English Audio Request

At the end of the 19th century, London was the biggest city of the British empire. Parts of the city were very rich whereas others very poor. There were lots of people living in overcrowded and dirty slums. The East end had some of the worst places with its numerous narrow dark dirty streets full of robbers, prostitutes and criminals. There was little work for women who had to become prostitutes to survive.

"Jack the Ripper" was a serial killer, his nickname was the "Whitechapel butcher". He killed at least five prostitutes. The murders proved that the killer had a good knowledge of human anatomy.

The victims:

Mary Anne Nichols was an alcoholic. She first worked in a workhouse and later became a servant but she stole clothing from her employer and left her job. On Friday 31st 1888 early in the morning, August Polly was found Whitechapel where she met her killer.

Annie Chapman was born in 1841.
She was a heavy drinker. In 1888 she was living at a lodging house. On Sept 8th 1888 she left the house to earn some money. She was last seen with a “customer” at 5.30am and was found dead.

Elizabeth Stride came from Sweden, she worked as a servant and She moved into a workhouse. On Sept 30th 1888 she left a pub early in the morning with a man, and was found dead later on that day.

Catherine “Kate” Eddowes was born in 1842. She had a drinking problem. she was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and put to jail. On Sept 30th 1888, she was released at 1.45am – Her body was found 10 minutes away from the station.

Mary Jane Kelly was Irish. She arrived in London in 1884 she quickly developed a drinking problem, she moved to the East End. By October 1888 she was last seen singing in the street, completely drunk.Her lodger found her dead body on her bed.

A large group of policemen conducted inquiries in Whitechapel. Suspects were traced. Over 2000 people were interviewed, 300 people were investigated, and 80 people were detained. Butchers, slaughterers, surgeons and physicians were suspected because of the mutilations. The concentration of the killings at the weekend, and within a few streets of each other, indicated that the Ripper was employed during the week and lived locally, but he could not be found.

The police and newspapers received hundreds of letters about the case. Some offered advice for catching the killer but the vast majority were useless. Most letters claimed to have been written by the killer himself, only three of these were taken very seriously. Despite numerous theories about the identity of Jack the Ripper, authorities didn't come to on the solution. He was never caught.

Jack the Ripper's story inspired many works of fiction. It appears in novels, short stories, poems, comic books, games, songs, plays, operas, television programmes and films and even video games.