On Episode 33, Rachel tells us the tale of King Henry VIII – a beheading-happy king who married anything with a uterus. Then, Emily talks about the kidnapping and murder of Dorothy Jane Scott – and the very creepy phone calls that plagued her and her family. Hopefully, you’re horrified.
Content/Trigger Warnings: sexual assault, miscarriage, stillbirth, beheading
Transcript
Emily 0:13
Hi, welcome to horrible history. I’m Emily Barlean.
Rachel 0:17
And I’m Rachel Everett Lozon. How are you?
Emily 0:19
I’m doing well. I finished painting my deck today, big story of my day.
Rachel 0:27
That’s so fun. I did not, well, I redid my entire office. So those of you who are $10 patrons, so you get to see us on video, I have a different background. So that’s fun, very type three productive
Emily 0:40
It’s beautiful.
Rachel 0:41
Thank you. Um, I have a big one today.
Emily 0:44
You do!
Rachel 0:45
You ready to get into it? I’m so excited. Let’s do this. Okay. So Erin may be my very favorite person, aside from you, because she gives me so many suggestions for this podcast.
Emily 1:00
Everyone else, you are sleeping on the job. Erin, you’re doing great.
Rachel 1:04
Erin texts me so frequently. And is all, “I have another one. I think you need to do this.” And this particular person she goes, I think you two would have a lot of fun just ripping this guy to shreds. Fantastic. Italian kiss! Let’s do it. So I haven’t really talked a ton on the podcast, at least not recently, about my process. You know, I do have an ongoing list of topics that I want to do. And then when it comes time to pick a story, I just don’t want to do any of them. It’s kind of like when you have all of these clothes in your closet, but I don’t have anything to wear me. So Oh, when Erin texted me I’m stoked. We’re happy to have your suggestions because sometimes it just it hits at a perfect time.
Emily 1:49
It’s true. I have like a long list. Well, I’m overly prepared. And I have like all of my episodes planned down all the way up to I think Episode 50 at this point, but it does suck because like, we get a recommendation and I’m just like… Rachel? I cannot stray from my plan.
Rachel 2:07
Yeah, and I’m all great because I know what I’m doing like next week, maybe. And we’re getting a lot of recommendations on tik tok. But Emily’s Genghis Khan video is blowing up right now, at least at the time that we’re recording this. And a lot of the story recommendations were getting are very similar to Genghis, which is cool. We will put them on our list. But the amazing thing about history is there’s a variety of horrible, so send us all different suggestions because you never know what we’re going to do next. Right, exactly. Before I tell you about Erin’s brilliant suggestion, thank you, Erin. I am going to tell you about where we’re going this week. So we’re hopping across the pond to Greenwich, London, I believe we say Greenwich, not Grenwich, it does look like Greenwich. But I think it’s pronounced the same way as the borough in New York. Gotcha. So Greenwich is a borough of London, and it has some pretty awesome touristy stuff. For one thing, if we go to visit the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, we could have a foot in each hemisphere, which is kind of cool.
Emily 3:13
That’s awesome. Isn’t that nice? It’s like when you go to that place in the US and stand in four places at once. Also, in Omaha, you there’s a bridge and you can go and when you’re in the middle of the bridge, you can have a foot in Nebraska and a foot in Iowa but who really would want to have a foot in Iowa but it’s possible.
Rachel 3:34
We’re sorry, Iowa.
Emily 3:37
I’m not.
Rachel 3:40
It’s also home to the Prime Meridian line. The UK largest telescope. And there’s a planetarium, which we love.
Emily 3:49
I love a planetarium.
Rachel 3:51
I know it always makes me think of that episode in the very early seasons of South Park. When they go we’re going to the planet arium. Then we could also go to visit the Queen’s House, which is a royal Villa designed in 1616 this house may have my favorite backstory ever. So apparently allegedly, allegedly, and of Denmark accidentally shot her husband’s King’s James, the first favorite hunting dog. So King James is obviously very upset about this. And he swore at and in public, which was a very big route. he commissioned the Queen’s House being built for and as an apology. Sorry, babe. Like it’s not a bouquet of flowers. It is a fucking house.
Emily 4:46
I’m so sorry.
Rachel 4:49
Here’s a house for you. I like it. Yes, yes. It has over 450 pieces of art, including the very famous Armada portrait of Queen Elizabeth First. And of course being the basic bitches we are we would have to check out the Greenwich market, which is a farmer’s market, obvious layer. It’s got street food, handmade gifts. Plus, the market itself is surrounded by like brick and mortar stores and bars and cafe that are there all the time. So I love that love. Today I might. I know I just talked about how amazing Erin is and allopathy suggestions but she’s also said to be really big stories. Erin, for those of you keeping track, also had me cover the Romanovs. So today, she asked me to cover Henry the Eighth.
Emily 5:42
Erin, you’re an ambitious bitch and I love you.
Rachel 5:45
Erin, you bet you don’t have to do any of this research. Okay. I’m going to do my best to do the story justice in the format that we have going on. I’m also not going to be deep diving into everyone’s favorite wife Anne Boleyn, because Emily called dibs on her long, long ago.
Emily 6:04
She’s a relative.
Rachel 6:06
Yeah, Emily is related to Anne Boleyn. Boleyn….. Barlean, I’m like, blanked on your last name. Because I was thinking like, I know, we’ve talked before about how it’s like Berlin, Berlin. And so I was like Berlin, Berlin. And then I was like, where am i going from here? Oh, right. Barlean.
Emily 6:29
The fuck is this girl’s name again?
Rachel 6:32
This bitch. She’s just somebody I see all the time. It’s fine. So let’s talk about this asshat Henry the Eighth was the son the second son of Henry the seventh. shocker. He was born on June 28 1491. His older brother Arthur died in 1502. So at 10 years old, Henry became the heir to the throne. As a child, he was intelligent, confident and physically fit. When he became king in 1509. At age 18, he was six feet tall and muscular. He had to dance he was hot. He was an athlete, which is so weird because when I picture Henry the Eighth I do not exercise someone young and fit and hot. Do you?
Emily 7:22
No, like a big fat gross guy? I don’t know why.
