Why are we still fascinated by Jack the Ripper?

[Backdrifter]

A new musical about the Ripper murders is opening in a London fringe venue. I was thinking about this recently, when someone I know said they went on the Ripper tour in East London and seemed surprised it was "very serious". Well, of course it was! They were horribly gruesome murders. It was someone very close to me and I was disappointed they said that. And I've always looked askance at the fact they have these tours. Would we go on a Moors Murders tour? A Soham Murders tour? 100 years from now will there be tours and musicals about the Ipswich prostitute murders of 2006?

I suppose this is on the same spectrum as a question I asked a while back, about why murder so often is the basis of entertainment, and we surely wouldn't have programmes and films called Midsomer raps, A Rape Is Announced, Dial 'R' for rape, or have jolly Rape Mystery dinner evenings.

I am actually quite a cheerful optimistic person by the way! But am intrigued by these questions.

[Backdrifter]

'Midsomer Rapes' that should have been, of course. Somehow the idea of rapping in Midsomer is more bizarre than their stratospheric murder rate.

[TheOtherHalf]

I dont know. WE could do with a bit of rapping in Midsommer. Cheer the place up a bit

But seriously I agree with you. I dont like any situation like this being glorified. Even when that film came out about the great train robbers, I refused to go and see it

[andy-hughes]

It is an ionteresting concept - when does a crime, or series of crimes, move from social history into entertainment.

I do find the notion of a JTR musical rather tasteless - but i think the fascination likes with the mythology that has grown up around the failure of the police to catch him, leading to a number of conspiracy theories after his death.

i agree about the tours being unpleasant - perhaps the pinacle of this gruesome practice is the tour run by 'Mad' Frankie Fraser around the haunts of the Krays and Richardsons. It is bad enough for those who lived through these nasty times, without having it turned into a profession by one of the main protagonists.

And anyone who posts on here saying nonsense like 'They only ever harmed their own ...' will be liable to a smack!!!

[squarebear]

It is still a topic for interest as the killer was never found and so gives rise to many theories. A bit like the Marie Celeste ghost ship. If it were just another ship incident nobody would be interested. People are generally interested in anything mysterious.

[naomi24]

We remain fascinated with Jack the Ripper because we are fascinated with mystery. The other murders you mention are very different in that they have been solved.

Incidentally, I don't see anything wrong with Murder Mystery evenings or television programmes when the scenario is fictional, but I do think a musical based on the Whitechapel murders is in rather poor taste.

[andy-hughes]

I'd agree naomi24 - there is a world of difference between an imagined scenario, and entertainment being derived from the sad deaths of poor women.

[Backdrifter]

I do see the point about the added dimension of mystery surrounding an unsolved case. But it could be argued that, despite this, the brutality of what happened to those women still makes it questionable that their deaths are a legitimate basis for a tour more so than solved murders.

The question also remains about why even fictional murders provide such a wide range of entertainment - not that I'd especially want to see 'Dial R for Rape' but fictional rapes or other sex crimes obviously don't form the basis of many films, TV shows or themed evenings, while the premeditated ending of a person's entire life - albeit fictional - does.

[Backdrifter]

By the way andy I totally agree about Frankie Fraser et al, and that whole "the Krays were diamond geezers" culture.

[paddywak]

It's not just JTR that seems to fascinate the general public you only have to run through the listings on the TV channels and see how many of them "Investigate" various crimes especially murders. It appeals to that secrete part of our nature that makes people slow down on a motorway to look when there's been a particularly nasty crash on the other lanes. I must admit to watching some but it must be terrible for any living relations to have a family tragedy turned into a peep show for the entertainment of the masses

[jomifl]

I am competely un-fascinated by jack the ripper.

[dotty.]

My kids great great great grandmother was a 2 year old girl living in the upper floor tenement in the house he left one of his victims in 1881.

[squarebear]

I thought Jack The Ripper committed his murders in 1888?

[jackthehat]

I was very flattered when I read this title in the 'Latest Posts'............

..........then I clicked on the link and realised it wasn't about me. :o(

[BRIGHT SPARK]

On a similar theme in the USA we went to visit the 'official' Titanic tour.After the tour, on the way out, a guide stopped us and asked us to check the name on the reverse of our ticket against a poster on the wall......................to see if we had drowned or survived!!!..we both got eaten by the sharks.

[Answerprancer]

Is the musical called "Saucey Jack" ? LOL this idea was parodied in Spinal Tapp.

[wildwood]

No matter how civilised we think we are, we still have a fascination with gory and shocking murders and mass human slaughter, pillage and death.

Hearing about such horrible stuff probably releases some sort of hormone that gives us a 'high'.

[hc4361]

There has already been a dramatisation of the Ipswich rapes broadcast on tv and I have no doubt that at some point there will be films about the Moors Murderers, Dennis Nilsen, the Wests.

It is nothing new. There have been many films about the Titanic, which must be distressing for a lot of people.

The Boston Strangler is based on fact and 10 Rillington Place was about the murderer Christie.