Episode #63: 1883 Timeline Twist & The Murder of Phoebe Veitch

Ridgeway Street Wanganui looking towards the courthouse circa 1880

4/2/2025: On today’s episode, Valerie covers late 19th century advancements in electricity, the man behind the first vaudeville theater in Boston, the mysterious 1883 Hot Springs Mystery Photograph, an unparalleled hair lotion that was celebrated by ALL classes of society all over the world, and greased flagpoles on Evacuation Day, in the 1883 Timeline Twist. Next, Amy Jo tells a tragic story that began with the discovery of the body of a young girl in the Whanganui River. Her struggling single mother offered a number of stories, and was judged harshly by witnesses and spectators alike throughout her trial, during which Phoebe Vietch made New Zealand history by “pleading her belly” - something no one had done before or since.

Item #339316 LIFE [January 4, 1883; vol. 1, no. 1]. John Ames Mitchell, ed.

B.F. Keith’s Theatre photos via Wikimedia/Creative Commons

1883 Hunter Hot Springs Mystery Photograph - Montana

Alice Bunker Stockham

Dr Copp's White Mountain Bitters [1883]

Luxuriant and Beautiful Hair. Nothing ever introduced is found to equal Latreille's Excelsior Lotion [ca 1883]

Evacuation Day Menu, Delmonico's, NY, November, 26, 1883

Full length of the Whanganui River

A view of the Whanganui River in 1872. Historia/Shutterstock

Owaka Museum and Catlins Information Centre Wahi Kahuika - the Meeting Place – a rest on your journey. Oceania, New Zealand, South Island, The Catlins.

A buff kangaroo in Australia is making waves among wildlife enthusiasts.

A 1902 cartoon imagining women's expressions when serving as jurors Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources/Photo Sources

Intro Sources:

NA

Timeline Twist Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883 

https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_uncivil.html 

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2016/02/25/vaudeville-boston-keith/ 

https://boardwalkbarb.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-gathering-old-hoax-apparently-but.html

https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/evacuation-day-celebration-1883/ 

https://medicine.iu.edu/blogs/medical-library/2020/history-of-medicine-book-of-the-week---tokology 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1883

Timeline Twist Photo Sources:

https://www.jamescumminsbookseller.com/pages/books/339316/john-ames-mitchell-ed/life-january-4-1883-vol-1-no-1 

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2016/02/25/vaudeville-boston-keith/ 

https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/15k2yps/dr_copps_white_mountain_bitters_1883/#lightbox 

https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/sfjwxs/luxuriant_and_beautiful_hair_nothing_ever/#lightbox 

https://boardwalkbarb.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-gathering-old-hoax-apparently-but.html

https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/evacuationdaymenu.jpg 

https://medicine.iu.edu/blogs/medical-library/2020/history-of-medicine-book-of-the-week---tokology

The Murder of Phoebe Veitch Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Veitch

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18830503.2.14#text-tab 

https://truecrimenz.com/2020/08/17/case-20-phoebe-veitch-whanganui-chronicles-part-i/ 

https://youtu.be/Sj-6iLy5qyY?si=5jPMnxp_s0Fwj4en 

https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/blog/one-tragedy-after-another-phoebe-veitch-grave-story-27 

https://nzhistory.net.nz/culture/crime-timeline-new-zealand/

https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/lifestyle/94657645/two-women-with-the-same-surname-two-very-different-lives 

https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/blog/one-tragedy-after-another-phoebe-veitch-grave-story-27  

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18830503.2.14#text-tab

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-all-female-juries-of-matrons-shaped-legal-history-180984647/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_of_matrons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whanganui_River

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/podcasts#womencrime

https://truecrimenz.com/2020/08/17/case-20-phoebe-veitch-whanganui-chronicles-part-i/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj-6iLy5qyY

The Murder of Phoebe Veitch Photo Sources:

https://truecrimewomen.wordpress.com/the-whanganui-river-murder/ 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/11/asia/whanganui-river-new-zealand-intl-hnk-dst/index.html 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-all-female-juries-of-matrons-shaped-legal-history-180984647/ 

https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/2174/map-of-the-whanganui-river 

https://ehive.com/collections/3021/objects/38775/photograph-felling-bush-cannibal-bay-road 

https://nypost.com/2022/03/11/buff-kangaroo-goes-viral-after-flaunting-giant-muscles/