Rachel 7:26
Yes, yeah. Because that’s how all of the portraits of him are later in life, and we’ll get into it. So people were stoked on Henry in the beginning. They were not super crazy about his father Henry the seventh, who had inherited the throne as a literal infant. He was a baby an actual baby. Nine months old. When he inherited the throne.
Emily 7:47
Babies can’t run a business. It’s not a business. It’s a country but…
Rachel 7:53
Babies can’t run a business! LOL
Emily 7:58
Despite what Pixar movies trying to tell you.
Rachel 8:02
It’s on Netflix. OK, Henry the seventh was not a super fun dude. He spent a lot of his free time thinking about the suffering of the Christ, like a 1400s Mel Gibson, so but without all the controversy. You know, without without all the anti semitism, I’m guessing but we I don’t know. That could do. He stayed in monasteries on purpose, even though he wasn’t a monk and advocated for religious reform, which centered around humility and obedience, which sounds like a party.
Emily 8:40
No. Oh my gosh, every good party centers around humility and obedience. Maybe an s&m one. I don’t know…. obedience.
Rachel 8:50
I don’t know. Emily, what’s her last name Berlin. Barlean. History tends to remember Henry the seventh as a nice dude, but a bad king. He may have had a psychotic break, potentially due to schizophrenia, and was catatonic for about 18 months. Wow. And his mental health mixed with an ineffective leadership style ended up leading to the War of the Roses, which are actually three different wars. And Henry the seventh was most likely murdered on the orders of Edward the fourth. Hopefully, I’m getting these Roman numerals right. I should have written up the actual number. But it didn’t. So I’ve had to think quickly think on my toes here. Hold math, not my favorite. My favorite back to Henry the Eighth. He essentially starts changing everything right away because he knows that his dad was not a super popular ruler. And to make it official, he immediately executes two of his father’s religious advisors. Oh my god. Right away, boom, you’re dead. You love Jesus boom done. And in a move that was probably politically strategic for alliances, but to us now seems weird as buck. He gets permission from the Catholic Church to marry Catherine of Aragon, who was his brother, Arthur’s widow. Apparently, allegedly, Catherine and Arthur had never consummated their marriage. So Pope Julius The second was all cool. Cool, cool, cool. Cool. I guess you could marry her. So they do. Because they were teenagers and they were married. But I don’t think they had sex yet. But who knows? Weird?
Emily 10:42
Yeah, it’s surprising to me that they didn’t just do it. I mean,
Rachel 10:47
like, you’re 12 you’re obviously fertile. Let’s just do this. 1400s 1500s. Yeah. So they have a big lavish ceremony in 1509. Even though they don’t actually have that much wealth comparably to other Royals. And you know what they say, the more money you spend on the wedding, the more likely you are to get divorced. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Regardless, Henry starts going balls deep into military excursions. So he, I don’t know why I wrote that, like, not into Catherine into military. He goes against the advice of his counselors in 1512. When he joins his father in law, Ferdinand, the second of Aragon against France. Henry was not great in battle, and the fighting was apparently over something pointless. But English people got to gain the illusion of success. And that was good enough for them to really like Henry as a leader.
Emily 11:48
It’s an illusion.
Rachel 11:50
It’s an illusion, Michael, oh my gosh. It also starts bonding with Thomas Woolsey, who had organized the fighting in France. So just a quick aside, there’s going to be a lot of Thomas’s in this story. And like I said, because of our format, I will be going through them fairly quickly. But this guy, Thomas Woolsey, by 1515, he had all sorts of titles like Archbishop of York, Lord Chancellor of England, he was also a cardinal in the church and Henry’s BFF goodness, popular opinion at the time, was that Thomas was running shit. And Thomas bought into this as well. But Henry knew that Thomas would stay under his thumb in the smallest of tiny nutshells. Thomas was he was hot shit from 1515 ish to 1527 ish. Then he starts letting the power get to his head, he starts bucking up some alliances, and he messes with some of England’s reputation, their power and prestige across Europe. And at this time to Henry’s popularity was kind of dwindling in England. So this is the late 1520s people who were once hopeful were beginning to feel disenfranchised. He tried to pass tax legislation that were not well received. Leading Henry and Thomas Woolsey to be the 1500s equivalent of that spider man meme, where they’re just pointing at each other. It’s you It’s you. So both, both of them were like no, you made that stupid tax legislation. No, you made that stupid deck.
Emily 13:33
I’m not the captain now. You’re the captain. You’re the captain.
Rachel 13:37
I just go in along with your stupid ass plan. Yeah. Henry is the King. So he had Thomas take the blame to hide the fact that Henry at this point is basically a bankrupt ineffective leader. Not to mention, Catherine of Aragon is not cranking out any male errors. Trigger warning miscarriage all throughout this episode. Catherine struggled with fertility. She had multiple miscarriages and stillbirths, she was able to give birth to their daughter Mary in 1516. Mary was healthy but you know, female, so obviously she didn’t count didn’t count. And of course, Henry blamed Katherine for the fact that they didn’t have a son. So he resented Katherine. And instead of talking to her, you know, sharing his anxieties and fears being an all around emotionally healthy person, Henry starts to stick his dick into places that did not belong like electrical outlets including Emily’s relative.
Emily 14:49
Catherine Howard, I think is technically the person who is my relative but she’s cousins with Anne Boleyn. So I don’t quite know how that works, but I’ve asked my dad before I do research on her
Rachel 15:00
Close enough, ironically, and was the sister of another one of Henry’s mistresses, which seems more like a mediocre porn than a lesson in history.
Emily 15:13
My sisters here also, maybe she should join.
Rachel 15:17
She’s young and supple and historical. Henry was crazy infatuated with Anne. She was young and feisty and full of sun making potential. And he needed to marry her for those potential sons to be legitimate heirs to the throne.
