Transcript

Jack The Ripper: Horror in Whitechapel

From The Rest Is History · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 4 min · 11,422 words · 117 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Jack The Ripper: Horror in Whitechapel", an episode of The Rest Is History published December 11, 2025 (1 h 4 min, about 11,422 words). It mentions 223 people, works and ideas, including Jac k the Ripper, Jack the Ripper, White Chapel, Annie Chapman, Serial Killer.

What this episode is about

In the grim setting of Whitechapel, London, in 1888, the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper continues his spree, claiming three more victims and instilling widespread fear among the city's vulnerable population. Amidst the rising terror, the police struggle to identify the murderer, who is described as a cunning and bloodthirsty maniac stalking the streets unchecked.

Key takeaways

  • Jack the Ripper: London's 1888 horror doubled as the tabloid goldmine of Victorian drama.
  • Hive: From ghastly slums to greener tech—East End hustles to homes of the future.
  • Police clueless? Welcome to 1888's real-life 'whodunit'—the streets of London: one mystery, zero leads.
  • East End's dark alleys hailed terror, but newspapers cashed in on alliterative bloodlust.
  • Victorian fears meet innovative rays—Hive promises less 'maniac' and more 'solar savant'.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Jac k the Ripper, Jack the Ripper, White Chapel, London
  2. – 20:00: White Chapel, Jac k the Ripper, London, Jack the Ripper
  3. – 30:00: Annie Chapman, Annie Chapman, Hambury Street, Jac k the Ripper
  4. – 40:00: White Chapel, East End, Jac k the Ripper, London
  5. – 50:00: White Chapel, Leather Apron, Leather Apron, London
  6. – 1:00:00: Jac k the Ripper, Jack the Ripper, White Chapel, London
  7. – 1:03:38: The Rest Is History Club, Matthew Dominic, The Rest Is History Club, The Rest Is History Club

Notable quotes from "Jack The Ripper: Horror in Whitechapel"

  • A murderer is stalking the streets, ripping open the stomachs of his victims.
    about Jack the Ripper · at
  • There can be no shadow of a doubt now that our original theory was correct and that the White Chapel murderer who has now four if not five victims to his knife is one man and that man a murderous maniac.
    about Jac k the Ripper · at
  • We will indeed. Yes. So let's remind people where and when we are. We are in the late summer of 1888. We are in the east end of London which we described last time as this kind of labyrinth, this warren of crowded narrow streets.
    about White Chapel · at
  • Doors. And this is precisely the kind of thing the readers of the newspaper want East End women to say. But Dominic, there is also, it is expressive of a genuine sentiment of…
    about Matthew Dominic · at
  • The very best that they can in an impossible situation. So to paint a picture, the Metropolitan Police was set up by Sir Robert Peele in 1829.
    about London · at
  • But people don't have a sense of this in the 1880s. The studies have not yet been done on serial killers. So, people are bewildered and horrified. This is why there's so much talk of him being a maniac. And to make matters more.
    about Serial Killer · at
  • Ourselves, a living, breathing woman with an inner life of her own. And her name was Annie Chapman. And we will be talking about her life and what brought her to this position…
    about Annie Chapman · at
  • Yes. And they assign to the case the same inspector who is handling the investigation into Polyynicl's death.
    about Inspector Frederick Abberline · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Jack the Ripper — Person · Main topic · 15 mentions · first at
    The central figure of the podcast episode, a notorious serial killer in 1888 London.
  • Inspector Frederick Abberline — Person · Lead investigator (Detective Inspector) · 1 mention · first at
    Assigned to the Ripper-related investigations; described as knowledgeable about the area and a hard-working detective central to the police response.
  • Matthew Dominic — Person · Co-host · 10 mentions · first at
    One of the two presenters guiding the narrative, analysis of press, policing, and historiography of the Ripper case.
  • Annie Chapman — Person · Victim · 7 mentions · first at
    One of Jack the Ripper's victims, whose murder is detailed in the episode.
    But this was, let's reme remind ourselves, a living, breathing woman with an inner life of her own. And her name was Annie Chapman. And we will be talking about her life and…
  • Maryanne Nichols — Person · Referenced victim (canonical victim) · 2 mentions · first at
    Presented as the first of the 'canonical five' whose murder triggers press frenzy and the broader 'Ripper phenomenon.'
    Back and the details, as they will be throughout this series, even more horrific. Her throat slashed from ear to ear, her body ripped open to reveal her intestines. And this…
  • Maryanne Nichols — Person · Victim discussed (canonical victim) · 2 mentions · first at
    Her murder (31 Aug 1888, Bucks Row) is used to frame the start of press frenzy and the emergence of the 'Ripper phenomenon'.
    Back and the details, as they will be throughout this series, even more horrific. Her throat slashed from ear to ear, her body ripped open to reveal her intestines. And this…
  • Maryanne Nichols — Person · Referenced victim (canonical victim) · 2 mentions · first at
    Presented as the first of the 'canonical five' whose murder triggers press frenzy and the broader 'Ripper phenomenon'.
    Back and the details, as they will be throughout this series, even more horrific. Her throat slashed from ear to ear, her body ripped open to reveal her intestines. And this…
  • Maryanne Nichols — Person · Referenced victim (canonical victim) · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as the first of the 'canonical five' whose murder triggers major press frenzy and the broader 'Ripper phenomenon.'
    Back and the details, as they will be throughout this series, even more horrific. Her throat slashed from ear to ear, her body ripped open to reveal her intestines. And this…
  • Maryanne Nichols — Person · Referenced victim (canonical victim) · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as the first of the 'canonical five' whose murder triggers press frenzy and the broader 'Ripper phenomenon.'
    Back and the details, as they will be throughout this series, even more horrific. Her throat slashed from ear to ear, her body ripped open to reveal her intestines. And this…
  • Maryanne Nichols — Person · Referenced victim (canonical victim) · 1 mention · first at
    Presented as the first of the 'canonical five' whose murder triggered major press frenzy and the broader Ripper phenomenon.
    Back and the details, as they will be throughout this series, even more horrific. Her throat slashed from ear to ear, her body ripped open to reveal her intestines. And this…
  • Dr. George Bagster Phillips — Person · Police surgeon (forensic expert) · 1 mention · first at
    Police surgeon who examined Annie Chapman and provided medical observations used to infer the killer's skills and methods.
    The killer must have done it in moments, in minute, 5 minutes, three or four minutes. The coroner at the inquest said he must have been somebody who had considerable anatomical…
  • Dominic (context needed) — Person · Co-host discussing the White Chapel murders · 1 mention
    Dominic is a key figure in the discussion about the historical context of the murders.
  • Sir Charles Warren — Person · Metropolitan Police Chief Commissioner (context) · 2 mentions · first at
    Head of the Metropolitan Police at the time; his background and reforms (military, Freemasonry interests) are discussed as part of institutional context.
    And in recent months in particular they've become very controversial. You mentioned in the last episode the chief commissioner of the Met Sir Charles Warren. He's come from a…
  • John Davis — Person · Discoverer (witness) · 1 mention · first at
    Found Annie Chapman's body in the yard at 29 Hanbury Street at about 5:45 AM; his discovery sets the response in motion.
    Yeah. And one of them is a guy who's a carman, which is a kind of cart driver called John Davis. He's a little man with a stoop and he rents the attic, and he lives in the attic with his family.
  • Elizabeth Long — Person · Witness · 1 mention · first at
    Key witness who saw Annie Chapman talking to a man around 5:30 AM and provided a description used to narrow the time window and suspect profile.
    Second witness is a local woman called Elizabeth Long. And at about 5:30 in the morning, she'd been walking along Hanbury Street to Spittlefields Market, and she'd seen a man and woman talking outside number 29. And she later went to.
  • Elizabeth Stride — Person · Victim · 4 mentions · first at
    Another victim of Jack the Ripper, mentioned in the episode.
    Metropolitan Police arrives and eventually they identify this woman. Her name is Elizabeth Stride. We'll tell her story in the bonus episode for our club members. Just very…
  • Leather Apron — Person · Public suspect nickname / figure in press · 3 mentions · first at
    Nickname used in press reports referencing a man who harassed prostitutes; associated in public discourse as a suspect (linked to John Piser).
    Background and he is a shoe maker, Jewish shoemaker called John Piser who was arrested on the 10th and he is the man who was mentioned in the last episode who because his…
  • WT Stead — Person · Referenced media figure (editor) · 2 mentions · first at
    Used to illustrate sensationalist Victorian journalism (Pall Mall Gazette) and its role in shaping public fear and reform campaigns.
    Clearance that is lapping at the borders of White Chapel throughout this period and the closing of brothel and we will be coming to him and his role in the story in a later episode.
  • Robert Anderson — Person · Assistant Commissioner (head of CID) - contextual · 1 mention · first at
    Assistant Commissioner who had recently taken the job and went on holiday soon after starting—mentioned to illustrate police leadership context.
    Cause for alarm. So, Sir Charles Warren has been on holiday in France, and they've just brought in a new guy, Dr.
  • Albert Kadosh — Person · Witness (neighbor) · 1 mention · first at
    Neighbor who heard voices over the fence and a noise like something falling, providing temporal evidence tied to the murder window.
    To that. Now, I said there were three witnesses. The third witness is a carpenter called Albert Kadosh. He lived next door to number 29, number 27. He got up early and he said…
  • John Piser — Person · Early suspect (Leather Apron) · 1 mention · first at
    Jewish shoemaker arrested as a suspect and identified with the 'Leather Apron' rumours; illustrates public and police suspicion dynamics.
    Background and he is a shoe maker, Jewish shoemaker called John Piser who was arrested on the 10th and he is the man who was mentioned in the last episode who because his…
  • WT Stead — Person · Referenced journalist/editor · 6 mentions
    Used as an example of sensational mass-market journalism (Pall Mall Gazette) shaping public opinion and reform politics in the era.
  • Polly Nichols — Person · Victim · 3 mentions · first at
    One of Jack the Ripper's victims, whose murder is mentioned.
    Pololly Nichols, very poor, alcoholic, homeless, possibly an occasional prostitute. and she's the first of the canonical five Ripper victims because really although it's quite…
  • Katherine Edetos — Person · Victim · 2 mentions · first at
    One of the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper, briefly mentioned in the episode.
    The next episode but most experts think it's a hoax. The killer never did cut off a victim's ears. So he did mutilate a future victim, Katherine Edetos, and cut off the lobe of…
  • WTstead — Person · Media figure · 1 mention · first at
    The editor of the Palm Gazette, involved in sensational journalism during the Jack the Ripper era.
    Is the original tabloid newspaper of the kind that anyone who's read a British newspaper will be familiar with. and it was edited by a guy from North Umbrea called WTstead…
  • WT Stead — Person · Referenced media figure (editor) · 1 mention · first at
    Used to illustrate sensationalist journalism and the Pall Mall Gazette’s influence on public morality campaigns and slum policy.
    Come back to, the Palm Gazette. Tom, tell us about the Palm Gazette. There's a case for saying that the Palm Gazette is the original tabloid newspaper of the kind that anyone…
  • Sir Robert Peel — Person · Referenced historical figure (institution founder) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as founder of the Metropolitan Police, providing institutional context for investigative capacity in 1888.
    The very best that they can in an impossible situation. So to paint a picture, the Metropolitan Police was set up by Sir Robert Peele in 1829.
  • Samuel Montague — Person · Referenced political figure (local MP; community response) · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as Whitechapel's MP who offered an early reward; used to discuss Jewish community leadership and backlash against antisemitic blame.
    Yes. Exactly. Exactly. It's not surprising either that prominent Jews are then keen to push back. So the very first reward that was put up for the killer's capture was put up…
  • Philip Sugden — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    A historian and author who has written extensively about Jack the Ripper.
    Philip Sugton points out that this letter, you can people can Google it, they can see lots of examples of it online. The punctuation is all over the place, but there is not a single.
  • Martha Tabram — Person · Victim · 2 mentions · first at
    A potential early victim of Jack the Ripper, whose murder is mentioned.
    Prostitute. and she's the first of the canonical five Ripper victims because really although it's quite possible that Martha Tabron was also killed by the same man, it's with…
  • WT Stead — Person · Media figure · 1 mention · first at
    An editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, involved in sensational journalism.
    Newspaper will be familiar with. and it was edited by a guy from North Umbrea called WTstead throughout the 1880s who ultimately would end up on Titanic. So that's a link between the two stories.
  • Laura Anne Nelson — Person · Referenced historical figure (comparison point) · 1 mention · first at
    Appears as a biographical reference point when discussing Philip Sugden’s family connection (brother wrote a definitive Nelson biography).
    I think the definitive book really by a guy called Philip Sugdan. If that name rings a slight bell it's because he's actually the brother of the John Sugdan who's the…
  • Samuel Montagu — Person · Local MP / community actor · 1 mention · first at
    Already included earlier (duplicate mention in list).
    Yes. Exactly. Exactly. It's not surprising either that prominent Jews are then keen to push back. So the very first reward that was put up for the killer's capture was put up…
  • Joseph Chandler — Person · Police Officer · 1 mention · first at
    A police officer involved in the Jack the Ripper case.
    And by the time the policeman, Inspector Joseph Chandler, arrives, the place is packed. So the house is suddenly alive.
  • John Richardson — Person · Witness · 1 mention · first at
    A witness in the Jack the Ripper case.
    The first one is a market porter called John Richardson and his mother rented the ground floor rooms at number 29.
  • Samuel Montigue — Person · Referenced person · 1 mention · first at
    A politician mentioned in the context of the Jack the Ripper case.
    Yes. Exactly. Exactly. It's not surprising either that prominent Jews are then keen to push back. So the very first reward that was put up for the killer's capture was put up…
  • Henry Matthews — Person · Referenced person · 1 mention · first at
    The Home Secretary during the Jack the Ripper case.
    Yeah. And even the Telegraph, a Tory paper, which should be supporting him, said of Mr. Matthews, We've had enough of Mr. Matthews who knows nothing, has heard nothing, and does not intend to do.
  • Jane Beadmore — Person · Victim · 1 mention · first at
    A woman murdered outside Gates Head, initially suspected to be a Jack the Ripper victim.
    Another murder grips the public imagination. Another woman has been killed. Her name is Jane Beadmore. But she has been stabbed and killed on a fell outside Gates Head in the…
  • Lewis Deemshutz — Person · Witness · 1 mention · first at
    A witness in the Jack the Ripper case.
    Yard at all. So, this is I'm telling you this because it gives people a sense of the wind over time. Then 20 minutes later, a man riding a little cart comes into the yard and…
  • Edward Watkins — Person · Police Officer · 1 mention · first at
    A police officer involved in the Jack the Ripper case.
    And there the night watchman is sweeping up. And PC Watkins runs in and he shouts, For God's sake, mate, come to my assistance. There's another woman cut to pieces. Because for the second time in barely an hour, Jack the Ripper has.

