Thursday, we’re talking about the five women brutally killed by Jack the Ripper. The historian Hallie Rubenhold says the women often come to us as empty shells, but in her new book, she’s fixing that.
You know the name “Jack the Ripper,” but do you know who Polly Nichols was? Or Anne Eliza Chapman? Elizabeth Stride? What about Catherine Eddowes or Mary Jane Kelly? While the serial killer is the stuff of legend, historian Hallie Rubenhold says the women he murdered are “just corpses” to most people. Rubenhold is joining us to tell their stories, and they weren’t all prostitutes by the way. They were poor, desperate and had the cards stacked against them from the beginning.
Hallie Rubenhold is a historian and frequent consultant on period drams. Her book The Covent Garden Ladies was the inspiration for the Hulu series Harlots. Her new book is called The Five: The Untold Loves of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. [Indie bookstores|Amazon]
