Jack-the-Ripper: American Diaries!

A Story by Abishai100

Narrated account of the historical mystery of the Jack-the-Ripper serial-murder case of 1888 London, generating democratic storytelling.

This is a non-story story inspired by my investigations into the Jack the Ripper case and love of the modern crime-reporting program Unsolved Mysteries (Robert Stack). Hope you read/like it (and thanks for reading!),

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"A series of brutal murders of hapless East End London prostitutes in and around the iconic Whitechapel District occur in 1888. Scotland Yard police are baffled. The surgical and brutal killer is nicknamed Jack the Ripper and becomes the subject of many movies and documentaries including the 2001 Johnny Depp film From Hell."

"Scotland Yard detective Donald Swanson is assigned to be the lead formal detective in this otherwise random and bizarre crime case in the UK. Swanson knows that in the 1800s, London saw a wave of immigration, creating native fears of population corruption. Perhaps Jack the Ripper wanted to target prostitutes who're serving these wandering immigrants in London at the time. Swanson, like other detectives on the case, conjectured that Jack the Ripper may've been an aristocrat, an artist, or a member of the legal profession/association and resolves to be a prominent figure in the historical catalog of Ripper analysis."

"There's no real street proof that London immigration created population fears, but it is certain that there were masses of immigrants, mostly from Ireland, in London at the time. The 'canonical five' prostitutes murdered brutally by Jack the Ripper, whose identity remains unsolved to this day(!), were in order --- Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. All of the women were mutilated post-mortem in some fashion, with either their faces destroyed as 'addendums' and uterus or intestines neatly removed along with their private organs. Jack the Ripper was therefore characterized as the black sheep of 1800s London which was otherwise quite 'civil' in terms of street affairs."

"It's also true that 1800s London saw a swelling of crime because or related to immigration. These sorts of street fears would generate a natural distaste towards prostitutes catering to this flood of non-English immigrants. That's really the main reason why it's been argued that the brutal unknown serial killer known as Jack the Ripper would've been some member of the conservative aristocracy in London at the time!"

"Many news papers and journals in London at the time considered this strike at the heart of UK's center during a rise in immigration a dark sign of the End of Days, when man would be pitted against his own brother, creating strange bedfellows and UnGood Feelings in Capitalism. This sort of folklore was at the heart of Jack the Ripper's mystique and it gave rise to new forms of London journalism."

"Mary Jane Kelly may've been romantically involved with the lead police detective tracking Jack the Ripper in 1888. However, after she herself was butchered by the Ripper and in the most graphic manner, this romance rumor almost disappeared, until it was re-presented in the 2001 film From Hell."

"Could Jack the Ripper's reign on fear in 1800s London have been the catalyst for modern fantastic journalism? Surely, we've seen Americans become fascinated by media-centric murder cases such as those involving the Menendez Brothers and the Manson Family! Was Jack the Ripper the first 'celebrity' criminal in world history? If so, what'd he reveal about the nature of social imagination?"

"As the legend of the Ripper grew, so did the glorious ambition of Scotland Yard police. Their job was to subdue folk paranoia and romanticism and cater to civil thoughts about the endangerment of prostitutes in modern cities by psychopaths. If this was related to immigration hate-crime, then modern police would have to balance human passions with human sanity."

"Alfred Hitchcock changed the way we looked at shock-storytelling and horror-cinema, and today's horror films often cater to a social sensibility or interest regarding graphic realism or shock-experiences. All of this brand of noir-imagination was arguably engendered by the crimes of Jack the Ripper who not only haunted hapless prostitutes in a London beset with immigration problems but also created journalism brain candy about the nature of evil. Perhaps this sort of social evolution explains a modern interest in the aesthetics of crime-diaries."

"Because Jack the Ripper remains an uncaptured serial killer and the case is still considered open or unsolved, many detectives, historians, and laymen inquirers alike probe this haunting 1800s London serial-murder case. This story has generated so much antisocial 'fanfare' that it arguably captures the essence of human vigilance itself. That is half the reason we all tune into modern crime-mystery report programs like Unsolved Mysteries and Babylon Berlin and Criminal Minds!"