The Rest Is History — Episode 627

Jack The Ripper: From Hell (Part 4)
Hosts: Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook
Original Air Date: December 18, 2025

Overview

In this gripping fourth installment of their "Jack The Ripper" series, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook offer a deep dive into the murder of Mary Jane Kelly—the Ripper’s final canonical victim—and critically examine her life, the ensuing investigation, and the wider cultural and psychological impact of the Whitechapel murders.

The episode is a blend of forensic detail, Victorian social context, media analysis, and reflections on how myth and popular fears swirl around this most infamous of unsolved crimes. Tom and Dominic also explore why Jack the Ripper still exerts such a powerful hold on the modern imagination and how the killings became a turning point in the study of crime and madness.

Miller’s Court: Setting and Discovery (03:00–12:57)

The Scene: Dorset Street’s Infamy

• Tom paints a vivid picture of Miller’s Court, a notoriously squalid enclave off Dorset Street—described as "the worst street in London" (04:54).
• Mary Jane Kelly’s room is introduced: a cramped, single-room parlour, 10ft by 12ft, sparsely furnished. She owes six weeks’ rent, making her desperate (06:07).

Discovery of the Body

• On November 9, 1888, Mary Jane’s landlord sends his assistant to collect the overdue rent; instead he finds a scene of "unspeakable horror" (08:29).
• Police and Dr. Phillips arrive; they initially delay entry in hopes bloodhounds might track the killer, but the hounds never come (09:36).
• Eventually, the door is forced open: "a body so hideously, so grotesquely mutilated that Dr. Phillips...opted to suppress the full horror of the details" (10:36).

Forensic Details (WARNING: Graphic Content)

Tom reads from Dr. Bond’s 1888 notes (11:13):

“The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed ... the face hacked beyond recognition ... uterus, kidneys ... one of the dismembered breasts placed under the head ... the heart had clearly been cut out and was nowhere to be found.”

Dominic notes Joseph Barnett (Mary Jane’s companion) could only identify her by her hair and eyes, not her mangled face (13:33).

Mary Jane Kelly: A Life Enshrouded in Mystery (12:57–22:00)

Biography and Myth

• Mary Jane Kelly is distinct from previous victims: much younger (~25), and reputedly very pretty.
• Her background is a “hall of mirrors”—she variously claimed to be Irish, Welsh, or both. Her own name is possibly an alias (14:48).
• As Dominic puts it:

  "We know nothing effectively, do we? ...It's just a hall of mirrors." (14:48)

Social Status and Self-Invention

• Kelly’s literacy is unclear—she might have been illiterate, or, as others claimed, “an excellent scholar and an artist of no mean degree.” (16:02)
• She told stories of high society as a courtesan, possibly fictional: “She had led the life of a lady.” (17:45)
• Tom: “She starts referring to herself as Marie Janet...told a story about how she had been taken to Paris by, quote unquote, a gentleman.”
• Dominic: “This does all feel too literary, doesn't it?...like the kind of story you would make up about kind of, you know, mysterious gentleman...” (19:31)

Descent and Domestic Strife

• By 1888, Mary Jane lives with Joseph Barnett, a former fish porter.
• After Barnett loses his job, Kelly returns to prostitution to make ends meet, and notably takes in homeless women, which causes tension (22:00).

The Night of the Murder: Witnesses and Mystery Men (22:00–29:22)

Final Hours

• After a quarrel, Barnett leaves at ~7:45 pm; Kelly “clearly leaves her room and goes out into the streets” to solicit clients, desperate for rent money (22:53).
• Two key witnesses:
  • A man with “thick, carroty moustache” seen entering with Kelly just before midnight (24:35).
  • George Hutchinson, an unemployed labourer with a crush on Kelly, spots her at 2am, then observes in detail a "pale faced, very well dressed" man with an astrakhan coat, “Jewish appearance,” gold chain, and a horseshoe pin. They enter Miller’s Court together. Hutchinson waits nearby for almost an hour (25:46–26:39).

The Scream and Time of Death

• Around 4:00 am, two women hear “cries of murder,” but do nothing—“I did not take much notice of the cries, as I frequently hear such cries” (28:11).
• Autopsy suggests 4:00 am as likely time of death, raising questions about the killer's timeline.

Aftermath and Cultural Impact (29:22–38:21)

The Funeral

• When Kelly's remains are removed, crowds gather—her death overshadows the Lord Mayor’s Show.
  A Times reporter observes:

  “Ragged caps were doffed and slatternly looking women shed tears...” (30:57)

• No family attends her funeral; “six women who had known her,” including witnesses, and Joseph Barnett, act as mourners (31:22).
• Tom:

  “In death, she’s become...the heroine of a melodrama, no matter how dark and terrible...”

