492 - It Will Be Filed

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See App for details. Goodbye.

Speaker 2 Hello, and welcome to My Favorite Murder.

Speaker 1 That's Georgia Hardstar.

Speaker 2 That's Karen Kilgareth. And this is your sister's favorite podcast.

Speaker 1 Not my sister's favorite.

Speaker 2 No, not my sister's either. Maybe.

Speaker 1 What podcast does Lee listen to?

Speaker 2 Probably nothing. Probably children's podcasts with her kids in the car because that's all you can do when you have kids, I think.

Speaker 1 We should go into children's podcasts.

Speaker 2 Oh my God. Hello, children.

Speaker 1 Just evil witch voices.

Speaker 2 Do they like that? Yeah, that's their favorite thing. And that's fun for children of all ages.
Just terrifying.

Speaker 1 Children, look up from your screens.

Speaker 2 You're good at that.

Speaker 2 Behold the fucking Peachy pin.

Speaker 1 Oh, we're so excited about this.

Speaker 2 You guys.

Speaker 1 Our best friend, Nick Terry, who is just such, we're so lucky to have Nick Terry working with us. It's been a long time.
He just keeps putting out the hits. Yeah.

Speaker 2 MFM animated, of course. We have a little pin.

Speaker 1 It's so cute. Peachy is so pissed.

Speaker 2 I'm going to put this on my purse.

Speaker 1 There's just a little banner underneath Peachy that says a bitter little bird.

Speaker 2 I mean, what could be a better, you know, Labor Day gift?

Speaker 1 Yeah. So for the bitter little bird in your life, you want to want to go ahead and pin this right onto their jean jacket collar.
Everything's coming together.

Speaker 2 Hell yeah. It's from the mini-sode, Peachy the Bird, and you can go to exactlyrightstore.com to get yours.
Yes.

Speaker 1 We all know a Peachy. Yeah.
Also, speaking of Nick Terry, there's the newest MFM animated that's out right now, and it's called Baboons.

Speaker 2 It's your Minnisode story story of the little girl who went through like the safari drive-thru that used to be all the rage in the 80s and 90s. Yeah.
Right. Yeah, safari parks.

Speaker 2 And there's a reason they're not around anymore is because bad shit happens. Yes.
Like in this episode of MFM Animated.

Speaker 1 Find out what terrible things happen with baboons in the newest episode entitled Baboons. Go to our YouTube.
It's youtube.com/slash exactly right media.

Speaker 1 All the Nick Terriers are on there, as well as all kinds of videos from all of the shows here at Exactly Right.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
Okay, so speaking of the fact that we're going on a little tour and doing some live shows, someone made yet another My Favorite Murder bingo card for the live show specifically.

Speaker 2 But there was a big, I love it, but everyone got upset at here at Exactly Right. And I don't, let's talk about it.
This is a debate. Okay.
The free space.

Speaker 2 in the bingo card is usually in the very center, right? Correct. The listener named Nicole made this.
She put the free space like randomly all over the card for each different card. Right.

Speaker 2 Which I think makes sense. Sure.

Speaker 1 You and your millennial and onward, the children of tomorrow.

Speaker 2 What advantage is it if everyone has that fucking advantage? It's not an advantage anymore. Right.
Right.

Speaker 1 It's just a free space. Right.

Speaker 2 Which is stupid. So a free space being like wherever, different places on every board, then it's actually a free space, an advantage.

Speaker 1 But then it's not the bingo card free space. Then you're not making a bingo card.
You're just putting up a grid with all your shit in it and saying my way or the highway.

Speaker 2 No, unless you get this. Unless you get all four of these and the free, but the free space is there, but not for anyone else.
So if they get all four of them too, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 It is for everyone else. Everyone has the same free space as just in the wrong spot.
So no matter what.

Speaker 2 Oh, I thought they were different on every card. Aren't they? I think they are.
I think, do we have the same thing?

Speaker 1 But if you and I played bingo right now, we would have to be playing off the same card or we wouldn't be playing against each other. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 Like, you, you, we would have to have the same things.

Speaker 2 No, we wouldn't. We have different things.

Speaker 2 That's how bingo works, right? Like, okay, I get caring yells at audience. Check if you got the same one, then what's the fucking point? Then we got all the same.

