I write this in the early morning hours of September 30th. Exactly 123 years ago Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes lay a few hours dead, London's finest were puzzling over a scrap of bloody apron and the meaning of strange words chalked on a wall and how so many of them could have possibly failed to get their man, and a killer sat somewhere gradually coming down from the thrill of success playing with some freshly excised human organs... possibly beginning to prepare one of them for breakfast.
So today we remember the victims of the Double Event, whether they were both killed by Jack the Ripper or not- one who often lied her way through life to try to get ahead, and the other often trying her best to find a laugh even in the worst of times, but both victims of poverty and demon alcohol who had resorted to prostitution. As much in common as they had differences, one might say. Would they have gotten along with each other? We'll never know. But though it might be a very strained comparison, the inscription on the crypt of Queens Elizabeth and Mary comes to my mind-
"Two Sisters- One Fate."
So today we remember the victims of the Double Event, whether they were both killed by Jack the Ripper or not- one who often lied her way through life to try to get ahead, and the other often trying her best to find a laugh even in the worst of times, but both victims of poverty and demon alcohol who had resorted to prostitution. As much in common as they had differences, one might say. Would they have gotten along with each other? We'll never know. But though it might be a very strained comparison, the inscription on the crypt of Queens Elizabeth and Mary comes to my mind-
"Two Sisters- One Fate."
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