From Hell

I sometimes have to wonder about the synchronicity of some of the situations I find myself in. For example, this weekend while I was in Calgary, I picked up an inexpensive copy of The Hughes Brothers' adaptation of From Hell. I brought it home, watched the audio commentary, got my entertainment value out of it and set it up on the DVD shelf.

I then grabbed myself a copy of From Hell and began reading it to see how it differed from the film (I've heard conflicting reports), and seeing as how I'd never read it in its entirety before, this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

Then yesterday, while I was flipping through channels, I noticed that the History Channel had a documentary on Jack the Ripper. I thought it was kind of a coincidence and decided to watch since I had Jack and the Whitechapel murders on the mind. Then I find out through the documentary that August 31st is the 117th anniversary of Mary Ann Nichols' untimely demise and the first Ripper murder. The killings continued over the next 10 weeks and claimed the lives of Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and finally Mary Jane Kelly on the 30th of November, 1888.

If you're at all interested in the case or just want a primer, go check out the Casebook: Jack the Ripper website. They've got everything there including scans and transcriptions of the original documents from the investigation.

mike