Speaker 1 Oh, you're right. So, this should be different.
Bingo cards are numerically different, but the balls are the same.

Speaker 2 Exactly. The calls are the same.
Exactly. Let me explain bingo.
Got it.

Speaker 1 No, apparently, you need to.

Speaker 1 All I'm saying is. Okay, so you can

Speaker 1 do whatever the fuck you want. Yeah.
We know this to be true.

Speaker 2 I think this is a better, a better bingo.

Speaker 1 But if you're playing bingo, then you put, then you use the grid as the grid exists and then you fill in around it. Right.

Speaker 2 But I like the idea that a free space is actually an advantage, not just a fucking empty box that everyone ticks.

Speaker 1 That's it. But then it's not bingo.

Speaker 2 Anyways, yes, it is.

Speaker 2 Yes, it is.

Speaker 2 Do you think it's bingo?

Speaker 2 Let us know.

Speaker 2 Let her know that I'm right. Let her know I'm right on Instagram.

Speaker 2 Oh, you've got all this confidence from this little sister argument, but I don't know about this because although I was wrong about the,

Speaker 1 look, if we're breaking down the construct of bingo entirely, let's throw it out and say, we're calling this grid games and just fucking whatever.

Speaker 2 She won't even call it bingo. Bingo is trademarked.
Yes. We refuse.

Speaker 1 This goes against everything bingo believes in.

Speaker 2 This is a grid game. This is a generic grid game.

Speaker 1 Grid game with free space.

Speaker 2 Nicole made up random places.

Speaker 1 Also, what I do love is this, is this actual grid is from myfreebingo cards.com.

Speaker 2 Who made that? Like, that is my big thing. Find a niche and fill it.
That is a fucking, someone got rich as fuck off of that.

Speaker 1 Myfreebingo cards.com. Also, if you invented myfreebingo cards.com, will you settle this debate between us and maybe be the final

Speaker 2 word?

Speaker 2 It's in the URL, so I think I'm right. If it's in the URL, then it's science.

Speaker 1 My free space can be anywhere. Bingocards.com.

Speaker 2 If the word bingo is in the URL, it's being misused.

Speaker 1 That's why I had to start the lawsuit that I've started already.

Speaker 2 That will be filed.

Speaker 2 It will be filed. Anyway, Karen yells at the audience.
Georgia blows her nose on anything. I mean, who cares at this point? It's so funny, though.
It's so funny.

Speaker 2 Marty, hot dog talk. Go fuck yourself.
It's all the stuff.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, I would hope that we would be bringing something new to the stage so that people aren't just like,

Speaker 2 this again.

Speaker 1 Oh, someone burped.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay. Okay.

Speaker 1 I guess you're doing that again.

Speaker 2 But everyone likes familiar. Georgia makes up a new word.
I will do my best.

Speaker 1 Please do.

Speaker 2 New show plug. We don't do that.

Speaker 1 Not during our own show. No.
No. It's all about us.

Speaker 2 All right. Well,

Speaker 1 if you haven't gotten your tickets for a live show and you would like to go see us, there are some still left. Hopefully, at at the time of this recording there are.

Speaker 1 Go check at my favorite murder at bingo at myfree bingo card dot url dot co

Speaker 2 no myfavorite murder.com slash live. Yep.
Bingo.

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Goodbye. Taking care of our mental health usually ends up at the bottom of the to-do list.

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Speaker 2 Goodbye.

Speaker 1 This is a solo episode, and that means that Georgia's the one telling the story this time because I did it last time. That's right.

Speaker 1 We are splitting up the research because being on the road again means we have to have basically triple the amount of stories that we would normally have to have between summer and winter.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we are taxing our researchers to a degree that is insane.

Speaker 2 I mean, the researchers, the producers, social, everyone's being taxed.

Speaker 1 Everyone's being taxed, and we appreciate it. our production manager

Speaker 1 me myself wow my mouth is being taxed every goddamn day

Speaker 2 just kids no more taxes production manager

Speaker 2 damn everybody so today i have a story that's got a lot of the things we talk about all rolled into one okay it's a murder story It's a story about a fascinating woman's life.

Speaker 2 And it's sort of a story of that woman living her best life, but it's a hoax.