Books & papers

  • The Five — Book · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at
    Book mentioned in the podcast discussing the lives of Jack the Ripper's victims.
    Some money just about 2:00 a.m. So there are two possibilities. Possibility number one, Hi Rubenhold in her book, The Five, she believes all the women were killed as they…
  • The Complete History of Jack the Ripper — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    A book by Philip Sugden that provides a detailed account of the Jack the Ripper case.
    Jack the Ripper. And it's I think by far the most scholarly and sort of serious book on this. And he points out that the newspapers in 1888 are competing for a new readership…
  • From Hell — Book · 2 mentions · first at
    Prostitutes or being comically incompetent. Although in the film From Hell, he's portrayed by Johnny Depp as an opium addict who sees glimpses into the truth of the actual case. and Johnny Depp has his very fine.
  • Sherlock Holmes — Book · 1 mention · first at
    I'd say they're incompetent, aren't They're either the blundering fools of Sherlock Holmes, the Lstrad and his colleagues who are always one step behind the murderer and of…
  • Jerry White's book on 19th century London — Book · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

  • Scotland Yard — Company · Organization · 3 mentions · first at
    The headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, involved in the investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders.
    It does go viral. Exactly. Based purely on this, right? So the editor of the central news agency doesn't think it's real, but two days later he passes it to Scotland Yard anyway and says, you might want to just check this out.
  • The Palm Gazette — Company · Media outlet · 2 mentions · first at
    A newspaper that played a significant role in the Jack the Ripper phenomenon.
    There's hundreds of competing titles and crime and sex are absolutely central to their appeal. So, one example that we'll come back to, the Palm Gazette. Tom, tell us about the…
  • Daily Telegraph — Company · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at
    Newspaper mentioned in the podcast for its coverage of the Jack the Ripper murders.
    Sheets as they would describe themselves you know they're they're piling in as well. So, the Daily Telegraph still going strong today at the time the bestselling newspaper in the world.
  • Mile End Vigilance Committee — Company · Civic group / community response · 1 mention · first at
    Local committee formed by mainly Jewish traders to respond to murders (putting up rewards and organizing), reflecting community reaction and involvement.
    Committee was set up by local largely Jewish traders and shopkeepers. And as we will see, they became nationally famous because they were to receive a letter and a hideous gift…
  • UK Home Office — Company · Government department (context) · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as institutional actor that disliked rewards and was involved in oversight of police conduct during the murders.
    Rewards, whether or not to give a reward is a big part of the kind of police investigation. The Home Office hate rewards because they say basically if somebody knew who the…
  • East London Observer — Company · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Newspaper mentioned for its coverage of the Jack the Ripper murders.
    Mentioned I mean they had been fascinated by the murder of Martha Tabram. it has received quite a lot of coverage. a unique and mysterious crime because of its sheer savagery…
  • Pall Mall Gazette — Company · Media · 1 mention · first at
    A newspaper that played a significant role in the Jack the Ripper phenomenon.
    Kind that anyone who's read a British newspaper will be familiar with. and it was edited by a guy from North Umbrea called WTstead throughout the 1880s who ultimately would end up on Titanic. So that's a link between the two stories.
  • Daily News — Company · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at
    Newspaper that reported on the Jack the Ripper murders.
    The 4th of September, the Daily News sends a reporter down to Bucks Row where the body was found. And he finds or he says he finds crowds of poor women who are sort of studying the paving stones.
  • The Rest Is History Club — Company · Secondary owned · 3 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a platform for additional content related to the podcast.
    Episode for club members along with the lives of Elizabeth Stride and Katherine Edetos, two of the other victims. So, if you're not a member of the rest is history club, you…
  • Pall Mall Gazette — Company · 4 mentions
  • Evening Star — Company · 3 mentions · first at
    Up citizens then and do your own police work. So that was the evening star on Saturday the 8th of September 1888 after the discovery of yet another victim of the White Chapel murderer. And I use the phrase White Chapel murderer advisedly.
  • Metropolitan Police — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    The very best that they can in an impossible situation. So to paint a picture, the Metropolitan Police was set up by Sir Robert Peele in 1829.
  • Criminal Investigation Department (CID) — Company · 2 mentions
  • restishistory.com — Company · 2 mentions
  • hivehome.com — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • East London Advertiser — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Wow, that's exciting. Well, listen. Even as people were reading those words in the East London Advertiser that the murderer must creep out, he must strike again on that…
  • Home Office — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Now, the police are not terribly keen on groups like this. First of all, the home office don't like rewards. Arguing about rewards, whether or not to give a reward is a big part of the kind of police investigation. The Home Office hate.
  • The Star — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Breakthrough and the pressure begins to build on the authorities. So by the 14th of September, the star is calling the home secretary Henry Matthews and I quote, A feeble manta…
  • The Telegraph — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Yeah. And even the Telegraph, a Tory paper, which should be supporting him, said of Mr. Matthews, We've had enough of Mr. Matthews who knows nothing, has heard nothing, and does not intend to do.
  • Jack the Ripper Casebook — Company · 1 mention · first at
    And he paints you can look it up online. It's on the kind of case book, Jack the Ripper casebook website, this story. And it he paints a really vivid picture of White Chapel.…
  • Central News Office — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Because that same day, the 27th, the editor of the Central News Office in London gets a letter written in red ink.
  • International Working Men's Educational Club — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Dutfield's Yard and it was enclosed by a row of cottages by a print workshop and by the International Working Men's Educational Club which was a socialist club for Russian and Polish Jews.
  • Punch — Company · 1 mention
  • therestishistory.com — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

  • The Rest Is History Club — Product · Secondary owned · 4 mentions · first at
    A subscription service mentioned by the hosts.
    Struck again. But who, Dominic, has he slain? and what further horrors may lie ahead. And rest is history club members can find out right away because the next three episodes…
  • Hive app — Product · 1 mention · first at
  • clasp knife — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Called Charles Ludvig who was arrested with a prostitute and he was carrying a clasp knife, a razor, and a pair of scissors with him. Yeah, that's suspicious.
  • scissors — Product · 1 mention · first at
    With a prostitute and he was carrying a clasp knife, a razor, and a pair of scissors with him. Yeah, that's suspicious.
  • long knife — Product · 1 mention · first at
    He would often sort of meaningfully sharpen his long knife at people which I think didn't inspire great confidence.
  • frankincense — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Giving. So, the Romans at Satinelia handed out all kinds of gifts. The three magi handed out gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And the Victorians absolutely loved wrapping things…
  • Hive EV charger — Product · 1 mention
  • Hive heat pumps — Product · 1 mention
  • Hive solar panels — Product · 1 mention
  • Hive thermostats — Product · 1 mention
  • myrrh — Product · 1 mention
  • razor — Product · 1 mention
  • Rest Is History Club t-shirt — Product · 1 mention
  • Uber app — Product · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

