Jack the Ripper Tour

[Steadmund Brand]

Good afternoon everyone... As an American I have been wondering has the planning for the Olympics had any impact on the tours... and will it in the future...I was lucky enough to get to take a tour a few years back.. had a wonderful time and would love to take another next time I am in London.

Steadmund Brand

[Stephen Thomas]

Had an elderly lady on my tour last night who apparently worked at Scotland Yard (until 1979). According to her colleagues at the time:

The police found out who did the first murder and apparently the rest were done to cover up the killer's identity.

I asked if she knew who the murderer was supposed to be and she just winked, tapped her nose and said "I'm not saying".

Don't knock it, John.

This sort of stuff could ultmately crack the case.


As opposed to tales of Royal carriages clattering down Bucks Row

[Trevor Marriott]

Latest from Rippertour central -

Had an elderly lady on my tour last night who apparently worked at Scotland Yard (until 1979). According to her colleagues at the time:

The police found out who did the first murder and apparently the rest were done to cover up the killer's identity.

I asked if she knew who the murderer was supposed to be and she just winked, tapped her nose and said "I'm not saying".

People who think they have the answer are everywhere!

Was she related to Anderson Swanson or Macnaghten

[ChrisGeorge]

Another one from last year:

A woman approached me at the end of the tour to say that her great grandmother (who died aged nearly 100 in the early 1960s) lived in Buck's Row in 1888.

According to the great-grandma, local gossip at the time stated that somebody had seen a horse and carriage pass down the street on the night of the Nichols murder and that the carriage had some form of 'official' crest on it.

Ho hum...

It sounds as if Grannie may have watched a certain movie.

[John Bennett]

Another one from last year:

A woman approached me at the end of the tour to say that her great grandmother (who died aged nearly 100 in the early 1960s) lived in Buck's Row in 1888.

According to the great-grandma, local gossip at the time stated that somebody had seen a horse and carriage pass down the street on the night of the Nichols murder and that the carriage had some form of 'official' crest on it.

Ho hum...

[John Bennett]

Latest from Rippertour central -

Had an elderly lady on my tour last night who apparently worked at Scotland Yard (until 1979). According to her colleagues at the time:

The police found out who did the first murder and apparently the rest were done to cover up the killer's identity.

I asked if she knew who the murderer was supposed to be and she just winked, tapped her nose and said "I'm not saying".

People who think they have the answer are everywhere!

[Suzi]

Exactly WTF???

I'm practically speechless- I don't know whether it's the gross ignorance,the gross phraseology or the gross lack of a grip on reality- not to mention the spelling that offends me the most!

[George Hutchinson]

...the guide made us all whisper at the 13 Millers Crt. site of Mary Kelly's murder sighting that it was because there was a young colledge girl who lived there now and had tried to sue the various tours for loudly talking about what had happened in her apartment!

??? As some might say, WTF???

I think your guide had very little idea what he was saying. There's been no one living on that site for 80 years!

PHILIP

[tbrett2000]

ripper tour

it's been a while,...but in 1987 , I took a tour called 'THE TRAGICAL HISTORY TOUR'.
It covered the plauge, Sweeny todd's barber shop, and went to all of jack kill sights....

it was a great tour!

interestingly enough, the guide made us all whisper at the 13 Millers Crt. site of Mary Kelly's murder sighting that it was because there was a young colledge girl who lived there now and had tried to sue the various tours for loudly talking about what had happened in her apartment!

frankly, i don't blame her!
could you imagine the invoked nightmares when night after night someone is screaming about about the cut off boobies and other body parts that where in your bedroom!!

the tour also offered a very well done proffesional book for sale by the same title.
i still have it!

(call me crazy, but I still think Maybrick did it!)

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi John

Hang in there, mate. There does seem to be an edge of danger to Jack the Ripper tours, and a certain uncertainty each time in that you don't know what type of "customers" you are going to get, or else, as we reported in Ripperologist a while ago, how the various denizens of Whitechapel are going to react to the tour!

Chris

[Nurse Sarah]

You should write a book, Confessions of a JTR tour guide!

[John Bennett]

After a quiet couple of weeks, last night was a real humdinger.

A party of people on the tour who were celebrating a birthday (!?) and obviously thought a Ripper tour was going to be a night of grisly comedy. You know the type - JTR is a bit of Victorian melodrama with fog and chorus girls and the man with the top hat. One of them was dressed like Tigger.

They started drinking immediately, cans of gin and tonic, beer, bottles of wine, so by the time they got to Dorset Street some of them were rather 'lubricated' and behaving like arses. They made out like they wanted a bit of blood 'n' guts which is inevitable on a JTR tour, I guess, but people like that are never prepared for the reality.

I usually do not describe the full injuries to MJK (for personal reasons which may not be shared by my colleagues). But this lot wanted some gore, so they got it - in spades. They didn't know what to say after that. Thankfully.

One of them was totally convinced by the 'royal conspiracy theory'. And still was after I demolished it. Two other members of the tour (not with the drunk ones) who believed it too said that it was like telling children that Father Christmas didn't exist.

Thank God all tours don't pan out like this! Sheesh.

[Pippin Joan]

I know this thread is ancient, but I've been trying to track down the best Ripper Walk Tour. I plan to be in London in about 6 weeks and since it's only a stopover, top of the list is a Ripper Walk. The one discussed so far sounds perfect.

More inane tourist questions -- a friend used to be a guide at the Gettysburg Battlefield (US Civil War) in Pennsylvania. His favorite brainless question was "How did they manage to have a battle between all these statues of people and horses?" Another one was from a girl who didn't see the effectiveness of cannons because it took so much to shoot a cannonball and it would only hit a couple of people on the head.

[Andrew Firth]

They're called the Apologists and they meet up once a year in Texas...

Well from one Apologist to another, can I just say that I'll see you soon, on the grassy knoll.....

Andrew

[John Bennett]

Latest ++ Latest ++

How's this?

Last night, I passed a young lady (who I see around quite a bit) giving a tour to some students. They were by the entrance to White's Row Car Park:

"There are people who devote their whole life to this mystery, the identity of Jack the Ripper. They're called the Apologists and they meet up once a year in Texas..."

???

PS. I'm not making this up!