Speaker 2 Oh, this is the story of the whirlwind life of Australian design legend Florence Broadhurst and her tragic unsolved murder. Okay.
Have you heard of her? No.

Speaker 2 The main source of the story is a book called Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret and Extraordinary Lives by Helen O'Neill, and the rest of the sources can be found in our show notes.

Speaker 2 So I actually found this story on Instagram of all places, on the ABC Radio National Instagram, and it's a story told by Zoe Ferguson, and it comes from their podcast, the History Listen podcast, hosted by Kirstie Melville.

Speaker 2 So check that out. Yeah.
So it's October 15th, 1977. How old is Karen? Seven.
Thank you. And we're in Paddington, Australia.
It's a Sydney suburb, and we're at Florence Broadhurst's wallpaper company.

Speaker 2 How much do you love wallpaper?

Speaker 1 The fact that wallpaper has made a comeback, it makes me so happy. We were in Palm Springs this weekend.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 And there's so many places where like there was a bar where they put up like zebra and jungle print wallpaper.

Speaker 2 I'm obsessed with wallpaper.

Speaker 1 It makes it just like sets the tone. It's incredible.

Speaker 2 I bet there was a place she went to that had her wallpaper because it's iconic and famous, but she wouldn't know. Here, let me show you a photo of it.
Yes, please.

Speaker 2 Of a couple. But then there's this like really like madman looking style to this one.
And it had like the gold leaf on it.

Speaker 2 It's like your grandma's wallpaper that you used to like trace with your fingers and we're like, this is the most glamorous thing I've ever seen as a child. Yes.
Is this made with real gold?

Speaker 2 Like just, you know what I mean? Yes. Like iconic wallpaper.
They're all busy though. So you want to do an accent wall, not like the whole bathroom or whatever.
That's my design suggestion. Okay.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Accent wall.

Speaker 1 My aunt and uncle, my aunt, Kathleen and Uncle Rich in their downstairs bathroom had wallpaper and it was a bunch of cartoon people getting out of the shower and drying off.

Speaker 2 It was so cute.

Speaker 1 The cutest, like you'd be standing in the the bathroom and you wanted to see if you could spot where the people started repeating. Right.
Because it seemed like all these different people.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and it's great. That person's over there.
Yeah. Wallpaper.
Yeah. It's the fucking best.

Speaker 1 Wallpaper. We can't talk about it enough.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 So she is like this legendary wallpaper designer. She's sort of legendary in general.
Everyone knows her.

Speaker 2 She's known to be this aristocratic British woman who studied art in Europe before settling in Australia to design this fabulous wallpaper. She's 78 years old.

Speaker 2 She has this like bright red, almost orange hair. Of course.
She's just very eccentric looking, as you would imagine someone who makes wallpaper. Like, look at her.
Like, sign me up.

Speaker 2 She looks like, what's her name? Next door in Three's Company. Mrs.
Roper. She looks like Mrs.
Roper, but a little bit like older Lucille Ball.

Speaker 1 Auntie Maim. Yeah.
She looks like the fun aunt that's like

Speaker 2 smokes cigarettes. Yeah.
Yeah. Very like glamorous

Speaker 2 and intriguing. Like that's what that's that's what she's going for.

Speaker 1 She is the one where like if you worked at her wallpaper, wallpapers to go store, she'd be like, you'd be 15. She'd be like, let's have a glass of wine.
I won't tell your mom.

Speaker 2 Do you like Shibli? Yeah. Have you had Shibli? Okay.
Yes, that's exactly who she is. She has lots of rich and famous friends.
She throws amazing parties. She speaks with a posh British accent.

Speaker 2 And most people think that her father was a wealthy cattle breeder in England and that she grew up in a household full of servants, an aristocrat. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So October 15th, 1977, as I said, at about 4.15 in the afternoon, some customers enter the factory through an unlocked front door. The factory seems eerily deserted, so they leave.

Speaker 2 The next morning, a neighbor realizes the factory's lights have been on all night and calls the police, which just tells you that like... what people were like then.

Speaker 2 If my lights were on all night, my neighbors wouldn't give a fucking shit. Right.
It's like people talk to each other back then.

Speaker 1 Yeah, M-Y-O-B. And also it's a factory.
So like that idea that they're like, we're concerned and we want to make sure,

Speaker 1 even though it would be very easy to write off. Right.

