Houses of Horror

Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh after the collapse which killed 803 people and counting

Cleveland house where at least three women were allegedly held hostage, tortured and raped for over a decade

Worlds apart, these two real-life houses of horror each saw the end of their real-life horror stories within a couple of weeks.

This morning, the death toll from the collapse of the Rana Plaza building, which housed five garment factories, in Bangladesh passed 800.  Eight hundred and three – and the number is still rising – souls lost in the worst garment manufacturing disaster in the world.  Lives lost to greed and gluttony.

This morning on the show, we’ll speak with Elizabeth Cline, who went to Bangladesh to do research for her book, OVERDRESSED: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, has a new piece in this week’s edition of  The Nation, “The Case for Ethical Fashion.” 

In our weekly She’s History segment, Amy Simon tells us about the worst garment factory disaster in US history: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the fabulous female heroes who took action in its wake.

Of course, the world is transfixed by the good news out of Cleveland – that three young women, long presumed dead, are alive.  But the story doesn’t end there.  We’re just beginning to learn the details about what went on in that house, and those women’s lives will never be put right.

We are learning about the neighbors who tried to alert police about something amiss there over the years, and about Charles Ramsey,  the neighbor who heard Amanda Berry’s screams and rode in on his proverbial white horse and has become a media sensation!

 And in other horrific news, former South Carolina Governor and Appalachian trail hiker Mark Sanford easily won a victory over Elizabeth Colbert Bush in a special election yesterday for the congressional seat left vacant when Tim Scott went to the senate.  We’re talking with Crooks and Liars Susie Madrak about that this morning too… and the ridiculous troll responses to my “WTF is wrong with South Carolina” tweet after the race was called.