A question that we often get asked on the Jack the Ripper tour is, where did the name Jack the Ripper come from? In this video we take a look at where the name came from and at how, once the name had caught the public imagination, the Whitechapel murders quickly gained an unparalleled level of notoriety.
The video begins by detailing how it was detailed in the newspapers in mid-October that the police were looking into the provenance of over 700 letters that purported to have been written by the unknown miscreant who was carrying out the murders in the East End of London.
One of the earliest of these letters was sent to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Charles Warren, on the 24th of September, 1888, and in it, the supposed perpetrator of Annie Chapman's murder claimed to be in "misery with nightmare."
The police were used to receiving letters such as this in high profile cases, and so they were quick to dismiss the communication as what it undoubtedly was - a hoax.
But, a few days later, on the 27th of September, 1888, a similar letter turned up at the Central News Agency at 5 New Bridge Street in the City of London. It was addressed to the "Boss", and Again, the author claimed to be the Whitechapel murderer. He boasted in gloating detail about the crimes he had committed and promised that in his next murder he would clip the victim's ears off and send them to the police officers, whilst also stating that he wanted to get to work right away if he got the chance.
The Central News passed the letter to the Metropolitan Police on the 29th of September, 1888, and, within 24 hours, the killer carried out two murders - those of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. The fact that the killer had, indeed, got to work right away, and had, in the case of Catherine Eddowes, cut through her right ear lobe, meant that the police had little choice than to take the Dear Boss missive seriously, and so, in early October, 1888, they made the letter public.
The name "Jack the Ripper" caught on immediately, and, suddenly, the police investigation into the Whitechapel murders became bogged down by a tidal wave of similar letters purporting to have come from "Jack the Ripper."
In the video we reveal who the police believed wrote the original Jack the Ripper letter, and take a look at some of the imitators who wrote other letters.