Speaker 2 When the police come and investigate, they find out that Florence, the larger-than-life designer, has been brutally murdered. Florence is found in a bathroom on the factory's upper floor.

Speaker 2 She's been struck about nine times by a blunt object, seemingly a piece of wood that someone picked up inside the factory because it's still there. Florence is found slumped by a toilet.

Speaker 2 Her hearing aids are out of her ears, look like there was a struggle.

Speaker 2 Some of her fingers are broken, and two very expensive rings she had on are missing, making the police think that it's a robbery is the motive.

Speaker 2 But at the same time, they notice the overkill and don't think that that points to robbery. So the entrance to the factory had been unlocked, so anyone could have wandered in.

Speaker 2 And it appears that the attacker left through the factory's padlocked back door and locked it behind themselves, possibly.

Speaker 2 This leads people to believe that the attacker had knowledge of the factory and possibly worked there, had once worked there.

Speaker 2 At Florence's funeral, her high society friends mingle with her family for the first time, and they start to learn that while Florence's father did, in fact, work with cattle, it was not in the English countryside, but in rural Queensland, Australia.

Speaker 2 She had fabricated this fanciful life for herself.

Speaker 1 I love her even more.

Speaker 2 Yeah, she had come from humble beginnings. She had reinvented herself very successfully several times throughout her life.

Speaker 2 So Florence is born in a very remote part of Queensland, Australia, to Bill and Margaret Ann Broadhurst in 1899.

Speaker 2 The family lives in a small cottage on a large wilderness area, which her father is responsible for managing. It's about 230 miles northwest of Brisbane.

Speaker 2 The nearest town, Mount Perry, has a population of 250 people. So they grew up in the rural area.
Yeah. You know?

Speaker 2 To get there, the Broadhursts need to ride a horse 20 miles on a trail to get to the nearest town.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but back then, have fun.

Speaker 1 Well, if you have enough biscuits or whatever. But like, I just always think of running errands.
I just think of how it was to live five miles out of town with a car.

Speaker 2 You did that.

Speaker 1 It was so irritating. And on Friday nights when you'd be driving out like for the weekend, you'd be like, do I have everything I need? Because you're like not going to go back into town for two days.

Speaker 2 Also, Australian bugs that probably wasn't flying into your face while you're riding a horse.

Speaker 1 Snakes coming up the horse's leg. God.

Speaker 1 They don't care in Australia. No.

Speaker 2 Florence has three siblings, an older brother named Fassafern. Spell that, please.
F-A-S-S-I-F-E-R-N.

Speaker 2 Fassefern. Family name.
And two younger sisters named May, Millicent, and Priscilla. And another sister sadly died in infancy.

Speaker 2 So Bill Broadhurst, Florence's dad, is a tough-as-nails cowboy, but everyone who knows him says the same thing about him. He is a master storyteller.

Speaker 2 He's known for being able to spin like mesmerizing tales around a campfire.

Speaker 2 And as Florence grows up at the turn of the century the population of nearby Mount Perry grows and fortunes in the town rise because of nearby copper mines so Margaret and her sisters are able to join a new tennis club in town and the town starts having dances and picnics and parties and they have piano lessons and sewing lessons so the Broadhurst girls learn to be proper young ladies.

Speaker 2 In her teens, it becomes apparent that Florence is a very talented singer and she tries to make it as a soloist, but her career doesn't take off.

Speaker 2 So she joins a traveling theater troupe called the globetrotters

Speaker 2 a traveling theater troupe oh we'll just go do some checks piare down on the on the coast in 1922 when florence is about 23 years old she like her fucking life sounds amazing she and the globetrotters sail for singapore

Speaker 2 Florence chops her hair off into a bob, wears a wardrobe of sparkly flapper dresses, and performs under the name Bobby Broadhurst.

Speaker 2 Let me show you a photo of her.

Speaker 1 I Oh, she looks like the silent movie star.

Speaker 2 Yeah, she does. Just that era.
Here's another one. She looks like the chick from Gilded Age.
Yeah. The daughter.
The daughter. Yeah.
That's right.

Speaker 1 And she's just off to live life. She's like, bye.
Like, yeah. Going to Singapore.

Speaker 2 I'm going to Singapore. I'm 23.
I'm not getting married. I'm cutting off my hair.
I'm doing what I want. Goodbye.