Emily 15:35
What is it about a woman that lets the king know that she has son making potential? jets a special aura
Rachel 15:41
about her DNA to all the kids all the time? Yeah, I think he’s just like, Well, obviously, it’s not my lady making sperm. It’s her. No. But remember, in addition to being probably a little bit misogynistic, a lot a bit misogynistic, but I don’t know culturally if that was appropriate for the time. He was also Catholic. So how’s he supposed to get divorce? Right Catholics can’t get divorced, at least they couldn’t in the 1500s. Even now, it’s a pretty big no no in the Catholic Church. And he had to seek special permission from the pope to marry Katherine in the first place. Catherine of Aragon since she was his brother’s widow. So, in 1527 36 year old Henry starts pursuing the Kings great match her, aka is divorced from Katherine in pursuit of a 20 year old and yeah, it’s great. It’s his battle into marriage.
Emily 16:42
Give it a special project name and it’s all good. Project dragonfly. Why are all these awful rulers probably type threes? We’re always like, hey, that sounds like something I would do.
Rachel 16:59
Only the well organized ones. I’m gonna call it Rachel’s great matter anytime I do something I don’t want to do. Make it sound really important. Yeah, yeah. And he goes back to the Pope. And so hey, I know. I said it was no big deal for me to marry my brother’s widow because they hadn’t consummated the marriage. But listen, I’ve been doing some thinking a little soul searching. And it turns out, I broke God’s divine law. I think all of these miscarriages and stillbirths must be God punishing me. Because obviously if God was happy, I’d have a fucking son by now. I don’t know cuz basically there’s some Bible quote that I didn’t write down that says we don’t marry your brother’s widow, which I’ve been fucking fair. So this is a different Pope Pope Climate The seventh? And he’s all Yeah, no.
Emily 18:06
That’s not how the Bible works, Henry.
Rachel 18:09
Yeah, God says, we’re good bro. Just stay married to your first wife, and Thomas Woolsey, who remember is Henry’s BFF. And a cardinal could not pull any strings unfortunately. So Henry, had Thomas falsely accused and arrested for treason. So BFFs with Henry Watch out,
Emily 18:30
All because he couldn’t help him convince the Pope.
Rachel 18:34
That other drama where he had been treason, treason, anything that he Henry had picked up on. He kind of was having Thomas take the blame for slowly like with that whole taxation thing. So he had been setting him up, I think to be like, Well,
Emily 18:50
I have a strong ruler. Here you go. Oh, like when you start, like making a folder for an employee. It’s like I need to start documenting that.
Rachel 19:01
Yeah, like every passive aggressive email that Brenda fucking sends you just put.
Emily 19:08
Okay, Susan, whatever you say.
Rachel 19:12
Thomas Woolsey died in custody. And Thomas Moore, Thomas number two, became Chancellor and close advisor to Henry. So real quick, Thomas Moore was a conservative Catholic, very anti Martin Luther and did not approve of Henry getting divorced either. He told Henry that going through with a divorce is a rejection of Rome in the Catholic Church as a whole. And Henry’s like, Hmm, I don’t like that. So let’s enter Thomas number three. It was Thomas Cromwell. In 1532. Thomas Cromwell was in control of the English Council. And his mindset was the polar opposite of Thomas More’s he’s all Viva La revolusi on He says that the Church of England needs to separate from the Roman Catholic Church. So Henry is king, and now is also God’s deputy on Earth. Oh, handy, and they are not great about separation of church and state. Yes. So they have the Anglican Church now. So that’s what happened. Step one, revolution, step two, new church. Step three, in 1533, he announced his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and Mary’s amberlynn. And those not divorces is what the history says, even though they have a daughter together. Right? And in September of 1533, so I think they got married in January, so literally nine months later, and gives birth to a daughter, Elizabeth.
Emily 20:52
You, you bitch.
Rachel 20:54
What about all that sun making fucking potential?
Emily 20:57
What about those son making tits? Damn.
Rachel 21:03
meanwhile, in Rome, the pope excommunicated Henry, who at this point is having his cake and eating it too. He gives zero fucks He’s like, I don’t care. I’m a fucking king on earth and I’m married. I got another daughter. But we’ll deal with that later. Henry has accidentally made himself a divine ruler, but he also accidentally made himself a giant hypocrite. Henry had actually written a book in 1521, in which he attacked Martin Luther as a heretic for leaving the church. Yes. And Henry was called by other Catholics defender of the faith. And now he’s compared more often than not to Martin Luther King, he’s all one not as bad as that guy. You are though? No, great. So yeah. Okay. So now it’s the 1530s. Henry is at having his you know, existential crisis over religion and also enjoying absolute power. So both fans who doesn’t, who doesn’t, and Thomas Cromwell is running the show. He’s making policies that transfers religious money to Henry like money that monasteries are donating. There’s like a lot of religious land. And he also makes a policy saying that Henry is subject to the law under parliament, but the joke is on everyone else because Henry is rubbing elbows with parliament and basically just keeps doing whatever he wants all the time. And you know what he wants to do Emily?
Emily 22:37
Fuck somebody else?
Rachel 22:38
some beheading.
Emily 22:39
Some beheading. just a little beheading a little light be heading in the morning,
Rachel 22:45
a little lady beheading with your morning cup of coffee and like I said, son making tits. Um, not everybody was stoked about Henry claiming divine rulership over the church and the country. And a guy named Robert ask started a rebellion from 1536 to 1537 called the pilgrimage of grace over 30,000 people rebelled against Henry’s decision to leave the Roman Catholic Church. Unfortunately, for them, rapid ask was executed with 200 other rebels and the Bishop of Rochester, john Fisher and Thomas number two, Thomas Moore refused to take an oath of loyalty to Henry so they were beheaded as well. Yeah, that to me and everybody else,
Emily 23:36
he’s just got like a conveyor belt of people lined up to go to the guillotine. He’s like and just lean down here…. I’m gonna give you a massage, no big deal.
Rachel 23:54
Henry also executed anyone who may be able to claim royal blood and fuck with the Tudor dynasty. And, unfortunately, when we think about the long list of people that Henry beheaded, and Berlin, he’s a part of that list. Also did not produce a male heir who her tits are liars.
Emily 24:20
The tits don’t lie.
