Don’t review if you have yet to watch all eight episodes.

A lot has gone down in the mucky East End. A beloved young copper was killed, Sergeant Drake fell in and out of love, Captain Jackson and Long Susan‘s mysterious past was revealed, more than a few slaps and punches were exchanged, and Inspector Reid suffered possible false hope about his missing daughter, as well as trouble at home with his wife.

Things get a little dicey when Inspector Reid and his team have to rescue Rose from a sketchy pornography shoot after Captain Jackson discovers she has a “leaning to smut.” Luckily they get there just in time before the culprit kills her off.

Next, a local toy maker is murdered, leading the H Division boys into a brutal world of child gangs. We are introduced to the lovely head of a Jewish orphanage, Deborah Goran, who provides information about the boy charged in the toy maker’s murder.

Sergeant Drake and Inspector Reid successfully send the boy away, and save him from the life of a merciless Whitechapel gang member. Learn more about children living in Victorian poverty.

We also learn that Inspector Reid’s wife, Emily, is still mourning her young daughter, which has caused a riff in their marriage.

The cracking team pair up with the Independent City of London police force to help solve a sudden cholera outbreak. Their sources lead them to scour outside their own borough to find what it causing the deadly epidemic. Meanwhile, Mrs. Reid visits a possible investor in her shelter for ex-prostitutes, but soon finds herself afflicted with cholera herself!

Captain Jackson finds a cure for the ailment in his lab while the rest of the team catch the culprit who started the outbreak by injecting poison into the flour supply. All ends well for Mrs. Reid as she is cured, and gets the endowment she was after for her shelter.

Inspector Reid tells his fellow policeman, “you and I, we are not magicians, we cannot see through walls or read men’s minds…we fight with all the skills we may muster. Beyond that, we may do no more.”

Next, the brutal clearing of a local slum due to railroad construction leaves many stranded civilians in its path, including a young pretty thing, Lucy Eames, who used to work for Long Susan. She witnesses a murder that becomes the topic of the episode and leads Inspector Reid and his men into a web of conspiracy, eventually leading to corruption charges of the County Councilman and advocate of the railway site.

The episode also touches on mental illness and Victorian asylums. To find out more, check out the ‘Ripper Street’ blog ‘Locking up Women for the ‘Good of This City.”

In Episode 5, the Wild West comes to Whitechapel, and ‘Game of Thrones’ actor Iain Glenn guest stars as Sergeant Drake’s old war buddy from the Sudan, Colonel Madoc Faulkner. Faulkner causes quite a ruckus in a jewel robbery which he claims is justice for the corrupt Queen’s Empire, and his presence brings back sore war memories for Sergeant Drake. Find out more about the British Empire’s War in Sudan.

Drake is sidetracked by Madame Rose, whom he is pursuing, but by the end of the episode realizes that she could never be a “bobby’s wife,” as she confesses to him later. After Rose uses the dreaded “friend” word in describing their relationship, it’s bye bye love.

Reid and his wife continue to feel a disconnect as the season progresses, leading him to make some moves on Ms. Goran. Their kiss is a shocking and unexpected moment, which leads to many future awkward scenes to come. But he is forced to get his head back in the game when a group of global terrorists led by a Jewish anarchist threatens the city amidst the historic dock strike of 1889.

The investigation creates a riff between he and Ms. Goran, as she knows the anarchist from their days in Russia, and defends his philosophies.

Reid puts Jackson’s experience of a Pinkerton at work by investigating the strikes from the inside, which culminates in Jackson getting tortured. His unfortunate circumstance does not come at a loss, however, as his one-liner quips like “Come and get your cream, peaches” makes the pain well worth it.

In Episode 7, an international shipping magnate arrives in town with his Pinkerton to complete the acquisition of an ailing London shipping line. These new cast of characters directly lead to the big reveal of Captain Jackson and Long Susan’s American past.

The shipping magnate turns out to be Long Susan’s father, and the Pinkerton and Captain Jackson have some unfinished business which culminates in a traditional ‘last man standing’ gun-slingin’ duel.

