Those Jack the Ripper Murders — never on a Sunday?

David Morgan
6 min readAug 24, 2023

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[Read to the end]

Bing Chat AI says:

The Jack the Ripper murders occurred between August 31st, 1888, and November 9th, 1888. The five victims, often referred to as the “canonical five,” were Mary Ann Nichols (whose body was found on August 31), Annie Chapman (found September 8), Elizabeth Stride (found September 30), Catherine (Kate) Eddowes (found September 30), and Mary Jane Kelly (found November 9). All of these murders occurred on a Friday or Saturday. There is no record of any of the Jack the Ripper murders occurring on a Sunday.

When Marie Belloc Lowndes wrote her fictional account “The Lodger” based on Jack the Ripper she made the killer Mr Sleuth a religious zealot. At the time she had the idea of the character Mr Sleuth when she was working at the Pall Mall Gazette for the editor Mr Stead who was also a religious fanatic.

Stewart J. Brown wrote in his book W. T. Stead: Nonconformist and Newspaper Prophet in 2019:

Underlying his crusading journalism were Stead’s religious beliefs, his sense of the editor’s desk as his pulpit, and of the editor as preacher and prophet, calling on people to follow the example of Christ in sacrificing self-interest and actively working for social reform and social justice.

Marie Belloc Lowndes wrote at the front of her book The Lodger in 1913:

“Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into
darkness.”
PSALM lxxxviii. 18

What did she mean?

Bing Chat AI says:

The verse you quoted is from Psalm 88:18 in the Bible. In this verse, the psalmist is expressing feelings of isolation and abandonment. The psalmist feels that God has taken away their loved ones and friends, and that even their acquaintances have been cast into darkness.

Why did the writer feel abandoned and her relationship cast into darkness when she was writing her book in 1913 after her editor Stead had died on the Titanic? It has been suggested there was a romantic interest between Stead and Lowndes and they were caught kissing one day in the newspaper offices.

According to Laura Marcus, many of the aspects that Belloc Lowndes used to develop the lodger in her story are very similar to the details given by L. Forbes Winslow in his publication about Jack the Ripper. Both Lowndes’ and Winslow’s murderers shared the following characteristics: “religious obsession, hatred of women, days spent writing Biblical commentary, silent nocturnal exits, and entrances”.

In 1912 the Pall Mall Gazette editor WT Stead died on the Titanic. It was said he made no attempt to save himself and sat down and read a book. He made a silent nocturnal exit and may have felt he was sacrificing his self-interest like Christ.

Marie Belloc Lowndes’ book The Lodger only emerged in 1913 after Steads’ death in 1912 on the Titanic. She had already written a short story about her Mr Sleuth character some years earlier. But was she waiting to release her book until after Stead had died? Was she afraid he might recognize himself as Jack the Ripper in the character of Mr Sleuth?

Claude AI says about Mr Sleuth in The Lodger:

In the book, Mr. Sleuth becomes fixated on the innocence and virtue of his young landlady Daisy, which has disturbing undertones. This parallels how Stead, as the editor, was hyper-focused on raising the age of consent and protecting young girl’s innocence.

Lowndes’ Jack the Ripper character Mr Sleuth says:

“I am protected by a higher power, for I still have much to do.”

And he threatens Mrs Bunting if he is exposed with:

Your feet shall go down to death, and your steps take hold on hell.”

This is a direct quote from Proverbs 5:5 in the King James Bible. Were these biblical quotes something W.T. Stead had said to Lowndes assuming she represents herself in the character of Mrs Bunting and he was Mr Sleuth?

A memorial plaque to W.T. Stead states after he had died on the Titanic:

“He remained to the end through the strength of God.”

Did Marie Belloc Lowndes also notice that Jack the Ripper never killed anyone on a Sunday and that although the Titanic sank at 2.20am (ship’s time) it hit the iceberg on a Sunday?

Postscript:
Claude AI: Based on the textual evidence, I agree that the author seems to have made an effort to geographically anchor the fictional Bunting house and Mr. Sleuth’s lodgings in a real-world location along Marylebone Road.

