Author: Richard Jones

On Saturday the 22nd of August, 1903, The Falkirk Herald looked back on the career of Metropolitan police officer Andrew Bates, who was just about to retire from the force after twenty six years of service:- A THOUSAND […]

In April, 1902, articles began appearing in the newspapers stating that a man had confessed to having carried out the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888. Now, one point that should be made, is that lots and lots […]

The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, on Monday, 18th April, 1898, broke news of a murder that had taken place at a common lodging house in Red Lion Square the previous day:- MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN LONDON WOMAN BUTCHERED IN HOLBORN […]

Well, it’s time for our 8th Jack the Ripper quiz of 2021, and I hope you are ready to take on the challenge. The quiz consists of 10 questions about the Whitechapel murders, all of which require you […]

The Shoreditch Observer, on Saturday the 28th September, 1861, fumed at the crime, squalor and the dangers of a walk into Whitechapel, be it at night or even during the day. For many years, prior to the onset […]

Walking through the streets of London you often notice round metal plates that are dotted along the pavements outside the older houses. These are, in fact, coal holes. It was through these that the coal was delivered to […]

The Hull Daily Mail, on Saturday the 23rd of September, 1922, analysed the “fortune” that the journalist and playwright, George Sims, may have left:- GRUESOME RELICS THE LATE G. R. SIMS’ ESTATE AND FORTUNE It is said that […]

As the 19th century gave way to the dawn of the 20th century, and with the advent of the criminal psychologist, newspapers became more and more concerned with actually understanding what it was that caused a person to […]

Although hand-held cameras had been around since the 1850s, they hadn’t really managed to achieve mass appeal, as the majority of them required exposures of several seconds, making them impractical as an “instant” camera. But then, in the […]

When people look into the Jack the Ripper case there is a tendency to simply take as gospel facts, statements and even theories that are spouted by those who are considered experts on the subject. Of course, the […]