From August to November of 1888, the Whitechapel District in the East End of London, one of the poorest sections of the city in Victorian times, was the scene of five vicious slayings. The murderer was given the nickname “Jack the Ripper” after a letter with that signature arrived at a London newspaper on November 27th taunting the police with sentences such as “My knife’s so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance.” It’s never been confirmed that the “Dear Boss” letter came from the same person who murdered the women, all of them prostitutes and all but one shockingly mutilated. But the name stuck.
As the killer seemed to know human anatomy, evidenced by the way in which he mutilated his victims, often in the darkness and within minutes, it has been suggested that he (or she) was either a butcher or a doctor.