London's press made a killing with ‘Jack the Ripper' coverage

This week (Aug. 31) in 1888 the serial killer famously known as "Jack the Ripper" claimed his first victim, a London prostitute named Mary Ann Nichols, by strangling her and then cutting her throat and other body parts with a knife. A reign of terror that would both horrify and fascinate the nation had begun.

The first thing to say about "The Ripper," as many called him, is that his story is steeped in myth. No one is even sure how many victims he actually killed — some say four, others five, others eight — and to this day, although there have been many suspects, his true identity is not known. The Ripper was never caught.

That was true in part because in 1888 police work was so primitive — forensic science was unknown — that the only way to identify a suspect was to catch him in the act. Unfortunately, the Ripper's modus operandi was to wait until London was dark and foggy before propositioning one of the many thousands of prostitutes working the streets of the teeming slum that was London's East End. When his victim would lift her skirt, meaning her hands were occupied, the Ripper would attack her throat, squeezing it until she lost consciousness. He would then mutilate her with his knife.

Naturally, as the victims piled up, the case became a sensation. London at the time enjoyed a thriving newspaper business, which got a circulation boost from the Ripper case, especially since the press would publish any letter sent to it whose author claimed to be the Ripper. Most were dismissed as forgeries, but two letters attracted particular interest. The first referred to a "double event" and was posted after the Ripper, for the only time, killed two women in one night. Its authenticity was questioned, however, because the postmark was more than 24 hours after the event, which had been well publicized in the newspapers.

A second letter included part of a human kidney. The Ripper had removed one of his victims' kidneys, which — since it also had been well advertised in the press — would not have been conclusive. But that victim was said to have suffered from a kidney disease, and the kidney in the parcel resembled a diseased kidney.

In any case, Jack the Ripper was the first serial killer to capture the public's imagination both during his lifetime and today. The reasons for this include the fact that his deeds were so gruesome, that his victims were prostitutes, that, for the first time in history, there was both a sensationalist press and a reading public, and — last but not least — that his identity was never revealed. People like solving mysteries, and Jack the Ripper remains one.

"Bruce's History Lessons" appears Sundays. E-mail author Bruce G. Kauffmann at bruce@historylessons.net.