Drunk History (2013) s06e07 Episode Script
Femme Fatales
1 Mata Hari became the number one exotic dancer in all of Europe, but they're like, "How the fuck does this bitch know all of this detailed information?" I wish I could do everything drunk.
- [laughs.]
- I really do.
And Maurine was like, "These women are obviously guilty.
"They are not going to convict [hiccups.]
me.
" [hiccups.]
Um I forget.
[patriotic music.]
[pages riffling.]
- [jazzy music.]
- We're doing gummy bear whisky tonight.
We're doing gummy bear whisky tonight.
- Aren't we? - Yes, please.
You take one.
Red is better for bourbon.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Oh, yeah.
I already love it.
- Gummy bourbon.
- Gummy bourbon.
- [chuckles.]
- Mm-hmm.
Hello.
[laughs.]
I'm Sugar Lyn Beard.
And I'm about to take you through the story of Mata Hari.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to tell you this story because she's kind of like the grandmother of the striptease.
- Whoa.
- She's an icon.
You had me at "grandmother.
" [both chuckle.]
So our story begins in 1903 when a Dutch woman named Margaretha Zelle moves over to Paris.
She's like, "I'm in Paris.
I have no money.
"What can I draw on? Oh, my gosh.
"I spent two years in "Ooh, that's gross.
"I spent two years in Indonesia learning the dances.
" So she decides to make up a persona for herself.
She becomes Mata Hari, the exotic Indonesian dancer.
She's like, "Come to my show.
"You'll see what dances are like in the Far East.
" She does her first very big show in this big fancy theater.
She's, like, performing in front of high society, and she's, like, tearing veil by veil, and underneath that, she's pretty naked.
And it's like, "Oh, shit.
This is traditional? I can hang in for this.
" And she, like, peels this one off and then peels this one off.
And she's getting away with it because people are like, "It's not a naughty thing.
No, this is a cultural educational experience.
" "I need to watch this woman strip down to her nitties.
" - "Nitties.
" - "Nitties.
It's like a titty but covered a little bit.
" - "Mm.
" - Mm-hmm.
And with every veil that dropped, her audience loved her more and more.
And with that, she became the number one exotic dancer in all of Europe.
Oh.
I'm spilling on my face.
[hiccups.]
Careful.
[gasps.]
Jeez.
Wow.
[both chuckle.]
Mm.
So, she's dancing.
She's getting rich.
And she was a lover, so she was taking a lot of these men to bed.
They're giving her money and jewels and golds for this relationship.
Not goals.
Golds.
Yeah.
Give-a me golds, please.
Give me golds.
Lick-a my nitties for golds.
[both chuckle.]
So, Mata Hari is performing in Berlin.
It is 1914 in July, and the war breaks out, and the German authorities come and they're like, "You love the French? "Fuck you.
"We're taking your golds "and your jewelry, and now you have nothing.
" And she's distraught, and she's like, "Ugh, fuck every thing.
" [sobs.]
Hold up.
[mumbles indistinctly.]
Wait a minute.
Oh, no, shit.
[laughs.]
[laughs.]
I'm so drunk.
Hold on.
I'm so fucked up.
And so Mata Hari is approached by the Germans, and they're like, "Hey, Mata Hari.
"You're cool.
You're sly.
"I got 20K francs for you to spy on the French for me.
" Mata Hari finishes, she's like, "Oh, this is a good deal.
That's a lot of money.
" So she agrees.
She's like, "Okay, shit.
" And he's like, "Your code name is H21," and she's like, "Fun.
Okay.
" Off he goes, and Mata Hari turns around and she pockets that cash and she's like, "Fuck these people.
No.
They stole my shit.
They owe me.
" [laughs.]
She doesn't spy for the Germans.
She just goes on this luxurious tour of Europe.
She's living it up.
She's spending like crazy, to the point that she gets the attention of this dude named Ladoux.
- Ladoux? - Ladoux.
- The Dude? - [laughs.]
Okay, hold on.
So, oh, oh, shit.
Georges Ladoux is part of the French counterespionage bureau.
