It was in 1888 that Jack the Ripper stalked the dingy streets of Whitechapel, and left behind him not only the corpses of gruesomely murdered women, but also the mystery of his identity.
There had been many guesses, many theories and many conclusions, but none led to his capture and conviction. He remained a dark and elusive spectre, an intangible figure in the eyes of the police and a frightening one in the imagination of the people of Whitechapel.
By 1900, however, after twelve years had elapsed, there was a general assumption that he was as dead as his victims, that the devil had claimed him for his own.
The assumption, of course, could have been born of wishful thinking.