The Hidden Lives of Jack the Ripper's Victims
Published on 29th January 2021
The serial killer called 'Jack the Ripper ' murdered at least five women. It's easy to gloss over the lives of his victims. This book addresses that imbalance. For nine weeks during the autumn of 1888, the Whitechapel Murderer brought terror to London’s East End, slashing women’s throats and disemboweling them. London’s most famous serial killer has been pored over time and again, yet his victims have been sorely neglected, reduced to the simple label: prostitute.
The situation in London at the time of the murders was dire. Dramatisations of the events focus on the male detectives and police. The real lives of women in the East End weren't really looked at.
The lives of these five women are rags-to-riches-to-rags stories of the most tragic kind. There was a time in each of their lives when these poor women had a job, money, a home and a family. Hardworking, determined and fiercely independent individuals, it was bad luck, or a wrong turn here or there, that left them wretched and destitute. Ignored by the press and overlooked by historians, it is time their stories were told.
When we look at the tv mini-series, Jack the Ripper (1988) starring Michael Caine, we see the Hollywood treatment at work. Catherine Eddowes, a Ripper victim, was in reality, a middle aged, plain woman. Here she is portrayed by Susan Penhaligon, beautiful, young and finely dressed. In the film From Hell with Johnny Depp (2001), Catherine Eddowes is played as slightly less glamorous but still richly dressed.
Only in the very fine Murder by Decree (1979) is she portrayed by an actress more suitable for the role. Hilary Sesta was very convincing, aged 48 as she was at the time of filming. Catherine's clothes were plain, her habits unruly. She was, however, a wife and mother and was described as jolly, always singing. I enjoyed this book very much, and highly recommend it.
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Submitted by Lucy in Rathmines Library.