On 31 August 1888 Mary Ann Nichols, the first victim of Jack The Ripper, was found brutally murdered in east London. Sputnik spoke to Richard Jones, founder of the Jack The Ripper Tour, about why the serial killer exerts such fascination on people even today.
Mr. Jones runs the Jack The Ripper Tour, which takes tourists on a guided tour of the various locations in Whitechapel — an area just to the east of the City of London financial district — which are associated with the Ripper.
Friday, August 31, marks the 130th anniversary of the arrival of the most infamous serial killer in the world — Jack The Ripper.
Mary Anne Nichols’ mutilated body was found in Bucks Row, Whitechapel, at 3.45am by a waggoner called Charles Cross who was on his way to work. She was the first of five prostitutes who would be murdered in the space of 12 weeks, creating terror in central and east London.
“She was found in an unlit street. Electric lighting was just coming in but because Whitechapel was a poor area there were no electric lights and very few gas lamps so most streets were dark. That’s why Jack The Ripper got away with his crimes,” Richard Jones told Sputnik.
31 august 1888, Mary Ann Nicholls is murdered. She is the first of “Jack the Ripper’s” confirmed victims. pic.twitter.com/UdgI7gFTvo
— Ｈｉｓｔｏｒｙ (@HistoryTime_) August 31, 2018
He said there were a lot of similarities between the press coverage of the Ripper’s crimes and the media’s current obsession with knife crime, gangs and immigrants.
“It’s almost exactly the same as today. The newspapers are now on about gangs and are saying the police have lost control of the streets and people are not safe and it’s…