Jack the Ripper: London’s most notorious serial killer

What do we know about Jack the Ripper? Was he a doctor? A surgeon? A butcher?

Our Blue Badge Guide, Vicky Wood takes us on one of her Ripper tours of East London.

“The notorious “Whitechapel Murderer” appeared in the poverty-stricken East End of London in the year 1888, brutally murdered and mutilated several prostitutes, then disappeared and we still, to this day, have no idea who he was. One of the victims was arrested and imprisoned by the police and killed by the Ripper on the night of the notorious “double murder”. How did this happen?

On a Jack the Ripper walk, the murders, the police investigation and the suspects are discussed so you can try and work out the Ripper’s true identity.

10 things you’ll see on a Jack the Ripper walk:

1. The atmospheric pub where one of the many Jack the Ripper suspects, also a wife-murderer, worked as a barber.
2. The cobbled alleyways where homeless prostitutes went with their clients and were never seen alive again if they met the Ripper.
3. Brick Lane, now famous for its curry restaurants, where a prostitute was attacked early in 1888. This attack later marked the beginning of the police file on “The Whitechapel Murders”.
4. The piece of evidence which gave the killer the name “Jack the Ripper”.
5. The building where the police used to be based in 1888 and where the hunt took place in a desperate attempt to catch the Ripper before he committed yet another murder.
6. The pub where prostitutes used to drink every night before venturing out onto the streets again.
7. The shelter for homeless men and women which still stands today. You’ll hear why this shelter was extremely unpopular with the East Enders in 1888, even with the danger of the streets lurking just outside.
8. Jack the Ripper wasn’t in the habit of leaving clues behind. Nevertheless, he did leave a piece of evidence in one East End street, which made the case even murkier than before, if possible. We’ll see the site and analyse the clue ourselves.
9. The “prostitutes’ church” of London where prostitutes tried to pick up clients, just yards away from where the Ripper met his fourth victim.
10. At least three of the Ripper murder sites where the prostitutes were found killed and mutilated.

If you think you know who Jack the Ripper was, have any theories to discuss, or want to see the locations for yourself, join me on this tour and we’ll go back to 1888 and sort out the myth from the reality in the ongoing search for the killer’s identity.”