Welcome to 1888 Whitechapel, the coziest little Victorian slum where the air is 90% smog, your landlord definitely sucks, and your best housing option might be leaning over a rope for two pence. Life is cheap, crime is everywhere, and if the rampant disease and street gangs don’t get you, well… there’s always that one guy who’s been slicing up women like it’s his personal hobby.

That’s right, folks—we’re diving into the world of Jack the Ripper! But before we start hunting for top-hat-wearing murderers in the fog, we need to set the scene. Who actually lived in Whitechapel? What kind of jobs did they work (spoiler: they were mostly terrible)? How did people survive in a city that had all the warmth and compassion of a haunted meat factory?

And then, of course, we meet the Canonical Five—the women whose names deserve more than just being footnotes in a serial killer’s legacy. They were people first, victims second—and today, we’re going to tell their stories.

So grab your gin, don’t trust any dudes with medical instruments, and prepare yourself for the worst housing market in history—because this is Jack the Ripper, Part 1 on Mythtakes Were Made!

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