I suppose.

God. You know, if you have a pit collapse, it's really dangerous. So there was a power cut that added to the challenge. So of the 220 who were expected to escape, 76 got out. But what a number. Because at Eastern Compound, three men had got away. And that was at the sake of three months' work. Northern Compound northern company was nine months work but more than 25 times that number actually escaped now had it not been for the

accident on the 77th man in the tunnel emerging just as the guards were looking for entrance the great escape might have been even bigger so they discover the outside and then one guard charlie piltz took it upon himself he crawled through the tunnel in the opposite direction. So he crawled back through the tunnel and then he found himself trapped at the camp end. So he had to call for help and the prisoners opened the entrance, let him out and then that revealed the location.

Now obviously if you've seen the film you'll know this. Of the 76 escapees, 73 were eventually recaptured and 50 were executed on the personal orders of Hitler himself. Oh, wow. So those who survived were sent back to Stalag Luft 3, to Kolditz, to other places as well, where they were warned.

You know, there was no escape route. Euphemistically, they said the only escape route is up the chimney. So obviously the Nazis punished them extremely uh seriously for just for the audacity of trying to escape so the three successful breakouts during the great escape were two norwegians per bergsland and uh jens muller and a dutchman bram van der stock now the norwegians got up by sweden the dutchman was aided by the french resistance and all three of them were RAF pilots. Some of the German staff at the camp were also executed for having failed to prevent theft of materials.

Now this is crazy, right? An inventory of what had been used revealed as many as 4,000 bed boards, 3,500 towels and 1,700 blankets had been requisitioned, along with 1,200 knives, about 500 spoons, 600 forks and nearly 250 watering cans so it's this vast operation It's like Crossrail! Yeah, and it's like HS2 and it's been conducted right

under the noses of the Nazis of the camp guards Yeah Well that obviously reflects how much the guards were, you know, there must have been quite a few guards who were on the pay of the Allies here. If to get that amount of resources, surely they must have had, you know.

Well, I'm going to have to read the book now because I'd seen the film and I think, I probably haven't seen the film since I was a teenager. And I don't think I fully appreciated just how extraordinary a thing it was to attempt. Yeah. Because I just don't think I've got the bottle to try that kind of thing.

But then again, you don't know, do you? You don't know. But yeah, it really is mind-blowing. I didn't know about this story until I watched the film. But because it's called The Great Escape, I always imagined they all got away. So when I watched the film, and a lot of them get executed,

including Steve McQueen, you're just like, what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is heartbreaking. Also the fact it's happening in 1944 and the war's over a year later and you'd probably all get home in a year. And I probably saw that film for the first time when I was very, I was probably about 10, probably 1990 or something.

So the end of the war was like less than 50 years previously and it felt far more relevant and far more recent than it does now. Because obviously, when we were nine or ten, all of our grandparents had some sort of link to World War II. Which obviously, that generation has largely died out. Or they're certainly dying out. So, yeah, it was the kind of thing that would be on ITV on a Sunday. But yeah, it really is an amazing story. That's absolutely remarkable.

I wonder how much, with hope being such an important thing in life, and your ability to sustain yourself psychologically, whether actually there's a freedom in the idea of, are we trying how, you know, what that allows you. It just hammers home yet again how useless my skills are when it comes to anything practical. Because I'm imagining it now, we've gone to the escape committee and my mates who are practical have said,

we've got this idea to get out. It'll have to be about nine metres deep and 100 metres long, at which point I say, and I think it's going to be a 30-part podcast for BBC Sounds, and they say, let's get out of the room. This doesn't concern you. Sounds are in, okay? And if sounds don't want it, we'll take it to Audible, okay?

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and use them how you want, when you want. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Learn more at amex.ca slash yamxtermsapply. All right, so here comes part three, and it is on Alice Tankerville. And I heard this story, and the story of this escape absolutely blew my mind. This is a film script, what I'm about to talk you through. It begins in October 1531. London was due to receive a shipment of 366 gold crowns, a sum worth almost one million pounds in today's terms. The money had come from Cologne.

Crowns for the head or for like... Gold coins. They call them crowns, don't they? Coins. Oh, coins. Oh, okay, neither. Yeah, okay, fine. The money had come from Cologne, transported by ship and stored in a locked chest under a permanent guard. It arrives in London, they open the chest and it is empty.

