WHITECHAPEL'S 'AUTUMN OF FEAR'

On the morning of August 31, 1888, the body of a woman, Marie "Polly" Nichols was found murdered in the streets of London's Whitechapel neighborhood. Her throat had been slashed and her abdomen cut open. After 3 November of that year, when the body of Mary Jane Kelley had been discovered inhumanly mutilated and slashed to pieces, the brutal murders suddenly stopped. The killer, dubbed "Jack the Ripper" by the press to this day has never been found.

The Jack the Ripper murders are at the top of the list as the most famous unsolved criminal acts in true crime history. There are a long line of suspects, but all conclusions so far have been based on circumstantial evidence, assumption, and six-degrees of separation. The murders have been the subject of countless books, movies and documentaries.

It's difficult to imagine the horrifying nature of these crimes. But, true they were, and photographic evidence exists that shows to what depths the human monster can fall.

This article is from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY's September/October 2018 issue and recounts the events, and discusses the victims and the suspects.