The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

Content Warning: This guide contains explicit descriptions of sex work, alcohol dependency, sex trafficking, domestic violence, child neglect, and death by suicide.

Rubenhold begins by describing the year 1887 in London, where events took place illustrating both the ideal and dark sides of the Victorian era. The ideal was embodied in Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of her reign. The dark side were the poor who were on the brink of finding themselves in Britain’s notorious workhouses. They could be found at Trafalgar Square, which was “an axis between the east and west of the city, the dividing line between rich and poor” (4). At the same time, Trafalgar Square was a major site for speeches delivered by social reformers like Eleanor Marx, George Bernard Shaw, and William Morris.

By November 8, 1887, London’s police commissioner, Charles Warren, had issued a ban on all gatherings in Trafalgar Square. In defiance of the ban, a protest of 40,000 people (5), including the poor who habitually camped out on Trafalgar Square, was planned. The goal of the protest was to demand the release of William O’Brien, an Irish member of Parliament. The clash with police, which led to two deaths, hundreds of people being injured, and riots, was called “Bloody Sunday.