GEORGE HUTCHINSON

The Pick-Up Shtick
By TIM MOSLEY AND SCOTT NELSON
In a previous article in this series, we hypothesized as to the possible type and location of
the Ripper’s presumed regular employment and as to how he might have outfitted himself in
preparation for the Whitechapel Murders. We now turn an eye toward how the Ripper might have
selected his victims, as well as the specific locales where he committed his murders.
Two of the foremost reasons that the Whitechapel Murders were as sensational and horrifying as they were
to the general public in 1888 are, first, the peculiar attitude of the Victorians toward sex and prostitutes, and,
secondly, the burgeoning press that had begun to generate explicit scandal stories for popular consumption
on a scale that had not been possible before. 1 These crimes occurred during a puritanical age in Britain when
many a woman was shocked upon initially discovering the facts of life from her husband on her wedding night. 2
Sex was simply not something to be discussed publicly, under any conditions; parodies of this quaintly prudish
Victorian attitude may be found even today in plays such as No Sex, Please, We’re British. Although Victorians
were forbidden by the customs of their era to discuss sex, the scandal story, which openly broadcasts information
ordinarily kept secret, was an altogether different matter. Formerly, journalists had seen the misfortunes of the
poor only as suitable entertainment for the more privileged readership. Then, partly as a result of the repeal of
the stamp tax in 1855 and the paper duty in 1860, the number of newspapers in Britain multiplied tremendously.
As newspapers became cheaper, more widely available, and more national in scope, they naturally became
more competitive and hence encouraged the activities of scandal-mongering journalists. 3 The stage was set for
the unparalleled media coverage of a sensational sex scandal the likes of which had never been seen before – a
merciless killer who preyed upon the prostitutes that sold sex to anyone on the streets, murdering them in public
locations, mutilating or removing their sexual and other bodily organs, and leaving the remains in plain sight in an
unprecedented, in-your-face style which was a horrific affront to Victorian society itself.
At the same time, exclusive brothels thrived in the affluent West End, where prostitutes of a much higher
class than those being murdered and mutilated in the East End catered to an enthusiastic and discriminating
clientele. Those patrons from the middle and upper classes largely thought of these prostitutes as ‘daughters of
joy’, women who were so overwhelmed by the pleasure of sexual feelings that their pursuit became an avocation.
Being relatively well-to-do themselves, many in such a position found it difficult or impossible to understand or
accept the fact that women could become so desperate that they would sell their own bodies several times daily,
just to survive. To quote Donald Rumbelow, 2 ‘The crude economic necessity that drove women to “sail along
on their bottoms” was generally glossed over with a wishy-washy sentiment that they had fallen because they
had been betrayed by a wealthy seducer.’ For others, it was a hoped-for Cinderella story of unjust oppression
and eventual triumphant reward, where unfortunate women were suddenly transformed by remarkable fortune.
These so-called rags-to-riches stories were vivid dreams imagined by many unfortunate East End women suffering
in endless obscurity and neglect.
1 Cohen, William A.: Sex, Scandal and the Novel, From Sex Scandal: The Private Parts of Victorian Fiction, Duke University Press,
1996.
2 Rumbelow, Donald: The Complete Jack the Ripper, London, Penguin (revised 2004).
3 Cohen, William A.: Sex, Scandal and the Novel, From Sex Scandal: The Private Parts of Victorian Fiction, Duke University Press,
1996.
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