This essay first appeared in my October 2026 newsletter.
Last month, I wrote about the speed of communication in 1888, and how letters, telegrams, and newspapers could carry information across London surprisingly quickly. October brings me to another side of that story: information could circulate constantly without bringing people any closer to knowing what was true.
In the early hours of 30 September 1888, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were murdered. What followed was an unusual period in the Whitechapel murder investigation. No further killings among the five women later commonly identified as the canonical victims occurred until 9 November. Yet October was far from quiet. The police continued their investigation, newspapers searched for fresh developments, and letters arrived from people claiming to be the murderer. Some purported to offer information, while others were hoaxes. With public attention running high and rumours spreading, every new claim had to be examined.
One incident that attracted considerable attention occurred on 16 October. George Lusk, chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, received a small parcel accompanied by what later became known as the From Hell letter. According to contemporary reports, the parcel contained part of a human kidney. Since Catherine Eddowes’s left kidney had been removed during her murder, the parcel was soon linked to her case, although that connection was never established.
There was no shortage of information in October. The difficulty lay in deciding what could be trusted. Hoax letters could waste valuable police time, while newspaper reports sometimes gave speculation the appearance of fact. Even the disturbing parcel sent to George Lusk raised questions that could not be answered with certainty. Investigators had to continue working with incomplete information, never knowing when a useful lead might emerge or whether the next report would prove to be another dead end.
This is something I think about when writing Finn Parker. Four thousand years of experience may help her recognise patterns that others overlook, but it does not make her all-knowing. She still has to distinguish genuine evidence from distractions and decide whether an apparent lull means that nothing is happening.
Looking back, October 1888 was more than an empty interval between two dates in the Whitechapel murders. The police were still investigating, newspapers continued to report on the case, and Londoners had no way of knowing whether the killer had stopped or when another murder might take place.
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