The Whitechapel murders of 1888 are a sordid, unpleasant business, and the books, tours and new museum which attempt to romanticise and spin money out of the violence perpetrated on young women are nothing short of disgusting.
‘From Hell’, on the other hand, might be the only great piece of art to be inspired by the killings. It’s a inky, scratchy, hugely uncomfortable read, with Victorian London taking centre stage as the unreliable protagonist of the piece, and sets up a better mental image of the zeitgeist of the year than anything else I can think of.