If Jack the Ripper was a surgeon or not is still a matter of debate, some theories argue that he might have been a butcher, worked in a slaughterhouse, or a doctor given the clinical and professional manner of his mutilations. In total, the police would investigate a series of 11 brutal murders between 1888 and 1891. The victims all prostitutes working in the slums of the East End. The investigation was substantial – over a three-year period, 2000 people were interviewed, 300 investigated and 80 detained. But no one was ever charged.
Jack wasn’t alone in haunting the streets under a slate Victorian sky. Consider Dr William Palmer who strode through a Dickensian world - Dickens himself called him ‘the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey’, with a vial of poison to hand. Or Dr Thomas Neill Cream who killed members of his own family as well as a string of sex workers. And why did poison become so prevalent as the weapon of choice for this new breed of killers in the Victorian age?
Presenters: Dr Harry Brunjes & Dr Andrew Johns
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Chelsey Moore
Sound Design: John Scott
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
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Hosts: Dr Andrew Johns, Dr Harry Brunjes
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Chelsey Moore
Sound Design: John Scott
Exec Producer: Bella Soames
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