Today we have the rather tidy concept of the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper. However, history does not take place in such a neat fashion, and s series of crimes such as the Whitechapel murders are, inevitably, made of up twists, turns and inconsistencies.

It is probably that Jack the Ripper did not have five victims and five victims only. Indeed, it is highly likely that, whoever the perpetrator (or the perpetrators) of the Whitechapel murders as, he had carried out other attacks and possibly even murders in the years immediately preceding his reign of terror in 1888.

In combing through the Victorian true crime records, one case that stands out as having chilling similarities to at least one of the Whitechapel murders is that of Emily Horsnail, who died in November, 1887, having been subject to a brutal attack by one of the local gangs.

In this presentation we tell the story of her final days and present the case for why she should perhaps be considered the first victim of the Whitechapel murderer.

свернуть