  • Serial Killer — Concept · Core topic · 1 mention · first at
    Central theme of the episode, discussing the nature and impact of serial killers like Jack the Ripper.
  • The Five — Series · Canonical victims of Jack the Ripper · 2 mentions · first at
    Central to the historical narrative of the Jack the Ripper case
    Pololly Nichols, very poor, alcoholic, homeless, possibly an occasional prostitute. and she's the first of the canonical five Ripper victims because really although it's quite…
  • Penny Dreadfuls — Concept · Key argument · 4 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a cultural influence on the reporting and perception of the Jack the Ripper murders.
    And I think the entire reporting of the Ripper phenomenon, including Jack the Ripper's name, owes a huge amount to these penny dreadfuls. So that's one thing to bear in mind. And then the.
  • Annie Chapman’s uterus — Concept · Forensic detail · 3 mentions
    Specific anatomical detail referenced in the autopsy to indicate the kind of organs removed and used to infer the killer's anatomical knowledge.
    The killer must have done it in moments, in minute, 5 minutes, three or four minutes. The coroner at the inquest said he must have been somebody who had considerable anatomical…
  • Anatomical Knowledge — Concept · Key argument · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a possible trait of Jack the Ripper, given the precision of the mutilations.
    In minute, 5 minutes, three or four minutes. The coroner at the inquest said he must have been somebody who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. he basically knew…
  • Anti-semitism — Concept · Key argument · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a social backdrop to the Jack the Ripper case, particularly in relation to Jewish immigrants.
    There's a lot of anxiety about people coming over here and stealing our jobs and whatnot. And so, it's not surprising that straight away some of the newspapers and some people on the streets say the killer must be a Jew.
  • Mass Literacy — Concept · Key argument · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a factor in the widespread reporting and public interest in the Jack the Ripper case.
    Everything that we understand about the Jack the Ripper is colored by that. And the context for this is that Britain has been transformed by the 1870 and 1880 education acts…
  • The Five — Group Of People · victims · 3 mentions · first at
    Central to the Jack the Ripper narrative as canonical victims
    Pololly Nichols, very poor, alcoholic, homeless, possibly an occasional prostitute. and she's the first of the canonical five Ripper victims because really although it's quite…
  • Whitechapel murderer — Concept · 20 mentions
  • Victorian — Concept · 6 mentions · first at
    Quote the work of some cool cunning man with a mania for murder. They love a bit of aliteration in a late Victorian newspaper. The reason that we're quoting so much from the…
  • poverty — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    And sort of wreaking tenement slums. And it's a national byword the East End for poverty, for homelessness, for prostitution, and for crime. And one other thing that's going to…
  • prostitution — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    It's a national byword the East End for poverty, for homelessness, for prostitution, and for crime. And one other thing that's going to become very important in the next couple…
  • penny dreadfuls — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    Is genuinely a nation of readers and the streets are a wash with people selling for example penny dreadfuls. These are these cheap stories of crime and horror and adventure and mystery that are read overwhelmingly by young men and boys.
  • telegraph — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    They in some ways they're very modern organizations. So their police stations are linked by telegraph but they're still working out of the sort of original very cramped sort of…
  • anatomical skill/knowledge — Concept · 2 mentions
  • From Hell letter — Concept · 2 mentions
  • serial killer (as a concept) — Concept · 2 mentions
  • industrial power — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Britain revolutionized the future with the might of industrial power. But now you can transform your own energy future and take control with the power of Hive.
  • greener electricity — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Hive makes the most of the sun with solar panels turning sunlight into greener electricity and enabling you to sell excess back to the grid. And Hives thermostats make it…
  • the grid — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Solar panels turning sunlight into greener electricity and enabling you to sell excess back to the grid. And Hives thermostats make it possible for you to heat your home without lifting anything more than a thumb and an impressed brow.
  • SEG tariff — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Suitability. Hive app compatible with selected technology. Paid for surplus requires SEG tariff.
  • Jewish refugees — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Episodes, it's an area that is being transformed by immigration, specifically Jewish refugees from the pograms in Russia and in Poland. So to recap the story of the last…
  • mass literacy — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Think, this is as much a story about the newspapers and about publishing and indeed about mass literacy as it is one about crime or poverty or prostitution.
  • inquest reports — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    So not from official documents because a lot of those have been lost, haven't they? The inquest reports and so on.
  • child prostitution — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Incredibly sensational stories, exposees of which the most famous was a crusade against child prostitution. And these stories and campaigns have a direct knock-on effect on the…
  • slum clearance — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Against child prostitution. And these stories and campaigns have a direct knock-on effect on the program of slum clearance that is lapping at the borders of White Chapel…
  • Freemasonry — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    And he has an obsessive interest in the site of the temple in Jerusalem, which is fundamental to Freemasonry. And he was actually he'd spent a term in Palestine and had…
  • fingerprint bureau — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    They can't test blood. There's no fingerprint bureau that doesn't get opened until 1901. And they don't have a science laboratory. They don't have any formal laboratory. And they won't have one for another 40 years. So, as Philip.
  • coroner — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    The killer must have done it in moments, in minute, 5 minutes, three or four minutes. The coroner at the inquest said he must have been somebody who had considerable anatomical…
  • lunatic asylums — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Yeah. And also he'd been in and out of lunatic asylums. and he had a strange habit of he would sometimes get hold of Bulock's entrails and post them to his old shop as a sort of threat. I think this the evidence is stacking.
  • Jewish immigration — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    White Chapel. White Chapel has been transformed in the last 10 years in particular by Jewish immigration. So in 1881 Zar Alexander I was assassinated in St.
  • proto-Zionist — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Chapel's MP who was a liberal who was Samuel Montigue who was an Orthodox Jew and was a kind of proto Zionist. And he put up £100 for the killer. and he was then backed up by a…
  • Red Barn — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    She dumped him. It was a crime of passion and he killed her. So, like Mariah Martin in the red barn, right? But at the time, people said, Well, maybe this killer has moved…
  • Three Magi — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Throughout time, celebration has meant giving. So, the Romans at Satinelia handed out all kinds of gifts. The three magi handed out gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And the…
  • Education Acts (1870s–1880s) — Concept · 1 mention
  • pogroms — Concept · 1 mention
  • priory — Concept · 1 mention
  • Saturnalia — Concept · 1 mention
  • solar energy — Concept · 1 mention
  • waxworks exhibition — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

  • White Chapel — Place · Setting · 25 mentions · first at
    Primary geographic setting for the murders and the social context (East End of London) discussed throughout the episode.
  • London — Place · Macro setting · 17 mentions · first at
    City-level context for events: paper circulation, policing (Metropolitan Police), and societal conditions are described across London.
  • East End — Place · Setting / social context · 11 mentions · first at
    Described as the impoverished area (labyrinth of narrow streets, tenements, immigration) where murders occur and social conditions that shaped the story.
    This warren of crowded narrow streets and sort of wreaking tenement slums. And it's a national byword the East End for poverty, for homelessness, for prostitution, and for…
  • Miter Square — Place · Crime scene (secondary) · 2 mentions · first at
    Location where a second (and extremely gruesome) body was discovered shortly after the body at Dutfield's Yard; key location in the night's events.
    So we're talking about just over half an hour after Elizabeth Stride's body was found. At 1:30, police constable Edward Watkins entered Miter Square as part of his regular…
  • Hambury Street — Place · Setting · 7 mentions · first at
    The street where Annie Chapman's body was found, a key location in the Jack the Ripper case.
    Dorbed it on three wax works. And he charged people a penny to come and see the Georgeyard, Bucks Row, and Ambry Street victims.
  • Spittlefields — Place · Setting · 4 mentions · first at
    A district in the East End of London, another location associated with the Jack the Ripper murders.
    Through the ranks precisely because he was competent, efficient, reliable, and he knows Spittlefields like the back of his hand, doesn't he?
  • Dutfield's Yard — Place · Crime scene (location) · 2 mentions · first at
    Location where Elizabeth Stride's body was found; part of the same night of multiple discoveries.
    Yes, of course, you're right. He's not yet the Ripper. So, the scene is 29 Hambury Street in Spittlefields, and it's on the north side of the street. We're in a dilapidated three-story house at number 29. Almost.
  • Bucks Row — Place · Setting · 4 mentions · first at
    The location where Polly Nichols' body was found, another key site in the Jack the Ripper case.
    The 4th of September, the Daily News sends a reporter down to Bucks Row where the body was found. And he finds or he says he finds crowds of poor women who are sort of studying the paving stones.
  • Scotland Yard — Place · Headquarters · 2 mentions · first at
    The headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, involved in the investigation of the Jack the Ripper case.
    They in some ways they're very modern organizations. So their police stations are linked by telegraph but they're still working out of the sort of original very cramped sort of…
  • Gates Head — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at
    Location mentioned where another murder took place, initially thought to be linked to Jack the Ripper.
    And then on the 22nd of September, another murder grips the public imagination. Another woman has been killed. Her name is Jane Beadmore. But she has been stabbed and killed on…
  • The City of London Cemetery — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Location where one of the victims was buried, adding to the geographical context of the story.
    Expressive of a genuine sentiment of kind of horror and people rallying together, isn't it? And so there's huge crowds for Polly Nichols when she's she's buried in the City of…
  • 29 Hanbury Street — Place · 5 mentions
  • Bucks Row — Place · 4 mentions · first at
    Episode, we talked about a second body which was found in a narrow lane called Bucks Row just before 4:00 in the morning on the 31st of August. And this is another woman who…
  • Spitalfields — Place · 4 mentions · first at
    Yes, of course, you're right. He's not yet the Ripper. So, the scene is 29 Hambury Street in Spittlefields, and it's on the north side of the street. We're in a dilapidated…
  • Mitre Square — Place · 4 mentions
  • Spitalfields church — Place · 3 mentions
  • City of London — Place · 2 mentions · first at
    Together, isn't it? And so there's huge crowds for Polly Nichols when she's she's buried in the City of London cemetery course in Ilford. And this was a woman who was on her…
  • Gothenburg — Place · 2 mentions
  • Spitalfields Market — Place · 2 mentions
  • Titanic — Place · 1 mention · first at
    It was edited by a guy from North Umbrea called WTstead throughout the 1880s who ultimately would end up on Titanic. So that's a link between the two stories.
  • City of London Cemetery — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Together, isn't it? And so there's huge crowds for Polly Nichols when she's she's buried in the City of London cemetery course in Ilford. And this was a woman who was on her…
  • Ilford — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Crowds for Polly Nichols when she's she's buried in the City of London cemetery course in Ilford. And this was a woman who was on her own and now at her death there are people…
  • Jerusalem — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Our final episode. He is a Freemason and he has an obsessive interest in the site of the temple in Jerusalem, which is fundamental to Freemasonry. And he was actually he'd…
  • Temple Mount — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Palestine and had conducted the first serious archaeological excavation of Temple Mount, the site of the Temple.
  • France — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Martha Tabum, and they see no great cause for alarm. So, Sir Charles Warren has been on holiday in France, and they've just brought in a new guy, Dr.
  • 35 Dorset Street — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Yeah. because she was kicked out of her lodging house on 35 Dorset Street. She goes out just before 2:00 a.m. onto the streets, probably to earn the coppers for a bed. And her last words, I shall soon be back. Don't let the bed. I said,.
  • London Docks — Place · 1 mention · first at
    House and he'd gone outside with the owner of the lodging house to watch a fire at London Docks. They'd watched it in the distance. And the bloke from the lodging house said, I…
  • St. Petersburg — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Particular by Jewish immigration. So in 1881 Zar Alexander I was assassinated in St.
  • Russian Empire — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Wave of repressive anti-semitic legislation and then pograms in the Russian Empire and people have are fleeing that and fleeing to Britain in particular or the United States. So in 20 years, the Russian and Polish population of London.
  • Mile End — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Put up £100 for the killer. and he was then backed up by a group called the Mile End Vigilance Committee which will play a bit of a part in this whole series. And the Mile End…
  • West Yorkshire — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Computers. it's actually the same story oddly as what happened in the 1970s in West Yorkshire with the Yorkshire Ripper. again a precomputer world where they were totally overwhelmed by too much information. So the days go by, there was no.
  • Fleet Street — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Possible publicity. And Sugton also notes the postcode, the East Central Post Code, which covered Fleet Street, the offices of the major newspapers. And he thinks this is probably the work of a young reporter who is having a bit of fun and.
  • Burner Street — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Story. One of the most gruesome nights in London's history. So we'll start in Burner Street in the heart of White Chapel. It's the evening of Saturday the 29th of September and…
  • George Yard — Place · 1 mention
  • Leadenhall Market — Place · 1 mention
  • Northumbria — Place · 1 mention
  • Switzerland (as nationality reference) — Place · 1 mention
  • Whitechapel High Street — Place · 1 mention
  • Whitechapel Road — Place · 1 mention
  • Whitehall — Place · 1 mention