Speaker 2 In cities across Asia, mostly because of the long history of British colonization, of course, there are huge expat communities seeking familiar entertainment. So the Globetrotters are very popular.

Speaker 2 When their tour is over, what?

Speaker 1 I just want to make a Harlem Globetrotters joke about how they're like, they always win.

Speaker 2 When their tour is over in 1924, Florence briefly works as a resident performer at a nightclub in Shanghai. Like, hmm, God, I bet life was amazing.

Speaker 1 I bet her cigarettes were like this long.

Speaker 2 Totally. But then sets up a dancing and finishing school for daughters of wealthy expats.
As I said, find a niche and fill it. Yep.
Right. She's like, these little girls of rich families.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they need to get classed up. And also, I don't like how plain these walls are, but we'll deal with that later.

Speaker 2 That's my next iteration.

Speaker 2 But the political situation in Shanghai quickly begins to deteriorate, leading to a civil war in 1927. At this point, Florence, who is about 26 years old, heads for England.

Speaker 2 There, she finds work in high-end fashion houses using the sewing skills she learned as a child.

Speaker 2 She also quickly charms her way into all the right parties, and she meets a 30-year-old stockbroker named Percy Kahn.

Speaker 2 The two get married in June of 1929 in a lavish ceremony in London on the marriage license. Florence says she's 27 instead of 29.
Two years. Yep.

Speaker 1 Clip them off.

Speaker 2 It's basically the same thing.

Speaker 1 Play with your government age. Who cares?

Speaker 2 So she marries a stockbroker, right? He's rich. This is great.

Speaker 1 Everything's going good.

Speaker 2 It's 1929.

Speaker 2 So not a great time to marry a stockbroker. Not really.
Three months after marrying Percy, the U.S. stock market crashes, causing the Great Depression around the world.

Speaker 2 We don't have all the details, but it seems like Percy, whose father is also a stockbroker, loses their family fortune. Wow.
Florence immediately pivots, as she likes to do.

Speaker 2 Using the connections she's made working in fashion houses, they need to make money. She's like, all right, I'm going to open my own dressmaking shop.

Speaker 2 I'm going to target consumers who want high-end fashion at a more reasonable price because people don't have the money.

Speaker 1 No one has money now.

Speaker 2 But she's so good at marketing and she knows the fashion industry industry is all about branding. So she names herself Madame Pellier and speaks in a French accent.
She turns herself French. Perfect.

Speaker 2 Just like in

Speaker 1 the movie French Kiss, where Kevin Klein pretends he's French.

Speaker 2 The British aristocrats.

Speaker 2 I'm not drunk.

Speaker 1 Doubt navy? Yeah, no.

Speaker 2 No, the other one. Bridgerton, yes.

Speaker 2 Just like in Bridgerton. Fake French accent.
But business is booming. Unfortunately, Florence's marriage to Percy is breaking down.
They don't ever really do.

Speaker 1 In the Gilded Age. Yeah.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 1 Where the cook is pretending to be French? No, you had it.

Speaker 2 Bridgerton? Yeah. Okay.
Remember the dressmaker?

Speaker 1 Oh, because it also happens in the Gilded Age.

Speaker 2 Oh, that makes, I guess it happened then. I think you're thinking of Madame de la Croix.
Yes. Madame de la Croix.
I think she might actually be French. Oh.

Speaker 1 Unclear. But did you watch The Gilded Age? Because you could be combining.
A couple seasons.

Speaker 2 Okay. Not the whole thing.
Leave all of that in, please. It's so good.
It's important. It's incredible.

Speaker 2 Her dressmaking shop is welcoming and tastefully decorated, and she does very well for a few years. But while business is booming, Florence's marriage to Percy is breaking down.

Speaker 2 They don't ever actually divorce, which is pretty difficult to do back then, especially when you were married in a Catholic ceremony.

Speaker 2 But they split up, and it seems like this happens after 1936 because Florence meets a handsome fruit merchant named Leonard Lloyd Lewis. Say that three times.

Speaker 1 I thought you were going to say Leonard Lemons.

Speaker 2 Leonard Lloyd Lemons. Florence is now 36 years old.
She falls in love with this guy.