[laughs.]
"We need to find someone "fuckin', you know, betraying France.
We need to we need to catch a spy.
" Ladoux wants to put somebody on trial for betraying France.
Mata Hari [mumbling indistinctly.]
So he goes after Mata Hari.
[dramatic music.]
What a Ladouchebag.
[laughs.]
Oh, God! Sugar Baby, she's just here to stay.
[laughs.]
So where were we? - Ladoux.
- Ha, Ladoux.
Oh, that's right.
So Ladoux's out there, and he ends up following Mata Hari kind of everywhere she goes for a while.
Ladoux finally reaches out to her.
He's like, "Hey, Mata Hari.
What's up?" Like, "You don't know me.
I don't really know you yet.
I think you're cool.
You should spy for us.
The French.
" Mata Hari's like, "Yo, I don't trust nobody.
"I will do this for you, though, because I love Franch.
" - I'm saying "Franch.
" - "Franch.
" Oh, my God, I wish I could do everything drunk.
- [laughs.]
- I really do.
This is nice.
Okay.
She's like, "I believe in your side of the war, and also I'll do it for cash money.
" Ladoux was like, "Absolutely.
We'll give you a ton of cash.
" But Ladoux doesn't give her any spy tips.
Anyway, so she has no idea how to spy, but Mata Hari takes it upon herself to seduce a German diplomat.
She's like, "You're hot, do you know?" And he was like, "Oh, my God, oh, my God! "They love you on the coast of Morocco!" [laughs.]
So then she writes a very detailed letter to Ladoux.
She has the intel.
Germany troops are landing on the coast of Morocco.
Ladoux takes all of this information and he uses it against her.
He says, "How the fuck does this bitch know "all of this detailed information if she's not actually working for the Germans?" [laughs.]
So then Mata Hari is arrested.
- Oh.
- Yeah.
On 19 [laughs.]
Hold on, here it comes.
On February 17th, 2017 [laughs.]
Okay, so, here we go.
On February 1917, 1917, Mata Hari goes to trial.
Ladoux, he's like, "How could she have all this information? "Like, the only way she could have this information "is if she's working for the other side.
"She's not smart.
She's a woman.
"Fuck this bitch.
I'm scapegoating her.
Whatever.
" And she's like, "He's bullshitting everybody.
" He said that all that, and it was lies.
" [laughs softly.]
At the end of the day, the jury was like, "This woman is immoral.
"You know, love affairs and having sexy dancing.
We think this woman should die, I guess.
" They sentenced her to death by execution.
"Firing squad.
" - [gulps.]
- Yeah, whoa! That is good! Do it again.
[gulps.]
- [laughs.]
- [laughs.]
Okay.
Mata Hari is at her execution [laughs.]
At her exec At her execution.
She looks at her lawyer.
[puckers lips.]
And then she looks at her priest.
[puckers lips.]
Blows kisses.
She looks them dead in her eye.
[laughs.]
Dead in her eye.
Before she's shot to death.
Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow Pow, pow, pow, pow And she dead.
Oh, my God, Derek, the funny thing is, four days after Mata Hari's execution [laughs.]
Ladoux, this bitch, was arrested on espionage bullshit.
Fuck that bitch.
Ladoux was a spy upon spies.
Ladoux was a lie upon lies.
Ladoux was a real not lies.
It's not real.
At the end of the day, she was never a traitor.
She was an honest woman.
Mata Hari was the first example of women stepping out and being progressive and saying, like, "Yo.
This is what I need.
This is just who I am.
" She showed up earlier than anybody-body.
- That was so good, Suge.
- Yeah.
I love my life.
I'm in the [mumbles indistinctly.]
I'm right here with you, and we're getting drunk.
[mumbles indistinctly.]
Hold on, shit.
[Derek laughs.]
I have nightmares probably, like, four times a week, and I have to, like, stab a home intruder in the neck with a pen.
You have dreams about stabbing people in the neck with a pen? Four times a week.
- [laughs.]
- What's your nightmare? Well, I had a dream once where there was an intruder and I had to pluck their eyeballs out with my hands.
