Whitechapel

In 1888 a series of notorious murders were perpetrated by an enigmatic killer known only as Jack the Ripper who terrified the Whitechapel district of East London. Six women were murdered in a four month period with the killings ending as suddenly as they began with an unknown motive. Whitechapel tells the story of these killings through the eyes of Robert Ford a young uniform constable working in the district during the reign of the horrific crimes. The fictional story of his involvement with the investigation presents a plausible explanation of how and why the killings were perpetrated; how and why Jack the Ripper was never caught and how members of the British establishment perverted the course of justice for their own selfish ends. It is also a story of love, duty, romance, tragedy and ultimately revenge that spans the late 19th Century in America, London and Paris through to the early 20th Century returning to St Louis, Missouri. Not only does it present a compelling read as a thriller but also serves as a history lesson about the Jack the Ripper murders and about social deprivation in London during the late Victorian era. Although in reality the mystery of the killers identity remains, Whitechapel draws a conclusion on why and who committed these ghastly crimes.

A thrilling new Steampunk fantasy from a talented debut author TWO GODS-ONE CHANCE FOR MANKIND In Victorian London, the Whitechapel section is a mechanized, steam-driven hell, cut off and ruled by two mysterious, mechanical gods-Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock. Some years have passed since the Great Uprising, when humans rose up to fight against the machines, but a few brave veterans of the Uprising have formed their own Resistance-and are gathering for another attack. For now they have a secret weapon that may finally free them-or kill them all...

This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Whitechapel & Stepney have changed and developed over the last century.

The story of Fred Wensley, a Somerset gardener who joined the Metropolitan Police in 1888 and retired, forty-one years later as Chief Constable of the CID, is an extraordinary one.??After an abortive attempt to catch 'Jack the Ripper' by nailing strips of bicycle tyres to the soles of his boots, Wensley got stuck into arresting the ne'er-do-wells of Whitechapel, where he would spend twenty-five years of his service.??Within months of joining the CID, Wensley, while off duty, arrested a double murderer. He smashed the murderous Bessarabian and Odessa gangs, brought the Vendetta gang to book when, brandishing revolvers they tried to storm a police court, played a decisive part in the Siege of Sidney Street and created the Flying Squad.??Wensley's career was dogged with controversy; when Stinie Morrison was convicted of murder, was he, as he claimed, framed by Wensley? And was Edith Thompson, hanged for the murder of her husband, as Wensley stated, 'a cold-blooded murderess' or, as her defence counsel claimed, 'a fanciful dreamer'? ??The first King's Police Medal was awarded to Wensley; he was appointed OBE and commended on many of occasions.??Retired Flying Squad officer, turned author, Dick Kirby has dug deep to paint a fascinating portrait of the man dubbed, 'The Greatest Detective of all Time'.

A real-life murder mystery in turn-of-the-century London, and Scotland Yard’s “greatest detective of all time” who was determined to discover whodunit. By 1919, Det. Chief Inspector Fred Wensley was already a legend, having investigated the Jack the Ripper slayings, busted crime syndicates, and risked his life at the notorious Siege of Sidney Street. But the brutal murder of kindly fifty-four-year-old widow and shopkeeper Elizabeth Ridgley was an unexpected challenge in a storied career. Elizabeth and her dog were both found dead in her blood-spattered shop in Hitchin. But even in the early days of forensics, Wensley was stunned by the inept conclusion of local Hertfordshire police: it was a freak, tragic accident that had somehow felled Elizabeth and her Irish terrier. At Wensley’s urging, Scotland Yard proceeded with a second investigation. It led to the arrest of an Irish war veteran. The only real evidence: a blood-stained shirt. But the Ridgley case was far from over. Drawing on primary sources and newly-discovered material, Paul Stickler exposes the frailties of county policing in the years after WWI, reveals how Ridgley’s murder led to fundamental changes in methods of investigation, and attempts to solve a seemingly unsolvable crime.

Archive material from the London Yiddish press, songbooks, and satirical writing offers a window into an untold cultural life of the Yiddish East End. Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigrant Life in Yiddish Song and Verse, London 1884–1914 by Vivi Lachs positions London’s Yiddish popular culture in historical perspective within Anglo-Jewish history, English socialist aesthetics, and music-hall culture, and shows its relationship to the transnational Yiddish-speaking world. Layers of cultural references in the Yiddish texts are closely analyzed and quoted to draw out the complex yet intimate histories they contain, offering new perspectives on Anglo-Jewish historiography in three main areas: politics, sex, and religion. The acculturation of Jewish immigrants to English life is an important part of the development of their social culture, as well as to the history of London. In part one of the book, Lachs presents an overview of daily immigrant life in London, its relationship to the Anglo-Jewish establishment, and the development of a popular Yiddish theatre and press, establishing a context from which these popular came. The author then analyzes the poems and songs, revealing the hidden social histories of the people writing and performing them. For example, how Morris Winchevsky’s London poetry shows various attempts to engage the Jewish immigrant worker in specific London activism and political debate. Lachs explores themes of marriage, relationships, and sexual exploitation appear regularly in music-hall songs, alluding to the changing nature of sexual roles in the immigrant London community influenced by the cultural mores of their new location. On the theme of religion, Lachs examines how ideas from Jewish texts and practice were used and manipulated by the socialist poets to advance ideas about class, equality, and revolution, and satirical writings offer glimpses into how the practice of religion and growing secularization was changing immigrants’ daily lives in the encounter with modernity. The detailed and nuanced analysis found in Whitechapel Noise offers a new reading of Anglo-Jewish, London, and immigrant history. It is a must-read for Jewish and Anglo-Jewish historians and those interested in Yiddish, London, and migration studies.