We find out that Long Susan and Captain Jackson are married, and that the brothel has been their cover for some unruly dealings they were part of back stateside, including Jackson’s involvement with the Pinkerton Agency.

Find out more about Pinkertons.

Unfortunately, our young copper Hobbs is murdered by the American Pinkerton, and cruelly thrown into the River Thames. It’s a good thing that Captain Jackson was at least able to avenge his death by eliminating his killer.

Rest in peace, dear Hobbs.

The season ends with Reid struggling to retrieve more information about his missing daughter, and simultaneously has his hands full with catching a vicious kidnapper who is running a white slavery ring operation in a posh part of London. Rose is, again, subject to the the perpetrator’s wrath and needs saving. Luckily, Reid and his men are more than capable of doing so before any permanent damage is done.

We also find out more about what happened to Reid’s daughter, and why he is still holding on to the hopes of her being alive.

While the season answers a lot of our questions, there are still many more doors left open for new mysteries to be solved next year!

If you care to re-live the series over and over again, pre-order your copy of Season 1 today!

You can also purchase the show on iTunes.

See you next season!

But according to Inspector Reid, (and every minor police character on “Ripper Street”) he was also a pinkerton.

In the past few episodes, you may have noticed quite a bit of chatter concerning the term ‘pinkerton‘ in reference to Captain Homer Jackson‘s dark and mysterious past. However, the word itself has a hint of mystery behind it and may warrant an explanation.

So, what is a pinkerton?

Well it all started with a man who never intended to be a spy, which is always a great way to start off a story.

His name was Allan Pinkerton, a Scottish barrel-maker who immigrated to the U.S. in 1842, settling near Chicago, Illinois. Eventually landing in a town called Dundee, he quickly made a name for himself as a much needed quality barrel maker or ‘cooper’.

Little did he know that striving to improve his barrel business would lead him down the path to creating the most infamous mercenary group in American history.

(Civil War Talk)

When Pinkerton discovered that good quality raw materials for his barrels were easily obtained on a small, deserted island not far from town he decided to take the initiative in gathering them himself, eliminating the middle man. Upon arrival, he discovered that the remote island was actually inhabited by a number of people. To make a long story short, he became personally invested in a case involving some missing counterfeiters and ended up assisting law enforcement in finding the culprits who happened to live on this very remote island. Pinkerton enjoyed this escapade so much that it led him on to other local unsolved mysteries concerning the same case.

In 1850, Mr. Pinkerton founded his own detective agency, and was a very popular source to turn to during the Civil War, including secretly extracting information about the confederacy. After his death in 1884, the agency continued, and later became involved in working against the young labor movement in the U.S.

Unfortunately, this venture began to tarnish the agency’s reputation, swiftly becoming known as “the arm of big business.”

Episode 6, ‘A Tournament of Shadows,’ was widely based on union debates and organized anarchist groups attempting to overthrow authority. The Pinkerton Agency continued to act against labor during the late 19th and into the 20th century.

The agency’s reputation continued in a downward spiral for attempting to protect corporate property and big industry, and became affiliated with men like Andrew Carnegie. Despite its pitfalls however,  the agency still exists! Though it is now known as SECURITAS.

And now you know what all the fuss is about with Captain Jackson being involved with the pinkertons back in his Chicago days. Jackson’s association with the agency followed him into the East End, and is still causing him a world of trouble!

So we’ve decided to take a week off and spare you from delving deeper into the the bombing, scheming and bludgeoning to remind you that the Victorian era wasn’t all gloom and doom.

There are certain words and phrases we still use today (‘lush,’ ‘flashy,’ ‘on the fly’) that we may not realize came directly from the Victorian age.

But here are a few you may not have heard of, just waiting to be brought back into the modern vernacular. Because anyone who follows fashion knows that what is old is always made new again.

We challenge you to use one of these in context and bring the classics back to the streets.

1. Bacca-pipes: Whiskers curled in small, close ringlets.

“He curled his bacca-pipes in deep apprehension while awaiting his LSAT score.”

2. Crabshells: Shoes

“These crabshells were made for walking, honey, so you better recognize.”

