Sarah Rachel Russell: History and Key Facts

Sarah Rachel Russell (c.1814 – 12 October 1880) or Sarah Rachel Leverson or Levison (married name), more commonly referred to simply as "Madame Rachel," was an English beautician, con artist, businesswoman, entrepreneur, suspected brothel manager, and felon who lived during the Victorian era in London, England. She owned, managed, and independently operated her own beauty salon which sold beauty treatments and cosmetics that promised its predominantly female clientele eternal youth and beauty. Popular among the women of Victorian London's social elite, Russell was especially renowned for her "Magnetic Rock Dew" tonic, allegedly sourced from the Sahara desert. She would later become notorious for blackmailing many elite women of London's upper classes, crimes for which she would serve two separate prison sentences, the latter of which she died while serving.

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