Famous Days for Students of English

03-04-1888

In 1888, Whitechapel was the worst district in London. It was full of unemployed workers, drunk men, thieves, and prostitutes. The hygienic conditions were so terrible that half of the children didn’t live to be five years old.

At Whitechapel, more than 1,200 prostitutes waited for their customers every day. On April 3, 1888, one of them was brutally attacked and died in hospital a day later. Another attack took place in four months, when another woman was stabbed 39 times and died.

Five more brutal attacks followed. They were very similar, so it was believed that the women had to be killed by the same murderer. The attacks were aimed at poor prostitutes and the bodies of the attacked women were ripped open.

One day, a letter written in red ink arrived at the Central News Agency in London. In it, the author confessed to the crimes and signed the letter as Jack the Ripper.

A total of 11 murders come under this series. Collectively, they are called Whitechapel murders, but only five of them are widely believed to be the work of Jack the Ripper.

The police never managed to catch the killer.

Difficult words: district (a part of a town), stab (to cut with a knife), rip (to open quickly with a knife), ink (dark blue liquid that people used for writing), confess (to say that you did something bad).