- Yours is way worse! - You had to? You evil women.
[upbeat music.]
Hello.
I'm Mae Whitman.
I'm Jane Levy.
And today, we will be discussing - Murderous Row.
- Oh.
You'll like it, though.
It's very cool and stressful and cool.
You like murder? Me too.
[laughs.]
It's 1924.
Maurine Dallas Watkins, she's just graduated from Yale, and then she was like, "You know what? Fuck this.
I want to tell the truth.
" She moves to Chicago, this town of jazz - Jazz.
- Drink.
- Drink.
- Crime.
And she started working for the "Chicago Tribune.
" - And she was like, "Yeah.
" - [laughs.]
"I got a job at the 'Chicago Tribune, ' and I'm gonna investigate what I gotta investigate.
" That's what she really wanted to do.
- Hell, yeah.
- Right? And then she comes upon this editor, who is a man.
The editor was like, "Maurine, I'm going to assign you to the Cooks County Jail Murderous Row, which is where they keep the women who are awaiting trial.
" And he was like, "You're a woman.
"Nobody else wants to report on this shit.
"It's a little boring for our male reporters.
"I care about the goods.
So give me the goods, baby.
" And she was like, "I got you, bitch.
I got you.
" She goes to Murderous Row in Cooks County Jail.
She meets Sabella Nitti, an Italian immigrant who is accused of murdering her husband.
She says, "He hurt me.
I-I did kill him, but because he hurt me.
" And Maurine is like, "This is it.
" Maurine went to her editor and was like, "I heard about Sabella Nitti.
" And he was like, "No, bitch.
Like, I don't care about Sabella Nitti.
" The problem was, he wanted something juicy, this editor.
- Loves juice.
- He said to her, "Look.
"I need you to bring me something juicy as hell.
Really, like, get excited about Murderous Row.
" Like, you can say some sexy shit.
Like, you can, like Yeah, you know what I mean? - [laughs.]
- [laughs.]
And then all of a sudden, Belva Gaertner is arrested.
She was a cabaret dancer.
She was like, "Yes, my lover was found sprawled out, dead, as hell, across the front seat of a car.
" She was like, "Look, I'm just a woman, and I was basically possessed by the devil, which is jazz.
" Meanwhile, Maurine was like, "Oh, my God.
Yes, yes, yes.
"This is exactly what I need to make my career.
"I love goss.
I love juice.
My editor's gonna eat this up.
" Yeah.
So that was her first big break.
So then, within, like, I don't even know how many minutes.
- Not many.
- Not many.
She gets this other lady, Beulah Annan.
- Mm-hmm.
- And Beulah Annan's arrested.
She has had a lover's spat.
And they both reach for a pistol, and fucking our babe, Beulah, was like, "Whew! Pow!" [laughs.]
And while he was laying on the floor, she played "Hula-Lu," and she danced around his grave, and she made multiple cocktails, and she drank them.
Beulah said, "I was taken ahold of by drinking alcohol and listening to jazz music, and like, fuck me, I guess.
" It was just, like, a bunch of bullshit.
But Maurine is like, "Oh, my God, I'm getting the juice that my editor asked me for.
Hell, yes.
" The newspaper comes out, and these women realize right away, "We have got to look good, because that's what this shit is about, is looking good.
" And they're like, "If I cut my hair and I do my mascara right," "And I do my eyeliner right," "And I move my hips right," "And I cry at the right moment," "They are not going to convict [hiccups.]
me.
" So they start a beauty school within Murderous Row.
Did they call it anything? They called it MurderousRowBeautySchool.
com.
They were ahead of their time.
And they're, like, taking these women that are, like, "Ha-ha, I just fucking ripped somebody's head off yesterday," and they're like, "I know, but, like, sit down, sweetie.
" These girls are actually incredibly intelligent, because they know how to work their angle and they're like [hiccups.]
Um I forget.
[laughs.]
- Can we play "Hula-Lu"? - I'm gonna die.
All right, I'm dead.
