For my birthday this year I thought I’d try
something a little different. I know there are lots of “Jack the Ripper” tours
out there, but the one we did involved A LOT of walking…. I knew this
beforehand, but we were so excited anyway to learn more about London’s most
infamous murderer! We used “the Jack the Ripper tour” company (link at the
bottom of this post). Please excuse the awful photos!
It begins outside Aldgate East station,
where you see a man in “Victorian” clothing and a top hat shouting at the top
of his lungs that the tour is about to begin. I have to say, having booked
tickets for the 10 of us beforehand, we were disappointed to hear him yelling
for people to join the tour there and then!
A bit late after the promised start time,
he began.
Our guide took us down some small side
streets and set the scene. The Victorian East end was a hotbed of disease and
poverty, in particular the poor women who were forced to sell their bodies for
money. These women would charge 4 pence for a “knee jerker” (not even going to
enquire as to what that means!), as this was the amount it cost to get a bed in
a flea-ridden bunkhouse. I was really surprised at how these women would have
to start again from nothing in the morning, just to have something to sleep on at
night.
We carried on, leading on through the
insanely busy Brick Lane and down a side street. Our guide recommended a
particular curry house (not really very historical!) but was soon back into the
history, explaining how the first victim was found not far from where we were
standing. This tour used something called “Ripper-vision” on the website, which
was a handheld projector that put images up on the walls. He had also memorised
the letters that the Ripper supposedly sent to the police.
As the tour went on the streets got quieter
and quieter, making it slightly scarier…. If you don’t know about the Ripper
murders, then it’s worth saying that there were 5 victims, all of which were
killed in 1888. Each murder got more gruesome and our guide even had actual
autopsy photos for the last two, which were projected onto the walls at the
places we stopped at. The victim that stuck with me was definitely Mary Jane
Kelly. Although she was a prostitute like the others, she did have a place of
her own that she rented. Her landlord came to get her overdue rent on the
morning of 9th November 1888 and instead stumbled upon her body. The
door had been barred with a table, upon which were lumps of her flesh. On the
bed, Mary’s body was unrecognisably mutilated as most of her face had been cut
off and her organs had been splayed all around her. It’s the horrific nature of
this crime that her landlord described as “the devil’s work”, which makes Mary
the most remembered victim of the Ripper. The autopsy photos that our guide
showed us were enough to haunt your sleep.
The final part of the tour involved
discussing who the suspects were for the crimes. There are several conspiracy
theories about the royals or one of their physicians, but as our guide told us,
they were never in the correct place at the correct time to have done the
crimes! He had his own suspicions, and mentioned some names I hadn’t heard
before. The likely suspects were either one of two people who both left London
once the killings had stopped…
Ultimately, I had no idea there was SO much
evidence at the time for the crimes. One of the letters the Ripper supposedly
sent had a part of one victim’s kidney attached as well, and the police had
worked out this kidney was definitely from the victim Catherine Eddowes. The
police never would have seen him covered in blood, as the gaslights in London
were so faint that they could barely see their own hands in the darkness.
However, there was a piece of cloth that was found in a doorway not far away
from his third victim, which was covered in her blood and other “matter”.
Finally, all of the witnesses who saw the victims alive stated that they were
seen with a man in a dark hat and coat, with a moustache.
All of the murders were linked in a similar
method of death (cutting the throat), but with increasingly disturbing
mutilations. The killer was clearly very skilled with a knife, leading many
throughout the ages to name barbers or doctors as suspects. Sadly we will never
know the true killer.
The tour, despite a disappointing start,
was brilliant and well worth the money and time. Lots of walking was a part of
it, but it was exciting to be in the same area as where these murders took
place. Our guide “John” did a brilliant job of making it interesting but
treating the subject matter with respect. He focused on the women behind the
crimes, all of whom were innocent victims of a deranged killer. I would
recommend doing this any day, and it is a great way of learning more about
London and the famous Jack the Ripper crimes.
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