Done & Dunne

Candy Mossler and her nephew Melvin, deep within their incestuous love affair, make some new plans for Candy to be out of her marriage to Jacques, and with a way to keep all the millions. These lovers are not exactly a top notch criminal operation as by July 1965 both will be indicated for capital murder charges. It is a scandal that is about to grip the nation, but how do the two get caught? All this and more in this episode of our summertime Trashy Poster Girl.

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this next installment of the Candy Mossler series we meet her new lover (and nephew too) Melvin Lane Powers. This illicit relationship is an open secret in Houston and hits a few skids once her husband Jacques discovers the scandal. None of it ends well, for Jacques anyway.

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigators, it was an interesting week around here as your dedicated hostess participated in her first auction, conducted by the legendary Julien's Auctions. The story that follows is definitely one for the books.

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the death of Edwina Mountbatten in 1960, Dickie still had another 19 years of living to do, and while he was single, he was in no way alone. He had romances with plenty of women in his later years, and according to many, he had male lovers - including, it is alleged, boys - as well.

A mentor to Prince Charles, his advice to the young man may have contributed to what turned into the tragic marriage, divorce, and untimely death of Princess Diana, who was exactly the sort of woman that Dickie encouraged the playboy prince to settle down with. The men remained close through the end of Dickie's life, and Charles delivered the eulogy at both of Dickie's services in 1979.

Dickie was clearly a charming older man who counted Shirley MacClaine, Barbara Cartland, Christina Ford, and Sacha Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, who was also his god daughter, among his paramours. Let's say it was all pretty complicated, but that would only be keeping with rest of his and Edwina's history.

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Edwina took pains to lay low in Malta after the scandals of her affairs, Italy decided to exit the League of Nations and invade Ethiopia. To protect their children, she took them to Budapest and installed them in a hotel with their nanny and governess... and then forgot which hotel they were in. For months. As the summer of 1935 turned to fall, and then winter, they just stayed in their hotel until Edwina finally came across the paper she'd written the hotel's name on, tucked into the pocket of an outfit she hadn't worn in a while. Careless people.

But then World War II came, and with so much asked of ordinary Britons, the privileged were required to step up. For perhaps the first time in her life, the skills and networking that Edwina had spent her life developing could suddenly be applied to a grand purpose: fundraising, organizing, lobbying for help in the United States. Louis was in the fight as a Naval officer, but Edwina was equally engaged, and the experience brought them together as never before.

They would have further adventures together in India, overseeing the end of the Colonial period there, and form a distinct attachment to Indian Prime Minister Nehru that would last to the end of her life in 1960.

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Programming note: This episode is a bit more explicit than most, including strong language and descriptions of sex. If you listen with wee ones, use your judgment.

The early '30s were a roaring time for Edwina's various romances, though two in particular would have far-reaching implications for her lovers. The first, with American actor Paul Robeson, caused scandal in the London tabloids because Robeson was Black. The Royal Family considered the situation dire enough that they demanded that Louis and Edwina sue the tabloid that wrote it about for libel, and saw to it that the court would handle the case... carefully. An early morning hearing, of which no notice was given to anyone but the Mountbattens, resulted in a quick ruling in Edwina's favor, though the couple notably did not ask for damages. Paul Robeson himself was apparently quite wounded by the whole incident, having been close to Edwina and left to deal with the fallout on his own.

The second notable affair was with Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson, a Grenada-born musician whom Edwina had met in New York City. She encouraged him to bring his talents to England, where he became a bona fide star of the 1920s and '30s, entertaining royals and society patrons, and his work gained national prominence with frequent airings on the BBC. During his dalliance with Edwina, there are rumors that the two became "stuck" in flagrante delicto, requiring transportation by ambulance in the pose that was causing them troubles.

Louis was outraged especially by Edwina's affair with Hutch, and as the scandal grew, Hutch found that his royal and society patrons had abandoned him. In spite of his celebrity, the Mountbattens appear to have had a role in his near erasure from history. It's all reminiscent of Fitzgerald's line in Gatsby: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Roaring '20s turned into the '30s, Edwina's appetite for other lovers showed no sign of diminishing, and eventually led to a breaking point with her long-suffering husband, Louis. At one point, they decided that divorce was the best option, but quickly reconciled with new rules for their relationship: Edwina would be more discreet in her dalliances, which had previously been headline news, and Louis would be free to take lovers of his own. But a funny thing happened when he finally did - Edwina was jealous!

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It didn't take long for Edwina, young, rich, and alone while her husband Louis was away with the Navy, to begin flirtations and then affairs with various suitors. There were the young men of her social strata, to be sure, but there was also a scandalous rumored fling with the notably female American entertainer Sophie Tucker, "The Last of the Red-Hot Mamas." These affairs took a toll on her marriage and her relations with the British Royal Family, but also laid the template for the Mountbatten marriage.

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While Louis and Edwina Mountbatten would have a 38-year-long marriage, it isn't quite right to say it was a happy union. That first six months or so though - when they traveled through Europe and the United States, meeting Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, and dining with President Warren G. Harding - was a magical time for the couple. Once they returned to England and settled into married life, things quickly went sideways. With Louis frequently at sea for long periods as a Naval officer, and Edwina living large on her huge pile of inherited money, perhaps they were destined to have an unusually promiscuous marriage.

Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠!

To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices