Describe how you 1st heard about Jack the Ripper

[Christian]

Hi Christian, just think about the flood of new books that will come out in 2088! I hope I’ll have enough spare cash when I’m 123

Indeed herlock I doubt I’ll make the 200th anniversary but live in hope

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

As a youngster I acquired a copy of London: The Sinister Side by Steve Jones (signed by the author!). I read that book many times, fascinated by the bleak world portrayed and the characters in it. I revisited the subject later in life and fell down the rabbit hole. I've still got my original copy too.

[Abby Normal]

I grew up in the states and even as a kid, had heard about jack the ripper. He was like some kind of mythological bogeyman, but with some vague notion that he was actually real.

[Ms Diddles]

I remember a lot of publicity during the centenary in 1988. I watched the Michael Caine thing and, as a child, it terrified but fascinated me!!!

I actually haven't watched it subsequently, so I should probably give it a go out of interest!

i think it was the name "Jack The Ripper" which stuck with me.

Years later when working in a book shop, a publisher sent me a copy of the Cornwell book (among a box of samples).

I didn't buy into her conclusions, but it encouraged me to read more about the subject.

[Phil Carter]

My grandmother 1880-1963, mentioned when I was about ten years old, that she, and her sisters, were often told to come in from playing outside as the London Bogey man may be around. and they lived in Surrey..

Much like Richard, my gran, 1888-1978, b in August smack bang in the middle of it all.. Told me about the East End of her childhood in around 1967, when I was 8 or 9 years old. We went driving around the old East End one Sunday in Dad's car.. I can still remember her saying..
"'orrible Street.... Makes me shiver still..", as we drove around. It was she who told me of the ever lingering fear that she, and her older siblings grew up with. "The Whitechapel Murderer or Ripper" was something that suddenly became a very serious thing. I saw the face of a nigh on 80 year old lady tremble, in broad daylight, at the thought of being "near" that area again after nigh on 60 years away in West London.
She refused point blank to go shopping after dark, and many is the time I'd pop down the off licence to get her tobacco (she was well known) in November, December, January, February. It stemmed from the East End.. And fear of going out in the evening and night time.
I remember too reading her books from 1972 onwards about "Jack". She told me if many things about growing up in the area.. The nice people, the policemen, the shopkeepers, the men, the fighting men and women, the utter poverty, yet, the pride. She told of the neighbourliness, the "support", the helping others when they had nothing, because it was, soon your turn. Many many other things too.
It was an education just listening to her. I'm very grateful for it.

Phil

[Errata]

My mother always had spectacularly poor choices in books for children. The first time I ran out of something to read she gave me a copy of A Night To Remember, the next time, at about age ten she gave me Rumbelow’s the Complete Jack the Ripper. A lot of life’s decisions came from the books my mother lent me. The fact that I’ve never been on a boat, key amongst them. God only knows what I picked up from the ripper. Although oddly enough, I was never allowed to watch horror movies. Even at like 16. My parents thought that my imagination was fertile enough, but they had no problem with feeding me a steady diet of disasters and serial killers throughout my teen years.

[APerno]

True Detective Magazine, circa 1970, an article on the Mary Kelly murder; a description of the room. I walked away, thereafter bending an ear for any news on Saucy Jacky.

[Lipsky]

My mother always had spectacularly poor choices in books for children. The first time I ran out of something to read she gave me a copy of A Night To Remember, the next time, at about age ten she gave me Rumbelow’s the Complete Jack the Ripper. A lot of life’s decisions came from the books my mother lent me. The fact that I’ve never been on a boat, key amongst them. God only knows what I picked up from the ripper. Although oddly enough, I was never allowed to watch horror movies. Even at like 16. My parents thought that my imagination was fertile enough, but they had no problem with feeding me a steady diet of disasters and serial killers throughout my teen years.

Fabulous post...!

My first encounter was the Michael Caine miniseries.... watched it in 91-92...

[DJA]

Different versions of The Lodger including Man in The Attic.

Read all the Sherlock Holmes books in second grade.

For me,Jack the Ripper has always been there.

It's like I cannot remember not barracking for my football team which began a year later.

Had a very Victorian education.

GUT knows what I mean