Author: Richard Jones

In May, 1888, Police Constable George Russell found himself in the unenviable position of appearing at Bow Street Police Court to face charges of perjury and of having assaulted a lady by the name of Hannah Williams. Lloyd’s […]

On the 9th March, 1939, a new book on the Whitechapel Murders was published. Titled Jack The Ripper:- A New Theory, it was written by William Douglas Steward (1883 – 1965), and its premise that the murders had […]

Although the Jack the Ripper murders were the crimes that truly shocked the people of London in 1888, and, as a consequence, tend to, nowadays at least, be the only homicides that are remembered from that year, other […]

The gangs of Victorian London posed a huge problem for the Metropolitan Police, and, for that matter, for many of the citizens of the 19th century Metropolis. In many people eyes, the gangs were uncontrollable, and had succeeded […]

One of the most poignant images we have of the poor of Victorian London is the haunting photograph of the lady sitting on the step. The misery, hopelessness and helplessness that emanates from the portrait is truly heart-rending. […]

Whoah! Where did the year go? Can you believe that we’re already almost half way through 2017? But, here at the Department of Rippperolgy, time might pass by, but time does not stop us in our task to […]

Today I am doing something different, that is, something from the twenty-first century. Following is an interview with the American author Bradley Harper. Brad and I have been in correspondence for over two years as he has written […]

The London of 1888 was a very different beast to the City we know (and love?) today. Yet, in many ways, looking back at it, in old photographs at least, it is also a very familiar place. Many […]

Over the Christmas period 1891, Frederick Bailey Deeming (1853 – 1892) murdered his wife, Emily Mather, at a house they were renting in the Windsor suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Ultimately, he would be  convicted and executed for this […]

In a previous article I presented the newspaper coverage of the murder of Annie Austin, which took place at a common lodging house, situated at 35 Dorset Street, Spitalfields, in May 1901. You can read the previous article […]