Media & podcasts

  • Jac k the Ripper — Character · Central antagonist (unnamed killer) · 19 mentions · first at
    The episode revolves around the murders attributed to the Whitechapel murderer who later becomes known as 'Jack the Ripper'.
  • Annie Chapman — Character · Victim (canonical Ripper victim) · 7 mentions · first at
    Third canonical victim discussed in detail (discovery of body, mutilations, brief life summary).
  • Polly Nichols — Character · Victim (canonical Ripper victim) · 3 mentions · first at
    First of the canonical five Ripper victims; her murder generated the press furor that launched the case into public prominence.
    Martha Tabron was also killed by the same man, it's with Poly Nichols that the press furoria begins and the Jack the Ripper phenomenon begins, I suppose, doesn't it?
  • Elizabeth Stride — Character · Victim (canonical Ripper victim) · 3 mentions · first at
    Victim whose body was found in Dutfield's Yard on the same night as a subsequent murder; her background is noted.
    Detective Inspector Reed of the Metropolitan Police arrives and eventually they identify this woman. Her name is Elizabeth Stride. We'll tell her story in the bonus episode for…
  • Palm Gazette — Media · Sensational newspaper (context) · 2 mentions · first at
    Example of a mass-market tabloid-style paper driving sensational coverage of the murders; used to illustrate press influence.
    But it's instructive to look at who they arrested because it shows you how their minds are working. So to give a couple of examples, there's a German barber called Charles…
  • Martha Tabram — Character · Early possible victim · 2 mentions · first at
    Earlier murder (7 August) that may be linked to the same perpetrator; discussed as part of the sequence of killings leading up to canonical five.
    Russia and in Poland. So to recap the story of the last episode, Tom, you described how on the 7th of August, a woman called Martha Tabram was found murdered in a tenement…
  • East London Observer — Media · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Newspaper that covered the Jack the Ripper murders, providing contemporary accounts.
    Massive with it, of course. and you get a sense of them. They are they're desperate for it to happen. So, the East London Advertised, we've quoted that already. This came on…
  • Evening Star — Media · Referenced work · 3 mentions · first at
    A newspaper that played a significant role in reporting the Jack the Ripper murders, cited in the episode.
    It seems to be even gorier than the previous one so in our first episode I quoted the Evening Star which is the stuff about a ghoul stalking the streets of London and so on…
  • Daily News — Media · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at
    A newspaper that reported on the Jack the Ripper case, mentioned in the episode.
    And on the 27th of September, the Daily News sent a reporter to White Chapel and he wrote a long feature about the atmosphere. And he said, a few days ago, he said, People seem very,.
  • Katherine Edetos — Character · Victim (later canonical/context) · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as one of the victims discussed in bonus content; referenced as having suffered a cut ear lobe in the sequence of murders.
    Is it real? We'll come back to this in the next episode but most experts think it's a hoax. The killer never did cut off a victim's ears. So he did mutilate a future victim…
  • Daily Telegraph — Media · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at
    A newspaper that reported on the Jack the Ripper case, mentioned in the episode.
    Sheets as they would describe themselves you know they're they're piling in as well. So, the Daily Telegraph still going strong today at the time the bestselling newspaper in the world.
  • Pall Mall Gazette — Media · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    A newspaper that played a significant role in sensationalizing the Jack the Ripper case, cited in the episode.
    There's hundreds of competing titles and crime and sex are absolutely central to their appeal. So, one example that we'll come back to, the Palm Gazette. Tom, tell us about the…
  • The Evening Star — Media · Referenced work · 3 mentions · first at
    Newspaper mentioned in the podcast as a source of contemporary reports on the Jack the Ripper murders.
    Up citizens then and do your own police work. So that was the evening star on Saturday the 8th of September 1888 after the discovery of yet another victim of the White Chapel murderer. And I use the phrase White Chapel murderer advisedly.
  • From Hell — Media · Cultural reference · 2 mentions · first at
    Referenced film adaptation (and graphic-novel source) in cultural discussion of the case (portrayal of Abberline).
    Prostitutes or being comically incompetent. Although in the film From Hell, he's portrayed by Johnny Depp as an opium addict who sees glimpses into the truth of the actual case. and Johnny Depp has his very fine.

Sponsors

  • Hive — Product · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    Sponsor of the episode, promoting their energy solutions and home management products.
    Hive makes the most of the sun with solar panels turning sunlight into greener electricity and enabling you to sell excess back to the grid. And Hives thermostats make it possible for you to.
  • Hive — Product · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    The sponsor of the podcast episode, promoting their energy solutions.
    Hive brings it all together. Heating, charging, and solar managed from one simple app in a quiet revolution. In the long history of power, Hive helps you finally know yours. Head to hivehome.com.
  • Hive (company) — Company · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    The sponsor of the podcast episode, promoting their energy solutions.
    Hive makes the most of the sun with solar panels turning sunlight into greener electricity and enabling you to sell excess back to the grid. And Hives thermostats make it possible for you to.
  • hivehome.com — Product · Sponsored product · 1 mention · first at
    The digital product promoted by the sponsor Hive during the podcast.
    Finally know yours. Head to hivehome.com to find out more. Subject to survey and suitability. Hive app compatible with selected technology. Paid for surplus requires SEG tariff.
  • Hive — Sponsor · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    Episode sponsor; an extended ad read describes Hive's products (solar, thermostats, heat pumps, EV charger) and a CTA directing listeners to hivehome.com.
    Finally know yours. Head to hivehome.com to find out more. Subject to survey and suitability. Hive app compatible with selected technology. Paid for surplus requires SEG tariff.
  • Uber — Product · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    Sponsor of the episode, promoting their ride and delivery services.
    Uber isn't just a ride or a meal delivered. It's showing up no matter what.
  • Uber — Product · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    A sponsor mentioned in the podcast episode.
    Uber isn't just a ride or a meal delivered. It's showing up no matter what.
  • Uber — Company · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    A sponsor mentioned in the podcast.
    Really matters, whatever it is, you show up. Where there's a will, we're on our way. Uber. On our way. Download the app today.
  • Uber — Sponsor · 5 mentions
  • The Rest Is History Club — Sponsor · 3 mentions · first at
    Lives of Elizabeth Stride and Katherine Edetos, two of the other victims. So, if you're not a member of the rest is history club, you can sign up at the rest of history.com and…

Full transcript with timestamps

The scene is White Chapel in the East End of London, 1888. A murderer is stalking the streets, ripping open the stomachs of his victims. It's Jack the Ripper, and in this episodes, he kills three more victims. This episode is sponsored by Hive. Britain revolutionized the future with the might of industrial power. But now you can transform your own energy future and take control with the power of Hive. Hive makes the most of the sun with solar panels turning sunlight into greener electricity and enabling you to sell excess back to the grid. And Hives thermostats make it possible for you to heat your home without lifting anything more than a thumb and an impressed brow.

Their heat pumps draw warmth from the air, and they keep it exactly where you want it. No smoke, no waste. Hives EV charger lets your car charge quietly overnight, recharging while you do, too. Hive brings it all together. Heating, charging, and solar managed from one simple app in a quiet revolution. In the long history of power, Hive helps you finally know yours. Head to hivehome.com to find out more. Subject to survey and suitability. Hive app compatible with selected technology. Paid for surplus requires SEG tariff.

London lies today under the spell of a great terror. A nameless repbate, half beast, half man, is at large, who is daily gratifying his murderous instincts on the most miserable and defenseless classes of the community. There can be no shadow of a doubt now that our original theory was correct and that the White Chapel murderer who has now four if not five victims to his knife is one man and that man a murderous maniac. Hideous malice, deadly cunning, insatiable thirst for blood. All these are the marks of the mad homicide.

The ghoul-like creature who stalks through the streets of London, stalking down his victim like a porny Indian, is simply drunk with blood, and he will have more. The question is, what are the people of London to do? The police have not even a clue. They are in despair at their utter failure to get so much as a scent of the criminal. London must rouse itself. No woman is safe while this ghoul is abroad. Up citizens then and do your own police work. So that was the evening star on Saturday the 8th of September 1888 after the discovery of yet another victim of the White Chapel murderer. And I use the phrase White Chapel murderer advisedly because um he is not yet known as Jack the Ripper. Although Dominic today we will be exploring how the White Chapel murderer comes to get that appellation.

We will indeed. Yes. So let's remind people where and when we are. We are in the late summer of 1888. We are in the east end of London uh which we described last time as this kind of labyrinth, this warren of crowded narrow streets and sort of wreaking tenement slums. And it's a national byword um the East End for poverty, for homelessness, for prostitution, and for crime. And one other thing that's going to become very important in the next couple of episodes, it's an area that is being transformed by immigration, specifically Jewish refugees from the pograms in Russia and in Poland. So to recap the story of the last episode, Tom, you described how on the 7th of August, a woman called Martha Tabram was found murdered in a tenement building off White Chapel High Street and her body had been stabbed almost 40 times, to quote the accounts at the time, butchered with virulent savagery. And

then in the second half of um the last episode, we talked about a second body which was found in a narrow lane called Bucks Row just before 4:00 in the morning on the 31st of August. And this is another woman who was lying on her back and the details, as they will be throughout this series, even more horrific. Her throat slashed from ear to ear, her body ripped open to reveal her intestines. And this uh was Maryanne or Pololly Nichols, very poor, alcoholic, homeless, possibly an occasional prostitute. and she's the first of the canonical five Ripper victims because really although it's quite possible that Martha Tabron was also killed by the same man, it's with Poly Nichols that the press furoria begins and the Jack the Ripper phenomenon begins, I suppose, doesn't it?

Yeah. And the police, as we mentioned in the previous episode, are at a complete loss. There are no clues. Um none of the uh the people who lived in Bucks Row had seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. Um and the press as you mentioned I mean they had been fascinated by the murder of Martha Tabram. Um it has received quite a lot of coverage. a unique and mysterious crime because of its sheer savagery, the East London Observer said. um and because of that and because you now have a second killing, the newspapers immediately assume that um both Martha and Polly have been killed by the same person and that this person must be a lunatic or perhaps someone of bloodrinking vampiric um cannibalistic tastes.

