Coming across this article shook me a bit. Helping doing this research makes me feel like I am in a mental time machine and get to see through a very narrow window the world back then. When you get to know about what was going on in a time period, you get a better comprehension of why people behaved one way or another.

And then you bump into one of the most investigated mysteries in history as it begins: Jack the Ripper. You know the outcome and details and compare it to what was being published at the time. What they knew, what they speculated and even stuff you may not know. Personally, I just found out Jack was originally called “Leather Apron” even though I had heard there was speculation he used one.

Here is a PDF of a front page of The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer and headline article of the killings, seventh column, top. Realize that journalists and editors not only did not know what was going on but had no inkling we would be still discussing the events an who could be the killer some131 years later.