09/01/2026
Today in History: On August 31, 1888, Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols was murdered in the Whitechapel district of London. Her death is generally considered the first of five murders attributed to the unidentified killer who became known as Jack the Ripper.
Over the next ten weeks, four more women—Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly—were murdered. The killer was never identified or caught. Although other murders have sometimes been linked to him, these five became known as the “canonical five.”
At first, the killer was generally referred to as the Whitechapel Murderer, but the name that would make him infamous came from a letter sent to a news agency in September 1888. Signed “Jack the Ripper,” the letter was one of hundreds sent to police and newspapers by people claiming to be the murderer. Although some were taken seriously at the time, there is no strong evidence that any of the surviving letters were actually written by the killer.
More than a century later, the murders remain among the most famous unsolved crimes in history. Part of their enduring notoriety can be traced to the enormous press attention they received in 1888. Newspapers reported extensively on the killings, the police investigation, possible suspects, and the mysterious letters, helping turn a series of murders in one impoverished area of London into an international sensation.
The setting also played a role. Whitechapel was one of the most deprived areas of Victorian London, where poverty, overcrowding, crime, and social inequality were already matters of public concern. The murders intensified attention on conditions there.
And then there was the name. Whether the person responsible ever called himself “Jack the Ripper” remains unknown, but the chilling nickname created in 1888 has survived long after the identity of the killer was lost to history.
“Jack the Ripper” was mentioned in one of the Cotton Malone books. Do you remember which one, and what the circumstances were?