Yes. So on the evening poly's found the evening star which is the the biggest evening paper in Britain runs the banner headlines revoling murder another woman found horribly mutilated in white chapel ghastly crimes by a maniac and Dominic then as now these are the kind of headlines that are guaranteed to get readership aren't they? They are indeed. Absolutely. And the same paper comes back to the story in the next few days. So the very next day, in each case, the victim has been a woman of abandoned character. Each crime has been committed in the dark hours of the morning. And more important still as pointing to one man and that man a maniac being the culprit. Each murder has been accompanied by hideous mutilation. And the paper says clearly these crimes are quote the work of some cool cunning man with a mania for murder. They love a bit of aliteration in a late Victorian newspaper. The reason that we're quoting

so much from the newspapers is that they are absolutely central not necessarily to the crimes but to the Jack the Ripper phenomenon, to the historical phenomenon of the Jack the Ripper case. Because I think, as lots of ripper historians think, this is as much a story about the newspapers and about publishing and indeed about mass literacy as it is one about crime or poverty or prostitution. And part of that, I think, is because so much of what we know about the murders actually comes to us from newspaper reports.

Yeah. So not from official documents because a lot of those have been lost, haven't they? The inquest reports and so on.

Exactly. So what we know of the inquests comes to us often through the newspapers or street scenes and so on. And there's a brilliant book um on the ripper case. I think the definitive book really by a guy called Philip Sugdan. If that name rings a slight bell it's because he's actually the brother of the John Sugdan who's the definitive biographer of Nelson. I mean imagine the the discussions they have at Christmas.

Yeah. Incredible. So Philip Sugton's book is called the complete history of Jack the Ripper. And you know, it's I think by far the most scholarly and sort of serious book on this. And he points out that the the newspapers in 1888 are competing for a new readership and they're doing so with ever gorier and more salacious stories. And so everything that we understand about the Jack the Ripper is colored by that. And the context for this is that Britain has been transformed by the 1870 and 1880 education acts which mandated state education and basically drove up adult literacy to 100% for the first time in history. So for the first time Britain is genuinely a nation of readers and the streets are a wash with people selling for example penny dreadfuls. These are these cheap stories of crime and horror and adventure and mystery that are read overwhelmingly by young men and boys.

And I think the entire reporting of the Ripper phenomenon, including Jack the Ripper's name, owes a huge amount to these penny dreadfuls. So that's one thing to bear in mind. And then the other is the mass market newspaper. So newspapers are cheaper than ever before to produce new technology and so on. There's hundreds of competing titles and crime and sex are absolutely central to their appeal. So, one example that we'll come back to, the Palm Gazette. Tom, tell us about the Palm Gazette. There's a case for saying that the Palm Gazette is the original tabloid newspaper of the kind that anyone who's read a British newspaper will be familiar with. Um, and it was edited by a guy from North Umbrea called WTstead throughout the 1880s who ultimately would end up on Titanic. So that's a link between the two stories.

Um, and he ran a series of incredibly sensational stories, exposees of which the most famous was a crusade against child prostitution. And these stories and campaigns have a direct knock-on effect on the program of slum clearance that is lapping at the borders of White Chapel throughout this period and the closing of brothel and we will be coming to to him and his role in the story in a later episode.

Yeah. But he's a key figure. So it's through papers like the Palm Gazette and its competitors that people know about the murders. They both stoke and they report the fear and anger on the streets. So there's a great example. The 4th of September, the Daily News sends a reporter down to Bucks Row where the body was found. And he finds or he says he finds crowds of poor women who are sort of studying the paving stones for blood stains. And he takes great glee in reporting what they say. I say reporting, but of course he might be making it up.

He might be making it up, right? Cuz it sounds often too good to be true. She says there's a little woman with a rosy cherub face who says to him, "Life ain't no great thing with many on us, but we don't all want to be murdered. And if things go on like this, it won't be safe for nobody to put their heads out of doors." And this is precisely the kind of thing the readers of the newspaper want East End women to say. But Dominic, I mean, there is also, I mean, it is expressive of a genuine sentiment of of kind of horror and people rallying together, isn't it? And so there's huge crowds for Polly Nichols when she's she's buried in the the City of London cemetery course um in Ilford. And this was a woman who was on her own and now at her death there are people who think well you know she was one of ours. It's not just made up is it?

Well no no no it brings out the latent sentimentality of the of the British silent majority to not think of the British working classes that's always that's always there. Um, and of course all of this, the genuine horror and fear on the streets plus the press puts enormous pressure on the police. And we haven't really talked that much about the police so far. So I think in the popular imagination there's a general sense that the police are either unbelievably incompetent or uniquely malevolent. Don't you?

I'd say they're incompetent, aren't They're either the blundering fools of Sherlock Holmes, the Lstrad and his colleagues who are always one step behind the murderer and of course any amateur private detective who might want to investigate this case.

Yeah. And I think most serious historians are much more generous and say, you know, the police are far from perfect, but they're actually, you know, in an age before modern technology, they're doing the very best that they can in an impossible situation. So to paint a picture, the Metropolitan Police was set up by Sir Robert Peele in 1829. If you think of the Met's catchment area as it were, you're looking at round about 6 million people and they have 15,000 men to do it. Of course they are all men. Now today the vet has 43,000 people policing about 8.5 million people. So they're comparatively understaffed back in the 1880s.

They in some ways they're very modern organizations. So their police stations are linked by telegraph but they're still working out of the sort of original very cramped sort of office building in Whiteall Scotland Yard and in recent months in particular they've become very controversial. You mentioned in the last episode the chief commissioner of the Met Sir Charles Warren. He's come from a military background hasn't he? So he served two terms in South Africa, but also just because it will feed into some of the theories that we'll be talking about in our final episode. He is a Freemason and he has um an obsessive interest in uh the site of the temple in Jerusalem, which is fundamental to Freemasonry. And he was actually he'd spent a term in uh Palestine and had um conducted the first serious archaeological excavation of of Temple Mount, the site of the Temple.

So, I just I just throw that out. Yeah. As some contextualization. Maybe that's an important clue or maybe it's a mad red herring, but we will find out. Anyway, he's been trying to modernize the Met, you know, reflecting his military background. He's been trying to centralize it, to bring in more military discipline and to bring in more people from the army. And at the same time, the Met has been dragged into politics. So, for example, you talked last time about the Bloody Sunday, sort of the homeless camp, the demonstrations. The police had cracked down on it and radical papers have ever since been painting the police as a tool of the capitalist establishment, you know, a tool of repression of the working class. It's literally like listening to Theo Young Smith, our producer, isn't it? Um, so the police have been getting a lot of stick and they're in a very difficult place. Now, these murders are a massive challenge

for the police as they would be today, but even more so. So, to to remind people, the crimes so far have been carried out in this warrant of very poor, very narrow streets at night with no witnesses. The killer, they assume, works alone. I mean, I think this is what most people who study the Jack the Ripper murders still believe. There was just one person. He has no accompllices. He leaves no trace and no clues. He has no obvious motive.

That's the key thing, isn't it? Yeah. Now, today people would say, "But there's an obvious motive. Serial killers do have motives. They're mad." But people don't have a sense of this in the 1880s. The studies have not yet been done on serial killers. So, people are bewildered and horrified. This is why there's so much talk of him being a maniac. And to make matters more difficult for the police, the people he kills and their friends are the kind of people who generally keep as it were to the shadows of society. They are down and outs. They're poor. They're homeless. They've maybe been in trouble with the police. They're part of the sort of the underclass as it were. So all of this means that it's a tough case to solve. Police forces today find such cases very difficult to solve. But in 1888, the CI, the Criminal Investigation Department, they are only 10 years old.

They can't test blood. There's no fingerprint bureau that doesn't get opened until 1901. And they don't have a science laboratory. They don't have any formal laboratory. And they won't have one for another 40 years. So, as Philip Sugton, to quote him, says, "The odds were in favor of Jack the Ripper from the very beginning. You don't have to believe there's a cover up or a conspiracy. It would have been a very difficult case to solve. But also just to throw into the mix, there's also the evident fact that the murder is incredibly audacious, very opportunistic. Um, and clearly, I think, very lucky.

Yes. So, these are all factors that are making it more difficult for the police.

Exactly. So, now at this stage, the police, I think it's just two murders as far as they're concerned, if you count Martha Tabum, and they see no great cause for alarm. So, Sir Charles Warren has been on holiday in France, and they've just brought in a new guy, Dr. Robert Anderson as assistant commissioner and head of C. But on the 7th of September, he leaves for a month's holiday in Switzerland. He when he takes the job, he says, "Sure, I'll take the job, but I'd like to go on holiday in Switzerland first." And they later get a lot of stick for this. But of course, it never occurs to them at the time that these, you know, apparently inconsequential killings in the East End will become defining stories of late Victorian Britain. Why would it? As far as they're concerned, these are two kind of homeless women or whatever who've been murdered. So what?

They've gone on holiday. But the newspapers, I think it's pretty clear, are itching for the next installment because they can see that this is going to be a big story because this is how the the Victorian publishing industry works, isn't it? Through installments.

Yeah. And you know, if you're kind of waiting for the next chapter in the story, then uh when it happens, you're going to go massive with it, of course. and you get a sense of them. They are they're desperate for it to happen. So, the East London Advertised, we've quoted that already. This came on the streets, this newspaper on the morning of Saturday the 8th of September. Throughout the week, the interest in the White Chapel murder has been kept at fever heat. The murderer must creep out from somewhere. He must patrol the streets in search of his victims. Doubtless, he's out night by night. Every woman in those parts goes in nightly danger of her life as long as he remains at large.

So here's a thought. Yeah. What if it's a newspaper editor to improve circulation?

Yeah, it's a good thought actually. Throw that into the mix. Listeners can let Tom know what they think of that suggestion. Um, no need to let me know. Just let Tom know personally.

I think I might have contributed what is very unusual in riperology. An original theory there.

Wow, that's exciting. Well, listen. Even as people were reading those words in the East London Advertiser that the murderer must creep out, he must strike again on that Saturday morning, the news is spreading that just as predicted, the Ripper has struck again. Well, Dominic the White Chapel murderer.

Yes, of course, you're right. He's not yet the Ripper. So, the scene is 29 Hambury Street in Spittlefields, and uh it's on the north side of the street. We're in a dilapidated three-story house at number 29. Almost every room of this house is rented by a different family and that tells its own story. So, it's a real warren of people. And to picture the house, at the back of the house, there are three stone steps that go down into a little yard and in the yard there is an outside toilet and there's a woodshed and the whole thing is enclosed by a wooden fence. And it's very tight. It's very narrow. And that Saturday morning, the 8th of September, some of the people living in the house get up very early because it's market day and they're going to work. As you said before, this is going to be a theme of this whole story.

Yeah. And one of them is a guy who's a carman, which is a kind of cart driver called John Davis. He's a little man with a stoop and he rents the attic, and he lives in the attic with his family. and he gets up when the Spittlefield church clock um strikes 5:45 a.m. His wife makes him a cup of tea because he's going off to the Leen Hall market. He goes downstairs and he notices that the door to the street is wide open. Now, that's nothing unusual. There's so many people living in the house. They're coming and going. They're working odd hours and things. So, he shuts that door. Then, he goes to the back door.

