He remains the ultimate criminal enigma – and Jack the Ripper committed his dastardly deeds exactly 130 years ago.
From autumn into early winter 1888, he murdered at least five women in the streets of London, and the case continues to intrigue and horrify.
The late author and journalist Richard Whittington-Egan was intrigued his whole life. He spent much of his childhood and youth quizzing old people who had lived through it all in the capital’s East End.
Richard, who died two years ago, wrote a classic 1975 book about the Ripper, which has been out of print and selling for a fortune as it’s so rare. Thankfully, that volume has now been updated and enlarged, and is available again at long last.
As the late, great Richard demonstrated, Jack the Ripper remains a mystery, with a long list of suspects. Even the number of women he killed is anything but certain.
“Between August 31 and November 9 1888, in what has been picturesquely described as an Autumn of Terror, some person or persons unknown did murder and grotesquely mutilate five prostitutes in the East End of London,” he wrote.
Most of us know that the five women who had their throats cut were Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly.
Read the full story - The Sunday Post: https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/will-we-ever-know-who-jack-the-ripper-was-ultimate-criminal-enigma-continues-to-intrigue-and-horrify-130-years-on/
