Speaker 1: Pushkin. It's a bad habit we have we tell the
Speaker 1: tale of the murderer and not the murdered. The clock
Speaker 1: on Whitechapel Church was striking half past two when Ellen
Speaker 1: Holland watched her friend Polly Nichols sway off into the darkness.
Speaker 1: Polly was drunk, penniless and broken. She was inconsequential in
Speaker 1: the minds of most people she met, but she was
Speaker 1: about to cross paths was someone who would give her
Speaker 1: a grisly, unenviable place in history. In the autumn of
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty eight, Polly and four other women were rutally
Speaker 1: killed in a slum neighborhood of London. Their unsolved murders
Speaker 1: were so violent, so cruel, that their killer earned a
Speaker 1: nickname that has still known the world over. I'm down
Speaker 1: on halls and are shawnt quick ripping them Jack the Ripper?
Speaker 1: But in the greatest cold case in history, few of
Speaker 1: us have stopped to question the basic facts. One fact
Speaker 1: that you know about Chactor Ripper. They never got caught
Speaker 1: and who did he kill? Prostitutes? I'm Hallie rubbin Hold.
Speaker 1: As a historian interested in the stories of women, I'd
Speaker 1: assume the lives of the five victims had been thoroughly
Speaker 1: researched long ago. I was wrong when I dug into
Speaker 1: the records. I began to reveal rich and interesting lives.
Speaker 1: Most of the time nomen leave if they're being beaten
Speaker 1: to a pulb or he put out an eye, lives
Speaker 1: blighted by problems and prejudices. Most women today would recognize.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a great deal of sympathy for alcoholics, so
Speaker 1: one had to sign a temperance pledge saying I will
Speaker 1: not drink. If only it were so simple. I identified
Speaker 1: with the women, sympathized with the tough life choices they made,
Speaker 1: and admired their determination. She gets on a boat and
Speaker 1: comes to England. She seeks wider horizons. I came to
Speaker 1: know them and like them. She wants more than she's
Speaker 1: being born into. But I also discovered something else, something new,
Speaker 1: something troubling. It was just so obvious to me the
Speaker 1: very first time I looked at this file. How could
Speaker 1: we have gotten this this wrong for this many years?
Speaker 1: And something that chips away at the foundations of the
Speaker 1: ripper myth nam. Sure, all of you here today, do
Speaker 1: you know that Jack's victims were ladies of the night,
Speaker 1: weren't they They were forced to choose the myth still
Speaker 1: served up by two a guy to visitors who flocked
Speaker 1: the murder scenes each evening and ladies. You might be thinking, well,
Speaker 1: I'd never think that work ever, but didn't. Okay, Well, sadly,
Speaker 1: the answer is yes, Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary
Speaker 1: Jane were not killed while selling sex. It was other,
Speaker 1: no less troubling factors that put them in the path
Speaker 1: of their murderer. In this podcast, I'll tell you how
Speaker 1: I know that and why it still matters very much
Speaker 1: even today. Halley has upset the world of rippology by
Speaker 1: her general attitude towards ripparologists. I'll also explain why my
Speaker 1: research has enraged so many people who claim to be
Speaker 1: experts in the Ripper case. The attacks have just been
Speaker 1: relentless and malicious, But actually I think they just don't
Speaker 1: really want other people talking about the murdered women and
Speaker 1: challenging their views in any way. If you want to
Speaker 1: know how we got the Ripper story so wrong, what
Speaker 1: those mistakes tell us about ourselves, and why putting the
Speaker 1: record straight make some people so very angry, join me,
Speaker 1: Hallie Ribbin Hold for bad Women The Ripper Retold starting
Speaker 1: October fifth, wherever you get your podcasts,