Wait, well, you just killed her so you dance around us? [laughter.]
[old-timey music playing.]
She did her dancing [mumbles indistinctly.]
Is it over yet? [laughter.]
Stay tuned For more - "Drunk History.
" - No, I feel good.
Don't you think this story is the coolest story ever? Like, I better tell it now.
Let's keep going.
You remember where we left off? Is it good? You like it? - I don't know.
- Cheers to you both.
- Give us one clue.
- Can't tell.
Where did we leave off? Uh [laughs.]
So it was 1924, and Maurine goes to Murderous Row, and she interviews the girls before they go to trial.
They were like, "I'm sorry, but we love jazz and drink.
" "We love ourselves.
We love to do the thing.
" And they were like, "A woman would never "kill a man, because a man would never mean enough to a woman for her to just murder somebody.
" Obviously! And Maurine is like, "These women are obviously guilty.
"The evidence is laid out on the table.
These women are guilty.
" But she didn't care about that.
So she's, like, writing these stories that are, like, super tabloid-y, salacious.
Anything these women had to say got spun into this big juicy circus.
Okay, so we're at the trial, after months of covering this story, and the girls have their, like, sideways caps and their nice blue wide-set [hiccups.]
eyes and their skinny little noses.
And their lawyer, etcetera, was like, "My client is pregnant.
" They weren't pregnant, but they were like, "I am pregnant.
My lawyer told me to say I'm pregnant.
" And the reporters are like, "Oh, my God, look at these girls and their haircuts and their manicures.
Like, they could never commit a crime, "and on top of that, they might be carrying a baby.
" And Maurine is like [imitating keys clacking.]
Typing on the computer that's not invented yet? [both laugh.]
She's like, "Sexy ladies do the thing that you think that they never could do.
" I mean, Maurine got caught up.
Let's not mince words.
Maurine got fucking caught up in the sexiness of the whole thing.
Like, her agenda wasn't necessarily to sensationalize, but the stories were so, like, dramatic that she had to.
At the end of the trial, they were like, "Look.
I was very ill because someone named jazz.
com came to me and I feel concerned and I feel taken advantage of.
I feel that I was someone who explored the realm too heavily and I need help," and like, that woman was like, "I can't, I etcetera, "Altadena, etcetera.
Pasadena, etcetera.
" [laughs.]
And the boys were like, "You're right.
You're right.
"We don't care whether you did it.
"You're so hot.
We want to fuck you.
We don't care.
" Which makes sense.
Juries back then, all male.
And the men were basically like, "Okay, let me just tell you this.
"You have spent four months in the system.
"Four months is too long.
"Get the hell out of here! You better go home and raise some babies.
You cuties.
" And they were like, "I can't wait to go!" And they were like, "I will go, mwah.
" And they basically, these women got off after four months, after these fucking women murdered their lovers in cold blood.
Maurine, after this happened, she took a step back, and she said to herself, "I have been a part of freeing "these clearly guilty women who used "their feminine wiles to get free.
That was my big fault.
" Meanwhile, Sabella Nitti got hanged.
And it was the first time that Maurine was like, "I'm sorry.
I did the wrong thing.
This is fucked up.
I fucked this situation up.
" So, Maurine, women's groups, and Sabella Nitti's lawyers, came together to change the laws, and they made it possible for women to be on juries.
And then Maurine was like, "I gotta talk about this, like, thing that happened to me," and she wrote a play called - [both hiccup.]
- You okay? I can't wait to release my hiccups.
You can let them out.
Not yet.
How am I ever not yet! [laughs.]
So she wrote a play [hiccups.]
It was called "The Brave Little Women," which [hiccups.]
It's hard to understand because it sounds like "Little Women," but it's not.
[hiccups.]
So years and years and years after she died, Bob Fosse got the rights for her play and then made it into "Chicago," which turned into the longest-running musical on Broadway of all time.
What is the moral of the story? That's a very good question.
[laughs.]
Women can be villains just as much as they can be heroes.
- However - However "Chicago" went to win best picture at the motherfucking Oscars! Okay? So sit down, shut up, - and appreciate that.