Speaker 2 Due to that not quite divorced from Percy, Florence doesn't actually ever marry Leonard Lemons, although they tell everyone that they are married. In 1939, they have a baby.

Speaker 2 They name him Robin, but everyone calls him Robert. And in fact, he didn't know that they weren't ever married until his parents passed.

Speaker 1 That's hilarious. That's like a little family secret that just comes out later on.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's like they were the first, like, it's just a piece of paper.
Right. It doesn't mean anything.
Cool.

Speaker 2 Every family has so many amazing stories that no one has ever heard before.

Speaker 1 That's why Story Worth memoirs are perfect for your loved ones this holiday season.

Speaker 2 It might sound a little intimidating, but it's so easy. They'll love it.
It's a gift they won't see coming, something that makes them feel truly special. And it turns out it's a gift for you too.

Speaker 2 Their magic layout and new book designs make your books and photos look even more beautiful.

Speaker 1 What's not changing? Customers love for Story Worth. They printed over a million books and preserved 35 million family stories since their founding 13 years ago.

Speaker 2 They have over 48,000 five-star reviews on TrustPilot. Wirecutter, the strategist, CNN, Fox News, and more agree Story Worth is the perfect gift for the people you love most.

Speaker 1 I mean, what a great thing. There's always the gift list for people that are impossible to buy for, people that you've bought everything.
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Goodbye.

Speaker 2 In 1949, when Robert, the son, is 10 and Florence is around 49, the family moves back to Australia and Robert meets his mother's family for the first time, for kid.

Speaker 2 And she had tricked him too, it seems. He realizes that while she acted in every way the British sophisticates, she was actually from deep in the country where there are no paved roads.

Speaker 2 Back in Australia. So rad.
Love it. Robert has been in British boarding schools since the age of five and he didn't like it there.
So he's actually really aware of class differences.

Speaker 2 And so what he sees doesn't compute to him. He says, quote, I couldn't understand.
My mother, who I knew was gentry, this is where she came from.

Speaker 2 That said, the Broadhurst family, while not quite aristocracy, seems to have done very well for themselves. Florence's father has built a nice little hotel and they're doing well.

Speaker 2 By this point, Florence's mother has died years earlier of an illness, and her sisters are now like, oh, this bitch is back. They don't trust her.
Oh.

Speaker 2 Because she's been like gallivanting and living her life. And then suddenly she comes back and they're, because they're doing well.

Speaker 2 Also lying about her background. So they just kind of are like distrustful of her.
Okay.

Speaker 2 They, Millicent, passes away not long after Florence moves back to Australia, but Priscilla, her other sister, keeps Florence at arm's length. This just sounds like a fictional book, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 Yeah, totally. Priscilla had been looking after their father, taking care of him.
He's getting older.

Speaker 2 So Priscilla is like, you know, Florence just kind of shows back up when it's convenient for her, not a fan. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Florence and her, quote, husband and son, Robert, settle outside Sydney, and Leonard starts running a successful car dealership. Oh, wait, Lemon would make sense still for his name, his made-up name.

Speaker 2 For his car?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God. Florence decides to take up painting.
She wants to become very successful at it. It seems like she doesn't half-ass anything.

Speaker 1 No, and it's like the arts where she's like, I'll sing, I will teach other people.

Speaker 2 She'll dresses. I'll do these like fanciful things.
She's got the eye. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But unfortunately, her plan to make it big as an artist ultimately doesn't really pan out, but she spends the 50s getting involved in high society charity events, ultimately ingratiating herself within Sydney's wealthy and elite.

Speaker 2 She generally doesn't mention her background and lets lets people believe that she's from some kind of British old money. She's like, let them believe what they want.
I didn't say it.

Speaker 2 I just faked my accent. That's completely.

Speaker 1 I'm just talking weird.

Speaker 2 At the same time, her relationship with Leonard is starting to break down. Florence, you know, a master at pivoting, has a new plan.
She's going to design and manufacture wallpaper. Okay.

Speaker 2 We're back here. She launches her company, Florence Broadhurst Designs, in 1961.
Florence's timing with this wallpaper is perfect because it's this early 60s.

Speaker 2 Wallpaper in bright, colorful patterns is extremely popular, and Australia is experiencing a building boom. So the design is huge.

