Author: Richard Jones

The number of people, from all walks of life, who felt able to succeed where the detectives of the Metropolitan Police force had, so evidently, failed is one of the more intriguing aspects of the Jack the Ripper […]

On July 17th, 1889, the people of London awoke to the news that an East End “unfortunate”, by the name of Alice McKenzie, had been murdered in Castle Alley, off Whitechapel High Street, and they faced up to the […]

Following the murder of Mary Kelly – which took place in Dorset Street, Spitalfields, on the 9th of November, 1888 – there was plenty to occupy the numerous journalists who were grubbing around the area trying to find […]

It’s time for another of our Jack the Ripper quizzes. The July 2018 quiz features ten questions concerning the history of the Whitechapel murders and the people who were involved with the case. THE TYPES OF QUESTIONS The […]

Colin Whitton McCallum (1852 – 1945), was born in Stepney, East London. In the early 1870’s, he decided to embark upon a career as a music hall comedian and entertainer, and he adopted the stage name of Charles Coborn, […]

Today, when we look back on the Jack the Ripper crimes, there can be a tendency to take them in isolation and forget that they were, in fact, a small part of a much bigger picture. Because of […]

Joseph Vacher (1869 – 1898) was a French serial killer who is often referred to as “The French Jack the Ripper.” Between 1894 and 1897, he murdered and mutilated at least eleven people, some accounts claim that the number […]

Once the name “Jack the Ripper” had entered the public consciousness, from early October 1888 onwards, people began using it with abandonment and in all manner of circumstances. The phenomenon of all the letters that were sent around […]

Following the murder of Alice McKenzie, which took place on the 17th of July, 1889, there was a sudden flurry of activity as the police, press and others began to wonder if this latest Whitechapel murder spelt the […]

July 1889 was the month when people in the East End of London faced up to the alarming possibility that, after an absence of many months – and numerous false scares – Jack the Ripper had returned to […]