Media and the Power of Narrative

William Thomas Stead’s Influence (38:21–44:36)

• Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, Stead pioneered sensational investigative journalism:
  • His works, notably “the Maiden tribute of Modern Babylon,” exploited and exposed stories of elite predators and 'white slavery,' fueling public hysteria and legislative change.
  • This media lens helped create the "toff in a carriage" mythos for Jack the Ripper.
• Dominic:

  “So much of the mystique...is this idea that he’s a bloke in a top hat, in a carriage, rattling down the streets of Whitechapel through the fog...” (44:04)

Witness Suspicions and Stereotypes

• Hutchinson’s detailed description is scrutinized—possibly fabricated, “drawn from melodrama,” fueling the image of a “stage villain ... sinister, black, moustached, bejeweled and arrogant” (46:43).

The Ripper and Victorian Culture: Science, Literature, Myth (46:43–59:00)

Literary Resonances

• W.T. Stead compares the Ripper to “Mr. Hyde”—Robert Louis Stevenson’s "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) had been adapted for the stage during the Ripper panic, causing real-life suspicion against the lead actor (48:26–50:45).
• The case is seen as "exposing the dark passions ... that lie within the most respectable people in Britain" (50:58).

Class, Anxiety, and Public Distrust

• Theories abound: the Ripper as upper-class “toff,” as surgeon or medical student with a grudge, or as a mad vivisectionist—fears reflected in the press and public rumor.
• “Amateur detectives” swarm to Whitechapel; the police are mocked, and public fantasy turns to the newly-emerging figure of Sherlock Holmes (55:34–58:09).
• Dominic: “I think we've got about five different books ... in which Sherlock Holmes battles Jack the Ripper..." (58:09)

Vanishing into Myth: The End and Aftermath (59:00–68:18)

The Ripper Disappears

• After Kelly's murder, there are a few possible but unconfirmed similar killings, but the Ripper’s “reign of terror” ends abruptly—“And then he vanishes” (60:37).
• The unresolved mysteries become fodder for generations of amateur detectives and theorists.

Jack the Ripper as First 'Modern' Serial Killer

• Tom:

  “He is the first modern serial killer. Presumably there must have been figures like him before, but they just weren't recognized as such.” (62:16)

• Unlike earlier crimes, there is no clear motive or pattern. The Ripper seems unknowable—this is what makes the case so uniquely terrifying and enduring.

The Birth of Psychopathology (64:02–68:18)

• Theories of sexual pathology and the scientific study of madness shape understanding:

  • Driven by German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing (“Psychopathia Sexualis”), who introduced terms like "sadism" and "lust murder," directly citing Jack the Ripper as Case 17.
  • “He does not seem to have had sexual intercourse with his victims, but...the act and subsequent mutilation...were equivalents for the sexual act.” (quoted by Tom)

• Dominic:

  “As a product of the late 20th and 21st centuries, [it] seems ... extremely implausible that there is no sexual dimension ...” (67:29)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mary Jane Kelly’s Final Song:

  "Scenes of my childhood arise before my gaze / Bringing recollections of bygone happy days ... no one's left to cheer me now within that good old home." — Tom (24:35)

• On the creation of Ripper myth:

  “We're basically in W.T. Stead’s mental universe.” — Dominic (44:29)

• On the enduring mystery:

  “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
  — Tom, quoting Sherlock Holmes (58:31)

• On why Ripper is uniquely terrifying:

  “The thing that people find so frightening ... there seems no motive to the crimes.” — Tom (62:52)

Key Timestamps

• 03:00–12:57: Setting the scene and the discovery of Mary Jane Kelly’s body
• 12:57–22:00: Kelly’s life story and invention of her character/myth
• 22:00–29:22: The events and witnesses of the night of her murder
• 29:22–38:21: Aftermath, funeral, and the rise of media mythology
• 38:21–44:36: Journalism and social panic via W.T. Stead and the Pall Mall Gazette
• 46:43–59:00: The confluence of press, literature (Jekyll & Hyde, Sherlock Holmes), and detective myth
• 59:00–68:18: Ripper’s disappearance, impact on culture, developing theories of criminal insanity
• 64:02–68:18: The arrival of scientific psychopathology and the sexual pathology theory

Closing & Next Episode Tease

• Tom announces the next (final) episode will scrutinize the main Ripper suspects and present his personal theory on the killer’s identity—a promise to "succeed where Inspector Abberline failed" (68:37).

• Both hosts muse on the reasons for the Ripper’s lasting notoriety: mythology, press invention, and the emergence of the modern serial killer archetype.

This detailed, atmospheric episode peels back layers of historical myth and modern psychology, offering both a humane portrait of the Ripper’s last known victim and a shrewd analysis of why Jack the Ripper still haunts our collective nightmares.