- [laughter.]
[patriotic music.]
[patriotic music.]
Just kidding.
- [laughs.]
- I really do.
And Maurine was like, "These women are obviously guilty.
"They are not going to convict [hiccups.]
me.
" [hiccups.]
Um I forget.
[patriotic music.]
[pages riffling.]
- [jazzy music.]
- We're doing gummy bear whisky tonight.
We're doing gummy bear whisky tonight.
- Aren't we? - Yes, please.
You take one.
Red is better for bourbon.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Oh, yeah.
I already love it.
- Gummy bourbon.
- Gummy bourbon.
- [chuckles.]
- Mm-hmm.
Hello.
[laughs.]
I'm Sugar Lyn Beard.
And I'm about to take you through the story of Mata Hari.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to tell you this story because she's kind of like the grandmother of the striptease.
- Whoa.
- She's an icon.
You had me at "grandmother.
" [both chuckle.]
So our story begins in 1903 when a Dutch woman named Margaretha Zelle moves over to Paris.
She's like, "I'm in Paris.
I have no money.
"What can I draw on? Oh, my gosh.
"I spent two years in "Ooh, that's gross.
"I spent two years in Indonesia learning the dances.
" So she decides to make up a persona for herself.
She becomes Mata Hari, the exotic Indonesian dancer.
She's like, "Come to my show.
"You'll see what dances are like in the Far East.
" She does her first very big show in this big fancy theater.
She's, like, performing in front of high society, and she's, like, tearing veil by veil, and underneath that, she's pretty naked.
And it's like, "Oh, shit.
This is traditional? I can hang in for this.
" And she, like, peels this one off and then peels this one off.
And she's getting away with it because people are like, "It's not a naughty thing.
No, this is a cultural educational experience.
" "I need to watch this woman strip down to her nitties.
" - "Nitties.
" - "Nitties.
It's like a titty but covered a little bit.
" - "Mm.
" - Mm-hmm.
And with every veil that dropped, her audience loved her more and more.
And with that, she became the number one exotic dancer in all of Europe.
Oh.
I'm spilling on my face.
[hiccups.]
Careful.
[gasps.]
Jeez.
Wow.
[both chuckle.]
Mm.
So, she's dancing.
She's getting rich.
And she was a lover, so she was taking a lot of these men to bed.
They're giving her money and jewels and golds for this relationship.
Not goals.
Golds.
Yeah.
Give-a me golds, please.
Give me golds.
Lick-a my nitties for golds.
[both chuckle.]
So, Mata Hari is performing in Berlin.
It is 1914 in July, and the war breaks out, and the German authorities come and they're like, "You love the French? "Fuck you.
"We're taking your golds "and your jewelry, and now you have nothing.
" And she's distraught, and she's like, "Ugh, fuck every thing.
" [sobs.]
Hold up.
[mumbles indistinctly.]
Wait a minute.
Oh, no, shit.
[laughs.]
[laughs.]
I'm so drunk.
Hold on.
I'm so fucked up.
And so Mata Hari is approached by the Germans, and they're like, "Hey, Mata Hari.
"You're cool.
You're sly.
"I got 20K francs for you to spy on the French for me.
" Mata Hari finishes, she's like, "Oh, this is a good deal.
That's a lot of money.
" So she agrees.
She's like, "Okay, shit.
" And he's like, "Your code name is H21," and she's like, "Fun.
Okay.
" Off he goes, and Mata Hari turns around and she pockets that cash and she's like, "Fuck these people.
No.
They stole my shit.
They owe me.
" [laughs.]
She doesn't spy for the Germans.
She just goes on this luxurious tour of Europe.
She's living it up.
She's spending like crazy, to the point that she gets the attention of this dude named Ladoux.
- Ladoux? - Ladoux.
- The Dude? - [laughs.]
Okay, hold on.
So, oh, oh, shit.
Georges Ladoux is part of the French counterespionage bureau.
[laughs.]
"We need to find someone "fuckin', you know, betraying France.
We need to we need to catch a spy.