Great twist. Yeah, exactly. This is the opening scene of the film. This is the opening scene. This is the opening gambit. Yeah. There's the opening scene. This is the opening gambit. Yeah. There's a two-year investigation, and at the end of it,

no one really knows what happened to the one million pounds of gold crowns. There is lots of circumstantial evidence knocking about, and the fingers get pointed at a perpetrator who was a small-time thief, a petty pirate, and a cologne gunpowder maker called John Wolfe. Now there's lots of different versions of this story. The version that I heard was that Wolfe was arrested for this crime, but they couldn't prove any of it, so he was released and went back to Ireland. But then our historian Daryl seems to

think there was a different way this went and this also has a bit more historical accuracy I would say this other version so Wolfe this guy John Wolfe great name he's associated with those in Ireland flirting with open rebellion against the Tudor crown having worked as an arm specialist for the Earl of Kildare, but he had other things in his mind by the time it comes to 1533. So that summer, this is what we know of John Wolfe in terms of his criminal enterprises. He began to conspire with his partner, Alice Tankerville, together with unnamed accomplices, to rob and murder two Italian merchants, Jerome de Georges and Charles de Bench, two Italian merchants, Jerome de Georges and Charles de Bench, on a boat on the Thames.

This is the plan, right? Alice is going to act as a kind of sexual bait. She was meant to be very, very attractive. She lured these Italian merchants onto her boat and then tell them to go to a specific piece for a bit of action, perhaps. And at this point, John Wolfe jumps out with his compatriots and kills them both, stabs them. One of the Italians was stabbed. The other one has their neck broken. They dump their bodies in the river. They rob them. Then they go to the Italians' lodgings and rob everything there

before they make their way back to Westminster to safety. Now, they went to Westminster. This thing I didn't know until Daryl, our historian, pointed this out to me. So they went to Westminster. This thing I didn't know until Daryl the historian pointed this out to me. So they went to Westminster to escape punishment because it was possible to claim sanctuary within a particular precinct of Westminster. Kind of how like, kind of like how you hear

that people would sometimes claim refuge in churches. Like international waters or something. Yeah. Well back in the day there used to be like a lot of people hiding out in churches, wasn't there? Because you couldn't get arrested in a church and things like that. Well, back in the day, there used to be a lot of people hiding out in churches, wasn't there? Because you couldn't get arrested in a church and things like that. Well, apparently back... So whatever you've done, you could run to this place of sanctuary and you couldn't be arrested? You could claim sanctuary in a particular precinct of Westminster.

And John had done this previously when he was a debtor. And this... Imagine very briefly, Chris, that still exists today. What a dangerous loophole that would be to have in the legal system today. Also, can you imagine how terrifying Westminster would be? I think you've got to walk through it. No, I think

I'll go round, actually. Awful. Basically, anywhere that that place of sanctuary links up to on the tube line. Yeah. You're avoiding anywhere where people can get into it quickly. I know this isn't the same,

but when Julian Assange claimed sanctuary in the Ecuadorian embassy, there is modern versions of this. But again, it's like, what kind of life is that? If you could only live in Westminster, you could commit whatever crime you wanted, but you are only allowed to stay in Westminster. You could eat at Pret. Visit the RB if you wanted something to do.

Terrific views of Big Ben. That's true. Sounds quite good, actually. So John had previously claimed sanctuary before when he was a debtor, and now this is why perhaps he had this idea of, well, I can commit a terrible crime and hide out in Westminster. Now he was seeking sanctuary for a felony. Alice, it seemed, was happy to live with John in this sanctuary precinct.

But this murder, robbery, caused such an international incident. The Italian community in London were outraged. And Wolf and his diabolical wife, as she was called, the king ordered that his minister, Thomas Cromwell, he gets involved and says, you've got to capture and execute these people. So there was a parliamentary measure, and John and Alice were stripped of their rights,

and they were arrested in the sanctuary district. And then they were stuck in the tower. And now it really begins to get interesting. Ah, okay. then they were stuck in the tower. And now it really begins to get interesting. Ah, okay. So they're stuck in the tower. They've got no hope really of escape. The only way they're escaping is in death, right? Alice is imprisoned in Cold Harbour,

where she found herself in a small cell. And when you read the stories about her stay, her incarceration in the Tower of London, it's only got the tiniest sliver of light she is in darkness most of the time but she does have some interactions with the guards and one of the guards is a guy called john board remember the name he's a guard and remember that alice tankerville is meant to be quite attractive. He becomes enamoured with his prisoner, much in the same way Italians had been.

And very soon, Alice is... I have to ask, how attractive is she? I've never met anyone this attractive in my life. Of course, Alice eventually convinces him to help her to escape. Right. Imagine that. This is the, and I'm sure you can tell where this story is going, but the risks involved at a time like this, it just blows my mind.

