The Whitechapel murders by Jack the Ripper took place in 1888 in one of the most poverty-stricken places in London. Whitechapel was an area with massive overcrowding caused by multiple reasons:

From the 1840’s farming started to become mechanised people fled to London looking for work. The Irish Potato Famine from1845 meant one million Irish people left their homes in search of a new life abroad. Some came to London, some of those later went on to America. From the mid 1800’s Jews fled fro...

This is a convoluted theory which I first became aware of in t1993 when I went to a book launch at the Alma Pub in Spellman Street,  just off of Hanbury Street where Annie Chapman was murdered.

The book told the story of James Maybrick, a cotton broker from Liverpool who lived in Battlecrease House with his American wife Fanny. The couple had met on a voyage from Britain to America. James was wealthy but a lot older than Fanny. They married and eventually settled down to live in Battlecrease ...

It is a sad fact in London history – some murders get attention and the details poured over again and again, and some that are simply forgotten. The murder of Elizabeth Osborn in 1719 is one that has passed quietly away – a shame as her killer, Jane Griffin wanted us all to learn a lesson from the sorry episode.

Elizabeth Osborn was a maid working at the Three Pigeons, a tavern used by booksellers located in Butcher Hall Row – not far from modern day Paternoster Square. The tavern was ru...

Jack the Ripper has remained a mystery for the past 132 years. That is not to say that numerous (too numerous to calculate) attempts have not been made to identify this most famous serial killer. Practically every year a new book and a new theory emerges and is pored over by Ripper enthusiasts in the hope that this is the theory that will finally nail him. But to no avail!

However, after reading five or six theories you come to realise that every book is slightly different in their view of ho...