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    Jack the Ripper: The 1888 London East End Serial Killer
    Jack the Ripper: The 1888 London East End Serial Killer
    Jack the Ripper: The 1888 London East End Serial Killer
    Ebook137 pages1 hour

    Jack the Ripper: The 1888 London East End Serial Killer

    By James R Ashley

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    About this ebook

    East London included the London docks and run-down areas of Whitechapel, Spitalfields, and Bethnal Green As the parish of Whitechapel in London’s East End became increasingly overcrowded, housing conditions steadily worsened and the area was overrun with violence, robbery, and alcoholism. London’s East End was perfect for crime. A maze of streets, alleys, courts, and yards covered the East End and the gaslights, which were few and far between, did little to illuminate the dark shadows. The Ripper’s chosen victims, the prostitutes of the East End, were easy kill targets. The woman working the streets in the East End were hardly a dream date. Many were overweight or skinny with homely faces, missing teeth, bad breath, and were outright drunks with hair-trigger tempers and nasty dispositions. They typically lived in flophouses (the “doss houses”) whenever they did not drink their money away and walked about with everything they owned on their person. Although these prostitutes might not have won any beauty contests, at least they were available for a man to satisfy his sexual needs in an age when their Victorian Era wives considered sex as a task to be reluctantly endured to procreate children.

    Sex was usually performed standing up against a building or fence, as the prostitute had no inclination to lay down on her back in the mud in her only change of clothes. In most cases the prostitute lifted up her dress with her back to the client. She was the perfect target for the Ripper and obligingly set her self up to have her throat easily slit in a dark corner of the street or alleyway with little effort or struggle.

    This book contains virtually all the information available to the London Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard in 1888 along with subsequent hindsight the police at the time did not have at the time. And although some suspects were clearly identified by the police as possibilities for Jack the Ripper, the lack of evidence and lack of credibility of eye witness accounts did not result in any suspect being charged for the Ripper murders, let alone being prosecuted for them. Having to rely almost entirely on unreliable witness recollections severely crippled the police investigation. They had no motive leads to follow up, as the murders were a completely random crime of butchery without rhyme or reason. Also, the police of the time had none of the tools necessary to establish corroborating evidence, like fingerprint files, DNA, or hair sample analysis technology. No weapon was ever recovered nor any clues found at the crime scene or anywhere else. The chances of finding the Ripper under such circumstances was infinitesimal. The result was that back in 1888 a serial killer in the East End of London murdered a number of prostitutes with impunity. The London police were powerless to catch him, although they did, on a number of occasions, arrive on the crime scene only minutes after the murder was committed. Despite this, the Ripper always disappeared in the maze of the dark streets and alleyways of the East End without being seen. And when the Ripper stopped his murderous spree, it was for reasons known only to himself.

    The Ripper’s murderous serial killings must certainly go down in the history books as one of the great unsolved mysteries of all time. Therefore, anyone that thinks he can do better than the police of the time or the numerous writers after, read on and put your ability to the test and see if you can close the book on the infamous Whitechapel murders to your satisfaction. You will never find a crime more worthy of your efforts.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames R Ashley
    Release dateAug 5, 2013
    ISBN9781301872107
    Jack the Ripper: The 1888 London East End Serial Killer

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      Book preview

      Jack the Ripper - James R Ashley

      Jack the Ripper

      The 1888 London East End Killer Who Was Never Caught

      James R Ashley

      Copyright 2015 James R. Ashley

      Smashwords edition

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      The East End

      The Ripper's Modus Operandi

      The Victims

      Martha Tabram

      Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols

      Annie Chapman

      Elizabeth Stride

      Catherine Eddows

      Mary Jane Kelly

      Evidence

      Suspects

      John Pizer

      Aaron Davis Cohen

      John Montague Druitt

      Severin Antoniovich Klosowski

      Aaron Kosminski

      James Maybrick

      Robert Mann

      Michael Osrog

      Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward

      Francis Tumblety

      City of London Police

      Whitechapel H Division CID

      Bethel Green Division J

      The Metropolitan Police Force

      City of London Police

      Criminal Investigation Department (CID)

      Special Branch

      Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

      Bibliography

      Introduction

      This book contains virtually all the information available to the London Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard in 1888, along with subsequent hindsight the police did not have at the time. And although some suspects were clearly identified by the police as possibilities for Jack the Ripper, the lack of evidence and lack of credibility of eye-witness accounts did not result in any suspect being charged for the Ripper murders, let alone being prosecuted for them. Having to rely almost entirely on unreliable witness recollections severly crippled the police investigation. They had no motive leads to follow up, as the murders were a completely random crime of butchery, without ryme or reason. Also, the police of the time had none of the tools necessary to establish cooberating evidence, like fingerprint files, DNA, or hair sample analysis technology. No weapon was ever recovered, nor any clues found at the crime scene or anywhere else. The chances of finding the Ripper under such circumstances was infintestimal. The result was that back in 1888 a serial killer in the East End of London murdered a number of prostitutes with impunity. The London police were powerless to catch him, although they did, on a number of occasions, arrive on the crime scene only minutes after the murder was committed. Despite this, the Ripper always disappeared in the maze of the dark streets and alleyways of the East End without being seen. And when the Ripper stopped his murderous spree, it was for reasons known only to himself.

      The Ripper’s murderous serial killings must certainly go down in the history books as one of the great unsolved mysteries of all time. Therefore, anyone that thinks he can do better than the police of the time or the numerous writers after, read on and put your ability to the test and see if you can close the book on the infamous Whitechapel murders to your satisfaction. You will never find a crime more worthy of your efforts.