Rachel 24:22
But hers did. I wrote probably because Henry sperm primarily makes girls but whatever. Science, Science and also had two miscarriages. I have to I didn’t do a ton of research on this, but I have to assume miscarriages and stillbirths were pretty common in the 16th century, because they just didn’t have the medical care that we have. I mean, with as common as they are now. I have to worry even more than Yeah, it’s now in 2021. One in four pregnancies will result in miscarry. Statistically It’s crazy. But Henry starts getting bored of you know not having a son
Emily 25:07
I just want someone to throw the ball around with!!
Rachel 25:10
FOr the love of God can a divine ruler not just play a little catch. So he becomes interested in one of Anne’s ladies and waiting Jane Seymour. Not Dr. Quinn medicine woman different Jane Seymour.
Emily 25:29
Not the one that makes the jewelry.
Rachel 25:32
Yes. With the hearts.
Emily 25:35
Yep, Dr. Quinn medicine woman slash jewelry maker.
Rachel 25:40
So, Henry accuses ironically accuses and of adultery. And just to completely soil her reputation. He also falsely accuses her of having incestuous relationship, I think with our brother and says that she is plotting to murder him with her lover families. Whatever you want to say her lovers slash incestuous lovers, whatever. It’s brother lover. Henry’s actually the one cheating on her with Jane, whatever. And old line is executed in 1536, along with three men who were falsely accused of being her lovers. 11 days later, Henry marries Jane Seymour,
Emily 26:25
Jesus, it’s like Jane, think about it. Think about what your future looks like.
Rachel 26:32
It’s not great for you, Jane, you’re not gonna be able to change him. He’s he’s gonna do what he wants. And what he wants to do is murder. And it’s a really short marriage. Jane was never even officially crowned Queen, coronation and enhanced. She, yeah, she’s the one that got away because Jane did give birth to a son, Edward, in 1537. But then tragically, Jane died nine days after giving birth. Henry and I’s court did mourn for her. And he would go on to say that she was his only true wife, because she was the only one to give him a son. And so he and the court mourn for what Henry considered was a reasonable amount of time, about seven or eight minutes. Okay, yeah, it was a long time. I thought it was going to be quick, too. But then, after those three years, Henry starts marrying anybody with a uterus. And then it’s like the worst dating game ever.
Emily 27:40
It’s like don’t pick me, don’t pick me! It’s like what’s that guy? Randy Alcala – who was on the dating show. Oh! like, yeah, don’t pick me!
Rachel 27:49
Ugh, the dating game killer god, he’s the worst. We’ll do an episode on him at some point. He’s one of the like the hitchhiker killers, right? Yeah, I think so. The next unlucky lady is Anne of Cleves. This marriage was Cleves was set up by his boy Thomas Cromwell. Thomas number three. Who thought it would create a good alliance against France. I’m not sure yeah, tricky. France I’m I’m getting married. I don’t know if this was like a married at first sight kind of a situation like on TLC or whenever it’s time where they didn’t see each other, or they didn’t meet beforehand or what? But essentially, Henry and Anna, please get married and then Henry throws a bitch fit to Thomas Crown. Well, because he’s not attracted to Anna Cleves. Well, then
Emily 28:43
why did you marry her? Yeah, so it was like, I must be blind dating slash marrying.
Rachel 28:49
Yeah, yeah. And you know, he’s King slash deity on earth or whatever. He does what he wants.
Emily 28:56
I gotta have a hot wife.
Rachel 28:58
Yeah. Are you kidding? I’m not hot, but she has to be
Emily 29:04
like every mid 2000s TV show. Yeah,
Rachel 29:10
when you have like, Kevin James married to Leah Remini and you’re like, that wouldn’t happen.
Emily 29:15
It’s like how no and she’s like super successful and he’s like,
Rachel 29:19
oh, kinda dude. Yeah, yeah, have something to offer don’t just be king and protect God like
Emily 29:29
oh, Henry the Eighth be the best
Rachel 29:31
version of yourself. Boo. So, Henry divorces ANne of Cleves pretty much immediately he’s like no, not hot yet. So in addition to securing Henry’s title as giant douchebag this quickie marriage and divorce also got him questioning Thomas Chromwell, because he’s all why would you set me up with an algo Thomas pick. This guy’s I don’t care if it’s a good Alliance.
Emily 30:03
I don’t want to fuck and Alliance okay. However good her personality is Thomas!
Rachel 30:15
Yeah. Not a good situation.
Emily 30:19
He sees her and he’s just like ewwww.
Rachel 30:25
She as plain as the nose on Ann’s face. And Thomas’s enemies knew that Henry was starting to question him. And so they got the year of the king. And in 1540, Henry had Thomas beheaded, I think also for treason, for setting me up.
Also, by 1540, Henry’s mental health was not awesome. He had always been kind of distrustful of others, but he was starting to display paranoid tendencies. Essentially, Henry believed that he controlled everyone. So if you knew this about Henry, that he has this mindset, and you’re willing to pander him a bit, you could pretty easily manipulate him. I also envision him with a bit of I don’t give a fuck attitude. He’s the oldest king in Europe at this point. He thinks he controls everyone. He’s got some depression, and then he does what we all most of us do when we’re feeling depressed. He starts eating his feelings.
Emily 31:40
same girl.
Rachel 31:41
I mean, look, I know judgment, Henry, like you got to do what you got to do. And listen, he wasn’t the thing.
Emily 31:48
right past me two times a day deal with it.
Rachel 31:52
I also ate out twice today and it was delicious, but may have been a huge mistake for my lactose intolerance is huge. A huge mistake. So back to Henry that we’re not talking about my terrible stomach. Henry’s moods were often described as unpredictable. And he probably could have benefited from some therapy and some medications. But of course, that wasn’t a thing. And he decided to go classic midlife crisis and married 20 year olds Katherine Howard. When he’s 49 Fun fact, like Emily said, Catherine Howard was in Berlin’s first cousin. At first thanks for okay. Henry felt that Catherine helped keep him young. So he bought her lavish gifts. And unfortunately for Catherine, she was not super into Henry. And there was a little more proof of infidelity this time with then with our girl and Bolin and Catherine wanted to fuck guys her own age, which I get. So she was also beheaded. And then, Henry did that old narcissistic psychopathic thing when he’s all killing her made me feel really sad. Oh, sad for you that you had to kill your wife like that. That’s really sad.