3. Fawny-dropping: A ruse whereby the villain pretends to find a ring (which is actually worthless) and sells it as a possibly valuable article at a low price (Safe to say, don’t do this one!).

“That antique ring appeared to be a bargain, but was more likely a result of some skillful fawny-dropping.”

4. Lavender, in:  (1) To be hidden from the police, (2) to be pawned, (3) to be put away, (4) to be dead.

“That subject’s long been put in lavender, darlin’.”

5.  Luggers: Earrings

“Those luggers really bring out your eyes.”

6. Huntley, to take the: Syn. To take the Cake or to take the Biscuit.  Also to be most excellent, as in Huntley and Palmer’s biscuits.

“Your performance certainly takes the Huntley!”

7. Maltooler: A pickpocket who steals while riding an omnibus, esp. from women (Again, obviously, don’t do this!).

“That man must have caught me just as I was stepping off the M101. What a maltooler.”

8. Muck Snipe: A person who is “down and out”

“Pull out some change and help a muck snipe out, will ya?”

9.  Out of twig: Unrecognized or in disguise

“I couldn’t find her at the party. She must have been out of twig, bro.”

10. Puckering: Speaking in a manner that is incomprehensible to a spectator.

“Spit it out, dude, stop puckering!”

Reid: “And if the heart spoke up?”

Drake: “It became heavy. And if it outweighed the feather…the dead man’s soul was consumed by a terrible demon.”

In this week’s “Ripper Street,” a new gang of troublemakers arrive in town to stir things up between Sergeant Drake and Inspector Reid. Drake’s old Colonel, Madoc Faulkner, from the Madhist War, drudges up old wounds from their time spent in the Sudan.

The Madhi Revolt, which began in 1870s Egypt, began when a Muslim cleric named Muhammad Ahmad from the Sudan inspired an uprising, and began attracting followers due to the tyranny of the Egyptian government on his people. Ahmad proclaimed himself the “Mahdi,” the promised redeemer of the Islamic world. As the British Empire was financially responsible for the Egyptian government at this time, their involvement in the conflict became a necessary one.

Sergeant Drake and Colonel Faulkner bear traumatic memories from the bloody war, which they probably became involved with in the mid 1880′s. The conflict included 8,200 British soldiers and 17,600 Egyptian and Sudanese soldiers commanded by the British Army. The Madhi Forces, also known as the Dervishes, had over 60,000 soldiers. However, they lacked modern weapons, giving the Brits a clear advantage.

Meanwhile, the streets of the East End were experiencing their own form of turmoil and daily struggle.

Whitechapel’s immigrant population was largely unconcerned with the war overseas, as they were busy fighting their own battles at home.

Photography by Jack London

In 1902, the rugged famed novelist Jack London traveled to the underworld of the East End anonymously to live amongst the downtrodden for several months, sleeping in doss houses and at times on the streets to get an accurate portrayal of the way of life there.

It was quite a venture to take on, not to mention a dangerous one. From his experience came ‘The People of the Abyss,’ a 27-volume diary covering the inadequacy of life in the region. The phrase “Abyss” was used loosely at that time to depict the lowest members of society.

Photograph of Jack London by Andrew J. Hill, San Jose (The London Archives)

In Chapter Five, he writes:

My first impression of East London was naturally a general one.  Later the details began to appear, and here and there in the chaos of misery I found little spots where a fair measure of happiness reigned—sometimes whole rows of houses in little out-of-the-way streets, where artisans dwell and where a rude sort of family life obtains. 

In the evenings the men can be seen at the doors, pipes in their mouths and children on their knees, wives gossiping, and laughter and fun going on.  The content of these people is manifestly great, for, relative to the wretchedness that encompasses them, they are well off. But at the best, it is a dull, animal happiness, the content of the full belly.  The dominant note of their lives is materialistic.  They are stupid and heavy, without imagination.  The Abyss seems to exude a stupefying atmosphere of torpor, which wraps about them and deadens them. 

Check out a full version of “The People of the Abyss” here.

