Several of my readers (including you Kristine) here and at the church have an interest in true crime and today is a special day. Or at least an infamous one.
Today in 1888 Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim.
Her name was Mary Ann Nichols. She was a prostitute (as were all of his victims.)
A pretty decent non-sympathetic non-emotional account of The Ripper is over at Wikipedia.
In my opinion the best movie about JtR is From Hell. Gotta love pretty much any Johnny Depp movie.
There have been several others.
UPDATE:
On this day in 1985 a mob of people apprehend Richard Ramirez also know as The Night Stalker.
August 31, 2007 at 5:55 am
Hi Kevin!
While we were in London last year and the year before, we took two different Ripper walking tours of the East End and saw all the relevant locations.
In 2005, the tour was OK, but was mainly an advertisement for the guide’s book about the events.
Last year, the tour we took was guided by a moonlighting Beefeater from the Tower of London by the name of Dickie Dover. It was wonderfully entertaining, and I would recommend him and the company (Ripping Yarns) to anyone who goes.
We videotaped the entire tour and put it up on YouTube in twelve parts, if you’re interested. Dickie even came across it one day and left us a thank you note in the comments to one of the parts (on the YouTube page for one of the videos, not at our blog, as I recall).
They’re all posted at our blog as well, if you’d rather watch them there.
Kisses, I have to go guzzle coffee now.
August 31, 2007 at 10:28 am
Thanks Janie, I’ll take a look.
August 31, 2007 at 11:12 am
And on this day, my ex was born.
Knew there was a reason to explain why he was so evil.
August 31, 2007 at 1:24 pm
do you google alert, serial killers?
or this day in history?
August 31, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Neither, but I should. I go to “This Day in History” sites.