Speaker 2 Plus, Florence has spent the past decade cultivating connections with Australian society, so she quickly is able to get her designs in the home of tastemakers, these new, beautiful, opulent homes with her wallpaper.

Speaker 2 Her designs are incredibly varied, geometric, some are floral, stampeding horses, lots of whimsical designs and colorful stuff.

Speaker 2 Now, Florence gives several interviews where she does say she is British and that she trained as an artist in Europe.

Speaker 2 But she also happily takes credit for being a pioneer of a distinctly Australian design sensibility. So she wants it all.

Speaker 1 And she's going to have it all. That's right.

Speaker 2 It seems like this is just another calculation, you know, like passing herself off as French. Florence understands that people are buying her as much as they are buying her wallpaper.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 By the early 1970s, Florence is in her 70s, but she has an amazing ability to spot design trends emerging around the world and get them out to Australian consumers.

Speaker 2 She employs lots of artists and screen printers at her design house. And it's, in fact, a little unclear how many of the designs are really her own.
There's not a lot of that information out there.

Speaker 2 Seems like she mostly watches over the artists and tells them what to do. But, you know, that's still a designer.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And she also makes screen printed by hand wallpaper, which has been taken over by machine-made wallpaper.

Speaker 2 And richie people want the screen printed by hand stuff, you know, with custom hand-painted details. So it's very expensive wallpaper.
So yeah, the business is flourishing.

Speaker 2 So Florence is pretty casual about the business side of things. For example, she pays all her employees in cash, which she carries around in her pocketbook.

Speaker 2 And in 1974, when she's about 74 years old, she's attacked in her store and beaten. She never sees her assailant, but he takes the cash from her purse like he knew it was there.

Speaker 2 People speculate that it might have been an employee or a former employee who knew when she would have all that cash on her before payday.

Speaker 2 But the attacker is never found, and investigators wonder if the same person killed Florence because her murder happened three years later.

Speaker 2 Investigators disagree as to whether the motive of her murder had simply been stealing her jewelry or if this just had just been a ruse.

Speaker 2 And since her death was so violent, they thought that maybe the robbery was a cover-up. And then over the years, there's another theory that has emerged, which I think is pretty strong.

Speaker 2 Let me see what you think. So between 1989 and 1990, very short period of time, six elderly women are murdered and at least seven more assaulted around Sydney's North Shore.

Speaker 2 A man in his 50s, he is eventually caught. He's a pie and pastry salesman.

Speaker 1 Going door to door.

Speaker 2 Like going out of businesses, selling them lunch, that kind of thing. Okay.
He's a man in his 50s named John Wayne Glover.

Speaker 2 He's caught and convicted of these murders in 1990 and sentenced to life in prison. Because of his penchant for attacking older and elderly women, he is nicknamed the granny killer.

Speaker 2 But of course, investigators believe, I mean, they think he started when he was 50, in his 50s. That, you know, doesn't happen.
Yeah. Right.
So like they are pretty sure there's other victims.

Speaker 2 And so they think that he could very possibly be Florence's murderer, partly because he posed as victims in a way that was sort of similar to the way Florence was found in the bathroom, as well as her manner of death.

Speaker 2 Investigators wonder if she could have been one of his early victims, because it was 1977.

Speaker 2 So if he actually didn't start killing until 1989, it wouldn't have been him, but we're not of the belief that people start murdering in their 50s, like serially murdering violently.

Speaker 1 Serial killers usually start much earlier, and there's other things that happen to other victims and also start in other crimes and then kind of cross over.

Speaker 1 So if it was he heard that this old lady carries money on her

Speaker 1 and it was supposed to be a robbery.

Speaker 2 Right. So his MO would be that he would follow older women, his victims were 60 to 90 years old, and attack them while they walked alone in public or in their home.

Speaker 2 His method was that he would beat them with an instrument, sometimes a hammer, and then leave them with something tied around their neck to make it seem, I guess he wanted to make it seem like a sexually motivated crime when he claimed it wasn't.

Speaker 2 But he also did sexually assault other older ladies. So we don't totally believe that.
No proof has been found of him killing before 1989 when he was 56.

Speaker 2 At this stage, he had been married for 20 years. He had children.
His wife had no knowledge of his previous criminal offenses. And he was caught.

Speaker 2 It's just an insane story that deserves its own episode, but he was caught when he sexually attacked a sick elderly woman at a nursing hospital where he regularly sold his pies.