George Orwell was inspired by Jack London’s accounts when he read “Abyss” in his teens, and would later inspire him to travel to the same region in disguise. London’s influence can be seen in Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London,” and “The Road to Wigan Pier.”

Fellow novelist and friend of London’s, Upton Sinclair, was also deeply affected by these accounts, reporting that, “for years afterwards, the memories of this stunted and depraved population haunted him beyond all peace.” London himself declared: “No other book of mine took so much of my young heart and tears as that study of the economic degradation of the poor.” (The Guardian)

The industrialist ‘progress’ of technology left behind many confused and displaced individuals at its expense.

In Episode 4 of ‘Ripper Street,’ we see first-hand how the building of a new railway caused a large slum of people to roam the streets, including the strikingly beautiful Lucy Eames, who is later sent ‘back’ to the mental institution once she resurfaces.

Lucy’s run-in with a murder leaves her nearly speechless, causing her to go into several epileptic fits. But should she actually have been in an asylum? That, to put it plainly, is questionable, even for the Victorian time period.

Miss Eames’ perilous situation, however, was not unique.

Eliza Josolyne. Diagnosis: Insanity caused by overwork

If you were a woman back in Victorian England, you might have been locked up in the looney bin for a variety of reasons. Here are just a few:

• alcoholism
• postpartum depression or ‘childbirth’
• stress
• epilepsy
• infidelity or nymphomania (often thought to be related at this time)

Women not only experienced unjust institutionalism during this time, but abuse was also common, as many of these women had no family to speak for them. These facilities became testing grounds for controversial procedures such as lobotomies and ECT (electroconvulsive) therapy. Some patients were helped and others were harmed by these practices. Those who remained were often left brain damaged, and forever unable to leave these institutions.

Immersion (Cryotherapy), and Hydrotherapy were also common, where patients would be placed in either scalding hot or ice-cold baths, as this was thought to heal. Cold water, in particular, was thought to improve and awaken blood flow.

The thinning or ‘cooling’ of a patient’s blood was also a common form of treatment. This practice was treated with leeches to the temples, and sometimes followed by a shaven scalp, which is why in ‘Ripper Street,’ for example, there are many women with shaven scalps within the mental hospital.

In a Daily Mail article on the subject, Wendy Wallace writes that, “Mercury, known as calomel, was considered an effective treatment for hysteria, but, like most of the medicines prescribed for  mental illness, was highly toxic.”

(Victorian Asylum)

The abundance of women within mental institutions at this time was believed to be connected to disorders of the reproductive system. Some cases of ‘melancholia’ associated with menopause, for example, were treated with leeches near the pubis. Almost anything could been diagnosed as ‘hysteria’ back then, a word that comes from the Latin word for ‘womb.’

Women’s sexuality, and especially ‘hypersexuality’ as hinted in the list of reasons for institutionalization above suggests, was a prime fixation for male Victorian physicians, and cryotherapy was often used to treat this form of ‘hysteria.’ It was not until the early 20th century that the diagnosis of ‘female hysteria’ dramatically declined.

(Sciencemuseum.org.uk)

From 1800-1900 public funding for ‘asylums’ escalated, as citizens began to place more faith in ‘bricks-and-mortar solutions to social problems associated with the accelerating pace of modern life.’ (sciencemuseum.org.uk) The general patient population skyrocketed ten-fold during the decade, and more attention was paid to ventilation and safety.

Inspector Reid and his fellow officers tap into the scene when one of their investigations lead them to a transvestite brothel.

Sex and sexuality was as prevalent in the 19th century as it always has been, but possibly not so well-defined and controlled.

“Repression” is one of the most common words associated with the Victorian era, and the 1890s in particular, when “Ripper Street,” takes place, was a “repressed” time. The era, named after the long reigning Queen Victoria who reigned from 1837-1901, is known, however, for its vices. Many social hobbies that are highly contested and illegal today was done in abundance, and in many cases, done legally.

(An aging Queen Victoria)

Here are 5 things that may surprise you about Victorian London in the 19th Century:

1. Self-Pleasure

In the 19th Century, masturbation was thought to create physical and mental disorders, such as mania, venereal diseases, and even syphilis. There was also a growing concern and fear of overpopulation. Barbaric surgical operations such as penile cauterization and clitorodectomy’s were performed. But they were (obviously) highly undesirable.

