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No I'm not the reincarnation of Jack! But my late Grandad used to own a Die-Sinking and Engraving business in Turnmill St EC.1 (A C H Huggins)(part of the old Booths Gin building) until the early 70's when he eventually sold it and retired. He also employed my mum as secretary and 2 other men, one of whom lived locally (more on him later). In the late 60's and early 70's he used to frequently take me to work with him especially during the school holidays and some Saturdays.
Grandad was a bit of a JtR and general crime fanatic (it obviously rubbed off on me!) and pretty soon I was treated to visits to the nearby East End and the scenes of Jack's dirty deeds. Of course this was well before the regeneration of Whitechapel and surrounding areas. I consider myself very fortunate to have walked those streets pretty much as Jack would have seen them, even though I was only 8-12 years old, I still carry the memories. I just wished we'd had a camera with us! My greatest impressions were of the downright griminess of the area, along with just how narrow the streets were and the feeling of being "hemmed in" by some of the larger tenement blocks and warehouses looming above you on either side. It was an atmospheric place still, even 80 years after. It was almost like the very fabric of the place still held those brooding memories. Of course being dilapidated didn't help, but even so those streets were just so dark and menacing.
Re. the local man that Grandad employed; his name was Henry Abraham and he was a Jew then living in Bow. Grandad had discussed the Whitechapel murders with him on a number of occasions apparently, and I was later told (around the time of a TV series on JtR in the 70's I think), that Abrahams family had always lived in the area since arriving in the East end from eastern Europe well before the murders began. Importantly Abrahams had told Grandad that it was a handed down story within his family from generation to generation, that the culprit was actually one of their own (a Jew) who had been "protected" (that might be too strong a word) by his community until the man had been "removed" from the community and the locale by being admitted to a lunatic asylum. If I remember at the time of this TV series all manner of eccentric characters were being suggested for JtR, including surgeons and Royalty, something that apparently made Abrahams laugh!
Of course this is not real evidence but just hearsay, however I relate it here as being a tad of information from a time 40 odd years closer to the killings than today. The East end was still a tight-nit community back then and this sort of tit-bit would be very hard to find from the area today.
Grandad was a bit of a JtR and general crime fanatic (it obviously rubbed off on me!) and pretty soon I was treated to visits to the nearby East End and the scenes of Jack's dirty deeds. Of course this was well before the regeneration of Whitechapel and surrounding areas. I consider myself very fortunate to have walked those streets pretty much as Jack would have seen them, even though I was only 8-12 years old, I still carry the memories. I just wished we'd had a camera with us! My greatest impressions were of the downright griminess of the area, along with just how narrow the streets were and the feeling of being "hemmed in" by some of the larger tenement blocks and warehouses looming above you on either side. It was an atmospheric place still, even 80 years after. It was almost like the very fabric of the place still held those brooding memories. Of course being dilapidated didn't help, but even so those streets were just so dark and menacing.
Re. the local man that Grandad employed; his name was Henry Abraham and he was a Jew then living in Bow. Grandad had discussed the Whitechapel murders with him on a number of occasions apparently, and I was later told (around the time of a TV series on JtR in the 70's I think), that Abrahams family had always lived in the area since arriving in the East end from eastern Europe well before the murders began. Importantly Abrahams had told Grandad that it was a handed down story within his family from generation to generation, that the culprit was actually one of their own (a Jew) who had been "protected" (that might be too strong a word) by his community until the man had been "removed" from the community and the locale by being admitted to a lunatic asylum. If I remember at the time of this TV series all manner of eccentric characters were being suggested for JtR, including surgeons and Royalty, something that apparently made Abrahams laugh!
Of course this is not real evidence but just hearsay, however I relate it here as being a tad of information from a time 40 odd years closer to the killings than today. The East end was still a tight-nit community back then and this sort of tit-bit would be very hard to find from the area today.
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