Author: Richard Jones

Body-snatching was a huge problem throughout the country in the early years of the 19th century. At the time, science in general, and medical science in particular, was making huge strides forward. The problem was that, in order […]

Today, we join author Philipp Röttgers for our final visit to the television series “Whitechapel.” SEASON ONE: EPISODE THREE The episode begins where its predecessor ended. The police examine the kidney on Miles’ kitchen table. A letter was […]

One of the things that the Jack the Ripper murders were used to highlight was the amount of poverty and destitution that existed in London in 1888. I say, “used to highlight” because for many years prior to […]

You have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the unfortunate fate that befell Andrew Stewart, who was described by one newspaper as being a “poverty-stricken looking old man, who carried with him a […]

Throughout the latter years of the 19th century – and particularly during the coverage of the Jack the Ripper atrocities – the public throughout the rest of the United Kingdom gained the distinct impression that Whitechapel was a […]

Although the Jack the Ripper murders were shocking enough, there were other murders that took place in London that year that made many a Londoner fear for their own personal safety, especially if the murder in question took […]

Following the night of the double murder – the 30th September, 1888 – when Jack the Ripper claimed the lives of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes in the space of just one hour, the newspapers began to question […]

On Monday, May 13th, 1889, the thought-reader Washington Irving Bishop was giving a performance at the Lambs Club in New York, when he was suddenly taken ill with a cataleptic trance. He was taken upstairs to bed, and, […]

It is always interesting to catch a glimpse of the other types of crime that were taking place in Whitechapel at around the time of the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888. Not only do we get to […]

Artillery Passage is a delightful throwback to the bygone East End, and it really has not changed since the days when Jack the Ripper stalked the area. Indeed, when you stand at the east or west entrance into […]