Act I

The Crime Scenes

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

Sherlock Holmes

There are five commonly accepted victims of Jack the Ripper, killed between August 31, 1888 and November 9. While a few murders may be added either before or after this period, these five incidents share enough common events that they are considered Ripper victims. Four of the five were found dead on London's foggy streets, the fifth was found dead in her room. After they were killed, they were then eviscerated.

Violence in the East End of London was common as were assaults against prostitutes. What was remarkable about the Ripper case was the savagery of the attacks and the lack of apparent motive. There was also growing dissatisfaction with the police. It was not apparent if the police were unable to apprehend the murderer or did not care to.

Of course the police used a wide variety of methods. They increased patrols, used undercover agents, and attempted to use bloodhounds. A method of particular interest was photography. One of the beliefs held, was that the eye captured the last image it saw. Police photographers attempted to photograph one of the victim's eyes to see if such an image remained.

While Victorian police work relied more on shoe leather than science, they too understood the need to make copious examinations of the crime scenes and corpses. Below I have linked to sites which present descriptions of the five major crime scenes.

Please note that some sites may contain crime scene photographs. While photograph was still in its infancy, these photographs do contain graphic scenes.

Crime Scenes

Victims

Suspects

Legacy

Of course there's no place like home