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Whitechapel, East London, home to one of England's most renowned, brutal and most invasive murderers of all time, Jack the Ripper. We explore these brutal murders from the gruesome beginning to the mysterious. In 1888, England was ruled by Queen Victoria. The British Empire was in full swing, and London was the largest capital city in the world. East London, however, did not reflect this period supposed prosperity. It was a densely populated area where the residents lived in poverty amongst the highest crime rates, with little future prospects. Whole families who are often residing in one room, Whitechapel, a district of East London, had the highest crime and death rates in the city. It was also home to much of the immigrant communities, leading to high racial tensions exacerbated by high unemployment and overcrowding. There were many law abiding and hard working citizens. However, there were also many slums and ghettos full of drunken violence and crime. For the poorest housing came in the form of lodging or bunkhouses. These were large buildings where people could rent a bed for a night or if they couldn't afford that, could sleep, standing out, propped up by a rope. The bunkhouses were crumbling and upkeep was overlooked by the landlords. The roads and alleyways around the bunkhouses were often dark, winding and full of squalor. The East End could certainly be a pretty grim place, full of anxiety and fear, poverty and crime. Many women who had found themselves in hard times took to prostitution to fund their beds in the bunkhouse. These were women of an East End underclass who were poor, desperate and struggling. It was these working women that would become the focus of a murderer who arose in Whitechapel during four months in 1888, causing fear among the populace with a brutal series of murders. Jack the Ripper. Though there are five canonical or accepted victims of Jack the Ripper, there are theories that these murders may have escalated in brutality, and some earlier attacks could also be attributed to him. These attacks have been debated for years, some debunked and others still open to interpretation. Considering the violence at the time, there are many possible victims of Jack's earlier attacks. We will focus on just two murders prior to the canonical five as whether or not they were ripper killings. The first marks a landmark in the history of the Ripper case, and the second is classed by many to be the likeliest known kind of victim and still holds the subject of many heated debates. Emma Smith suffered a brutal attack on the night of the 3rd of April, 1888. She survived the initial attack and finally, through coercion from two women from her lodging house, made it to the London hospital on one chapel road. She spoke to the doctors there and explained that she had been beaten and robbed by a gang of men. Emma Smith died later that morning on the 4th of April. Her story of being attacked by a gang of men is largely accepted and therefore her murderer was unlikely to be Jack the Ripper. However, her death marks a landmark in the history of the replicate, being that it saw the opening of the White Chapel murder style by the police. This file would later encompass the Ripper killing. Martha Cameron was a prostitute in her late thirties during the late hours of August the sixth. She was working with her friend, Maryann Connolly. They had picked up two soldiers and had split off, presumably to get to business. Her body was later found in the early hours of the morning on August the seventh by John Saunders Reeves, who was on his way to work. She was found sprawled out on the landing of the yard buildings, arms and hands by her side and legs open. She been brutally stabbed 39 times. The soldier in this story would be the natural first suspect. However, despite a line up, neither soldier was ever identified. Two other witnesses had passed by the scene earlier times of the night and had not seen Mother's body. This may be attributed to the darkness of the buildings themselves, being that there was no lighting. It could be argued that they simply could not see the body. This, however, leaves the debate open as to whether or not she was killed by the soldier or perhaps by her client later on in the night. Further arguments state that her body was found close to the Ripper heartland and our wounds were concentrated in much the same areas of the body that the Ripper victims, though her throat was never cut. Several of the detectives and important police figures who worked on the Ripper case themselves considered Martha Taprooms to be the first Ripper victim, leaving it open to many still today as the most likely non-canon attack to have been by the Ripper himself. The brutality of the murder shocked East London, though this was just the beginning of what was to be a bloody and gruesome four months for Whitechapel.