‘Jack the Ripper’ is one of history’s most notorious serial killers. In the autumn of 1888, Whitechapel in London was under siege by a murderer who killed at least five prostitutes. He was never caught.
He set the tone of what being a serial killer meant. In the 20th century and beyond, such an occurrence was no longer rare. Jack set the bar.
How he stalked, murdered, and butchered, his victims was shockingly brutal. Many imagine an insane individual no more competent than a street urchin with a large knife who enjoyed carving up prostitutes. With many Jews coming into the area from places like Russia and Poland, it would be more convenient to blame one of the foreigners, significantly as socialism was rising. Numerous protests and marches had taken place across London to give the working class more rights, and there was a palpable fear of a genuine workers revolt. Insinuating the murderer was an unknown foreign evil was a handy tool for the establishment to keep the poor scared. It certainly suited the police and the establishment’s narrative to demonise the immigrants, of which the Jewish population arguably bore the brunt of that suspicion without any merit. That mythical hangover of a crazy-eyed Jew still resonates today on many of the forums still discussing these crimes.
So, who was he? We need to see Jack as more than a brutish idiot who enjoyed slashing up ‘unfortunates’ at the behest of the voices in his head. The pattern of overall behaviour would certainly suggest he was much more than that.
Many suspects have been named, both around the time of the investigation and in more recent times.
My story revolves around a suspect who most ‘Ripperologists’ dismiss. I imagine an altogether different killer than the caricature we know as ‘Jack the Ripper’. One that was never even suspected until modern times. However, he was representative of the new Victorian breed of the self-made man. The man was rewarded handsomely for his ability to utilise the world of commerce and the Empire’s resources. A pin-up for the suburban elite. Imagine the horror of the poor if it was known the killer was, in fact, a middle-class Englishman?
While the novel will be fiction, I will keep as many factually correct times, dates, and events as we know them throughout the story. Much of it will be dramatised for creative purposes. It will be down to the reader to decide what they choose to believe is true.
I will tell the story that I believe needs to be told.