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For
three months in 1888 fear and panic stalked the streets of London's
East End. During
these months five women were murdered and horribly mutilated by a
man who became known as 'Jack the Ripper', although some believe the
true number to have been eleven.
 Whitechapel
in the East End was like a festering sore on the face of Victorian
London in the late 19th century. The
overcrowded population lived in hovels, the streets stank of filth
and refuse and the only way to earn a living was by criminal means,
and for many women, prostitution. The
only relief from this miserable life was a bottle of gin bought for
a few pence, to give blessed oblivion. The
'terror' started on Friday 31st August when the body of Mary Ann
Nicholls aged 42 was found in Bucks Row (now called Durwald
Street). Her face was bruised and her throat had been slashed
twice and nearly severed. Her stomach had been hacked open and
slashed several times. She was subsequently acknowledged to be the
first of the 'Ripper's' victims. On
the 8th September the second victim was found. She was Annie
Chapman, a 47 year old prostitute. Her body was found in a
passageway behind 29 Hanbury Street, her few possessions laid out
next to her body. Her head was almost severed and her stomach
torn open and pulled apart. Sections of skin from the stomach lay on
her left shoulder and on the right shoulder, a mass of
intestines. Part of the vagina and bladder had been carved out
and taken away. On
28th September a letter was received at the Central News Agency
signed 'Jack the Ripper', threatening more murders. The name
caught the public imagination when it first appeared in the
newspapers and was used ever afterwards. Whitechapel was now
in uproar - riots broke out as hysterical crowds attacked anyone
carrying a black bag as a rumour had spread that the 'Ripper'
carried his knives in such a bag. The
30th September was a grim day. The 'Ripper' carried out two
murders within minutes of each other. Elizabeth
stride was the unfortunate woman, also a prostitute, who was found
first at 1am., behind 40 Berner Street. When found, blood was still
pouring from her throat and it seemed that the 'Ripper' had been
disturbed at his grisly business. At
1.45am. the body of Crtherine Eddowes, 43, was found just a few
minutes walk away in an alley between Mitre Square and Duke Street
(now known as St. James' Passage). Her body had been ripped
open and her throat slashed. Both eyelids had been cut and part of
her nose and right ear were cut off. The uterus and left
kidney were removed and entrails thrown over the right shoulder. A
trail of blood led the police to a doorway nearby where a message
had been chalked. it read, "The Jewes are not the men to
be blamed for nothing". For some inexplicable reason, the head
of the Metropolitan Police Sir Charles Warren, ordered it to be
rubbed out! So what could have been a valuable clue was
destroyed. The
horror of the double murder gripped London. Rumours now began to
circulate - the 'Ripper' was a mad doctor, a Polish lunatic, a
Russian Czarist and even an insane midwife! Another
letter was received by the Central News Agency in which the 'Ripper'
said he was sorry he had not been able to send the ears to the
police as he had promised! Catherine Eddowes' left ear had
been partially severed. On
the 9th November the 'Ripper' struck again. Mary Jeanette
Kelly was the youngest of the women murdered., she was 25 and an
attractive girl. She was found in her room at Millers Court
which ran off Dorset Street (now Duval Street). Mary, or what was
left of her, was lying on the bed. The scene in the room was
appalling. The rent collector who found hger said, "I
shall be haunted by this for the rest of my life". Mary's
throat had been cut, her nose and breasts were cut off and dumped on
a table. Her entrails were draped over a picture frame.
The body had been skinned and gutted, and her heart lay on the
table. The
panic and public outcry caused by this murder led to the resignation
of Sir Charles Warren, Chief of Police.
 Mary
was the last of the 'Rippers' victims. His reign of terror
ended as suddenly as it began. For a hundred years, various
names have been suggested as the killer of these women.
Two
convicted murderers claimed to be the 'Ripper' but both were proved
to have been elsewhere at the time. Even a member of the Royal
family was named! The Duke of Clarence, the eldest son of
Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, was viewed with a certain
amount of suspicion but he was cleared when it was found that he had
been on other engagements at the crucial times. The
name that is mentioned most often is that of a depraved lawyer,
Montague John Druitt. He disappeared after the last murder and
his body was found floating in the Thames on December 31st 1888. Was
he the Whitechapel butcher - who knows?
Useful
Links:
Jack the Ripper Exhibition at the Museum in Docklands
Although
no one knows who he was, Jack the Ripper is probably London’s
most famous son. His story has passed into folk legend, and has
gained a fictional currency, re-examined and re-invented by each
generation. Jack the Ripper and the East End will explore why
this one unknown figure has become so iconic, and so much a part
of London’s cultural landscape. The exhibition will be full of
objects attesting to an undimmed public appetite for the telling
and retelling of this story, from letters sent to the police by
the public and self-claimed Jacks, to the veritable library of
claimed solutions which have consistently failed to close the
case ever since.
 Museum in Docklands is returning to the scene of London’s most
infamous crimes, with its major new exhibition, Jack the Ripper
and the East End. Bringing together the surviving original
documents for the first time, including police files,
photographs, and letters from the public, Jack the Ripper and
the East End will map the world which witnessed the murders and
was transformed by them.
This is the first exhibition to explore the Jack the Ripper
murders and their legacy and it is the first time the public
will have the opportunity to examine the original police
documents relating to the murders and their investigation.
Your package with Superbreak will include overnight
accommodation at a selection of London hotels plus a morning
entry ticket accessible to the exhibition anytime between 10am
until 12.15pm.
Book a trip to Jack the Ripper Exhibition at the Museum in Docklands
online with Superbreak, with tickets to Jack the Ripper Exhibition
at the Museum in Docklands and hotel accommodation included in the
price.
Various dates, May to
November 2008
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E.P.C |