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Home > Evidence Locker True Crime > 258: The Doppelganger Case of Adolf Beck | England


	Podcast:		Evidence Locker True Crime
	Episode:		258: The Doppelganger Case of Adolf Beck \| England
	Category:		Society & Culture
	Duration:		00:20:49
	Publish Date:		2026-05-10 18:44:00
	Description:		In 1895, a Swedish man named Adolf Beck was stopped on a London street by a woman who accused him of swindling her out of her jewellery. Police quickly connected him to a string of similar frauds — and to a man named John Smith, convicted of identical crimes in 1877. Over a dozen victims picked Beck out of line-ups. He was convicted at the Old Bailey and sentenced to seven years' hard labour. The problem: he wasn't John Smith. He wasn't any of it. Eight years later, still protesting his innocence, Beck was convicted again — for the exact same type of fraud. Only when the real culprit was arrested mid-crime did the truth finally surface. We explore how a face so ordinary it could belong to anyone sent an innocent man to prison twice, and what the case of Émilie Sagée tells us about the ancient human terror of the double. Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions. Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon 25% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/ Resources Web Wikipedia - Adolf Beck Wikipedia - Émilie Sagée LawTeacher Articles Old Bailey Proceedings Online Crime Library Forensic Psychology – eyewitness testimony Created & Produced by Sonya Lowe Narrated by Noel Vinson Music: "Nordic Medieval" by Marcus Bressler Background track: Doblado Studios: https://www.youtube.com/c/DobladoStudios This True Crime Podcast was researched using open-source or archival materials.
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