Friday, February 29, 2008

Jack the Ripper Returns To East End of London

The Museum in Docklands is returning to the scene of London's most infamous crimes with a Jack the Ripper exhibition which will look into the area, the era and delve into one of history's most infamous unsolved crimes.
The exhibition will open in London's Museum in Docklands on May 15 and run through November 2, 2008 and it will be the first exhibition to explore the Jack the Ripper murders and their enduring legacy.

The will have documents and the existing evidence that has survived from the original investigation into the infamous serial killings of the 19th century prostitute killer known as Jack The Ripper, as well as some of the surviving letters that he allegedly sent the police.

Full of objects attesting to the never-ending public appetite for this story, the exhibition will ask why the tale of the Whitechapel murders continues to resonate 120 years on and why this one unknown figure has become so iconic, and so much a part of London.


According to Julia Hoffbrand, the Museum in Docklands' exhibition curator, "We explore Jack the Ripper in the context of the East End and explain who lived there and what it was like to live there. The murders and the media interest they generated shone a light into a terrible conditions in the area which was riddled with prostitution, dirt, violence and crime."

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)--Letter to police purporting to originate from Jack the Ripper, dated Oct. 6, 1888.--Photo courtesy of Britannica--


It is generally accepted that Jack the Ripper was responsible for the brutal killing of Mary Ann Nichols on August 31, 1888, Annie Chapman on Sept. 8, 1888, Elizabeth Stride on Sept. 30, 1888, Catherine Eddowes on Sept. 30, 1888 and Mary Jane Kelly on November 9, 1888, this exhibition will show that authorities believed, at the time, up to 11 murders were committed by Jack the Ripper.

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)--Depiction of the discovery of one of Jack the Ripper's victims- From of Museum in Docklands--


Hoffbrand tells Reuters, "What emerges is the fact that an unknown number of women were actually murdered in the area at the time."

The exhibition will also include by a lectures and talks and guided tours down the streets where the Ripper committed his bloody deeds 120 years ago.

This exhibit follows in the footsteps of the conviction, last Friday, of another serial killer, Steve Wright, that killed five prostitutes in rural Suffolk.

Following Wright's conviction, Mark Dixie, was told he would spend at least 34 years in jail for murdering 18-year-old would-be model Sally Anne Bowman in a frenzied attack in her Croydon driveway. Dixie is also suspected of three unsolved murders in Australia.

.