A few feet away from a killer...Eekkk!

Original Deadline: July 23, 2012

It was a gloomy rainy Monday evening as we step off of the tube and stood under the rain with a crowd full of people anticipating the Jack the Ripper tour. Hundreds of thoughts rambled through my mind trying to decide how this tour was going to take place, whether or not we were going to see something brutal, if we were just going to go to one spot that Jack the Ripper hunted down his suspects and so much more.

Our tour guide Donald Rumbelow (seen on right) is a well-educated man who knows the ins and outs of Jack the Ripper that he wrote a book titled “The Complete Jack the Ripper (True Crime)”.  Donald not only describes what kind of man Jack the Ripper was and what his targets were, but also the history of London as well.

As he brought us from one spot to another, the recurring thought that I could not stop thinking about was how shockingly I was walking down the same path as the most infamous killer back in the 1800’s and how till this day, no one really knows who he was. The setting and information that Donald provided gave me vivid images in my head on what the scene of London may have looked like in the 1800’s.  London in the 1800’s barely had any streetlights, compared to how it is now where the streets are very well lit and overall just not a place to be roaming the streets when the sun is down.

 Donald explains how Jack the Ripper’s victims were usually prostitutes and gave a grueling depiction on how he killed his victims, starting at the vagina and all the way up to the breast bone.  What dumbfounded me was that no one ever heard a cry or even anticipated on seeing what was going on when all his criminal actions were being taken place. 

  

One that really stuck out was the small corner where the original cobble stones has been since Jack the Ripper times and the exact corner where he murdered his victim.  Jack the Ripper was successful in murdering his victim when he had so many opportunities to get caught by someone. 

I am still curious on why Jack the Ripper’s victims were only prostitutes, was it because they were more vulnerable then others? Did he like being in control of things and had a sickening fascination of killing people? It has been over one hundred years and no one really knows why, how, or who would do such a brutal and sickening thing to a soul. 

Before the tour I had so many questions on why he was called Jack the Ripper and how he became so well known from committing only five murders (compared to others).  It still gives me tingles down my spine thinking that he was not given the death sentence nor was he even behind prison bars for a long period of time, but instead was able to be a regular person amongst the crowd.