Author: Richard Jones

It really is striking how often fatal stabbings took place in the streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields in the 19th century. The London Evening Standard reported on one such incident in its edition of Friday the 5th of […]

The streets to the east and west of Commercial Street in the 19th century had a dreadful reputation for vice and villainy. These streets had a proliferation of common lodging houses on them, and these were seen, in […]

One other suspect whose name has been put forward as the author of the letter, also had an association with The Star. On the 4th of October The Daily Telegraph published the facsimiles of the Dear Boss letter […]

Another possible culprit was suggested in August 1966, in an article that appeared in Crime and Detection in which the author recalled a meeting he had had in 1931 with an ex-journalist whom he refers to only as […]

However, one retired detective who had no qualms about naming the pressman responsible was ex-Detective Chief Inspector John George Littlechild, who, on the 23rd of September 1913, replied to a letter from George Sims seeking information about the […]

Despite the fact that the police had taken the Dear Boss letter seriously enough to release facsimiles of it to the newspapers, Sir Charles Warren, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, appears to have entertained serious doubts as to its […]

Between August the 31st and November 9th 1888, five brutal and shocking murders brought terror and panic to the East End of London. The perpetrator of the heinous crimes was never brought to justice, and, to this day, […]

It is amazing how like our modern times life in the Victorian East End was. True, many things have improved. But some things have remained exactly the same. Take water, for example. There had been periods in the […]

In the annals of Victorian London’s history, a phenomenon shrouded the city streets in an eerie embrace, casting an enigmatic veil over its bustling thoroughfares. The notorious London fog, often referred to as “pea-soup fog,” became a defining […]

Shortly after eleven o’clock on the morning of Thursday the 29th of August, Frederick Baker was taken by cab from the police station to the town hall, where an angry mob awaited his arrival. They yelled and hissed […]