The back door is closed. He goes out of the back door into the yard cuz he just wants to take some air before he goes off to work. And he steps outside and he sees something terrible. It's the body of a woman sprawled on her back between the steps and the fence. And he rushes back through the house and into the street. He hails some workmen. The workman come and look. They're very shaken. They go off to find a policeman. And by the time the policeman, Inspector Joseph Chandler, arrives, the place is packed. So the house is suddenly alive.

There's loads of people in the corridors and in the hall and stuff, but no one's gone out into the yard. They've left it alone. So he pushes through and he goes into the yard. He's the first person to inspect the body. And to quote his written report, and of course this will be very gruesome. So if you're listening to this in the car with small children, I mean, frankly, why are you listening to a podcast about Jack the Ripper with small children? But anyway, you've been warned. He said, "I at once proceeded to number 29 Hambury Street and in the backyard found a woman lying on her back dead, left arm resting on left breast, legs drawn up, abducted, small intestines and flap of the abdomen lying on the right side above right shoulder attached by a cord with the rest of the intestines inside the body. Two flaps of skin from the lower part of the abdomen lying in a large quantity of blood above

the left shoulder. throat cut deeply from left and back in a jagged manner right around a throat. So, it's a hideous spectacle and it's confirmed by the police surgeon Dr. George Bagster Phillips who's very highly respected and in his 50s and he's an important person. Some of his thoughts about who might have done this kind of run right through this case. Philillips thinks that it's possible that the victim was strangled first and then there was this terrible savage cut in her throat. And that is one of the factors that would have stopped there being kind of excessive blood loss.

Exactly. And then the really shocking thing, the really gory thing, the abdomen was cut open and basically the intestines were taken out and placed by the victim's shoulder. And then Dr. Phillips finds that the victim's uterus, most of her bladder, and part of her vagina were completely removed with a kind of clean cut and taken away. Now, of course, I've called her the victim, but this was, let's reme remind ourselves, a living, breathing woman with an inner life of her own. And her name was Annie Chapman. And we will be talking about her life and what brought her to this position on our bonus episode for club members along with the lives of Elizabeth Stride and Katherine Edetos, two of the other victims. So, if you're not a member of the rest is history club, you can sign up at the rest of history.com and you'll find out about these lives and what they tell us about the late Victorian world. But a

quick summary just for now about Annie. She was 47. She'd had a very tragic life. Um her father was a soldier and then a kind of um a manservant. She'd been born in West London. She'd married a coachman. And as actually with Poly Nichols, the curse is alcoholism. She's been a drinker from a young age. She has three children, but she ends up separating from her husband because of drink, because of disorderly conduct and whatnot. By the time she gets to 1888, she's very badly off.

She's ill with tuberculosis as well, isn't she? Yeah, tuberculosis. She's kind of drifting from one doss house to another. We can discuss in the bonus episode whether or not she is a prostitute. Um what we do know is on the afternoon of the 7th of September she'd run out of money. She said to a friend of hers, "I need to go and get some money otherwise I shall have no lodgings."

So very like poly nickels. I mean almost identical. Exactly. She did get some money whether through begging or through selling sexual services. We don't know. But then she spent the money on drink instead of lodgings and that decision cost her her life.

So again like Polly. Yeah. because she was kicked out of her lodging house on 35 Dorset Street. She goes out just before 2:00 a.m. onto the streets, probably to earn the coppers for a bed. And her last words, I shall soon be back. Don't let the bed. I said, Dominic, right from the moment that Annie Chapman's body is discovered, the police recognize that they are dealing with the same killer who had dispatched um Polly definitely and probably Martha before her.

Yes. And they assign to the case the same inspector who is handling the investigation into Polyynicl's death. And this is a guy called Frederick Abberaline who is age 45. He's from Dorset, son of a cler. And he is often produced, isn't he, in um kind of popular versions of the Ripper story. And he's kind of portrayed as an alcoholic or weirdly obsessed with prostitutes or being comically incompetent. Although um in the the film From Hell,

uh he's portrayed by Johnny Depp as an opium addict who uh sees glimpses into the truth of the actual case. Um and you know, Johnny Depp has his his very fine features and his cheekbones and everything. In reality, um Abalion had the appearance of a bank manager. So he's very um stocky. He's very rounded and he has an absolutely colossal Victorian mustache. He does. Yeah, we like a good mustache on this show and and that endear Abaline to me, I have to say. Um I think Abalene is really really um hard done by in the sort of pop history versions of this case because all the evidence we have is that he was a very very good policeman. He had risen through the ranks precisely because he was competent, efficient, reliable, and he knows Spittlefields like the back of his hand, doesn't he?

He genuinely does. He's an old East End hand. He had been in charge of the C in White Chapel in the 18 late 1870s and early 1880s. He is the obvious man to put on this case because he knows the area. He has contacts there and he will go on to work incredibly hard on this case. You know, he goes for days without sleep and he's, you know, he's drowning in paper and stuff and he's doing his absolute best. So it's really harsh for these sort of, you know, to to portray him as this sort of prostitute crazed drug addicts is bonkers.

Yeah. And I think he is he is highly regarded by his peers and he he does come up with two quite influential theories as to who the Ripper might have been which again we will be exploring in due course. So the problem that he faces as before is that there are no clues. The local tenants, the people living in 29 Hambury Street have seen nothing. This body has just appeared in the yard overnight and they don't know how it got there. None of the neighbors, of course, the police talked to every single neighbor. None of them have seen anybody acting suspiciously or with blood stained hands or clothes or whatever.

However, there are three important witnesses. So, we should take a bit of time to look at what these people say. The first one is a market porter called John Richardson and his mother rented the ground floor rooms at number 29. Now she'd had a breakin, you know, very common in this area. Um, and so every market morning, he would go to look just check the door of her seller to see that it was locked. And he had done so this morning. He'd actually gone out into the yard just before 5:00 in the morning to fix his boot. and he didn't see a body.

So that means that Annie must have died after five o'lock unless he did it. Well, unless he did it, I suppose. So, we've got quite a narrow window of time now because that bloke who found the body, remember, he heard the Spittlefield's clock toll 5:45. So, we we're narrowing down the window. Second witness is a local woman called Elizabeth Long. And at about 5:30 in the morning, she'd been walking along Hanbury Street to Spittlefields Market, and she'd seen a man and woman talking outside number 29. And she later went to the morttery, and she positively identified the woman as Annie Chapman.

I mean, that's a very narrow window then. Yes. Only 15 minutes, isn't it? I mean, less than 15 minutes.

So, if she's right, and I think she probably is right, then the murder must be committed between about 5:30 and 5:45. And not only does she say this woman was Annie German, she gives us a pretty good description of the man that was talking to Annie, and I'll quote it. He was dark complexioned and wearing a brown deer stalker hat. I think he was wearing a dark coat. He was a man over 40 as far as I could tell. He seemed to be a little taller than the deceased. Now, Annie was quite short. She was 5' tall. He's only a little taller. So, he's maybe, you know, 53, 5'4, 5'5, something like that.

He looked to me like a foreigner as well as I could make out. Hard to say what that means. He looked what I should call shabby gentile. Philip Subden in his brilliant book on the Jack the Ripper case says this man was the murderer. This is what the murderer looks like. And actually in the next couple of episodes we'll be describing other witnesses and other murders who see similarlooking men. Short mustache dear stalker hat. You know, this is a common kind of description, isn't it? It's a common profile Tom.

Yeah. And one thing that he is not, by the way, he's not tall. And there's no sense whatsoever. Really important and probably disappointing for the conspiracy theorist community among our listeners. He's not an aristocrat. He's not wearing a top hat or an opera cloak.

He's not carrying a medical bag. No, he's not carrying a medical bag. He is none of those things. Although witnesses will in due course claim to have seen such a man.

They will indeed. Yes, we will be coming to that. Now, I said there were three witnesses. The third witness is a carpenter called Albert Kadosh. He lived next door to number 29, number 27. He got up early and he said at about 5:20 or so, he couldn't be sure. He went out into the yard and he heard low voices from over the fence and the only word he could make out was no. And then a few minutes later he said he heard a noise like and I quote something falling against the fence. Then he left for work and as he passed Spittlefield's church he looked up and he saw the clock and he noted that it was 5:32.

So that would seem to sort of tally. You know Mrs. Long sees the couple talking round about 5:30. Then he similar time hears people talking in the yard and then he hears someone falling against a fence. And then at 5:32 he looks up and sees the clock. You know, they're probably out. Each of them is out probably by a couple of minutes cuz people can never be precise about these things. But it seems to tally. So remember that Annie had gone out to earn some money just about 2:00 a.m. So there are two possibilities. Possibility number one, Hi Rubenhold in her book, The Five, she believes all the women were killed as they slept. So she thinks Annie just went into the yard of number 29. She lay down in a corner, went to sleep, and was murdered as she slept.

Philip Sutton, on the other hand, she went out to solicit to get customers. Sometime around 5:30, just before 5:30, she fell in with the killer. He took her into the yard, or she took him into the yard, rather. Then he probably strangled her, lowered her to the ground, cut her throat, and then started the ripping process.

Mrs. Long's testimony would suggest that is probably more feasible, wouldn't it?

Definitely would. And I don't think Ali Rubenhold mentions Mrs. Long's um testimony in her book, The Five, but I I find it quite convincing. So, a couple of quick observations from this before we take the break. Number one, as you said, Tom, the killum is incredibly daring. I mean, there's no doubt about that. The sun rose that day at 5:23. So, it is light when he is going about his business. And it is a market morning. There are loads of people moving around. Even as he and Annie are in the yard, people are getting up in the house and moving about. Yeah. Which makes the question of motivation all the more striking. I mean, what is so desperate that he would take such incredible risks? Are the risks not the thrill? Is that not the thrill of it for him, do you think?

But I'm just thinking in terms of the police. Yes. I mean, the these are kind of dimensions of psychology that they're not really attuned to as yet.

Of course not. They don't employ psychologists or anything like that. No. Number two, the killer is incredibly quick and he obviously knows the area. So, if he did this crime, you know, and did the disembowing and stuff, he's done it in a matter of moments, you know, no hesitation or anything. He's very fast and then he gets away so quickly. And there's a really interesting little clue. There was a a tap in the yard with a pale of clean water underneath and it was still there after he had left. In other words, he didn't clean himself. He didn't turn the tap on because it would have had blood in it. So, in other words, he is left covered presumably in blood. I mean, I know you don't bleed that much if you've been strangled and then stabbed, but the disembarrowing would be gory work, right? Yeah. He's got away through the Warren of Streets carrying some of Annie Chapman's internal organs without being spotted.

So, he must know the area. Right. Here's a a spoiler alert. I think if you're a member of the royal family, you're going to get lost in that area and you're going to be spotted pretty quickly, frankly.

Or a distinguished former prime minister or whatever. Yeah. Or if you're the elephant man, frankly, people are going to spot you.

Yeah. Right. Finally, the killer knows what he's doing. This is a really, really important thing. Dr. Phillips said to take out those internal organs would have taken me an hour, you know, to do the surgery, to find them, all of this, the killer must have done it in moments, in in minute, you know, 5 minutes, three or four minutes. The coroner at the inquest said he must have been somebody who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. You know, he basically knew what he wanted, where to find it, and how to use his knife. No unskilled person could have known where to find it. This is the victim's uterus or could have recognized it when it was found.

