Sickett himself has sometimes been considered as a candidate for Jack the Ripper due to his liking for walking the streets of the East End during the hours of darkess – carrying a Gladstone Bag!

It is a sad state that to this day a serial killer’s best targets remain prostitutes…

That’s largely because we’re forced to work “in the shadows”, so to speak, and take chances we wouldn’t have to take if our trade was legal, which is of course exactly why prohibitionist laws were (at least temporarily) struck down in Ontario recently. Yet astonishingly enough, many prohibitionists claim they want our trade kept illegal to “protect” us!

It is a sad state that to this day a serial killer’s best targets remain prostitutes be he the Green Valley Killer or that dumbass who hung himself they media dubbed The Craigslist Killer.

This is the first I have learned anything about these five women, other than that they were streetwalkers or that some of them drank heavily and, of course, details of their murders.

It’ll probably be the first most of my readers have learned about them, which is why I wanted to do the column. The fascination with “Saucy Jack” while ignoring his victims other than as collections of organs to be ripped apart seems indicative of the same sort of pervasive misogyny which has caused “pimp” to be a compliment among the lower classes even though “whore” is an insult; indeed, even among the general population the verb “to pimp” now carries positive connotations while the verb “to whore” still has negative ones. Personally, I consider it disgusting.

I can offer no suggestion as to why the one name (I won’t type it) has that effect on you. Reincarnation suggests itself…

I’ve thought of that, though obviously I don’t particularly relish the notion of having been an alcoholic streetwalker who abandoned her family. Perhaps I was her daughter, which might also explain my persistent fascination with the first quarter of the 20th century.

With all the investigation of the killer, ideas about his identity, was he a doctor, etc., we hear little about the real human beings who made him a star.

It seems, at times, that our society itself is “down on whores” and while the law doesn’t kill them, it does make life as difficult as it can.

I can offer no suggestion as to why the one name (I won’t type it) has that effect on you. Reincarnation suggests itself, but I can’t offer the suggestion honestly because I personally doubt that it ever happens. However, YMMV, as they say.