Before Jack: The Cases They Dismissed - Whitechapel Chronicles1
News of the Times Episode 500 | 1888
"Before the name carved itself into history… before the letters, before the myth… there was only blood.”
Step into the smoke-choked alleys of 1888 Whitechapel, where dread slinks behind every corner and the gaslight barely pierces the gloom. In this premiere episode of Whitechapel Chronicles, we delve into a London not yet haunted by Jack the Ripper — but already gripped by his shadow.
The world remembers the Canonical Five. But before them came other names, almost forgotten:
Ada Wilson. Annie Millwood. Emma Smith. Martha Turner.
Women struck down with ferocity, their stories scattered and dismissed — victims of what the press called chance, what the police called coincidence. But something far more insidious was taking root.
Drawing solely from the newspapers of the era, we retrace the mounting horror that clawed through the East End long before the Ripper’s signature arrived. There were suspects — soldiers with bloodied hands, women with secrets, whispers in every tenement and tavern. Testimonies changed. Witnesses vanished. And still, the city looked away…
Until it was too late.

This is not yet the legend.
This is the forewarning.

And in our Further Particulars segment: it is the year 1887, and the Old Bailey hears a most peculiar case — a widow sues a dead man for breach of promise. Truth, as ever in Victorian England, is stranger than fiction.

Hosted by Robin Coles.

#NewsofTheTimes #truecrimedocumentary #truecrime #truecrimepodcast #victorian #history

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EPISODE
If you like this, here are links to some other recommended videos:
1845 - 1888: Murder and Cannibalism |  Ep247
https://youtu.be/5NTs38FEmBA
1808 & 1888: The Butcher Bichel - The Butcher and the Ripper |  EP408
https://youtu.be/NL-BKDIkpYk
1888 - 1925: A Round Robin of December Murders |  EP417
https://youtu.be/wnIVPmRuEUY
1888: The Huddersfield Murder |  EP429
https://youtu.be/5wdWCcatYKc
1888: Case of the 1888 Marylebone Murder Mystery |  EP435
https://youtu.be/JgLiiT-f_xY

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