Now, that doesn't mean the victim must be a doctor or a surgeon, but it does mean it's somebody who knows a fair bit about anatomy. Yeah. And knows how to use a knife.

So perhaps a butcher or a medical student or perhaps um a slaughter man working in one of the knacker's yards or whatever. Exactly. So, all interesting clues. Anyway, Annie is buried in secret on the 14th of September. And by this point, White Chapel is in a state of near hysteria. And we'll come back to the heart of the East End after the break. This episode is brought to you by Uber. Now, do you know that feeling when someone shows up for you when you need it most? We all need that sometimes, and Uber knows it.

Uber isn't just a ride or a meal delivered. It's showing up no matter what. Like for your long-distance friends, bringing soup when they're sick, sending flowers when they're down. When it really matters, whatever it is, you show up. Where there's a will, we're on our way. Uber. On our way. Download the app today. Hello and welcome back to the rest is history. We are in White Chapel, um, East London, and people on the streets of the East End and beyond, um, are coming to terms with the fact that a second, or perhaps even third, gruesome murder has been committed by the man who is not yet called Jack the Ripper, but is already a massive star of the popular press. and the news breaks during the course of Saturday the 8th and journalists editors go berserk and we were talking in the first half Dominic I mean this essentially is their dream scenario you've got another murder and it seems to be even gorier than the

previous one so in our first episode um I quoted the Evening Star which is um the stuff about a ghoul stalking the streets of London and so on this is when it runs and the headline of that article was horror upon horror. White Chapel is panicstricken at another fish crime. And again, you can see that is absolutely calculated to uh to fly off the news stands. Um and it has to be said that the slightly posher more quality broad sheets as they would describe themselves um you know they're they're piling in as well. So, the Daily Telegraph um still going strong today um at the time the bestselling newspaper in the world.

It also buys into this kind of notion of the Gothic, of the supernatural. It tells its readers that the East End is haunted by, and I quote, "Beings who look like men, but are rather demons, vampires." And the result is exactly what the press wants. Mass hysteria, mass excitement, a demand to know more because there is a huge mystery. You know who is doing this?

There is absolutely. So there are huge crowds at the murder sites or all the murder sites. Um there are crowds outside the morttery, outside police stations. Reporters said that the crowds were particularly made up of um women and women would bring their children with them, you know, and that's actually a phenomenon that you often see. I mean, we've seen it in recent British history, crowds of women outside um you know, murder sites and police stations and so on.

Well, I think also I gather that um women are overwhelmingly um the consumers of true crime podcasts.

They are indeed. Yeah. And going back to the golden age of detective fiction, largely read by women. Uh exactly. So, right to this day, true crime shows are watched or listened to by women. Interesting. I don't really have an answer for why that is, but it it just is what it is. Some locals saw this as an opportunity to donate money. So, as ghoulish as it sounds, the neighbors on Hanbury Street opened up their houses and they were charged visitors a penny ahead to come and look at the yard to peer out at the yard of number 29. There was a man on White Chapel Road who run a sort of despondent little wax works exhibition. Yeah. The poor man's man of the swords.

Yeah. and he got some red paint and dorbed it on three wax works. And he charged people a penny to come and see the Georgeyard, Bucks Row, and Ambry Street victims. And there are loads of stories of kind of copycats and false alarms and people almost being lynched. So that very first evening, a man punches a policeman in the pub or something and is basically taken to the police station when and and the word gets around, we've got the White Chapel murderer. And so people pile in and they're desperate to lynch this bloke who basically has just had a fight in a pub. That's all it is.

And there are some kind of proper properly suspicious people as well that the police are feeling their collars, right?

Yeah, there are. So in the next sort of uh week or two, the police arrested nine different people and interrogated them on the suspicion that they might be the killer. And it's tempting to laugh at the police and say they got it wrong, which they did with all of these men. But it's instructive to look at who they arrested because it shows you how their minds are working. So to give a couple of examples, there's a German barber called Charles Ludvig who was arrested with a prostitute and he was carrying a clasp knife, a razor, and a pair of scissors with him. Yeah, that's suspicious.

No, you could say the tools of his trade or you could say she was terrified when police finally found them and she was worried that he was going to murder her. And you know he fits to some extent he fits the bill right it makes sense. Then there's um a butcher a pork butcher from Switzerland called Yakob Aen Schmidt. He was a drinker. He suffered depression. He would often sort of meaningfully sharpen his long knife at people which I think didn't inspire great confidence.

Again suspicious behavior. Yeah. And also he'd been in and out of lunatic asylums. and he had a strange habit of um he would sometimes get hold of Bulock's entrails and post them to his old shop as a sort of threat. I think this the evidence is is stacking up. And it's also interesting that both of those men are foreign.

Yes. And Mrs. Long had said that the person that she'd seen talking to Annie Chapman, he looked to me like a foreigner.

Yeah. And this sense of whether the ripper is a foreigner or not becomes um quite important to um editorials and so on because there's a a kind of assumption that no Englishman could possibly be doing this that it must be someone from abroad.

Absolutely right. Absolutely. And the most significant of these early suspects is also somebody with an overseas background and he is a shoe maker, Jewish shoemaker called John Piser who was arrested on the 10th and he is the man who was mentioned in the last episode who because his nickname was leather apron and in the days and weeks since the poly nichols murder his name or his nickname had appeared a lot in the press and the press had said there's this bloke apparently called leather apron who goes is around harassing prostitutes and threatening them and beating them up.

It's such a terrifying name, isn't it? And I do think that in these cases, a suspect with a terrifying name ramps up the tension massively.

Oh, definitely it does. So, there was a hunt for this bloke leather apron. They find him at last and he does tick a lot of boxes. He's 5'4. He has a very strong Polish accent and he has a history of violence with a shoemaker's knife. And the police genu I think at first think this is the guy. This is him. Yeah.

But unfortunately he has a pretty cast iron alibi for Polly Nichols's murder because he'd been staying at a lodging house and he'd gone outside with the owner of the lodging house to watch a fire at London Docks. They'd watched it in the distance. And the bloke from the lodging house said, "I absolutely know for sure I spent the evening with this bloke as we stood together watching the fire and talking about it." And with all of these people, with almost all of these people, they were still in custody when future murders happened so the police could be certain that it wasn't them.

But people start to mock the police. So that the humorous magazine punch produced a kind of parody called a detective's diary. And they said, you know, oh, we heard that there's a rumor that the bloke wore a blue coat, so we arrested everybody who wore blue coats. The blue coat people were innocent. We heard it might be a soldier. We found a small drummer boy, we arrested him and all this kind of thing, which is sort of mildly amusing, but it's not really fair because actually there is definitely method in their madness.

Yeah. I mean, I think that if you're kind of going around thrusting daggers and knives in the face of of prostitutes,

Yeah. I would arrest them. Yeah. Correct. Exactly. So, actually, of these people they arrested, three of them had been in asylums. Three of them were widely regarded as being of unsound mind. Five of them knew about anatomy. One, you know, they might be butchers or slaughter men or whatever. Interestingly, only three of them actually have been born abroad. So, the element about being a foreigner, she's vague about that. She can't really explain why she thinks she's a foreigner. So, the police clearly don't put as much weight on that as they do on other elements of her testimony

because obviously the police know that English people are perfectly capable of doing murders because they, you know, they're arresting murderers all the time. Yes, I think that's I think that's that's fair actually. Now this business about being a foreigner though it is incendury because it's so dangerous for one group in particular and this takes us back to the social background of White Chapel. White Chapel has been transformed in the last 10 years in particular by Jewish immigration. So in 1881 Zar Alexander I was assassinated in St.

Petersburg and that kicked off wave upon wave of repressive anti-semitic legislation and then pograms in the Russian Empire and people have are fleeing that and fleeing to Britain in particular or the United States. So in 20 years, the Russian and Polish population of London went from less than 9,000 people to almost 54,000 people, concentrated above all in Eastend neighborhoods like Spittlefields or Mileand or White Chapel. And if you read Jerry White's brilliant book on 19th century London, he talks about how there's an undercurrent of anti-semitism all through this period. In some ways, quite small scale stuff. It's kind of broken windows. It's graffiti. It's newspaper cartoons. It's kind of, you know, punchups on the street and stuff. But, you know, I I said in the previous episode, there's been an economic depression really since the early 1870s.

So, there's a lot of job competition. There's a lot of anxiety about people coming over here and stealing our jobs and whatnot. And so, it's not surprising that straight away some of the newspapers and some people on the streets say the killer must be a Jew. And that's one of the reasons why um leather apron is such a a kind of popular candidate to have been the the murderer, isn't it? Because he is Jewish.

Yes. Exactly. Exactly. It's not surprising either that prominent Jews are then keen to push back. So the very first reward that was put up for the killer's capture was put up by White Chapel's MP who was a liberal who was Samuel Montigue who was an Orthodox Jew and was a kind of proto Zionist. And he put up £100 for the killer. and he was then backed up by a group called the Mile End Vigilance Committee which will play a bit of a part in this in this whole series. And the Mile End Vigilance Committee was set up by local largely Jewish traders and shopkeepers. And as we will see, they became nationally famous because they were to receive a letter and a hideous gift from somebody who may well have been the killer himself. From hell. From hell. Exactly.

Now, the police are not terribly keen on groups like this. First of all, the home office don't like rewards. Arguing about rewards, whether or not to give a reward is a big big part of the kind of police investigation. The Home Office hate rewards because they say basically if somebody knew who the killer was, they'd tell us because his crimes are so horrible. And almost by definition, anyone who gives us information hoping for a a reward is probably a hoaxer and it's probably a false lead. And actually the weird thing is that Abalene and his colleagues, I mean on the one hand they wish they could had more clues, but on the other they actually have too much information.

Yeah, they have so many false leads and so many rumors and allegations and stuff. Well, I suppose Dominic that um the fact that um you know, you were saying how there's a mass market now for the press means that there are vastly more numbers who can read these stories and say, "Oh, it could be this or it could be that or I've got this idea or I've got that clue." So, the letters just keep coming in. Right. Of course. And right, their filing system collapses under the strain. They have no computers. I mean, it's actually the same story oddly as what happened in the 1970s in West Yorkshire with the Yorkshire Ripper. again a precomputer world where they were totally overwhelmed by too much information. So the days go by, there was no breakthrough and the pressure begins to build on the authorities. So by the 14th of September, the star is calling the home secretary Henry Matthews and I quote, "A feeble manta bank who would

pose and simp over the brink of a volcano." It's really like reading one of my old columns actually in uh

Well, I mean it's amazing to know that home secretaries were were getting abuse back then as they do now.

Yeah. And even the Telegraph, a Tory paper, which should be supporting him, said of Mr. Matthews, "We've had enough of Mr. Matthews who knows nothing, has heard nothing, and does not intend to do anything." I mean, even so, you get to late September and there is a sense, I think, that maybe the panic is easing. The authorities have weathered the storm. Things are, you know, the killer has not yet struck again. It's a fine summer. You know, the weather has been dry. People are out and about. Some of the fear has dissipated.

