Halloween is officially two short weeks away, and what better way to get into the spooky spirit than a evening tour of Whitechapel?! What happened in Whitechapel? Well, buckle up because this blog begins and ends with a bang...
As if this post wasn't exciting enough (and it's barely started!), my journey to Whitechapel was borderline disastrous: I arrived early at the Tube station to have time to put more money on my Oyster Card (the equivalent of a CharlieCard for those of you from Boston, or just a metro card for everyone else). The machine that normally takes 30 seconds to load more money took forever, after eating my £20 banknote! That's $30! There was no way I was going anywhere before sorting that out. By the time I actually got onto the Tube, I had 20 minutes to make a 30 minute journey during the tail end of rush hour. We experienced further delays and made it to Whitechapel 10 minutes after the official start of the tour. The 3 or 4 of we tardy travellers inconspicuously joined another tour group, and eventually ran into the other members of our program.
So, who was Jack the Ripper? That is the question, isn't it! Jack the Ripper was the name given to the serial killer active in Whitechapel, London, from August to November 1888. During this time, the murderer killed five women. All of them were prostitutes between the ages of 35 and 45, except for the last one, Mary Kelly, who was only 24.
If you are squeamish, then skip down to the next paragraph. Jack the Ripper's modus operandi was to slice the throat in a V pattern from back to front, slicing through the carotid and jugular. After that he proceeded to open up the entire body cavity and removed various organs. The degree of brutality varied from victim to victim. The most gruesome attack was the last victim: all her organs were removed and strewn all over the room. One police officer described the scene as a perverted Christmas display. In every instance, however, there was always one organ missing from the scene: a souvenir.
Long story short, the tales of Jack the Ripper are so captivating because the person was never caught and his/her identity still remains a mystery 125 years later. The police, of course, had a list of suspects, but it was about 100 names long. I personally don't think Jack the Ripper was a woman - prostitutes would be less likely to invite them back for a rendezvous. In all likelihood he had some kind of medical expertise/background because the nature of his slices and removal of organs was quite meticulous. Also, since the undisputed tendency of serial killers is to keep going until they are caught, it is fair to assume that Jack the Ripper was either a foreigner, or was committed to an insane asylum. Some even theorize that the killer was connected to the Royal Family: there is a story that one of Queen Victoria's grandsons secretly married a poor "working" girl from East London (i.e. Whitechapel area), and in order to mute the possibility, the Royal Family's physician (without Victoria's knowledge) was instructed to silence the possible "secret wives." He was an unlikely suspect, but it makes for a good story.
If you are curious for more, just check out Jack the Ripper's Wikipedia page ... it's actually pretty decent.
At the end of our tour, the guide wanted to tell us one more thing to conclude the tale: he looked around, and started spelling RIPPER slowly on his fingers ... when he got to R, he lunged forward ... and I, being the wimp that I am*, screamed quite loudly. It took me a few seconds to become consciously aware of the sound that came out of my mouth! I was thoroughly embarrassed but laughed so hard, as my parasympathetic nervous system strained to lower my heart rate.
Thanks for reading and ta for now!
* I concede that I am afraid of the dark, but am not squeamish in the least (which was helpful when our guide passed around pictures of the Ripper victims) - family and close friends know this well, especially my Aunt Lori!
No comments:
Post a Comment