Emily 33:08
Yeah, such a bummer for you.
Rachel 33:10
Mm hmm. So to cheer him up, he married his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, in 1543, who I read was, quote, quiet and obedient. According to Britannica. Wait, so
Emily 33:23
was that three Annes two Catherine’s? and a Jane?
Rachel 33:26
No, I think it was three Katherine’s two Annes and a Jane.
Emily 33:30
Oh, yeah. It’s like, they really have a small selection of names they choose from over there, don’t they? Thomas, and Catherine. Boom, that’s it.
Rachel 33:39
That’s everybody’s name. That’s why Jane is special. That’s why I think she could make babies because she was the only like, one of these things is not. So we’ve got a sad, violent, unpredictable narcissist, right, who is solely in charge of creating policies. Henry’s focus was on the unity of the realm, even though there was a lot of religious tension, because he wanted to be the sole leader. So he’s like, well, we all need to come together under the Church of England that I also happen to lead. No, no, not because of that, though. Not related. predictably, Henry gets a lot of pushback for this, which amounted to a lot more beheadings, feeling restless. Henry gets back into some warring, you know, know how you do you eat to feelings, you kill some people, you got to do what you got to do. That’s how depression works.
Emily 34:31
It’s called self care guys,
Rachel 34:33
deal with it. 1542 he starts fighting with France. Again. He aligns himself with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the fifth. It didn’t go very well. Henry just wasn’t incredibly competent at war. And he was physically and mentally ill. So he ends up having to sell off a bunch of land because he couldn’t afford all of the costs that come from war, which then creates Inflation for the people of England. And in 1544, Charles Buffett decides to make peace with France. But Henry being bitter as fuck holds a grudge for another couple of years. He’s alive not at peace,
Emily 35:13
but the fighting. He’s just pouting in a corner.
Rachel 35:19
It’s like how nobody in America recognizes that we’ve lost Vietnam. You know, like, well, what happened over there?
Emily 35:26
We just kept we came home. We just decided it was time to come home. Yeah,
Rachel 35:30
Why though? It was our choice. We decided it was time to bring the boys home. Shut your No. Henry’s health continued to decline through 1546 gross fact. Henry probably had gout and was covered and pus filled Boyles.
Emily 35:52
Oh my god.
Rachel 35:55
Oh, you’re right, ready for this?
Emily 35:56
Oh, all those women who had to have sex with him gross.
Rachel 36:01
He had a wound in his leg from a jousting injury. And he was obese to the point that he had trouble moving himself. And he probably had type two diabetes as well. But of course, you can’t treat that in the 1500s. He continued to try to unite everyone under the Anglican Church. And his paranoid thinking caused him to destroy an entire family line. He thought they had some sort of royal blood and they would try to take the heir to the throne. Right like we have a claim on the throne. Gotcha. I didn’t get super into that because sorry, a long story. Henry died on January 28 1547. He was buried with wife number three, Jane Seymour, in the same coffin. I think next to each other, they say they just have a little saran wrap over it and they’re like to add.
Emily 37:01
Gross,
Rachel 37:02
Edward his son inherited the throne with Mary and Elizabeth waiting in succession. I have a quick epilogue about those kids. So Edward began his rule at age 10 and rolled until he died as a teenager in 1553. Mary Tudor ruled from 1553 to 1558. And she was known as Bloody Mary, because she also like to do some beheading, although not nearly as much as her father. It’s just she’s a woman folk and they don’t like violence. So she’s bloody. I think she only beheaded like 200 people, granted only over five years. Yeah, but not nearly as many as Henry did.
Emily 37:42
How many does he had then?
Rachel 37:44
I don’t know. I don’t have a count.
Emily 37:46
200 seems like a lot.
Rachel 37:48
Remember, he did 200 just that one time with Robert ask.
Emily 37:52
Oh, yeah, that’s right.
Rachel 37:54
It is estimated that anywhere from 57,000 to 72,000 people were executed during Henry’s 37 year reign. Holy shit. That’s this is likely to be an exaggeration. That’s from history extra.
Emily 38:09
Okay, what was the first number
Rachel 38:12
57,000 people
Emily 38:15
over 37 years? That means you’d have to be beheading 1500 people a year. Yeah.
Rachel 38:23
So 200 over five years. That’s good. Not why not bloody Henry. Yeah,
Emily 38:29
she is a benevolent ruler compared to him!
Rachel 38:33
Seriously, but the person who has the most, and the best reputation and the last of the tutors would be Elizabeth the first. who stepped up and rolled until 1603. And so she has a she was known as more gracious, maybe more benevolent, she probably didn’t kill nearly as many people as her half sister. So that is my super brief overview view of Henry the Eighth. Oh my gosh,
Emily 39:02
I’m so baffled by the fact that he killed 57,000 people or more like, That is insane.
Rachel 39:10
It was really interesting researching him because we covered him at some point in history class in school, and I just remember that little rhyme that they teach you with Henry the Eighth. Maybe you didn’t. I don’t know every we talked about this on tik tok a little responding to comments, depending on where you went to school. The curriculums are different shit you learn is different. The mnemonic devices are different, but every time I think about Henry the Eighth and his wife’s I think, divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.
Emily 39:39
So I knew what was Kevin a little bit I don’t know that we learned about him at all.
Rachel 39:45
Really?
Emily 39:47
Yeah, I mean, I’m pretty sure my high school just taught us American history. But yeah, knows, and probably not a very correct version, but you know,
Rachel 40:00
So there it is. So that’s, that’s awesome. What do you got?
Emily 40:04
Well, after a couple of weeks going international and going way, way back in history, I decided to go come back to America and do something a little more recent. So I’m going to Anaheim, California. And my story set in 1980. Okay, so very recent, compared to my last story, which was in 1240.
Rachel 40:31
A little bit.
Emily 40:32
So before I get into my story, I was going to talk a bit about Anaheim. Have you been?
Rachel 40:38
Or have Yeah, not since I was eight or so.
Emily 40:42
But did you go to Disneyland while you were there? Is that why you were there?
