Between 1888 and 1891 something terrible happened. Multiple women were killed in
Whitechapel, a neighbourhood in London.
Whitechapel had never been a popular safe place. The streets were gross and there was a
lot of criminality. A lot of people that lived in Whitechapel only lived there because they were
poor. This includes the victims of the murders.
The killer we are talking about right now is called "Jack the Ripper". He is so called because
of the way he kills people and because of a letter to the police. Another name for him is the
Whitechapel murderer. Jack the Ripper is guilty of five murders. but he is also expected to be
guilty of six other murders in Whitechapel.
The first attack took place on Tuesday, April 3, 1888. A 45-year-old woman was walking the
streets in Whitechapel. On her way to her house, she was robbed and attacked by three
men. Her name was Emma Elizabeth Smith. Even though she was injured she still managed
to get home. Later at the hospital, it was found that an object inserted into her vagina by the
attackers had ruptured her peritoneum. The next day she died of peritonitis. A detective,
Walter Dew, believed Emma was Jack the Ripper's first victim. Others, however, did not
believe this and believed that she had been attacked by a gang. Emma was a prostitute, just
like any other victim of Jack the Ripper.
Martha Tabram was a prostitute who was murdered on Tuesday, August 7, 1888. It was
about 2:30 a.m. when Martha was stabbed with a short knife in her torso, neck, and genitals.
Her body was found around 5 a.m. The police could do little with the murder because there
were no eyewitnesses, nor did they connect it to the previous murder of Emma Smith.
Jack the Ripper's first sure victim was Mary Ann Nichols. She was also a prostitute and was
murdered on a back street in Whitechapel. On Friday, August 31, 1888, around 3 a.m.,
Nichols was killed by a cut in her throat. The killer slit her throat from side to side and also
inflicted some injuries on her stomach.
Annie Chapman is the second woman who is one of the Canonical Five.
The canonical five is a name for the five women who were definitely victims of jack the ripper.
The five women are Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine
Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.
Annie Chapman was 47 years old at the time of her death. Annie did not have an easy life
and had a weakness for alcohol. She also was a prostitute and lived in a lodging house for
little money. things were not going well for Annie in the last few weeks before her death. Her
body was found on September 8, 1888, around 6 am. Annie's throat had also been slit from
side to side. The killer had taken all her guts out of her stomach. Also part of her uterus was
missing. This violent event made people think that the killer had surgical knowledge. The
police still could not do much with the case. At that time, there were few techniques for
recognizing fingerprints or detecting DNA, for example. Unfortunately, there were never any
eyewitnesses to these cases.
On Sunday, September 30, 1888, the serial killer murdered two women. One of those
women was Elizabeth Stride. She was 44 years old and lived a complicated life as a
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