Whitechapel murders
1888 CE to 1891 CE
The Whitechapel murders are committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London between April 3, 1888 and February 13, 1891.
At various points some or all of these eleven unsolved murders of women have been ascribed to the notorious unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
Most, if not all, of the victims—Emma Elizabeth Smith, Martha Tabram, Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly, Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, Frances Coles, and an unidentified woman—are prostitutes.
Smith is sexually assaulted and robbed by a gang.
Tabram is stabbed thirty-nine times.
Nichols, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes, Kelly, McKenzie and Coles have their throats cut.
Eddowes and Stride are killed on the same night, minutes and less than a mile apart; their murders are nicknamed the "double event", after a phrase in a postcard sent to the press by someone claiming to be the Ripper.
The bodies of Nichols, Chapman, Eddowes and Kelly have abdominal mutilations.
Mylett is strangled.
The body of the unidentified woman is dismembered, but the exact cause of her death is unclear.
The Metropolitan Police, City of London Police, and private organizations such as the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee are involved in the search for the killer or killers.
Despite extensive inquiries and several arrests, the culprit or culprits evade identification and capture.
The murders draw attention to the poor living conditions in the East End slums, which will subsequently be improved.
The enduring mystery of who committed the crimes will capture public imagination to the present day.
Subject
Related Events
Showing 9 events out of 9 total
Jack the Ripper, suspected of being one of those implicated in the Cleveland Street Affair involving high-society Victorians and their patronage of a brothel staffed by messenger boys, is credited with the unsolved murders of six London prostitutes in 1888 and 1889.
London prostitute Emma Elizabeth Smith is brutally attacked by two or three men on April 3, 1888, dying of her injuries the following day, first of the Whitechapel murders, but probably not a victim of Jack the Ripper.
The body of London prostitute Martha Tabram, a possible victim of Jack the Ripper, is found on August 7, 1888.
The mutilated body of London prostitute Mary Ann Nichols is found on August 31, 1888; she is considered the first victim of Jack the Ripper.
The mutilated body of London prostitute Annie Chapman (considered to be the second victim of Jack the Ripper) is found on September 8, 1888.
The 'Dear Boss letter' signed "Jack the Ripper", the first time the name is used, is received by London's Central News Agency on September 27, 1888.
The bodies of London prostitutes Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, the latter mutilated, are found on September 30, 1888.
They are generally considered Jack the Ripper's third and fourth victims, respectively.
Dismembered remains of a woman's body are discovered on October 2, 1888, at three central London locations, one being the construction site of the police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.
The mutilated body of London prostitute Mary Jane Kelly is found on November 9, 1888.
She is considered to be the fifth, and last, of Jack the Ripper's victims.
A number of similar murders in England will follow, but the police will attribute them to copy-cat killers.