Rachel 40:46
I did. Yeah. We lived in California for a year when I was a small child set. We did go to Disney. Lean guys. Well, yeah, so that’s one of the main reasons why I was in the Anaheim I traveled there with Carson back in like
Emily 41:01
2012 ish or something like that, because we met up with our friends Audrey and Alvin who lived out there at the time. Super fun trip. I will talk more about it on where in the world and include the story of how I met the Backstreet Boys at Disneyland.
Rachel 41:18
I cannot wait to hear that story. I’m so excited. AND guess which backstreet boy was an asshole.
Emily 41:25
Yeah, I happen to where in the world if you want to find out which one was a total dick. Okay. patreon.com slash horrible history. Boom. So if we are going to Anaheim for vacation, and let’s say we aren’t going to Disney because we both been there already. Here’s a couple of the other things that we could do. So first things first, let’s talk food, obviously, obviously. So anime is really cool, because they’re one of those cities that has foodie neighborhoods like the packing district and little Saigon. And so from what I can tell, I think we definitely want to head over to the packing district and head up packing house, which is like a food hall that has 50 different artisans, including a place called umami, that serves burgers and just like reading about them, and thinking about them now. Made my mouth fill up with the saliva. Like oh my gosh. So here’s what I would order if I went to umami. The K town burger, which is a four ounce smash Patty. Go to Jang marinated pork belly, Korean slop pickles and their classic sauce. Yeah.
Rachel 42:36
Sure. Like sounds really good. I’m not even hungry. And I have the saliva now.
Emily 42:42
I fucking love go juice. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and pork belly and like, just Korean food is so fucking good.
Rachel 42:50
Yeah, and I will eat pork belly anytime in any fashion Valley.
Emily 42:54
Exactly. you could just wake Rachel up in the middle of the night and just pop a little piece of pork belly in her mouth. And she’d be like, yep, I’m down
Rachel 43:02
I would just be like ahhhhhh.
Emily 43:05
Best dream of all time. We’d also want to hit up a place called George’s that serves Southern California soul food, including poboys and fried chicken, blackened fish. And of course chicken and waffles, which always sounds good. Can you tell I wrote this when I was hungry? No, no. Oh, and if we went a little Saigon, we’d want to go to 45 and get their famous beef noodle soup. Especially because little Saigon offers like really cultural, real culinary experiences that I think are kind of rare to find in the United States. So I’m super down for that.
Rachel 43:47
Totally
Emily 43:48
other things that we would want to do. Since I’m a sucker for art fairs and cultural festivals and farmers market. I’d say we’d want to check out the downtown Anaheim farmers market and the OC Cherry Blossom Festival. Don’t call it that.
Rachel 44:07
Don’t call it that.
Emily 44:08
Don’t call it that. And those take place in Huntington Beach. And the Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates Japanese and Japanese American culture. And that’s a three day event that’s free. And they have all these activities and like performers and musical groups and vendors and a night market and dancing and arts and crafts and all kinds of crazy stuff. Sounds awesome. Like exactly the tennis shoe by leg.
Rachel 44:38
Yeah.
Emily 44:39
And honestly, speaking of Huntington Beach, I mean, you’re in Southern California. experience it the way it should be by laying on a white sand beach and like listening to the waves crash in the ocean, which PS on where in the world patrons. I will also be sharing the story of how I got the nickname Lilo like Lindsey Lohan while visiting Huntington Beach. Okay,
Rachel 45:03
I’m excited. Okay,
Emily 45:06
now let’s talk about horrible shit. Whoo. Yay. Because today I’m going to tell you about the unsolved mystery surrounding Dorothy Jane Scott. Are you familiar at all? I’m not No. Okay. So, in my personal least favorite kind of horrible. Dorothy Jane Scott was a young woman, only 32 years old, a single mother to her four year old Sean. And she and Sean were the two Musketeers. They lived at her aunt’s house in Canton, California. And she was a very devoted mother. So she worked for California for a very California establishment called the swingers psych shop. And, on one side, it was the swinger psych shop. And on the other It was like, Captain John’s head shop or something like that. But she specifically worked at the swinger slash psych shop in Anaheim. Okay, but she was not a swinger. No worries. She worked. I wasn’t worried. But don’t worry. She worked in the backroom office as a secretary and lead a normal life by all intents and purposes so yeah,
Rachel 46:22
by like she had a traditional life. Yeah,
Emily 46:25
exactly. Her so called friends even called her life bland.
Rachel 46:32
And yeah, she’s gonna end up dead don’t say she was bland say she lights up a room!
Emily 46:40
You never never tell anyone I light up a room I don’t want to get murdered. They they made some mention of like, her life was way less colorful than the tie dye shirts and multicolored beads sold at the store. She worked at. batch Exactly. So they kind of described her this way because she was ultra religious and rarely dated. You know, she had way too much going on to worry about boys, which I get to be honest for you. But she spent most of her day working. While Sean hung out with their parents, her parents. And so she was just like, simply put, kind hearted, compassionate person, lead a quiet, simple life. But even the sweetest people can become targets, I’m afraid, sometimes more so than the non sweet people. And Dorothy Jane Scott is like the epitome of a sweet person who became the target of someone who’s very not sweet. So the year is 1980 and Dorothy began receiving threatening phone calls at work from an unknown man who claimed to be watching her. No, this is my nightmare. I do not like the thought of someone watching me without me knowing them, like anytime in a movie that they have one of those like shots where it’s like through a bush, you know, I hate that. It’s like, I don’t care for it. hate it, and yet I don’t always close my blinds, but what ever okay. So what’s worse, this color called Dorothy, literally, every day, every single day, he called her and warned her that he was always watching her and told her that he was obsessed with her. And he claimed to be in love.
Rachel 48:46
He’s not he’s not though.
Emily 48:48
Unfortunately, this was not just talk. She knew that he was actually following her because he had mentioned her movements and specifically call out clothes she was wearing. And yet nobody seemed to know who this was, or ever see anyone lurking around. And so for months he tormented her. One day he even called her and said to go outside because he had something for her. And she like no begrudgingly went outside and there was a single dead rose on the windshield of her car.
Rachel 49:24
This is a horror movie.
