Morbid: Jack the Ripper Part 1, Whitechapel 1888

Whitechapel, London. Autumn, 1888. The streets are fogged, narrow, and crowded with people living on the edge. Then women start turning up dead. A killer is out there. And he is not coming forward.

The press called him Jack the Ripper. The name stuck. The man behind it was never identified, and that is why the case still grips people more than a century later.

In Part 1 of their Jack the Ripper coverage, the hosts of Morbid set the scene: the grinding poverty of the East End, the police under pressure, and the earliest murders that sent a city into panic. Morbid mixes true crime with a dose of dark humor and a love of history, so the episode is easy to follow even if you have never read a word about the case. It's a strong starting point for newcomers, and a fresh angle for anyone who thinks they know the story already.

Here is the part that keeps people hooked. Theories about the Ripper's identity have piled up for generations, and the official record never settled on an answer. Who was he? Why did the killings stop? And how much of the legend is fact, and how much is newspaper-fueled myth? Remember that the victims were real women with real lives, and the best tellings of this case treat them that way.

Fire up Part 1 tonight and listen on Apple Podcasts, or find it wherever you get your podcasts.