      The East End

      Whitechapel East London included the London docks and run-down areas of Whitechapel, Spitalfields, and Bethnal Green. It was bordered on the south by the River Thames, to the west by the City of London, to the north by Hackney and Shoreditch, and to the east by the Lea River Lea. The area grew rapidly for 3 main reasons. The 1st one was due to a massive immigration that rapidly increased the East End population by 1 million. In the mid 19th century England experienced an influx of Irish immigrants that poured into London’s East End, followed in the latter half of the century by Jewish and Polish refugees from Eastern Europe and Tsarist Russia. The 2nd reason for the growth of the East End was that a major travel artery ran through it from London to Mile End, passing right through Whitechapel. The 3rd reason was that the terrain there was level and easy to build on.

      So great was this migration into the East End that it quickly became overcrowded, and soon there were far more workersthere there than available jobs. The result of the huge population increase was severe job competiton, which kept wages down to an absolute minimum. At the same time, inadequate housing forced laborers and working-class families to move to the slums, where they were forced to live amongst the criminal element. But at least the rents were affordable and laborers could be close to their workplaces.

      As the parish of Whitechapel, in London’s East End, became increasingly overcrowded, housing conditions steadily worsened and the area was overrun with violence, robbery, and alcoholism. London’s East End was perfect for crime. A maze of streets, alleys, courts, and yards covered the East End and the gaslights, which were few and far between, did little to illuminate the dark shadows. Beat cops did their best to patrol the area but were overworked and paid a subsistence wage, which rarely attracted the most competitent candidates for the job. In addition, the police of that day had virtually no criminal investigation tools to work with. There were no crime files, no fingerprinting, no forensics worthy of the name, and no neighborhood watch. All the policeman had to rely on was his personal knowledge (assuming he had been in that area long enough to have any) and witnesses who could positivity identify (an unlikely event, as recent events were so conclusively to prove) the perpetrator, or he was luckly enough to personally witness the crime. Other than this, the criminal was not likely to get caught. For a seial killer like Jack the Ripper, the East End proved to be an ideal hunting ground.

      The Ripper’s chosen victims, the prostutites of the East End, were easy kill targets. Without a man to support her, a woman had only 2 options at earning money. She could work 6 days a week and 12-hours a day in a sweatshop, making coats or gluing together matchboxes, to make the equivalent of 25 cents a week, if she was lucky, or become a prostitute. And although earnings on the streets occulated between feast and famine, because of the often fierce competition or luck of the draw, a woman could sometimes earn as much in a night as she could in an entire week working at a sweatshop. It was estimated that as many as 1 out of every 4 female workers in the sweatshops also worked as prostitutes. In October 1888, London’s Metropolitan Police Service estimated that there were 1,200 prostitutes and about 62 brothels in Whitechapel, an area decent people preferred to stay away from.

      Doss Houses When not on the streets plying their trade, most of the prostitutes lived in numerous workhouses (often referred to as doss houses), which were huge barracks-like residences packed with a many as 1,000 men and women who had nowhere else to go. In 1888 there were 149 such registered doss houses in Whitechapel alone. A bed could be had for fourpence per night in a room with perhaps 70 others. For twice as much, a more private bed could be found. Four of the 5 victims of Jack the Ripper were living in such doss houses at the time of their death.

      And although the poor had little love for the workhouses, on cold mornings there were always long lines of them waiting for entry there, with no where else to go. To be admitted a person had to be totally destitute and everyone was carefully interrogated and searched for money that might be on their person (the poor literally carrying all their possessions on their back). And if even a penny was found, the person was thrown back out on the street. Any tobacco found was confiscated, as well as knives and matches. Every inmate was stipped and washed in the same tub of water and dried off with a communal towel. They were then given workhouse-issued clothing and directed to bad-smlling, rat-infested wards, where they would pass the evening, sleeping on canvas stretched out between poles like a hammock. The noise of people coughing, sneezing, mumbling in their sleep, and sobbing continued all throughout the night.

      Breakfast at 6:00 am might be bread and gruel called skilly, which was made with oatmeal or moldy meat. Then the resident was put to work at a number of cruel and disgusting tasks, similar to those performed by criminals in jail; breaking rocks into stones, scrubbing floors, picking crops, untwisting old rope to reuse the hemp, cleaning out latrines, or removing the dead from the mortuary. To refuse the assigned work was to be thrown back out into the streets to be homseless again. Once accepted at the doss house, residents were required to stay at least 2 nights and 1 day.

      The Prostitutes The woman working the streets in the East End were hardly a dream date. Many were overweight or skinny with homely faces, missing teeth, bad breath, and were outright drunks, with hair-trigger tempers and nasty dispositions. They typically lived in flophouses (the doss houses) whenever they did not drink their money away and walked about with everything they owned on their person. Although these prostitutes might not have won any beauty contests, at least they were available for a man to satisify his sexual needs, in an age when their Victorian Era wives considered sex as a task to be reluctantly endured, and then only to procreate children.

      Sex was usually performed standing up against a building or fence, as the prostitute had no inclination to lay down on her back in the mud in her only change of clothes. In most cases the prostitute lifted up her dress with her back to the client. If she was lucky and skillful, she was able to direct the penis of her drunken client between her thighs as he ejeculated. Frequently being as drunk as she was, the clinet usually did not know the difference. She was the perfect target for the Ripper and obligingly set herself up to have her throat easily slit in a dark corner of the street or alleyway and was unable to put up much of a struggle.

      When the Ripper started his killing spree, some prostitutes fled from Whitechapel, with others only working in groups of 2 or

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