Emily 49:26
I know. It might have a horror movie made about it. I don’t know. So soon the phone calls become more serious and more terrifying. And she starts to fear for her life. So like at one point, the man reportedly told her that he would get her alone and cut her up into bits so no one will ever find her hate and then he went ahead to reveal what she was wearing that day. So it’s like and I will see you and have access to you. So yeah My God, hate hate. No.
Rachel 50:03
Yes, hate. Did you have any idea who this bitch was like, Who is this guy? Well, interestingly
Emily 50:09
enough, my next line, what’s maybe creepiest thing? She thought the voice sounded familiar, but she could never place it. So it vaguely sounded like somebody. That horrible thing where you’re like, Oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue, or I guess in the tip of my ears or whatever, you know, it’s like,
Rachel 50:27
it’s on the tip of my eardrum.
Emily 50:28
I know it, but I can’t figure it. It’s right there on the tip.
Rachel 50:33
It’s just the tip. Yeah.
Emily 50:40
Obviously, these calls shake Dorothy to the core. I honestly don’t have any idea what I would do. I mean, I feel like I would change my phone number. And like, maybe move it like, do you move away? How serious Do you take it? You know, I don’t know. I don’t know what I would do.
Rachel 50:59
I mean, this is 1980. So it’s not like you can get a crazy alarm system. And right now, I, I don’t know what I would do. Because if you’re a single parent, you don’t want to like fuck up everything for your kid. But also you worry about your kid like,
Emily 51:12
to whole thing. Right? When I feel like the ad is especially to it’s like, oh, I could picture her friends or parents or be like, Oh, he’s just somebody who’s got a crush. Like he’s probably harmless or whatever. Yes,
Rachel 51:25
yeah. But she really want to chop up your body. But he’s telling you, he thinks you’re cute.
Emily 51:31
He pushes you down on the playground. That’s how he tells you he likes you.
Rachel 51:35
Because he’s a fucking psychopath.
Emily 51:39
So she did something I would probably never do and began considering purchasing a handgun. I can’t have a gun like one. I don’t really believe in guns, but to not that I don’t believe that they exist. Like, I don’t believe in owning hand guns. Yeah. But to I would totally, like accidentally kill the mailman or something like, Oh, yeah, I just know that it hurt me. But so she, I guess ended up being like me and decided against it. And instead, she decided to start taking karate lessons. So I thought that was kind of cool that she’s like doing something about it. But yeah, her main reasoning for not getting a gun was just like she was afraid that her four year old is gonna accidentally harm himself. And so he went with the karate lessons. So this brings us to may 28 of 1918. Just another day, she drops off Shawn with her parents and go straight to work. Later that evening, she calls her parents and tells them that she’s going to be late picking up Shawn, because a 9pm employee meeting got called which I’m like, Who the fuck has a 9pm meeting? Like I guess maybe at swingers shop, but uh,
Rachel 52:56
we’re like, that’s my overtime.
Emily 52:58
Yeah, no, super late. Yeah, yeah. So during the meeting, Dorothy proved that she’d been watching mash a little bit and notice that her coworker Conrad Boston, didn’t look so hot. She was like, there’s a red swelling bump on the side of your arm. And her spidey senses started to tingle and she knew he needed medical attention. Okay, so she grabbed another coworker, Pan head, and they left the meeting early to take Conrad to the hospital. So they took him in and while he was in the ER being treated for what turned out was a black widow spider by which I’m like, was it at the store like two? I think Did you find it??
Rachel 53:42
nightmare find the spider kill it kill it with fire burn it down.
Emily 53:46
Like you have to kill it burn the whole shopper and all Dasher. Oh, so he’s getting treated. Pam and Dorothy stay together in the waiting room. It’s just the two of them hanging out. And around 11pm Conrad finally got discharged and was given a prescription. And so he was still pretty weak and like, you know, not able to walk super well, or he was trying to fake the fact that he was slowly turning into spider man like either or he was weak quote unquote.
Rachel 54:32
But seriously, kids, don’t try that at home. Don’t let it do not.
Emily 54:35
Do not let spiders bite you. So anywho while waiting for the prescription, Dorothy was being ever helpful and offered to drive her car up towards the exit so he wouldn’t have to walk. So she’s like, I’ll go get the car. I’ll swing around and pick you up. And Pam stayed with Conrad and so Dorothy goes and goes to get her car and then after the press scription was ready Conrad and Pam go outside to stand, you know on the curb and wait for her. And so they get to the point where they’re starting to tap their feet and like strung their fingers wondering like what the fuck Dorothy, like, where are you? when all of a sudden her 1972 white Toyota station wagon speeds past them with its headlights on like its high beams on and blinding them. And so they couldn’t see into the car to see who was driving it just yeah, who went right past
Rachel 55:31
and it’s her car drives past them.
Emily 55:33
Yes. So they’re like waving their arms to get her attention. They’re like, Hey, we’re here. We’re here. Yeah. And she just like flies by them. It just like sped past took a sharp turn out of the parking lot and left, left her coworkers like confused standing there. So they kind of initially thought maybe some emergency came up with Shawn and she just was like, I gotta get the fuck I have to go. But after a while, they ended up reporting her missing because they hadn’t heard from her in a few hours. Yeah. So after several hours of searching for Dorothy, police came across a vehicle and Gulf in flames. And it was her white 1973 Toyota station wagon. And it was about 10 miles from the hospital. But Dorothy was not in the vehicle. She was nowhere to be found, like, vanished without a trace. Nobody knew where she
Rachel 56:31
So she wasn’t burned alive. At least there’s that.