The key clues suggesting an intentional, realistic setting are:

  • Specifically mentioning Marylebone Road as the location
  • Referencing the audible bells of the actual St Marylebone Church
  • Describing the visibility of lamp-lights across the street
  • Citing travel times to real locations like Baker Street Station and Edgware Road
  • Using transportation like buses that ran along Marylebone Road

With these textual clues, the lodgings could plausibly be situated in a factual sense somewhere along Marylebone Road between the real-world landmarks of Edgware Road and Baker Street Station, and within earshot of St Marylebone Church.

While not giving an exact address, the author seems to have wanted to ground the setting in a real part of London, making the fictional events seem more tangible by referencing actual nearby streets, churches, transit and landmarks. The specificity suggests an intentional, geographically accurate choice for the lodgings’ fictional location along Marylebone Road.

Bing Chat: Yes, the Landmark London hotel, located on Marylebone Road in London, was originally known as The Great Central Hotel when it first opened in 1899. The hotel was built as one of the last great Victorian railway hotels and was designed to serve passengers using Marylebone Station, which was the London terminus of the Great Central Railway.

…passengers could have taken a short walk or cab ride from the Great Central Hotel to Baker Street station, where they could catch a Metropolitan line train to Aldgate. The distances from Aldgate to each of the five canonical murder sites are as follows:

  • Here are the dates of the murders of the five canonical victims of Jack the Ripper, along with the distances from Aldgate to each murder site:
  • Mary Ann Nichols (Buck’s Row, now Durward Street): August 31, 1888. Approximately 1.1 km (0.7 miles) from Aldgate.
  • Annie Chapman (29 Hanbury Street): September 8, 1888. Approximately 0.9 km (0.6 miles) from Aldgate.
  • Elizabeth Stride (Dutfield’s Yard, off Berner Street, now Henriques Street): September 30, 1888. Approximately 1.3 km (0.8 miles) from Aldgate.
  • Catherine Eddowes (Mitre Square): September 30, 1888. Approximately 0.4 km (0.2 miles) from Aldgate.
  • Mary Jane Kelly (13 Miller’s Court, off Dorset Street, now a parking lot off Duval Street): November 9, 1888. Approximately 1 km (0.6 miles) from Aldgate.

Postscript 2 (Showing Bing Chat may have been wrong — originally!):

Here are the days of the week for the dates you mentioned:

Here are the days of the week for the dates you mentioned:

  • Mary Ann Nichols (Buck’s Row, now Durward Street): August 31, 1888 was a Friday.
    Annie Chapman (29 Hanbury Street): September 8, 1888 was a Saturday.
    Elizabeth Stride (Dutfield’s Yard, off Berner Street, now Henriques Street): September 30, 1888 was a Sunday.
    Catherine Eddowes (Mitre Square): September 30, 1888 was also a Sunday.
    Mary Jane Kelly (13 Miller’s Court, off Dorset Street, now a parking lot off Duval Street): November 9, 1888 was a Friday.

Postscript 3:

Bing Chat:

Yes, there were a few differences in the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes compared to the other victims of Jack the Ripper:

  1. Double Event: The murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes occurred on the same night, within approximately an hour and less than a mile apart. This is known as the “double event”.
  2. Different Mutilations: Unlike the other victims, Elizabeth Stride had not been mutilated following her murder This has led some historians to suspect that she may not have been a victim of Jack the Ripper. On the other hand, Catherine Eddowes was mutilated like the other victims.
  3. Location: One of the two victims (Catherine Eddowes) had been murdered in the City of London; this meant that a second police force, the City of London Police, was now involved in the hunt for the killer.

These differences have contributed to ongoing debates among historians and criminologists about whether all five women were indeed killed by the same person.

So perhaps Jack The Ripper never killed on a Sunday. His imitator did.

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David Morgan
David Morgan

Written by David Morgan

Was developing apps for social good e.g. Zung Test, Accident Book. BA Hons and student of criminology. Writing about true crime. Next cancer patient.

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