Therefore a “device” was invented to prevent such action. Similar to a chastity belt, the metal device was created in support “masculine self-control in support of the bourgeois ideal of domestic life.”

Male anti-masturbation device, 1880-1920 (Victoria & Albert Museum)

2. Cross-Dressing and Gender-Bending

You may be surprised to know that cross-dressing was not unusual during the Victorian period. Men even wore corsets to get the ‘fashionable dandy’ look, and women were known to dress as men, sometimes even to gain employment, not unlike the famous novel “Albert Nobbs,” which was recently made in to a film starring Glenn Close as a cross-dressing female employed as a butler.

There were no labels for homosexuality as we known it today, and there was quite an abundance of homo-eroticism and gender bending going on, not only behind closed doors, but out in the open. It wasn’t until the 1900s when the act of homosexuality was found ‘publicly indecent.’ Queen Victoria herself kept a law from passing in 1885 that attempted to criminalize ‘lesbianism’ and ‘Sapphic‘ practice (a Greek term which would later describe homosexual love between women).

To learn more about cross-dressing during the Victorian era, check out this detailed Time Out article.

(Cross-dressing, Victorian Style)

3. Prostitution

Moral uproar concerning prostitution was at its peak in the 1850s-1860s, mainly because it highlighted a sort of female sexual freedom. These women, though still indirectly controlled by men, had economic autonomy. In cases such as Long Susan’s brothel in ‘Ripper Street,’ they also had more protection than the average non-married female in Victorian society.

Prostitution was, however, legal, at this time in Europe, making it an honest profession for a woman who had no other means of supporting herself, not to mention a roof over her head.

(Victorian Era Through the Eyes of Charles Dickens)

4. Flagellation

Some say, thanks to the repressive nature of Victorian culture, that pornography blossomed in the shadows of repression. High crime and corruption was now out in the open, thanks to newspapers, and the “moral” members of society fought against “impure and licentious books, prints, and other publications.” (The Dictionary of Victorian London) “French postcards,” or “smutty” pictures, as Captain Jackson refers to them, were becoming more heavily circulated. But one erotic theme, ‘flagellation,’ (whipping) stood out as the most popular.

There are many theories as to why, but the most plausible that historians have come up with are that Victorian men experienced ‘flogging’ as school boys in public, and for some this became a regular method of arousal. Another popular theory is that the men of this age were under pressure to be constantly in control of their household, their lives, and their work that they secretly wanted to be controlled in some fashion.

Many of the brothels at the time were ‘flagellation brothels,’ underlying its popularity.

5. Substance Abuse

Performance and mood enhancing substances were incredibly common in the late 19th Century thanks to industrialism and trade, as well as the rise of the middle class. Drugs like cocaine and marijuana were not only legal but widely distributed. Opium and heroin are probably the most common affiliated with the period, which was used mainly by the wealthy. Laudanum, which was a mix of alcohol and opium derivatives, was a common item in medical kits, and used most popularly among upper class women.

It is widely believed that women would use marijuana to relieve menstrual cramps, and among the wealthier crowd, chloroform inhalers became popular, similar to nitrous oxide (from anesthesia). Check out this Current TV blog for more.

(From a Victorian medicine cabinet)

(Deborah Goren – Played by Lucy Cohu)

In Episode 2 of “Ripper Street,” The Vigilance Committee, distrusting of the H Division’s job in protecting the people of Whitechapel, gather together to accuse a young boy of murdering a toy maker, though the boy denies all charges. We later find out that the boy is Jewish, and seeks protection in a small orphanage run by Ms. Deborah Goren, a Jewish immigrant who runs a shelter for abandoned children.

“This world is a wicked one. But save one life, and you save the world entire,” Ms. Goren tells Inspector Reid, quoting The Talmud, which is second only to The Torah in Judaism.