Well, Al, very briefly to go back to Alcatraz, we talk about how you'd break out of there. Maybe that would be the answer for you. Maybe rather than trying to fashion a boat. I'd do my eyelashes. Exactly, yeah. Doing some sit-ups. God, he's handsome.

And being coquettish around one of the guards. Could you pull that off? Maybe that's your answer. You've got a good jawline. You're a handsome man. Yeah. Can you imagine the levels of charm necessary like this woman alice must have been incredible incredible i know what i'm doing with my one one day time machine now yeah i'm going back to meet alice this i've

got to see i actually did google her image millennium's most attractive woman after this after this story that i read i had to Google her because I was like, what does she look like? But the palette, I've seen some sketches of her, but it's not particularly flattering. You've got no idea. But she was apparently a great beauty. So John Borde helps Alice escape.

He buys her a rope, which she then used. He gets duplicate keys made. He bought her a rope, which she then used. He gets duplicate keys made. He bought her a set of men's clothes as a disguise. He is deeply in love. Yeah. How was she doing this? How have I never done this? At 10pm on the...

I've never got the free coffee that baristas in Pret are allowed to give to people that they fancy. Yeah, me neither. Me neither. Like you read about it in the paper. That's never happened to me. Alice Tankerville would have been drinking, she would have been drinking 20 to 30 free coffees a day, I reckon. Yeah.

I once got 50% off an almond croissant, but it was very close to the end of the day and they hadn't shipped it. But I don't know if that's to do with the fact that I was i was fancy or maybe just simply is is i you eat it always going in the bin is that the same as the kind of sort of impact alice tankerville would have on people so so what happened 10 p.m the 23rd of march 1534 board helps tankervville make her way out of the prison.

As the night watch is going around the top of the tower, she is darting in the dark to make her way out. She goes over to the roof of St Thomas' Tower. Baud casts the ropes over the wall and the pair shimmy down to a wharf near Traitor's Gate. I've read some accounts that they get in a little boat, they go up the river and they get on the ground again. The plan is they're going to a wharf near Traitor's Gate. I've read some accounts that they get in a little boat, they go up the river, and they get on the ground again. The plan is they're going to a friend's house

where John Borda's got a couple of horses waiting. They're going to escape into the countryside and live a whole new life. Alice will be his wife. They'll live in obscurity. Happy days. Well, they will live in obscurity. He's living with the planet's most beautiful woman.

I, to be honest, I worry for this guy. It's like saying, do you know what? I'm going to escape with Taylor Swift and live in obscurity, and it'll be absolutely fine. Now, this is... So they go down the river. One account I read is that they go down the river a little bit, and there's a path up over Tower Hill,

which is the way they're heading, right right there's one main kind of little path and i'm sure we've all been for like had a drink around tower hill this is always going to be on my mind now so that one little path up tower hill the pair of them they get off their boat they start walking up it and as they're walking along imagine this luck the other guards from the tower are walking back down the path at that specific moment. No. Obviously, John Board knows them. And what he does, apparently...

They all immediately fall in love with her. She's dressed as a man. She's wearing a man's disguise. But he grabs her and kisses her. Okay. Like they're two drunk lovers just in a dark alleyway. Man, she's wearing like a man's disguise, but he grabs her and kisses her. Okay. Like they're two drunk lovers just in a dark alleyway. But the guards recognise John Borde, they pull them apart,

and then of course they recognise Alice Tancarville because she's been a prisoner. Fucking hell. And they're busted. Because she's the world's most attractive prisoner. Yeah. I know. That sounds like a Louis Theroux programme I'd watch.

The thing... Absolutely. attractive prisoner yeah i know that sounds like a louis through program i'd want the thing absolutely the thing that's been bothering me why go up the main drag like yeah don't go up the main path this is the most this is the weakest point of the whole plan don't be walking up that bit but also the how unlucky that the other guards were walking down the path at that moment unless Chris as you say she's so attractive maybe he wanted to show off that he was with her a bit

so he's actually actively going down the most populated parts of London we do need to go down Oxford Street also we need to go past my ex's house as well do you mind if we just walk past? Sorry, there's a few people I was at school with

lived down there. I really would love to walk that way. A few school bullies, I'd really love them to see this. Just know that I had the last laugh. You don't need the disguise. We're fine. Get rid of the disguise now. It's fine. Hold my hand. Get rid of the disguise now. Just, you know, it's fine.

