Successful autistic author Mickey Mayhew has a keen interest in true crime and the history of London’s East End. Since 2008 he has been a member of The Whitechapel Society, serving as a committee member for the past decade. Mr Mayhew’s partner also serves on the committee, as well as managing the organisation’s website.
The Whitechapel Society has published three books on Jack the Ripper that Mickey Mayhew co-authored, and he is currently in the process of writing a fictional book about the unidentified serial killer. This article will take a closer look at Jack the Ripper and the series of macabre crimes that shook Victorian society to its core.
The Jack the Ripper murders took place in the East End of London in 1888. Originally known as the ‘Whitechapel Murderer’ or ‘Leather Apron’, in reality, Jack the Ripper posed a threat to just a very small subsection of the population. Nevertheless, he quickly gained huge notoriety. Reports also exposed a sordid underbelly of society, raising awareness of the appalling conditions prevailing on the outskirts of the City of London, which ranked as the wealthiest square mile on the planet at the time.
Five brutal murders were committed in the Whitechapel area of London between August and November 1888. All of the victims were women. All were prostitutes. With the exception of Elizabeth Stride, all were horribly mutilated.
Jack the Ripper murdered his first victim, Mary Ann or Polly Nicholls, on 31 August 1888. Annie Chapman was killed on 8 September. He then killed two women on the same night, namely Catherine Eddowes and Elizabeth Stride, on 30 September 1888. Mary Jane Kelly, believed to be his final victim, was murdered and mutilated on 9 November 1888.
The killer’s identity has never been formally ascertained, attracting a huge amount of speculation over the centuries. Some suggest he or she may have been a butcher or doctor, based on the weapons used and mutilations inflicted, which showed a basic understanding of human anatomy. Some theories put forward names of those who may have been responsible. Some suggest the crime may have been perpetrated by Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence, Queen Victoria’s grandson, although evidence for this is insubstantial. Other commonly cited suspects include the teacher and barrister Montague Druitt, who was said to possess an intense fascination with surgery; Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew and Whitechapel resident; and Michael Ostrog, a Russian physician and criminal. Other notable Londoners of the era who have been the focus of similar speculation include Sir William Gull and Walter Sickert.
In Victorian London, violence against prostitutes was not uncommon and there were numerous examples of women being brutalised. Nevertheless, the nature of the murders strongly suggested a single perpetrator. The murderer is believed to have made contact with several public figures by letter, as well as scrawling a cryptic chalk message on a wall.
Despite strenuous and at times questionable efforts to trap and identify the killer, Jack the Ripper was never caught. Failure to apprehend the murderer triggered a public uproar, forcing the resignations of both the Home Secretary and London Police Commissioner.
Jack the Ripper is not believed to have killed again after murdering Mary Jane Kelly in November 1888, inexplicably ceasing his crimes. Nevertheless, the story has retained its hold on the popular imagination to this day, providing themes for numerous works of fiction.
The Whitechapel Society is a long-running historical society that was originally launched to shine a light on the Jack the Ripper murders and the squalid conditions prevailing in the East End at the time. Over the years, the society has grown to include many experts on Victorian and Edwardian history, including members who have produced some of the most respected papers and books on East End crime ever written.
