Episode 23: The Women of Jack the Ripper, Part 1: JILL

We remember Jack the Ripper as a man who did the brutal work of a typical male serial killer, de-feminizing his victims by hacking up their bodies. But in this two-part series, let’s take a look at the women who circle around the Ripper legend. First up, the admittedly controversial and kinda odd theory that perhaps Jack the Ripper is the wrong nickname for the killer—perhaps, some writers insist, we should have been looking for a Jill all along! This episode features an interview with Jonathan Menges of Casebook.org and the Rippercast.

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Sources:

Interview with Jonathan Menges of Casebook.org and the Rippercast

Jack the Ripper by William Stewart

Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman by John Morris

Letter to the Times (London), 18 Sept 1888, by Lord Sidney Godolphin Osborne

The Complete Jack The Ripper A-Z, by Paul Begg, Martin Fido, Keith Skinner

I Caught Crippen by Walter Dew

“Was Jack the Ripper a Woman?” Independent, 18 May 2006

Interview with Dr. Lawson Tait, Pall Mall Gazette, 21 September 1889

Music:

“Guilty” by Richard A. Whiting, Harry Akst, and Gus Kahn, sung by Anna Telfer.

“Jane The Ripper” by Cullah on Be Love Not Fear, under license (CC BY 4.0).