Jack the Ripper

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

     It was the year 1888 and the scene was the East End of London, or more specifically, the area of Whitechapel and Spitalfields. Just the year before, Queen Victoria had celebrated the Golden Jubilee of her long reign and the Port of London was still the largest and busiest in the whole world. Nearly two million people of the London population were classified as poor, so it would figure that approximately 100,000 of them were living a life of crime.

     Nearly fifty percent of the workers paid from a quarter to a half of their wages for one-room hovels for themselves and their families (Evans & Gaines, 1995). Women didn’t have many options in the workforce as their jobs were restricted to domestics, hawkers, fur pullers, or operatives in jam factories. Most of them turned to the more appealing alternative – prostitution. The profession was rampant in London at this time and these women could be found just about anywhere from train stations to alleyways to music halls. Some even used cabmen to make contacts.

     Even the police were plagued with problems. As early as twenty years prior, the leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, T.J Kelly, was leading a campaign against England when he was arrested and imprisoned. Only a few weeks later, there was an explosion at Clerkenwell Prison, when his second-in-command was broken out of jail. The explosion left 12 casualties and 120 people injured. Attacks such as these continued on for several years, led mostly by a small radical group called the Dynamitards. IN 1887, Commissioner Charles Warren placed a ban on rallies and demonstrations in the square. The response? On November 13th, a day to become known as Bloody Sunday, there was a large procession of radicals and Irish Home Rulers. Warren called for military force leaving two dead in the scuffle and great resentment from the people. The riots that continued to occur did not prepare London’s finest for their most infamous crisis.

Martha Tabram: First Victim

     It was Monday, August 6th. Martha Tabram, also known to some as Turner, was thirty-nine-years-old standing at 5ft 3in with dark brown hair and complexion. She began her evening at the White Swan Pub with another prostitute, Mary Ann Connelly, and two solider clients. Between 10pm and 11:45pm, the four visited several public houses in Whitechapel before separating. Connelly went up Angel Court with her client, while Turner took George Yard with the older soldier.