(The Talmud)

The boy is sent to court, found guilty, and sentenced to hang. But Inspector Reid keeps him in his protection, awaiting a way to prove his innocence. The boy, we find out, is being held captive by a merciless gang run by what citizens in the court call a ‘Fagin.’

Someone who is referred to as such was known for being a teacher of pickpocketing, along with other various tactics on how to break the law. He was traditionally of Jewish background. This term came from the novel ‘Oliver Twist,’ by Charles Dickens, who wrote countless tales of how difficult it was to be a child during this time period.

Life expectancy for children was no higher than merely 10 years old and child labor laws were non-existent. Not unlike the main character in ‘Oliver Twist,’ boys without parents or guardians were often sent to workhouses, which provided food and shelter in return for hard, and harsh work.

Londoners often died of diseases like cholera, measles and scarlet fever at a very young age, and daily conditions for both rich and poor were far from sanitary due to lack of medical knowledge and hygiene.

The Museum of London states that “In London slums, more than half of all babies died before their 1st birthday.”

(‘The Crossing Sweeper,’ by William Frith – 1858 -Museum of London)

Most children in Whitechapel would not have been able to go to school, as they would have had to work to help support their families. Boys would work as chimney sweepers, newspaper messengers, or find a gig making matchboxes. Boys and girls would also act as ‘crossing sweepers,’ as it was risky just crossing the street in Victorian London, due to horse muck. Rich people did not wish to soil their clothes, so they would give tuppence to children who swept the way for them. In the 1850s, one in nine girls over the age of 10 worked as domestic servants for well-off households.

(Photograph of a young man returning home from work – Museum of London)

Due to the lack of free time on their hands, these children likely didn’t play much with toys, nor were they much treated like children, but little adults. Girls would sometimes make rag dolls out of old laundry, and boys would play with marbles or tin drums, all made from whatever they could scrounge from the streets.

But for children like the accused gang member in “Ripper Street,” he’d be lucky to find a safe place to sleep and food to eat, let alone find time to play.

For more on this topic, check out Anglophenia‘s article ‘Five Filthy Things About Victorian London.’

Catch an Encore: Saturdays at 12/11c am and 3/2c am, and Wednesdays at 10/9c pm

Find on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/ripper-street/id592252000

VOD: Episodes will appear on the following platforms in HD where available the day after linear premiere:

• Time Warner
• Direct TV
• Verizon FIOS
• Frontier
• Click!
• DISH
• DISH Online
• MetroCast
• Comcast (SD and HD)
• Cable VOD
• On Demand Online (Xfinity)

Here are just a few:

Still Photography

Many inventions led to photography, but probably the most relevant was the discovery of the camera obscura, which can be traced back to ancient China.

Leonardo da Vinci also mentions “natural cameras obscura that are formed by dark caves on the edge of a sunlit valley.” The development of chemical photography can be traced back to the 1820s and by the mid 19th century, experiments with color were well underway.

Black-and-white photography would dominate for many years due to lower costs and the popularity of the “classic look.” In 1873, photo-chemist Hermann Vogel created a mechanism to improve color sensitivity,  adding colors green, yellow and even red.

The cameras seen in “Ripper Street” may have been one of the first celluloid models, (also referred to as the “Kodak”) which started to appear in 1888.  It was a very simple box camera with a fixed-focus lens and single shutter speed.

The press had just begun to make a dent in society, and as seen in “Ripper Street,” were able to sell numerous newspaper headlines at the expense of the police department with the help of photographs, which allowed them to visually document crime scenes like never before.

The popular site Spitafields Life has many archived photographs from the Victorian East End, and thanks to the invention of still photography, we are able to gain a much more accurate understanding of that time.

(Spitafields Life)

The Moving Picture

Englishman Eadweard James Muybridge was largely responsible for the invention of the moving picture with his experiments with multiple cameras in order to capture motion in stop-action photographs, which later led to the invention of what would become film strips. In the 1880s, he produced 100,000 images of animals and humans in motion so effectively that people found it hard to distinguish as separate movements. He also helped to bring phenakistoscope discs into the public eye, which were invented in the 1830s.