" Ladoux wants to put somebody on trial for betraying France.
Mata Hari [mumbling indistinctly.]
So he goes after Mata Hari.
[dramatic music.]
What a Ladouchebag.
[laughs.]
Oh, God! Sugar Baby, she's just here to stay.
[laughs.]
So where were we? - Ladoux.
- Ha, Ladoux.
Oh, that's right.
So Ladoux's out there, and he ends up following Mata Hari kind of everywhere she goes for a while.
Ladoux finally reaches out to her.
He's like, "Hey, Mata Hari.
What's up?" Like, "You don't know me.
I don't really know you yet.
I think you're cool.
You should spy for us.
The French.
" Mata Hari's like, "Yo, I don't trust nobody.
"I will do this for you, though, because I love Franch.
" - I'm saying "Franch.
" - "Franch.
" Oh, my God, I wish I could do everything drunk.
- [laughs.]
- I really do.
This is nice.
Okay.
She's like, "I believe in your side of the war, and also I'll do it for cash money.
" Ladoux was like, "Absolutely.
We'll give you a ton of cash.
" But Ladoux doesn't give her any spy tips.
Anyway, so she has no idea how to spy, but Mata Hari takes it upon herself to seduce a German diplomat.
She's like, "You're hot, do you know?" And he was like, "Oh, my God, oh, my God! "They love you on the coast of Morocco!" [laughs.]
So then she writes a very detailed letter to Ladoux.
She has the intel.
Germany troops are landing on the coast of Morocco.
Ladoux takes all of this information and he uses it against her.
He says, "How the fuck does this bitch know "all of this detailed information if she's not actually working for the Germans?" [laughs.]
So then Mata Hari is arrested.
- Oh.
- Yeah.
On 19 [laughs.]
Hold on, here it comes.
On February 17th, 2017 [laughs.]
Okay, so, here we go.
On February 1917, 1917, Mata Hari goes to trial.
Ladoux, he's like, "How could she have all this information? "Like, the only way she could have this information "is if she's working for the other side.
"She's not smart.
She's a woman.
"Fuck this bitch.
I'm scapegoating her.
Whatever.
" And she's like, "He's bullshitting everybody.
" He said that all that, and it was lies.
" [laughs softly.]
At the end of the day, the jury was like, "This woman is immoral.
"You know, love affairs and having sexy dancing.
We think this woman should die, I guess.
" They sentenced her to death by execution.
"Firing squad.
" - [gulps.]
- Yeah, whoa! That is good! Do it again.
[gulps.]
- [laughs.]
- [laughs.]
Okay.
Mata Hari is at her execution [laughs.]
At her exec At her execution.
She looks at her lawyer.
[puckers lips.]
And then she looks at her priest.
[puckers lips.]
Blows kisses.
She looks them dead in her eye.
[laughs.]
Dead in her eye.
Before she's shot to death.
Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow Pow, pow, pow, pow And she dead.
Oh, my God, Derek, the funny thing is, four days after Mata Hari's execution [laughs.]
Ladoux, this bitch, was arrested on espionage bullshit.
Fuck that bitch.
Ladoux was a spy upon spies.
Ladoux was a lie upon lies.
Ladoux was a real not lies.
It's not real.
At the end of the day, she was never a traitor.
She was an honest woman.
Mata Hari was the first example of women stepping out and being progressive and saying, like, "Yo.
This is what I need.
This is just who I am.
" She showed up earlier than anybody-body.
- That was so good, Suge.
- Yeah.
I love my life.
I'm in the [mumbles indistinctly.]
I'm right here with you, and we're getting drunk.
[mumbles indistinctly.]
Hold on, shit.
[Derek laughs.]
I have nightmares probably, like, four times a week, and I have to, like, stab a home intruder in the neck with a pen.
You have dreams about stabbing people in the neck with a pen? Four times a week.
- [laughs.]
- What's your nightmare? Well, I had a dream once where there was an intruder and I had to pluck their eyeballs out with my hands.
- Yours is way worse! - You had to? You evil women.
[upbeat music.]
