This week on Dressed for the Grave, we are buttoning ourselves into the absurd and occasionally fatal world of men's neckwear. The "father killer" collar, or Vatermörder, was a high, stiff, starched detachable collar worn by respectable nineteenth- and early twentieth-century men who apparently looked at breathing and thought, "How necessary is this, really?"

We trace the collar from laundry-saving invention in Troy, New York, to class symbol, masculine posture prison, newspaper joke, and possible cause of death in cases like C. O. Slater and Harry D. Wingert. We also wander into Francis Dukinfield Astley's suspicious 1825 death, celluloid collars, racist laundry advertising, and military neck stocks, because men's fashion was not safer than women's fashion. It was just louder about being practical while quietly trying to throttle someone in a parlor.

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And Remember: Dress to impress yourself, not the coroner.

• Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Robert Friedel, "A White Collar With a Message."
  https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/white-collar-message
• Textile Research Centre Leiden, Joshua Verkerk, "How the Detachable Collar Came and Went."
  https://www.trc-leiden.nl/trc/index.php/en/blog/1444-how-the-detachable-collar-came-and-went
• Georgia Historic Newspapers, The Atlanta Georgian, "Choked to Death By High Collar," 21 July 1913.
  https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053729/1913-07-21/ed-6/seq-1/ocr/
• Georgia Historic Newspapers, The News and Farmer, "A Fatal High Collar," 24 September 1903.
  https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn86053065/1903-09-24/ed-1/seq-1/ocr/
• 100 Halls Around Manchester, "Francis Dukinfield Palmer Astley."
  https://100hallsaroundmanchester.wordpress.com/tag/francis-dukinfield-palmer-astley/
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Catherine McLean and Charlotte Eng, "How the Hatter Went Mad."
  https://unframed.lacma.org/2011/03/07/how-the-hatter-went-mad

Before Amsterdam's Red Light District became famous for glowing windows, it was a busy medieval neighborhood packed with sailors, merchants, churches, and taverns. In this Tangisode, Noelle walks us through the over 700 year history of the Red Light District.

⚓️ Listen now, follow the show, and come take a walk through old Amsterdam before the lights turned red. 🔴✨

In this episode, Noelle covers the lives and murders of Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. Then we step back and look at what happened around the case: the crowds, the newspapers, the clothing, the panic, and the birth of murder tourism before anyone had the decency to call it tacky.

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Selected sources and further reading:

Begg, P. (2004). Historical study of the Whitechapel murders and investigation.

Connolly, S. (2006). "The Murder of Polly Nichols." Oxford University Press Blog.

https://blog.oup.com/2006/09/the_murder_of_p/

Crimes Through Time (2023). "The Women of Whitechapel: Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols."

https://crimesthroughtime.co.uk/the-women-of-whitechapel-mary-ann-polly-nichols-1888/

Evans, S. and Rumbelow, D. (2006). Historical study of Scotland Yard's investigation.

Sugden, P. (2002). Detailed historical account of the Whitechapel murders.

Whitehead, M. and Rivett, M. (2009). Short historical overview of the case and its legacy.

Casebook victim pages for Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

https://www.casebook.org/

Wellcome Collection. "Paris Morgue and a Public Spectacle of Death."

https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/paris-morgue

Madame Tussauds London. "Chamber of Horrors."

https://www.madametussauds.com/london/whats-inside/experiences/chamber-of-horrors/

Catacombes de Paris. "Site History."

https://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en/history/site-history

Scrivner, C. (2021). Research on morbid curiosity and dangerous phenomena.

Vicary, A.M. and Fraley, R.C. (2010). Research on women's interest in true crime and survival-relevant information.