What I Learned in London From Jack the Ripper...

London was awesome...

...and Jack the Ripper taught me a lesson in marketing.

My lovely and talented wife, Charlsa, led a group of 12 people on an educational tour of London. She planned this event during the previous two years. The 25 participants who signed up nearly two years ago dwindled over time to only a dozen of us -- six high school students and six adults.

In just four days on English soil we visited:

• Trafalgar Square
• National Museum of Art
• St. Paul's Cathedral
• Covent Garden
• The Blue Man Group
• The Royal Observatory and the Prime Meridian
• Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
• The Changing of The Guard
• Windsor Castle
• Piccadilly Circus
• The Tower of London
• Big Ben Parliament
• Medieval Dinner
• Stonehenge
• Bath, England
• Roman Bath Excavation
• Jack-the-Ripper Tour

That's a sightseeing whirlwind. I took pictures on the run and you can see what I got here:

On our final evening in London, the weather turned bitterly cold from an unexpected north Atlantic squall that rolled in. We experienced snow, sleet, rain and hail that day.

Yet at 8 p.m. we met Jon, a blue badge (highly qualified and trained) guide to briskly walk through the old Whitechapel, London neighborhood.

Our goal was to follow the murderous path of Jack the Ripper.

Between August 31 and November 9, 1888, an unknown killer attacked and mutilated five women in the middle of a busy London prostitution district.

And he mysteriously disappeared from under the collective noses of the local constables.

Englanders all over Great Briton were latching doors, double-locking the windows and pulling the covers up to their chins from fear of being attacked by the unknown murderer.

Newspapermen capitalized on the mystery, dubbing him "Jack the Ripper". And they whipped up the curiosity of the public to build the fear and sell more newspapers. The tabloid equivalent of the day, newspapers excelled in this technique.

Playing on the simple, yet incredibly powerful human emotion of curiosity, more than 150 works of non-fiction have been published dealing exclusively with the Jack the Ripper murders. Since the early 1990s, six magazines have been devoted solely to "Ripper" fascination.

At least 18 novels, 12 films, 3 plays, and an opera have been produced featuring scenarios, theories and conspiracies. That doesn't include all the comics and video games.

Ripper-mania continues to be one of the most enduring mysteries of the last 150 years.

As we walked, shivering and huddling together, from one dark street corner to the next in the bowels of old London, Jon painted the picture of how "Jack" was operating within the constables' patrols, scheduled 15 minutes apart. Jon showed us the only escape route Jack could have taken on the night of the double event when he killed two women 45 minutes apart. And he teased us just as Jack teased the police with letters, clues and even graffiti.

Jon told us just enough of what happened at each location to drive our curiosity to the next crime scene where we were met with even more incredible details of Jack's depravity.

He led us through the London underbelly like dogs following a scent.

Five murders. That's a small number by today's standards. Ted Bundy had more than 35 victims. Jeffrey Dahmer claimed more than 17 victims.

Yet, Jack the Ripper captured -- and still captures -- the imagination of people all over the world...

...Because we're curious. We speculate. We're even frightened still...bunched up on a cold night in the cone of light from a street lamp in a lonely London alley, the Ripper may still be lurking.

Curiosity created Jack the Ripper. It keeps him alive.

And it drives more marketing than any other emotion.

Thanks for the lesson Jack!

Comments

[Professor]

Dear David the Reeper,

Grim as the Ripper's intrigue continues to be, a whole other and healthier public interest is beginning to pervade. That is the good news.

Organic foods, positive thinking, practical spirituality, joyful parenting, success and motivation -- all rise to the occasion of marketing brilliance these days. Or else...

Put that in your blender and whip it up.

Peace,
Professor

[drperdew]

And what a welcome change it is. Couldn't agree with you more.

But it sure is fun to learn from the past too.

David