Muybridge spent much of his later years giving public lectures and demonstrations of his photography and early motion picture sequences. He is also credited for influencing visual art, as well as developing scientific and industrial photography.

He has even gone so far as to influence modern music. In 1993, the rock band U2 made a video of their song “Lemon” as a tribute to Muybridge’s techniques.

(Galloping Horse 1878)

Louis Le Prince is also mentioned by Inspector Reid in Episode 1, crediting him with experimenting with “photographic images that…move.” Jackson replies, “like a lantern show?” Reid answers, “No, real…because every degree of muscular movement must be captured with precision so the end effect is one fluid movement.”

Prince, an engineer, is widely regarded as the ‘father of cinematography,’ and is credited for shooting the first moving picture on paper film using a single lens camera.

The Telegraph

(Morse Code)

The electromagnetic telegraph was invented in 1825 by William Sturgeon. His display of lifting nine pounds with a seven-ounce piece of iron wrapped with wires through which the current of a single cell battery was sent would become a precursor of things to come.

The invention of Morse Code by Samuel Morse was officially known as American Morse by 1844, and allowed people from far away locations to communicate with a short hand language represented by tiny dots on a mechanical device. The emergence of the Postal Telegraph System in 1881 is what likely prompted such Telegraph Rooms as seen in “Ripper Street” within the same decade.

In “Ripper Street,” young policeman Hobbs struggles with the intimidating telegraph machine as he is instructed to dictate something in Morse Code. Reid responds, “C’mon boy, this is the future!”  Captain Jackson later refers to Hobbs’s difficulty as the “human barrier to progress.”

(Casebook.org)

1. Walter Sickert

A renowned painter of the time is a curious candidate for the Whitechapel murders, and mainly falls to the fact that Sickert had made sketches and paintings of the Ripper crimes that were quite accurate.

As the Casebook writes:

Sickert had been tangentially implicated in the Ripper crimes as early as the 1970s, with the release of the now infamous “Royal Conspiracy” theory. But it wasn’t until the early 1990s, with the release of Jean Overton Fuller’s Sickert and the Ripper Crimes, that the peculiar artist became a Ripper suspect in his own right. 

More recently, famed crime novelist Patricia Cornwell has claimed to have found DNA evidence linking Sickert to at least one of the ‘Ripper Letters,’ and she has made a case  in her book, “Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed.”

(Wikiquote.com)

2. Lewis Carroll

Yes, that Lewis Carroll, author of the Alice in Wonderland books. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll’) taught at Christ Church until 1881, which was at the forefront of the Ripper Murder scenery. ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ was published in 1865, under the pen-name, ‘Lewis Carroll.’ His pen name was later called into question and became the topic of myth around London.

Richard Wallace later claimed that Dodgson was Jack the Ripper though there is no real evidence to support Wallace’s claim. However, the claim that Dodgson had committed other questionable acts, such as proposing to a very young girl named ‘Alice,’ was considered fact although there was no evidence supporting this either.

The Casebook writes:

Wallace published his theory in 1996, in his book ‘Jack the Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend’. It was, in brief that Dodgson and his Oxford colleague Thomas Vere Bayne, were both responsible for the Whitechapel murders. He based his belief on anagrams he constructed out of Dodgson’s work, which he claimed were hidden confessions of the author’s life of crime in Whitechapel in the autumn of 1888.

The anagrams he presents in his book are not very good, in that they tend to make limited grammatical sense, and Wallace tends to cheat rather by simply leaving out or changing any letters he can’t fit in.

For example he takes this passage from Dodgson’s ‘Nursery Alice’:

‘So she wondered away, through the wood, carrying the ugly little thing with her. And a great job it was to keep hold of it, it wriggled about so. But at last she found out that the proper way was to keep tight hold of itself foot and its right ear’.

and turns it into:

‘She wriggled about so! But at last Dodgson and Bayne found a way to keep hold of the fat little whore. I got a tight hold of her and slit her throat, left ear to right. It was tough, wet, disgusting, too. So weary of it, they threw up – Jack the Ripper.

However, Wallace’s theory is flawed in that one could in fact rearrange the words in any piece of writing anywhere and make half-connected sentences suggestive of almost anything.

