00:00Imagine stepping back in time to the autumn of 1888, the place, London's east end, specifically the Whitechapel District.
00:07This isn't the London of postcards and palaces.
00:11This is a labyrinth of dark, narrow alleyways, overcrowded slums, and dimly lit gin palaces.
00:17A perpetual fog, thick with coal smoke and the stench of poverty, clings to the cobblestones.
00:23For the thousands crammed into this desperate corner of the Victorian world, life is already a struggle for survival.
00:30But as the leaves begin to fall, a new kind of fear, a primal terror, starts to creep through the
00:35gaslit streets.
00:37A shadow has fallen over Whitechapel, a faceless phantom who will turn the district into his personal hunting ground and
00:43carve his name into history with a blade.
00:46The press will give him a name that still sends a shiver down the spine over a century later, Jack
00:51the Ripper.
00:52This reign of terror began in the early morning hours of August 31, 1888.
00:57A woman named Marianne Nichols, known as Polly, was found dead in Buck's Row, her throat had been severed by
01:03two deep cuts, and her abdomen bore several other wounds.
01:07At first, it was a shocking but perhaps isolated act of brutality in a violent part of the city.
01:13But just over a week later, on September 8, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered in the backyard of
01:19a Hanbury Street tenement.
01:20The horror was amplified, not only was she killed in the same manner as Polly Nichols, but her body had
01:27been subjected to a horrifying mutilation, with her uterus surgically removed from her body.
01:32The city began to panic, it was clear this was no random act of violence.
01:37A monster was on the loose, one with a chilling and specific method.
01:41The killer's audacity escalated.
01:43In the early hours of September 30, in what would become known as the Double Event, he struck twice.
01:49The body of Elizabeth Stride was found in Dutfield's yard.
01:53It seemed the killer may have been interrupted, as her throat was cut but there were no further mutilations.
01:58But less than an hour later, and only a short walk away, the body of Catherine Eddowes was discovered in
02:05Mitre Square.
02:06The scene was one of unimaginable butchery.
02:08Her face was disfigured, and like Annie Chapman, her uterus had been removed, along with her left kidney.
02:15The killer was becoming bolder, more frenzied, and seemingly invisible.
02:19On the night of the double murder, a piece of Catherine Eddowes' blood-stained apron was found in a nearby
02:25doorway.
02:25Above it, scrawled in chalk, were the words,
02:29The jewels are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.
02:32Was this a clue from the killer, or a coincidental piece of anti-Semitic graffiti?
02:37The police commissioner, fearing a riot, ordered it washed away before it could be properly photographed,
02:43erasing a potential key piece of evidence forever.
02:46The final canonical murder was the most gruesome of all.
02:49On November 9, Mary Jane Kelly was found in her small room on Miller's Court.
02:54She was the youngest victim, and unlike the others, she was killed indoors,
02:59giving the killer an unprecedented amount of time to carry out his horrific work.
03:03The scene that greeted the landlord who came to collect rent was something out of a nightmare.
03:08Mary Kelly's body had been so extensively mutilated that she was barely recognizable as human.
03:14Her organs were strewn about the room, pieces of her flesh had been cut away,
03:19and her heart had been taken from the scene.
03:22After this final, ghastly act, the murders abruptly stopped.
03:26The shadow that had terrified London simply vanished back into the fog from which it came.
03:31What truly cemented the killer's legend were the letters.
03:34Hundreds of letters claiming to be from the murderer flooded the police and news agencies.
03:39Most were hoaxes from cruel pranksters, but a few stood out.
03:43One, received by the Central News Agency on September 27, was written in red ink and taunted the police for
03:50their incompetence.
03:51It was playful and arrogant, and it was signed with a name that would become immortal, Jack the Ripper.
03:57However, another chilling piece of correspondence, the From Hell letter, was sent to George Lusk, the head of the Whitechapel
04:04Vigilance Committee.
04:05It arrived in a small box containing half of a preserved human kidney.
04:09The letter's author claimed to have fried and eaten the other half.
04:13Experts at the time debated whether it came from Catherine Eddowes, but the findings were inconclusive.
04:18Whether genuine or a masterful hoax, these letters transformed a terrifying murderer into a macabre celebrity, a boogeyman for the
04:26industrial age.
04:27The investigation by London's Metropolitan Police was the largest in its history up to that point, but it was plagued
04:34by problems.
04:35They were an organization completely unprepared for a killer of this nature.
04:39Forensic science was in its infancy.
04:41Techniques like fingerprinting were not yet in use, and crime scene preservation was practically non-existent.
04:48Hordes of onlookers would contaminate the scene within minutes of a body being discovered.
04:53Detectives were left to rely on door-to-door inquiries, witness interviews, and basic detective work in a transient population
05:01where few trusted the police.
05:02The media frenzy didn't help.
05:04Newspapers published sensationalist stories, wild speculation, and graphic details,
05:09whipping the public into a state of hysteria and putting immense pressure on the police,
05:14forcing their hand and sometimes leading to rushed judgments.
05:18Despite these challenges, the police did identify several key suspects.
05:22There was Montague John Druitt, a barrister and schoolteacher whose body was found in the River Thames shortly after the
05:29last murder.
05:30His own family suspected he was the killer.
05:32Then there was Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jewish hairdresser who lived in Whitechapel and suffered from severe mental illness.
05:40He had a known hatred of women and was eventually institutionalized.
05:44Many modern researchers, citing DNA evidence that is itself highly controversial, believe he is the most likely culprit.
05:52Another compelling suspect was Surin Kolosovsky, also known as George Chapman.
05:57He was a poisoner who murdered three of his wives and was even a preferred suspect of one of the
06:02lead investigators on the case, Inspector Frederick Aberline.
06:06The list goes on, including doctors, butchers, and other individuals who were in the right place at the wrong time,
06:13but none were ever formally charged.
06:14The investigation involved thousands of interviews and the detention of over 80 people, but the net never closed.
06:21Jack the Ripper was never caught.
06:23His identity remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the history of crime.
06:28But why does this story still captivate us so profoundly?
06:31It's more than just a whodunit.
06:33The Ripper murders expose the dark underbelly of Victorian society,
06:37the stark contrast between its outward morality and the brutal reality of poverty and despair in its greatest city.
06:43He was a symbol of the anxieties of a new modern era, the fear of the unknown,
06:48the faceless threat hidden in the urban crowd, and the failure of authority to protect its people.
06:53He became the archetype of the modern serial killer, a phantom who stalks our collective imagination.
07:00The fog of Whitechapel may have lifted, but the shadow of Jack the Ripper remains,
07:04a chilling reminder that some mysteries are never solved, and some monsters are never caught.
07:09If you found this journey into the dark history of London fascinating,
07:15be sure to like this video and subscribe for more deep divies into the mysteries of the past.
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