Speaker 1: Charles was headed to work in the early morning darkness
Speaker 1: when he saw something lying on the cobbles, slumped against
Speaker 1: a gate. It was the body of a woman. A
Speaker 1: passer by joined him, but at first the two men
Speaker 1: couldn't tell if she was asleep, so Charles tried to
Speaker 1: wake her up. Her face was still warm, but her
Speaker 1: hands were deafly cold. Charles spoke their greatest fear into
Speaker 1: the silence, I think she's dead. When the woman's body
Speaker 1: was examined in the mortuary, the doctor began by cataloging
Speaker 1: the wounds that would become a shocking media sensation. Her
Speaker 1: throats had been cut and several deep, jagged wounds crossed
Speaker 1: her abdomen. Experience and evidence led the doctor to surmise
Speaker 1: that the cuts had been made with a very sharp knife.
Speaker 1: It was an ominous way to begin a man hunt
Speaker 1: that would become the center of an international media frenzy.
Speaker 1: Soon all of London and everywhere else around the world
Speaker 1: where they read the London News would have a name
Speaker 1: to pin the murders on, a name that we still
Speaker 1: whisper today, Jack the Ripper. After the body was found,
Speaker 1: the Metropolitan Police examined the surrounding roads to see if
Speaker 1: there were any marks or traces nearby. They checked the
Speaker 1: neighborhood's railway lines and embankments. They scoured the streets, but
Speaker 1: they found nothing. Here's Adam Wood, executive editor of Ripparologist magazine.
Speaker 1: There were virtually no forensics. They couldn't tell the difference
Speaker 1: between human and animal blood let alone blood type. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the idea of fingerprinting had been discovered, but it hadn't
Speaker 1: been at it wasn't adopted to the police were knock
Speaker 1: another fifteen years after the watch up Or murders, so
Speaker 1: at this time there was virtually no evidence that could
Speaker 1: be gleaned from clues. For almost one hundred years, the
Speaker 1: police files from that investigation were sealed behind closed doors,
Speaker 1: plenty of time for the legend to grow. Some have
Speaker 1: been entertainers telling stories about Jack the Ripper to help
Speaker 1: build up that legend. Others have claimed that their hunches
Speaker 1: were nothing short of the truth. But in recent years,
Speaker 1: historians and writers have gone back to the source with
Speaker 1: a fierce determination to understand these famous and heinous crimes
Speaker 1: for what they really were, and in recent decades some
Speaker 1: truly groundbreaking research has helped us. See Victorian East London
Speaker 1: more clearly than we ever have before. Of course, some
Speaker 1: of the stories we find there can only be described
Speaker 1: as horrifying. On this season of Unobscured, with experts to
Speaker 1: guide us, we will go back to the streets of
Speaker 1: Victorian Whitechapel to follow the trail of Jack the Ripper.
Speaker 1: We'll join the police and their attempts to solve a
Speaker 1: series of brazen and brutal murders, will see through the
Speaker 1: eyes of London's East Enders as they try to make
Speaker 1: sense of the violence taking place right in their midst,
Speaker 1: and will explore the alleys, yards and homes where a
Speaker 1: series of monstrous murders became the most infamous true crime
Speaker 1: story of modern history. Unobscured Season three premiers on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: October seven. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts. H