Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1)(93)
Facsimiles of the “Dear Boss” letter and the “Saucy Jack” postcard were actually printed on October 4 (in the Evening Standard), not October 1. Earlier printings of the letters were text only (on October 1 and 3, in the Star and Daily News), not picture copies of the actual letters.
The Barnum & Bailey circus didn’t come to London’s Olympia until November 1889 (the fall following this story), but since the queen was a fan of it, and hundreds of Victorian circuses traveled across Europe during this time period, I decided to include it. Poor Jumbo the elephant also passed away in 1885 and wouldn’t have been entertaining the crowds.
Clairvoyant and spiritualist Robert James Lees was an actual man who offered his assistance to police on several occasions for the Jack the Ripper killings. While spiritualism was still quite popular across the United States and Europe (even after some spiritualists and mediums were proven to be frauds), Scotland Yard did not accept his assistance. It has never been confirmed, but there are rumors he also communicated with Prince Albert for Queen Victoria and had even resided in the palace.
I also tried keeping all medical terminology and practices as close to the date they were used as possible. Books using the term forensic medicine or forensic science were really printed in the 1800s. And doctors/medical examiners used things such as body temperature to determine time of death, though they were also aware that blood loss and cold temperatures would affect the accuracy of their estimates. Joseph Lister developed the idea to sterilize instruments during surgeries in the 1860s using carbolic acid, and fingerprint identification was discovered in the early 1880s. Though they didn’t have all the tools we have now, police scoured a crime scene and collected evidence much the same way in the nineteenth century as they do today.
As stated on the New York State Troopers website (under “Crime Laboratory System: Forensic Science History”), the following practices were applied during the 1800s:
In the 1800s the field of forensic science saw substantial progress. The decade saw:
The first recorded use of questioned document analysis.
The development of tests for the presence of blood in a forensic context.
A bullet comparison used to catch a murderer.
The first use of toxicology (arsenic detection) in a jury trial.
The development of the first crystal test for hemoglobin using hemin crystals.
The development of a presumptive test for blood.
The first use of photography for the identification of criminals and documentation of evidence and crime scenes.
The first recorded use of fingerprints to solve a crime.
The development of the first microscope with a comparison bridge.
Forensic science was significantly applied in 1888, when doctors in London, England, were allowed to examine the victims of Jack the Ripper for wound patterns.
Any other historical inaccuracies not mentioned were artistic liberties I took to enrich the world of Stalking Jack the Ripper and better serve my characters.