Patrick J Gallagher

The Forgotten Ripper Patrick J Gallagher

As far as the British press were concerned, the year 1888 was very much the year of "Jack the Ripper". The still unidentified killer stalked the ill-lit streets of Whitechapel, brutally slaying five prostitutes between August and November of 1888 before slipping back into the shadows from whence he came. But while "Jack" was one of the earliest, and undoubtedly the most famous serial killer, he wasn't the first to fit the profile. In fact, it would appear that even at the time that "Jack the Ripper" was chalking up his bloody tally, another serial killer was stalking the streets of London. Between May 1887 and September 1889, the dismembered remains of four women were found in, or in the vicinity of, the Thames River. Collected here are the original newspaper accounts of these murders, tracing, in the voices of the time, the events, theories, and pursuit of a "forgotten Ripper". The number of leads are few, the number of theories just as thin on the ground. But the case of the "Thames Torso Murderer", this "Forgotten Ripper", is one which holds just as much mystery, if not more, as his more famous counterpart.