Emily 56:34
Right? So it’s like, well, she’s just missing now at this point. Yeah. without a trace. No one knows anything. Until a man began calling Dorothy’s parents whose names are Jacob and Veera? Oh, and he calls them every day, a call. They would only come when beer was home alone. They always came around the same time like they knew when Jacob was going to be gone. At one point she was home and she got this particularly creepy call. The caller says are you related to Dorothy Scott? And Vera said yes. And the caller said I’ve got her and then up. Right, so creepy. So, Veera and Jacob were told by the police not to reach out to the media about their daughter’s disappearance, you know, let this be a police investigation don’t get the media involved. But after a week of searching, and there being zero progress, Jacob called the Orange County Register about Dorothy’s disappearance. And of course, Orange County ran the story about her disappearance. And after seeing the news, the unsub actually. I wrote that without even like thinking about it, the announcer called the editor of the newspaper, Pat Riley and told him I killed her. I killed Dorothy Scott. She was my love. And I caught her cheating with another man. She denied having someone else so I killed her. That’s disgusting. So that was the call to the newspaper guy like Jesus. Of course, he didn’t stop there. He made sure to prove he was legit by giving details about what she was wearing, and like what she was doing at the hospital. And he also continued calling her parents weekly. For four years. Why four years?
Rachel 58:40
Why we Why is the door shutting off on that? That’s Yeah, that’s horrifying.
Emily 58:46
Yeah, just ruthlessly sadistic, seriously. The police did tap their phone to try to determine his location, but he really never stayed on the call long enough. And he always called and had something different to tell her tell them he would either call and say he killed her or she was tortured and held captive. Sometime he would simply say I have her you know. So there was really no certainty that she was dead. Which of course then keeps giving the parents hope, which feels like the worst thing in some of these situations. Yes. And so he actually called almost every Wednesday for those four years. Every time the same voice. No one knew who it was. And then one day, Jacob the father just happened to be home midday on a Wednesday. And when the phone rang, he picked it up instead of Veera. And after that the stalker never called again.
Rachel 59:50
Did he say anything to Jacob?
Emily 59:53
I know it didn’t say but some people do. make some assumptions that maybe whoever it was was an associate or somehow knew Jacob, to where he can take a while back. He’s like, oh, Jacob would have known who I am. So like maybe one of his co workers or something you never know. Yeah. So finally, four years later on April 6 1984, human and dog bones were discovered by a construction worker lying side by side. The bones were partly charred, and authorities believe they had been there for about two years, but not longer than that. And if you remember, she had been gone for four years. They were pretty sure they’d only been at that spot for two years, because I guess a big brush fire had swept across that same site and 82. And so they’re like, yeah, we would have found these if these were here before. Who knows? But they also discovered with the body a turquoise ring, and a watch that had stopped at 12am on May 29 1980, which is like, just hours after they last saw her drive away in her car. Chilling, so I don’t know if that leads us to believe that. Her watch stopped when he killed her or he like her. Or she had her hands on it. Yeah, because it’s like, I don’t know. Here. That’s how watches work. Actually, the second its owner dies, it stops in memory.
Rachel 1:01:32
bonded. Thanks, Apple Watch. Thanks, Apple. Sir, I replace you every year and
Emily 1:01:41
it took a few days. But on April 14, the bones were identified as Dorothy’s by dental records. So sadly, she had been killed. And an autopsy never determined the cause of death. Which is crazy.
Rachel 1:01:59
Well, yeah, I mean, if it’s just bones, it would be really difficult to determine a cause of death. Yeah,
Emily 1:02:04
yeah. In an intensely creepy final jab at their hearts, the mysterious man decided it was a good idea to call her parents one last time after Dorothy was found. And simply he said, is Dorothy home? That’s disgusting. sickening. Yeah. But that was the last that they heard from him. And years past, and no one ever was able to figure out who it was they never located the killer. They never identified the man on the phone or determined if the two were one in the same, which is like, of course they were right. But like, they couldn’t, how would they? They couldn’t figure it out. Her parents were adamant that the man was the killer, but had no hard evidence, you know, other than the phone calls that they never were able to tap. Yeah. And in fact, no one was ever even named a suspect. In her case. Like, that is how little they knew about who this person was. There’s never been an arrest. Like there’s one strong theory that has kind of been floating around. There was this man, Mike Butler, who worked with Dorothy and his sister worked at the shop to and I guess he was obsessed with Dorothy was like, live nearby. And it’s kind of rumored that he was unstable and maybe involved with cult activities, though it was also the 80s. So it’s like that could have been satanic panic. But whatever. Sure. Muscle like Shawn, her son is convinced that it was him. So lots of fingers pointing at this Mike Butler guy. And one reason that Shawn thinks it’s Butler is because Butler knew Jacob Dorothy’s father. And so like I said, that’s like, why maybe they think that he hung up once Jacob answered, because Jacob would have been like, Mike, is that you? You know, but there’s no real evidence to back up this theory. Sure. Shawn’s father was also suspected, but he had an alibi and therefore was not investigated. And sadly, both Jacob and Vieira passed away without knowing what happened to their daughter. Jacob died in 1994 and Veera died in 2002. never able to achieve peace of mind through the capture of their daughter’s killer. And so her death remains a mystery to this day.
Rachel 1:04:39
I hate that. I hate unsolved mysteries. And you told me at the beginning, this is an unsolved mystery, and I still hate it. Uh, don’t make it. I’m sorry.
Emily 1:04:50
I know you hate them. But yeah, I know. I was just like, the calling thing is so fucking creepy to me. Like it would never happen now because I just literally don’t answer I found it. But you know, like, it’s just so sad. It’s sad to me that for years she felt it coming, you know, like to have to live in terror for all that time leading up to it. To be like something is wrong. Something is wrong like my life is feeling threatened. Help me Help me and nothing happened.
Rachel 1:05:21
It’s heartbreaking. I wish you had gone first. We should have thought.
Emily 1:05:30
And please rate review and subscribe. Yeah, yeah,
Rachel 1:05:36
we do have a little palate cleanser where in the world is horrible history that will be out after this episode where we talk about we’ll hear Emily’s Backstreet Boys story. We have all sorts of extra content over on patreon.com slash horrible history.
Emily 1:05:51
Yeah, definitely check it out. And you can also find us on Tick Tock and Instagram on both we’re at horrible history pod. You can email us if you want. We are at horrible history podcast@gmail.com and just want to extra plug to seriously please if you have the time to like, pause now and go and click the star buttons and give us some reviews and ratings. It really does help you know with our presence and with people knowing who we are and us gaining more followers so we would appreciate your friends. Tell your friends. Thank you so much for listening.
Rachel 1:06:32
Hopefully you’re horrified.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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