About
About this site
Whitechapel 1888 is an evidence-first guide to the Whitechapel murders. It asks one question throughout: what does the evidence actually permit us to conclude?
What it is
The site is built from transcriptions of documents from 1888 and the years after: inquest reports in the press, police reports, letters sent to the police and newspapers, and later memoirs. Each quotation is stored as a passage from a named source and links back to that source. Claims are built from those passages, and every claim shows the passages that support it, contradict it or qualify it.
Text written for this site, such as summaries, reconstructions and assessments, is labelled as editorial and kept apart from the historical texts. Where the sources disagree or say nothing, the site says so rather than filling the gap.
What it is not
It does not name a culprit. The suspect pages set out what the sources say for and against each person, and where the case for them rests on later assumptions. The site also does not reproduce graphic material without warning: mortuary photographs and detailed medical evidence stay behind a content notice until you choose to see them.
Method
Method and labels explains how records are linked, what each status label means, how conflicts between sources are classified, and how much weight each kind of source can bear.
Corrections and feedback
Transcriptions are checked against their sources, but mistakes happen. If a quotation differs from its source, a link is broken, or a claim goes further than its evidence allows, please tell us. Say which page it is on and, if you can, which source shows the problem. Corrections are recorded in each record's history rather than made silently.
Corrections are welcome. A contact address for sending them is coming soon.