Speaker 2 So he had a meeting there and then he went into this woman's room. He had his clipboard on him and his uniform on.
Remember, you always talk about clipboards making people

Speaker 1 busy and official.

Speaker 2 And legitimate. Yeah.
Yeah. The elderly woman pressed the bedside emergency button and a sister at the hospital, Pauline Davis, came into the room and saw him and said, who the hell are you?

Speaker 2 Which is like, that's swearing for a nun, right?

Speaker 2 Like, that's a big deal. It is.
It is. She chases him out into the parking lot and takes down his registration number as he drives away.
And also they knew him.

Speaker 2 And so they ended up like IDing him and his photo. He was the guy that came around a lot.
Yeah. A long story short, it still took authorities weeks and another dead woman to catch him.
Oh, God. Yeah.

Speaker 2 He was found guilty and died in prison of suicide in 2005 at 72 years old, taking his secrets with him.

Speaker 2 But it is found that this man and Florence had actually attended the same wedding in the 70s. Oh.
So they actually had a personal connection.

Speaker 2 And he didn't, he only had personal connections with one other victim, but that's enough.

Speaker 1 Especially if it's an earlier victim.

Speaker 2 Right. It didn't, yes, exactly.
Like he learned not to do it that way or whatever.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Right.
So they had a mutual friend and they were at a wedding together. To me, that's like, that's too much of a coincidence.
Yeah, that's wild.

Speaker 2 He denied killing her when he was caught, but let's not try to believe anything he says. Yeah.

Speaker 2 The other working theory is that she was killed possibly by someone she knew from the factory, which is simply for the rings on her hand.

Speaker 2 Florence's designs are not as popular as they once were, but they're still very famous. Like the woman I found the story through has a tattoo of one of her designs on her arm.
Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 You know, like a beautiful flower. And they're still used sometimes today.
And that is the story of the unsolved murder and fascinating life of Florence Broadhurst. Wow.
I mean, like...

Speaker 2 Just so tragic. What an incredible life.
And that's the end of the story. It's so upsetting.

Speaker 1 It's really upsetting. And also, the idea that, like, the a woman like that would have a bunch of connections, meeting people, making impressions.

Speaker 1 So, what does that, especially in the earlier, like, if it was the 60s, if that person met her a lot earlier or something, where it's like somebody that already hates women, that's like, listen to this broad who's

Speaker 1 successful, successful, confident, totally, runs a business, has money. It's like that resentment.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 hit nine times with essentially a log,

Speaker 1 that's, that is overkill and that is an emotional murder, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 I think so too. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
I think he did it. I mean, God.

Speaker 2 Heartbreaking. And like, what an incredible woman.
I wish we could have seen what else she had done with her life because I bet she had other chapters still.

Speaker 1 It sounds like she could pretty much pivot anywhere for any reason.

Speaker 2 Yeah, totally. Wow.

Speaker 1 Great one. Dang.
That's really fascinating.

Speaker 2 And I love a visual aid. Yeah, isn't that good? Wallpaper? We'll put it up on Instagram if we're allowed to.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, then, if we can't, Georgia will redraw by hand her version of all of these wallpapers.

Speaker 2 With real gold.

Speaker 1 Yes, her own gold from her gold bars.

Speaker 1 Well, great story. Great find.

Speaker 2 Thank you guys for listening to this solo episode. We appreciate you.
That's right.

Speaker 1 We might see you in real life. We might see you out on the road.
That's something that we're doing now. So if you want to come, please come and see us.
Yeah, please. Until then, stay sexy.

Speaker 2 And don't get murdered. Goodbye.

Speaker 2 Elvis, do you want a cookie?

Speaker 1 This has been an exactly right production.

Speaker 2 Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Wally Smith.

Speaker 1 Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

Speaker 2 This episode was mixed by Liana Scolaci.

Speaker 1 Our researchers are Maren McLashen and Allie Elkin.

Speaker 2 Email your hometowns to myfavorite murder at gmail.com.

Speaker 1 Follow the show on Instagram at myfavorite murder.

Speaker 2 Listen to my favorite murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 And now you can watch us on Exactly Right's YouTube page. While you're there, please like and subscribe.

Speaker 2 Goodbye.

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