Jack the Ripper: A Walking Paranormal Investigation
By: Louise Mackay
Psychic medium and founder of From the Other Side www.fromtheotherside.org.uk
In 1888 a serial killer walked the streets of Whitechapel, London. The victims were from the lower end of society, doing anything they could for a couple of pence. The nickname given to the killer was Jack the Ripper.
The autumn of 1888 was very cold and wet. The people living in Whitechapel needed shelter and warm food. A woman’s job, if she had one, usually required long hours in a factory for not much money. Some women instead chose to earn money on the streets by selling themselves to anyone who accepted their offer.
In 1888, six prostitutes are said to have died by the same hands. Their lives ended in strangulation, after which the killer cut open their bodies and took away the body parts that he wanted. The last victim, Mary Kelly, was killed even more dramatically. Her face, sliced beyond recognition, her body was cut open and her skin cut off. Mary died in a very brutal way.
The killer was never caught. Although 128 years later, investigators are getting closer and closer to knowing who it was.
For the past four years, I have run a ghost hunting companyin Yorkshire. We run events at many different locations. Our goal is to search for proof of the afterlife and offer evidence to our customers that itdoes exist. We use the most up-to-date investigative equipment, we have a team historian, experienced investigators and me. I am a medium and I can speak to people who have passed on to the afterlife. This includes spirits who come back to visit places that meant a lot to them in their life, but sometimes it can go the other way. For example, if someone were killed violently and or before their time, like the victims of Jack the Ripper, they may be unsettled in the afterlife. I believe this makes it easier for them to talk to mediums; to get their stories across.
One weekend, three of us from our team set off to visit the Whitechapel and Spitalfield areas. We planned our visit for over six months, looking at new and old maps, using eye witness accounts where the ladies where last seen, who they were with and where they went. We wanted to walk the last walk of each of the Jack the Ripper victims.
We started from scratch, to make up our own minds about the murders in 1888.
While walking the victims’ last walks, we wanted to try and communicate with the spirit of the victim, or maybe the Ripper himself. We want to hear their version of events in their words.
Arriving in London, we had exactly 26 hours to complete the 128 year-old task that lay ahead of us. Finally, we wanted to find the grave sites of all the known Ripper victims and visit their final resting places.
Many Ripperologists and researchers debate wither or not Martha Tabram is a ripper victim. In my opinion she was. Serial killers almost always try different ways to kill, which leads up to the big event. So we included Martha in our journey.
First, we located Angel Alley. Martha’s friend ‘Pearly Pol’ reported being there with her. At the time, Pol met with a soldier to earn some money. From there we walked past the White Swan pub, up into George Yard. This is now called Gunthorpe Street. The small road still has its cobbles on the ground and there’s a different feeling about the whole street. It is close to the main road, but so quiet.
Before we got to the George Yard buildings where Martha’s body was found, I felt Martha’s presence with me.
She told me she had finished with her own soldier and he walked off up the small hill. She started walking down to wait for ‘Pearly Pol’ to finish. On her way down the hill, she spoted a man walking towards her. At first, he spoke nicely and Martha felt comfortable in his company. He was dressed as a gentleman.