Jack the Ripper: Case Study

Lesson 1: The Setting, the Crimes, and the Victims

The Setting

Whitechapel, London was not a pleasant place to be in the late 1800's. In the time of Jack the Ripper, it was the poorest slum in London, a downtrodden district filled with drunks, vagrants, sailors and prostitutes. In fact, Jack London had once referred to this area as "the abyss."

Over a million people populated the poorer area of London called the East End. The population of the Whitechapel district was around 76,000. According to police reports and statistics at the time of the Ripper murders, there were approximately 233 common lodging houses, 62 brothels and 1200 prostitutes working in the East End district.

Overcrowding, inadequate employment, and poor sanitation plagued Whitechapel. Lack of industry led to intermittent employment. Work, if it could be found, for men usually consisted of grueling fifteen to eighteen hour days in sweatshops or work as a butcher or dock worker. Women took on low-paying jobs as seamstresses or factory workers.

An influx of foreigners, mostly Jews fleeing persecution and poor economic conditions, had immigrated to London and ended up in Whitechapel. The fear that the foreigners were taking jobs away from the native population led to a climate of anti-Semitism and political unrest.

The more affluent population of the West End largely ignored the plight of the poor, for there was an attitude that the underprivileged brought their conditions upon themselves. The East End was viewed as an immoral place filled with freak shows, cheap entertainment and whores who brought their lifestyle upon themselves.

Life for the women of poverty-ridden Whitechapel wasn't easy. In addition to low-paying jobs as seamstresses or maids, many also resorted to casual prostitution to make ends meet. Many of these poor "unfortunates" didn't even have a place to sleep at night. The ones who were lucky enough to have a roof over their heads had very shabby accommodations. Most of them, when they had the money, bought a bed in a "doss house", which provided rows of cheap beds and often had no heat. Others were forced to sign up at workhouses where they were put to hard labor to earn their food and keep. Poor living conditions led to alcoholism. Most of the prostitutes were alcoholics or were forced into the life by desperate circumstances. Many had young children to support and no husband.

Most of the women were alcoholics who became prostitutes for the money, servicing the sailors and other men who hung around the pubs. They roamed the labyrinth of dark, fog-shrouded streets searching for a customer in order to make a few coins to pay for a bed. Sex was an unglamorous act, mostly performed standing up in an alley.

In addition to this, the women were often bullied by local gangs demanding protection money. It was a miserable existence. Most of these women were neither young nor beautiful. They were simply down and out, desperate to earn a few coins, enough to get out of the cold for the night and to buy drinks and put food on the table. Most of them had little future, their main concern was daily survival.

To learn more about the the setting of the Ripper murders, read chapter Three, The Unfortunates and Chapter Seven The Gentleman Summer in Portrait of a Killer Jack the Ripper:Case Closed.

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