Today in History: Jack the Ripper

On this day (April 3) in 1888, the first of the eleven Whitechapel Murders was committed. Whitechapel was the most notorious criminal rookery (slum) in London and was characterized by extreme poverty, substandard housing, homelessness, and endemic prostitution. The first of the Whitechapel Murder victims was a 45 year old prostitute named Emma Elizabeth Smith, but despite being counted as victim number one, it is not clear she was actually murdered by Jack the Ripper.