Hello.
I'm Mae Whitman.
I'm Jane Levy.
And today, we will be discussing - Murderous Row.
- Oh.
You'll like it, though.
It's very cool and stressful and cool.
You like murder? Me too.
[laughs.]
It's 1924.
Maurine Dallas Watkins, she's just graduated from Yale, and then she was like, "You know what? Fuck this.
I want to tell the truth.
" She moves to Chicago, this town of jazz - Jazz.
- Drink.
- Drink.
- Crime.
And she started working for the "Chicago Tribune.
" - And she was like, "Yeah.
" - [laughs.]
"I got a job at the 'Chicago Tribune, ' and I'm gonna investigate what I gotta investigate.
" That's what she really wanted to do.
- Hell, yeah.
- Right? And then she comes upon this editor, who is a man.
The editor was like, "Maurine, I'm going to assign you to the Cooks County Jail Murderous Row, which is where they keep the women who are awaiting trial.
" And he was like, "You're a woman.
"Nobody else wants to report on this shit.
"It's a little boring for our male reporters.
"I care about the goods.
So give me the goods, baby.
" And she was like, "I got you, bitch.
I got you.
" She goes to Murderous Row in Cooks County Jail.
She meets Sabella Nitti, an Italian immigrant who is accused of murdering her husband.
She says, "He hurt me.
I-I did kill him, but because he hurt me.
" And Maurine is like, "This is it.
" Maurine went to her editor and was like, "I heard about Sabella Nitti.
" And he was like, "No, bitch.
Like, I don't care about Sabella Nitti.
" The problem was, he wanted something juicy, this editor.
- Loves juice.
- He said to her, "Look.
"I need you to bring me something juicy as hell.
Really, like, get excited about Murderous Row.
" Like, you can say some sexy shit.
Like, you can, like Yeah, you know what I mean? - [laughs.]
- [laughs.]
And then all of a sudden, Belva Gaertner is arrested.
She was a cabaret dancer.
She was like, "Yes, my lover was found sprawled out, dead, as hell, across the front seat of a car.
" She was like, "Look, I'm just a woman, and I was basically possessed by the devil, which is jazz.
" Meanwhile, Maurine was like, "Oh, my God.
Yes, yes, yes.
"This is exactly what I need to make my career.
"I love goss.
I love juice.
My editor's gonna eat this up.
" Yeah.
So that was her first big break.
So then, within, like, I don't even know how many minutes.
- Not many.
- Not many.
She gets this other lady, Beulah Annan.
- Mm-hmm.
- And Beulah Annan's arrested.
She has had a lover's spat.
And they both reach for a pistol, and fucking our babe, Beulah, was like, "Whew! Pow!" [laughs.]
And while he was laying on the floor, she played "Hula-Lu," and she danced around his grave, and she made multiple cocktails, and she drank them.
Beulah said, "I was taken ahold of by drinking alcohol and listening to jazz music, and like, fuck me, I guess.
" It was just, like, a bunch of bullshit.
But Maurine is like, "Oh, my God, I'm getting the juice that my editor asked me for.
Hell, yes.
" The newspaper comes out, and these women realize right away, "We have got to look good, because that's what this shit is about, is looking good.
" And they're like, "If I cut my hair and I do my mascara right," "And I do my eyeliner right," "And I move my hips right," "And I cry at the right moment," "They are not going to convict [hiccups.]
me.
" So they start a beauty school within Murderous Row.
Did they call it anything? They called it MurderousRowBeautySchool.
com.
They were ahead of their time.
And they're, like, taking these women that are, like, "Ha-ha, I just fucking ripped somebody's head off yesterday," and they're like, "I know, but, like, sit down, sweetie.
" These girls are actually incredibly intelligent, because they know how to work their angle and they're like [hiccups.]
Um I forget.
[laughs.]
- Can we play "Hula-Lu"? - I'm gonna die.
All right, I'm dead.
Wait, well, you just killed her so you dance around us? [laughter.]
[old-timey music playing.]
She did her dancing [mumbles indistinctly.]