Was Lewis Carroll Jack the Ripper? Well, even after Wallace’s anagrams, the general consensus is – unlikely. He was, however quite the man of mystery, that has yet to be fully solved.

(Casebook.org)

3. Jill the Ripper

Maybe Jack wasn’t ‘Jack’ at all, but in fact, a woman, which was a theory that posed by famed Inspector Abberline himself at the time of the killings.

According to Donald McCormick, author of The Identity of Jack the Ripper published in 1959, Abberline raised the theory in a conversation with his mentor, Dr. Thomas Dutton after the murder of Mary Kelly. Testimony given by Caroline Maxwell, who lived in the area, was central to the argument.

The Casebook writes:

Abberline based the brunt of the argument on the fact that it was possible that the killer dressed up in Kelly’s clothes in order to disguise herself, therefore accounting for Mrs. Maxwell’s sighting of her the next day. Dutton answered that he believed it was doubtful, but that if it were a woman committing the crimes, the only kind capable of doing so would be a midwife.

Thus began the theory of ‘Jill the Ripper,’ sometimes referred to as ‘the mad midwife.’

As ludicrous as this theory may initially sound, there are a few points which makes it reasonably credible. The fact that all of London was looking for a man would have allowed a female to have gone relatively uncaught for as long as the killer did. A midwife would have also been seen at all hours of the night, as well as blood on her clothing, which would have been discarded due to the nature of her work. A midwife would have also had the anatomical knowledge needed of the Ripper candidate.

(Brittanica.com)

4. Lord Randolph Churchill

There has always been a royal tie with the Ripper Investigations, and even members of the royal family like Prince Albert have been suspects, but Sir Winston Churchill’s father is the most curious within this group.

Considerable speculation grew that Churchill had been infected with syphilis. Some report it was during an encounter with a housemaid during a drunken tirade as a student.

According to the Casebook:

Churchill’s link with Jack the Ripper is tenuous to say the least. According to Author Melvyn Fairclough, Churchill, being the highest freemason in the land and protecting the good name of the royal family and the position of the crown, gathered together a group, which consisted of Sir William Gull, John Netley, Frederico Albericci, and J.K Stephen, in a plan to murder five prostitutes led by Mary Kelly, who had been using their knowledge of Prince Albert Victor’s secret marriage to Annie Elizabeth Crook, for blackmailing purposes.

While there is no evidence to support the claim that Churchill was ever a freemason, there is also no documented evidence to prove such a marriage ever took place. The death certificate of Annie Crook clearly states she belonged to the Church of England, and was not Catholic.  There have been many different versions of the royal Masonic conspiracy theory over the years, and none are ever taken seriously.

One other curious aspect to Churchill as a suspect, is that he apparently resembled George Hutchinson’s extraordinarily detailed description of a man seen with Mary Kelly shortly before she was murdered.

The Pall Mall Gazette June 28 1884 described Churchill as, ‘Of average height with a wide turned up moustache, beautifully dressed, his gold chain has the solid appearance of real 18 carat’.

(Casebook.org)

5. James Maybrick

James is voted the #1 suspect in the Jack the Ripper Casebook, which makes him notable. And while some screen shots of his diary may prove rather convincing, these claims are hotly contested and rumored as a hoax.

Michael Barrett, who originally claims he discovered the Maybrick diary, has confessed to the forged documents. These confessions have been retracted and restated many times in the past years, however. See his confession.

James, who was originally from Liverpool, moved to London to live with his mother, and had reportedly contracted Malaria and became increasingly addicted to arsenic and strychnine, which was not uncommon for the 1870s. He soon after married and fathered two children with Florence ‘Florie’ Chandler. After dying in May of 1889, James’s wife, Florie, was accused of his murder. The case for James lies mainly in the contested diaries, which surfaced only in 1992.

While its authenticity remains debatable, Maybrick’s diary has yet to be proven a forgery. Whether it is real or a fake, it maintains sound constancy with the known facts. As the Casebook suggests, “the diary also introduces what some would call startling evidence to support its authenticity.”