THE STORY OF JACK THE RIPPER

In the East End of London, the year 1888 a dangerous & savage killer stalked the streets of Whitechapel.

He was christened by the media as 'Jack the Ripper'!

This murderer was to become the subject of movies, scores of books, video games and even walking tours.
     
So when Frederick Best, a reporter for the London based newspaper "The Star” allegedly sent a forged letter signed "Jack the Ripper", he couldn't have possibly imagined that 125 years later the name would still be such a popular topic for debate.

By signing the letter 'Jack the Ripper' he gave the killer an identity that the press would use turning the murderer into an almost mythical figure.
 
In the grand scheme of things the Rippers alleged murder toll paled in comparison to some of the serial killers in Victorian England at the time, but there was something intriguing about the case that captured people's attention and imagination.

The Star newspaper was formed not that long before the first murder & it adopted the style of a modern tabloid paper. And as many newspapers today, they didn't let the truth get in the way of a good story, & this is probably why they had a circulation of 200'000 per day!
   
However they did tend to use some unethical methods in constructing a story. One such example is the £50 libel they had to pay a Jewish book maker whom they had named as the killer.

All the newspapers at the time gave graphical descriptions of the wounds inflicted on the murder victims. The Police Illustrated News carried stories of events in comic strip form; this put pictures to the stories written & gave an almost fictional slant on the case.

Then of course with the long list of people suspected or questioned by the police over the killings, the facts became mixed with the fiction. The press were well aware of the lack of progress being made by the police in tracking down the killer. Newspapers were being accused by those in authority of scaremongering the public with their inaccurate reports

The Government and the Police had many other problems to deal with, Irish terrorism and the concern of revolt by anarchists due to the rise in poverty to name but a few.

The last thing they needed was a serial killer on the loose in London & the press spreading panic amongst the citizens with inaccurate reports!

The Ripper had the two police forces of London tied in knots and yet the press still applied pressure.
All the while rumours of a member of society were rife, which only added more mystery to the Rippers identity.

Ask anyone for a description of Jack and it'll almost certainly be a man adorned in a top hat, cape & feature him carrying a Gladstone bag.....a fictional image created by the media, which proves how influential a good story can be!

In the years that followed the last canonical victim’s death, the identity of the Ripper was still very much a talking point. So he became an urban myth and very soon a new medium was taking form, which put Jack the Ripper into a visual form.

In 1927 a young English film director by the name of Alfred Hitchcock directed The Lodger-A Story of the London Fog. This film was bases on the Ripper case and portrayed the killer as a medic.

This was to be the start of the stereotype given to Jack the Ripper, several movies have used the image and its an image loathed by Ripperologists to this very day.
In fact it continues to be the theme throughout the movies made about the Ripper.

The scene of a Handsome Cab containing a rich doctor, stalking a drunken prostitute through the fog-laden streets of Victorian Whitechapel is a recurrent one.
Despite the dismissal of this as nonsense by the experts, it seems to be the popular story with the cinema audiences.

The Royal connection is a common theme in Ripper movies. The murders, being carried out by Queen Victoria's surgeon to hush a scandal. A fantasy perhaps, but it all adds to the Ripper legend, and it sells.

The popular theories of experts don't seem to appeal when it comes to movie storylines.
The more farfetched story seems to be the one the masses seem to cling to.

Dozens of books have been written about the Whitechapel murders, each of the author's theories are the main material of their publication.
Some of the theories are very reputable whilst some stem on the realms of fantasy.

All sorts of reputable people have made known their opinions on who the murderer actually was. Even the creator of the great Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle gave his conclusions. He didn't even rule out a woman as a suspect.
   
Some writers have written books claiming to have the definitive answer to the case; some giving a decent theory, some ridiculous.
 
Then the books that try to get inside the mind of the Ripper trying to decipher the reasons for his actions. Did he have a motive or was he a cold blooded murderer?
Almost a bigger puzzle to solve than the killers identity.
       
The theories keep coming but the mystery remains unsolved and Jack still leads everyone a merry dance.
And social networks seem to be the best places to debate these.
Ripper enthusiasts, amateur and professional put forward their opinions, post pictures and articles, sometimes uncovering new evidence.
   
Probably the biggest attraction is the Ripper tours, lots of these are a popular tourist attraction for visitors to London.
 
Groups of people that are led through the dark streets of Whitechapel by enthusiastic guides, usually these are Ripperologists who give their slant on the case.
 
Jack the Ripper was a brutal murderer but 125 years later he's become a bestseller, a movie villain and a tourist attraction.....whoever they are I bet they are having a chuckle.