r Wicked Things Horror Blog: Jack the Ripper - History Documentary

Friday, June 6, 2014

Jack the Ripper - History Documentary




Via Wikipedia

Jack the Ripper is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was widely disseminated in the media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax, and may have been written by a journalist in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the story. Within the crime case files as well as journalistic accounts the killer was known as "the Whitechapel Murderer" as well as "Leather Apron".



Attacks attributed to the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London and whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge.


Rumors that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and letters from a writer or writers purporting to be the murderer were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard. The "From Hell" letter, received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, included half of a preserved human kidney, supposedly from one of the victims. Mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events, the public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper".

 
Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper. An investigation into a series of brutal killings in Whitechapel up to 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888, but the legend of Jack the Ripper solidified. As the murders were never solved, the legends surrounding them became a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. The term "ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper cases. There are now over one hundred theories about the Ripper's identity, and the murders have inspired multiple works of fiction.
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From Hell (2001) Film Starring Johnny Depp & Heather Graham

Via IMDB

In Victorian Era London, a troubled clairvoyant police detective investigates the murders by Jack The Ripper.  

IMDB gives it a 6.9 rating.  I rate it higher than that.  Although it comes from a standpoint of its own conspiracy theory, the entertainment value was still immense.  I'd give it at least an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.  

I'm also surprised it only got these meager ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, too.  In my opinion, people didn't like the historical inaccuracy and while this doesn't work in  other films, in this one, I thought it did.  Again, this is just my opinion, though.


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