This week (Aug. 31) in 1888 the serial killer famously known as “Jack the Ripper” claimed his first victim, a London prostitute named Mary Ann Nichols, by strangling her and then cutting her throat and other body parts with a knife. A reign of terror that would both horrify and fascinate the nation had begun.
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That was true in part because in 1888 police work was so primitive — forensic science was unknown — that the only way to identify a suspect was to catch him in the act. Unfortunately, the Ripper’s modus operandi was to wait until London was dark and foggy before propositioning one of the many thousands of prostitutes working the streets of the teeming slum that was London’s East End. When his victim would lift her skirt, meaning her hands were occupied, the Ripper would attack her throat, squeezing it until she lost consciousness. He would then mutilate her with his knife.
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