Well at Least They Got the Address Right
An article about From Hell, written by Morgana.
For some, it's a thriller, for others, it's a romance. For some, it's horror, and for a few it's blasphemy. This is Johnny Depp's 2001 movie From Hell. In this historical film, Depp plays the part of Inspecter Frederick Abberline, a psychic opium addict who is on the hunt for Jack the Ripper. Fans of the movie know that the plot was captivating, and the acting excellent, but did any of this really happen? In some cases, yes it did. Here you will find the truth about what is fact, and what is fiction.
The very first scene of the movie pans through the filthy streets of Whitechapel in London's East End, our first glimpse of an important piece of the movie: location. The most historically accurate aspect of From Hell is the sets. Because most of the buildings and locations relevant to the case have long since been demolished, the movie was filmed in a recreation of Whitechapel. These sets are actually very true to the real streets of London. In fact, when the movie first came out, an article was written about it in Ripperolagist magazine with a black and white photograph of the set on the cover, and many people initially thought that a never-before-seen picture of the real home of Mary Kelly had been found. The Ten Bells Pub was also a real place, and is still in business. Many Ripper tours make a stop there.
The next and most important aspect of the movie is the characters. Our dynamic duo here, led by Depp, is Inspecter Abberline and his partner Sergeant Godley. In the movie Godley seems older and wiser than Abberline, although in real life it was quite the opposite. Most of that, however, stems from the changes they made to Abberline's lifestyle, and the choice of casting. Depp plays the part of Abberline very well, but not from a historical standpoint. Frederick Abberline was at the time described as looking like a banker, with muttonchops rivaling those of Elvis. He was forty-five years old at the time of the Ripper murders, and he was married to a woman named Emma. He had joined the police force in 1863, and in two years was swiftly promoted to Sergeant, and from there was promoted to an Inspector in 1873. There is no historical indication that Inspector Abberline was an opium addict, or that he had visions. In fact, unlike Depp's characterization, Abberline retired from the police force and lived a long life before dying of natural causes at the age of eighty-six. Detective Sergent George Godley, on the other hand, was thirty-two years old in 1888, and his most noted involvement in the case was his arrest of suspect George Chapman in 1903, after Abberline had retired. It has been said that Abberline remarked at the time that Godley had finally caught "him", although in an interview at the time Abberline also admitted that the police were just as baffled then as they had been at the time of the murders fifteen years earlier.
Of course, these aren't the only players in this twisted plot. What of the Ripper victims? Despite their grimy appearance, the "bangtails" as depicted in the movie are actually more attractive than their historical counterparts. The "canonical", or generally accepted, victims were Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Kelly, all of them prostitutes. In this movie another murder victim, Martha Tabram, was added to the list. Tabram is accepted by many people as being the first victim of the Ripper, but has also been refuted by many because unlike the rest of the victims, she was merely stabbed numerous times with a blade described as an "ordinary pen-knife". There are dozens of other women who were killed in Whitechapel around the same time who some believe are connected to the case, but violence was common in the area, and most of these murders are most likely the result of ordinary rage or gang violence. One gang mentioned in the movie, the Old Nichol gang, would harass prostitutes for money in exchange for their protection.
The first canonical victim is Polly Nichols. About forty-three years old, she was five feet two inches tall, with "delicate" features, graying hair, and several missing teeth. Despite this appearance it was reported that she was often mistaken as being ten years younger than she really was, giving a harsh example of what the average person looked like at that age. Polly Nichols was killed on August 31, 1888. Her body was discovered in the early morning at Buck's Row, a street filled with tenant houses on one side and warehouses on the other. As the police arrived the people living in the apartment she was found in front of reported that they had not heard anything unusual outside. Despite this fact the police did say that she had not been killed somewhere else. The coroner's report shows that there were various cuts on her face, but the most injury was to her abdomen, where there were several long jagged cuts with a sharp knife. None of her organs were missing.
The second victim, "Dark Annie" Chapman, was killed on September 9. Forty-eight year old, she had blue eyes, dark brown hair, and stood five feet tall. Although she was, like most prostitutes, malnourished, she was also overweight, unlike her movie counterpart, and was possibly dying of syphilis, described by the coroner as a "disease of the lungs and membranes of the brain". She was killed in a backyard located at 29 Hanbury Street, most likely from suffocation. Her throat had been cut, and the rest of her body was cut open. Her intestines had been taken out and put around her shoulders, and several pieces of various organs had been cut out and could not be found. Witnesses recalled seeing her in the street with a foreign-looking man of "shabby genteel" around 5:30 that morning, and later hearing a woman screaming "No!" and the sound of something heavy thudding against the fence where Chapman's body was later found.
The fourth victim, Elizabeth Stride, was killed on September 30. Five feet five inches tall with curly brown hair, she was born in Sweden and worked as a seamstress, but turned to prostitution when times were desperate. Apparently they had become more desperate in the year before her death, as she had been arrested for disturbing the peace while drunk several times. About 12:30 the morning of her death she was seen with a man carrying a mysterious package that some people believe to be the murder weapon. Shortly after this a man named Israel Schwartz was walking by a small courtyard Dutfield's Yard when he saw a man jump on top of a screaming Stride. The man shouted at him, calling out "Lipski!", and Shwartz ran away. One story suggests that a man was seen trying to sell Stride some grapes (a recurring plot point in the movie) but the coroner discredited it. The only injuries were that her throat had been slashed, and because another victim showed up soon after, many believe that the Ripper was interrupted while killing Stride, and had to find another victim to mutilate. She was not, as the movie suggests, described by anyone as being a lesbian.
Later that morning another body showed up, belonging to forty-six year old Catherine Eddowes. Five feet tall with red hair, she spent most of the night before her murder drunk and causing a scene by imitating a fire engine. Soon after this she was arrested sleeping on the sidewalk. Later when she was released she waved to the constable guarding the jail, telling him "Good night, old cock." Before her release she gave her name as Mary Ann Kelly, leading people to believe that she knew the last victim. In reality, it was most likely just made up at the time, as Mary Kelly is a very common name. Her body was discovered at about 2:00 in the morning in Mitre Square, in front of some empty houses. Like the others, her throat had been cut, and in the same manner as Annie Chapman, her intestines had been cut out and placed around her shoulders. Her abdomen had been cut open and her left kidney removed, and her face had been attacked so that her nose and part of her ear had been cut off.
Heather Graham's portrayal of Mary Kelly, Jack the Ripper's last victim, is hardest to comment on, because there is much contradiction over the real person. It is believed that Mary Kelly was born in Limerick, Ireland (though whether this means the county or the town is unknown). All that we know of her life comes from the opinions of her friend named Joseph Barnett. Even descriptions of Kelly vary - it is known that she had blue eyes, but witnesses have described her hair color as blonde, red, and light brown. She is often described as being attractive, but we do not know exactly what she looked like as the only picture we have of her is post-mortem. Kelly was killed on November 11 in her tiny room at 13 Millers Court. Her body was discovered the next morning when her landlord arrived to collect the rent. Her body was hacked to pieces. Organs and body parts were everywhere, her face was unrecognizable, and her heart appeared to be missing. Since her death there has been much speculation on her identity, because with the extent of the mutilations, many people believe that the body on the bed could have belonged to anyone. An interesting bit in the film comes in the quick-cut scene of her murder: during the montage, there are several single frames, one of which is a sepia-colored shot of what appears to be "Mary" after her murder. This is in fact a recreation of the only photograph we have of her.
During the time of the murders many letters were sent to the police, claiming to be from the murderer. In fact the name "Jack the Ripper" was first found on one of these letters. Most are thought to be fake, but a few are believed to be genuine. The first letter is called "Dear Boss" and was received three days before the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. The writer talks of how funny it is that the police were calling him "Leather Apron" due to the scrap of leather found at the Chapman murder scene, and states that at the next murder he will clip off the victim's ears. Soon after this another letter known as the "Saucy Jacky" letter arrived saying how the first victim "squealed a bit" so he had to kill another. The third is the "From Hell" letter, from which the movie got its name. It was sent to George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, and came with a box containing half a kidney, presumably from Catherine Eddowes. The letter stated that Jack had fried and eaten the other half.
And who was Jack the Ripper, anyway? In reality, the case was never solved, and everyone has a favorite suspect, although no one is sure which one is best. From Hell solves the mystery with what is called the "Royal Conspiracy Theory". The plot goes something like this: Prince Albert Edward Victor (or Eddy, for short) married a poor Catholic girl named Annie Crook and had a child with her, a child who was, from a technical standpoint, the heir to the English throne. Eddy's grandmother, Queen Victoria, discovered this and ordered that evidence be eliminated. Annie Crook was taken away, where cruel experiments were performed on her, causing her to go insane. But before she was taken away, the baby was left with Annie's friend Mary Kelly, who sent the baby to be raised by nuns, then let on to her group of friends (Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, and Catherine Eddowes) what had happened. When the Queen got news of this, she employed her royal physician, Sir William Gull, to keep the women quiet. Gull enlisted the help of a coachman named John Netley and proceeded to silence them by ritually killing them in the name of Freemasonry. In reality there was a woman in Whitechapel at the time named Annie Crook, but there is no evidence that she married the prince, nor is there any evidence that the victims knew each other. Also, at the time Gull had recently had a stroke - hardly capable of sneaking around in the middle of the night chopping out organs. Although much evidence has surfaced many years after the murders, most people have accepted that we will never learn the killer's true identity.
To conclude, From Hell is a movie based on a graphic novel which in turn was based on a conspiracy theory. This does not make it a bad movie. However, much of what is in the movie should not be taken as straight historical fact. The movie is founded in a true event in history, but it has taken liberties to move the story along. In the end, it captures much more than historical events- it adds to them, and creates a compelling story full of mystery.
More information on the Jack the Ripper case can be found at www.casebook.org.
© Morgana, 2006
Summary