And then on the 22nd of September, another murder grips the public imagination. Another woman has been killed. Her name is Jane Beadmore. But she has been stabbed and killed on a fell outside Gates Head in the northeast of England. They're a long way from the east end. A long way. Hundreds of miles away. Now, at first there is speculation she's another victim of the White Chapel murderer. As it turns out, she was actually murdered by her ex-boyfriend. She dumped him. It was a crime of passion and he killed her. So, like Mariah Martin in the red barn,

right? But at the time, people said, "Well, maybe this killer has moved north." So, again, there's a sort of slackening of tension in the East End. And on the 27th of September, the Daily News sent a reporter to White Chapel and he wrote a long feature about the atmosphere. And he said, you know, a few days ago, he said, "People seem very, very shocked and very frightened, but now he says things are back to normal." And he paints like, you can look it up online. It's on the kind of case book, Jack the Ripper casebook website, this story. And it he paints a really vivid picture of White Chapel. The steaming cook shops, the flaring gin palaces and noisy shows, the cheap jacks and shooting galleries, the streaming lights and roar and rattle and hurrying throngs and noisy groups.

Dominic, we mentioned that it's the entertainment capital of the entire East End. So, lots to do

and and a lot of um eccentric entertainment, should we say. So he finds people crowding around a performing boy with no legs, for example, or a huge crowd around a trader who's selling trousers for nine shillings. And he stops in Hambury Street, which is where Annie Chapman had been found. He stops an elderly passer by. And he says to this bloke, "People don't seem very anxious about these murders." And the guy says to him, "No, there's very little anxiety. People, most of them, they think he's gone to Gates Head."

But has he gone to Gates Head? Because that same day, the 27th, the editor of the Central News Office in London gets a letter written in red ink. And that is the letter, Tom, with which we began the first episode. Do you want to read us a couple of extracts to remind people? Yeah. So, just to remind people of what he said, I keep on hearing the police have caught me, but they won't fix me just yet. I'm down on ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work. The last job was I gave the lady no time to squeal. I love my work and want to start again. You're so near of me with my funny little games. And he said that he'd saved blood from the last job. So Annie Chapman to write with, but it went thick like glue and I can't use it. And then he says, "The next job I do, I shall clip the lady's ears off and send to the police. My knife's so nice and sharp. I want to get to work right away if I get a chart." So, we said this

is the most notorious letter in the entire history of crime. Um, and the reason for its fame is the sign off because it ends, "Yours truly, Jack the Ripper. Don't mind me giving the trade name."

Yes. And the reaction of uh the editor at the news agency to begin with is a hoax because obviously there have been lots of other letters that have been obvious hoaxes and so there is the you know this question hanging well was it a hoax or is it real? We'll come back to this in the next episode but most experts think it's a hoax. The killer never did cut off a victim's ears. So he did mutilate a future victim, Katherine Edetos, and cut off the lobe of one of her ears, but that was a minor thing compared with the other mutilations he he carried out.

Philip Sugton points out that this letter, you can people can Google it, they can see lots of examples of it online. The punctuation is all over the place, but there is not a single spelling mistake. So Sugton says it seems like the work of an educated man pretending to be an uneducated one. He thinks it's revealing that it's sent to a news agency, not the police. In other words, it's a letter sent not to taunt the police, but to get the maximum possible publicity. And Sugton also notes the postcode, the East Central Post Code, which covered Fleet Street, the offices of the major newspapers. And he thinks this is probably the work of a young reporter who is having a bit of fun and is hoping to generate a story. And that would tally with the Jack the Ripper nickname because first of all the ripping bit of it, the ripper. The newspapers had used the word ripping and ripper a lot. They described the ripping

open of the bodies. So somebody who's immersed in the world of newspapers, that would make sense. And then the second thing, Jack. Jack is the most common name for criminals in the penny dreadfuls that I mentioned in the first half. And of course monkeys.

And monkeys. Well, that occurred to me as well. So when we did our episode about history's greatest monkeys, a lot of them were called Jack. Jacko Macakaco, Jack the Signalman, Corporal Jackie, and so on. Jack was a standard name that you reached for, you know, if you were creating a character, should we say?

Yeah. And there's a hint of a kind of a rogue, a lad, uh an adventurer as well, isn't there?

Jack the Lad. Exactly. So, one of the most popular figures on the Victorian stage was the 18th century burglar Jack Shepard. And there was also a kind of urban legend. I mean, it may seems mad now that there would be such an urban legend, but it was very popular in the sort of middle of the 19th century, an urban legend of somebody called Springhill Jack, who would kind of leap out and attack young girls and young women.

Yeah. And kind of vanish in a blaze of fire. Yeah. And these sort of rumors of this character is the kind of thing kids will tell each other in the playground. There's this boy called Springhill Jack who kind of leaps out and then vanishes again. The nickname is precisely the kind of nickname I think that a young journalist who goes to the stage a lot, goes to the theater, reads Penny Dreadfuls would choose. And it's an exciting newsworthy name.

Yeah. And the evidence for that is that it goes viral, doesn't it? It does go viral. Exactly. Based purely on this, right? So the editor of the central news agency doesn't think it's real, but two days later he passes it to Scotland Yard anyway and says, you know, you might want to just check this out. And then that very evening comes the most dramatic episode of the whole story. One of the most gruesome nights in London's history. So we'll start in Burner Street in the heart of White Chapel. It's the evening of Saturday the 29th of September and we are it specifically a sort of courtyard called Dutfield's Yard and it was enclosed by a row of cottages by a print workshop and by the International Working Men's Educational Club which was a socialist club for Russian and Polish Jews.

And every Saturday night this club had debates about socialism and whatnot. And it breaks up, the debate breaks up at about 11:30. Most people go, but a few of them stay upstairs in the reading room to chat. Now, in the other buildings around the yard, people are still working. So, the print workshop, people are coming and going. The lights are kind of burning. At about 12:40, the chairman of the socialist club, who's a guy called Morris Eagle, he comes into the yard. He's been walking a lady friend home and he can hear someone singing in Russian upstairs at the club.

Perfectly normal. He goes through the gates. He goes through the yard. He doesn't notice anything strange in the yard at all. So, this is I'm telling you this because it gives people a sense of the wind over time. Then 20 minutes later, a man riding a little cart comes into the yard and he's a Russian Jew called Lewis Deemshutz. He's the steward of the club and he lives there with his wife and he's been out selling jewelry all day. and he turns his cart into the yard and almost immediately the pony shies away and he looks down to the right and he sees something huddled by the wall of the club in the darkness and he prods this thing with his whip and it doesn't move and he lights a match and it's a human body and he runs upstairs to the club to get help from his wife and so on and then he runs back and as his wife later told the press I at once recognized it as the body of a woman while to add to my horror I saw a stream

of blood. She was lying on her back with her head against the wall and the face looked ghastly. And a crowd gathers and they lift her head. They light a match and they see a gash in her throat. They go and get the police. The police arrive. They bring a doctor. The doctor is there by about 1:15 and he says she's been dead for about 20 minutes or half an hour. So, in other words, once again, this has happened very, very quickly. And then um about half an hour later, Detective Inspector Reed of the Metropolitan Police arrives and eventually they identify this woman. Her name is Elizabeth Stride. We'll tell her story in the bonus episode for our club members. Just very briefly, she's an immigrant herself. She's from Goththingberg in Sweden. Uh she'd been a domestic servant. Then almost certainly in Goththingberg, she was a prostitute.

She came to England. She married a bloke called Stride. They set up a coffee house which collapsed. Her marriage fell apart. It's a very familiar story. The spiral of poverty, homelessness, and so on. She had cleaning jobs, but she also definitely worked as a prostitute. And she'd probably gone out soliciting that night um hoping to get some money for lodgings. Again, a very familiar story. And there are intriguing witness reports that describe her talking to a man, and we'll talk about them next time. But for now, let's rewind to the discovery of the body in Dutfield's yard. So that was just before 1:00 in the morning, right? But the drama is not yet over. So if we move the camera now 3/4 of a mile to the west, 12 minutes walk away, and we're now in another enclosed space, Miter Square, just offgate, which is close to the eastern edge of the city of London. And this has a very different feel. It's not that far

away. It's only 12 minutes walk, but the atmosphere is different. This is much more respectable. It's a square lined with offices and warehouses and it's pretty empty and it's in the city of London. So, there is a different police jurisdiction there. It's a much older center of habitation and the name MITER derives from the fact that a priaryy had stood on the site.

Oh, nice. So, it's this dull, lonely spot surrounded by offices and warehouses. And at 1:30, so we're talking about just over half an hour after Elizabeth Stride's body was found. At 1:30, police constable Edward Watkins entered Miter Square as part of his regular nighttime beat. And he walks into the square and there's no sound but his own footsteps. and he looks around the square and there's nothing. Seems completely deserted. So he leaves the square at the far end and he carries on his beat and it takes him 15 minutes to come round. So now he's come round and he comes back into the square and it's 1:44 and again he hears nothing. And then by his own account I turned sharp round to the right and flashing my light I saw it in front of me. A more dreadful sight I never saw. It quite knocked me over. And he runs towards the nearest lit window, which is a warehouse on the far side.

And there the night watchman is sweeping up. And PC Watkins runs in and he shouts, "For God's sake, mate, come to my assistance. There's another woman cut to pieces." Because for the second time in barely an hour, Jack the Ripper has struck again. But who, Dominic, has he slain? and what further horrors may lie ahead. And rest is history club members can find out right away because the next three episodes including the final episode in which we will be unmasking the identity of the murderer are available to hear right now. And if you would like to hear them too and you're not signed up to uh the rest is history club then you can go to the restistory.com and do so there. Thank you very much Dominic. Thank you everyone for listening. Goodbye.

Bye-bye. Throughout time, celebration has meant giving. So, the Romans at Satinelia handed out all kinds of gifts. The three magi handed out gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And the Victorians absolutely loved wrapping things up in paper and then tying it up in string. John, those are lovely gestures, but I wonder if they're a little bit too extravagant for the typical Christmas morning. So this year, here's my suggestion to our listeners and our viewers. Why not give something a little bit more enlightened? Why not give the gift of the rest is history club membership? It's the discerning choice for anybody who prefers a Hannibal to a hamper. It's adree listening. You get a weekly bonus episode. You get early access to live shows. Um, and you get exclusive deep dive series. And also on top of that, this year's special gift edition of Rest is History Club membership comes with a sensational exclusive t-shirt. It will

make you the envy of all your neighbors and all the cool people in your neighborhood, if such people exist, will admire you and want to spend more time with you. So just head to there ishistory.com and click on gifts that is there ishistory.com and please click on gifts.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Jack The Ripper: Horror in Whitechapel"?

Tom Holland (Host), Dominic Sandbrook (Host), John (surname not stated) (Guest).

What is "Jack The Ripper: Horror in Whitechapel" about?

In the grim setting of Whitechapel, London, in 1888, the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper continues his spree, claiming three more victims and instilling widespread fear among the city's vulnerable population. Amidst the rising terror, the police struggle to identify the murderer, who is described as a cunning and bloodthirsty maniac stalking the streets unchecked.

What is mentioned in this The Rest Is History episode?

223 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Jac k the Ripper, Jack the Ripper, White Chapel, Annie Chapman, Serial Killer, Inspector Frederick Abberline. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Jack The Ripper: Horror in Whitechapel"?

The episode runs 1 h 4 min; the transcript is about 11,422 words in 117 timestamped sections.

More from The Rest Is History

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 24, 2026.