Hold my hand. They were so close to freedom. But the guards recognise them. Right, you're both going back to the tower. And John Board must have known straight away, the guard, in that moment, what's going to follow is going to be absolutely horrific. I know. The governor, Edmund Walshingham,

apparently flies into a rage once he learns about the escape attempt partly they think to cover his own back and straight away what he does is like right i'm going to dish out the worst possible punishment to john board to just prove that this was nothing you know i know nothing about this so he puts them in the worst cell in the tower of london which is called Little Ease. Together? No, no, no. That's it. I was going to say, John Borden would be delighted, wouldn't he?

All night together. You need to be in a small cell with the world's... In this four-poster bed. All these lit candles. So Little Ease. Yeah, so obviously they're separated, just to be clear. And John Borden is thrown in this cell called Little Ease, and it's because it's a small, tiny cell. so so little e yeah so obviously they're separated just to be clear and john board is thrown in this cell called little ease and it's because you it's small tiny cell that you can't

stand up or lie down in so you're kind of stooped and you're increasing pain you can't lie down you can't stand up then after that this is just so bad john board gets put on the rack. He's stretched out. I mean, that's awful until your sinews are popping, your joints, you can well imagine. And then he is executed by hanging in chains outside the Tower of London and his death is recorded

as death by exposure. So he's just tied up in chains, slung over the wall. See you later. Good grief. And chains, slung over the wall. See you later. Good grief. And that's after being on the rack. Can you imagine? In his confession, John Boar said,

knowing for what heinous offence she, Alice, was prisoner and what dangers were imminent upon the same, I answer that the very love and affection I bear to the woman moved and constrained me to do it and nothing else. He just loved her. Wow. What happened to her? Right.

Can you believe it? It was worse. The judge fell in love with her. She's free. He had six kids. Lovely life, actually. Really nice. They moved to Surrey.

It was really nice. They got married. They got married. She moved to Surrey. It was really nice. They got up and down. They got up and down. She worked as a model. Then ended up going into TV presenting. What happened? Yeah, I'm doing what happened. So, Alice is executed on the 1st of April, 1534.

And it is unbelievably worse than John Borde. I don't think I've heard of this kind of execution. Also, I don't know about being executed on April Fool's Day as well I don't know if friends or family would believe it I mean this is crazy until 1201 this is crazy what I'm about to tell you

so do you remember John Wolfe at the very start, her first love who was implicated in this £1 million um so what's happened is that they're chained up on a tree overhanging the thames at low tide and then the waters slowly rise over the course of many hours and they both die it's a pirate's death. But what's interesting is it's a spectacle for the crowd. One of Cromwell's heavies, a guy called Thomas Hennage, rented a boat for the day so he could get a really good view.

And there's also contemporary images of the execution of Alice Tancarville, and there are flotillas of little boats, water taxis, vehicles, all present. People came out to watch this horrific scene, hanging from a tree at low tide, and then the pair of them slowly drowned in front of a crowd, some of whom had hired boats to go to see it. It never fails to amaze me, the cruelty of people, of humans, and what we're, as a race, what we're capable of.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. When you read about, I mean, it happens now, but when you read about things happening in wars and all sorts of stuff, it never fails to shock me. And the sort of sadistic pleasure of that yeah yeah the voyeurism the people what yeah absolutely it's so crazy the idea that that would be sanctioned by the state yeah but don't forget she murdered a couple of italian merchants she also tried to escape from the town.

She had a good case for the worst punishment of the time. Yeah. Right. Also, people are always jealous of handsome men and pretty women. Last thing I'll leave you with on this, what happened to the gold crowns? I don't know. Do they know? That's interesting.

I don't know what happened nobody knows even to this day they've never been recovered and it was worth about a million quid about a million pounds there you go

good grief that is fascinating and also the worst thing I've ever heard yeah so there we go great escapes

a fascinating it's like a gruesome subject but we've all learnt a lot can I just say something just before like all these

great escapes there's not many successful we call it the great escapes but everyone has ended up dead. Yes. Or, like, dead or unproven. Or there's a lot of situations where people have got out of the thing they were initially trapped in

and then later... And then it's got worse, yeah. The moral of the story is if you're in prison, just get on with it. Just do your bird. If you're listening to this in prison, get your head down, do your time. If you're listening in prison, just get your head down. Just do your bird. If you're listening to this in prison, get your head down, do your time. If you're listening in prison, just get your head down. Work in the kitchen.

Apparently that passes the time. If you would like to hear more on Great Escapes, you can become an All Water Time full-timer. Subscribe for just £4.99 a month and then you'll hear the extra bonus part. And there's a bonus part in every episode and also

well, I mean, there's plenty of bonus add-ons if you become a subscriber so I heartily recommend that but if you're not an Oh What A Timeful timer then I'm afraid we need to bid you farewell thank you very much for downloading and goodbye bye, thank you so much guys bye bye Thank you.