Is it over yet? [laughter.]
Stay tuned For more - "Drunk History.
" - No, I feel good.
Don't you think this story is the coolest story ever? Like, I better tell it now.
Let's keep going.
You remember where we left off? Is it good? You like it? - I don't know.
- Cheers to you both.
- Give us one clue.
- Can't tell.
Where did we leave off? Uh [laughs.]
So it was 1924, and Maurine goes to Murderous Row, and she interviews the girls before they go to trial.
They were like, "I'm sorry, but we love jazz and drink.
" "We love ourselves.
We love to do the thing.
" And they were like, "A woman would never "kill a man, because a man would never mean enough to a woman for her to just murder somebody.
" Obviously! And Maurine is like, "These women are obviously guilty.
"The evidence is laid out on the table.
These women are guilty.
" But she didn't care about that.
So she's, like, writing these stories that are, like, super tabloid-y, salacious.
Anything these women had to say got spun into this big juicy circus.
Okay, so we're at the trial, after months of covering this story, and the girls have their, like, sideways caps and their nice blue wide-set [hiccups.]
eyes and their skinny little noses.
And their lawyer, etcetera, was like, "My client is pregnant.
" They weren't pregnant, but they were like, "I am pregnant.
My lawyer told me to say I'm pregnant.
" And the reporters are like, "Oh, my God, look at these girls and their haircuts and their manicures.
Like, they could never commit a crime, "and on top of that, they might be carrying a baby.
" And Maurine is like [imitating keys clacking.]
Typing on the computer that's not invented yet? [both laugh.]
She's like, "Sexy ladies do the thing that you think that they never could do.
" I mean, Maurine got caught up.
Let's not mince words.
Maurine got fucking caught up in the sexiness of the whole thing.
Like, her agenda wasn't necessarily to sensationalize, but the stories were so, like, dramatic that she had to.
At the end of the trial, they were like, "Look.
I was very ill because someone named jazz.
com came to me and I feel concerned and I feel taken advantage of.
I feel that I was someone who explored the realm too heavily and I need help," and like, that woman was like, "I can't, I etcetera, "Altadena, etcetera.
Pasadena, etcetera.
" [laughs.]
And the boys were like, "You're right.
You're right.
"We don't care whether you did it.
"You're so hot.
We want to fuck you.
We don't care.
" Which makes sense.
Juries back then, all male.
And the men were basically like, "Okay, let me just tell you this.
"You have spent four months in the system.
"Four months is too long.
"Get the hell out of here! You better go home and raise some babies.
You cuties.
" And they were like, "I can't wait to go!" And they were like, "I will go, mwah.
" And they basically, these women got off after four months, after these fucking women murdered their lovers in cold blood.
Maurine, after this happened, she took a step back, and she said to herself, "I have been a part of freeing "these clearly guilty women who used "their feminine wiles to get free.
That was my big fault.
" Meanwhile, Sabella Nitti got hanged.
And it was the first time that Maurine was like, "I'm sorry.
I did the wrong thing.
This is fucked up.
I fucked this situation up.
" So, Maurine, women's groups, and Sabella Nitti's lawyers, came together to change the laws, and they made it possible for women to be on juries.
And then Maurine was like, "I gotta talk about this, like, thing that happened to me," and she wrote a play called - [both hiccup.]
- You okay? I can't wait to release my hiccups.
You can let them out.
Not yet.
How am I ever not yet! [laughs.]
So she wrote a play [hiccups.]
It was called "The Brave Little Women," which [hiccups.]
It's hard to understand because it sounds like "Little Women," but it's not.
[hiccups.]
So years and years and years after she died, Bob Fosse got the rights for her play and then made it into "Chicago," which turned into the longest-running musical on Broadway of all time.
What is the moral of the story? That's a very good question.
[laughs.]
Women can be villains just as much as they can be heroes.
- However - However "Chicago" went to win best picture at the motherfucking Oscars! Okay? So sit down, shut up, - and appreciate that.
- [laughter.]
[patriotic music.]
[patriotic music.]
Just kidding.