The Whitechapel Monster (1888-1891)

Published 24 November, 1888 in London, ‘The Whitechapel Monster’ is a large, elaborately illustrated ephemera that appeared in The Illustrated Police News, a weekly newspaper that is noted as one of the earliest British tabloids. The page, which is covered in crosshatched illustrations depicting melodramatic and lurid scenes, even goes as far to feature prominent sketches of this Whitechapel Monster, otherwise known as Jack the Ripper. Along with these sketches of the Ripper at work, it also features portraits of inspectors and witnesses. This image undoubtedly was made not just for the sole purpose of informing the people, but to also inspire fear and cause more interest in the Whitechapel Murders (1888-1891). This very in-depth illustrated page from The Illustrated Police News is currently held by the British Library, and

As the shelfmark subsequently describes, the ‘confident’ illustration contradicts the fact that the London police investigated and detained numerous suspects only a month before this final killing. It should be noted that the illustration depicts the killer as an average citizen of apparent good repute, rather than an unsightly and animalistic creature—which seemed common at the time, as apparently most tabloids had been doing so before this. This style of illustrating the Ripper as a mundane gentleman seemed to inspire more fear, creating paranoia amongst the classes of late Victorian London. Furthermore, the shelfmark continues to explain that this notion of the killer’s success being in his ability to blend in with society and lead a double life had been ‘popularised’ by the 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stephenson, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr