The Tragedy of Mary Ann Nichols

In the autumn of 1888, a shadow fell over the city of London, but it wasn't the

ever-present fog or the coal smoke choking the air. It was a man, a man who would

become a ghost, a bogeyman, a legend whose name would be whispered in fear and morbid

fascination for more than a century. His monstrosity almost completely erased the truth

of the five women he silenced. They are known to history by a cold, clinical,

and cruelly dismissive name: the Canonical Five. It's a term that reduces a series

of human tragedies to a neat list for criminologists and amateur sleuths: Mary Ann Nichols,

Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. But these women