The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

by Hallie Rubenhold

To the contrary—over the course of the coroner’s inquests, it became known that Jack the Ripper never had sex with a single victim.

While separation from a husband was not uncommon among the working class, it spelled the end of a woman’s status as a respectable member of that class. Culpability did not matter; according to the moral tenor of the day, even if a woman left her husband for good reason, she had failed.